Illusionists are to weak and need a Buff.

[Axyrem]

(no native english)after playing various classes to 30-43 i started an illusionist a few days ago. My highest is a 43 necro. I also play a Monk, Zerker and an SK.After these few days playing i am starting to wonder what this class is good for beside Mezzing.The Pet cant tank and the damage it does is a joke.The pets casting is slow and often it seems like its thinking about what spell to use next.The pet´s AI is [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn], it casts a Stun when the MOB has 2% life left.AT L14 all Concentration slots are full already. 5 Concentration points used for a bad pet and 2 useless group buffs.no escape spellsno healing spellsIf i look at the complete Illusionist Spell list then i have to say this class is unfinished and there are to many weak points compared to other classes.I am just playing 2-3 hours a day, so i have no clue how this class is later after level 50. but at low level this class is horrible boring.no wonder i dont see to many people playing this class.

[Pins]

Illusionists are fine in solo/group play. You need to adjust the way you're fighting. The Personae is not an end-all uber pet like a Summoner's pet.

[Eu]

<div>Wow, after making it to lvl 14, you really understand everything there is to being an illusionist. You really hit all of our class problems right on the head through lotsa of research and facts. Congratulations.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>/sarcasmoff</div>

[zit]

<div></div><div></div><p>you need to keep in mind that illlusionists are not a real pet class like necros.</p><p>the summoner class is built around having pets. for illusionists the personae is only a support tool. in groups often times i dont use it, this would be unthinkable for a necro and his pet.</p><p>but you are right in that mez is what we are best in. crowd control and damage mitigation in general is where we shine (i include here mez, stifle, stun).</p><p>groups also like us for our power regen.</p><p> </p><p>i dont feel the class to be unfinished (cept for raids). solo and in group we are doing fine, although of course i would like to see some tweaking.</p><p>if you play an illusionist with the mind set of a necro though, you will prolly misunderstand the class and get disappointed.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Message Edited by zitha on <span class="date_text">03-29-2006</span><span class="time_text">12:31 PM</span></p>

[Impetus]

<blockquote><hr>zitha wrote:<div></div><div></div><p>you need to keep in mind that illlusionists are not a real pet class like necros.</p><p>the summoner class is built around having pets. for illusionists the personae is only a support tool. in groups often times i dont use it, this would be unthinkable for a necro and his pet.</p><p>but you are right in that mez is what we are best in. crowd control and damage mitigation in general is where we shine (i include here mez, stifle, stun).</p><p>groups also like us for our power regen.</p><p></p><p>i dont feel the class to be unfinished (cept for raids). solo and in group we are doing fine, although of course i would like to see some tweaking.</p><p>if you play an illusionist with the mind set of a necro though, you will prolly misunderstand the class and get disappointed.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Message Edited by zitha on <span class="date_text">03-29-2006</span><span class="time_text">12:31 PM</span></p><hr></blockquote>Yeah, that's what I'm reading as well.If you're mostly soloing, you might not ever like the illusionist as much as you like your necro. You might start to enjoy it, though.I do remember reading some lower level illusionists post about the personae not casting root until after level 20, or after some upgrade, or something. I have no idea if that is true, but the pet's roots and stuns are its best feature, in my opinion. So if it isn't rooting yet, it might get better for you.Like zitha said, mez/stifle/stun are pretty much our distinguishing feature (well that and power regen). They're most useful in a small group, or one without a true tank or healer, but they have their uses at other times as well (like a powerful added encounter when you're in a dungeon). You might try finding a few groups and seeing if you like the illusionist playstyle there.Either way, good luck, and feel free to post and ask questions, whether they be about soloing, grouping, spells, whatever. I guarantee you will get some helpful answers.

[Bawang]

<div></div><p>You say: "i am starting to wonder what this class is good for beside Mezzing."</p><p>But mezzing is a god-like ability when it's allowed to work.  I'm an Illusionist because of mez.  Period. </p><p>If they allowed Mez, stun, and stifle  to work in raids the way they work elsewhere I'd say we'd have little to complain about.</p><p>The pet is just something to enable us to solo for those times when we can't find a group quickly enough.  But our powers</p><p>come to the fore in a group, and in a group our pet is marginally useful if not an outright hindrance because of the 3 concs</p><p>slots it takes.</p>

[Geero]

<div></div><p>I'm trying to make a caster alt, so I have been playing quite a few of them to 20.</p><p>IMO, illusionist has much better pet then necro does at teen, because they do more damage then necro pet does.  Its about choosing your opponent wisely.  Since illusionist pet is caster, at level 14, you should be able to kill level 12 non-heroic mobs with 2 shots.  1 from your pet and 1 from you.  Also having adept 1 pet spell helps a lot.  I can't say about post 20 since I'm not there yet, but at level 20 I don't have any problem killing even level non-heroic mobs.</p>

[Barobra]

<div></div>We absolutley own solo mobs. And have the ability to take down heroics pretty easily. Also, our pets root stacks with our root......cast your spells...have your pet cast from far away while hes rooted twice.... pet starts to head towards the mob....have him back off to you...and have him attack again.... Pet wont even get touched.

[Rayvne2]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Barobrain wrote:<div></div>We absolutley own solo mobs. And have the ability to take down heroics pretty easily. Also, our pets root stacks with our root......cast your spells...have your pet cast from far away while hes rooted twice.... pet starts to head towards the mob....have him back off to you...and have him attack again.... Pet wont even get touched.<hr></blockquote><p><font color="#ff0000">That is why we got smacked so hard with the nerf bat in PvP.</font></p><p><font color="#ff0000">The pet is more of a hinderance than help in solo PvP since it burns all your immunity timers and leaves you unable to kite.</font></p>

[Barobra]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Rayvne2 wrote:<div></div><blockquote><hr>Barobrain wrote:<div></div>We absolutley own solo mobs. And have the ability to take down heroics pretty easily. Also, our pets root stacks with our root......cast your spells...have your pet cast from far away while hes rooted twice.... pet starts to head towards the mob....have him back off to you...and have him attack again.... Pet wont even get touched.<hr></blockquote><p><font color="#ff0000">That is why we got smacked so hard with the nerf bat in PvP.</font></p><p><font color="#ff0000">The pet is more of a hinderance than help in solo PvP since it burns all your immunity timers and leaves you unable to kite.</font></p><hr></blockquote>I see. I don't do much PVP (all tho id like to add the pvp I have done was pre-nerf and I never lost...). I was thinking about starting a char on pvp for this very reason but now with these immunity nerfs.... I am thinking about another class. But I see what your saying our pet casts root like a mad man along with color shower....and stuns. Hence....there stupid little stun will cause our bigger stun to not work and so on.

[Mac]

<div>Start off with a Stifle/Root combo, then have your pet attack. Your more powerful CC abilities have already been applied, and now your pet is power draining, DPSing, taunting etc... Also, Stifle/Root/Cerebral Tempest works nicely since right when the stifle wears off, the CT interrupt lands.</div><div> </div><div>Never really been an issue for me after I figured this out at lvl20ish ;p</div>

[Rayvne2]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Machz wrote:<div>Start off with a Stifle/Root combo, then have your pet attack. Your more powerful CC abilities have already been applied, and now your pet is power draining, DPSing, taunting etc... Also, Stifle/Root/Cerebral Tempest works nicely since right when the stifle wears off, the CT interrupt lands.</div><div> </div><div>Never really been an issue for me after I figured this out at lvl20ish ;p</div><hr></blockquote><p>Most of my issues is when I am ganked.  My pet returns to guard me default every time I zone and sometimes I forget to turn it off.</p><p>Basically I get smacked, my pet starts casting and burning my timers, and I have nothing in my arsenal to CC.</p><p>I usually root, stiffle, dot, dot, nuke, stun, and then send in the pet.  I just wish I could get prismatic on the pet and have him whacking the person a bit sooner.</p><p> </p><p>*** That was before the FP to Qeynos ratio on my server went 3.5 to 1 post level 40.  Now, if I am solo, I don't be anything but mezz and run since there ARE no solo FPers anymore.  ***</p>

[MrDiz]

Illusionist are superb classes for so many reasons, but they have a bad rep for 1 reason1:People who are new to the game or really havnt tried grouping with an illusionist have no idea what you can do.This is actually good because it means the group invites you get tend to be from knowledgable people, and usually that indicates a level of competance. You also usually get group invites from people who like to move fast, so you get to also move fast.

[Barobra]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>MrDizzi wrote:Illusionist are superb classes for so many reasons, but they have a bad rep for 1 reason1:People who are new to the game or really havnt tried grouping with an illusionist have no idea what you can do.This is actually good because it means the group invites you get tend to be from knowledgable people, and usually that indicates a level of competance. You also usually get group invites from people who like to move fast, so you get to also move fast.<hr></blockquote>This is a good point. Unfortunatley when putting up my LFG tag I still get the nub groups where they just want a power regen class.

[Sadaro]

<div><span><blockquote><hr>Axyrem wrote:(no native english)after playing various classes to 30-43 i started an illusionist a few days ago. My highest is a 43 necro. I also play a Monk, Zerker and an SK.After these few days playing i am starting to wonder what this class is good for beside Mezzing.<font color="#6666ff">Pretty good (but not great) damage per second (DPS).Stifling and combat debuffs on mobs.  No other class can stifle as long as we can.  At level 50, we can effectively 'perma-stilfle' (using stifle, fast stun, long stun, and color shower).  Stifling makes caster mobs so much easier.Don't underestimate mezzing.  It turns a group wipeout into a survivable situation.Mana regen.  With our new AA, we're probably the best mana regen around if we focus on it.</font>The Pet cant tank and the damage it does is a joke.<font color="#6666ff">You don't use your pet to tank.  Your pet does 3 things:(1) increases your DPS by 25% or so,(2) uses roots/stuns to help control the mob your fighting (ie., when your root breaks the pet's root may still be active)(3) protects you when you get jumped, giving you a little more time to reactIf you really want to tank with your pet, a few suggestions:- use stifles and combat debuffs- use your construct, it does enough damage to pull aggro from your personae- pull your pet out of combat when low on hit points, or mez mobs and re-summon pet when it dies</font>The pets casting is slow and often it seems like its thinking about what spell to use next.<font color="#6666ff">At high levels, the pet does about 150 DPS.  I do about 400-500 DPS, so the pet significantly increases my DPS.</font>The pet´s AI is [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn], it casts a Stun when the MOB has 2% life left.<font color="#6666ff">The pet cycles through it's spells based on recast timers.  If it's casting stun, it may only have stun available.  Stopping the mobs DPS for a few seconds is still useful when the mob has 2% hit points.</font>AT L14 all Concentration slots are full already. 5 Concentration points used for a bad pet and 2 useless group buffs.<font color="#6666ff">None of the group buffs are useless.  The INT/WIS buff increases your spell damage and resists (unless you've bumped against the cap).  The other one increases your resists vs. magic and mental.  Picking the correct use of your concentration slots is difficult.  There are times you want more group buffs, times you want your pet (even in a group), etc.</font>no escape spells<font color="#6666ff">You shouldn't need escape spells.  You have a fast stun, a slow stun, root, mez, and your pet.  At higher levels, you have even more options.  With the right strategy, you can take down heroic mobs.That said, I wouldn't mind having a long-range memblur spell to wipe the aggro from an encounter.  Why long-range?  So they don't immediately re-aggro on me <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></font>no healing spells<font color="#6666ff">Go buy some healing potions if you really need healing.  I'll use one when I've messed while fighting.  What happens when I mess up?  I get hit a few times.</font>If i look at the complete Illusionist Spell list then i have to say this class is unfinished and there are to many weak points compared to other classes.I am just playing 2-3 hours a day, so i have no clue how this class is later after level 50. but at low level this class is horrible boring.<font color="#6666ff">The necro usually soloes better than the illusionist, but the illusionist solos better than the monk, shadowknight, and berzerker.  </font>no wonder i dont see to many people playing this class.<hr></blockquote>Illusionists can play many roles in a group.  In all out DPS mode, we have 50%-75% of the DPS of 'high end' DPS classes.  The exact numbers depend on equipment, spell upgrades, and current level.  But I can flip to 'damage mitigation' mode, where I keep my stun/stifle and combat debuff up as much as possible.  I can flip to 'crowd control' mode, mezzing incoming additional mobs or named mobs.  I can flip to 'mana regen' mode, using my AA and devitalizing stare as often as possible.I'll admit you get more options at higher levels.  Color Shower (level 50 spell) makes the damage mitigation mode more effective, while mana cloak (level 35) and savante (level 52) make the 'mana regen' mode more effective.However, few other classes can play such a variety of roles, or switch between them as quickly as an Illusionist can.  I've been in situations where the ability to immediately switch from 'DPS mode' to 'crowd control' mode (with as much damage mitigation as possible) saved the group.Also, no other class can solo a group of mobs -- especially heroic mobs -- as well as the illusionist.  When I was level 52, large chunks of my xp came from farming the level 55 groups of heroic guards.  I can reliably take them one at a time with my mez abilities, meaning I'm facing 4 back-to-back no arrow mobs (which isn't all that hard for most classes) instead of 4 no-arrow mobs at the same time.  The only class I've seen come close is the necro with the fear/root ability. Finally, I suspect most classes change significantly when they hit level 50-58.  The level 50 special spell, plus the ancient teachings at 52, 55, and 58 really do make a difference.Sadari70 IllusionistMistmoore</span></div>

[Grimda]

<div></div><p>I like the very constructive responses to the OP.  I couldn't disagree more with the OP observations, particularly at that level.  I'm now 35 illusionist and have maintained all master spells and legendary since I left the island.  I parse within top 2 dps consistently when I dps.  My master pet can tank and hold aggro better than any mediocre tank at the same level (which is great as long as healer cares to heal my pet).   I can solo just about anything except high yellow triples; even heroic groups. </p><p>Its a more challenging class than most with so many varied spell lines and  timers.  Such as maximizing stun and stifle effectiveness, crowd control, dpsing, and controlling pet.  The previous post was correct that we can bring value to any group by switching between utilty, dps, and whatever during a fight. </p><p>My alts are 60 wizard and 53 ranger and some lower fury and conjuror. Illusionist right now is my favored character. Hopefully stays that way to 60.   </p>