LM/eagle questions

Hello,

So I've been trying out the eagle lately but I have a few questions. My LM is lvl 51.


1.) Is there ANY way to get him out of the middle of my screen?

2.) The interrupts are automatic right? Are there solid numbers or percentages for interrupts? Does the skill have a CD?

3.) I think I've read somewhere in here that the eagle can restore power...is this correct and how does that work?

4.) When the eagle flanks what should be the first two things I do?

5.) What is your skill rotation when you go for a...lets say 3 mob pull? Please include the eagle in this rotation. Also, I'm to noobish to know all the acronyms so if you could spell them out I'd appreciate it.

6.) Do you guys use innocence?

7.) Still with me?

8.) What are the must haves for the book and staff?

Thank you for your time.

I'll try and answer as many of your questions as I can.

1) I do not know of any way to move your pet from it's default location relative to your LM and have it stay dynamically. You can command your pet to stay in one spot but obviously your pet is not going to follow you if you do so.

2) Yes, interrupts are automatic. I do not know of any cooldown since they occur without player intervention/action. (Not 100% sure on this answer)

3) Yes, the eagle pet provides power regeneration. It occurs automatically when you summon your eagle and as long as you are within range of your eagle it will continue to operate both in and out of combat.

4) Flanking response is combat situational. For me, when I get a flank, if my morale is high, I use staff strike for the enhanced damage and chance of a stun. If I can use some morale I use Sign of Battle:Wizardry.

5) For any pull I always start with Sign of Power: Command because it debuffs the foe without causing any aggro. With the new Knowledge of the Loremaster, I am presently experimenting with using that as well before combat starts. If I have two enemies, I will send the eagle after one and Blinding Flash the other. Finish the first one then take on the second. For a 3 pull, you can send eagle after one, Blinding Flash another, and take the third one yourself. Alternately use Cracked Earth as a root or Herb Lore to root multiple enemies.

6) I lost my innocence a long time ago... Seriously though, not sure what skill you are referring to.

7) Yep, still chugging along!

8) I assume you mean legacies on your legendary items. This is very open ended and each LM will give you a different opinion. I like to focus on enhancements to damage since I mostly solo. A LM that frequently fellowships will have different legacies. Staff Strike Cooldown is very popular. I also like legacies that increase the duration of skills such as additional Burning Embers pulses.

I am sure other LMs will have different opinions but perhaps this will be of some help.

1.) Is there ANY way to get him out of the middle of my screen?
No there isn't and as annoying as it is for you it is even worse for those in your fellowship. I try and dismiss my pets when in a public place like the bank, unless it is the lynx.

2.) The interrupts are automatic right? Are there solid numbers or percentages for interrupts? Does the skill have a CD? I believe that he does his interrupt when he first attacks and have seen that it is roughly a 15-20s cooldown.

3.) I think I've read somewhere in here that the eagle can restore power...is this correct and how does that work?
The eagle gives you and your entire fellowship a +60 in-combat power regen buff.

4.) When the eagle flanks what should be the first two things I do?
When your eagle flanks you will need to determine what area you need help with most. If you are taking a lot of damage use one of your sign of battle skills (wizards fire or wizardry) to get the heal. If you are low on power use your staff sweep skill for the power restore buff. If power and moral are good and you are traited master of the staff you can use staff strike for a chance at doing more damage.

5.) What is your skill rotation when you go for a...lets say 3 mob pull? Please include the eagle in this rotation. Also, I'm to noobish to know all the acronyms so if you could spell them out I'd appreciate it.
A 3 mob pull I would possibly start with Herb Lore, use Blinding Flash on one of the mobs (the ranged one if there is one), and then break the root on one of the mobs and burn him down, when he drops the root should be up on the non-mezzed mob so burn him down and finally the one you are keeping mezzed. If you don't have herb lore up and don't have enough room to kite the mobs to wait for the cracked earth root, you can mezz one, have the eagle tank one and take out the third (make sure to keep heals on the eagle if he needs it). You can also keep two of the mobs mezzed with blinding flash, call to valar, blinding flash. I personally generally mezz one and fight the other two, I prefer to have the eagle on my target to make taking advantage of flanks easier.

6.) Do you guys use innocence?
I do not use innocence on my LM. I know there are LMs that use it in the moors or who mostly solo it really depends on your play style and where your stats are. When leveling I used Wisdom for the Will but at level cap it is very easy to max Will and Fate so you can start using virtues to buff other stats.

7.) Still with me?
The real question is are you still with me :)

8.) What are the must haves for the book and staff?
I think LMs have quite a few nice legacies to choose from. It is really beneficial to have a grouping staff and a DPS or solo staff. Share the Power is important for grouping, Fire Lore and Ancient Craft targets is nice for instances and raids but I personally don't think they are a must have, Tactical Skills Direct damage is a must for me on all staffs, Staff Strike cooldown and Fire Skills Crit (can't remember the actual name) is another really nice legacy and a must for a lot of LMs, all other dps legacies are pretty good it just depends on your rotation. On the books all of the resist legacies are really important. I personally like having beacon of hope heal and any of the legacies that add pulses to our DoT skills. (Note: I am trying to do this from memory so I apologize if I am listing any of the legacies under the wrong LI)

Hope this helps some!

1.) Is there ANY way to get him out of the middle of my screen?
Rotate your camera? :)

2.) The interrupts are automatic right? Are there solid numbers or percentages for interrupts? Does the skill have a CD?
Yes & dunno, see above.

3.) I think I've read somewhere in here that the eagle can restore power...is this correct and how does that work?
You should see a "Nobility" buff, that adds +60 in-combat power regen to those in range.

4.) When the eagle flanks what should be the first two things I do?
Just as everyone else stated it's situational:
Low on morale? Sign of Battle (whichevers up).
Low on power? Staff Sweep
None of the above? Staff Strike (for extra dmg).

5.) What is your skill rotation when you go for a...lets say 3 mob pull? Please include the eagle in this rotation. Also, I'm to noobish to know all the acronyms so if you could spell them out I'd appreciate it.
I'll usually root them (Herb-lore), stun one & send my eagle to another. While my eagles beating on it I'll dps that one down. Whichever mob comes at me nextw ill get my/eagle's attention & the remaining one gets re-mez'd. Rinse & repeat.

6.) Do you guys use innocence?
Not sure, haven't logged in in a while so I don't remember which virtues I have traited.

7.) Still with me?
:)

8.) What are the must haves for the book and staff?
For staff I would recommend the + tac dmg legacy (not your TDR, this is a seperate legecy). Increased Light of the Rising dawn crit/dmg is nice as is burning embers dmg/pulses. As mentioned above staff strike CD is good.
On your book you'll want reductions to your debuff & dmg resists. Add'l pulses to DOTs is good. I like the Beacon of Hope increased healing but that's situational & a personal pref really.

Thanks for the info guys, that answers a lot of the questions I had.

One thing I forgot to put in the original thread.....what the HELL goes in our ranged slot? I thought they added something...?

It's coming in a future upgrade. It's only mentioned in the dev diary & that it's not quite ready for primetime...

1.) Is there ANY way to get him out of the middle of my screen?

Nope. Unfortunately, all pets are stuck (This can cause hilarious things though, with a lesser giant snowcret eagle in a confined space-- you see nothing but feathers) to follow where they path.

2.) The interrupts are automatic right? Are there solid numbers or percentages for interrupts? Does the skill have a CD?

The Eagle has an attack (Not one selectable, it's an automatic attack) called Eye Gouge. It looks like the eagle rakes the enemy with its' claws, and has the same "sonic boom"-like animation as when bats interrupt you, or the Captain's Routing Cry.

As far as percentage goes, the AI will detect if the enemy is in ANY sort of interruptable induction (a reminder, not all interruptable inductions require the induction circle), and then use the attack if it's available. After testing with some friends in the moors, it seems to be APPROXIMATELY a 15 second cooldown, although it is not an "Instant" speed skill, so it will not interrupt previous animations. (I presume it's a "Fast" speed skill though, since the eagle can seamlessly interrupt right after an animation without cooldown).

3.) I think I've read somewhere in here that the eagle can restore power...is this correct and how does that work?

As stated above, the Eagle gives the entire fellowship (and now all pets too!) a +60 In-Combat Power Regeneration buff.

As for a hard power restore, it can't do so directly. What you can do (again, as stated above), is to use Staff-Sweep once the Eagle has "Flanked!" your enemy-- this will give you a Power over Time heal (150 at level 65, 165 if Healer is traited)

4.) When the eagle flanks what should be the first two things I do?

Panic.

Hahaha nono, first thing you should do is assess the situation. Are you using your eagle to help you heal yourself, or restore power? Sign of Power: Wizardry / Wizard's Fire for self heal, Staff Sweep for power regneration. If you need the extra damage, Staff Strike.

5.) What is your skill rotation when you go for a...lets say 3 mob pull? Please include the eagle in this rotation. Also, I'm to noobish to know all the acronyms so if you could spell them out I'd appreciate it.

This is a harder question to answer, because there are so many variables. Are all the mobs ranged, or melee, or a mix? Am I Master of Nature's Fury specced, or am I specced for something else? Here's some basic outlines I use.

When MoNF specced vs Melee Targets:
- Blinding Flash isn't viable to lock one down. Start with Herb-Lore.
- Follow up with Fire-Lore, and then free ONE target with an attack (stuns dispel roots, but I like to save stuns-- and Herb-Lore is stupidly easy to break out of anyway)
- Send Eagle onto that one Target, to start a flanking chain.
- Watch two back targets. When they're down to 9 seconds or less on their root, cast Cracked Earth (when they get unrooted, they'll reroot from CE).
- DPS down my attacking target, using eagle for heals (Sign of Power: Wizardry / Wizard's Fire), or faster DPS (Staff Strike)
- Once I'm down to two targets, I can either keep refreshing CE or just sick my bird on one, and solo the other.

When NOT MoNF specced vs Melee Targets (assuming minimum 20 second mez):
- Mez one target.
- Have eagle tank the second
- Kill down my third.
- Keep mezzing up on that one target, and help eagle kill his target when finished.

When MoNF specced vs minimum 1 ranged target:
- Wind-Lore. Right away. Follow up with Fire-Lore.
- Sic eagle on one. Fire-Lore helps it tank better, while wind lore helps me tank the other 2 adds first.
- Have Eagle use Beak Rend, attempting to scoop up another target.
- Help my Eagle kill one target, then kill the one hitting me, then kill final target.

When NOT MoNF specced vs minimum 1 ranged target:
- Wind-Lore / Fire-Lore
- Mez 1 target
- Have Eagle tank one target.
- Kill remaining target, then Eagle's, then mezzed.

6.) Do you guys use innocence?

Yes. As stated before, it's very easy to cap Will and Fate, either at their soft cap or their hard cap, so I don't see a need to use Idealism / Wisdom. LM's are ranged damage, but they lack the ability to effectively, and consistently kill enemies before they reach melee range (besides, Meleeing and Staff Strike help your DPS), so I don't like relying on my paper armour to get me through.

7.) Still with me?

Um... Only in an ethereal state.

8.) What are the must haves for the book and staff?

Again, it depends on how you trait. However, things you always want to keep an eye out for (as they will help no matter how you trait)

Staff - Primary Legacies:
+ Tactical Skills Direct Damage - Even if you're not MoNF specced, I doubt you'll sit there and ONLY throw out debuffs. Every bit of DPS counts.
+ Fire Skills Critical Multiplier - Same as above.
+ Burning Embers Initial Damage - Your most spammable, and stable DPS skill, more bang for the buck basically.

Staff - Secondary Legacies:
+ Share the Power Increase - Not as important soloing, but you definitely want a staff with this for instances, to maximize your efficiency.
- Staff Strike Cooldown - Amazing when soloing. Pretty much abuses the Master of the Staff trait (Like you'd ever take it off :P)
+ Burning Embers Range - Lets you start combat from further (remember BE applies a slow too, so they require more time to get to you), as well as lets you avoid nastier AoE's from some bosses in instances.
+ Lightning Skills Critical Multiplier / Lightning Skills Damage - You don't have many lightning skills (Storm Lore, Lightning Strike), and their cooldowns are horrendous. However, they hit hard when you (are finally able to) use them, and this makes it more potent.

Book - Primary Legacies:
- Target Resistance (Damaging / Debuffing / Fire) - Bread and butter of your books. Use them, love them, abuse them.
+ Fire skills Critical Rating - Self explanatory.

Book - Secondary Legacies:
+ Beacon of Hope Healing - Your heal is on a horrid cooldown as well. You want to heal as much as you can whenever you use it (Great for spot healing in fellowships, I've healed 3k on a crit heal before. :>)
+ Morale - Sign of Wild Protection - Great if you're a pet based Lore-Master. Ever seen a pet that can rival a Heavy Armour's morale count?
+ Threat - Sign of Wild Rage - Again for the pet based Lore-Master. We all know how pets fail at holding aggro, but I've seen this go as high as +25%, which isn't laughable.

I know some people like the Damage over Time pulses, but I actually dislike it. I find that if you level that too high, your DoT's stay on for perhaps too long, and if you need to mez a target that you've accidentally placed a DoT on before, it'll only be there longer. To each their own-- I give the actual legacy itself merit, but it can also prove to be a double edged sword.

5.) What is your skill rotation when you go for a...lets say 3 mob pull? Please include the eagle in this rotation. Also, I'm to noobish to know all the acronyms so if you could spell them out I'd appreciate it.

All of the above answers are good. However, I haven't seen this question answered from the AOE Tank Mage perspective at high level, so I wanted to address that.

The AOE Tank Mage is a variant on the tank'n'flank LM, which has been discussed on this forum for the past couple of years. The philosophy here is that YOU are the main tank, not your pet. Your pet adds DPS, but mostly is there to flank so you can heal or do additional melee damage with your staff (you're the tank, so you're in melee range, and a good portion of your damage will come from melee). Usually you have traited Sword and Staff and Eagle, and have gone for a high morale build. At level 65, this likely will be in the 6200+ range.

The AOE part comes from going full MONF, with Improved Sticky Gourd (ISG) being a primary offensive weapon. With our several other AOE abilities, we are among the top classes for AOE damage. This is why I refer to this build as being a "Nuke Spec" LM. (I'd love to add Ents, but because I expect to be tanking while soloing, the above two traits take precedence.)

The nice thing is that you can also go after single high morale mobs (i.e., 20K or more) with this same setup, so no need to respec if you're going EM hunting. The eagle's interrupts help here. You'll find that there is a "kiting point"...below this, you can straight tank the mob with your eagle providing flanks for you to heal with. Above it, you may have to do some kiting (slam kiting, for example). The kiting point is particular to you as an individual, depending on how you're set up and the DPS of the particular mob. But enough about single mobs; back to the main topic....

"Crowd Control" for the Nuke Spec LM is simply trying to get all the mobs packed together as close as possible. Think of them as sardines. Get them grouped, then start nuking! Since they're all standing right in front of you, ISG works very well, turning everything into crispy critters. Why kill one mob when you can kill three (or four or...)?

There are two ways I'd go about a three or four mob pull.

First, if they're closely stacked melee group, I'd start at max distance with Gust of Wind, Cracked Earth, then lay down the ISG as they come in close. I have the eagle set to assist my attack, so it will be hitting the target mob after I cast Gust of Wind. Light of the Dawn, Burning Embers, and a Improved Staff Strike usually will have the first mob down in seconds. I don't lock myself into a particular rotation after that, just continuing to take down each successive target, mixing single target and AOE spells. Heal or staff strike when your eagle flanks, whichever is needed at the time.

Second, if there is a ranged attacker in the group, I'll send the eagle in to start attacking the ranged attacker (you can also do this if they're a particularly tough melee crowd). It draws aggro from nearby melee mobs, and they all group up nicely together. As soon as the eagle has aggro on the target, I hit it with Burning Embers and LotD, then Wizard's Fire as I run into melee range. When I am in melee range, I lay down ISG, then follow with Wind or Earth, or with a staff attack, depending on how close the target mob is to dying. The eagle takes some damage through this process, of course, but I quickly grab aggro back.

If they're hard hitting mobs, you can pre-treat with Sign of Power:Command , and then possibly also use your AOE Fire Lore (I have the legacy on my book so I can debuff 6 mobs with it) to soften their damage after they get into close range. Ancient Craft also works as a nice AOE debuff.

If they're interrupting you a bit too much, then hit Storm Lore. The new Staff Sweep also is handy for doing some AOE damage without being interrupted (Staff Sweep is a perfect addition for the AOE LM, which I use regardless of whether the mob has been flanked).

If there is a particularly nasty mob in the group, then I will pull out Ancient Craft-Storm Lore-Lightning Storm fairly early in the process, probably before I lay down ISG. Call to the Valar also now prevents induction set back due to damage,, but I have not yet worked this into my regular play.

Thanks for all the info guys, it is extremely helpful!

wow,

a lot of great info from this thread, kudos to all the helpful players.

Yeah I went through it and added rep to everyone.

Some great info here. Kudos to everyone.