i decided that having an Xbow toon was not necessary.
i like xbow, but as the primary weapon on a toon, it seems like a waste. it's nice in a handfull of situations (like drawing a target by hitting it for 50 points of damage) but in all i would rather just have xbow as a secondary skill on a tank melee. it hits harder than bow dows, but is very slow. it burns major stamina and it sucks to watch monsters chew on you while you reload. so i rerolled wendigo. right now he's just a mule to hold stuff until i can get another project complete.
shikomi zue, the sword tank pushing XP for tinka has also gotten a bit dull. he seems like sort of a waste since i have played his template a hundred times before and i feel no real attachment to him at all. so i decided to roll a couple of projects in to one:
first, i would like to have a melee tank that can also use a crossbow. i have often looked at the soldier class, the stock template from turbine. it's basically an item only tank axer with xbow trained. plus i like the title, and it would be fitting with his true purpose, to serve and support tinka, who serves the rest of the family. so i deleted shikomi and rolled katusa (the word for soldiers in the army of south korea, tho i have no idea how to spell it correctly) loyalty isn't spec'd at start with this template, so i will have to wait until later to spec it. i am not sure what else to take with him, perhaps lockpick since he is sort of a jack of all trades, and that would essentially make him wendigo with an axe. i want to use him to gather salvage, so i took weapon tinkering with him as well. he has done well so far, i have him at 18th level now, with out powerlevelling, and he has pushed nearly 300k in xp to tinka.
i gave him the standard issue explorer gear to hit 20th in... full suit of explorer armor, explorer buckler and explorer xbow. i will probably get him a quested/crafted axe of some kind as well. the theme is still in keeping the the original pusher: hunting and leveling to pass XP to tinka, gathering salvage and doing quests for items. once4 i get him high enough to hunt in a place with cool lewt, i will consider his project to be complete.
this leaves me with a free slot to roll another toon. i had this vison of two toons that i have had issues seeing to completion:
my original desire was for two dagger toons: one tank with xbow and lockpick (a super tank who is useful on quests) and a 3school life+dagger tank, able to play the mage or tank role, but also having skills to support others. so far ratspike is 75% of both goals... he is 3 schooled, so he is able to buff himself and others, and he has lockpick. rat doesn't have xbow, and is not spec'd life magic. i am not sure how to meet the two goals with only one character, at least not until like 100th level. i have tried the life dagger toon in the past, i have had two iterations named vampira hope. perhaps i can get xbow on ratspike in time, and roll vampira again. both of them will need mad levels to be template complete. perhaps i can have her be my life archer instead of shiki, and spec dagger later on, or maybe just not spec meleeD and just be spec'd life and dagger. the possibilities are endless. katusa *could* serve as my melee and xbow mix, tho so this might be a moot point.