Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Opening his Character Report, the first thing that Thaden looked at were his base stats.  Not only did he have 60 Free Stat Points to spend on whatever he wanted, but he’d also received 240 consumable Free Stat Stones that he’d received as a prize from the yearly announcement.

Physicality – 1,694

Celerity – 1,719

Mentality – 4,284

Personality – 244

Fortuity – 655

Free Stat Points – 60

Consumable Free Stat Stones – 240

His stats were actually higher than his Character Report showed when he factored in his equipment, but he wanted to know what the base values were when he considered what to do with his free stat selections.  Theoretically, he could sell the Stat Stones on the Contender Market if he was looking to make some money, as he’d already seen some on there for 100’s of gold coins each, but he had no need for that right now.  He’d rather reinvest it into his own development rather than let someone else have the stats.

Looking at the breakdown of what he had currently and what he had available to allocate, which ended up being a total of 300, there was really only one stat that he was severely lacking in: Personality.  Because of his Class, it had taken a huge hit after he increased his Level to 189, as he had actually lost quite a bit, putting him into the negative.  He’d fortunately gained some Achievements that brought it back up, but he was slightly worried about what would happen in the future when he was finally able to unlock his next Class evolution.  Would it have even worse Personality penalties?  Even if it was the same as his Solitary Shaman, he was afraid that he’d be back in the negative within 50 Levels or so.  While the stat didn’t really affect his Support and Defensive spellcasting, it did affect some of his newest Spiritual-based spells in one way or another.  In addition, he’d quickly learned that having a poor Personality stat made interacting with just about anyone a giant pain in the butt, with his treatment by the Charee the worst of all.

Before he decided to invest some of his points into Personality, he considered whether or not it would be better to continue building those up.  His Mentality was already over 4,000, which was incredible, but more Mana didn’t really do much for him; he could already cast all of his spells without any trouble, and while future spells would undoubtedly cost more as he Leveled-up, he would also likely be gaining more Mentality every Level.  When he added in the additional 2,000 Mentality that his current equipment provided, he felt he was fine when it came to that particular stat.

His Celerity was also fairly high, and while being able to move faster was always a good thing, he was already having trouble controlling his incredible speed when he went all out.  It would be nice, but not necessary.  Fortuity fell into the same category, his current total of 655 was already enough to max out his chances to double-cast Support spells and reflect damage from his Lifewarden bonus traits; a higher number in the stat might be nice, but it wasn’t necessary.

The only one that he really considered was his Physicality, which was only because the stat greatly influenced how much healing – and, therefore, damage – that he could do because many of his spells were based on his maximum Health, but he already had ways to increase it through the use of other spell effects.  Still, it would be useful to increase it again, but it wasn’t a priority. 

After working through all that in his head, he decided to invest all of his Free Stat Points and 196 of his 240 Free Stat Stones into Personality.  As it shot up to 500, he wasn’t surprised to find that he had earned an Achievement. 

Congratulations on reaching 500 in Personality!

Achievement received: Very Demure I

Bonus reward: 5,000 PICK  0 PICK

Accompanying the Achievement was a notification that the PICK reward he would’ve received was negated because he had maxed-out his reserve already; 5,000 PICK wasn’t that big of a deal, though.  What was a bigger deal was that it wasn’t a World First Achievement, which he should’ve expected, given that there were plenty of higher-Level Contenders out there that had likely already reached that point and beyond. 

Regardless, he was still happy that he’d achieved 500 in Personality, as he hoped it meant that his days of fearing that he’d drop into the negative again were over – for a while, at least.  For his last 44 Free Stat Stones, he went ahead and dropped them into Physicality, as that was the most useful for him, bringing him up to 1,738.  He considered keeping them until after he got his new Class, but he was beginning to fear that it might be a while until that happened, and he’d rather make use of it now rather than wait until later.

After his stats were taken care of, he moved down to his Competencies.  After his ordeal in the Coral Tower and underneath the Ragewater Sea, he had 4 Advancements to choose from, with 1 in Support Spellcasting, 1 in Natural Regeneration, and 2 in Spiritual Spellcasting.

Please select (1) Advancement for your Support Spellcasting Competency:

Faster Healing – All Support spells now have a 66% permanent casting time decrease

Longer Healing – All Support spells now have a 66% permanent duration increase

Even Stronger Healing – All Support spells now heal or reduce 133% more Health

Group Healing – All multi-target Support spells now have a 66% range increase

Radiant Afterglow – All Support spells now heal an extra 3% of max Health every 5 seconds for 60 seconds

Promiscuous Healing – All single-target Support spells with a duration have a 33% chance to spread to an adjacent target within 9 feet every 3 seconds, with a renewed duration

The choice for his Support Spellcasting Competency was fairly easy, especially when he ruled out Faster Healing, Longer Healing, Group Healing, and the newest addition, Promiscuous Healing.  While the effect sounded interesting, the fact that it could spread to any target within range wasn’t exactly the best thing to experiment with considering the way he did damage.  It might be useful if it said “allies” instead of “targets”, especially if he had to join a Raid Party, but since it didn’t, he skipped it.

The choice was between Even Stronger Healing and Radiant Afterglow.  He already had the first stage of both Advancements, so neither of them were something new; in the end, he went with Even Stronger Healing, as it increased his current healing increase from 50% to 133%, which he thought would be more useful in the long run rather than an extra 2% of maximum Health every 5 seconds.  Sometimes, a greater healing in the heat of the moment was the better alternative, so he felt it was the best choice.  

Please select (1) Advancement for your Natural Regeneration Competency:

Quicker Regeneration – Natural Health regeneration is now 50% faster

Firmer Regeneration – Natural Health regeneration now toughens the skin, reducing further damage by 25% for 30 seconds

Deeper Regeneration – Natural Health regeneration now heals major injuries at double the normal regeneration rate

Rougher Regeneration – Natural Health regeneration is 75% slower, but max Health is temporarily increased by 33% for 10 minutes after being fully healed

Softer Regeneration – Natural Health regeneration is 75% faster, but max Health is temporarily decreased by 33% for 10 minutes after being fully healed

The Little Death – Natural Health regeneration is increased by 333% for 10 minutes after being resurrected

Hmm… this is a little more difficult.  He thought that all of them could be useful other than Softer Regeneration and the newest one, The Little Death, because he wasn’t expecting to be resurrected anytime soon.  In the end, he went with one that he thought would benefit him the most considering how he dealt damage to monsters; Rougher Regeneration would decrease his natural Health regeneration by 75% after being fully healed, but would also increase his max Health by 33% for 10 minutes.  He wasn’t sure if it would trigger every time he healed himself, because he was usually always fully healed already, but he figured that it couldn’t hurt to test it out.  If it didn’t, he could always experiment with his Goes Both Ways Advancement which allowed him to exchange Health for Mana, thereby bringing him below full Health for a moment.

Please select (1) Advancement for your Spiritual Spellcasting Competency:

Spiritual Domination – All influential Spiritual spells now have a 30% chance of success increase

Spiritual Connection – All successful Spiritual spells now have a 50% efficiency increase

Tantric Meditation – All Spiritual spells now have no Casting Time, but will have a triple the Cooldown

Karmic Balance – All Spiritual spell now have no Cooldown, but will have triple the Casting Time

Soul Mates – All battles of spiritual will against targets are successful, but the Mana Cost for all Spiritual spells are tripled  

Haunted Nemesis – When a battle of spiritual will fails, any backlash upon caster is negated and is transferred to the target of the spell

With being able to choose 2 Advancements for his Spiritual Spellcasting Competency, he spent a few minutes considering his choices.  The first thing he noticed was that the last two options were essentially mutually exclusive, as one caused all battles of spiritual wills to be successful while the other transferred any negatives from a failed battle to the target of the spell.  If his Personality hadn’t been so high now, which was a component in calculating his spiritual will, he might be inclined to choose Haunted Nemesis; as it was, if he was to choose one of them, he would pick Soul Mates…

…but he hesitated to do that, considering that it would triple Mana Costs.  Considering that Superior Dominate Spirit cost, at its base, 30,000 Mana and he only had a little over 60,000 Mana when he was wearing all of his equipment, he wouldn’t be able to cast it.  At least, he didn’t think he would be able to – it was hard to tell nowadays with all the automatic bonuses he possessed, plus what he got from his equipment. 

I wish there was a better way to breakdown my bonuses—

As if responding to his thought, a new window popped up in front of him.

Bonus: Permanent (Temporary Effects/Equipment)

Mana Cost Reduction (All): 25%

Mana Cost Reduction (Support): -200%

Mana Cost Reduction (Defensive Self): 66%

Mana Cost Reduction (Defensive Allies): -66%

Casting Time Reduction (Support): 100%

Casting Time Reduction (All): (80%)

Cooldown Reduction (Resurrection): 10%

Cooldown Reduction (Healing spells): 36%

Cooldown Reduction (All): 75% (89%) Capped at 95%

Mana Regeneration Increase: (100%)

Health Regeneration Increase (Solo): 100%

Health Regeneration Increase (When Healed to Full Health): -75%

Health Regeneration Increase (In Party): -50%

Damage Increase: 60%

Healing Increase (All): 133% (70%)

Healing Increase (Single-target): 133%

Healing Increase (Support): 1% of max Health every 5 seconds

Damage Mitigation Increase (Defensive): 116% (25%)

Automatic healing when someone is protected by Defensive spell: 6% of prevented damage

Support spells cast upon a target protected by Defensive spell: 20% of maximum Health

Defensive spells extend to protect additional targets: 1 additional target

Spell Effectiveness Increase (Support): 0%

Spell Effectiveness Increase (Healing): 0% (45%)

Spell Effectiveness Increase (Defensive): 0%

Spell Effectiveness Increase (Spiritual): 0%

Spell Effectiveness Increase (Self): 50%

Spell Effectiveness Increase (Allies): -50%

Spell Effectiveness Increase (All): 60% (19%)

Psychic Influence Effectiveness (Used on you): 1% reduction per second

Psychic Influence (Used on you): 1% of base Mentality every 30 seconds up to 100%

Chance to double-cast Support spells: 50%

Chance to reflect 5% of prevented damage from Defensive spells: 50%

Chance to double efficiency of Defensive spells: (80%)

PICK Accumulation Increase (Solo): 100%

PICK Accumulation Increase (Party): -90%

Extracted Currency Increase: 50%

Competency Improvement Speed Increase: 200%

Swim Speed Increase: 90%

Defensive spells protect from higher-Level sources: 20 Levels

Perceived Level (Allies and Targets): 30% increase within 90 feet

Shadow Resistance: 30%

Heat Resistance: 40%

Light Resistance: 40%

Fear Resistance: 60%

Poison Resistance: 20%

Earth Resistance: 20%

Cold Resistance: 20%

Level Compression Resistance: 90%

Psychic Resistance: 50%

Permanent Waterbreathing

Situational Bonuses:

Fighting solo: +35 to all stats

Facing a monster 10 Levels above your own: +5 to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality

Inside any dungeon: +25% to all stats; +10 to Fortuity

Inside any dungeon while solo: +25 to Physicality, Celerity, Mentality; +40 to Fortuity

Inside any dungeon while solo and the lowest-Level monster is above your own Level: 75% reduction in Mana costs, casting time, and cooldowns

Inside any dungeon and the lowest-Level monster is above the average Level of your party: +20 to each stat

Undertaking any Adventurer Coalition Quest solo: +30 to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality

Equipment Bonuses:

Physicality: 39 (+30% to equipment stat bonuses)

Celerity: 371(+30% to equipment stat bonuses)

Mentality: 2,010 (+60% to equipment stat bonuses)

Personality: 0

Fortuity: 27

Light Resistance: 10%

Physical Damage Resistance: 50

Magical Damage Resistance: 530

Thaden stared at the list for a while, amazed at how it all added up.  He saw the breakdown of bonuses that were permanent and those that were temporary, which he intuitively understood was from his equipment.  None of it was too much of a surprise, since he’d been periodically trying to keep track of it all, but it was nice to have it in a complete list so that he wouldn’t have to refer to multiple things to see how he was doing.

The only thing that did surprise him was the fact that his Cooldowns had been capped at 95%.  He had kept trying to add to his bonuses to bring them down all the way, but apparently it couldn’t go past a certain number.  It was slightly disappointing, but he supposed there had to be some limitations somewhere; a 95% reduction was quite good, so he wasn’t going to complain too much. 

More to the point with his bonuses breakdown, he saw that he had a permanent 25% Mana cost reduction to all spells, which Spiritual spellcasting fell under.  That meant the 90,000 Mana Cost for one of his spells if he were to choose Soul Mates as an Advancement would still be slightly out of reach at 67,500 Mana, but he found that the Spell Effectiveness increase for all of his spells, which was at 79%, also had an effect on reducing Mana Cost; it wasn’t a 1-for-1 reduction, but even if it reduced the Mana Cost by 10%, that would be more than enough to be able to still cast everything in his arsenal. 

To help with those costs, and because he was a real fan of the effectiveness/efficiency of his spells, he also chose Spiritual Connection in addition to picking up Soul Mates.  He’d have to experiment with his spells later to ensure everything was still within his Mana range, but he wasn’t too worried about it.

He still had yet to equip the new items that he’d received as prizes, after all, and he was sure they would make a massive difference in making sure he’d be just fine, a 25% Mana Cost reduction or none at all.

To start evaluating what he wanted to do with them, he began pulling them out from his Inventory one-by-one.