different elementals
Desdinova
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>was hoping some kind soul wouldn't mind explaining the cons/pros of the =
>different four elemental types
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From an earlier post:
The general breakdown is:
Earth: Most hit points of the four, highest strength, lowest
agility, slowest delay, average armor.
Air: More hit points than fire but less than water, low
strength, highest agility, fastest delay, low armor.
Fire: Lowest hit points, low strength, high agility (less than
air, but higher than water), fast delay (slower than air but faster
than water), low armor, fire shield.
Water: More hit points than air but less than earth, more
strength than air but less than earth, more agile than earth but less
than fire, faster delay than earth but slower than fire, more armor
than fire but less than earth.
So ranking them from best to worst in the appropriate categories,
we have:
HIT POINTS
----------
Earth
Water
Air
Fire
STRENGTH
--------
Earth
Water
Air
Fire
AGILITY
-------
Air
Fire
Water
Earth
DELAY
-----
Air
Fire
Water
Earth
ARMOR
-----
Earth
Water
Fire
Air
What all the above means:
Hit Points: A common RPG term, this is the amount of health
the pet has.
Strength: In EQ, there is a maximum damage that can be dealt
out by a particular attack. For instance, 12th level pets can deal a
maximum of 16 hit points of damage. High strength won't make you do
more damage with an attack. What it will do, however, is make you hit
for the max damage more often. An Earth elemental almost always hits
for Max damage. Air and Fire elementals don't hit for max damage as
often.
Agility: High agility means you get hit less often. Earth
elementals get hit *all* the time. Air Elementals get hit less
frequently.
Delay: This is the time it takes between attacks. Lower
numbers mean quicker attacks. (For instance, a delay of 20 means you
attack more often than someone with a delay of 50.) So Air elementals
attack more often than Earth elementals.
Armor: In EQ, this affects your chances of getting hit in the
first place as well as affecting how much damage you take when a blow
actually lands.
There are essentially two situations in which a smart solo
Magician will find himself/herself: (1) Attacking white and yellow
MOBs and (hopefully) only taking on one at a time; and (2) attacking
swarms of blue and green MOBs.
For (1), Earth or Water are your best bets. When you're
attacking white or yellow MOBs, you're fighting a creature that's
going to be doing quite a bit of damage when it hits, and it's going
to hit often. So you need the high hit points of the Earth or Water
pets so they won't get killed when the MOB still has half health, and
you need the extra strength that these two elemetentals can provide to
finish the MOB more quickly.
For (2), Air or Fire are your best bets. This is because when
you're fighting swarms of blue and green MOBs, you want a pet that
will either (A) get hit comparatively rarely (Air); or (B) do damage
to whatever hits it (Fire).
My personal preference is Earth Elementals when I'm soloing
yellows and whites in North K. or East K., and Fire Elementals when
I'm in Blackburrow mowing down blues and greens.
Desdinova
Humble Erudite Conjurer of the 4th Circle
Innoruuk
TSandrich
the level of the spell. Also, Earth does not have the highest ac. Saying all
that, I always use earth and I am level 25.
TSandrich
Bob Richardson
have what effects.
Desdinova <abu...@erols.com> wrote in message
news:37633b1a...@news.rcn.com...
L. Drew Davis
<cl...@vic.bigpond.net.au> wrote:
>was hoping some kind soul wouldn't mind explaining the cons/pros of the =
>different four elemental types
Everyone has their preference. There's an "official" post out
there with a description from the designer that sums it up fairly
well. But, oddly enough, it has mistakes. For example, he
recommends air elementals to tank for you, due their higher
agility. In actual practice, air elementals die faster than earth
elementals. The extra dodge doesn't make up for the lack
of HP when they do get hit. (And the inconvenience of having
the things disappear whenever they feel like it is reason enough
for me not to use them. It only takes one combat of hunting around
trying to figure out which drake your pet decided to attack to
stick with the visible ones.) Fire elementals have a damage
shield, which is sort of tempting. However, you don't often
have your pet beseiged by crowds (where the shield has
the most effect), and they're low on HP, as well. Besides,
since you'll get the Fire Shield spell, _any_ of your pets
will have a damage shield. (Score another point for earth
elementals here -- if you have a shield, you don't _want_
to dodge and not do damage to the attacker. You _want_
him to hit you.) Water has the highest HP regen rate,
which can be important when you're soloing. (Less
downtime.) They die a little quicker than earth, but
overall I like water about as well. Earth elementals
also seem the least "fidgety", which is important if you're
trying to keep them from attracting extra monsters, or
avoiding having them walk through walls and suicide.
Solo vs. party use can make a difference. For
solo, earth or water is almost de rigeur, since you'll
only last as long as your pet does, and it's expensive
to keep losing them. In parties, you'll have other
tanks, so the pet HP doesn't matter as much. (OTOH,
if the monsters aren't attacking your pet, that fire
elemental isn't doing you any especial good, and
you might as well have the hitting power of earth,
since the lack of AC isn't going to matter.)
Unfortunately, they're a little too expensive to
summon to really have a tactical choice. It'd be
fun to have some options, something like pull up a
fire elemental to clear out the "hall trash" (those low-
level greens that attack you anyway on your way
into the dungeon), and then switch to earth for a
heavy combat. But it's not really cost effective to
do that; the differences are really fairly minor, not
worth doing a Reclaim Energy/recast.
Elementals have started casting minor spells. I
don't know exactly what they all are, but earth is
throwing an earthquake spell ("X stumbles as
the ground beneath him shakes"), with a visual
effect that looks like Root. Water throws a Shards
of Ice attack, for some unknown (to me) amount of
damage. It's more fun to watch them fight now, but
I haven't noticed any big shift in their power level.
Monsters die about as fast (or slow) as before.
But, the spell choice could well give you a tactical
preference. (In Guk or Splitpaw, for example,
you can really benefit from that Root, if that's
what it is.)
I'm not aware of a way to get the elemental
to stand back and just cast his spell. (This
could be important in, say, Lavastorm, where
your pet is heavily damaged and you're fighting
a fire elemental. It'd be nice to have it cast its
spell _without_ punching and bashing and taking
more damage.)