Defiler

OVERVIEW

This page is a work in progress which I will continue to add to and modify as time allows. UPDATES to skills/traits are listed in BLUE for ease of reference.

NOTE: This page is in the process of being updated for the Rise of Isengard update.
As of 30-Oct-11: Active Skills updated.

Skills
- Active Skills
- Passive Skills
Traits
Recommended Traits
Tactics

SKILLS

Active Skills

Rank	Ability Skills	Ind	Rng	Effect	Cost	Duration	CD	DP
10	Blessing of Darkness¹	-	20m	Damage from an Ally is applied to yourself. (HoT) Self heals 196-280 morale initially, 280 morale every 2 seconds. CHANNELED SKILL.	106 Pow + 8/sec	30s	3m	10000
10	Blight	2.5s	30m	A slime puddle is created on the ground: -50% incoming healing on opponents standing in the puddle. Acid DoT applied to targets leaving the puddle (stacks x3).	125 Pow	15s	30s	12000
9	Dying Rage^2,5	-	-	+50% Melee/Tactical Damage; +100% Parry Chance; -100% Attack Duration; -50% Skill Induction: +3300 Melee/Ranged/Tactical Defence; Sets Run Speed to 200%; Immune to Stun, Daze, Knockdown and Fear --> Immediate Death on Expiration	81 Pow	15s	10m	N/A
Rank	Buff Skills	Ind	Rng	Effect	Cost	Duration	CD	DP
4	Anointing of the Slick Flesh	-	10.2m	+1500 (4.3%) melee / ranged / tactical critical defence, Max 6 targets in 10m radius (GROUP)	81 Pow	30m	1m	6000
6	Blood of Fire^3,5	-	Self	On any incoming damage, reflects 45 fire damage back to attacker	81 Pow	Toggle	1.5m	N/A
6	Efflorescence	2s	10.2m	(HoT) Heals 327-467 morale every 3 seconds, Max 6 targets in 10m radius (GROUP)	197 Pow	30s	45s	8000
3	Fell Restoration	2.5s	30m	Restores +2560.6 morale	92 Pow	-	30s	5000
0	Fell Sacrifice⁰^,6	5s	30m	Revives target at 50% morale and 50% power	750 Mor 500 Pow	-	1m	N/A
0	Fertile Slime⁰	-	30m	(HoT) Heals 222-317 morale initially, 222-317 every 3 seconds	92 Pow	15s	6s	N/A
0	Fungal Bloom⁰	2s	30m	(HoT) Heals 541-773 morale initially, 222-317 every 5 seconds	92 Pow	30s	4s	N/A
5	Fungal Spores⁴	-	30m	(HoT) Heals 327-467 morale initially, 257- 367 every 5 seconds	197 Pow	30s	3s	5000
Rank	Debuff Skills	Ind	Rng	Effect	Cost	Duration	CD	DP
7	Curse of Deadly Sorrows	3s	30m	-325 Fate, -325 Will, -325 Might, -2,892 Armour	106 Pow	1m	30s	9000
6	Curse of Rotten Flesh	2s	30m	+5% incoming damage, Max 3 targets in 5m radius	106 Pow	30s	30s	8000
0	Curse of Sticky Feet⁰	-	30m	-10% Run Speed	81 Pow	10s	15s	N/A
2	Curse of the Coward's Soul⁶	-	6.2m	Fears for up to 10 seconds, 100% break chance on harm after 2 seconds, 3% chance of break on damage after 2 seconds, Max 3 targets in 6m radius	106 Pow	10s	30s	4000
1	Curse of the Lethargic Heart	2s	30m	-325 Vitality (players only)	106 Pow	2m	30s	3000
8	Curse of the Melancholic Heart	2s	30m	Decreases healing output by 25% (players only)	106 Pow	30s	45s	10000
Rank	Melee Skills	Ind	Rng	Effect	Cost	Duration	CD	DP
0	Head Breaker⁰	-	3m	(DoT) 303 acid damage initially, 132-189 every 3 seconds	125 Pow	12s	3s	N/A
3	Tenderize	-	3m	337 common damage, 25% chance to apply a 5 second daze, 100% break chance on damage after 2 seconds	125 Pow	-	5s	5000
Rank	Ranged Skills	Ind	Rng	Effect	Cost	Duration	CD	DP
9	Explosive Gourd	2s	30m	(DoT) 353 fire damage initially, 121-173 every 2 seconds, Max 4 targets in 5m radius	125 Pow	10s	1m	11000
0	Fire Gourd⁰	2s	30m	(DoT) 441 fire damage initially, 121-173 every 2 seconds	125 Pow	10s	6s	N/A
10	Gooey Gourd	2s	30m	304 shadow damage, +20% all skill inductions	125 Pow	30s	15s	12000
0	Plague Gourd⁰	2s	30m	405 shadow damage, -1500 B/P/E on critical hit	125 Pow	20s	8s	N/A
5	Plague of Flies	2s	30m	Summons a fly swarm around the target at the end of a 5 second timer. (Effect: attacks the target for common damage; drains power from nearby targets, returning a portion of the power to the Defiler)	125 Pow	15s	30s	7000

0 Starting Skills
1 Requires "Advanced Skill: Blessing of Darkness" trait to be equipped
2 Requires "Advanced Skill: Dying Rage" trait to be equipped
3 Requires "Advanced Skill: Blood of Fire" trait to be equipped
4 Requires "Advanced Skill: Fungal Spores" trait to be equipped
5 Immediate Skill
6 Fast Skill

Passive Skills

Advanced Passive Skills	Rank	Effect
Health Regeneration	5, 6, 7	Increases your in-combat health regeneration (Max Tier 3: +180 ICMR, +348 NCMR)
Melee Criticals	5, 6	Increases your chance to critical with melee attacks (Max Tier 2: +480 melee critical rating)
Power Regeneration	5, 6, 7, 8	Increases your in-combat power regeneration (Max Tier 4: +168 ICPR, +360 NCPR)
Tactical Criticals	5, 6, 7, 8, 9	Increases your chance to critical with tactical attacks (Max Tier 5: +1200 tactical critical rating)
Core Passive Skills	Rank	Effect
Armour 3	0	Increases your armour protection (1535 armour value, +756 melee/ranged/tactical critical defense)
Avoidance 2	0	Increases your ability to avoid attacks (+329 base parry/evade/block rating)
Damage 2	0	Increases the damage dealt by your attacks (+3% melee/ranged/tactical damage, +3% outgoing healing effect modifier)
Health 4	0	Increases your maximum health (+25% morale)
Power 5	0	Increases your maximum power (+35% power)
Resistance 4	0	Increases your resistance to certain negative effect (+1940 base song/cry/physical/tactical resist rating)
Misc. Passive Skills	Rank	Effect
~~Advanced Fellowship Manuever~~	0	~~Increases duration of Fellowship Manuever chain protection to 60 seconds~~

TRAITS

Rank	Class Traits	Effect	DP	Rating (Healing)	Rating (Damage)
10	Advanced Skill: Blessing of Darkness	Grants access to "Blessing of Darkness" skill	10000	* *	*
5	Advanced Skill: Fungal Spores	Grants access to "Fungal Spores" skill	5000	* * * * *	* * * * *
0	Armour Boost	Increase armour rating (+1073 armour value)	3000	* * * * *	* * * * *
15	Enhanced Skill: Blight	"Blight" slime duration increased by 30 seconds (to 45 seconds), effectiveness increased from 50% to 75%	8000	* *	* *
0	Enhanced Skill: Curse of Sticky Feet	Adds -10% (-1073) fire defence and slowed movement increased to 20%	4000	* * * *	* * * *
6	Enhanced Skill: Efflorescence	Adds +10m range and -15% power cost to Efflorescence	10000	* * * * *	* * *
2	Enhanced Skill: Fell Sacrifice	-50% morale cost, -50% power cost, - 30 seconds cool down	4000	* * * * *	*
14	Enhanced Skill: Plague of Flies	Removes the 5s countdown for Plague of Flies (ie. flies appear instantly)	8000	*	* * *
2	Enhanced Skill: Plague Gourd	+25% critical hit chance from Plague Gourd and B/P/E reduction increased to -2840	4000	* * *	* * * * *
4	Enhanced Slime	+10% healing skill output, -10% threat from healing	3000	* * * * *	* * * * *
1	Fast Lob	-0.3s induction time for Gourd "Ranged Skills" (Note: tooltip changed to 0.3s from -15%)	3000	* * *	* * * * *
11	Frugal Cursing	-15% power cost for Curse skills	6000	* *	* *
0	Health Boost	+10% maximum health (Note: tooltip changed from morale to health)	3000	* * * * *	* * * * *
Rank	Racial Traits	Effect	Spirit Stones	Rating (All Builds)
5	Front-line Fodder	+260 B/P/E Rating	24D 12G 2L	* * *
6	Advanced Skill: Blood of Fire	Grants Access to "Blood of Fire" Skill when slotted	28D 14G 2L	* * * * *
7	Rage of the Misbegotten	+260 Melee/Tactical Critical Rating; +10% Maximum Health	32D 16G 4L	* * * * *
8	Warrior Against the Deep	+390 Ancient Dwarf Defence: +2 Stealth Detection	40D 20G 6L	* * *
9	Advanced Skill: Dying Rage	Grants Access to "Dying Rage" Skill when slotted	44D 22G 2L	*
10	Flayer of Flesh	+520 Melee/Tactical Critical Rating; +260 Melee/Tactical Offence Rating	48D 24G 10L	* * * * *
11	Tireless Warrior	+300 In-Combat Morale Regen; +300 In-Combat Power Regen	44D 22G 8L	* * * * *

RECOMMENDED TRAITS

[Nopain, Elendilmir]

In the past, it was quite common for Defilers to spend the majority of their game time in a group healer role. Very few people choose to play a Defiler for their uber DPS skills (*giggles*), and a primary healing role is where Defilers can really shine, However, in practice, that may not always be the role you end up playing. There are times when you may find yourself running around solo, or in a small group that requires little healing and benefits more from additional damage capabilities. Maintaining versatility in your game play and adapting your play style to suit current conditions will help to ensure that your Defiler can offer a valuable contribution in many different battle scenarios.

There is no 'right' or 'wrong' build for a Defiler, as it usually comes down mixing and matching traits to suit your individual play style and the types of battles that are most common on your server. I play during various times of the day/night on Elendilmir, and the battle field is constantly changing. As such, I have tested a lot of different trait combinations to see what works best in a variety of battle scenarios, and have settled on a build that works best for me in the majority of combat situations I encounter. What works best for one Defiler might not be best for another, so it helps to experiment until you find a build that you are comfortable with. The key is to find a good workable balance between survivability (health), sustainability (power), and healing output (damage).

Survivability:

Being a healing class, Defilers generally gain a lot of Freep attention, and are often one of the first to be targetted with both CC and damaging attacks. As such, it is important to improve survivability as much as possible. It is especially important to boost health, as the more health you have, the longer you can stay alive, and the longer you can stay alive, the longer you can keep others alive. Remember, a dead Defiler can't heal ;-) Higher health also gives others more opportunity to keep you alive under heavy focus fire, extra time for reinforcements to arrive, and reduces the chance that you will be the first one targetted as you won't present as a fast and easy kill. As a Defiler, TIME is essential to gain maximum HoT efficiency. Higher morale not only buys you more time for your healing to be as effective as possible, it also offers more opportunity to recover from large incoming crits.

Sustainability:

One of the things that a Defiler needs to learn very early on is how to manage their power effectively. There are times when you will receive so much focus that the only heals you can use are your insta-cast HoTs "Fertile Slime" and "Fungal Spores". Spamming these skills has the potential to chew through your power very quickly. "Efflorescence" is also a power hungry skill, even when traited with the Rank 6 enhancement. The higher your power pool, the longer you can heal for during sustained battle, and the longer you can use your HoTs on the run when you are being focused too much to get an induction off. The type of battle you are in also plays a big role as to how much power you are likely to need. For example, a ranged pew-pew fest from relative safety isn't going to be anywhere near as power hungry as being a primary healer in a raid or small group.

Healing Output:

The first factor that affects your healing output is damage corruptions. These directly boost or decrease your healing output by the same amount as the damage modifier. The more +damage corruptions you slot, the higher the amount your healing skills will heal for (to a maximum of +15%). Naturally damage corruptions come at the cost of morale and/or power, so while having +15% healing output sounds wonderful in theory, I have seen very few Defilers who actually trait that way. As a point of reference, running with -2.5% damage overall puts a Defilers healing output at roughly the same level as it was in the days before damage corruptions had an effect on healing. The second factor that has an impact on your healing output in your tactical critical rating. The higher it is, the better your chance to crit with healing skills. Creeps do not have "dev crit" heals like freepside does, so a healing skill that crits will always heal for 1.5 times your standard amount. Every single pulse of every single HoT has the potential to crit, which makes a high tactical critical rating especially nice for Defilers. More crits = less healing required overall (which also helps with power conservation). "Rage of the Misbegotten" (rank 7 racial) and "Flayer of Flesh" (rank 10 racial) offer bonuses to tactical critical rating, and when both of these are traited, a Defiler can reach a maximum tactical critical rating of 14.6% - roughly 1 in every 7 heals. It makes a noticeable difference!

CLASS TRAITS

The class traits I slot are as follows:

Armour Boost
Health Boost
Enhanced Slime
Advanced Skill: Fungal Spores
Enhanced Skill: Efflorescence (rank 6 or higher) OR Advanced Skill: Curse of Sticky Feet (rank 5 or lower)¹
Advanced Skill: Fell Sacrifice (raid) OR Advanced Skill: Curse of Sticky Feet (small group/solo) OR Fast Lob (solo under rank 6)²

I have found that this mix offers a solid foundation to work from no matter what battle situation I am facing.

¹It costs a lot of silver to retrait in and out of "Advanced Skill: Efflorescence", so I generally leave it in all the time. If I am on an alt Defiler who doesn't have access to it, I will trait "Advanced Skill: Curse of Sticky Feet" instead.

²If I am in a raid I will generally slot "Advanced Skill: Fell Sacrifice". In a small group or solo situation I prefer to use "Advanced Skill: Curse of the Sticky Feet" (although I may use "Advanced Skill: Fell Sacrifice" instead, depending on the battle at the time). If I am on an alt Defiler under rank 6 who has "Advanced Skill: Curse of Sticky Feet" traited instead of "Advanced Skill: Efflorescence", I will trait "Advanced Skill: Fell Sacrifice" when grouped, or "Fast Lob" when solo.

RACIAL TRAITS

I slot the following racials which I find most useful in all battle situations:

Blood of Fire (R6)
Rage of the Misbegotten (R7)
Flayer of Flesh (R10)
Tireless Warrior (R11)

This mix offers some extra damage (Blood of Fire), extra health (Rage of the Misbegotten), maximum tactical critical rating (Rage of the Misbegotten and Flayer of Flesh), and a substantial bonus to in-combat power regeneration (Tireless Warrior). Note: I still consider Dying Rage (R9) a complete waste of a trait slot.

CORRUPTION TRAITS

I don't run with a full morale build, but as I receive a lot of focus, I generally like to keep my health high to increase my survivability.

Health for Power 2
Health for Damage 1
Health for Damage 2
Damage for Power 2
Power for Damage 2
Critical Protection Boost 2

This build provides a good health base (=>R7 8,703; <=R6 7,912), a reasonable power pool (1,867) for sustained healing in lengthy battles, and the same healing output as we had before the damage corruptions modified our heals. While I have experimented with increasing my damage and decreasing my health/power, this particular mix offers me the best balance of survivability, sustainability, and healing output given my particular playstyle and the types of battle I am commonly up against. On my alt Defilers (rank 6 and under) I sometimes switch out "Power for Damage 2" for "Health for Power 1" , which increases my morale to 8,307 and decreases my power pool to 1,613. It really depends on how much focus I get and what the gameplay is like on the relevant server.

I don't recommend going lower than -2.5% damage if at all possible as your healing output will suffer for it (as mentioned earlier -2.5% offers the same base healing amount Defilers had prior to the damage corruptions affecting healing output). Depending on your servers gameplay and the amount of focus you receive, you can always decrease your health and/or power pool in favour of greater healing output. This is one area that is especially worth experimenting in. A good starting point is to slot as much damage as you think your health and power pool can sustain and then adjust your build from there.

While there are varied views on the usefulness of the "Crit Protection" traits, my personal feeling is that it is worth slotting anything that can reduce the chance of a high damage crit landing, especially with some of the attacks we face these days. Between this trait and "Anointing of the Slick Flesh" (rank 4 buff skill) I have a 9.1% critical hit avoidance rating, and I find that I am seldom hit with cringeworthy big damage numbers. However if an extra 1.7% critical hit avoidance isn't high on your priority list, there are a multitude of other corruptions that can be used instead. For example, Common Mitigation Boost Rank 2 is helpful if you fight in hostile NPC's a lot (especially if you don't have the rank 4 Enhanced Slime trait).

Depending on the current battle, you might find you can lower your power pool in favour of health or damage. For example, it is much easier to manage your power if you are running solo or only engaging in small skirmishes. Power consumption is more of an issue in sustained battle, especially at lower ranks. It is always a good idea to have food/pots on hand to help in that area.

Hopefully this will help to provide a starting point to assist you in developing a build that best suits your needs. The most important thing to remember is that what works well for one player may not be as effective for another. Therefore take some time to experiment until you find a suitable mix of traits that you are comfortable with, and that enhances your personal play style. Your team mates will thank you for it :-)

TACTICS