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Xornn picked a bit of grass from the ground he knelt upon, and rubbed it between
his fingers. A floating pair of swords paced next to him, watching for that moment
when it would be called into service. Across the plains of South Karana the young
enchanter saw a gnoll heading on patrol, away from the Splitpaw Lair--that would be the
one.
Quickly the enchanter was up and running, closing the distance to the gnoll
patrolman as his animation followed in tow. As he neared to the gnoll he began to
call on the poisonous bite of Tashan, draining away the gnoll's ability to resist Xornn's
powers. The gnoll quickly charged the enchanter, sure of a victory against the robed
intruder--though the beast man should have called for help.
As it reached Xornn, the mystically hasted swords smashed into the gnoll on an
intercept course, as Xornn backed away from the fight. The gnoll did not look
concerned with the animation, for though it could hurt him, it was not very durable, and
soon enough the enchanter would fall. Then the gnoll felt a binding grasp of magic
slowing his thoughts, dulling his reactions, till it felt like his body was moving in slow
motion--or perhaps everything else was just so fast. Really, the whole point was
inconsequential, as the gnoll felt an explosive jolt in his mind, and literally felt his
eyes trying to bulge from their sockets as his head began to burn, and his lungs could not
find purchase on air. Then, as he stared dumbly at the viscious swords mortally
wounding him, his slow mind managed to piece together a sentence in Common Tongue:
"Prepare... soul... gods... await you." Well, he'd heard the words, but
that was the most sense he could make of them, before he died.
Kamikaze Tactics are about using your animation in battle. The animation is
dubbed Kamikaze, as once it begins fighitng, it will fight to the death. There's
also some similarities in the kamikaze pilots of WWII only having enough fuel to get to
the battle, and animations only having enough hit points for half of a fight, but in the
case of using the animation, we want to try and keep it alive, and optimally
taking no more damage than can heal in the time it takes you to be ready for the next
fight. If you consume 40% of your mana in a fight, then your animation should get to
full health by the time you recover that mana. There are several classes of Kamikaze
available to the enchanter, but this section will cover the most difficult,
Kamikaze-Soloing. (The animation is best used in a fear-kite, like all pets, but
that will be covered under Kiting.)
Pure Kamikaze
Lineup: Nuke, DOT (or Second Nuke), PB Stun, Root, Single Mez, Attack Slow,
MR Debuff, Swap Slot (Haste)
The "pure" form of kamikaze uses your animation as a DOT that costs the
amount of HP you lose getting it into the fight. There are two drawbacks to your
animation tanking however. First, the animation has terrible hit points and
defensive skills, making it very susceptable to death in short order, and secondly it
makes crowd control next to impossible since you can't call it off. Since you're
soloing, we'll just assume you're not trying to do multiples at once. You must do
51% of the damage to a mob if you wish to take full xp, as you only get half experience if
your pet should do more damage than you, thus the necessity of loading nukes for the
fight. The nukes are also there because you need to get the mob dead before it gets
your pet dead. From 29th on, you should probably just load your second strongest
nuke instead of your DOT, as your animation won't last 108 seconds in a stand up fight, so
your DOT isn't going to go to duration. However using your secondary nuke to
chain-nuke you can drop a large amount of damage onto the mob quickly. You will get
a feel for when your DOT is on long enough to be worth the mana, and when it isn't.
The PB stun is there because you always have one loaded, just in case you need to
get a spell off and are having trouble, and Root is there for the immobilization (and
aggro management, keeping the mob fighting your pet instead of you). Single Mez is
there in case you lose your pet and need a break (just keep in mind if you DOTed the mob
or not), and your Attack Slow is what keeps the animation alive for the fight, by
effectively increasing his defensive abilities--or making the mob take longer to smash
your animation into oblivion, however you wish to look at it. MR Debuff is the
opening pull spell, as it makes all of your spells land better, and the Swap Slot should
typically have Haste loaded, as it's very important to keep your animation swinging fast,
but also try to keep AC buffs on the pet (every little bit helps).
Typical fight will go as follows: Tash mob, get hit *pet goes in*, Attack Slow mob,
Nuke (lead with DOT if loaded so works the longest), Root (shouldn't need PB stun vs a
slowed mob), Nuke. Now if Root holds, chase that with your secondary nuke (if not
using DOTs) too keep the damage going. If root breaks you will most likely need to
reRoot the rushing mob, and your primary nuke will be ready to fire by the time you finish
with that.
Using Pure Kamikaze, it's easy to outrace your pet in most cases, and the animation's
damage really adds up fast. The whole objective is about killing the mob before it
kills the pet. When using this tactic, aim for lower blues, which you can kill fast
and readily, but won't be such a threat to your animation as bigger blues and higher cons
will be. What a mage or necro solos at one spell level, you should be there at the
next spell level usually. (If a 34 mage hangs out somewhere, try that place around
39.)
KS-Kamikaze
Lineup: Nuke, Berzerker Shield, AoE Blur (or Single Blur), Root, Single Mez,
Attack Slow, MR Debuff, Swap (Haste)
Quite similar to pure kamikaze, the goal in KS Kamikaze is to kill steal your
animation at the end of the fight. This is much easier to accomplish after you reach
39th and gain an AoE Blur, which allows you to call your pet off. Basically the idea
is to attack slow the mob as usual, then just keep putting Berzerker Shields (or Runes if
you prefer) onto your pet as they fade, which will allow you to keep the pet healthy while
you just keep regenerating the mana the shields are using. With an attack slow, the
shields will usually stay up for awhile, to this can be a slow and time-consuming kill.
As the mob turns to run, you stand and blur it, then immediately follow with your
nuke to kill it and claim full experience. However, with a hasted, dual wielding,
double attacking animation, it can be rather tricky to KS Mr. Kamikaze sometimes.
Once you gain the AoE Blur, you can blur the mob and call your pet off (he forgets he's
mad at it) all at the same time.
Stun-Kamikaze
Lineup: Nuke (or 3rd PB Stun), 2nd PB Stun, PB Stun, Root, Single Mez, Attack
Slow (or Nuke), MR Debuff, Swap (Haste)
When you aren't concerned with outracing the pet (such as while clearing out greens)
one of the best ways to dominate a mob is stun-lock kamikaze. Just load up all your
PB Stuns, and get to stun-locking like mad while the animation goes to town on the mob.
Having an Attack Slow ready is really just an option, and often a good spell to
keep memmed there is either your nuke (if running 3 PB stuns at 44th+), or a DOT since it
will take some time for the animation to kill the mob, even if it's just standing there
under constant stuns.
No matter which method you elect to follow, just remember that Kamikaze Soloing is
about mana effective kills and reducing downtime. Being able to kill a white conning
mob is great--really. But if I can kill two blue mobs and recover in the time it
takes to kill one white mob and recover, I'm getting better experience off the blues.
There are many other debuffs I don't suggest using, like Shaman Debuffs &
Strength Debuffs, but that's because they aren't mana effective, and usually even if you
get them on the mob it's not worth it by the time it's on. These tactics are fast
and mana efficient, especially with some practice, and getting a feel for what your
animation can handle.
Last rule of thumb, never be afraid to tip your hat to the animation and gate/zone.
Tiny Daggers are cheap--experience is costly.
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