Psionicist Solo Tactics

[Daynn]

Here is the obvious solo tactic. I wonder if any of you have something better or different?

Vs. a solo target with kiting room:

Simalcrum
Temporal Shift
Compression Sphere and other dots (dementia)
Mental Blast x2 or 3 or till simalcrum breaks
Temproal Shift again to keep it snared
Kite, keeping dots up and nuking in between

Vs. one in a confined space

Simalcrum
Temporal Shift
Compression Sphere and other dots (dementia)
Mental Blast x2 or 3 or till simalcrum breaks
Temproal Shift again to keep it snared
Nuke and Thought Pulse (carefully) as it closes.

Vs. two

Same as with one, but mezz one. I find that this is much better than using charm, as once charm breaks it is hard to mezz for some reason. Once one is dead, try simalcrum but don't count on it working.

Vs. three

Charm one (be ready to run if it doesnt take and they all come running)
Set it on another
Mezz the third
Dot and nuke the pets target as fast as possible
Set pet on mezzed target.
Doe and nuke as fast as possible
When charm breaks, Temporal Shift asap and kite them around making sure they are always snared.

Vs four

I was unable to make this work on even-level mobs. Just too many mobs to CC for a solo psio, or at least *this* psio.


I was able win against even-level groups of three about 75% with my Psio, but when things went wrong it went wrong in a spectaular way.

[Lenolian]

When i have a charmed pet, i try to not help him. Let your target do some DPS for you as well. Then break charm before it dies, and a single nuke to finish him.

[Hissig]

Not so much a tactic, but i was wondering, whats the difference between Enthrall and suggestion...except the duration...?

[coercion]

A few tips from an ex-28 Psi:

-At low levels, make maximum use of your DoTs for levelling. This means kiting 2-3 mobs at a time (each with compression sphere and temporal shift). Use time trick as a snare if temporal shift is resisted. If pulling all 3 at once, always pull with simulacrum first, and peel with temporal shifts.

-When charming, always keep as far from the fight as you can (ie. max spell range), and if you have a charmed pet while not fighting tell it to "stay" at max range. This goes for grouping, too.

-Create an extra chat window purely for "default" text, a few rows tall, and put it somewhere easy to see. This way, you will always spot the "Your charm begins to lose hold" messages, giving you a good few seconds to prepare.

-When your charm breaks, remember it won't automatically become your defensive target. hover your mouse just below your offensive target's heath bar, where the "Other mobs in the encounter" bars appear, so you're ready to click instantly to target when charm breaks.

-When solo charm kiting, recast temporal shift on the target at least once every 15 seconds, until you get the charm breaking message. This way, there's much less chance of having 2 mobs charging full speed at you when charm breaks, and a resist is less fatal.

-Charms are temporary, in 90% of situations you should be charming another mob on full health to finish off the mob you previously had charmed. The easiest way to do this is just to park your current charm as far away from you as possible, then simply cast charm on your new target. As soon as it lands, retarget your old charm, and hit temporal shift along with your pet attack button (ideally at almost exactly the same time, and as soon as you can). Rinse & repeat.

-Use your Memory Shift spell on your pet, and your aggro-reducer on you, particularly if you're dealing with casters.

-Make a /pet attack, /pet back off, and /pet stay macro and put them in your hotkey. I use my 2nd hotkey bar, with a quick shift-2, 1, shift-1 to get my pet to attack.

-Suggestion is for when something goes wrong on the recharm. Use it, get safe, then get ready to try recharming again. If something goes wrong again (when suggestion breaks - if it's resisted just cast again), use suggestion on the other mob, get safe, and try again.

-Astral Concentration is what you should be using for most of the time. However, it's good to drop to Rage for dropping DoTs, but as soon as they've landed get back into Astral.

-Practice. The real fun of charming comes from doing it in powerful groups of 6, but if you havent had any practice you'll just end up annoying everyone in your group. Practice on even-con 2/3-dots solo, then start working your way up.

Hope that was helpful.

[Daynn]

Great post Coercion. Charming has always been an art I have been tentative to practice. I plan to change this in VG for once.

[AmonKhan]

This is probably a stupid question, but how do you break Charm? Would I have to go invisisble as in EQ or can I choose to simply break it?

[vaparis]

This is probably a stupid question, but how do you break Charm? Would I have to go invisisble as in EQ or can I choose to simply break it?

Hit dismiss pet on your pet bar.

[AmonKhan]

Hit dismiss pet on your pet bar.

Maybe I have been out of MMORPG Circuit too long, (Played EQ until OoW and quit WoW after they decided ro give the Alliance Shammies... that was some b.s.) but that seems to be the most easy, and effortless way to break charm I have ever heard of; and if that is a Vanguard feature first, then I would say that alone makes this game set the new standard.

[Freesoul]

A few tips from an ex-28 Psi:


-Charms are temporary, in 90% of situations you should be charming another mob on full health to finish off the mob you previously had charmed. The easiest way to do this is just to park your current charm as far away from you as possible, then simply cast charm on your new target. As soon as it lands, retarget your old charm, and hit temporal shift along with your pet attack button (ideally at almost exactly the same time, and as soon as you can). Rinse & repeat.


-Astral Concentration is what you should be using for most of the time. However, it's good to drop to Rage for dropping DoTs, but as soon as they've landed get back into Astral.



Hope that was helpful.



Hi coercion :)

for the Form, i like to stay in phoenix, helping the pet from as far as possible, then switching to astral on 2 situation, charm is beginning to loose hold or before a voluntary recharm. if your pet is doing enough dmg, you wont over aggro even in phoenix.

While switching pet can happen sometime, my favorite is to go for the perfect pet (Warrior 4dot +2-3 lvl from me no special @TM best) and walk around with him. after each fight or 2 (depending of fight length, some 4dot can tears 3 dots apart in no time lol) i just park it and walk away, release pet and Mezz it before recharm. Mezz can come handy coz it regen my mighty servant to full health quasi instant :).

Now i m glad i choose mordebi for my psi coz the instant stun 8s (from 25s at end of beta) will even make thinks more safe :)

if things go out of control time-shift+acceleration can get me out of most situation.

[coercion]

The reason I stay in Astral most of the time is mainly because Phrenic Rage makes your spells considerably more inefficient. I mean, bare in mind it adds 50% mana cost to all spells, even ones that don't do any damage. And for the one's that do do damage, they only gain 25% power. Before the revamp it was the other way around, but right now Astral Form is infinitely more useful than Phrenic - which is only really useful when it's absolutely necessary to take down a mob as quickly as possible.

Thought Thief is now working properly, supposedly, but it is also much higher level (30 I think), so I'm not sure how useful it is yet. Hopefully it'll give us a 2nd useful concentration.

[Freesoul]

i can see that.

in beta though, my mana never seemed to ran out.

i could nuke/dot all fire out during the fight assisting the pet and keep going on fight after fight without even bothering.i had some pretty good stuf too that might helped.

Ha well,now that they balance again - so many changes coming one after the other - i ll have to check it again when i get 18 :)

[Hanabi Omoide]

I generally use one of two methods for soloing...

1. Chain charming on 3/dots that are a level below me.

- Use Astral form to cut down on the damage you take on charm breaks.
- Charm a mob, and send it in on another near mob.
- If the charm is resisted, snare it and run off a ways to charm another mob.
- If the charm lands, pile the DoTs on the mobs being attacked.
- Use Time Trick on the mob being attacked for the 45 second snare.
- Back off, and at the end of combat break charm.
- Snare the mob as it's incoming.
- Charm another mob and have it attack your former pet.
( Rinse and repeat until out of mana )

2. DoT kiting on 2/dot mobs that are a level higher.

- Use Phrenic rage for the damage boost.
- Open with time trick, using out DoT-snare if it's resisted.
- Cycle through your DoTs, including the AE-dot.
- Use your DoT-snare last if possible.
- Find another mob once all dots have succesfully stuck to the current one.
( Rinse and repeat until out of mana - saving acceleration for emergencies )

With a 5 / 5 / 4 attribute split on Int / Wis / Vit, I usually have enough
energy with Phrenic Rage to kite three or four mobs before having to wait
on mana. The 3-4 mobs are kited simultaneously, so the down time is
really no big deal. Overall it seems much quicker than chain-charming.

[Puuma]

I use much the same form as Hanabi but now i charm one and attack it on another then do the sim, dot, dot on a 3rd then step between them and hit ae dot, step back, nuke the one on the sim, nuke the one on the charmed, break charm and nuke. go find another 3 mobs close together. I use rage stance as well.

I use a 6int/4wis/4con split and can do this tactic twice before i have a snack(shiney red apples) and go again. Alot of people choose the vitality route, but i have spells that give me mana. Our guild already has a guy building a mana battery psi, so I am more of the spell damage focus kinda guy.

[Darinford]

I'd just like to add one thing

When you're grouping if you only have to time trick one mob to take it out of the fight, if possible cast simulacrum first and THEN time trick.


Two reasons

A. Simulacrum is not resisted half as often, and almost never if the monster hasn't taken any damage yet.

B. When time trick breaks the monster will often not head straight for you or your groupmates if you have the simulacrum up. This saves quite the headache.


The only time I don't do this is if I know that I'm going to have to CC two at once, or if what we're killing is just absurdly weak. That and some monsters are invulnerable to simulacrum.

[Daynn]

Regarding Astral versus Rage, I tend to switch to Rage when I need to down something quick. If I am pulling a solo mob in a tight area, one in which I want to drop fast before a patrol aggroes, I'll stay in Rage aspect and pour the juice into my nukes.

In almost all other situations I stay in Astral. It has no real cost unless you are fighting spirit-using casters, and to be honest I have never once been in a situation where a caster overpowered me in astral. Lazy psios would do well to stay in astral 100% of the time. :) Power-users may find it good to switch mid-combat, especially if dropping something fast is necessary.


Rage is very nice when you are casting from Mirage in a tight spot, want to down the target very fast and recast Mirage before you get a group hug.

[Melios]

In almost all other situations I stay in Astral. It has no real cost unless you are fighting spirit-using casters, and to be honest I have never once been in a situation where a caster overpowered me in astral. Lazy psios would do well to stay in astral 100% of the time. :) Power-users may find it good to switch mid-combat, especially if dropping something fast is necessary.


The thing I hate about Astral Form is that it messes up the face (until you change chunks or log out).

[ancksunamun]

Indeed, astral form messes my character's apperance, I stay purely in phyrenic rage form and use TT often on simmilacred doted mobs, more dangerous bit lil faster killing. Curious why nobody mention timestop when pet breaks the charm and gets close. I always hit time stop and recharm it without taking dmg.