i rolled a new runemaster toon and planed to go dark-carver with 48 runecarving and 24 darkness. i have read on daocpedia, that this build uses the darkness dd after debuffing cold resist. my question is now how should i skill it ? first cold debuff i get with runecarving 27, so is it right to skill just runecarving till 27 and then start skilling darkness ? or mixed at the beginning or what ? btw i really wonder why this build should use a lev 23 dd (from darkness) instead of lev 48 bolts/dds (from runecarving).
hope to get some answers, thx in advance ~

cause you use cold debuff and you'll use base cold dammage...

your runecarving spells are energy and you have no debuff.

panachier is right, you use the _baseline_ darkness dd, lvl 50 (not the lvl 23 specline dd). Advantage over the RC-DD is faster castspeed (2.6 seconds vs. 3.0), slightly higher level (50 vs. 48 ) hence less resists, and the 50% cold debuff you spec RC for which will not work for your RC-spells since those don't do cold damage (would be too easy, having both in the same line, debuff and related damage).

Disadvantage: You will see some variance and overall less damage per spell compared to the RC-baseline lvl 48 DD due to the limited amount of specpoints in your darkness line. But that's more than made up for by the benefits of this spec, mentioned above.

Feel free to use your other RC-spells whenever appropriate, like bolts, and the groundtargeted aoe. You specced for them, you're by no means restricted to debuff-coldbaseline nukes. They're not helped by your cold debuff, but still very strong in certain situations.

As for what to raise first, if you go RC first, your cold damage will be very low. You get a new baseline spell every few levels but they will vary a lot in damage when you don't get the overall spec in that line anywhere near your level. Of yourse, you can use the RC-baseline nukes instead, that will work pretty nicely (although they are slow) and you can use your bolts as well.

Or you go darkness first, that's what I would do. Not only do you get a very powerful specline nuke that does more damage than any baseline DD, but you also get a cold-DD that has an integrated debuff, and you can use that as low as level 5 and up. You get new versions every few levels as you spec in cold. The debuff is 'only' 10%, and hardly noticeable vs mobs, but since the debuff component lasts for a while you can use that combo-DD first, then follow up with the more powerful DD on the already debuffed mob. (really not sure now whether the debuff-dd makes any sense on mobs at all... anyone?)

Plus, you get a damage add buff in the cold specline that all tanks in your group will be thankful for. While the fluff in RC is mostly useful in RvR situations (gtaoe).

Remember, you get a free line respec in lvls. 20 and 40 so do not fear.

greetz,

Calad

hey thanx for the answers
i didnt know that i level the baseline dd from darkness automaticly to 50... now i understand it

with skilling i think i go pure runecarving first, since i wanted to make this char a full damage dealer. i am just lev 7 atm but i do almost better damage then my lev 22 skald so far. i have 2 bolts that deal 40 + - x damage and 1 single and 1 ae dd that is nice too.

Nethvaethor wrote:(really not sure now whether the debuff-dd makes any sense on mobs at all... anyone?)

No, it doesnt.

You do more damage by just using the normal dark specline nuke. At least if you are fighting mobs that dont require to nuke more than at least 8-9 times.

he is full specced on runecarving for leveling -> use runecarving baseline nuke

thanks, Sest