Spiritmaster

[Coren]

I got lvl 27 spiritmaster in the last beta. Overall, I really like the class. However, I'm curious how well it performs later on. Do any of you C-aion or other beta people have experience with it?

First off, while my spirits and elemental spirits do pretty good damage, I still find myself using lots of fire and ice chains. I'm assuming those aren't really viable later (fire bolt level 1 and all). If they're not, how do I kill anything flying around? I had to kill some flying mobs for one of my quests, and I realized that if the mob doesnt' come to the ground, neither my spirit tank or my elemental spirits can hit the mob. I ended up burning obscene amounts of mp and pots to nuke them to death with spells that I'd had for 20+ levels.

Next up are the summoned spirit pets; which is useful in which scenario? I use earth when I need a tank for harder-hitting mobs, and the fire spirit works pretty well due to slightly better damage, but still decent hp. The water spirit appears to be higher damage, but complete crap armor and no HP. I haven't figured out the wind spirit yet, so I rarely ever use it. I find myself using the fire spirit in most cases due to the fact that it can be a decent OT when necessary.

Last is the elemental spirits (fire spirit, wind spirit, etc). I'm assuming mobs have certain elemental weaknesses, but is there a chart like there is for ffxi (fire>ice>wind>etcetc)? I haven't really figured out rhyme or reason for which spirits do the best damage yet.

[Gokulo]

Hmm, you sure elemental spirits spells don't work on flying mobs? O.o I don't remember ever trying them out but it would be weird if they don't >.<;

I'm not experienced in SM more than you, but from what I've been reading around Wind Spirit is good for PVP because of it's speed.

Also, btw. because I was never lucky on my first char to get a drop of Water Spirit and didn't get it yet on my second chara - doesn't it have a ranged attack? Just a noobie questions since your post got me wondering about those things.

[Coren]

Hmm, you sure elemental spirits spells don't work on flying mobs? O.o I don't remember ever trying them out but it would be weird if they don't >.<;

I'm not experienced in SM more than you, but from what I've been reading around Wind Spirit is good for PVP because of it's speed.

Also, btw. because I was never lucky on my first char to get a drop of Water Spirit and didn't get it yet on my second chara - doesn't it have a ranged attack? Just a noobie questions since your post got me wondering about those things.

I haven't really done that air fighting yet, but on the flying mobs that I needed to kill, I was able to have my spirit voke the mob down, but my spirit spells were grayed out, and while my spirit could do physical attacks, I wasn't able to use the thunderclaw thing. I had plenty of mp, and had the target set properly (check the obvious stuff first), and my other spells worked just fine, just the ele spirits didn't work.

Wind spirit is faster, but doesn't seem to do the damage, or take the damage, that the others do. Also, water spirit is ranged, but it can't OT at all due to having next to no HP.

[Purrrfect]

The water spirit has a skill to knock flying enemies down, but none of the pets/orbs can fly in 1.0. The orbs can fly in 1.1 or 1.2, but not pets. I can't answer any of the other questions, light the Pooky signal.

[Coren]

If the game is confirmed going live with 1.5, and orbs can fly in 1.1 or 1.2, then that's not a problem. CBT6 is confirmed 1.0, so they'll continue to not work.

I know SM is all about pets, but do they get any more direct damage skills later on to replace the fire and ice bolts?

[Purrrfect]

If the game is confirmed going live with 1.5, and orbs can fly in 1.1 or 1.2, then that's not a problem. CBT6 is confirmed 1.0, so they'll continue to not work.

I know SM is all about pets, but do they get any more direct damage skills later on to replace the fire and ice bolts?

From what I've read, SM is all about control of your opponents. Pets are just a tool. SM has a lot of shit it can toss around to make life hell on enemies. And I read after 40 or so pet damage really starts trailing off compared to DPS jobs.

[Coren]

From what I've read, SM is all about control of your opponents. Pets are just a tool. SM has a lot of shit it can toss around to make life hell on enemies. And I read after 40 or so pet damage really starts trailing off compared to DPS jobs.

It already somewhat sucks, and I find myself using earth spirit a lot since I don't have to resummon it much. However, when I get full DP, I can rape stuff with fire spirit II, and usually within that 10 min the DP will almost be ready to go again as long as assfaces don't killsteal everything in range.

[Pooky]

Spoiler: show

I got lvl 27 spiritmaster in the last beta. Overall, I really like the class. However, I'm curious how well it performs later on. Do any of you C-aion or other beta people have experience with it?

First off, while my spirits and elemental spirits do pretty good damage, I still find myself using lots of fire and ice chains. I'm assuming those aren't really viable later (fire bolt level 1 and all). If they're not, how do I kill anything flying around? I had to kill some flying mobs for one of my quests, and I realized that if the mob doesnt' come to the ground, neither my spirit tank or my elemental spirits can hit the mob. I ended up burning obscene amounts of mp and pots to nuke them to death with spells that I'd had for 20+ levels.

Next up are the summoned spirit pets; which is useful in which scenario? I use earth when I need a tank for harder-hitting mobs, and the fire spirit works pretty well due to slightly better damage, but still decent hp. The water spirit appears to be higher damage, but complete crap armor and no HP. I haven't figured out the wind spirit yet, so I rarely ever use it. I find myself using the fire spirit in most cases due to the fact that it can be a decent OT when necessary.

Last is the elemental spirits (fire spirit, wind spirit, etc). I'm assuming mobs have certain elemental weaknesses, but is there a chart like there is for ffxi (fire>ice>wind>etcetc)? I haven't really figured out rhyme or reason for which spirits do the best damage yet.

For flying mobs (Mind Destroyers in the Abyss) I just nuked the crap out of them with what I had; it sucked, but there really isn't another option. To be honest I never tried to crash them, by the time I had crash I was nowhere near those mobs lol. I can hop on and test it out though a bit later.

Earth is your primary tank; it has the most HP and Defense, and in 1.0-1.2 has pretty decent attack so you can rip through things pretty easily (esp with DP buff). However in 1.5 the attack was lowered, so I'm not sure how it will fare in terms of damage. It will still be pretty useful though for tanking anything that hits hard.

Fire is primary melee DPS; it hits hard and can take a bit of a beating (though not as much as earth). I prefer Fire Spirit for groups or DP killing, as the higher attack really speeds up fights, and Command: Disturbance gives a Defense Down debuff that is great for softening up elites (which you'll be fighting a LOT of 35-40+).

Wind is for PvP in non flight areas. Its the fastest pet in the game, it can outrun Sin's with Flee and 30% Run Scrolls easily. Its Command: Disturbance is a Stun, which is very useful when kiting people around. I only use it for ground PvP, unless I'm in a gap between tiers (then I'll use Fire Spirit).

Finally you have Water Spirit, probably the most fun pet you get; you can be a real jerk with him lol. Pretty high damage (as far as pets go) and is your only pet with a ranged attack. The beauty of this pet is Command: Disturbance, which drops targets out of flight (Crash). Use it as a weapon (crash over edges) as an escape tool (fly away, crash when enemy is chasing you) use it as a CC (fly and crash a melee target when 2v1)...you can do a lot of fun stuff with it XD

Basically both wind and water spirits aren't for off tanking mobs, rather to add DPS while kiting things (be it mobs or people in pvp).


To my knowledge, there's no elemental resistance chart; basically use the orbs that correlate to the pet you're using, since they can lower elemental resistances with Command: Erosion.


Later on you start getting other DPS skills, but for the most part you aren't going to be putting up big numbers. Weaken Spirit, our biggest nuke, requires the target to be feared to do the most damage; most of our DPS comes from Dots+Pets, however there are a few problems with the mechanics currently that are a hot topic (read: QQ storm) over on AS.


There are some decent threads on the AS spiritmaster forums, this one for example, but you end up having to dig through bickering and QQing to find good info in most of the threads. As a tip, take everything you read from Babe and Finnally with a grain of salt...Babe QQ's too much (though has good points at times) and Finnally is so overly optimistic its sickening.

[Coren]

stuff

Thanks for the info. I try not to visit AS; stupid may be contagious and it just reminds me too much of alla.

[Lostprophet]

Spoiler: show

I got lvl 27 spiritmaster in the last beta. Overall, I really like the class. However, I'm curious how well it performs later on. Do any of you C-aion or other beta people have experience with it?

First off, while my spirits and elemental spirits do pretty good damage, I still find myself using lots of fire and ice chains. I'm assuming those aren't really viable later (fire bolt level 1 and all). If they're not, how do I kill anything flying around? I had to kill some flying mobs for one of my quests, and I realized that if the mob doesnt' come to the ground, neither my spirit tank or my elemental spirits can hit the mob. I ended up burning obscene amounts of mp and pots to nuke them to death with spells that I'd had for 20+ levels.

Next up are the summoned spirit pets; which is useful in which scenario? I use earth when I need a tank for harder-hitting mobs, and the fire spirit works pretty well due to slightly better damage, but still decent hp. The water spirit appears to be higher damage, but complete crap armor and no HP. I haven't figured out the wind spirit yet, so I rarely ever use it. I find myself using the fire spirit in most cases due to the fact that it can be a decent OT when necessary.

Last is the elemental spirits (fire spirit, wind spirit, etc). I'm assuming mobs have certain elemental weaknesses, but is there a chart like there is for ffxi (fire>ice>wind>etcetc)? I haven't really figured out rhyme or reason for which spirits do the best damage yet.

The jist of what Pooky mentioned is all very helpful.

The best advice I can give for speeding up kills is to use a stigma slot on Vitality absorption and make use of Elemental Replenishment, it does help out grinding in my opinion but takes away from potential in stigma slots.

I just hit level 40 and can use 4 stigma's, but at the lower levels its prime to have Magic Blocking(Silence) and Magic Combustion(debuff+dmg) stigmas for PvP.

Also, SM does shine in group pvp and it's good to rework your stigmas around, you are a party buffer also when you have Wall of Protection- Fire= Attack/Dmg Reflect Wind= Acc/Evasion bonus' Water= Mgc Attk & Acc I believe, and Earth is Status Ailment Cure & small scale cure. AOE FEAR= must for later.

[Purrrfect]

A little funny for SM I saw on AS today...

[Gokulo]

QQ

[Coren]

Is there any way to not get ganked on spiritmaster in abyss? I can't seem to do any useful damage when asmos come out of nowhere given that nothing I have can hit a flying opponent except my crappy fire/ice spells. If I had my water spirit out, I could use it, but when I'm duoing/trioing, I use my fire spirit as OT. It doesn't help that a good opponent will wait until you're fighting a mob, but even when we're running around looking for new targets I've had people pop out and rape us without us even touching them.

[Purrrfect]

On my SM in could never survive if I was solo and someone got the jump on me. I didn't really play the beta this weekend, just logged on since I logged off last time in eltnen (i was asmo) and found a templar that I took down after a bit of work. That was the only solo pvp encounter I've lived through. Only lv23 so bleh...

[Pooky]

After taking some time to read the translations of the new advanced stigmas (here) I'm starting to rethink my opinion of some of them.

Advanced Stigmas: Hellish Pain option

Slowing Shackles
Level: 45
Cast time: 1 sec
Cool-down: 30 sec
Required Stigmas: Body Root, Magic Blocking
Reduces ASPD of a target within 25m and decreases its elemental defenses by 200.
Removable by buff removal magic attack.

Magic Countercurrent
Level: 45
Cast time: instant
Cool-down: 30 sec
Required Stigmas: Disenchantment Burst
Removes 3 buffs from target and inflicts 600 damage for each buff removed. For 30 seconds, target receives 100 damage every 6 seconds.
Removable by buff removal magic attack.

Hellish Pain
Level: 50
Cast time: 1.5 sec
Cool-down: 30 sec
Required Stigmas: Slowing Shackles, Magic Countercurrent
Inflicts 511 earth magical damage to a target within 25m. For 12 seconds, target receives 445 damage every 3 seconds.
Removable by buff removal magic attack.

PS: These three are removable by your own buff magic removals. Meaning if you use these on your target, you can damage them with your buff removal attacks even if the target doesnt have any buffs of its own.

Slowing Shackles:
Attack Speed Defuff- Yawn. Attack speed doesn't mean anything, auto attack doesn't kill people abilities do. However, the -200 elemental resist is BIG; note that its not specific to one element, but ALL. You essentially make someone squishy to magic damage for the duration of the effect, benefits anyone who does elemental damage.

Magic Countercurrent:
Its Disenchantment Burst on crack. 600 damage PER buff removed (up to 3 buffs, 1800 damage total) *and* an extra 500 damage dot thrown in. All on an instant cast, with a 30s CD.

Hellish Pain:
511 instant damage plus a 1780 dot, totaling 2291 damage. Not too shabby for a 1.5s cast, 30s CD.

Here's where the fun part comes in, these three skills count as buff placers on the enemy...which means you can remove them yourself. Cast all three on someone, then use Disenchantment Burst before the last tick of Hellish Pain. 2000+1846+1368= 5214 damage...in NINE SECONDS...every 30 Seconds. That's assuming two ticks of Magic Countercurrent, and assuming that these aren't effected by Magic Boost (and ignoring clerics/CC pots >.>; )

Still, not too shabby.


Running that stigma set would look like this:

1.Body Root- Disable
2.Magic Blocking- Silence
3.Slowing Shackles- Attack Speed Slow, and elemental resist debuff
4.Disenchantment Burst (also known as Magic Combustion at higher levels)- Dispel+Damage
5.Magic Combustion- Dispel+Damage+Dot
6.Pain of Hell: Dot
7.Fear Shriek: AoE Fear
8.Weaken Spirit: Damage

The trade off is that we lose Command: Substitution (Pet takes your damage) and Aether Charge (100% Pet Heal), losing some survivability. However we'll still have all our CC, and a few new damage options to throw around; hopefully they're affected by magic boost.


...is it September yet?

[Purrrfect]

What's your success rate with Body Root, Pooky? I think every time I've tried to use it it got resisted.

[Pooky]

What's your success rate with Body Root, Pooky? I think every time I've tried to use it it got resisted.

Honestly imo it's not worth using in 1.0, iirc it's a two second cast for a 4-6s disable.

How are you telling if it's resisted? I can't remember if it leaves a debuff marker or not =/

[SilverBreeze]

Wow that sounds pretty amazing!

SM just seems like it's going to be really complicated to play and it's what draws me to the class.

[Lostprophet]

The trade off is that we lose Command: Substitution (Pet takes your damage) and Aether Charge (100% Pet Heal), losing some survivability. However we'll still have all our CC, and a few new damage options to throw around; hopefully they're affected by magic boost.


...is it September yet?

If only they didn't nerf fear accuracy...I'd be rolling SM for sure in NA.

Pooky have you gotten level 40 yet to play around with your DP move?

These stigmas just makes chanters and clerics my bitches even more.

edit: wow 600 dmg per buff removed overlooked that....thats beyond belief. Already take away 70% of life from disenchant>fear>weaken spirit...

[Purrrfect]

Honestly imo it's not worth using in 1.0, iirc it's a two second cast for a 4-6s disable.

How are you telling if it's resisted? I can't remember if it leaves a debuff marker or not =/

Well I suppose I'm assuming its resisted. The enemy never stops running at me so I'm going with a resist, or they are hyper-fast with healing pots.

SM seems like a job that has a ton of potential, but I think I just suck too much at pvp to roll a complex class for my first char lol.