advice on recommisioning an old templar

[Oreo]

<p>Hello, I'm playing again after quite a lengthy absence.    I'm level 52 at the moment, and last time I played we didn't have Achievements so I'm only level 4 in that.</p><p>As excited as I was to continue exploring this world again I'm really unsatisfied with my character at the moment.  I solo'd a fair portion of my time back then and never found it too hard despite my choice to be a healer.  But now, I'm finding it almost unbearable, it's sad but Mark of Kings (72s duration) usually runs out before I can kill a single mob 2-3 levels below me.  At the rate I'm able to quest I'll be lucky to see level 60 in a month.  Took me about 2 hours, on rested xp, to get 20% of a level out in the Desert of Flames expansion area.</p><p>I have about 8 plat to play with, and you can see my present gear by looking up Kiyea in the character database, I'm the one on Lucan D'Lere.  Any advice on improving the solo capabilites of my templar would be greatly appreciated.   I've been reading what I can on the forums but I'm still quite confused.  I have no idea if pursuing a melee or caster focused path will yield better results in my situation.</p>

[Kendricke]

<p><b>Step 1:</b>  Go the the broker, look up "collectibles" and sort by price.  Start buying up any/all collection items that show up in white (and use those items right away to clear them from the list).  Build up as many collections as you can right away with a couple of platinum.<b>Step 2:</b>  Use the /claim function.  If you've just returned, SOE likely dropped a bunch of goodies in your lap, not to mention the veteran rewards you already have access to.  Claim a few experience potions.<b>Step 3:</b>  Run around old zones.  Get as much discovery experience as you can from those old Tier 2-4 areas you haven't been to in a while.<b>Step 4:</b> stop grinding.  Start questing.  Make a run for the Isle of Mara (bell is on Nektulos dock) and run the solo quests there.  Run the Maj'Dul solo quests in Desert of Flames.  See if you can get into any groups (level 52 is a good level to start looking Klak'Anon and Mines of Meldrath).</p><p>The immediate goal here is to build up another 4-6 achievement points quickly.  </p><p>Once you have more achievements, immediately put one into Yaulp (cleric tree) and then start dropping some into the Smites achievements of the Templar tree.  Take a look at the broker for mastercrafted armors and weapons that might be upgrades to the 2-3 year old gear you're walking around with.  In particular, pay attention to the delay on the weapon you choose - bigger is better for Templars.  Go for a big, powerful, SLOW weapon (likely 2 handed) that you can use.  Pick up a cheap weapon adornment (even a low level one is better than nothing at all).</p><p>As far as your actual strategy and tactics, you need to adjust what you're doing for the fights you're entering.  If you're using Mark of Kings against solo targets, you're casting the wrong spells.  </p><p>Here's my general pull/fight order:</p><ul><li>autoattack ON</li><li>Corruption line</li><li>Reproval line</li><li>Warring line and Heroic Opportunity trigger (I have mine built into the same macro)</li><li>smite </li><li>strike </li><li>smite </li><li>FILLER (either pause a moment while queueing up the next smite, use Divine Castigation, Hammer Smite, or reapply Corruption line)</li><li>smite again </li><li>strike </li><li>smite </li><li>FILLER (about this time, Warring line needs a refresh - every other filler, really) </li><li>smite </li><li>strike </li><li>smite </li><li>etc..</li></ul><p>You should get VERY used to the smite/trigger/strike/smite, <i>pause</i>, smite/trigger/strike/smite rhythm.  Use the short filler between each group as a place to refresh your warring faith, toss a quick debuff, or add in some additional damage.  Experiment with this order and you should see an immediate increase in DPS even if you improve no gear or spells (though I obviously recommend both).</p><p>Generally speaking, you shouldn't even need to be casting heals during most fights.  If things start to get hairy, don't ignore your stun and daze lines.  </p>

[dancemice]

<p>I'm going to add a few things here to kendricks great summary.</p><p>1) Stun is a great way to limit damage - Especially if your facing mobs that stun/stifle and do a lot of quick damage (Monk type mobs)</p><p>2) Daze isn't so useful, it only lasts 12 seconds and you need to stop attacking. Great for pulls though</p><p>3) Don't forget sooth. It's a de aggro, so you can use it to split mobs, or just make them non hostile so you can harvest</p><p>4) Buy potions - At your level i'd suggest +Int for more spell damage, or +str for some melee damage - OR if you can stand the pain of attacking a bunch of lower level greens - Try a stoneskin.</p><p>5) Charm slots are for charms. Carpets and harvesting tools don't belong there. I suggest one +wis and + other stat of your choice though sta/int/wis are all good choices (The dolls do differnt things so you may want to get differnt versions) - Also note to hotkey your charms so you can use them - Thier great when used at the right time (Hidiously long cast time however)</p><p>6) When you get higher level you may have to start carrying two or more suits of armor, 1 for solo, 1 for group/raid.</p><p>7) AA's - I wrote a very good AA guide thats buried in a thread way down. To sum it up, INT+Sta for most templars - You'll want max intelligence, that final aa is a godsend and it's useable every 5 minutes, Stamina for Double attack and healing criticals ( <b>If i remember right)</b> For the Templar AA chart you'll want to snag Smite wrath and blessings. Cure line still dosn't work right. And i never use the other one thats given. you may want to consider putting points into the sooth one as well, it's great for lowering aggro on boss mobs and keeping from being hit.</p><p>Definates on the templar line however = + Glory, + stoneskin +Nukes , + Fate (Increases amount healed when mob dies) ..</p><p><img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Right now for your level, Mastercrafted gear is your best bet.  You'll probably want to pick up a 2h hammer at this stage. Slower the better. The ideal is to nuke between swings, and with 100% or close critical hits, you will hit, very, very hard. (I think i'm ranked at 5th on the my server) For rings - Grab 1+ Int and 1 + str (I know wisdom is our "key" but the tiny wisdom boost dosn't really help, better you get +melee dps and +spell dps in brief bursts at this point - Oh yeah, the rings are imbued rings, and they're kinda pricy.</p><p>9) Weapon - Domino just made some imbued items that add +to spell damage and +to healing on a proc effect, try to grab one of them if you can find them (Domino = Trade skill dev, So you'll have to find a crafter to make you one..)</p><p>10) Harvest, harvest, harvest. You'll need Adept 3 spells iin quite a few critical spells (Healing, Buffing, Nukes, Utility Order depending on weather you solo or group) Expect to pay just under 1 pp for each adept 3 spell, (or master if you can find them) Or a few gold if you have the rare.</p><p>11) Use L (Achievements, race and class progression) To plan your class, So you don't duplicate master II choices with masters (Guilty!) You can choose a master II choice at 14.24.34 etc right up to th70's when it becomes 75.. Remeber to choose racial abilitys as well, and every few levels you get some bonus abilities</p><p>12) Master strikes - You now get a bonus smite vrs creatures that you've completed the legend and lore on. check out the Quest forum for the full list. (And neat house items to!)</p><p> Uuuh. Hope that helps.</p><p>-B-</p>

[Kendricke]

<cite>Tbiggs@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>2) Daze isn't so useful, it only lasts 12 seconds and you need to stop attacking. Great for pulls though</p></blockquote><p>You do not stop attacking while a target is dazed.  You keep bashing away.  Daze is similar to stifle, except that instead of preventing combat arts/spells, it prevents autotattacks.  </p>

[dancemice]

<p>Ahh. When everything in the game has some sort of ca/spell ability auto attack dosn't actually reduce much. Might help a bit for the pain in the butt kunark mobs that hit like a mack truck between stuns, Stifles and knockbacks <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>-B-</p>

[Kendricke]

<cite>Tbiggs@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Ahh. When everything in the game has some sort of ca/spell ability auto attack dosn't actually reduce much. </p></blockquote><p>Do you really want to hear the autoattack DPS of some of the more popular solo targets out there?  Twelve seconds of cutting that out is hardly inconsequential - especially to Templars who, like the originator of this post, may feel soloing is a bit on the tough side already.</p>

[Oreo]

<p>Thanks for the advice guys, I appreciate it.</p><p>You can't get achievment experience for things you already explored right?  I was fairly thorough in exploring the older zones so I doubt I'll find anything new.</p><p>Do collections grey out?  As a level 52 character is a level 10, 20, 30 collection still going to net me achievement experience? </p>

[Prrasha]

Collections always did grant XP and AA, even if they were "grey" to someone of your level.Recently, quests have started behaving the same way; you can complete a level 10 quest on a level 79 character and still get a smidgen of adventure XP and a "normal" amount of AA.  (AA gained is supposedly checked against your AA total and not your adventure level, so a level 20 adventurer with 15 AA doing a level 10 quest will get the same AA hit as a level 70 adventurer with 15 AA doing the same quest.)Exploration events and item discovery always give AA and XP, also, so the only thing that doesn't give AA to higher-level folks is killing a greyed-out Named mob.

[dancemice]

<cite>Prrasha wrote:</cite><blockquote>Exploration events and item discovery always give AA and XP, also, so the only thing that doesn't give AA to higher-level folks is killing a greyed-out Named mob.</blockquote><p>Just ask kindly to mentor someone for the named, Most times it works. And you'll see the AA. I'm still finding named mobs 4 years after release that i haven't murdered yet.</p><p>Oh yeah. I like to nitpick with kendrick.</p><p>-B-</p>

[Oreo]

<p>I had a chance to a put a few of the suggestions you guys gave me into effect last night.  It was quite remarkable.  I redid my gear a little to emphasize INT/STR more and picked up a decent 2h maul.   For my achievements I grabbed Yaulp and then started down the Holy Smites line.   Fights that took me a upwards of 90 seconds the other day were 30-40s fights last night.</p><p>I have two more questions if you'll indulge me.   I had no clue about the Corruption line of spells and had to look it up on the EQ2 wiki.  From what I learned there it has only two versions.  A level 35 and a 71.   Does the level 35 version scale with level?</p><p>Does Enhance: Warring Conviction compress the dot portion of the effect?</p>

[dancemice]

<p>the level 35 one scales to 70 - haven't really looked at the differeance between the 2 as it's not an effecient damage sorce compared to most spells and ca's you have - it doe however have the benifit of lowering wisdom, which in turn lowers mob resistances.</p><p>I don't use it ofen, usually when i'm waiting for other AA abilities to refresh (Intelligence gives you agreat AA abiltiy that scales right up to level 80 where it does about 1400 points every 45 seconds) You'll also get a nice quest reward that gives up to 1200 damage (pending on level) from the bone mire, usable every 3 minutes and stamina has a nice str based knockdown thats useable every 45 seconds, does a 1.2 second stun, so you can use it to get the jump on a healing spell with out being interupted.</p><p>-B-</p>

[dancemice]

<cite>Kendricke wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Tbiggs@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>2) Daze isn't so useful, it only lasts 12 seconds and you need to stop attacking. Great for pulls though</p></blockquote><p>You do not stop attacking while a target is dazed.  You keep bashing away.  Daze is similar to stifle, except that instead of preventing combat arts/spells, it prevents autotattacks.  </p></blockquote><p>Silly question on this - Does this work on nameds in the 80's instances? - I know most mobs at this level are unstunable....</p><p>-B-</p>

[Prrasha]

<cite>Tbiggs@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>the level 35 one scales to 70 - haven't really looked at the differeance between the 2 as it's not an effecient damage sorce compared to most spells and ca's you have - it doe however have the benifit of lowering wisdom, which in turn lowers mob resistances.</p><p>I don't use it ofen, usually when i'm waiting for other AA abilities to refresh (Intelligence gives you agreat AA abiltiy that scales right up to level 80 where it does about 1400 points every 45 seconds) You'll also get a nice quest reward that gives up to 1200 damage (pending on level) from the bone mire, usable every 3 minutes and stamina has a nice str based knockdown thats useable every 45 seconds, does a 1.2 second stun, so you can use it to get the jump on a healing spell with out being interupted.</p><p>-B-</p></blockquote>The level 35 Corruption line spell does not scale... you're thinking of the level 20 "Splitpaw heal".  That scales. There is, however, a level 53 upgrade to the Corruption line between the 35 and 71 versions.  Symbol of Corruption, Punish Corruption, Smite Corruption: I think that's the progression...

[bodomite]

<cite>Tbiggs@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Kendricke wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Tbiggs@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>2) Daze isn't so useful, it only lasts 12 seconds and you need to stop attacking. Great for pulls though</p></blockquote><p>You do not stop attacking while a target is dazed.  You keep bashing away.  Daze is similar to stifle, except that instead of preventing combat arts/spells, it prevents autotattacks.  </p></blockquote><p>Silly question on this - Does this work on nameds in the 80's instances? - I know most mobs at this level are unstunable....</p><p>-B-</p></blockquote><p>It does on about half of them.</p><p>Also, id like to point out that with full AA's into the daze skill its duration is so long you can bridge the cap to its reuse with your stun to effectively make your target never hit autoattacks on you. All non-caster mobs are very sparse with casting actual skills so this will make you needing to heal a lot less both soloing and killing trash in instances, allowing you to dps more. I can push zw's (spell specced) of upwards to 2k, only needing to heal on a few nameds and with whatever messy pulls there are.</p>

[Kyom]

^ spot onI found Daze to be a VERY handy spell T8. In rok instances or in Sebilis quite a few mobs almost stop doing any attack at all. As a rule I pretty much always get it up. If it doesn't help it sure as hell doesn't hurt <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" /> And as pointed out - stun duration and daze duration in turns is very convenient.

[Kendricke]

<cite>bodomite wrote:</cite><blockquote>All non-caster mobs are very sparse with casting actual skills so this will make you needing to heal a lot less both soloing and killing trash in instances, allowing you to dps more. </blockquote><p>Just to point out the obvious:  heals break smite wrath; stuns/dazes do not. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>