Yesterday, a bunch of us got to practice on Heroic Opportunities. Since most people, myself included, were very confused about it in the beginning - I thought it best to write down our findings. Feel free to chime in if I say something wrong, or you just want to add your own tips.

Knowing when and how to use Heroic Opportunities will separate the good groups from the bad, in my opinion

Sometimes it is preferable to just throw everything you have at the enemy (easy encounters), but if you are up against anything tougher than that you will want to get your Heroic Opportunities straight.

To use Heroic Opportunities you will need to work together. You will need to restrain yourself from constantly using the abilities you use when solo. You cannot simply chain-nuke or heal or whatever. You must pay attention to the Heroic Opportunity and do your part (or at least not interfere ). You will also need to know what a Heroic Opportunity does, so you do not waste power doing exactly the same thing (for instance, if the Heroic Opportunity gives a heal and you know it will fire in time there is no reason for you to heal right there and then).

The benefits of Heroic Opportunities are diverse. We have only found a handful or two combinations so far, but they include: extra damage (plenty of those), group heals, power regens, huge AC buffs, reverse slows, and more. And they come basically for free, not counting the power each of the group members use to advance it. The same combination of steps may also give different benefits - it seems there are usually two (one common, one uncommon) and sometimes a third one (rare).

There are solo Heroic Opportunities (done by a single person) and group Heroic Opportunities (working together). The latter is obviously more powerful and also more fun as more people get to take part in it

The basic process of a Heroic Opportunity is simple:

• A group member initiates the Heroic Opportunity.
• The Heroic Opportunity is either advanced until the wheel is locked, or broken completely by a disallowed action (will happen a lot until you get used to it).
• The wheel is locked, and one or more actions must be taken to complete the Heroic Opportunity.
• All done, and the end benefit is given.

What happens during the Heroic Opportunity? Here are the steps in more detail:

• Every class has a trigger skill or spell, which will initiate a Heroic Opportunity.
• Once triggered, you will see a small wheel on the right-hand side of your screen with some small icons around it. These icons represent the classes that can take part in the Heroic Opportunity.
• Another action must be taken by one of the group members - within about 5 seconds - in order for the wheel to be locked. If you have a spell/skill necessary for the step, the icon will flash in your hotbar. Often there are more than one spell/skill that can advance it, and they will give different end benefits.
• If any other action is taken by any group member, the wheel is broken and you will have to start over. Whoever does it first will advance the Heroic Opportunity, which also means that if two people do the same step at the same time, the first guy will advance it and the second will likely break the chain (unless the next step happens to require exactly the same action - it happens, but it is rare).
• When the wheel is locked, it is much bigger, has several icons inside it (whereas before they were outside), and it will list the name of the end benefit underneath it.
• At this point, a scout class can change the end benefit if he/she so wishes. Doing so will also change the steps needed to complete it (but the wheel remains locked). If you are a scout and you are not careful, you could end up changing the wheel by accident to something the group does not need - so be careful!
• Each class shown as an icon inside the wheel will have to take an action. It will then highlight the icon to show that that class has completed the step. Once all steps are completed, the end benefit will be given and the Heroic Opportunity is over.
• Once locked, you can cast any spell and use any ability without the chain being broken. The only way for the Heroic Opportunity to fail is if it times out (not all required actions were completed within 30 seconds or so).

Basic rules, when your group is using Heroic Opportunities:

• Make sure you work out what kind of Heroic Opportunities you will be doing and who does what - before combat starts. This is especially important if you have two people of the same archetype, as they will end up breaking the chain if they are both doing a step at the same time.
• Do not use any skill or cast any spell unless the wheel is locked or the skill/spell is used to advance the chain. Obviously there are times where you will have to, but you must realize that you will break the Heroic Opportunity by doing so.
• Pay attention to the wheel, as it may require a different action than you thought. An uncommon benefit might have been given instead, or a scout might have changed it.
• It is a good idea to change the chat color for Heroic Opportunities under Options, so you can easily see when someone initiates an HO.
• Your solo Heroic Opportunities are usually less effective than the group ones - and also prevent others from doing Heroic Opportunities- so get everybody involved, and have fun!

I will try to get some screenshots or footage to help illustrate this.
Also, I would be more than willing to demonstrate it in game and I am sure others will too.

One last thing: please post any combos you find and their end benefits! We need to get a list going

EDIT: edited for clarity / spelling, and dropped the abbreviation "HO"

I'll start

I'm at work right now, so I can't remember all the combos or their names. Will post more and edit this one when I can

Group:

Group Heal / Regen
Requires: Scout, Fighter, Priest
Chain: Trigger (Scout), kick (Fighter), Minor Healing (Priest), Minor Healing or Smite or Contagion (Priest)
Effects: Verdant's Trinity (group health regen), Nature's Growth (group heal)

Solo - Shaman:

Direct Damage (common) or Inspiration buff (uncommon)
Chain: Smite or Contagion, Smite.
Effects: Divine Judgement (direct damage), Inspiring Piety (+10 inspiration for ~3 minutes, uncommon)

More to come...

there is q group 1/2 bubble of power one out there.. i forget the formula but it can be a lifesaver.

Sweet - please post as soon as you know

We got a power regen one as well yesterday, but I am not sure what we were doing and we couldn't reproduce it. Might have been a rare one...

I think it also depends on the group/situation. Some of the groups I'm in now just grinding, HO's aren't real great. With Breeze/Clarity we virtually never run out of power so we can spam all our specials, which ends up being more damage then the HO's. I think HO's are great and all, especially the group buff ones, but make sure you don't get so involved in trying to get HO's off that your not using your skills, because you end up doing less damage waiting for the opportunity to use the correct skills.

yea kinda have to agree with ikky, as a enchanter and fighting against alot of groups of 4 and 5 mobs, i have to be busy casting all the time and i cant really worry about ho's too much. Also the wrong ho can spell disaster as there is one or two ho's that are area effect dd, and break mez. I still think ho's are good and we still try to use them, but depending on the group, it may be alot more important to just use your primary abilities as much as you can.

-Bizz

Good points.

I just want to clarify: you do not need to spam HOs constantly. And of course, you can still use your skills - just not while trying to get off an HO.

Q and I, for instance, start out with him doing AE aggro and me slowing the mobs (if needed). Then we can get into the HOs.

Oh and Bizz - I thought I heard that AE spells do not break mezz?

I think it depends on the group and what your doing. As far as damage goes, I do way more damage spamming my special abilities then I do HO's. In fact both my kicks do more damage then most HO's, and are on a 10 second recyle. The group buffs and such are awesome, but random. When soloing HO's are a great added attack, and when duoing they are good as well. In groups when your pulling 4-5 mobs at a time they are more of, "if we get it off great, but don't worry about doing them."

AE Spells (both reg & HO )are not supposed to effect mezzed mobs....they changed this near end of beta cus people wherer not using HO's for this reason...

Soo if it IS breaking Mezzz..Please bug it as it is NOT supposed too.

ae damage definetly breaks mez, also i have seen the area ho break mez too. ikky has ae taunt however that doesnt break mez. Hunted with a 21 fury yesterday, and his lvl 21 str/wis debuff also broke mez. I think anything that does damage breaks it, not sure exactly what the break down is for other stuff. If you have an ability that you are not sure about, look me up in game so we can test it out. I would really like a better list of what does and doesnt and havent seen posted anywhere.

-Bizz

Yah, shout the AE fighter taunt, doesn't break mes, but like Bizz said, I've seen other AE's breaking mez. Why wouldn't they? I mean if AE damage spells didn't break mes, you could just mes 3 mobs and ae nuke them to death while they just sit there mezzed.

Veru are you sure they just didn't change it so that HO AE's don't break mes? Otherwise that is huge exploit. Get a chanter and a couple people with ae spells and go mezz a group and ae nuke them while they just sit there and watch you.

I know of 2 solo ones for the mage.

one is Arcane Fury
start
lightning bolt - (cant remember name of spell)
lightning bolt
complete

another is Arcane something
start
lightning bolt
lightning storm
complete

-- i will check these later and make the naming accurate when i play next.

Maybe it's different around level 20, but the quick damage HOs we were firing off yesterday were dealing about 100 in damage (just the end effect - that's not counting damage dealt for the steps). At around level 15 that's a fairly big number.

However, the group heal one is even better No aggro for the healer either (I have group heal but it costs around 20% of my power and gives huge aggro).

It's not entirely an either/or scenario when it comes to your normal skills. Most of the skills/spells you use for the HO are ones you would do anyway. It's more about timing.

For example, I can keep casting heal whenever it is available, or I can time it so it fits with an HO that heals everyone. The only time HOs really slow you down is when someone keeps messing it up That's what this thread is about.

And again, we're not talking about only doing HOs constantly. If you communicate well, you can keep switching between all-out attack (or whatever) and group HOs.

Anyway, I made this thread mostly for groups who want to try HOs but do not understand them. And to share the combos we found

Me and Fan need to practice this with you two. Expect me to schedule some days off soon. So we can play with you two.

Hey any excuse to group with you two again is fine with me

Shouldn't have to take days off for it though - just stop working on weekends!

Quote Ixchael:

Hey any excuse to group with you two again is fine with me

Shouldn't have to take days off for it though - just stop working on weekends!

You forget I work for satan...err EDS....I already know i have to work this friday night.

Uggggggg. Someone shoot me.

OK after doing some research on the boards about AE & Mez it seems that i was 50% right

as it stands now Reg AE spells do NOT breack mezz but HO ones do ( this was posted as a "Bug" by a dev in beta so I thought they fixed it )

here is few quotes:

cant find the dev post since beta boards are gone tho.. but Will keep ya updated as I learn more.

That just seems wierd to me. That means you can make a group of 1 chanter, 1 healer, and 4 aer's and just go mess a bunch of mobs and go ae crazy and not have to worry about anything.

i wouldn't be surprised if it gets fixed in the future or otherwise labeled as an exploit.

sounds like a midgard bomb squad ae stun then ae death!!

i will test this out later today with my ae nuke and post the result. I am almost positive all ae damage spells currently break mez.

-bizz

umm not an exploit its by design

Why would you spam AE Dmg spell if targets are Mezzed? AE uses ALOT more power then single target spell so spamming AE on mezzed mobs is a total waist of Power.

AE spells are for when you can Deal with the Encounter lvl so no need to mezz them

remember Encounter in EQ2 = Mob in EQ1 ( IE a Yellow con Encounter with 1 mob labled Group = Yellow con encounter with Multipe mobs labled group ).. there is NO diff in difficultly lvl other then # of mobs & if your main tank is good at keeping aggro & healers / nukers dont draw it off him.. he can Have multiple mobs beating on him & its ok.

that does seem kinda true for the difficulty of the mobs. This is what i have seen so far for group mobs. Either you get one mob with two up arrows on him thats very difficulty, two or three mobs with one up arrow on each of them, or four or five mobs with no up arrows on any of them.

The one exception i can think of i have seen so far was some 2x group mobs ikky and i killed in commons last night. It was 5 mobs in one encounter, 4 with no arrows on them, and one named guy with two arrows on him and all 5 said 2x group.

To me so far the number of up arrows the mob have on them seem to be the determining factor on how difficult each indivual mob is and how many other mobs are gonna be part of the same encounter.

-Bizz

More on HO's

After you kick them off and the wheel is locked.. there will be 1 of 2 icons in the center.. and it varies per HO. There will be one with an arrow going clockwise... what this means is the skills MUST be casted in that order or the HO will fail. Then there is an icon with 6 arrows pointing at each skill needed. These can be done in any order to accomplish the HO

heres some scout HO;s

Start
dirty tricks
quickstrike

This combo can be used for Ringing blow (heavy dmg and dizzy to target) or swindlers luck (kinda forget what this does) and the rare Bravos Dance? (increases attack rate I think)

I think the HO that Ozzy is referring to is the one we all discovered in group last night... Arcane Chalice. An enchanter started ours, then had to cast a nuke (I think). We healers completed it with minor heal. The end result was a surge of power for everyone in group.

Sorry for the vagueness... I don't recall how the chanter began it. :/ Just know it was chanter/chanter/priest. Maybe Mage/mage/priest.

Woot BR is still alive. Where you been stranger?

I like to try some of these stuff with you too. Reading about it and practicing is a big difference.

Was thinkin a little about this.. I think when a fighter initiates their HO any class has the ability to advance and lock the wheel. Once the wheel is locked anyone can use their specials without having to worry about breaking the HO.

So I was thinking. Shouldn't the main tank just spam their HO trigger? More often than not it will get advanced by one of the other classes and HOs can therefore get completed.

A slight variation to this would to hold off on specials until the main tank gets the HO started, then unleash if you have to while the HO wheal is up while folks advance it.

I like what HOs add to combat so I'm hoping we can find a way to work it in regularly.

usually i think its the secondary support abilities that actually trigger the HO's like for Scout its dirty tricks um.. evade..and a few other support abilities that actually lock the wheel..

so more often than not the HO wont get started I for one dont use those abilities as much as i use my main attack abilities.. but spamming the HO could work.. but not as effecively as some groups who would devise a system..

like the group leader could shout.. FHO (fighter HO) and have him start it in 5 seconds... (giving time for the rest to register what is going on and time enough for abilities currently being cast to stop) Thus once all specials are stopped from being spammed they can systematically figure out where to go from there or have it planned ahead of time given knowledge of what HO's do what.

ALSO if the current HO being activated (once the wheel is locked) is not what the group desires, the scouts in the group can "reroll" the HO ability. However they can only do this once. for instance.. in the Scout solo HO.

I start the HO
and it comes up with Swindlers luck(increased attack techniques) well i dont want this.. so i hit another ability (the same TYPE ability that locked the wheel (coin)) and it has a chance to reroll to Ringing Blow (the ability i most use, heavy hit and dizzy)or the rare Bravos dance (increased attack speed)

Also take note of my previous post regarding the center arrow icon in the middle of the wheel and what it means if you dont already know