[EQ2] DPS? Sustainability?

I guess this question is just a regular gameplay question, but I thought I'd ask here, as people on these boards are more forgiving then eq2flames....

Last night I ran DFC with my SK (47), Warlock (43) and Defiler (46). I attempted the Arena Champion twice and failed, but not for my usual reasons...

Both times I got him to about 15%, with him running my DPS OOM, then he slowly plinks away at my tank, while AEing with his knockback. My healer then ran OOM (from group heals mostly, SK managed to keep himself up).

Some Background Info:
SK Spec - INT 4, 4, 8 STR 4, 8, 8, 2, 1 The rest down Reaving line. 57 AA total.

Lock Spec - STR 4, 4, 4, 8 Warlock Tree - Single Target Line down to and including Focused Casting, and a bunch on Propogation. 57 AA total.

Defiler Spec - STR 4, 4, 8, 8, 2 WIZ 4, 6, 4, 8, 2 The Line starting with Bane of Warding (I had no idea where else to go in Defiler Tree). 57 AA total.

SK macro includes all single target abilities, basically.
Warlock and Defiler use a Debuff Macro at the start of the battle, includes Vacuum Field (lock), Atrophy (Def) and Bane of Warding (Def).
Warlock and Defiler DPS macros include all single target DPS spells, except Disolve (as it is crap).
Defiler uses heal macros, which interrupt his current spell.

While the other toons are DPSing, if the defiler is not healing, he is DPSing. Waste of Power?
The Warlock does not use any Power Taps on himself, nor Twitches. Should I put this into his rotation?

I'm not taking any additional damage from the spiked walls. I've positioned my toons near the exit doorway so they do not move at all during knockback AE.

A theory/question I have is, at this point in the game, should I stop DPSing with the Defiler and save his Power for healing? If I did this, I could weave Power Tap and Twitch into the Warlock's DPS macro (long cast times tho). Is that going to make a difference or do I just need better gear?

If its a gear/skill level issue, and future dungeon bosses/named are going to be like this, then I think I should spend a few days gearing my toons up. (I never have, they just get whatever drops come to them).

Thanks in advance,

Simple answer:
- Autoattack

IMHO the early levels of EQ2 trains a user to just go for the burn which works for most mobs except a few. As the levels progress, it can be noticed a team has to be more mana conscious, especially if the intention is to go raiding where mana conservation can become quite critical.

Just from your explanation, it appears you may have just gone for the pure burn on the champion - which is ok if your in a FG of 6...but with 3...not so good (most times).

The best way to conserve mana, whilst maximising dps, is to ensure you never miss an autoattack. Simply, look at the rating of your weapon - let's pick a 4s delay slasher. This tells us every 4s it will automatically slash for whatever the sword can do (say 100-200?? at your current level). Therefore, all you need to do to maxismise your dps is ensure your spells/cas fire within the 4s autoattack swings, wait for the autoattack, then fire off some more spells. This pause saves you a bit of mana plus gives you a bit of dps according to your weapon. This is why there always is a chase to find the latest and greatest sword of +10 papercut purely because of the additional dps output via autoattacking. Never underestimate the value of a slow heavy hitting weapon as the additional dps via autoattack can be HUGE.

What do you need to ensure you never miss an autoattack?
- ACT
- Single/Double Attack detection/notification

ACT is simply unreal - used it for years now and never had any major problems with it. Simply parses your combat logs and reports out all sorts of details. Invaluable for raiding.

So here's what I would like you to try:
- you have all your guys in the corner near the door - good work - that's exactly where you want them to be - stand them all on top of each other and face into the ring
- start the event then follow the simple tried and true method and ensuring you never miss an autoattack of firing off say 2? spells, then wait for the ding, 2? spells, ding, 2? spells, ding...

You'll end up hating the ding BUT you will get the idea before long and eventually know how to do it without relying on the dinger at all

As for who should and shouldn't be dpsing - personally - everyone dps's - no matter who - and they are ALL within melee range except on the really nasty AOE mobs

Good luck

Thanks Noxxy,

Your post (and the encounter with the Arena Champ) have been a wakeup call, that I need to put a little more effort in gearing my team! I guess I was expecting to be as successful with instance as the 6-boxers, who, while leveling, did not appear to spend any amount of time gearing up until they hit Kunark Quests levels (Khat said she replaced some lvl 20ish gear at lvl 80 or something like that).

I'm going to become more dilligent in bothering my guild's crafters to turn my rares into weapons of mass destruction. And maybe getting some crafted skills as well.

while i'm definitely no expert in boxing as i've only been at it a few months, i do have the following to add from my own experiences.

at earlier levels i did have some problems where i'd run out of mana on my longer fights or multiple targets in sequential order burning down the power/mana. i had a lot of experience in playing an MT warrior in eq1 so i made the guardian dual wielding and don't use a shield plus i added some procs to his weapons. i then made sure the other team members hacked, smacked, stabbed and crushed when they weren't casting (like noxxy said). this was especially good with the troubador as his melee ain't bad plus the defilers dog is speced to proc ae block and gives haste to group members.

i see you 3 characters which makes it difficult.... if you don't have the dog with the dog buffs yet on your defiler then try that. get all your guys hitting target from behind. let sk take taunt then slow target with defiler +send in dog. heal when you got to and burn with warlock when sk has nice hate. with one healer i don't think i'd want to waste all his mana on nukes.

hope that helps.

couple more thoughts (took me a while to figure out dfc was death fist citadel haha). i remember fighting that champion. i soloed him on my necro by sending in the pet then standing out of range of his ae knock back. i could still life tap him from a distance and heal my pet. i haven't tried it with the 6 team (or your 3 team) but i think it would be a similar deal where you could get taunt on the sk, stand in the corner in case of knockback on your other two guys, send in dog which might proc the block ae and then heal / slow with defiler and nuke with warlock.

I upgraded the majority of my skills and completed SSOY and Crook HQs, so I'm kickin ass and takin names now.

Btw, I saw a post a while back about the grind through 50-60, where its better to go through old quests instead of grind it out. You should try The Obelisk of Lost Souls for at least a few of these levels! There are about 10 named in the lowest level which respawn quite frequently! I've amassed a LOT of masters and legendary gears by running around down here. Mobs are lvl ~49.

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...put a little more effort in gearing my team...

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- Unfortunately, because you have less than a FG, you most definately will have to spend some coin on your team
- Remember, tank ALWAYS gets first dibs at any goodies you find along the way - this is even more relevant now that the rarer items seem to be dropping more in the older dungeons
- Assuming you can't kit yourself out in fables, you will have to fork out for some PM gear to keep the SK alive before you get to RoK. This can, and will be quite expensive, so make it cheaper for yourself by sourcing any rares you may need.

The unfortunate part of needing to buy the rare PM AC is you may find yourself short of coinage when it comes time to buy endgame adpIIIs - meaning you may have to farm a fair bit to fit out your team but it is still definately do-able. Of course, end game PM gear is absolute cr@p Vs the current shard gear so you may be able to get away with not buying the last level PM stuff if you can find better replacements via questing (assuming the replacements stand up to TSO dungeons....).

This is as opposed to a FG where it's easy to get a team all the way to cap purely due to being able to just mana-burn / dps all the way.

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...Obelisk of Lost Souls...

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OLS is good value - huge too - lot of things have changed in there as it used to take a considerable lot of camping to kill the 4 bosses just to get in the front door - then more camping to kill the next 5-6??? bosses to get to the lower levels. It wasn't uncommon to take over a week of constant camping to be lucky enough to get all the required mobs for the access quest (bloody Avulsor!!!).

Good luck