Hi everyone, I'm returning to EQ2 after a long break, and have picked up where I left off in my Velious quests to get the hang of things again before I buy COE. I seem to be killing rather slowly, however, taking 30 seconds or more to kill regular level 90 quest mobs in the Great Divide. I have all my AA's set to melee as proper, and I'm wondering if I'm just having having issues do to outdated gear. Most of my stuff is around level 86, and I'm using a 1h and a shield. I vaguely remember using a two-hander at lower levels but that was almost two years ago.... So what do you all think? Any input is greatly appreciated I know as a healing class stuff isn't going to blow up, but I've died several times trying to kill a quest mob or two, or by simply not dealing enough damage before my mana runs out.
Missed my edit time frame, apparently >.> Bought myself a lvl 90 2hander for 36g. Best 36g I've ever spent...
Yeah, you should see 40-45% of your overall dps from auto-attack once you've reforged properly. Two-hander is a must. I'm a fury, not a warden, but feel free to ask anything about melee speccing your toon and i'll give as much help as I can as far as gear choices/adorns/reforging.
When I first started questing in GD I had a tougher time killing the mobs there until I started getting the updated gear from the GD quests (that may have had more to do with all critical chance/mitigation stuff at the time which earlier gear did not compensate for). Anyway, I am melee spec'd as I am always in melee. I never use 2-handed weapons. I've always used a 1-hander with a shield for the extra protection. Also, since so many proc effects are based on a successful combat hit and the like I always figured that the faster I swing at stuff, the more chances these auto-proc things (heals, damage spells, etc) will happen and 2-handed weapons are generally much slower between swings.
Solo, you don't have the proc on any hit buffs (Stampede, VC, CoB ...) that gain an advantage from faster swings so you are not making up the difference from the loss of auto-attack DPS, and the extra protection of a shield isn't needed as a rule for solo content.
A two-hander, melee AA specced and melee reforged warden isn't as fast as a dps toon, but they solo well and at a good pace.
Procs are normalized for weapon speed. 2.0 procs per minute is 2.0 procs per minute, regardless of how many times you swing. In other words, you have a higher chance per swing of proccing something with a 2 hander to make up for the fact that it has a longer delay. 20 swings per minute with 1 hander (4 delay)= 1 in 10 chance assuming a 2.0/minute proc rate. 10 swings per minute with 2 hander (8 delay)= 1 in 5 chance. In real world testing things don't fall out perfectly, but it's pretty dang close.
Note: normalized proc rates are calculated by base weapon delay, so attack speed buffs will increase your proc rates. Also, while slower weapons will proc equally over an extended period, in practice they tend to be a lot more swingy (pun totally intended) due to the short duration of most encounters.
I know it's been a week and all, but I didn't see it mentioned and have to ask...how are you running out of power? Check your buffs and make sure you are using your mythical buff. If you have not done epic repercussions do it, and if you are healing, you will not run out of power. Oh, and Mysstie, you are really hurting yourself by not using a 2h. There is no reason for a warden to ever use a 1h/shield, you are only taking away from your dps without adding anything to healing or defensive capability. That 500-600 protection a buckler gives you is more than made up from the increase in dps of using a 2h weapon.
I'll give it a try. I found a 2-hander that dropped in The Dread Cutter Advanced Solo zone with stats that more or less adds up to the combined stats of the 1-hander and shield. Even though the delay is longer, the effective delay only went from 1.8 seconds to 2.7 seconds. I'll test it out once I'm done with the tradeskill line in Cobalt Scar.
Buy handcrafted level 90 pieces for any gear you have that's under level 91+. They are massive upgrades over any pre-91 gear. The only bummer is you can't reforge them. Reforge anything you can reforge away from spell stats to multiattack.
