EQ1 sham to EQ2 mystic - need AA build advice cause my group's dieing!!

Discussion in 'Mystic' started by ARCHIVED-Wowzers, Aug 26, 2010.

  1. ARCHIVED-Wowzers Guest

    OK, haha. So I just came to EQ2 not long ago from 5 years on a Sham from EQ1. I made a Mystic expecting the game play to be "similar". Well, holy jeebus this healing crap is hard :) First of all, I soloed my toon up to lvl 90 with a melee Mystic build, and had no problems. The mobs were dieing faster than I could pull em, never worried about health, and thought the game to be a joke.
    Well, I have just started doing my first mark missions and my group mates are dropping like flies (I think it's bad... about 5-7 individual group members death in a run) I am casting like crazy, seriously never stopping casting (and frankly it's not that fun to have to stress like that, lol), throwing everything I can at them but they keep dropping.
    So, now I need to focus on making a healer build. Done some research on the forums, but all the advice I see is for more aa than I have. I am sitting on 136 aa, but I don't know where to begin to make a group healer aa set. I will continue to do research, but if anyone has a good spec you recommed, I would gladly appreciate it.
    I have all my experts, 120% crit chance, 20% crit bonus, 20% potency, 40% casting speed and 15% reuse speed. 13.2k health and 11.5k power.
    Thanks in advance.
  2. ARCHIVED-Banditman Guest

    136 AA is pretty crippled. You could sell out for healing, doing something like this.
    Your biggest problem is you got to level cap without the AA to really be effective.
  3. ARCHIVED-quakeroatmeal4 Guest

    get more aa. level 90 does not make you ready for T9 heroic content w/o the aa to go with it. Plus, IDK how you thought the game was so easy w/o experiencing hardly any of it.
  4. ARCHIVED-Sylvellior Guest

    Mystic AA's don't help that much with healing, it's mostly utility.

    Wowzers wrote:
    Should all be plenty for heroic instances. Make sure you also have at least 1000 ability mod.
    Besides that, it's more likely inefficient healing than bad gear/AA, or bad play from your groupmembers that is causing the deaths.
    Make sure to keep your single ward and groupward up on the tank, and use Ritual Healing when he spikis. If anyone in your group is getting damage, just use your groupheal. Cure when needed of course. As long as the tank is holding agro that should be enough to keep everyone alive.
  5. ARCHIVED-TheSpin Guest

    Lemilla@Permafrost wrote:
    I disagree. Without the AA you are kinda crippled. At the minimum I'd say you need the healing stance in the end of TSO.
    Honestly If I were you I'd hold off on level 90 groups until I had like 200 AA.
  6. ARCHIVED-Wowzers Guest

    Gahnand@Unrest wrote:
    First, it starts with the 5+ years at EQ1. We all know there are die hard EQ1 fans that wouldn't touch EQ2 with a ten foot poll. A lot of that stems from the belief that EQ2 is too WoWie, and we all know how easy WoW is. Second, the reason I thought it was soo easy, without experiencing hardly any of it (as you so boldly put it), is because I am new. I don't exactly know "how much" I have yet to experience. Hence, the belief that it was a joke.
    And thank you all for your advice. I will work on AA's, though I am still not sure the best way to go about getting them quickly. I will read some posts and make sure that I am using the correct spells. I need to figure out a good routine I guess (i.e. what order to cast spells in, when to debuff/what to debuff, when to bring out the emergency spells, yadda yadda).
    Any links to useful write ups on spells to use and not to use would be great. My 4, yes 4, hotbars are all full and I am sure I don't need half the spells I have on there. Just seems like too much to "need" just for a casual group run.
  7. ARCHIVED-Banditman Guest

    For most heroic encounters you generally don't want to debuff at all. It just doesn't make enough difference. There are a few named encounters where debuffs can help, but they are few and far between.
    AA is generally farmed best by completing quests. With 136 AA I can say with pretty good confidence that you haven't completed all of the L70+ quests. You should complete all the quests in: Kylong Plains, Fens of Nathsar, Kunzar Jungle, Jarsath Wastes, Moors of Ykesha, Sundered Frontier and Stonebrundt Highlands.
    Keep in mind that all heroic instances are most definitely NOT created equally. There is a super immense difference between trying to heal in Conservatory or Library (easy) versus Vigilant Rescue or Royal Palace of Erudin (difficult). Know what you're getting into.
  8. ARCHIVED-Wowzers Guest

    Banditman wrote:
    Yea, I kinda noticed theres no need to debuff mobs most of the time, but even most named? That's sad. One of the biggest reasons I liked playing my sham on EQ1 was the ability to weaken mobs so tanks could handle them. Otherwise, it made it really, really difficult for them to stay alive. Debuffing was a necessity. and it made us debuffing classes "needed" in groups :p
    You are correct. I haven't completed all of the 70+ quests. I am also going back and hunting named for AA. That has been going great over the last few days.. about 7-9 AA in a couple days of casual play.
    Library and conservatory, check. I have only done 2: Spirit's Resonance (5 group members died, not wipes, just individuals) and Research Halls (about 7 deaths I think). I will hold off on the harder ones until I rack up some more AA, and I'll give the 2 easy ones a shot and see how it goes.
    Thanks Bandit. Really good stuff to know :)
  9. ARCHIVED-Urgol Guest

    You can just as well reroll to a defiler. Their main debuff (tendrils of something) is a passive proc placed on tank that debuffs mobs that hit him. It's the single best dpsmod+haste debuff in game iirc, and it surely does make a difference. You should also know that in some of the zones (ex halls) there are scripted events like running the fk from the named when he casts an aoe that arent up to you to prevent. If someone catches a curse on halls, let them die. Not that you can save them with your gear and AA anyway.
  10. ARCHIVED-ArcaneMundi Guest

    I take a more analytical approach. Download Advanced Combat Tracker and use it for every instance fight you are in. You can also use Fraps to record fights. Both are free. Later on you can inspect what actually happened during the fight, and why people died in your group. For example, if the toon that died got hit by a mob's melee attack while you were staring at the recast timers on your hot bars, then the mob may have got away from the tank without you noticing, and that's not your fault. Sometimes inexperienced players spread out too much in instance groups and stand out of range for your group heals and cures. By using Fraps and ACT you can determine if that was the case, and next time say something about it.
    After you understand what really happened you can make changes to your game play, or strat, for a particular mob, or zone. Grouping with the same people every night helps a lot, so try to get into a guild that is active and has solid players you can group with.
    Casting speed is important, so make sure you have a coercer or illy buffing you with casting speed buffs. Gear is also important for you, and your group mates. Until you, and your group mates, have a lot of proc wards, potency, crit bonus, casting/reuse haste, and ability mod, SF instances will be a challenge.
  11. ARCHIVED-Thunndar316 Guest

    Sadly the Shaman class is nothing like the one we played in EQ1.

    Just another healer in this one
  12. ARCHIVED-Banditman Guest

    I actually find it refreshing. I had a Shaman in EQLive, I have a Mystic here. They are completely different. I'm happy about that. I wasn't one of the people who wanted "EQ1 with better graphics". I wanted a new experience, and I am pleased that it was provided.
  13. ARCHIVED-Nuldain Guest

    Yah the bridge from Shaman in EQLive to Mystic in EQ2 can be a big deal, one issue I am having and I am still in the 30's right now, is while doing heritage quests I can have a group of 5 usually a Bruiser(Tank Spec) Monk (OT and DPS) Swashy(DPS) and Myself as MH and having trouble taking out 3 star heroics, my healing just does not compete with the damage output of the mob and even if I keep wards up I just can't handle it, any suggestions, I have followed your build for AA so far and still no help.
  14. ARCHIVED-Banditman Guest

    How many AA? At Level 30, you should be somewhere around 60 AA, and since you have a group, you should probably have a mirror containing a DPS and a Healing spec in it.
    Do the tanks know what they are doing or are they new to the game as well? How are their AA's? How is their gear?
    The thing to remember about tanks is that they are incredibly gear dependant, and worse, you've got two "avoidance" tanks there. They are gonna get rocked at that level.
    The Monk "should" be avoiding for the Bruiser, and probably both in Defensive stances to further increase the amount of avoidance you can squeeze from them.

    It's very hard to tell from the information given exactly what's going on. Is the tank just taking huge damage spikes or is he getting slowly whittled down? I admit that with the information shared so far, I have more questions than answers.
  15. ARCHIVED-Nuldain Guest

    Well we are all returning players from back when the game came out, Gear is decent all crafted by our level 30 armorer friend imbued and what not, But mostly its large spikes that I can't out heal when they do get hit, they are both using a defensive stance, names are Daijin and Zorona if you wanna check there gear any help would be appreciated! and no where near 60 aa's yet so I guess I will be turning that to 100 for a while lol
  16. ARCHIVED-Banditman Guest

    Sounds like you are simply running into a mitigation problem. Here's a dirty little secret that isn't well publicized: Avoidance tanking has never really worked. It's probably very apparent to you.
    Looking at the gear on the Monk, it's really rather weak. Only one Mastercrafted item, nothing Legendary, nothing Fabled. Two EMPTY slots!! None of his gear has Strength on it, which is where a Fighter gets all his damage from.
    For the level you are, I would *highly* recommend that if this is to be a long term committment on the part of your entire group, you should probably have the Bruiser roll a plate tank: Guardian, Berserker, Shadow Knight, Paladin. You'll get a MUCH better experience with one of the plate class tanks throughout your stay in EQ2.
    Yes, at the very end of the game, Brawlers (Bruisers and Monks) are in better shape, largely because at that point they have access to AA's, traits and gear which effectively increases their mitigation to the point that they can actually take a hit pretty well. However, the journey there can be painful for them as a group tank. They do fine at solo content.
    If it was me, I'd honestly drop both of the Brawlers in favor of a Plate tank and some form of utility. Any of the four utility classes (Coercer, Illusionist, Troubador, Dirge) will make your journey FAR more pleasant than the Monk.
    In terms of the plate tanks, if expense is an issue, roll a Guardian or Paladin. There is a glut of Shadow Knights and Berserkers right now, and that glut makes things that are specific to those classes more expensive than the equivalent items for Guardians or Paladins.
    I would even go so far as to say all of you might want to re-roll, even if you re-roll some of the same classes. You've missed out on a lot of AA in the new beginner zones. You've missed a lot of gear. In short, the experience you've missed is probably too valuable to ignore.
    I would suggest this:
    Have the Bruiser roll as a Guardian or Paladin. Judging by the gear, I'd say cost is an issue for you. Have the Monk roll as a Coercer. Roll in Timorous Deep or New Halas. They can be level 10 in about an hour. You mentor one of them, have the Swash mentor the other.
    Level to 14 and then put ALL of your sliders at 100%. Finish every quest in the zone you possibly can. Go to the other "new" starter zone, Timorous or New Halas, whichever you did NOT roll in. Do all the quests in THAT zone from 10 until you can't do any more. Go to Darklight Woods. Same thing. All quests you possibly can. Once you have that, level to 17 or 18. Back to 100% AA. Finish out all of the quests in all three of those zones that you were unable to complete.
    That should put the new folks around 30 AA.
    From there, you just start doing stuff. Keep the higher level characters at 100% until the new characters catch up. For the new characters, generally, the rule of thumb is gain 3 AA for every adventure level. Use the slider to adjust accordingly (try around 90%). Continue to mentor the "new" characters until they catch up.
    When the new characters DO finally catch up, you'll have a MUCH more effective group.
    Honestly, it won't take all that long. My current alt is a Wizard, who is now level 72, with 175 AA. He has about 240 hours played on him.
  17. ARCHIVED-Nuldain Guest

    Yah the brawler is my wife and I will talk to her and see what we can do. Thanks for all the advice I know I won't change the monks mind he plays a certain way and always has. But I might be able to talk her into it if I do it with her. Should have read your guide before I started playing versus being where I am at now.

    Keep up the awesome work helping out bandit
  18. ARCHIVED-Wilin Guest

    As was mentioned, one of the problems is the monk that isn't geared up. If everyone has MC or legendary gear appropriate for their level, and adepts, and all of their inventory slots are filled, then you shouldn't have a problem with your group against heroics. Another difference between the games is that monks aren't as good at tanking as they were in EQ1. I don't think you need to switch to a plate tank per se, but the tank's gear is key.
    Now, brawlers do have a harder time finding groups. It's not because they can't tank heroic content. They just aren't as good at it typically so the stigma works against them. I also would not recommend rerolling as a guardian for this reason. If you want the easiest, most widely accepted tank class, you're looking at SK/Zerker/Pally.
    But, if you're going to be running with friends all the time, a brawler MT is sufficient. It becomes extremely important that everyone keeps that minimum gear though. And the better the monk's gear is, the better off you'll be.
  19. ARCHIVED-Raca Guest

    You're getting terrible advice. With mastercrafted or better I solo heroics within 2 or 3 levels of me including named. Brawlers are just fine as tanks. And from what I hear they're even better at tanking than they used to be back 3 yrs ago when I was soloing heroics.
  20. ARCHIVED-Tigress Guest

    Banditman wrote:
    136 AAs sounds PL'd to me. thats abt what my guildmate ends up with everytime he decides to PL a new character. (yes, he does it often and can get there in a few days. i keep looking at him with envy, lol.) though, the statement of "i solo'd..." does make me question my initial thought of thats a PL'd mystic.
    anyway, as a shaman, you may have noticed your super duper ridiculously long casting times for your wards/heals. you need to get to the heroic tab to reduce your casting speed. you need to get some adornments that are casting speed reduction. (i have heard that when you get up in the x4 raids, you wont need to do either as much bc its on the gear but you arent there atm. not speaking from experience, just from what i heard.) the heroic tab you cannot open until you have 200 AAs. the adornments; however, you can get immediately. crafters can make some for you. there may even be yellow ones with casting speed reduction for sale somewhere in DOV.