Here's my current spell line-up: Remorseless Servant Rk.II Storm of Many Rk. II Chaotic Fire Rk. II Spear of Molten Shieldstone Force of Elements Melee I have Arcane Distillect Rk. II at all times. I don't pop any AAs regularly except Furious and Fortify pet AAs in case I get an add. Tier 1 EoK mobs take about 30-40% of my mana - I go OOM after 3-4 mobs. 1. Does the pet aura affect swarm pets? 2. Are rain spells still viable in EoK content? 3. Are these more mana-intensive or less DPS? 4. For better use of AAs, which should I be focusing for faster killing? Spell damage lines (critical %, critical damage, etc.) or pet lines? (Companion's Fury, etc.) 5. What should my stats look like at the EoK tier 1 level to be effectively grinding in the sense that: a. I am killing at a good pace for my class b. I am not running OOM after 3 or 4 mobs Things I plan to do once the server comes up: Start using Firebound Orb Rk. II
Yes yes no and no - unless you have burn AAs on nukes stats are pretty irrelevant. all about using tools. - but Your Storm nuke is likely to be pretty low damage if you're not partnered with other pet casters and not running AAs (specifically Host of Elements). You should only cast it to refresh the pet boost. If you're not running burn AAs a ton, and are short AAs in general so no full on Conjurer's Synergy to combo it with your Servant, the Spear is not an efficient or particularly hard-hitting way to deal damage. Servant Chaotic Rain Rain with the social to Force & Orb Make use of every mana tool. AA modrod, the yellow spell modrod (doesn't share timer), the pet symbiosis, elem form:water, guardian self-buff, mana return procs on your 1h & its aug (Murderer's Heart if you can't get Heart of Narikor), mana return proc on your shield (i.e. get Tome of Obulus) either Gather between battles (presuming Chaotic refreshes it) or Suspend Minion so you can Reclaim Energy some Monster Summonings
Exactly what Brohg said. Also, if you don't multibind, look it up, and do it. At the end of your nukes in the multibind, add Gather, Thaumatize, and then Symbiosis. Chaotic will reset Gather and Thaumatize most every mob, so you can use them constantly. Just continue hitting your multibind key after the mob is dead, and you'll auto cast them, without having to think about it. Get the mana pres augs (specialize) for conjuration (swarm pet/magic rain) and evocation (fire nukes). They will each save you about 2.5% mana per each spell type cast (= 10k or more, per mana bar depending on mana regen). FAR more than any puny 400-500 mana/int aug. Can't remember names of augs off hand, but one drops from named in tainted EK HAs ONLY, and other drops from named in Bixie HAs only, I believe. Rains become much less effective when meleeing, unless can find a sweet spot to hit the mob, but be out of rain range... It's probably better to use RS > chaotic > rain > rain and not melee, than to suck up the additional hit from each rain cast (if you're in range, rain will hit a single mob twice, and you twice -- if you're out of range, it will hit a single mob 3 times). For best effectiveness, kill 2 mobs at once. Rains will hit each mob twice, creating best damage per cast. Get to 106 and get conflagrant gear, it's amazing stuff. With conflagrant gear and decent AA, using your mana regen stuff as soon as it pops, and using RS > chaotic > rain > rain, you should never run out of mana unless in a super fast pulling group.
I have not used the Specialization augments since the end of COTF and never had mana issues. ROS expansion starts and I found myself running out of mana a lot solo/group/raid. Had to use mod rods and such on raids. About three months ago I put back in the Spec Evoc augment. Since then the only time I go OOM is on death. I literally have zero mana issues at all. I attribute this to the one augment...
Like Cicelee said, the spec augs are great (Especially solo or small group). But they are a pain and a half to get. each......