Post by lizzieborden on Dec 18, 2008 1:35:34 GMT -8
It's a bit presumptuous to decide which AAs should be mandatory, I know, but some of these are simply so good that it leads me to believe that if an Enchanter chose to omit them, it must simply be that he/she doesn't understand what they do.
First there are the obvious ones, such as avoidance, mitigation, health regeneration and mana regeneration, both to raise the cap on your gear regeneration and to improve your innate regeneration. Then, of course, MGB and buff extensions.
Beguiler's Directed Banishment. This I've already spoken of many times. It pushes your target backwards in the direction you're facing, roots it, then blurs. Fast cast time of 1 second and recovery of 4 seconds, hence you can use this slightly faster than once a tick.
Beguiler's Banishment. Cone shaped version of the same. Will drive back up up to three mobs from 10-2 o'clock. Recently fixed. There was a problem with mobs being right on top of you from being hit by this AA. My most recent uses would indicated that this bug has been fixed. 1 second cast, 8 second recovery.
Shield Block. Maxed, this will effectively block ~ 5% of all incoming melee damage.
Veil of Mindshadow. If you don't have this yet, how can I stress how truly good this AA is? How about 80% mitigation? Would that impress you? That's right. It confers 80% melee damage mitigation. And that is not a misprint. It means exactly what I said it means. I don't mean you take 80% of all incoming melee damage, I mean that you avoid 80% of all incoming melee damage. An incoming hit of 2000 points will be mitigated to 400 points as long as you have this up.
In the past, the Cleric's "Vie" line was somewhat interfering with the normal operation of this AA. The Cleric's Vie buff confers 10% mitigation. While having Vie on you along with Veil of Mindshadow, you got whichever was first in your mitigation line up. So, if you have Vie on you before Veil of Mindshadow, you were going to take 10% mitigation. Now, it's been fixed so that you will use whichever mitigation is greater. (Although to be safe, I still put VoM first in my buff lineups.)
Of course, this AA is limited in the amount of damage it can absorb, subsequent ranks in this ability raise this cap. Instant cast with ten minute recast time, so buff yourself up with this at once, and hopefully, by the time some mob beats this down, you'll be able to recast it. 3 ranks of Hastened Veil of Mindshadow will reduce this recast time to 8 minutes 30 seconds.
Doppelganger. This AA shadowsteps you a very short distance away (out of the mob's immediate reach, but still close enough for you to cast on it) creates a simulacrum of you in your place (although the highest two ranks of this ability in SoF expansion allowed you to create two such doppelgangers). This double was also created with one point of aggro higher than you. Basically, this meant this new "pet" would have the mob's undivided attention. Although it doesn't tend to last long, subsequent ranks will give this double more HPs.
It has allowed me to finish many encounters in my favor (most of which have been with the same opponent), which otherwise would have been in doubt.
Phantasmal Opponent. This is similar to Doppelganger, except that it doesn't have the Shadowstep effect, and the simulacrum isn't of you; it's of your target. Also, this creation, like Doppelganger, has a negligible amount of DPS. BUT, this creation, unlike Doppleganger has a TON of hit points.
The duration of this creation is 60 seconds (longer with the Extended Swarm AA) tends to keep the mob quite happily occupied, despite its 75 point hits. So, like Doppelganger, it procs a taunt.
A downside of this is that the range is short. I can't create a simulacrum of a mob from the same distance I can cast from. While I don't need to be in melee range, I do have to be pretty close. Closer than I would like. I guess this was intended to keep us from casting this on mobs that haven't aggroed or arent in aggro range.
As an aside, a funny story about this. I was farming in BoT and decided to try this out for the first time. I was using Shiny Bob (who is quite adequate to tank in BoT) and I pulled Hreidar Lynhillig. I thought it would be fun to see some Hreidar on Hreidar action and I had only just purchased this AA, so I was anxious to see how it worked.
There was no cast timer on this, so it's instant. But I saw...nothing. Shiny Bob still faithfully beating away on this mob, but no Hreidar lookalike. Was this thing working?
I stepped to one side (being in the corner of the room where Hreidar pops) and observed. My summoned pet held his ground and Hreidar was still hacking away at him. Also there was...again, nothing. I saw the label "Lockdown's pet" over nothing. Looked like my summoned pet without weapons, which is to say there was nothing there. The new tag of Lockdown's pet was moving rhythmically, which suggested that this globule of nothing was meleeing, at least. I guess it doesn't work, I thought. Then all at once this nothing popped into an exact likeness of Hreidar, meleeing with Hreidar.
Delayed reaction, perhaps. Or the fact that I was in the corner with Hreidar and Shiny Bob might have indicated that there was no room for "Lockdown's pet" to assume the form it was supposed to, and moving out the way helped rectify that.
Mesmerisation Mastery. Each rank extends the duration of all your mezzes. In the case of your point-blank AoE mezzes, each rank adds one tick to the duration. So, while the point-black AoE mezz normally lasts one tick, three ranks will extend this to four ticks. See where this is going?
With a four-tick point-blank AoE mezz, you'll recover the mezz before it wears off. You can keep mobs surrounding you locked down indefinitely.
Neat, huh?
Bite of Tashan. This is a point-blank AoE 60th level Tash. Every mob surrounding you will be hit by a sixtieth level Tash.
Fog of Memories. Target-based AoE blur. Good range, too.
The Pet AAs. The passive pet AAs (the crits, the flurries, more HP, etc.) work only on Shiny Bob, Doppelgangers and Phantasmal Opponent, while the activated AAs (the heals, Companion's Relocation, Fortify Companion, etc.) work on Shiny Bob and any charmed mobs. My posts already run long, so I'm not going to list each and every one of them, but I think they're all worth having.
While Shiny Bob has been subject to a lot of abuse, I do have to admit that he's been pretty good to me, and well worth the AAs I spent on him. He will never be a main tank against anything higher than a light blue. But he is useful. When I break charm and the charmed mob is so low on health that he flees, I can unpocket my summoned pet and have him chase my former pet down, saving me a couple of casts to finish it off.
Auroria Mastery. Allows you to maintain two auras at once, and you're the ONLY class that can do that.
Azure Mind Crystal. Allows you to store mana in the form of a blue crystal which can be harvested for later use. You can create a crystal, med to full, then when crunch time comes, you can get that mana back for the last three or four nukes.
Self Stasis. Enchanter FD. Mezzes you for 30 seconds (although recently, the timer has grown slightly longer, and I'm not sure why). All aggroed mobs will break it off. Although the DoTed ones will hang around until the DoT wears off or until you wake up. Instant cast, and recovers every ten minutes.
Again, not a comprehensive list, but many of the good ones, such as Gate, Group Perfected Invisibility, Levitation, need no explanation.
First there are the obvious ones, such as avoidance, mitigation, health regeneration and mana regeneration, both to raise the cap on your gear regeneration and to improve your innate regeneration. Then, of course, MGB and buff extensions.
Beguiler's Directed Banishment. This I've already spoken of many times. It pushes your target backwards in the direction you're facing, roots it, then blurs. Fast cast time of 1 second and recovery of 4 seconds, hence you can use this slightly faster than once a tick.
Beguiler's Banishment. Cone shaped version of the same. Will drive back up up to three mobs from 10-2 o'clock. Recently fixed. There was a problem with mobs being right on top of you from being hit by this AA. My most recent uses would indicated that this bug has been fixed. 1 second cast, 8 second recovery.
Shield Block. Maxed, this will effectively block ~ 5% of all incoming melee damage.
Veil of Mindshadow. If you don't have this yet, how can I stress how truly good this AA is? How about 80% mitigation? Would that impress you? That's right. It confers 80% melee damage mitigation. And that is not a misprint. It means exactly what I said it means. I don't mean you take 80% of all incoming melee damage, I mean that you avoid 80% of all incoming melee damage. An incoming hit of 2000 points will be mitigated to 400 points as long as you have this up.
In the past, the Cleric's "Vie" line was somewhat interfering with the normal operation of this AA. The Cleric's Vie buff confers 10% mitigation. While having Vie on you along with Veil of Mindshadow, you got whichever was first in your mitigation line up. So, if you have Vie on you before Veil of Mindshadow, you were going to take 10% mitigation. Now, it's been fixed so that you will use whichever mitigation is greater. (Although to be safe, I still put VoM first in my buff lineups.)
Of course, this AA is limited in the amount of damage it can absorb, subsequent ranks in this ability raise this cap. Instant cast with ten minute recast time, so buff yourself up with this at once, and hopefully, by the time some mob beats this down, you'll be able to recast it. 3 ranks of Hastened Veil of Mindshadow will reduce this recast time to 8 minutes 30 seconds.
Doppelganger. This AA shadowsteps you a very short distance away (out of the mob's immediate reach, but still close enough for you to cast on it) creates a simulacrum of you in your place (although the highest two ranks of this ability in SoF expansion allowed you to create two such doppelgangers). This double was also created with one point of aggro higher than you. Basically, this meant this new "pet" would have the mob's undivided attention. Although it doesn't tend to last long, subsequent ranks will give this double more HPs.
It has allowed me to finish many encounters in my favor (most of which have been with the same opponent), which otherwise would have been in doubt.
Phantasmal Opponent. This is similar to Doppelganger, except that it doesn't have the Shadowstep effect, and the simulacrum isn't of you; it's of your target. Also, this creation, like Doppelganger, has a negligible amount of DPS. BUT, this creation, unlike Doppleganger has a TON of hit points.
The duration of this creation is 60 seconds (longer with the Extended Swarm AA) tends to keep the mob quite happily occupied, despite its 75 point hits. So, like Doppelganger, it procs a taunt.
A downside of this is that the range is short. I can't create a simulacrum of a mob from the same distance I can cast from. While I don't need to be in melee range, I do have to be pretty close. Closer than I would like. I guess this was intended to keep us from casting this on mobs that haven't aggroed or arent in aggro range.
As an aside, a funny story about this. I was farming in BoT and decided to try this out for the first time. I was using Shiny Bob (who is quite adequate to tank in BoT) and I pulled Hreidar Lynhillig. I thought it would be fun to see some Hreidar on Hreidar action and I had only just purchased this AA, so I was anxious to see how it worked.
There was no cast timer on this, so it's instant. But I saw...nothing. Shiny Bob still faithfully beating away on this mob, but no Hreidar lookalike. Was this thing working?
I stepped to one side (being in the corner of the room where Hreidar pops) and observed. My summoned pet held his ground and Hreidar was still hacking away at him. Also there was...again, nothing. I saw the label "Lockdown's pet" over nothing. Looked like my summoned pet without weapons, which is to say there was nothing there. The new tag of Lockdown's pet was moving rhythmically, which suggested that this globule of nothing was meleeing, at least. I guess it doesn't work, I thought. Then all at once this nothing popped into an exact likeness of Hreidar, meleeing with Hreidar.
Delayed reaction, perhaps. Or the fact that I was in the corner with Hreidar and Shiny Bob might have indicated that there was no room for "Lockdown's pet" to assume the form it was supposed to, and moving out the way helped rectify that.
Mesmerisation Mastery. Each rank extends the duration of all your mezzes. In the case of your point-blank AoE mezzes, each rank adds one tick to the duration. So, while the point-black AoE mezz normally lasts one tick, three ranks will extend this to four ticks. See where this is going?
With a four-tick point-blank AoE mezz, you'll recover the mezz before it wears off. You can keep mobs surrounding you locked down indefinitely.
Neat, huh?
Bite of Tashan. This is a point-blank AoE 60th level Tash. Every mob surrounding you will be hit by a sixtieth level Tash.
Fog of Memories. Target-based AoE blur. Good range, too.
The Pet AAs. The passive pet AAs (the crits, the flurries, more HP, etc.) work only on Shiny Bob, Doppelgangers and Phantasmal Opponent, while the activated AAs (the heals, Companion's Relocation, Fortify Companion, etc.) work on Shiny Bob and any charmed mobs. My posts already run long, so I'm not going to list each and every one of them, but I think they're all worth having.
While Shiny Bob has been subject to a lot of abuse, I do have to admit that he's been pretty good to me, and well worth the AAs I spent on him. He will never be a main tank against anything higher than a light blue. But he is useful. When I break charm and the charmed mob is so low on health that he flees, I can unpocket my summoned pet and have him chase my former pet down, saving me a couple of casts to finish it off.
Auroria Mastery. Allows you to maintain two auras at once, and you're the ONLY class that can do that.
Azure Mind Crystal. Allows you to store mana in the form of a blue crystal which can be harvested for later use. You can create a crystal, med to full, then when crunch time comes, you can get that mana back for the last three or four nukes.
Self Stasis. Enchanter FD. Mezzes you for 30 seconds (although recently, the timer has grown slightly longer, and I'm not sure why). All aggroed mobs will break it off. Although the DoTed ones will hang around until the DoT wears off or until you wake up. Instant cast, and recovers every ten minutes.
Again, not a comprehensive list, but many of the good ones, such as Gate, Group Perfected Invisibility, Levitation, need no explanation.