AA STR line is nice +a little wis line

[Maddcovv]

At (STR 4 4 8 8 1) my dog is immune to AOEs, procs amost a constant 450 group ward, procs an occational group AOE resist buff, does leg bit DOT (If Im using a spear), gives the group 16% haste,  and since he doesnt die to AOEs is doing constant damage on the mob.  I combined that with the wis line of ritual healing and Ritualistic Aggression and the dog procs 450-700 damage now and then.<div></div>

[Eepop]

How is the dog's survivablity with the AE immunity? How times do you have to resummon him in..... One hour soloing: One hour grouping in a dungeon: One hour raiding: I am still 5 AAs away from having the immunity and my patience for resummoning(and rebuffing) is starting to wear very thin.  Any light at the end of the tunnel you could provide would be very much appreciated. <div></div>

[Maddcovv]

I usually only end up resummoning him when i die. Once in a long while he might grab some aggro or get killed by a fluke but its rare. i dont solo much I raid a lot so I dont know how he does soloing. I'm usually working on qeynos claymore quests or raiding.I hear your pain I hated the [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] dog before I respec'd and went the full str line at once. Now he is the show.<div></div>

[Banditman]

I totally agree.  I'll never understand why anyone would do anything besides go to Spiritual Foresight immediately.  It's not just a raid thing.  Nearly every mob out there has an AE of some sort that will kill the pet.In raids, the only thing that gets my pet killed now is the occasional riposte - but that's really not his fault.  Just keep him away from the front of the mobs.When raiding the times I have to resummon him are usually the times when I've been killed.  Like I said, an occasional riposte and sometimes a freaky AE that somehow gets listed as 100% direct.  (Ascent of the Awakened x2 trash mobs on floors 3 and 4 have these)Solo'ing I do lose him more often, usually my own fault.  Since he's sitting there attacking as well as proc'ing his Ward on me, when I get an add the adds typically aggro him and I need to learn to react faster.  The good news here is that with his proc'ed Ward I find myself healing a lot less when solo'ing and thereby improving my own DPS.  I've got Aura at Level 8, which is I believe a 24% chance to proc.Grouping much the same as raiding.  Just keep him away from the front of the mobs.<div></div>

[Eepop]

Thank goodness.  I am pretty close relatively at only 5 AAs away...but I am going nuts summoning him after almost every fight.. I have 7 points in AoW right now, so I really want him to be up to proc it.  But he will just not stay alive. <div></div>

[Travesty]

<FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#00cc00 size=2>I too have recently gone the Foresight route, but Im questiong my /AA respec.  I do notice the wards proc quite often, but I am now starting to question the survivability of the pet.  Though the description reads only direct attacks, my dog will on occasion catch a 360 slash attack (which im not sure does or doesnt count for a direct attack) from one of these raid mobs (which many have) and goes down quite quickly.  There are some AE DoTs (Elemental Warder) that are just not curable too.  As a healer, I do stay max range, but some mobs do what appears s raid wide dmg or we are forced to fight in confined spaces, and is unavoidable. Any other Raid healers who have similar thoughts ?</FONT>

[Maddcovv]

"(Ascent of the Awakened x2 trash mobs on floors 3 and 4 have these)"Yes sirre...  AOA mobs are the exception, I stop using my dog in that zone.<div></div>

[Banditman]

<div><blockquote><hr>Eepop wrote:Thank goodness.  I am pretty close relatively at only 5 AAs away...but I am going nuts summoning him after almost every fight.. I have 7 points in AoW right now, so I really want him to be up to proc it.  But he will just not stay alive. <div></div><hr></blockquote>Honestly I'd go 4's all the way until I had Spiritual Foresight and THEN go back and add more to Aura.  As you said, he won't stay alive, and he proc's nothing dead.I went all the way to Spiritual Foresight, then came back and finished up Aura.I'm now on my way down the Agility line for Heal crits.  The extra melee crits en route are going to be nice for solo'ing.</div>

[Nightfire]

<DIV>I am not that high but I have been doing the wis line so far. From what i have been reading lately it sounds like I should go Str then Wis or should I do them both and the same time?</DIV>

[Banditman]

It takes a minimum of 25 AA's to get the final ability in the STR line, which is pretty much the whole point of the STR line.  Aura of Warding is great, but without Spiritual Foresight it's largely useless.  Frankly, without Spiritual Foresight, the pet is largely useless.If anything you want involves your pet, you don't have much choice but to go full STR line.I wouldn't split my efforts.  Go STR all the way and then come back to whatever else later.<div></div>

[Nightfire]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Banditman wrote:<BR>If anything you want involves your pet, you don't have much choice but to go full STR line.<BR><BR>I wouldn't split my efforts.  Go STR all the way and then come back to whatever else later.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Ok thank you. :smileyhappy:

[Maddcovv]

What I did was put a lot of points into Wis and agil and played with them until I had enough points to go allthe way on STr then I used my free respec to go STR.<div></div>

[Eepop]

<blockquote><hr>Banditman wrote: <div><blockquote><hr>Eepop wrote:Thank goodness.  I am pretty close relatively at only 5 AAs away...but I am going nuts summoning him after almost every fight.. I have 7 points in AoW right now, so I really want him to be up to proc it.  But he will just not stay alive. <div></div><hr></blockquote>Honestly I'd go 4's all the way until I had Spiritual Foresight and THEN go back and add more to Aura.  As you said, he won't stay alive, and he proc's nothing dead.I went all the way to Spiritual Foresight, then came back and finished up Aura.I'm now on my way down the Agility line for Heal crits.  The extra melee crits en route are going to be nice for solo'ing. </div><hr></blockquote>Respecs are cheap enough, so I reasoned that its better to get use out of the 7 points while I build up to the 8 needed for foresight, then when I get the 8th just respec to get foresight. Yesterday, I respec'ed (using the freebie) to agi line with 8 in melee crits and 7 in the 2 hand spear attack.  In hindsight, this would have been the better thing to do while I tried to build up the AAs to get foresight.  Without forsight, everything else in the str line is just an annoyance because the dog keeps dropping.<div></div>

[Banditman]

That whole line bothers me a little.Phalanx description says . . . "2H Spear or Spear equipped in primary".False.Spear does not work.  Only 2H Spear.I may spec out of that line and go INT instead.  Now that dogdog isn't dying every other pull, some of those abilities look more attractive now.<div></div>

[Terq]

<P>Yeah, I read the phalanx description the same way.  I was pretty dissappointed to find out that my 1 hand spear wouldn't work.  </P> <P>I resepced into the Str line also, and am 1 pt away from Kenny's immunity.  Like Bandit said, some of the other abilities are starting to look more attractive, since I won't have to constantly resummon him.</P> <P>On a side note, I am not going to get as much use out of that macro:</P> <P>"OMG!  A %T killed Kenny!  You [Removed for Content]!"</P>

[Travesty]

<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#00cc00 size=2>I know some of your swear by the Foresight, but have some of you (or any) have really felt that the AE immunity is really worth it ?  I have compiled 5 different sets of resist gear, and Im not feeling like the dog makes a significant benefits in these raid encounters.  Originally, I had 8 pts in both Crit Heals and Ritual, and now feeling like those are actually more useful than Foresight is.  I guess I am looking from some sort of confirmation or logs that would dispell my feeling like Foresight makes little to no significant difference in those AE attacks.  Sure, it not going down as often, but I feel like Im having to call the dog back every other raid mob.  Does anyone have positive things to share about Foresight, please do so.  =)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#00cc00 size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#00cc00 size=2>Thanks ~</FONT></DIV>

[Banditman]

Once the dog is immune, he can go in and start proc'ing that 445 point Ward on each member of the group.  He procs it pretty consistently when Aura is at Level 8.  It may not sound like much, but that 445 works against AE's . . . so every single AE that comes in is coming in mitigated by an additional 445 points.  It's significant.The chances of Spiritual Foresight being proc'ed up on your GROUP?  Yea, that's pretty rare.  The point isn't that Foresight protects your group, but it's 100% effective (aside from a small number of exceptional AE's) on dogdog.You still want to keep your dog out of the front of the mob, but good tanks should be turning raid mobs away from the raid anyway, so it really should be a non-issue for potential ripostes.I think that if you are finding Foresight to be worth less than you imagined you probably had too great an expectation for it.Here is what Spiritual Foresight does:It makes your pet immune to 90-95% of the AE's in the game.  The only place I've seen an AE get him is in Ascent of the Awakened.  Yes, he still gets eaten by ripostes if I'm not aware of his situation, but that's MY FAULT, not his.Foresight itself is merely an "enabler" if you will.  It makes the pet strong enough to stand in and use some of the OTHER abilities he can have.  His value only goes up relative to what OTHER abilities he has.  If he has no other abilities, then Foresight isn't that valuable.  The more abilities he has, the more valuable Foresight is.My current thinking is that instead of AGI, I may go INT with the rest of my AA's . . . perhaps 5 points into WIS to get the first level of Ritual.  However, consider this:Down the INT line are a LOT of things that are good for your dog and your group.  I think the 3rd or 4th rank is added resistances for your dog and groupmates near him.  There is an AE DOT and something else.For a guild with two Shaman, if those two coordinate AA's, they can really do a lot with their dogs.I guess I probably should write up an updated AA tree for everyone.<div></div>

[Terq]

<P>I don't think that anyone is going to say that the dog is going to save you, or the raid, with foresight.  What we are saying, is that once you have foresight, and the dog doesn't die to the aoes, then the other abilities that can proc off the dog become more attractive.  </P> <P>If you get more milage from the critical heals/ ritual, then by all means, go with that.  </P> <P>/e gets on soapbox...</P> <P>This is actually one area that I think the devs did a nice job in.  All of the ae abilities are "nice to have," but none are the "have to have."  With each of my characters, I haven't seen a line that was so overpowering in comparison that it became the only real choice.  Kudos. </P>

[Terq]

bah, Bandit beat me to it.

[CallMeToyMan]

<div></div><div><blockquote><hr>Banditman wrote:<div><blockquote><hr>Eepop wrote:Thank goodness.  I am pretty close relatively at only 5 AAs away...but I am going nuts summoning him after almost every fight.. I have 7 points in AoW right now, so I really want him to be up to proc it.  But he will just not stay alive. <div></div><hr></blockquote>Honestly I'd go 4's all the way until I had Spiritual Foresight and THEN go back and add more to Aura.  As you said, he won't stay alive, and he proc's nothing dead.I went all the way to Spiritual Foresight, then came back and finished up Aura.I'm now on my way down the Agility line for Heal crits.  The extra melee crits en route are going to be nice for solo'ing.</div><hr></blockquote>This is more or less what I'm doing, Spiritual Foresight, then max out Warding/Haste in that line, and now putting the remainder into the Agility line for the increased heal/melee critical chance.My main complaints with the AA dog is that there are many raid encounters where I can't use him (e.g., mobs that mem wipe often and have directional AEs).  Oh well, AAs are not suppose to make us uber powerful, just give us an edge, so I accept that, but still, I can hope that SOE will consider making the AA dog immune to directional AEs (as long as they are not directed specifically at the AA dog).</div><p>Message Edited by CallMeToyMan on <span class=date_text>05-16-2006</span> <span class=time_text>01:46 PM</span>

[Azvip]

The only problem i have with that line is there is like NO SPEARS anywhere =/ anyone have ideas where to find good spears im lvl 42 will be 50 by next week.

[Banditman]

Itemization gets better as you get higher in levels.Honestly, you'll have real trouble with spears until late 50's when you can start into KoS.When I finally got a decent spear (Ok, the $*@# thing flat out rocks) in KoS I found that my Piercing skill was sitting at about L23ish.  I realized then that the last time I used a spear was Aurora's Spear of Mysticism . . . the one you get at L19 for doing the Mystic class quest.<div></div>

[Eepop]

It also seems that the route they have chosen for itemization of spears is as soloing tools.  There are very few spears that are good for raid or group healing, and the few that are always have an analogous crusher thats either better effect for the same effort, or less effort for the same effect. <div></div>

[Moonspinn]

<P>For those that haven't come upon a good fabled 1 handed spear, the imbued xegonite trident is a crafted one that really isn't too terribly bad for group healing. Has 23 str, 23 wis 42 health 42 power and a 50 something damage rating.</P> <P>I still put my prismatic on for raids though...</P>