How much do you give up by not putting anything into the Str AA?

[cephastri]

Was thinking about things last night - levelling up a defiler alt, I do want to be able to group with it, but probably due to time commitments most of the time would be solo.  Therefore, I was thinking a path like 4-4-8 int, 4-4-8 agi, and 4-4-8 sta could be the best way to actually be able to kill stuff on the way up to 70 (max out your spell crit, your melee crit and double attack).In random groups, do they typically have an issue with you having your puppy out? I assume it has to be attacking mobs in order to proc the ward, and it seems when I'm soloing at low levels even, it's tough to keep it alive unless I keep my group ward up.  So because of that, for just grouping and soloing - it seems like Str is not all that ideal. Am I off my rocker in thinking this?

[Sedenten]

<p>Pretty much, as stated elsewhere, the STR line is fairly useless unless you run all the way down and get the last ability.  Even then, you need to keep the dog positioned behind enemies or ripostes will kill him fast.  When I solo I typically turn the back to him and I have no issues.  The end STR line ability protects him from all but ripostes, basically.  In a group situation I never had too many issues when I had the AA line, but I also had tanks that valued the procs of the dog and turned the target's back to him to prevent the ripostes.</p><p>That being said I spec'ed out of the line completely quite a while back and am now AGI 4,4,4,8; STA 4,4,6,8,1; WIS 4,4,4,8.  I dropped any leftover points randomly around, I think into melee crits for giggles because I like seeing the big numbers pop up when I wade in to poke stuff.</p>

[firewolf]

My 70 defiler was specced agi 44861 and int 488 before RoK came out.  After that, respec back to str 44681 and int 488. With agi and int, it is more difficult to solo than str and int combo in RoK. The bulk of my damage comes from spells so int 488 combined with EOF cannibalise line helps a lot.  To me agi line does not provide enough dps gain for the lost of  ward vs tougher mob.  My dog hardly ever die. Learn to turn the dog auto attack off and position it to attack from behind the mob. Besides most of the defiler gears have wis and int together.

[Decad]

<cite>Sedenten wrote:</cite> <blockquote><p>...Even then, you need to keep the dog positioned behind enemies or ripostes will kill him fast.  When I solo I typically turn the back to him and I have no issues.  The end STR line ability protects him from all but ripostes, basically...</p></blockquote>I must be lucky, because I hardly ever lose my dog and I don't bother positioning myself before sending him in. On my last CoA run, my dog survived the whole time in there... well except for the times I died.

[arieste]

<cite>Skiizt@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>Was thinking about things last night - levelling up a defiler alt, I do want to be able to group with it, but probably due to time commitments most of the time would be solo.  Therefore, I was thinking a path like 4-4-8 int, 4-4-8 agi, and 4-4-8 sta could be the best way to actually be able to kill stuff on the way up to 70 (max out your spell crit, your melee crit and double attack).In random groups, do they typically have an issue with you having your puppy out? I assume it has to be attacking mobs in order to proc the ward, and it seems when I'm soloing at low levels even, it's tough to keep it alive unless I keep my group ward up.  So because of that, for just grouping and soloing - it seems like Str is not all that ideal. Am I off my rocker in thinking this?</blockquote>the best way to kill stuff is to max your Cannibalize Line, your INT crit (int3), you recast speed (wis4), your dog (full STR line) and THEN your AGI.that's answer to questions number one. to question number two, no, random groups dont give a darn about your dog. i'm level 80, run all groups with my AGI/WIS/INT DPSing spec and no one has ever asked me why the dog isn't up.question number three what do you lose... you lose 10-20% of your total heals.  you lose 16 point group haste buff.  you also want to parse some of your regular fights to see how much of your damage is melee.  just so you harbour no illusions about AGI or STA doing anything big for your DPS.

[Barruk]

While I haven't parsed it, I have noticed that Dogdog doesn't seem to hit mobs as often in RoK (and therefore, the ward proc goes off even less).  I decided to respec to AGI 44681, WIS 46681, and INT 488.  I do a mix of raiding, soloing quests, and groups for instances - So far this seems to work out well.  You get the heal crits from AGI, the recast reduction from WIS, and the crits and long-duration dot in INT.Is it the best spec?  Probably not.  But it gives me a good rounded spec for whatever I need to be doing.

[arieste]

<cite>Grimgar@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>While I haven't parsed it, I have noticed that Dogdog doesn't seem to hit mobs as often in RoK (and therefore, the ward proc goes off even less).  I decided to respec to AGI 44681, WIS 46681, and INT 488.  I do a mix of raiding, soloing quests, and groups for instances - So far this seems to work out well.  You get the heal crits from AGI, the recast reduction from WIS, and the crits and long-duration dot in INT.Is it the best spec?  Probably not.  But it gives me a good rounded spec for whatever I need to be doing.</blockquote>this is almost the spec i use for everything except raids where i'm primary healer or groups where i know i'll have to be hardcore healing.  for these 2, i use a mirror to get the dog back.  except for agi is better at 44781, so still gives 100% crits with some gear.  you won't lose much from making ritual (wis2) a point less.   so far my best parse in a group on a single target was 1870 on one of the named in CoA.   I run coa most often, so parse those all the time.   it's was a weird group with 2 bards though, so lotsa DA.

[Barruk]

Well, when I say raiding my guild / raid alliance is still a bit low on the totem pole (we're mostly roleplayers *grin*, hitting DT, MMIS, etc.  I haven't noticed much of an issue without Dogdog.I need to get one of those mirrors for that AA switchup, heh.