New defiler-Questions!

[Athri]

<DIV>Hi everyone. I think that after almost a month of playing I have finally found my class. I love my defiler so far. I've never felt as powerful as I do with him, and he hearkens me back to the days of EQ1 to an extent. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I do have some questions though that I couldn't readily find the answer to around the forums.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1). Debuff stacking. Does everything stack? Would Abasement stack with Tendrils stack with Umbral Trap? If so, does it stack additively or multiplicatively? </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2). Ability debuffs. Does debuffing a monsters stamina affect it's maximum hitpoints? For example, when I cast my spell that lowers all a monsters stats by 18%, does it lose a chunk of hitpoints off the top? If so, is it worth casting that spell first as a type of "temporary" damage?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3). Dogdog! Yay for the return of dogdog. I noticed, though, that he is a triple-down npc. Is he really worthless being that low? Almost all of the AXP points revolve around using him, so I'm guessing he's not *that* bad. When he's buffed up with some AXP procs does he do even mediocre damage? I know he'll never take a hit, sadly.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4). Named soloing. I plan on grouping whenever I can, but there will always be times that I have to solo a little on the side. I know that it won't be very fast and that's fine, but there's nothing in the world I hate more than seeing a named monster spawn with potentially usefull loot spawn and laugh at me as I can't kill it. It seems that, unless they are immune to our debuffs, we'd be able to solo some pretty tough stuff. Is that true? Can you take a ^^ or ^^^ named when it's blue or green? Or does it still tear through all your wards even being massively debuffed?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>5) Wards. Do/can they crit? If so, how do you know that they have?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>That's all that I can think of for now. I'm sure I'll have some more later, but I'm interested to see what people will say so far. Thanks in advance for any help that you may have.</DIV><p>Message Edited by Athrias on <span class=date_text>04-24-2006</span> <span class=time_text>07:56 AM</span>

[Sa'meria]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Athrias wrote:<BR> <DIV>Hi everyone. I think that after almost a month of playing I have finally found my class. I love my defiler so far. I've never felt as powerful as I do with him, and he hearkens me back to the days of EQ1 to an extent. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I do have some questions though that I couldn't readily find the answer to around the forums.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1). Debuff stacking. Does everything stack? Would Abasement stack with Tendrils stack with Umbral Trap? If so, does it stack additively or multiplicatively?  <FONT color=#ffff00>Yes, but not sure on the + or x </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2). Ability debuffs. Does debuffing a monsters stamina affect it's maximum hitpoints? For example, when I cast my spell that lowers all a monsters stats by 18%, does it lose a chunk of hitpoints off the top? If so, is it worth casting that spell first as a type of "temporary" damage? <FONT color=#ffff00>I believe that its best to use it at the begining of the fight cause it pulls it right away from the mobs health.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3). Dogdog! Yay for the return of dogdog. I noticed, though, that he is a triple-down npc. Is he really worthless being that low? Almost all of the AXP points revolve around using him, so I'm guessing he's not *that* bad. When he's buffed up with some AXP procs does he do even mediocre damage? I know he'll never take a hit, sadly. <FONT color=#ffff00>As for the mutt, yea he can go down pretty fast. If soloing drop the HP/power buff line on him for alittle extra health. I typicaly drop the dire invective line on him too (it can increase his damage 50%) since he melees more then I do, since i spend most of my time casting dots and damage spells. Raiding though I always have him out, with the <STRONG>one exception</STRONG> of when the mobs spawns/calls add for the players or pets in the AE range. I have noticed lately he doesn't get one shotted as much from AE's not sure if Sony improved the code on him or what. Just make sure he is allways behind the mob when you send him in, or he will "Suck the Frontal" as we say inguild. His little ward procs, the non-direct AE avoidence proc, and the all stat debuff can be pretty nice.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4). Named soloing. I plan on grouping whenever I can, but there will always be times that I have to solo a little on the side. I know that it won't be very fast and that's fine, but there's nothing in the world I hate more than seeing a named monster spawn with potentially usefull loot spawn and laugh at me as I can't kill it. It seems that, unless they are immune to our debuffs, we'd be able to solo some pretty tough stuff. Is that true? Can you take a ^^ or ^^^ named when it's blue or green? Or does it still tear through all your wards even being massively debuffed?<FONT color=#ffff00> I haven't solo'd alot of names period, I really dislike soloing as it takes forever to do so, can it be done sure.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>5) Wards. Do/can they crit? If so, how do you know that they have? <FONT color=#ffff00>A dev said somewhere that yes they are intended to crit, and with LU 23 it should show in the combat log. I rememeber they said that the last bug that they had with wards was due to the code on when it crit'ed is wasn't warding properly.</FONT></DIV> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P> </P> <P>Hope this helps some.</P>

[MilkToa]

2). Ability debuffs. Does debuffing a monsters stamina affect it's maximum hitpoints? For example, when I cast my spell that lowers all a monsters stats by 18%, does it lose a chunk of hitpoints off the top? If so, is it worth casting that spell first as a type of "temporary" damage? There was a recent change to the way stamina debuffs work such that the debuff must be kept on for the entire fight to achieve maximum effect (i.e. the 18% reduction). If I'm not mistaken the relationship is linear.

[Athri]

<DIV>So debuffing stamina does have an effect then damage wise? That's good. I'm tempted to get a parser and try and see if I can stick some hard numbers to it, though. Maybe my calc professor will let me do it for extra credit :smileyhappy:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>And that was very help Samerat, thanks a lot for your time.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyone else have any information?</DIV>

[Ishnar]

<DIV>a parse would only be specific to a mob with the same stamina.  So parsing the stat debuff isn't really a priority, just remember as has been said before, you really need to make sure it never fades or the mob gets the hp right back and debuffing again later will have a weaker effect than at the beginning of the fight.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Against raid mobs with high stamina, I'm sure the 32% all stat debuff might work out to being the biggest "nuke" in the game.  It has so many other effects though it is worth it even without the HP component.</DIV>

[Athri]

:smileyhappy:<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Ishnar wrote:<BR> <DIV>a parse would only be specific to a mob with the same stamina.  So parsing the stat debuff isn't really a priority, just remember as has been said before, you really need to make sure it never fades or the mob gets the hp right back and debuffing again later will have a weaker effect than at the beginning of the fight.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Against raid mobs with high stamina, I'm sure the 32% all stat debuff might work out to being the biggest "nuke" in the game.  It has so many other effects though it is worth it even without the HP component.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>I'm assuming that monsters that are identical (such as two single-down, level 8 plague rats) would have similar amounts of stamina. It's probably something out of the realm of statistical reliability, but I think it'd be fun nonetheless.</P> <P>I do have a couple more questions though that I thought of during the night.</P> <P>1) Aura of Warding. I can't seem to find a definitive answer as to whether this procs when the pet hits or when he takes a hit. It says when he takes a hit, but that makes little sense to me, and the description of the spell makes it even more vague. On top of that, I've had people tell me both ways. Can anyone confirm one way or another?</P> <P>2) Spell levels. A lot of the lower-level spells in their Master 1 or 2 form seem to be almost as good as their higher-level counterparts. I think that M2 of a level 24 spell is 1% worse then M1 of a level 52 spell, or something along those lines. Is it worth using the higher level spell at all? Is it harder to resist or anything? Right now it seems like a waste of mana.</P> <P>That's all else I can think of for now. Thanks again for all the help folks</P><p>Message Edited by Athrias on <span class=date_text>04-25-2006</span> <span class=time_text>08:40 AM</span>

[Eileithia]

<P>Aura of warding is when the pet attacks.. not when they are hit.. Tested multiple times, on 3 different characters. The Flavour text is incorrect.. read the actual effects.. I believe it was changed in beta to be when the pet attacks, and they never changed the flavour text to match.. as it was originally, it was almost useless due to the 12hp your pet has.</P> <P>For the spell level thing.. Resistability was changed to be based on the level of the caster, and not the level of the spell.. so in some cases (Abhorrence vs. Malignancy) these spells do the exact same thing at the same tier of spell (Master vs. Master). it is 32% reduction to all stats. Only difference being that Abhorrence costs less power to cast. Use the lower spell as there is absolutely no difference in the effect it has on the mob or their ability to resist the spell, and it will save you power. I believe Moorgard has posted on this issue, and he says the same.</P><p>Message Edited by Duntzzzz on <span class=date_text>04-25-2006</span> <span class=time_text>08:49 AM</span>

[Athri]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Duntzzzz wrote:<BR> <P>Aura of warding is when the pet attacks.. not when they are hit.. Tested multiple times, on 3 different characters. The Flavour text is incorrect.. read the actual effects.. I believe it was changed in beta to be when the pet attacks, and they never changed the flavour text to match.. as it was originally, it was almost useless due to the 12hp your pet has.</P> <P>For the spell level thing.. Resistability was changed to be based on the level of the caster, and not the level of the spell.. so in some cases (Abhorrence vs. Malignancy) these spells do the exact same thing at the same tier of spell (Master vs. Master). it is 32% reduction to all stats. Only difference being that Abhorrence costs less power to cast. Use the lower spell as there is absolutely no difference in the effect it has on the mob or their ability to resist the spell, and it will save you power. I believe Moorgard has posted on this issue, and he says the same.</P> <P>Message Edited by Duntzzzz on <SPAN class=date_text>04-25-2006</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>08:49 AM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Great! In that case I think the Strength line is very powerful indeed. The extra ward is nice, and the 20% chance to proc the indirect AE immunity seems like it would be a godsend in groups. I for one love how our AA's are based around the puppy, though I imagine that a lot of other people hate it. Now if we can just get them to let the dog live a little bit longer and not be one-shotted by anything not grey to him I'd be very happy.</P> <P> </P> <P>EDIT: Another question, can reactive procs (Tendrils, Imbues etc) proc when you're warded? Or, since you take no damage, does that not count as getting hit?</P><p>Message Edited by Athrias on <span class=date_text>04-25-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:38 AM</span>

[Schmalex23]

It still counts as getting hit, it just absorbs the damage that would have been taken after mitigation went into effect. Dont think of wards as stoping damage, but more as absorbing.