Storm Disciple Player Guide

This is a Storm Disciple levelling guide for budding "buzzy claw" apprentices.

As a prestige class of Monk, Storm Disciples excel in Unarmed Combat and martial skills. Their main attribute gains are in Armor Use, Evasion, Nature and Unarmed. Storm Disciples are restricted to Leather and Cloth Armor.

General Combat Information

Storm Disciples are deadly in one-on-one combat, due to their use of Lightning Claws. Even at the beginning levels, there is a 20% chance to stun your opponent, and the high evasion and additional damage-avoiding abilities generally assist in making Storm Disciples difficult to hit. Their use of Unarmed combat also means they attack more often, which again increases their chances of stunning.

Against multiple foes, however, Storm Disciples are not at their best. They do not have the raw armor to take hits, and must rely on blocking and evading blows - however note that you can only Block and Evade against targets you are actively engaged in. For example, if you are fighting three opponents (A, B and C) and are actively engaged in combat with "A", you can only block, parry and dodge attacks from A. B and C can attack without worrying about these calculations, and only need to get through your armor.

With these facts, Storm Disciples should focus on pulling attackers away from the "herd" and focusing on single combat where possible.

Storm Disciples using Unarmed combat will default to using Crush damage, unless buffed with an attack ability (Primal, Energy, Ice, Flame, etc). Focus your attacks on creatures that are weak to these damage types.

In general, the combat sequence should be:

1. Select target
2. Ability buffs on player (many buffs have 30-seconds or 60-second of use)
3. While out of range, click "Attack" button (this ensures that you won't get attacked before "engaging" the combat target, thereby missing out on Block, Parry and Dodge)
4. Use a spell to kite creature (thin out the herd) - it doesn't need to do damage, just get their attention
5. Use attack abilities. Repeat until victory

Complimentary Schools

All schools will help, but the following will provide very good bonuses, particularly early on:

1. Mage to level 8 - this gives you access to spells such as Flame Attack, Energy Attack, and Ice Attack
2. Cleric to level 18 - this gives you the masterable ability Dispirit Foe. Dispirit Foe can be used every 15 seconds and lasts for 1 minute. By reducing the attack ability to 50% of normal, they'll look like they're attacking in quicksand
3. Fitter to whatever level you can - Fitters give you the best strength gain per level, which increases your Unarmed attack damage

Leveling Hints

Levels 1 to 20

As a prestige class, Storm Disciples will already have levels in the Warrior school (to become a Monk) and Monk (to become a Storm Disciple). This will automatically change your Adventure Rating and thus you will need to hunt creatures that may be some ways below your current rating. However, this does not break the general guidance on solo-levelling which is:

1. Always hunt for trophies for the Trophy Hunter in the tier that matches your current Adventure Level
2. Optionally, hunt for trophies from creatures that match up with Town Marshall quests

Hunting creatures that match these "bonus" quests will give you cash bonuses on top of trading in items looted from the creatures.

Hunting creatures higher than your tier will give you better experience, but often will take longer to defeat and therefore the experience gained per minute (xp/min) is lower - i.e. it will take longer to level. Also, you will not be able to get matching Town Marshall quests of the same level as creatures you are fighting. If you are serious about levelling efficiently, you should only be hunting higher tier creatures if you are in a group, or trying to complete a quest.

Note: if you have a much higher rating than your current school level, you will get less experience points when defeating opponents with a level lower that your rating. For example, a Storm Disciple with a current school level of 20, but with a rating of 50, will get no experience at all when defeating opponents of level 20. However, the trophy items may still be the best way for you to level, and in fact can be the only way to level for characters with ratings above 100.

Armor
At this early stage, the best armor you can get is a set of Rough Hide armor.

Weapon
Cloth Hand Wraps.

Other Equipment
Optional - a set of jewelry is always helpful, but will not give you substantial bonuses at this stage. And unless you can make it yourself, probably not worthwhile to obtain. You won't be at this level for long enough to make good use of it.

Hunting
Focus on Jungle Crawler Spiders just north of Sslanis. They are close to the Sslanis portal, and it is a quick trip to the Trophy Hunter in Sslanis to boost your experience points.

Combat
Lightning Claws. Always.

Levels 21 to 40

The Storm Disciple-specific quest, Storm Disciple: The Way of Stone, is available at level 20 from Essiel. This quest can be done at level 20 and above, and is relatively simple to complete - any golems made of stone will count that live on Aradoth (not Lesser Aradoth).

Levels 41 to 60

The Storm Disciple-specific quest, Storm Disciple: The Way of Wood, is available at level 40 from Essiel. This quest requires defeating 10 Oak Treant Saplings. Treants have very good regeneration and can be tough to kill - expect a longer than normal fight. It is best to wait to complete this quest until you are around level 50, or in a group.

At level 46-50 Storm Disciples will be eligible for the Town Marshall: Dropkick Treants quest. This will provide additional coin as a reward while completing the Storm Disciple: The Way of Wood quest.

Group combat tactics
If you are one of those fighters that enjoys Cloak of Thorns (COT), try to stick to the agro friendly mobs. At this tier 41-60 try hitting the Desert wolves just outside New Rachival. These guys love to gang up on you and if you can heal fast enough and have COT on you're going to have a great night :-) Enjoy!!!

Armor
In this level range you should get access to Hardened Leather. It is worth teching equipment in this tier. There are a couple of options depending on your combat preferences, one of which is getting armor pieces with either Unarmed III and Armor III, or Dexterity III and Armor III (depending on the technique restrictions of the armor). Unarmed is the most useful skill attribute to increase, as it drastically affects your ability to hit your opponents. Dexterity gives a bonus to Evasion and Unarmed, so it is generally useful as a second option if you can't get Unarmed on your armor pieces.

Combat
Lightning Claws. Always.

Levels 61 to 80

If you are still able to get decent xp by killing mobs do so. It is the quickest way. After you have obtained a few 100 level characters it will become harder and you may need to venture into the Dralnok's Doom, availabe at 100 by doing the quests.

I always found it good to kill mobs one tier above you for instance if your 76-80 then kill 81-85 guys and receieve the higher xp. This is of course if can handle it. Then by the time you get to the next tier you can turn in all the trophies and cash out and level up. Then repeat...

Working in teams is also a good strategy, try getting a ranger or Druid on your team and get COT (Cloak of Thorns) cast on you. This will allow you to kill much bigger mobs than normal. Don't forget to heal or bring one along. With a friend or two with school strategies you can all level together much faster than if your alone.

Original material from istaria.wikia.com by StalePopcorn — licensed under the CC-BY-SA 3.0.