The Hidden Forest

So I was just looking at my wizard spell cast times (detrimental, specifically ether flame, corona flare and ancient: core fire) and noticed that cast time buffs, like True Devotion and Academic's Intellect (click effect from Frozen Academic's Robe) didn't seem to be affecting cast times at all. For example, with Ether Flame, when I inspected the spell, the cast time showed as "6.0 sec (3.0 sec)" indicating that the base casting time of 6 seconds had been reduced to 3 seconds with items, AA's and buffs. I timed the spell cast time with a stopwatch and it seemed to be about 3.2 seconds(consistently), close enough I guess. This inspection (3.0) and cast time (I timed it at 3.2) of Ether Flame remained the same whether I had the aforementioned cast time buffs or not.

I thought that maybe there was a detrimental cast time reduction cap with items and AA which I had already reached, so now, without any buffs, I removed all of my items (the best detrimental cast time reduction item that I had on this character was Bulwark of Shimmering Order, True Quickening with 40% reduction). It should be noted that without buffs, a reduction of 50% would be accurate for this character, as the only AA that this character has which reduces detrimental cast times (all that wizards get, I think) is Quick Damage, which reduces by 10% at rank 3. So, with True Quickening and Quick Damage, this character should have had a total reduction of 50% without buffs.

However, after taking all my items off to be sure, my naked wizard still casted Ether flame with a 3.2 second casting time (3.0 on inspection), remaining exactly the same even though now it should have a maximum of 10% reduction (should be 5.4 seconds) from only Quick Damage.

I tried zoning and casting outside of the hidden forest and the spell cast time and spell inspection remained the same. I even removed all my items, buffs, zoned to crushbone, camped and came back and the spell inspection and cast time remained the same. RIP the two orc centurions who died for science.

So what makes sense is the spells have no impact. They both have the limitation of min 3.0 second cast, so the AA and focus take ether flame down to the limit. At the point of casting, you're at the limit. I don't think the limitation is based on base cast time but actual cast time.

Have you checked if the spells affect storm of Chaos (12 second cast time)?

What doesn't make sense is removing all the gear still results in a 3.0s cast, with no effects applied except AA. Is anyone else seeing this?

Then consider Corona Flare, which has a base casting time of 8.0 seconds. All the same applies to this as applied to Ether flame, except it's stuck at 4, not 3 seconds. Besides, as far as I know the 3 second casting time reduction limitation, as it has existed in EQ in the past, has always been a reference to the base casting time, not the reduced casting time, and the reduced casting time of a spell with a base casting time of greater than 3 seconds can be reduced to a casting time of less than 3 seconds(I remember there being a limitation on base casting time, although I don't remember exactly what that limitation was in seconds I do remember that it was the base casting time only which was the limitation). Plainly, spells could be reduced to less than the base cating time limitation, although I don't know what the developers on this server intended.

Edited for accuracy

Max spell cast time reduction is 50% I thought. odd results without gear though. I will check on my casters later

I just checked on Nilbus - with no buffs and his only detri haste focus removed (verified with #myfocus) his - summoning spells are showing a 50% reduction (quick summoning 3 is 50% so this makes sense) his nukes are also showing a 50% reduction (it should be 10 from quick damage 3). A beneficial buff is also showing a 50% reduction when he has no bene haste and neither quick damage nor quick summoning should be affecting a buff.

Checked with no gear on, and beneficial buff is still 50% reduced, as are the nukes and the summons.

Spells that aren't affected at all - tactical renewal, torrent of malsoin rk. iii ,
COTH is showing a 10% reduction like it was getting from quick damage...
So yeah, haste code (likely from AA) is screwy

You guys check to make sure your Auras are off? For example, Aura of The Glyph Wielder gives 15% spell haste etc.

Ydiss wrote:What doesn't make sense is removing all the gear still results in a 3.0s cast, with no effects applied except AA. Is anyone else seeing this?

Of course.

A naked and buffless Finnr has 50% reduced cast times on all nukes except the ones that have durations, 50% reduced cast time on abjuration buffs but no reduction on abjuration debuffs, divination is hit and miss with stuff like invisibility and bind sight reduced by 50% but other divination spells like the LDoN ones and identify as well as invisibility to undead all functioning normally with full cast times. Alteration and conjuration share in what you see with divination.

The entire set up is a hodge-podge of whatevers, with evocation and abjuration being the only predictable schools for cast times, whether you have focus gear or not.

I definitely didn't have any auras. I moved out of the hidden forest to be alone in crushbone to make sure of that.