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Quick question - Ancient Magic and the Astral Aspect SW?


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Hello, friends. Well, my chronic restartitis has already flared up, and now I'm trying a new Astral Lord sw.

 

I've started with Astral Focus as skill one, Astral Lore as skill two, and will take Concentration for skill three. I know I will take Death Warrior Focus for the Grim Resilience boost.

 

My question is whether I should take Ancient Magic sooner or later? I plan to make extensive use of Spectral Hand, Skeletal Fortifications, and Nether Allegience with this toon. The skill says it boosts "non-weapon based" CA's, as well as reducing enemy resistances. But, Spectral Hand appears to be totally weapon based. So, would Ancient Magic help make Spectral Hand any stronger?

 

Exactly why is Ancient Magic available to a sw, and what does it do for his astral lord aspect combat arts?

 

Thanks.

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Because certain moves from the astral lord aspect happen to be magic based and will therefore receive said boost from the ancient magic skill. Spectral Hand happens to be one of them. More specifically, spectral hand is a hybrid weapon and spell based CA, though it cannot be boosted by Tactics Lore.

 

I don't use the astral lord aspect often, so I'll let someone else add more to this.

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Hmm, thanks @Aegis and @Flix, but what you two are saying is more or less directly contradicting.

 

Could anyone tell me with some certainty? Is it true that Ancient Magic skill affects nothing but Skeleton Fortification?

 

That really would seem like the Shadow Warrior shouldn't even have access to the skill. And that taking it would be kind of a dupe move. So, I guess I won't take it, unless somebody tells me with authority that it affects Spectral Hand or Nether Allegiance.

 

In other news, I'm really liking my Astral aspect shadow warrior so far. I've fully modded Nether Allegiance to four spectral warriors, plus an armor increase for them, and I'm seeing new possibilities for the Augmenting Guidon, to make them even stronger.

 

And, the whole new (to me) endeavor put me in mind of this quote:

 

Luke: "Your overconfidence is your greatest weakness!"

Palpatine: "Your faith in your friends is yours!"

 

LOL - I've named my four spectral warriors "Jaheira, Khalid, Minsc, and Dynaheir." I guess I should name my Skeletal Fortification "Imoen".

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I'm positve Ancient Magic does NOT affect spectral hand. You can back up your character and try it and look at the tooltip because, you know, I might just be wrong. (although positive :bounce: )

 

Combat Discipline reduces regenerations and affects both. It affects spells full on and weapon arts it modifies the bonus the art gives the base weapon.

 

So back up the character and try it out :)

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My issue is with the definition of "spells". I don't get what constitutes a "spell" for a shadow warrior.

 

I don't really want to wade through the technical business of saving a character file, messing it up, and then reverting to the saved file. I have no idea how to do that. I'm quite sure I would just mess up my character file permanently, so no thanks.

 

Based on what I have here so far, I will not be taking Ancient Magic. It sounds like a total dupe choice for a shadow warrior, along with Riding, Divine Devotion, and even Speed Lore (which is arguably a dupe choice for any toon - too much point investment for too little return.)

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Aegis' information is correct for the console version, which explains the conflicting information.

On the console, Spectral Hand is still considered a hybrid CA, and (like the PC version) is not affected by Tactics Lore. However, Ancient Magic does seem to affect both Spectral Hand and Skeletal Fortification (for whatever reasons).

 

Edit: Reworded the hybrid CA part.

Edited by Mystix123
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Thank you. I knew I read it somewhere that spectral hand was effected by ancient magic, if only on one platform.

 

At any rate, regardless, answer still stands, ancient magic is still there because there exists a CA that utilizes, even if it's only one or two. I don't disagree, however, that the skill isn't necessary to have.

Edited by Aegis
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I was giving PC information since the OP listed his platform as PC. Unless you're building your Shadow Warrior around heavy use of Skeletal Fortification then Ancient Magic is not a good choice.

 

An Astral Warrior (dipping slightly into Augementing Guidon and possibly Reflective Emanation) is probably the most fun Shadow Warrior - there's lots of variety instead of repetitive melee attacks.

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