Tamer item must-haves

[[JD]]

Ok so I'm making a mental push towards finishing off my tamer. My current holes in my tamer has to do with mana regen. I been so damn lazy I just stoned off Spirit Speak, kept necro for lich form, and re-trained meditation. That way I didn't have to have a ton of expensive/rare items or an imbued suit to have insane mana regen. Well no more, I want to recover those 200+ skill points and put them to use. That means getting myself a tight suit template.

The way I play is I'm a spawning tamer, so although I don't usually go out with intention to PVP, I do cross shots with PVPers who come raid. So I need PVP things in my suit.

What I'm planning, in general - amounts may vary:

85/70/70/70/75 Suit (Elf, I sometimes use protection)
100 LRC
40 LMC
50 to 70 DCI
Mana Regen (As much as possible)
+2 to +5 HP Regen
+2 STA Regen
+Mana
+Int
FCR/FC (I have several FCR 3 ring/bracelet I can imbue)
15 or more SDI (PVP cap is 15)
Reflect Physical Damage (if there's room, for perma blood oath)

Currently I'm wearing Kasa of Raijin, Stitcher's mittens, Violet Courage, Fey Leggings in those item slots. The rest is pieced together to produce a pretty tight template with high resists and good DCI but I lack MANA regen/LMC in a bad way!

Therefore I am considering...

Head- Imbued, or Hat of the Magi (suggestions?)
Neck- Imbued
Arms- Imbued
Hands- Imbued
Chest- Rune Beetle Carapace
Legs- Imbued or Fey Legs
Ring: +13 Mage/Taming/Eval Int, some combo of FC/FCR/SDI/LRC/DCI
Bracelet: +13 Mage/Taming/Eval Int, some combo of FC/FCR/SDI/LRC/DCI
1-handed Weap: 15 DCI, Spell Channeling, -20 Mage weap, 1 FC
Shield: Arcane shield
Talisman: Totem of Void
Misc: Quiver of Infinity, Crimson Cincture, maybe the +Int boots if I can get them. Everything else is too expensive

Can you think of any MUST-HAVE artifact that can go in one of the slots I've mentioned as "Imbued"? Or would an imbued piece be better..

I'm leaning towards Imbued.

But I'm curious if there is any one or two artifact you really think I need to hold onto.

Thanks

 

[Wenchkin]

I would say that if you're having issues with mana you may need to look at your casting habits (ie using high mana spells unnecessarily) then you probably need to look at meditation skill rather than LMC/MR. I just found that when I tried to replace med on my necro/weaver tamer I couldn't quite get the mana I needed from items. So I went back to meditation. In PvP the last thing you want is no mana.

I'm not very geeky when it comes to doing the maths for MR/LMC vs med, but you may want to take a look at some of the calculations and weigh up the benefit of item based mana vs the skill. I know nobody wants to hear me say "you need to train skill up" but you could spend a lot of gold and find it doesn't help, so try looking around the mage forum or the mage profession guide here on stratics. Maybe even try casting on test centre to see how it feels.

Wenchy

 

[[JD]]

Sorry I wasn't clear enough. I have 100 Necro and 100 Meditation. Lich form with Meditation gives tons of mana which is awesome. Something like 28 Mana regen. When I meditate I can go from 0-full in 20 sec.

However I want to stone off Necro and train down Med to maybe 40-80, recovering those skill points for something else. I still want to retain good mana regen.

I have practically no LMC in my current suit except for Totem of Void, and very low on Mana Regen, +Int, and +Mana items.

My crappy equipment is causing the issue and I'm using the crutch of Lich form + Meditation to overcome it, so I'm asking for recommendations on must-have tamer/mage gear.

Thanks

 

[Tina Small]

I have a human peace tamer character that currently has only 45.6 meditation skill. In a few months, when her real taming skill hits 120 (I hope), meditation skill will only be 40.0. Her intelligence stat is 122 without the help of modifications.

About a year or so ago, I finally assembled a suit with some MR and LMC on it for this character to use on guild peerless hunts because I was sick and tired of not having enough mana to keep a pet healed from a distance with spell casting. The suit she wears on those occasions has these mods:

107% LRC
44% LMC
10 MR
2 HPR
Intelligence Bonus 10
Mana Increase 6
SDI 5%
FC 2
Night Sight
Luck 95
Resists: 64 / 48 / 54 / 70 / 60

I sometimes wish the luck was higher and that it had some FCR on it. However, the suit has addressed very well my biggest problem of always running out of mana. I notice that with the suit on, her Intelligence stat only bumps up by 3 (from 122 to 125), so I guess I've hit a cap there without realizing it. I might have hit some other caps on it too...I don't keep up with that info as well as I should, I suppose. She has to meditate maybe once or twice during an outing, but mana comes back up quickly and she has no problems at all keeping up with healing a pet or two with magery skill.

There's not much in the suit in the way of expensive arties:

Nystul's Wizard's Hat (15% LMC and 10/10/10/10/25 resists)
Pendant of the Magi (+10 Intelligence, MR 3, 5% SDI, 10% LMC, 30% LRC)
Boomstick (MR 3, FC 1, 20% LRC)
Totem of the Void (HPR 2 and 10% LMC)
Robe of the Equinox (95 Luck)

The character's just wearing looted jewelry with various mods on it and barbed kit armor gathered from hither and yon.

Hope this info helps some.

Edit: Forgot to add she's wearing Nocturne Earrings for the night sight because her other armor doesn't have night sight. This particular suit does have one piece on it that also has night sight on it.

 

[Llewen]

I'm asking for recommendations on must-have tamer/mage gear.

I don't think there's anything that is "must have". There are all kinds of things that are nice, and many more that are useless, but there is nothing that is a "must have" that I can think of. I think you just need to think about what you need to have in your suit in terms of mods, then look at what you have in terms of artifacts, and build around that.

One thing that I've done is create a spreadsheet of the artifacts and rated them based on their imbuing values so I can tell what artifacts are actually useful, and which ones you might be better off just to create, or buy, an imbued piece in it's stead.

One of those artifacts is the pendant of the magi. It looks great, but because it has no resists, it's actually pretty poor in terms of the value it brings to your suit, and you would be far better off to use an imbued piece instead. So while there are no real "right" choices, there are plenty of poor choices out there.

I've looked at what you've chosen for the base of your suit, and it looks to me as though you have the basis for a fine suit there.

 

[A Rev]

Well as your an elf must have items will include

+20Necro skill items in suit

Another +20 necro items you can equip.

Then [as you said your in lich form meaning on foot] wraith from.

 

[Wenchkin]

Sorry I wasn't clear enough. I have 100 Necro and 100 Meditation. Lich form with Meditation gives tons of mana which is awesome. Something like 28 Mana regen. When I meditate I can go from 0-full in 20 sec.

However I want to stone off Necro and train down Med to maybe 40-80, recovering those skill points for something else. I still want to retain good mana regen.

I have practically no LMC in my current suit except for Totem of Void, and very low on Mana Regen, +Int, and +Mana items.

My crappy equipment is causing the issue and I'm using the crutch of Lich form + Meditation to overcome it, so I'm asking for recommendations on must-have tamer/mage gear.

Thanks

Ok, that's clearer, but the same suggestion will apply whether you have low or no med, even if you have 80 + items. How else would you know what ratio of skill to items you'd need? As it happens there was a question about mana regen on the Ask the Devs forum which will help you out, and also this thread I noticed on Uhall this morning.

Otherwise I think the best tool a tamer can have is the one between his ears. There's no must have aside from that. Unless you count practice and time with some good PvPers learning the ropes, that helps too.

Wenchy

 

[[JD]]

Nystul's Wizard's Hat (15% LMC and 10/10/10/10/25 resists)

THANK YOU! I wasn't even aware that thing existed! That's why I posted this, to see what people were wearing I didn't know about. I try to wade through the sites which search Luna and show items for sale, but there's so MUCH for sale, it's really hard to keep up with it.

I notice that with the suit on, her Intelligence stat only bumps up by 3 (from 122 to 125), so I guess I've hit a cap there without realizing it. I might have hit some other caps on it too...

That is really strange. The way it works is your base INT stat can go up to 125. After that you can have +25 in items. Your high end should be 150 Int, including items. That is the cap. If by equipping a 10 Int Item you only gain 3 int, I would hazard to say that your base int might be 100, you have +22 in INT items already, and by adding +10 you can only go to 125 (100 trained INT, 25 from items). Or perhaps you were under the effects of some curse?!

One thing that I've done is create a spreadsheet of the artifacts and rated them based on their imbuing values so I can tell what artifacts are actually useful, and which ones you might be better off just to create, or buy, an imbued piece in it's stead.

That is a really smart thing to do and is pretty much the kind of info I'm looking for. I agree on the pendant of the magi btw, I don't use it myself. I'll PM you offline... thanks

Then [as you said your in lich form meaning on foot] wraith from.

I use wraith vs lich depending on the situation. In chain-healing situations I will use Lich form because I won't get mana back in wraith, but lich helps me stay topped off. I actually solo'd Rend a couple days ago with my GD. Took 5-10 min but it was cool and I credit it to the insane mana regen I have while in Lich form. When i was in elf form I couldn't keep up with the healing. I was low on bandies too at the time so that didn't help.

As it happens there was a question about mana regen on the Ask the Devs forum which will help you out, and also this thread I noticed on Uhall this morning.

Great! That will help me determine how much MR I need in my suit so I can balance out my mana usage vs items vs trained meditation skill!

JD

 

[Llewen]

One of those artifacts is the pendant of the magi. It looks great, but because it has no resists, it's actually pretty poor in terms of the value it brings to your suit, and you would be far better off to use an imbued piece instead.

I agree on the pendant of the magi btw, I don't use it myself.

Actually I just finished rating the pendant of the magi and it actually rates more highly than I guessed it would. There's only one meddable neck piece that's better, and it is probably the best one available for a mage. I might have to rethink some things...

 

[Llewen]

Head- Imbued, or Hat of the Magi (suggestions?)

Nystul's Wizard's Hat (15% LMC and 10/10/10/10/25 resists)

The Hat of the Magi is actually a much better piece than Nystul's Wizard's Hat but at some point it becomes more of a case of what you need in your suit and what pieces work with each other than which is the higher rated piece.

 

[[JD]]

Which neck piece did you find that you rate higher on?

I run the EC with the copper enhanced and thos other mod that lets me see intensity just by getting the items properties. I'd like to check that other neck out.

I hear ya on the Nystalls. I can only really afford to get SDI on my head and rings and you cant imbue SDI on armor so my choices are Kasa and Mage hat if I want SDI there. Kasa has nice resists but doesn't do much else for me above what a nice crafted piece could, so really imo I'd be looking at the Magi hat or a crafted headpiece. And since you can get LMC on 2 pieces at 7 each and equal the Nystulls it will come down to what my suit needs most. Still its nice to hear of extra nice items, there is a lot of value in being able to have 3 items to equal 40 LMC. (RBC, Nystulls, Totem of Void) - it saves imbue slots and saves cash because imbuing low mana aint cheap!!

 

[Llewen]

Which neck piece did you find that you rate higher on?

Actually there are two that rate higher. Gladiator's Collar, and Voice of the Fallen King. But neither of those are mage pieces, and the Pendant of the Magi rates so close to a 500 imbued piece that unless it fits really well into your suit, it isn't worth it imo. The king of neck pieces is the Gladiator's Collar.

 

[Aibal]

Since you're elf, have your friendly neighborhood imbuer crank you out a ringed circlet with two mana regeneration on it. If they imbue well, and then enhance afterward, you can get some mighty nice pieces, though you WILL fail a few times doing it. My mage tamer wears one with 2MR and 81 resists. Remember, in PvP you are capped at 15 SDI, so you really only lose the 12 SDI off of the Kasa while gaining 2MR and (potentially) better resists.

 

[Tina Small]

The Hat of the Magi is actually a much better piece than Nystul's Wizard's Hat but at some point it becomes more of a case of what you need in your suit and what pieces work with each other than which is the higher rated piece.

Hat of the Magi's a bit out of my price range. I've only ever worn it (and the Ornament of the Magician and Crimson Cincture) on a test shard. Doubt I'll ever own any of them.

 

[Llewen]

Hat of the Magi's a bit out of my price range. I've only ever worn it (and the Ornament of the Magician and Crimson Cincture) on a test shard. Doubt I'll ever own any of them.

Ya, I don't own one either. I only mentioned it because he mentioned it. I do have my first ever orny though. I bought that for myself for Xmas...

 

[[JD]]

Since you're elf, have your friendly neighborhood imbuer crank you out a ringed circlet with two mana regeneration on it. If they imbue well, and then enhance afterward, you can get some mighty nice pieces, though you WILL fail a few times doing it. My mage tamer wears one with 2MR and 81 resists. Remember, in PvP you are capped at 15 SDI, so you really only lose the 12 SDI off of the Kasa while gaining 2MR and (potentially) better resists.

Is the ringed circlet have 2 MR inherent? Or just needs to be imbued like any other armor piece.

I really only have 3 slots I'm dealing with that I can get SDI on. Yeah it's capped at 15 for PVP. Was possibly gonna go 10 on the hat (Magi) and 5 SDI on a ring... or even 10 on ring. It'll cap at 15 for PVP but PVM it'll be full use, and I can also swap in a scrappers.

If you're strapped for cash PM me privately I'll tell you what I do

 

[Aibal]

LOL. Strapped for cash? Uh no. The circlet can be forged with 2MR or imbued with it, either way. I try to forge them to save seeds of renewal for other things. The HoTM is ok, but has ****ty resists with no physical. You can imbue 10 SDI on a ring and wear the pendant for your 15 total. As you mentioned, you can also swap in a Scrapper's for your SDI as well. Up to you, I mentioned the ringlets as I like that look on an elf, and it's also a way to pick up resists equal to, or better than, a Kasa, with better looks and 2MR. FWIW.

 

[[JD]]

I don't really like the Pendant though but I'm trying to determine what will give me the most slots to imbue, the most resists, etc, so nothing is ruled out

The strapped for cash comment was for the other tamers that said they might never be able to afford something. They can pm me if interested