Did Herbal Expertise get better with LU 24?

[Eepop]

<div></div>In LU 24  today... -All Achievements that provided increased casting speed with increased rank received a boost. I am curious how this will effect the herbal expertise AA.  With the importance of cures in T7, an improvement to this AA could be quite helpful. Anyone able to fill us in on what the effect is? <div></div>

[Thatdumbg]

    Hah! I'm already up to 13 plat from all the previous testing I did with it! So, yeah, its someone else's turn. Not I, said the fly.<div></div>

[Eepop]

Heh, yeah, I wasnt suggesting anyone respec just to test it.  I was more fishing to see if anyone already had picked it for thier own reasons and could tell us how it was doing now. <div></div>

[rickfrey29726]

Im not quite about Herbal Expertise getting a slight boost.. I am positive the clerics short-duration casting speed AA 'Divine Recovery' did get upgraded. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> i love this acheivement<div></div>

[Terq]

<DIV>IMHO, herbal expertise is just about the least useful AAs that we can get.  I am sure that other opinions might vary, but you might be waiting a while before someone decides to help you out on this one Eepop.  </DIV>

[Ixnay]

<P>I just went completely dogless with all passive skills, and love the difference and reduction in hassle.</P> <P>I maxed the AGI line, and also maxed the knockdown stun skill in the STA line.  With this achievement config, I get:</P> <P>A  ~1500 magical debuff for all mobs, and a knockdown stun for non epic mobs just like on my SK!</P> <P>100% crits on all melee hits!</P> <P>~15% crit heal chance</P> <P>A very high chance to go into "Rage" mode when I melee, which gives huge haste and makes me double attack and such more.  Grouped with a bard and with just one haste item, I appear to be over the 100% haste cap about one third of the time in total.  And with a 1.0 delay Right Hand of the High Priestess hitting at .5 fully hasted, I'm hit faster than a Jackie Chan movie in fast forward!</P> <P>Laugh if you must, and say what you will, but this is at least 1000x more fun than casting and rebuffing a dog and 5 buffs requiring the dog up to dozens of times per day.  </P> <P>I simply enjoy my shaman much more this way, and that is definitely worth something.</P>

[Loral]

<DIV>Sadly, Aura of Warding and Immunities are hard to set aside in raids, especially if you happen to be the only steady raiding Mystic of a Guild without any Defiler... Thus the importance of Spiritual Foresight to keep pet alive... And that about sums up your 50pts...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But for a solo/small group Mystic, your setup is perfect and very good. My own Mystic will probably go down thoses path too, as it mostly solo/duo.</DIV>

[Ixnay]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Loralor wrote:<BR> <DIV>Sadly, Aura of Warding and Immunities are hard to set aside in raids, especially if you happen to be the only steady raiding Mystic of a Guild without any Defiler... Thus the importance of Spiritual Foresight to keep pet alive... And that about sums up your 50pts...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But for a solo/small group Mystic, your setup is perfect and very good. My own Mystic will probably go down thoses path too, as it mostly solo/duo.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Aye, the 12 percent reduction you get to all mob stats from your dog after putting 8 points in that one int line skill is almost like getting one-third of a defiler.  Our Malignancy spell, at Master 1, is arguably one of our better spells, since it reduces all mob stats by 32 percent.  The defiler spell only lasts 36 secs, however, so it must be spammed during the fight for maximum effectiveness.  The dog's lower version of this spell stays on all mobs, including epic mobs, from the dog's first bite for as long as the dog remains alive and biting.</P> <P>The hassle of the dog was just too much for me, however.  You have to be hyper careful in using it and when to send it in, or it will die, and then your entire 50 points go wasted because it would be nuts to spend a minute recasting the dog and all its buffs during most epic fights.  And in guild's like mine where things go quickly, I was never ready, and always rushed, based on having to recast and rebuff the dog after every wipe, in addition to recasting all my regular buffs.  I hated always being the last one ready, that everyone was waiting for before we could do the next pull.</P> <P>The AGI line and the bash skill/magic debuff from the STA line are a pure joy by comparison.  I cannot describe the fun I get from owning fighters more frequently in duels with the 100% melee crits and >60% self haste I get from the Rage proc and my haste item.  This has made my character like 10x more fun in total.</P> <P>And based on the way my guild raids, I think my new setup is better anyway.  We normally don't have more than 22 players on our roster total.  Yesterday, we killed Hurricanus with 16 total in raid (and none out of raid).  We've done Vyemm and Harla with just 16 also.  Doing a KoS x4 named with that number pretty much requires everyone in the raid to do max dps, including all healers (3 healers doing max dps are > or = a scout's dps, it's like having an extra scout in raid).  So while I'm healing and debuffing, I'm equally aware of my raid dps, and it has never been higher since I respecc'd my achievements for the AGI and limited STA line.  So this set up is better for both me and my guild I think.</P><p>Message Edited by Ixnay on <span class=date_text>06-17-2006</span> <span class=time_text>07:25 AM</span>