High Intelligence or High Strength?

[Scottg]

I've just gone through testing characters with either focus..

Note:
-CE version
-no editing or modification to characters
-making use of in-game infernal "deal" with Vooratus and the Fool of Fortune heraldry.

First off - ANY character can practically have its intelligence increased to 80+ without spending huge amounts on experience points - a LOT yes, and required leveling as a result (typically with moonbeasts).

Anyway..

I have 2 characters.. one (a Zaur) with an 85 in Intelligence, the other (a female Elf) with 150. Looking at their Shadowlord *skill* set, (they are both Shadowlords), because it has no learning bonus - I find that both are at a substantial skill level of 12. To increase their level in this skill one more point (to 13) would require as follows:

Zaur: a little over 10 million.
Elf Female: almost exactly 5 million.

The net effect is that practically speaking I can have one more skill level (in a skill without learning bonuses), with a high Intelligence level character.

Alternatively, you could create a high strength level character that won't net an extra skill level (or similar percentage), but will overall net extra damage per attack.

After a fair amount of testing - I'll take the high strength character *ANY* day of week.

[darkpark]

Scott, what kind of testing did you do? With a higher number of points in a weapon skill, do your character do more damage or land more hits? I'm curious because it has never been made clear whether more points in a weapon skills helps other than to meet a weapon/class requirement.

As far as the Strength versus Intelligence debate, I agree with you. The discount you get from a high intelligence just doesn't match the extra damage you do with having a high strength.

[Scottg]

Scott, what kind of testing did you do? With a higher number of points in a weapon skill, do your character do more damage or land more hits? I'm curious because it has never been made clear whether more points in a weapon skills helps other than to meet a weapon/class requirement.

I didn't test that.. (should have, and also should have for the dual-weapons).

My guess is that as long as you can use it without penalty that it has no effect increasing it more (..i.e. if you are using a level 8 heavy weapon and you increase from level 8 to 9 or 10 that it has no effect.) (Note: this is another good one for the misconceptions thread.)