New to game/defiler needs help all around

[Morka]

Hi there,I used to be a pretty hardcore raider in EQ1.  I just got back from my 4 years in the army and I'm looking to get back into gaming/raiding.  I was wondering if anyone can suggest some good defiler achievement point specs and possibly tell me what to use defiler mastery achievements for also.  I'm going to make my aim high end raiding again at some point once I get familiar with the game.  Also, I have a question regarding our group warding spell.  Say it wards everyone and then absorbs 500 damage (collective)  that means if 1 person is tanking it will absorb all 500 damage for that one target and fade from everyone else right?Please keep in mind I'm a new player and not used to all the class ability acronyms.Thank you

[cggerth]

Congrats on picking the best class in the game <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Are you going to be grouping from 1-80, or are you going to be soloing.  Remember you can always respec your achievements, so if you plan on soloing, go the cannibalize line in the defiler tree first.  This will up your DPS by alot and the cannibalize spell is wonderful.  By this point you should have a better idea of what you are doing and if you will be in groups or solo.  I don't really know the solo builds in achievements as I'm spec'd for raiding.  I will advise not to go down the STR line in the shaman tree until you have enough points to get the last ability.  The last ability makes your dog immune to AoE's which increases his survivability by about 1000%.The group ward is a collective group ward.  If it says it wards for 500 across the group, that's total dmg that it can absorbed.  It doesn't matter if the tank absorbs it all or if it's an aoe and everyone in the group uses 100 pts of the ward for absorption.  Some tips for the defiler class.  always preward with both your single target ward and your group ward.  If you are soloing this will give you quite a bit of time to DPS and debuff the mob before the wards drop.  If you are in groups this will give you a chance to debuff the mob or do some DPS.  One major thing to note.  wards are 1 massive aggro builder.  If you are playing with a tank that is fairly new to tanking, or hasn't grouped with a defiler before warn them that your ward will pull aggro (when you preward).  If they do not taunt everything in the encounter or the taunt is resisted you will have a few friends beating on you until the tank pulls it off.  (another reason for having the group ward up, will protect you a bit).for your defiler mastery, try and get the ST (single target) ward while leveling up.  At the end you do not have the option to take the ward as your M2, but if you take the buff at T7 that doesn't get upgraded in T8, you can then take another ability in T8 and have 2 M2 abilities in T8.the best piece of advice I can give you is to remember you can always respec your achievements.  Experiment and have fun.  There are MANY ways to play a defiler well, find one that you like and have fun.  (Also remember a defiler can survive just about anything, but it takes you an extremely long time to kill most everything)