If it makes you feel any better, the odds of landing snare or slow on an undebuffed ToV trash mob at level 60 range between 7.5% and 0%, depending on the level of the mob Wake of Tranquility is truly overpowered for pre-Luclin content, but at least a fair number of mobs in ToV are 61+. Out of curiosity, though, does anyone know how P99 came up with their resist system?
Ugh, apologies for the almost year-old necro on this thread, but didn't think it warranted a new topic... I think I got to around level 4 last time around before I decided I just needed a full EQ cleanse rather than a switch from P99 to another server. Now that I'm fully detoxed, I am going to give this another shot. So a few questions: 1) Has anything changed for wizards in the last year or so? Looks like we're still in Velious so my guess is that everything is roughly the same. 2) I'm going to try my hand at a 3-box centered on my wizard. Since wizards are a little gimp in exp groups, I know this will limit me somewhat compared to something like SK/Ench/Cleric, but that's okay with me. I am thinking I will try Pal/Sham/Wiz on for size. It seems to have almost everything, minus rez before 59 and clarity, but I think every possible wizard combo will be missing something at the very least, so it is what it is. Does this strike you as an efficient trio? Any suggestions for classes to swap out? 3) Any other tips? (How to not suck as a wizard box, good/fun leveling routes, easy gear progression, etc.) I'm open to anything you've got to share. Thanks all!
Even though you plan on calling your wizard the "main", it's going to feel like an alt with that setup. Unless you're quad kiting, wizards just don't demand much attention and that never really changes regardless of expansion.
That's an excellent point and I'm prepared for that. I expect he'll be a "stand, nuke, sit" macro-based toon with an evac button for most of the leveling process. I also main'd a paladin for a while on P99 and loved him dearly, so don't mind actively controlling him most of the time. The shaman, who knows... Never played one past like level 10. I have also considered rolling Aegnor as mage this time. He'd probably be more effective, if still a side character. I just really want a wizard once Luclin and PoP arrive and they come into their own. Decisions, decisions...
I've had a ton of fun boxing my wizard, enchanter and bard alts together. It's not a conventional tank-and-spank trio, but it showcases the wizard's strengths. It can do a ton. Lightning-fast travel, tons of mana regen, tracking, resist debuffs, quad kiting, PBAE, pacify pulling, top-notch CC, and the bard can actually crank out pretty good healing. Big DPS from nukes and/or a charmpet. The wiz burns hotter, longer with mana regen and resist debuffs from the enc and bard. Fast leveling, easy farming. On raids, the bard complements the wizard beautifully; drop the chanter and box a friend's nuker for Team Deeps.
Depending on how hardcore you are, you can sort of play the game like Diablo in the sense that you can level up a farming/powerleveling combo first, then powerlevel your wizard later. When I played EQ I tended to do this for classes that sucked at leveling or required gear. Also keep in mind that once Luclin launches, you can essentially have perma-KEI if you go back to PoK every few hours; unless it's late at night I suppose. This makes an enormous difference when leveling up a wizard.
1. Nothing has changed. 2. Knight + Shaman is an efficient combo on its own. Wizard will add further convenience. This is a well balanced combo however at higher levels the lack of CH does hurt. Torpor's power curve falls off after Kunark. Also of note, Paladins get Rez at level 22, 30, 39, 49, 55, 59. This isn't P99, so we have the Luclin era progressive Rez spells. 3. Focus all of your gearing on your Paladin. The Shaman and Wizard can get by in rags. But tanks are highly gear reliant. This is why most guilds on this server you will see a higher percentage of main tank classes compared to casters or priests.
I think SK/SHM/Wiz is a fine trio IMO. I feel its better to have the tank be the snarer when boxing alone. But you have slows, snares, heals should be okay the vast majority of the time (can almost faceroll with a cleric once you get CH), ports, corpse summoning (more handy than rezzes IMO), etc. SK is a really fun class and it helps to have the snap agro of a knight when you pull agro on your wizzy. Where you lack is decent crowd control and tash which helps a lot here for snaring/slowing (unsure when shamans get their first non magic slow). My first boxes were SK/ENC/DRU. There were times where some spots were more difficult than they needed to be and not having a rezbot was annoying at times. Join a leveling guild or casual friendly guild for help with rezzes. There are also many really nice people here that would be willing to help.
Aegnor, some ideas for your consideration and others: 1. Wizard + wizard + bard. • Let bard run snare on a mob and root/nuke with wizards; bard is between wizards and mob so if root breaks it hits him first due to proximity aggro • Quad on Wizard 1 until oom then med by the bard; quad on Wizard 2 until oom...OR...how sweet would it be to quad with bard speed??? • Run bard mez on a mob and land a nuke just before mez hits. Repeat until exp bar moves • On raids, stand there bouncing AEs and alternating nukes on both wizards. Win. Or just wiz/bard, still fun bard-aided wizard play or wizard-aided bard play. 2. Wizard + bard + cleric or necro. Bard runs snare on a mob, cleric fears, wizard and cleric both nuke, bard melees to finish low-hp mobs. 3. Wizard + magician + bard. Send mage pet, use bard's fear and snare and melee, use a macro to cast 2 nukes on wizard, switch to bard again, etc. 4. Wizard + wizard (or mage) + necro (or maybe cleric). Fear kite with nukes and a pet.
Thanks for the suggestions and the insight. You guys are great! May end up trying out a few different combos and seeing what works. Definitely intrigued by wiz/wiz/bard and wiz/ench/bard. Very interesting ideas.
I think if I wanted more attention on the wizard, I’d probably run either Cleric + beast + wizard or Cleric + mage + wizard. Paladin/Shaman would take most of your attention.
Feel free to say hi Rob! 95% of the time I don't even box 3 chars, let alone 4. I'd have reroll from MNK/SHM to 3 mages and a cleric or something.
Welcome back, Aegnor! Glad you cleansed yerself. My 3box trio on original AK was War/Clr/Wiz. Did pretty fine w/o slow, normally just brute healed stuff. Perma pacify (which is not a thing on TAKP, but Pacify still works fine on AK for Pulling) helped considerably with that trio. Just to be odd, I run a Shm/ Rog/ Wiz trio now, on TAKP. Shm tanks with slow and a fat shield. I do miss any pulling capability beyond root parking, though. Torpor's healing power does fall off later on, but at the same time, it becomes a long duration efficient HoT once aa'ed and focii'ed properly. I am patiently waiting for Luclin for a larger spot heal on my Shaman. On that note, if you feel frustrated with a particular trio, it may be better to re-assess in Luclin with AA's/spells, because AA's and certain spells that come out then do help a few classes considerably. Re: Root, I haven't really analyzed root on TAKP, but I do remember there used to be a guide/post on Graffe's about how "brittle" the various root versions (meaning likely to be broken by nukes or melee) were and "how likely to stick for duration" roots were. Was that a real thing? Is there a variable in the spell data for how "brittle" roots could be? Not sure why people suggest to do a SK while you have a wizard- From experience, the wizard is way more than fine for snaring stuff with bonds or Atol's. Pally / war as your tank would work just fine, as well, also, but probably more so Pally cuz they get Pacify at 51, and that would land on alot of Luclin content, and roughly half of Ssra stuff but obviously nothing in VT. Re: Gnostica and the AC discussion. Armor returns IS pretty shitty on casters, BUT imagine having a FAT shield on (AHR stick, https://www.takproject.net/allaclone/item.php?id=26780 , anyone?) I imagine that shield alone would boost a Wiz's tanking capability more than the rest of the AC on their gear (beyond their soft cap) I see that gnostica was probably using a Dozekar shield while tanking Rhag1, 45 ac is nothing to sneeze at for raising your soft cap. There's an easy 35 AC All/All shield in Velious that goes for relatively cheap, currently. Necro = I reply to old content- I do remember on AK Happy from Dark Conquest telling my wizard "you'll never land anything on Seru at 55/56" (loved him, but ego much?) and I was actually able to nuke Seru pretty well at that low of a level. (Related to Yeli discussion)
Could not have had a less fitting name. Happy--"I'm not buffing because I'm boxing three" Me--"Happy I'm boxing three too, and I'm tanking and in the chain and slowing and mezzing the adds. Could you please do VQ and VoQ?" Happy--"Sucks to be you. No."
Oh I thought of one last question. How are rain spells on this server? They always seemed a little broken on P99 and would get resisted way more often than they should. Do they work better here? If they hit three full rounds on one target, the damage to mana ratio isn't half bad... Someone earlier said they *thought* they were working. Can anyone confirm?
They have an extra 20% chance to be fully resisted on each wave, and I think they may automatically get resisted by low health NPCs.