Duo with Brigand, and spec questions..

[Tel]

My wife and I are doing a brigand/warden duo, and she hasn't spent but a few of her AA's, she's a little confused and overwhelmed by the choices (EQ2 is a tad more complicated than WoW was <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ).She's very interested in a nuke/heal hybrid type spec with roots ect instead of getting up into melee.Are there any suggestions out there?   I suggested that she go down the Int/Sta line for the nuking aspect, and the renewal line for the healing aspect, she's already done some improvement to SoW.Am I'm completely off in my suggestion?  Is there any guidance that I can get to help her out? <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Thanks in advance!

[Tel]

So i've been doing some research since no one likes to talk about AA's at all on any class forum on any eq2 website. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> (hard to research this stuff, or understand with 3 days of playing under your belt)...So, this is what i thought:Wisdom:  4-4-4-8-1Int: 4-4-8-4-1Leaving 8 for what ever she wants...hen on the warden tree: 3 enh root, 5 enh sow, 3 enh ressurections, 3 enh spores, 5 enh bat, 3 enh death interventions, 3 enh protective grove, 3 enh tranq, 4 in each of the enh: mends, 1 in Shatter, 1 in reformationDoes that look decent at all?

[Arielle Nightshade]

<p>Depending on how you are planning to play and what kinds of things you want to kill, though, she might consider the AGI line if she finds she needs to heal more.  Although most of that line is kind of useless (albeit fun in the lower levels where the stuff you are fighting are actually classified 'animals'...), the heal crit on regens in that line is very useful.</p><p>At first glance, it seems that INT is the way to go because it beefs up Warden nuke damage.  However, when playing with a Brigand, Warden DPS isn't really a focal point, and I'd think buffs and heals would be.  So AGI 6-4-4-8-1   </p><p>If she really would prefer to nuke, then INT does increase that, but she also needs to support those choices with gear that has those stats too.   Roots enhanced is good, but many of the EoF Root enhances beef up spells she doesn't have yet.  So read 'em carefully.   By the time she gets the spells that do need points put into them, she'll know better whether that's how she wants to go.  As far as rooting and nuking with a Brigand in your group:   Here's how it goes:   ...root...brigand does huge damage..root breaks...could have saved the power for something else.  Even enhanced.   On the plus side, stuff is dead pretty fast, and a brigand does fair tank duty.</p><p>Also, STA is a very nice choice for a Warden.  If I were specing a new Warden I'd go STA 6-4-4--8-1 (serenity ..anti stun..is a very nice ability to have), and more HP Is always good.</p><p>At lower levels, I agree with sticking 8 points into the first ability in WIS...just so you have an adequate power pool during the levels where what you are supposed to be healing and your ability to outlast it sometimes don't match.  When you guys hit about 60, I'd say she could let that go and respec into other abilities because gear starts getting good there with WIS and +heal, etc.</p><p>Personally, I wouldn't worry with the Rebirth in the WIS line.  You don't have to run and recover your corpse, if you are duoing, you probably won't be hugely deep into really difficult dungeons on your own (where having to start over is a pain..) and someone will probably have a rezz if you are in a group.  If not, you can stealth the group.</p><p> I would also not worry about Resurrections. For your duo, I'd max out Spores and Protective Grove - but if you have only been doing this a short while, don't waste those points until you actually have the spells they enhance  (late 40's, mid-50's).  Same with Spirit of the Bat, which you don't get till 35.    Having cures and movement enhancements while leveling though, is pretty nice.  She can always respec back when she gets the spells that those abilities enhance.</p><p>Short answer: for a beginning Warden, especially before 20 when she gets her Mit buff, start socking away points in the Druid STA line.   8 Points in WIS, then start down the INT line unless you find that you need more healing ability in the duo...then go AGI, even though the first 4 abilities are fairly useless, the 5th one is worth the price of admission.</p><p>In the Warden line, Down the Movement Tree till you get stuck at spells you don't have, then start Down Cures.   Early on, there's really no need to master any one line, just pick and choose the things that enhance the way you are playing.  Also remember that this advice is based purely on speculation.  SO much about how you use your AA's depends on how you play.   If you've only been playing a short while, you might not really know yet - or things might change and you get a good core group where choices would be different than if you just duo.</p><p>Hope this helps!   Although some of our AAs make us grit our teeth in frustration - the cool thing about them is that they are pretty versatile, and there's no "RIGHT" or "WRONG" way to do it, like in WoW.  There, if you make the wrong choice, you can't do anything.  Here, you won't be gimped no matter what you pick - just some things enhance what you are doing better than others.</p><p>P.S.  I think these AA's are every bit as complicated as WoW choices...just 2 trees rather than 3, and it's not so hardcore if you make an incompatible decision.   </p>

[Tel]

Thank you so much for your post Arielle, good to get feed back. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Qupe]

I actually played this duo.  The difference was a complete 1-70 Mentored Powerlevel funfest (Warden mentoring Brig).  This won't apply to you, but I had my druid Melee specced and tanked with her until she couldn't keep aggro from the Brig.  After that, I stayed melee spec with my only non melee dps points into the STA line for heal crits, and 5 for imp SoW.I'd say jam all the points you get to begin with into the WIS line, putting 8 into heal crit and whatever is left into Serene Knowledge.  You will begin to learn that if she isn't quick with cures to remove roots, stun, etc.. your job will be umpteen percent harder since your tanking (and you will be a darn good one) requires you to use stuns and maneuver around the mobs.  Unlike swashies, most of your attacks and your damage are only useable behind and to the side of mobs; so when you use a 7 second stun to move behind the beast only to find out you've been rooted in place or stunned, having the chance at stun immunity really did turn out to be extremely useful.  After that, the choice is up to her.  Since this duo I have specced out of melee strikes and STR line to gain more pure raid healing abilities, I miss them so much now =(  The melee AAs are great, I'd recommend the STR over the INT line hands down when paired with the melee AAs in EoF.  Wardens can put out some serious damage and still heal like champions.  What the strikes line does is add secondary CA versions of each nuke.  Not only that, but you are essentially able to gain almost every nuke as a CA before you actually gain them as a nuke.  The strikes also deal far far far more damage than the spell equivalent, they also scale at each level unlike nukes which remain one rank until the next spell upgrade in the line.  For some reason, even at equal level Cold Slice dealt more damage and debuffed more than the spell version ever did and the AE spell is encounter only while the melee strike equivalent is out of encounter- in case it matters, just a bit of info I learned over the course of leveling.If she really favours nuking over melee, grab the INT line instead of the STR line but I'd say put points into melee strikes instead of curing or roots.  The root line, like Arielle mentioned, is next to worthless (spare the root immunity and imp SoW) with a brig and the cure line is really lackluster and not really important at all to a leveling duo.  Roots did come in handy as CC, though.  When we came across something the brig couldn't tank, or we got adds or... or... anything that might make a situation hairy, you imagine something... being able to root off a side mob or two and use some ghetto root CC saved our exp debt time and time again.  The root immunity at the end of the movement line probably would have also shaved 5 years off of the brig's life if =  The upgrade to Bat, Spores and Rez is really neat but since you don't get any of those spells until 35+ I didn't put points into it until I at least had Bat.    Please god don't let anyone tell you imp SoW is not worth getting.  The combination of druid SoW speed and portal makes Wardens mobility machines- not to mention if you get Journeyman's Boots you save yourself a fat stack of platinum from not having to buy a horse, 45% SoW + 10% Jboots = faster than land mounts.  Put 3 points into roots or cold strike- your pick and max it out as fast as possible.  If you happen to have rolled a fae/arasai this also means an extra 5% run speed and the ability to use glide at those speeds (glide adds 50% jump distance and is cancelled by being on a mount =( ).  I came straight from WoW to this also, welcome to the enlightened few =D  Every single time I logged into WoW from playing my warden I ran places with my mouth hanging open crying over how slow I moved... still do on any other character I have that isn't my warden too.  But it seriously 100% straight up fun being able to move that fast- you won't regret those 5 points

[MullenSkywatcher]

<cite>Qupe wrote:</cite><blockquote>I actually played this duo.  The difference was a complete 1-70 Mentored Powerlevel funfest (Warden mentoring Brig).  This won't apply to you, but I had my druid Melee specced and tanked with her until she couldn't keep aggro from the Brig.  After that, I stayed melee spec with my only non melee dps points into the STA line for heal crits, and 5 for imp SoW.I'd say jam all the points you get to begin with into the WIS line, putting 8 into heal crit and whatever is left into Serene Knowledge.  You will begin to learn that if she isn't quick with cures to remove roots, stun, etc.. your job will be umpteen percent harder since your tanking (and you will be a darn good one) requires you to use stuns and maneuver around the mobs.  Unlike swashies, most of your attacks and your damage are only useable behind and to the side of mobs; so when you use a 7 second stun to move behind the beast only to find out you've been rooted in place or stunned, having the chance at stun immunity really did turn out to be extremely useful.  After that, the choice is up to her.  Since this duo I have specced out of melee strikes and STR line to gain more pure raid healing abilities, I miss them so much now =(  The melee AAs are great, I'd recommend the STR over the INT line hands down when paired with the melee AAs in EoF.  Wardens can put out some serious damage and still heal like champions.  What the strikes line does is add secondary CA versions of each nuke.  Not only that, but you are essentially able to gain almost every nuke as a CA before you actually gain them as a nuke.  The strikes also deal far far far more damage than the spell equivalent, they also scale at each level unlike nukes which remain one rank until the next spell upgrade in the line.  For some reason, even at equal level Cold Slice dealt more damage and debuffed more than the spell version ever did and the AE spell is encounter only while the melee strike equivalent is out of encounter- in case it matters, just a bit of info I learned over the course of leveling.If she really favours nuking over melee, grab the INT line instead of the STR line but I'd say put points into melee strikes instead of curing or roots.  The root line, like Arielle mentioned, is next to worthless (spare the root immunity and imp SoW) with a brig and the cure line is really lackluster and not really important at all to a leveling duo.  Roots did come in handy as CC, though.  When we came across something the brig couldn't tank, or we got adds or... or... anything that might make a situation hairy, you imagine something... being able to root off a side mob or two and use some ghetto root CC saved our exp debt time and time again.  The root immunity at the end of the movement line probably would have also shaved 5 years off of the brig's life if =  The upgrade to Bat, Spores and Rez is really neat but since you don't get any of those spells until 35+ I didn't put points into it until I at least had Bat.    Please god don't let anyone tell you imp SoW is not worth getting.  The combination of druid SoW speed and portal makes Wardens mobility machines- not to mention if you get Journeyman's Boots you save yourself a fat stack of platinum from not having to buy a horse, 45% SoW + 10% Jboots = faster than land mounts.  Put 3 points into roots or cold strike- your pick and max it out as fast as possible.  If you happen to have rolled a fae/arasai this also means an extra 5% run speed and the ability to use glide at those speeds (glide adds 50% jump distance and is cancelled by being on a mount =( ).  I came straight from WoW to this also, welcome to the enlightened few =D  Every single time I logged into WoW from playing my warden I ran places with my mouth hanging open crying over how slow I moved... still do on any other character I have that isn't my warden too.  But it seriously 100% straight up fun being able to move that fast- you won't regret those 5 points</blockquote>Two suggestions:1.  If you really want the bonus to crit heals, use the Stamina (STA) line rather than the WIS line, since thats where the heals crit AAs are2.  There are two ways to get to the SoW upgrade, one through the first tree, and the other through the 2nd tree (melee tree, can go sideways into SoW).  If you are melee speccing (which I recommend early on) I would go this route and not put any points into roots.

[Qupe]

Yeah, said STA in first paragraph and typed WIS later- woops, also said there were two ways into SoW =)