I recently started playing one of my alts and shes now a level 21 Shillien Oracle.
She's still in the Devotion noob robe set that adds some MP and also 15% casting speed increase.
The Voodoo Doll NG weapon was ok but I have a +3 Crimson on my Scav that I now use instead as it has a far higher m.att value. Checking all the stats, nothing seems to change for the worse when I equip the Crimson, even though its a fighter weapon.
Looking at the skills for this SO, one is Light Armour mastery. I need some D armour but read in the forums that using Devotion was good up to level 40 because of the casting speed gain. The Light Armour mastery adds an increase rate of MP regen.
Whats the best move to make ? I can't afford lots of top grade equipment but I could pass my Arti's Mithil top and bottom over when shes not crafting or get some D light Armour or just leave her as she is. I tend to solo so this might have a bearing on matters.
Any guidance welcome.
Well you can "nuke" your way up to 40 (and a few levels beyond) using the disrupt undead skill, so robes is still very a viable option even when soloing till your 2nd class change.
Your best, and most effecient option would be to find a aoe pole arm class to duo with (human warrior, dwarf, or orc raider). Even though you get more mana with D grade robes as compared to your devotion, you wont need it if your just buffing yourself, the poler, and then chasing after them for the occasional heals in the catacombs. In that case, you can just get a 1 sps NG weapon like a buffalo horn (<3 that horn :) ), use NG bsps and start saving money till you get to your 40s. ;)
Indeed aoe'ing will be the fastest and cheapest to lvl to SE. But from previous posts I read from the OP, this will not even come to 10% of his/her lvling time.
Light armour and duals or nuking in robes with root-disrupt undead is pretty safe, although time and shot-consuming it works, I remember from my C2 days.
Ruins > Execution Ground/Wasteland > Fettered Souls > Cave Servant/Shackle...and there it ends.
Your light armor mastery doesn not provide *extra* MP regeneration compared to robes. It simply modifies your base stats if you wear it. You will notice, that one of the automatic skills you get as a L1 mystic gives you casting speed and regen when wearing robes. Your light armor mastery works like this one does for robes. (Just not as well.) Thus:
No Equipment = Base
Robes = Base x 2 = 2.0
Light Armor = Base x 1.90
Heavy Armor = Base x 1.80 (If you were an Orc Mystic)
You can see here that the higher the pdef armor you wear the less casting speed and regen you have compared to robes. BUT as long as you have the masteries, this amount will still be more than what you would have if you were wearing no armor at all. (L2 calc shows this to be about 14 pts of casting speed difference between robes and Light armor, I expect the regen to have about the same difference.)