Help with spell fizzles

Alright folks. It’s been a little while since I’ve played and I’m trying to get back into it.


My “main” so far is a 45 SK. I did the regular leveling up and now I’m well behind on my spell skills. I’ve been hanging out in the EFP tunnel doing my spell work but want to get some guidance.


I am lucky and able to run a takp window behind my work stuff while I’m at work. I stand up the SK and fizzle out a ton of FDs and Invis’s but gosh, the spell leveling is slow. I can still burn a whole set of mana and not get off a FD or even an Invis.


Question I have, is there a better way to level up spell skills? I know you can drop some level up research points, but not sure if there is a better way than to just mash the number 5 or 6 (which is where I have FD and invis mapped to) then sit, do some regular work and then pop on, stand up, mash my buttons till no mana, then sit.


Is there anything else I can be doing?


Thanks!

 

Pump your INT and chain cast a low-level spell with low mana cost and fast recast timer.

For example, to raise Divination on an SK, I'd use Locate Corpse (5 mana, 3 sec recast) instead of Gather Shadows (35 mana).

The TAKP Spell Guide lists the mana cost and casting skill for each spell. Look it over and find good skillup spells.

 

One more thing, once you rise them to higher level, one way to keep skilling them up during the game is, assuming you have a macro for your few most frequent spells, as last line, last cast, add some spell from lvl 1-4 that you want to rise and will not interfere with your game. I don't play Sk, but for example, whenever I cast nuke on my necro, I also cast automatically lowest level shield. Yes shield goes right to mob but gets rejected anyway. So this way, through your regular game-play, you can also slowly rise skills you are using less often.

 

https://www.takproject.net/forums/index.php?threads/afk-skillup-casting.20092/
https://www.takproject.net/forums/index.php?threads/how-do-you-ask-spell-cast-skill-up.15160/
https://www.takproject.net/forums/i...ll-skill-macro-app-for-skillups-windows.5958/
https://www.takproject.net/forums/index.php?threads/hotkeynet-101.4369/#post-25208

 

I was going to link my thread but Rimidal already did in his first link!

That post I included the lowest mana cost spell for every class and every spell school. Also the pause you need to make a hotkey that casts all 5 spell schools with a single button.

A few nights of doing that while near an AFK Chorus bard generally is enough to max or if not get to a workable skill level and prevent chain fizzling.

 

LOL. A post of mine from 7 years ago complaining about my BL fizzling invis. Still not max divination today, still fizzling.

 

Going from low teens in the skill to max can take about 3-5 days to max all spellcasting. That is running 24 hours nonstop. It's a long process, but so nice when it is completed.

 

This is why I got a set of +Wisdom gear, makes things like this go a little bit quicker (along with tradeskills).
If you're a hybrid then maxing WIS is easier than INT I believe.
If you got access to a bard, playing the level 44 +int/wis song helps. https://lucy.alkabor.com/spell_745.html

For reference, here are the items I use and swap around my chars if I'm doing skillups or tradeskills.
Othmir Prexus Totem +18wis
Bracelet of Sense +15wis
Tobrin's Mystical Eyepatch +15wis
Emerald Dragonscale Tunic +20wis
Golden Efreeti Boots +9wis
Lodizal Shell Shield +10wis
Glittering Ring of Judgment +20wis per ring (a bit difficult to acquire, I had to farm the mats myself), otherwise Plat/Velium Jasper Ring +6/7 wis
Shissar Battlehammer +5wis
Charred Guardian Shield +9wis

 

Yay, this is so useful list, thank you for sharing! (my to-do, to-get list just become longer)

 

The hotkeynet code you provided didn't quite work for me. The loop did, but it wasn't successfully pressing the 1 key. The following seems to work however:

<Hotkey F1>
<Toggle>
<SetVar spamkey on>
<Toggle>
<SetVar spamkey off>

<Hotkey F2>
<SendWin Client4>
<Key 1>
<If spamkey Is on>
<Wait 3000>
<DoHotKey Hotkey F2>
<else>
<endif>

 

Okay folks. I'm going to try to play around with this a little bit today. I'll let you know how it goes and likely have more questions for you all.

 

Alright guys. I notice some folks are posting some "code" looking stuff, but that is a little too much to put in a macro. What program does that for a PC?

Oh. hotkey.net? Looks like I may have downloaded it when i downloaded takp? I'll look around for it.

 

OKay guys and gals, where do i find scripts? What kind of file are they. I'm watching the tutorial and it says load the script, but is the script file just a .txt file?\

 

I don't use it personally (I just use a gamepad that can keep pressing a key), but there is a thread that might be useful here: https://www.takproject.net/forums/index.php?threads/afk-skillup-casting.20092/

A few posts in, Showstring (Rimidal) links posts to other threads with scripts. I believe the scripts are just .txt files saved in your hotkeynet folder that you load, yeah.

 

Use Notepad for code/scripting text. Open hotkeynet.exe in your TAKP folder. On the bottom left, click "Load Script" and select your Notepad text file. The following script works great for spell skill ups on a trio:

<Hotkey F1>
<Toggle>
<SetVar spamkey on>
<Toggle>
<SetVar spamkey off>

<Hotkey F2>
<SendWin Client1>
<Key 1>
<Wait 100>
<SendWin Client2>
<Key 1>
<Wait 100>
<SendWin Client3>
<Key 1>
<Wait 100>
<If spamkey Is on>
<DoHotKey Hotkey F2>
<else>
<endif>

Press F1 then F2. The script keeps pressing 1 in each client window (1, 2, 3) while the loop is running (toggle loop on/off with F1). If desired, you can change the window (client) names, delete a window entirely, or change the wait time for each step.

 

So i had the SK in the EFP tunnel yesterday afternoon and got her divination skill up to 200something. A bard singing mana song was awesome and it makes sense now.

I'm going to work her skills up and then the rest of my main trio and hopefully get back into playing takp again soon.

 

Looking at this list, taking notes for things to help my ogre beastlord get casting skills up, I also thought of Lodizal Shell Shield, which is +10wis, back slot wearable.

 

yeah forgot to include that one, since I got so many to swap around it didn't immediately pop out in the bank storage

definitely lodi shield goodness, i'll update the list

 

Pardon my never ending EQ ignorance, but does +wis work better for skill ups even on an Int caster?

 

I'm pretty sure whichever stat is higher gets calculated, but i could be wrong.

 

A few tradeskills are supposed to have secondary stats that are used for skillups if they're higher than int or wis. Smithing and STR, fletching and DEX, poison making and DEX are the only three according to at least one SOE dev.

https://www.eqtraders.com/articles/article_page.php?article=g256

Tradeskills don't really help with spell fizzles, but it might give you more confidence in the game's ability to be flexible enough to use whichever stat is appropriate at the time.

 

Leveling up your casting skills, is what low level spells are for. I remember my ranger on live having trouble with Stinging Swarm fizzling, when he finally got it, because he hadn't been practicing conjuring along the way. I ended up having to burn off a lot of mana casting Dance of the Fireflies to get the skill up to where I could cast Stinging Swarm without fizzles. Classes that get summon food and summon water, will typically spam cast those until conjuring is maxed out. Every spell discipline has a low level spell that you can practice on to get the skill up so you can use the higher level spells.

My understanding has always been that your DEX can help with fizzles. Getting a DEX buff before you start practicing a casting skill, might help you to level it up faster.