Virulent Paralysis - What is great about it?

[Aristein]

I have played my shaman in EQ since the beginning and feel like I know the class pretty well. I bought VP1 a long time ago and was thoroughly unimpressed, and thus forgot about it. Recently, I have been reading these forums more and I notice that a lot of shaman use it frequently. My assumption is that maxxing out the AA is what makes it good. Am I missing out? Should I max this ability and try it again? How often are people using this ability? How often is it resisted?

Thanks...

[darkpaw]

My experience is that its resisted a fair amount unless you have a disease debuff on the mob first. If not the initial cast then on a subsequent tic (against mobs in Nest/RS).

The biggest use I get from this spell is using the knockback to splitup a mutltipull and then lockdown the mob with my druids 4 min root pants. It has saved groups more times then I could possibly count and don't really know how I'd get along without it. Its definately a 5 star ability.

[Scowls]

Get VP3, and solo out 500 aa in fire. nearly garuntted root duration.
get VP3 and save casters on raids that agro early. POW knocks the mob into the tanks.
get VP3 and CC for groups, even if you have a chanter, they will thank you for tossing the mob off them and out of the group while they tash and mez.
get VP3 andpush mobs out of walla when 57 mage pets push them out of range of everyone.

can also "accidentally" push mobs onto clerics and let them die when they dont shut up about how shaman suck


what rocks about VP is that its DESEASE based, lands when most stuff dont, and decays helps it even more
also the massive knockback to shove mobs out of camp is nice, or out of your face while soloing

[haxot]

dialy.
If I am soloing,m I am using it every minute and a half.
If I am grouping, I use it every time shit hits the fan.
Without debuffing, I get 1 resist every 20 casts or less I'd wager
I have had, in the last year, only 1 single resist when DR debuffing.
with the huge KB effect, it's saved my bum many a time.
It was the singularly best AA i have ever gotten, on par wiht Canni3 to me.

Hax

[Brohg]

Trim that sig, egads man.

[Scowls]

hax, put down the crack pipe...all im gonna say, yes VP rocks, but canni 3 isnt an aa

[haxot]

[Unmei]

The simultaneous combination of knockback and root is fabulous for positioning, regardless of the resist it uses. Plus, being able to make mobs sneeze is almost worth a few AA all by itself.

[Tyck]

[Zaviax]

[Aristein]

[Henora]

[KB]

[Lickity]

[Tyck]

It's not "extraordinary".

It was just an example of somebody at SoE thinking entirely outside the box for us.

So far outside the box, I'm not sure if GPS could find him!

You can think of VP as "The sneeze that rocked our world".

For about 3 months after it came out, most shamans didn't give it a second look.
It was "cute". Then the reports of just what we were doing with it came in.

For a while, we all had a "fight club" moment and everybody was shushing everybody else to keep "them" from hearing.

And surpisingly, somebody at SoE smiled, said "Working as Intended", and didn't change a thing.

What was extraordinary was that with a simple twist, we had a completely new world opened in our game play.

Our original Heal-Over-Time spell was that way. Weak but it changed things. Now HoT is a mainstay and ours is nothing special.

The original Dog-Pack too. Now everybody has one. And some arguably have better.

I wish they had (and still hope they might) put in a contagious effect for us to field test. It would have been interesting in the same way.

- Tyck

[Veril]

I've spent the last 2 years blaming paladins for pushing mobs all over the place...I think that people are starting to catch on it may not be them after all.

[Tyck]

Shhh... its those durn necro pets, I tell ya!

[windfinder]

[Bludletters]

I love VP. When I solo the Tables in PoF I use this method:

Stand at max spell casting range
Cast Insidious Decay. *note Malicious Decay is 50 extra mana and the effect you want is just fine with the lower level spell.
Cast Virulent Paralysis. *note By casting the above spell it allows the mob to stay rooted the entire length of Virulent Paralysis recast plus 2-3 seconds.
Cast Malo *note Malos is 50 extra mana
Cast Curse of the Spirits *note Right Click DoT from Epic
Cast Breath of Wunshi
Cast Breath of Ultor
Cast Canni V
Cast Bane
Cast Anthema
Cast Blood of Saryrn

*NOTE IF ANY SPELL GETS RESISTED DO NOT WAIT FOR IT TO RECYCLE CAST THE NEXT SPELL ON THE LIST*

By this time you should be getting the "You bane spell has worn off..."
You should have enough time to recast Bane, Anthema, and Blood of Saryrn before the Virulent Paralysis wears off.
Cast Virulent Paralysis
Cast Breath of Wunshi
Cast Breath of Ultor
Cast Bane
Cast Anthema
Cast Blood of Saryrn
Mob should die right before the 2nd VP wears off.

Check my profile below. I can kill all 6 of the mobs around the tables and sometimes one of the gaurd houses with 2 mobs in it before respawn.

[Lickity]

[windfinder]

[Kraxsis]

Pull with Insidious Decay
Pox of Bert on inc with long pulls - Can't use while parked because of DD (clicky pants are nice)
Also helps keep them from smashing the nearest kiter while pulling
Virulent Paralysis - Turn to position mob with knockback (out of kiters/pullers path)
Breath of Wunshi - Before Malosina to give time for full duration
Breath of Ulthor
Malosinia - Doesn't resist that often w/o malo and saves mana
(but does give you a good reason to cuss occasionally)
Blood of Yoppa
Curse of Sisslak

/mem other_spell_set (drop ID, sinia, disease dots, grab Saryrn, Bane, Anthema, Root for
early VP wears because you wanna save it for the next pull)

Blood of Saryrn
Bane
Anthema
Pained Memory
Canni 5

I only bother with curse line at this point because the mobs don't live that much longer.
Others may still see need for Yoppa, and Saryrns again here.

Curse of Sisslak
Bane
Anthema
Pained Memory

/mem first_spell_set

Rinse, repeat!

With Crit Affliction maxed, few resists and BA5 from DoN aug, mobs are usually dead before one VP wears.
Add some more focus items, even just ceramics for Affliction Haste 4, Afflicton Efficiency 4 and mana buffs you
can pull almost non stop for a couple hours. There are usually some droods around for oak/soe if it runs low
and I always carry Clarity potions. (poor enchanters)

[Beafly]

Someone mind stripping the PoFire Tables solo information out of here and sending it to the medecine cabinet? I looked for this information for quite awhile and gave up and finally learned to do it myself. Would probably help some of the younger shaman.

[Samanna]

Sounds good. Bludletters through Kraxsis? What about windfinder's post?

[Swobu_AB]

[Tyck]

[Naagruz]

MD+VP3+clicky root pants can really get you some mileage while soloing and turn you into a CC gawd (dependant on skill).

MD+VP3 can save your arse better than goofy "survivability" AA when you gain innappropriate aggro and crap hits the fan.

[Samanna]

[Brohg]

[ribeye]

VP3 knockback is the shiz...in LDoN

It was fun in WoS and pg where I could really confuse the dps by sending the mob behind them. "WTF It *sneezed*??"

Its occasionally good for CC...I use it when I need to.

The one thing I read that kinda interested me was positioning in raids? Never seen a use for this on any raids b/c of the resists.....

[Tyck]

We have a "Shamans corner" for our raids anytime we know we have a position issue that VP can solve.

Watching the mob sneeze 5 times all at once and have it move 50 to 100 meters into a corner is a blast.

9 out of 10 times only the pullers know that it had nothing to do with "Warping".

___ IMPORTANT NOTE ___
If you didn't know it, the direction the mob is thrown is dependant on YOUR facing not its.
If you are facing the mob, it moves away.
If you have your back to it it moves closer.
You can throw it left and right by facing those directions.

- Tyck