Conjuror KoS, EoF, TSO AA Guide

[Xalmat]

Conjuror AA (Achievement) threads pop up all the time. This is my attempt at reducing the number of them a good amount.

Due to space constraints, this guide is specifically for the KoS and EoF trees. Please see the TSO guide for TSO AA information.

First things first, here's what the trees look like, with a somewhat typical DPS spec to give you an idea how points are distributed in general.If you don't know what each one does, mouse-over them in the Achievement window and it will tell you. If you're a low level Conjuror, many of the abilities listed are NOT available until very high level. For example, Blazing Presence is not attainable until level 50, Plane Shift not until 65, and Stoneskin until level 40.

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Nomenclature, Foreword, FAQ, and so onYou will see a lot of terms that you may be unfamiliar with in this post. My advice is learn them. I'll try to explain them in this section.Very, very first thing that needs to be said. Achievements = AA, and AA = Achievements. You will see both tossed around. They mean the same thing. Where does "AA" come from then? Old EQ1 term for Alternate Advancement, which is essentially a very similar thing they had in EQ1. Don't dwell on it, just live with it.DPS is shorthand for Damage Per Second. A more practical term for DPS is damage. The more damage, the faster things die. And as a Conjuror, your number one job is to deal damage. It's that simple.While each of the achievements in the Summoner tree have individual names, it is much, much faster to describe them by abbreviation. For example, the above build posted would be best described as STR 4-4-4-8 WIS 4-4-4-8 INT 6-4-4-8-2. Each tree gets its name from the very first ability in the tree, which grants a specific stat and sets the theme for the rest of the tree: Strength for the far left, Intelligence for the far right.The Conjuror tree is not so simple to abbreviate, but you can also refer to the tree based on its overall category: Conjurations on the far left, Evocations on the far right.Each tree is limited to 50 points from experience levels 1-69, and 70 points from 70+. You can start acquiring them at level 10. If you start at level 10, and work your butt off at getting achievements, you can easily have 100 by the time you are level 70, and close to the max of 140 by level 80.Yes, Possess Minion is required in order to access the Summoner tree. Don't complain, just get it and move on.Regarding Pet AAs: The way these abilities work is they enhance the actual pet summoning spell, not the pet. For example, Enhance Earth Pet will add to your earth pet spell "Grants your pet X% damage absorption". Which means, if you have your Earth pet out, and then you purchase Enhance Earth Pet, you will need to resummon your pet for the effect to take hold.

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Get an AA Mirror!As soon as you quite possibly can, get an AA mirror. Go out of your way to save up the money to buy the components you need and hire a crafter that will do the combine for you. This will let you switch between two AA builds on the fly in your house, and is well worth the coin, and time, to get one.The item itself is called Mirror of Reflected Achievements. It is a house item that goes (where else?) in your house. You need a few things for one:1. A reflective smoldering shard. These drop in Kunark "contested" dungeons off of just about anything (Chardok, Karnor's Castle, Sebilis). They also drop in The Shadow Odyssey group instances. They're fairly uncommon. You can also find them on the broker, prices will vary by server, time of day, phase of the moon, and whether you have pleased the loot gods or not.2. A level 75 or higher crafter with the recipe. Any crafter class can make this. However, the crafter himself will need an extremely high amount of city faction in order to purchase the recipe, and very few of them do. When you finally find one, be prepared to pay a very large fee for the crafter.The mirror itself is LORE and NO-TRADE, so you can only have one in your house at a time. You can also only get this made via the commission window; ask the crafter how the commission window works if you aren't sure, or read Denmother's guide.Once you get the mirror, you put it in your house (has to be your character's house, not another house, even if it's an alt of yours). Right click the mirror, and select Save Profile. Give it a name. Any name will do, but name it something so you know what it is when you go to respec again. Then just purchase an AA respec, and respend your AAs on your new profile. Voila, you now have two AA profiles. Congratulations!To switch between them, you right click the mirror again and select "Load XXX Profile" (with XXX being your profile name). It will ask you to save the profile you currently have, then swap profiles. Be warned, it will strip you of all buffs.Again, I can't stress this enough. Get an AA mirror as quickly as possible. It is well worth the money.

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Soloing BuildsSample Layouts: Summoner Tree for Soloing Conjuror Tree for SoloingThere are three ways to solo as a Conjuror: Tank Pet (the bread and butter style), Scout Pet (kill fast and take no prisoners), Mage Pet (Root/Nuke or Kite).I'm gonna recommend the Tank Pet method, because it's the safest pet to solo with. However, feel free to build your own solo build using any of the pets, it's difficult to go wrong when soloing.Ultimately, for the Tank Pet method, you will focus on the tank pet the most, and focus on abilities that keep it alive, and aggro on the pet and off you. Order you grab these abilities in doesn't matter too much, so play around. Go ahead and skip things that you can't use yet due to level.Note that a strong solo build that focuses on keeping the pet alive, and holding aggro, is a great build for tank-pet oriented groups too!Enhance: Earth Pet 5STA 4-4-8-8WIS 4-4-8-8Enhance: Pet Heal 5Enhance: Stoneskin 3Cure ElementalBlazing Avatar 2Elemental Unity 5Unabate - Requires 20 points in Evocations, so spread how you like. (Highly recommend Enhance: Effigy 5)Those are the essentials.Enhance Earth Pet increases the pet's ability to take damage. Or to be precise, reduces the incoming damage the tank pet receives. Less damage = pet lives longer.STA2 is Shockwave, it is essentially a knockdown that you tell your tank pet to use. Great for getting aggro, but be careful. It WILL hit things that are near the pet that you aren't fighting.STA3 is Perceptor's Command, it's essentially a rescue that you tell any pet to use. At rank 8 it's 100% chance to move up a hate position, and if it's just you and your pet, it means your pet gets aggro...unless it resists, which isn't often.STA4 increases the tank pet's HPs by a metric buttload. Get it, you'll love it.WIS3 increases the pet's Defense stat. More defense = gets hit less = lives longer.WIS4 increases the pet's Offensive stats. Higher offense = hits more = more aggro = mobs die faster.Enhance Stoneskin triggers a stoneskin on your pet whenever you cast Stoneskin on yourself. Not only is it a great emergency save for you, but now it's a great emergency save for your pet too!Cure Elemental is just nice to have. Plus it opens up Blazing Presence and Elemental Vestment, which are both required once you're high enough to use both abilities.Unabate reduces the resistability of all of your spells, and all of your pet's combat arts and spells. Lower resistability for your pet = more damage/aggro = mobs die faster. However be careful as lower resistability from your spells = more damage/aggro = you pull aggro easier. And in order to get Unabate, you need to put points into Evocations, which means you do more damage = more aggro, but more damage = mobs die faster. Double edged sword, but well worth it.Other things to consider, depending on how many extra achievement points you have lying around, include filling out the Foundations tree and getting Stoneskins (if you can spare the points). And if you really have points to spend, consider getting Enhance Plane Shift for those extra tough solo situations.Just don't buy Enhance Winds of Velious. Ever.

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Group/DPS BuildsSample Layouts:Summoner Scout BuildSummoner Mage/Mythical BuildConjuror Full DPS BuildConjuror DPS + Pet Survival BuildRecommended Mythical Pet BuildDepending on what your aims are, you have three choices for DPS builds: Scout Pet, Mage Pet, and Mythical Pet. Mage pet is the most powerful, especially at very high levels, but extremely dangerous at low levels; most tanks at low levels aren't geared to handle the very high aggro a Mage pet generates. Or for that matter the very high aggro you will generate in a DPS build.On raids, your only viable choice is the Mage or Mythical pet. Don't even consider using the scout pet, it's a waste of time.That said, here are your starting options. Unlike soloing, for a DPS build you can go wrong.Here are your options:STR 4-4-4-8 (Everybody)WIS 4-4-4-8 (Post level-70 only)AGI 4-4-4-8 (Scout Pet)INT 4-4-6-8-2 (Mage and Mythical Pet)Practically full Evocations up to Unabate, plus more EvocationsAbjurations (or Foundations) up to Blazing Avatar 2, Elemental Unity 5Bubble is optional, but very nice to have, unless you have the Mythical petEnhance Plane Shift 5 if you have the Mythical PetSTR4 increases your critical spell damage rate. More crits = more damage from you. Absolutely vital you get this. Do be warned, you will have aggro problems at low levels if your tanks aren't geared well. Higher levels tanks catch up, and so you'll have less aggro problems.WIS4 increases your pet's spell and offensive skills, meaning more hits = more damage. With Unabate, you shouldn't have resist problems anyway except with super orange/red mobs, raid mobs, and so on. So this is for 70+ only.WIS5 is nice to have if you have the points to spare.AGI4 increases your scout pet's damage. Vital if you're a scout pet user. Everything else in the AGI tree is user preference.AGI5, Reanimate will let you instantly resummon your scout pet on death. This really isn't a needed AA if you have Dimensional Storage though.INT4 increases your mage pet's damage output, by way of spell haste. Vital if you're a mage pet user.INT5 decreases the pet's mana consumption, which means it can cast for very long periods of time without running out of power. How you get INT5 is up to you, but you will need to put enough points into the INT tree to unlock it.Unabate is absolutely required, for the same reasons for the solo build. Less resists = more damage. And on the way to Unabate, you're filling out the Evocations tree, which means even more damage! Huzzah.Blazing Avatar 2 and Elemental Unity 5 are required for high damage output. Neither of those are available until 50, and 58, respectively.Bubble is practically (though not necessarily) required if you raid, unless you have the mythical pet. It's also very, very nice for groups too, since a lot of heroic mobs have very annoying AEs that often kill your pets. Keep in mind that Bubble will not protect your pet from AoE auto-attack so caution is still needed. It works best with the mage pet, but is a viable ability for all pets nonetheless. You'll need to put points into Abjurations to unlock it, so I recommend Enhance Geoticism and Enhance Shards (though other combinations work well too).By the time you get to this point, you're probably at 50 AAs, and unless you are level 70 or higher you're out of AAs to spend. But that's OK, since you have the essentials anyway.Beyond 50 AAs, how you go down the trees is up to you. And really it boils down to whether you have the Mythical pet or not.

For the non-mythical'd Conjuror, there's a lot of utility in Enhance Stoneskin and Stoneskins (the final Foundations ability), as well as Cure Elemental. Enhance Master's Intervention and Vehement Skin help keep your pet alive, and are very nice to have for non-mythical'd conjurors.

The Conjurations abilities are mostly useless for the points you need to spend, so I won't recommend them unless you have the Mythical pet. If you do have the mythical pet, you want Enhance Summoning 5, Enhance Fire Pet 5, and Enhance Plane Shift 5. Don't waste points down the Foundations line except for 3 in the pet heal and cure elemental (and only as a prerequisite for Enhance Blazing Avatar and Elemental Unity)I absolutely will not recommend Hydromancer. You're a damage dealer, not a healer. If you want to roll a damage dealing healer, roll a priest and spec for battlepriest or something (Fury and Warden are both excellent examples of this), you'll get much more bang for your buck.In the past, it was necessary to use a tank pet for survivability reasons on raids. Nowadays, there are almost no mobs that you need to spec for the tank pet in order to use a pet at all. Necros may spec for the tank pet, because their pet save/survivability options are much less than ours when it comes to their mage pet, and because of other reasons. You're not a necro though, you're a Conjuror, so don't spec your AAs like one.

A word about the WIS tree. It should be the absolute last line you fill out (especially considering the TSO tree). When planning your AAs out, consider saving the WIS tree for very last, as there are more important AAs to get in the TSO tree than the WIS tree.

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PvPI'm not a PvPer, so I can't offer any advice. However if any PvPers would like to chime in, please feel free, and I'll see to it that it gets added to this section.

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About the TSO Tree

Because of character limits, I can't discuss the TSO tree on this thread. Please go here instead.

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Order to buy AAs

I also discuss that here.

[Daghammerskold]

Very, very well done,  Xalmat.Thanks for putting that together.

[Xalmat]

Added a bit more about the AA mirror, including details on getting it.

[hktwins]

Thank you, it help my junior conj so much~

[Brinelan]

Awesome post!  Thanks for putting this all together.  It is nice to know that I am on the right track, although I may have to respec to move a few skills around after reading your thoughts on their usefulness.

[Eidolon]

Thanks, Xalmat! Exactly what I needed after being AFG (away from game) since July!

[Xalmat]

I'm having trouble editing the post, so I can't correct something I learned recently.It seems that Reanimate, the final AGI ability, has been fixed, and now supposedly resummons the scout pet at the rank of your pet.I have not tested this myself, so if there are any volunteers to confirm this, please go ahead and post your results.

[Xalmat]

Updated with some links to Brasse's handy AA tree thingys. Should help visualize point distribution.

[Daryx]

I have the Reanimate ability, and just tested it on my Adept III scout pet.  The reanimated pet as viewed in Possess Minion had the same CA damage for the five abilities as the normally-summoned pet.  (The health and power were the same but I read that those values don't vary by spell quality.)

[Brinbane]

I wouldn't put a single point into the STR line.  Basically the only value your only getting is the +Crit ability and with RoK gear you can add a lot of +Crit just by doing quests.  That free's up a lot of AA for something else.  Otherwise the rest of the suggestions are all very reasonable

[Xalmat]

Are you talking for a solo player, or a pure DPS role?In a DPS role, there is no such thing as too much +Crit. Unless you're always floating around 125% or more crit from gear alone, you'd be crazy not to put points into it. Against anything > your level, your crit rate is less than what the game says it is, and the higher level the mob the greater the reduction in crit rates.What would you spend the extra 20 points on, anyway? Other than INT/AGI and WIS tree, there is nothing else to put points into to benefit you in a pure DPS role. Sure, you could spec for INT and AGI, but then you'd be putting 20 points into a situationally dependent tree that you'd only get a benefit from half the time. Or if you keep STR, and move the points out of WIS and into AGI or INT, you'd be harming your pet's resist rates/accuracy, which could be just as bad.(And if you have your Mythical epic, the odds of you using your scout pet are next to none)In a solo build though, I wouldn't recommend STR tree's +Crit. It's just too easy for you to pull aggro from your pet.

[gdawg311]

Hi, this is a great thread, immensely helpful, thanks for putting the time in to make it.I have one question though, I have recently rolled a conj to duo with a mystic friend of mine. IT will mostly be just the two of us attempting to do tough content etc.I was just wondering, with this duo, would it be best to follow the solo/tank pet AA build listed here or is there a better set up reccomended for duoing with a healer. thanks!

[Xalmat]

Generally a Solo/Tank Pet build works best for a duo situation, especially if it's a Conjuror + any Healer class. The Tank pet is much easier to keep alive than other pets, and it's easier to coordinate things using a tank pet as well.

[Laiina]

I have been going over some of the AA recommendations here and on other sites, and it appears that in many cases the Scout pet would now be preferred over the Mage pet in ROK/T8 zones.

I Have not had a chance to thorougly test it out yet, but it seems like in at least some instances and outdoor areas the tank pet (if specialized) actually does better than the mage pet, and the scout best of all. Obviously the scout does not have the tanking and aggro abilities of the tank pet, so it is probably still best for nearly all solo. But it raids and groups the scout might be best.

Has anyone else done any experimenting on this for ROK?

[Xalmat]

I have experimented a bit with the scout pet myself, and I can support your analysis. In some situations the scout pet does outperform the mage pet. Here's the breakdown:Situations where the Scout Pet outperforms:* Largely single mob encounters.* Encounters where mobs are expected to have a lifespan of about 10 seconds or so.* When grouped with classes that buff melee output of group members, specifically Dirge or perhaps a Berserker.* When facing mobs that are mostly blue or green, sometimes white-con. The lower level the better the scout pet will perform.Situations where the Mage Pet outperforms:* Multi-mob encounters. 2x or 3x mob encounters or better specifically tilt the advantage towards the mage pet.* Encounters where mobs have a lifespan of 15 or more seconds.* When grouped with classes that buff spell output of group members, specifically Troubador, Wizard. If you have access to a mythical-equipped Troubador on a raid, Mage pet is always superior even if you are not in the same group.* When facing mobs that are white-con or higher, resists and melee hit rates become significant. Mage pet gains the advantage in this regard.* When the Mage Pet is the Mythical pet from the Mythical Epic, it is always superior.

[Laiina]

One obvious concern about the scout pet on raids is that around any mob with aoe's it has the survivability of a gnome at a werewolf convention. Mage pet is somewhat better at this since it is usually ranged.

But in a group last night what surprised me was that the tank pet actually did pretty good, and due to it's huge hit points, it very seldom dies. We have a raid tonight in SOH I think, so I might try a tank specced fighter pet and see how it parses overall. One thing that seems to add to the overall dps of tank pets is they are hard to kill.

[Xalmat]

Laiina wrote:

But in a group last night what surprised me was that the tank pet actually did pretty good, and due to it's huge hit points, it very seldom dies. We have a raid tonight in SOH I think, so I might try a tank specced fighter pet and see how it parses overall. One thing that seems to add to the overall dps of tank pets is they are hard to kill.

Prepare to be disappointed. The tank pet is very inferior to the scout pet, DPS wise.On a raid the only thing your mage pet should die to is an AE that wasn't blocked by Bubble, or an obnoxious mob Damage shield. The scout pet can also be backed off and shielded with Bubble, but the scout pet is also more prone to death from a mob's DS than the mage pet.

[Laiina]

Xalmat wrote:

Prepare to be disappointed. The tank pet is very inferior to the scout pet, DPS wise.On a raid the only thing your mage pet should die to is an AE that wasn't blocked by Bubble, or an obnoxious mob Damage shield. The scout pet can also be backed off and shielded with Bubble, but the scout pet is also more prone to death from a mob's DS than the mage pet.

DPS wise, yes, the tank pet is inferior to both other pets. But in certain cases that is not the only use for pets.

However it does have some uses on specific raid types that might make it the "pet of choice" in some cases. I am still playing with some options, but one thing it is good for is when you are using conjuror heals, because it has such a high amount of HP and regens very fast.

[Xalmat]

Placeholder post for The Shadow Odyssey achievements.

[Xalmat]

So since there's not actually enough space to talk about all the AAs, I've just created a new thread specifically for TSO AAs.

[Brigh]

I have a question about the summoner tree as listed here for solo build.

Spending points the way it is:

STA and WIS 4488, you only spend 49/70 when you are of level to gain that much.

You aren't even filling out the end line abilities or anything else.

What else do you put here?

[Xalmat]

Whatever you want, at that point. There isn't a "wrong" choice at that point.

[Lantis]

One note regarding the Evocations line: with all the cast speed enhancing gear available by now to raiders, you might want to recover a few points from that tree to reassign elsewhere.  For instance, Crystal Blast speed is capped at half the original casting speed (so, 1 second is the minimal cast time achievable).  With my current raid gear and 4 points in it, my cast time is down to 1.06 secs.  Therefore the fifth point would only give you an extra 0.06 sec on cast - probably wasted at ths point.

Therefore when spending points in that tree stop at four points, then examine your spells.  If they are already at half the original cast time or really close, these are points you can reassign elsewhere.

[Xalmat]

Very good point. To be precise, if you want to replace an entire AA outright from Evocations, you will need 20% spell casting haste, as the AAs modify the base cast time of the spells, but still won't let you exceed the hard limit.

Some convenient spell haste numbers for you to consider if you have 4 points in Crystal Blast and varying amounts of spell haste (Also applies to Earthquake. Parenthesis values below are for Earthquake, Solidify, Shattered Tectonics):

0 Spell haste: 1.2 (1.8) seconds5% Spell haste: 1.14 (1.71) seconds10% Spell haste: 1.09 (1.63) seconds15% Spell haste: 1.04 (1.56) seconds20% Spell haste: 1.00 (1.5) seconds.

It's up to you to determine if X spell haste that you have is sufficient to drop an AA or not. But given how laggy the game can be, if you're within 0.1 seconds or so of your spell haste cap, you're probably close enough.

[Xalmat]

A couple addendums, both regarding pets, and the WIS tree. This post only applies to a DPS build; solo builds can safely ignore this.

Prior to level 70 in a DPS build, the WIS tree is a poor choice, as you'll either be using STR + INT, or STR + AGI and both achieve much better results. Post-level 70, the WIS tree should be your absolute last choice when filling out lines, especially when you consider the powerful abilities in the Shadows tree. In fact, the only reason you'd want to spend points in the WIS tree is to meet the 170 AA requirement for TSO Conjuror abilities.

Regarding pets, the TSO expansion once and for all has made the Mage pet the superior DPS pet over the Scout pet. In my testing on training dummies, the Mage pet gains much more damage output from pet effects (Quicksilver Blood and Power Flux specifically), as well as the pet enhancement AAs and end abilities. So once you get some pet gear, and can purchase some of the TSO abilities, the Mage pet should become your only DPS pet.

[Xalmat]

Added a new recommended build for Mythical pet users. It's not completely filled out, as it leaves some wiggle room for personal preference. Some people spend 5 points in Winds of Velious, some 5 points in Solidify, some 2 points in Enhance Stoneskin, 1 in Hydromancer (only for Communion purposes). How you spend them though is up to you.

One undocumented feature about Enhance Summoning is that it works with the mythical pet too, not just the primary pets. Enhance Plane Shift also modifies the 4 set TSO bonus's Base Damage modification.

[Brinbane]

Xalmat, you've made a number of references for mythical or not mythical pet builds.  At lvl 80, for a DPS build, why would I ever not use the mythical pet?

[Xalmat]

Well, if you didn't have the mythical in the first place, you obviously can't use it

And depending what they do to the mage pet in Tier 9, me might have to switch back to a pet survivability build again. And in tier 9 the Scout pet might be a viable option again. But we won't know for sure until the expansion gets closer.

[Brinbane]

Xalmat wrote:

Added a new recommended build for Mythical pet users. It's not completely filled out, as it leaves some wiggle room for personal preference. Some people spend 5 points in Winds of Velious, some 5 points in Solidify, some 2 points in Enhance Stoneskin, 1 in Hydromancer (only for Communion purposes). How you spend them though is up to you.

One undocumented feature about Enhance Summoning is that it works with the mythical pet too, not just the primary pets. Enhance Plane Shift also modifies the 4 set TSO bonus's Base Damage modification.

Isn't the Mytical basically the Master 2 (Grandmaster) version of the Mage pet?  All heat based spells.  Anyway I have a different question.  My understanding of "Enhance Summoning" is that it increases the speed of casting your pet.  Not much value in that if you have dimensional storage right?

Can you explain what you mean by "modifies the 4 set TSO bonus Base Damage mod"?

I'm trying to weight the advantage of all those AA points in the Conjurations line vs some other spot.

[Xalmat]

At level 90 we will not be using the Mythical pet, unfortunately. And not every Conjuror has the mythical, so a non-mythical build is still important.

Even with Dimensional Storage, the fact is your pet will die. With that in mind having 5 points in Summoning speeds up getting you back in the game.

The T4 TSO armor gives a 25% base damage modifier to Plane Shift with the 4 set bonus (without the 4 set bonus, there is no base damage modifier). With 5 points into the Plane Shift AA, this becomes 30%.