Permanent Combat Alert for Temple Guardian... worth it?

[gogoblender 3,072]

I was thinking that since that Combat Alert was so important, I'd probably just boost it via a weapon slot. Is there good for or against reasons for going permanent with this buff as a third gold mod though?

 

 

gogo

[Erling 3]

well... you need concentration I guess because there is no way it can replace the shield... so if you can afford a skill choosing

[Dobri 55]

Well, if you keep it to a respectable regen time, close to the duration time, you can generally chain-cast it, but I guess most people just like to buff and forget As a buff it loses half of its modifiers, so it's a big debate here. If you decide to use it as a skill, you may forego concentration, but if you play caster TG, you regen times will be quite high without it.

[Cygnus 0]

I think it is more a playstyle call Gogo. One of the main reasons I enjoy my Ice High Elf is most of my focus is on playing..and using combat skills and position and not constantly having to renew augmenting buffs. If you plan to use multiple buffs that have similar duration and recharge like a Serphim using Altricity and Divine Shield in a combo, that is an excellent option instead of making it a permenent buff...perhaps some of the Source Warden buffs would work well together with Combat alert...though if I recall..Temple Guard buffs have a long cast time...for the Seraphim...altricity and divine shield are very fast to cast.

Edited February 25, 2009 by Cygnus

[Llama8 8]

I prefer it as a buff, yes, you have to take Concentration, but when you start getting +all skills, that'll just help your regen times. If you're using the shield, you'll be pumping Devout Guardian Focus so you'll be able to have a nice high level of Battle Aura as well (since DG Focus will reduce the regen malus on that as well as the shield), and as Cygnus says, it'll allow you to focus on playing rather than keeping yourself buffed.

[gogoblender 3,072]

Thank you everyone for the information. Cyg, I especially like what you had to say about it being a matter of play style. I'm coming from a Dryad, where I never ever had to cast anything. Was kind of like a long vacation from Requiem, my Sacred Seraphims and Guild Wars, where every battle seemed to be made up of at least ten agile finger combinations. I loved it then, but had fallen in love with the lazy ease of the Dryad Archer. First thing I noticed while playing this TG was that I'd have to get used to manipulating so many things at once again, and have to again find some way to do it well again. I know I was pretty good at casting as many as three buffs at a time with my old Daemon, and I'm guessing it's time to start exercising again ^^ I haven't taken out my nostromo for awhile, but I guess this build is calling for it. As in Sacred, where I'd had at least three of the weapon slots as "boost" slots, it looks like to really tear some performance out of this machine, it's gonna have to be dug out to grace the desk. Erling, I hear ya about the concentration. I was figgering that into the build, but ...I may end up a bit short to get the trading, which I had really wanted.

 

I'd like some advice please about CA now during a toon's early levels. I was trying to hard up to level eleven to not ready any more runes than just one, but my chance to hit was hurting, and so I sucked back two... wow...regen shot up not pleasantly commensurate with the duration. Is this to be expected for now. And are you guys reading as many as possible and treating it like a buff CA...or are you instead all using booster slots to get the beneficial effects up while diminishing the negative regen?

 

 

gogo

[Zinsho 0]

Gogo:

 

One thing I've noticed, for anything like Combat Alert/buffs that gradually become able to be cast more or less permanently through chain-casting, at low levels you might as well eat the runes for it and deal with the regen times even though it might hurt at times. In Silver the mobs aren't so close together that you can't wait an extra 10 seconds for it to finish regenerating, and the enemies aren't usually so strong (if you're careful where you go) that they'll finish you off in seconds just because you can't keep it running constantly.

 

Since TGs have so many durational buffs/skills (well if you look at the Source Warden Tree that is) you get used to figuring out how to manage longer regens with his herding ability.

 

For example if I'm using Source Warden and using Charged Grid + Elemental Damage Aura (either one) I'll put them in a combo, starting with the stronger elemental damage, and then read enough runes in the EDA to roughly match the regeneration on Charged Grid. As you level up the EDA will drop in regeneration time faster than CG since it only has a 15s cooldown rather than 30s. So by keeping both at 35-40s I can get a stronger damage, along with the healing/extra damage from CG.

 

For the most part I'm setting myself a 'hardcap' of ~30s Combat Alert, at least for now since I know the regeneration time can be dropped quickly at higher levels and the higher it ends up the more time it lasts. If I were (and will be) making a hybrid Melee/Source Warden I'd add Deathly Spears to that above combo and boost it's level until it was at say... 10-15s since I'll still have time for it to cooldown before I can use it again in the combo.

 

Combos allow for higher regen times for skills that aren't handy to manage, since you just have to keep it below the highest regeneration time, with a longer casting time due to multiple CAs.