Number of Attributes

I went through some 250 messages on attributes, and didn't see the one I was looking for. I read spooky's and ensign's articles, and they were a great help, but I've still got a couple of questions.

Right now I'm a E/N 14, with skills in fire, blood magic and elemental storage. On occasion I swap fire out to cold, but all in all it stays the same.

So looking at Ensign's chart, I'm going for a 11/10/10 split.

Now the first question is, how much difference is not having a skill at a 12 going to really matter in the long run?

Second question is overall for future characters, what is the minimum/maximum number of skills and the minimum score one would concider to still be an effective character.

Namely I'm thinking of creating a monk/mezmer with attributes of healing/smiting/divine favor/and inspiration.

Thanks for any help in advance.

You could split it 10/10/8/8. One minor rune of each will get it to 11/11/9/9.

Can you put a Mesmer rune on Monk armor? I thought you could only use runes for your primary class.

You are correct. You can only apply runes for your primary class, and only one rune of one a specific type.

You can also get a head/face armor piece with a +1 bonus on it for one att. Between that and a couple minor runes you could have TWO lines at 12 and a third at 9. And if you were willing to sacrifice HPs with major/superior runes, you could even have all three lines at 12. As for how many attributes to spec in, no real reason to do less than 3, but I personally wouldn't try more than 4. Just my $0.02

3 minor runes gets you to 12/11/11

plus headpiece could bump one of those to a 13 or a second 12

Only if all 3 of your stats are in your primary line, but he's speccing blood.

He can't bump his blood magic skill with a rune. It's not his primary profession. As C-Tzar said, he could apply a superior rune of each of his primaries to his attributes and get to 11+3+1/10+3/10, but he'd be sacrificing a pile of hitpoints.

The +1 is the headgear. The +3 are the superior runes. However, going the minor route, which is the route I always prefer, he could get to 13/11/10, which really isn't a bad build at all.

He actually could get to the 12/11/11 that you stated by going:

10+1+1/10+1/11

And that only requires 2 minor runes. He just has to spec points in his alternate profession.

Halaku, I'd actually go down the path above. I'd get 2 headgear, one with +1 fire and one with +1 ice. Then I'd apply my minor runes of fire and ice to the respective headgear. Then when I decided to respect from fire into ice, I'd just switch masks and do the respec of my attribute points. Then you can pick whatever you want on the other pieces of armor(vigor, etc.)

Actually, it doesn't really matter where you apply the runes, since you only have 5 to choose from and you don't appear to be speccing earth at all.

so right

my bad

Sorry about the runes suggestion. I forgot about that since I'm a Mo/W with all attribute points into Monk attributes.