This is my warlock: http://u.eq2wire.com/soe/character_detail/2168961370953 I've been working on him for a few months since I returned to Norrath. I played him a lot more around 2012 when he was my "second main" for a while. I've started Epic 2 for him, but I need more factions to proceed. I'm currently around 292 Resolve and it's a big step to get into the 300s, so I'm seeking advice and tips. Currently I divide my time between Thallumbra and the Crafting timelines, whenever the faction grind gets too much. I also PG with him, but that's quick and simple. ACT says my Enc dps for an advanced solo or solo (in the All category, it wouldn't mean much for one mob because it dies too quick) is around 50-70 million with spikes into the hundreds of millions. I'd like to figure out what I need to do (or have) to get to a 1 billion level. I imagine much of it is from Epic 2. I use the "new2017harvest" AA tree right now. Which means I'm back to Toxic Assault. I prefer Occult bolt for soloing (one shots nearly anything) but I figure I should get used to the more grouping setup. The past three days I've read more than I've played. I found a lot of advice about Warlocks and how to maximize damage. Here's what I've learned so far: 1. Gift of Bertox is essential 2. Spell efficiency is important (though I've yet to see an updated calculator for it, so if you know of one, I could use the link) 3. Triggering, the best ones are the ones that trigger a lot, not necessarily the highest damage per trigger 4. Miasma is disappointing even when buffed, I recently stopped putting points into it. 5. Self control to do dots/triggers right guarantees the mobs die in roughly the same amount of time, sloppy means random effectiveness. If you have favorite casting orders, I'd like to hear of it, even if you decide to PM me. I'd be grateful. As always, ((hugs)) for help!
Bump. I really would appreciate some advice. It's been a long time since I played a mage seriously. I tried the new AA setup and I had forgotten how nice it is to have Rift instant cast! Brought a smile to my face. On a side note: Kralet Penumbra is on my list now of favorite EQ2 dungeons. That's where I tried it out. Just the right amount of "be careful or you'll get killed" in it. I was in Heroic, seeking an epic 2 update. (5 kills, no update but at least the dungeon is fun) Specifically, is there something I've buffed, but not buffed enough? Am I over invested in something unnecessary? I dropped thunderclap because I like it too much, if it's there, I'll click it. And I'm trying to focus on building up a nice stack of dots and triggers. Question: what is "the hammer" that people are talking about once in a while? Apparently it is used with Mystical Overflow (the AoE that triggers from other hits, not the casting while moving thing). Or at least, what's the proc I am looking for? Because I got a Molten Detonation proc item and it looks really nice for triggering Overflow. I haven't chosen Overflow yet, it tends to get me killed when I'm soloing Heroics. LOL But it's something I enjoy when grouped.
If you've only recently returned since 2012 my 2 copper: Start over, and ride out eq2 one last time on FG server No troll, serious answer. All Your research hard work on figuring all this stuff out can be used there to generate more fun for yourself because so many people play there right now.
This is coming from someone who has tried to start up on live after coming back. It was kinda cool but in the end I realized I was the only person xp grinding heroics in the hole with my super over powered shadow knight mercenary, and then I was lonely and sad that I had been playing this game all by myself
Honestly, there is a lot to get into that has changed even just this expac for the Warlock class. It's always evolving and playing the character at a high level requires you to adapt constantly. What are you goals? To be really good at solo? Heroic groups? It's really tough to say if you are doing anything wrong or right without seeing an ACT parse breakdown of what you are casting. It also depends on a left vs a right side prestige. Also, the class is going to change considerably once you get the epic 2.0 buffs. My suggestion for now is to keep working on your epic 2.0, finish that up, do KA solo/heroics/PQs to get fragments to make those spells ancient. If your goal is to grow in a heroic group, get into a few PUG groups and just do what you can. Getting a feel for the class really is the best way to get better. If you have any questions I'd be more than happy to help out. Feel free to send me a tell in game, going over casting orders and such is much better organically through tells. Also, Welcome to the club
I do have a new character on FG. I enjoy that a lot, but after some early success, I gave it a rest for a bit. There's only so much mindless grinding for xp I can do. I did ask about the progress rate and people said, tough luck, it's the way the game was back then. So ok whatever, when my patience bar recharges, I'll work on it some more. I played until just before Thallumbra. Sorry I missed it, it looks very nice and the dungeons are great. This particular character was my fill in when I didn't want to play my scout for some reason, or I had some lockout. I managed to break the 100k barrier back then by focusing on dots/triggers. It's surprisingly hard to do that, but in the end it works much better. I'll try to post a parse, not sure if I'll succeed though. Advice for how to do that would help. Copy paste doesn't seem to work, maybe I can paste a CSV and those interested can open it in excel? Thanks for the advice, I'm really looking forward to the Epic. Camping Mo'Ithraf as I type this for Curse of the Magic Thief. Edit: ok here goes... this probably isnt typical but the virulent outbreak was nice: (01:58) Mo'Ithraf: 58337196 Markab-Virulent Outbreak-299,032,652 Marka | 58071163 Kluur | 266033 Marka | 0 Marka | 0 The 25% buff was on when the virulent outbreak cast (Spellbind)
Another: (01:17) Xoth, the Ever Rending: 129518668 Markab-Septic Strike-483,955,461 Marka | 111833220 Kluur | 17685448 Marka | 0
KA changed so many things about the Warlock class and as it was stated previously in this thread, a lot of this advice depends on your goals. Every piece of gear has to be thought out and good gear is a time sink. If I had to recommend a place to start it would be in this order: 1. KA timeline with Ethreal Off-hand 2. Epic 2.0 3. Max at least 1 good ascension class (Ethrealist would be my choice) (also, all 4 gives you a REALLY nice charm) 4. PG gear with max adorns 5. Expert Gear 6. Ethereal gear if you can get it 7. Spec your toon right then learn to cast As for Ascension classes, Etherealist almost always wins in a short fight. Longer fights Elementalist, when you are left side prestige, pulls ahead. Lets just assume you want to do easy DPS without learning a bunch of stuff. Do this: Copy my current spec that I use for short fights (solomaxsurvive). This is my right side spec and I am ethrealist. I go to LeftMaxProd and Elementalist on long T4 raid fights. With the right side specs, your goal outside of ascension spells, is to build increments of Toxic Aura and then use them on the mob. That is an oversimplification, but those stacks used on a target (Toxic Detonation) or targets (Caustic detonation) cause major damage. When you are at max increments if Toxic Arua, your Apoc and Rift will insta cast. This is free damage and should be part of your "FC Chain". Plagubringer and Chains hit really hard and make sure you are at 10m when you cast Thunderclap for max damage. If you can joust to 19m when you hit Unda, great. If not, then just cast Unda when it is up. I cant really give you a solid cast order until I know what you are doing. Just play around a bit and ask more questions and we can answer them in the best way possible.
Thanks I really appreciate your advice. I'm working on 2 and 4 on that list right now. I had to take a couple days off though, the repetition was knocking me out. LOL 1. Working on the thallumbra side of this - makes a good break from the kill 10 rats quest for faction; the KA side is finished. 2. check 3. My etherealist is at 10, but the reason I think I may stay with thaumaturge (did you see the earrings?) is because of the lack of any combat mit debuffs on mages (unless I just dont' know which skill it is) - the nox debuff helps both the thaumaturge and warlock abilities, if there's one thing Imight chage in my AA setup, I might max out the nox debuff. Once I've completed Thaumaturge, I will compare to Etherealist and see how I like it. 4. On PG's I have the ring (does it show on the EQ2U site? it's recent) and the first adorn, but I haven't used up my marks yet, so I can upgrade that adorn a bit more. The Nexus PG is quite doable as a group, I'm sorry more people don't join up. 38 marks per 20 min is better than 18. 5. My resolve is 292, but I haven't fully asked myself whether I want the PG gear to take me higher and start experts or if I want the ethereal offhand first. When I'm ready to spend my marks I'll decide that. I'm at 500 or so Marks of Glory. Which way should I go to get to (what is the minimum?) 330 Resolve for experts? 6. Might be a stretch for me at this point. Is there any hope of ethereals if you started this week? 7. Well that's pretty vague, but it always is. Much of what mages do is situational. I missed the Rift instant casting sooo much! I just swapped back to the right side. The aura stays for a while, so the only thing it's not good for is overland questing. I might stay there for a bit. I can't see your character right now, tried in Firefox and IE. Maybe the website is down temporarily. I'll try again in a day or so. ((hugs)) thanks!
from reading what you posted you seem to be struggling to push the 1 billions enc dps threshold. That comes with gear, and deity points mostly. Critbonus is key here it amplifies dps by large increments cap and overcaps are detrimental, that being said get your Proven grounds Overcap pieces. Im sure new gear comes out soon with the xpac will require more revamping. if you are not at your Crit bonus cap DO NOT GO LEFT SIDE SPEC you will kill your dps. I typically push 1.5-2 billion on my lock left side spec and i can push 2-2.2 on my rightside spec and on almost every encounter with just basic level Ascensions, they are not even my highest parsing abilities. Left side spec kills your crit bonus cap but gives ferver (final damage Multiplier) and almost comes close in damage output. Noxious attunement is VERY nice if you maintain it. I do the Draw of the void set / reset on pull go right into activating noxious attunment Then hit every instant cast spell i have that triggers both abilities damage procs, this usually pushes me up to a 4-5 billion spike that drops down to around 1-2 billion slowly until Draw resets its just not possible to maintain ive tried everything. Now this left side mechanic is proclaimed to be the best build atm. But when i build right side spec i push my Crit bonus caps to the max and it seems to trigger my epic alot more, still working on trying to find out why, meaning i get huge fervor cap boosts more often, not only that i NEVER use my increment spells which give me instant casting apocalypse and Rift, granted rift is an awesome spell but the reuse on it is horrible it still can push ALOT of damage even on single targets. I use it alot on experts and raid boss's where i can get at least 2 rifts in, Im not sure i have to play with it some more but when i right side spec and have my Draw running i hit all my instant casts apocalypse and rift in with those and it makes Draw do almost double the dps than my left side spec does. its tricky and very situational trying to sync everything up and still maintain spike damage with dps pitsfalls but left side is more stable and consistent but less spike damage. Like i said if you left side build and your not at 4k+ you need to go back to right side till you get more Critbonus.
I have a few overcap pieces, so if you're saying I'm missing some, I'd like to know which. They're not all upgraded though. I kind of burned out on the PG grind there, but after beta I'll start again. Looks like those adorns will still be relevant. I also found that left side is not worth it right now. What CB do you think I should switch at? I'm at around 250 over the 4k CB cap on plane of magic with only the crossbow replacing my ranged wand (not sure I'll replace on live, but I figure it's beta, so test what they need tested). I think I just mentally prefer right side anyway. Not sure i'll go back to left unless right-side is unworkable. Like you said, "tricky and situational" That's why I like the lock. When it works it's like, "huh? they're all dead?" Heh.
Familiars, Epic gem. There is one on the summer Ethereal merch with a proc, if you have tokens left, that has a CB overcap proc. With all the pieces i have and a troubadour i can push around 5k CB in raid on right side,im not able get that on left side spec though. Also fervor building with gear can compensate the fervor loss easier than you can with CB IMO. i have been playing around with the leftside mainly because i like the playstyle better, i have been using rising tide on pull use ascensions on combo calls, then start with activating aura and Occult bolt then roll right into Draw then hit everything i can for triggers throw some fillers then hopefully push back into some more ascension combo's they just don't seem to fit together though, i think the ascension mechanics itself wasn't tested properly before being released it just doesn't seem to fit in the game mechanics the way it could have.
