Animist

This was posted by Piepants on 20 Feb 2003 

Lately I've had a few minutes of spare time, and after answering a number of questions from

other players (animists and non animists alike) I thought I'd write up a brief description of them so people would know what the heck they do.

Unfortunately, once I started writing I kept going, and going, and going, and before I knew it my short description looked more and more like a guide. I'm still not done, but I may as well post what I have in case it helps somebody out! I'm still not finished (I've got a looooong ways to go until 50 and a lot more RvR experience I need to get), but I can always add parts in as I go.

Introduction

Of all of the new classes introduced with the Shrouded Isles expansion, the Animists could be the least understood. Not only are their spell lines and abilities a complete mystery to most of us (including the majority of people actually playing animists!), but they are also the least popular of the new classes, and thus the least populous class in the game at this point.

Though I'm only level 36, I thought I'd write something up so people might know what to expect when grouping with an animist (or when fighting one I suppose). I get a lot of tells from younger animists in game, and a lot of times when I'm grouped with people I don't know very well they are curious what I can and cannot do.

As a background, I'm currently fully arborial specced, so that is the path I know the most about. I'll try to touch on the others, but keep in mind that most of my experience lies in my spec of choice. The following are just my observations to date, and it's quite possible that I may be mistaken on things.

Animist Basics

Animsts are the new Hibernian caster class added with SI. Valewalkers cast spells and wear cloth, but they are more of a melee hybrid than they are a true caster. Celts, Firbolgs, and Sylvan are the three races able to become a forester and later follow the path of affinity to become an animist. Animists are able to tailor and spellcraft, and like all other Hibernian casters are able to quickcast and suffer from the reduction in power regen when below 50% power.

Animists use focus staves just like enchanters, mentalists, and eldritches, and these can be spellcrafted, dropped, or bought from merchants just like the others. I have yet to find a merchant in TNN that sells animist focus staves, but there is definately a merchant in the Grove of Domnann who sells them. Like most other casting classes, an animist gets their first focus staff from their trainer when they hit level 5 and officially become an animist.

Ground Targeting

Many other classes make use of ground targeting for siege weapons and ground targeted AE nukes, but none as frequently as an animist. One of the first things I did after making my animist was remap my ground targeting key to an easy to reach part of my keyboard (personally I mapped it to 'Z' since I use the WASD keys to move around). In the battlegrounds it has already helped me tremendously to be able to quickly and easily reposition my ground target without having to fumble for the correct function key (I believe F5 is the default). Tapping the key will cause your ground target to reappear in it's previous position, and holding the key down will cause it to appear an equal distance away from you as your previous target was when you selected it. In this way, you can try to target in your maximum range for summoning turrets (1000), and then run around and quickly be able to target new locations at that distance.

Unfortunately, ground targeting is not incredibly reliable yet, and this can really hurt animists in certain situations. For instance, whenever you zone into or out of a dungeon the ground targeting cursor has a tendency to 'disappear'. Also, in dungeons and around gravestones the ground target cursor seems to hang up frequently, and it can be extremely difficult to even target the ground directly below your feet. Logging out and logging back in again will make your cursor reappear again, and reset it to a point at your feet once you hit the ground targeting button again. At certain times in the Spraggon Den, I was completely unable to make any use of my ground targeting, but normally logging out and back in again would at least allow me to summon one turret.

Turrets

The most widely recognized ability of an animist is to summon ground targeted turrets. These turrets can vary greatly in behaviour and utility, and each spec line gets unique types of them that the others do not. When summoned, animists turrets are somewhere around 85% of the animist's current level regardless of what level turret spell was cast. The main difference is that higher spell level turrets will nuke harder, buff better, debuff better, etc. There are two basic types of turrets that an animist can summon: controlled turrets and fire-and-forget turrets.

Controlled turrets are very similiar to an enchanter or druid pet. The animist casts them, and they will stay indefinately until they are either killed, the animist releases them, or the animist zones or goes LD (or possibly gets too far away from them). They cannot move like an enchanter pet can, but they can still be healed, buffed, and controlled just like an ordinary pet. A controlled turret on defensive will attack anything that attacks the animist, and on passive will stop attacking regardless of who gets hit. Aggressive currently doesn't seem to work well, which is similiar to other pets behaviour on aggressive. Each animist spec line mastery contains a different type of controllable turret, so it's abilities will change based on which spec the animist chooses.

The other type of turrets animists use are the fire-and-forget (Fnf) turrets. The most basic one that most people are aware of is the creeping spec base line FnF direct damage turrets. These are the bread and butter of RvR for most animists, but can be a real hassle in PvE. In general, FnF turrets last for two minutes after being summoned by the animist, and they cannot be controlled by him at all. The DD FnF turrets have a range of 1000, and they will automatically aquire and nuke any target from red to green that gets in range. If purples or greys are in the area, the turret will not attack them unless they first attack the animist. Supposedly, if a purple mob attacks a group member the turrets should open fire, but in my experience they normally just sit there and watch unless I myself get attacked.

Currently the FnF turrets are unable to attack anything that they cannot see *when they first begin casting the spell*. If you were to run behind a rock while it was casting a nuke at you, it would still be able to hit you. Also, if you are in range when it begins to nuke and out of range when it's done, it will still hit you. Conversely, if you are out of it's line of sight (but in range) when it begins casting on you, and are in it's line of sight when it finishes, it will not be able to hit you.

Unfortunately, all turrets are currently bugged and even though they can't affect things that they can't see, they will still try to cast on them. This makes them less useful for keep offense and the like, as they will just continually try to nuke things they can't see for no damage (gatekeepers, merchants, players and guards in the courtyard, etc).

Bombers

Although bombers are 'summoned' by an animist they really aren't anything like a normal pet. They are best thought of as a delivery system for other spells. Despite the name, not all bombers explode or have negative effects, many have positive effects that can buff the animist, his pets, or his realm mates.

Basically when an animist casts a bomber spell, a pet is summoned that runs to the target and detonates, delivering the spell effect to the target. These pets are equal in level to the animist, and seem to move at slightly faster than sprint speed (speed 5 will outrun them for sure). They last 20 seconds, and after that time they will disappear, regardless of whether or not they reached their target. I am not sure whether a bomber can be mezzed or rooted, but I'm inclined to believe that they can't be.

The side effect of bombers is that they are effected by pathing the same way mobs or other pets are. In general, this is a disadvantage. First of all, the delivery of the spell is delayed more than a normal spell due to the travel time of the bomber. This can cause an animist to waste mana by having a bomber in transit when it's target is dead (the bomber will just stand there until it's 20 seconds elapses). Secondly, in certain areas of the game the pathing is less than stellar, and a bomber may take the scenic route to get to it's target, or get hung up on a gravestone or something. This doesn't happen too often, but in certain areas it can be a nuisance. Finally, the delayed nature of the bomber makes it rather easy for other 'normal' nukers to defeat an animist in a standoff, as the opposing caster has 3 seconds + travel time of the bomber before being interupted, whereas the animist would be interupted as soon as the 'normal' caster finished his/her nuke.

Suprisingly though, this delay can actually be an advantage under certain circumstances in RvR. If a target comes into range and a normal caster nukes them, many times the target will back off before the caster can get another nuke off. When the animist casts a bomber pet, usually the target doesn't realize it (the pet is still moving towards him), and by the time the first bomber hits him the second and possibly third bomber are already on their way. This is especially effective when attacking keeps. When casting bombers at people in the keep, the bombers will actually walk along the outside of the keep, through the door, into the courtyard, up the stairs, and then explode on their target. I have had times when I cast several AE direct damage bombers at a caster, and once the first one hits he/she instinctively draws back into the group, only to have the second and third bombers hit them and everyone now around them.

Another strategy that takes advantage of the bomber delay is to mix the use of the bomber with the baseline arboreal lifetap. In this way an animist can deliver a large amount of damage in a very short period of time. The basic idea is that an animist casts a DD bomber at a target, and then immediately starts casting the lifetap. If timed correctly, the lifetap and the bomber could concievably hit the target at approximately the same time, delivering a lot of damage at once and making it difficult for a healer to keep up.

Arborial Spec

Baseline

Currently the most popular spec line, the arborial line relies heavily on direct damage, with very little in the way of utility. The baseline arborial spells are shared with valewalkers and are exactly the same, but the spec line ones are entirely different (Valewalking for valewalkers and Arborial Mastery for animists).

The baseline arborial spells consist of an AF buff, lifetap, and a castable damage shield buff. The AF buff is similiar to the same type of buff that other cloth casters recieve. The castable damage shield buff is not very powerful, but still very useful for putting on your pet while soloing. The lifetap is really the most important, and interesting spell in the line.

The lifetap is an energy based nuke with a 2.5 second casting time, making it .5 second faster casting than the DD bomber pets. The fact that it is energy based is important to an animists, because the spec line DD bombers are body based, so an arborial animist has two different types of nuking damage to choose from if faced with an opponent who is highly resistant to one or the other (though it seems many mobs resistant to one are also resistant to the other, just to a lesser degree).

The lifetap has a variance based on how many spec points have been placed into the arborial line (much like healing, and baseline nukes of other casters). This means that an arborial animist will lifetap far more consistantly than a creeping or verdant animist. The fast casting nature of this spell when compared to the 3.0 second bomber + travel time can make it very useful in groups that are killing things very fast, and it doesn't hurt that you can quickly heal yourself up to full health with it.

Specline

Generally, arborial mastery centers around one thing, damage. Other spec lines may have more buffing spells, debuffing spells, or general utility spells, but none have the bang that the arborial line can bring to a fight. All arborial mastery spells use body resists, so when soloing it's best to avoid things that are resistant to body. Generally, I've found all 'plant' like things to be highly body resistant (creeping vines, cutthroat roots, irewoods, grovewoods, etc).

The arborial mastery controlled turret is a stationary shroom with a nuke. This turret has a harder nuke than the creeping equivalent, but it is a bit slower casting and does not have the extra snare component. Generally this, and other nuking turrets like it, are very effective against greens-yellows, pretty effective against oranges, and ineffective against reds or purples. The resist rate is just too high on reds and purples, unless you happen to be fighting them in a group.

I've already talked about the bombers in detail, and the arborial line gets two different versions of the direct damage bomber. One is a single target nuke, the other is an AE nuke. Both of these are quite powerful, and an arborial animist can do quite well as a regular or AE nuker. One very important detail about these bombers is the low amount of aggro they produce when compared to most normal nukes and the lifetap. Usually, if your pet can land one or two nukes, the animist is safe to nuke away until the target is dead without fear of the monster leaving the pet and coming after him. Sicne the lifetap seems to generate a lot more aggro and does less damage, it pays to use the DD bomber whenever possible.

The final spell that arborial animists get is a FnF root turret. This turret is very effective in RvR, and all but useless in PvE. This turret will target anything in it's range (1000 radius) and attempt to root it, stopping it in it's tracks. Unfortunately, this spell line is currently broken and there is no difference between the level 7 version and the level 49 version aside from how much power it costs to summon. In the future, it is likely they will make the higher level versions of the spell root for longer periods of time to justify the power expense, but for now an animist would be foolish to cast anything but the low power cost level 7 turret.

These turrets have marvelous utility in Realm vs Realm, and the cheap power cost of the level 7 one means an animist can effectively spam them at will without having to worry about power. A large group of these will easily stop an enemy, and one use is to cast a line of them at a possible retreat point (hib/mid river in the BG for example), so that if your force has to run away they can run (or swim) right through the lines of root turrets and not have to worry about the enemy catching them from behind. Likewise, a large number of these at any chokepoint (on or near the bridges) will usually keep the enemy at bay, since a rush would result in a large number of them being rooted before reaching you.

Still, my favorite use of root pets so far in the battlegrounds is as a stealther buster. A determined stealther will still most likely kill you and make your life miserable, but these root turrets are sure to do the same to them. What I do is always place root turrets near and around myself and resting casters (I tend to sit right on top of one if I can). If a stealther appears for even one instant to attack anybody within it's 1000 radius, the turret will attempt to root it (and usually succeed), leaving the stealther high and dry for all of the nearby angry Hibbies to have there way with (and EVERYONE loves killing a stealther ). Unfortunately, damage will break the root so having nearby FnF direct damage turrets can break the root before anybody really knows what is going on.