Rift Magus - Keep Sieges

[Aircool]

Quite simply - is a RIFT magus a viable spec for keep sieges? Anyone with any experience?

Or does RIFT not work out of plane so is therefore useless if the enemy is above or below you?

[BraveHeart]

Originally Posted by Aircool

Quite simply - is a RIFT magus a viable spec for keep sieges? Anyone with any experience?

Or does RIFT not work out of plane so is therefore useless if the enemy is above or below you?

It's good for helping guard postern doors, and pull those pesky order that try to get into the door by suicide running. Nothing has ever been more satisfying then pulling that little rune priest who was just feet from the door and imagining the look of dissatisfaction and annoyance on his face. :P

Other then that its nice for the Lord room also, pulling every1 onto one concentrated spot so they cant sneak around and take hits on your healers.

[Aircool]

Can you pull people from the room above or below you though?

[AsNied]

Originally Posted by Aircool

Can you pull people from the room above or below you though?

Defend:
1) Not exactly, but in some situation yes. When you staying in Lord Room you may rift these who trying to get to lord. As long you spread chaos in yours enemys lines, your chances of winning are increased.

2) You may also pull to gate and hold them there (Oil will do the rest)

Attack:
1) Only job is near postern door.


For sieges Havoc/Changing - nothing else :/

[Aircool]

If your RIFT specced, what do you generally do during the 'gate' stages of a keep siege? Also, is it me or is WARPFIRE a totally rubbish skill?

I guess there's only one way to find out - spend all that gold on a respec

[Retardula]

warpfire is garbage.

as a rift specced magus during a keep siege i will normally attack a door with some dots and summon a demon, but my damage isnt anything at all what i could be with havok/changing. that is if there are no order outside. sometimes I will AoE the oil with changing spells. but a rift magus is most useful when rifting incoming defenders before they can get in the keep (front or posterns).

once inside the keep i like to think of myself as a walking bomb. in the lords room i pop all my PBAoE and just lash otherwise.

Also as I am rr52 I have enough points for IFoC so that helps with the boredom of headbutting a keep door for a bit.

[Aircool]

Sound like deamonology is the most tactically limited spec for keep attacks and better suited to scenario's.....

[Zerg]

You cannot pull from the room below or above you. You can only pull those in the same horizontal plane as you are. I find it an excellent defense tactic if it is used correctly in conjunction with a few other skills for both defending the keeps and taking out the live attackers and for giving your healers and range dps some time to escape the annoying offensive trying to get at them. Rift is only useful when you have good team work though because it can also be a death trap if you don't know what you are doing.

I have also used it in attacks as well, where there are player defenders other than the NPCs (if there are no players there it is of course useless!); its much riskier though as NPCs are "aggroed" to you once they are in the rift range. But in conjunction with a good tank or two that can pull the hate away from you and with other supporting team members you can use it to the attacking side's best interest. It all of course boils down to good team work and to the people who know what they are doing.

There are people who say it is overpowered/ underpowered, to this I laugh at, because then I realize that those who say this, clearly don't know how to strategize other than mash their keys and zerg.

[Brudaemus]

Rift spec has 2 purposes in a keep defend...

1) Suicide - Rift just outside the gates to snare opponents under the oil and Jelly Donuts... my personal favorite...

2) Irritate - Rift people right before they make it to Postern/Keep doors...

Thats just about it...

[Retardula]

Originally Posted by Aircool

Sound like deamonology is the most tactically limited spec for keep attacks and better suited to scenario's.....

not true. you just wont be DPSing the door as well. demo works wonders for defense. you just wont neccessarily be casting outright DD spells.

a couple examples of how rift work wonders are

a. say you are defending in the lords room. instead of sitting up there forever my guild likes to push down and push them out. wiping them when the doors close makes my nuts tingle also. going in there and rifting the attackers on the first floor is a good way to get the ball rolling.

b. postern guard duty - whether you are trying to prevent defenders to get in or yanking out overconfident defenders (like myself).

just know though that this is huge for teamwork and if you dont have a team that supports you, you will most likely die alot, hate it, and respec out of it.

and one more thing dont forget the extra points you have. im almost half changing as well and cast the aoe dots and SoI alot when im not in PBAoE range. so i dont completely rely on demo.

[Oghier]

I would like some advice on proper use of Rift in RvR.

As my Herder main runs out of upgrades, I play my magus alt more and more. I have him specced demonology up through Rift, with the rest in Changing. He's currently rank 34, and his ability to grind through crowds astounds me. I have not spent much time in RvR with him, however. So, I have some questions:

- What is the proper order for abilitiy usage when Rifting in ORvR? Insta-Demon, Aegis, Rift, Instability, Torrent, Lash?
- Any tips on staying alive to get the rift off, other than befriending a tank and a healer?
- For ORvR, is it Wounds > Toughness > Int = Initiative?
- How effective is a demonology magus in Bilerot, Bloodwrought and LV? I've never grouped with one there.

Thanks in advance.

[Khintos]

Originally Posted by Oghier

- What is the proper order for abilitiy usage when Rifting in ORvR? Insta-Demon, Aegis, Rift, Instability, Torrent, Lash?
- Any tips on staying alive to get the rift off, other than befriending a tank and a healer?
- For ORvR, is it Wounds > Toughness > Int = Initiative?
- How effective is a demonology magus in Bilerot, Bloodwrought and LV? I've never grouped with one there.

Thanks in advance.

First off, my Daemonology/Changing spec. I will be putting the extra points from rr into Changing so i can get IFoC.

My usual order: run into the fray while mounted (it is very important to stay mobile until the last moment!) - Aegis - Rift - move a bit back right before it finishes casting so they dont land on top of you - Glean - Infernal Blast. Then it depends on the situation: if they are not hitting me or some IB kicked me back i put Pandemonium on them, else i start lashing.
If you see one of your caught enemies starting to move off, use root. It might not do a lot, but it keeps them in your Lash radius (and the radius of your dps buddies) a bit longer.

Summoning a demon can be nice, but isnt always usefull. Instability is useless right after a Rift, because Rift triggers the knockdown immunity.

Staying alive: dont rush in from the start and dont rush in right into the face of the enemy. Wait until battle has begun and most people have selected their targets, then run in (mounted!) from the side or at least out of the direct field of view of most enemies and find a nice spot in the middle of them
Of course you'll die often, but after a while you will start to get the hang of it and know when/where to rift.
And a good healer helps a ton

While leveling i always looked at intelligence first and wounds second. As long as you can pull 5 equal lvl mobs and survive youre fine. Since i got to lvl 40 and started getting set gear i have been putting wounds gems on them. You should aim for about 6k hp unbuffed, that should give you enough hp (also combined with Daemonic Armor and Aegis of Orange Fire) to survive long enough to get heals. Im also putting all my rr points into int and crit chance, its easy enough to get wounds from gear/gems.

I have only done BE and BB, but i dont really have issues there. For trash and tank & spank bosses i use Endless Knowledge, Warped Flesh, Devour Energy and Close Quarters or Sleight of Hand. The spell rotation is the same as if you would be ae grinding on your own: let the tank pull and get aggro, Glean, Pandemonium, Infernal Blast, Agonizing Torrent, Lash. If it is 1 target you can also use your single target dots ofcourse.

For the parts where you need to stay at range, you basically just play like a Changing Magus: get all dots up and spam Rend Winds. Dont forget to switch off Close Quarters for those encounters though

Another advantage of a Daemonology Magus in BE/BB is that we are a bit tougher than your average Sorc, which means you can pull adds off healers and survive getting aggro a bit better/longer.

I hope this helps
I just wish people would realise that speccing Daemonology does not mean giving up all ranged capabilities. You just choose to be more effective in the 0-65ft zone, while Changing/Havoc Magi are more effective in the 65-100ft zone.

With the right spec/rr your ranged dmg will still be nice, but you get the added bonus of being able to control fights via Rift, the one and only half-decent form of ae crowd control in this game.

[Oghier]

Originally Posted by Khintos

I hope this helps

It does -- thank you.

[kashak]

Originally Posted by Khintos

Summoning a demon can be nice, but isnt always usefull. Instability is useless right after a Rift, because Rift triggers the knockdown immunity.
.

Bzzzt , knockback and knockdown are seperate timers unless they have changed it in the past couple of days. You can use resummon jsut before rift. Rift. instability and they will fall down.

I dont do it a lot though as our black orc tends to run in and knock em down for 2 seconds.

edit: i assume your talking pvp here

[Aircool]

Definately some nice tips and advice - cheers.