Archaegeo Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Now that the class has been around, what do you think is the best point distribution while levelling up? Carnage looks like it, but I keep reading anni? New to the class, but very familiar with the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
araphina Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 I think Rage makes a great spec for leveling up because its main attack is AE and pretty much every pull from 1-49 is multi-mob. Charge -> choke -> smash. This will be all it takes to completely finish a lot of pulls. Of course your life will get way easier at 40 when you will have crush to power up your smashes and not have to wait 1 minute for each charged up smash. I tried all 3 when I was leveling, but once I landed on rage in late 30s there was no looking back. The prominence of 3 mob pulls really makes the AE spec excel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeeFiFoFum Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Both carnage and anni are garbage for leveling. Marauders get torn apart in even basic mob fights. If you cant just kill them all fast be ready to channel hatred in game and in rl a lot. Most mobs will be dead before you an even stack your dots on them anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pwnyride Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 I enjoy anni for lvling, mostly for the heals that you get from dots, OFc they are kinda worthless when the mobs dont last very long, but when comming across an elite, it helps me survive alot longer. While rage def helps put down normal large packs quickly, i find when im faced against something that actually takes so ummph that the survivabilty i get from anni helps me much more. But honestly i think that the lvling spec is based more off the playstyle of the player. There are 3 to choose from and the most efficent one will be the one u enjoy playing more because well, ull play more when having fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hadoken Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Both carnage and anni are garbage for leveling. Marauders get torn apart in even basic mob fights. If you cant just kill them all fast be ready to channel hatred in game and in rl a lot. Most mobs will be dead before you an even stack your dots on them anyway. This hasn't been my experience at all, levelling as annihilation. If you're running double dps like I do you tear through groups of regular mobs with ease, and on strongs/elites you use the dots/cloak and get really good survivability along with damage. Of course you have to rest a little after a lot of fights but really the fights go so fast it's a net gain over using a healer pet and maintaining max health. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trevah Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 This hasn't been my experience at all, levelling as annihilation. If you're running double dps like I do you tear through groups of regular mobs with ease, and on strongs/elites you use the dots/cloak and get really good survivability along with damage. Of course you have to rest a little after a lot of fights but really the fights go so fast it's a net gain over using a healer pet and maintaining max health. I just got Jaesa yesterday and have been considering using her over Quinn per your exact reasoning. Do you use Jaesa or Vette? And please tell me it's Jaesa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roda Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 (edited) Like Hadoken, I'm also running double dps as an Anni spec. While I originally used Vette, I'm finding much better performance from Jaesa. To be honest, I'm not sure whether this is because she's in melee to eat some of the potential aggro or because I've been a bit better about keeping her gear up to date. Either way, it was a night and day difference once I switched over to Jaesa. I'll still use Quinn in specific rare marathon fights. However for most of the content, soloing with Jaesa is completely viable. Using the +Defense relic, Cloak of Pain, and Saber Ward on a rotation while soloing really reduces your down time. Therefore it isn't as bad as some people portray about how Anni characters "NEED" Quinn all of the time. Edited March 1, 2012 by Roda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hadoken Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 I just got Jaesa yesterday and have been considering using her over Quinn per your exact reasoning. Do you use Jaesa or Vette? And please tell me it's Jaesa Jaesa now, though Vette was great for the time I had her. Both are very good. I've put Jaesa on elites by herself and watched her kill them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EasymodeX Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Vette's technically better, but not by a significant amount. She and Jaesa both have good damage output, but Vette has medium armor and faster target switching due to being range. Vette also has more AOE pew pew especially if you enable her AOE stance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HBninjaX Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 (edited) Vette's technically better, but not by a significant amount. She and Jaesa both have good damage output, but Vette has medium armor and faster target switching due to being range. Vette also has more AOE pew pew especially if you enable her AOE stance. Glad I invested in Vette, she's my deeps of choice for companions plus her voice acting and lines are better, which is a bonus Edited March 1, 2012 by HBninjaX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrHaterade Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 If you cant just kill them all fast be ready to channel hatred in game and in rl a lot. That made me giggle. I lost count of all the times I had to walk away from the keyboard to avoid punching my screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EasymodeX Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Heh, I ended up running with Quinn 24x7 though, because I fought every champ I came across. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verfallen Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Leveled as carnage, recently respeced anni. The heals aren't substantial, but you sure notice them especially since berserk adds its own heal, and make sure critical hits to proc your Talented DoT healing as well. Makes a very fine healing burst. Good use of retaliation can also keep up cloak of pain 100% of the time up. Add the reduction on Obfuscate cooldown, you get impressive survibility. I kinda miss Carnage burst, but being able to take on Champion mobs solo with Quinn makes up for it, imo. As far as group goes, AoE spamming, DoT on the strongest, annihilate are nice tools to male shortwork of most standard/strong you meet. TLDR version : Carnage = Awesome burst Anni = survibility and bit more sustained DPS. Burst are somewhat less impressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hadoken Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Good use of retaliation can also keep up cloak of pain 100% of the time up. On this, is it standard for people to use retaliation? I found the rage cost too high personally, and while 100% uptime sounds great I really prefer killing things faster. I mean 30s of every 60s isn't bad to begin with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EasymodeX Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 (edited) Retaliation is: 1. In general, always efficient for Annihilation, Rage, or pre-Massacre Carnage. 2. In PvE, always effective for Annihilation, pre-Massacre Carnage, or pre-Crush Rage. 3. In PvP, only effective for stacked burst moments for any spec. I mean 30s of every 60s isn't bad to begin with. When you're tanking a 350k hp champ, 50/60s >>> 30/60s. And 45/60 means you can basically use it every pull. Edited March 1, 2012 by EasymodeX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hadoken Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Fair enough, will start using it more. Though since I don't bother soloing champs (no real point IMO, takes too long and no real reward) I probably won't pick up the cloak skill for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verfallen Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Fair enough, will start using it more. Though since I don't bother soloing champs (no real point IMO, takes too long and no real reward) I probably won't pick up the cloak skill for it. Since annihilation does not use vicious slash as much, rather than use this when the rest is on CD, I use retaliation. Doesnt happen often you have all CD off for more than a sec or so. With the ability making cloak of pain generate rage, it pays for itself. On other situation, if you aint short on rage, its a freebe attack out of the GCD, which effectively increase the DPS. Jug use it more than a mara, but its still relevant imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archaegeo Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 I think I was more asking, where would you have your points at 15, 20, 25, 30? 15 now, and just cant get a feel yet for what tree will help me get to 20 easiest, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murmurrr Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Since annihilation does not use vicious slash as much, rather than use this when the rest is on CD, I use retaliation. Doesnt happen often you have all CD off for more than a sec or so. With the ability making cloak of pain generate rage, it pays for itself. On other situation, if you aint short on rage, its a freebe attack out of the GCD, which effectively increase the DPS. Jug use it more than a mara, but its still relevant imo. Why? Yes, VS costs the same as retaliation, but it returns 1 rage and also has a 33% chance of resetting your rupture cooldown. Your annihilate has a 66% chance of resetting rupture, which means a decent amount of the time you won't be able to piggyback your ruptures by using annihilate, and throwing a VS in there to add another chance to get your rupture back, I would imagine, would lead to a potential dps increase over choosing retaliation. I could see using it though if your annihilate successfully reset your rupture cooldown, because then you could just perform an assault at the same time. You would get 1 more net rage by using retaliation+assault instead of VS, plus it should do more damage. Huh, I never thought to try that O.o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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