Thoughts of a full time Ilusionist?

[Delr]

Hi all, i'm relatively new to Eq2 - i have been trying to decide which character to level up - right now i have a mid twenties illusionist and warlock. The warlock is fun b/c of the damage out put, but i'm looking for a more active and challenging role in a group.  Illusionists have excellent crowd control abilities but in past groups i've found it's not always necessary, even when fighting multiple mobs...classes with excellent AE's prefer to take on the mobs at one time..unless we're talkign ^^ and ^^^ heroics.  So i'm curious, for those who have achieved a relatively high level, how do you find this class? is it exciting or are you relegated to poor damage dealer or mana battery if possible?

 

I rolled this character in hopes of being extremely useful to a group and really making  adifference between living and wiping.  Please share your experiences -

 

thanks all

Delrio

[Pins]

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Delrio wrote:

Hi all, i'm relatively new to Eq2 - i have been trying to decide which character to level up - right now i have a mid twenties illusionist and warlock. The warlock is fun b/c of the damage out put, but i'm looking for a more active and challenging role in a group.  Illusionists have excellent crowd control abilities but in past groups i've found it's not always necessary, even when fighting multiple mobs...classes with excellent AE's prefer to take on the mobs at one time..unless we're talkign ^^ and ^^^ heroics.  So i'm curious, for those who have achieved a relatively high level, how do you find this class? is it exciting or are you relegated to poor damage dealer or mana battery if possible?

 

I rolled this character in hopes of being extremely useful to a group and really making  adifference between living and wiping.  Please share your experiences -

 

thanks all

Delrio

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Well, right now CC is very useful if you accidently pull a 2nd encounter, since a single tank/healer cannot handle 2 encounters banging on them at once. Inside encounter mezing is not so useful. Even when I'm fighting multiple mobs, I prefer AEs, because when you hit 50, you become a very good AE class. You do make a huge difference between a group living and wiping, if the group is not the greatest ever. As has been said, we are the peg leg, for the gimped group. We can make a lot of mobs doable when other classes in the same spot would make the group fail.

[LukeBorgman]

I'm currently playing a level 36 Illusionist and have fun duoing most of the time with my Monk wife.  Soloing is even possible now.  LU13 was overall great for my Illusionist (who I had pretty much stopped playing except in guildie groups).  Now, in groups...  eh.

If things go horribly wrong, I can maybe save the group from wiping, but 99% of the time I am merely tolerated by friendly groupmates.  DPS is ok (until I run out of power), debuffing and buffing is ok (but weak enough to not be noticable by groupmates), so I definitely contribute to the group, but your warlock is more likely to be appreciated.  Troubadors seem to do better at most everything Illusionists do for a group except in the case of a rare emergency where serious crowd control is needed.   The way I rip through power, playing in a group that rips through MOBs means I need a Troubador in the group for power regen or my DPS drops to a trickle when I'm OOP for what seems like every other fight under a constant pull situation.

IMO, it can work, but other classes have a much clearer group role and group benefit.  It can feel a bit tight to include "ok" utility with the necessary tanks, healers, sustained-DPS, & better utility (namely Troubador) squeezed into a group of 6.  From what I've read in the forums, 50+ Illusionists do well.  I'm thinking it'll be a long haul through my late 30s and 40s, but I'm having fun duoing at a slower pace.

Regen really seems to be my biggest problem if I push for good DPS in a kickin group. 

[Malle]

Put it this way- if most of the Illusionists hadn't given up before DoF came out and there were more of us around, we'd be flavour of the month. We can do stuff that almost no-one else can, due to our stuns, roots and mezzes, coupled with our power regen and stifles. We have decent DPS now (documented very well by Mills-Fairchild in his post) and our utility is almost unmatched. Coupled with group Invis getting rebuffed again very soon, I cannot think of any class I'd rather play right now. You don't always need to mezz every time for sure, but it's a lifesaver when you do, and it's now become very useful indeed for soloing.

 

I can't speak for the journey to 50 in the old-world content, I did that before the revamp, but I can say that for me the class has become the character I always wanted to play. If you go full time Illusionist you'll not be bored or useless in groups or solo, I can promise you that. :smileyhappy:

 

*Edit- Man, I always seem to leave one small spelling error in! :smileymad:*

Message Edited by Mallevi on 09-28-2005 11:36 AM

[kaeleth]

To put it simply, we rock!  We crowd control, stifle, stun, slice, dice, and puree...well maybe not the latter 3   We are utility.  We do have some dps now which is good.  More or less, we are a great additon to any duo, trio, or full group.  We are decent solo too!  Not going to take anything out in 5 seconds, but we can manage.  I played before the update and after and I have always loved my illusionist.

[Roxxanne]

The aspect of being an illusionist that appeals to me is the ability to switch back and forth between "dps-mode" and "damage-mitigation mode" depending on the group makeup, the mobs, and the circumstances of each fight.  You need to decide at any given time whether the tank and healer (if any) have it under control or need your assistance with damage mitigation.  If they do, you have the ability to mezz within the encounter (or outside adds obviously), to chain stifle, to debuff melee output by over 5 levels, to stun for part of the fight.  These damage mitigation tools kill your dps, but they make a big difference if the fight is tougher than the group at hand.

 

In more routine situations where your healing and tankage need no help, you can now put out quite decent dps while being ready to save the day if things get out of hand.

 

I assume warlocks are still good soloers.  Now illusionists have joined them, whereas before the update we were one of the most pitiful soloing classes.  Now, while we cant kill as quickly and dont have AE roots for soloing, we have a strong single target root, mezzes and a pet personae with some limited damage tanking ability to give us different solo strategy options.

Message Edited by Roxxanne on 09-28-2005 04:38 PM

[Belizarius]

I've really only played my Illusionist, and I suspect it would be more helpful for you to hear from someone who's played both.

But you're looking at 2 very different types of mages.

I think it probably takes a bit more effort to play an Illusionist well.   If you want a less demanding gaming experience, Warlock is hard to beat.  On the plus side, as an Illusionist you probably have more variety of playing styles and tactics to choose from.  You CAN save a group from wiping, but only if they are people who group with you (or other Illusionists) regularly and who realise what you can do for them.  One clueless pickup member is all it takes to ruin it.

You are useful in groups, but more so in partial groups.  Full, balanced groups rarely need crowd control or additional mitigation.  Warlocks will make things die faster, and dead mobs have zero DPS anyway.  Whereas in partial groups, CC and mitigation are invaluable tools.

In terms of playability, we are at least 100% more now fun than pre-LU13, whether grouped or solo.

High level Illusionists are sought after by raiding guilds, and are in short supply.

I hope some of that helps you make the 'right' choice for you.

[Yumil]

i think the true joy of being illusionist is when you reach that high level

 

at high levels you get power drain (devitalizing stare), power save (savante), AoE DOT spell that does considerable damage and stifle (color shower), and a proc spell that, used on the right person, could inflict around 1.2k damage every 15 seconds (prismatic shock)

 

not to mention our group-saver encounter mez, and our ever-so cute pet... at lvl 50+ i could solo a single, blue double arrow up gnoll without being harmed (but, as you may have guessed, the pet died ;p)

 

also the ability to mez on the run (i do not know what i would be without this...) 

 

as for damage, currently i am sitting at between position 2-4 in the highest DPS in a group (which of course, has a warlock in it ;p)... not much damage anyway, but hey... we're no warlocks =)

although when i'm lucky i out-DPS the warlock.

 

ALSO... at 55  you can CLONE your whole group!! i'm very much looking forward to this,,

 

 

Anyway, illusionist is a fun class if you decided to try hard and achieve the high level. The challenge rating is high especially in dangerous dungeons... and if you successfully keep your group alive through precise crowd control(barely or unscathed), you will most likely say to yourself: "Holy [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot], i am GOOD!"

 

just my 2 golds.. =p

 

EDIT: typo

Message Edited by Yumilea on 09-28-2005 08:46 PM

[Delr]

excellent responses! thank you all very much for taking the time out -  I had my illusionist out last night. I wanted to complete aQ3 on him.  I got midly frustrated everytime i mezzed ni counter and some one would wake him or AE everything.  So, i decided, i 'll just yield to their play style..i assisted the tank and began with stifling, stunning and DoT'ing.  there were a couple of occasions mez was necessary...so overalli felt i contributed well and when the time came the mezz was handy.  I guess my fear is becoming a nice to ahve just in case vs. we  need him.  The warlock is proving to be a bit boring. The damage is crazy, but to avoid aggro i need to space it out and control it..so a fight is basicallly..nuke..wait wait wait..nuke ..wait wait wait.  nice to have the needed fire power, but i found the illusionist to be much more exciting and rewarding.  I just hope the player community will realize our worth so i'm not dependant on my normal hunting partners.  I like to get out there and mix it up with new friends a lot.

[SunT]

Each mob is not a mob...each encounter is a mob.

Only Mez Adds and it is linked to the mob you are fighting it is not an add.

The only times I mez inside of encounter are when there is a tough named with adds, or if the tank is going down.  I do use my aoe mez frequently now since it is broken by aoe.  I look at it as more or a stun to help the tank get a good taunt round in.  Then I AOE a few seconds later and break it myself if it isn't broken already.

[Manyak]

I've actualy found the ill to be one of th emost versatile classes there is. Right now, if the group needs DPS, we can (if pushing it) outdamage a wizzie of the same level. If all of a sudden theres a tough named you gotta fight, the lvl 47 melee debuff (Dismay.....decreases melee skills by 36) and the ability to chain stifle/stun makes us one of the best defensive classes available. If lots of adds come (especially when theyre 5+ levels above the group) those mezzes really help, and the breeze allows the group to have enough mana to actually take them out. If the group's tank dies and the healer's battle rez isnt up, then those roots come into play quite nicely. If the group's healer dies, then you can mezz/stun/root long enough so that theres time to yell for help and use a feather on the healer (or have the pally/dirge/necro rez him). I've fround that there isnt a single situation, in any group, that an illusionist hasnt proven to be useful.

 

 

But either way, id personally give up all the DPS we got just to have that old 60pts/6sec raid castable insight, no matter how many times id have to cast it =)