The Theurgist

March 21, 2003

I) Creating your Theurgist



1) What do the different stats do?

2) Hrm…what race?

3) Starting point go where?

4) What's teh UBAH specs!

5) Where are the theurgist trainers?

6) What kind of crafters can theurgist become?



II) Theurgist in PvE



1) Ghosts are an air theurgist's best friend!!

2) Dang no groups... How do I solo?  Where should I solo?

3) Whew found a group, what should I do?

4) No PBT till 26 earth... what am I supposed to do until then for groups??





III) Theurgist in PvP / RvR



1) How should my earth theurgist RvR?

2) How should my ice theurgist RvR?

3) How should my air theurgist RvR?






IV) Theurgist Specific questions (non pet)



1) What exactly is PBT? Pulsing Blade Turn?

2) Haste buff.. is that good?

3) OMG we get a 10DPS damage add.  Best evva!

4) How fast do we get to run?

5) How come our AE mez is 1350 range?

6) How come our attack speed debuff is as strong as what Healers get at level 9!?!



IV) Generic caster stuff



1) I'm about to spellcraft... what are some good items to get?

2) WTF is focus?

3) What's quickcast?

4) Should I go over 50 with a skill?

5) What stats should I cap?

6) What resist are important?

7) OMG Nerf zerks!





V) Our pets



1) What do all pets have in common?

2) What do each do?

3) Isn't chain stunning air pets overpowered?

4) How much damage does each do?

5) WTF my pet just attacked me?





VI) Realm Abilities

1) What are the basics?

2) Is Mastery of Concentration worth it?

3) Oh great Cep, can you tell me some war stories about MoC?

3) How good is siege bolt?






VII) Misc



1) What noob wrote this?

2) Our TeamLead would be ....

3) This FAQ is inadequate/not enough/teh sux.  Feed me links to more info!



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I) Creating your Theurgist



1) What do the different stats do?

Intel increases your power pool, and makes your spells do a tiny bit more damage. Dexterity makes you cast faster.  Con gives you more life.  Finally quickness makes your staff swing faster,
but considering you shouldn't be meleeing as a caster it isn't that important.





2) Hrmm.. what race?



You can be a briton or an avalonian (Sorry no inconnu ;/)  Avalonians start with 45 con, 60 dex, 80 int(the highest starting casting stat of all races in the game).  Brits start with 60 con, 60 dex, 60 int.  More HP VS more INT.  Some claim avalonians are generally targeted fast in RvR encounters because avalonians are 99% of the time casters.  Not too much of a difference, I just thing avalonians are sexy!



3) Starting point go where?

You start with 30 disposable points.  Once you go past +10 in a stat with these points, it cost 2 or 3 disposable points for every 1 you increase.  For this, I recommend going 10dex/10con/10int to casters that ask me.



4) What's teh UBAH specs!

Earth theurgist templates are usually 47earth/26ice/5air

You get 6 sec PBT, 19% attack speed debuff.  Ice is so your baseline Ice nuke has less variance, but even with +ice you'll still see variance in the nuke.  This is a support spec, and you'll spend a lot of time sitting cause you'll use power REALLY fast.  Air is for an emergency mez.  Don't expect it to last long.  Just mez it and run.



Ice theurgist templates are usually 40Ice/36earth/4air

You get 8sec PBT (only 2 sec lower than the last) and with +ice and some realm ranks you shouldn't see variance on your Ice baseline nuke.  I like this spec as a support caster more than earth (IMHO of course).  Your PBT is still pretty
good, and you get a 1 minute AE root which can be very powerful in RvR, and your Ice nuke will do decent damage but again at a high power cost.



Air theurgist templates are usually 46air/26earth/10ice

This is my spec.  I love it.  You get a 27 second AE mez, a killer power efficient nuke, and still have enough left for 10 second PBT.  Spirit damage nuke is absolutely the best resist type in PvE, and seen very rarely in RvR.  You got PBT so groups shouldn't be a problem, and your mez lets you do CC in a group if you really have to.  (Theurgist mez last just as long as minstrel mez at similar air/instrument specs)





Finally there is the -pet- template that goes 35earth/32air/25ice

This is more of a fun spec cause you get the high level versions of all the pets.  8 sec PBT still means you get groups, but you lack any real way to do damage outside of pets and in RvR, as well as non-solo PvE, you simply can't
rely on pets to do damage.





5) Where are the theurgist trainers?

Camelot, Adribard's retreat, Gothwaite harbor, Caer Diogel, Ft Gwyntell(I think) have  trainers for all classes.  The last 3 are SI towns.  There is also a theurgist trainer in Caer Ulfwych.





6) What kind of crafters can theurgists become?



We can become a tailor, fletcher, or a spellcrafter.















II) Theurgist in PvE



1) Ghosts are an air theurgist's best friend!!



Yeap yeap.  20% (!!!!) extra damage against ghost mobs with your spirit based nuke in Air spec.



2) Dang no groups... How do I solo?  Where should I solo?

Air theurgist usually solo by finding ghost type mobs and just nuking them down.  Sometimes throw an air pet out first. Non air theurgist usually solo by just spamming pets.  Pets cost tons of power though, so you want to use the least amount of those as possible or you'll be sitting down forever



3) Whew found a group, what should I do?

Put up the PBT, keep damage add and haste buff on everyone.  Throw a debuff on whatever mob they're fighting.  My theurgist does CC sometimes with root. Theurgist mez isn't usually the best form of primary CC though.  If you're a
nuker, then nuke.  NEVER let yourself go below 50% power, or you'll spend forever regenning.





4) No PBT till 26 earth... what am I supposed to do until then for groups??

I recommend all theurgist go pure air till level 20.  It's the best group and solo template for 1-20.  At 20, respec at your trainer (/respec air) to get enough earth for PBT.  Once you got PBT groups are pretty easy and after respec you can go to whichever template you want.













III) Theurgist in PvP / RvR



1) How should my earth theurgist RvR?

PBT is your toy.  You're a support caster.  Every action you take, do it to support.  If you try to -kill- you're not fitting your role.  Make sure everyone is at all times earth/haste buffed.  Keep the PBT going.  Stay near the back and
dump an earth pet or 2 on anything that cast or shoots arrows.  Just use the earth pets to interrupt them (support).  Don't try to kill with them.  Let your group do the killing.  Just interrupt all their support, and debuff their tanks.  Root anything chasing your friends, and sprint from anything chasing you.



2) How should my ice theurgist RvR?

AE root is your toy.  If you don't feel like AE rooting, then you should have gone air.  You're a mix support/damage caster.  Rely on your support at the beginning of a fight, then go to nuking.  Lead every fight by AE rooting their charges.  Then AE root anything else that moves, even casters (don't let their casters run from your tanks).  Once you've CC'd for your group, start blasting.





3) How should my air theurgist RvR?

Strong damage DD is your toy.  I lead every fight with my 23 sec AE root in ice. It clumps them together and sometimes get the tanks to use purge.  Then I AE mez if it means I'm going to get more than 1 person in the mez.  All that takes a
couple seconds.  After that I stay near the back and nuke the crap outta anything that moves.  If during a fight I see a cleric running from a tank, I'll root/mez the tank (to give the cleric breathing room) then nuke it.  Don't rely on your CC as actual CC.  Just use it to give your friends the initiative, or breathing room.  Rely on that sweet nuke.  I never use my pets unless I'm solo, because my nuke does more damage, instantly interrupts (doesn't take time to run to the person), and cost less power.





IV) Theurgist Specific questions (non pet)



1) What exactly is PBT? Pulsing Blade Turn?



Bladeturn makes 1 melee attack miss.  It will al ways work against a target your level or lower.  It has a chance to not work against people higher level than you.  Pulsing bladeturn is a chant that automatically every X seconds (10/8/6) cast a bladeturn on everyone in your group that is close to you.  The chant cost power to pulse.  Melee classes that attack slowly (2handed weapons/archer arrows) have a very hard time getting thru PBT.  Melee classes that attack with 2 weapons/fast (zerks/assasins/1h weapons) usually don't have that hard a time getting a hit in thru PBT.  And if you have more than 1 target trying to attack you while PBT will work against one of the people, it will do nothing against all the others. So the trick to get thru PBT for all classes is to /assist.



2) Haste buff…is that good?



At the last level it makes melee swing 19% faster, but will not let you go past the hard cap of 2 seconds per swing.  Melee classes will notice damage adds and styles doing less damage each hit with this up and may ask to not have it.  
They're silly to not want it though.  They may seem to do less damage per hit, but when the fight is done they will of done more damage total because they swing a lot faster.  Plus it helps them get thru enemy PBT.  The reason is because Damage adds (and styles) are DPS increases.  Damage Per Second.  At 8 DPS, you will do 16 extra damage if you swing every 2 seconds and 64 extra damage if you swing every 8 seconds.  It's the same each speed.  But each melee attack has a -base- damage it does no matter how fast you swing.  This is where swinging faster helps.





3) OMG we get a 10DPS damage add.  Best evva!



Yeap ;o  Even though it's a free spell, it's variance still depends upon earth spec.  Theurgist with high earth spec will have a stronger damage add, than theurgist with low earth spec even if each have the same spell.  Enchanters get a damage add as good as ours, but they have to spec for it.  Runemasters have a 7DPS damage add, but they get a stronger nuke.



4) How fast do we get to run?



At it's strongest it's 154% of normal speed.  My comparison, minstrels run at 156% normal speed at level 11.  But it's still a heck of a lot better than nothing.



5) How come our AE mez is 1350 range?



-shrug-  Mythic changes our mez to 350 radius a few patches ago, so apparently they have -addressed- our mez and we don't deserve 1500 range.



6) How come our attack speed debuff is as strong as what Healers get at level 9!?!



Because their debuff last 20 seconds while ours last 2 minutes.  Good reason?  Who knows but that's why.









IV) Generic caster stuff



1) I'm about to spellcraft... what are some good items to get?

Masterpiece cloth is relatively cheap (yay for us).  Some good items to look for are:



Necklace: Avernal Necklace (DF diamond buy)

Bracers: Veiled bracer of eyes quest (Secret Orders), SI quest bracer (Lost Treasure)

Jewel: Gem of spirit aborant (pygmy's in lyonesse drop it)

Cloak: Cloak of renitency (Quest get from shield merchant in CU)

Ring: Infernal Black Diamond Ring (DF diamond buy)



2) WTF is focus?

Focus reduces the cost of spells in that spec line.  For instance, 35 earth focus reduced the power cost of spells in the earth line.  Partial focus in a spell line is better than none when you're trying to cast those spells (IE 35 ice focus still kinda helps your level 50 ice nuke, but not a lot).  Focus does decrease how much power it takes to cast your buffs and PBT.  Earth focus is important if you're using PBT.



3) What's quickcast?

It lets you cast a spell while being interrupted.  It's on a 30 second timer.  While quickcast will be faster than your normal casting if you are unbuffed, it will actually cast slower than your normal spells if you have really good buffs.  
A quickcasted spell cost 2x as much power as a normal spell though so don't use it often.  One important thing about quickcast is that is you only have 1 power left, you can still quickcast a spell that cost 26 power to cast (Meaning
quickcast lets you -borrow- power to cast a spell if you don't have the power, as long as you're not totally empty)



4) Should I go over 50 with a skill?

Here's how your nukes will work in RvR.  If your nuke spec is the same as your level, you won't see any variance against even level targets (Meaning at level 37 if you have 37 ice(or 35+2 ice) your ice nuke will hit the same each time.  If you only have 20 ice your ice nuke will get variance (hit for different numbers each time).  The debate is that at level 50 is it worth it to get ABOVE 50 in my primary spec with all the +'s (IE is 45+11 better than 45+5).  There's only been a bit of testing on this.  What seems to be the case is that your nukes will do about .5% more damage at 50+1 air rather than 50+0 air.  With acuity buffs that .5% becomes somewhere around 1%.  Considering you can get +11 air, to me that extra damage is VERY important.  Damage is king.  RAWR damage.  You need to (IMHO) get as much damage off your primary nuke as you can so get as much +skill as you can for it.  Earth spec over 50 is kinda useless.



5) What stats should I cap?

Intel needs to be capped.  It gives you more power, and makes your nukes hit harder.

Then dexterity to cast as fast as possible.  Casting faster = more spells per unit time = more Damage per Second

Finally, get your con up.  You'd be surprised how much con and +hits help you survive or at least give your healer a chance to heal you.



6) What resist are important?

This is opinion of course, but for me they go in this order

Slash/Crush/thrust/body/cold/energy/heat/matter/spirit

With slash being the most important and spirit the least.



7) OMG Nerf zerks!



Word brother... word.









V) Our pets



1) What do all pets have in common?

They all have 2000 range.  They are immune to mez and root, but not stun.  They die after XX seconds (30 for earth/25 for ice/20 air).  They do last after we die.  They count as an extra -attacker- in PvE.  The more people hitting a target, the more damage each does and the few resist each person receives.  So against high level monsters I will tell wizard friends to wait until I finish spamming pets before he nukes, because with a more -people- attacking he will do more damage (at least until the pets expire).



2) What do each proc?

Ice pets cast a nuke that snares.  Air pets randomly proc a stun.  Earth pets are just melee.  The proc's can be resisted and are often against high level monsters.  The air pet stun is NOT in an immunity timer and last for 1 second.



3) Isn't chain stunning air pets overpowered?

In 1v1 it rocks ;o  But you need about 5-6 air pets to get a good stun going on someone.  Only time I get to cast 5-6 air pets is 1v1 when I root a guy, back up, and cast.  In 8v8 or large scale combat, if the enemy lets you stand there and cast for 20-30 seconds, they deserve to die.



4) How much damage does each do?

Air pets swing about twice as fast as earth pets and hit or 50-60.  Earth pets do about 130-150 damage.  Ice pets nuke for about 99 damage and get about 3-4 nukes in before they die.  This is at level 50 against average resist.  Of course they do more damage against low Armor Factor targets (casters/archers) than high AF targets (tanks)





5) WTF my pet just attacked me?

Mentalist get a Realm Ability called Sever the Tether.  It makes pets attack their masters.  It's not a common RA really, but something to consider when attacking the frolic.  (Editor’s Note: The frolic is the Percival name for the Hibernian Zerg)





VI) Realm Abilities

1) What are the basics?

What is mostly recommended is to get Serenity 2 if you use 10 sec PBT, Serenity 3 for 8 sec PBT, and Serenity 4 at 6 sec PBT.  Of course MCL is a must for everyone.  After that, go wild.  I always recommend Toughness1, augcon1, augdex1, Avoidance of magic1 to anyone that wants to RvR.  That extra survivability sometimes helps.  In DAoC it's about all those -littles- you can get that add up.  If you're a nuker get at least Mastery of the Art 2.





2) Is Mastery of Concentration worth it?

Mastery of Concentration is an RA that cost 14 points, requires Acuity3, last 15 seconds, and can be used every 30 minutes.  If you're a class with a life tap or PB damage, almost everyone agrees it's absolutely a necessity.  I'm an air
theurgist so I got the strong air nuke.  People try to tell me -MoC is a waste of points.  It's not worth it.  Get level 3-4 of XXX-.  I tell them NO WAY BUDDY.  I swear up and down on MoC for air theurgist.  I couldn't imagine RvRing without MoC on my theurgist.  It's won WAAAAY to many fights for my group.




3) Oh great Cep, can you tell me some war stories about MoC?



My group's running thru Sauvage.  We get jumped from the side by some mids.  Instant stun'd us all.  I'm like OH CRAP.  Normally this is when an alb group types /release.  Well I wait for the AE mez to follow instant stun, then purge mez and start nuking their healer.  Skald gets on me.  I pop MoC keep nuking their healer.  Drop him flat all the while a skald hitting me.  Then I turn to their shaman.  At this time a zerk notices me and I got both a zerk and a skald on me.  Cleric hits Bunker of Faith.  I get some good heals to keep me up.  Nuke Nuke Nuke Nuke.  Bam their shaman is dropped.  MoC is over.  I Quickcast AE mez the skald and zerk, and run away.  Because of MoC, I drop'd all their healing and all their buffs.  We won the fight with 0 deaths even though they got the jump on us.  MoC won that fight.



I'm running solo thru Odin's Gate.  Jump a Runemaster.  Mez her, back up throw a pet then WAM a arrow in my side.  Turn to the hunter QC mez him but his pet is chomping on me.  The pet is on the Runemaster so the RM is ready to nuke me.  I MoC, 3 shot the Runemaster (all the while this pet hitting me) then ANOTHER hunter tries to shoot me so I nuke him down too.  He can't fire back while I'm nuking him.  Dead hunter.  Then mez fades on the first hunter.  He charges me (his pet still hitting me I’m at about half health).  I finish nuking him down right as MoC wears off.  MoC let me win that fight.



I recommend to ANY damage spec caster get MoC ASAP.  It rocks ;/



Earth/ice theurgist don't need MoC.  But air... oh yea baby yea.





4) How good is siege bolt?

Siege bolt does basically the same amount of damage to a door that a ram does in 2 swings (10 seconds)

It does 1500 damage against level 1 doors, 790-800 damage against level 2-3 doors.  It cost 10 Realm Skill Points and is on a 5 minute timer.  I personally think it's a waste of points and would recommend purge any day over Siege Bolt, but that's just my opinion.





VII) Misc



1) What noob wrote this?

My DAoC name is Cep.  I'm a Rank 7 theurgist on Percival.  I used to be 45earth/29air. Retired my theurgist in disgust until respec's came and went 45air/26ice out of protest of earth.  Loved it got tons of RPs but couldn't stand no PBT, so got a dragon stone and went to 46air/26earth/10ice.





2) Our TeamLead would be...

Abaddon.  He has his own message boards, but can sometimes be seen gracing the VN with his presence.  His boards are at...

http://pub36.ezboard.com/fthecauldron28210frm11



3) This FAQ is inadequate/not enough/teh sux.  Feed me links to more info!

Theurgist TL boards:

http://pub36.ezboard.com/fthecauldron28210frm11

Character builder (nice for designing your template):

http://daoc.catacombs.com/

For quest information:

http://daoc.warcry.com

For spell information, and a list of our RAs:

www.camelotherald.com

For a place to vent and whine:

camelotvault.ign.com

Crafting calculator if you decide to craft:

http://www.aros.net/~fumigatr/daoc/alb_armorcalculator.htm

Spellcrafting calculator for help designing your suit: (click Equipment Configurator)

http://theharms.org/daoc/crafting.html