Cabalistic Questions ver 1.00

1) What is a Cabalist?
Mythic says : "Cabalist are Mages that have embraced the spiritual side of magic and engage in studies of spirit destruction and creation. Their specialty is creating Golems out of inanimate matter that can be commanded to do their bidding. Mages become Cabalists by joining the Guild of Shadows."

2) Who can become a Cabalist?
Any Avalonian, Brition or Saracen Mage.

3) What is a Base Line Spell and what is a Spec Line Spell?
There are two kinds of spell lines Base and Spec - we'll use the Body Line to give an illustration

Body Destruction - is the BASE Body Line - it goes up as you LEVEL
Essence Manipulation - is the SPEC Body Line - it goes up as you TRAIN

4) Why is Dex and quickness the secondary/Tertiary attributes for a cabalist? The description of those stats are melee only. How do thess affect Cabalists?

Dexterity - is the one attribute that affects archery ability. Determines half weapon damage for thrust-ing weapons (along with Strength). Also determines all Rogue/Stealth skills (stealth, climb, etc.).

Quickness - Gives a bonus to attack speed.

We use the Dex on our evades, and hits and such with the staff. Quickness will affect our attack speed as well. But Something to keep in mind - these are really NON important stats in the long run. Ideally you do not want to be in melee.
Second about Dex - ok Dex DOES effect the endurance used to cast a spell however - this is the thing to remember - casting spells also needs Mana/Power. I have personally never run out of Endurance BEFORE I've run out of Mana.

5) What type of damage line is better?
The only thing I reccomend is that you 2/3 in one of the damage lines and 2/3 to 1/3 spec in the Spirit line. Here is a good site that explains what it means to 2/3 spec -- http://www.lindenhall.com/rothwell/guides/specialization.htm

I personally prefer the Body Line because more than anything I'm impatient and Dots Take time to work, and I don't like waiting. However the Matter line is EXTREMELY viable as well so the choice is really, IMO, which way you like to PLAY more. What is YOUR play style. Matter Cabs are going to get an AOE DOT, Body Cabs have a Healing Spell, Matter Cabs get a Damage Shield for their Pet, Body Cabs get another debuff. (shrugs) It's all in how YOU like to play.

I suggest you try out both of the main lines, level a little and see what you think of it. By level 7-8 you should know pretty well which one you like better. I've said it before and I'll say it again - You *must* chose a class and a Spec Line that is most to YOUR liking or you won't enjoy playing the character. (shrugs) That's simple enough. So the point is - only you can really say how to spec for YOU.

6) Does the body spec heal spell heal pets as well?
Yes.

7) Do the base line dots and the matter dots stack?
No.

8) How long do matter dot's last?
Base tick 4 times once every 5 seconds. Spec ones tick 6 times once every 4 seconds.

9) What is Variance?
The only thing that effects spell damages/effects is your spec in that spell line. Basically spells can do from Min to Max in damage - the more you spec in the Spell Line the more likely you are to do Max damage.

10) Is the effectiveness of the Ward Blade spell effected by variance? Will you get a higher armor score?
Nope Ward Blade is a Static set of AF increase

11) Do cabalists get any type or snare or root spells?

We have a root called "Cripple" in the Base Body Line which works on a single mob, limited time and puts them at 1% movement. We have an AoE Snare in the Pet Spec Vivification Line that lasts at least a minute - upwards to almost two minutes and puts them at 60% movement.
Roots, Snares, Mezzes, and Stuns break on contact - be it Melee Contact, DD Contact, Debuff, DoT, anything if you hit them, spell them - hell if you look at em funny & stick your tongue out at em it'll break (winks) well maybe not sticking the tongue out part but you catch my drift.

12) How do pets work? What are the pet commands (if any) and can they be put on the shortcut bar?
There are charmed and Summoned pets. Cabalists have Summoned Pets. You cast a Summon Simulacrum spell for 25% of your mana bar and the Pet Appears. You can control it - with several Aggression Modes, Movement (stay, follow, go to target) and Attack/Release. The pet remains animated until it Dies, you Zone, you Log Off, or you cast "Convert Spirit" to regain mana for it's hp's.
To put a pet command on the shortcut bar, hold down Left Shift key and click on the command (passive, stay, attack - any of them in the Pet Window) and then you will get an icon on your cursor and then simple click it onto the Shortcut Bar.

13) Do pets eat Exp?
Yes they do. To a maximum of 50% of total expof the mob (This being if you do NOTHING and let the pet solo the mob). The amount they take is determined by the damage they do - they do more, they take more/they do less, they take less. This applies to solo and grouped hunting - the pet's exp is taking off the top and the remained shared among the group - NOT only from the caster.

14) Do pets eat Realm Points?
No they do not.

15) How do Damage Shields work? Do they have a set duration or do they use concentration points to maintain?
It's a Focus Shield which means it drains Power while it's in use and you can not move or cast or attack. Damage Shield Buffs work much like damage buffs, except that they are based on the attack speed of your attacker. When you have a damage shield buff, every time someone hits you/pet, HE takes damage equal to the buff multiplied by his attack speed.

16) If spec'ing in a base line will affect the variance, what does that mean for pets? More hitpoints? More damage output? Casts more often?
Speccing in the pet's summoning skill does not affect the Summoned Pet Specifically for any SUMMONING class. (Not to be confused with charming class that MUST spec to be able to charm their pets)
Pet Buffs work as follows in the was of Variance -- Strength buff - works like clerical buffs, if you're minimum specced you get a -25% penalty, if you are max speccd you get 25% value for the buff. The same applies for the Damage Add spell. The Attack Speed buff - no effect for speccing in regards to variance - the higher levels are just better.

17) Is there a way to see what buffs are on the pet?
Not yet but there are plans to add something on the GUI so that we can see what spells are active on the pet.

18) How fast do pets regen compared to PC's? can you accelerate their healing by having them sit down?
I don't really know per se I imagine it's about the same as PC's but they have less HP's. And no you can not accelerate their healing in any way except to heal the little buggers.

19) Do pets taunt? or is their melee damage their taunt?
Jim (the spell dev) tells me that they do taunt - you never see a read out on it, but I take his word for it.

20) How do NPC's regard pets in cities? can you bring a pet into a city? what are the ramifications if any?
Unless the NPC's are Hostile to you, pets are groovy everywhere

21) how do MOB's regard pets? will a pet agro a mob if it gets too close?
If the mob is Hostile to you, and the pet cons to the mob as a viable target - I.e. like Green, blue, yellow kind of thing - it will attack, however, grey things do not attack my pet when i'm just traveling through the wild. As a rule if it's going to attack your pet, it's going to attack you.

22) Do pets have a level range when they are summoned?
The pet stays Blue con to you, so from what I can tell about 2-4 levels of you. I'm level 20 my pet is level 17.

23) Can pets solo MOB's of their level like players can? Can they easily kill MOB's lower level than they are?
Hmm yes and no - Yes if you buff your pet and sic it on a Blue it can kill it. But the mob is Yellow to them. now you can do this however - let me point out that it takes a long time. Anyone who is going to let their pets kill things for them is wasting their time. 1) the pet is going to take exp, and 2) you could kill the damned thing yourself in about 1/2 the time --- so it's HORRIBLY ineffecient for a method of gaining EXP. Now if you're in a sticky situation and you're dealing with one mob and then you get an add, yes the pet can usually handle himself with an equal level mob to you, and certainly with an equal level mob to it.

24) Can I name my pet like in EverQuest?
You can not "name" your pet per se. They are called "Amber" Simulacrum or Ruby or Emerald or Jade or Sapphire - whatever the material it's made of and then Simulacrum. There are pics of the pets on this site, link on home page.

25) What is the range for my pet?
Pet range right now is our spell range. You can send him to attack, or go to target at 25 paces which is our max spell range

26) Are cabalists a class that is totally dependant on pet, or they can fare pretty well w/o one?
No - they are handy but we don't have to have them to solo blues.

27) How do our pet's fare? The theurgist has several lines of pets, some of which have special abilities as stuns. Do our pets get anything special, like stun, or long distance attack?
Our Pet is melee and has a Drain similar to ours however it's currently on a random thing (meaning we have no control over when the pet uses it or not).
As for the Theurg compared to the Cab pets --- this is like comparing apples and oranges to be honest. Especially since the Theurg pets are more like little mobile DoT's. For the primary thing our pets regen and we can heal them with our Body Spec Transfer spell. We also have several pet buffs which are rather handy as well - we have 3 total which can be used on the pet. Cabalists who spec in matter get a Damage Shield for their pet called Reflective Backlash. We also have a spell which allows us to destroy our pet and regain back some mana - which is dependant on how healthy the pet is. Many say the Theurg pet is the better pet and many say the Cab pet is the better pet - blah blah blah talkie talkie is what I say. The pet should NOT be the deciding factor on these two classes because they play completely differently. Theurgs are Elementalists - Cabs are Mages. However I will say - when in a fight that I need and want to use my pet - I buff it with three buffs and we go in and fight. I rarely if EVER have to heal my pet when he's buffed, and I rarely if ever have him get below 1/2 health.

28 ) I keep hearing conflicting information about Mages and Melee - that mages couldnt melee, mages have to melee when someone is meleeing them, which is true? and if the second one is true what weapons to cabalists use?
Mages can cast in Melee - but the likelihood of NOT being interrupted is so slim that it's futile to try and cast a spell when something has closed into melee combat with you.

Casters can ONLY use Staves, and this is a skill that CAN NOT be trained.

In a nut shell - you do NOT want to get into melee with things. Sometimes you can do ok with it, especially at lower levels, however as you level and as meleers level the ratio of Armor to HP dramatically increases in the Melee's favor. So you want to ensure that you do not get into combat with something unless it's almost dead and you're sure you can kill it.

29) What kind of armor can we wear?
We can only wear cloth armor. It is the weakest armor in the game. It has a 0% absorbtion. You want the best you can afford and you want to always use your shield spell. The difference in doing these two things is - Dying Immediately and Dying in Two Hits. Not much leeway there however, but sometimes it's enough to allow a tank to get the mob off you or allow the healer to heal you.

30) I hear we are good at soloing but how are we in groups? Do we have any utility spells that can help the group? Will groups ever want us?
Well that's a mixed bag. There have been some small changes to help enhance the viability of Grouped Cabalists - for instance AoE DoT's, AoE Disease, AoE Roots. Not all classes can be as important to viable to a group as say a Cleric or a Minstrel - but I believe that the cabalist makes a Good Back up Healer and our Debuffs are quite useful - but lastly we add another body on a mob which increases the percent chance to hit for everyone in the group.

31) How we do in RvR, so how do we do? Are we as usefull as other class's? RvR is the big thing in this game and is for when your guy is high level so I want my avatar to rock at it, so how do we fare?
Ok - pet classes are never that efficent in RvR compared to other classes. Cabalist are not going to be THE RvR class - no pet class will be really. I personally think however that just because you aren't THE RvR class that doesn't equate to being WORTHLESS there either. RvR is going to be dominated by truly WELL organized groups who have their crap together and know what the hell they are doing. They will have a plan of action and all members will know their roles. The cabalist is has gotten some changes to help with their RvR role and the class will likely continue to get some tuning and added spells/abilities to help them in PvE as well as RvR

32) How does the quickcasting feature work?
Quickcasting is a Skill that Pure Caster Classes get when the join a Class Guild - i.e. at level 5.

You can use it once every 30 Seconds.
I have never been interrupted using it.
It lets you cast a spell faster than normal.
It costs a lot more mana to QuickCast a spell than normal.
Ok - this is how it works. You need to have the QC Icon in your shortcut bar, when you want to QC a spell you hit that button, that's where it says you are Preparing to QC your next spell. Then you hit the Spell Shortuct you want to use. And then you'll QC the spell.

33) What the heck is a Focus Staff and what does it do?
(Reply from Archon (MythicDev) on the VNBoards)
Focus staves are tricky. Any pure caster must use one or cast spells at 120% of power cost. By equiping a class appropriate focus staff yor spells are cast at 100% of power cost.

Each of these staves have 3 numbers on them (which you cannot currently see but will be able to soon). Each number matches one of that classes specialization lines. Any spell cast requires a specialization of that number or lower is cast at 90% power cost.

Remember, just by equiping a class appropriate focus staff spells are cast at normal cost. Item Con is not important in this case. Unless you recieve a "magic fails to affect you" message which may occur if the staff is much over your level.

There are 4 types of staves per class. There is a generic version which means all the spec numbers on the staff are the same. Then there are also specialized versions. Using the posters title, the Eldritch staff of Void is a Void specialization staff. On this staff the Void spec is higher, but the other 2 specialization numbers recieve a small penalty. These staves are for people who want different staves for different situations or have a different main spec.

Also from Archon on the old Beta Boards --
Store bought focus items are set as follows: generic focus items which buff all 3 skills equally are set to 2/3 of the item level. Skill specific focus items are set to 4/5 of item level for the main skill and 2/5 of item level for the second and third skill. Dropped and Quest related focus items will have higher increases, over those mentioned.

A level 6 generic focus items is set like this 4 4 4. A level 6 specific focus item is set like this 5 2 2, 2 5 2, 2 2 5. The second and third are set equally to avoid a ridiculous number of permutations.

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