Heroic Opportunities - Getting our acts togetherFollow

Ok, Heroic Opportunities are a great tool when soloing to help you get that little edge over your opposing mob.

But I have yet to really get to use them in a group because everyone is mashing buttons.

Now my roommate and I have our own little system where we alternate, he does a HO and then I do an HO, mostly we do this because as a Pally and a Ranger, if we try linking our HO more often than not we have needed a priest class to finish it or some other power that as a Pally I just don't have.

We have learned, however, that using the HO we can duo group mobs and walk out with pretty much full life (since I can ward damage and regain life through some of my attacks) and usually minimal power loss (since HO offer more bang for the buck).

So - has anyone had any luck in getting groups to use these? part of my above messages is to try to encourage people to try them by showing that it does help.

Or do you think that with the current situation of macros (i.e. not being able to put more than one line of commands in) that its too hard to do?

When I work with a group that knows how to use them SOLO, I can manage to organize something. But when groups don't know how to, they are very hard to teach most of the time.

The hardest ones are the fighters becasue they can break it so fast.

I usualy let the fighters start it. The trick is that you have to look at the charecter animations. All casters have a longer animation when they are casting. When you see that animation, don't start are HO. You can start one right after they finish.

Usualy, you can keep it to the same exact combo. Like fighter starts it, mage always casts the same spell, rouge always changes it, then a priest can cast a nuke or something.

If you test it on weaker Mobs and know exactly what to push, you can make it like a fluid clock work all the time.

the trick is, that in many group setups the fighter MUST start.

Samatman, thanks for this link. and now, off with yus all and RTFM below

http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=spellart&message.id=572&no_redir=true

the problem ive had with HO in groups is they always seem to start them at the wrong time. it never seems to fail ill be useing a nice damage attack and when its about to land someone triggers a HO and i break it within the next .02 seconds. then the other problem is the HO will get triggered at the same exact time as someone starts to cast and it breaks the chain.

i think sony should change them to where if a attack skill is already being cast before an HO is triggered it wont break the chain. i know they wouldnt want that but its just a thought lol.

now solo HO rock i can solo alot of yellow group mobs useing them as a lvl 17 predator. i use my arrow attacks for mass damage on pulls then just HO away and fill in the gaps with little attacks

From lvling in EQ2 almost a full lvl each and everyday since release. I have found you can live with out HO's as long as you build the group right. I hear all the time you dont need a chanter get more dps. WRONG right there. Grab a shammy/chanter/cleric or if there isnt another cleric get another shammy. Why not a druid? cause they suck :P (Flames coming from the droods out there) Wards can keep you alive stop you from getting stunned and keep the tank able to keep aggro. Chanter to handle the adds and a cleric to heal. Until a cleric gets CH (Complete Heal) Shammys are the best healers in the game with their wards and direct heals. Not to mention they slow so you all take less dmg over all. Tank is easy to fill have 2 choices and usually easy to find. I prefer crusaders to warriors. SK's rock FDing the healer when they take aggro is priceless. then fill in the rest with DPS of your choice. weather it be caster or melee (Scouts are nice to have, track is wicked for you questing groups out there)

Edited, Thu Dec 9 14:08:48 2004 by Tios

In 9 pick groups out of every 10 it's gonna be nearly impossible to use HO's effectively...Not because it can't be done, but because it's probably not worth the trouble...

I solo or get in pick up groups mostly - half the people in pick up groups really lack the understandings of a 'group', basically they're soloing with other people...half of them don't even use HO's when they solo or even understand what they do...and then half of them who are semi savy aren't willing to talk about things before we go and kill stuff...i.e. 'aw we don't need to mess with that'...

My math might not add up, but essentially in every group I'm in there might be one person besides myself that is willing to work together on HO's...I've been in a couple where we actually pulled it off, but it's tough to get 4 other people to do something that they don't understand the benefit of and really don't understand in general...

You can have up to 3 marco bars....just right click and press "make new bar"

Reading some of the posts, I don't know if people really even understand when you can and cannot break the chain/wheel.

When you first activate the power that triggers the chain you get the little floating icon with the different symbols around it - At that point everyone will start seeing any available powers that could trigger the chain. If one of those succesfully connects, it may trigger the chain. If one is not used, it will break the chain. This is the part I think people need to get coordinated with.

Once the chain is triggered, you cannot break it - only let it expire. The second circle for the HO is showing you all the different powers that need to be activated to complete the HO. There is a blue line inside the circle that counts down the time to activate the trigger. Once you have it activated, now you can pretty much rest easy as long as you do whatever you need to do to finish it.

However, it's not always going to be best to activate the HO as soon as it is triggered, depending on which one is activated.

For example - There is a Scout/Priest/Mage combo called "Crucible of life" (fighter is not included in triggering or completing) that actually will grants 100% restore to HP/Power, and for a brief time gives you a heal proc.

In a long fight, you would want to trigger that at the last possible moment, not when everyone is at full health.

Also, not all HO do additional damage, something not everyone I've spoken with online knew, which may be why some people don't see huge damage bonuses or the benefit of it, they may have triggered a HO that actually gives them a bonus to AC or a brief regen ability.

Of course, I still think being able to put more than one command line of macros in would help:



What I was referring to would be something more of how we had it in EQ1

/gsay Starting Heroic Opportunity in 5 seconds
/pause 5
/gsay (>'.')> Here comes the Heroic Opportunity <('.'<)
/doability 1

We are missing this aspect of the macros - which is what makes doing the HO harder.

I will try my best though to organize them..so bewarned if you group with me ;-)

Edited, Sat Dec 11 00:15:28 2004 by Devilwind