Jeweled Apothic Dragon Spine Hammer Guide

Discussion in 'Priests' started by Clarisa, May 23, 2020.

  1. Clarisa Augur

    [Note: Though I posted most of this several years ago in a reply to another thread, as we still occasionally receive priest applicants who do not have or have not heard of the item, I feel that a new post might be useful given how important it is for priests to have.]

    This is a short guide on obtaining the Jeweled Apothic Dragon Spine Hammer, one of the best healing items for priests:

    [IMG]

    There is also a group version of this hammer called the Apothic Dragon Spine Hammer (https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=151913) and both it and the raid version share the same recast timer as the Small Manisi Branch (https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=148830) from the EOK expansion. The branch is obtained from completing The Foretold Hour achievement (https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=8423) in Frontier Mountains, but I recommend that priests obtain the hammer because not only is the group version potentially easier to obtain but it also has the potential to be upgraded by completing what is now old raid content for most guilds. The group version heals for the same amount as the branch (40,000), but the raid version above is a slight upgrade, healing for 10,000 hit points more (bringing the total with a critical heal over 100k). These items can all be cast from inventory, so they do not need to be equipped to make use of the heal.

    To obtain the group version you'll need to gain access to Veeshan's Peak via this quest (https://ros.eqresource.com/scaledkey.php) which among collecting medallion pieces via missions or specific named also involves completing nearly all of the partisan quests for the Ring of Scale expansion (minus Veeshan's Peak). Then, you'll need to obtain a "Faded Apothic Dragon Spine Hammer" from this named mob in Veeshan's Peak: https://ros.eqresource.com/travenrotheskygazer.php Then you can use that hammer to start this quest: https://ros.eqresource.com/apothicdragonspinehammer.php which involves killing a bunch of trash skeletons in Howling Stones until you get an update and an essence bottle. When you turn that in, you get the group version of the item pictured above.

    To upgrade that to the raid version, you'll need to obtain a "Flawless Conflagarant Diamond" (https://items.eqresource.com/items.php?id=152463), found in every Ring of Scale raid chest. Once you get the diamond, toss and combine it in a forge along with 2 Mana Battery - Class Six (purchasable in Plane of Knowledge off Nelin Signus), the group version of the hammer, and a Smithy Hammer (purchasable in Plane of Knowledge off Blacksmith Gerta and others) to obtain the raid version of the hammer with the upgraded clicky.

    A 50,000 point heal may not sound like a lot but because the hammer has a fast cast time (1.0 sec), a relatively short recast timer (2.0 min), and can crit, it has the potential to provide a significant heal, especially between spell casts during the global recast timer (or GCD). The global recast timer is the 1.5 sec a priest/caster must wait after casting a spell to cast another spell (when the gems on the spell bar turn grey to prevent them from doing so). Spells cast from items (like the hammer) or from AAs can be cast during this time, though, making these especially important to have if a priest wants to make the most of every second. These items also do not have a mana cost, which makes them the only way some priest classes can heal when they are mana-drained or have just been resurrected and do not have enough mana to cast a healing spell.
    Riou and minimind like this.
  2. Rolaque Ancient

    The clickie 50k heal usually lands for 100k+. But that use is highly situational
    Other effects are over-shadowed by current items in ToV. For example, Treaded Boon of Potential on waist items.
    minimind likes this.
  3. Clarisa Augur

    The Holy Soothing proc offered by Treaded Boon of Potential is a variable/random group heal proc (5000 base) that has a percentage chance of occurring based on the cast time of the spell (2s=25% 3s=33.4% 4s=50% 5s=66.8%). It can, under certain conditions and on the right target with the right buffs, proc for a high amount:

    [Sun Mar 29 18:38:38 2020] You healed Tiseanu for 0 (74833) hit points by Holy Soothing. (Lucky Critical)

    It's useful, free healing that is widely available on most waist items from current raid content but the problem is that it is random and not something a priest can directly control. So it will end up proc'ing many times and landing for nothing because it lands when the targets do not need it.

    The Focused Apothic Balm heal offered by the hammer, however, is under the priest's control and because of the higher base heal can be more impactful:

    [Sun Mar 29 20:36:30 2020] You healed Rune for 143935 (198547) hit points by Focused Apothic Balm. (Lucky Critical)

    I did cherry pick examples from my log for the snippets above, but in most cases the Holy Soothing proc did not end up landing for impactful amounts. Though it did land for more overall during the course of the night, most of that was incidental/bloat healing, which is healing that contributes to raising health bars but does not happen when a target truly needs it. The balm heal to Rune (a warrior) above was cast directly after a group elixir during the global cooldown of the elixir cast. I used the hammer during the global cooldown to offer him a heal in order to cast the elixir (a 2.5s or so cast) more safely because I knew there was a chance he could take damage during the cast. I could have just used nothing during the global cooldown and let those 1.5 sec after the elixir cast (about 4 sec overall including the cast time of the elixir) elapse without casting anything, but in this case, the hammer provided an impactful heal during that window of time and kept me from falling behind in healing before I could cast another spell.

    As mentioned in the original post, that's the value of having the hammer as it can be used like other AA heals and health-balance abilities clerics have (Burst of Life, Beacon of Life, Divine Arbitration, Divine Balance, Blessing of Sanctuary) to cast meaningful heals during the global cooldown. Though such uses can certainly be considered situational, having the hammer and adding it to the list of tools we already have gives us an additional heal to use during that window of time that could end up being impactful.
  4. Kelset Elder

    Completed in a few hours, thanks for the great info!
  5. Bederper Journeyman

    Clarisa,

    if you were wielding this hammer as your primary wep (yes a meleeing cleric), what would your preferred augs be? I am running the ancient opal spell charm and elemental corporeal gusting zephyr.

    Was disinclined to switch it out for a Ralaifin’s Dogma, but it’s hard to look past the ToV 2 handers (either Crash or a Devotional Staff)
  6. Nylrem Augur

    Complimentary Velium Infused Gem of Devastation
    Bone Shards of Frozen marrow

    and for ranged:
    Complimentary Velium Infused Gem of Striking

    Oh, and devotional staff, by far.

    Make sure and have Restless Focus Potion buff.

    USE BURN STUFF. (far, far, far too many clerics, never use burn stuff)

    Obliterate > Repudiate > Eradicate undead. Along with all 'normal' stuff, Turn undead, etc.

    Restless potion alone will get ya 60k dps, when burning (even in tank group, with zero adps).

    Challenge your raid, tell em if there's ANY class that can't beat a cleric's DPS, they should play better!

    Can hit about 250k DPS ish, for the duration of ITC... Or sustain around 120k ish, maybe, for any length of time, and only occasional heals. Assuming you're in a tank group. I've never not been, so don't know what's possible with any aDPS lol.

    If not undead... not much point in DPSing really... but can do something like Unyielding censure > contravention > unyielding judgement > contravention > injunction for craptastic dps.
  7. Szilent Augur

    Elemental Curio of Ondine Force
  8. Clarisa Augur


    The ToV 2-handers are definitely better for damage. Along with better damage stats, they have a damage proc (Arms of Holy Wrath) that the heal hammer lacks. The heal hammer provides better passive healing to the tank and you due to its unique proc, so it might only be better in specific situations where you're willing to trade a significant amount of proc damage for more tank healing.

    As far as augs for damage go, I think the others have already provided some good options. I honestly am not into the DPS side of the class as much as others, though I never discourage it among our clerics unless it significantly impacts their healing or reaction time during raids.
  9. Bederper Journeyman

    Thank you.

    Now running VE devotional hammer + ancient opal spell charm and elemental mortal corporeal zephyr to mix in some passive heals along with the damage from the weapon process.
  10. Jondalar Augur

    It should be noted that Veeshans Peak no longer requires keys
    Rondor likes this.
  11. Pano Augur

    All that time wasted keying up...
  12. Cragzop Cranky Wizard


    Still need to do the key quest to access the partisan missions in VP.

    It just means the VP shiny market completely collapsed ... after the partial collapse from Overseer candy dishes.
  13. Darchon_Xegony Augur

    As a druid I run 2 different weapon sets mostly

    DPS set is a HoHV proc 2-hander with Complimentary Velium Infused Gem of Devastation and Bone Shards of Frozen Marrow (camped Curio for 9 named, 9 stupid rings, maybe one day!). This I tend to use when healing is covered by mercs in a group or other people on a raid.

    Heal/DPS set is the Jeweled Apothic Hammer with Complimentary Shadow Scarab Sliver and Elemental Corporeal Gusting Zephyr. This I tend to use when healing in group isn't cutting it, or when I swap healer mercs in group for DPS mercs.

    I am thinking about getting a druid scimitar from ToV to make a heal-only set with Ancient Opal Spellcharm in it, but I am at a loss for what secondary + augment to use to go with it. It seems like there are no good secondary items and almost no sympathetics for beneficial spell casts on augments.
  14. Szilent Augur

    Tome of Obulus secondary, to proc mana off've Remotes that are still part of max-support setup. If it's the Enhanced version, it can accommodate a proc aug also.

    Those beneficial procs augs *are* way thin, gotta dip back to RoF Helping Hand and VoA/HoT(same proc) Mirror of Spiritual Reflection / Bark of the Wilting Grove.