Chanter top slot discussion: swap or CC?!

[Tecmos Deception]

Originally Posted by Triiz [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Like I said I'm pretty bad at explaining shit. If I'm fighting mobs that have a high chance of resisting AOE mez/stuns like East I keep a 3rd stun loaded, so there is always a stun ready incase of resist. 3 stuns is only practical if you don't mind only having 1 swap slot, which I don't mind.

If it's only pet + 1 mob he's fighting and you only have 2 stuns up, Flux>Slant>AOE mez>mob resists>you can still instantly cast single target mez before Slant wears off even if it's not in the top slot. If both the pet and the mob resist AOE mez and you only single target mez one I guess you'd be dead if you didn't have a 3rd stun loaded, pretty sure that's never happened to me and I not had a 3rd stun ready though. 3rd stun can be a live safer in other ways, like if Flux lands then Slant gets resisted against a hasted/DWing pet and you don't have time to cast a mez.

Ok, yeah, that's what I was slowly figuring out as I was typing up my last post. Cool stuff. I'll have to try it when I get fed up with doing the mail quest on my new ALS chanter.

[Quinas]

I do CC in top slot, swap in 8th slot. But I am convinced that there is value in changing to top slot swap, in terms of overall time saving.

I think it's ultimately a risk adversion/safety issues vs efficiency/time saving thing.

[Tecmos Deception]

Originally Posted by Buriedpast [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Play it fluidly?

I'll often top slot chloroblast on a shaman over cannabalise for where I need burst hp/sec. Same deal with some other spells. Canna is what I consider a hard slot, but when the situation is there why hamstring myself?

There's this on the one hand. And there's also "I don't even need to think about what buttons to push because I'm so used to them being in the same spot all the time" on the other. It's not perfectly clear which one is a better way to organize your play, hence a thread like this.

[Splade]

Originally Posted by Tecmos Deception [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

There's this on the one hand. And there's also "I don't even need to think about what buttons to push because I'm so used to them being in the same spot all the time" on the other. It's not perfectly clear which one is a better way to organize your play, hence a thread like this.

So, I've been trying this top slot swapping instead of CC since I saw this thread yesterday... I will say, it is faster and more convenient and I do still mainly keep CC there. It's only gotten me killed once, I was breaking a room with lull in top slot to make it go faster and I got unlucky with a crit on the first lull and fat fingered the shit out of everything thereafter. Idk... theres definitely pros and cons to each. When im using my top slot for swapping im uncomfortable not being able to fire CC off at the drop of a hat but it does make it a lot easier to toss buffs up in the middle of a fight or fire off a slow. I'll have to play around with it a bit more but im 50/50 on it right now

[Triiz]

Originally Posted by Splade [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

When im using my top slot for swapping im uncomfortable not being able to fire CC off at the drop of a hat but it does make it a lot easier to toss buffs up in the middle of a fight or fire off a slow. I'll have to play around with it a bit more but im 50/50 on it right now

Maybe keep the same hotkey. I.e. if you use hotkey 1 for AOE mez now while it's in spell slot 1, keep AOE mez as hotkey 1 while its in spell slot 4.

To reiterate what I said yesterday for anyone else considering top slot swap slot, if you have Lull in top slot and get a crit resist you can still clicky>instantly cast AOE mez or any of the other 7 spell slots. You just can't cast AOE mez>clicky>AOE mez if it's not in top slot. The spell gem will still be depressed, but it will cast.

[derjen]

Would anyone mind explaining how the clickies affect the first spell gem differently?

[Malory Archer]

Originally Posted by derjen [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Would anyone mind explaining how the clickies affect the first spell gem differently?

Basically, the clicky resets your global cooldown, but you still have to wait for the individual cooldown of the spell, the primary spell gem just refreshes that individual cooldown faster than the others so you can spam the same spell faster than you would be able to on another gem.

[Splade]

Originally Posted by derjen [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Would anyone mind explaining how the clickies affect the first spell gem differently?

I'm not sure of the logistics behind it but the top slot refreshes instantly on spells that you have either just mem'd or just cast. If you mem a spell in 2-8 even if you hit your clicky you still have to wait to cast it. There's only a few exceptions that I've found to top slot refreshing instantly and that's generally spells with a long cooldown

[Triiz]

Top slot + clicky doesn't eliminate the recast time, it just allows you to start casting before the recast time is up. The recast time has to be over by the time the spell finishes casting or you will get a fail message.

For a spell like Forlorn Deeds, it has a 2.25 sec recast with a 6 second cast. You can mem it in top slot, clicky, and instantly start casting it since the cast time is longer than the recast time it will succeed. In case of multiple mobs or a resist, you can also chain cast it. Cast Forlorn Deeds>Mob Resists>Clicky>cast Forlorn Deeds without waiting the 2.25 seconds between casts.

If the cast time is shorter than the recast time, Theft of Thought for example, you can't successfully cast it instantly after you mem it. Theft of Thought has a 120 second recast with a 2 second cast time so you'd have to wait 118.1 seconds to cast it, even though the spell gem will look like it's ready to cast.

If you have Forlorn Deeds in slot 2 you have to wait 2.25 seconds after you mem it to start casting. If you cast it and get a resist, you have to wait 2.25 seconds to start casting it again. Like I said before, it doesn't sound like much but it adds up.