Update Notes: Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance, Guide, Itemization, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Tradeskill

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Veteran Merchant

  • Added new items to both Veteran merchants; including several items that require gold membership to purchase.

Vesspyr Isles

  • Zaszea’s Armor Exchange will now correctly return a Cryptic Bracers Token when used on Cryptic Hive Aggressor’s Chain Bracers.
  • Cryptic Hammer Slammer Gauntlets now correctly require Cryptic Glove Token’s to purchase.

PVP

  • Completing Cleansing the Good (Level 90) will now correctly update the quest Learning the Path.

TRADESKILLS

  • Recipes from Advanced Armorer Volume 90 should now accept refined primary components.
  • Summon Artisan’s Gathering Goblin should no longer revert to a 12 hours recast time if you zone while the buff is active on your character.

Dethdlr’s Dungeon – Group Setup

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in Dethdlr's Dungeon, Grouping, Guide

Dethdlr's Dungeon

Intro

With the release of Destiny of Velious, the starting instances seem to be a bit tougher and the encounters require a bit of strategy to take them down.  This can make it a bit rough on the casual players/guilds.  I previously wrote an article on how to figure out an encounter that includes lots of tips on figuring out a strategy for a given MOB.  However, the best strategy in the world isn’t going to work if your group setup is awful.  There are 24 classes in EQ2 but only 6 slots in a group.  How do you go about putting together a group from the 24 available classes in order to take down an encounter?

This article will attempt to answer that question…

EQ2Mission: Track Named Mobs for AA

Written by Kwill on . Posted in Guide

Launched in January 2011, this new fan site looks promising for players who would like to track  named mobs for alternate achievement progress and keep track of daily missions.  EQ2Mission will not only keep track of which named mobs you have killed, but suggest others in a zone that you might have missed.

Still a work in progress, the author, Quicktiger on Antonia Bayle, has been steadily growing his database.  The site also promises to track items needed, such as master spells and recipe books, as well as the best food and drink choices for your characters. Quicktiger’s site lists daily missions, with the added ability to view future and past missions. The site requires the user to install a logging client.

Find EQ2Mission at http://eq2mission.flame.org/.

Other Quests on the Isle of Refuge

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

Ebik’s Missing Parts

Over on the beach where the ambassadors are you will see a Gnome named Ebik Wooblecog. If you speak to him and click through his very long story he will ask you to find his 3 missing parts… hence the name of the quest ^_^. You will have to find the following:

  • Size 7 clunker
    Copper-coated springer
    Triangle spinner

These items are rather large and kinda easy to find. The first one is located at:

Size 7 clunker is on top of the waterfall, just over the bridge. It is an area called Port View Bridge.

The second is at:

Copper-coated springer is located underwater. If you swim from the Gnome towards the starting beach you should find it. It is under water so just search between the two beaches.

The third is at:

Triangle spinner is located behind the tree house. The tree house next to the orc’s cave has big roots, and on the back of the tree between them you will see the missing part. However, the part is under a noxious cobra who is nestled in between two large roots. Kill the cobra and you can access the part!

Once you have found all 3 items return to Ebik to get the following reward:

Constructed Wrist Spanner

That’s it for Ebik, wave goodbye to the friendly little Gnome.

_________________________

Lasydia’s Call

This is second quest you’ll have where a damn shark is involved. To start the quest swim past where Bladefin spawns. You’ll see a rock with some crabs on it in front of a waterfall. Directly to the right of the waterfall is a statue of Lasydia. If you double click on it you are presented with the ability to breathe underwater and have an urge to kill the following:

  • 10 Razortooth sharks

Since you can breath underwater just go to town slaughtering the 10 sharks before the ability wears off. I think the ability lasts 15 minutes which is plenty of time to kill them. Once you kill the 10 sharks you are presented with your reward:

Castaway Sash

That is all for Lasydia… leave her alone… seriously.. put the stick down…

_________________________

Stop the Saboteurs

To start this quest you have to kill one of the named goblins on the island, either the Siege Planner, or the Goblin Warmonger. When you kill them they will drop this note in a chest that tells you to go to the beach to kill them. I’d suggest taking at least a priest or another partner to kill them. They are on the beach across from the ambassador’s beach. Once you kill them you will receive the following reward:

Exceptional Goblin Crafted Helmet

That’s it once you’ve killed them and gotten your reward move on… no poking the dead bodies with a stick…

_________________________

Xaliea’s Request

This quest will lead to the last 3 quests on the island I’m going to cover. To start the quest find Priestess Xaliea and speak with her. She will ask you to retrieve the following:

  • 3 bone chips

You can find bone chips on undead that are in the graveyard. The graveyard is in the top right hand corner of the map. Basically all you need to do is kill the skeletons until you get the 3 bone chips then return to Xaliea. She will give you the following reward:

70 Copper

    Now I know what you’re thinking… I did all that for a few lousy copper… Well yeah but go to the next quests and you’ll understand.

    _________________________

    X Marks the Spot

    To be able to get this quest you must have accepted Xaliea’s quest. Keep killing the skeletons until you get a chest with treasure map. Examine the map and it tells you to go to a tombstone next to a waterfall. The tombstone is around the corner from the orc’s cave. I’d suggest bringing a full group as this guy is nasty. Once you kill Rockbelly you will get the following:

    33 Copper

    Old Dirty Cutlass

    If you examine the Cutlass you will be presented with another task to get it fixed. Take the Cutlass to the Mender beside the banker. Pay the 40 copper and receive the real reward for this quest:

    Rockbelly’s Cutlass

    That is all for this quest… go poke some gobs with your new sword.

    Article found on everquest gold (dot) net

    Collection Quests on the Isle of Refuge

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    This quest writeup is a historical document of the Isle of Refuge. This zone was repurposed/revamped in Game Update 19.

    Collection Quests

    There are two collection quests on the island. You must be level 3 to have the harvest ability to be able to complete this quest. The first collection quest is on the beach. You’ll notice some gold sparkling ? marks. If you double click them you will harvest them and get a shell. The shell ? marks can only be found on the beaches of the isle. Upon examining the shell you can add it to your collection. You need the following shells to complete the shell collection quest:

    Abalone shell
    Clam shell
    Conch shell
    Mussel shell
    Turtle shell

    After you collect all 5 of the shells, go over to the second beach where the ambassadors are and look to your right. You will see an NPC named Rivicea Goldwind. When you speak with her, tell her you have a shell collection and she will give you the following:

    Collected Shell Trinket

    That is all for the shell collection. Now on to the feather collection quest. All around the woods you will see the same ? marks on the ground. They will have one of 5 feathers. The feather ? marks can be found anywhere in the woods. You need to collect the following 5 feathers:

    Duck feather
    Eagle feather
    Falcon feather
    Sparrow feather
    Hawk feather

    Once you have collected all 5 feathers return to Rivicea Goldwind and she will give you the following:

    Collected Feather Necklace

    Isle of Refuge (Fighter Quest Line)– Garven Tralk

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    This quest writeup is a historical document of the Isle of Refuge. This zone was repurposed/revamped in Game Update 19.

    Arriving on the Island

    After you exit the tutorial and hit the beaches of the island of a refuge, you’ll need to decide your profession. Head up to Garven who is standing up beside the dock. He’ll welcome you to your new home as a “refugee”, and ask your profession.

    After answering his initial questions, Garven will request you “prove your worth” by killing one of the invading Goblins, which have suddenly plagued the Island of Refuge. Accept this quest without delay, and double click the weapons rack to grab a weapon and a few other items. Equip the weapon (likely the crude dagger) and bring up your map by clicking the “M” key.

    The troupe of Goblins you’ll need to target to complete this first quest is a foolish bunch, mindlessly sprinting towards their deaths at the hands of the powerful guards manning the west entrance of town……where the action is! Head into town and then to the NW, heading out of the main western gate.

    Run around, or jump over the wooden barricades and get a goblin in your sites, either by directly clicking on one, or by pressing tab until you have a suitable target in place. Once you have a target, run straight up to the poor sap and begin hacking away. These Goblins are extremely weak and are sure to drop in just a few hits.Once you’ve killed the Goblin, traverse your way back to Garven at the docks.

    Garven Tralk awards you with your first free bit of armor, a sturdy pair of gloves, after you declare you’ve dropped your first slimy Goblin. Throw those bad boys on your digits and head into town to visit Braksan Steelforge.

    Mr. Steelforge will be your main point of contact on the island for all Fighter quests on the Island. He hangs out at the forge just Northeast of the large tower in town. Bring up your local map by pressing “M”, and head up just NE of the tower.

    Once you find Braksan double click on him to engage in a friendly chat, ignore any pointless spouting off at the mouth, and get him to offer you a quest.

    Fighter Quest 1: Goblin Supply Raid

    Braksan asks you to head west and take out 4 goblin supply runners. On your map, on the far east of the island (turn off fog of war on your map options) you’ll notice 6 tent. If you hover over them you’ll see they are “Goblin camps”. If you can’t hover over them check off the “fog of war” option on your map so you can tak a closer look at everything. The southernmost goblin camp is the one you’ll be targeting during this quest.

    Head west out of town and navigate your way to this camp. When in range, pick out a goblin supply runner who is a safe distance away from other runners, and begin to bash his skull! Repeat this on 4 goblin runners, then head back to Braksan to collect your reward. Keep an eye on the quest dialogue box in the upper right hand corner of your screen to learn when you’ve dispatched enough of the slimy beasts.

    Braksan will reward you with a fine pair of boots for your work, he has deposited them for you at the bank which is the building located just west of braksan’s workstation. However, before you go pick up your boots accept the next quest from Braksan.

    Fighter Quest 2: Refugee Rescue

    Time to take out 5 Gruttooth Aggressors! The refugees are located just NW of the Goblin Supply Runners. Head back west through the gate and up to the location of the human refugees, lined up pathetically on a natural stone wall. You won’t be able to miss them, they are surrounded by the very mobs you need to take out for this particular quest, Gruttooth Agrressors.

    As you can guess by the name, they are indeed the first aggro mobs you’ll run into in the game. If you’re not familiar with the term “aggro” it’s MMORPG “speak” for aggressive, in other words they’ll attack you without provocation! So be careful. Only lure one Gruttooth aggressor at a time. Use your taunt skill, it’s great for this very purpose……..and pretty much required for this quest.

    After dispatching the necessary amount of Gruttooths, head back to Braksan and you’ll be rewarded with a set of Footman Leggings along with a small amount of copper. Slip the pants on, and strike up another conversation…….Braksan immediately offers you yet another quest……

    Fighter Quest 3: Striking Back at the Goblins

    For this quest, Branson needs you to collect some Flint Head Spears for him. This is the most dangerous quest by far, and it is suggested you level up to at least Level 5 to be strong enough to ensure success. Once you are confident in your newfound abilities at level 5, head up to the very northwest of the map, where you’ll see 4 tightly packed goblin encampments. YOu’ll run into “Gruttooth Brutes” at the very entrance of these camps, and be warned……they are aggressive and they also assist one another!

    Do your best to find some Brutes who have strayed from the pack and take them on 1v1. They aren’t horribly tough to defeat if you properly use your Taunt/Wild Swing special abilities. So head up north and begin taking out the Brutes. Keep a close eye on your life bar, as these initial quests are much more difficult for melee based characters opposed to mages who can take out the brutes from a distance using their spells and kiting. You’re up close and personal so you’ll encur much more damage.

    Once you’ve killed enough Brutes to collect 4 flinthead spears, head back to Braksan for your reward. After you fork over the spears, Braksan hooks you up this time with a top of the line Footman Tunic. This is far better than your current “Threadbare Tunic”. Equip the newly acquired Tunic and strike up yet another conversation with Mr. Steelforge. Time for yet another quest………

    Quest 4: Take out the Lead Orc!

    This quest is available for all races/classes.

    At this point, the in game host will notify you you are now ready to leave the island if you so wish. However, Braksan Steelforge offers you one final quest. This quest requires taking out a “Lead Orc” who is responsible for rallying all the Goblins on the Island. This specific quest requires teaming up with other players on the island, and aims to get you used to partying with other players.

    Rest assured, you have collected the necessary equipment to continue leveling on the Isle of Refuge until Level 6, Level 7. Continue exploring the Island and speak to all the various NPCs in town and North of the Goblin encampments. Many of them will provide you with other simple tasks which can result in gobs of free equipment…..jewelry, new weapons and more!

    Article found on everquest gold (dot) net

    Crafting on the Isle of Refuge

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    This quest writeup is a historical document of the Isle of Refuge. This zone was repurposed/revamped in Game Update 19.

    Cellar Cleanup

    The Cellar Cleanup quest is the artisan quest on the island. To start the quest go to Malvonicus’ Tower and speak with Assistant Dreak. You will know who he is, cause he will be bitching about the cellar being a mess. After agreeing to clean up the cellar turn to your left and you will see the door that leads to the instanced cleanup quest. You must do the following to complete the first part of the quest.

    Move the table, chair, mirror, and bed.
    Harvest the crushed rock, and fallen log.
    Get rid of the burned barrel.

    Once you do this go back to Assistant Dreak. He will thank your for cleaning the cellar and ask you to craft a tin spike to be used in his lock. If you accept he’ll give you a bag full of the materials you’ll need to craft the spike.

    Once you get the bag with all the materials go back into the cellar, which now has all the different crafting devices. Go up to the forge and select Tin Bar. From here just hit create and let the crafting run its course. Once you have the Tin Bar, go back to the forge and select Tin Spike and again let the crafting sequence happen. Once you have your Tin Spike in hand, go back to Assistant Dreak. He will give you the following:

    Dreak’s finely crafted bracelet
    Note from Dreak

    The bracelet must be attuned then equipped. The note just tells you where to go to find out more about crafting. That is all for the Cellar Cleanup.

    Article found on everquest gold (dot) net

    Isle of Refuge (on the Boat)

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    This quest writeup is a historical document of the Isle of Refuge. This zone was repurposed/revamped in Game Update 19.

    EQ2 Allakhazam Writeup for the Isle of Refuge boat sequence:

    Step 1: Captain Varlos
    You’ll appear on the ship next to Captain Varlos, double click on the Caption to initiate a conversation. Navigate through the initial conversation, and the Captain will gradually explain where you are, how you got there, and where you’re headed.

    At the end of the conversation, Captain Varlos will ask you to go speak to his First Mate Waulon, who is located just to the NE of the captain at the back of the ship.

    Step 2: First Mate Waulon
    Waulon mentions to you he’s lost his hat, and you agree to find it. This task will teach you some of the simpler tasks in the game. Run S down the steps of the ship and head to the boxes on the wall at the other end of the ship. Search all three boxes by double clicking them, until a “loot dialogoue” pops up on your screen. You’ll see a hat. Click “Loot all”, and return to waulon with his hat. A dialogue box will pop up stating Waulon as rewarded you the “Mariner’s Charm”, click the accept button and the charm will now be in your inventory. Click “i” at anytime to view your inventory.

    After returning Waulon’s hat he requests you speak to Ingrid….she is located just down the steps to the SW.

    Step 3: Ingrid
    Ingrid details an issue she’s having with the merchant Vim on the ship. She states she desires an artifact (a piece of the “moon) from Vim, and asks you to buy it for her. Problem is you have no money. No problem time to cash in that Mariner’s charm Waulon gave you back in step 2. Head to the S up the stairs to Vim.

    Step 4: Vim
    Double click Vim, and the standard EQ2 merchant dialogue will appear. At this point, click the sell tab, and double click your “mariner’s charm” to sell. You’ll receive 42 copper for the charm.

    Now, click the buy tab. The Shard of Luclin is what Ingrid so desired, so buy it for her! At this point you’ll have 42 copper in your coffers, and the shard of luclin will set you back 36. So just double click, and it’s yours! At this point head back to Ingrid and present her with her gift.

    Captain Varlos calls you back up to the deck.

    Step 5: Back to Varlos

    Once you run back up to Varlos, the Captain will ask you to clear the ship of the rat infestation which has set upon them. This is a chance to get a little combat practice.

    Accept the task, and be sure to “accept” the splintered club the caption offers you in the dialogue box. Once you click accept hit the “i” button to open your inventory. Near the bottom of the inventory screen, double click the splintered club. This will equip the club as your main melee weapon.

    Now head down to the lower portion of the ship and target some rats for battle! To target a rat, simply click on it or click the TAB button and cycle around the different rats on the ship. Once you have one targeted, it’s time to attack! You’ll notice the action bar on the lower portion of your screen. It consists of 13 buttons, and depending on the race you chose 5-8 of them will be filled with options.

    However, for all races slot 2 will be equipped with the “melee attack” function. Once the rat is targeted, you can click this button with your mouse cursor, or simply click the number 2 on your keyboard. All buttons are bound to numbers 1-0, and the – and = keys on your keyboard. So now, target that rat and hit the number 2 on your keyboard.

    After you’ve dropped the first rat, double click the carcass to harvest it. After double clicking, “loot” the rodent meat from the putrid animal and head off down the ship to take out the next rat! After killing and harvesting the second rat, head back up to Captain Varlos.

    Step 6: Kill the Goblin

    After completing the rodent quest, a dragon type creature will attack the ship and free the goblin that was caged next to merchant Vim. Head down and kill that goblin!

    After dispatching the green menace, head back up to the Captain, he’ll congratulate you and send your on your way to the Island of Refuge!

    RUMOR: PvP to PvE Server Transfers? ‘Sploit!

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    We have pulled this story until we can get further confirmation and corroboration.

    It seems that in the avalanche of myriad mysterious hotfixes with no hotfix notes on Thursday and Friday may have introduced some unintended consequences regarding Battlegrounds which were discovered over the weekend.

    It seems that Server Transfer Tokens may have been enabled on Battlegrounds servers.

    We already reported on the item duplication exploit, namely transmuting or consuming items on BG and then getting the items back when you are returned to your own server.

    But we have subsequently learned that players have successfully transferred from PvP to PvE servers by claiming Server Transfer Tokens while logged into Battlegrounds servers.

    I guess where there’s a will (or a determined enough player), a way will be found. 😉

    EQ2Wire Sentinel’s Fate Contest

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    sentinelsfate_contestpanel

    When I launched EQ2Wire at the August 2008 Fan Faire, I had no idea that we would become a popular destination for (nearly daily) EQ2 News and Commentary. And so it is an interesting coincidence that the release of Sentinel’s Fate will mark the 18 month anniversary of EQ2Wire. What better way to celebrate than to give away Sentinel’s Fate Retail keys to our readers?

    Contest Concludes

    The EQ2Wire Sentinel’s Fate Contest concluded on February 16th. We awarded 10 Retail and 2 Collector’s Edition product keys!

    Terms and Conditions

    There were 10 first prizes and 2 grand prizes. The first prizes are Sentinel’s Fate retail edition product keys. The grand prizes are Sentinel’s Fate collector’s edition product keys. Digital purchase only. No physical box will be shipped. Winners are entitled to the product key assets only. Prize has no cash value.

    One entry was accepted per day.

    This contest was valid for any country except where prohibited by law (I think that’s just North Korea, sorry Kim Jong-il). Supported languages: English, French, German.

    We are not responsible for winning e-mails being rejected, returned, or lost in transit. If a winning e-mail is bounced, we reserve the right to award the product key to an alternate. We reserve the right to verify e-mail addresses by contacting contestants as well as Sony Online Entertainment with your submitted information.

    Contestants may only win once during the contest period.

    If there is a conflict or indication of anything hinky with the entries, we may make substitutions. All decisions regarding this contest are final.

    EQ2Wire Contest WINNERS

    • Retail – February 11th
      • Farlix
      • kalenberi
    • Retail – February 12th
      • LL
      • unload
    • Retail – February 13th
      • Grugg
      • Adam-DW
    • Retail – February 14th
      • Seggen
      • Skeksis
    • Retail – February 15th
      • Soarem
      • Lapsus
    • Collector’s Edition  – GRAND PRIZE – February 15th
      • Dimanea
      • Karith

    How do Battlegrounds Work?

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

    battlegrounds_logo

    What are Battlegrounds?

    Battlegrounds is a new feature launched on February 25, 2010. Battlegrounds are a Player vs. Player (PvP) environment which take place on a completely separate server from the regular PvE and PvP servers. It roughly coincided with the release of Sentinel’s Fate (Feb 16) and Game Update 55.

    Tokens

    Each of the 3 Battlegrounds have their own unique Token. These tokens can be spent at the Battlegrounds Merchant in Qeynos Harbor or North Freeport. Multiple tokens from different zones are required to buy items.

    Just by participating in a Battleground, you will earn at least 1 token. If you are the winning team, you will earn 3 tokens.

    In addition, there are 2 Battlegrounds quests available for each of the 3 Battlegrounds zones. Don’t forget to pick these up before joining up!

    How Do I Join a Battleground?

    To join a Battleground, press Alt-Z to bring up the Zones window. Select the Battlegrounds tab. Click to view the Battlegrounds Window. You can choose one of the 3 zones presented in the list:

    • Battlefield of Ganak (Capture the Flag: 12 vs 12)
    • Gears of Klak’anon (Protect the Relic: 6 vs 6)
    • Smuggler’s Den (Hold the Fort: 24 vs 24)

    or you may choose First Available.

    If you are already in a group or raid, you can click Queue Group or Queue Raid to bring your pre-made group or raid over to the Battleground. Otherwise, you can click Queue Self and jump into a pickup group.

    When the zone becomes available, you will be prompted to join the Battleground.

    What Happens Next?

    As soon as you accept the prompt, you are immediately logged out of your main game server and whisked away to the Battlegrounds server. Your group (or raid) is assembled on either the Red team or Blue team and off you go!

    Rules

    You are now operating under a PvP ruleset. This can substantially change how your gear works on Battlegrounds vs. your regular server. You can look at how your gear will behave in PvP by clicking the [X] PvP checkbox on the examine window. The duration of your stun/stifle/mez/root spells is substantially reduced. And you may not use any sort of Evac/Escape ability.

    You may not speak to the opposing party or any other public chat such as Out-of-Character, Shout, or level chat.

    Capture the Flag (Battlefield of Ganak)

    In Capture the Flag, you are naturally trying to bring the opposing team’s flag to your home base. To do this, you simply run up to the flag of the opposing side and your character will grab it and carry it around.

    You cannot score unless your team’s own flag is safe and secure in your home base. With the change to 12 vs 12, if you coordinate your strategy, you can set up a defense perimeter of 2-3 players to guard the flag, 1-2 players trying to get the flag, and then the other 7 players involved in skirmishes in the center of the playing field.

    The first team to successfully capture and return three flags wins.

    Protect the Relic (Gears of Klak’anon)

    Acquire and hold the relic to accrue points faster than the opposition. The team with the higher number of points at the end of the time limit wins.

    Hold the Fort

    Gain control of the five spires which jut out over the raging ocean and hold your position longer than the opposition!

    At the End of a Battle

    When a Battlegrounds encounter concludes (either the prerequisite number of points have been reached, or the timer runs out), all characters are teleported to their home bsae and rooted in position. A scoreboard appears show how both teams did.

    After approximately 30 seconds, the Battleground closes and you are returned to your place of origin.

    Battlegrounds Rewards

    We are currently working on a complete guide to the Battlegrounds armor and weapons.

    >> View Battlegrounds Armor

    At launch, Battlegrounds is restricted to level 80-90 with Battlegrounds armor at a minimum level of 90. It is intended for Battlegrounds to have rewards added so that Battlegrounds are open to players from level 10-90.

    Keyboard Mapping Survey

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    Please take this Multiboxing/Dual boxing survey, even if you do not multibox/dual box. Results will be posted soon.

    Are you affected by the clarification in EQ2 Multi-boxing Policy?




    Because of this clarification of multiboxing policy, are you considering cancelling any of your EQ2 Accounts?






    Do you multibox or dual box (control 2 characters simultaneously)?





    If you multibox, do you use input redirection/mirroring or broadcast software to trigger multiple computers?


    Do you feel that multiboxing with the use of broadcast software should be permitted?






    EQ2Wire Looking for an Artist

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    The EQ2Wire often produces articles and opinion pieces which would benefit from a comic or cartoon to illustrate the salient points. We are looking for an Artist who would be interested in producing illustrations or cartoons at least twice a month for the EQ2Wire.

    This is not a paying position, but the artist retains viewing and portfolio rights to artwork created for the EQ2Wire. This artist will also receive a link to their own personal site (if they have one) in the EQ2Wire sidebar.

    Some illustrations will have a specific theme and/or dialogue written by EQ2Wire. Others will offer more opportunities for the artist’s flexibility and creativity.

    If you would like to have your art featured on a highly focused MMORPG game fan site which receives 3,000 visitors per day and is currently the #5 Google result for searches for “eq2 news”, please send an e-mail to morganfeldon (at) gmail.com with examples of your work and any other details about yourself which you think may be useful.

       

    Raid Packing List

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    Raid Packing List

    Raid mobs have always had a variety of devastating poisons, noxious effects, arcane curses, stuns, stifles, and knockbacks at their disposal to make it a challenge (or darn near impossible) for the raid force to defeat them.

    Discovering the strategies required to kill these raid targets is a key part of raiding. Raid mobs tend to have elaborate scripts, puzzles, or strategies required to defeat them. Solutions that work for one guild may not be appropriate for another due to the players and classes present in the raid. One raid force may have a lot of dirges and troubadours, another may have more enchanters (illusionists and coercers). Understanding each group member’s role and capabilities is the job of the raid force leader.

    In a raid situation, it is very often that the healers (even if there are 6 or 7 of them) have their hands completely full keeping up the Main Tank and Main Assist (off-tank) or even a third tank alive, as well as keeping themselves up.

    It is not uncommon for raid mobs to summon assistance in the form of friends who go after the most vulnerable raid members (mages/wizards) or the ones who can afford least to be “occupied” or stifled from casting (healers).

    In short, you cannot count on the main tank and healers to keep all detrimental effects (poisons, arcane curses, etc.) off of you, nor can you depend upon them to deal with all “adds” or additional enemies which appear.

    For certain fights, your raid leader will explain the strategies and what to expect.

    Here’s the summary:

    1. Food/Drink
    2. Ammo
    3. Cures
    4. Status Items
    5. Miracles/Blessings
    6. Repair Kits/Mender Bots
    7. Spare Equipment

    Food/Drink
    This may seem obvious, but inevitably a few folks show up to a raid with no food or drink. It is strongly advised that you bring the appropriate food/drink for your class. There are special infusions which are very high quality food/drink designed for raiding. Refer to your local Provisioner or the Broker.

    Ammo
    This one seems obvious, but every ranger at least once has showed up to a raid with few or no arrows and had to beg, borrow, or steal to get the needed ammo. Throwing stars, daggers, and axes go fast! Get a Quiver or Bandolier with at least 16 slots. It is not uncommon to go through over 1,000 items in a 4 hour raid.

    Cures
    It is expected that you bring these items unless you are capable of curing/healing all of these effects yourself:

    • Freedom of Mind (can be mastercrafted or handcrafted)
    • Dedicated Arcane Remedy
    • Dedicated Noxious Remedy
    • Dedicated Elemental Remedy
    • Dedicated Trauma Remedy

    Freedom of Mind can be crucial, as it allows you to shake off stun/stifle effects which prevent you from moving or casting. Unfortunately it can only be cast every 10 minutes, but it can mean the difference between life and death.

    The other cures can be cast much more frequently.

    Relics & Signets (purchased with Status)
    Relics and Signets are items purchased with status from City Status Merchants in your home city (Qeynos Harbor for example) which give you a “Hail Mary” type of last ditch effect in battles. There are heals, mana boosts, and various cures, as well as large damage items for certan races. Unfortunately these items have long cast times, are LORE (so you can only carry one of each), and are rather expensive.

    Miracles/Blessings
    Consider those Status Items an alternative to the Miracles and Blessings offered by deities. If you are a worshipper of a deity that offers defensive or protective effects for you or your group, consider bringing them to the next raid. If you are a scout, then increased dps (or reduced hate) items are what is typically available, so investigate those.

    Repair Kits/Tinkered Mender Bots
    As a guild, when we start working our way into more challenging raid zones, it would be unrealistic to expect that we’ll tackle and defeat each zone and each boss without dying at least once. The first raid forces who tackled the toughest raid zones in Kunark died dozens of times a night until they learned the strategies and/or acquired the necessary gear to accomplish these goals.

    Don’t get discouraged if your group or the raid force struggle with a certain boss or zone and die repeatedly. Something can be learned from each defeat, even if only this is discovering what detrimental effects are placed upon us by the enemy and trying different strategies to mitigate the worst of those effects.

    The bread and butter of keeping your armor in working order during a raid has always been the Repair Kit. These are upgraded to 50% repair kits in Kunark. For ~20g these woodworker-made items will repair your armor from 0-40% back up to 50%.

    If you are a gifted tinkerer (level 350 or higher), you probably already have a Mender Bot — known to gnomes everywhere as the Mechanized Platinum Repository of Reconstruction — in your inventory. This miraculous item costs roughly 10 plat for a tinkerer to make, but no additional cost to summon or use it. It can be called once per hour, once per zone (the owner can zone out and zone back in if the zone is persistent and nobody else has a bot available).

    Using a mender bot is NOT CHEAP. Repair costs are typically twice the cost of mending in the guild hall or your home city. If it is important to your class that your armor be in tip-top shape before each battle, then you’ll want to bring extra money for mending. Otherwise, you may choose to get along with repair kits.

    On a side note, certain raid mobs (and even some group mobs in The Shadow Odyssey) are capable of breaking your equipment independant of the number of times you may have died.

    Spare Equipment
    A more economical solution to the repair situation is to bring a second set of armor and weapons. Certain raid zones and/or certain raid mobs have special attacks which can be heat, cold, divine, arcane, or poison-based. It can be very helpful to bring spare equipment especially if it has high resists.

    For instance if your normal gear has a very low divine resist of 1,000 (as the TSO Void Shard gear seems to) and we are going into a zone with a lot of divine-based damage, you may need to switch to equipment with high divine resists just to survive the battles. If you lack these items, Jewelers can make “resist” jewelry which is carried around specifically for these situations. In short, it doesn’t matter how much damage you can put out if you get whacked every time these effects trigger.

    Offensive/DPS/Defensive Armor
    Tanks in will typically bring 2-3 different sets of armor to a raid.

    Offensive/DPS gear which puts out more damage at the expense of defense. The opposite sould be self explanatory. Tanks may be asked to switch out their gear and/or buffs to be in an offensive or defensive stance as needed during the fight.

    Getting Mileage Out of Macros

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    Getting Mileage out of Macros

    How do you create a Macro?

    If you already have an ability on one of your hotbars and want to turn it into a macro, just right-click it and choose Create Macro….

    If you want to create a macro from scratch, then press O, click the Macros tab, and find a blank space labeled and click it.

    To add a command like a /group /raid or /tell, make sure Macro Step: is set to Command and click Add Step.

    To add a combat art or spell or use a potion/scroll/item, then next to Macro Step: choose Spell/Ability from the menu and click Add Step. Now drag your CA/Spell/potion/scroll/item to the empty box on the left side.

    When to Use Macros

    There’s an interesting topic running at EQ2 Forums about the use of Macros in Group and Raid settings. The thread started out as a question of “What qualifies as excessive macro announcements?” and has turned out to be a quite useful discussion.

    In a group or raid situation, it can be helpful when you cast a spell or buff that there is an announcement made to the target, group, or raid to let someone (or everyone) know that your spell has been cast. These announcements should be brief so that they can be quickly read. They should not be a distraction from the raid discussion.

    If the target of your spells is important, you can slip %T into your announcement. For instance a tank might use:

    ^^^ Pulling a %T in 5 seconds. Look lively!! ^^^

    Healers, Necros, and any other class that can rez people should be using:

    /r Rezzing %T.

    I don’t think we’ll ever get perfect agreement about what spells should or should not be announced in /tell, /group, and /raid, and the raid leaders may decide that certain ones are excessive, but right now I think we could use a few more.

    CAUTION

    When people discover macros, they tend to go crazy adding macros to everything. Then after a few game sessions, they realize that a lot of their macros are not really crucial to the group or raid. Just keep in mind that most of the buffs and debuffs you cast are probably not worthy of a macro.

    Short term buffs that increase group dps or intelligence may seem like a good candidate for macros at first, but do they really change the behavior of your group? Will they cast different spells or change their clasting order in reaction to your buff? Usually they won’t, so a macro is not warranted.

    Enchanters have mostly given up on “mezzing ” macros because folks would rather just nuke everything and not worry about mezzing and waking up mobs.

    “I find that its classes that feel under appreciated that macro more and more.”

    Macros have their place, but please Don’t Overdo It!!

    Scouts

    Brigand’s Dispatched debuff is essential to a raid force. No other class has such a powerful ability to breach the defenses of an enemy and allow the rest of the raid force’s spells and combat arts to “stick” and start doing damage. This will generally be used near the beginning of the battle.
    /Raid Target has been dispatched.

    Swashbucklers get a similar debuff called Swipe. This delays some enemy AoE attacks. As a result, it affects any ACT timers you may have running. It is helpful if this is announced in the raid.
    /Raid Swipe

    Dirges get a short term dps group buff called Chimes of Blades (abbreviated as CoB) which not only increases the attack speed and dps output of melee classes in his/her group, but also adds a chance that each attack will interrupt the casting of the target. This is helpful to prevent AoEs on certain raid mobs.
    /Group CoB is up. 17 seconds

    Jester’s Cap makes a lot of friends for the Troubador, as the recipient’s spells become reusable 40% faster. This single target spell can be macroed to notify the group member that their slow-to-recharge spells will refresh much sooner.
    /Tell %T You have been capped for 30 seconds.

    It is debatable whether Troubador’s Perfection of the Maestro deserves its own macro. It is an increase by nearly 100 points of intelligence on the group as well as a damage proc. The additional intelligence usually translates to a better chance that damage will not be resisted. Most folks learn quickly what “PotM” is if a macro is used to announce it.
    Verdict? Probably doesnt need a macro.

    Casters

    Peace of Mind (PoM) is an Enchanter buff earned from the Shadows AA tree. Some folks like to know when it is up, as it is dealing additional damage on every single spell cast by group members. PoM is slated to have its damage amount nerfed in a future update.
    Verdict? Probably doesnt need a macro.

    Tanks

    Most tanks have a death prevention spell such as Exploding Heart. If the tank doesn’t die, then the spell will not trigger, however if he/she does, they will be resurrected with full health and able to continue to fighting for a short time, before dying.
    Verdict? Probably doesnt need a macro.

    Shadowknight’s version of this is Bloodletter which actually drains the health of group members (through an involuntary simultaneous blood transfusion ) to resurrect the tank.

    Shadowknights also get Death March, which has some useful effects, stun/stifle reduction, and generates a great deal of agro. It is generally macroed.
    /Group Marching this one until it is dead. (thanks Boneskull)

    Monks have the ability to Drag a mob, controlling the location of that mob for a short time. Afterwards, the monk generally has agro of that mob and will require healing post haste.
    /Raid Drag incoming. Get ready for agro on Krackemup.

    All tanks have one or more Rescue type positional or fixed amount taunt. Positional taunts boost the tank up the “hate list” by a certain number of players. Fixed amount taunts generate a specific amount of taunt which may or may not bring them to the top of the “hate list”. The slower reuse Rescue generally gets macroed in Group situations, not always in Raid situations as fighting for agro is such a common thing in raid situations that these rescues would fill up the raid chat window.
    /Group Rescue is down for 10 minutes. Be careful!

    Resurrecting

    It is extremely helpful if all classes with the ability to resurrect, including Necromancers and of course the entire Priest archetype have announce in raid chat when they are resurrecting a person, group, or the whole raid.
    /Raid Rezzing my Group in 5 seconds.
    /Raid Rezzing %T.
    /Raid Raidwide Rez incoming…

    The point of announcing all these resurrections is that often more than one healer is trying to resurrect someone and wasting that time when they could be resurrecting someone else or healing others. If two people announce that they are resurrecting someone, then the 2nd person (or the healer if one person is a utility class) can divert their attention to other tasks.

    It’s also important to note that not all resurrections are created equal. Some classes resurrect the person with very little health or power. Some can resurrect people with 40% health/40% power. Some can resurrect with no Resurrection Sickness. The responsibilities need to be divvied up and coordinated between healers as per raid leader suggestions.

    Healers

    The raid channel would quickly get clogged if all healing were announced, but large, slow-to-cast cast heals should be announced in group and/or the healparse channel. This way the other healers can focus on keeping tanks and dps up.
    /Group Group Heal inc.
    /tell bbbhps Big heal on %T inc.

    Defilers and Templars get a Group Ward which takes a long time to cast. If groups are dying on initial AoEs, then this may be a valuable macro to have to notify the tank when pulling might be the safest.
    /Group Group Ward 5 sec.

    Originally posted by AScarlato:

    “We were wiping quite often if both the MT Defiler and myself as MT Templar were casting our long group-ward or reactives at the same time. Making sure only one of us casted these at a time so that the other healer would use more versatile heals in the meantime was necessary for us to progress.”

    It is debatable whether the Defiler’s canine companion is worthy of a macro. This will depend upon the group setup.

    Templars should macro Sanctuary as this buff prevents the tank from being stunned/stifled on pull.
    /Group Sanctuary is up.

    Most healers have a “stun heal” where they are stunned, stifled, and unable to act and are doing nothing but healing. This is generally used when the healer is out of power or is out of other heal spells. This makes a useful /group announcement “Stun heal 30 sec.” This lets people know that they should not expect group heals/cures for a while.
    /Group Stun Healing 30 sec.

    Originally posted by Motzi:

    “We did create a healer chat channel for our healers, so that they could announce to one another with things like repent, or soulward, and death saves are being used. This is data that other healers need to know, but the rest of the raid could care less about.”

    Power

    Summoners (Conjurors and Necromancers) can hand out power items (shards for conjy, hearts for necro) to group or raid members who are in close proximity to the summoner. The summoner chooses whether to cast the group or raid version of the spell. The raid version consumes nearly all of the caster’s power. /Group or /Raid 5 second warning for folks wanting these items to get close to the caster.
    /Raid Casting Raidwide Hearts/Shards in 5 seconds. Gather round.

    If you have run out of hearts or shards, you can send a tell to a summoner “shard please”. If they have one of these macros set up, then they’ll be able to autotarget you, give you a shard, and go back to the battle without having to try to find you among the crowd. /Tell

    Conjuror:
    /useabilityonreplytarget Scale of essence

    Necromancer:
    /useabilityonreplytarget Ruinous Heart

    EMERGENCY!

    Do you need to stop casting, like IMMEDIATELY?

    You can add a macro to your hotbar with this command:
    /cancel_spellcast

    This will stop what you are doing immediately. You may want to add a macro to all your cure potions that starts with /cancel_spellcast and then does the cure, that way the cure will happen quickly.

    Many more to come, and please don’t get carried away.

    Zone Strategy: The Ward of Elements (Dayakara)

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    Dayakara — Fire Elemental

    If you are familiar with the Tairiza fight, this will seem vaguely familiar.

    Strategy

    Off-tank will pull Dayakara to the alcove to the immediate left when entering the room so that Dayakara is facing away from the raid. High DPS scouts (as chosen by raid leader) will focus on Dayakara during the entire fight). Off-tank (OT) healers will focus on keeping OT alive and group cured.

    Adds spawn every 14(?) seconds. MT will be picking up adds right in the center of the room. MT healers will focus on keeping MT alive and group cured.

    1-2 Scouts will be chosen by the Raid Leader to focus on killing Dayakara the entire fight. At 30%, 1-2 more folks will be added to DPS on Dayakara. Everyone else should DPS through the Main Assist who will be switching between Adds and Dayakara at his/her discretion. MT can easily handle 3-4 adds and so MA will adjust accordingly.

    At 30%, Dayakara increases the number of adds, so at 40%, MA will focus on clearing remaining Adds so there aren’t any up at 30%. Unlike the Tairiza fight, the MA will focus mostly on the Adds for the rest of the fight. Raid Leader will pick 1-3 more high DPS classes to focus on Dayakara for the last 30% down to 0%.

    This is an endurance fight although sustained DPS is also very important. If more than 5 adds are up, then MT and MT healers will have difficulty keeping up.

    Background

    When you first enter the room with Dayakara, there are alcoves to the immediate left and right, a bridge directly in front, and then Dayakara is on the other side of the bridge. Due to line of sight issues, pulling Dayakara or her adds to the bridge or where she stands is problematic. We could not target the adds as they were in the lava or under the bridge.

    When OT pulls Dayakara to the alcove, he/she needs to make sure he is not out of line-of-sight of healers and that Dayakara is not inside the wall.

    MT should be cautious on AoE taunts so that MT does not taunt Dayakara off of the OT.

    WoE_Dayakara_Map

    Zone Strategy: The Ward of Elements (Digg)

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    Digg – Corrupted Earth Elemental

    Positioning/Pull

    To start, everyone should be standing on the floating bridge close to Digg’s island. On pull, the Main Tank will rush Digg and then everyone runs past the tank to get behind Digg. Digg should be kept facing roughly the same direction as he was before he was engaged but perhaps pulled 1 or 2 steps forward.

    The raid force must get right on Digg’s ass, extremely close to him. Do not stand a few feet back, or off to one side, as you will get hit by the 180 degree frontal AoE.

    On pull, nobody should be doing any DPS except the Main Tank.

    During the fight, have your Trauma cures ready as you can die incredibly fast from the Trauma that Digg repeatedly puts on the raid force.

    Orange Dome

    During the fight, Digg will cast a bright Orange dome spell. When it dispels, everyone outside of the dome will be knocked back and hit for damage. If you are outside the dome and are blown up onto solid ground, you will be killed.

    Badger, Mushroom, Snake

    Every 30-45 seconds, Digg will call out in Serillian (‘Language of the Dust’) for BADGER, MUSHROOM, or SNAKE. There are two designated Runners who will be picking up these Totems and dropping them at Digg’s feet.

    • BADGER: STOP ALL DPS until you hear the Runner say ‘Badger Down’. Otherwise any damage you do will be reflected back onto you or the raid.
    • MUSHROOM: Continue DPS and turn on Melee Autoattack (even mages and priests).
    • SNAKE: Maximum DPS and keep Melee Autoattack on. To stop him from doing Massive Healing, everyone needs to be autoattacking here as every swing has a percent chance to stop the heal.

    55% to 30%

    At 55%, it will be called out to burn Miracles and Blessings and bring up raid DPS to the max to burn Digg down from 55% to 0% as fast as possible.

    If you need to take a few steps back at this point to do Ranged DPS, go ahead, making sure you are completely behind Digg, and watch carefully for his orange dome and run inside so you don’t get killed.

    30% to 0%

    At 30%, he will start choosing random totems to call. So be ready to Stop DPS if he calls BADGER and resume DPS if you hear Badger DOWN.

    Healers/Rezzers

    If you need to Resurrect someone, please turn around so you are back-to-back with Digg. Otherwise, when you rez someone, they will be resurrected in FRONT of Digg and die instantly. If you are being rezzed, please be extremely careful that you do not run out in front of Digg.

    Tank Positioning

    The Main Tank will take two steps to the left or two steps to the right based on the totem being called to turn Digg away from the runners so they don’t get hit by the frontal AoE.

    When BADGER is called, Main Tank takes two steps to the LEFT.
    When SNAKE is called, Main Tank takes two steps to the RIGHT.

    Runners

    There will be 3 runners chosen for this fight. Primary, Secondary, and Backup. Backup steps up if either the Primary or Secondary fall down the pit and cannot be revived.

    Runners need to click a small golden bar on the ground in front of the appropriate Bridge to call up that Bridge. Then they can run across and get the totem. DO NOT TOUCH THE “main” GROUND, stay on the bridge.

    BADGER is East, MUSHROOM is North, SNAKE is West.

    When Digg calls out in Serillian for BADGER, MUSHROOM, or SNAKE, the runner will go and get it. If you are holding BADGER totem, then you are immune to the orange AoE and knockback. If you are holding MUSHROOM or SNAKE totem, you must be inside the orange dome when the AoE goes off or you will get knocked back.

    It should not be necessary to “jump” when traversing the bridges between Digg’s island and picking up the Totems. Stay in the center and don’t stop and you should not fall through the cracks. Use of various illusion forms or totems may be desirible for smaller avatars.

    Runners should preferably have a Featherfall cloak so if they get knocked back/forward, they can float to a bridge. If a runner gets knocked onto the land surrounding Digg’s island, they will be instantly killed.

    Runners can safely DPS during the fight.

    If 2 different runners pick different bridges, then all other bridges will fall and totems despawn. Runners should watch the other runners to make sure they are not getting confused on which bridge to call up.

    Runners at 60%

    At 60%, get both runners ready run to the Snake every time they can get it. Do not wait for Snake to be called!! Drop as many snakes as you can, as each one has a Proc which prevents his healing. Runners must be very careful to time their runs to the snake in between the orange AoEs.

    Background

    • Badger – Stun/Stifle and damage shield reflected back onto the player (not the raid) if you DPS. Stop all DPS.
    • Mushroom – incurable Noxious DoT.
    • Snake – Incredibly fast self-heal of 40k hps.

    Conclusion

    Other than that, it’s just a matter of staying focused and folloing the MT’s lead whenever the MT needs to adjust position depending on which Idol Digg calls for.

    Zone Strategy: The Ward of Elements Part 1

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    Imperator Ignus – General at Arms

    The Main Tank will rush in and spin him on the star you will see on the floor in the middle of the room, facing away from the main raid force.

    The Main Assist will target each add and everyone helps the Main Assist kill the adds. Once they’re dead, the Main Assist targets Ignus and burns him down. Straight tank and spank, nothing special.


    Gelidus Ventus the Tempest

    Positioning

    When you enter Gelidus’s room you will notice very large fans that take up entire sections of walls, and then solid walls between those fans.

    Raid Force will position on the left extreme of the first solid wall (between two fans) on the left. Main Tank will position on the right extreme of the first solid wall (between two fans) on the left. Raid Force will face Main Tank so their back is wedged in the corner.

    During the Fight

    It is important in this fight for everyone to stay in those positions. If you step out the corner, either towards the tank or out into the room, you will hit by Elemental ice from the fans, likely killing you and possibly hitting other members of the raid.

    If necessary, Cure Elemental on yourself whenever possible.

    As long as everyone stays in their positions on this fight it is an extremely easy fight to win. Just a tank and spank.


    Khost Alur – Corrupted Water Elemental

    Positioning

    Tower #1 is to the left when we enter the cave. Tower #2 and #3 are directly across the water on the other side of the named. Once all trash are cleared, raid force positions halfway between Tower #2 and Tower #3 at the far end of the room standing near the rock pile.

    Main Tank pulls the mob and a designated person will call out whether Tower #2 or Tower #3 is illuminated the most. Main Tank will pull the mob to that pillar (with their back to a solid object so they do not get knocked back out of range of healers) and stay there until Khost is dead.

    Strategy

    Throughout the fight, everyone will be hit with an Arcane every 20 seconds or so. Every player should cure their own Arcane using potions. Do not depend on your group’s mages or healers. If 2 or 3 of these Arcane stack up on you, you will die.

    Main tank group mages should be Curing Arcane on the Main Tank whenever possible to give the priests a break.

    Background

    This fight is a Critical Mitigation test. Main Tank should equip all Crit Mit gear and Predators (Assassin and Ranger) should be constantly debuffing the mob with Noxious Enfeeblement. Main Tank gets cursed periodically, but this can be mitigated by having Water Breathing.

    There are three levels of brightnesses to the towers.
    1) Bright: Khost does more damage, but takes more damage.
    2) Dull: Khost does medium damage and takes medium damage.
    3) None: Khost is stoneskinned.

    The pairs of yellow trash mobs hit VERY hard. Pet pull down the tunnel out of the room and face away from raid force. The orange trash mobs are straight tank and spank.

    NOTE: The water in the center of the room is electrified. it causes 2-3k damage every 3-4 seconds.

    Zone Strategy: Pawbuster

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    Pawbuster – Executioner’s Throne Room

    Special Attacks

    • Whirling Attack — Every 20 seconds, Pawbuster does a trauma AE which triggers Intimidation, causing the 18 closest players and pets to be stifled/stunned for 1 minute. This will be cured by the healers.
    • Great Cleave — Every 20 seconds, Pawbuster lifts his shoulders and does his “big swing” with his battle axe. This is a frontal AoE Knockback and Stun which cannot be cured. The main tank will be the only tank directly in front of Pawbuster, with secondary tank to Pawbuster’s left ot right ready to take agro.
    • Stuck – After Pawbuster raises his battle axe and swings it, it will strike the ground and get “stuck”. During this time, Pawbuster is rooted. If Pawbuster is positioned over the grate and facing East, then this attack will strike the lock holding the grate closed. Once Pawbuster breaks open the grate, he will suicide by falling down into the spinning fan blades.
    • Battlerage – When Pawbuster kills a person he gains 2% health and gains a buff Battlelust. Battlelust makes him hit harder and take a % less damage per hit.

    Introduction

    After watching Youtube videos, reading EQ2Flames, and talking to 2 other guilds that have killed him, I believe that it is very possible for most of our raid force to remain unstifled during the entire fight.

    Positioning

    The main tank stands directly in front of Pawbuster on the stairs, so that Pawbuster is facing away from the raid. The secondary tank stands to Pawbuster’s left or right so that he will avoid the frontal AoE.

    Healers and the top 2-3 DPS people should be at max range of the Tanks.

    Everyone else is clustered in between the healers and Pawbuster. The distance between Pawbuster and the tank should always be closer than the distance between Pawbuster and the next person.

    Raid Stifle

    Every 20 seconds, Pawbuster stifles the 18 closest people with his Whirling Attack. This includes swarm pets, dumbfire pets, etc. We will use this to our advantage by having all casters and healers send in swarm pets right before Pawbuster’s Whirling Attack.

    Wardens, Defilers, and Templars will then Group Cure Trauma to keep the raid unstifled as much as possible.

    Clerics should have Macros for each of the other healers to target them and single-target Cure them.

    Tank Stifle

    Every 20 seconds, Pawbuster does a Great Cleave axe swing which is an incurable frontal AoE stun and knockback. When this happens, the secondary tank takes over and moves into position in front of Pawbuster, making sure that Pawbuster is facing the stairs and away from the raid.

    It may be possible for the tank to dodge this attack by “stepping into” Pawbuster or stepping to the side when his axe is in mid-air but before it strikes the ground (move too early and he auto-faces).

    At this point, Pawbuster’s axe is stuck in the ground and he is rooted. In EQ2 game mechanics, rooted mobs randomly switch targets trying to find a mob within range that they can hit. Pawbuster is not switching Agro so do not waste Rescue, deagro spells, etc. Pawbuster does NOT memwipe. Once Pawbuster becomes unrooted, he will run towards his current target.

    When Pawbuster starts randomly switching targets, a Coercer should cast Thought Snap to force Pawbuster to target a tank within their group. Thought Snap is an AA ability which will prevent Pawbuster from switching targets from a fighter for 7 seconds.

    Doggie Suicide

    Once Pawbuster reaches 25% health, he is now strong enough to break the lock on the grate. At this point, the active tank will reposition him over the grate in the center of the room. The raid will need to quickly move to their new positions. We may have 1 healer run to one corner of the room for this part of the fight.

    Once Pawbuster breaks the lock on the grate, someone needs to pull the lever on his starting platform to open the grate. The handle will become clickable when this happens. When Pawbuster reaches 25% health, we will have 1 person (wizard, ranger, etc.) move to the lever and be ready to click it.

    Extra Background

    When an EQ2 mob cannot move, either because it is rooted, or it is casting a spell (EQ2 roots mobs while casting to prevent self-interrupts), the following occurs:

    • The mob starts changing targets (from its hate list) trying to find someone it can hit.
    • If that target is in range, it starts hitting it.
    • If there is nobody in melee range, then the mob will continue to change targets (from its hate list), getting further and further away.
    • Once the mob becomes free, it doesn’t change target immediately, but instead will run at the target it has, until there is some event that causes it to examine its hate list again. That target may be far away and that causes problems.

    Zone Strategy: The Leviathan

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    The Leviathan
    Chamber of Destiny

    The gatekeeper of Veeshan’s Peak. You cannot enter VP until you have personally killed Leviathan. Only one person on the raid who has killed Venril Sathir or Overking must be present to zone a raid into the Chamber of Destiny.

    To kill the Leviathan, you need 3 items:

    • Greenmist Orb (purple X)
      • Drops from Imzok’s Revenge, the boss of Protector’s Realm.
      • At 15%, Leviathan will emote about the Greenmist Orb becoming Active. One party member holding this item will run to the North end of the cave and click the Statue when the green message appears at the top of the screen.

      NOTE: This item can be cast while running towards the Statue and it will continue to cast even after you die.
      NOTE: If this Statue is not finished casting by the time Leviathan reaches 1% health, Leviathan will AoE and wipe the entire raid. So watch (but do not stop) your raidwide DPS.

    • Fishmen Scales
      • This is a fish costume that, when worn, will encourage Leviathan to eat you. There are 8 stacks of 5 suits (40 total) to be obtained in this zone by killing the fish men (Yha-lei). These suits are LORE NO-TRADE, so the raid leader or designated looter should give the suits out to the players with the highest Crit and casting speed.

      NOTE: These suits have double duty, as you will first use them to go inside Leviathan and kill the mobs which drop Volatile Fluids, then you will use the suits to go inside and drop Volatile Fluids to do massive damage to the Leviathan.
      NOTE: During the fight, loot options should be set to Free For All so players can quickly pick up any Volatile Fluids from mobs they kill.
      NOTE: It takes over a minute for Leviathan to eat the first person.
      NOTE: If nobody has on a suit when he is ready to eat someone, he will AoE the raid.
      NOTE: The bodies of the dead Yha-lei can be left up during the Leviathan fight, and players can grab suits as they run out.
      NOTE: As players run out of suits, you can also trade Volatile Fluids to other players who still have suits. Both of you need to disable Autoattack to allow the trade window to appear.
      NOTE: Once you’ve used up all 40 (8 x 5 charges) suits, it’s time to call it quits and come back 48 hours later when those trash mobs respawn.

    • Volatile Fluid
      • 99% of your raid’s damage to Leviathan will come from players dropping Volatile Fluids inside of Leviathan. This means it will be a very boring fight for everyone else who will not be going inside. You will be curing your own Noxious effects with potions, and keeping up Melee or Ranged Autoattack the entire fight (including healers and mages).
      • If you have been selected as one of those who will be going inside Leviathan, your job to kill the trash mobs (they look like sperms) and collect as many Volatile Fluid as you can before you are ejected.
      • The average raid force will beed 50-60 fluids to kill Leviathan. Your raid force may choose to gather all the fluids, and then kill Leviathan on a subsequent visit, or attempt to alternate collecting and using fluids. Each Volatile Fluid that is dropped damages Leviathan by 3-4%, especially if used by a player with high crit and casting speed.
      • NOTE: Any kind of Time Compression, Jester’s Cap, and other haste including Warlock Focused Casting should be put on these players. Ideally, Brigands should Dispatch just before volatile fluids are used. You will only be inside Leviathan for approximately 10 seconds.
        NOTE: The volatile fluids from Halls of Fate will not work here.

    Keys to the Fight:

    • Everyone will be curing their own Noxious.
    • Druids and others may attempt to remove Leviathan’s spell reflect “Reflective Aura” but this is almost futile. While the spell reflect is up, if you cast any hostile spells or debuffs they will reflect on the caster’s group.
    • Setup a rotation of Scouts and Mages putting on suits and going inside Leviathan. Adjust the rotation depending on the number of suits, and distribute volatile fluids to party members as needed. Most folks will only be able to drop 3-4 fluids while inside of Leviathan.
    • Prevent Leviathan from Healing. Everyone should run to the center of the swimming pool (you will physically be inside Leviathan) and keep up Melee or Ranged Autoattack at all times. If you fail to autoattack, you will allow Leviathan to heal himself. Shamans should turn off their water breathing buff (which causes you to sink to the bottom). The pool that contains Leviathan is sludge and not water, so you will drown if you sink to the bottom.
    • Don’t die! You will heal Leviathan 2-3%.
    • At 20% or so, you will see an emote about the Greenmist Orb being activated. One of your players who has the Greenmist Orb will run over to the Statue at the North end of the cave and click the statue AS SOON AS YOU CAN REACH IT. You can click it while running. If you successfully click it before you die, it will complete casting and allow Leviathan to be killed.
    • Kill Leviathan within 15 minutes, otherwise he AoE’s the zone, killing everyone inside.

    Further Notes:
    Generally speaking, your mages will not be able to do any DPS on the Leviathan fight due to how often the Reflective Aura spell reflect is up. However if you want to try, you can establish a rotation of Crusaders (Paladin/Shadowknight), Brigands (taunt), INT-specced Shamans (Defiler/Mystic), and STA-specced Druids (Warden/Fury) to try to keep this effect off of Leviathan.

    Each time someone successfully removes Reflective Aura, call out in voice chat “DEBUFFED” and then everyone can go crazy with debuffs for 3-4 seconds.

    If Wizards feel confident in their Heat and Cold resists, they may use single-target spells on Leviathan even with the Reflect up and they will (hopefully) mitigate the reflected damage.

    If mages are dying to the trash mobs inside Leviathan’s belly, then a fighter/scout can be sent in first to kill them and drop fluids to “clear a space” for the next mage.

    Congratulations, you now have access to Veeshan’s Peak.

    Sources:
    EQ2 Flames thread about Leviathan (pages 18-23)
    EQ2 Wikia about Leviathan

    Strategy – Protector’s Realm

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    The Protector’s Realm

    Upon entering the zone, all the named skeleton mobs are non-aggro and unattackable. To begin the storyline, search carefully for Ludmila Kystov in the room with the unactivated Doomcoil and select the option to make a deal with her via right click. She will tell you a tale about her “raid force” and discuss the possibility of a group effort between your raid and her force. After speaking to Ludmila, have a priest (it must be a priest and no other class) resurrect Jracol Binari (again via right click and not the actual spell).

    Once Jracol Binari is resurrected, have a member of the raid take the shards from Meldrath Kloktik via right-click. These shards (which are a single item) are used to activate the Vyx skeletons (Adkar Vyx, Iztapa Vyx, Wymbulu Vyx and Zykluk Vyx). Proceed around the rooms of the zone to kill these four skeletons. The order of their deaths doesn’t matter for the storyline, but each is slightly different from the others and a successful kill therefore requires a specific resist setup and strategy (see the appropriate named information page for more details).

    Each time one of these skeletons is killed, a random member of the raid will receive a skull in their inventory. These four (tradeable) skulls are needed to spawn the next named (Doomcoil). Once all four skeletons are killed and the skulls obtained, trade them all to the raid leader.

    Adkar Vyx

    The encounter will turn aggro as soon as the character with the shard approaches it, meaning it is probably safest to have a brawler or other character with feign death activate the skeleton.

    Haze of Thule — Massive poison/stifle AoE every 45s (varies slightly) does more damage the closer you are. The stifle cannot be avoided except by AoE block, and can be cured with potions.

    Main Tank pulls to far left corner (with back to corner to avoid knockback), the rest of the raid stays out until Haze of Thule goes off. Then come into the room and start DPSing. The timer on Haze of Thule is 45 seconds, so players will need to leave the room (joust) every 45 seconds. A main assist will target the two adds first (an Alsakan) and all raid DPS will go through the main assist, then target Adkar Vyx directly and kill it.

    If the raid wipes but in the process takes down one or both adds, the adds will take a couple of minutes to respawn, making it possible to try again for a slightly easier fight.

    Iztapa Vyx

    Touch of the Faceless — Mob will cast this death touch on Main Tank every 40s, which will do between 10K and 18K damage. If needed, have Off Tanks cast Intercede to absorb Touch of the Faceless.

    There is no AoE to joust, so just maximum DPS on the adds (through main assist) and then DPS Iztapa down until dead.

    Wymbulu Vyx

    Position Main Tank in one corner nearest the door to his room. The rest of the raid stands in the other corner near door. Healers should stand at max range.

    Spinning Fury — This is a melee AoE which should be jousted every 40 seconds with everyone leaving the room.

    Zykluk Vyx

    Judgement of the Faceless — This is a disease-based AoE Fear & DoT every 45 seconds that does more damage the closer you are. Main Tank pulls to far left corner with Sanctuary. Everyone else stays outside of the room until the AoE hits, then rush in. Joust all the way out of the room every 45s.

    Doomcoil

    Move your raid force into Doomcoil’s room and have the person with the 4 skulls from defeating Adkar Vyx, Iztapa Vyx, Wymbulu Vyx and Zykluk Vyx right-click and give the shards to the Meldrath. The adventurers will slowly leave and then after a short pause to talk, will activate Doomcoil (10 seconds after they say “Toodles!”) and put up a barrier locking you in the room. You get one shot at beating Doomcoil.

    NOTE: Make sure all party members have maximized their poison and divine resists by equipping the necessary gear.

    The whole raid force (apart from the Fighters) stands in the corner near the door. Fighters stand on the other side of Doomcoil in the far corner so that Doomcoil is between the Tanks and the rest of the raid.

    Once Doomcoil is activated, the Fighters need to keep Doomcoil as far away from the raid as possible to avoid having either of the AoEs go off and kill the raid. Melee DPS should joust the AoEs. After casting Sonic Burst, Doomcoil will teleport himself to the door side of the room. He will be rooted for a couple of seconds, during which he will likely target someone other than the tanks. At that point, stop DPS until one of the tanks can grab agro and drag Doomcoil back to the far corner. Then resume DPS.

    The worst case scenario is for Doomcoil to be on top of the raid force (due to someone overagroing) and fire off one of the AoEs. Two or three fighters should be switching agro using snaps and taunts and keeping Doomcoil away from the raid force. Everyone targets the mob directly and watches their implied target to see if they have agro. If they do, they need to run towards the tanks. If players keep getting agro, or keep dying to the AoE, then they will be asked to stay dead until the end of the fight.

    NOTE: Every time a member of the raid dies, Doomcoil heals himself for 2% health, so don’t die. Also, if you do die, do not revive, as you will be locked out of the room.

    • Choking Mist AoE hits every 60s
    • Sonic Burst AoE hits every 55s

    Enemy Raid Force

    After killing Doomcoil, you will be confronted by the evil raid force. If you killed Doomcoil, recommended order of this fight is: Frogloks, Jracol, Blorgok, Meldrath, Ludmila. If you failed to kill Doomcoil, then be aware that during the fight, Meldrath will summon Doomcoil. In this case, your fight order should be: Frogloks, Meldrath, Jracol, Blorgok, Ludmila.

    2 Froglok Mercenaries – Fighters

    • ~200K HP each
    • Will taunt and force you to switch targets, but you are able to change back to your previous target

    Jracol Binari – Healer

    • ~1.3 million HP
    • Will periodically group heal for ~200K

    Ludmila Kystov – Scout

    • ~4.9 million HP
    • Tends to memwipe and run around causing havoc by attacking whoever she likes.

    Meldrath Kloktik – Mage

    • ~2.7 million HP
    • Periodic stifle, occasional charms/mezzes players

    Blorgok the Brutal – Fighter

    • ~1 million HP
    • Will periodically force you to target him, at which point you are unable to change targets.

    Strategy

    While an Off-Tank is keeping Meldrath away from the group (due to the stifle/charm), take down in the order listed above. After Ludmila and Jracol are dead, have the Off-tank bring Meldrath back over to the raid force and kill him. Blorgok the Brutal has very few hitpoints so will likely die from AoEs while you are killing the rest of their force.

    The enemy raid force will drop an item called the Staff of Sounding. This item is tradeable and is relatively cheap on the Broker these days.

    Imzok’s Revenge

    Every 40-70 seconds, Imzok will do a Trauma AoE called Revenge’s Sebilisian Torrent. It does 9,000 damage and 2,000 DoT if you are within 5 meters, The damage is reduced based on distance but cannot be completely avoided. This should be jousted.

    Unfortunately, due to the apostrophe (‘) in the mob’s name, Advanced Combat Tracker (ACT) does not correctly calculate the timer on this effect. Brigands have an ability Traumatic Swipe which can delay a mob’s AoE, but this will not be included in the calculations. Have your Brigand announce “Swipe” in raid chat and the person watching timers must mentally add the Swipe which is 10-15 seconds delay.

    At 35% health, Imzok will stoneskin/reflect shield. It is CRITICALLY IMPORTANT that ALL DPS stop Damage Over Time (DoT) spells at 45%, and then all pet DPS at 40%. If necessary, press ESC and sit down, or run around the corner so you stop DPSing. There will be a message at the top of the screen indicating that Imzok is now invulnerable. All damage from raid members when Imzok is stokeskinned (35%) will hit the Main Tank.

    At this point (or shortly before it), each person with a Staff of Sounding should run into the room where Imzok was and start using the Staff on the 2 pillars. Only one of the pillars will be targetable at a time. Each person using a staff has a slim chance of breaking the the pillar, so it helps to have more than one person with a Staff. It may take up to 30 times clicking each pillar to break it so have patience.

    During this time, everyone should be buffing up, healing up, boosting power, and getting ready for the spike damage that Imzok will be putting out once he’s “unlocked”.

    Imzok will continue to AoE every 40-70 seconds and if the AoE coincides with Imzok becoming attackable (after 35%) the raid will wipe.

    Imzok’s Revenge has a trauma-based AoE which players should be self-curing with potions (pots). This Trauma AoE hits the tanks harder after Imzok is enraged (once you get him below 35%.

    Burn down the last 35% and loot your chest!

    Scouts and their Poisons

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    Assassins, Rangers, Brigands, and Swashbucklers get as much as 40% of their damage through the use of poisons. However Bards (Troubadours and Dirges) cannot use them.

    These poisons not only cause additional damage but also debuff the mob which is the most important factor to allow the other classes to maximize their own DPS.

    Scout classes can use 3 types of poisons at one time. Poison damage can be affected by AAs. The specific numbers below are for level 72 Mastercrafted poisons.

    Damage (Red) — Top the parse!

    • Caustic — Inflicts 749 poison damage on target.
    • Vitality Breach — Inflicts 524 poison damage on target and heals caster for 399. (Lifetap)
    • Mental Breach — Drains target of 749 power and increases power of caster by 332. (Powertap)
    • Hemotoxin — Inflicts 317 poison damage on target ever 4 seconds for 24 seconds (2,219 total).

    Notes: Hemotoxin does more damage over time than the other 3 Red poisons do, but note that multiple Hemotoxin effects will not stack on the mob, so multiple scouts using Hemotoxin may cancel each other’s DPS. Raids should coordinate which poisons will be used by which players.

    Special (Blue)

    • Ignorant Bliss – Decreases threat to target (De-agro) by 1501.
    • Essence of Turgur – Decreases targets attack speed by 25%.
    • Fettering Poison – Slows target by 44%.
    • Stupefying Poison – Stuns target.

    Debuff (Purple)

    • Enfeebling – Decreases Strength of target by 82. Decreases Crushing, Piercing, Ranged and Slashing ability of target by 31.
    • Warding Ebb – Decreases Wisdom of target by 82. Decreases Mitigation vs all magical damage by 1051.
    • Cerebral Ebb – Decreases Intelligence of target by 82. Decreases Ordination, Disruption, Subjugation and Ministration of target by 31.
    • Gracelessness – Decreases Agility of target by 82. Decreases Parry, Defense and Deflection of target by 31.

    Just as multiple Hemotoxin (Red) poisons will not stack on the same mob, the Special (Blue) and Debuff (Purple) poisons will not stack on the mob either. Scouts need to coordinate before the raid to make sure they are using non-conflicting poisons.

    Maximizing Fighter/Scout DPS

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Guide

    This article is due for cleanup with the release of Sentinel’s Fate.

    What is Auto Attack?

    If you engage combat and just stand there, not clicking any Combat Arts, Spells, etc. you will still swing your weapon every few seconds. So what’s the big deal? Well for some classes like scouts and fighters, up to 40% of your damage can come from Auto Attack.

    Just how much damage can you get from Auto Attack? Let’s find out…

    First, you want to find out your Weapon Delay. Press I to bring up your character sheet and point at your weapon or weapons. You will see a Delay. This is typically 3-4 seconds and then 7-9 seconds for a bow if you have one. This means that your weapon will Auto Attack every 4 seconds or whatever time it says. It can be helpful to have 2 weapons with the same delay.

    Now type /weapon. You will see your weapon or weapons listed with Actual Delay. You probably noticed that it’s shorter than the Delay.

    This is because you are wearing some items (or have spent AA points) to increase your Haste or Attack Speed. You can wear 1 item with Haste (typically increases your Attack Speed by 10-40%) and then you can wear additional items with Attack Speed (typically 2-4 points each item). If you wear 2 Haste items, then only the highest one functions (they do not stack). When you are in a group, especially with an Enchanter (Illusionist/Coercer) or a Bard (Dirge/Troubadour) your attack speed may get boosted dramatically.

    Depending on the group you are in, your Weapon Delay may shrink down to as little as ONE second.

    Note: For most classes, it is a mistake to choose weapons based solely upon the shortest Delay. Once you start to take advantage of Auto Attacks, you’ll find that medium weapon delays are better.

    What’s my Auto Attack?

    So how much damage is your Auto Attack doing? Fire up EQ2 and type /log to start generating a Log file. Now Install Advanced Combat Tracker (ACT) and go through the setup wizard, telling it where your EQ2 is installed and where your log file is.

    Now go to your Guild Hall and pickup and place a Training Dummy. Alternately you can travel to Kunzar Jungle and visit the Training Wall. Engage combat and just stand there, not casting any spells or CAs. Make sure you are in melee range so you can hit the dummy. Now switch over to ACT and watch the numbers.

    Let’s say you are watching the ACT window and notice that the DPS numbers are idling between 750-850. That means your Auto Attack is doing 750-850 dps. You don’t want to lose that!

    So what’s the big deal?

    Before I learned about Auto Attack damage, I used to just click the Combat Arts and Spells as fast as I could, not leaving any gap or delay. I thought I was doing the best damage I could.

    But if you are doing this, you are preventing or delaying your Auto Attack from going off. If you are doing 1,400 dps and you can start leaving gaps between your Combat Arts, you can increase your DPS to 2,000 dps or more.

    You’ll soon become aware of roughly how many seconds there are between your Auto Attacks and make sure you are leaving a gap between casting Combat Arts so that your AA will go off as often as possible. This is called “timing” your Auto Attacks.

    This is where your Actual Weapon Delay becomes important. Depending on your group or raid setup, this might shrink to as little as 1 second. This would mean leaving a 1/2 second gap between nearly every Combat Art you cast.

    At the website for Advanced Combat Tracker, there are instructions to add a timer/trigger so that ACT will play a Bell sound every time your Auto Attack is ready to be fired. That way you can start learning when to leave a small gap between your attacks.

    You may want to install an Auto Attack plugin for your EQ2 client. This will display a bar that fills up. When it reaches the end, that’s when your autoattack goes off. So you can learn to make sure you are not “pausing” your autoattacks by casting combat arts at the wrong time.

    What about those other Statistics?

    The Shadow Odyssey actually changed one of the most important statitistics for melee/ fighter dps — melee and ranged crit. These used to give a 30% bonus to all Combat Arts. But this was changed!

    Melee Crit and Ranged Crit are the percent chance that on any combat art or Autoattack, you will do the Maximum Damage. For instance let’s say you have a Combat Art that will do 800-1,250 damage. If you have a Melee Crit of 50%, then 50% of the time you use that Combat Art, you will hit for 1,251 damage.

    Whereas Melee Crit is a very important stat for Fighters and Scouts, Rangers should focus on having their Ranged Crit as high as possible as this applies to ranged attacks.

    Double Attack and Ranged Double Attack are distinct from Melee and Ranged Crit. They are your percent chance that you will Auto Attack twice. Just like Melee Crit and Ranged Crit, you want these numbers to be as high as possible (the cap is 100%).

    Combat Art Damage is the amount of extra damage you do with each successful Combat Art. In your Persona window, this shows up under Melee Stats as Damage Amount. +CA Damage improves the damage of your Combat Arts.

    So why can’t you just get all the +Combat Art Damage items possible to increase the damage each one of your Combat Arts does? The answer is that Combat Art Damage bonus cannot give you more than 50% bonus over each of your combat arts. Let’s say you have a combat art that does 300~500 damage. 50% of 500 is 250. So your maximum base damage for that combat art is 550~750 (300+250 ~ 500+250).

    Another stat is DPS Mod, which increases your Damage Per Second by a percentage amount. Any item, adornment, self-buff, or group buff which adds DPS modifies this stat. The most powerful ring for fighters and scouts until you get a similar item is the mastercrafted strength ring with a proc on it that periodically increases your DPS by 40. Keep this until you get another item with a similar effect.

    EQ2 has a diminishing returns system which means that once you get to a DPS Mod of 80, the benefit starts tapering off. Each point over 80 gives you less and less improvement until you get to 200 points which gives you an actual benefit of 125% increase in DPS.

    AGI vs. STR

    The number one stat for Scouts is Agility (AGI), right? Absolutely not.

    If you want to increase your damage, the number one stat is Strength (STR). This is followed closely by Intelligence (INT). If you mouse over each stat in the Persona window, you’ll see what each stat does. It is a common misconception that Scouts need a lot of AGI. My AGI is under 500 and it doesn’t bother me a bit. AGI does affect your Power Pool and Avoidance which are probably a big deal solo, but not in a group or raid setting.

    As I mentioned above, EQ2 has a diminishing returns system which means you’re graded on a curve. Player attributes STR, INT, STA, AGI, WIS have a “Soft Cap” of 800 and “Hard Cap” is 1220. This means that once you are over 800 points, you are starting to get less benefit from each point you get.

    Considering that when you are in a group or raid, you will have buffs on you which can easily gain another 100-150 STR, it’s not hard to reach 1,100 or more STR at level 80. Once you do, start looking at other stats. Predators (Assassins, Rangers) can benefit from increased Intelligence (INT) in their use of poisons to increase their damage. Bards (Troubador, Dirge) benefit from increased Intelligence (INT) in the effectiveness of their spells.

    A Word About Rangers

    Rangers are a special case because we can be either Auto Attacking with Melee, or we can be Auto Attacking with Ranged. Our Ranged Auto Attack does FAR more damage than melee, so we should make sure that whenever there is a gap, the Ranged attack button is toggled, rather than the Melee attack button.

    I rotate my attacks between Melee and Ranged, always making sure that I do Ranged last so the next autoattack is Ranged as well. I will typically do do a Melee CA, a Ranged CA, and then pause for Ranged Autoattack, a Melee CA, a Ranged CA, and then pause for Ranged Autoattack, repeat. Sometimes I am able to do 2 ranged DAs or 2 melee CAs back-to-back and still get a Ranged Autoattack off.

    It’s tricky and getting the most DPS out of a Ranger is challenging. There are a ton of rangers out there with their epic who cannot breach 1,500 dps. With the right gear, spec, and play style, you should be doing 3,000 dps.

    The single biggest way to increase the damage of a Ranger is to increase Ranged Double Attack. This used to be a very difficult statistic to find on equipment; it was mostly on raid gear, but there is an AA line you can go down which gives 8%, and the TSO Void Shard Armor set gives at least 13 points if you have a full set.

    For more information on all of these stats, please check out this highly detailed article by Victor. Note that there are some important corrections to the article with regards to TSO Critical Mitigation contained within the Comments.

    Last Updated Sept 26, 2009.


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