I find it hilarious because I only used a Mage in my group once, in my very first run. After seeing how horrifically weak the class was, I gave it the boot and never used it again. Also, anyone mocking Learning is a mouth breathing fuckwit of the highest order. It's not one level, or two, or even five. It's about... 15, perhaps even 20. So not only does the skill point cost largely pay for itself, you also get stat gains and new skills sooner and make every level based mechanic stronger (spoiler alert: most mechanics in the game are level based... that includes a spell that instant kills the entire field you stupid fuck and only bosses are immune + a very few other enemies). If you take Learning, you're higher level than the enemies instead of lower. That also means your weapon statuses aren't reduced, so you violently rape bosses with > 1k DoT stacks and 100+ base damage a swing.
It's not like Prophet gear where you get a tiny ass xp bonus in exchange for crippling yourself with a useless item, it's you get 80% more experience from most of the game and you get those skill points back and you get other shit.
So here's how you Lords of Xulima correctly:
Every character levels Speed at every level. No exceptions.
Every low level character also levels Constitution at every level. No exceptions.
Once you have enough life everyone is 3 hit killable at worst (about 70 or so) melee characters begin leveling Str/Agi instead of Con. Caster characters continue leveling Con because Energy is a fucking useless stat, just drink a potion instead of spending 40-160 levels for a single extra spell you retard. This continues until you have 300ish life on everyone.
At 300ish life, you are 2 hit killed at worst. You also have Mass Regen at this point, so you don't die ever because the damage from the first attack is erased before the second connects. You can take whatever at this point, even lol Energy. It doesn't fucking matter. You don't need more life though, all it does is let you wait on a Mass Regen.
Melee characters should have at minimum +200 Attack. This requires either Weapons Master or Agility. This means you deal full damage against anything of 100 defense or lower, which is most enemies. More will counteract higher defense values. If you don't do this, Agi is actually a better offensive stat than Str because Str is only 0.7 damage a point and 1 attack is something around 1%. Since you'll break 70 damage around level 20 something or 30 something at worst, and before that you encounter high defense enemies without having the counteracting attack power this means you want the Agi early. Unless, again Weapons Master. Which is Soldier/Barbarian only. In which case you get that early instead.
Initiative is probably the most important stat in the game. You get 3-5 actions or more before anything else moves, and since you'll also have high speed you'll keep getting those actions.
