Animist changes - Phoenix Freeshard

At the time of this posting, the wiki lists no class changes for animists, while in fact there are perhaps more than any other class. I'll list the ones I know; feel free to add.
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Petspam is capped to 14 FnFs in an area, whether yours or somebody else's. I'm not sure how big an "area" is. The 2018-12-13 patch was supposed to make non-petspam pets (not Animists' or theurgists'

not count toward the limit; I have not personally tested this. You can always pop your controlled pet even if the area petspam cap has been reached.

FnFs cannot be placed too close to an enemy keep. This is calculated by where the caster is standing, not where the groundtarget is set, so you will be unable to stand inside the no-no radius and plant outside the radius, either. You can plant your controlled right next to the keep, no problem, or inside if the door is open.

FnFs draw aggro to the main pet, not to themselves. There are exceptions, the first obviously if you don't have a controlled pet out. The second is if the controlled pet is approximately 700+ units away from the FnF.

Bombers draw substantial aggro, whereas on other freeshards/live?, they draw almost no aggro. On other freeshards/live?, it takes appreciable bomber damage to pull a MOB off of a turret; on Phoenix, the required damage is trivial and usually the first bomber that lands.

FnF's aggro range is shorter than other freeshards/live?, about 700-800 units instead of 1000+. This also applies to the controlled in aggressive mode, but it has what appears to be a normal range for the "attack targeted" command.

Verdant vent shrooms have a casting range of 1000 units, equal to other 'shrooms. On other freeshards/live?, the range is 1500.

Shrooms in general and FnFs in particular had a number of HP / defense / damage tweaks and presumably no longer match other freeshards/live?, but by how much I wouldn't know.

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Thu 3 Jan 2019 10:43 AM by relvinian

I remember reading how shrooms no longer target mezzed targets here.

I never tested it but it sure made interesting reading.

Sounded to me like you could run an animist in a group and after you win a mez start dumping shrooms.

Then when your chanter stuns some poor sap all the shrooms will suddenly kill him, rinse repeat.

Never saw that before on any version of daoc.

Sat 5 Jan 2019 9:14 PM by Thinal

Shrooms never were supposed to target mezzed players, and it was a bug when they did. There are timing factors for <50 FnFs that can start to cast before the target is mezzed and will not stop the cast after the target is mezzed, but level 50 FnFs cast instantly.

I was told that was the case for rooted targets as well, but my own testing confirmed that they would attack rooted targets on Uthgard. It's easier to test that since animists have their own root.

So some of the updates moved us more toward "standard" behavior, and some moved us away.

Mon 14 Jan 2019 2:45 PM by Thinal

Update regarding #2 "FnFs cannot be placed too close to an enemy keep." On Saturday, I participated in taking Thidranki Faste, and I was able to summon FnFs inside the outer wall and place them anywhere inside or outside of the keep. In beta, I was unable to place FnFs close at all to enemy keeps. This means at least one of three things:

1. This change was reverted between my last keep take in beta and now, and there are no restrictions.
2. The rule only applies to keeps with intact outer doors. (I did not participate in killing the outer door, just the inner door.)
3. This rule only applies to frontier keeps and not battleground CKs.

As soon as I can test to see which of these applies, I'll post it on this thread.

Mon 14 Jan 2019 11:59 PM by relvinian

I would think that an animist would be good in an 8 man.

If you get mez off you can drop tanglers which wont target anyone or break the mez and then if someone gets unmez they instantly rooted.

Am i wrong?

Thu 17 Jan 2019 2:08 PM by Ebenezer

Is verdant pbaoe damage correct (similar to live?)

Or is it using the old broken version where it was figured off the non-existent int of the pet? (like another recent freeshard had)

Fri 18 Jan 2019 9:36 PM by Thinal

First, regarding my last post. I have been able to plant FnFs very close to enemy CKs in the battlegrounds, so it wasn't because the door was open. Either they reverted the nerf, or it only applies to frontier keeps.

Second,

Ebenezer wrote: ↑
Thu 17 Jan 2019 2:08 PM
Is verdant pbaoe damage correct (similar to live?)

Or is it using the old broken version where it was figured off the non-existent int of the pet? (like another recent freeshard had)

Phoenix happily uses the correct version of the Verdant PBAOE, making it a very viable spec line here.
EDIT: though I should mention, before you go following old Verdant guides, that they often recommended that you use a level 2 Creeping controlled instead of the Verdant controlled, and that's not viable on Phoenix. Pet level caps here, and your controlled would be grey very quickly. So you gotta use the godawful Verdant controlled. Still better than the other freeshard.

Fri 18 Jan 2019 10:00 PM by Thinal

relvinian wrote: ↑
Mon 14 Jan 2019 11:59 PM
I would think that an animist would be good in an 8 man.

If you get mez off you can drop tanglers which wont target anyone or break the mez and then if someone gets unmez they instantly rooted.

Am i wrong?

This is probably the first legitimate use of tanglers I've ever seen. Usually I see a moron put them inside a stack of damage FnFs.

The downside I see is that the range on the tangler would be appreciably less than an AOE root, so you'd have to run into range to plant one. Also, wouldn't FnFs be better? Pile a huge stack that sits dormant until people get popped, then facemelt them one by one.

I like to PvE in the BGs, and it's always awesome when some assassin tries to perf me and he's dead as soon as he breaks stealth.