Duoing Spiritmaster & Gladiator

A guildie went rifting to Heiron and I went to join him. I haven't really duelled Gladiators so I didn't know much about how they worked. I imagine it was the same for the Gladiator with Spiritmasters as well, so it was a good learning experience for us. A video with snippets of the trip is below. I edited out the fights where we only ran into 1 opponent, so each encounter should show at least 2 people on the screen. Looking back at it, our synergy was raw. There were many missed opportunities and a couple of deaths that could have been wins. I need to tighten down my CCs on multiple targets and interleave more damage assists with the CCs. We also need to get comfortable with maneuvering an enemy mob around as a duo. There were a couple of stutters and miscommunications that got us rubberbanding between each other, resulting in one of us getting CC'd and killed. But as time goes by, I expect that we'd understand the strengths and limitations of each other's class better, and get a good feel for our individual playstyles. As for duo potential, Gladiator-Spiritmaster seems pretty solid and something I would run again. The Gladiator brings the damage the SM lacks, and the SM fills in all the CC holes in the Gladiator arsenal.

Comments: at the end of the video, the Gladiator received the debuff that reveals his location to every Elyos in the zone. We were eventually chased by a mob of Elyos, which we tried to evade by slipping into an elite area. The idea is that the elite NPCs would weed out or discourage lower-level players from following us. This worked, and the Elyos mob thinned out to 2 people. We killed the Chanter, but I was a little lax on the CCs and the Templar managed to escape back to his camp, which my Gladiator guildie bloodlusted into :)

Spiritmaster vs Ranger tactics callibration (videos)

Consumables were not used in the following videos (one of the Rangers requested this and I wanted to see what effect it had). Also, for some reason the Rangers did not start most of the duels stealthed (must be some honor thing!). However, I included a video that shows the advantage they get from stealth.

Bread and butter: dispel buffs, regain control:



Spirit Substitution: I started a few fights without the Stone Skin shield, to play around with Spirit Substitution:



The following video shows how much a Spiritmaster's damage drops when the pet is taken out of combat. I could not kill one Ranger even with a chain of 2 Fears. The video also demonstrates how a Ranger can use Sleep Arrow during Stun → Fear to neutralize the Fear chain, therby creating an opportunity to recover:



Next, Stealth. In the first fight, I tried a trick of casting an AOE DOT on my spirit. The second fight shows the ridiculous burst damage potential of a Ranger from a string of crits. I tried to recover using my instant fear, but I missed the 2nd Fear and was killed before Spirit Substitution took effect.



Bonus vid: a Chanter mis-timing his abilities, allowing for easy counters: Dispel, Dispel, DOT, DOT, Dispel Recovery Spell, wait for Soul Strike, Stun → Fear:

Spiritmaster vs Ranger tactics callibration

     

The potential of the Ranger class at end-game has been a mystery to me for a while now. I finally got around to getting a guildie Ranger to help me understand the class better. I caught him late at night, so his reaction times were not the best in the videos. But I just wanted to figure out what Rangers could or could not do, to be able to tell what they're thinking when they engage an enemy target. While we were duelling, another Ranger spectator got interested in duelling too so I had the chance to callibrate my tactics against two different Rangers.

Rangers rely heavily on crits to do damage. When rangers don't crit, they struggle to even break through a Spiritmaster's Stoneskin shield. On the other hand, a string of crits can drop my HP down to 20% in seconds. Since they have to stack extreme amounts of crit for their damage, they often have to sacrifice HP. It will usually not be until they soft cap their crit % that they stack more HP. This makes them the lowest HP class in the game, and extremely gear dependent to be able to get their nasty crit damage, while still having a decent amount of HP.

Because of these factors, fights with Rangers are very quick. Chain fears are neither necessary, nor natural to set up. Rangers have a tremendous amount of burst damage but low HP. So, from the SM point of view, the fight is won or lost depending on whether or not the SM has his instant fear up, or if the SM can regain control after being jumped and chain-CCed by the Ranger. If the SM can regain control, the SM does not have to go through many rotations to empty the Ranger's HP bar.

From the point of view of the Ranger, the fight requires a lot of effort. The Ranger can always quickly drop the SM's life into the danger zone from the initial burst and CCs from stealth. However, the Ranger's success hinges on countering all the SM's attempts to regain control after the intial burst. Unfortunately, the SM has many tricks. If the Ranger thinks that he can't kill the SM after the initial burst, it's probably best to make an exit, med up (dispel, shield, heal), restealth, and try again.

Key Spiritmaster factors:

• Enough HP to survive the initial burst
• Save healing potion for Silence. It's okay to be rooted or snared. While it's advantageous for a Ranger to snare the SM in range, it is imperative that the SM pots out of Silence. Otherwise, the Ranger can easily lock down and kill the SM with stuns/sleep/silence.
• Stone Shock → Fear is bread and butter for regaining control
• The Ranger's self-buffs boost Ranger damage tremendously and must be dispelled. Also, watch out for Nature's Resolve and Run Speed buffs.
• Wind pet's stun is useful, although it's easier to disable a melee pet
• Shackle of Vulnerability, Body Root (melee disarm) and Silence
• If instant fear is up, it will be sad times for the Ranger. Erosion DOT (to eat the resist buff) → instant fear → root → 2 fears.
• Spirit Substitution (transfer damage to pet)
• Stack DOTs and maintain pet pressure

Key Ranger factors:

• Pop Nature's Resolve (resist 1 magical attack) while dealing the stun/silence chain.
  Th SM will probably pot out of Silence. Regardless, SMs will desperately try to regain control with CCs after the initial burst and chain CCs. Having Nature's Resolve waiting for the SM after he comes out of CCs will absorb a trigger happy noob's instant fear.
• Stay out of range of Fear Shriek (15m). Don't give the SM a free Fear Shriek. Force him to Stone Shock → Fear.
• Save Sleep Arrow to hit the SM between Stone Shock → Fear (just like Chanters and Soul Strike). This prevents the SM from being able to chain Fears. If the Ranger survives the DOTs while Feared, he can break away, recollect himself and hit the SM again later.
• Interrupt the 2.5s Fear
• Always take advantage of the initial burst from Stealth
• Keep consumables handy (shield, HP pot, dispel DOTs pot).
  BUT, do not use them all in the beginning --- they can be easily dispelled. Instead, use them to recover from Fear, or during tactical retreats.
• If the SM pops Spirit Substitution, separate the SM and the pet by 10m or wait it out.
• Take the pet out of the picture if possible (with the 1 min root, or kill it)

Gotchas:

• Rangers cannot counter Stone Shock → Fear with Nature's Resolve. The Fear will register as completed and hit the Ranger, and the buff will only resist the next attack.
• The SM cannot break the root on the pet by using Spirit Absorption.

Exploring Heiron, enemy territory

Yesterday, I hopped on some rifts to explore the enemy zone, Heiron. I decided I needed more PVP in my life, now that I was at max level. However, I was Rank 4 in terms of "PVP rank". At this rank, I would start to lose Abyss Points every time I was killed. Going into unfamiliar territory and not having PVP'ed in a while, I anticipated many deaths. So instead of potentially wasting my Abyss Points, I spent them purchasing the advanced stigma Infernal Pain. That deranked me to Rank 6. Sweet. The next thing I packed with me for my trip was a resurrection kisk. This allows me to set up a resurrection point anywhere in the zone. However, it is visible to the enemy and can be destroyed.

Then, it was time to find an open rift that allowed Lvl 50s to enter. Rifts appear every ~20 minutes at random locations, and have level restrictions for entry. There are only 2 "usable" rifts for me to enter into Heiron from Beluslan. My first rift was short-lived. I had trouble orienting myself and finding a safe spot to drop my Kisk. Consequently, I got zerged and my Kisk was destroyed. I spent some time after that restocking my "rifting picnic bag" and running around Beluslan to try to find the next open rift, since the first rift had closed. It was annoying that there was no way to "run" to Heiron, and the only way to enter enemy territory was via a rift.

Eventually, a rift opens. The rift spits me out at location F in the map above. Just like before, my first order of business was to orient myself, and find a safe spot to set down my Kisk. Since this was an unfamiliar enemy zone, initially everything seemed dangerous. For great success, I knew I had to sort the zone out. I needed to figure out where my safe zones are, where the danger zones are, what the enemy traffic patterns are, what level NPCs each area has, etc --- just like when I decided to roam around solo on my Zealot in WAR. I needed to figure out what was actually dangerous, and what was not. I would also benefit from figuring if anything in the zone was advantageous to me.

My plan of action was to first spiral out from F, and to lower-level areas to get my feet wet. Get some easy kills, work up some confidence, and maybe get some 1 vs many fights. I started out circling around locations F and C. Eventually I had a good idea where the low-level areas are and I'd try to up the challenge and move to locations B, D and E; to run myself into higher-level players. With this approach, I have a better feeling of where the "safer" areas are, I have more control over my surroundings and I could consciously put myself in less or more danger. Videos below.

Out-levelled players who bravely put up a fight:



Some noteworthy encounters, including me being a jerk and playing with the prey. I didn't notice that there was a level 50 sorceror in the mix, or I would have been a little more careful.



If you have been following my Spiritmaster-Chanter posts, you may notice the key moment in the fight where the 1st Chanter in the following video gave the fight away. He almost had me killed for goofing around too much. But, he gave me too much space to med up and when he finally closed the distance, he was too trigger happy with his ranged stun, Soul Strike. That allowed me to hit "stun → fear" unchallenged and take control of the fight.



And finally, moments of fail below. The first one was me trying to mess with a few groups that were getting ready for an instance. I bit off a little more than I could chew and got gangbanged. The second was me stumbling onto a bunch of Lvl 50s waiting outside a rift from Heiron to Beluslan! I saw a whole bunch of red dots pop up on my radar, and got curious so I took a closer look. Then I noticed a rift, and my first thought was that they were waiting for my friends to jump through it and ambush them. But then I hovered over the rift and discovered that I could click it --- they were getting ready to infiltrate Beluslan! While I was being distracted, they noticed me and I was hunted down.



My kisk had expired and I was sent back to Beluslan. Shortly after, there were reports that Elyos groups were rifting into Beluslan.

Spiritmaster-Chanter update (video)

The video starts with me having a Wind Spirit. The Wind Spirit does pretty decent melee-range damage, and can cast a short stun with a low cooldown. I was trying to win the fight without chaining Fears, but using control and dispel abilities instead. The next couple of fights are with a Water Spirit, which has very low HP and does ranged attacks but does not have a stun. We moved to a less laggy location for the last couple of fights, but the location that the Chanter picked was disadvantageous for him because it was surrounded by walls. Toward the end, I settled into the sequence of: dispelling buffs and HOTs, waiting for Soul Strike, and then leading Fears with stuns. I revealed what I was doing to him after our duels --- his gears started turning and he exclaimed that he had discovered the "Achilles heel" of Spiritmasters. I expect more interesting counters from him in the future!

Level 47 Spiritmaster experiences vs Chanters

  
I had a couple of interesting duels last weekend. This was long overdue, as I have not been learning as much about each class as I should. Unfortunately, this post will not contain any videos. The duels were often frantic since I am still learning, and FRAPS stutters had cost me a couple of fights. What I have instead are a bunch of notes or tips that may help other Spiritmasters against Chanters, or vice versa (by understanding what SMs can or cannot do).

Key Chanter factors:

1. HOTs (especially Recovery Spell) and shields (especially Word of Spellstopping and Divine Curtain)
   These help to keep HP up through fears. The SM cannot out-DPS even the HOTs enough and must dispel them.
2. Soul Strike ranged stun (also, Parrying Strike and Binding Word)
   These are for kiting the SM. Stun to enter into melee/stunlock range, or stun to get out of fear range. The spell's damage also eats away at the SM's HP. However, drawing out the fight too much will lead to a draw as it allows the SM to refresh stoneskin and pot. One interesting thing to note is that when a SM does Stone Shock (stun) into Fear Shriek, there will be a small window between the stun and Fear Shriek where the Chanter regains control of his character. I.e., the stun duration is shorter than 1.5s. This is a good opportunity for the Chanter to reply with a stun of his own. If the stun lands, the SM will be disabled while the Chanter is feared away scott-free. A smarter SM may try a Body Root (to disable the stuns) into Earth Shock into Fear Shriek. But, remember that Body Root can be potted out of. Save stuns for stopping a Fear.
3. Celerity Mantra
   Mantras cannot be removed by the SM. With Celerity on, a snared Chanter will run at the same speed as the SM. This means that if the Chanter is feared, stopping to cast anything will put the SM farther behind the Chanter. If the SM lets himself fall too far behind, he will not be in range to chain other fears. The SM only has 1 or 2 "DOTs" that can be cast on the run (in addition to having pet damage). Having the Celerity Mantra greatly reduces the SM's damage, in addition to making it harder for the SM to chain fear. If the Chanter has a run speed scroll, the SM must slap on his speed scroll too. Note that speed scroll buffs can be dispelled by the SM.
4. High HP / magic resist
   This is the greatest counter against the SM at end game. The SM can only chain 3-4 fears (the fears are on a 30s, 1 min and 5 min cooldown). If a Chanter stacks enough HP to live through 3-4 fears, there is nothing the SM can do to kill the Chanter. Once the fear chain is up, the Chanter is free to kite and heal and the SM will be a sitting duck with his fears on cooldown.
5. Greater Healing Potion (to remove Silence/Root)
   When the Chanter is rooted, the SM has time to set up debuffs, DOTs and CC. Since Chanters cannot dispel roots, having Greater Healing Pots is a must. Some SMs rely on Silence or Body Root to stretch the fear chain. Pot out of Silence/Bind and the chain is broken.
6. Stay away from confined areas (see SM below)

Key SM factors :

1. Dispel (especially Ignite Aether and Magic Implosion)
   A Chanter has various self-buffs, and some buffs mentioned above that give him the edge. These must be removed to level the playing field. The core Dispel ability has a cast time, a cooldown and only removes 1 buff at a time. There is no time to remove all the buffs of the Chanter one at a time, especially when trying to CC or follow him after a fear. Having instacast dispels that take off 3 buffs each is helpful. Note that Ignite Aether and Magic Implosion do not share cooldowns.
2. Curse of Water instant fear
   For high-HP Chanters, Curse of Water is a must, unfortunately. Against a high-HP Chanter, the only way to win is to try to get the Chanter's HP low enough to be able to finish with chained fears. If the Chanter is smart/conservative and keeps himself topped up... disadvantage SM.
3. Shackle of Vulnerability
   This is nice for the casting speed debuff and the elemental resist debuff (damage increase). However, it does not last very long and has a cast time, so choosing when to cast it is important.
4. Silence, Body Root
   Silence stops heals and Body Root stops the ranged stun. Body Root also reduces melee damage.
5. Running speed scroll
   The only way to get a speed advantage over a Chanter is to dispell the Chanter's speed scroll buff and for the SM to use one.
6. Having a pet already out
   Time is a scarce resource against a Chanter. Taking the time to pop the instant summon buff, followed by a brief stop and jump-cast to summon the pet means you either lose CC or damage time. The wind pet can be helpful sometimes for the additional stun. Note that all pet auto-attacks and Orb damage are physical damage (they can enable the Chanter's parry-based abilities).
7. Keep track of the Soul Strike (ranged stun) cooldown
   Soul Strike's stun lasts 4s, and its cooldown is 12s. If the Chanter is unable to chain stun for the ~6s after the Soul Strike stun wears off, the Chanter is vulnerable to the Stone Shock into Fear combo. However, stay out of melee range after Stone Shock to avoid the melee stuns.
8. Save Chain of Earth and Stone Shock
   They are useful for leading Fears. I think it is a waste to cast Chain of Earth on a Feared target, or when snared with the Chanter's Binding Word. Pot out of Binding Word instead.
9. Being in a confined area
   It is a massive advantage for the SM to be able to pin the Chanter against a wall. If the Chanter is pinned, the SM can plant his feet and go "PVE raid boss" on the Chanter while chain fearing: Spirit Wrath Position, Spirit Erosion, Shackle of Vulnerability, 2 Spirit Claws, Spirit Disturbance, Summon Orbs/Energies, Erosion, Sandblaster.

I'm very impressed with how balanced the classes are, and how the combat system allows for complex encounters. I cannot enter each fight with a fixed strategy, and I have to constantly act/react to my opponents actions. The fight could go either way at any point in the fight. I've been having alot of fun playing 'mental chess' --- going over scenarios in my head and having duels/discussions with guildies.

Update: I found more 1v1 matchup info here.

Aion closed beta #4

RL stuff kept me occupied this weekend, so I only managed to get from level 19 to 21. Unexpectedly, there was some PVP action outside the Abyss. Something about rifts opening and Asmodians and Elyos ending up in the same place at the same time. I was caught by surprise while I was PVE-ing and had no clue how it all worked or where the baddies were coming from.



It was a confusing weekend for me. It felt awkward playing the Spiritmaster at this level. It's as if I'm growing out of my old "generic Mage" skin but I'm not quite a Spiritmaster yet. E.g., the only CCs I have are root/snares, which means it's still a pissing contest against casters.