***OTHER USEFUL PEQ RESOURCE THREAD(S) <TO BE UPDATED>*** In addition to including information on Buffs and AA's (due to some requests for added content on this post) I'll be including links to other helpful (non-stickied) posts for New Players to PEQ. My hope is that this thread ends up being helpful both for those new to the server and/or just starting out in the boxing/MQ2 scene, as well as some more seasoned players who are looking for additional ways to min/max their existing group(s). Welcome to PEQ! 1) Startup Discussion on Group Composition/Class Selection & Hardware: http://www.projecteq.net/forums/index.php?threads/thinking-of-starting-up-hardware-question.16481/ 2) Complete E3 Boxing Setup Guide: http://www.tinyurl.com/chance650 3) Link to Updated PEQ Spells File: http://www.projecteq.net/forums/index.php?threads/spells-file.15857/ 4) Complete Guide to Gearing on PEQ: - http://www.projecteq.net/forums/ind...earing-guide-to-peq-1-70-oow-expansion.16844/ 5) Databases for NPC Info, Spawn Locations/Timers, & MORE: - http://www.projecteq.net/edit (Actual Server Database used in-game) - http://www.mqemulator.net (Era-Relevant information not publicly viewable via the PEQ Guest Database) 6) Gear Picker/Loot Finder Databases: - https://www.raidloot.com/items - http://www.eqitems.com ***STARTING OUT/LEVELING UP*** "What are the exact rules for grouping different level characters?" 1) You take the lowest group member's level, multiply it by 1.5, and round down (always; no matter how close). That equals the highest level character that can be in group and still gain experience. Max Level Example: 47 x 1.5 = 70.5 ~ROUND DOWN~ = Level 70 So, at Level 47, You can start to gain Experience with Max Level (for OoW/DoN Era) characters provided you also qualify for #2 below: 2) Additionally, you must kill things which would normally give EACH character experience on their own (as if they were not grouped). If a mob is too low-level for ANY one character to gain experience from it, then NO ONE IN GROUP gains experience from it. [Buffs & More] Since there's frequently a lot of Level 70 groups around offering buffing services to new players (idle or otherwise), I thought it'd be helpful to have a list of what all of the Best Buffs at each level are so as to ease some of the burden of creating hotkeys (as many do) for requesting various buffs. I've taken the liberty of indicating which buffs from which Class, which are Group Effects and which are Single Targets, as well as indicating all of the Slots for buff effects to ensure maximum stacking. If someone notices errors or anything(s) I've missed, I'll gladly update the post as it's needed. At level 1 you've got 15 Buff Slots to play with, and there are 17 on this list (though there are stacking issues with 2 of them as indicated; depends on which class(es) are available) "What Buffs can I get at Level X ?" The answer to this question has changed in terms of "Max Level" buffs and their Minimum Target levels a few times over the various expansions. The Table below is accurate on PEQ: [Buff Spell Level]: (Minimum Target Level): 1-50: (Level 1) 51: (Level 40) 52-53: (Level 41) 54-55: (Level 42) 56-57: (Level 43) 58-59: (Level 44) 60-61: (Level 45) 62-63: (Level 46) 64-65: (Level 47) 66+: (Level 62) [Level 1-42 (Newbie) Buffs] (Useful Upgraded Buffs begin unlocking @ Level 42) "What Buffs Unlock as I Level, and what Buffs do they Replace?" There are a few key buffs which unlock at various levels. The list below is by no means complete for each class for each level, but I've indicated some pretty important ones that you can gain access to as you progress up past level 50. [Unlocking Buffs] (Level 42+) By "Unlocking" of course I mean: "You are a valid level to have the Spell cast on you." NOT "You can cast the spell yourself." This is useful information to have while you're leveling up, regardless of whether you're using your own High-Level characters to help or just requesting/receiving Buffs from other people's toon(s). UPGRADED BUFFS BY LEVEL: ***MAX LEVEL INFO*** Beyond just Leveling, there are a number of other "Efficiency-Related" and "Quality of Life" improvements/tweaks that you can make to your character(s). Additionally, there is some other information which may or may not be known to some that can help greatly with balancing group composition and making wise choices when gearing/raiding. [Melee Aggro Calculations & Relevant Focus Effects/Items/AA's] MELEE AGGRO: Melee Aggro is calculated as: (Weapon Base Damage + Weapon Damage Bonus) per swing. This is the case regardless of whether that swing was: a Hit, a Miss, a Crit, or was Blocked/Dodged/etc by the Target!!! 1) What this means is that so-called "Swing Bonus" Type Melee Effects: - AA's which grant extra Primary attacks (like Flurry) - AA's and/or Buffs which give a boost to Double Attack chances (like Knight's Advantage AA or Howl of the Predator spell) and also - Double Attack Item Focuses (like Ferocity) ALL add to the amount of aggro generated and therefore should be a priority for Tank classes. 2) The other side of this means that (since each swing generates the same amount of aggro no matter what) so-called "Damage Bonus" Type Melee Effects: - AA's which grant (chances for) Critical Hits (like Combat Fury) - AA's that add to Critical Damage (like Veteran's Wrath) and - Buffs/Items that add to Critical Hit Chance (like Berserker Cry Havoc effect or Cleave item focus) ALL do so without generating a single point of extra aggro. A common misconception (made by some) regarding Warriors on this issue is the perception that their increased Critical Hit Chance (innate for the class) somehow equates to an aggro boost. This is not the case!!! Therefore, the most logical & beneficial way to prioritize these effects to make the most of each class is to ensure you get the "Swing Bonus" effects like Ferocity focus, Flurry AA, etc on Tanks first, and to put "Damage Bonus" effects like Cleave focus, Combat Fury AA's, etc on Melee DPS first. Obviously, there is also still ultimately a benefit to granting Melee DPS "Swing Bonus" type effects, as more hits is also more damage. I only say that "Swing Bonus" type effects are a priority for Tanks first since there are many, many ways in EQ to deal damage...but very few ways for each class to continuously generate aggro. The benefit of "Swing Bonus" type effects to Melee DPS also comes at the cost of increasing their own aggro generation, so it's probably best to have an extremely solid-aggro Tank before going too nuts on your Melee DPS. You can generate a lot more damage out of them early on/starting out by focusing on "Damage Bonus" over "Swing Bonus" anyway. Finally, there is no real point or benefit at all in adding "Damage Bonus" type effects (like Cleave) to a Tank as none of them (PAL/SHD/WAR) generate any significant amount of DPS whatsoever even with every single Crit-Related AA purchased and Cleave V equipped (the highest available in this era). Doing so is a waste of an Item Drop or AA Points in 99.9% of cases!!! [Buff Blocking]: Once you hit Max Level, it's a good idea for the purposes of Buff-Stacking to use Buff Block on each class to optimize their use of Buff Slots (Of which you get 15 to start; up to a maximum of 20 with all ranks of the Mystical Attuning AA). Indicated below are a list of Max Level buffs that you can Buff Block (right click the Buff Icon on each client to open the menu to add them to Blocked Spells) on each class because they provide either No Effect, a Marginal (virtually useless) Effect, or a Redundant Effect: Every single class gains more overall Hit Points at Level 70 from stacking Balikor's Mark (CLR) and Blessing of Steeloak (DRU) than they do from using the Hand of Conviction (CLR) spell-line alone. The only exceptions to this are Paladin, whose self-buff (Armor of the Champion) adds AC, Hit Points, and Mana Regen but doesn't stack with Blessing of Steeloak; and Shadowknight whose self-buff lines and other spells require open buff slots for Recourse Effects which similarly run into stacking issues. This makes each of them the ONLY 2 classes who get a Hit Point gain from using the Conviction (CLR) line. Even the AC deficit can be overcome by including a 3rd Buff to Balikor and Steeloak: Ward of Valiance (CLR). The "downside" (if you can call it that) is of course that this uses 3 Buff Slots (assuming you're using Ward of Valiance on the tank) instead of 1 from Hand of Conviction, however with proper Buff Blocking, it can easily be arranged to fit. Even simply using Balikor/Steeloak is an improvement in every department except AC (which doesn't matter so much on non-tanks). The difference is not entirely insignificant either, take a look at the calcs below: Balikor/Steeloak/Valiance combo nets a total of +1909 Hit Points, +115 Armor Class, and +9 (stackable) Mana Regen -- Versus -- Hand of Conviction which nets a total of +1787 Hit points and +94 Armor Class (and nothing else) TOTAL GAINS PER TOON (over using Conviction line): With All 3 Buffs (Tanks): +122 Hit Points, +21 Armor Class, and +9 (stackable) Mana Regen With Balikor/Steeloak Only (Non-Tanks): +122 Hit Points, -51 Armor Class (loss), and +9 (stackable) Mana Regen There are some other optimization changes you can make depending on whether you want things like trade out some Hit Points from the Brell's (PAL) line for the Strength (RNG) line on certain DPS toons -- both of which I've chosen to leave off this list as a result. You can look at the table below as something of a minimalist approach to Buff Blocking, feel free to expand & add things as you like (starting with the table below): BLOCK THESE BUFFS: [Max Level Buffs]: With all that being said, here is another list of the Best Buffs (excluding Self-Only buffs) for each class at Max Level (assuming you've Blocked any you can on each class). Spells which are only intended (or optimal) for certain Classes are indicated in <>, as well as any Buff Stacking issue(s) which may arise. This list, with being able to easily reference/compare Spells & Effects, will hopefully help people decide on which specific tweaks they wish to make to their individual Buff Block lists for each class. BEST MAX LEVEL BUFFS: [Item Clickies]: Once you hit a certain point with Gear and are (more or less) finished with AA's on a character, these items are about the only thing(s) you can do to further increase your Stats/Abilities/Functionality for your characters. Below is a list of all important Item Click Effects (a.k.a. "Clickies"), as well as which classes benefit most from using them (indicated in parenthesis). Many of these Clicky Effects have one (or more) lower-level versions that can be pursued in lieu of the endgame versions, but I'm only listing the top-tier for each line here. Every Clicky Effect listed here will stack with every spell/effect in the Best Max Level Buffs list above. CLICKIES: [Important AA's by Class]: A few things about this list: 1. These buylists assume the character is Level 70 (Max Level on PEQ @ the time of writing this), which is by far the most efficient time to begin AA Experience. Purchasing AA's before Level 70 is done with a limit to your maximum ranks, and this table intends for each AA to be Max Rank before moving on. 2. These are not (nor are they intended to be) Buylists of every possible AA. Use your client to see that. 3. The indicated class roles (in parenthesis) assume that the character is a part of a BOX CREW. If you're looking for AA's for a solo-play class, these still aren't a bad starting point, but they may be lacking in some features you desire (the priorities will almost certainly be different for such a character as well). 4. I have tried as best as possible to prioritize the AAs for each class in order of importance for their respective role(s). I have not, however, parsed any of this out exactly to determine precisely which order of Rank-spending for each individual AA/Rank is most optimal. So, if your question is along the lines of: "Should I buy Rank 8 of Combat Agility or Rank 1 of Physical Enhancement first???" then that is beyond the scope of this post. 5. Everyone has their own individual play-style and preferences for what is/isn't important and that simply cannot be reflected in one table here. Example: Some people like to buy the Innate Run AA's first on everyone just for ease of moving around. I looked at these lists strictly from a "bare minimum of what is required" standpoint, as that seemed the most logical starting point for a Master List. I completely respect anyone's right to disagree with anything on this list, but careful consideration has gone into it already. You should definitely feel free to pick and choose how/when to follow these lists for your own characters. 6. Suffice it to say, if you follow these lists: A) You won't ultimately miss anything critical for your class, and B) You won't "waste" AA's on useless (or under-used) effects/abilities. I promise nothing more. For ease of reference, I have consolidated all of the Hit Point/Mitigation/Avoidance/Etc AA's into a category which will herein be referenced as [Survival Set]. Different classes usually opt to begin these at different times, so this seemed the most concise way to present the data. This set is (to the best of my ability overall) also in order of priority. PRIORITIZED AA BUYLISTS BY CLASS: Big shout-out to everyone who helped dial in the accuracy of this post with corrections/suggestions! Special shout-out to Barbatos (Chance) for his other really great guides & reference pages (some of which are linked at the top)!
Great posts thanks Apollo. Not sure if this is a thread to comment or or whether its meant to be locked and left, just delete my comments if so. I use HoC just because I don't have mystical attuning on most of my characters yet. The shaman proc spell, I was looking at this yesterday, is it worth using when your not great geared? or will I just end up out of mana very fast? Is there a reason to use the druid HP regeneration over the Shaman HP regeneration? I tried both yesterday when re doing my inis and stayed with the Shaman version due to the fact they were both 60 hp / tick but the Shaman one last 10 minutes longer?
Ranger: 2. Strength of the Hunter (Group) Slot 1: Attack Increase +75 ATK Slot 4: Hit Point Increase +155 2. Strength of the Tunare (Group) Slot 1: Attack Increase +92 Slot 4: Hit Point Increase +125 I would personally suggest adding Strength of the Hunter to the BLOCK list for all melee classes and setting Tunare on them instead.
Shadowknight: Do NOT Block Hand of Conviction. The SHD has MANY buffs that are recourse effects and will quickly use up all of your free buff slots if you using him correctly in combat. Druid line may LOOK better out of combat but during combat you'll be out of slots and unable to receive some nice buffs. Some to note here. Touch of Draygun. Recourse is 5.5mins +500HP Theft of Agony Recourse is 2minutes +196AC SHD - Block guard of the earth. You get the same buff (Cloak of Discord which includes +350HP). Note: BOTH include DS which is normally bad if you're swarm pulling with SK.
For those of us without a Paladin, Beastlord's Spiritual Vitality is a budget Brell's. [Beastlord] Spiritual Vitality (Group) 1: Increase ATK by 52 2: Stacking: Block new spell if slot 1 is effect 'ATK' and < 152 3: Stacking: Block new spell if slot 4 is effect 'Max Hitpoints' and < 1003 4: Increase Max Hitpoints by 280
Updated this for some Ranger Buffs, Enchanter 1.0 clickie, and more. I'm leaving out Buff Blocks on Ranger/Paladin line conflicts and the like because that really does boil down to personal preference & isn't nearly as huge a difference either way as sorting out Balikor/Steeloak on most everyone with the exception of Paladin. I don't run a Shadowknight but the self-buff & recourse argument makes sense to me so I've adjusted the table to reflect that. I expect this will be sufficient for people to at least get Buff Blocking sorted & started; the more optional or personal-preference type stuff I'll leave to each person individually.
The shaman procs are definitely worth using, regardless of your gear. If your shaman can perform no other task, making sure to keep proc buffs up on all melee DPS has got to be the #1 priority & most efficient use of the class on a boxing server. As for the SHM regen spell, I'm assuming you're referring to the Max Level buffs since you mention 60hp/tick. I don't feel that ANY regen spell is worth the buff slot at max level, because with how useful/quick Out-of-Combat regen is, there's little to no use for "In-Combat" Regen. An extra 60hp every 6 sec is not going to save you from anything at level 70, especially with the target(s) most people take on with box crews. The only HP Regen spell I've found to be useful (and the only one indicated on my lists above) is Pack Chloroplast and truthfully I was looking more at the fact that it was a Group effect more than anything. I'm fairly certain it's on-par with the Shaman HP Regen spell(s) available at that level in terms of HP/Tick, but Shaman has no Group-wide effect on the line until much later levels. Barbatos: Malik_Gynax: Updated for these as well. Thanks!
For my curiosity, at lvl 70 what would you say are the more important self buffs and clickies that you should find?
I thought about putting a list together, but it'd be massive since there's caster clickies like Koadic's Heightened Focus (stackable hp/mana regen) which end up having multiple tiers (getting better each time with Maelin's Methodical Mind, Aura of Taelosia, and finally Reyfin's Random Musings). Do you mean at endgame level which are the best clickies? Or which are the highest priority to seek out first? In either case it'd be vastly different for each individual class. I mused over the Clickie question when doing up the high level buff section, but in the process of working out how best to organize it I kind of came to the conclusion that any way I did it would probably cause more confusion than it would help sort any. If you (or anyone else) have a suggestion for what it is you're after I could give this another look.
That's not very descriptive haha I guess I could work on a list of Clicky Items for each class that are useful at max level with raid gear & do my best to indicate if they have lesser-powered versions elsewhere in the game. Is that something people would find useful?
Trying to do "everything that stacks" is a waste of time since there's literally dozens and dozens of clickies you can get that'll all technically stack (far more than any toon has Buff Slots for, even with max Mystical Attuning AA ranks)
I was just thinking useful clickies that people would want to use regularly at the endgame level. Some i could find the ac clickie that comes from tunare, and the amplification clicky from shei in akheva
So just a list of generally useful clickies? I can do that. I won't sort em by class but in the next day or two here I'll pick through and do up a list of everything that's still relevant to use at endgame level across the board.
Thanks. I know a lot of it like form of defense 3 has a lower level. But people can look those up on their own. If you know that the buff line exists you know to puraue it
I'll continue to amend & add to the Clicky list as I dig into it more and look at a couple of potential stacking issues, but I edited the original post to include a section on Clicky Items. A big part of it will be doing total counts for the # of optimal buffs on each toon, it'll be extremely easy for the list to become silly huge otherwise.
Clickies : Eternal Ward upgrades to Chaotic Ward http://mqemulator.net/item.php?id=47275 Clickies: BRD Clickie:Symphony of Battle is a group +ATK boost for melee. http://mqemulator.net/spell.php?id=3628&view=onitems
