wtb illusionist dps how to guide

[fat to]

<p>I play on the nagafen server and have recently betrayed over from coercer to illusionist. My dps on raids is lower than what is posted here on the boards and I'm trying to figure out how to get it up to make things more satisfying for myself and the other party, my raid party.</p><p>I use a decent amount of proc gear: t6 sunchild helm, orb earring,  bone clasped girdle, necromantic orb of the death reveler from the x2 in forsaken city, and griz stick.</p><p>When i came over i was speced agi: 4 8 4 5 perpetuality, int: 4 4 4 8 and was down the penetration and time lines as resists occur much more often in pvp. Now i'm speced str down to counterblade, int for crits with no vm, time, and enchanting lines. My dps has been going up gradually since I've been raiding, due to learning the class a little better and getting three damage masters: abolish hope, ultra violet storm, and tumor. The spec change was for pvp reasons, and I saw little change in raid dps. When lu 32 comes out I'll probably go back to int and agi for vm and perpetuality.</p><p>Last night's raid in dt I was parsing about 700-800 single target mobs and about 700 to 1000 on multiple target encounters in the mage group. I had a 690 parse on cheldrak in the main tank group.</p><p>I have some masters to get and a pvp or relic robe for the extra abolish hope damage, but I'm looking for a spell run down for multiple target and single target encounters. I found one on the boards, which looked fairly close to what I am doing. Here is my spell run down for single target mobs</p><p> prismatic chaos on tank or ma just before pull, momentary sentiment if up, abolish hope, brainburst, prismatic chaos, construct, solar shower, shimmering beam, tumor, shimmering beam, ultraviolet storm, shimmering beam</p><p>I always make sure to use prismatic chaos and solar shower whenever they are up and refresh abolish hope and brain burst right after they run out.</p><p>For multiple group encounters I lead with a prismatic chaos on ma, momentary sentiment, ultraviolet storm, solar shower, prismatic chaos, ultraviolet storm, then try to keep abolish hope and brainburst up on as many different mobs as I can.</p><p>Were I to go back to perpetuality I have the proc orb from the x2 in forsaken city and orb of the chosen. Which would you use and why?</p><p>Some people say to keep over writing your dots to get more procs and others say to let them run their entire duration to get the extra damage at the end. Would one way give significant dps over the other? If using volatile magic would you want to make sure to let your dots run their full duration?</p><p>When usuing perpetuality and chronosiphoning does the increased casting time make you proc less? If you are burning through spells too quickly should you not use chronosiphoning?</p><p>Is sunbolt worth having?</p><p>Thankyou for taking the time to read and/or reply,     pumpkin pie of the arbour on nagafen</p>

[Manyak]

<p>well if anyone was gona write a full how-to guide on illu DPS, it would be huge. theres so many things that can increase or decrease ur DPS, its very hard to list.</p><p> SO, ill try and make it short.</p><p>1 - get perpetuality. it actually INCREASES the procs you get per fight. proc chances are calculated before spell haste is applied, so with haste more casts = more procs. and this is going to be the base of your DPS capability.</p><p>2 - get volatile magic. and sprint before fights to get ur mana to right above 30%, then mana flow ureself. use mana flow, savante, and another other tools at ur disposal to stay under 30% mana without going OOP.</p><p>3 - get the right gear. remember, spell haste increases the number of procs you get, and volatile magic increases the amount of damage u do per proc. so proc gear is uber. spell crits next, and +damage last. so procs>crits>damage.</p><p>4 - wait for the brainburst damage ONLY after you got the brainburst AA from the illu tree (decreases duration, so the damage comes earlier). otherwise, just recast it anytime its up. as for the rest of the dots, do recast them everry time they are up, dont wait for them to expire.</p><p>5 - beg your raid leader to give u a troub and wizard in your group....and then beg them to cast frigid gift and PoM every chance possible. remember, u can use ur AE stun to proc those spells too if its an AE fight.</p><p>6 - dont stop casting. if none of your damage spells are up (which MIGHT happen once in a while, but not more than maybe once per zone), then cast a stun or something. if ur not casting, your not procing</p>

[Kahna]

7. Alternate Shimmering Beam with all your other dps spells. Shimmering is a good chunk of my DPS. and I cast it whenever it's up. Once you have your spell casting haste spells maxed it takes about half a second to cast, hardly enough time to even notice. It holds another bonus of helping space out your timing an little more, keeps you casting without a pause longer and you can get into a nice pattern of casting.

[Zebsen]

<p>I agree with most of the suggestions here.  A few more notes:</p><p>If you can't have evils in your group, your values will differ by what is posted here since you won't have access to brigands and their very good debuffs.  This can really make a difference.  I can't remember if Nafagen allows evils or not; since you say you are in the MT group, my guess is not.</p><p>I didn't take the abolish hope migraine AA.  I find that when I am out of spells to cast, only that and shimmering beam are up.  Given your proc gear, I wouldn't wait for the migraine DD.  Another option if the encounter is multiple targets is to tab to another target and cast abolish hope then retarget the MA.  You just have to be careful to get the right target.  The extra damage isn't that great, but the debuff on it helps your AoEs land a little harder as well.</p><p>I don't raid as much as most other posters here, but thought this might get you going in the right direction.</p><p>Zebsen</p>

[fat to]

<p>Thanks for all the help so far. I like the idea about letting brainburst finish when it has 5 aa's and not putting any aa's into abolish hope and refreshing it. Using volatile magic, would you reccomend putting points into savante or epiphany? Which would be better for keeping you with power but under 30%? I currently have none in epiphany and 4 in savante. I only wanted to have 20 total in the enchanting line so I have 5 in momentary sentiment, 5 prismatic chaos, 5 synergism, 5 in savante, and 1 cure arcane. I don't have perpetuality back yet, because I'm going to wait till gu 32. Is it important to max shimmering beam aa wise to make sure it is up between every spell?</p><p>pumpkin pie of the arbour on nagafen</p>

[Zebsen]

<p>I only have about 85 AA.  From a DPS/raid standpoint, I think the clear trees in EoF to take are:</p><p>Shim beam 5, brainburst 5, color shower 5, UV storm 5, time compression 1</p><p>cure arcane 1, prismatic chaos 5, savante 5, mom sent 5, breeze 5, dynamism 5, double attack 1</p><p>I have no idea where to put the last 2 points.  Probably abolish hope on the rare instances it does run through.  Maybe in mez resist.  There just isn't anything else that attracts my interest enough to consider going other paths.  There really aren't any other AA that are easily reachable that are worthwhile.  </p><p>Is shimmering beam worth 5 points?  It probably depends on how you are specced on the agility AA line and how much other spell haste and such you have.  I am speced 4-8-4-5 right now (no perpetuality).  With shimmering beam at rank 5, it's basically always up every other cast.  If there is any delay, I really don't notice it.  Tribulation and abolish hope are the 2 that might have a real slight pause since they are fast cast times.  I felt that I noticed a difference from with zero points to 5 points.  The first points I dumped into in the EoF tree was shim beam, so it's been a while since I've casted without it.</p><p>If you must make a choice between savante and breeze, I would probably tell you to go savante for raiding.  The whole group basically uses half power for a longer period of time, which is probably > a few mana/tick.  It depends on the length of the fight and such, but I would think that savante would win out.  The only thing about savante (as others have pointed out) is that it increases the duration of the spell, but the recast timer doesn't start until the spell ends, so the time between casts of the spell are also increased.  </p>

[Phineus]

<p> I have 5 pts in savante for raiding. It lasts 55 seconds with 5 pts in it but like they said recast is still the same because it starts on termination rather than when cast. My group generally regens power while it and devitalizing gaze is up.</p>

[Mala]

<p>I agree with pretty much everything that was said so far.  I don't always cast my spells in the same order.  I always start out with chronosiphoning.  Then abolish hope for the mitigation debuff, then prismatic chaos.  I will cast shimmering beam any time its up and all the other spells really depend on what situation i'm in ( raid, solo, group).  After the last live update I was able to get the last ability in the Int line so I try to keep my power below 30% by using sprint and auto attack (so I don't regen power when its low already).  Also as state previously I cast constantly.  Anything to keep perpetuality up.  I put 5pts into brainburst so i get that extra dmg at the end faster and can cast it more.  5pts into synergism, prismatic chaos, savant, momentary sentiment, and insight.  Besides everything mentioned proc gear and adornments are key.  Its awesome if you are in a group with a bard, wizard, and imo SK.  I group with a good SK all the time and their Death March is awesome.  Oh also with a fury in my group my int is crazy high.  But we all know we can't always be in the ideal group so the suggestions that myself and others have given will help to give you the best dps.</p>

[Jvaloth]

<p>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- </p><p>Shim beam 5, brainburst 5, color shower 5, UV storm 5, time compression 1</p><p>Cure arcane 1, prismatic chaos 5, savante 5, mom sent 5, breeze 5, dynamism 5, double attack 1</p><p>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>I had Pris Chaos, Savante, Momentary Sent, Breeze, Dyamism, Double attack and I switched to   Shim Beam, Brainburst, Color Shower, UV Storm, Time Compression to check it out and  I was doing  alot more DPS   with the Pris/Dyana built.</p><p>So if you want DPS 1st,  go with Pris/Dyn in the EoF lines.   Get the Time Compression line AFTER.</p>

[Foolsfolly]

Does devitalizing gazes still add power regen if you're already at the cap? I find that it helps to watch your combat window for crits. Whenever I get a critical dot, I let it finish. If it's non-crit I recast as soon as I can.

[Caetrel]

Just levelled my illusionist and been raiding only a few weeks with her, so still a noob, but the first thing I cast is Pris chaos on our MA so that when we engage, that proc is on a person who will be melee hitting the mob before my first direct damage spell even resolves.  Thank you for the tip on not overwriting crit dots that's awesome.  I usually overwrite everything all the time to keep up Perp and proc, but I'm anxious to try that now.  Up to 6 proc items now, need a few more <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Last night I was pretty consistently 1200-1300 in a 22kish dps raid in FTH with no troub or fury, so I'm getting there.  Had a couple 1500-1600 parses on trash.   I need a little more experience managing sprint lol.  This is a great community here on the Illusionist forums btw, I have got alot out of the posts here and in fact one of the reasons I rolled an Illusionist to begin with was because of this forum.

[Jvaloth]

<p>Well I've tried a ton of different things, including finally gettting in a group with wiz, fury, and troubador in raid situations and I'm still not even coming close to 2k DPS.</p><p>The whole raid is fabled out to the bone, we have 2 brigands alternating debuffs.</p><p> My KoS AA -</p><p>4-8-4-8-1  AGI</p><p>5-4-4-8-1  INT</p><p>My EOF AA -</p><p>Cure Arcane - 1</p><p>Epiphany - 5</p><p>Momentary Sentiment - 5</p><p>Prismatic Chaos - 5</p><p>Intensity - 5</p><p>Illusory Arm - 1</p><p>I have 3 pieces of Darkbriar on for 2% spell crit, Novum Tectum 2% spell crit,  Grizzfazzles (for the fire proc),  Synergism Master 2,    Disruption skill of 402,  and all master 1 spells/fable gear.  I'm using Grandmaster potions of Second Sight for added spell crits.</p><p> I open with Chronosiphoning, Abolish Hope, Solar Shower, Prismatic Chaos, Brainburst,  then chain through all of my dmg CA's and fast casting CAs (for Synergism/Grizz proc) and rinse repeat.  I generally start a fight at about 40% power and chain cast into  Volatile Magic range pretty quickly.     </p><p>After doing all of this,  I generally only get in the 800-900 range without pet.   With synergism cast on my pet  he adds another 350-400 DPS so I am able to achieve 1200-1500 tops...</p><p>Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong?   Or is this an example of a couple uber guild chanters bragging about their DPS because their raid wide DPS is so high (20-25k average easy)  that they are able to inflate their numbers?  </p>

[auk]

I'll start the fight at around 38-42%. I have /useabilityontarget Myname Mana Flow on a macro. I'll usually cast chrono, maybe tribulation, then mana flow on myself. If I'm not under 30% yet I'll hit sentiment right then, otherwise I stick it somewhere in the rotation, which is pretty much: Shimmering Beam, Prismatic Chaos, Shimmering, Abolish, Brainburst, Shimmering, Solar Shower, Shimmering, Ultraviolet Storm, Shimmering, Construct, Shimmering, Prismatic, Shimmering, Abolish, Brainburst, Shimmering, Ultraviolet, Shimmering, Tumor, Shimmering .... You get the idea <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> If its an AOE fight I'll change it up so Ultraviolet and Solar Shower go in before Abolish and Brainburst, and maybe even use Dazzling Array and Gazes if the wizzy or troubies temp proc buffs are running. If its a longer fight I'll start working Devitalizing Gazes, the cannibalize spell (sorry memory failing), and hit Savante, but usually only after mana flow goes off unless I need the power sooner (rarely do). I keep power proc gear unequipped usually. With Vim and a few (un)lucky procs I sometimes end up having too much power. I'll swap GoG and friends in after Savante expires if the fight doesn't look like its going to end anytime soon, and keep manastone and clarity potions hotkeyed if I end up dropping below 8-10%. Have to keep at least that much power to use Solar Shower if it happens to recycle, and I hate missing a chance to use that spell. It takes a lot of practice. And a troub and a wizzie help to really make that DPS shoot up. BTW, for AGI, I use 4-8-8-3-1(2). With perpetuality and chronosiphoning, thats 90% spell haste. Putting more than a couple points in the permanent spell haste AA is going to be wasted if you are grouped with a bard. Reducing recovery timers may not seem like it does much but every little bit helps to get more spells off more quickly. And no, I'm in no uber guild, but my numbers aren't too far off from what I see posted around here.

[Caetrel]

<blockquote><p>Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong?   Or is this an example of a couple uber guild chanters bragging about their DPS because their raid wide DPS is so high (20-25k average easy)  that they are able to inflate their numbers?  </p></blockquote>No it's not people bragging.  I'm a noob illusionist still compiling gear and am getting up there.  You prolly want to focus on proc gear.  ALOT of dps comes from procs for us with all the super mad casting we do.  I notice a dps increase whenever I get more/ better proc gear, I think I have 6 slots now with hostile spell procs.  Bone clasped Girdle and Orb of the Invoker are very nice, they might look like crap but they are superior procs. For the Perpetuality AA line 4-8-8-3-2 is the way to go, that puts you at 95% casting speed and the high recovery speed helps at that point alot more.  My casting order is always always always Shimmering Beam __Shimmering Beam__Shimmering Beam...whatever the hell I cast Shimmering Beam is in between.   Sometimes I'll get 2,3,4 procs off of it. The veteran raiding illusionists who say they are doing 2k+ are definately rolling in high dps raids.  A solid radforce is gonna maximize debuffs, and you can bet any major raiding guild has on the ball Troubs.  I am a long way off from hitting anywhere near a 2k zonewide, but I can see coming close in a couple months as I learn a little more and get some more gear. 

[Vayn]

Manyak touched on a couple other class spells & CAs that help our dps (Troub's Precision & Wiz's Frigid Gift).  What are some others to look for?  I'm typically grouped with Troub, Wiz, Inquisitor, Rangers, Berserker (sometimes no Wiz and I get two Rangers instead). Our Brigand recently decided to quit raiding so that's really hurting my dps but I'd like to maximize what I can still do. 

[Jvaloth]

<p>I've been parsing about 1300-1800 now, picked up a couple more proc items and have been hitting shimmering beam whenever its up and thats increased my DPS considerably.</p><p>Still trying to figure out if I should pick the line that ends with Time Compression to get the reduced mana cost on shimmering beam and quicker recast of it aswell as some of the other things.  But I really like having the 15% increased chance to proc Syngerism and the super fast refresh times of the Prismatic proc.</p><p> Though I've been put in a caster heavy w/ troub group so Time Compression should definatley be more useful.</p>

[Xanoth]

<cite>Jvaloth wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I've been parsing about 1300-1800 now, picked up a couple more proc items and have been hitting shimmering beam whenever its up and thats increased my DPS considerably.</p></blockquote><p> My illusionist is just an alt these days (was my main during DoF), but i do feel i need to up my DPS to make him more useful for taking up a raid spot rather than jsut providing buffs and regen.</p><p>I can get about 1-1.4k self buffed, and about 1.3-1.8k when grouped with a troub+wizard, but i do feel i could do better, or rather should be able to do better.  Obviously a lack a lot of proc gear and there is slim chance of me getting any for an alt while mains still need it.</p><p>So my main question is, should Shimmering Beam be a priority cast when its up?  personally i favour pris chaos first, then shimmering beam.  but i was wondering if this is the most effective priority.  obviously i maintain and top up dots etc when they run out and use abolish hope if everything else is down.  but with 2s recast on shimmering beam (less with ring of four winds?) i can usually hit it quite regularly.</p><p>Shower seems very mana ineffcient for single target, even if the shortened duration means it does a lot of DPS on epic mobs (useful for short epic fights mebies, rather than sustained).</p><p>just looking for any means to improve my performance through play style and choices.</p>

[Jvaloth]

<p>Shimmering beam is huge.  Its a guaranteed 700+ dmg EVERY other spell cast.</p><p>With chrono/perp  spell haste  the 2 sec recast makes it up almost always.   </p>

[Xanoth]

<p>yeh broke 2k dps with only troub buffs tonight in EH on some trash, so i'm learning =/</p><p>another question i guess would be which 1h works best?  only ones i have available are pris2, grizzlefazzle and the wand from unrest.  checking parses they seem to proc so rarely and acount for 1-2% of total damage that i'm wondering if a damage proc is even worth it and if the wand from unrest would be a better choice.  ideally though i'd like the dagger from CD... but again, unless i change mains that dagger is about the best i can hope for and would require a lot of mages to be AFK one night <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>