[Guide] Spiritmaster

Hello fellow Spiritmasters (or players thinking of rolling one), It seems like there is little information about our class on the forums so I'd like to try to make a compilation of information for people who would like to learn a bit about the Spiritmaster class.

If anyone has anything they would like to add, please by all means add your input here as well, I will edit the post so it's all on page 1 for easy access information. Thank you for the Sticky Phenteo!



[1.0]
To Begin:

The Spiritmaster is quite a different play style from the other mage path, Instead of heavy direct damage the Spiritmaster deals damage over time spells and excels at disabling its opponents by Dispelling, Fearing and De-buffing them, we can summon 5 different spirits that all have unique abilities.



[1.1]
Strengths:

Spiritmasters have many strengths, Being able to fear a player or mob and completely stopping them from attacking or using skills is one of our biggest strengths and fear does not break on damage so you can kill someone before they even get the chance to fight back.

Another strength is being able to offensive dispel. A lot of classes rely on their buffs to kill a player or stay alive, and being able to remove those buffs gives you a huge advantage.

Another notable advantage we have is being able to move and dps at the same time. Most our skills are instant cast or near-instant cast which allows us to kite.



[1.2]
Weaknesses & Minor Annoyances:


When we fear someone that is flying, it causes them to move much faster and generally they zoom away, it can be a major annoyance but there are ways around it like slowing them with chain of earth or rooting them with our Root/Nightmare spells.

Also another thing about Fear, Fearshriek and Curse of Fire/Water is that if a player is gliding they are immune to it, some players use this to their advantage by quickly jumping and gliding just as our cast finishes.

Another Weakness is that our pets don't scale very well as we level and gear up. I find myself using only a Wind Spirit for a quick stun or a debuff that boosts our wind damage or a Earth/Tempest/Magma for Spirit Substitution. Also, Fire, Water & especially Earth spirit are very slow pets which sometimes can't keep up with you if you're running or flying too fast. (Armor Spirit can fix this problem but it's an advanced stigma & not everyone will use it just to make our spirit hit a little harder and move faster, see stigma builds below)



[1.3]
(Pvp) Player vs Player:

Spiritmasters are EXTREMELY powerful if played right in pvp. In almost any case a good Spiritmaster can beat any class 1v1, and even against uneven odds.



[1.4]
(Pve) Player vs Environment:

Spiritmasters can dish out a good amount of damage in pve if geared and have the correct stigmas, we are one of the few classes that can solo 6 man instance bosses as well, And being the only class that can offensive dispel really helps on some fights.



[2.0]
General Information:

The Magic Boost cap no longer exists in 3.0.

Magic Suppression lowers the damage you receive by magic damage, how it exactly works is for every 1 point of Magic Suppression you have it acts as if whoever hits you has 1 less Magic Boost.

Magical Accuracy does not have a cap but every 10 Magic Resist a opponent has above your Magical Accuracy reduces your chance to hit them by 1%. (We do however have a passive skill that reduces the chance enemies can resist our weakening magic attacks eg: Fear)

Elemental Defense lowers the damage you take from that element by .75% per 10 Elemental Defense (example 100 Fire Resist = 7.5% damage reduction from Fire) That also means that skills like Shackle of Vulnerability, Infernal Blight & Spirit Erosion allow us and other magic damage dealers to deal more damage with spells since it lowers their Elemental Defense (it can go negative)

Greater Healing Potions (consumable) remove the first two debuffs cast on on you, keep in mind though, you cannot use consumables while in a stun/stumble/knock-back state & some debuffs cannot be removed with a Greater Healing Potion but with cleric dispels only.


[3.0]
Stigma Builds:

Depending on the players play-style you can have many different stigma builds, whether you solely pvp, pve or do both can and will effect what you want to slot. Also as you level you will be changing stigmas, Below are just a few cookie cutter builds with a few Honorable Mentions.



[3.1]
Pvp Builds:

Infernal Pain + Cyclone Servants Hybrid - This is the build I use and it has never let me down, I see most the top Spiritmasters use this build and it is extremely powerful against every class.
http://www.aiondatabase.com/stigmapl...2230:1683:2234
You can swap out Cyclone of Wrath for Spirit wall of Protection or Weaken Spirit.

Infernal Blight - Very similar to the build above, only instead of having Cyclone Servants you gain Infernal Blight which can both can be used on bosses and increases the damage we deal to that target by 20% and reduces their Magic Resist.
http://www.aiondatabase.com/stigmapl...2230:2006:2012
You can swap out Cyclone of Wrath for Spirit Wall of Protection or Weaken Spirit.

Infernal Pain + Armor Spirit Hybrid - Now that they made Armor Spirit a 1 minute cd this build may be a little more common, you give up Summon Cyclone Servants & Cyclone of Wrath for Armor Spirit & Weaken Spirit (which got buffed as well)
http://www.aiondatabase.com/stigmapl...2230:1785:1662



[3.2]
Pve Builds:

Infernal Pain + Armor Spirit Hybrid - High Dps for pve: Infernal Pain, Cyclone of Wrath, Weaken Spirit & Armor spirit for a spirit that will always land spirit erosion for a loot drop boost.
http://www.aiondatabase.com/stigmapl...2230:1662:1661
You can swap out Spirit Armor of Protection for Absorb Vitality.



[4.0]
Information on skills:

Ice Chain & Flame Bolt - Ice chain should not be used once we learn Chain of Earth, it may deal a little less damage but it's instant cast and leads to a chain that does the same effect but hits harder. Same goes for Flame Bolt, once we learn Vacuum Choke never use Flame bolt, the damage is a huge difference and the -30 Magic Resist is very minute.

Root I & Nightmare - Damage over time and Debuffs like Erosion, Cyclone of Wrath, Infernal Pain, Root of Enervation, Body Root, Sigil of Silence etc; do not break the root effect if they were already applied to the target, they can only break the effect if they are applied after. Which can make it very effective against some classes if you dot and debuff them followed by a root.

Summoning Alacrity - This skill causes your summon skills to become instant cast for 10 seconds. This also effects your Summon Energies/Servants.

Root of Enervation - Most players don't realize how powerful this skill is. It causes the target to attack much slower, not only does it effect auto attacks, but it also slows the animation of skills by 50% which means you take a LOT less damage.

Body Root(stigma) - One of the more confusing skills, mostly due to it's name. What it does is it makes it so a creature or player cannot use physical attack Skills eg: Gladiators Ferocious Strike.

Spirit Wall of Protection(stigma) - This stigma can be very useful in many different situations. The best being able to remove debuffs that you can't pot out of like Ankle Snare by using it with a earth spirit. Water spirit gives the group MA and MR (which is good for stacking more MR on your MR cleric or yourself, Fire spirit gives the group more attack (which is good if your group has alot of physical dpsers in it)

Dispel, Ignite Aether, Magic Implosion, Aegis Breaker - All these skills can dispel almost every buff in the game, Some buffs take several dispels eg: Unwavering Devotion & Iron Skin. Even run/flight/cast/attack speed Scrolls can be dispelled, However Elemental Resist scrolls can not be dispelled.

Disenchant - This dispel works a little different than the listed dispels above, it ignores the rule for some skills needing multiple dispels, You can remove Unwavering Devotion & Iron skin etc with this skill instantly.

Cursecloud - Our most powerful dot and DP skill, It requires a cleric to dispel 3 times to remove it, and it cannot be potted off due to the cooldown on greater healing potions being too long. However, if you get hit by cursecloud you can help out your cleric by using a greater healing potion so it requires 2 dispels instead of 3 to remove it.

All Spirit Skills - There is a short delay before a spirit uses a skill that you tell it to use, and have a 2 skill queue, meaning if you have a spirit running towards a target and you use 3 spirit attacks only 2 will be counted and used. Also if your spirit gets interrupted (stunned/stumble) or killed before the skill hits the target the cool down is still used.

Another side note is that spirit skills that critical do the same damage as a non-critical hit.



[5.0]
Gearing Up:

Exactly the same as stigmas, There's several ways you can gear up your character that is effective. Depending if you pvp, pve or do both will effect what gear you want to use and what manastones you want to put in your gear.



[5.1]
Pvp Gear:

As a Spiritmaster you will find yourself being focused first almost every time while in a group, so it's very important we can survive and get off our fears and dispels. A good start for gear would be to work towards 5/5 30 Elite pvp armor and +10 it, while socketing a mix of Magical Accuracy and Hp. You won't be very useful if you can't survive before your fear shriek goes off, and also if it resists.

Once you get 5/5 30 Elite armor I suggest upgrading to the new level 60 Crucible pvp armor + Hat, It's very easy to get and it's better than 50e. Also this allows you to spend your AP on accessories like the level 55 or 60 eternal accessories.

I know a lot of people will say 30 Elite is terrible, but It Isn't. If you +10-15 it you gain a lot of easy and cheap strike resist and hp, you also gain the damage reduction you need to survive against most players.

Another option for starter gear is the level 55 or 60 gold crucible gear (Divine Coliseum Fighter's or Zunoth's Armor) It's better than 30e but since it's much higher level getting them to +10 will cost a lot more than 30e (and you need that strike resist to survive), but it will save you a good 450k ap but will slow down your Eternal Crucible armor progression.



[5.2]
Pve Gear:

Pve gear is a lot more easy to manage. You don't really need a whole lot of Magical Accuracy or Hp because you should always will be running with a Tank, so you can work towards increasing your damage by socketing a lot of Magic Boost.

There's tons of different sets of gear you can obtain, A lot of coin rewards are nice and now with 3.0 live we have many options to get geared.

[6.0]
Leveling Up:

Leveling a spiritmaster in my experience was the easiest of all my characters, It's fast and doesn't have a whole lot of downtime.

Fire spirit is your friend, I know Earth spirit has more Hp and Armor but it just cant hold a monster longer than a few seconds. However Fire spirit can hold enmity on a monster and deals a good amount of damage and still take a good amount of hate.
For leveling I suggest using him all the way to 60.

If you can manage to keep your 2k DP skill up on your spirit leveling becomes a super-breeze.



[6.1]
Leveling Up & Stigmas:

Stigmas play a huge roll in our level speed, as you level your stigmas should change as well, as there are new and higher level stigmas, not to mention you gain more stigma slots.

2 at 20, +1 at 30, +1 at 40, +1 at 50, +1 at 55.
2 Advanced at 45, +1 at 50, +1 at 52, +1 at 55, +1 at 58. (All require completion of quests)

(20+) Absorb Vitality - 2 second cast, deals x fire damage heals you % of the damage, very useful stigma for leveling, it allows you to restore the health you lose when healing your spirit with Replenish Element & Spirit Absorption. 12 Second cd.

(34+) Weaken Spirit - 2 second cast, deals x wind damage & y more damage if it's a spirit, It hits extremely hard. 12 Second cd.

(37) Fearshriek - 1.5 second cast, fears 6 targets within 15m of you for 13-18 seconds. The most feared (pun intended) and powerful spiritmaster skill. 1 Minute cd.

(45+) Cyclone of Wrath - 2 second cast, deals x wind damage and y wind damage every 2 seconds for 8 seconds. Another dot that really increases our dps. 12 Second cd.


Absorb Vitality is just for leveling or pve, if you plan on pvping while you level I suggest putting in Sigil of Silence and or Body Root. Being able to silence and bind every 20 seconds for 8 seconds is very powerful. (Silence also effects a lot of skills you wouldn't think it would, Like a Gladiators Improved Stamina/Second Wind or Templars Empyrean Armor.



[7.0]
Crucible Coliseum:

The Crucible Coliseum is a Arena that was added in patch 2.7, It offers the Coliseum of Discipline which is 1 vs 1, and the Coliseum of Chaos which is a 10 player free-for-all.

You can collect one Crucible Coliseum arena ticket a day and they last up to 7 days. (Which means you don't have to do the matches every day, you can save them and use several a day if you wish, just make sure to pick the tickets up) The tickets can be used for either of the two Arenas.

Like dredgion, you may only queue at set times:

Weekdays (Monday to Friday) 12 PM – 2 PM and 6 PM to 2 AM CST.
Weekends (Saturday and Sunday) 10 AM – 2 AM CST.



[7.1]
Coliseum of Discipline:

http://gameguide.na.aiononline.com/a...+of+Discipline

The Coliseum of Discipline is a 1 vs 1 Arena, if offers 4 different maps and the only map that you can fly in is the Collapsed Wind Tower (lava map)

As a Spiritmaster I suggest doing the Coliseum of Discipline if you feel confident you can win, as stated in Spiritmaster strengths we can take on any class easily if played right (and geared right). However if you are severely under geared then I suggest doing the Coliseum of Chaos since you can gather and kill mobs for points while getting a quick kill or two & still come in a decent rank which will give you more Insignias than losing in the Coliseum of Discipline.



[7.2]
Coliseum of Chaos:

The Coliseum of Chaos is a 10 player free-for-all Arena, having several larger maps than Arena of Discipline and has gathering nodes & mobs which give you points as well. The only thing I have to complain about the Coliseum of Chaos is that you usually spawn next to other spawning players & having no spirit summoned or buffs up really puts us at a worse disadvantage compared to other classes.



[7.3]
Crucible Coliseum Rewards:

Now with the 3.0 Update, gear is much easier to get than ever. You can get a awesome pvp tome in just a couple weeks of doing the Crucible Arena. I suggest doing the Crucible Arena matches as often as you can, or at least collect your ticket every day so you can do them when you have time.

The armor is very effective for a Spiritmaster as well seeing as it has Silence Resistance on it, and the hat is better than anything you can get for pvp (not counting Magic Resist glasses).

Long story short, Do Arena of Discipline or Chaos! even if you don't win every time, with every match you will eventually become a unstoppable killing machine.


[8.0]
Spiritmasters & Patch 3.0:
(Source: http://gameguide.na.aiononline.com/aion/Patch+Notes+3.0)


[8.1]
New skills & Stigmas:


Boost Magic Suppression (10/22/34/48/60): Increases Magic Suppression.

Aegis Breaker (56): Removed one buff effect from the target and inflicts magic damage to the target. The target also receives additional damage every 3 seconds for 12 seconds (Cast Instantly, Chain skill off every dispel 24 sec cd).

Nightmare (57): Roots a target for 10 seconds that is afflicted by a fear effect (Cast Instantly, Chain skill off every fear except fearshriek 16 sec cd).

Soul Torrent (58 Stigma): Inflicts magical water damage, can be activated up to 5 times in a row (0 Second Cast time, 90 sec cd).

Spirit Pique (59): Orders the spirit to Taunt (Cast Instantly, Aoe effect, 30 sec cd).

Elemental Spirit Armor (60): Increases the spirits maximum hp by 25% for 1 min. When the spirit is attacked a barrier is created that has a 100% chance to absorb 20% damage whenever it receives an attack. The barrier also recovers 5% of the spirits HP every 3 seconds (Cast instantly, 3 min cd).

Sympathetic Mind (60 Stigma): For 2 minutes, increases Magical Accuracy, Magic Boost and Magic Suppression by 200 for the spirit and the spiritmaster. (Cast Instantly, 10 sec cd)



[8.2]
Skill Changes:


Remove Shock: Can be used while Silenced.

Spirit Substitution: Increased the range from 10m to 20m.

Fear & Fearshriek: Reduced the duration when used on enemy players.

Dismissing a Spirit: Reduced the time it takes to dismiss a spirit from 5s to 3s.


[9.0]
Required amount of dispels for every buff:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shuu - Tiamat
Here is the list. It is pretty much a bunch of ones, but there are a few exceptions. If anything is written wrong or was not included, feel free to tell me and I will write it down.

Templar:
Charge: 1
Divine Chastisement/Chastisement of Darkness: Unstrippable
Bodyguard: 3
Break Power buff: 1
Iron Skin: 3
Unwavering Devotion: 3
Holy Shield: 1
Rage: 1
Aether Armor: 1
Prayer of Victory: 1
Prayer of Freedom: 1
Refresh Spirit I : 1
Zikel's/Nezekan's Shield I: Unstrippable
Shield of Faith: 1
Empyrean Fury: 1
Divine Fury: 1
Empyrean Providence : 3

Gladiator:
Charge: 1
Improved Stamina: 1
Wall of Steel: 1
Berserking: 1
Strengthen Wings: 1
Unwavering Devotion: 3
Dauntless Spirit: 1
Ferocity: 1
Blessing Of Nezekan: Unstrippable
Zikel's Threat: 3
Rage: 1
Second Wind: 1
Stamina Recovery: 1
Daevic Fury: Unstrippable

Chanter:
Marchutan's Protection: 1
Yustiel's Protection: 1
Word of Revival: 1
Promise of Earth: 1
Promise of Wind: 1
Focused Parry: 1
Protective Ward: 1
Rage Spell: 1
Promise of Aether: 1
Word of Protection: 1
Blessing of Health II: 1
Word of Wind I: 1
Word of Life: 1
Word of Quickness: 1
Tremor: Unstrippable
Word of Inspiration: 1
Recovery Spell: 1
Aetheric Field: Unstrippable
Word of Spellstopping: Unstrippable
Blessing of Wind: 1
Blessing of Stone: 1
Perfect Parry: 1
Confident Defense: 1
Elemental Screen: 3
Rise I: 1
Unstoppable I: 1
Lucidity: 1

Cleric:
Rebirth: 1
Light of Rejuvenation: 1
Summer Circle: 1
Winter Circle: 1
Thorny Skin: 1
Penance: 1
Acquittal: 1
Sage's Wisdom: 1
Prayer of Focus: 1
Blessed Shield: 1
Splendor of Rebirth: 1
Hand of Reincarnation:1
Yustiel's Light: 1
Marchutan's Light: 1
Splendor of Flight :1
Impervious Veil: 1
Brilliant Protection: 1
Marchutan's Splendor: 1
Yustiel's Splendor: 1
Immortal Shroud: 1

Ranger:
Mau Form: Unstrippable
Dodging: 1
Aiming: 1
Tactical Retreat: 1
Hunter's Eye: 1
Breathe of Nature: 1
Bestial Fury: 1
Speed of the Wind: 1
Nature's Resolve: 1
Focused Evade: 1
Assassin:
Apply Poison: 1
Flurry: 1
Clear Focus: 1
Aethertwisting: 1
Apply Deadly Poison: 1
Oath of Accuracy: 1
Eye of Wrath: 1
All-Seeing Eye: 1
Spelldodging: 1
Shadow Rage: 1
Apply Lethal Venom: 1
Deadly Abandon: 1
Evasion boost: 1
Sensory Boost: 1
Deadly Focus: 1

Sorcerer:
Robe of Earth:1
Robe of Flame: 1
Robe of Cold: 1
Stone Skin: 1
Lumiel's Wisdom: 1
Boon of Clairvoyance: 1
Zikel's Wisdom: 1
Boon Of Iron-Clad: 1
Gain Mana: 3
Boon of Strength: 1
Boon of Quickness: 1
Illusion: 1
Supplication of Focus: 1
Magic Assist: 1
Wintry Armor: 1
Spiritmaster:
Stone Skin: 1
Blessing of Fire: 1
Contract of Resistance: 1
Spirit Wall of Protection: 1
Spirit Substitution: 3
Spirit Preserve: 3
Spiritmaster Debuffs:
Shackle of Vulnerability: 1
Infernal Pain: 1
Magic Implosion: 1