So with Luclin unlocking on Coirnav soon, I was looking through eqitems to see what are the gears that I should be going for. I'm playing a necro and read that casters should prioritize items with focus effects, but what about mana regen? Should we try to cap Flowing Thought? Correct me if I'm wrong, but we need to have worn FT 15, excluding AAs that increase mana regen, in order to cap FT. It seems that if I were to go for items with +mana regen I might have to forgo some of the items with focus effects. Hence my question, should we try to get all the focus effect items, or try to cap FT?
If you aren't really raiding you won't cap FT any time soon. Riding the krono bus for the droppable +mana regen item you'll get boots +3, Solstice ear +1, range +1, there's a +1 neck and maybe a +2, a +2 belt. Maybe there is more but that's what I can think of that is commonish in baz. PoP makes this easier (wrists and more items). Necro usually prioritize focus effects: burning affliction, affliction efficiency, affliction haste for sure. Improved damage boosts lifetaps, spell haste is nice (lately I have given that one up for a detrimental haste... slot issues not that it is better than spell haste). I ran without extended range for about 5 levels and sorely missed it (so nice for solo kiting). There's lots of others of course, I have had summon efficiency and reagent conservation by accident for the last 15 levels because the items with them were a solid int/mana choice for my budget. And there is always the question of dealing with HP loss from lich. I haven't bothered myself, but I am still leveling and playing casual (so aside from Zheart not really much HP regen to stack anyways).
Assuming you’re raiding will include VT? I’ve found Focus > FT; especially given that after Luclin FT plays a smaller role in success given PoP fights are fast and furious compared to marathon fights in Velious and Luclin. That said, my BIGGEST piece of advice is to look CLOSELY at focus effects on raidloot. The text may say improve fire damage 1-26%, but it’s restricted to INSTANT ONLY. The key to look for relevant to Necros will be the Maximum Duration field on raidloot. If it’s zero, it’s only going to apply to the fire nuke you have and not your fire DoTs. I think the BiS for damage for Necros will be the Accursed Affliction focus on Staff of Lost Rituals for your DoT spells and maybe Insidious Dreams on Boots of Silent Dreams for your magic based Lifetap DD. You’ll also appreciate Minion of Darkness pet focus from Gloves of Dark Summoning. Mana preservation is a bit tricky because you benefit more from Affliction Efficiency III items (1-23%) vs the VT focuses (1-18 or 1-20?). However, the trade off is lesser gear with a focus that becomes less effective after 60. Most VT focuses will carry you through 65 for effectiveness of the focus. If you’re determined to use VT drops, Mask of Secrets is a great choice given it affects all spell types lasts to 65 and is 1-18% (or 9% on average). Same thing can be said about DoT spell haste: Affliction Haste III is 33% vs BiS VT coming in at 23%. While AH3 will be a winner for Luclin, it loses value in PoP where you would likely trade off wearing a Bracelet of the sky to get 1% more spell haste than a VT drop that has superior statsz
As it relates to your quandary about deciding between focus effects and FT, I'm confused. Are you not including VT items? I really wish I would have saved the spreadsheet, but since on Agnarr I was in a decent dkp position, was playing a lot, and Luclin was around the corner I made a VT purchase list that included everything. If you're raiding VT, worn flowing thought is *easily* maxed. ToVK is 8FT (not to mention hp) by itself, and there are several BIS items that have 3 or more ranks of FT on them. That necklace should be high on your priority list, because if memory serves it's the BIS necklace for most (all?) classes for not only Luclin, but also in PoP. Also, put extreme priority on a crown of ambivalence. Back in the day, the staff of lost rituals that Bewts mentioned used to make detrimental spells (such as dots) last longer, but they nerfed the items to instead be burning affliction. Crown of ambivalence wasn't nerfed. PS: Don't tell anyone. You don't want shaman or enchanters to know about it if they don't already, until you have yours. If you say anything to exclaim you're excited about it, they will look at it, and realize "Hey, that means debuffs and slows will last longer, too! Let's make the crown class restricted to enchanters and shaman!"
You must have some garbage clerics.... Only Emp really challenged our mana pools and that was at launch where we weren’t swimming in FT yet or bat phone Emps. You instanced folks probably won’t have many late night low number bat phone emps. VT was an absolute snore minus the fluxes and an inattentive tank getting backstabbed mid flux /eyeroll. Mounts made life easy, that’s probably your best “focus” in VT!
Cool, I've made a list of items which should be BIS, covering all focus effects. What ya guys think about this list? Earring - Sigil Earring of Veracity, Glowing Amber Band (Seru) Head - Crown of Ambivalence Face - Mask of Secrets Neck - Talisman of Vah Kerrath Back - Cloak of Frozen Flames Shoulder - Zevfeer's Shroud of Despair Chest - Robe of Secrets Arm - Armguard of Purity Wrist - Wristband of Secrets, Glowing Amber Band Finger - Bone Ring of the Death Ward, Silver Band of Secrets Belt - Girdle of Magnificence Hand - Gloves of Dark Summoning Leg - Leggings of Secrets Boots - Boots of Silent Dreams Primary - Staff of Lost Rituals Secondary - Tome of Secrets Range - Orb of Secrets
If your having to twitch in Luclin you need to find a better guild. Should never be a reason to twitch Luclin+ even on Emperor...
+1 I did the same on the lightbringer earrings because people didn’t realize they weren’t lore. Yes I’ll take 120 mana on my ear over a solstice earring! Our DKP scale was like 25-50-75 and they were going for 25 or to alts for 10 so it was a great investment to fill a tough slot for me at the time. Never did get the cleric BP! Odd side note on the BP: I looted Kunark BP in the last few weeks of that expansion and wore it all the way through PoP until the last month or so (Cleric). While not a preferred strategy in gearing it was definitely doable. Lesson: Some pieces can be serviceable from from Kunark -> Velious -> Luclin -> PoP; not many are though and it’s highly class dependent.
I think you'd be a very good geared Necro, lol, Goodluck getting all that before PoP - not saying its not doable, but unless your in the guild raiding open world then it would be difficult. The Talisman alone is going to cost you a metric ton of DKP if your guild uses that system. It was the highest DKP item ever on my Agnarr guild, and one of the highest on my Phinny guild.
I can't remember all of the specifics, but my wish list had some variants. I think I ended up choosing to wear bracelet of the sky (from tov) for affliction haste 3 instead of the girdle. It might have been dumb luck, but even though I was in a guild raiding OW VT almost every other day, I only just barely picked up a bracelet of the sky. (It wasn't on my radar through most of velious because I was quite content with wearing the out of era circlet of the falinkan for affliction haste 3, and by the time it was we stopped bothering to kill that mob) When Luclin came out, it seemed the bracer to be the best place to get the focus. If you happen to be able to pick one up now...I'd recommend it. Not relying on the girdle means you can still wear BODS if you have it, and I think there's also a belt in luclin that's decent. As for the robe, I opted for sanguine. It has the obvious advantage of +5hp, superior fashion, and you'll be able to pick it up so cheaply it's not even funny. Leave that robe for the mages/wizards. The bonus of this plan is it means you have more dkp to spend on emp robe, even though you have no intention on wearing it through the expansion. Click it once, wear it until you get a sanguine, and then throw it in the bank. Expect bids on emp robe to be high. Relying on bone ring of the death ward is a gamble...I could be wrong because I ended up quitting right before luclin came out on agnarr, but from what I heard, it seems like the khati-sha event is not very popular on TLP's nowadays. Looking at the rest of the drops, it makes sense. If you have boots of the dead dream now, wear those and try to pick up a gem encrusted ring if you don't already have one. I know on agnarr at the end of velious they were selling very cheaply. The lack of stats might dissuade you, but don't rule it out. If you are wanting every focus in luclin and best available stats, it's a stealthy bargain. Your cloak is a bad choice. You want one of these two: http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=13283 http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=12387 Orb of secrets is nice, but it's going to be hard to get, and not as much of a benefit for you. An obvious back-up is wand of deflection. You can probably get it for a song...most people will trip over themselves for orb of secrets, but you would arguably benefit more from wand. You can't cast spell shield any other way, and it's a superior rune in many situations. PS: Pick up an orb of lost souls if you can, for the click. As for the shield...good luck on that. I'm not 100% certain on the casting effectiveness mod (that's fizzle rate, isn't it?) but if I'm not mistaken, the +channeling mod is useless if you end up with Gebron's demented cloak. YMMV. I ended up at the #1 dkp spot right before Luclin came out... You don't always get what you want, but the point of a wish list is so you don't end up bidding high on something that you will regret the next week. TLDR: Go hard on the crown.
Dunno why you'd say this, Khati Sha drops excellent gear for a pretty easy/fast encounter. We easily knocked out the entire event in about 30 mins (Longest part is medding after the stupid Arcanist). Honestly there are not that many things to do in Luclin for raiding and you can do all of VT in 4-5 hours (this includes clearing ALL relevant trash and doing both sides on floor 2), SSRA took about 3 hours, Khati Sha about 30 mins, and Seru about 30 mins (Since you now do Praesertums each week). That means all content is completed 8-9 hours, 10 if you have a slow week. No reason NOT to do Khati, especially since he has some really good drops.
You're probably right, it's worth mentioning the opinion is from an OW raider. I could be completely wrong on this, what do I know, I didn't raid luclin personally on a TLP, only in the original version. A friend of mine that I kept in contact with said a couple of times that the khati event was something no one ever really wanted to do. Probably VT burnout. Clearing VT once a week is no big deal, popping in there for OW spawns, can get tiresome since there are so many targets. (Not to mention a lot of VT drops trump khati items)
Part of gearing strategy is developing a list of loot you can actually get in a reasonable amount of time. There are only 3 months of Luclin and only like 24 of each raid target (if that). So your not likely to get like 6 different BiS (for multiple classes) before the expo is ended...even if you did (you would have to be an obsessive batphone no-lifer) it would be about preparing for PoP, not mastering Luclin. So no, you don't want to get a staff of lost rituals instead of a Bone-Clasped Girdle or Bracelet of the Deep Sea. You wouldn't probably want to spend the DKP it takes to get Robe of Secret either. Your not going to have both a mask and orb of secrets... this is a list of FE items up to Luclin for Necro http://eqitems.com/?frmSearch[classId]=256&frmSearch[raceId]=2048&frmSearch[expansionId]=3&frmSearch[level]=60&frmSearch[deityId]=0&frmSearch[gearLevel]=50&frmSearch[NoDrop]=1&frmSearch[IgnoreEffects]=1&Focus=Show Focus Items Make sure you have important FEs...but keep in mind there is a certain priority for how important some FEs are for some classes. Wizards need instant dmg only FEs a little more than necros -- even both need them. I would expect Wizards to be getting Leggings of Secrets before most necros in most guilds. Likewise your probably getting DoT FEs before the Druids/Shamans in your guild.
