Natgol

The Definitive guide to Light MentalistsNov 18, 2013 23:13:12 GMT -8

Warning: To avoid this post being even longer than it needs to be, I will be omitting caveats such as 'in my opinion,' etc. Everything in this post is my opinion, except when I am presenting a statement as a fact. My use of the word definitive in the title is tongue-in-cheek!
In the time I have spent playing on Uthgard I have seen many people playing light mentalists who fail to understand the capabilities and role of the spec. Unfortunately, most people spec mana for lvling then switch to light at 49 or 50 without having benefited from the knowledge that can be built up through the experiences of lvling the same spec you intend on RvRing with. This post represents my modest attempt to educate those curious about the class. Any information in here is based on my own experiences lvling and RvRing light ments on live and on Uthgard. I will divide this post into sections: Spec; Temping; RvR in a group; RvR solo; RAs; Charm spell and pet selection; List of my favorite mobs to charm.
SPEC:
Light mentalists are strong in group or solo RvR and solo PvE. In general, there is no real role for them in group pve. Therefore, specs that attempt to give more utility in group pve tend not to work out so well.
One potentially viable balance spec is 45light/24mana/17ment. This spec makes you a full light mentalist, with mid-level pom and hots for pve. For group pve this spec fails to provide what most groups want you for, pom5 and powerful HoTs. But for soloing it can be very strong. You are able to charm oj pets and HoT them, pom3 yourself, and have good nukes. This would work well for soloing warshades or other stronger mobs that you can't straight out nuke down. However, with how easy it is to get pom3/4 charges and potions, I don't think this spec is necessary unless you really are devoted to solo farming or want to be able to help guildies by HoTing them as they lvl. Not having the demezz hurts your utility in RvR and could potentially prevent you from getting into a group if it is found out.
The spec I use, and would recommend for RvR (solo or group) is 46light, 4mana, 28ment. The first thing people question is why 46light and not 45. The short answer is: Why not? The long answer is to raise your minimum dd dmg and to maximize your charming ability. While 1 point may not seem like much, my own experience is that this increase from 45 to 46 helps me hold pets that are on the very edge of my charming threshold (lvl54) and this is significant because most of the best pets happen to be in this lvl range (ellyll sages, far dorochas, mahrs, etc.) so every point, or .1 point in the charming formula is welcome to me to prevent resists and having a pet revolt. So, since most of what you will be doing as a light mentalist depends on light skill and not the mana skill that you could get a little bit higher by going to 45, the answer is obvious to me.
TEMPING:
Temping your light mentalist is pretty easy compared to non-casters. There is only one skill you need to cap (light, obviously), and a second which is best to cap if you can but not essential (mentalism). Capping light bonus will increase your minimum damage and increase the level of pets you can charm. Capping mentalism bonus will improve heal variance and increase your baseline DoT damage. Like other casters, capping power is optional if you can fit it. Everything else is same as temping any caster but I would recommend fitting in items with d/q and acuity charges for soloing. Director's Ring of Anarchy is an inexpensive item with a +63 d/q charge and pooka lord mantle is a free one-time-drop with +75 d/q. Acuity charges (+75) are common on staves and can be added to player-crafted items as well. Also look into items with pom4 charges to make up for your grey pom spell. Items that have pom4 charges include Woven Circlet of Grandeur and Gatekeeper's Bracer of Anarchy.
RvR IN A GROUP:
Your role in an RvR group is primarily that of a dps caster. I am not going to go into the details of how to play a dps caster, since this is about the light mentalist class itself. However, on Uthgard, as on live when I played, light mentalists are a primary caster dps which often have a chanter in the group or battlegroup who is debuffing. Your other primary task is using your pet to rupt healers and casters. Secondarily, you provide some utility to a group. You can demez when the bard is mezzed/dead/overextended, you can mez overextended tanks after their charge has run out and help peel for support, you can use your AE nuke to clear theurg pets from yourself and others, and a variety of other things.
RvR SOLO:
With the right pet selection, light mentalists make powerful soloers amongst casters. With experience and tactics, there are only a couple classes that you should consider unbeatable 1v1 in most situations (Runemaster, Sorc, Charge tanks). This strength comes from a long mez, oj pets, nukes and dots, baseline stun, and big heals.
A go-to tactic will be kiting, but there are many classes that you can kill just from stun-nuke-nuke-nuke, assuming they don't purge immediately. Though a pet with good dmg helps in kiting, your nukes and good baseline dot will do the job, just remember to have those end regen pets handy and lw1. Also, avoid getting fixated on nuking the target, it is easy to want the enemy to die as soon as possible and cast too many spells instead of being patient and turning and kiting. Recast your dot when you need to, cast a nuke, then turn and run. If they stop chasing or stop to heal, turn and dmg/rupt then continue the kiting. Caster pets or high melee dmg pets help a lot while kiting because you can just run in circles while the pet beats down the enemy.
However, there are situations when you should do the opposite of kiting. Specifically against Cabalists, there are times when it is best to get up close and personal. When 1v1ing a Cabbie, if I get nearsighted on inc I will sometimes rush to close the gap at the risk of taking dmg (usually not very high on cabbies anyway) to QC a mez, then use Conc1 to QC a mez on the pet. Assuming there is no purging you are then free to stun and DD the cabbie to death. It may also be the tactic of choice, out of desperation, against Runemasters since they are impossible to kite because of their nearsight and speed. However, given that they do so much more dmg while you rush them, they are one of the most difficult classes you will go up against 1v1. Sorcs are another class that will be difficult to beat because their mez outranges you by quote some distance and they have speed and they have a lot of CC to deal with your pet. Unless you get the drop on them, the range will beat you flat out. Charge tanks are the other great threat, because they can ignore your CC and once they are on you they are going to kill you quickly.
Remember to always have your pet on PASSIVE. In many cases if you are jumped by someone you will mez first, and a pet on defensive will ruin your fight.
If you are mezzed and your pet is free, you can release your pet and he will attack you and break your mez. This is called piggy purge because the grey pig mobs in Emain make good portable purgers in fights. Then, when your charm pulse ticks for the next round the charm will reengage and you will have your controllable pet back. For this reason, if you see a mezzing class inc you, you should get some distance form your pet by putting him on Stay, that way he is not caught in an AE mez with you. This immediately release him and after he breaks your mez you can QC a mez on your opponent. With practice you can do this seamlessly and surprise your enemy. This feature was lacking when I started playing on Uthgard but the automatic recharming in the pulse after you release was recently fixed along with pet CC immunity, it was a good patch for us light mentalists.
Also, when fighting Minstrels, if you have the space and time you should mez the pet FIRST, because they can use the same piggy purge that you can to break their mez, without the worry of the then rogue pet interupting them for a few seconds. If you mez the minstrel first and they know what they are doing, they will simply release their pet and have their mez broken and that can be game over for you.
Generally speaking, I like to use the stun first on inc and immediately start trying to kill the target. As you nuke the target you will see how much health they are losing and if it's not very much I will use 2 nukes then a DoT and begin the kite. If I am close to the enemy I will replace the dot with a mez to try and gain more distance, then dot and nuke once and turn and run. Using the stun first also means that if things go bad during those first few casts you have the option of mezzing and using that time to restrategize, heal up, or get distance. If you mez on inc you have just used up your longest CC for no real good reason. OF course, if you get popped by a stealther or are jumped and have taken dmg, by all means use mez first, because you will need that time to get distance and heal up, but if you surprise an enemy or come across each other at the same time and have not taken damage, Stun!
If the enemy purges any of your CC then you have to play it as you go and strategies may have to be altered drastically. However, one ace you have up your sleeve is the Static Tempest RA which resets stun immunity timers after it ticks for the first time (and it hits them, if they run out of the storm before it ticks they will still be immune to your stun). This essentially means that as long as your ST is up, you can stun the same enemy twice in the same fight with no immunity timer in between.
A final note about pet tactics: If you are using a heal pet then you want space between yourself and that healer pet and you don't want them to be running around following you instead of casting heals. A heal pet won't stop on his own to heal, he will only start casting heal if he is not moving. Therefore, it is best to put your heal pet on Stay on inc, and give a good distance between you two so not only will you not be caught up in the same AE CC, if you are against a solo he will have to choose between chasing you around or going for your pet and if he does that you should have time to destroy him, no matter how many hitpoints he has. Also, since the pet isn't chasing you around he will be standing there ready to cast a heal the second you need one.
Finally, general things to consider in your tactics. Your baseline DoT does more dmg than your nuke will but in a longer period of time, so if you can only cast one spell it is sometimes better to cast a DoT, such as when an enemy is running out of line of sight to hide. But, DoT takes longer to cast, so if can only cast 3 spells and need to get them off quickly, you have a greater chance of fitting in 3 nukes that 2 nukes and a DoT.
RAs:
RAs will depend on personal preference, playstyle, and whether you group or solo mostly. I choose to go with as many offensive passive RAs I can. Wild Power is a must for crits and aug dex helps you cast faster. I skip on Mastery of Magery until I have enough points to go at least MoM3 because the increase does not have as big of a payoff in damage as more crits because when you crit you generally crit big, and even if they are infrequent add up to more damage than the +5% that MoM offers at its lower levels.
For actives I recommend MCL1 to make up for your lack of pom and to use in fights, especially if you are killed and get rezzed, since you can pop that immediately and have a decent amount of power to buff up and get back in the fight.
Also Static Tempest is a must for the reasons stated in the previous section.
Like all classes you have to get lw1, and even more so because you will be kiting.
I also recommend Concentration1 for a second Quickcast. This makes the difference when fighting hunters, cabbies, and other pet classes because you can get off two mezzes and turn the tables on your opponent. It also comes in handy for getting of two spells on a melee class that is attacking you, which could mean getting off that killshot. And, unlike MoC it is a full effectiveness on your spell and not nerfed to 25% or 50% its value.
Defensive RAs such as PD and Toughness are a matter of preference. Both would be great but I am waiting to be a much higher RR before starting those. Until then I focus on what my job is, doing damage.
Finally, I recommend getting Mastery of Focus to decrease your spell resists, especially since your DD is lvl45 and your mez is lvl23. I have MoF2 and am happy at that.
CHARMING AND PET SELECTION:
The mentalist charm is a 10 second pulse charm which uses mana every pulse. Every 10 seconds your charm will refresh and with that have a chance for the pet to resist you, if you get 3 resists you will lose your pet and it will aggro you. This also means that your pet charm has a range, hence if you get on a horse or have speed when your pet doesn't, when the pet gets outside about 2500 you will lose it. The pulse charm has its drawbacks but also its benefits. Your ability to hold a charm is based on your Light skill and on live follows the formula:
Level x .66
+
Total Light skill x .33
=
Charm limit
My experience on Uthgard has been that the this formula gives a lvl that is actually under what can be charmed, but this may differ for others experiences.
There are also some idiosyncrasies with the mentalist charm spell that you should consider. First, when you cast the charm spell on the mob the resist rate is like any other spell resist rate and has nothing to do with your charming power, so sometimes you will get resists when you cast a charm spell on a low level mob and this has nothing to do with how well you will hold its charm. Second, releasing a pet does not turn off your charm pulse, the way to do that is to hit the charm spell again and cancel the pulse, also, if your pet dies you will have to turn off the pulse or else you will continue to have your mana drained. Also, sometimes when your pet dies and you don't cancel the charm the mob that spawns to replace that pet will be recharmed and will run to find you, this can be funny and useful sometimes and other times deadly if that mob is running through DF aggroing all sorts of things to find you as has happened to me. Third, Mastery of Focus RA has no effect on mentalist charm strength. Fourth, the level of the charm spell you use does nothing to increase the level of the mob you are charming, this will be explained more in the next paragraph.
On live, each charm spell allowed you to charm a new type of mob. The lower ones were for mammals and humanoids, mid ones for insects and undeads, and the highest charm was for magical mobs. This is the reasoning behind the higher power of the spell pulses, because the idea is that a magical mob would cost more power to hold and should have a greater penalty. This is NOT how it works here, the charm spells here are implemented entirely wrong and I do not believe the GMs or most of the people who play light mentalists here even know how it worked on live. The mentalist charm spells are not like sorcerer charms and the level of the spell does nothing in the formula for holding a pet. Instead, the lower charm spell charms all types of mobs. Therefore you should always use the lvl4 charm, otherwise you are wasting mana, and if you see a mentalist with a pet that has the gold colored charm graphic over it (which signifies a higher lvl charm spell), you will know you are dealing with a poser.
As for pet selection, this follows the logic of what you need your pet to do. For kiting and keep takes you want a pet with a lot of hit points that has good melee dmg. Same follows general group RvR except that I like a pet that has a fast attack speed to help its rupting utility. If you are camping a horse road it is best to have a pet that can cast a ranged attack. The reason for this is that you need to damage an enemy to knock them off their horse and because they can sometimes ride by you faster than you can cast your nuke, if you command your pet to attack them with ranged then they will for sure hit your enemy because pets/mobs do not have a second range check on their spells, so after they are command to attack their spell will land even if the opponent has ridden out of your casting range.
MY FAVORITE PETS:
In Alb:
Alb frontier has the best selection of pets by far, but until the Priestess is fixed, the Elder pet in Hib may remain the single best pet for general purposes.
Ellyll sage - OJ; This is a fantastic pet for any purposes, though getting it is a pain and you may find that many are just out of your charming reach at lower RR. They take decent dmg and do decent melee, but their major strength is in their fire nuke that often hits lvl50 players for 150+ and their massive 480hp heals. This pet is great for soloing as those heals can keep you alive through almost any melee dmg, and if you are camping the HR you will love the fire nuke for dismounting enemies. These are located at the Ellyll camp SW of Berk on the zonewall marked by a grey structure on the map.
Priestess - Blue/Green; This was a great pet on live but as of this writing has not been fully implemented. On here it has the AE smite nuke but on live it had that plus the same yellow spec buffs as the Elder pets and good heals. If this mob gets fixed it may be the best pet to get in Alb. Also, they spawn right next to the Hib Portal Keep on your left, it doesn't get any more convenient.
Templar - Yellow/OJ; These mobs are the best charmable tank pet in the game for mentalists. They wear plate armor and have 2hand weapons with a variety of styles, including a rear snare style. Their hitpoints are good and amazing when buffed. They take dmg very well and they deal out awesome melee dps. Perfect for tasking and keep takes because they can take many arrows for you and also if set on defend can easily solo archers that you can't get LoS on. Recommend that you get this pet when leaving HPK and substitute it for a Ellyll Sage later if you can. They are located in the same ruins as the Priestesses.
Isolationists - Blue/Yellow; Isolationists are a fun group of mobs that come in a variety of flavors mimicking the classes of Albion. So far I have noticed: Cleric, Merc, Scout, Armsman, Paladin, Sorcerer, Wizardess. The most interested thing about them is that they have special ability depending on what class they are. Scouts are low dmg range but can be useful or fun. Sorcerer unfortunately casts a useless confuse spell, and the melee classes don't have any styles. The cleric is a good pet with red dex buff and smite, unknown whether they heal as the name would suggest. However, the star of the bunch is the Wizardess with a bolt and a snare nuke that helps when kiting enemies. They are located SW of Boldiam at the peak of a hill near a tent with a campfire, also they are North just down the hill from Boldiam.
Misc. Mobs - There are a lot of decent mobs throughout Alb frontier that you can grab if you are minus a pet but can't make the journey to a specific pet camp. The Rockbounders are decent for rupting because they have a good attack speed and run fast. The OJ Drakes are also nice pets, they do decent dmg have a good dd spell and run fast, but they are big and block your view. There are also yellow con banshee-type mobs in Snowdonia and Pennine that have a decent dmg shout, not great tanks but decent rupters and supplemental dps.
In Hib:
Hopefully as you have leveled up you have had a chance to experiment with various pets and developed a mental inventory of the mobs you like and the mobs you don't, however, here are some suggestions.
Empyrean Elder - Blue; This is arguably the best pet on the server right now. You get yellow spec buffs, AF, Str/Con, and Dex/Qui, and also 380hp heals when you go below 50% health. You have to drop your base AF and recast it for the mob to cast its spec on you but they do stack. Soloing or doing a smallman with these is a huge advantage and tho their casting speed is poor, the big heals will keep you alive against any medium-low dps melee classes such as paladin and even hunters. They also heal and buff groupmates so be sure to follow the pet control tactics I mentioned above when using them in a group. It is important to note also that their heals work through walls so if you are defending a keep you will want to tuck the pet safely away inside the tower (while being mindful of healrange) so that enemies can't attack it but you can still get its heals. Also, this works for ninjaing keeps because your pet will specbuff a nightshade and heal them while they kill lord, in fact it is better than doing it with a bard because the bard group heals are pretty weak and you only get base buffs (tho endo pots will be required). They are also valuable in PvE because in addition to their buffs and heals, as far as I have seen they have no power pool which means they can heal indefinitely. If you are soloing or smallmaning in PvE I recommend you start using them as soon as you are high enough to charm them, it makes a huge difference. These mobs are located across the frontier, Breifine, Gorge, Mount Collory, and also Valley of Bri Leith at the Midar spawn.
Far Dorocha - OJ; These mobs received a massive nerf recently when they had their warpspeed removed. Previously they could run at Speed7 (actual speed unknown but was fast enough to catch up to Speed6). Now they run at normal mob speed and their value has basically been lost since they do mediocre melee damage. However, they do still have a very long mez that is nice but unpredictable casting means that you can't really rely on it for anything. They spawn in Breifine, Mount Collory, and Cursed Forest.
Supernatural Stallion - Yellow; These horse mobs are the alternative to the now slowed Far Dorochas. Overall they are mediocre mobs as well but hey are very fast. I have yet to test them out fully but they will catch up to Enchanter speed and I suspect they may be fast enough to catch up to Bard speed. Unfortunately there are no spawns in the RvR areas as the only place I have seen them is NE of Siopa in the Bog of Cullen.
Gan Ceanach - OJ; These are my favorite melee mobs in Hib, and maybe anywhere. They are exceptional melee pets that have great use in PvE and RvR. They are essentially elf Blademasters with a rear snare style and a taunt style that actually keeps aggro and even pulls aggro of mobs. These make for great kiting mobs and tanks in PvE because they will hold aggro for you while you damage the mob. They are good in RvR because they will do good damage against enemies and also snare them as they run which is very annoying as a player. They are also your best option when doing guard kill tasks in Hib because they are one of the few pets in Hib that can easily kill an archer guard out of line of sight. Unfortunately, they are only located, as far as I have found, along the western and NW edges of Cursed Forest, not very convenient for RvR.
Far darrig - Yellow; If you need a tank mob for Sheeroe Hills, I suggest these convenient mobs located just south of Innis in the trees. In my experience they are better than any lvl50 mobs in Sheeroe Hills for tanking and unfortunately there is a gap between lvl50 and lvl54 for mobs in Sheeroe that means there are few options (aside from Azures which are a little out of the way of the usual stomping grounds) in that key OJ charm range.
Amadan Touched - Grey; This is the only grey mob I will recommend because usually a grey mob has no practical offensive use for a mentalist (see Piggy Purge above, but do not use this mob for Piggy Purge!). However, I will make an exception for this mob and also add that it is very useful while leveling. The reason this mob can be useful in RvR is because it procs a disease which is a huge annoyance if you put this on a support class at the beginning of a fight or an overextended tank who will then not only not be able to keep up as you kite but also the heals he receives will be affected.
In Mid:
Exceptional pets are uncommon in Midgard, but there are a few that you can work with.
Fylgja - OJ; This is my favorite pet in Mid, it can take a decent amount of damage, has good attack speed, and does decent dmg on 50s. There is one that spawns along the wall if you take a right after going through hmg.
Frost Stallion - OJ; These are a popular pet with mentalists and minstrels, they have a ae dd proc that they do which is nice but will break cc, they are also weak to dmg and will die quickly if you are keep raiding and they have a couple archers on them. Be careful because some of them are higher lvl and may be difficult to keep charmed for lower RR mentalists. One spawns on northern zonewall of OG if you take a left after hmg and SW of Glacier Giant in the wooded hills.
Icestrider Interceptor - Yel; These mobs are annoying as hell when they aggro, and can be just as annoying when you are kiting someone and that root hits them. There are many spawns so easy to get but they do weak dmg and are easily killed.
Fenrir Prophet - Green/Blue; These are one of the few 40+ mobs in Mid that have range dmg, they do a bolt and a short stun, which is not much, but the best option if you need range. Various spawn locations including SE and NW corners of Jamtland