Messages

1

Freelance Ramblings / Focus Degradation Chart

« on: March 03, 2011, 05:53:28 PM »

I meant to get this up here a little sooner, sorry!

With HoT and a level increase a lot of decaying foci comparisons arise.  It becomes important to know whether your old raid foci are better or worse than current expansion group foci, or whether your current expansion group foci are better than the foci in xyz tier of the raid content we are currently hitting.  For those who aren't exactly math wizards, this can be a daunting task.

An awesome necromancer over at the serverwide boards by the name of Solithan put together this downloadable document that you can plug your foci and spell level into to see how far the foci will have decayed.

I would advise everyone that uses foci to download this little nugget of gold (whether dmg foci, heal foci, det hast, bene haste, bene duration, etc etc)


Here is the link to the post on Necrotalk.


note: If you downloaded this before non-damage foci were in it (such as raid legs, group legs, raid det range, group det range, etc) the author has now added those in so you can re-download the file if you would like them.

2

Freelance Ramblings / Re: Circle of Prophets hosts CoA

« on: May 26, 2008, 09:37:07 PM »

How far in CoA does CoP go?  Do they kill OMM?

3

Raid Performance / Re: change to Glyph of Cataclysm

« on: March 06, 2011, 01:10:47 PM »

From Elidroth in Intenstity of Resolute thread over on eq forums.  on 2/28/2011

The bonus damage on the glyph has been changed from 75% to 60%. The reuse time remains unchanged.

Edit:  He is also looking to Tune 7th, since the benefits are so different from 1 class to the next

This whole thing really makes me mad.  Giving more attention to 7th (a once per night ability for those that even have it) than Glyph (potentially 6+ per night that anyone can buy) is just silly.  Glyphs are super unbalanced atm, so they are just throwing a band-aid on it by nerfing it slightly...

Currently, necros benefit a lot from glyph (possibly more than anyone) and its part of the reason people are crying for glyph nerfs.  They should really just be balanced so that they work the same for everyone...

Another example of the strange flow of logic soe tends to use at times.

4

Necromancer / Necro DPS

« on: March 02, 2011, 05:23:43 PM »

Largly, in this thread, I will just be pointing necros to some already created awesomesauce over at Necrotalk.com.

Necros may have one of the simpler combos to creating their dps, but it is easily one of the most difficult to implement.

The first thread that all necros should read is: DPS tools - what you will need and never outgrow

The second thread that all necros should read is: Necro DPS - Spell Casting Order v2.0

Those two threads are absolutely gold.  Few classes in EQ have a community that is half as useful as the necromancer one.  Anyone not taking advantage of said community is seriously handicapping their game play.  There are countless other invaluable threads on basically every subject relevant to a Necromancer on that site (I know because I have started, posted, or read a high majority of them).

If you are truly serious about wanting to DPS at the top as a Necromancer, I highly suggest you also subscribe to necrotalk.  We give away all the ub3r 1337 secrets in the subscriber section  8-)


I will probably add to this a quick and dirty guide on how to use all the tools mentioned in the two threads above.


Happy hunting!

5

Raid Performance / Re: DPS - Streamlined and Maximized

« on: January 20, 2011, 12:38:10 AM »

A few suggestions and additions.

I highly suggest having a couple of the spells currently listed only in the "debuff" column also moved to the "attributable dps" column.  Including but not limited to:

Druid's STV line
Mage/Shm Malo line (NOT the aa version as it is pathetic compared to the spell)
Necro's Scent line
Enc tash line
(any I may have missed)

These spells actually make for some pretty huge attributable damage and their highest versions should be cast on every encounter without question (both because of their debuff components and their increased damage components).

ALL casters:
Acute Focus of arcanum (AA)
1: Decrease Spell Resist Rate by 35%
2: Limit: Max Level(85)
3: Limit: Combat Skills Not Allowed
4: Limit: Spell Type (Detrimental only)

This is extremely important.  I can't stress how large of a difference this AA makes.  It can easily be the difference between getting a mob debuffed in 5 seconds, or not getting fully debuffed (at all).

Necros:
Also have an older debuff line that ended with Scent of Terris that stacks with the newer Scent of Doom.  It got made into an even better version as an AA in HoT.
Scent of Terris AA

Rogue:
Instruction in Toxicity:  single target poison overfocus (20% at rk2).  Nice to slap on a nec pre-engage /grin

Shaman:
Putrid Decay (lvl 66, disease -200) - Decreases poison/disease resists by 55. Overwritten by necromancer Scent of Gloom line.  Even though this doesn't stack with necs debuff, it's great to get on the mob early because of its good resist check.

Enchanter:
It should be noted that enchanter's twincast aura now works on DoTs as well as nukes.  When a dot is "twinned" it hits for double the base damage for the entire duration of the dot.  In otherwords, the caster should not refresh this specific dot until it has fully run its course or the caster will actually lower their dps.

Bard:
I saw you weren't mentioning spires, but I thought I would just mention anyway that bard 2nd spire adds base dmg to spells (though it was heavily nerfed quite some time ago).

As a dps caster I feel that it is important to mention that, currently, the bard attributable dps contains mostly only melee enhancements.  It should also include:

aria of the composer:  Adds set overfocus for spells as well as melee overhaste.  This is extremely powerful since it is not a variable foci and it stacks with worn foci.  Also, aura should never be played over aria.  Aria is the single largest dps enhancement a bard can play for caster or melee and using aura instead is selling yourself short (less overhaste and less overfocus from aura vs. aria).

Arcane Chorus:  This adds a proc to all dmg spells cast and is good also for both melee and casters

Fatesong of Fergar:  adds dmg to cold dds

Sotor's Aria:  adds dmg to fire dds

Lyrin's Psalm of Potency:  adds dmg to magic dots (despite in game description, it is only for magic based dots)

If you are in a caster group with a bard, be aware of which of the above spells benefit you most (along with what was listed originally).  A good example of what a wizard would want out of a bard would be: aria of the composer, fatesong, sotors, mana regen, and Arcane chorus (as long as no enchanter is around since it doesn't stack with MR).  Necros do not benefit from the 2 dd songs and so would rather that Lyrin's was in.  Either way, stuff like war march isn't really useful to a caster group.

The whole deal really needs updated to the relevant HoT versions of the spells already listed, too.


For Necros wanting to improve their dps or even just wanting to ensure they are doing everything correctly, there is a newer thread on necrotalk that breaks it down really well and I would recommend all necros to read here: http://www.necrotalk.com/showthread.php?t=11540

I could do a writeup of essential necro aas, foci, spells, clickies etc.  But it would really be faster and laid out better if you just poke around Necrotalk.com.  If you poke around the forums and look at stickies most of the questions you could possibly dream up are answered pretty thoroughly.  I also highly suggest you subscribe to NT.  I do and it is very much worth the small fee.  It opens up an extra forum with some pretty good info on the class.

Either way, if you are a necro especially, feel free to ask me anything at all in game.  Chances are that I can answer any questions you might have--if I can't, I can tell you where to find the info.

p.s. I realize zaaq is afk, I'm not trying to sound like a butt for stuff not being updated to HoT