Thanks for the replies .. most informative 

I used to have the standard sorcerer/pm build but since the wipe I havent really bothered with spell casters but i will give your suggestions a try 

I was wondering if anyone thinks spellcasters are still worth the effort building with summons nerfed, spells nerfed and the poor old shield mage being pretty much obsolete.

In the event last night (which i thank everyone for organising  ) I got a maynards staff as a prize and wondered whether sorcerers/wizards are still worth building as i dont see that many any more (probably more wizards than sorcerers these days!

Also if using a magic staff for fighting does it count as a quarterstaff? e.g. if i took improved crit quarter staff does it tranfer to magic staff?

Thanks Endless, I see what you mean about random  fortunately i am dexed based so it might not be too bad. Need to test if Divine shield works on horseback now 

Anyone know if the ride skill is worth taking and indeed if it works the way the wiki says?

I'm doing a blackgaurd and obviously i have a mount so i was wondering if combat riding and putting skills into ride was worth the effort? 

I used to have alby barber of the nine d b

Assassin seems to work well 

Thanks for the replies.. i was thinking a holy sword equivalent spell rather than an actual drop 

Just a quick question, a while back you didnt need dodge to get epic dodge you only need 30 lvls of tumble, improved evasion and def roll is this still the case or have they fixed it? Anyone know?

Also while i'm asking does the Blackgaurd have an equivalent to the pally's holy sword? I thought i had read that he did but cant find it mentioned in the pocket changes.

Thanks.

Many Happy Returns Locy,

Rabbac 

You need a good old monk to tank for you Rod, Heather on standby 

Sounds a good idea, common turril dust off your old D&D books for some ideas  maybe sub-races might be easier e.g. dark elves, men of the dale, lonely mountain dwarves or such

Good build Park  might have to replace the rogue with monk and make him a dexer as i seem to have a reputation as a monk-addict  Oh yeh and make him a halfling!

Rabbac

Maybe with the help of UMD to overcome either the Class or the Alignment requirements

Sorry to hear that Turril my thoughts are with you as well

Not alot we can do when mother nature decides to go crazy except hope we arent there when she does

Wouldnt that just make you a blackgaurd 

Yep i walked into that one to  went through to the lower lvl and when i went to go back i closed the door and couldnt get back again  no other exits either

Hes going to regret saying that 

Cracking the code isnt too hard, although i got my butt kicked when i finally got over, TS and no spells seen me off 

Good to see your still watching from above Ronny  of course you get the love, old (very old) and new diehards i should have said!

Hope to see some of you on on Christmas day, i'm training up Rabbac Jnr (hes 11) on how to play, seems to be enjoying his archane archer (newmoon), rest assured PP hes nothing like me so be nice to him had to build a damn meatshield to keep him alive!

Have a good new year all if i dont see you online... and i hope santa brings your hearts desires. (big bag of cash for me please!)

Merry Christmas to all staff and die hard players.. 

Hope you all have a good one.

Rabbac

Does a halfling wielding a rapier or bastard sword as a two handed weapon get these benefits? or is it just for big two handed weapons like double swords etc?

Thanks all for the tips 

Was thinking of building a WM/fighter and either barb (2 lvls) or dd (5 or 6 lvls) dex based toon (mainly to preserve max BAB) 

Any thoughts on DA vs U Dodge? and what you think the best survival rate of those builds would be? Worth doing or not worth the effort? 

Maybe you should go down another tank route and build a PM with Epic dodge instead of DR I was thinking of 19 PM lvls (after lvl 20) for epic warding and mage armour and either rogue or SD coupled with bard. The benifit is if SD catching them flatfooted helps with low ab (solo) or rogue sneaks help with low damage (party). If you went the SD route i would take dex to 25 and then pile on the str and depend on items to boost hide & MS, no point if rogue as your damage comes from sneaks and having no HIPS you need that extra AC boost. 

Having built a DD 22 /SD 1/Rogue 17 he was pretty effective but gets creamed on Crits but has a decent sneak attack and hide (str based) with items, good for soloing some areas and the dr is a handy backup, i find myself using him more as a tank than sd though 

A bard 14 sd 10 pm 16 might also be a decent alternative but the damage is pitiful.

Sounds like a decent idea Parknutz, i have all but given up playing GvM these days.

The areas are expanding but the player base is declining, sick of seeing only 5 or 6 players on and tend to just run around anti-world instead (usually a full house there).

As much as i admire the dev teams endevour in making new areas it has been said for a while now that the distances involved getting from a to b are way to long and pointless unless you have a party who have time on thier hands to go with you, more emphasis on game play and if not a smaller area then more transport links to the distant ones might help.

Also seems that building anything other than a dragon is almost pointless unless your in a group constantly so its stagnating character building too, before the wipe at least it was dragons and shield mages (and to some degree sd's) now it appears to be just dragons  Party play is fine with a full server but its been a looonng while since that happened.