Illustionist Population

[Gykon]

The census websites say more people play Illusionists than Coercers, but the Coercer side of the boards is much livelier. Is there  a movement away from the class? Most of the posts are negative, and the Coercer side of things seems a little brighter.

[110euph]

I try to avoid the illusionist boards whenever possible.  I'm currently working second shift and am so bored, however, I have to find SOMETHING to do. =)

 

My experience with Illusionist... and mind you, I'm only 62 illusionist, 30 jeweler with him... but my experience has been a VERY different one than most of the people on these boards.  I really enjoy playing my illusionist.  it's a LOT of work, and a LOT of fun. 

 

One time I was in a group in Runnyeye.  We pulled a golem, got a golem add, and got popped on by 4 grouped goblins.  Since I was only doing crowd controll, I was at the bottom of the aggro list.  We killed the golem and had started beating on the goblins when the tank went down.  The DPS and the healer dropped fast.  I calmly mezzed everything, /yelled the encounter off, and rezzed the healer with a shard.  While the healer rezzed everyone else, I kept the mobs mezzed.  We got everyone back up, buffed, got to full power, and continued on as if nothing had happend.  it was a shining moment in the history of my character, and was a LOT of fun to save a group.

 

At 62, my illusionist is primarily a solo character.  He solos VERY well.  Groups can be frustrating because most people don't understand what mezzes are or how not to break them, so I usually only group with guildies who know how to play.  I get better exp soloing than in Pickup groups. 

 

All in all, though, I've had a VERY positive experience with my Illusionist.  I would highly recommend the class to anyone who is interested in learning how to play it - it's all about skill, but with that skill comes incredible power.

[Belizarius]

Yeah, those little episodes are fun.  But you're level 62 and you have to reminisce about Runnyeye to remember what makes a chanter fun?  That's what is sad about our class.

I'm not knocking you, it's the mismatch between the class (specifically, our CC role), and the game design.

Even the recent changes to social aggro don't help much.  Tanks just learn to body pull more often, and it's business as usual.

[Xanoth]

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Gykon wrote:Most of the posts are negative, and the Coercer side of things seems a little brighter.

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im still irritable about being turned into a pet class. most coercers always wanted to charm stuff, so when they got it, it was a dream come true i'd imagine. i once had a coercer way before DoF, got him to 30 and i know i had few gripes back then, other than most of my friends where in qeynos. deleted him and re-rolled. was happy till DoF.cencus doesn't say who is active and who isn't.

[Purg]

loving mine so far, loving the cheap spells too,.

two nights ago whilst milling around for blood talon to spawn (12 phs in a row and no luck) i accidently managed to pull 3 barely green heroics griffins, i thought eeks am dead, then i remembered i was't on my conjuror i was an illy,  pet in, root , mez, mez, root, a while later and i am stood there on half power with 3 dead griffs next to me.

I remember i had an audience as well so was quite happy.

I normaly two box my illy with my main conjuror, amazing duo, chain killed in rov all the way to the tome of death room from the skellie inner room, didn't stop once.

direct Damage seems higher than my conjoror and the mez's are good fun, i just need to perfect them when two boxing, i always make sure every few levels i do a level solo to make sure i know my class.

[Antryg Mistrose]

110euph wrote: "Groups can be frustrating because most people don't understand what mezzes are or how not to break them, so I usually only group with guildies who know how to play"Flat out no.  Mezzing is 99% uneccessary, and illusionists who insist on doing it in non-emergency situations are a right pain.  (ex EQ1 control freaks even more so), but try telling that to a class who doesn't have much else going for it.As a templar the only place I like grouping with an illusionist is the epicx2 group zone in the new expansion pack.  Elsewhere crowd control is irrelevant, and each class has enough emergency spells that out of encounter adds are normally more easily taken care of without mezzing.  (Tank AoE + emergency heals, Evac, GroupFakeDeath,  Fear ..... )Take away mezz, and a bard or coercer (with pet) bring a whole lot more to the group.I wish it weren't so, but that is my experience, both grouping with and playing one.

Message Edited by Antryg Mistrose on 07-05-2006 07:56 AM

[Xanoth]

I feel the same as Antryg Mistrose.illusionist only shine when your doing something you probably shouldn't be. like trying to XP on orange mobs, or trying to make do with a 3 man group. but in a full group, mezzes might as well not exist.Nizara is the only chanter fix that really came with LU24. and most still dont like going more than needed

[Stealth Status]

Coercers suck because they think they can dps like wizards , but teh can only do guardian dps and they aren't paying attention to what they should be doing.=)

[110euph]

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Belizarius wrote:

 But you're level 62 and you have to reminisce about Runnyeye to remember what makes a chanter fun?  That's what is sad about our class.

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Last night I was in Sanctum of Scale and the Inquisitor in our group was quest crazy.  She was running around the room looking for listening crystals, and got aggro from a group of 3 in the corner.  so she turns to run back to the group and pulls an additional group of 3 back to our tank, who was, at that moment, pulling a group of 6 from elsewhere.  POW! AE stun one group, AE mez another, check the tank, send the pet, drop a couple single target mezes on the MT's group of mobs, turn back and begin mezzing the mobs I had stunned, distributed single target mezzes to all AE mezzed / stunned mobs, refreshed mez on the only remaining unattacked mob in the tank's main group, sent the pet to help the tank, sent the dumbfire pet when he switched to the new target, and watched the mezes of the groups we hadn't gotten to.  12 mobs deaded, and one VERY embarrased Inquisitor.

Good times.

Message Edited by 110euph on 07-05-2006 07:40 PM

[Pins]

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110euph wrote:

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Belizarius wrote:

 But you're level 62 and you have to reminisce about Runnyeye to remember what makes a chanter fun?  That's what is sad about our class.

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Last night I was in Sanctum of Scale and the Inquisitor in our group was quest crazy.  She was running around the room looking for listening crystals, and got aggro from a group of 3 in the corner.  so she turns to run back to the group and pulls an additional group of 3 back to our tank, who was, at that moment, pulling a group of 6 from elsewhere.  POW! AE stun one group, AE mez another, check the tank, send the pet, drop a couple single target mezes on the MT's group of mobs, turn back and begin mezzing the mobs I had stunned, distributed single target mezzes to all AE mezzed / stunned mobs, refreshed mez on the only remaining unattacked mob in the tank's main group, sent the pet to help the tank, sent the dumbfire pet when he switched to the new target, and watched the mezes of the groups we hadn't gotten to.  12 mobs deaded, and one VERY embarrased Inquisitor.

Good times.

Message Edited by 110euph on 07-05-2006 07:40 PM

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So it requires an idiot to make an enchanter look good at their job?  Yet, when a wizard can nuke all the time and does his job, there is no idiot required for his job to be looked at and evaulated.

[Purg]

in duos/ trios or small groups mezing/ stunning is very handy.

35 illy and 35 paly duoing in rov, all the way up to lv 34 triple ups, mezing enabed us to do this.

We took down 3 green heroics, and can survive against two blue heroics.

The grouped mobs, i wack the group stun and group mez, as well as indivually mezzing the named.

We can take down stuff, the same paly with a swashy can't touch.

I agree in larger groups its not as handy, bar keeping adds at bays, or particulary annoying bosses. and i can slow things down.

The damage i do seems pretty good, and the divine debuff is loved by the paly.

I am still trying different settings, with pet, without pet, different buffs, etc. so far int /wis buff, pet, and haste for paly. did try dysnamism (not sure of the spells paly's have will make it proc)  and haste (had 1 spare slot !) on us both and no pet.

 

[Manyak]

/shrug, the way things are now, i see our job as DPS + some situationally useful utilty. of course id much prefer it the other way around, but whatevr.

 

and yes, illus CAN dps

[BaumeisterGeez]

I have fun playing my illu (LV5 - had my ups and downs - but in general it is fun!

We used to do obelisk runs with 3 or 4 peeps and a level which was a too low for the mobs (would have easily worked with a full group) - one night I mezzed two instances of troxlap (and a respawning roamer) while the rest of the group wiped - kept those little eyeballs and that giant roamer cat mezzed for like 5 mins until everyone showed up again and we were buffed again - successfully killed all encounters afterwards. Our group was not crappy - we just had a group level and size which was too low for the mobs and we knew that it would not work without CC. The people in my regular group do accept CC as a vital role in our playstyle.

I have fun taking down mobs which are a challenge - no fun in killing low level mobs with a full group!

DPS is moderate but OK due to the utility character of the class.

It is quite easy to find a group since most peeps are keen on mana-reg.

In general I see the Illu as some universal utility group member. If the tank is too low or the healer is not powerfull enough: CC helps to get through the day. If CC is not needed I can still do decent DPS. And the mana-regen helps a lot to increase everyones capabilities. I am switching playstyles all the time with respect to the current group setup and the situation we are in - it's not simple button mashing - it's a fun class to play!

[trenor]

I think you will find many players start the illusionist class but by about lvl 35 they end up quitting not liking it.  I bet if some did a lvl search on illusionists the majorit would be 30 and under and shelved alts.

 

Fiz

[Gykon]

What magically happens at 35 then?I think what really is happening is that the game EQ2 doesnt have enough of a need for CC, and that causes a disconnect for alot of people.From reading, and asking around, people who like to play a mage, but give up some dps for a different kind of pet and the ability to buff and CC when its called for (which is not enough) are ok to play an Illusionist.I think this theme, of being concerned with what people need, or want for raids or guilds is dangerous; a dead end lies down the path of trying to play for what other people want. Having done it a couple of times over the last 7 years off MMORPGs, screw that.

[Pins]

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Gykon wrote:
What magically happens at 35 then?

I think what really is happening is that the game EQ2 doesnt have enough of a need for CC, and that causes a disconnect for alot of people.

From reading, and asking around, people who like to play a mage, but give up some dps for a different kind of pet and the ability to buff and CC when its called for (which is not enough) are ok to play an Illusionist.

I think this theme, of being concerned with what people need, or want for raids or guilds is dangerous; a dead end lies down the path of trying to play for what other people want. Having done it a couple of times over the last 7 years off MMORPGs, screw that.

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Basically as you get closer to 35 you realize how CC isn't that great, and you decide to reroll.

[trenor]

35 is when the downgrowd of the power of your spells vs the mobs health really sets in.  Where as all other mage spells go up substantially (class wise) yours dont do jack untils 50ish.

 

Fiz

[110euph]

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Pinski wrote:


Basically as you get closer to 35 you realize how CC isn't that great, and you decide to reroll.

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Or you discover the amazing power of the Illusionist as a solo class and rocket to 60+ on your own.  Once in a while you can invite friends to join you so they can drink in the exp from your uberness.

That's what I did.  /nod