Ancestral Sentry

[Thunderthyze]

<p>Almost there.....level 78.</p><p>Question</p><p>What's the tactics employed in the use of our new skill/pet? How are people fitting it into their routines?</p>

[Banditman]

Pre-pull on any difficult named.Consider it a HUGE Group Ward.

[ZionXIII]

<p>Also, a lesser known fact, the pet also takes mana damage (drains) as well, so pop him up prior to a big power drain AE hitting. </p><p>He also does a mild amount of dps which can help some while in a solo/small group situation.</p><p>In a raid situation, use him to protect a ranged (read mage) group from AEs.</p><p>I won't even get into the uses I can think of on RP servers :p</p>

[Verrie77]

<p>I noticed that you can Single Target heal it too. But it doesnt seem to be affected by the wards or the groupheal. Im not 100% sure , but it looked like it wasnt. But im 100% sure I healed it with Single target, and got it back to full health.</p><p><b>I FORGOT : </b>Its out of area warding you...so I really hope it wont pick up the person you are dueling with and ward him too...that would be futile. Im on PVE so I need to try.</p>

[thedu]

Had a chance to try this last night.  It does take about 12k in HP damage when it does absorb it; and, yes, you can't use any specialty heals, i.e. wards or regens on it, but direct heals do work -- but in my opinion are pointless because it doesn't last long enough to benefit from being healed.When I soloing JW, it was nice but it didn't really help out all that much as it wasn't absorbing to much damage - and I wonder if that has more to do with wards then anything else....

[Banditman]

It has some very situational uses.When you do some really intense group encounters such as Maiden's Chamber (Handmaidens and Impaler in particular), Ancestral Sentry will make you grin from ear to ear.  Initial pull on the Leviathans in Chelsith are also great situations for AS.I'm fairly sure it will be helpful on the initial pull in raid situations, and thankfully, AS is raid wide.

[GidionSWE]

use it on tank pre-pull on nameds and such

[SonnyA]

<p>I wish the description of this limited pet was more informative.</p><p>Since I can target someone and the sentry will clone that person, what difference does it then make if I use it on a fighter vs a mage?</p><p>Is the ward/protection amount always the same or does it scale with the target?</p><p>What's the benefit of upgrading it (AD3 vs M1)?</p><p>Sure, I can just cast it and forgettaboutit. But I would like to know when it's really useful and when it's just an added ward.</p>

[Banditman]

It follows the person who you cast it on.  So, for instance, you can place your raid in an advantageous location and drop AS on your tank and let him go get the mob without fear of getting killed before he gets back in heal range.Upgrades give it more HP, adept 3 has around 13k HP.I think it may take the mitigation / resistance of whom it is cast upon as well.  I have no data to back that up, just seems to do better when cast on the MT for me.

[zaneluke]

I use this for boss pulls and when you get an unexpected add.I use thsi spell line up which seems to work fairly well.Group ward,bolster, tell tank go go,cast <span class="postdetails">Ancestral Sentry,single ward, immune,aclarity. debuffs.Then business as usual. I tried this set up and spell casting order last night in COA. On the last boss mob with a paladin mting,assasin,necro,dirge and in illy.Mt hp in each boss fight never dipped in to yellow at all. Was able to cycle through and debuff elemental curse.Tank died once due to an add at the wrong time, cast </span><span class="postdetails">Ancestral Sentry on assasin necro got tank back up.Honestly? It felt great to run a zone again with a mystic and paladin.Going to try a harder zone tonight.</span>

[Banditman]

Consider moving Ancestral Sentry earlier in your pre-pull rotation.  It never lasts the full duration anyway, so you can cast it early.Moving Bolster closer to pull time gives you that much more "in combat" time with Bolster, which is always a good thing.

[SonnyA]

<p>I figured this would be a good spell for The Segemented Rumbler encounter in EH, but the sentry dies within first second when it splits (nasty AEs). So it's not THAT godlike.</p><p>So I'll just continue to use it as a pre-pull ward.</p>

[kyrr]

<p>Just wanted to note that someone over on flames says it takes bolster into account. So I always cast bolster then sentry just in case it does.  It lasts longer in groups than raids but if it can prevent 1-15k dmg from landing on the tank or absorb a pwr drain he would've taken then so much the better.</p>

[Banditman]

Ancestral Sentry's HP are based upon the quality of the spell, not the HP of your target.  It's easier to see this OUTSIDE of a raid environment.You see, in a raid environment, AS is most likely going to take that first nasty shot right on the chin.  Now, regardless of whether AS has 10 HP or 10,000 HP, it's gonna take that WHOLE first shot.So, what's happening is this:Raid Mystics cast AS pre-pull to help with that initial damage spike.  It definitely does!  The problem however is that that initial shot can be 14k, 16k, 18k HP worth of damage.  All three of those numbers are enough to 1 shot AS Adept III, which has about 13,500 HP.What folks fail to realize is that AS didn't really have those 16k HP - he got 1 shotted!  He only had 13.5k HP.If you want to prove this to yourself, do the following:Go to someplace like Crypt of Agony where you have more "reasonable" damage.  Cast AS before Bolster on 3 bosses, cast AS after Bolster on 3 bosses.  Go back and look at how much damage it absorbed after the fact.  Since AS isn't getting whacked in 1 shot now, it's a lot easier to see how many HP it really has.As a final aside, I haven't tried the following yet, but it's on my "to do" list.Cast AS pre-pull in a raid, follow with Bolster.  While Bolster is casting, quickly target the Ancestral Sentry and follow Bolster with Ancient Aegis on the Ancestral Sentry.  I know the AS can be healed, but I've never actually tried to Ward it.  Would be nice to give it another 2k HP with AE if that actually works.  I don't raid again until Tuesday, so I won't have a quick answer.

[Verrie77]

<p>No he can only be Single Target -healed. It says "target is not grouped" I hoped it would be able to be warded too, but no....to bad <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>But I like the spell anyway <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[bRz]

<cite>Verrie77 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I noticed that you can Single Target heal it too. But it doesnt seem to be affected by the wards or the groupheal. Im not 100% sure , but it looked like it wasnt. But im 100% sure I healed it with Single target, and got it back to full health.</p><p><b>I FORGOT : </b>Its out of area warding you...so I really hope it wont pick up the person you are dueling with and ward him too...that would be futile. Im on PVE so I need to try.</p></blockquote>I play on nagafen (pvp) and I am noticing that YES it is warding a PVP or PVE duel target.  I assume this is not intended, I'll post some screenshots later to show my case.

[Sekkong]

<p>Love this spell.</p><p>Yea in a raid enviroment it can suck but hey.. less damage is less damage.  I only have adept 3 version right now but can honestly see a difference when this spell is up.</p><p> Anyone have master 1 of this yet and have any information on it ?</p>

[Bathtubtina]

<p>I use it a lot, and it actually shows up on the heal parse too in the group instances LOL, like 1 percent or 0, so its kind of funny.  But you know its working and it is an extra ward for the MT.  With the way mobs hit in ROK thats a definite bonus. <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p>

[KatrinaDeath]

<cite>bRz wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Verrie77 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I noticed that you can Single Target heal it too. But it doesnt seem to be affected by the wards or the groupheal. Im not 100% sure , but it looked like it wasnt. But im 100% sure I healed it with Single target, and got it back to full health.</p><p><b>I FORGOT : </b>Its out of area warding you...so I really hope it wont pick up the person you are dueling with and ward him too...that would be futile. Im on PVE so I need to try.</p></blockquote>I play on nagafen (pvp) and I am noticing that YES it is warding a PVP or PVE duel target.  I assume this is not intended, I'll post some screenshots later to show my case.</blockquote>Yeah it a straight AE in PvP... Only good use is if you Stun Ward + Ancestral Sentry to stay alive for a long duration for some reason. Other than this in PvP it is almost useless less prolonging fights. I really hope sony puts a fix in for this since shaman solo healing a PvP group is pretty [Removed for Content] atm.

[Vaydn]

<p>I like this spell.  I think we made out halfway decent compared to some other classes level 80 spells.</p>

[Annabrie]

Ancestral Sentry is a fantastic spell. In a raid situation I always cast it on a caster or a casters pet, as it provides raid wide wards, it has proven to be more useful to have it stay around the whole two minutes, other than take the first punch from a mob and die. Small refreshing wards on 24 people has proven more useful than one large ward on the main tank. I could be wrong, but that has how I generally use AS. I do the same in groups, or I will ward the main tank and single heal the pet.

[Ordate]

<cite>Annabrie wrote:</cite><blockquote>Ancestral Sentry is a fantastic spell. In a raid situation I always cast it on a caster or a casters pet, as it provides raid wide wards, it has proven to be more useful to have it stay around the whole two minutes, other than take the first punch from a mob and die. Small refreshing wards on 24 people has proven more useful than one large ward on the main tank. I could be wrong, but that has how I generally use AS. I do the same in groups, or I will ward the main tank and single heal the pet.</blockquote><p>AS doesn't provide any sort of ward.  What it does is a damage intercept much akin to the tanks abilities.  Once it has intercepted so much damage it will cease to exsist.  If yours is last the full duration, there is a good chance that it didn't do anything.</p><p>I very when and where I use mine personally based on what I know of a mob.  If I know at x time there is going to be a big spike that will hit the healers and the tortiseshell/ae avoid etc are dry I will cast it on the healing pack.  If I know a mob has some crazy initial damage before debuffs start getting on or a wacky pull where the tank will be vulnerable I cast it on the start of the fight.</p><p>Ex. of my personal use:  Silverwing's wing beat is coming up and Im going to be running without an avoid.</p>