I have some general questions about Animists

So I leveled my Animist (almost exclusively solo) to level 45 but I still have questions.

1. If my plan is to solo farm PVE, can I stay 50 Creeping spec and still be effective?
I've been hearing a lot about split Verd/Creep spec, but I just don't like Verd at all.

2. I've been placing all my pets on top of one another. Are there advantages to placing shrooms in a certain pattern?

3. Verd is weird. You PBAOE through your main pet, correct? The other shrooms just give one-time buffs?

4. Speaking of Verd, do you set your main pet back (outside aggro range), set him to Aggro, and then pull multiple mobs to your pet, and then cast the 15s Absorb buff and then PBAOE all down? Is that the basic strategy?

Thanks. I know I'm annoying asking questions.

Wed 9 Sep 2020 2:32 AM by darkstar00

DinoTriz wrote: ↑
Tue 8 Sep 2020 5:36 PM
So I leveled my Animist (almost exclusively solo) to level 45 but I still have questions.

1. If my plan is to solo farm PVE, can I stay 50 Creeping spec and still be effective?
I've been hearing a lot about split Verd/Creep spec, but I just don't like Verd at all.

Yes, you don't need verd or arb you can go full 50 creep. I dont use any spells from the other lines and im 45 creep / 29 Arb... if i wanted to buy a single respec stone i would to go 50 creep but im lazy so i don't.

2. I've been placing all my pets on top of one another. Are there advantages to placing shrooms in a certain pattern?

I place my pets in a line or "wall". There are a lot of ways to place the shrooms but clumping them is just generally not a good idea for the simple reason its hard to see when they start dieing as opposed to if they were spaced out. Also, forming a line helps with certain farm spots.

Use groundset macros to cast your turrets faster. I only use the 500 one.

3. Verd is weird. You PBAOE through your main pet, correct? The other shrooms just give one-time buffs?

Yeah, good for group leveling though.

4. Speaking of Verd, do you set your main pet back (outside aggro range), set him to Aggro, and then pull multiple mobs to your pet, and then cast the 15s Absorb buff and then PBAOE all down? Is that the basic strategy?

Sounds about right.

Thanks. I know I'm annoying asking questions.

Comments in the quotes.

No, your questions aren't annoying. Ani is a weird class to figure out... took me a while to get the hang of it.

Also, you shouldn't have lvled solo... every group wants a verd Ani

Wed 9 Sep 2020 3:21 AM by gotwqqd

Don’t clump

Put down main pet and shrooms in a pattern that has the object of aggro if mobs and causing it to move between them.

Wed 9 Sep 2020 12:04 PM by Seigmoraig

1. If my plan is to solo farm PVE, can I stay 50 Creeping spec and still be effective?

You can but being 45 Creep/29 Verd is better. 45-50 Creep gives very little advantage. You get the long timer abs buff that helps your main pet stay alive longer, and you have the 29 pbaoe which helps in some situations.
I personally like 37creep / 39 Verd the best because it gives you the most options. I like to change up my routine, sometimes I will chain pull oj mobs and sometimes I will body pull whole camps of green mobs. 37 creep does just fine pulling OJs and does a lot better when you body pull camps of green mobs since you can nuke them down that much faster with the 39 pbaoe. You can also do Fins groups with the split spec just fine for another change of pace

2. I've been placing all my pets on top of one another. Are there advantages to placing shrooms in a certain pattern?

I always clump them.. I have my main pet behind and my fnf clumped like 500-600 units in front. It doesn't bother me that it's harder to see them die because I systematically recast a couple after each pull.

3. Verd is weird. You PBAOE through your main pet, correct? The other shrooms just give one-time buffs
Yes you can spam the pbaoe while your pet is being attacked which is the backbone of the farming groups in Hibernia. You cast the long duration abs buff on your pet and you can cast the short duration abs buff on top of that just as the mob train arrives

4. Speaking of Verd, do you set your main pet back (outside aggro range), set him to Aggro, and then pull multiple mobs to your pet, and then cast the 15s Absorb buff and then PBAOE all down? Is that the basic strategy?

I only do this when I am soloing greencons (I might be doing it wrong but it works real well) I set up like I would if soloing OJ/Red cons with my main pet out and a bunch of FnF turrets in front. Then I go and body pull the entire camp and sprint back and once I am a few feet past my main pet I start to spam pbaoe and I don't even bother with the short duration ABS buff since the mobs die do fast (If I was at Fins I would definitely cast the abs buff). Having the FnF boys out helps me lose the aggro of the first few mobs so that I can get my first cast out easily to aggro the train

Wed 9 Sep 2020 12:15 PM by Bradekes

DinoTriz wrote: ↑
Tue 8 Sep 2020 5:36 PM
So I leveled my Animist (almost exclusively solo) to level 45 but I still have questions.
Thanks.

So if you want what I believe to be the best overall rounded animist spec I would go 37creeping 39 verdant. If you run rvr task til rr3 you will have comp 50 creeping.

The reason you only really want comp 50 creep is to give focus bonus to your baseline FnF creep pets. Having a bit of extra damage on your main pet is pointless as it will be close to 6% of your overall dps and adding 30-50dmg to it's nuke isn't worth having over the level 39 verdant aoe, which hits really hard.

You can also cast your high abs low duration buff on your main pet before pulls, and the next cool reason to have high verdant is your baseline pet heal will also get your focus bonus and lower its power usage.

This spec also lets you rvr in a zerg, nuking with your baseline creep or if you are brave enough you can throw your main pet in the middle of clustered enemies and spam your 39 pet pbaoe and win some fights.

So conclusion, you can solo - you can group - you can rvr

Wed 9 Sep 2020 12:26 PM by DinoTriz

Awesome, thanks for the info guys.

I think you've convinced me to go 39 Verd/37 Creep. When I tried Verd, I wasn't using any Forest Hearts from the Creep baseline. I see now that I should have been using those.

Another quick couple of questions:

1. So say your Verd main pet was set on Defensive (by default), when you cast your AOE Briar spell, does that also cause your main pet to taunt since the spell technically casts through the pet?

2. The PBT shrooms, do they only cast one buff or do they repeatedly cast PBT throughout their 30 second lifespan?

Wed 9 Sep 2020 12:42 PM by Seigmoraig

1. So say your Verd main pet was set on Defensive (by default), when you cast your AOE Briar spell, does that also cause your main pet to taunt since the spell technically casts through the pet?

Your verd pet does indeed pull the aggro and it can hold it through 3 bombers in Fins groups

2. The PBT shrooms, do they only cast one buff or do they repeatedly cast PBT throughout their 30 second lifespan?

I actually don't know since I never use it, would be fairly easy to test though with a grey mob smacking you

Wed 9 Sep 2020 12:46 PM by Bradekes

DinoTriz wrote: ↑
Wed 9 Sep 2020 12:26 PM
Awesome, thanks for the info guys.

I think you've convinced me to go 39 Verd/37 Creep. When I tried Verd, I wasn't using any Forest Hearts from the Creep baseline. I see now that I should have been using those.

Another quick couple of questions:

1. So say your Verd main pet was set on Defensive (by default), when you cast your AOE Briar spell, does that also cause your main pet to taunt since the spell technically casts through the pet?

2. The PBT shrooms, do they only cast one buff or do they repeatedly cast PBT throughout their 30 second lifespan?

You can use either main pet btw they are always set to a % of your level no matter what level pet you're using. And no your pet will stay on passive.

The bubble pets die after they hit their target they do not pulse. You do have ablative pet that will continue to cast after you summon it but it only lasts 1 minute and will spam random targets.

A couple of tricks with your ground targets. You can just put all your hearts in 1 spot and then i usually put my main pet about 500units behind them from the mobs. Your main pet will always draw aggro off your hearts unless it's too far away ftom your hearts.

Also your pet summon say range of 1000 but that ground target will rarely work i create a 950 range gt instead.

For RvR you want some specific range GT. Most aoe are 350 units and the only one that deviates from that AFAIK is Sorcerer mezz at 400. So I use gt ranges of 0 351 702 for mid fights so aoes don't hit all my pets at once but it tricks the enemy into thinking they will be able to kill them all with a couple aoe dot they will actually only be hitting a single shroom.

For alb I use 0 401 & 802 gt ranges. Best pattern is plus sign with 702 or 802 between the ends of your plus sign.

Wed 9 Sep 2020 2:38 PM by darkstar00

I forgot to mention i use the lvl 43 turrets and also have serenity 3. I might RVR more to get seren 4.... i dont have MCL as its not really useful for me in PVE farming personally.

I personally like just using the turrets... less work and less to micro manage... to each their own.

Wed 9 Sep 2020 3:13 PM by Bradekes

darkstar00 wrote: ↑
Wed 9 Sep 2020 2:38 PM
I forgot to mention i use the lvl 43 turrets and also have serenity 3. I might RVR more to get seren 4.... i dont have MCL as its not really useful for me in PVE farming personally.

I personally like just using the turrets... less work and less to micro manage... to each their own.

MCL > serenity. Mcl has 3min cooldown mcl 2 does 60% of your mana every 3min that is very useful vs having to sit to recover IMO. You should have Tinder to make up for no serenity.. if he gets 3L0 at 50 he can have mcl 3 100% mana regen on 3min timer thats pretty huge. Especially if you're running raids you'll constantly be oop if you follow the zerg

Wed 9 Sep 2020 3:18 PM by DinoTriz

Bradekes wrote: ↑
Wed 9 Sep 2020 3:13 PM
MCL > serenity. Mcl has 3min cooldown mcl 2 does 60% of your mana every 3min that is very useful vs having to sit to recover IMO. You should have Tinder to make up for no serenity.. if he gets 3L0 at 50 he can have mcl 3 100% mana regen on 3min timer thats pretty huge. Especially if you're running raids you'll constantly be oop if you follow the zerg

I currently have Serenity 2 and MCL 1.

Last night while XPing, I didn't even need any power pots or tinders.

Granted, it was a small camp. Probably was only killing 4 yellow mobs every 30-45 seconds but still, my mana was always full.

The hard cap on Power regen is 6, right? So with Red Power pots (+4), you'd only need Serenity 2?

Wed 9 Sep 2020 3:32 PM by darkstar00

DinoTriz wrote: ↑
Wed 9 Sep 2020 3:18 PM
Bradekes wrote: ↑
Wed 9 Sep 2020 3:13 PM
MCL > serenity. Mcl has 3min cooldown mcl 2 does 60% of your mana every 3min that is very useful vs having to sit to recover IMO. You should have Tinder to make up for no serenity.. if he gets 3L0 at 50 he can have mcl 3 100% mana regen on 3min timer thats pretty huge. Especially if you're running raids you'll constantly be oop if you follow the zerg

I currently have Serenity 2 and MCL 1.

Last night while XPing, I didn't even need any power pots or tinders.

Granted, it was a small camp. Probably was only killing 4 yellow mobs every 30-45 seconds but still, my mana was always full.

The hard cap on Power regen is 6, right? So with Red Power pots (+4), you'd only need Serenity 2?

I don't rvr on my animist... so MCL is useless to me. I farm 5-6 yellows and strong draught of power is all i need. I have around 10-20 secs of downtime which is just enough to regen power / salvage before mobs start spawning again... pull in around 4-5p an hr.

Wed 9 Sep 2020 4:24 PM by Bradekes

I would argue MCL not being useless to you. It takes approx 1 minute to summon a full batch of shrooms and 2minutes for them to die. That's 3 minutes perfectly for MCL timer to have 100% mana back and rinse and repeat. This also allows for every play style to be done with one character instead of having to retemplate multiple characters for different purposes.

Fri 11 Sep 2020 2:45 AM by darkstar00

I respecced to 37 creep / 39 verd to try it out and it was too much work where i farm... back to full creep lol.

Fri 11 Sep 2020 3:40 AM by Bradekes

darkstar00 wrote: ↑
Fri 11 Sep 2020 2:45 AM
I respecced to 37 creep / 39 verd to try it out and it was too much work where i farm... back to full creep lol.

37creep only works if your rr3 for focus to FnF turrets which lowers your mana use. You literally gain nothing in creeping that enhances your solo ability other than focus to hearts

Fri 11 Sep 2020 3:55 AM by darkstar00

i'm 2l6 so it was comp 49.

Fri 11 Sep 2020 11:20 AM by Bradekes

darkstar00 wrote: ↑
Fri 11 Sep 2020 3:55 AM
i'm 2l6 so it was comp 49.

Focus from your staff only works if your comp level equals the level of the spell. Level 50 forest heart need 37+13. That is why I stressed getting 3L0 before going that spec. It's pretty easy to get 3L0 just run with the zerg over the weekend

But if you're using level 43 hearts like you said it wouldn't make a difference and I'm not understanding where the extra work is coming from.

You don't need to use the verdant spells if you find them cumbersome while you're solo. You will do just as well as 50 creeping with 37 if you just wanna have your hearts killing mobs.

But if you find you want to group up that's when you're going to use verdant spells and you give some versatility to your character.

Fri 11 Sep 2020 12:25 PM by DinoTriz

I also respecced to 39 Verd/37 Creep (well, almost 37 since I'm only level 47) but I really enjoy it.

I'm not RR3 yet, so the mana usage is somewhat intense but I feel as if I don't have to heal my pets as much as I did with Creep.

It also feels like I can take on way more mobs. I found myself trying to pull as many as I could and I never got overwhelmed like I would with Creep.

Fri 11 Sep 2020 2:14 PM by Noashakra

Serenity 3 and aug acuity + ethereal bond
You don't need anything else, no tinder no pot. You plant non stop and sit to recover your Mana after the 15th. And you put your shrooms in the middle of the spot.
Mcl is horrible imo, too many times you can't fire it because of combat.

Fri 11 Sep 2020 2:33 PM by darkstar00

Bradekes wrote: ↑
Fri 11 Sep 2020 11:20 AM
darkstar00 wrote: ↑
Fri 11 Sep 2020 3:55 AM
i'm 2l6 so it was comp 49.

Focus from your staff only works if your comp level equals the level of the spell. Level 50 forest heart need 37+13. That is why I stressed getting 3L0 before going that spec. It's pretty easy to get 3L0 just run with the zerg over the weekend

But if you're using level 43 hearts like you said it wouldn't make a difference and I'm not understanding where the extra work is coming from.

You don't need to use the verdant spells if you find them cumbersome while you're solo. You will do just as well as 50 creeping with 37 if you just wanna have your hearts killing mobs.

But if you find you want to group up that's when you're going to use verdant spells and you give some versatility to your character.

where i farm its just a lot to manage with casting the hearts, healing the tank pet, casting the PBAOE, plus having time to salvage and rest.

It didn't work well for me i wasn't doing nearly as good as just throwing down all hearts.

Fri 11 Sep 2020 2:35 PM by darkstar00

Noashakra wrote: ↑
Fri 11 Sep 2020 2:14 PM
Serenity 3 and aug acuity + ethereal bond
You don't need anything else, no tinder no pot. You plant non stop and sit to recover your Mana after the 15th. And you put your shrooms in the middle of the spot.
Mcl is horrible imo, too many times you can't fire it because of combat.

Wow thanks, maybe i will try those RAs. Yeah that's why i dont use MCL for farming... the in combat message makes it useless.

What RR do you recommend for Ani PVE?

Fri 11 Sep 2020 2:48 PM by DinoTriz

I never had a problem with MCL personally.

There are times where you need to frantically cast it before one of your shrooms decides to put you in combat though.

Never felt like I needed more than MCL 1.

Fri 11 Sep 2020 2:55 PM by darkstar00

DinoTriz wrote: ↑
Fri 11 Sep 2020 2:48 PM
I never had a problem with MCL personally.

There are times where you need to frantically cast it before one of your shrooms decides to put you in combat though.

Never felt like I needed more than MCL 1.

My farming system works well with just creep. I use 1 spell and a power pot that's it... the most thinking i do is forming my nice beautiful wall... lol.

Fri 11 Sep 2020 3:09 PM by DinoTriz

darkstar00 wrote: ↑
Fri 11 Sep 2020 2:55 PM
My farming system works well with just creep. I use 1 spell and a power pot that's it... the most thinking i do is forming my nice beautiful wall... lol.

So are you just using Forest Hearts? No main pet? No debuff shrooms?

Fri 11 Sep 2020 3:19 PM by darkstar00

DinoTriz wrote: ↑
Fri 11 Sep 2020 3:09 PM
darkstar00 wrote: ↑
Fri 11 Sep 2020 2:55 PM
My farming system works well with just creep. I use 1 spell and a power pot that's it... the most thinking i do is forming my nice beautiful wall... lol.

So are you just using Forest Hearts? No main pet? No debuff shrooms?

Yeah. I actually just respecced out of 37 creep / 39 verd and went 50 creep... so i am using the lvl 50 hearts now.

I was using 1-2 spore eruptors but it honestly doesn't matter for yellows... so i just throw down all turrets now. If i did org con or higher i would prob throw down a few melee debuff shrooms.

Yeah while i rest i just spam my salvage macro buttons and salvage what i can before mobs spawn again.

Edit: I think i'm going to go zerg surf and get to rr3+... so i can invest in those other RAs that are recommended.

Fri 11 Sep 2020 3:57 PM by Bradekes

Noashakra wrote: ↑
Fri 11 Sep 2020 2:14 PM
Serenity 3 and aug acuity + ethereal bond
You don't need anything else, no tinder no pot. You plant non stop and sit to recover your Mana after the 15th. And you put your shrooms in the middle of the spot.
Mcl is horrible imo, too many times you can't fire it because of combat.

Putting your plants in middle of spot? You'd have no down time to recover. I see your point of increasing your power pool and having serenity but I don't think that would be enough to keep shrooms up in the middle of the camp.. just getting that started would be a nightmare haha..

all the mobs are gonna kill your first shroom then jump on you before you get a chance to get a good stack going. Not to mention, you'd also not have tinder effect and regening power a lot slower while casting your shrooms in combat and be completely oop before you could get half your shrooms down.

Creep animist is one of the most power hungry classes I've played. MCL isn't bad or a waste, sure You'd have more power in combat with your suggestion but it wouldn't be enough to maintain unless you had ungodly rr for a farmer. How are you salvaging with no down time?

Fri 11 Sep 2020 4:56 PM by darkstar00

Bradekes wrote: ↑
Fri 11 Sep 2020 3:57 PM
Noashakra wrote: ↑
Fri 11 Sep 2020 2:14 PM
Serenity 3 and aug acuity + ethereal bond
You don't need anything else, no tinder no pot. You plant non stop and sit to recover your Mana after the 15th. And you put your shrooms in the middle of the spot.
Mcl is horrible imo, too many times you can't fire it because of combat.

Putting your plants in middle of spot? You'd have no down time to recover. I see your point of increasing your power pool and having serenity but I don't think that would be enough to keep shrooms up in the middle of the camp.. just getting that started would be a nightmare haha..

all the mobs are gonna kill your first shroom then jump on you before you get a chance to get a good stack going. Not to mention, you'd also not have tinder effect and regening power a lot slower while casting your shrooms in combat and be completely oop before you could get half your shrooms down.

Creep animist is one of the most power hungry classes I've played. MCL isn't bad or a waste, sure You'd have more power in combat with your suggestion but it wouldn't be enough to maintain unless you had ungodly rr for a farmer. How are you salvaging with no down time?

What I do is lay down 5-6 turrets in a spot where they only pull 2 of the mobs. Then after those 2 mobs die I start laying the shrooms closer to where I actually want them. That way you get into a good flow where you aren't fighting a full respawn every time... just 1-2 as they respawn.

You can't just setup your turrets in the middle of the mobs from the get go... gotta stagger them at the start to get going.... after that you are good and have time to rest/ salvage indefinitely.

Its best to do a 5-6 spawn otherwise you don't get enough downtime between kills. I make around 4.5p an hour this way.

Fri 11 Sep 2020 5:12 PM by DinoTriz

Interesting, I'll have to try that out.

Sat 12 Sep 2020 4:06 PM by Noashakra

Yes see above, I do the same. Step by step I love forward to the spot.

Fri 25 Sep 2020 11:28 PM by Vhiktor

Not to hijack a great thread, but I am very new to DAoC. Never played "Live", but I was over a friends house this past weekend and watched them play here on Phoenix for "The Event". I was gobsmacked at the incredible fun that was going on. I was wondering if Animist would be a good beginning class to start with and level, and for the Animist class does race and starting points make any difference other than spell casting speed? My friend suggested a Blademaster or a Valewalker.

Thanks in advance for any kind advice!

Fri 25 Sep 2020 11:36 PM by Bradekes

Vhiktor wrote: ↑
Fri 25 Sep 2020 11:28 PM
Not to hijack a great thread, but I am very new to DAoC. Never played "Live", but I was over a friends house this past weekend and watched them play here on Phoenix for "The Event". I was gobsmacked at the incredible fun that was going on. I was wondering if Animist would be a good beginning class to start with and level, and for the Animist class does race and starting points make any difference other than spell casting speed? My friend suggested a Blademaster or a Valewalker.

Thanks in advance for any kind advice!

Animist is a very fun class to play. I prefer Celt over Sylvan for race to start with 75 dex. I think your friend is right though, if you haven't played the game before animist is probably not the best choice for a first time player. First of all, you're already going to have a lot of questions about the game, and I don't think your friend will be able to handle noob questions as well as all the unique animist questions to start off with. I would suggest playing an easier class, blademaster is good as it is a very basic class with only melee styles.

If you're sold on casters I would try void eldritch to start off with.