First of all, welcome back!

1) To bring up shield and MO, you might try blood wolves, although depending on your stats and spells, you might be able to handle crocs. You could ask in the combat folders for more suggestions, and be sure to mention if you have a location preference.

2) Yep, predictions are the way to go. Observe something that fills multiple pools, then predict on each of them (though I often only predict on one pool and still lock). Predict analyze also gives good experience -- especially when you have a lot of predictions up.

3) Prep -- charge -- cast. Don't wait for full prep. Pick something difficult to cast, and use few charges, to work PM. But if Arcana won't move, try multiple charges. A common spell choice at your level is Psychic Shield, though you could also try Seal of Deflection. Personally, I like to use Manifest Force while in combat. You could also try Partial Displacement, which tends to give good exp because it's a difficult spell that you can snap-cast.

Good luck and come back if you get stuck.


-- Player of Eyuve

Psychic shield will move your pm well even at 600 ranks. Seal of Deflection is faster, but you won't really notice the difference much for awhile. Picking up Partial Displacement and using it in combat will also get those pm ranks moving pretty well.

_______________________
As good almost kill a man as kill a good book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye.
-John Milton

Thanks for the feedback!

The PSY snap route works perfectly.

As for the hunting, i'll probably play with sprites a bit more until shield is caught up (not to mention MO), but you've given some great options in case i get bored. At this point, I'm more concerned with catchup than to build a bigger gap between shield and evasion.

I just started hanging out in Maiden's Tresses, and my combats are pretty close to yours (if you were to flip the parry and shield ranks, that is). They knock me around a little bit, but they don't hit hard at all and they lock all my combats in a matter of minutes.

But that involves hanging out in Hib, which takes a certain kind of player.

As far as prediction goes, I observe things that add to multiple pools, perform predictions from each pool immediately, and keep churning out PREDICT ANALYZE and PREDICT WEATHER every couple minutes or so to keep it moving.

My magics are way behind yours, so.... good luck?

Edit by post: Below 200 ranks of astrology, I found doing event prediction moved things just fine, especially if supplemented with reading sigil scrolls. If you need a set, feel free to email me.