Caliban,
Do the extrra levels actually add much damage? I've put 3 levels into it and a +1 ring and it seems to do about the same max damage (about 20 point more out of 600). I was wondering if the extra energy cost is worth the extra levels.
I really wish I knew the answer to this question and someone else may. Here is my uninformed opinion.
The added levels add some top end damage, decrease evades and reduce the damage range... That is, I think it raises the possible bottom end so you don't see sweeps for 23 dmg or something. I think this is true for damage based skills in general.
I am not sure about any of this. It just seems this way to me. I have not stopped the grind long enough to really get data. Hopefully someone else has a data model on how skill points really work.
It also depends what level mobs you are fighting. I usually am fighting multiple mobs about 10 levels higher than the tank, who is ten levels higher than the druid, when leveling, so I am currently fighting things in the mid 120s when in a small group. Large group leveling mostly on the lava ramp. Sweep is only really good for the duo/trio. Even when I max str my auto is not great on these. My skills hit for pretty good amounts though so the levels in the skill matter from that point of view it seems.
The best combo for leveling a tank that I found so far is a Druid, Mage and the tank. If you find that the Druid has nothing to do, bump up to the next level mobs. The Druid should more or less be in continuous cast mode, really without time for attacks. In the best world the Mage is the same level as the tank and has maxed cloak, storm and appropriate lures, but this depends on the mobs being fought. They do not need eshield. It would be better to ask a Mage about that. I have used an AoE build on my Mage, but not really enough to contrast it with single target builds picking off targets in the AoE mob Zerg. I have on occassion provided alt books so a Mage can respec for this, since the build will not be useful to them for bosses or soloing.
I usually use the Mountain shield on the pull and switch to dual wield, ice trident, once the pull is stable. The top of the pull is when things can go terribly wrong. Positioned right you will get Respawns of the first mobs to die, before the last one killed is dead, making for minimum movement down time.
This works well on wraiths. Black stones are harder because you may not be able to target the healer... All the mons collapse down into a single footprint on the tank and there is no way to cycle through them, so you just randomly get the top one. This makes pull order important, but that Is hard to manage at Balckstones. In which case it just becomes a very long abilities training fight, since you can stay alive almost indefinitely, but can't kill the mob Zerg you have created. AoE trees are impossible because of spawn points. AoE golems are hard, not only due to resists, but because sometimes the healer cannot keep up with the multiple Quakes and AoE that 3-5 golems will start to cast. Wyverns work in a larger group at my level and will probably work in a duo once I have another 10 levels or so.
So far this AoE method has been most effective starting in the low 100's and moving down the wraiths to the bridge. At 116? or whatever the tank is now, I am duo grinding the wraiths down by Shrouded and occassional Blacktones. I was getting a level a day from this, but it is slowing. I will run out of road here soon and have to alter the strategy for full Blacktones or Golem aoe's. Not sure how yet.
PS. Moved to AoE leveling three golems at a time. Works great as long as the heals stay out of Quake range, but still in heal range, which is possible. Better than Wraiths, since the golems cannot heal, or Trees since they are too spread out. I like the Rockalance spawn because that is the highest density of golems that level. Golems there are about 8-10 levels above my tank currently. Rockalance spawned while I was doing this and my tank and healer had him, slowly, down to about half health before I was able to get any dps help.
Specifically, pull a 4 star golem over to two low star golems. Last night I reversed the process and targeted the low stars in the pull, killed them and then just pulled the four star over to two more low stars. About three rounds of this has the four star down to about 25% health. If you can get fire cloaked, do. Makes a huge difference for tank leveling this way.
