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Some thoughts after seeing the healer reveals

    • 612 posts
    July 11, 2018 8:36 PM PDT

    Please note, this is not me fishing for VR to give more information... these are just things that came to my mind as I was reading about all these reveals.

    Just pondering that many of the abilities say something like: will also effect another group member. Will these be restricted to the people in the immediate party of the player or will it work across a raid if you are in one. Just wondering if we will need to strategize which parties each player will need to be in to make sure these kinds of effects Bounce to the right targets. Also many of these descriptions don't tell us if these types of things will be a random groupmate, or based on proximity to the target or caster, or based on lowest health or whatever.

    Cleric stuff:

    Reithal's Luminous Shield: A supernatural healing ability that heals your ally for an amount equal to your Max Health.

    So one of my friends who played a Paladin in EQ1 was asking me, back when I was telling him about the Paladin reveal, if they got Lay on Hands in Pantheon. Looks like it's Clerics who get this ability this time.

    Vigilance: You mark a target group member for X duration. While marked, Y% of the damage taken by each member of your group will be converted into healing for the marked target.

    I totally forsee this being needed as a raid tactic to keep the main tank alive. You pop this and your group all stands in an AoE damage effect (like fire) so you can push extra healing on the main tank. And assuming this stacks from mulitple clerics, you'll probably need to have a cleric in each group so that the Tank can get this extra healing from all the groups in the raid.

    Edict of Stillness: You pacify your enemy’s will for a short time, making them unresponsive to activity happening around them unless directly engaged.

    Man I wish Monks got this ability for pulling... I'm curious if this will cause agro if it's resisted, and if not cleric's might be conscripted onto the pull team :-) I am also assuming this can't be used on targets already engaged (aka Crowd Control Mez) or this would mean Clerics might be on the Crowd control team too :-)

    Tome of the Inititate: You manifest a Celestial Tome to carry. As you start your journey, you will only be able to wield the power of the basic Tomes provided to Initiates of the Cleric Order. As you grow in level, your ability to manifest and wield more powerful Tomes will grow as well.

    I am hoping that this item will persist through logout after you summon it. It might become a pita if you are forced to resummon your offhand item every time you log in.

    Resurrect: Out of Combat Restores exp. vs Plea of the Devout: In Combat res with no mention of exp restore.

    I'm hoping that if Plea of the Devout is used then the corpse will persist even if the player loots all their items (assuming Plea of the Devout doesn't bring them back with all their gear already on) so that they can be Resurrected again after the fight is over to give them back exp.

    Druid stuff:

    Harness Trait: Passive Ability. As a living conduit of the natural world, you are able to harness the Traits of natural things through tactile contact. Once harnessed, you may imbue these Traits into yourself and others. As you grow in power, you will be able to harness more powerful Traits from a wider variety of things. Only one Trait may be active on your target at a time.

    So the way this is described it suggests that you will need a physcial item in order to use your different Imbue Trait abilities. Or perhaps you need them once at the beginning when you learn the Imbue speel in order to get access to that imbue and then you never need the item again.

    Reverberation: Passive Ability. When an ally is under the effects of any of your healing abilities and they are healed by another player in the group, that healing effect will jump to another group member as well.

    Synergizing 101 :-) Suggests druids will not need to be designated as a 'raid healer' rather than main tank healer, since their heals on the main tank will synergize healing onto the rest of the group/raid.

    Imbue Trait: Black Wolf's Swiftness: You harness the speed and agility of the Black Wolf, allowing you to imbue these traits into your ally. This ability increases the Movement Speed of your target.

    Three points...

    First, of course they had to make it a different name than EQ Spirit of Wolf, but now the abreviation is different too. I wonder how many people are going to still ask people for SoW all the time instead of BWS.

    Second, It says harness speed and agility in the first line but then only says this increases movement speed with no mention of any agility bonus. It would be cool if this also boosts agility on target too.

    Third, we know that you can only have one imbued trait at a time which means you can't have the movement speed buff and an AC buff from the druid at the same time. This might be a pita as you move through a dungeon since you might need to keep switching which imbue you give people back and forth between movement and other buffs depending on when you are fighting and moving. Also, will these abilities overwrite each other each time or will a player need to click off their current Imbue buff in order to get a different one.

    Call Lightning: You call a bolt of lightning to strike your enemy, inflicting Shock damage. If Call Lightning is used during a storm, strikes will inflict X% more damage and there is a chance for up to two additional strikes based on your Wisdom and your current level. Additionally, if the target is Wet each strike will be a guaranteed Critical Hit.

    If target is Wet... I'm guessing this will be caused by environment things like standing in a river or being under water. But can the druid make a target Wet with abilities? None are listed as such...

    Wandering Stones: Explorers have noted the presence of ancient, iridescent stones that stand within shrines hidden amid the groves and wilds of Terminus. These stones have come to be known as “Wandering Stones” and are seething with Druidic magic. Because of this, it is rumored that Druids are somehow able to attune to these Wandering Stones and travel between them. And perhaps there is even more to these stones than most realize...

    So we see the first mention of how fast travel will work, but it's not clear if the druid needs to be at the stone in order to port to another one, or could the druid port to one of these stones from anywhere. Also no mention of taking your group with you when you travel, although I'm guessing this will just be something we will need to find as we explore and that's why they don't explain it here.

    Verdanfire Tree: You create a Verdanfire Tree at target location. All allies within a certain distance from the tree will receive healing over time. The amount of healing will increase dramatically the closer you are to the center of the tree. If Hirode’s Focus is active when you use this ability, the healing radius of the Verdanfire Tree will be increased for its duration.

    One of Hirode's abilities mentions bringing your target to the center of the Tree. This suggests to me that the tree will be ethereal and thus not block people from moving through it and not block vision either. Also the description mentions both distance from the tree and closer to the center of the tree so it's not clear if the tree with be a small visual at the center of the effect, or a really large visual that covers the entire area of the effect.

    Hirode's Chrysalis: You ask Hirode to plant a mystical seed within your ally. When this ally takes damage that would kill them, this seed prevents their death and blooms into a protective chrysalis. While inside the chrysalis, target cannot be damaged and will emerge with X% of their Max Health and Mana restored.

    So this looks awesome, but I wonder though if the Chrysalis will cause the Enemy to stop attacking the target and reset their threat (as if the target died) or will it keep attacking this target who is temporarily immune to damage. If the later, could this be used as a raid tactic for when the boss is about to use a huge damage attack on the main tank, you stop healing premtively to cause this seed to trigger the chrysalis just in time for the huge damage attack to be absorbed. If it does drop threat even temporarily while the chrysalis is active, I hope there is a really quick way for the tank to cancel the chrysalis effect so he can regain agro and keep tanking.

    Hirode's Synergy effects: Various 'If Hirode's Gaze is active on..." causing extra or boosted effects of spells.

    So I'm curious about if Hirode's abilities will be treated as his own spells as a pet or are they the druids spells that just have a visual effect with the Fox. If the fox is treated as a pet with his own spells, will casting his spells effect any possible 'Global Cooldown' on the druid that is triggered when you use abilities. Meaning will casting Hirode's abilities trigger a global cooldown on your own abilities, or will you be able to trigger one of his and then instantly trigger one of your own. Also, Hirode's abilities may have a casting time instead of instant which means if you want to move his 'Gaze' to the enemy and then trigger Verdanfire Spear in order to 'Silence' you will need to wait until Hirode's gaze spell finishes before you cast the spear.

    The reason these things are important is because people will be able to use external hotkey/macro tools that can make 1 keypress activate 2 different keypresses with a preset delay. So you could setup a button that will trigger Hirode's Gaze hotkey and then Verdanfire Spear hotkey 0.2 seconds later.

    Rockvine Tangle: You cause powerful, thorn-covered vines to erupt from the ground and entangle your enemy, rooting them for X seconds and dealing moderate damage over time. This effect cannot be broken by damage. If Hirode’s Gaze is active on your enemy, this ability will crack your enemy’s defenses, reducing their Armor Class by X%. 

    Interestingly this is the only 'Root' type effect that specifically says "cannot be broken by damage". This suggests that other Root effects from all other spells (unless they say this as well) WILL be broken by a target taking damage. Now it's not clear if roots will be cleared if ANY damage is done, or if it's a specific amount of damage that breaks it... or if perhaps it's only a x% chance to break root each time damage is applied... We will need to wait and see.

    It does hint though that most Root effects are meant to be used as primarily crowd control and simply breaks when you do damage. This means that you can't use roots as a chase tool to prevent flee'ing enemies getting away while you finish them off.

    Shaman stuff:

    Primordial Bonds: Passive Ability. Your healing abilities will also heal you for X% of the effective healing on others.

    Very cool, basically all heals are self heals :-)

    Agewalker's Companion: Every Shaman begins their journey with a Spirit Companion, usually in the form of a Spirit Wolf Cub or a Spirit Bear Cub. In this form, the Spirit Companion will stay by your side, but will not interact with your enemies or the environment in any way. At level 10, the Shaman will lead their Spirit Companion through a Rite of Passage, turning the cub into its adult form. In this state, your Spirit Companion begin aiding you in battle at your command. It will also grow in strength as you do, gaining access to a host of unique abilities along the way.

    As with the druid Fox, this seems to be an 'always on' type of pet, meaning they are more like a familiar. This also means that it won't take damage and can't die unless you do and thus can't be used to tank targets for you.

    Agewalker's Gift: Passive Ability. Upon death, you will enter an ethereal state for X duration before returning to your bind location. While in this state, you are undetectable to your enemies. Also, you may interact with your physical corpse by dragging it to a different location within X meters of where you died. When this effect ends, your Defensive target will regain x% of their Max Health and Mana. You cannot drag the corpses of other players while in this state. You may use Part the Veil while in this state.

    So a couple of thoughts here... you can only move your corpse a set distance from where you died, which means you may or may not be able to get it to a safe spot. Also, it will be interesting to note if you can end the effect early (in order to trigger the heal on your defensive target) or if you have to wait out the duration. Also will you be able to be res'd while the effect is active, or do you need to cancel it (or duration end) before your corpse can be resurrected. Also, will you be able to swap your defensive target while in this effect so as to choose who gets the heal+mana after you are dead, or will it keep the target you had when you died.

    Could this also be used as a tactical death mechanic... Let's say your healers are all getting very low on mana trying to keep the tank alive. Suddenly the Shaman goes all Leroy Jenkins and jumps off a high place to kill himself to trigger a mana recharge on one of the other healers and since the shaman can then combat res himself (assuming Part the Veil works on your own corpse) back with 100% mana he gets back into the healing as well. This could mean the difference between win or lose.

    Part the Veil: You guide the spirit of a fallen ally back to their physical body, restoring them to life. Causes Resurrection Sickness. Cannot use this ability while in combat.Using this ability while Agewalker’s Gift is active will restore the fallen ally to life with full Health and Mana and is usable in combat. When used in this way, this ability will not cause Resurrection Sickness.

    Does not mention restoring Experience.

    It doesn't say if this can be cast on yourself or not. It says 'Fallen ally' but does this include yourself... are you your own ally?

    Interesting to note here that this means Shaman's can only combat res if they themselves are dead. Will Shaman's have a self suicide type ability to self trigger Agewalker's Gift or will they need to find a way to die like standing in an AoE or jumping off a high place.

    Also, will you have enough time to cast this more than once while you are under the effect of Agewalker's gift. Thus letting you battle res a few people and then yourself.

    Also, could you drag your corpse out of the room (assuming the X distance from Agewalker's gift is far enough) and then combat res yourself out of combat or will you automatically go back into combat with the mobs you were in combat with when you died. If you can get out of combat this way, you could then have another player drag corpses out to you for resurrections before you all go back in to fight.

    Boon buffs: Primal Fury (Ancestral), Grip of the Crags (Ancestral), Reptilian Veil (Animus), Mark of the Fireclaw (Fire), Skymane's Momento (Wind), Interlocking Stones (Earth).

    There is no mention if these Boons are one per target like the Druid Imbue's are. Especially important since some of your heal spells are also listed as Boons.

    Gate of the Forgotten Eras: Ancestral Boon. You open an ancestral gateway around a member of your group. While this gateway is active, the group member is unable to move and all damage against them will be delayed for X seconds. When the gateway closes, the total damage will be dispersed evenly among your group. Only usable on yourself or a member of your group.

    Will this effect synergize with effects that lower incoming damage. For example the Cleric spell Reckon's Shield: Surrounds your target with protective light, reducing all incoming damage by X% for Y duration. Say the Shaman triggers this Gate on a tank who has Reckon's Shield active. Will this be taken into effect to lower the Split damage, or will the Cleric need to pop Reckon's Shield on all the party members in order to lower the damage taken by all the party members. If the former, will Reckon's Shield on all party members basically double the reduction since it's reduced before the split for the Shield on the tank and then reduced after the split when it's hitting the party members.

    Hurry the Past: All healing over time abilities on you and your group members will instantly finish their durations, directly healing their target for the remaining amount. These abilities are then refreshed on their target as if they were just applied.

    This seems insanely powerful. I'm guessing it will have either have long cast time or will have a long cooldown, since on a raid the Tank may have enough Heal over Time's to total more than his max health. This would make Hurry the Past be a complete heal that then refreshes all those heal over times. If this could be rapidly cast over and over it's basically like the old EQ1 complete heal chains. Would also mean that for all healers their Heal over Times could be set it and forget it as the Shaman just keeps them all active.

    Shackle of the Dust Eater: Ancestral Bane. Inflicts your enemy with the nature of the ancient Dust Eaters, decreasing their Strength and Stamina by X and slows their combat resource generation by Y% for Z duration.

    Slow's their "combat" resource generation... interesting way to put it. This suggests to us that debuffs like this can persist after the group dies. So the shaman could put this debuff on a target, then if his group dies and the target resets it will gain 'out of combat resource regen' and then when is re-engaged by somebody else it could possibly still have this debuff and be 'in combat' again and be slowed on resource regen again.

    I am guessing it's also designed in this way so that a Shaman can't keep a boss from regenerating mana in between attempts. Otherwise the Shaman could constantly run in and refresh the debuff and then die while the raid is setting up for their next attempt to keep the Bosses mana low for that second attempt.

    Headwinds: Wind Bane. Bombard your enemy with cross-cutting winds, distracting them and reducing their Aggro and Assist Radius by X meters for Y duration.

    Same question as with the Cleric pacify. Will it agro the target if it's resisted.

    Deluge: Water Bane. A Bane that drenches all enemies in the target area with viscous moisture, slowing their movement speed and disrupting their health regeneration for X duration. Causes affected targets to become Wet.

    Aha! this answers our question way back in the druid section from Call Lightning. This creates synergy between druid and shamans. It also suggests that if a shaman has an ability that triggers a 'Wet' effect, then the druid will probably have one too. Unless they only want the bonus to call lightning to be available if you synergize with a shaman. If so, this might suggest that there will be other synergies that only give you bonuses when different classes are grouped together.

    Also of note... this is the ONLY spell revealed so far to mention slowing movement speed. Druids and Rangers did not have any spells that slowed movement speed.

    Wreath of Coals: Fire Bane. A Bane of excruciating flame, damaging your enemy over time with Nature damage and making them more vulnerable to Fire-based attacks.

    This also suggests a synergy, but it doesn't make it clear what the vulnerable to fire based attacks will actually do. Does it make fire attacks do X% more damage, or does it make fire-based attacks stun the target... Or is the extra effect totally dependant on which fire-based attack it is used. Meaning we would need to test things to see what extra synergizing effects we could get.

    Scorched Fog: Primal Bane: Fire. Amplifies a Fire Bane on your enemy, creating a dense cloud of black smoke that obscures their vision, slowing their attack speed by X% and making their melee attacks more likely to land as a Glancing Blow for Y duration.

    So far in all the reveals this is the only Attack speed slow mentioned. I'm guessing that Enchanters and maybe bards will also get a debuff that slows attack speed but we will need to wait and see. Of course we will also need to wait and see if these effects stack or if it just uses the larger slow effect.

    Conclusion:

    As I said at the top of this post... I am not expecting VR to jump in and clarify any of these things or answer any questions. I'm sure most of these things they want us to find out as we play and they totally intend us to have these kinds of questions. I'm sure you also have many new thoughts and questions now that we've seen these reveals. Feel free to point out the things that made you start pondering.

    edit: fixed some text sizes that got wonky.


    This post was edited by GoofyWarriorGuy at July 11, 2018 8:40 PM PDT
    • Moderator
    • 9115 posts
    July 11, 2018 9:15 PM PDT

    Moved to Pantheon Classes to keep in line with posting guidelines.

    • 1479 posts
    July 11, 2018 11:53 PM PDT

    Just nitpicking a part before I get to work :

     

    Call Lightning:You call a bolt of lightning to strike your enemy, inflicting Shock damage. If Call Lightning is used during a storm, strikes will inflict X% more damage and there is a chance for up to two additional strikes based on your Wisdom and your current level. Additionally, if the target is Wet each strike will be a guaranteed Critical Hit.

    If target is Wet... I'm guessing this will be caused by environment things like standing in a river or being under water. But can the druid make a target Wet with abilities? None are listed as such...

     

    The wet effect seems the same that is triggered by the Shaman's water bane : Deluge.

    That would suggest some class synergy, at least for thoses two healers.

    • 255 posts
    July 12, 2018 12:35 AM PDT

    With all these heading abilities from the classes and bonus when things are active, sound like it would be a tough job to get yourself killed.

    Makes you wonder how the Dev's die so often in streams :) (apart from jumping from castle towers)

    • 41 posts
    July 12, 2018 1:41 AM PDT

    GoofyWarriorGuy said:

     

    Harness Trait: Passive Ability. As a living conduit of the natural world, you are able to harness the Traits of natural things through tactile contact. Once harnessed, you may imbue these Traits into yourself and others. As you grow in power, you will be able to harness more powerful Traits from a wider variety of things. Only one Trait may be active on your target at a time.

     

    So the way this is described it suggests that you will need a physcial item in order to use your different Imbue Trait abilities. Or perhaps you need them once at the beginning when you learn the Imbue speel in order to get access to that imbue and then you never need the item again.

     

     

    My guess for this is that you have to come into contact with certain things out in the world in order to gain access to the buffs. So once you've pet a wolf or something (heh) you then learn to imbue people with spirit of the wolf.

    Makes it a bit more interesting than just buy it from a vendor; also there might be lots of cool hidden or crazy imbue buffs later into the game.

    As for only one Druid buff at a time; seems fine, Clerics seem to get the best buffs and Shaman the best debuffs - Druids look like they can dps more while still maintaining heals. I'm guessing it would be a bit nutty for them to be able to dish out tons of buffs too. 


    This post was edited by Thallium at July 12, 2018 1:42 AM PDT
    • 612 posts
    July 12, 2018 5:02 AM PDT

    MauvaisOeil said: Just nitpicking a part before I get to work.

    Edited out your quoting of me :-)

    The wet effect seems the same that is triggered by the Shaman's water bane : Deluge.

    That would suggest some class synergy, at least for thoses two healers.

    Yeah, I wrote up that post while I was reading through the classes pages... if you keep reading in my post when I get to the Shaman section I point out when I get to Deluge that this answers how to make something 'Wet'. I also point out the idea that these bonuses might be only available through synergies like this and the druid him/herself may not be able to cause the Wet effect. It's up to VR of course... perhaps there will be a druid ability that makes mob's Wet too, we will need to wait and see.

    Thallium said: As for only one Druid buff at a time; seems fine, Clerics seem to get the best buffs and Shaman the best debuffs - Druids look like they can dps more while still maintaining heals. I'm guessing it would be a bit nutty for them to be able to dish out tons of buffs too.

    Well that's just the thing... Druids do seem to be able to dish out tons of buffs. In fact there are 7 listed Imbue buffs on the druid reveal, whereas the Shaman's only list 6 Boon buffs (+4 healing Boons). So it's not that druids have less buffs, it's just that their buffs are limited to 1 active at a time.

    My worry was that this would cause the druid to need to re-buff people much more often than shaman's do. Shaman buffs up all his party and as long as they don't die, he doesn't need to recast any buffs for a while (until they fade). The druid on the other hand needs to switch out which buffs the group has depending on the situation... Oh we are moving now, here comes the BWS (Black Wolf Swiftness)... oh we are done moving and starting to fight, here comes the Grizzly's Resilence... oh we need to jump across this gorge, let me give you all Vale Hawks grace... Oh we are moving again let me get you BWS again... Oh we are taking some climate damage, let me give everyone Oaken Regen... wait you want BWS again... sheesh...

    In your mind 1 buff per person for druids means less buffing... but I see 1 buff per person at a time as druids are now constantly rebuffing. But that's just a worry... it may not work out that way. We will need to wait and see.


    This post was edited by GoofyWarriorGuy at July 12, 2018 5:27 AM PDT
    • 690 posts
    July 12, 2018 7:30 AM PDT

    Yea I'd like to see a few more wetness synergies. It'd be pretty easy for summoners to get a "summon wetness" spell, but maybe if direlords' offensive blood abilities technically made targets wet? wizards got phat water bombs/water prisons?


    This post was edited by BeaverBiscuit at July 12, 2018 7:31 AM PDT
    • 1479 posts
    July 12, 2018 12:51 PM PDT

    Sorry  @GoofyWarriorguy, I had little time and couldn't get past your whole post at this time.

     

    @Beaverbiscuit

     

    I would enjoy some inter healer synergy in a paper>rock>cissor idea, adding some synergy in the case you are carrying two healers and only one of them is dedicated to most of the heals.

     

    The example would be :

     

    Druid + shaman => The wet effect from the shaman will improve the druid overall damage, making him the main choice for offhealing/offdps.

     

    Shaman + cleric => A spell cast by the cleric would synergise with one or other other of the shaman's curse, or a buff would make him benefit from "Keeper of elemental mysteries" for his damaging abilities, favoring the cleric main healing and the shaman offhealing/offdps

     

    Cleric + Druid => The druid could dictate the ennemy's type to abberation, making them prone to the cleric's effects against undead. That way, the druid will be more prone to main healing and the cleric to DPS.

     

    That's just a sketch of the overall idea, I just jumped on the evident synergy between the druid's damage and the shaman's wet effect, to offer a similar strategy in a triangular way for every healer couple.


    This post was edited by Mauvais_Oeil at July 13, 2018 10:21 AM PDT
    • 151 posts
    July 13, 2018 9:21 AM PDT

    GoofyWarriorGuy said:

     

    Agewalker's Companion: Every Shaman begins their journey with a Spirit Companion, usually in the form of a Spirit Wolf Cub or a Spirit Bear Cub. In this form, the Spirit Companion will stay by your side, but will not interact with your enemies or the environment in any way. At level 10, the Shaman will lead their Spirit Companion through a Rite of Passage, turning the cub into its adult form. In this state, your Spirit Companion will begin aiding you in battle at your command. It will also grow in strength as you do, gaining access to a host of unique abilities along the way.

     

    As with the druid Fox, this seems to be an 'always on' type of pet, meaning they are more like a familiar. This also means that it won't take damage and can't die unless you do and thus can't be used to tank targets for you.

     

     

    The bolded part makes me thing that after the Rite of Passage it stops being a flavor pet and becomes a normal "controlled" pet.

    • 2886 posts
    July 13, 2018 9:48 AM PDT

    Maximis said:

    GoofyWarriorGuy said:

     

    Agewalker's Companion: Every Shaman begins their journey with a Spirit Companion, usually in the form of a Spirit Wolf Cub or a Spirit Bear Cub. In this form, the Spirit Companion will stay by your side, but will not interact with your enemies or the environment in any way. At level 10, the Shaman will lead their Spirit Companion through a Rite of Passage, turning the cub into its adult form. In this state, your Spirit Companion will begin aiding you in battle at your command. It will also grow in strength as you do, gaining access to a host of unique abilities along the way.

     

    As with the druid Fox, this seems to be an 'always on' type of pet, meaning they are more like a familiar. This also means that it won't take damage and can't die unless you do and thus can't be used to tank targets for you.

     

     

    The bolded part makes me thing that after the Rite of Passage it stops being a flavor pet and becomes a normal "controlled" pet.

    I think the key phrase is "at your command," meaning it'll only assist you when you activate one of the "Hirode's Abilities."

    • 151 posts
    July 13, 2018 11:16 AM PDT

    Bazgrim said:

    Maximis said:

    GoofyWarriorGuy said:

     

    Agewalker's Companion: Every Shaman begins their journey with a Spirit Companion, usually in the form of a Spirit Wolf Cub or a Spirit Bear Cub. In this form, the Spirit Companion will stay by your side, but will not interact with your enemies or the environment in any way. At level 10, the Shaman will lead their Spirit Companion through a Rite of Passage, turning the cub into its adult form. In this state, your Spirit Companion will begin aiding you in battle at your command. It will also grow in strength as you do, gaining access to a host of unique abilities along the way.

     

    As with the druid Fox, this seems to be an 'always on' type of pet, meaning they are more like a familiar. This also means that it won't take damage and can't die unless you do and thus can't be used to tank targets for you.

     

     

    The bolded part makes me thing that after the Rite of Passage it stops being a flavor pet and becomes a normal "controlled" pet.

    I think the key phrase is "at your command," meaning it'll only assist you when you activate one of the "Hirode's Abilities."

    that is the Shaman pet.. not the druid's. I agree that the Druid pet will most likely function the way you folks are describing, but I think the Shaman pet will be a "normal" pet after the rite of passage.


    This post was edited by Maximis at July 13, 2018 11:17 AM PDT
    • 612 posts
    July 15, 2018 1:13 AM PDT

    Maximis said: that is the Shaman pet.. not the druid's. I agree that the Druid pet will most likely function the way you folks are describing, but I think the Shaman pet will be a "normal" pet after the rite of passage.

    You may be right and I was simply wrong about my first impression. The Shaman pet may be more of a traditional controlled pet that will get in and bash some heads for you. I think what made me think it wouldn't is the following:

    The spell Agewalkers Companion description doesn't make any mention of this being a spell that summons your pet in any way. It uses the wording: Every Shaman begins their journey with a Spirit Companion. This seemed to me like it was a passive 'Always On' style pet. You don't have to summon it. You just have it all the time as long as you are alive.

    Even after it's Rite of Passage, it doesn't say that now you need to 'summon' your companion. Suggesting that it will still be 'Always On'.

    If your companion is 'Always On' as long as you are alive, it would mean that your pet doesn't ever die on it's own. If you are alive, it's alive. This means that it won't take any damage in any way regardless of what's going on.

    This is also suggested by the lack of any specific pet based heal effects on your normal heals. If your pet took normal damage, there would be a need for it to get heals. If the shaman was forced to spend some of his casting time tossing his own pet a heal every now and then to keep it alive, this would actually be a liability for the shaman class. Druids and Clerics don't need to waste time healing pets and so would be more desirable in groups. To make sure this wouldn't happen, they would add synergy effects to your normal heal spells, so that when you heal an ally it gives x% of heal to your pet as well, thus keeping him up and alive without making the shaman need to waste his casting time on the pet instead of a groupmate. We see NONE of this kind of thing in any of the shamans revealed heal spells. Again suggesting that the shaman pet will take no damage.

    If you DO have the ability to send it to auto-attack an enemy, it would simply be like a persistant Damage over Time effect. Perhaps it could be effected by Crowd Control, such as stun or slow or root, but it wouldn't really take damage and die.

    If I am right about any of this, it would mean that you couldn't use this companion for solo'ing by having the pet tank for you, because it would be immune to damage and that would be very OP.

    So in conclusion, while I do admit that you may be right and the shaman pet could be totally normal like other controlled/micro'd pets from other games, I still have a feeling that it is going to play more like a Familiar style pet that is always active and mearly acts as a seperate ability pool ie. You have your x abilities on your hotbar and the Pet has his array of x number of spells on his hotbar which he will cast for you on your command. If he can auto-attack it is mearly him acting as a persistant DoT that doesn't need to be re-applied.

    All of this is just my guesses based on the limited data we have... we will have to wait and see.

    • 25 posts
    July 15, 2018 2:11 AM PDT

    BeaverBiscuit said:

    Yea I'd like to see a few more wetness synergies. It'd be pretty easy for summoners to get a "summon wetness" spell, but maybe if direlords' offensive blood abilities technically made targets wet? wizards got phat water bombs/water prisons?

    I was thinking more along the lines of the Summoner wanting to use a Water elemental pet with a Druid in the party for added wetness. 

    There is certainly plenty of potential for various skills to do added effects which have minimal impact on their own, but with certain classes becomes very useful.  I remember in Vanguard the Ranger (or maybe Rogue) had an ability which did extra damage when the enemy armor was damaged - and of course some of the other melee classes had an 'armour chink' ability which would provide the debuff necessary for the other class' attack.

    • 64 posts
    July 17, 2018 11:30 AM PDT

    GoofyWarriorGuy said:

    Thallium said: As for only one Druid buff at a time; seems fine, Clerics seem to get the best buffs and Shaman the best debuffs - Druids look like they can dps more while still maintaining heals. I'm guessing it would be a bit nutty for them to be able to dish out tons of buffs too.

    Well that's just the thing... Druids do seem to be able to dish out tons of buffs. In fact there are 7 listed Imbue buffs on the druid reveal, whereas the Shaman's only list 6 Boon buffs (+4 healing Boons). So it's not that druids have less buffs, it's just that their buffs are limited to 1 active at a time.

    My worry was that this would cause the druid to need to re-buff people much more often than shaman's do. Shaman buffs up all his party and as long as they don't die, he doesn't need to recast any buffs for a while (until they fade). The druid on the other hand needs to switch out which buffs the group has depending on the situation... Oh we are moving now, here comes the BWS (Black Wolf Swiftness)... oh we are done moving and starting to fight, here comes the Grizzly's Resilence... oh we need to jump across this gorge, let me give you all Vale Hawks grace... Oh we are moving again let me get you BWS again... Oh we are taking some climate damage, let me give everyone Oaken Regen... wait you want BWS again... sheesh...

    In your mind 1 buff per person for druids means less buffing... but I see 1 buff per person at a time as druids are now constantly rebuffing. But that's just a worry... it may not work out that way. We will need to wait and see.

    One thing to keep in mind is that they are trying to fix the stacking problems with utility/buffing classes that arose in EQ.

    Typically, in the case of a class like Druid or Shaman, a single boxed toon was all an entire raid needed to pop buffs, and then sit quietly in the corner. DPS stacked infinitely, but raids only needed one of each buffing class.

    If they limit the number of buffs each class can maintain, that increases the number of players of each class needed in a raid. That is probably a good thing as it's a bit silly that a single player can completely buff a raid force for an hour or more.

    Harder to maintain buffs means they can be mroe powerful, which also means they will be more desired. That will cause buffing classes to be in demand rather than raids simply stacking DPS.


    This post was edited by nscheffel at July 17, 2018 11:32 AM PDT
    • 612 posts
    July 22, 2018 5:37 PM PDT

    nscheffel said: If they limit the number of buffs each class can maintain, that increases the number of players of each class needed in a raid. That is probably a good thing as it's a bit silly that a single player can completely buff a raid force for an hour or more.

    This would be valid only if ALL classes had this limitation. But since Shaman and Clerics can buff people with ALL their buffs and it's only the druid that is limited in this way then your point isn't the reason why they do this. By your logic, you could have 1 shaman and 1 cleric and then need to stack 7 druids in order to get all the buffs.