Post by draavon on Dec 8, 2015 20:57:24 GMT
Now that the initial excitement of the new profession has worn down a bit I think it would be a good time to discuss the current spells in the game with an eye to their ideal uses, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Some of this may be affected or even superseded by future plans already in progress, so it will be interesting to see what Stabzs has in store for the upcoming changes. Even so, seems like a decent time to start the discussion.
Fortitude
Fairly straightforward spell, seems to favor boss encounters and battlers not in the 2-hits-per-round model.
Regarding bosses, the ideal case would be where a player is close to being able to survive an additional hit from the boss and this spell allows them to get over the threshold. Very powerful in this very specialized case, allowing a high level player to potentially increase their damage up to 50% (going from 2 hits per round up to 3). For high level players not close to a threshold it is essentially useless. For lower-level players it becomes useful again, especially when accuracy is not capped and the boss's damage is lower causing number of hits per round to be more random, but still not nearly as powerful as for the on-the-threshold high level player.
Regarding battling, this doesn't seem very useful for high-level battlers using the 2-hits-per-round model. Maybe a player using shields/health gems/familiars can offer an opinion here, I could see it being potentially useful especially if running with a less-than-ideal kill % that could get a temporary bump. If a player in this situation already has a high kill % I doubt it would be much use, even if the spell would allow you to move up a mob you'd be losing out on quest progression for the duration.
Reflection
Interesting spell that seems incredibly underpowered to be. At spell level 5 I have a 2.25% chance to reflect 7% giving an average damage reflection of 0.16% per round for the duration. I know Stabzs mentioned that spells will be modified by skills or something of the like, and maybe that would turn this into something more useful, but as it sits right now I really don't see the point. As for what might be done to improve this spell I think it would depend on its intended usage. Regardless, to me it seems like the proc chance needs to be increased drastically, possibly even as high as 100% rate, with the reflected amount scaled down to balance. 50% proc rate seems reasonable as well, or even 33% or 25% (if balanced). 2-3% just seems so wildly random as to not be very useful or even fun.
Final Stand
Cool spell (even when not bugged), I'm curious to see how it feels with the change. Very clearly for bosses in my estimation, though for non-2-hits-per-round players with a less-than-ideal kill % I suppose it could help increase their % for the duration. Depending on how it's balanced I could see either the "only once per round" model or the idea about a diminishing chance after each proc per round working, the latter seeming more interesting if balance can be achieved.
Reagentry Prowess
No opinion here since I haven't been TSing lately. Who can argue with more reagents though?
Master of Fate
Elementalist
Fortitude
Fairly straightforward spell, seems to favor boss encounters and battlers not in the 2-hits-per-round model.
Regarding bosses, the ideal case would be where a player is close to being able to survive an additional hit from the boss and this spell allows them to get over the threshold. Very powerful in this very specialized case, allowing a high level player to potentially increase their damage up to 50% (going from 2 hits per round up to 3). For high level players not close to a threshold it is essentially useless. For lower-level players it becomes useful again, especially when accuracy is not capped and the boss's damage is lower causing number of hits per round to be more random, but still not nearly as powerful as for the on-the-threshold high level player.
Regarding battling, this doesn't seem very useful for high-level battlers using the 2-hits-per-round model. Maybe a player using shields/health gems/familiars can offer an opinion here, I could see it being potentially useful especially if running with a less-than-ideal kill % that could get a temporary bump. If a player in this situation already has a high kill % I doubt it would be much use, even if the spell would allow you to move up a mob you'd be losing out on quest progression for the duration.
Reflection
Interesting spell that seems incredibly underpowered to be. At spell level 5 I have a 2.25% chance to reflect 7% giving an average damage reflection of 0.16% per round for the duration. I know Stabzs mentioned that spells will be modified by skills or something of the like, and maybe that would turn this into something more useful, but as it sits right now I really don't see the point. As for what might be done to improve this spell I think it would depend on its intended usage. Regardless, to me it seems like the proc chance needs to be increased drastically, possibly even as high as 100% rate, with the reflected amount scaled down to balance. 50% proc rate seems reasonable as well, or even 33% or 25% (if balanced). 2-3% just seems so wildly random as to not be very useful or even fun.
Final Stand
Cool spell (even when not bugged), I'm curious to see how it feels with the change. Very clearly for bosses in my estimation, though for non-2-hits-per-round players with a less-than-ideal kill % I suppose it could help increase their % for the duration. Depending on how it's balanced I could see either the "only once per round" model or the idea about a diminishing chance after each proc per round working, the latter seeming more interesting if balance can be achieved.
Reagentry Prowess
No opinion here since I haven't been TSing lately. Who can argue with more reagents though?
Master of Fate
Elementalist
