Recently, I've seen a few defilers spec... oddly. So, I'm putting this out there in hopes that it helps those who are new to the class or not sure what to spec. Suggested Specs: DPS Stance only Heal Stance only Hybrid Just to address things some things I've been seeing: In the defiler tree, boosting Sacrificial Restoration (Sacrificial Prayers AA) is not necessary, what the base spell provides you with is more than enough. You don't even need to spec into the focus effect for Sacrificial Restoration. This is the same for the group heal boost in the shadows line (Ancient Bulwark). Also, snag Supplication of the Fallen if you don't have it. It's one point. In the heroic tree, Spirit Aegis is an important ability in any spec. Yes, it gets a lot of flack for its casting time, but just learn when to not cast (like when the group's spiking) and you're bound not to even notice. In the dragon tree: I see a lot of points be wasted in Nature Dragon Scales line. If you really want a death prevent, invest in gnomish pacemakers. There's some flexibility in the specs above of course, but if you have any questions about them feel free to ask. Some other random tips: Rotate Soul Shackle and Spirit Aegis, never have them up at the same time unless the healing is that difficult. Soul Ward can be an important save for defilers. Learn to love it. <3 Macro Phantasmal Barrier to Soul Ward if you're worried about dying. If you're a raider, please don't sacrifice group/raid buff items for personal DPS items. Wear your Magical Vulnerability ear, that anguish/noxious rending/arcane rending over your favorite early advantage weapon and maybe even practiced items if you're raid is into that! Etc. Even if you hate it, your raid doesn't.
Hi, I am currently taking my defiler through Zek Scourge stuff. She started out as just a crafter toon but now I am having fun playing her solo and want to eventually get her into groups. She will never raid....at least I don't think because my ranger is my main. I might make her my main alt. I would like to know more about what defilers can and should be able to do solo and in group situations. I followed an AA spec from a fellow guildie. If you want to check her AA spec out, her name is Darsys on Skyfire. I know she needs better gear, adorns, WRs, etc but would love to get some advice.
Soloing content is interesting because, with the help of Ward's Bane, you can pull a ton of mobs and actually kill them just by maintaining your wards. Slowly. As a defiler your DPS is never going to be as amazing as your ranger's, but weapon procs like Early Advantage and Devastation Strike can help a ton. In heroics, you can expect to stack wards in order to turn your tank (and group) into a brick wall and keep them in the green. Defilers are very strong in heroic content and with the stat inflation to potency, even more so. I would suggest moving 8 points from Aura of Purity (in the shaman tree) to Witchdoctor's Herbal Recipe. This reduces the base reuse speed of our group cure from 10 seconds to 5 seconds, which is very useful. Personally, I've found that dog cures are unreliable as to who and when he's going to cure. I would suggest putting 10 points into Ritual, but this is purely personal choice. I chose to macro Ritual to my group ward and basically forget about it. When you're ready to start grouping, make sure you snag Spirit Aegis. Spirit Aegis isn't useful for solo content, but it's going to help in heroic zones. A couple things in the shadows tree. You're going to want 5 points in Prophetic Spirit and 5 points into Prophetic Protection. Prophetic Protection does affect death cries. It adds a 10% damage reduction, which is very useful for our tank or ourselves when soloing. The two points in Prayer of Healing are better spent in Enhance: Spirit Companion (in heroic tree). In the dragon tree. Nature Dragon Scales line is great for solo content. However, for heroic content, in good groups you'll find some of the AA is wasted. Move these points elsewhere if you're comfortable doing so. Otherwise, your AA spec is not bad. Go with what works for you and have fun with it. Just a note as far as recovery speed goes, I would only bother with a max of 68%. If you're grouped with a bard they will give you your last 32% (hopefully they are specced for that!), but 68% is usually good enough even if they aren't. Recovery speed isn't a make or break thing for defilers, but I thought I'd mention it.
My character: http://u.eq2wire.com/soe/character_detail/876173725653 Having a quick scan over your character sheet, I have the following points to make: 1. Forget speccing for Doublecast. It's pointless. Practically all our damage spells are DoTs and there is no point doublecasting a DoT - it just overwrites itself and you still only end up with a single DoT on the mob. Far better to spec for Flurry and rely on Ranged WDB for your DPS, topping it up with spell damage. Just equip a decent wand, stand back, turn on autoattack and ward, heal, debuff and cast some dmg spells. 2. Shaman tree. You need Tribal Rage and Spiritual Leadership rather than useless dog cures. Herbal Expertise is rubbish too - it only works on single cures, which only cast in a second anyway. Block Harm? No. 3. Defiler Tree. Cannibalize is compulsory. The times you and your group will need to rely on mana regeneration are numerous in EQ2. 4. Shadows Tree. No worries. 5. Heroic Tree. Spiritfire is ok for solo DPS build, but no use at any other time. Enhance Ancestral Channeling is much more useful in group/raid situations. An extra 10% potency is more useful than the extra Wis from Attribute Prowess. Good choice of endlines. Spirit Aegis is not good. Too slow to cast ... too long recast time on it. 6. Dragon Tree. Wild Smiting line is ok if you are going for DPS. I have it on my solo setup but found better stuff to put the points into in a group/raid setup. I prefer to spend points in Reprieve rather than Dauntless Drive in order to spend the 30 points for Dauntless. Dauntless is a group winning spell. Don't waste money on tinkered totems 7. Prestige. I like the hybrid spec, but I don't rate Phantasmal Barrier. I spent the 3 points in Wraithwall instead. 8. Prestige (Defiler). Sound.
You can click my sig below and see my AA spec. I use the "base" spec for 95% of fights. My build is put together for raid content. Couple things: 1. Doublecast is actually really good for dots now. All the DOT ticks double cast if the original hit was a doublecast. I would focus on getting your SDA as high as you can. 2. Spirit Aegis is quite good as a filler for the time that Soul shackle is not up (on hard ticking fights - forge golem; polliwog). Just be smart when to cast it. If you know Soul Shackle is going to drop, start casting SA and then cancel SS to start the refresh right away. 3. Phantasmal barrier is surprisingly useful. You can cast it while casting other things so if anyone in the raid spikes a little you can pop it and it will put up two very sizeable wards. 4. Wards' Bane is the bees knees. Use it and your group will see a sizeable boost in damage by you just doing your job. 5. I prefer taking spirit wrath over the dual conversion. I already spike to 9k+potency in raids and see gwards as high as 45m. The damage from spirit wrath is pretty fantastic. Anyways, those are some of my thoughts. Feel free to send me a pm if you have specific questions.
Doublecast is what's on the class cloak, so learn to make your peace with it. Fortunately with the new type gear it's becoming increasingly viable to "double spec" Flurry and Doublecast (which doesn't say good things about itemization, honestly). I'm going to crib from this thread for ideas to check my build against, by the way: http://u.eq2wire.com/soe/aas/880469126844 Apheol's a raid-tested defiler, but if you aren't looking to do better, you aren't really trying... Protip: Strongly consider macroing Soul Ward / Ancestral Healing. Trust me on this, if you have to use Soul Ward, you want that followup. It may not come up often, but when it does...
Hey. Thanks for the advice's. Should've mention in the first place that i don't raid. So limit would be to gear that comes from heroics. @ Heccie Thump 10 potency on 6000 would mean very very little. i went with cb instead in heroics as i found out recently cb adds a lot more to wards atm rather then potency unless its in a huge visible chunks. While Ancestral Channeling is more or less Compleat heal for group with the way mobs hit right now it does not help much because if say one dps get into too much frontal ae on trash and depleats the ward they be digging in dirt in under as sec no heal will save them. @ Monstuhr Yes with that much potency i'd probably do the same focus on the right side of the prestige. Might wanna make sure you got enough ab mod to cap the wards at least @ Anaogi Soul Ward says on it that it sacrifices 90% of your health and converts it into a ward of that amount on target so... to me that's pretty much useless 90% out of 3 mil hp would be 2.7 mil ward. Thanks again for the advice's.
My defiler has "only" 2.3 millions HP, and Soulward gives a 150 millions, to 200 millions ward. Maybe useless because it's difficult to be hit with such an amount of damage within 6 seconds, but definitely an awesome "oh-****" button !
OK, went with a modified version of Calvinna's Heal-only in the x2 last night. Frankly I hadn't paid any real attention to Spirit Aegis in some tome, partly thanks to cast time, and partly I guess because I was doing well without; I'm giving it a whirl for a while anyway. As to Prestige, I'm not a fan of "double conversion", likely because the right-side build gives me tools I find quite useful. As to Soul Ward: If you're a heroic defiler (non-raiding, that is) you're not likely to need it often or at all. However, like Torquem said, it's a great "oh ****" button to have for those massive spikes, and yes, Potency and CB turn that thing into a monster.
Well allrighty then lol i admit i didnt test it since i just got 100 if not lower but yes ... i'll blame it on their wording.
Wow, so much information! I will have to look over everything carefully then ask more questions. One that does come to mind is should I have a solo AA spec and a group AA spec? I use the new Inquisitor merc and he and I do well together as far as keeping me alive in ToT adv solo instances. I never used macros before but learned to with my ranger. Really helps me with not having to point and click all over the place.....just smash some buttons! I did add white and purple adorns and WRs. I used to be a very casual player meaning not knowing crap about my toon but doing quests and grouping with my best friend on weekends. Now that I am in a good guild and want to learn about the game more and my toons more, there is so much to learn about what each ability/CA can do and when to use what. Once I have absorbed all this info and reworked my AAs, I will come back for more questions.
Well I played around with my AAs....took suggestions from all of you. Now I need to figure out macros.
Do you have healing "routines" that you do for dps spec vs say your healing spec? I really have zero clue on how to Defile so I do this for dps spec in mage group(raid): Carrion Warding, SS, Bane of warding, blow a bunch of damage spells, pop in Maelstrom(if needed) then back into Carrion Warding. I haven't healed a progression raid it's just been our fluff runs in Stygian but I'm sure there's lots more to it. Any specifics would be great as far as a "casting order" thanks!
Make a macro that casts Soul Ward and then whatever, Phantasmal Barrier was one suggestion, I prefer Ancestral Channeling. The one button will cast Soul Ward then whatever your second selection was. The reasoning is simple--Soul Ward casts a huge ward at the price of most of your HP; the second spell is intended to deal with that moment of vulnerability with either a large ward of your own or a large, rapid HoT. (I lean towards the second, for the simple reason that it's group wide, and thus an added help to the tank just in case.)
I tend towards the ward-happy order. I always try to lead off with the group ward, which mechanically is basically one big ward for the tank if everyone else can keep from getting hit! Then the solo ward, then Deathward/Death Cries and Wraith Wall. Names get Bane of Warding and Soul Shackle. When the wards are all good I debuff and blast away, but that's secondary priority in groups and raids usually.
Yea I tend to do this as well when I'm tank healing but my understanding is that my Ancient Shroud and Deathward will over write the MT Defiler's or Mystic's wards so I don't use them while in the DPS group.
