The new Oberon.. it's really not very good

[SonnyA]

<p>I don't get it with the "new" Oberon spell for mystics. We got the new AA line option, the stun component was removed and everyone rejoiced. But the fact is that it's still a very crappy heal.I was using this on my tank, who took a lot of incoming damage, on the sage encounter (2nd last) in Palace of Roehn Theer. I used Oberon every time it was up. For 8.5 minutes I was cycling my single target ward, my group ward, torpor and Oberon. Plus I threw in group heal and my group cure (that procs ward from cure line).So for 8.5 minutes, I cast Oberon every time it was up (which will only be 3-4 times due to long reuse), in a fight where I was healing for 2700 heal per second. <strong>Oberon did only 50 heal per second of that (2%)</strong>. And I have 10 AA points invested in it. The base ward amount on my Oberon is 7600. It always crits and becomes a 9566 hp ward.In comparison. My torpor did 330 hps (12%). But I also have 5 AA points in the new torpor ability.</p><p>But 2% from Oberon?? I did the same amont of healing with the proc from my zarrakon earring. And I didn't spend 10 AA points on my Zarrakon earring. The ward component on my group cure healed for more. Ok, but they are groupwide and Oberon is single target, so not really comparable. But it's a fun fact <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" />In my opinion, with 10 AA points invested in it, in an 8.5 minute fight, it should heal for close to the same amount as torpor. They're different spells, yes. Torpor has a downside on the recipient, where Oberon doesn't. But Torpor can be cast outside group, where Oberon is in-group only. Oberon can be used as emergency in a tight spot where you just need that extra protection (before debuffs are in). Torpor can also do that, but with less effect and torpor on pull is.. just not a good idea.But I digress.. My point is. Right now, it's really not worth putting 5 or 10 AA points into enhancing Oberon. It simply has too long reuse and too little heal effect to be called a good spell.</p><p>I urge the Devs to take a look at it and make adjustments.</p>

[Eugam]

<p>Well, i am happy to have another filler for the ward gaps. In that reagard i d like oberon to be group wide. Thatw ay it would make much more sense to me.</p>

[Thunderthyze]

<p>If you knew how and when to use it effectively the old stun Oberon could be really quite a powerful tool in our arsenal. For some reason, even with the stun component removed, the new version seems somewhat anaemic. I'm hoping it's just a question of working out the optimum rotation.</p>

[Banditman]

<p>The reason you are having problems with Oberon is that it doesn't follow the usual rules for Warding, in that oldest Ward gets used first.  Oberon gets used LAST, regardless of "age".  So if other Wards are present, they are taking the damage, and Oberon does nothing.</p><p>I think this is probably why folks are seeing less than spectacular results from it.</p>

[Xill]

<p>I get the impression we will only see alot of usefulness from Oberon on raids. Outside of that we have too much healing capabilities for this to even be needed...</p>

[Blambil]

<p>Oberon was a very specific use, last ditch, oh crap, spell, very much like the Same Spells in the Fury/Warden/Temp/Defiler lines. When the tank pulls 2x as much, when some joker trains and dies in front of you, when the named appears and you didn't expect it, that's when I'd pop Oberon. In its' current form, it's almost useless in the cases I just named.</p><p>It was powerful on a long timer to make sure it wasn't abused, and worked like a charm. I don't recall anyone asking for it to re-occur faster.</p><p>The loss of bane-warding (see today's patch notes) combined with the weakening of the spell, make it a spell I really don't use much any more. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" /> I don't understand why they messed with it in the first place.</p>

[SonnyA]

<p><cite>Xill wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I get the impression we will only see alot of usefulness from Oberon on raids. Outside of that we have too much healing capabilities for this to even be needed...</p></blockquote><p>Trust me. My example is from a raid situation. You don't take a single group into Palace of Roehn Theer and live though even the first encounter <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>And I expect more than 50 hps from something I put 10 AA points into.</p><p>And Bandit, even though it's last in line, I can tell you that my other wards got torn by the amount of incoming damage. I know that 2700 hps is what you sometimes see in a standard instance group, but there was also a templar pumping out heals on the same tank. So Oberon got its full use. It went to 0 and refreshed and went to 0 again.</p><p>So Oberon is either a situational ward (to soak spike damage) or a vastly underpowered heal/ward spell. If it's meant to be situational, then it's a waste to put AA points in it as it won't give much over time. If it's meant to be useful in healing, then it's underpowered.</p><p>Again.. at its current state I would not recommend any mystic to put points in either of the two Oberon enhancing AA abilities.</p>

[AziBam]

<p>I've mostly used it (heroic) when our zerk tank has pulled a boatload of mobs and we are getting hit with AEs/frontals.  I'll drop it on him so I don't have to worry much about his health then focus on getting the group taken care of.  It certainly isn't on the top of my heal parse but I wouldn't expect it to be given how I'm using it. </p><p>I virtually never used it before the change (other than maybe putting it on the tank then going to get a beer or something)  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  I currently have 5 points in it from the original buff line.  Maybe you'll convince me that I can spend the points better on another ability but as of now I still kind of expect to have 10 points in it when I'm at max AA.</p>

[Banditman]

<p>That's exactly what it's supposed to be from my impressions . . . a situational tool.  Much like Bolster and AS.</p><p>Now, of course, the other problem with Oberon not parsing all that well is that it's got such a long recast.</p>

[Arcanemundi]

<p>I wish we could instead have an AA ability that shortens the reuse on Oberon....hmm I wonder if this was already considered by the devs?</p>

[Mephistophelese]

<p>mine seemed to follow the rule of first ward cast goes first. i cast oberion first due to it being a regenerating ward and when it's down for the short time till it's regenerated then my regular wards kick in till oberion has regenerated again then it has been kicking back in. to me it has been an awsome ward. if you cast single and group wards first it wipes away any usefullness of oberion due to by the time it works it's way threw regular wards oberion is about to expire and won't get any of it's regenerating benifits. don't have any parses to post due to wife always closes ACT when she gets on<img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Yongqi]

<p>I noticed another change to the oberon AA.  It has power reduction and with each rank the refresh rate does not change. It's always 25 percent. The aa use to decrease power usage and improve the refresh rate.</p>

[Banditman]

<p><cite>Yongqi wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I noticed another change to the oberon AA.  It has power reduction and with each rank the refresh rate does not change. It's always 25 percent. The aa use to decrease power usage and improve the refresh rate.</p></blockquote><p>One of us is misunderstanding the use of the word "rate" in that AA.</p><p>My understanding of this AA is that it decreases power useage and improves the "rate" at which the ward refreshes.  In other words, the refresh happens more often.</p><p>You are reading that it improves the rate, the amount, that refreshes.</p><p>I believe my interpretation is correct in light of the fact that we get another AA which allows us to improve the amount.  If respecs were free, I'd be happy to test it out for you, but alas, at 10p a pop for me, I don't anticipate much testing on my end.</p>

[Malicorp]

<p><cite>Banditman wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>My understanding of this AA is that it decreases power useage and improves the "rate" at which the ward refreshes.  In other words, the refresh happens more often.</p></blockquote><p>You are correct. The AA affects the regeneration rate of the ward. With max AAs, the ward regenerates somewhere in the ballpark of 5000 points every 2 seconds. Without the AAs, it regenerates those same 5000, but closer to 3s iirc. This adds to the overall potential of the spell, but Oberon realizes its potential in proportion to the rate of incoming damage. The greater the intensity of incoming single target "spike" damage, the more Oberon will be fully utilized.</p><p>Oberon is an absolutely amazing tool for raiding. Heal parses are and will always be misleading. Often, in any raid that challenges the raidforce doing it, there are critical points where success or failure hangs in the balance. For example, if you are in the OT group and the MT goes down, your tank has to take over immediately. Casting Oberon provides you those critical 14 or so seconds of extra wards that can allow your raid to stabilize. If the OT goes down with the MT already down (or unbuffed, out of range, rez effects, etc), then its likely that your raid wipes. Similarly on a hard fight, if the second healer in your group bites it, you may be left to keep an OT up alone while the rest of the group eats AEs, etc.</p><p>You need to stop looking at Oberon as a normal warding ability. Between Torpor, Ancestral Ward, Umbral Warding and sometimes Prophetic Ward, we about as much normal warding as we need. I view Oberon as a ~14 second death save for one of your group members. I could list a dozen or more creative uses for Oberon that would assist the mystic in keeping his group alive.</p>

[Gahnand]

<p>If your primary concern is HPS, then I can see why you would not like Oberon. I think it's a great tool especially for emergencies.</p>

[Yongqi]

<p><cite>Banditman wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Yongqi wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I noticed another change to the oberon AA.  It has power reduction and with each rank the refresh rate does not change. It's always 25 percent. The aa use to decrease power usage and improve the refresh rate.</p></blockquote><p>One of us is misunderstanding the use of the word "rate" in that AA.</p><p>My understanding of this AA is that it decreases power useage and improves the "rate" at which the ward refreshes.  In other words, the refresh happens more often.</p><p>You are reading that it improves the rate, the amount, that refreshes.</p><p>I believe my interpretation is correct in light of the fact that we get another AA which allows us to improve the amount.  If respecs were free, I'd be happy to test it out for you, but alas, at 10p a pop for me, I don't anticipate much testing on my end.</p></blockquote><p>No misunderstanding at all. I was referring to the regeneration rate. I only used refresh rate because thats how soe worded it.</p>

[Thunderthyze]

<p><cite>Debase@Najena wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Banditman wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>My understanding of this AA is that it decreases power useage and improves the "rate" at which the ward refreshes.  In other words, the refresh happens more often.</p></blockquote><p>You are correct. The AA affects the regeneration rate of the ward. With max AAs, the ward regenerates somewhere in the ballpark of 5000 points every 2 seconds. Without the AAs, it regenerates those same 5000, but closer to 3s iirc. This adds to the overall potential of the spell, but Oberon realizes its potential in proportion to the rate of incoming damage. The greater the intensity of incoming single target "spike" damage, the more Oberon will be fully utilized.</p><p>Oberon is an absolutely amazing tool for raiding. Heal parses are and will always be misleading. Often, in any raid that challenges the raidforce doing it, there are critical points where success or failure hangs in the balance. For example, if you are in the OT group and the MT goes down, your tank has to take over immediately. Casting Oberon provides you those critical 14 or so seconds of extra wards that can allow your raid to stabilize. If the OT goes down with the MT already down (or unbuffed, out of range, rez effects, etc), then its likely that your raid wipes. Similarly on a hard fight, if the second healer in your group bites it, you may be left to keep an OT up alone while the rest of the group eats AEs, etc.</p><p>You need to stop looking at Oberon as a normal warding ability. Between Torpor, Ancestral Ward, Umbral Warding and sometimes Prophetic Ward, we about as much normal warding as we need. I view Oberon as a ~14 second death save for one of your group members. I could list a dozen or more creative uses for Oberon that would assist the mystic in keeping his group alive.</p></blockquote><p>Totally agree.</p>

[SonnyA]

<p><cite>Debase@Najena wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Banditman wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>My understanding of this AA is that it decreases power useage and improves the "rate" at which the ward refreshes.  In other words, the refresh happens more often.</p></blockquote><p>You need to stop looking at Oberon as a normal warding ability. Between Torpor, Ancestral Ward, Umbral Warding and sometimes Prophetic Ward, we about as much normal warding as we need. I view Oberon as a ~14 second death save for one of your group members. I could list a dozen or more creative uses for Oberon that would assist the mystic in keeping his group alive.</p></blockquote><p>You're right. But as I'm saying. For a situational tool, it's not worth 10 AA points in it. You can still use it for those situational uses, but without the AAs in it. The AAs are just parked and won't really do you much good.</p><p>However, when I specced out of it I found that I still needed at least 3 to get down to bolster. And speaking of Bolster. Now there's 10 AA points well spent.</p>

[Malicorp]

<p>Thats a fair assessment I suppose. I think you'd see a more pronounced performance from Oberon if you have an MT group spot or manage to improve reuse to near cap.</p>