Reforging, Adornments, Group Makeup

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Many new players are overwhelmed when first coming to Everquest2 as there is a lot to learn on day one. Some of the more basic questions new players have revolve around the 3 topics covered on this page.

• RULE #1 - The first thing you should know is that no two players agree 100% when it comes to these topics. All a person need do is visit a website like EQ2Flames or Everquest2 to see page after page, thread after thread of players arguing over what is the best casting order, reforging technique, adornment, group make up ect.

Group Makeup

If you are making a group to do Heroic instances, you would go with a tank, two healers, two utility (an enchanter and a bard) and a DPS. Some tanks do not need heavy healing, so the second healer can be swapped out for another DPS if desired. Try the zones with one healer, and if the tank is dying, swap in the other healer.

The best "group matches" tend to use all melee damage classes, or all spell damage classes.

tl;dr of below, or, tell me quickly I just want to make a group ASAP and farm!

As of ToV the turbo group is Berserker, Warden, Dirge, Coercer, Ranger, Mystic/Brigand. Have the Mystic on the Brig account to swap in for hard fights.

"Tanks"

Tanks generally break down into Mitigation, Healing or Avoidance categories. These categories are how the tanks deal with incoming damage.

~ Mitigation tanks wear heavy armor, and have abilities that allow them to shrug off the damage incoming. Tend to have heavy shields.

~ Healing tanks deal with damage by healing back up, either with direct heals or by doing damage to the mob.

~ Avoidance tanks deal with damage by not getting hit, or by "deflecting" the damage away from themselves.

Guardian - Melee Damage, mitigation tank, supposed to be the "single target" tank.

Berserker - Melee Damage, mitigation tank, supposed to be a multi-target tank. Currently (as of ToV) has huge self heals, giving high survivability.

Shadow Knight - Spell damage, healing tank, supposed to be a multi-target tank. Frequently used as off-tank for guilds, can be strong DPS. Self Heals.

Paladin - Spell damage, healing tank, supposed to be a multi-target tank. Can also be strong DPS, and does good healing as well for group (can cure).

Monk - Melee damage, Avoidance tank, can be multi-target or single target.

Bruiser - Melee damage, Avoidance Tank, multi or single target. Hybrid of the tanks, can be very strong DPS.

"Healers"

Healers break down into Ward, Reactive, Heal over Time, and Siphon categories. These categories are how the healers deal with damage. Additionally, healers break down in these categories as "hybrid" or "full heal."

~ Ward healers cast spells that puts a shield of hit points in front of the characters. This shield of health gets "used up" prior to any damage affecting the character's hit point pool.

~ Reactive healers cast spells that put an effect on the character that will heal up damage after that damage hits the character's hit point pool.

~ Heal over time (HOT) healers cast spells that put an effect on the character that constantly heals for a set amount every "tick," which is around 6 seconds in EQ2.

~ Siphon healers use spells that cause the damage to be moved from the character taking the damage, to another entity, in this case a pet.

Defiler - Spell damage, Ward healer, the full heal of the ward healers.

Mystic - Melee damage, Ward healer, the hybrid healer of ward healers.

Templar - Spell damage, Reactive healer, the full heal of reactive healers. Note that the Templar also has Wards and Heals over time, making this a powerful single healer.

Inquisitor - Melee Damage, Reactive healer, the hybrid healer of reactive healers. Tends to be neck and neck with furies for best healer DPS.

Warden - Melee damage, Heal over time healer, the full heal of HOT healers. Also has wards and major death saves, making it one of the best single healers.

Fury - Spell damage, Heal over time healer, the hybrid healer of HOT healers. Very powerful DPS, great in mage groups.

Channeler - Ranged Melee DPS, Siphon healer, suspected to be the hybrid healer of Siphon healers. Does great right until it runs out of dissonance, then it goes to heck very quickly....

"Utility"

Utility classes take two classes from the remaining DPS classes, and breaks them down. Enchanters in general buff others and give power, while Bards in general buff others and have key debuffs. Enchanters also have crowd control, which is actually used in some raid situations for ToV.

Enchanters

Coercer - Melee damage, power heals, tend to be used in melee groups.

Illusionist - Spell damage, power heals, tend to be used in mage groups.

Bards

Dirge - Melee damage, melee debuffs, tend to be used in melee groups.

Troubador (yes, it's misspelled) - Spell damage, spell debuffs, tend to be used in mage groups.

"DPS"

Although ANY class can spec and build for DPS, note that these below classes tend to be built solely for doing that, while the other classes can do it but not as well.

Scouts

Assassin - Melee damage, tends to be great at single target. One of the most complex classes, due to "chains" of skills in specific order, this class is also dependent on stealth and positioning. Tends not to be botted due to these limitations.

Ranger - Ranged melee damage, great at multiple targets. This class has come into its own in ToV, surpassing other previous high damage classes.

Swashbuckler - Melee damage, multiple targets. When played well, is VERY high DPS. Can also off-tank easy fights with correct AA spec.

Brigand - Melee damage, the king of debuffs. May not be key for six player groups, but is critical for raid groups.

Beastlord - Melee damage, a pet class. Glass cannon, can do lots of damage.

Mages

Wizard - Spell damage, Single Target.

Warlock - Spell damage, multiple target.

Conjuror - Spell damage, pet class, multiple target.

Necromancer - Spell damage, pet class, single target. Tends to kill itself by eating health for damage/power. Annoys the crap out of healers.

• What is the best group makeup? This topic can be a real can of worms as there are many players with very strong opinions about various classes in game. There are players that literally hate certain classes in game and no augment will convince them of the value for that class.
• Guideline #1 - My personal feeling is that your group should be made up of toons that you enjoy and love playing. When you come down to it, you are spending hard earned money to play a game for enjoyment. So the best group in the world is really not worth playing if you hate the class you are playing. I had a friend that loved to play the beastlord class. His group make up was a Tank, Priest and 4 Beastlords. I personally would not play that type of group but he loved it and he couldn't wait to get online to play his group. No one but you is paying for your subscriptions so the perfect group make up is always going to be the one you enjoy playing first and foremost.
• Guideline #2 - What do you enjoy doing in game? This is the first question you should ask yourself when trying to form a group. There are all types of players in game, those that love crafting, questing, group content, raid content etc.

Crafting / Questing Group Makeup

• If you love crafting and questing and are not into raiding then here are some things to think about.
  • You are going to be a frustrated crafter / quester if all you do is die when trying to harvest or complete a quest. So a good Tank / Priest is the first thing to think about, as Kannkor likes to say Tanks tank and Priests heal, I hear people argue all the time about how great a DPS their tank or priest is. Just keep in mind your DPS will go to hell pretty quickly if your tank or priest dies and your group wipes.

Basic Guideline

• A good group make up would include a / Tank / Inquis or Warden / DPS Class / CoE or Illy / Troub or Dirge/ Mystic or Defiler

General Rule

• If your group DPS is mainly melee then running with a Mystic / Dirge is the better option as they have buffs that best support melee classes.
• If your group DPS is mainly caster based damage then I typically run with a Defiler / Troub. The defiler is one of the best healers / warders in game and can keep my group and mage classes from dying, while the troub offers a number of beneficial buffs for the caster type classes. Some guilds run with only mystics, again we can debate the benefits of each class for hours but the above two rules are a good basic guideline.

Illy vs CoE this is a tough one for me because I really love both classes. In general the Illy brings better DPS buffs while the CoE brings better mana regen, so if you are not having mana issues then I would role with an Illy.

Heroic / Questing Things to Think About

• For heroic content I like the Guardian as my main tank and the Inquisitor as my healer. The guardian brings a lot of group protection, has lots of taunts and snaps, lots of temp buff blocks to help them survive, while the Inquisitor is a pretty tough class that can take some hits and receives extra cures over a Templar. Keep in mind SOE is always changing up spells, wards, cures, etc. with every expansion and game update so in the past 5 years my choice for main tank has changed 4 times.
• When I quest, I like to think about time, and the thing I dislike most about quests is how they send you back and forth across a zone 30 times. Any MMO can be a time sink, so for me if I am looking to make a questing group I want toons / classes / races that make travel faster and easier. So I try to start with a race that gets a Traverse Shadow type spell which lets me warp to another grouped player in zone. Races with this ability include Dark Elfs, Erudites, High Elf, and Freebloods. With this spell you can park a toon at the quest giver, run to the other side of the zone to complete your task and when done warp back to the toon parked at the quest giver. Nice little time saver.
• I have also made for myself a pocket Conjuror What I love about the conjuror is they get a spell called "Call of the Hero" that resets in 5 seconds. When I am doing solo quests like an epic or signature quest I can get the quests done in about half the time because I park my Conj. at the quest giver and use them to call the questing toon back every time they finish a quest objective. To be honest this is the only time I use my conjuror as I do not care for the class.
• Since I hate running back and forth across zones if I were making a questing group I would be inclinded to setup something like a
  

Guardian, Warden, Warlock, Defiler, Troub, Illy/CoE. In this example I would have a good well rounded group that could fight, deal respectable damage, but also could get me around to various zones quickly, while my race options would allow me to traverse shadow.

• Again it all comes down to play style, for me my questing hot button is time wasted running across the zones, others don't mind that and would rather focuses their group makeup on pure DPS.

Raiding Groups

• Raiding is a much more complex topic and can be debated forever as to what works best, in this post I am speaking to people that play 6, 12, or 24 bots and my thoughts and comments are geared as such.
• In general with EQ2 the faster you can kill a mob the fewer problems you will run into. So many top end guilds run with max dps group makeups, they have for example, more mystics than defilers, more Illys than CoE's etc. I can see the benefits of both the balanced approach camp and the max dps camp. Since I run my own raid I have to go with more the balanced approach side of things. Many high end guilds have a one person playing one toon policy with or without ogre. If you are playing one toon in a 24 man raid then you can think and move around independent of what the other members do and react independently to what the mob is doing. If you are botting 12 to 24 toons often you find your toons dog piled together and standing in one or 2 spots the entire fight. So you need some ability to take damage without dying if the mob turns on the group.
  • Playing 6 or more toons is far different than the person playing one toon as part of a 24 man raid. You can not always do or react the way a real life person would when playing a number of toons. This is why I like to play more ranged based classes than melee when I raid. If I can park a toon at 30 meters and leave them there they are doing max dps for their class type. They are not getting stuck on some object in the room because they are having to chase the mob around like Fitzpitzle for example. Plus if a melee class is running after or jousting away from a mob they are losing massive DPS which prolongs the fight. You will also run into many raid mobs that have to be jousted or fought at range. When raiding these types of mobs with a bot crew the DPS for melee toons drops significantly. Let's face it, a Beastlord is not going to put out the same DPS tossing shurikens at a mob vs standing directly behind him. If you are planning to bot more than one toon this should be a factor to consider when picking various classes.

Key Classes

• Brigand: I am always amazed when I hear of guilds that raid with no Brigand. If you are running a 12 or 24 bot crew then make sure one of your toons is a brig. This is an amazing class that can weaken raid mobs, lower the time required to kill them and in turn boost the hell out of your over all raid DPS. The Brig is also an amazing DPS class. That said, remember a Brigs first job is to weaken/debuff the mob. If you are not willing to do that then do not play this class as you will be nothing more than a lame Assassin. The Brig is by far my favorite raid class toon as it makes everyone look really good if played correctly, no raid should be without one.
  • Mystic vs Defilers: My raid runs with 2 mystics and 2 defilers. Again since I play more bots I lean towards the balanced side vs. pure dps side.
  • Illy vs CoE: Again balance, 2 Illys and 2 CoE's on mana drain fights a single CoE can feed two groups with no real issue.
  • EQ2 is not WoW a raid made up of 24 warlocks is not going to work in EQ2, so you want to have a balance of classes. Many mobs also require this balance Drels Ma'Gor would be much harder to kill if you had no casters or had no scouts.

DPS Classes

• New players always ask what are the best DPS classes: As of GU66 the following classes put out very nice DPS.
  • Beastlord is one of the best DPS classes for longer named mob fights. Not so good on shorter trash mob fights.
  • Necro is an amazing DPS class
  • Warlock - Great AOE damage class for group encounters
  • Shadowknight - in reckeless stance when NOT acting as a main tank puts out amazing AOE damage and is a great power leveling class
  • Ranger - As of GU66 is putting out amazing damage.
  • Brigand - Another really good DPS class
  • Assassian - I do not play one but from what I am told they put out good DPS

Group Makeup

• Sample of my 24 toon raid makeup
• Main Tank Group: Guardian, Inquis, Brig, Defiler, CoE, Dirge
  • You want your main tank group to survive. This is one of the best group makeups as of GU66 for that purpose.
  • The guardian is a great tank class that can help reduce damage on both himself and group with all of the temp buffs this class receives. They also have a number of temp damage blocks, taunts and snaps, its a great tanking class.
• Group 2: Pally, Inquis, Beastlord, Mystic, CoE, Dirge
• Group 3: Sk, Inquis, Warlock, Defiler, Illy Troub
• Group 4:(Ranger/Monk), Inquis, Necro, Illy, Troub, Mystic

Damage

One of the most common questions asked is, I am using XYZ's Profile why am I not doing the same amount of damage? There are lots of reasons for this.

1. Gear - Gear is the single most important factor in DPS output. A toon with hard mode gear will do not just a little more damage but a lot more damage than a toon in easy mode gear and any toon fully raid gear equipped will always out damage a toon in only heroic gear. Gear is a huge factor when looking for more DPS.
2. Group Buffs - Group makeup and by default group buffs are a huge factor in damage output. Proper class buff's on the right toons can often double or triple your group damage.
3. Debuffs - A lot of people forget to talk about debuffs when trying to improve DPS. Make sure that all your classes use debuffs if they have them in their casting order for named mob encounters. Proper debuffs will greatly boost raid wide or group wide DPS. If you disagree with me, then kill a named raid mob with no Brigand then kill it again with a Brigand doing proper debuffs and note the difference in raid wide DPS.
4. Reforging - When you reforge your gear you are taking stats out of areas that you don't need them and putting them in areas where they will greatly boost your damage output. More below on this.
5. Adornments - There are a vast numbers of adornments that boost a number of DPS related stats. More on this below
6. Spell Casting Efficiency- Or spell casting order, the efficiency of casting a spell is determined by the damage it does as compared to the amount of time it takes you to cast it + recovery speed. A spell that does a lot of damage isn't automatically better than a spell that does little damage. More on this below

Damage and Stats

• A good place to view stat caps and what they effect is to visit this site: EQ2 Wiki It is in need of updating but it is the best site at the present time.
• Know how your class delivers damage for example most tank class's derive their dps from combat arts (ca). ShadowKnights however derive most of their damage via spell based damage even though they are a tank class. Know how your class outputs damage as this is good information to know when reforging stats or buying adornments.

• Damage: from a simplistic stand point is calculated as follows in EQ2. Let's use a mage for this example:
  • Base Damage x Disruption Bonus x Potency x Int Bonus + Ability Mod x Crit Bonus.

• Further Detail Break Down:
  • Base Damage
  • x ((Disruption-475)x2/100)
  • x (potency/100 + 1)[may also need to include some base gains from AA for certain abilities]
  • x (stat%/100 +1) (Str/Agi/Wis/Int Depending on class)
  • + ability modifier[or ability modifier/3 for AE Abilities][up to max of 1/2 of max damage]
  • x (Crit Bonus/100 + base cb) [base 1.2, 1.3, or 1.5 depending on ability type/class. can be found by hovering over your Crit Bonus Stat][may also need to include gains from AA's]
  • = Damage
  • x Debuffs (always 1.5 when capped which is pretty easy. With CoE can also be 1.515, 1.55, or 1.65 depending on Brig/Swash/Necro)
  • = Real Damage

(Thanks to Palaven and Buffrat for comments I borrowed from them.)

• Stats:
  • If you hover over all of your stats in your EQ2 Character window then it will show and explain to you what that stat is doing.
  • Casting Speed: Ability Casting Speed reduces the cast times of all abilities. Abilities cannot be reduced to less than half of their base casting speed. This means that 100 in this skill will max out your cast time.
  • Ability Recovery Speed: Ability Recovery Speed reduces the delay between using abilities. Abilities cannot be reduced to less than half of their base recovery speed. This means that 100 in this skill will max our your recovery time.
  • Reuse Speed: Ability Reuse Speed reduces the recast time of abilities. Abilities cannot be reduced to less than half of their base reuse speed. This means that 100 in this skill will max out your recast time.
  • Ability Modifier: Ability Modifier increases the amounts of all abilities. It caps at 50% of the base amount (factoring in Potency) of the ability
  • Accuracy: Accuracy increases your chance to hit the target when you normally would have missed. It does not help you against parries, blocks or ripostes
  • AE Autoattack: Melee Class, Increases the chance to strike up to four targets within melee range with your primary melee weapon
  • Blocking: Block is based on the players shield, the higher the protection rating, the highr chance to block
  • Crit Bonus as high as you can get it, keep balanced with potency: Increases the amount of all of your critical hits. This does affect Auto-Attack and Abilities. This does not have a cap. Crit bonus and potency work together by stacking.
  • Critical Chance: Increases your chance to critical hit or heal.
  • Damage Per Second: Melee Class, DPS increases how hard your Auto-Attacks hit.
  • Spell Skill (Disruption, subjugation): For each point of Spell Skill over skill cap (level 95 cap is 475) will modify the minimum base damage a spell does. So you will receive a 2% boost for every 100 points of Spell Skill over skill cap. If you have 575 disruption, a spell with a base damage of 100 – 200, will now have a damage of (100*1.02=) 102 – 200. With GU66 disruption will boost minimum damage up to a cap of 40% at a skill level of 5475. This however does not appear to be linear, and at normal levels of disruption it still functions like it used to, 2% boost for every 100 points. Some spells are not effected by Spell Skill bonus. To find out what skill affects which ability, hover your mouse over the ability in the knowledge book.
  • Haste Attack Speed, all haste over 200% increases flurry by small amounts
  • Multi Attack: Melee Class, For every 100% of MultiAttack your character will strike the enemy one more time from the base auto-attack of one. Capped at 200 since ToV.
  • Potency increases the amounts of all abilities. (Does not affect auto-attack or items) Criticals and Potency should not affect item Procs

Note that Cast Speed/Recovery Speed/Reuse speeds (Casting Skills) being capped will LOWER the priority of some AA's being used in some archetypes. For example, with 100 Cast Speed, 100 Recovery Speed and 100 Reuse speed, the AA skill "Mental Recovery" on the sorcerer tree is useless.

The only exception to the above rule about Casting Skills are skills that lower the BASE reuse/cast speeds, like the Rescue abilities for some tanks.

Adornments

• White
  • I like to start with Ability Mod first for my caster classes because you have 5 slots for ability mod vs 7 for Class Stat Adornments and two of those overlap. If you start with Class Stat Adornments first you will only have 3 gear slots for Ability Mod Adornments. (This is more of a preference thing vs a rule on my part)

• Mages, Scouts
  • Crit Chance to 650 > Int/Agi > Ability Mod > Magical/Weapon Skills
• Tank / Healer - Tanks and Healers I adorn for survivability not DPS
  • Crit Chance to 650 > Sta/Wiz > Health > Block on Weapons >

Reforging

• Min Stats:
  • If you hover over all of your stats in your EQ2 Character window then it will show and explain to you what that stat is doing.
  • Casting Speed: All Classes 100 in group.
  • Ability Recovery Speed: All Classes 100 in group.
  • Ability Reuse: All Classes 100 in group - Exception may be tanks.
  • Ability Modifier: Scouts, Mages as high as you can get it I do not think its possible for anyone to max this out.
  • Accuracy Scouts around 23% is getting 100% hits on TOV Raid mobs.
  • AE Autoattack: Scouts 60% - 80%
  • Avoidance: Tank 80% if possible; Clerics (inquis/templars) as high as possible IF you take Shield Ally.
  • Blocking: Tank 80% if possible; Clerics (inquis/templars) as high as possible IF you take Shield Ally.
  • Crit Bonus As high as you can get it, keep balanced with potency:
  • Critical Chance: All Classes 650 for Raiding TOV
  • Damage Per Second: Melee Class 200 or higher.
  • Disruption: Mages: 1000
  • Haste All Melee Classes - 200
  • Health Tanks / Healers as high as you can get it.
  • Multi Attack:All Melee Class's - 200
  • Potency Casters As high as you can get it, keep balanced with potency: Note: Warlocks start out with a 1.5 Crit Modifier which is in essence a 50% crit bonus boost so until you've got 50% more potency then crit bonus you get more out of potency after that it pretty much evens out.