Spell Order in Different Situations [Archive]

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MaddBomber

04-30-2008, 08:29 AM

Hello!I am a new Warlock following along the lines of the Wartank build as I mostly solo thus far. I normally sequence my spells to maximise use of the stuns/dazes so that I can tank those last few hits.Yesterday I was grouping for the first time in crushbone. I am 25. I could keep up with our 28 bruiser on dmg most of the time, although every few pulls he would pull out with 2x more dps. And on group mobs, wow. No one came close to touching half of my dps. Made me very happy.But onto the question! Is there a guide or some advice on spell sequencing in groups to maximise dps? I feel I have a firm grasp on solo play as mobs can barely touch me. But I ran into these situations during group play.a) Easy Mobs - Seemed they died to fast for my big spells to even be cast and dots to run course. So I swapped to just fast cast low dmg.b) Single Target Mobs - I'm getting matched by a dps hybrid? Still died to fast for the dots, so just swapped between my DD red spells.c) Group Mobs - I felt I was doing good just because I was casting AoE spells, but is there a trick?d) Boss Mobs - The only ones last long enough to use my dots?I have all the App 4 version of the spells in my inventory as I level. I would do Adepts but the cost was more than I could split on the broker, maybe for 30-39 as I get more coin. I did harvest a full set of rare, so I have the 7 Master Crafted pieces of armor. I would like more guidance on sequencing than being told to get better gear or adepts/master spells.Thank you in advance!

Obviousman

04-30-2008, 05:02 PM

Let me start off by saying that once you get a little higher in levels, you will only start to see the potential that your warlock can really put out. The fact that you're using Mastercrafted gear is a great way to start having good amounts of DPS, because at this stage, Mastercrafted just destroys any other piece of equipment. Generally, I would try going for Adept I spells, as long as they aren't too terribly expensive (I don't know if that's the case because of transmuting). You did ask for specific spell orders, though, so I will focus on that.a) Easy mobs- are easy. Just do what you want to do, there's no point in wasting your big hitters on these critters.b) Single Target Mobs- Unfortunately, you don't have <a href="http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Aura_of_Darkness" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Aura of Darkness</a>, which is a very nice spell that can get your numbers higher. If you're worrying about your spells taking too long to cast or run through, I recommend using the Hastenings Line first on your AAs. That allows you to get your spells casted and completed faster. Other than that, make the most of your spells and remember that we aren't the gods of single-target DPS (blame the wizzerds for that), so you might beat by a few classes.c) Group Mobs- I hope you mean Encounter spells (which are the green ones) instead of AoE's (Which are the blue ones). Groupmates generally don't like it when you're adding a few mobs to your battle with your spells. Obviously, whatever order you're casting your group spells is working, so keep doing it until it doesn't work anymore. Experiment with your order.d) Boss Mobs- Yeah, DPS is nice, but always make sure that you don't go all out with your big nukes at the beginning. It's nice that you're going the warlocktank route (seriously, wartank? Sounds like a Guardian if I've ever heard the term), but boss mobs are going to put quite a bit of pain on you if you're not careful. Make sure your DoT's are always running, make sure you use your poison/disease debuff at all times, and make sure you have a fluid casting order where nothing is wasted. To tell you the truth, at this point, so early in the game, there's no need to worry about having your DPS all maximized. Just make sure you can cooperate well with your groupmates, find the spots where you think you need improving, and work on it. Mobs are ridiculously easy to take down at this stage with mastercrafted armor being overpowered and all, so I should worry first about maximizing group satisfaction. Nothing is more frustrating to a group than a DPS bot that prioritizes getting the highest numbers on the parse over everything else.By the way, the warlocktank spec may not be the right one for you if you're coming to the forums asking for DPS advice. There are other specs that will maximize your DPS output greater than this spec will grant you. Thanks for checking out my guide and using it and whatnot, just note that people are going to see the word "warlocktank" and tell you to get out of that spec right away if you want more DPS. Then again, it's your personal preference, so use whatever style suits you best.

MaddBomber

04-30-2008, 05:20 PM

Thank you for the reply!I think I'll continue working on the order of my spells. I always worry about dps, and have the parser up even on my guardian. Think I'll make a chart of damage / time to cast and damage / refresh or something to figure it out.As for the wartank (warlocktank, lol). . .I have played several casters up to 20ish before, and always got frustrated with how easy it was to die. Throwing those 10 points into magi shielding right off the bat and now following up down the sta tree (working on the mit buff now) has really made this an enjoyable class for me to play. I have only died in group wipes thus far. Yesterday I duoed with a scout, and we alternated who tanked each mob (blue ^^^). Granted we were killing them quickly, and only had to tank for maybe 10-30 seconds, but still.

valkry

06-05-2008, 03:21 PM

Best thing I can suggest is just take a few minutes and read, just carefully read your spells. I try to do this very few months because sometimes SoE changes how a specific spell works.After you have read the spell, just stop and think, "When would I use this?" Often I will re-read a spell I thought I knew & realize that it has a vs disease or vs poison mit debuff. Then I will start to plot out my order of spells. When soloing, the first thing is to get the mob rooted. This gives me time to do everything else without just leaving a pretty corpse. When you get the pet at 48, I would cast that next, so pet can get agro/ take hits for a while before mob figures I'm the power. Next 1 or 2 debuffs to max the other spells just that much more effective. Then a HO chain using my DDs, HO chain using my less damage DDs. This should kill off most single mobs.Reminder with the HO chain.. look at the DD (lightening icon spells) for which has the greatest damage, 2nd most, etc. I cast 2nd most damage first, the follow up w/ most damage (you want the extra bonus damage on the BEST spell). Next cast HO with smaller DDs, you might actually get the 2nd damage spell to regen in time to be the last spell of the 2nd chain (& I will wait for it, if I can).For pairs & groups it gets changed a bit. Root first (always), then send the pet. Then I hit my 2 debuffs (sorry I can NOT remember spell names at work) & a DOT. Now Pet is working on the DoT'd mob & I switch targets. I could go into the HO chain on the same target, but our pet is limited (dies when the creature it was fighting dies), so I want to get every bit of damage out of each pet casting. DoT'd mob also might decide to keep agro on pet, instead of shifting to me. I then start the HO chain on the other mob. Instead of just mashing HO, large DD, XL DD, I will cast the Encounter debuff after the large DD. This might complete the HO for me & if not, I can still have time for the XL DD to complete HO. Second HO chain, I can used the save XL DD to start chain (or small DD, whichever... depends on how bloody the mob or I am), hit my best encounter 'aoe' damage spell, and follow up w/ DD as needed. By this time, either pet or I have killed off one mob & I can finish off others easily w/ chain EaoEs/AoEs as needed/safe to use.Boss mobs work like group, but I sic pet on boss and stay targeted on the boss myself. Usually by the time I have the boss mob down, the groupies have already died to the EaoEs.Finally I don't often group, but when I do.... I 'pace' myself with group encounters. Having been a "hyper-mage" at my lower lvls, I still have horrible flashbacks of my guardian, two pallys, a templar, a conj w/ pet vainly trying pull take agro back from me... all those big men in plate & my lil elfie in her bathrobe terrified the mobs. (BTW, MT means MAGE-Tank, right?) Now I debuff, hit the DDs/DoTs, and after its about 1/2 dead, I'll start the EaoEs. My hope at this point is tank kills first target & each target he swtiches to is 1/2 or more dead when he targets it.Finally, get forraging and get the rares to get yourself a couple of Adept IIIs. Bewteen those and the master spells at certain lvls, you can really boost up the spells you find you get the most impact from.