Taming and Death Magic?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Vallin Tregres, Oct 22, 2018.

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  1. Vallin Tregres

    Vallin Tregres Avatar

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    I've been out of the game a while now. Mainly just logging in for the occasional oracle reward. So, I've not kept up with all the latest changes and such. I did hear some things about the Taming overhaul and how pet skills (ones on the pet, not the player) will become a factor, which I'm looking forward to. For anyone who knows more about the changes will the Pet Focus debuff still be a thing? Are pets planned to be viable tanks or should I expect to be the main target of anything on screen? I'm assuming the later, so was planning on going Death/Tank, but does the Life Tap and Life Drain combo of spells work well with the Pet Focus debuff?

    Back in UO it was understandable that anyone who put all the skills into owning a combat pet weren't really in the fight at all. They would hang back and watch their pets health because they didn't have room for much in terms of combat skills. The current system in SoTA doesn't seem to be like this, as the pets just don't make great tanks, but players are certainly more capable now than they were back in UO in terms of dealing damage themselves. Reason I pushed for combat mounts for tamers in this game (Nightmare, Kirin, Unicorn, Reptalon, ect.) was that it seemed like a middle ground for the old UO system and the new SoTA system in that the mount and tamer are considered 1 entity (health combined) with the mount doing the majority of the offense and the player adding various skills and abilities to augment the mount.

    Even if such as system were to become a thing I feel the Death/Tank combo would work pretty well, but would prefer someones opinion who have played around with this.
     
  2. Vallin Tregres

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    On a side note, what's the fizzle chance like at later levels if wearing heavy armor? While I'm planning on comboing Taming later the skills look good for a Death Knight setup. If my focus is to stand still and use ranged spells for those not within melee would I need to use a wand to help with the fizzle chance? Heavy armor looks more to taking damage rather than avoiding it like Light Armor, which ultimately looks like a better combo with Death Magic.
     
  3. Pawz

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    Yes the pet focus debuff is still a thing, at the highest levels the bear can tank if you just stand back and watch. In R59 pet agro has been increased a bit and it helps but if you're doing damage you will get agro.
    A death mage in chain armor can tank quite well and the pet will do extra dps, it's a pretty good combo.

    Fizzle chance with two wands or a staff is 0 or close to it in a good chain set once your skills are around 100.
     
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  4. Vallin Tregres

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    What about if using a shield? Thinking in terms of group content Valiant Warden (Heavy armor AoE damage siphon) coupled with Dig In/Testudo (Shield AoE damage buffers) and Death Magics ability to power up based on how much damage the castor has seems like a solid combo. Being a Tamer wouldn't mean I'd have to have the pet out, but if playing solo I might appreciate actually having a pet to make use of this skill combo with. That said, this combo idea is specifically for Taming being the forefront skill, so I'm not bothering with things like summons... Unless when we get mounted combat that things like Nightmare are turned into a Death Magic summon.

    In the end it's more about appearance and the reason I haven't picked up Heavy Armor yet is because I haven't found a good robe/kilt for the leggings or chest. :p
     
  5. Barugon

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    FYI, the "bear" he's talking about is the Obsidian Destroyer. It has more than 30K health (not once it's tamed though) and requires over 140 taming skill to even think about taming it.
     
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  6. Anpu

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    The Taming overhaul will be happening in Chapter 2, just FYI. As mentioned in various livestreams.
     
  7. Vallin Tregres

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    Trying to plan ahead for when Taming is fun. Based on what my guilds told me my concept would make for a garbage tank and DPS mainly because generic specs seem to be the most effective. Though it seems viable for solo and general pet management I'd like to focus more on group content. In this regard, based on what skills I'd have available, I'd think I'd make a decent off-tank. More of a damage sponge to help mitigate damage t the group and main tank. I really don't wanna be some lame sword and shield plate tank to be viable in an end-game group setting, otherwise I could be playing virtually any other game.
     
  8. Anpu

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    Sword is boring. Spears are the new hotness! ;)
     
  9. Vallin Tregres

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    Looking at the skills I'm at a crossroads. With polearms I'd get bonus defense, but looks like I'd have more offensive options. With shields I'd have more defense and be able to spread defense to my pet, but I'd be more reliant on spell damage with a wand to mitigate the shield fizzle chance. So much of this info is bound to change as I level the skills and learn the different enchantments and such, but all that is hidden from me outta the box. I could be taking a skill that is pointless to my long term goals for all I know and trying to mitigate what isn't a problem later.

    I'm reminded of this...

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Pawz

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    You can always level up some skills and then unlearn them with a scroll of unlearning, then reallocate the points into another skill tree later. You're never locked in to a skill set in this game.
     
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  11. Vero

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    In most groups there is 1 active tank who would like to stay the active tank ;)

    just an example; a group is fighting an aether dragon (or make it an ancient dragon since aethers will be gone soon :p) and there is 1 main tank being kept alive by a healer.
    Now others jump in dps'ing and taunting their ass off to 'act as a sponge and mitigate dmg from tank'. Now the healer jumps back and forth between 2 'tanks' and trying to keep 2 alive

    Hope no 3d sponge jumps on trying to grab aggro aswel.

    I dont' mean this in a bitchy or mean way, don't get me wrong! But if you would like to act as an active tank, try to BE the tank if that makes sence ;)

    That being said. i would love to see a strong deathknight with pet acting as a tank!
     
  12. Black FjP

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    Death magic specialization has the hidden benefit of reducing fizzle for death spells.
     
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  13. Lazlo

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    I don't really ever use a pet, but it seems like the new beefy pets would be useful in situations where you're fighting multiple mobs and using single target damage, or at least aren't damaging everything that you're fighting at once. Then you get some passive crowd control when you're fighting mob A and B and your pet is tanking mob C. I have no idea how useful that would actually be in practice though. A lot of things sound like a good idea until you try it.
     
  14. Daxxe Diggler

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    @Vallin Tregres - I think your death tamer could be a viable option... but you will have to commit to it.

    With death shield and all your life taps, you can keep yourself healed IF you have high death attunement, good weapons with necro sockets and death ray bonuses, and most importantly a GMed Death specialization. Death spec lowers fizzle chance on death spells so helps you cast in heavy armor. Plus, it gives your touch and rays a chance to add a death resist debuff to the target (helping get better taps and corpse explosions when debuffed). So while you are specced and committed to death, healers will hate you but you can be a good tank.

    GMing the whole tree is preferred, but at minimum you need 100 - 120 in all your life taps, death shield, and death spec.

    Oh, and if you GM Tap Soul, you can lock it on your bar and spam it during a fight to regen focus. At GM and death spec, the HP loss is easily recouped with your taps.

    For taming, if you specialize in it, it can double your pets HP's and with an Obsidian Destroyer you can get him over 2k HP's. Hes a pretty mean beast even without taming spec.
     
  15. Vallin Tregres

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    I suppose in the end it ultimately falls down to how I want to play through the main storyline. What solo spec am I looking for and how might I incorporate that into group activity. I suppose, in this game, going a Shield/Death/Heavy spec would compliment my Taming in that it beefs up my pets and my own defenses and allows me to take a more active role in fights rather than trying to run around as my pet takes on 1 at a time. I'd started the game as an Archer and found it to be a pretty easy skill to pick up overall, but with the focus debuff it seemed as if using any pet would hinder my own damage. I was also rather squishy and on occasion had to rely on my pet taking on heavy hitters, dying as I tried to remain distant, resurrecting and repeating. I used this tactic once in a tsudo-boss battle and it was rather unpleasant. Made the fight feel extremely gimmicky... Though it probably looked more epic than I gave it credit for because I was too focused on panicking.

    :mad: -----> :eek:

    Am I ever gonna be one of those 80 GMs who can flip the switch and deal with any situation? I doubt it. That's honestly not something I care about. Was never a raider in WoW unless the raid in question offered something useful in RP. The Gamer side of me wants to be a tamer who uses their pets to their fullest potential while the RPer in me wants to see the story, grab anything shiny not nailed down to put in my house and learn more lore to incorporate into RP events. On a side note I'd come up with an RP scenario I planned to use in WoW should I ever return that would be perfect here. Something of a sinister Team Building exercise that allows participants to tell something about their character they normally can't put well into words while also facing these inner demons in a Win or Lose standoff. A bit of my own personal twist to it, but ultimately the participants who are telling the story.
     
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