Last few weeks I have had some great groups, and others that aren't great. I am an old mofo now. Started playing this game back in 2001 back then I could poop sock any group... Now not so much, unless I have a couple bran muffins in the morning. My point is this, this game isn't Afk friendly if I Afk for a smoke while in group, it slows down the pace and I might come back to find the group wiped playing any class DPS or not. So now I have resorted to playing the lonesome Necro. But I am enjoying it far more than the fast levelling die hards, been there done that. Look at it this way. This server will cap at 65 anyhow so what's the hurry?? It's not like your on a Server rotation with huge cutthroat guilds having every mob on lockdown... Chill out have those smoke breaks (when you can) just don't be a leach either if your going to AFK for 30 min. Say "thanks guys" and step out of the group... Simple as that!
I specifically don't invite smokers to my group. Luckily it's now 2017 and not 1999 so smokers are a rare dying (literally lol) breed.
Context matters too. Saying 20% mana is fine or not fine totally depends on the situation, gear. For a dps caster class 20% may be more than enough for emergency dps depending on the gear. For example, an endgame geared wizard on phinny with 20% mana has over 2k mana leftover for nuking, plus a mana free instant evac if they really need it. Big difference vs. a poorly geared alt. Being too high in reserve mana also means you don't get to efficiency use any small breaks the group takes (since being at 80% when the group takes a smoke/drink break means you'd sitting at FM most of the break).
Yeah instead of smoking Tabacco they are smoking weed... Being disabled it's either smoke Tabacco to elevate issues with medication and mental illness or wind up back in a psych ward. Don't be to harsh to criticize when you are not in my shoes. Anyhow that is a bit off topic but if I am going to Afk while in a group it won't take longer than 5-7 minutes and if I am longer than that I'll leave the group and have the decency not to leach...
Agree. Always have 20% mana is way worse than always having 70% mana. At the higher mana levels you have emergency burn mana. Plus you sure as hell don't want your evaccer at 20% mana.
Thank you I can get wanting that on the edge of disaster tension, do it all the time soloing on the Enc. It is fun for a while but I can stop it anytime I wish and proceed at more relaxed pace until I am in the mood for something else. Constraining a group of people to this with a perception it is somehow faster while admirable if you appreciate it as manipulation, it fails to math. That is why I wanted to hear his logic and even he admits it's more smoke and mirrors to control the group than anything else. Yeah I could not get along with this in game but that does not mean I do not respect his control of the lesser willed.
If I were a caster DPS in his group I'd sit my down after the break, NOT go AFK, and med. Or I would pretend to be AFK, wait for him to train the group, disband, and evac myself (or gate).
Heheh understandable and hilarious all in one, H/T. People may say how naughty that would be but I find it very appropriate and I am sure the guy has gotten exactly that response from time to time. Or soon will...
Why so? You're literally saying things like "You don't want your evacer at 20% mana" when I've said most wizards/druids have instant evac these days that is an AA (aka it costs no mana). At least know the classes you're making assumptions about. If you're going to call flawed logic, then point out where anything I've said is untrue. I'm not even disagreeing that people shouldn't keep mana in reserve, I'm saying that your arbitrary "20%=bad" is silly since context about the gear/aa of the person matters too. An alt wizard with 5 AA in full netted kelp at 65 is going to have a lot less nuking ability at 20% vs. a bis time geared wizard with 500 AA at 20% mana. Especially in places like PoFire where deaths happen more from enchanter pets getting loose at bad times (aka when a puller brings in 2-3 mobs and pet breaks at same time). Extra mana in that situation is better used rooting/snaring and ccing things rather than trying to burn 3 mobs down quickly.
Some of us are adults with wives, kids, and other stuff that requires us to do more than stare at infinite mob pulls. If that means a 2 minute "bring the groceries in" or something of that nature then deal with it and stop being entitled stay at home sons.
How that is flawed has already been explained, 20% or 50% you will never kill faster than your regen rate allows so there is no advantage to continuously operating on low mana. Everything you say holds more true for around half mana than low. Given we are discussing TLPs in general one must assume a low level of gearing if any at all. As for your smoke break regen, are you running out mana to have a reason to take a smoke break?
1. I already said I agreed with the general idea. Why do you think I'm disagreeing with his general point when I've said multiple times already that I agree with it on paper. Just that I disagree with his random numbers of 20%, especially when applied to higher geared characters with more mana/focus/aa. That random statement of 'higher mana percentage is always better' only applies if your group is hyper efficient and never has downtime for non mana reasons (which is rare if in a non guild group). 2. As for why good gear applies on TLPs it's because oog dpsing is the common way of leveling/farming AA on phinny right now (eg. I oog dps for my bard alt in pofire quite a lot because it's just easier as a wiz main). Keep in mind there are more TLPs than just Agnarr right now. Go look in pofire and notice how many people use maxed out characters to group for their alts. For example, I'm a mostly bis geared time geared wizard with max focuses + ldon spec augment. I have more mana at 30% than most poorly geared caster dps alts at 50% mana. Plus my nukes hit harder and cost less to cast. In this situation me sitting at 30% is no different than what a less geared wiz could do at 50% mana. That's why context matters, not arbitrary "Oh he's at 20% mana, must be bad at managing his mana". Again I repeat, I agree that you are mana regen capped for dps and it's safer to keep a certain amount of reserve mana, but what that reserve mana should be at is totally dependent on the situation/gear/aa of the dps caster, not some random percentage. 3. As far as breaks go, I'm not running out of mana. That isn't really an issue in non-guild groups because the pulling is never efficient for long enough that I drop below say 40% mana. It's kind of hard to drop low mana with maxed ft, mana regen clicky, bard song, manarobe, mount unless pulling is super efficient for quite an extended period or the dps of the group really sucks. It's usually the enchanter or monk that wants to take a quick break because they've been pulling/focused on keeping pet under control for a good hour or so and want a quick drink/smoke break. Or another common reason I've seen in PoFire is that you get unlucky with a charm break where the ench or healer wasn't quick enough and got eaten, so you take 5-10 mins to reset things/get a new pet etc. etc. With maxed out mana regen gear/aa if I'm at 50-80% mana I'll usually be FM long before everyone is gtg for pulls again, meaning it makes more sense for me to sit at lower percentage to take advantage of the med time and not waste time sitting at FM. Unless you really think a PoFire group is wiping because the wizard didn't have enough mana for evac or root (both of which have manaless AAs fyi). I can't remember a single time where I've been in a group that has been in trouble because the dps caster couldn't do his job due to low mana. In most cases all that's needed for a recovery is a root or two to give time for the cc to catch up on mez/charm.
I know the classes very well. This discussion was about Agnarr (implied if not outright stated) where druids and wizards don't have AAs yet. At least know the server you're making assumptions about. Sure. 20% is just a discussion point. I thought that was obvious. Would you rather I said 18.47% or 22.14%? Yeah, no point in talking PoFire in this thread.
