next steps for cabby

[Lorthania]

Hi all,

A month ago, I started a Cabalist alt to try something different. In the meantime, I'm about to ding 20 and I've come to like playing this char, so I'd like some advice on how to continue with it.

My current spec is:
1 Body
17 Matter
7 Spirit

How should I spec in the next few lvls? I have noticed my dots don't seem to increase in dmg, so I rely (too) heavily on my pet for kills.

Some other questions I have:
- When in a group, should I lose the pet? Some group leaders explicitly ask for this, others don't seem to care.
- When I use a ruby sim, it usually casts a spell from a distance to draw the mob with its fire proc, but in some cases, it simply heads for the mob. Can this be avoided?
- How do focus staffs work? If a staff has 14 lvls of matter magic on it, what does that mean?
- Is the amber sim really a better tank than the ruby?

Any help on making my cabby better is highly appreciated!

TIA

 

[Mishy]

um im no expect but i tell you what i know

Dots damage is based on the dot spell level and your intelligence, so your dot wont significantly increase in damage until you get the next version of it. What makes dots good is that they will do about the same amount of damage on a mob, no matter what the con (except maybe loosing some damage from resists etc) so you can do same to a purple as you can to a grey - assuming you can get the spell off on the higher cons

I dont see why you should loose pet in group, they dont steal that much xp, but i am surprised you can actually get a group as a cabalist When i have grouped with mine, i dont tend to use the pet, and just cast dots and nukes etc, then recycle the pet to gain back power.

I've not used Ruby to xp myself, the nuke is crap as far as i can tell, and its melee skills aint very impressive. Best sim to use in PvE is Sapphire, it has nice melee damage and has a life drain proc, which helps keep it alive. Amber isnt very impressive either, except its warping skills...

Focus staffs lower mana costs, so always try and keep the focus levels = to your level.

My final 50 spec is 49 matter, 13 body, 18 spirit.

 

[old.Sepiritz]

Lets see here.. I need to sort my thoughts.

If you want a matter cabbie, you need to spec fully in matter and your dots will increase. Sometimes it takes a little while for them to get better but eventually they do. The best single target DoT is at level 49 matter spec, so you have some ways to go..

Regarding how to spec, well, you need to make a goal for yourself, like 'I want to be a body cabbie.. or matter cabbie.. or spirit cabbie.. or some combination of the above.

A body cabbie is semi-good at nuking and diseasing. Not very useful unless you spec for the highest body spec nuke and enough in spirit to get the 15% body resist debuff. That way you would be a top level nuker because -15% body resist means you nuke for 15% more damage basically.

A good spec might be:

45 body (179 dmg 90% lifesteal dd)
19 matter (35% nearsight with 2300 range)
22 spirit (-15% body resist debuff for body spec nuke)

A matter cabbie is only good at two things. DoT.. and focus damage shield killing. The aoe DoT is well used for killing pygmy goblins after level 46 and powerleveling other chars. Up to then a matter cabbie is mainly for soloing with double DoTs (putting two DoTs at once on the same mob. The baseline one and the spec one can be used at the same time..) and damage shield. Also, the highest level nearsight is impressive when used well. It gimps any supportchars you use it on in RvR. Matter cabbie is also evil in defending keeps by using aoe DoT and disease.

A good spec might be:

17 body (for less variance on baseline nuke (140 dmg 60% lifesteal dd)
46 matter (83 dmg aoe DoT and 27,1dps focus damage shield)
22 spirit (-15% body resist debuff for baseline nuke)

A spirit cabbie is the best nuker I have played this far. With the -50% body debuff I can nuke for more then my wizard and coupled with the super-buffed pet I do serious damage... The fact the damage is a lifetap helps aswell, meaning that when I do damage to others, I heal myself aswell.

A good spec might be:
24 body (for less variance on baseline nuke and 120 seconds aoe disease)
11 matter (25% nearsight)
47 spirit (for -50% body resist debuff for baseline nuke and 96 seconds aoe snare)

Moving on, regathering my straying thoughts..

Pets and grouping.
Pet doesnt 'steal' or reduce the exp when used in groups, so you should use the pet and tell people to read the camelot herald grab-bags if they insist.

Pet and pulling.
You might wanna try putting the pet on stay before you make it attack. Not sure if that helps though. Personally I prefer the sapphire simulacrum for PVE, but I guess you dont have that yet. I have a feeling the amber simu is better then the ruby but not sure. I passed those levels kinda fast when I played so cant say for sure.

Regarding focus staffs.
I guess I could put it like this. All spells costs 125% power of what the 'delve' value says (shift+I on the spell icon). If your staffs focus level is the same level as the spell you use the spell cost is reduced to 100%. Atleast that is how I understand it, im sure it works something like that even if not exactly.

Amber and Ruby simulacrum and tanking.
Personally I think the Amber is best.. It can proc stuns and it has a hp/con buff and has alot more hp then the Ruby which means it should last longer then the Ruby while fighting and give you more time to work your DoTs on it..

If you want any more information about cabalists, you can read some on www.cabalist.org or you can ask on the forum again and I will attempt to answer anything you throw at me.

Good luck fellow cabalist.

 

[Mishy]

aww dreary, my cabby has same surname

 

[old.Sepiritz]

I changed it recently, good thing, Id hate to look like im unimaginative. blah.
Gonna change it again as soon as I can think of something clever..

 

[mestoph]

As mentioned above, the Herald stated that pets dont steal xp in groups. And even if they did they would count as 50% of 1/9th the xp, so you would not notice much difference in xp. And this is probably why they never included the reduction in groups.

 

[chinook]

Full Spirit to 47, rest body, may want to sacrafice some body for first nearsight...

Nuff said.

 

[Tilda]

if i were you playing a new cabby.

i would respec out of spirit at 20 to get the lvl 24 aoe DoT for BG1
id then get 3 spirit only at 25.
from there on up to 40, Id focus pull with my pet in gorups full matter spec.
id go on ever damm dragon raid there was.

If i got a skill respec stone id spec matter to 50 then respec at 50.
if i didnt get a stone by 40 i'd respec at 40 to full spirit.

Tilda

 

[Exinferis]

with the changes to sapphire, i would say hes better at tanking in pve than amber is (depends abit on what con mobs you are fighting tho, as the lifetap will be resisted all the time on higher lvl mobs )

 

[old.Zeikerd]

About the stealing of xp from the pet. This is the only good answer! Dont listen to anyone else!

If the pet does 100% of the damage to the monster you're fighting, it takes 25% of the xp away from the grp/person. If it does less damage it gets scaled down. So if it does 50% of the damage it will take 12.5% of the xp.

So in general in grp, you'll be hunting red and purple monsters, the pet will not be able to hit it, and if it will, it will hit for so low damage that yo wont be able to see a actual difference in xp lost to the pet. It should be around the 0.1% or something. Best is to keep the pet in the back to get aggro from a wandering mob or something, or use ruby to help nuking, it wont do much damage, but will increase the to-hit bonus for everyone else.

 

[Lorthania]

Tnx all for the help. I have now put some points in Spirit and that immediately had results: the sim is now far more effective... I've been taking on yellow hobgoblins and orange cythrauls in Llyn Barfog quite easily, whereas before, blue drakorans were about the most I could handle.

I'm going to go further in Spirit now to make a more effective solo char - cabbies indeed aren't very popular in groups

BTW I hope the next epic quests are a bit more exciting than the first one

CU around

Thargyn (Lorth's counterpart )