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Question - How to combat my caster group's mana issues? (1 Viewer)

lalle85

Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2016
RedCents
274¢
Hey there! Hope you are doing well.

I have a caster group consisting currently of the following classes: pal, clr, enc, mag, nec, dru. But I am having big issues with sustaining mana for the group and hope some smart people out there have some bright ideas!
  • All are paid accounts and all characters have latest group gear, almost max aa.
  • I usually find the druid going out of mana first of all. Followed by nec. Then enc. Then mag. Then pal. Cleric never goes below like 90.
  • I use cwtn plugins for the clr, enc, mag. Kissassist for the pal, nec, druid. The highest rated/downloaded ones as they seemed popular and people have praised them for being so good.
  • On the latest cov missions I find I have to turn off all burns and manually ask for them or else I'm totally out of mana before the end on most of the latest missions (obviously not zlandicar), which seems odd. Do other experience this too?
  • On sustain just killing trash for a named pop, I feel like I can only keep going for like 10min before I need to med again. It's disheartening when my other team can go on for days without any breaks (melee team).
I feel like I'm either missing some important things I need to set up in order to conserve mana or utilize mana back capabilities better OR I need to shake up the classes I have chosen a bit... I'm open to that too if that is really what is needed!

Let me know if you need more detail and I'll provide best I can.

I appreciate your help!
 
are you using the group mana tap line on your necro? that helps a good bit.

druids can be mana hogs
Don't believe so. Will have to look up what it is...

I know enc also have some nukes that give mana back too that I guess I could byos.

Well this druid certainly is! Is it worthwhile maybe switching out for another class? I could always level up another bard or something, not sure how much that would help though...
 
Don't believe so. Will have to look up what it is...

I know enc also have some nukes that give mana back too that I guess I could byos.

Well this druid certainly is! Is it worthwhile maybe switching out for another class? I could always level up another bard or something, not sure how much that would help though...
Mind Erosion is the 114 lvl group manatap
 
Don't really have enough details to give you a "Ha, fix that and that" but a couple of things jump out at me.

Make sure your guys are mounted in zones they can be and make sure you are pulling to a camp and not doing the murder hobo wondering around thing.

Turn off Druid dots. Last I heard they are ungodly expensive. But, I'm not going to lie outside of ports I don't mess with droods

No idea on Necro but could probably fiddle with her cast lineup so she's not blowing her big dots (With big price tags) on mobs that have a sliver of health

I'm shocked to hear Chanter is going dry before mage but... Like druids, turn off Dots and I'd go so far as to turn off at least slow if not slow and tash.

Mage is the easiest fix. There is a mac to use one of those epic pet reclaim energy sticks to recharge mage's when they get low.

The biggest thing would be the use of the Mages rods. I don't think any of the plugins nor any KA macro's will click on those by default. But, I do know CWTN will auto summon at least the AA version. A group broadcast key should get your gang useing them at the same time so they are not just sitting in a bag being useless.
 
Ya, IMO he's way too priest-heavy anyway. Could drop either cleric or druid considering he's running a Pally and toss in a Bardo for even more mana regen plus the nifty boasts it brings.
 
Mind Erosion is the 114 lvl group manatap
Thanks, found it! Will add this and see if it helps a bit.

I noticed that Intellectual appropriation (enc dd) won't get cast if I go byos and get rid of mindslash. Is it some other slot I have to switch out instead?
 
Don't really have enough details to give you a "Ha, fix that and that" but a couple of things jump out at me.

Make sure your guys are mounted in zones they can be and make sure you are pulling to a camp and not doing the murder hobo wondering around thing.

Turn off Druid dots. Last I heard they are ungodly expensive. But, I'm not going to lie outside of ports I don't mess with droods

No idea on Necro but could probably fiddle with her cast lineup so she's not blowing her big dots (With big price tags) on mobs that have a sliver of health

I'm shocked to hear Chanter is going dry before mage but... Like druids, turn off Dots and I'd go so far as to turn off at least slow if not slow and tash.

Mage is the easiest fix. There is a mac to use one of those epic pet reclaim energy sticks to recharge mage's when they get low.

The biggest thing would be the use of the Mages rods. I don't think any of the plugins nor any KA macro's will click on those by default. But, I do know CWTN will auto summon at least the AA version. A group broadcast key should get your gang useing them at the same time so they are not just sitting in a bag being useless.
Yea I think I have to turn off druid dots minus named then. I still have it to do on Gift of mana proc tho.

Yea, necro could prolly be tuned a bit more but it does nice burn dps, over 1M.

Good call on the mod rods, don't think I have those set up properly and should def make a key for it! Thanks!
 
Tried without my Beastlord for awhile, but I ran dry on mana too. So Beast got back in group for me.
Was trying to go full caster but you might be very right on this. Para and their mana buff helps a ton.


Druids are terrible mana hogs.. I had a sk/shm/DRU/mag/mag/enc group... found out throwing a bst in druid spot solved the mag/enc oom problem.. and actually ended up being more substained DPS

Yea might have to do that after all.
 
Ya, IMO he's way too priest-heavy anyway. Could drop either cleric or druid considering he's running a Pally and toss in a Bardo for even more mana regen plus the nifty boasts it brings.
Bards are always nice! I have one for my other group, might have to make another! :) As you said, both good regen out of them but also the other bosts.
 
So I'm leaning towards exchanging the druid with a bard. Should be more mana regen out of it along with all the other benefits. Will be trying out putting my other bard in the group instead before I commit to see how it fairs. Thanks again for the tips.

That would make my team: pal, clr, enc, mag, nec, brd.

Some other things have been crossing my mind. I guess I'm just trying to find the "optimal" caster group that can compete pretty well with a melee one and still keep sustain up if possible.

Is the enc and brd too much overlap going forward?
Should the enc be changed to a mage if I go forward with bard? That would mean pal, clr, mag, mag, nec, brd.
Should I exchange the nec with another mage perhaps? That would mean pal, clr, mag, mag, mag, brd.

I like the idea of having different classes but maybe for caster groups to come close to a pure melee group with good adps going all in on mages or something like that maybe is the only way to keep up?

Thoughts? :)
 
What type of proc weapons are you using for casters.
Consider one with Sympathetic Burst if mana is an issue. If mana isn't an issue use 2h with Surge of Ice
Necros should use Mind Erosion as Sic mentioned.

You said most aa's, but not MAX, so not sure what you're missing.
Twin cast as much as possible, even if it's impossible. More dmg for less mana = winning.
Gift of Mana maxxed.
Enchanter - obv mana buffs, setup one of the aura's as twincast aura. Set the other for Mana Regen, Max your Synergy. Gracious Gift of Mana = helpful to all in a big way on caster group.
What is your groups overall DPS? My mostly max AA'd group Sk, Brd, Shm, Nec, Wiz, Mag does around 1.4m total on group mobs. Necro is low yield on non-big targets, make mind erosion the first thing you do if mana is less than like 80 on yourself.
Mage - Don't UseMinion, UseServant, SkinDS, VeilDS, these waste time and DPS at our levels imho. Which is good for overall necro DPS, bad for group mana pools.

Hopefully you're not using alliances.
Use a camp instead of pullertank type modes where no sitting occurs. Increases mana return between kills, allows for more sustained pulling in exchange for increased pull times.
If you can use a camp, and you have mounts. Use them (disable AutoDismount in cwtn plugins)


When I had mana issues on my group with SK I switched to UseBeza, (Uses the beza spells instead of alpha which taps mana instead of health.
I'm not sure what a druid brings to the table aside from transports if you're having no issue keeping the cleric in the mana. May be worth investigating another option for your third DPS.
1624987084846.png
Technically the mage/necro are both like 50k DPS higher than shown here, but log parser won't let me add pet to owner for some reason.

Do more dmg with twincast/GoM/GGOM means the mobs are alive less time, and it takes less mana to make them dead and reduces Time to Kill.

Every caster should use the mod rods they are provided by MQ2Mage. Addclicky, downshit/holyshit, react them.

I'm too tired to keep thinking.
 
Let me offer an out of the box question: how does your dps compare in this group vs your melee one? I ask because it might be your casters are just having to work a ton harder and therefore using up more resources (in this case mana).

I know my melee group far outpaces my casters and it's borderline frustrating to even play the casters because kill speed slows down, which leads to having to med more which slows me down further.

I also very much agree you're over-priesting with 2.5 priests in group. I would personally only run bard OR enc, not both. I get annoyed when I play mine together and both toons try to mez and it slows dps. Running multiple mages is popular for a reason, but I've never been a big fan of running multiples of the same class in the same group (to my own detriment I'm sure). Just personal playstyle choice though.

Another question for my edification: are the caster killshot AAs as good about returning mana as the melees are about endurance?
 
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To help my Druid's mana usage I have done the following :-
  • Make sure he is Evo spec'd and has Splinter of Potency. This will reduce the cost of NFW which is the only DoT he uses on trash.
  • Use Crystal Mana Tonic potion which with the above step it reduces the average cost of NFW by about 1.4k (10% saving)
  • Use 2H with Arms of Holy Wrath effect which procs a nuke on target + group heal + returns mana
  • Use 2nd winter's nuke instead of Roar as it costs less mana, casts faster and can proc extra Arms of Holy Wrath

I also made sure that my KA ini has the following :-
  • casts Sustaining Growth when it is available
  • only casts NFW when target's health is > 50% or target is a Named

My KA ini also includes the following entries :-
  • Buffs1=Group Spirit of the Great Wolf|Cond1
  • Buffs2=Spirit of the Great Wolf|Cond2
  • Cond1=!${Me.Buff[Spirit of the Great Wolf].ID}
  • Cond2=!${Me.Buff[Group Spirit of the Great Wolf].ID} || (${Me.Buff[Group Spirit of the Great Wolf].ID} && ${Me.Buff[Group Spirit of the Great Wolf].Duration} < 38000)
This way my Druid runs Spirit of Great Wolf for ~4 mins and then Group Spirit for ~3.5 mins (KA will overwrite with single version). This means my Druid + group casters get extra mana / dps compared to just cycling those 2 AAs
 
Question - How to combat my caster group's mana issues?

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