So an SO/SE get light armor mastery. It increases P.Def, casting spd, and mana reg when wearing light armor. Yet everyone tells me to wear robes because robes increase casting speed.
So my question is, can someone explain this to me? Is light armor viable for my SO/SE? Are any using light armor?
Close to none SO/SE use Light Armor. In parties your your will always be healer & buffer. Robes are ALWAYS faster since you have the passive skill Spellcraft that doubles the casting speed when wearing robes.
Seems wierd to have the light armor mastery. I'm in manticore and my cast are faster then my DW it seems; sure enough disrupt undead is faster then anything my DW has except for the melee type spell (name?). My healing doesn't seem to be suffering when grouped.
Does anyone know what the cast speed increase is for light armor? How much less is it then robes? And will the cast spd dif. between the two be a problem in C or B grade?
A convenient cast speed table, these are listed as fractions of cast speed in robes (from l2p).
no mastery 0.500
Healer Light 0.955
Prophet Heavy 0.840
Orc Mystic Light 0.950
Orc Mystic Heavy 0.855
Summoner Light 0.940
The SO's light armor mastery says it adds 91% to cast speed while robes add 100% to cast speed. So to calculate light armor's cast speed as a percent of robe's cast speed: (100+91)/2=95.5
That is what l2p says. It is always good to have stats make sense. :)
A convenient cast speed table, these are listed as fractions of cast speed in robes (from l2p).
no mastery 0.500
Healer Light 0.955
Prophet Heavy 0.840
Orc Mystic Light 0.950
Orc Mystic Heavy 0.855
Summoner Light 0.940
The SO's light armor mastery says it adds 91% to cast speed while robes add 100% to cast speed. So to calculate light armor's cast speed as a percent of robe's cast speed: (100+91)/2=95.5
That is what l2p says. It is always good to have stats make sense. :)
Thanks!!
Does spellcraft and magicians movement stack? IF so that means I would be casting at like 200% as opposed to almost 100% with light?
If that is right then my last question is: PvP at B grade, is that cast speed bonus going to be more of a benefit to me then the mana regen and P.def bonus from light?
I'm having a lot of trouble deciding which way to go at late lvls. Every SE I see is wearing robes and everyone says it's better cause of the cast speed, but the option to wear light is there and I wouldn't mind trying something dif as opposed to following popullar trend. I just don't want to end up hurting myself making a bad gear choice. I'm thinking that my nuking potential is going to continually go down hill and that melee classes will come gunning for me and the added def. and mana regen would be plus.
Dunno; I'm hoping maybe someone can convince me wich way I should go cause I really don't know. What is going to help me save myself or keep me alive long enough for someone else to save me, the robes or light armor?
light really isn't an option. your cast speed suffers, which can be gotten around to a degree, however your mp pool also suffers. all robes add a significant amount of mp to your base pool, something which light armor does not do. this means more down time, less ability to buff and heal in parties.
Magician's movement effects physical attack speed not cast speed.
Remember the added mp. regen from the light armor mastery is just to make up for not getting to use the Mana Recovery skill you get at level 1. I am not sure if the added mp regen is as much as you would have in robes but it is definitely not more.
I have played an SE in light armor and it works fairly well for small parties where you want to melee too. There is no reason to where light armor unless you plan on physically attacking.
Sadly a meleeing SE is less and less help as you increase in level as their damage relative to the DDs goes down and the likelihood of needing a heal in time goes up (and mobs with AoE stun get common). Over 4-5 people in party and you will need robes as your mp pool will not let you buff everyone when in light.
Good luck finding a style for your SE! ;)
Edit: I just noticed your question in the last line: Use robes for safety when in party - cast speed for heals and you offer better support so a party mate can come rescue you. You can try to stab stuff even when in robes, just make sure the mobs don't stun and you don't pull agro. You stop nuking after level 30 at the latest.
I melee'd an SE (granted this is a bit higher level than you) at 64-68. (Slow, painful, tedious.. more adjectives, anyone?)
I preferred robes. I had to heal myself anyway, since it took about 6 months to kill a mob. With the greater mp pool I had less frequent downtime - with the faster casting speed I had fewer close calls.
Granted, I was testing BW light against Majestic Robes, so there was a grade difference in the gear.. (Majestic Light's bonus is to archery damage, and I wasn't buying a bow "just to see" or buying another a helm for the same reason.
So my advice - if you have the means, try both. At level 30 you should stop "nuking" (unless you like to kill undead) and find a nuker to level with.
Light armor is pretty pointless, since the only thing you get that is better than robes is pdef. The other important stats - casting speed, mp pool - all suffer. So light armor only makes sense if you plan on getting hit by mobs, and that would only happen if a.) you want to solo or b.) you plan on hitting mobs in a party AND think you actually will get aggro there.
Soloing makes no real sense for a SE once you pass lvl 50 or thereabout, since xp in a duo or a larger party is definitely better (and if you have problems getting a party I would, quite frankly, choose a different class to play...). And even if you get a melee weapon and hit mobs in the parties you are in, you usually will not get aggro, and for parties having higher casting speed and a larger mp pool for buffs/heals/recharges is useful.
I stopped buying LA masteries once I left D grade, and I never missed them.
Every time you claim that max MP reduces downtime, a baby buffalo dies.
Fine then - downtime is less frequent.
200 mp - heal myself every 5 seconds, downtime after 2 minutes
600mp - heal myself every 5 seconds, downtime after 6 minutes.
If I go to do something else every time I sit down, it doesn't really matter how long the downtime is (and watching the mp bar go back up is like watching grass grow.)
So - just for you Maline - I'll change it to less frequent downtime.
Yes, much. There are plenty of people who actually have come to believe that max MP somehow influences MP regeneration thanks to confusing expressions like that.
Of course, you're also less likely to run off sitting down in light armour, since you spend much less time sitting down.
Were you hunting with -STR or properly tatted at the time?
IIRC Robe MP does not count towards the herb effect, except Superior and full ones. They're rather rare, and moreso with a healer's comparitively low killspeed.
I'm sure the downtime she describes are pre-herb anyway - or with -8STR and an AoBA or something like that. ;p