Crital Affliction

[Jebasiz]

I'm not going to say that it's "the best" new aa we get.....yet. I do, however feel comfortable saying I LOVE it. Seeing 1033 from ONE ROUND of Horror, along with the dmg lines from FPoK, BoT, Pyro, SK, DP and splurt, with a neuro landing same round is impressive dmg...add to that pet flurry and possibly crits(from pet and neurotoxin) and our burst dmg (not something we're known for atm) is pretty damn impressive. Parsing today's raid for comparison..leet infoz incoming

[Jebasiz]

220 dps on tallon zek, 3 horror resists which is unusuall
242 on avatar of elements....all other gods seemed to be in that range, which is a decent improvement when you figure that doesn't count direct dmg and pets.

[DogMeat]

I got crit affliction 1 and although it is great, the only thing i don't like about it is.. IT DON"T TELL YOU WHEN YOU CRIT!! you have to watch when your dots hit and it will say 1000 damage instead of 500 or whatever. wish it would show a crit like everyone elses crits.

[Doomfir]

I am glad that it doesn't myself. It would be too much spam in the screen with multiple dots x multiple people, and no one will understand it vs. the 6000+ crit from a wizard. We will NEVER be seen in terms of instant dmg so why even care? We are not wizards or mages so it doesn't really matter. What matters is we are DOING the dmg and WE are happy with our output.

Anyone have the pet aa's yet as far as the crits etc?

[DogMeat]

Myabe its the just the way I have my chat windows set up, I throw all my dot damage into a small window where it don't spam everything and the only way I can see if I got a crit dot is to scroll through it after the fight. So its hard for me to see how often it crits.

[boonees]

Just in answer to question about pet crits, only have lvl 3 of the 5 lvls available so far. First thing i noticed in lvl 1 was you would see maybe 2 crits from pet, lvl 2 a few more, lvl 3 pet crit is about 4 to 7 crits on lvl 55 mobs, pet seems to have a max of 122 dam on a crit this is the lvl 60 pet legacy of zek im talkin about here.
With the saryrns companion (rogue pet) i have seen a 412 back stab crit, not sure if thats the max or not.
As to flurry i havent got any aas in it yet, however my friend has and he was maxed in pet crit lvls and flurry, his pet was consistently flurrying attacks and doing nice crits, it a toy maybe, however its all extra damage however you look at it.

Boonees 65 necro

[Doomfir]

I think this will be more than a toy but rather will help the pet taunt. Not saying that you always want more taunt, but I definitely would like more when I use my own pet when he tanks.

[Jebasiz]

Alright I have a complaint on Critical affliction. We NEED a toggle button to turn this off and on for pulling, or to just completely disable it on dots with movement modifiers. I don't know how many times I've been pulling over the last week in an instanced dungeon or crawl..sometimes just exploring and seen such-and-such monster has taking 146 dmg from your embracing darkness spell(cool right?...NO!)
I/we pull with darkness!!!!! Darkness a yellow on in kod'taz...bring it back to the group(which atm atleast, is staying a safe distance away, since some mobs in GoD cast pets upon being agro'd, some cast "ukun chains" (no idea, it's easily resisted, but breaks FD!) and then run at you...and due to some "yet-to-be-learned" pathing issues some go get friends first as they take "the scenic route" to get to you) and on a 20-30second pull those 70s-150's start to add up and You've been summoned! an aurek'spiritseeker rapes you for 1200, 1500, 1250, 1300, You are stunned, 750, 570, You are unstunned, you begin to cast feign death...your casting is interupted...DI fires.....quaded again, Loading please wait, Entering Nedaria's Landing, /g that F'n sucked...OMW back to summon my corpse. Toggle switch please!

[Doomfir]

Very valid point.

[Goshozal Sans Merci]

So far as I know (from guildmate info, I don't have them yet) the crit/flurry AA's work on "swarm" and WTD pets.

Which begs the question, will my dire charm pet now crit and flurry? Because if so.... holy sh*t.

[Jebasiz]

Charms with Word of Terris do not. I'm thinking only pets we summon will have the effects carry over. In a sense we are summoning a dead form of a character with wake the dead, so that probably falls under a player created pet/thing, where as a charm...your simply controlling something that already existed.

[boonees]

Just out of interest can someone tell me how often crits go off in crit afflic 2 and 3?, have just put 5 into lvl 1 of this aa and have noticed maybe 2 or 3 crits per kill, im guessin its like most of our aas and doesnt really begin to show until lvl 2 or 3, got another 5 aa up going towards my next lvl of crit afflication, still need 5 more to get crit 2, i guess what im asking is, is it worth it? im hoping the answer is yes, as i mainly agro kite then i have no probs, i can see probs if i get a lot of crits in a guild raid or grp tho, but would then change my tactics some to suit.

Boonees 65 necro

[Doomfir]

I would have to give a resounding yes! I do not know the rate increase either for a number, but it looks like double each level you get. So if it was 5% first level it is 10% second and 20% for third. The dmg is just so sweet when you crit how could you ask? :-) Horror goes from doing 430 or so a tick (base) to over 1000 with ba4 and a crit. How much better use of aa points can you get? :-)

As for crits for pet it is very marginal at level 1.. but as in CA it is suppose to go up double each point you put in.. so the end levels are worth MUCH more than the first level in dmg.

[Jebasiz]

They get much better...I broke 1250 on horror last night, 1 round...1284 dmg from horror. I almost cried IRL....well not really but I was really happy.

Probably the best aa you can spend after MC3.

[DogMeat]

One problem i have with crit affliction is that it draws soo much aggro from the tank when you are in a group, specially when in a dungeon where you can't use a mount to sit, sometimes I have to FD more than once per 1 min fight, I am sure the tanks do not like the ping ponging either. I was think of get spell casting subtely(sp?) next to reduce aggro of spells, but i fear it will put a damper in my aggro kiting. any suggestions?

[Jebasiz]

I don't think SCS will hinder kiting at all, it's good, but it's not THAT much agro reduction. Even without critical affliction 3 leaving pet taunt on isn't a problem for kiting...I doubt SCS would hinder you, as long as you turn pet taunt off.

[janarr]

ahh hell with the tank being mad at ping pong effect in LDON. Its one group, and they should be damn happy your laying down the smack and making it possible to kill that mob quickly, cuase thats what ldon is all about, quick kills and moving on. Just warn them it could happen. Sometimes i feign death after waiting a few seconds after i've put on a couple dots BEFORE i get aggro just to reset agro counter, after that you can usually sit and med thru rest of fight. (usually, i land horror and FP on mobs in an ldon). If the occasional ping pong happens anyway and thats not ok with them then so be it. Now in a raid or something then thats another matter.

Funny, last nite we used a pickup tank that had a bad habbit of switching targets on double pulls long after he should have been commited to the first mob, and frustratingly after i landed a dot on his first targeted mob. The chanter (who i play with all the time) laughed at me when my dot broke the mez, But everyone kind of shut up when i said "I broke it, Ill tank it," which i did alone while the rest worked on the other mob. After a horror, fp, and pet help, force sheild up, and chain ToM, everyone just kindof gaped when i killed my mob and medded while the druid, warrior and ranger finished up on the other mob. lol

[Jebasiz]

hehe next time, root it back your pet off and have it attack the one your group is on, and still kill yours first, to make them feel even worse.

I broke a mez(damn TV) on ldon the other day and chanter was like "you broke it, you bought it pal" fine...Lifeburn inc at 60 insta-gibbed him and the rest of the group was fighting something at 70%...I fd'd and went afk for coffee. Oddly enough, they didn't complain when I broke mez next time.

[Mortimus]

I find that I can be an absolute aggro magnet in LDoN, purely because of my potential damage output. To reduce the aggro I am generating, I may need to considerably reduce my damage. Like others, I often lay down my best DoT (BoT) and FD as soon as poss. This lets me med for the duration. TBH in LDoN I will nuke more often than I DoT because mobs don't last long enough to do otherwise. Only DoTting if I am offtanking with the pet.

The telling factor is that with some tanks I can offload all my DoTs and Nukes without attracting any aggro, with another tank I will land Darkness, and immediately the mob will switch to me! I have to modify my damage output to suit the aggro holding capability of the tank I'm working with.

Mort

[DogMeat]

There are 3 kinds of tanks out in LDoN group's

1. The kind where you can dot all you want a sit down right after without any kinda problem, Ocassionally you will pull aggro while sitting and get a crit off on Horror.

2. The kind where you can get Horror off and after the first tick of it the mob is glued to you, even if you FD aggro off, you will still have aggro when you get back up cuz of your dots.(These tanks are the most Useless, sometimes I wonder if they even taunt) Most of these are easy to spot early in the group, They usually are late on calling assist when mobs are pulled.

3. The kind where you can dot the mobs up but will have to FD first if you plan of sitting and medding or you will pull aggro(This is the majority of the tanks out there)


Now i got a question? What is the best tank class out there for aggro control?

So far from what i have seen, SK's seems to hold aggro a lil better than Pally's and ALot better than warriors.

[Jebasiz]

SKs are most beneficial for us since we don't darkness with them tanking, which leaves us to our magic/poisons/fire dots (the ones that do good dmg) and nukes/lifetaps. Overall if your not darknessing I like a paladin over any other tank, their group heals and stuns are excellent agro, and if it's undead you have some pretty decent dps from the tank. <----loves seeing 6160 slay undeads.

[Niri]

I have excellent luck with paladins, they are my normal favorite tank. However there is one warrior I group with frequently that I can load DoT's, and run to the STORE and would not ever get aggro. (he is my preferred tank, guess why LOL) The few times I have dozed off and done something REALLY dumb and got aggro though, was a corpse run....<sigh> :rolleyes:


I prefer to aggro Kite though...and this AA seems to be making my day there, I often group with a ranger friend and even with his STUPID amount of damage he is doing, :blink: I keep the aggro nicely.

[janarr]

just a tic away from 10aa to buy Crit affliction 2. My next question is should i save up 15 more AA and work on crit affliction 3 or should i spend the aa on something else. Right now, ive got the following

Regen 3
run 3
SCM 3
Swarm of decay 1
Crit Affliction 2 (soon to be 2)

[Jebasiz]

I'd get Critical affliction 3, and then spell casting mastery 3

[janarr]

ok, point taken jeb. crit affliction is that good eh? :). Now did you mean something else besides Spell casting mastery 3 after finishing crit3? I already have SCM 3.

[Mortimus]

SKs are most beneficial for us since we don't darkness with them tanking,

Yup. I can see that. SK's generate good aggro without really trying, whereas the other classes need to consciously work at it. I've found some good Pallys and just one or two Warriors who can hold aggro but invariably they hold aggro because they are doing something about it (Taunt, Procs on weapons, whatever).

Which leads to my next question. Does anyone know how the tanks SHOULD be holding aggro.
e.g. I have heard that they should not mash their taunt button because that just gives them +1 aggro over the highest person on the list so it should only be used when aggro is lost.

SKs should use Darkness I presume.
Pally's can chain stun.
Warriors Proccing weapons, Taunt and I believe they have new abilities now)

I would be interested partly so I can help tanks to hold aggro better but mainly because I have a baby Pally and don't want to appear on this board as a bad example :D

Mort

[Jebasiz]

I musta missed it, scm3...I meant as spell casting mastery. AA progression is largley based on how you play, and where you spend your time hunting. The archetype column has some fantastic aa abilities there, that work all the time and anywhere, and imo are much better then class for us.

[Goshozal Sans Merci]

Jeb is right. Archetype and Gates AA's are what I'm spending the vast majority of my points in. All I have from class abilities is Lifeburn, and I really don't plan on picking up much else for a while except possibly Call to Corpse, as CR's are a bitch again in GoD. I'm kind of a special case though... I've only recently come back to the game, so I don't have a shitload of AA's like your typical EP-flagged necro. 90 and counting here. :D

I was disappointed in the rate change between crit affliction I and crit affliction II. I had just dumped 10 more points into the ability, and was expecting a greater increase in the frequency of crits, but I wasn't that impressed. I ended up starting work on pet flurry, which I *adore*, and I'm still working on.

Anywho, in terms of gates abilities, I'd recommend these:

run5 (you'll like it, I promise. I was skeptical too.)
Crit affliction 2 or 3 (take your pick, depends how you like it)
Quickening of Death (45 AA's for the whole thing, but even 1 or 2 levels is a nice rate)
FoMM (If you raid/nuke a lot)

That covers about 100 AA points, come back and ask again after you're done. =P

[Recluse]

Good call on LDoN tanks -personally I hate doing adv's with a warrior as mt. Unless the guy has good gear you're screwed. This is especially true if you're on snare duty. Last LDoN I did with a warrior I had to constantly wait till the mob was at 30% health to cast darkness becasue he couldn't hold agro with Horror and ED stacked. Normally I don't mind letting the mob take a couple of swings at me but the shammy was a little late on the slows. This was due in part to the fact that whenever the warrior broke a mez the mob would come charging after him.

The mt I usually grp with is my best friend in rl, an sk. Whenever he tanks I'm pretty much free to go all out on every pull. There have been times when I had BoT and Horror stacked on a mob and few nukes thrown in for good measure and he held agro without even taunting (we were testing the effectiveness of his 65 hate spell).

Pally's are also excellent though I've noticed sk's tend to have better gear than them. I very rarely find sk's with less than 7k hp's, but pally's under 7k are fairly common. Of course, I prefer sk's and usually look for them when i group so that amy be why.

As to crit affliction, I have bought the 2nd rank now and i must say I'm exteremly disappointed. I'm really just not seeing the damage everyone raves about. When Horror crits with burning affliction IV the damage is incredible. The problem is those crits are few and far between. I've noticed as well that the percentage for a crit hit seems to be higher for the spell that does less damage when stacking. I was soloing PoV tonight and noted my ED crited 4 times, BoT twice and Horror 0 on one pull. This was a generous pull as well. I'll usually get a crit or two from ED, 1 from BoT if I'm lucking and Horror maybe every 3-4 kills. This is especially flustrating when LDoN'ing as Horror is the main dot I use. I'm honestly thinking pet flurry maybe better over all dps than crit affliction. i have only the 1st rank of it but the pet flurries 2-3 times per mob on average. I can only imagine what the flurry rate will be when it;s maxed out. I've talked to a few mages that have the 3rd or 4th rank and they swear by the dps it brings. I'm assuming theirs is more powerful than ours as it costs more aa's but still.

So in all honesty, before I go and blow 15 aa's on the 3rd rank, will the damage increase be all that noticable. In going from the 1st to 2nd rank I really can't see any noticable increase in the % of crits.

[Jebasiz]

Critical affliction 3 is excellent. We all know the EQ randomizer is well....(for lack of a better word) shitty. I honestly don't think the other aa's in gates will give you the improvement your looking for, more then crit dots will. ALL totalled with crits and flurries, people are parsing pets 10-15% more dps then they were before...critical affliction is better then that. The fury of magic mastery...I lifetap quite a bit, even when full health..just to put some dmg on those mobs that die fast...if you in the same position this could be a viable AA, persistent casting OWNS, I'm not really sure what else is really that good. I personally love critical affliction though, 1200 horrors w/o a bard just rock, even if they are few and far between. I've also noticed that if you use 4-5 dots on a raid mob, something will crit almost every round or atleast every other round. It may be SK and not horror...but I'll take 500dmg from a 200 dmg spell any day.

[Rikam]

Realy the best thing about SK is they have their own pure hate spell plus the 2hs from PoN maze they can hold agro incredibly well. Only lvl 62 but I can throw Pyro pyre Ebolt dark plague and then chain neuro and not take agro from one the other night. Personaly I don't look for tanks when going on adventures usualy I get random tells begging me to come) Not had too many problems with war tanking but I Fde more then I should probably usualy throw pyre splurt fd ebolt fd then sit down usualy dont have a problem if I do I just ToM tank and make them feel stupid. Other night in BoT at WTF tank tried that switching targets after I had dotted crap. So I stood up backed off pet sent him to help others and ToM tanked finished mob off and asked how much longer they would be. Most were guildies so they all were laughing.

[Recluse]

Is it just more or does it seem like crit afflction is hiting WAY more often after the last patch. I didn't notice anything in the patching message (only scimmed it though) but I've been noticing Horror crit'ing like a mofo all night. It seems like I'm getting one if not 2 crits from Horror everytime I cast it now. I talked to a shammy in guild at the same rank as me (2) and he said that it seemed like his dots had been crit'ing more often as of late as well.

[Jebasiz]

Night fire seemed to crit alot the other night too. 3-4 rounds per cast. I almost felt guilty about casting it on poor little undead cooks in veksar hehe. Anyway if they did up it, I'm not complainin...it's a great aa.

[Recluse]

How long do you think it'll take SOE to break out the ole nerf stick?:)

[Jebasiz]

I honestly don't think they'll nerf critical affliction. It doesn't trivialize the content it was designed for (GoD), and therefore has no reason to be nerfed. Does it really rock the lower tier PoP mobs...sure, but PoP spells own content in luclin...I think it's just part of the games progression, and they can't proceeding with new stuff that's harder without making older content ever easier to surpass. If you look at our Gates AA's almost half make our dps go higher, maybe slightly more then half... They saw a need to increase it, to go backwards would be assinine.