For quests, if you've got a clicky to use on mobs, it will also turn on your auto-attack, if the action is non-hostile. When I've used the forced ranged setting in the past I also had a significantly higher incident of my auto-attack staying on after the battle is over, causing it to go off as soon as a new mob is targetted. Unless you're using combat arts AND spells, there really isn't any reason for a mage or priest to use force ranged anyway, any damaging spells (but not debuffs) will automatically start your spell ranged auto-attack.
Oh that, not really much to worry about. From what I know about it Benefits Longer Range than melee (depends on wand, but about 30m, melee is 10m) Don't have to match your spell casting timing with your weapon as it hits while casting Demerits Has a lower damage multiplier than melee has longer delays than melee so not so good for VC (generally lower delay weapons increase damage as they hit more often) It hits when using clicky items for quests Overall When you equate that with the times you would joust out for unda and when you have to be outside of melee range due to mob aoes, badly timed spell casts, etc the benefits are pretty good. I have generally found that I do more dps with it than with melee, others say otherwise, so it is up to you to find out for yourself.
I was just basically curious how that thing work as I did not even had "attack" icon on my bar. Yet another odd question - let say I force in character option "ranged" but not enforce autoattack - will this mean that when I hit "attack" I will automatically go into the ranged attack?
You will start automatically with forced melee as well. As soon as you use an ability with the mob targeted you will start attacking. You do not need the melee attack button on your bar unless you are playing a scout and are swapping between ranged and melee. You would have to use the /autoattack command to the nothing setting I think it was, couldn't tell you what the number is off the top of my head, but you can make it so that you do not auto attack at all. Think it was 0.
I've never noticed that problem with forced ranged on my warden. When I use the clicky quest baubles it does not put me into combat, but even if it did, most of those non-attack baubles are ranged, so I still wouldn't actually attack the mobs. With spell-ranged auto, you do attack the mobs, and some of those quest baubles only work on targets that aren't in combat.
After switching out the stifle rune I have noticed quite a few encounters that I get stifled on for long periods of time that I never did before. These stifles are incurable so healers cannot do a thing to mitigate them. However, since I know which ones do it I can just swap out the rune before the fight. Most notable ones are the RC Event 1st named and second named. Also the Fabled Achedichsm (or however you spell that) last named can be a little annoying in the heroics. Raids there are a couple of fights so still trying to narrow them down, but having screams of battle for other fights has increased the DPS a little bit. Thanks for the advice. For those that are interested, have a look at the gear improvements of my current spec. You will also notice I have created an EV spec with a little different changes from what was suggest for AA as well. http://u.eq2wire.com/soe/character_detail/450972114911 The current gear spec is "Caster", Current AA Spec is "New_Trial_Spec" If my reuse is down to 85% it means I haven't got my temp adorn applied, which boosts casting to 200, reuse to 100 and recovery to about 70%. I am literally 12 shinies away from the Finisher. All of the non-meta collections have like 1 shiney left. So between here and the next expac will have fun trying to hunt them down.
So, is any consensus so far how to build casting oriented AA for coercer? I am just curious because I am about start again play my coercer (level 70/290AA). Another probably silly question - correct me if I wrong - I can play with AA in anyway I want by creating new profile and saving it? Or I am limited with choices?
It has a duration of 1 minute, and a recast of 2 mins. I know there is a potion which lasts for 10-30 seconds but also has a longer cool down. For the moment I will stick with swapping out the war rune as it seems to consume less items. However, it is a good suggestion for those fights where you know it won't affect you for very long.
You could use my "EV" aa spec if you want. It pretty much has most of the suggestions from here on how to spec a coercer for caster. Both Caster and Melee spec are heavily dependent on gear as well. When people used to say to me that they changed their AA spec to mine back in ToV they said they couldn't get the same throughput as I did. I looked at their gear and found they were geared for the complete opposite spec of what the AA is tuned for. Casting order also matters. We will see how things change next expac as procs get moved to weapoms. With AA profiles you can save 3 on the server which you can change at will and apply. For others you can save to file and load it, however, you will have to overwrite one of the 3 profiles that you can change.
Alarra - I finally got a chance to look close on your EV spec and I have several questions 1. Any particular reason to go with melee (str) line over casting (agi) line? And why no point in Daydream - this one I think scales with levels and fairly fast casting DOT 2. In coercer tree - any particular reason to boost mana regeneration abilities (I have read that mana regeneration is not an issue in the end-game) and why ignore ego shock damage boost? Same with simple minds? Any particular reason add noxious and elemental component to out resist defuff?
1] You will still do melee/spell damage with melee skills, while using spell weapon, it is passive damage and isn't affected by casting. A lot of the stats given in the agi tree are capped or covered easily with gear. Also the first ability in the STR line has an interrupt which casts very fast and has a fast recast, it is good when combined with hemmeroage in tandem for a fast casting interrupt rotation. We have a lot of dot's and from my perspective it was better to use the AA for passive abilities as they continuously inflict damage while a dot requires casting to maintain. Perpetualiy was good when it was Kingdom of Sky, but now it really doesn't have much affect unless you think it will increase your doublecast a lot with its 45% or so casting speed. 2] Mana flow casts instantly since ToV, when hastening its duration the flow happens within a couple of seconds rather than 5-10. The Channel AA increases the restoration amount that it give when you cast it, reuse is capped at 100% no matter what the AA says if you are at 100% reuse the reuse speed AA's have no affect on actual spell reuse, it is mainly aimed at restoration bonus. Mana Cloak and Mana Soul are aimed at constant drain fights where flow will not help very much. I find Channel useful for healers that just revived or tanks that got a full drain and Flow is down. It can usually take them up to full power as long as the rest of the group has power with the power boost into the AA. Mana Regen becomes an issue when you have 0 mana. As for ego shock, I just ran out of points to spend while I had better to spend in others. (from my perspective) As for the nox and elemental, you are a support class aimed at helping other classes dps, nox and elemental helps other classes dps more increasing overall group dps. Coercers can dps very well in the right circumstances, however they are utility and should take supporting other classes into the equation when doing AA.
Alarra thank you for detailed and elaborative explanation! I been out of game with my coercer from about release EoF and now almost ready to get him in play again ... I still going to give chance for double cast because I have seen it effect on DoTs with my warlock but I did certainly started more appreciate ranged attack damage (even with warlock) thank you to your posts (at least with warlock initial hit with multi attack give similar damage as decent nuke)
