It's time to level my Coercer, what to do AA-wise?

[GastonPhoebus]

<DIV>I know it has not been long since EoF release, but I have decided to start levelling my Coercer as my Guild needs one (he is currently 33). </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Taking both the Enchanter and Coercer AA trees into account, what is your best advice for how I should spend my points as I earn them? Right now I have 4 points commited to Enchanter Tree and have spent three in the Charm Enhance AA skill on the Coercer Tree.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I principally solo since I do not get more than and hour or so daily and on weekends I am on my main helping Guildies work Claymore, Writ raid, etc.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This is my first post on the Coercer board, and I would greatly appreciate any advice, suggestions you all may have!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[GastonPhoebus]

<P>Would really appreciate any feedback on which tree to start with and which line...</P> <P> </P> <P>Thanks!</P>

[Venzule]

<P>Hmmm...</P> <P> </P> <P>5 points in the Charm line for sure.</P> <P> </P> <P>I also improved all my reactives giving them an extra point and longer duration.</P> <P> </P> <P>Thats all for me so far sorry.</P>

[The Dark Savant]

I would probably put five points into the Charm AA, and then into the AGI line to get Chronosiphon (which is effective even with one point). This seems to me the most benefit for the fewest points spent, but you'll no doubt get plenty of varied and valid opinions on the matter.

[Mentla]

Am on PvP so went down the line that gives faster cast times and extra defence.  Every little helps over there  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><div></div>

[GastonPhoebus]

<P>Thanks for the good tips so far...</P> <P>I have spent 5 points in the Coercer Charm line and am at 4/4//1 (I think) in the KoS Tree Agility line. I have been reading that the KoS Wisdom line seems a must due to the increases in subj as well as resistances. At what point should I respec, or is this more a personal flavor choice than an actual must-have?</P> <P> </P> <P>Thank you~</P>

[Obzie]

    You said in your OP that you were leveling your Coercer because your guild needed one. If your guild is needing one for raiding, at some point you will need to do the sta line as well for the heal crits since you will be spending alot of time (read all your time) in your MT grp. Depending on how your guild stacks that group you will have 2 but almost definatly 3 healers in it. So  while you  will never really appreciate that aa line, others will love you for it.      As for the question on how effective the +subj is from the wis line I can't tell you for sure, since I have always been specced wis. I can tell you however that I am not having any of the difficulties landing mez that i am reading about on this board. Obzidian Shadow Syndicate Najena <div></div>

[Raidi Sovin'faile]

I had problems. I didn't use to when the master version meant more of a difference than the +subj did. I was DPS spec'd because I didn't really get any appreciable benefit to the rest.Now that all the latest damage increasing things (adornments, etc) seem to work against us, I've decided to go all out "help the party" thing.First, KoS abilities:<font color="#ffff00"><b>Stamina: 4, 4, 8</b></font>This gives you the heal crit chance for everyone in the group. If our power heals crit, it helps those too.. just hard to see if they do or not. You also get a nice detaunt-for-someone-else ability, although it is situational (they have to be targeting the mob, even indirectly, to detaunt that mob).<b><font color="#ffff00">Wisdom: 4, 4, 8, 8</font></b>This gives you some nice resists and +42 in Subj and Focus. Subjugation will help with every single one of your crowd control spells. With NO +subj gear at all, I'm landing spells fine in Mistmoore. This leaves me the option to get +Disruption and +Ordination. One of our debuffs uses disruption, another uses ordination. I have ~+40 Disruption on my gear, so I open with that debuff first, then move to the other one.. works very nicely.Also.. my lvl 32 master charm is still landing like it used to, and lasting full durations on the mobs I've tested (white and lower). With the EoF AA's, I should have no trouble with yellow or maybe even orange cons.<b><font color="#ffff00">Agility: 4, 5</font></b>This gives a nice little oomph in casting speed. I've played without it, testing other things, and honestly.. when crap hits the fan, nothing beats being able to cast faster. It means you can react faster to situations, or recover faster from bad ones (recasting buffs after rez). With the interupt system, it's very nice as well.I might have switched this to full 8 points, and only 5 in the resist part of Wisdom... but whatever.. I like resists cuz I solo, group AND raid. And the 3 points extra won't be that noticeable (maybe 6% faster cast). Even 4, 1 in this ability is a noticeable improvement, the rest over that is just gravy.For my plans with EoF... I've gone over it a few times, and I keep coming back to one particular build:<font color="#ffff00"><b>Coercion: 3 Cataclysmic Mind, 5 Harmonious Link, 2 (6) Auspex, 2 (6) Spell Scourge, 1 Coercive Healing</b></font>This has a subtle increase that I've realized recently. Harmonious Link is a no brainer, 5% extra dethreat is always nice.. I usually have 2-3 of them cast in raids (if not more) at least 1-2 in group settings, even when charming. Coercive Healing is also the big raid buff... slap it on the Shaman and give them a 15% bigger ward.While Auspex and Spell Scourge seem like poor design concept (i mean, usually i can recast my buff before all the charges are used up NOW), and only on the toughest mobs will we see a total increase in overall damage output... there is still a benefit to be had here. A lot, and I do mean A LOT, of instances.. the important ones anyways, require a lot of crowd control now. Especially with the general nerfage of Tank survivability in regular armor, and the general brokenness of holding aggro.So even if I can cast Auspex again already, I don't usually have the chance because I'm busy stunning or mezzing. Stunning mostly. So if it lasts longer, with extra charges, that means I can continue to do get DPS while I ignore it and crowd control.I only wish it had more than just 5s extra duration per point... maybe 10-15s extra per point, that'd be even better.<b><font color="#ffff00">Resistances: 5 Domination, 5 Breakdown, 5 Marred Psyche, 1 Tashiana</font></b>This will make it so when I charm, it will work, no questions asked. In the rare cases where I charm in raids, I want it to WORK.Resistances are just another nice "help everyone out" bonus, as well as helping ourselves. Lastly.. I decided to move away from regen and actually get Tashiana because  <b>fighter taunts are based off mental resists</b>. I've physically tested it, and my brother was getting resists 3 out of 4 taunts on a mob... I switched from crowd control to pop on the debuffs, and bammo.. every single taunt landed from that point on. It worked with just the mental/divine one as well, so unless taunts are divine, they have to be mental.So my tactic will be to land Tashiana as SOON as humanly possible so the Tank's starting taunts land better, preventing peeling. Since it has such a huge resistability bonus (49% harder) it should land most of the time, which should allow the rest of my debuffs and then the rest of my spells to land without resists.<font color="#ffff00"><b>Mana: 5 Manaflow, 3 Mana Cloak, 5 Channel</b></font>I decided on this path because if I'm not DPSing like a fiend, I will be sitting at 85%+ mana WITHOUT my personal regens as it is, so improving the specialty regens would be the way to go.Manaflow is something a lot, so reducing the speed of it going off, and reusability will help greatly. Mana Cloak is just to get Channel, but I use it too occasionally, so the slight edge should help on those nasty power draining fights.Channel is the one I'll probably use the most... unless I'm soloing, or fighting easy stuff, I'm going to use channel. The situations where I use this are plentiful.. when someone dies and is rez'd or revives; when we are fighting in a decently tough place and move quickly from fight to fight; in power draining mob situations; in long fight or marathon fight situations... nobody uses all their abilities when fighting the easy stuff, so we don't need to improve those abilities. What needs a bonus is the stuff that gets us through the TOUGH situations.Sure, it's still a 10 minute timer, dropped from 15 minutes. But we aren't the MTs. The raid doesn't stop if one of our timers isn't up yet. I've never heard "is channel up yet? No? Okay lets wait"... we just plough through and if Channel is there, then it can help. The sooner I can use this sucker, the better.. even if it's still a few fights away.This will fit my playstyle best. Instancing and Raiding benefits the most, while still giving me bonuses for solo play (Control + Charm). Let's face it, solo play doesn't need a lot of help.. we use a few key spells, the rest is gravy. It's group and raiding where we fully use our abilities. And I've decided that I'm more needed for control, regen and hate issues, rather than DPS... if I have to give up on spell crits, volatile magic, and whatnot, then so be it.My success isn't measured in where I score on the Parse list... it's whether we succeed without, or despite, catastrophe.<div></div>

[Kyriel]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Raidi Sovin'faile wrote:<BR>My success isn't measured in where I score on the Parse list... it's whether we succeed without, or despite, catastrophe.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR><FONT color=#ff0033><STRONG><3</STRONG></FONT>

[GastonPhoebus]

<P>Some phenomenal feedback here... it is much appreciated! I cannot wait to get home to study my AA lines....</P> <P> </P> <P>I must confess I am still tempted by the Agility line, but this has given me much to think about....</P> <P> </P> <P>More advice is welcome! Keep it coming, as it is good to hear from as many folks as possible, especially with the newness of the combat changes...</P>

[Toredorf]

hehehe 5 point for charm? [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] thats is a waste of point...... welll i gues not if you are so ..... that don't know how to handle a break while mezzing mobs....... Personally i never have trouble with charm, I use it on raids and in groups when possible. Maybe is cause I have more than 450 subjugation and use Domination master1

[The Dark Savant]

<div><blockquote><hr>Toredorf wrote:<div></div>hehehe 5 point for charm? [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] thats is a waste of point...... welll i gues not if you are so ..... that don't know how to handle a break while mezzing mobs....... Personally i never have trouble with charm, I use it on raids and in groups when possible. Maybe is cause I have more than 450 subjugation and use Domination master1<hr></blockquote>It's not a matter of people who "don't know how to handle breaks"; the more time you spend handling charm breaks, the less time you're spending doing your job, and the less effective your overall output is. Charm breaks aren't hard to handle for any slightly experienced coercer, but the more your charm is breaking and you have to deviate from your job to mez/re-charm, the less you're contributing and the less DPS your pet will be doing.</div>

[Raidi Sovin'faile]

Yes... if charm keeps breaking, then it's a waste of slots. Better to harmonious link and impetus people instead.I'd like to have it so I can charm yellow mobs in places like mistmoore without having it break every 3 minutes. Nice to have the option.<div></div>

[Toredorf]

i charm in Caslte Mistmoore and in Nizara.... and it never had a problem.... yea it sometimes breaks but thats what makes the spell what it is...... Having a eternal pet charmed for 30 without any risk is over power..... And beside charm since eq1 have been the same..... For people crying about it they put the 3 sec mezz after breaks (i'm complete against it cause it takes out all the risk and the fun but NOOBS need it or they will die) <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Raidi Sovin'faile]

When I left eq1 some years back, they had something called Dire Charm as I recall....But anyways, it's five points, what the heck else are you going to put it in that will give a benefit like this? Not to mention it is <b>required</b> to get access to Tashiana, which is the main goal of that line anyways. The bonus to Domination is just a nice perk to reduce the nerfed resistances... So what is your deal?Don't put points into Domination if you don't want. You'll have to drop Tashiana too, I guess. Find a better use for 6 points in what.. mana regen, or something. /shrugAnd if you want some folks to take you seriously, you might want to lay off the "<i>I'm uber, you're NOOBS if you do anything different from me</i>" attitude. Writing in complete sentences does wonders as well.<div></div>

[Toredorf]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Raidi Sovin'faile wrote:<BR>When I left eq1 some years back, they had something called Dire Charm as I recall....<BR><BR>But anyways, it's five points, what the heck else are you going to put it in that will give a benefit like this? Not to mention it is <B>required</B> to get access to Tashiana, which is the main goal of that line anyways. The bonus to Domination is just a nice perk to reduce the nerfed resistances... So what is your deal?<BR><BR>Don't put points into Domination if you don't want. You'll have to drop Tashiana too, I guess. Find a better use for 6 points in what.. mana regen, or something. /shrug<BR><BR><BR><BR>And if you want some folks to take you seriously, you might want to lay off the "<I>I'm uber, you're NOOBS if you do anything different from me</I>" attitude. Writing in complete sentences does wonders as well.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>what of the four unique abilitys you will take? and do you know that tash only last 10secs? heheh thats about 3 spells<BR>

[The Dark Savant]

I have Tashiana and I have Perpetuality. Believe me, I can get a lot more than just three spells off in those ten seconds.<div></div>

[Raidi Sovin'faile]

<font color="#ffff00">what of the four unique abilitys you will take? and do you know that tash only last 10secs? heheh thats about 3 spells</font>I don't know where to begin answering you because your sentence doesn't make any sense as a response. You ask what of the four I'll take in response to my "where to use the 6 points"? Uh.. 6 points won't get you very far unless you drop a bunch of other things along with it. Maybe you meant which ones in general I would take... but that would mean you completeley ignored my original post <b>where I said exactly which ones</b>.I explained how Tashiana can be very useful. How about you read my post before responding.

[whytakemine]

Already a lot of good advice.  The only thing I would interject though is most of it is aimed at end-game.  While leveling up, you mostly won't need to mezz, and charm is pretty weak until you get master charm (normally better to use your concentration elsewhere).  You also probably won't have much call for resists.  Which leaves....dps.I'd go for the most dps you can, and plan on respec'ing once you get higher.<div></div>