Getting set up again

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Kwahn
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Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:47 am

Getting set up again

Post by Kwahn »

Having been away from the game long enoug to pretty much forget how to play, does anyone know of an updated thread or website that helps a returning level 100 set up their hotbar, reacquaint with the game ? Any help would be appreciated! I know there is the http://www.eqmagetower.com/forums/viewt ... =24&t=3841 thread but was looking for something a bit more updated. Thanks again.
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Sancus
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Re: Getting set up again

Post by Sancus »

Took the guide you linked, copy/pasted it, and tried to make it relevant for 100/105. Here's my effort:

*** Get the best pet focus you can for your level *** Yes, they are available at low levels

http://www.eqmagetower.com/forums/viewt ... =24&t=2789 - Pet Focus Guide

Gearing wise, your Pet Focus (ear), Fire Focus (arms), Spell Haste (legs), RS Extension (Robe), Mana Pres (shoulders), and Magic Focus (helm) are important. Beyond that, keep Spell Damage and Mana in mind.

A. I'll start with my spell lineups:

I use two basic spell sets, one with rains and one without. Rains are both higher DPS and much more efficient than traditional single target spells.
Using this format: Spell Slot #. Level 100 Spell/Level 105 Spells

Rain:
1. Relentless Servant/Remorseless Servant
2. Rain of Blistersteel/Rain of Cutlasses
3. Rain of Scythes/Coronal Rain
4. Spear of Blistersteel/Spear of Molten Shieldstone
5. Bolt of Molten Magma/Bolt of Molten Shieldstone #You could also use the previous expac's Spear
6. Twincast
7. Gather Magnitude
8. Thaumatize Pet
9. Promised Amelioration/Promised Invigoration
10. Aegis of Nefori/Aegis of Japac
11. Surge of Shadow
12. Phantasmal Symbiosis/Dark Symbiosis

No Rain:
1. Relentless Servant/Remorseless Servant
2. Spear of Blistersteel/Spear of Molten Shieldstone
3. Spear of Molten Steel/Spear of Blistersteel
4. Bolt of Molten Magma/Bolt of Molten Shieldstone
5. Iron Bolt/Bolt of Molten Magma #You could also use Fickle; I personally hate that spell
6. Twincast
7. Gather Magnitude
8. Thaumatize Pet
9. Promised Amelioration/Promised Invigoration
10. Aegis of Nefori/Aegis of Japac
11. Surge of Shadow
12. Phantasmal Symbiosis/Dark Symbiosis

I use the 12th slot to swap in other spells. If you have a tank, you can swap out pet heals/Aegis for any of these:
  • Malosenia/Malosenete
  • Wand of Phantasmal Modulation/Wand of Dark Modulation
  • Blistersteel Malosenia/Darksteel Malosenete
Pet Buffing - spells I always keep on my pet
Format: RoF/TDS - Description; they won't stack
1. Burnout XI/Burnout XII - increases attacks, haste, ac, and pet strength
2. Velocity (AA or spell version) - increases movement rate, so fluffy is always by my side
3. Aegis of Kildrakaun (AA) - Rk 1 Blocks 8 hits; Rk 2 Blocks 12
4. Aegis of Nefori/Aegis of Japac - Blocks 9 hits; doesn't stack with Aegis of Kildrukaun
5. Iceflame Eminence/Iceflame Armaments - a pet DS, a damage proc, and a 2 hit rune
6. Rathe's Strength - Improves Swarm Pet damage; I use Rathe's because Arcane Distillect has range issues

Some mages prefer to use a macro that casts all of their spells, some prefer to click the spells individually, and most of the ones I know (including myself) multibind their keys. There's a good multibinding tutorial here: Tutorial. Since Secrets of Faydwer, we've been using spell "weaves," which is a collection of spells you cast repeatedly. Personally, I weave RS->Rain->Rain->Spear or Rain->Rain->Spear->Bolt when I can use rains (Rain->Rain->Spear->Spear is a higher DPS, less mana efficient option); I use RS when the mob is going to live for more than 25-ish seconds from when I cast it. When not using Rains, I weave RS->Spear->Spear->Bolt or Spear->Spear->Bolt->Bolt. Some mages use fickle, and it most likely is higher DPS than the second bolt. However, I absolutely despise the negative recourse (even if it's only a 1% chance), because whenever Fire Core or Elemental Union is up (about half the time), the positive recourse is useless/near useless, and the negative recourse decreases your single target nuke damage by 25%. Even when FC/EU aren't up, I still avoid the spell as much as possible.

Personally, because I'm lazy, I use Maloseniac Eminence instead of Iceflame Eminence/Armaments. The difference is the former procs a weaker version of Malo on the mob. If you aren't using Maloseniac, or if the mobs are rather resistant, I'll open up the fight with Malo. I then start casting my spell weave. At this point in the game, waiting for Gift of Mana procs probably isn't necessary. If you get one after the mob dies, you can use it to cast Surge of Shadows on your pet.

If I get an add that my pet can't handle without help, then I chain cast RS at the add, and keep my pet focused on the other one. If the mob can kill my rampaging servant quickly, I also throw in my Host of Elements. This trick will generally only work on 1 add. If there is more than 1 add, my pet better be able to handle the extras or I gate. Host of Elements is great, but its HP has stagnated. Thankfully, RS is generally sufficient to handle an add. If you're using Rains, make sure your main pet has some aggro on both mobs, or when your RS pet dies the one it was fighting will come to kill you.

I use a ton of tricks fighting named, so I'll talk about that after AAs.


B. AA's
<---Many of these are now Autogranted--->
I figured Fluffy was the only thing between me and those heavy hitting mobs, so my primary focus was beefing him up. In doing that, I always go for improvements that are always on first.

1. Pet Discipline - Allows you to tell your pet to hold, essential for pet control; opens up the even more critical:
2. Advanced Pet Discipline Rk 1 - Enables pet focus, allowing your pet to focus on your target. Essential for having fluffy keep aggro whilst you nuke.
3. Pet Affinity - Allows group spells and MGB's to land on Fluffy. Very useful for AFKing in the guild lobby.

Now we get into making Fluffy a serious tank:

4. Elemental Agility / Companion's Agility / Sturdy Companion - All passive mitigation / avoidance
5. Elemental Durability / Companion's Durability - Increase Fluffy's HP
6. Mend Companion
7. Replenish Companion - Insta-cast big heal for Fluffy
8. Fortify Companion - Helps w/ mitigation/avoidance more than the description implies (confirmed by how fast my merc burns through mana)
9. Host in the Shell - this gets stripped fast, but it provides a bit of mitigation
10. Second Wind - when pet HP goes below 20%, it heals, adds a HoT, absorbs a bit of damage, and increases AC
11. Aegis of Kildrukaun - Absorbs 8/12 hits

Now that Fluffy can take a beating, time to focus getting out of bad situations.

12. Gate - It's fast casting and always at the ready on your hot bar.
13. Companion of Necessity Rk 1 - Don't increase the Rk until you can go to Rk 3; Used to clear aggro. I use this to break camps too. Send Fluffy in, focused on one mob. Send the Companion at an add. back Fluffy off. The mob he was on will follow him back to camp, the one or two adds will not and will lose aggro. This only works to clear aggro on 1 or 2 mobs.
14. Host of Elements - Can help out on an add for a short amount of time, but has stagnated compared to mob damage

Now to work on mana efficiency / DPS.

16. Wind of Malosinete: AoE Malo around your target; 5 targets max
17. Malosinete - Rarely gets resisted, decreases resists (Spell Malo adds damage to magic nukes)
18. Spell Casting Fury - Gives you crits
19. Spell Casting Mastery - Lowers mana cost
20. Spell Casting Subtlety - Only as necessary, when you start getting aggro all the time, and only enough to no longer draw aggro off Fluffy. I went without this for a long time, but admittedly getting it allows you to start nuking harder sooner on fights.
21. Fury of Magic / Destructive Fury - More boom for your mana buck
22. Gift of Mana - Procs quite often for a free mana next spell.
23. Improved Twincast - Twinprocs the next 10-16 or so casts; careful aggro management required here - good to use with Silent Casting
19. Elemental Form: Fire - leads up to:
20. Heart of Flames - leads up to:
21. Fire Core - Fire Spell Focus
22. Elemental From: Water - Mana Regen
23. Mana Reserve - Returns Mana when you reach under 20% mana
24. Virulent Talon - High DPS Pet Proc
25. Frenzied Burnout - Pet DPS buff, also increases AC
26. First Spire of the Elements - Crit Chance/Damage Mod
27. Vapor Core - Crit Damage Mod
28. Elemental Union - Spell Focus, slightly inferior to Fire Core

DPS AA Usage:
To give a very basic overview of Modifiers than increase spell DPS:
  • Twincast: This makes your nukes hit twice. A 100% twincast rate can be achieved either with Twincast (spell) or Improved Twincast (AA). It's generally beneficial to use your DPS increasing AAs in conjuction with Twincast
  • Spell Focuses: These increase the base damage of your spell by a certain percent, just like worn focuses (Fire Focus, as an example). Fire Core is a Spell Focus, and the highest rank increases the damage of your nuke by 80-130% of the base damage (the number you see in the description). Different Spell Foci do not stack with each other; the higher mod is used. As an example, having both Fire Core and Elemental Union on simultaneously does nothing for you; Fire Core will override EU. They are additive with Worn Foci, meaning if your Fire Focus was 50-100% and you had Fire Core on (80-130%), your overall focus would be 130-230%. Fire Core, Elemental Union, and Fickle's positive recourse are the Spell Focuses mages have; Bards also have a group spell focus.
  • Crit Chance Mods: These increase your chance to critical hit. With max AAs, we have a passive crit chance of about 58-59%. Our only AA that increases crit chance is First Spire, which is a 21% mod. Many other classes have abilities that increase our crit chance, and for the most part they stack.
  • Crit Damage Mods: These increase the damage that a critical hit does. Passively, a critical hit will do an additional 270% of the spell's base damage, with max AAs. First Spire and Vapor Core are both crit damage mods, 100% and 132% respectively. Critical damage mods do not stack with each other, but they do stack with our passive mod. The highest one takes effect, so if you had First Spire and Vapor Core on, your crit damage mod would be 402% (270%+132%), on top of the damage the spell would otherwise do. Many classes can provide us with higher crit damage mods, the highest being Enchanter's Illusions of Grandeur, which is a 250% mod.
There are other mods, but those are the most important ones. So, with that in mind, here's what I would activate on a spell burn:
Fire Core #Spell Focus (activate Elemental Union when this wears off)
First Spire #Crit Dmg+Crit Chance
Twincast, and then Improved Twincast
Empowered Focus of Arcanum #decreases resists
Silent Casting #decreases aggro

For pet burns, I'd activate:
Virulent Talon
Frenzied Burnout

If you have no crit damage mods available beyond First Spire/Vapor Core, the following is better burn DPS (but not higher overall DPS in a sustained situation):
Vapor Core #Crit Damage Mod
First Spire #Crit Chance + Crit Damage Mod
Elemental Union #Spell Focus
Twincast, and then Improved Twincast
Empowered Focus of Arcanum #decreases resists
Silent Casting #decreases aggro

Other stuff:

Spell Focus AAs (these are not the same as spell focuses like Fire Core):
These AAs increase the damage of the spell by 6%. The spells that received these AA lines were reduced in power by 5%, so it evens out. Unfortunately, the ones for Bolt of Molten Shieldstone/Spear of Molten Shieldstone are not critting or being focused, so they're somewhat behind where they should be. This will be fixed eventually, hopefully.

Pets:
When Pet Tanking, I use the Earth Pet. It has the highest HP and AC of any pet, making it the best tank. If you're in easy-ish content, you can use the air pet. It has lower HP/AC, but it can stun single mobs, and it does more damage. For maximum DPS I use the water pet, which doesn't tank very well

Salvo:
Salvo of Many/Storm of Many are our highest DPS spells, but only if there are at least 15 pets on the mob. It's difficult to reach this number in the group game, so I generally don't use it. However, if you have enough pet classes, it may become viable.

Type 3 Augs:
Type 3 Augs add damage to spells, which crits. These can be purchased in Beast's Domain for VoA spells, Shard's Landing for RoF, and in Katta Castrum: Deluge for TDS.

I'm sure I missed/forgot some stuff, and I'm sure some of that was unclear/disorganized/etc. So, if you have any other questions feel free to ask. Many mages play in different ways too, so I'm sure others have other styles.
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Kwahn
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Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:47 am

Re: Getting set up again

Post by Kwahn »

What a great write up! Thank you for taking the time to do tihis, I do really appreciate it. A bit overwhelmed but this will help tremendously in relearning how to play the game, and my mage. Again, thank you! As I start implementing these recommendations I am sure I will have more specific questions.

*edit*

I read this morning that there is an /alt activate command we can use to push multiple AAs with a single key. Can you describe the mechanics of setting this up and a quick overview of what AAs I would want to set up with this method? I understand that I may not have the AAs you would suggest, but it would also show me what i should be working towards if I dont already have them. Thank you!
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Sancus
Conjurer
Posts: 108
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2014 5:37 pm

Re: Getting set up again

Post by Sancus »

You're welcome, I'm glad it kinda made sense :D

For my Spell Burn Hotkey, I use:
/pause 1, /alt act 774
/pause 1, /alt act 1370
/pause 1, /alt act 621
/alt act 500

This will activate Fire Core, Empowered Focus of Arcanum, First Spire of the Elements, and Silent Casting. The benefit is it will hit them faster than clicking each individually. Some people put Improved Twincast in as well, personally I prefer to control which twincast I'm using independently (I generally use spell Twincast first).

For a pet burn, you can use:
Pet Burn
/pause X, /alt activate 60
/alt activate 323

This activates Frenzied Burnout and Virulent Talon. The pause depends on how many ranks of Quickened Frenzied Burnout you have, as well as lag, so you may want to play around with the number.
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