This is a post i made in response to a different thread - I've decided to move it to it's own thread and will be continually updating it w/ new information if any other illusionists care to supply it. This is definately something that i would have liked to have had as i was an up and coming Illusionist and I hope this info helps others as they are on their way to 50. SoE has given players the opportunity to "rechoose" all of their character's choices by way of the /respec command. The final /respec issuing was on 02/18/05 and as far as info we have will not be reset again. /respec can only be used one time, and after you use it the choices you make will be final. Green: Choice i went w/ for the final /respec (e.g. the choice that i feel is currently the best choice for the level 40 + illusionist) Red: Choice that i have personally tested and in light of the evidence i found - opted against if for my final /respec Yellow: The spell/spells which will be the next upgrade for the training choice's replacement (often times Training choices will be more powerful than even the next version of the spell, at least until the spell cons white or lower to the caster. Underlined: Choice that could be viewed as possibly the most powerful choice for the current level range but generally looses it's power or is replaced later on in the game (Several of the choices listed below were at one point colored red in this post....but over the last few months the reasons for which i had decided that certain training choices were not as beneficial as i had hoped have been fixed or updated by SoE -- in some cases making the previous "red" choice now a "green" choice. You will notice now that at some training levels i've colored 2 training choices green --- generally this is because one of the choices had originally been red, leaving me to choose the next best choice for the given level. Eventually the red choice was fixed to a point where now if i were to /respec again i would take the "previously red" skills as opposed to what i currently have.... In any case this info is here for each illusionist to on his own decide which training choices he/she would like to choose, it's not here for the illusionist community to make their decisions based off of the observations of my previous choices. So please take the freedom of the information provided here and enjoy the class) Enchanter (Level 10) Mespha's Brain Burst - An advanced form of Lightning Burst. As a bonus to Lightning Burst it deals mental damage instead of magic, a shorter casting time, and interrupts the opponent. This spell is excellent damage for its level. Probably the most immediately useful spell for this tier. Although it definately falls off in damage and usefulness quickly enough (Credit goes to Vurin for this info Casting Time: 1.0 seconds Recovery Time: 0.5 seconds Recast Time: 2.0 seconds Skill: Enchantments - Required: 50 - Mastery: 100 Inflicts 65-88 damage on target (max) Interrupts target Might be extremely handy in finishing HO's, seeing as its the only lighting bolt icon spell we can get with a 1s cast time.. Could be another worthy consideration for the lvl 10 training. (credit goes to stewieG for the above spell details marked by squares) Mind Jolt (Level 17), Phantasmal Charge (Level 29), Scorching Beam (Level 43.6) -- I hesitate to add Scorching Beam to this list of future upgrades as it has a much slower casting time, and long recast time. But it is our final Direct DD spell and it has the same spell icon as the two previous upgrades. Phantasmal Charge is a good candidate for Adept 3, for i still use it frequently if i need to complete a HO wheel and Scorching Beam is recycling - also SB will be of hardly any use with 3 or 4 archetype HO's as with only 10 seconds for 3 or 4 people to get off the HO icon needed, scorching beam is too slow. Esdia's Arcane Fetters - An advanced form of Arcane Bindings. As a bonus to Arcane Bindings it has a longer duration. Binding Light (Level 19), Lock Mind (Level 33), Terrifying Vision (Level 47) -- Binding Light is pretty much the only effective root Illusionist's ever recieve. Illusionist's only ever use root for Root and Rot strategy's while soloing. While grouping root is virtually pointless as mezz will do the same thing but 10 x's better. Binding Light has a cast time of 1 second, while all of the future upgrades have a cast time of 3 seconds. Because of this 1 second cast time Illusionist's are able to solo to some degree using a method of Root/Rot and Root Kiting. Due to the 3 second cast time of the upgrades those future spells are virtually rendered useless for soloing Unsar's Soothing Runes - An advanced form of Cure Arcane. As a bonus to Cure Arcane it targets the entire group instead of one group member. This i feel is the best choice for the 25+ Illusionist, as it will still be useable at the end game. According to some other posts i also believe i heard that it no longer dispells Cleric's Reactive Heals any longer adding even more strength to choosing it. (note: i have now personally confirmed this spell does not remove reactive heals from the cleric line) Unsar's Soothing Runes generates a tremendous amount of aggro (credit goes to Bobokii for this info). I myself have also now experienced this - the aggro amount is horrible and you should have complete confidence in your tanks abilities before attempting to use this spell. There is no upgrade to this spell line for Illusionists Basten's Runes of Surety - An advanced form of Magi's Shielding. As a bonus to Magi's Shielding it has a small chance to replenish power over time. First time through i took "Basten's Runes of Surety" - this upgrade's no good and it's added effect is not needed for our class "small chance to replenish power over time" every time we're attacked. This is the same effect as the Mage "rare" HO - and is useless. This info is out of date....a patch or 2 ago SOE took action and upgraded the effectiveness of the "magi's shielding" training choices for all mage classes. Currently i have no "up to date" info on the "new Basten's Runes of Surety". Though w/ the new changes SOE has implemented.....and considering that "Unsar's Soothing Runes" generates tremendous aggro currently....this very well may be the best current choice for an "eventual level 50 illusionist". The following data posted below marked by squares is not current game data. Concentration: 1 Casting Time: 3.0 seconds Recovery Time: 0.5 seconds Duration: 12 Hours Recast Time: 4.0 seconds Skill: Enchantments - Required: 50 - Mastery: 100 Casts Rune of Surety on target. When target is struck this spell has a 2% chance to: Increase power of the attacker by 12 Increase power of the Attacker by 10 every 3 seconds Increase Max Health of caster by 31 Increase Max Power of caster by 43 Increase AC of caster vs. all physicala damage by 11-40 (credit goes to stewieG for the spell details marked by boxes) There is no upgrade to this spell line for Illusionists Illusionist (Level 20) Tevalian's Lingering Fascination - An advanced form of Fascinate. It shares the same re-use timer and is of Adept II quality. As a bonus to Fascinate it has a longer duration. (updated description provided by Sugarplum69.) Wonderful upgrade that i used for awhile - This choice extend's the illusionist's capabilities of having 2 mezzes on seperate timer's for a few level's longer. Fascinate itself wore off in effectiveness fairly early into the "2 mezz" realm. This spell extend's that for awhile more though at some point it does loose effectiveness. Fascinate stops working on MoB's 28 and higher, TLF stops working on MoB's 36 and higher. So you'll earn 8 more levels of having two mezzes handy by choosing this training choice. Power: 43 Casting Time: 2.0 Recast Time: 8.0 Duration: 50.4 Required Skill: Hallucinations (100) Mastery: Subjugation (150) Effects: Stun target Prevent AOE Only affects targets level 35 and below Does not affect Epic targets (Credit goes to auk for all of the spell details marked by boxes) Entrance (Level 22), Capture Mind (Level 38.6), Convincing Regalia (Level 40) -- Fascinate and Tevalian's Lingering Fascination are on their own timer. Entrance and Capture Mind are on their own timer. Convincing Regalia is on it's own timer. Fascinate ceases to work on MoB's 28 and higher, TLF ceases to work on MoB's 36 and higher. Entrance ceases to work on MoB's 43 and higher. I have not found a cap yet for Capture Mind or Convincing Regalia - i doubt we will until a future expansion. Moeba's Signet of Perspicuity - An advanced form of Signet of Intuition. As a bonus to Signet of Intuition it increases Wisdom in addition. Given that Seal of Comprehension (lvl 37.6 buff) gives crappy stat buffs this spell does maintain mild usefulness even at 50 when stacked with seal. Still net gain over using normal signet is like 5 intelligence or something. (credit goes to Vurin for this information) Rune of Understanding (Level 26), Seal of Comprehension (Level 37.6) -- Sig of Intuition add's +int +mental resist and +agi...while the rest of illu's line will increase + wis instead of +agil. The final spell in the line (seal of comprehension) also adds a chance to replenish power every time successfully attacked by an opponent. Koldhagon's Bolt of Lethargy - An advanced form of Gloom. As a bonus to Gloom it reduces opponents movement speed. This upgrade is of the most value to a 40+ illusionist as the fascinate upgrade is useless at these levels. Because Gloom is an "Enchantment's" skill, and our upgrades; Nightmare, and Wither Hope are "Hallucination's" skill Gloom is on a different timer than our upgrades. So at 40+ i still use this upgrade for it's extra Arcane resist Debuff's. This stacked w/ eventually Wither Hope yields an extreme amount of arcane resistances debuffed giving the illusionist and other's nuke's their maximum damage potential. On top of that....i have not thoroughly tested the "snare" side of this spell.....but if it's at least on par w/ the Binding Light snare effect than this will be of great use to the "solo'ing" illusionist 40+ as Binding light caps out on level 38+ MoB's Power: 61 Casting Time: 2.0 seconds Recovery: 0.5 seconds Duration: 24 seconds Recast Time: 10.0 seconds Skill: Hallucinations - Required: 100 - Mastery: 150 Increases speed of target at all times by 32% (typo i believe, but what the info says) Decreases AC of target vs. Divine, Magic, and Mental damage by 302-508 Inflict 48-59 damage on target Decreases health of target by 38-46 every 4.8 seconds (Credit goes to stewieG for the spell details marked by boxes) Nightmare (Level 30.6), Wither Hope (Level 42) -- Bolt of Lethargy is on a seperate timer than the rest of the illusionist upgrades for this spell line. Ghunret's Quelling Bolt - An advanced form of Overwhelming Silence. As a bonus to Overwhelming Silence it has a longer duration. This training choice stacks with the eventual upgrade "Speechless". So it may prove to be useful for some levels. Effects Level 35 MoB's and Below (provided by TurboT) Power: 69 Cast Time: 3.0 sec Recovery Time: 0.5 sec Duration: 14.4 sec Recast Time: 20 Sec Skill: Required (Hallucinations): 100 - Mastery (Disruption): 150 Stifle Target Decrease power of target by 29-35 Decrease power of target by 23-28 every 3.6 sec (Credit goes to ToePeg for the spell details) Speechless (Level 28.6), Mind Drain (Level 44.6) -- I do not think there is any way that Ghunret's Quelling Bolt could ever be more powerful than Speechless. Yet Speechless is 8.6 levels away from this spell, and it will stack with speechless. So there is definately some use for this choice.....albeit eventually limited use. Illusionist (Level 30) Fozzin's Propitious Visions - An advanced form of Breeze. As a bonus to Breeze it has a longer duration. With the new buff timer's in place this upgrade still has a 1.5 x duration of breeze. Breeze is now at 15 minutes, so this upgrade is at 22 minutes 30 seconds. This is what i decided to go w/ for my level 30 choice. I chose this because breeze is from the "enchantment" skill line....meaning that it will be on a seperate timer than our upgrades later on. The new buff timer's limit the usefulness of this spell @ the 40+ game as each illusionist should have his/her best power regen buff up on every member in the group and should be able to maintain that buff w/ ease. FPV being on a seperate timer will, i feel, still be effective in a few situational's. Namely Raids - if you are the only illusionist in the Raid group you will be able to give every member in your raid some form of power regen much faster being able to cast "Insight" immediately followed by FPV, and than waiting for the recast timer on both before continuing. Also, it may have a use in an exp group if you find that you have a member who consistenly does not use very much power (i.e. underperforming) and by using FPV you'll only have to recast it every 22 minutes instead of every 15, though you'll probably not get too much use out of it in this sense - due to the fact that the extra +int/+wis of our upgrades is something that should be on each memeber as well. Scintillating Aura (Level 36), Insight (Level 47.6) -- Greater power regen, also add's +int, +wis, +arcane resist Kor-Sha's Adroit Seal - An advanced form of Alacrity. As a bonus to Alacrity it increases damage capability of an ally. while the 40% haste on this spell is inferior to Celerity (level 34 haste) and particularly Legerity (level 48.6 haste). Its 5% DPS buff does stack. So if you don't mind extra buffing you could in theory stack the 42/49% hastes of the single target lines with the 5% dps buff of Kor Sha's... is 5% dps worth the extra hassle... Certainly wasn't prior to patch, but you might think different post patch. (Credit goes to Vurin for this information) Power: 53 Casting Time: 2.0 Recast Time: 9.0 Duration: 15:00 Required: Hallucinations (150) Mastery: Ordination (200) Effects: Increase Damage Per Second of target by 5% Increase Attack Speed of target by 40% (Credit goes to auk for the spell details marked by boxes - Also when these details were taken, auk had 188 max casting skills....meaning this choice should still have some room for a little improvement.) Celerity (Level 34), Legerity (Level 48.6) Unsar's Endearing Splendor - An advanced form of Phantasmal Splendor. As a bonus to Phantasmal Splendor it has a chance at hate reduction on expiration of spell. Phantasmal Grandeur (Level 37) Esdia's Chromatic Deluge - An advanced form of Chromatic Storm. As a bonus to Chromatic Storm it deals over-time Mental damage during the stifle. If i had just hit level 30 today, this would be the choice for me. I feel like i am really stretching to try and come up w/ some situational uses for FPV now that the buff timer's have been increased.....For the level you get this at i think i would have had quite a bit more fun in RE playing my illusionist if i had chosen this upgrade.....RE is full of 5+ MoB encounters, and is an AE'er's haven. Running preliminary tests on thisi I found that it's bonus DoT effect does not appear to be working currently - knocking this upgrade's usefulness down a few notches. But even w/ out the extra DoT it did the same initial AE damage that my current AE of this line does at level 43 (83 - 100, + or -). If the DoT component is ever fixed w/ this spell, it could in fact become the end - all beat all choice for the level 30 illusionist choice if it did in fact do more than our level 48 (i think) upgrade. *Update (May 21, 05)* - Esdia's Chromatic Deluge has been fixed, and now that it is fixed it is better than any other Chromatic line AEs, including Adept 3 Psychotic Spectrum (at level 50). Psychotic Spectrum does more damage on the initial blast, but since Chromatic Deluge has a DoT (that always works now) attached to it that ticks about 2-3 times after the first blast, Chromatic Deluge will do more overall after the first tick of damage. (Updated Information provided by Somna) With the Latest update information provided, i feel that this is now the best level 30 training choice for illusionists. If another round of respec's were offered i would indeed choose this for my level 30 training choice. Until then i still have FPV. Cerebral Tempest (Level 33.6), Psychotic Spectrum (Level 50) Illusionist (Level 40) Mespha's Torturous Visions - An advanced form of Tormenting Visions. As a bonus to Tormenting Visions it decreases Agility. Only debuffs agility by 17 which is almost nothing. And damage wise its only 2 points stronger per tick at 50 w/ app 4. if you had adept 3 Lobotomize (level 46 DoT) it'd be stronger. The DPS reduction components are identical. (Credit goes to Vurin for this info) Lobotomize (Level 46) Basten's Construct of Light - An advanced form of Construct of Order. As a bonus to Construct of Order it summons a different construct. I finally settled on this upgrade for my level 40 training spell and am satisfied w/ it. This summons a pet that is of equal level to the caster and is 1 arrow down - as opposed to my adept 1 construct of logic which is 1 level below the caster and 2 arrows down. I have not done any DPS parsing w/ these pet's yet to give any kind of empirical data but from "eyeballing" it this pet seems to outdo my old pet which is nice. I also have not yet reached the level for our next construct upgrade - Assuming that the upgrade follows' suit and summons a pet that is 1 level below the caster and 2 arrows down (at adept level) than i think this upgrade choice should do more DPS than our eventual upgrade. When summoned the construct is a mass of glowing sparkly lights that all come together to form a somewhat humanoid shape. So it kind of looks like summoner's air pet's....but instead of swirling air it's sparkling light. Construct of Logic (Level 46.8) Moeba's Chroma Clash - An advanced form of Bewildering Cascade. As a bonus to Bewildering Cascade it has a chance to briefly stifle the enemy and its allies when the original stun expires. As reported the chance to stifle is currently not working. Power: 202 Casting Time: 1.0 Recast Time: 35.0 Duration: 3.0 Required: Hallucinations (200) Mastery: Subjugation (250) Effects: Casts Cascading Bewilderment on termination Stifle target encounter Does not affect Epic targets stun target encounter Only affects targets level 55 and below Does not affect Epic target (Credit goes to Pinski for the statistics marked by boxes) Stunning Array (Level 44) Tevalian's Seize Ego - An advanced form of Capture Mind. As a bonus to Capture Mind it has a longer duration. (8 seconds longer) This choice was "semi-broken" for some time but has been reportedly fixed and is working properly now. In light of this, i would dare-say this is most likely the "most useful" level 40 training choice. (thanks for the update Aedosen) The level 40 Mezz "Convincing Regalia" is the final Mezz Illusionists recieve - it is not an upgrade to Capture Mind. They are on Seperate timers and Convincing Regalia has a 21 second duration compared to Capture Mind's 42 second duration. In other words there is currently no upgrade for this spell for levels 50 and below. Summary There are a few choices throughout the illusionist's lifespan that will be very effective for the level the illusionist gets it....but will loose effectiveness at the end game (generally the underlined choices). It's up to each player to decide how many level's they will benefit from each of our choices....Luckily i was already 40+ by the time these /respec's came through and therefore got the best of both worlds in some respects as i chose the level 20 mezz upgrade the first time through which proved useful for the time i had it.....and now i have been able to re-choose and get the gloom upgrade, benefitting again from the level 20 choice. Currently it feels like our level 40 Training choices are kinda "fubar'd" (at least 2 of them - Edit: "only one level 40 training choice still remains listed as broken - making this choice much easier now) it proved to be the most difficult choice for me out of the bunch. Hopefully having all of this info consolidated will assist some up and coming illusionist's w/ their choices. Edit: Added future upgrades of the spell lines we have Training choices for. Also I spell checked :smileyvery-happy:, sort of. Edit: Added some very specific details to a few spells, most notably the info from stewieG. Edit: Added some very specific details to Ghunret's Quelling Bolt. Thanks ToePeg. Edit: Added some very specific details to Tevalian's Lingering Fascination, and Kor-Sha's Adroit Seal. Thanks auk. Edit: Added updated info to Tevalian's Lingering Fascination, and updated the "broken" status of Tevalian's seize ego. Thank you Sugarplum69 and Aedosen. Edit: Added updated info to Moeba's Chroma Clash, Ghunret's Quelling Bolt, and Esdia's Chormatic Deluge. Thank you Pinski, Turb0T and Somna. Message Edited by Dainger on 05-21-2005 05:18 PM
First, a question, Can anyone who picked the lvl 10 nuke, Mespha's Brain Burst, tell me what the cast time is, and if it stops working eventually on higher level mobs like our mezzes do?(target too powerful) 2nd, everyone who's picked a spell post the spell's stats here, so we can get as much info as possible. here's mine.. keep in mind all stats are with the spell maxxed(except fozzin's, i'm 39) --Basten's Runes of Surety-- Concentration- 1 Casting Time- 3.0s Recovery Time- 0.5s Duration- 12 hours Recast time- 4.0s Skill- Enchantments Required- 50 Mastery- 100 -Cast's Rune of Surety on target. When target is struck this spell has a 2% chance to: -Increase power of the attacker by 12 - Increase power of the attacker by 10 every 3 seconds -Increase Max Health of caster by 31 -Increase Max Power of caster by 43 -Increase AC of caster vs all physical damage by 11-40 --Koldhagon's Bolt of Lethargy-- Power-61 Casting time- 2.0s Recovery- 0.5s Duration- 24.0s Recast time- 10.0s Skill- Hallucinations Required- 100 Mastery- 150 -Increases speed of target at all times by 32% (typo i believe, but what the info says) -Decreases AC of target vs divine, magic, and mental damage by 302-508 -Inflict 48-59 damage on target -Decreases health of target by 38-46 every 4.8 seconds --Fozzin's Propitious Visions-- Power- 174 Casting time- 2.0s Recovery Time- 0.5s Duraton- 22:30 minutes Recast time- 16.0s Skill- Hallucinations Required- 150 Mastery- 200 -Increases power of target by 26 every 6 seconds
Does anyone 46+ with Construct of Logic wish to comment on that pet, relative to the Construct of Light pet describe above? For that matter, does anyone use these pets with success? I've not found a way to work them into my regular grind routine. They tend to stand around and tell me, "Sorry, I can't do that" when asked to attack.
If I had know I'd be quoted I'd have bothered to spell check my self =) Anyway Contruct of Logic @ adept 1 is caster's level -1 and 2 down arrows and a fairy CoLogic @app is caster's level -2 and 2 down arrows and is a glowing ball of light CoLight is caster's lvl and 1 down arrow and is a white verision of flame stalker's/flare assassins in LS/SE CoOrder @ master is is caster's lvl and 1 down arrow, but maxes out at lvl 48 and can't be cast on mobs above 51/52. Model is similiar to thing of shattered iron from RE. No matter what all verisions seems to have craptastic hp I've never had any problems with the pets not attacking. They give error messages but they still attack.
http://www.unf.edu/~lanj0017/training.jpg Click the link if you want to read some spell descriptions. Level 33 illusionist. Cure arcane, gloom, and chromatic storm, with there training upgrades.
Interesting, that screen shot says Gloom and the training version are based upon different skills, Enchantments vs. Hallucinations. Is this just a description error (like the statement it speeds up target movement, heh) or is in in fact different so that it loses the stacking benefit described in the OP?
Now that i've chosen the level 40 upgrade for the pet i've been playing around w/ him for the last little while and have been pleasantly surprised. Construct while Grouping If DPS is lacking (i.e. 4 man group) and fighting ^^ MoB's or fighting MoB's w/ larger amount of HP's (named) in full 6 man group, i will often use my pet as a means of supplementary DPS. When cast the pet immediately gains the benefit of all member's in the party's group buffs. Sometimes i haste the pet immediately after summoning him....though i would benefit from some true parsing of this (i think the pet mostly just spams some strange specials according to logs --- so haste benefitting him might not be worth the cast) In this group setting i will try to "aim" for the back of the MoB so that my pet doesn't get whacked by barrage and die in a few rounds. From the little parsing i've done my pet will average somewhere between 30 and 40 DPS during it's 1 minute 12 seconds of existence. Grouping Summary Illusionist's have horrible single target DPS. We all know this. The only time we get even somewhat respectable single target DPS figures is if the single target MoB will be living for somewhere between 40 to 120 seconds giving us a chance to have a "sustained" dps figure. These semi infrequent instances of the MoB living for a prolonged amount of time are the only times i feel the pet is really worth casting. In this kind of situation going full DPS (i.e. No Draining/Buffing/Stunning) using my pet (hasted), 3 stacked DoT's, and cycling 2 different Single target DD's trying for HO's My DPS will vary between 60 - 100. Myself: 30 - 60 DPS, My Pet: 30 - 40 DPS The pet's DPS is calculated only during it's time of existence So for the DPS to be completely accurate - the MoB must die while the pet is active, and the pet should have been active from the moment you engaged the enemy The Pet lasts for 1min 12 secs....if the mob's alive longer than this, the Pet's DPS will be accurate for it's duration but not for the duration of the encounter. AE DPS is another story for us. In an AE situation summoning the pet is a waste of AE cycling spells, and hopefully "Arcane Storm" the AE HO. I do not have up to date figures on my personal AE DPS....but generally depending on how many rounds of AE i'd get off my DPS would hover from around 70 - 120. (Note: i am not level 50 yet so i do not have what seemingly from their description are an illusionist's best AE DPS spells - namely Color Shower, our only AE DoT) No one who is an illusionist today chose the subclass assuming we would be able to do great DPS in every encounter. I chose the class for the fun and involvement of CC. Now that i am nearing the end game and have found that CC is not at all required for regular exping I have looked to the bright side's of our class and found other things to be drawn up into - namely Power Draining. Once again i'm beginning to find that power draining doesn't assist the group as much as i had once thought it did. IMO on Named MoB's it's still priceless, and it's also really helpful if grouped w/ a tank who is not a few levels above you (i.e. the content being engaged by the tank is a few levels too high for the tank to mitigate everything effectively). Level is king as other's have said, and with the right level for the tank power draining doesn't help as much anymore for reg encounter MoB's. I still love this class though w/ all of it's abilities that are useful on occasion rolled into one big package along w/ power regeneration. We are a utility machine at the moment and we function very well when situations that require our utility arise. These utility requiring situations just don't seem to arise very often. That is why i for one am glad that SoE stated they'll be reviewing the DPS of our class along w/ summoners. With a balanced DPS boost along w/ a few of our 40+ spells being tweaked a little more, I think this class will be in good shape. Construct while Soloing With Kiting being a thing of the past due to Binding Light ceasing to work on the MoB's i would prefer to solo, i decided to try out some new pet tactics for soloing. I have currently only attempted to solo using the following pet tanking tactic on MoB's of "solo" ranking 2 level's below my current level. Initiate combat by casting the pet on the MoB. If no aggro reduction abilities are available (see below) immediately cast the longest duration stun available (Drain Will) If you do not Stun the MoB will aggro you for roughly 3 or 4 melee rounds again this is if you do not use one of your aggro reduction abilities If you do Stun the MoB - most of the time when the stun wears off the Pet will have had enough time to gain aggro Again if you do not stun the MoB after the stated 3 or 4 rounds and with casting no other spell the pet will have successfully grabbed aggro from you. Using: Blink, Barrier of Intellect, or a Racial Trait (i.e. Confusing Babble for gnomes) you can avoid any damage and give the pet aggro of the MoB from virtually the beginning of the fight. These have very long recast timers (seems like 10 minute timers, maybe more) so they are not always a viable option. Once the pet has aggro give the pet roughly 10 seconds of play time to generate a little bit of an aggro hold on the MoB. I keep 3 DoT's on the MoB (Wither Hope, Tormenting Visions, and Bolt of Lethargy (gloom training choice)) after stacking the DoT's give pet a few more seconds, and than if you have time before the first DoT drops you can cycle a HO on the MoB and still not draw aggro. I have not yet succeeded in pulling aggro back from the pet. Though i have not been spamming DD's nor buffing the pet which i'm sure would affect things. I have been very surprised by my pets ability to hold aggro, so i tested using my Costruct of Order (adept 1). Using the exact same tactics CoO was able to hold aggro just as well as the training upgrade. The Training upgrade however has a few more HP's (due to it being only 1 arrow down instead of 2) also the training upgrade tanks slightly better due to it being 1 level higher than CoO. The training pet (CoL) would finish almost every fight w/ greater than 60% HP. CoO, if still alive be the MoB's death, would generally be below 20% HP. The MoB's i was doing this with were MoB's that i was able to solo w/ out using my pet if i wanted to. Though when not using this pet tactic my HP's were considerably lower as it's inevitable that w/ out Binding Light we are going to have to tank the mob's we solo from now on for at least a few rounds of melee each battle. Solo Summary First of all any kind of solo'ing for exp w/ out Binding Light is virtually a complete waste of time. Grouping will always be exponentially better exp for illusionists. The same holds true for most every other class in norrath, but even more so for Illusionist's post Binding Light era. That being said - if for some reason you are solo'ing (late night playing and no one else on -- or some quest requiring the death of blue/green mobs) this does provide a means to accomplishing that task w/ out loosing any HP's. As a general rule, anything that you yourself could not tank....neither could our pet. The recast time for our Pet is very long. 4-5 minutes i think? Meaning that if you're going to strictly solo using this pet tactic than exp will be even more slow moving as you must wait for the recast time of the pet. Most likely though you can have the pet tank one MoB, than you yourself tank the next 2 fights w/ out the pet. Rinse repeat. Hmmm.....well than, i'll have to apologize to everyone. It seems that no matter how hard i try all of my posts end up going on and on and on :smileysurprised:.
Great observation. I had not noticed this, and i assume that it holds true w/ the breeze upgrade (FPV) among others. The statement i made in regards to the "Enchantement's" skill vs. the "Hallucination's" skill is purely speculation. But speculation that seems to hold true for several other classes as well that i am familiar with. In my experience it has been pretty much safe to say that any pre-20 skill will stack w/ any post 20 skill of the same spell line for all classes vs. their subclasses. I know from use that even though "bolt of lethargy" (gloom upgrade) says that it is a Hallucination skill it is not on the same timer as our future upgrades. I can only assume that perhaps my statement was in fact incorrect in regards to Enchantment's vs. Hallucinations or that these training choices are exceptions in that even though they display a different skill they act through use as if they used the same skill of the spell they are upgrading . I'll have to make some minor wording adjustments to how i viewe this anomoly now. My Speculation "Generally spells of the same spell line that use the same skill (i.e. Hallucination's) will be on the same recast timer. Generally spells that are of the same spell line but use different skills (i.e. Enchantments vs. Hallucinations) will be on seperate recast timer's. Generally buffs of the same spell will not stack, most everything else will." Examples Breeze spell line Breeze uses the "Enchantments" skill, it's upgrades all use the "Hallucination's" skill Breeze is on a seperate recast timer from it's upgrades - it's upgrades both share the same timer. Breeze and it's upgrades appear to stack (both symbols are active in maintained window) but they do not actually stack, the user only gains the effects of one of the spells - discovered through testing by other illusionists on these forums Gloom spell line Gloom uses the "Enchantments" skill, it's upgrades all use the "Hallucinations" skill Gloom is on a seperate recast timer from it's upgrades - it's upgrades both share the same recast timer. Every version of Gloom stacks w/ any other version. If using Nightmare and Wither Hope (the 2 which are of the same skill and hence share a timer) you can stack them both on top of a MoB but generally the recast timer takes so long that the stacked effect will only last for a few seconds before the first one fades away. Using Gloom and either one of it's future upgrades (nightmare or wither hope) yields excellent stacking as both will do damage and you are able to stack them one after another because they share a different recast timer. Shaman Wards No in game experience w/ this but i have read about it on the forums the level 10-20 shaman single target ward is the only other single target ward that will stack w/ Mystics higher end single target ward Coercer's have the exact same spells that will stack or will not stack as Illusionists I haven't leveled a cleric over 20 yet but i think i remember seeing one post about their single target Vitae lines and having similair stacking capabilities. Pre 20 stacks w/ Post 20. But multiple post 20's will not stack Anyways my speculation is just a generalization....but i find it's a good rule of thumb to go about if leveling an alt and are curious about which level 10-20 spells you should get an adept 3 for.
Edit to original post: Added future upgrades of the spell lines we have Training choices for. Also I spell-checked , sort of.
Quick note. Unsar's Soothing Runes generates a tremindous amount of agro. We were fighting some enchanted tomes in RoV and I cast Unsar's Soothing Runes because a lot of people had spell effects on them. Every signle monster in the encounter went strait at me. If your just turning level 10 and looking for an upgrade, picking something other than Soothing Runes certainly won't break you. Although its still probably the only viable choice for someone repicking at 20+.
Thanks, Dainger. This is very useful information. I should ding 40 tomorrow, and I'm going to pick the Construct of Light pet. I've been mucking about more with my current Construct of Order (Adept 1), and found it is useful. The lack of any attack animation, coupled with the "I can't do that" message led me to believe it was passive -- so I watched its damage more closely, and it definitely holds its own. I've not had much luck using it as a tank, as it gets killed very quickly. It does make a nice DoT, though, for every third fight.
Great post, however I think the lvl 40 trait has been fixed. I've been using the lvl 40 trait mez as my primary mez. And it does not get interrupted unless I'm stifled. So perhaps it was fixed. So, you really can't pass it up, since having that extra mez is gold to us.
Hmm, interesting. Follow this. I've got 2 conflicting posts about this today. To clarify - you are able to cast this mez upgrade while moving? As you can for Capture Mind, and Entrance. When i tested this choice it had 8 seconds longer than Capture Mind and was on the same recast timer as Capture Mind. I was also unable to cast this spell while moving which is why i even when i had the spell i opted for the ability to move while casting that Capture Mind gave me if for nothing else than i enjoy moving while casting. LoL i was honestly pretty slow to realize that i could move while mezzing, i think i was like level 34 or 35 before i realized i could do it w/ Entrance. Ever since than i've been in love! Sciek's post confirms what i had experienced before the patch. I would be delighted if this were not the case.
I dinged 40 the day of the patch, so I naturally got this upgrade as I've not yet /respec'd. yes it works on the move, but so far I've seen a few more resists than I was used to with CM. Maybe because it's a new spell, but I've been using it exclusively for the last few days. I'll try CM tonight and see if the resists disappear, because I remember yellow con's almost never resisting CM and now they resist probably 1 in 5. I have yet to add CR to my toolbar too, can't wait to do that tonight.
My mistake , the training mez does NOT work on the move, I was using a macro and it was still set to capture mind. I have to admit I did not see any interrupts mezzing an entire night, must be my old eq1 habbits. Sorry for posting the misinformation.
New spell info.. not complete, but everything important is there --Mespha's Brain Burst-- Casting Time- 1.0s Recovery Time- 0.5s Recast time- 2.0s Skill- Enchantments Required- 50 Mastery- 100 -Inflicts 65-88 dmg on target (max) -Interrupts target Might be extremely handy in finishing HO's, seeing as its the only lighting bolt spell we can get with a 1s cast time.. Could be another worthy consideration for the lvl 10 training.
Edited original post with some of the info that's been posted. Thanks Bobokii and stewieG! stewieG i did not add your posted info on FPV yet as you stated you took that info before you had attained the a level where you have it maxxed out. Bobokii i did not add the info in your screenshot related to Esdia's Chromatic Deluge as i was unsure what level you are in relation to the spell. Adding this info to the list is a good consolidation of everything we can get. I'll add any info such as these 2 have posted as i feel that with more information we've now enabled future illusionists to make their own decisions based upon spell details and not just the opinions of their illusionist piers. As a note to this....i will only add the info if you have the spell in question mastered so that we are able to understand it's full potential.
Thanks for the info. I /respec'ed after reading this. Originally, I had chosen Basten's Rune of Surety and Tevalian's Lingering Fascination. After /respec'ing, I decided that I would go with the Cure Arcane (Unsar's Soothing Runes) and Gloom (Koldhagon's Bolt of Lethargy) upgrades. The Unsar's was a pretty easy decision since Basten's really did not provide that big of a difference with everything else I had stacked at this point, and I had seen many times when trying to cure some arcane DoT on more than one person had me spending a lot of time trying to get the individuals targeted and the spell cast. Having a group Cure Arcane, which would also have a bit more power, seemed an easy decision, especially since Basten's power regen if hit did not seem to fire off often enough to make it worthwhile. Giving up the Fascination upgrade (TLF) was a bit harder. TLF was working just fine as was Gloom. While I knew that TLF would lose effectiveness before KBL would, knowing I would be reducing the length of time I had two working mezzes at this level (currently, I am level 27) was not an easy decision. The choice was even more distressing after actually doing the /respec because Fascinate stops working on MoBs at about level 28, and, of course, I am facing level 28 and above MoBs now much more often. So I effectively upgraded a spell that was working anyway by downgrading a mez which, now, no longer works against these MoBs. Yeah, it would have eventually stopped working, but since Gloom was working anyway, it makes giving up the mez a little harder. I do not really regret the decision since making this choice allows me to use the upgrade longer than I otherwise would. However, if you have not respec'ed yet, you chose TLF on the first go round, and you are currently facing enemies that Fascinate will not work on but TLF would, I would recommend holding off on the /respec for as long as you can. This way, you can get full use of TLF, then do the /respec and switch it for KBL. If you have other reasons to /respec, go ahead. If not, keep in mind that Fascinate will stop working on level 28 and up mobs, so keeping TLF a little longer may be worth putting off the /respec for a bit if you plan on switching to a different skill.
Moeba's Signet of Perspicuity gives more agility than any other group buff I have at level 46. I get about 14 more or so with all other current buffs stacked. It appears that the only benefit Moeba's Signet of Perspicuity has with the other buffs is the AGI. But its interesting that it does more than anything else at my level.
