This is the corrected version (in text form) of an old video guide i made years ago for this mastery. In that video there are a couple of mistakes i did back then and they have been corrected in this version. Also, this version includes the 2 skills Atlantis dlc brought to the game, Still, if you want to take a look at the video, it is still 99% valid and at least you can see some gameplay of the skills there. If you want to check out the video, please CLICK ME!
HEART OF OAK
This is a great skill for surviving. It provides Total Speed, a percentage of more Health and it costs 1 Energy point per second to be active because we activate it once and it remains active until we die or until a spellbreaker enemy deactivates it. To have this skill active we also pay 100 Energy Reserved. This means that down in our Energy Bar, if we have 812 Energy points to use for casting skills then 100 will be reserved and now we will have only 712 points to use with our skills.
The good thing is that this number is a fixed one, it is always 100 and it doesn't increase when we level up the skill. Also the meter radius of this skill is a fixed number and the percentage of Total Speed we get from this skill too. The only thing that increases per level is the percentage of Health, for each level, we gain plus 5% to our Health and in level 12, which is the natural cap of the skill, we gain 65% overall.
If we use items that increase the level of this skill even more, then it caps at level 16 where it gives 85% Health. This means that it almost doubles up your Health points and it becomes one of the greatest skills for survivability. The great news of course is that this skill also affects your allies including all of your pets, this is why it has an 18 meter radius of effect. If you play this mastery, you want to use this skill, it's amazing.
TRANQUILITY OF WATER
As the description of the skill says, every time you cast one of your skills, you get a good chance to make your other skills cost much less energy. This is very helpful if you don't play with intelligence heavy builds and you still need to cast skills all the time. With this skill you get a good chance to stay out of energy problems. For each level of this skill we increase the chance for it to activate, but the amount of energy cost reduction is a fixed one and doesn't change. On level 6 the skill gets a 54% chance to trigger but if we take it up to level 10, it goes up to 90% chance to trigger, so it depends on the build that you play with whether you should max it out or not.
PERMANENCE OF STONE
This is a great survivability skill and it works also on your allies and pets! If you max it out on level 6, it provides 18% Elemental Resistance and if you take it on plus 4 levels, at level 10, then it provides 31% Elemental Resistance. This skill stacks with other skills or items that provide Elemental Resistance, so, if for example, you get 30% Elemental Resist from a chest armor and 31% from this skill here, then you have 61% Elemental Resistance. You probably want to max out this skill for your builds.
REGROWTH
This is one more skill for survivability. It has 8 seconds Recharge time, and you can cast it on your character or on one of your pets/allies and heal them. By increasing the level of the skill, you increase the energy cost and the amount of health restored. If you take it up to maximum level 16, it restores 2360 Health points whereas on plus 4 levels, it restores 3520 points.
This skill is great because it works like a second health potion and it can truly keep you alive (not always though). There is a detail you need to remember. If you assign this skill to your Right Mouse Button, you need to put your mouse cursor over the character that you want to heal and just click the mouse button to heal them. But if you assign it to your hotkeys bar then you need to press once, the skill's hotkey and then click the Left Mouse Button on the character that you want to heal. But this skill's assignment works this way if you play with the Enable Quick Cast option off! If you use this option, then all you need to do is to hover your mouse cursor over a character and click the hotkey of this skill just once for it to trigger. You will find the Quick Cast option in the General Options menu.
ACCELERATED GROWTH
As the skill's description suggests, this one reduces the recharge time of this skill alone. As we can see on the skill, we get 2 different numbers. One is the flat number of reduction and one is the percentage. Both count for the reduction of the recharge time of Regrowth. So, when we get the skill to maximum level 8 it reduces the skill's recharge time, first by the flat number and then it calculates the percentage. So, in the example of the video, we have the recharge time at 1.7 seconds. If we take this skill on plus 4 levels, then we reduce the recharge of Regrowth to 0.8 seconds, so now this skill becomes amazing for survivability because you can cast this skill almost constantly, almost all of the time.
DISSEMINATION
When we activate this skill, then by using Regrowth we heal the initial target with Regrowth's numbers but then the healing effect leaps to allies and pets near to the initial target and heals them all. These other targets get affected only from the numbers of this skill whereas the initial target gets affected only by the numbers of Regrowth, these 2 do not stack.
So, this is an amazing skill if you play with pets and you want to play a supportive role in the party, you can make your pets fight all of your battles while you are trying to stay out of trouble and support your pets or even allies by healing them with Dissemination.
REFRESH
This skill reduces the recharge time for all of our currently active skills. By active skills we mean, when we activate a skill and it starts refreshing then we use Refresh and it reduces the cooldown of that skill so, all of our skills are refreshed faster and we can use them more frequently. It works on all of our active skills but it works only for skills that we get from Mastery trees. Skills that come from items/artifacts are not affected from this one. Also, this skill does not work on itself, it works only for the other skills.
This is a great skill especially if you play builds that use skills with long cooldown periods of 2 minutes or even more. This skill could make those builds work even better. If we max out this skill on level 12 it provides 52 seconds reduction and if we take it to plus 4 levels, it provides 68 seconds reduction for all of our active skills. The only downside of increasing the level of this skill, is that it adds 1 second recharge time to itself, so after we use it once then this skill takes longer to be refreshed but that is not a problem, actually if you use other sources that reduce the recharge time of all skills then they will reduce the time of this one too!
BRIAR WARD
This is a great defensive skill and it is also considered to be a pet but since it doesn't attack enemies, all pet gear that adds damage to pets as bonus, doesn't affect this one. This pet only deals Retaliation damage, when you cast it, it grows braches around your character and it blocks the way of melee enemies, so those enemies hit the Ward instead of you. It also deals piercing retaliation damage because it has the skill Thorns. One detail to remember is that this Thorns skill has nothing to do with the Thorns Shrine that we find and use some times. This one deals piercing retaliation while the Thorns Shrine deals Bleeding retaliation.
Thorns skill works only on melee attackers but the Ward itself can also block the attacks of ranged enemies which makes it useful globally. Putting more points in this skill, increases the energy cost of the skill, the health of the Ward and the piercing retaliation damage.
STINGING NETTLE
This one only adds poison retaliation damage over time to the ward and the good thing is that it doesn't increase the energy cost of casting the skill. If you take the skill to level 8, it will add 156 damage over time and if you take it up to level 12 it will add 228 damage. You can take the skill above its natural cap by equipping items which provide more levels to the skill or to all skills.
SANCTUARY
With this skill, when you, your allies or your pets stand inside the center of the Ward, then everybody gets some great survivability buffs. You get a percentage of damage absorption which reduces all types of incoming damage, you get a big amount of regeneration per second and a big amount of energy cost reduction for casting spells and skills. This skill is really great if you have fragile builds and you fight against tough enemies like (for example) bosses. It can save your life and it benefits all those who stand in the center of the Ward.
Putting more points on this skill will increase only the buffs, the meter radius and skill duration remain the same. If you get this skill up to level 12, it provides 32% absorption, 32 Health regeneration and 32% Energy cost reduction.
EARTHBIND
This skill comes with Atlantis dlc and you don't have access to it without having Atlantis installed. The skill is very powerful because it is very useful especially when you get hordes of enemies running at you. The best way to use it would be from a very long distance when you play with ranged builds such as staff builds or bow builds e.t.c. One of the two greatest features of this skill is that it has a very wide radius of effect which is 22 meters!
This number is fixed and it will not increase by leveling up the skill. The other great thing is that it provides enemy immobilization which means that it traps enemies at the spot where they get hit by the skill and they stay immobilized for the duration of the skill. This is very useful because when enemies are immobilized, they can not run away so you can easily shoot them down with your bows and projectiles in general.
Another super great thing of the skill is the reduction to enemy's Defensive ability. This means that these enemies will receive even more melee attacks or even more critical damage by melee attacks. Now imagine, if you play with pets such as wolves, your wolves will totally destroy those enemies with melee attacks. This skill is awesome, just use it!
CALL OF THE WILD
One of the best pet skills in the game. Certainly one of my top favorites. You can summon a wolf which deals physical damage and has its own energy bar to use for casting skills. If you want to get a second wolf, you need to increase this skill to level 7. To get a third and final wolf you need to take it up to level 18. Increasing the level of this one, not only does it increase the Health and energy bars of the pet but it also increases the damage it deals along with the chances to avoid projectiles and dodge attacks.
Of course it also increases the energy cost, meaning, you need to have a good amount of energy to be able to summon wolves or at least you need to use the Tranquility of Water skill. If you play with wolves as your main pet, it is always the best to have 3 wolves instead of 2, so take the skill up to level 18 with gear that provides more levels to this skill or to all skills. Wolves can become powerful companions but in the early stages of the game, they will be a bit fragile. So you need to find items that provide armor and health as bonus to all pets, make sure to visit merchants often enough because some times they sell good items and some times the items provide bonus to all pets.
MAUL
This one adds more types of damage to the pet. Bleeding damage over time, piercing damage and a reduction to enemy's health. This means that now, wolves deal 4 types of damage, these 3 plus the physical of the base skill. This is a good addon because it makes this pet more viable against more types of enemies, for example, if the pet hits an enemy with great physical resistance but bad bleeding resistance, then this skill will make the wolf deal good damage to the enemy because of the bleeding addition of Maul.
Increasing the level of Maul, adds energy cost to Call of the Wild but the good thing is that it is a fixed number and doesn't grow per level. The 3 damage types can go up to 215 Bleeding damage, 30 piercing damage and 15% reduction to enemy's health, at level 16. If you want your pets to be dealing the most bleeding damage possible, use skills that reduce the bleeding resistance of enemies such as Necrosis skill from Spirit mastery or Flush Out skill from Hunting mastery.
SURVIVAL INSTICT
This one triggers when the health of the wolf drops below 33% and it has 6 seconds duration. This is a fixed number and doesn't change, also the duration doesn't increase by level. When this triggers, the pet receives a damage absorption boost which reduces significantly all types of incoming damage. It also increases the physical damage of the pet significantly. Of course, as we said before, the pet has as basic type of damage, physical type, so this one only gets this huge boost with Survival Instict. At level 16 your pet gets 80% Damage Absorption and +90% physical damage and if you take the skill to level 20, you get + 100% physical damage whereas the Damage Absorption remains 80%.
STRENGTH OF THE PACK
This is a party skill which means that all allies/pets/characters that lie within 10 meter radius of the skill, get these buffs. This is amazing because it boosts significantly the performance of our builds especially if the builds deal physical damage. It adds more armor to all members, it gives energy regeneration and Total speed and it gives physical damage as a percentage.
This one matters because since it is a percentage, it can buff all skills and spells that deal physical damage. If it were a flat number then it would affect only our attacks with weapons and skills that utilize weapons to be triggered along with. If you have at least one wolf and you play a build that relys on physical damage then use this skill.
SYLVAN NYMPH
One more pet of this mastery. This is different than wolves but it works in a similar way. It has its own Health and Energy bars, it has good chances to avoid projectiles and dodge attacks and it deals damage, piercing damage and some reduction to enemy's health. The main difference of this pet to the wolf is that this one always uses a bow since it is a ranged pet.
OVERGROWTH
A great skill which you want to be using always when you play with this pet. The damage absorption is a flat number and it can go up to 873 if you take the skill to its maximum level plus 4 levels and it works against all types of damage. When you play with this pet put at least one point on this skill which of course will not be enough for increased difficulties, but if you don't have any more points to spare, then at least one point would be ok, after all it also provides some piercing retaliation damage against melee enemies. In that case though, that you get plus levels to all skills of this mastery from gear, then this one point could be a very good investment, for example: imagine that you get from items plus 5 points for this mastery, then by spending only one point here, this would take the skill up to level 6 instantly. So, as you can see, there are cases where even a single point spent on skills could be enough.
NATURE'S WRATH
This skill adds elemental damage to the attacks of Sylvan Nymph along with a good chance for arrows to pass through enemies and hit other enemies behind the first ones. The thing though is that the pet, only some times is using this skill, it is not added constantly on the initial attack, so some arrows deal pierce damage and some arrows deal elemental damage and pass through enemies some times.
Normally if you would like to play with this pet, as a main pet build then you would try to max out the base skill of the Nymph which means it would be dealing lots of piercing damage and reduction to enemy's health.
In case you would like to play that build as an elemental type of pet build then it would be a good idea to invest in this skill but in case you wouldn't care about elemental damage then maybe it would be better for you to spend skill points to other skills that would better support your build. Remember that as bonus to all pets from items, we get more elemental damage to pets so if you want to play with this skill and have your pet deal the most elemental damage possible then you should try to find and use pet gear with elemental damage as bonus to pets.
SYLVAN PROTECTION
One more skill of Atlantis dlc. It doesn't have a radius of effect as Earthbind skill but it provides very similar stats. The best way to use this skill would be first, to max it out and second, to use it if you play with a melee build or if you have many pets that attack with melee. This is because of the reduction to the Defensive ability of enemies hit by this skill which has a very short duration and it is totally useless to the Nymph since this pet always attacks with bows.
Defensive ability works only with melee attacks. This is why it would be better to max it out since at that level the duration of this debuff is 2.8 seconds which usually is enough time to land a couple melee hits to enemies. This is a good skill but if you decide to use it as the main skill of the Nymph then you should probably equip gear with bonus to pets more physical damage which would benefit this skill the most.
PLAGUE
A very nice skill, you cast it to an enemy and then it jumps from one enemy another. The poison damage that it deals though is a very small number. If you'd like to play with this skill, it would be better to use it with at least one of its 2 addons...
FATIGUE
If you get this addon up to level 12 it will be dealing 50% reduced damage over 3 seconds and minus 45% total speed to your enemies! This is a great debuff and helps very much with your survivability because it means that enemies affected by this addon, deal much less damage to your character/allies and the battle becomes easier.
SUSCEPTIBILITY
This is a huge debuff and the numbers can go up to minus 54% at level 12. As we can see, this one reduces some resistances of enemies with the most important being the poison resistance (If you want to make a poison damage type build). It is clear enough that with this addon the base Plague skill deals more poison damage to enemies but of course it also helps with other types of damage because Susceptibility is a great debuff to our enemies. Keep in mind that these debuffs of this skill are Absolute ones and they can stack with similar debuffs from other skills or items, no matter if those are Absolute or Multiplicative. So, if you wouldn't care about poison damage you could still use Plague with its first addon which provides better survivability for you and why not, even with Susceptibility in case you play with a physical/poison/elemental type build. The choice is yours.
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