Excelsior

Hi guys, i was wandering, since we can have every skill maxed out here, what would be the best combination of skills to hunt the harder monsters in this game? i see everyone uses a bow so i could imagine chivalry with warrior skills, plus bushido, am i correct? Not counting that we can use Taming to help us out.
What about pure mages here? poison mages? necro mages? what do you think about these ones?
Cheers!

Hi again!
Well, with no skill cap here, there really is no limit or particular type character, you are a little bit of everything, and not doing so you really limit yourself. When i first started i tried to be "a pure mage" and frustratingly learned that I was extremely weak, and could hardly do anything alone....so i learned taming. After getting some pets and related skills leveled (taming/lore/vet), i started focusing more on my melee and archery skills and tactics (swords/arch/tactics/anat/lumberjacking/healing/ninjitsu/bushido/chiv/did i miss any?) Now I can't kill as fast as a pet, but can melee most of the things i used to solely rely on them for.
Once you get some ED, you can take a look into a druid spellbook, great spells for doing champ spawns there.
As far as the ones you mentioned:
pure mage - pretty weak here (mostly i say that since slayer spellbooks were still broke last i checked)
nox mage - most of the tough mobs are likely gonna be immune to poison anyways
necro mage - fun i'll admit, alot of useful spells if you don't mind the neg karma, but not a whole lot of real punch.

Main thing to remember is find the useful spells/abilities from all of the skills... and think of creative ways to use them.

quick edit and a little bragging:
I was able to melee a paragon collector of souls tonight. no pets. toe to toe. admittedly 7 or 8 quick retreats for rebuffing and emergency heals. But throughout the fight I used the following skills: swords/tactics/anat/healing/parry/bushido/ninjitsu/chivalry/necro/magery/cleric(spiritspeak). Without any one of these skills i would of bit it.

Very interesting Ruewyn thanks for the reply. So with the use of non skill cap you can make a good and combinated template to solo the harder creatures (of course and a good equipment), when the balron killed me today and hitted me for like 170 hp, i though it couldn't be soloed, and i have 60 physical resist at the moment, with 70 i could die anyways.
Does Ninjitsu have a passive benefict? like Bushido and the chance to parry with a weapon. Never trained Ninjitsu before, i will take a peek there.
Thanks again for the help Ruewyn!

With 70 resist they still hit for like 70-110, 2 of those and i'd be dead, so trick to is avoid being hit. 130 parry and 120 bushido with a 2handed weapon, gives a better dodge chance then Parry alone. and 45% (the cap) DCI% is a must.
The ninjitsu spell is mirror imagine, mostly i see people here use them to mine for plat elementals, but they serve just as well during your hunts. The "copies" of you have a chance to absorb some damage. I'm not sure if they negate a hit all together, but they sure help.

Don't forget Discordance! =D

100-120 Discordance on a tough monster
+
A 50% Damage Increase on a weapon
+
Additional 50% Damage Increase with other gear for the 100% max
+
100% Swing Speed Increase
+
Enemy of One
+
Consecrate Weapon
+
Weapon Special Move (Armor Piercing, Armor Ignore, Crushing Blow)
=
Major Damage

I use a Yumi, and I have delt and heard people say they deal damage with this sequence ranging from 70-250 per hit. But, I'm sure melee must be very effective too.

-Licos

Yep, i'll totally agree that provo is a must. Although i've never had it land on a para balron, with 120 provo (and 110 music) while using a demon slayer instrument. I just got 120 Instrument PS, so i'll keep trying.
Melee is fun, that is why i do it. But i'll admit that archery ends up being a whole lot more powerful and useful, since you can focus your magic items and armor to doing more damage, and not so much on defense. That's why so many prefer archery. When i'm really hunting tough stuff for items, i'll pull out my bow as well.

Exactly! My primary is my high leech bow, but when I get swamped by monsters I sometimes hit my equip-disarm macro for razor where I switch between my bow and my halberd. It adds some spice to hunting when you have two or more weapons, each of which have their own speciality...

Guys, any good hint to train discordance? the skill remains active in the target for a few minutes, so the skill gain is rather slow. I trapped some animals in my home, but they disappeared after some time (is it legal to have trapped animals in our homes?). Any suggestion will be much appreciated!

I actually found discordance to be a rather quick skill to gain. Perhaps having the animals in your home is the problem and would be faster if you were outside like taming forest rather than in your home as skills within your home i have found to gain slower. For example hiding will not gain in your house but rather it will gain when outside. Also make sure you check the wiki for discord levels to make sure you are trying to discord the proper things to gain as per your level. Dont forget to eat too as it makes a huge difference when gaining skills. Any other questions feel free to [pm Phoenix