Our AA burn discs in conjunction with other classes

[Thanasis]

Wasn't judging your set up Ciel, but just stated why you have less spell dmg (which you could have told Enkel yourself by saying your a hp junkie ).

Personally i also got some back up hp smurf (ps/augs) if AEs are really annoying but not having too much problems atm.

[Enkel]

(which you could have told Enkel yourself by saying your a hp junkie ).

I almost never use magelo, and don't know how to find spell damage , hence I asked.

[Cielli]

108k dps is fairly good for 180 seconds, but why were you getting hit by the rampage ?

Belly-caster. Mob Movement.

You wouldn't THINK 5-10k hp's would make a huge difference, but ae's are tuned for a certain amount of hitpoints. A large ae will take most players to 30-40% hitpoints, & a second will kill them ( or a ramp will kill them ) .... With the extra 5-10 hp's you'll often find yourself surviving these combinations... Also gives you an extra 6 seconds to get a heal during large DoT's, chapterhouse comes to mind... The first tick of that DoT hits before you or your healer realize you have it... & 6-12 seconds from then you could be dead. the extra 5-10 hp's buys you an extra tick, it may only be 5% more hp's, but it will often keep you alive for 30% more time for your healer to react. So I find the effects to be alot greater than just the numbers would have you think.

2-3% more dps... or 30% more survivability. Is how I see it.

[Cielli]

(which you could have told Enkel yourself by saying your a hp junkie ).

I almost never use magelo, and don't know how to find spell damage , hence I asked.

& My spell damage is 570.

If gear weren't so vanilla all around... If you could give up more mana, for more spell damage, thats something I'd like. But generally the diference in spell damage/hp/mana is so marginal in gear, I don't see the point. I go with survivability & the loss to dps is very small. You pretty much have to go with you're class specific visual slots, so you're not going to lose much base spell damage there, same with the primary and secondary slot... You're really only left with the base spell damage of non visible slots ( mnus your EM earring which is also pretty mandatory ) to do any customization/choosing.

I have every aug in the game that has a good hp/mana total AND spell damage.
The remaining slots, maybe 10, I fill out with 300hp-400hp augs. rather than 5-7 spell damage.

Of the 10 non visible slots with which we have a choice to choose gear for... they range from 16-30 sum spell damag, and I typically go with the highest hitpoint gear... top it off with a growth powersource.

Total HP gain 5-7k hp's
Total spell damage loss is about 150.

I really wish we had more choice in gear... If you could achieve a 10-15k swing in hitpoints, or a 300-400 increase in spell damage ( 500 - 700 would be better ). Then it would actually be interesting & I'd be more tempted to play with different setups.

I really hate the all/all gear with similar stats, so boring.

[Thanasis]

basic economics
Risk averse: choose hp.
Risk seeking: choose spell dmg.

Valid choice though Ciel.

Btw just checked my spdmg, with tribute running i got 821 atm, so 250 difference.

[Fleiss]

basic economics
Risk averse: choose hp.
Risk seeking: choose spell dmg.

Valid choice though Ciel.

Btw just checked my spdmg, with tribute running i got 821 atm, so 250 difference.

Yeah, what is looks like.

Thouch Cielli, I don't think this is true "2-3% more dps... or 30% more survivability. Is how I see it."


I don't think you can claim 5K hps equals 30% survivability though. If it does there are a lot of mechanics in the game you are making harder than they need to be. If you statement held true I think all raid leaders would force us their whole guild to focus on hps if a 5K shift could mean that much. Reality is survival is based more on RNG and the heals you receive. Having a higher hp cap number helps but if a mob is hitting you all you can claim is I can take 4.5 of it's max hits, there is no way to quantify survival. The RNG will detremine how hard you are hit for (up to max hit for you) or if you get hit, and than factor in the amount of outside healing (which also has RNG factors in it) will determine if you survive. As far as AEs, your healers should be healing if there are AEs, none of them are so stupid strong that is you are appropritely geared for the content that you could take them without any buffs (without heals all of us will die overtime to AEs, yes your max helps some here). So the 5K doesn't hold weight for me there. So I don't doubt it helps but 30% is a far stretch. Probably more like a few % like spell damage will add if you focus on it.

[Cielli]

My guild does, in fact, rank gear based on their base hitpoints. everyone's gear is ranked ( Newbie, or t1-4 ) based on hitpoints. These ranks are charted & from that chart we understand & recognize who needs to upgrade their gear... It is understood by leadership that hitpoints are the most important stat for any class to function in a raid environment, that is why gear is ranked by base hitpoint value, with no consideration of mana or secondary statistics.

that said tho, no one is 'forced' to choose their gear. & most people do choose the gear which is 'recommended' for that class ( IE: AC for tanks, spell dmg/mana for casters, str/dex/atk for meel dps )

But the most important base stat to a raid leader is hitpoints. My leader's at least, have said as much. but no one is ever 'forced' to gear a certain way, that's no fun & lame.

A couple occasions have come up though, where for example, we were having alot of gear ROT ( t1-t2 rof ) while some people were still using voa t4 raid gear, who didnt want to upgrade ( 300-400 HP upgrade ) bc their t4 voa piece had better heroics ( strength, dex ) This player was forced to bid a 1 & upgrade ( 1 is the lowest bid possible, equivalent to one raids earned credit ) it caused a big stink, and ive only see it happen once in six months... but the leaders were right in my opinion. this guy's judgment was bad if he was willing to let rot a needed upgrade for 5 or 6 points of heroic anything.

You can also inflate your gears rank, by choosing a t1 item with high hitpoints, or subsequently, if you choose something with low hipoints, a t2 item may appear on our graph as a t1 item... a T2 item with 3051 hitpoints may be shown as t4, while a t4 item with High spell damage but low hitpoints may be recognized as t2 or t3 ...

[Fleiss]

That is cool, to each their own. It is a valid strat, just don't think the benefit is 30%.

And we have had people try to hold out for gear we had to force to take loots because their gear wasn't at appropriately level to raid with us. They can argue but waiting for one special piece while ten pieces are not up to date doesn't work.

[Cielli]

4 Hours to pop him. BARELY won this fight boxxing Mage/Enc with 2 healer mercs... Mob spawns add after add after add. about as fast as you can kill them.
Like Ixyl the claymaster but... worse. imo. but he dropped the loot!

[Enkel]

Honestly I find it impossible to say 30% increase to survivability. I don't even know how you would quantify the difference in survivability. The rampage from Aaryonar shouldn't make a difference in my mind. When we did ToV I would play in third person, and have my back turned. I would rotate the camera to see Aaryonar. I used my pets as a gauge for max melee range and never got hit.

For AE, if a AE is going to kill you its going to you kill. The 5k hp you get won't make a 30% difference most likely. If your healers are doing their job then you should be healed through AE easily. To each their own. Personally I like to achieve the highest dps possible, and I utilize all my AA to keep myself alive in a pinch. The dps difference between us, based on spell damage, is only several thousand, the rest would come down to skill and understanding of the class. So augs are not the be all end all, and are probably the best way at the moment to customize your character, but I do prefer spell damage.