Just completed the STR AA line! My thoughts!

[mystt]

<div></div><div>All,  just completed the strength line of AA's (4,4,4,8,<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />, and I must say I was REALLY surprised by how affective the warding was and how much it proc'd.  I found it very useful with solo, and even more in raid situations where you are healing and a ward buff pops up for 500 or so to help your group.  The AOE foresight proc is useful but it still will require a lot more testing.  No more do you have to worry about your pet dying in a raid situation.   We did armor farms with about a group and a half in Lab and it was very nice having the extra warding.  Also tested this in HOF with single group.</div><div> </div><div>Side notes:  In a solo environment  Dogdog, does about 20 DPS or so, in a raid environment this is bumped up to about 40 or so DPS (group was Zerker, Mystic, Coercer, Dirge, Templar, and Pally).  If you are undecided on which path to take on AA...STR LINE is pretty nice.  Leg Bite is ok,  the down side is the spear you need, still waiting on a good one. </div><div> </div><div>Anyway,  figured I would pass some info along...:smileyvery-happy:</div><p>Message Edited by mystt on <span class="date_text">03-20-2006</span><span class="time_text">08:19 AM</span></p>

[Sokolov]

<div><span>Thanks for the review!</span></div>

[Eepop]

That is great news!Just to make sure though...Does the group ward proc goes off when Dogdoga) Attacksorb) is attacked?The two descriptions conflict,  your review tends to point that its on his attacks (which we were all hoping for), just want to make sure.Thanks!<div></div>

[mystt]

<div></div><p>EEPOP,  I will confirm that Dogdog procs on his successful attack.  IE  Dogdog hits XYZ mob for 40, it MAY proc.  Also, some other good news with this is.  The WARD buff and the AE buff and the HASTE buff are always on, unlike Legbite that you have to click each time it goes off.  This is a great skill! Very happy with it!</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>

[Eepop]

Woohoo! I dont have to respec.Im only down to 2 points into the haste aura, but knowing that the next two abilities do work wellish may give me a little more incentive to get the AAs rollin in.<div></div>

[Mystiq]

I took the str line as well, mostly for the final ability as it is the only foreseeable way the dog is going to survive longer than 5 seconds. Here's what I think about the line so far:-Leg Bite - With the necessary 4 points in this skill to proceed down the line, it turns out to be a pretty decent little dot, and can be maintained indefinately on a target, since it lasts untill it is castable again. It's an instant cast and can be applied in the middle of casting other things, which is great. I managed to procure a nice 1h spear and I use it, and Leg Bite, pretty much all the time.-Aura of Haste - This buff is meh...4 points puts it at 8% haste, nothing to rave about. It also has to be recast every time you zone and cannot be cast in combat. Too much thought necessary to maintain a weak haste buff IMO.-Aura of Warding - This is pretty nice as well, but I'm holding back true praise for it untill I know just how well it does or does not stack with our other wards. Four points in this gives your pet a 12% chance to proc a ward on each group member <i>when the pet successfully attacks.</i> What's great about this proc is it gives each person in the group their own ward for the listed amount - it doesn't fall off as soon as all of the absorbtion happens on one person like our regular group wards. As I mentioned, if the ward from this ability doesn't interfere with our normal wards, I would consider and recommend adding as many spare points as possible to it.-Spiritual Foresight - This buff is a blessing from The Tribunal. With this buff on my pet just doesn't die. The problem exists in the fact that, to my knowledge, I've never seen the group AE immunity proc actually do anything. I see it proc all the time, in the chat window, but that's my only indication that it happens. AE's with reliable frequency still hit, damage is taken and secondary effects also hit. Either the group proc is not working proplerly, or the log feedback just isn't there. The other problem with this buff is that it's pretty much mandatory for a raiding Shaman that wants to use any achievement skills requiring the pet. It simply will not survive long enough to be of value otherwise. So that's 25 points just gone right there. I'm having trouble figuring out where the rest of my points are best spent to be honest.<div></div>

[TangBaBa]

<div>Just curious, Mystique - what kind of spear are you using?</div><div> </div><div>Tried the link on your sig but the site isn't responding.</div>

[thedu]

<span><blockquote><hr>TangBaBa wrote:<div>Just curious, Mystique - what kind of spear are you using?</div><div> </div><div>Tried the link on your sig but the site isn't responding.</div><hr></blockquote></span><span class="itemTitle">Penumbral Shortspear.  The weird thing is that in the Item search it doesn't show up for Mystics - although it's clearly stated in the description that it's for Mystics. One step forward..two steps back.</span><div></div>

[Mystiq]

Hm the link to my gear should work if you're signed in on EQ2 Players and have the ability to see items on the site. I'm using a Penumbral Shortspear, which I believe drops from the Umbral Keeper in Bonemire.<div></div>

[Sokolov]

<div></div><span class="itemTitle">Penumbral Shortspear</span><img src="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/images/Icons/icon_item_2501.jpg"><img src="http://eq2players.station.sony.com/images/en/tiers/fabled.gif"><span><font color="#eaea88"><strong>LORE NO-TRADE </strong></font></span><font color="green"><strong>+16</strong></font><span><div align="left"><font color="green"><strong>Strength</strong></font></div></span><font color="green"><strong>+20</strong></font><span><div align="left"><font color="green"><strong>Stamina</strong></font></div></span><font color="green"><strong>+27</strong></font><span><div align="left"><font color="green"><strong>Wisdom</strong></font></div></span><font color="green"><strong>+80</strong></font><span><div align="left"><font color="green"><strong>health</strong></font></div></span><font color="green"><strong>+80</strong></font><span><div align="left"><font color="green"><strong>power</strong></font></div></span><font color="green"><strong>+4</strong></font><span><div align="left"><font color="green"><strong>disruption</strong></font></div></span><font color="#7ed7df"><strong></strong></font><strong>One-Handed Pierce</strong>Damage:<strong>30 - 91 (75.95 Rating)</strong>Delay:<strong>1.6 </strong>Weight:<strong>3.0 </strong>Level:<strong>67</strong><strong>Mystic</strong>, <strong>Shadow Knight</strong>, <strong>Defiler</strong>, <strong>Paladin</strong><div></div>

[TheRealMo]

Also, if the Aura of Warding expires, it heals as per our single target ward. <span>:smileytongue:</span><div></div>

[Placid Soulsav]

<div></div><p>I also finished the STR line AA and i was Disapointed in the final one. It gives our pet a 100% immune to AoE witch is nice but when it procs for group its only a 5% chance and only last for 5 secs.  had this AA done for the last 2 weeks and havent seen it take ONE group AoE yet.  I would like to see the time Increased to atleast 10 or 15 secs if not longer.  Not worth the 8 AA points.</p><p> </p>

[Banditman]

The thing is that it makes the pet immune to AE's.  So many of the OTHER abilities require the pet to be hitting "something" in order for those OTHER abilities to do anything.If you want to get ANYTHING out of your AA's as a raiding Mystic, you almost have to go down the STR line so your pet lives long enough to be of any use at all.

[Kyin]

<div></div><p>Ok I am currently almost done with the STR line but this is what I have noticed so far from the aura of warding.</p><p> </p><p>It gives the group 445 HP ward that apears to be to each person but from what I have seen it acts just like our group ward except that after the 445 hp is used up the ward does not seem to disappear.  I say this because when the ward ends I get a +0 over my head even though I am hurt and took no damage when the ward was up.  I need to further test this but it is looking like the spell needs a look at.</p><p>Haste aura is 4 points for +8% or if it keeps the +2% a point caps out at +16% haste which is a very nice haste buff for a group.  Monks get a +19% buff for the group so this haste is a great spell once you get the pet AoE immunity.</p><p>Leg bite, Love this spell, I carry around a spear just to use it.</p><p>The end AoE spell I do not have just yet but should by the end of the week. Unless it has changed it has a 20% chance to proc a 5 sec immunity, now that isnt that great but alot of the raid content in T7 has group only zone wide AoE's having the chance to miss just one of these a fight is a great ability worth investing in.  Given that the pet is suppose to get an attack speed increase this spell should be more useful.  Though I would love to see this as a 30% chance =)</p><p> </p><p>Str is a great line! I highly recommend it.</p>

[mystt]

<div></div><p>Ok, I have a few updates for everyone on the STR line.  The more I use it, the more I do like it.  I know this may seem VERY unofficial,  but I am not at my home office with my notes.</p><p>Up in this thread Mystique posed the question for proof of Dogdog "blocking" AE's.  Well, I had to think about this for a bit, but I believe I came up with a way to validate the blocks however unoffical it may be.</p><p>Scenerio is this,  Single group in Lab (yea, long fights, and we are kinda nuts).  But,  anyone that has been in that zone knows that the "thurg" droag cast AE's all the time.  To test this I sent in my trusty "super dogdog" and followed it up with  Slothful (yea, now you are thinking right).  I then watched the buffs and sure enough BAM, dogdog's proc went off, and right after that, the Droag AE went off...no affects on the group (it worked?) , YES--I believe it did,  becuase Slothful also went off.  Now I know that slothful can go off on ANY power consumption,  that is why I picked the "thurg droag's"  they seem to cast several AE's and the chance to block them and know when they cast is critical to the problem.  The situation happened several times and I believe that "dogdog" did in fact block some of the AE's.</p><p>Ok, the downside...I did not see a message that said "dogdog blocked the AE etc etc",  so I believe that would be VERY helpful to get a feedback of this (or maybe I was not looking in the right place).  So, in closing I am going to fall short of actually saying I have proof, but I have a strong belief that it is working!  Anyone, else have any ideas?</p><p> </p>

[NimSul]

<div></div><p>I just recently respecced from wis line to str like because "ritual" didnt seem nearly as powerfull in a raid as "aura of warding" and "ritual of alacrity" seemed like a big dissapointment, the deaggro and damage pet procs on wis3 and wis4 are useless when you dont have pet ae immunity (my pet got hit for just under 50.000 from a ae from a junk name in laboratory). So 16 points for "ritual of alacrity" with its limited and questionable use was too much.</p><p>Anyways back on topic:</p><p>Leg bite - i havnt used much since i like grizzle's mace, but will try how a quickswitch macro might work at some point.</p><p>Aura of haste - Yea this is kinda meh, i put it up because its free to have, but nothing i stress to do.</p><p>Aura of warding - I took this to rank 8 so it has a 24% proc and i gotta say im loving it, the 500 ward to everyone is really really nice in a ae fight and 500 ward here and there on the mt never hurts, with the 30 sec duration on wards this is up most of the time ready for the ae, if there isnt too many ae's to take it down that is. Dunno if it interfere with our normal wards but i havnt seen anyting to make me believe they interfere.</p><p>Spiritual foresight - The proc is not very long duration, but so far ive seen it eat 1 ae and i like it, other thing about this buff is that its more or less a must if you wanna bring the pet on raids like already said.</p><p>My current plan for the rest of my poists is to either go for coagulate and then only have 5 points in "aura of warding" or go down the sta line and get 4 4 8 4, a stun is always nice, a debuff that cant be capped owns and shorter cure timer is always nice.</p>

[dennis]

Hmmm...this is very interesting.Does this mean I should /respec my WIS line and pick the STR instead? I know this propably a question about religion, but there are some good arguments here.You are right concerning the spear. I'm still using mu Prismatic 1.0 weapon, can't find a good spear to replace it with, except that Umbral one. I've gotta look for that <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><div></div>

[Aesdyn2]

<div></div>I also went STR (been using it for about 3 days now) and I have to agree it's fairly useful. I tested out all the lines I had interest in (STR,AGI, and WIS) and I've decided to go STR/AGI.70 Mystic - Nagafen<p>Message Edited by Aesdyn2 on <span class="date_text">03-23-2006</span><span class="time_text">04:32 AM</span></p>

[Shiss]

<div></div><p>This may be a little off topic but, pertains to rebuffing your pet after a pull goes bad or he drops from a AoE.  I summon another pet, they I try to rebuff him.</p><p>Cant be cast during combat... Um please for the love tell me why my haste buff cannot be recast during combat.  How does rehasting my pet and the group</p><p>in combat unbalance the game?  What you are saying you cant recast haste as a coercer during the game if you died and revived? of course you can. so why</p><p>make this ability any different since it is tied to our limp wimp HP-less dog.  I am so tired of My AA pet getting wiped unless I find a way to get behind the mob, and HOPE</p><p>that he doesnt AoE (until I have achieved 25AA's so that I can finally get him AoE immunity).</p><p>Sorry just think they need to look at our pet and see what they really intended, or if he is broke concerning group buffs and HP buffs <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Eepop]

<span><blockquote><hr>Shissan wrote:<div></div>Sorry just think they need to look at our pet and see what they really intended, or if he is broke concerning group buffs and HP buffs <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><hr></blockquote>I dont know if you've seen the tests we've run, but he is definitely not getting the full effects of group buffs.  Wether this is intended or not, we have not been given any response to.</span><div></div>

[povarbeast]

<div></div><div></div><div>still not sure if the anti ae proc works as intended but i went strength line right off the bat too its a must have for raiding shamans. Working my way up the stamina line i want to max the cure aa....</div><div> </div><div>ps. any shamans test the int. end ability im very curious about scourge and its effect on raid mobs?</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Tarsonis</div><div> </div><div>70 mystic 36 aa</div><div>Befallen</div><p>Message Edited by povarbeast on <span class="date_text">03-24-2006</span><span class="time_text">06:25 AM</span></p>

[Kyin]

<div>Yes that last ability in that line has got me to wonder as well, seeing how raid mobs have insane buffs on them, if that can dispell those you can remove huge problems from the mobs.  For example a brigand mob has a posion dot that does 2-3k per tic with a 20% chance to apply that on attack!!! Pallys have 3-6k blessed weapon procs with stun applied.  Guardians have 5k mit buffs.  If you can remove those with that pet from a whole group of mobs at the start then you have just removed a huge part of the challenge from most fights.  For normal exping groups not that big of a deal but for those raids it helps alot.</div><div> </div><div>Also does it just remove buffs now or does it do damage still as well?</div>

[Nacire]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>povarbeast wrote:<div></div><div></div><div>still not sure if the anti ae proc works as intended but i went strength line right off the bat too its a must have for raiding shamans. Working my way up the stamina line i want to max the cure aa....</div><div> </div><div>ps. any shamans test the int. end ability im very curious about scourge and its effect on raid mobs?</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Tarsonis</div><div> </div><div>70 mystic 36 aa</div><div>Befallen</div><p>Message Edited by povarbeast on <span class="date_text">03-24-2006</span><span class="time_text">06:25 AM</span></p><hr></blockquote>Don't even bother with the first point in th cure aa it's utter junk.  It ONLY affects the generic single target, single effect cures that we share with all priests.  They already are 1 second cast and instant recast, can't really improve that by much.  Our grp cure and Ancient Balm are NOT affected.

[Mystiq]

Herbal Expertise is about the dumbest AA out there. The fact that someone thought we really wanted to hasten a one second cast/instant recast generic spell over our real spells really lets you know how much thought was put into our achievement abilities. Add to that the insulting Ritual of Alacrity, which is weak in strength compared to similar spell haste aa's, on top of not being castable on ourselves. I'm sorry but I can't find much to be excited about when I press L.<div></div>

[Eileithia]

<div></div><p>I seem to recall (correct me if I'm wrong here) that Herbal Expertise actually warded the recipient of the cure against that type of damage for a certain amount of time while it was still in Beta..</p><p>Really wish that was the case now, because it would give me a reason to dump some points outside of my STR line.</p>

[Mystiq]

You are correct. Herbal Expertise was a ward against whatever element you cured back in beta. Much cooler than it is now IMO.<div></div>

[povarbeast]

<div></div><p>well crap there goes the stamina line =( i thought it worked with ancient balm and group cure. I do like infective bites oh well.... off to research what would be the best way to spend the last of my aa.</p><p> </p><p>Tarsonis</p><p>Befallen</p>

[SonnyA]

<div></div><div></div><div></div><p>I'm also working down the STR line and at the moment I have 14 AA points. I can never send the pet into melee to proc aura of warding because it ALWAYS dies to AE or ripostes (if tank should lose aggro).</p><p>I think it's poor design that you won't get maximum effect out of your spent AA until you've gotten the last ability in the line, the pets immunity to AEs.</p><p>So with my 14 AAs spent, all I get is an 8% group attack speed buff that'll go away if the dog is hit by a gust of wind.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Message Edited by SonnyA on <span class="date_text">03-28-2006</span><span class="time_text">10:13 AM</span></p>

[BALTO]

as of today, im noticen the pets immunity to aoe's less direct is broken....<div></div>

[BALTO]

before, it would only seldomly take aoe damage when it wasnt direct, but today, spaceghost dog was constantly need'n to be recasted<div></div>

[BALTO]

an on a side note...why in the hell do we have the ghost dog? goodies play'n with spooks an undead?god im spiralling down into taken another eq2 vacation<div></div>

[BALTO]

ok, seems to be a specific situation that constantly happens in that one raid zone in barren sky that resembles the palace of awakening.  most other times its a rare situation the pet takes on damage while haven spirtual forsight up, so rare i never felt encouraged to post an find out if others have noticed this..but dam that one zone, pet would die so fast, i stopped casting it.this is the only reason i have reluctance on going down str first, is that if pets not up, all the AA points are wasted, least with other progressions in the AA tree, ya can fall back on a trait to use if the dogs down.yes im aware you folx love parsen the log files up,  just have other things i'd rather do...like...umm... whinen an flamen. make fun of moorguard & freinds, etc...<div></div>

[Surly_Smurf]

<div>I've been putting most of my (admittedly few) AA points into the Wisdom line, if for no other reason than the ease of respeccing it means I can enjoy the Increased <% HP to heal spells>. I like this especially when raiding.</div><div> </div><div>But I have an admittedly stupid question: On the first two AA Lines that require spear(s), is one ONLY a one-hander and one ONLY a two-hander spear? or can you be using a Two-hander for either?</div><div> </div><div>I've got a pretty nifty scythe which I can only guess falls into the Great-Spear category(?) that I like to use in XP/Loot groups (I use my pris and FT4books for the mana regen during raids. I'm at work and cannot remember its name. All I know is, I can inexplicably do SLASHING dmg with it. Don't ask me, I don't design these weapons, I just look bad [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] walking around with it. I've been thinking about respeccing to see all this hype about STR line for myself but I wonder if it being a 2-hander means it's basically useless to me for STR line?</div><div> </div><div>thanks!</div>

[Fi]

STR line requires a 1-handed spear, and 2-handed weapon is not going to work.If or if not your 2-h slashing pike thing does work for the root AA is something that may only be said fro sure by testing, but the requirements are rather strict, for example the INT-line asks for a "staff" to be equipped, and it works on "wands" and things that say "staff" in their name for me, but not with maces, sceptres or other blunt weapons that could be considered staffs in some wider interpretation of the word. So I would strongly assume that only 2-h spears in a closer meaning of the word qualify for the ability in question.<div></div>

[Sinda]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>povarbeast wrote:<div></div><div></div><div>still not sure if the anti ae proc works as intended but i went strength line right off the bat too its a must have for raiding shamans. Working my way up the stamina line i want to max the cure aa....</div><div> </div><div>ps. any shamans test the int. end ability im very curious about scourge and its effect on raid mobs?</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Tarsonis</div><div> </div><div>70 mystic 36 aa</div><div>Befallen</div><p>Message Edited by povarbeast on <span class="date_text">03-24-2006</span><span class="time_text">06:25 AM</span></p><hr></blockquote><p>INT line is quite good for raiders. The PB AE DoT adds some dps on trash (200+/tick at rank 4). The attribute debuffer looks useful as well. Say the mob has 8k resist. At rank 4 that's 6% less, ie 480 all resists debuff. And less Str, Sta, Wis, Int means less dps and less resists.</p><p>But the most interesting ability of the INT line is Immunities. The pet resist boost is useless when you have the full STR line, but at rank 8, this ability adds 800 to all resists on all your group.</p><p>I didn't buy the last ability, which is useless I guess for PvE (might be really really good for PvP though)</p><p>I'm definitely happy with the INT line, and seeing how the last ability of the STR line is needed for dogdog survival, my final AA setup will be :</p><p>STR : 4 4 4 8 8 / INT : 4 4 4 8, and 1 point that I don't know what to do with.</p>