Was thinking giant for regen and damage resistance

One addition: axe is probably a good spec to take if you're going to be exploring as a warrior. Purely for disembowel.

2nd spec probably sword or dagger.

For legacies I'd consider the following, depending on race:

Fluid Deceptions (double feint + free feint)
Autumn Harvest (better defense based on size comparison)
Gates of the Forge (damage reduction based on AC)
Ward of Blades (better parry)
Dance upon the Southern Wind (better dodge)
Cry of Thunder (hasting warcry)
Enigma of the Thirteen (use wands)
Whispers Of The Great Siege (better hp regen)
Whirlwind of Steel (more attacks based on dex/speed comparison)


Autumn Harvest only if you're svirf.
Dance upon the Southern Wind only if you're arial/elf/drow, and then probably only if you took dagger as a spec.
Ward of Blades only if you took sword as a spec.


Whirlwind of Steel might synergize well with Cry of Thunder or Enigma of the Thirteen. Zap mob with slow wand, voila, you have the speed advantage.

This is pretty old, but I'll take a stab. There are three aspects of exploration you want to maximize, and they're often at cross interests:

1. How good am I at killing mobs?
2. How much much latitude does my RP grant me to kill mobs?
3. How much can I see and/or obtain without killing anything at all?

Healing gear is a big help when killing mobs and good-aligned warriors arguably have easier access to healing gear. Unfortunately, good-aligned warriors are also the most restricted in terms of role-play.

For #3 they're nice because you can request stuff without having to actually kill mobs. But they're not nice because they can't be duergar or wood-elf, i.e. two races that will allow you to notice some things you wouldn't otherwise notice. That being hidden and camouflaged mobs.

If you want to explore underwater then dwarf, felar and arial are obviously not good choices.

Most cabal powers are helpful to some degree. However, by joining a cabal you obligate yourself to participating in cabal wars, which can distract you from your exploring. Then again you get powers, and usually some built-in allies to explore with. Especially if you're new, having access to veterans who can walk you through some of the trickier areas can save a lot of time. That is, if you just want the info and not the enjoyment of figuring stuff out for yourself.

Wouldn't Maelstorm alleviate the whole "no extra detects" part quite a bit though? Just spam look 2. look 3. look 4. everywhere you go.

1 legacy

I would add that warrior, to me, doesn't seem like a great class for exploring.

If you're willing to be good-aligned, then some flavor of paladin or a orderly conjurer seems better.

If evil, then maybe a hero necromancer, predicated on being able to raise a large army and make use of haste staves, but I'm not speaking from experience here; just speculating. Liberal use of haste staves would require that you to know how to raise lots of coin.

Bard and assassin are decent choices that work for all alignments. Assassin having the advantage of detect hidden, bind wounds, vanish, and trance. Sometimes blindness dust is useful too.

Ranger and thief have niche applications for exploring *specific* areas. Thief, in particular, has an easy time mapping out a couple "dangerous" areas by way of gentle walk. Peek and steal also come in handy. But you're pretty sub-standard when it comes to killing mobs.

Agree with the sentiments about thieves, in my experience.

With regards to Paladins, can I ask why specifically they are favorable explorers? I think I am following, but I just want to be sure. They have good defenses/damage redux, self heals as well as good offensive output. Built in detect invis, though that isn't a huge draw, given the availability of detect invis. Turn undead seems decent for some areas. So, to my perception it seems that pally is good because they are really survivable and able to solo lots of things because of that, is that close to correct?

Caveat: I've only ever played an elf shield paladin with two virtues, so my perspective may be skewed.

Shield: excellent melee defense, can dodge some breath attacks, can stack on lots of built-in damage reduction, can cure disease/poison/blindness, and can heal. Also can sanctify room, which is big since so many areas are cursed.

If you're maran, wield a wrathing weapon and use phoenix brand to make any mob vuln_holy. Then you can spam angel's wing if you want to conserve mana, or spam wrath to kill it as quickly as possible.

2H: paladin has worse melee, but can do big damage moves for "free" in terms of mana.

I haven't played monk or the polearm one so I can't comment on how they stack up vs. the other two w.r.t. PvE.

I will say that the "marshall" skill on the polearm/staff type is pretty sick if you're with a group that has a lot of melee type guys. You'll see warriors getting 6-8 melee hits per round. But that doesn't help if you're solo.

Marshal inproves pally's melee as well. That's how you see 6 melee hits with a staff from champions.

For the reasons you mentioned plus the best offense/defense melee balance in the game. There is a reason why in pk, as soon as anyone sees "lightning strike" everyone GTFO for 6 rounds to flees and trys a KO move (and the monk continues to eat your lunch if they are smart and anticipating the KO). Their offense and defense is unparalleled when intensified. Mobs don't have the luxury of GTFO.

Anticipate will save your ass too. Learn big mobs nuke moves and anticipate will make soloing them easy breezy. (Like gas blast).

Respond will let you break no disarm/no remove weapons that eat your lunch too.

Go Acolyte for explore because the reduced mana on healing and protection supposed will be your friend. I know they say the best defense is a good offense, but sometimes you just need defense!

I was able to solo the Dragon Tower Ruins with my monk acolyte.

How would you know the name of a skill to anticipate if it's a mob skill and PCs don't have it? Do you use the damage noun, or what?

You cannot anticipate an unrecognized skill, but as soon as you land on the right name, your golden.

Its been 3 years since Yllonis is, but I believe it is gas/acid/lightning/fire blast is correct. I'd have to comb through explore logs to confirm.

Also I believe many of those skills exist in wand/talisman/scroll form so remembering to ID everything helps with this.

Thanks to all who replied

Human:
No xp penalty means faster leveling on human, which means easier to get lvls and more exploring. Also means less headache in terms of xp loss. Solid stat spread and no metal vuln to impact your ability to grab keys.

Svirf:
Great warrior stats, inherent stone skin for extra dmg redux vs tough fights. Perma detect invis is super helpful as is 100% lore. Vuln blunt really sucks though since a ton of mobs use H2H (blunt) dmg.

You guys ever consider an explorers cabal with PVE oriented abilities?

I could see this being a new/additional facet of Herald, and would save the game from adding another cabal (which I'm not sure we need right now). Think of it as enrichment/enlightenment/entertainment of the masses by promoting field trips into the great unknown? Sure, it might hamstring evil explorers a little but that's what Empire is for, isn't it?

Just a thought.

That would be an amazing idea,IMHO Empire is the only cabal with powers suited to complete most of the tough area explore mobs... a neutral/goodie option would be outstanding.

Adventurer's Guild wing at the inn, let's make it happen.

TL;DR Just do it.

Sounds easily doable, and with no immortal involvement beyond the induct.

Just say on the interview that you are an explorer or a that you want to be a tour guide and such. Bam, you get your title, and the rest is pc oriented.

If you can be a painter, sculptor, bartender, cook,etc. Why not a tour guide?

No special powers of course.

-J

Which of course do nothing in PK. But like fort is Maran/Acolyte, explorers would be a seperate branch of Herald. No new Cabal.

Go elf, wise recovery fixes your regen, and dex trumps physical damage resistance way too much.

Because the only thing physical you're gonna get from mobs is melee hits, and dex dodges those. On direct hits, your physical resistance won't help you.

Whispers/Gates sounds nice for purely exploration build, but it definitely should be an elf, not a giant. Svirf maybe?