I'm new and looking for advice with my Soothsayer

[PUF-PAF]

Yes i have yet to try a str based soothsayer, but the reason to put on int and use staffs is that you can easily buy one with +nature/spirit, pet bonuses or recharge...and thats all you need
Few more things to mention regarding equipment
1. Mana pool - you will very rarely deplete it
2. Resists - wont have problems with that. your main goal is to not agro monsters

farming is also quite useless, cause most of the items you find will end up sold.

on xmax i feel deathchill too dangerous - it agroes like hell and range isnt very good. Looking at the whole deathchill tree, only RoT is worth spending points for a soothsayer. But to lower those nasty archers' damage you have to reach them and have better range on deathchill, which means maxing deathchill as well. So why maxing 2 skills when you only need 1?:/ points are better spent elsewhere IMO

[yerkyerk]

Well, I use a +to all skills spear and a shield with great resists (and blocking ability). I also play xMAX and usually charge head-on into battle, as my character hardly gets hurt by most monsters.

As you said, Deatchill has only a small range - so it can't aggro to much monsters can it? And if they attack, they'll be a lot weaker.
You do know that RoT does next to nothing if you don't have the fanpatch installed ey?

As for the skillpoints, I think I've got +9 to all skills, allowing me to max every useful skill. I even use Briar Ward (more for kicks, but sometimes its actually useful).

[PUF-PAF]

well, yes +9 to all makes the differenceand i do activate RoT separatley from deathchill with the fan patch

spear and shield is interesting - means you pump str and dex and you benefit from wolves buff....but so you can do with a champion or ranger with greater effect. i didnt think spear and shield for soothsayer would be good, but since you say so i might just well give it a try) cheers

[yerkyerk]

I merely use the spear for the +1skill, any other +skill weapon would do really. But there's not that many weapons with +1to all skills, so...
And I could equip the spear because I already buffed my dexterity for wearing SBC's (and ofcourse the added DA is nice too). The spear isn't doing too much damage - perhaps I'll trade it with a more useful weapon if I can find another source of +skills (still looking for Erebus +2 charm, Revenant armor/helm and +1boots). I also equipped weapons with granted skills, that was fun. But granted skills aren't very useful...