I beg you! Give me a reason!

[Mister_Peace]

Algur Forestfriend. Haste and stoneskin.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

/shrug

[RobinofSpiritwood]

Do you have a bard with 70+ haggle? Even 60ish haggle (can be hit without shroud or raid gear) will cut your expenses in half.

If he has a bard, he's already got haste on a (potentially)decent melee fighter type.

[DarkAlchemist]

Not talking about the OP but the worst pugs I have ever been in are the ones who refuse to walk 1 foot without being hasted. I am a wizard and I am supposed to haste everyone every 30 secs or 1 min (at level 20 4 minutes of haste is nice but at lvl 10-ish haste sucks out what little sp we do have since the melees want to be perma hasted).

I start hearing that haste me now or else I can't say I haven't teleported to the portable hole and clicked quit. One can only take so much of that.

So, when I saw the above intervention response I LOL'd because haste, while it really is good if used wisely, is like a drug. It should be cherished and used on the tough fights at the lower levels not to simply run around between fights.

[Phidius]

If it helps, Gemstone is my favorite toon, and the only one I look forward to bringing into gimped parties of people who don't know what the h*ll they're doing.

Precious is a close second, though.

Both of them are perma-hasted from level 6.

[Fenrisulven6]

I am a wizard and I am supposed to haste everyone every 30 secs

Yup. And none of those parasites would even consider clogging up their inventory with haste clickies.

[Yazston_the_Invoker]

Why on earth at level 6 MUST you have haste? It's not even needed...

/agreed. I hardly ever haste while solo, and I keep pots/clickies really just for tough fights. I could see why hasting more often might be good, but there's certainly no reason AT ANY LEVEL to be going through that many haste pots per day.

Maybe try cutting back to half a wagonload per day, and if that doesn't work, I hear there's a patch...

[asphodeli]

Why haste you when wizards have more stuff that makes life easier on the party?

[JTsays]

Haste is awesome

.....but I can quit anytime.....

As previously mentioned, I'd use a hireling hastebot as soon as you can if you're a junkie.

Squishy casters can be a bit hard to keep alive,



...and the hirelings are worse :P

[Stuttrboy]

I use ghetto haste until I get regular haste on my arcanes, something about moving faster just makes you feel like you are accomplishing something.

[OldAquarian]

Ok, if you are serious about running a buff-a-holic
Tempest II/Warchanter - Ranger 12 gives full Barkskin - Bard 8 gives Haste
Plus you can heal yourself

If you don't NEED full Barkskin replace 1 Ranger with 1 Rogue

[unbongwah]

Ranger also gets you Resist / Prot. from Energy, which is an annoying hole in the bard spell list, IMHO. So ranger 12 gets you Ram's Might, max Jump spell, max Resist Energy (DR 30), max Prot. from Energy (120 pts), and max Barkskin (+5) (plus the TWF feats, Tempest II, Evasion, etc.), while bard 8 gets you Blur, Rage, Displacement, Haste, and Good Hope or Cure Serious. Not a bad mix of buffs, especially if you're a dedicated soloer and/or running without a good arcane caster.

The biggest difficulty is figuring out your leveling order, since there's good reasons to max both classes ASAP. In the OP's case, I would focus on bard first to get Haste ASAP (bard 7), though maybe with an early ranger splash for martial weapons and ranger wand usage (namely the energy resistance spells), then go ranger the rest of the way. Start with 2H weapons, then switch to TWF when you take your ranger levels.

[Khanyth]

I call BS. Or at least, over exaggeration.

[QuantumFX]

(2) How are you possibly still level 6?

He’s so busy chugging haste potions that he forgets to do things like… move… and perform quest objectives.

[Rav'n]

I find myself using haste pots on my melee toons up to a point of spending 100-200k plat daily and I can't afford it.

Is that even possible? Seriously... I stock up on Haste pots when I TR and spend no where near that all the way to level 6. And even if I DID use 100-200 k a day.... My TR's Bank acount would be dry in a matter of a week or two.

[Thrudh]

Just splash ranger or barbarian, and use sprint boost...

I also have two of those exp retreat boots from Korthos

Get a haste-clickable for big fights, and you'll only have to use a haste potion now and then...

My lowbies love moving fast too, but I probably only drink 20 haste potions a day.

[Skirmish]

I find myself using haste pots on my melee toons up to a point of spending 100-200k plat daily and I can't afford it. Is there a viable melee build into which I could squeeze 5 wizard levels for haste? Any reasoning which would let me remain sane, and with a toon not gimped? Or not gimped much?

I want to stop soon. Wall of fire, while awesome mid-levels is nigh useless end-game. For damage dealing I'd probably be better off with divine side for BB. But the same problem here: no haste.

I don't want to go as far as going for reconstructs. While nice, these would put me in the Divine Power clicky addict category and I'm looking for a build allowing me to have good beholder to-hit.

I think 12wiz/6/2 could maintain a high to-hit even without DP clickies. The thing is, can wiz levels be brought down any further?

Then again... caster level is just this, caster level, innit? So, my rgr/ftr/whatever levels would be useless haste wise and I'd end up with 30 second ones?

Argh my head hurts. Guess what I'm trying to do is just figure out the answer to this question: what is the best way to minimize on DP/haste clickies/consumables and still be a viable melee build?

Skirm's usually carrying at least 4-5 haste clickie items.(will have to check how many total) Most are only 3 per day, per item. But, I have a couple with 5 per day on them. I normally carry between 50-100 haste pots, and when I get below 50 I restock. But, using the clickies first tends to save a great deal of cash. They are normally enough to get me through the big fights. You shouldn't have to haste every single fight to win.

The second best way, or best if your not soloing, is simply to make friends with a wizard that wants a meat-shield/aggro bait.