Hey there,

couldn't find much through google, but I know, most people remember the old days quite well. I never played an animist before, so I'm curious about a few things:

1) Is there a (major) benefit to casting many low level Forest Hearts over the higher level ones?

I can see that they may be more mana-efficient per cast, but they also take longer to set up. Does the number of attackers influence spell resists the same way it does for melee to hit?

2) What's their intended behavior when a mob is in melee range or melees another shroom?

I try to separate the hearts from the main shroom so they can cast while the main shroom gets meleed, but they often stop attacking completely. Suppose that's bug.

3) Are they supposed to pull one mob after another instead of sticking to their first target until it dies?

PS. Sorry for not posting in the sub-sub-forum, but I'm afraid people don't notice new posts in there, at least I don't.

Sol77 wrote:Hey there,

couldn't find much through google, but I know, most people remember the old days quite well. I never played an animist before, so I'm curious about a few things:

1) Is there a (major) benefit to casting many low level Forest Hearts over the higher level ones?

I can see that they may be more mana-efficient per cast, but they also take longer to set up. Does the number of attackers influence spell resists the same way it does for melee to hit?

2) What's their intended behavior when a mob is in melee range or melees another shroom?

I try to separate the hearts from the main shroom so they can cast while the main shroom gets meleed, but they often stop attacking completely. Suppose that's bug.

3) Are they supposed to pull one mob after another instead of sticking to their first target until it dies?

PS. Sorry for not posting in the sub-sub-forum, but I'm afraid people don't notice new posts in there, at least I don't.

1) Yep the amount hiting on 1 target decreases the resists and make it easier to land hits. It´s a bit depending, what are you farming, if you do dragonraid/epic raids, you should set up low ones. If you do RvR i would set higher ones. If you do exping, i would not set the highest, maybe the 2. or 3. highest to spam more. (A bit depending on enemey color)

2) It´s a bug atm. If a pet (charmed, summoned what else) is still casting after a mob death, it becomes not usable anymore and you have to resummon or set new pets up.

3) Only your main shroom can focus on targets. The other ones attack randomly everything in range. So you should take for example your main pet as puller to bring mobs in range to your other shrooms to avoid fail pulls and wipes.

hey!

the forest hearts are so called "fire and forget"-turrets, meaning they cast 1 spell and on a target and choose a different one after, except when there is nothing else in range, so yes - they will pull EVERYTHING in range. that means, you have to position them strategicly, in order to let them only attack the targets you want to.

in solo play you position your controlable pet new the enemy spawn, your forest hearts a little behind, so that they are in range of your pet - but not the spawn. whenever you pull a mob to your pet, the "shrooms" will now only attack that mob - because idealy, there is nothing else in range.

in grp play you do it quite similiar. position your shrooms behind the grp (if no mobs are there), so that whenever the grp pulls something, your shrooms only attack that.


the amount of shrooms you can put out depends on the shroom you are using, your focus staff (the focus should be higher than the spell), your manapool and very important, your "creeping skill". the basic thing to know for an animist is: more is always better.
more shrooms casting on a mob, as stated before, increase the chance to hit for every other attacker, and also the dmg caused. as i see it, you cannot have too many shrooms out. so the choice of what level of shroom you use should depend on the question, if you can put out max shrooms before hitting 50% mana (below that, you will reg slower).

max shrooms means the maximal amount of shrooms you are able to cast, due to casttime. shrooms live 2 minutes, therefore time is only cap that currently exists. let's say you have a cast time of ~3 sec per shroom, meaning you can cast 20 shrooms per minute, and 40 shrooms in two minutes for that scenario.

if you are NOT creeping spec, thats leads to the situation where u will want to use lv5 shrooms until ~25-30, and lv9 shrooms from there to 50. you will not be able to max out higher shrooms, due to the mana curve.. the mana cost increase by over 50% from level 9 to level 16 shrooms, and ~25% after that. so this is sort of a negative "breaking point", where non creep specs can't follow anymore.

in pvp however, as stated before aswell, it is wise to use higher shrooms, because you usually dont have the time to setup your max shrooms for 2 minutes.. and enemy caster tend to ae them, so that would hurt very much, too.

i hoped this helped a little.. and dont forget, as an animist - more is always better (except for pvp )

Mate, you HAVE to make a full and deep Animist guide!
Go on and post it in the animist section !

YES - im gonna roll animist on Launch too!

I would love to read more about the mechanics of animists and a guide would be super awesome,
cause i have no idea how to Play them

Animist Guide


make a pile of shrooms,

watch them get aoe mezzed

stand there and get killed and do no damage

go farm a dungeon

cheese01551 wrote:Animist Guide


make a pile of shrooms,

watch them get aoe mezzed

stand there and get killed and do no damage

go farm a dungeon

Oh thank you for your brainshit !

Ok well... i have some News ... i tested yesterday!
I was on lvl 15 Animist with Verdant specc and on my levelup i went for like 5 or 6 dont remember exactly in Creeping Path.
i didnt change anything on my Setup but my normal "Forest hearts" cast needed A LOT less mana than before!!
I cant say if they do more damage but the fact is, that creeping is affecting the mana needed for casting shrooms!
Some1 know how high creeping should be for a max mana reduction ?

Thanks

Hey, thanks for your input guys. About the focus question:

TL/DR: baseline spells cost ranges from 80% to 120% of their tooltip value and is effected by focus and skill level.

Re-posting off google:

From the Grab Bag: When you are not using any focus staff at all, a spell will cost you 120% of its delved cost to cast, provided it is a spell that uses focus. i.e. Healing classes do not use focus for their spells.

(Jim's Note: Heretics are healer class but do use focus spells. They do not require a focus stave but do benefit from bonuses to focus.)

A focus staff will only benefit you if it has focus bonus in the same line as that spell, as modified below. (i.e. A staff with 50 levels in Mana will help Mana spells but not Void spells)

If you are using a focus staff, a spell will cost you between 80-120% of its delved power cost to cast, depending upon several factors.

If the condition of the staff is not 100%, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast spells.

If your modified spec level* is below the level of the spell, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast the spell.

If the focus level on the staff is below the level of the spell, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast the spell.

Note that all three of the above conditions factor into power cost. Thus, To get the the full 80% cost on your spells, you would use a 100% condition staff with a focus bonus greater than the level of the spell you want to cast, and cast a spell that is lower in level than your modified spec level. As each of these factors (condition, spec level, and focus level) gets further away from the optimal condition, the power cost slides from 80% to 120%.

Sol77 wrote:Hey, thanks for your input guys. About the focus question:

TL/DR: baseline spells cost ranges from 80% to 120% of their tooltip value and is effected by focus and skill level.

Re-posting off google:

From the Grab Bag: When you are not using any focus staff at all, a spell will cost you 120% of its delved cost to cast, provided it is a spell that uses focus. i.e. Healing classes do not use focus for their spells.

(Jim's Note: Heretics are healer class but do use focus spells. They do not require a focus stave but do benefit from bonuses to focus.)

A focus staff will only benefit you if it has focus bonus in the same line as that spell, as modified below. (i.e. A staff with 50 levels in Mana will help Mana spells but not Void spells)

If you are using a focus staff, a spell will cost you between 80-120% of its delved power cost to cast, depending upon several factors.

If the condition of the staff is not 100%, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast spells.

If your modified spec level* is below the level of the spell, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast the spell.

If the focus level on the staff is below the level of the spell, you will not get the full focus bonus, and it will cost more power to cast the spell.

Note that all three of the above conditions factor into power cost. Thus, To get the the full 80% cost on your spells, you would use a 100% condition staff with a focus bonus greater than the level of the spell you want to cast, and cast a spell that is lower in level than your modified spec level. As each of these factors (condition, spec level, and focus level) gets further away from the optimal condition, the power cost slides from 80% to 120%.

THANKS YOU