Pet and damage

[Qbic07]

<p>Dear ladies and gents,</p><p>I used to have a low level mystic when I played at first a couple of years ago.  Back then the pet was quite useless.  Did anything change in the meantime?  Back then mystics were a pain in the wee behind to solo as well but due to AA's it is apparently easier nowadays.  I still have to check it out though and due to my limited gametime I can't check ingame at the moment.</p><p>Thanks upfront for the feedback.</p><p>Cheers,</p><p>Martin</p>

[Eugam]

<p>Once you are down the STR line and have enough AA to swap to melee CA's the mystic is fun to solo. With STR AA the dog avoids AE and might proc an AE avoidance for the whole group, while procing wards for the whole group when attacking mobs. He is a 16% haste buffer as well. Dogdog's HP was boostet and he has a good survivability. In my case he dies once in 10 instances or less. He now is part of your dps.</p><p>With the new shadows AA the dog got some more love. There are HP, defence and damage boosts for the dog. Soloing he saved my butt a hundred times now. Never would leave home without dogdog. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Qbic07]

<p>Ow so the dog has a chance to proc wards as well when attacking?  I didn't know that.  Seems they really did a good job on "upgrading" the dog and it's abilities.  I will surely roll a new mystic and see how they fare.  How many AA's does one need to get most of the goodies?  I am not that familiar with this whole AA concept yet so bear with me  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" /></p><p>One more thing; we can swap to melee CA's as well, does the melee damage stack with the extra damage done in bear form?</p><p>Cheers,</p><p>Martin.</p>

[Anadorn]

<p>Bear form is a buff to your stats that comes with a proc, with melee spec your basicaly taking the DOTS you currently have and turning them into a combat ability like a melee class so yes you would still get the proc from bear form.  The general idea for solo spec is to get your CA's first then get your melee crit up (can get to 100% from aa's) after that I try and keep a good balance of DA, +dps, and +combat art damage gear (with double attack being my main focus) and get a good hard hitting slower delay 2 handed weapon.  In my solo spec i've got 103% melee crit and 97% double attack, not sure of damage modifier or dps at the moment.  But in this spec I'm definately pushing out some good dps, search through the board there are alot of good posts on how to get your dps up. </p><p>The only swapping to melee CA's is if you don't have them on your group spec and have to use the mirror if your switching specs other than that MOST of the time you will be in the mix throwing in the CA's vs. the old dots.  The total amount needed to get your CA's maxed out is 20 then requiring 1 additional point for the end line ability.  For the STA line (melee crits and tribal rage) requires 22 points to activate the end line ability.</p>

[Qbic07]

<p>Thanks for the tips; I will roll a mystic tomorrow evening and see where I end up.  Do I need to use AA's to "upgrade" my pet or does he get the wards while attacking automatically?</p>

[Banditman]

<p>Bear form does not come with a proc, that is added via AA's.</p><p>You need to go through all three AA trees and read what each ability does, or do a little searching on Alla's or one of the other fansites that have this sort of info.  There are various other threads on this forum that give guidance on what AA's are most beneficial most quickly and in what circumstances.</p>

[Eugam]

<p><cite>Qbic07 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Thanks for the tips; I will roll a mystic tomorrow evening and see where I end up. Do I need to use AA's to "upgrade" my pet or does he get the wards while attacking automatically?</p></blockquote><p>Quite a few. Be prepared that those levels will be sometimes a pain. Dog dies unless you tank and turn the mob for the dog <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> My hint is to pre ward with the group ward. Saves you hours of recasting the dog.</p><p>First swap to melee. The minumum should be 3x4= 12 AA. Then the STR tree. Since you roll new, you can get the pet/dps stance next. Dog shouldnt die anymore soloing.</p><p>The google or look up setups. You will know by then. Oh, although swaping to melee you should upgrade your casting spells. Situational but never useless. You can even bolster and tank buff dogdog and use casts. Situational but often handy to pull a mob out of a camp.</p>

[KnightMarshal]

<p>What is the usual setup for getting the melee tree? There are five skills with 20 points needed to get the bottom skill.</p><p>Should you go for the minimum to open the next skill before going back and finishing them out? That makes the most sense to me, but I don't know if there are ones that should be gotten to 5 asap.</p>

[Banditman]

<p>I would take all five of the skills to L4, do the end ability and then focus on the AGI line.  If what you desire is solo'ability that is.</p>

[Elslav]

<p>I am currently 55 with 73 AAs and I just started leveling this Mystic about 10 days ago to play with a returning friend.  I went for the Combat Arts and the end ability there Weapon Mastery right away with my first 21 AA points. I did 3 points in all the CAs including the Enhance bear to open up all 4 CAs..I then filled the Chilling Strike CA (it refreshs the fastest so I wanted it max power) to 5 points as well as the AE attack(highest damage CA), a 4th point to Glacial Strike and got the final ability opend and I spent a point there (eventually I will max all the CAs)</p><p>Then I got the dog and started down the AGI line to its end ability, I did 4-4-8-6 to open up Tribal Rage. Then I started to open the Enhance SoW but only until I had 50AAs.. after that I started on the TSO lines to spend 10 in general so right at 60 AA I can get Litany of Combat.  (I took 5 in run and 5 in max life in General)</p><p>After I got Litany of Combat to 5 points for the melee buff I went back to max out SoW and now I am working my way down the STR line. I dont think I will get the AE blocker yet, I think I would rather have the endline Wisdom ability to cast faster, but I am going for 4-4-4-8 in STR and I think with that I can fill out WIS for my 70 points in the Shaman Tree. </p><p>This is my plan for a leveling/solo spec that focuses on AA gain, my biggest issue as an Ogre Mystic so far is power consumption, and cast speed.. I tend to get out of power fast but things should get better once I get into Kunark gear. But until then I have 103% melee crit, 60% double attack, 51% haste (FBSS) when my Rage procs.. which is pretty much all the time <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Banditman]

<p>No, it won't get better.  Melee gear and the CA's drive you out of power quickly.  Typically, the sort of gear you need in order to effectively melee doesn't have a lot of Wisdom on it, therefore your power pool is much smaller.  Further, the CA's actually use more power over time than the spells do.</p><p>No matter how "good" you are as a melee Mystic, you are doing something that Priests in general don't do efficiently.  Yes, compared to where we were for many years, it's great.  Still, if you want to kill things quickly, do lots of damage, etc . . . you're playing the wrong class.</p><p>In comparable gear / group, you're only doing Bard level DPS - if that.</p>