Back in Business!

Yay! Power got restored yesterday! What a relief. Did two loads of dish washing, a load of laundry, went to the store to partially repopulate the refrigerator. Life is getting back to normal.

In my downtime I decided I will be getting a second account for sure. Was thinking of doing this tonight. Going to create a Caldari (all my other chars are Caldari) PvP build and get him started on learning skills. It will be a while before I do anything serious with him so training will be good.

Haha! I said "him"!

Its odd... all my other chars are industry types and female. But for my PvP I want a male. Not sure why... just how it is I suppose. In EQ2 all my healers were female. I couldn't bring myself to roll a male healer. Not trying to be sexist or anything, just pointing out an oddity.

RoK Legendary Mage Set

I got my first Legendary set piece last night and went looking for more information today. I couldn't find a central location to view all the Wizard Legendary set pieces so I figured I'd create one.

To be honest... I'm not all that thrilled with the set. It seems more watered down than the EoF set. Also, I think the mish-mash of RoK Treasured/Legendary pieces I have equipped right now give better abilities. I suppose time will tell...

Is it just me or are these pieces easier to acquire than the EoF ones?

-edit-
After posting this I realized the stats on the cap do not match the picture I posted entirely. The cap I received in game also has a +3% spell crit modifier on it. I'm going to try and track down the right info and update this post. Stay tuned...

-edit-
Okay I tracked down the differences. Looks like the Cap and Robe are missing a few stats:
Cap: +3% spell crit
Cowl: correct
Cuffs: correct
Gloves: correct
Pantaloons: correct
Robe: +60 spell damage

I'm still not too impressed... I would prefer some casting speed reductions.

Blistered Strand Cap
\aITEM 719545449 -2242050:Blistered Strand Cap\/a

Dropped by:
Guardian of Eternity (Charasis: Vault of Eternal Sleep)
Sandstorm (Charasis: Maiden's Chamber)



Blistered Strand Cowl
\aITEM 899656742 1528927340:Blistered Strand Cowl\/a

Dropped by:
Baron Yosig (The Crypt of Agony)
Gear of the Ancients (Charasis: Maiden's Chamber)
The Keeper of Dreams (Charasis: Vault of Eternal Sleep)
The Keeper of Dreams (Throne of New Tunaria)



Blistered Strand Cuffs
\aITEM -1013207839 1442626135:Blistered Strand Cuffs\/a

Dropped by:
Arch Duke Latol (The Crypt of Agony)



Blistered Strand Gloves
\aITEM -1793751284 -1216219485:Blistered Strand Gloves\/a

Dropped by:
Harbringer Freglor (The Crypt of Agony)
Xa'rgo the Cursed (Sebilis)



Blistered Strand Pantaloons
\aITEM 501813425 -1650518657:Blistered Strand Pantaloons\/a

Dropped by:
Fallen Emperor Vekin (The Crypt of Agony)
Impaler Tzilug (Charasis: Maiden's Chamber)
Mucus of the Deep One (Chelsith)



Blistered Strand Robe
\aITEM -1823227284 -34735578:Blistered Strand Robe\/

Dropped by:
Drusella Sathir (Charasis: Maiden's Chamber)
Majora Leviathora (Chelsith)
Praetor of the Phylactery (Charasis: Vault of Eternal Sleep)

The Squeaky Wheel...

Well, it appears the people whining about Kunark Dungeon XP got their wish. A dev posted in the official SOE forums XP was being increased in Kunark Heroic zones across the board. You can read about that right here. This is a good thing!

Now maybe they will do something about the Burynai faction in the Fens. I really don't have the time to kill 1600 mobs or repeat the same quest 40 times in order to get the 30k faction needed to complete a quest. That's crazy!!

My Thoughts on RoK

So far I am really liking all the new content. Personally, I love questing, so this new expansion is right up my alley. I'm having a lot of fun exploring the new areas which are quite challenging to solo since everything hits so hard.

My first complaint is with spell upgrades. The spells I have seen worth upgrading so far have only been a marginal upgrade. Were talking 1-2% better than my previous spells. Perhaps Sony thought we had it too easy in the last expansions? I'm still trying to figure out why they aren't giving us much here.... I have doubts on how well this strategy will work out in the high end raiding content.

The second complaint I have is with heroic content. There are already too many people complaining about this and for good reasons. I'm not going to get into it here. Come on Sony, people that group and want to grind that way should be able to this!

I have my Wizard AA tree maxed out now. Here is the build I decided to go with.


It is unbelievable how much difference 5 points in Fusion makes! No longer do I get beat upon when trying to cast this spell... I now close in to a safe distance and nuke away! I am pretty happy with this build so far. If any of you have opinions on how this will work out in the raiding content I would love to hear it.

I'm still deciding what to do about the Sorcerer AA tree. I really, really want to tack on STR to my AGI/WIS build! But I suffer in raids from aggro so much I am thinking of going INT. This is a really hard choice... The guild I am in doesn't have a consistent raiding Illusionist and Troubadour. Will the INT line solve my aggro issues? Or should I just go all out and add STR?

Ready for ROK

It feels like its been forever since the last expansion to EQ2 came out. When ROK comes out in November it will be roughly one year since the last major expansion, EOF, came out. KOS came out 9 months before that. I've been getting really burnt out on EQ2 lately... looking at these dates and time lines its no wonder why. Also, since EOF did not increase the level cap and they introduced more AA's... it was more of a grind than usual.

In my previous entry I talked about The Orange Box and, specifically, Portal. Wow what a great distraction! Valve really outdid themselves with this bundle. I love the feeling of new challenges and things to explore...

I pre-ordered ROK today from EBGames. I also scheduled three days of vacation to have fun with ROK. I can't wait!

Legends Of Norrath Tournament

Well, I got the opportunity to participate in my first LON tournament today. All in all, it was a lot fun. I got a fair share of wins and a number of losses too.

The deck I played was a slight variation of Liefweir's mage/dark attack deck. It really is a lot of fun to play, and can catch people off guard... at least in the first few rounds. It putters out pretty quickly when the opponent gets some opposition in the way of creatures on the board. Also I noticed if you don't draw your share of creatures, your toast.

I don't really play a lot of LON so I didn't go into the tournament expecting a whole lot. Really, I was hoping mostly to see what else is out there and to learn some new strategies.

The Tournament

Round 1: Ironmage

Poor guy... It appears he had two bad draws in a row. I had a really good draw. Knocked half his health away round one. After that, he just had quests to play. It was an easy win.

Round 2: Dannynine

This fellow was playing a mage/creature deck too. He started to get the creature advantage mid game. I pulled an Assault to bypass his creatures for the win.

Round 3: Nikanson

I think this person was playing the Fiery Avenger fighter deck. He played a quest to search his library for the Katana of Pain... which seems to me to be in line with this deck build. His deck either stalled or ran into power issues. I forced him to keep playing his Elven Priest each round by killing it as soon as it appeared. It was just a matter of time before he lost due to his other flank having no defense.

BTW, there were a lot of people complaining about this deck in the Tournament chat. I haven't really played against this deck... is it that bad?

Round 4: Dunhere

My first loss! This fellow was playing a dark Priest unit attack deck. He was running Sidestep, Wandering Spirit, Gnoll Runner, Courage, Enduring Breath, Orc Swordmaster, and Chipped Bone Skeleton. The Wandering Spirit seems to be a really nice card. I think I will re-evaluate my build and see about adding these. Anyway, I had no creatures and he overwhelmed me. He also had a sidestep handy every time I went to attack him, which didn't help my cause.

Round 5: Banecrow

They were playing a Fighter fast attack deck. They used the card draw avatar. This game was back and forth him clearing out my side, then me clearing out his. In the end I think my extra power won out... I was able to produce more creatures than him. I imagine there is a trick to his deck (hence him needing card draw) but I never saw it.

Round 6: Ibbin

My first match against a priest quest deck! I have built and played one of these myself, so I know they can be quite powerful. The strategy of this deck is shutdown the opponent by not allowing them attack, and preventing damage. I think the key to beating this deck is a lot of damage early on. So, I beat a large portion of his health down the first few rounds, before he started playing Tranquility and Divine Aura. At this point, I just attacked when I could, to get a precious few more hit points down. When there were only three left, Sunstrike, for the win!

Round 7: Tenladarr

This fellow played an interesting scout deck that had a few tricks. First off, they were playing a quest called Job of the White Rose. I played a unit here to perform a raid and was quite shocked when he exerted it! This was the first time I have seen this quest in action. The next trick was the ability Deftdance. I merrily attacked his avatar without realizing he had a two defense bonus without doing anything! Man... another unit down the drain.

I think he may of had some bad draws because he really only played quests in the first few rounds. I was able to knock him down, and played Shock of Fire to get his last health.

Round 8: Louie

Loss number two. They were playing a priest unit attack deck with the power per quest avatar. He got two quests down to my none, and simply got more creatures out than I could handle. He was playing Orc Fanatic, Terror Wraith, Chipped Bone Skeleton, Fallen Orc, and Enduring Breath. The Terror Wraith can be brutal when matched with damage dealing units (such as Chipped Bone Skeleton in this case), there is no counter attack... even if you have units surviving the attack.

Looking back, this appears to be the second time I have encountered this deck. My first being in round 4. Both of my encounters were losses. I think I need to refine my deck against unit attack decks.

Round 9: Window

Loss number three. This person was playing a mage attack deck but was more focused on items to help avatar attack; for example she was running Brittle Bone Wand. It was a very close game... I had her down to one health before she finished me off with an Igneous Adept and a five damage on my avatar. If I had gone first I may have won, but I suppose it doesn't matter too much now.

I really think the person who goes first has the advantage in these fast unit attack decks. They get the damage out first and they get the power sooner. The person going second gets two extra cards... but I'm not sure the trade off is equal. I suppose if you play hidden cards you could feasibly get an extra card out if you are second... I will have to think on that.

Round 10: Silver

Another priest attack deck! Another loss! All I got were a bunch of Pierce's and Hamstring's... it was a very sad state of affairs. Also, I didn't see a single ability until my last draw; and it was way to late by then, my opponent already had too much out. Oh well... what can you do...

The Winners

1st: Wiznut
2nd: Arge
3rd: Icut
4th: Mindori
5th: Louie (who I played in Round 8)

Summary

The avatar that gives you one power per quest is over powered. There were two classes of players I saw: those that used it (the winners) and those that did not (the losers). I experienced first hand in all my losing games the power of that avatar... extra power means you win. I was playing this avatar too, but my abilities didn't show up in a number of games I was playing. There is simply no reason not to be playing this avatar right now.

Priest unit attack decks appear to be on the rise. It seems priest's are no longer relegated to questing... I encountered three of them this evening. Whether they are good or not, it does not matter, you had better be prepared for them.

Bait and Switch

I have played a Wizard in Everquest 2 since the day of release. The amount of damage this class could produce was awe inspiring. There are a great many trade offs for this; the biggest being lack of armor and health. One or two hits and its game over. "But look at those numbers flying up!" I thought... the trade off was worth it! And it has been worth it for a great some time...

But, something is different now. The Wizard class seems to have lost its way in the world of Norrath. We are no longer the T1 damage we once were. There seems to be two major problems so far as I can see:

1) Those big numbers are no longer a feature, they are a curse.

I am having huge aggro issues! Why does Sony give us these abilities to do so much damage if we can't use them? Fusion is an aggro magnet! Chain casting my AE abilities results in a quick and untimely death also (though Warlocks have it x2 times worse in this regard). WTH?!?

5000 does not equal 5 x 1000

Take two classes. One class deals 5000 damage at the end of a 5 second spell. The other class deals 1000 damage every second for 5 seconds. The class that dealt the 5000 damage will get aggro.

Basically I need to throttle my casting (or cast lesser spells) in order to keep aggro away from me. Why should a Wizard need to do this? No other class does this, they just go full bore!

There is a serious aggro ratio problem here. Sony is punishing the class that posts the big numbers, the defining characteristic of the Wizard.

2) The have and have-not's.

There seem to be two Wizard camps when you read the forums and what not. I call them the have's and the have-not's.

The have's

These are the people who keep saying Wizards are still currently top DPS. They don't see an issue with our class, everything seems fine. They point to their most recent raid parse where they are number 1 or number 2 and they tell you to fix your cast order or get better gear.

I am happy for these people. They are in top notch raiding guilds, they have great gear that proc's a lot, and they are supported by Troubadours and Illusionists. And honestly they have no reason to complain, they do crank out the DPS. And heaps more than the non-T1 DPS classes.

The have-not's

And then there is the rest of the Wizard community, the majority. They strive to crank out the DPS but fail. They have good gear and are knowledgeable about casting order, but are plagued by serious aggro issues and are consistently beat in the parse by non-T1 DPS classes.

If you take the Wizard who says there are no DPS issues, strip away their support classes and proc gear, they are not looking so great anymore. The throttling and aggro issues have stripped the have-not Wizard of their primary role, damage. Furthermore, they don't have anything in return for their role loss. They still wear cloth and get one or two shotted. They also lack in utility.

This is the group Sony needs to address. Wizards shouldn't have to rely on support classes and proc gear in order to function as T1 DPS. Currently this seems to be a requirement, even in non-raid circumstances.