Spell Mechanics

[Zoink]

Hi, I've got some thoughts on spell mechanics and I'm curious what others think.

1) I really dislike spell fizzles as a mechanic. The other day I was grinding xp in PoV and my Pally bot was at 50% health with 3 mobs on him. I decided as a tactic to heal him up a bit to help him survive and to pull one or both of the extra mobs onto me to pull some damage off of the bot. I had 5 spell fizzles in a row and the bot hit that low health point where he doesn't do anything and now I have 3 mobs on me and I die. I don't mind dying so much. It doesn't take too much to get that exp back. The death penalty here is almost non-existent compared to Live. I guess my main issue is that spell fizzles, imho, make a fight rely more on the RNG than on skill. I'm curious about peoples thoughts on completely removing spell fizzles from the game or greatly reducing the chance of it. I can deal with the occasional spell fizzle as some sort of flavor, but when I'm getting 5 in a row when I'm trying to heal, I find it frustrating.

2) Also, I'm not sure of the purpose of spell memorization time penalty. I get how having to choose which 8 spells I will memorize brings skill and choice into the discussion. I guess I'm wondering if it would be possible to make rememing spell gems instant? Mainly I'd like this in order to buff more quickly. Maybe some one else can see a way this could be abused in a significant way, but I don't.

3) One thing that I really enjoyed about WoW (ducks to avoid incoming..) is how buffs, HoTs, and DoTs were mostly instant cast. I guess I'm not sure how spending 0 secs casting Virtue instead of 8 would be game breaking =) Heck even the buff bot does it instantly. Being able to insta-cast HoTs would be awesome, I know I would probably use them more. I think there might be possible issues if HoTs and DoTs could be cast while moving. Any thoughts on bringing Buff cast time to 0 and HoTs/DoTs to 0 or at least near it?

[Aruun]

I think everyone finds the fizzles annoying, I have come to live with them. It is very annoying when you are the main healer in a raid and get 5 fizziles in a row on a mob that hits the tank for 10k. Wipe out... But again, it is a fact of life I have become used to and just deal with.

As to the zero cast times for hots and buffs, I think that would be game changing. If a mob dispells we could be redoing all the buffs every time the dispell hits. The heals with zero cast would also make healing a much easier task, and would result in much more healing available. Cast times exist as part of the game, I would not recommend changing them since it would result in trivializing much of the content.

[ChaosSlayer]

I have to say that fizzles, long casting times on buffs and heals- this is all part of how the original EQ was designed. You can't just replace parts of it without damaging the others.

I have played WoW and EQ2, and they simply more ADVANCE games, where spell casting system was given much more thinking at design time (they had 5 years of eq experience to build on). I do myself appreciate such system where a healer has as many as 8!! different heals to use, which range from those that heal instantly, or cost 0 mana, to HoTs, to group heals etc etc, including those that can instantly CH entire group, but come with like 15 min reuse timer and so on.

Such NEW system IS possible to be configured and implemented on Emu, but only on a server which being redesign from the scratch. trying to do changes to the system here and there, and keep the rest as is, may cause significant balancing headache, which honestly I don't want to be responsible for Maybe individual bonus spells could be implemented (as part of a desire to improve druid/shaman healing potency), but this something Lillu will have to decide up on

As far as fizzles go, enchanter have a spell called Intellectual Superiority which increases your casting potency level (in regards to fizzles). So under this buff, when you casting a level 70 spell , it will be as If you were level 75, casting a spell 5 levels below you, greatly reducing fizzle chance. This buff can also be found on some of the clicky items.

[Mr_Magoo]

As far as fizzles go, enchanter have a spell called Intellectual Superiority which increases your casting potency level (in regards to fizzles). So under this buff, when you casting a level 70 spell , it will be as If you were level 75, casting a spell 5 levels below you, greatly reducing fizzle chance. This buff can also be found on some of the clicky items.

Can you link one of these clicky items ? i found nothing on the alla clone

[ChaosSlayer]

http://www.thehiddenforest.org/item.php?id=49378

this comes from a quest in Alt-P, but if you Really want it, you can make a new char, go to alt-P, get this item, and then exit and keep playing on main line- the buff is casteable on others.

I believe there was 1 other effect on a different clicky item, which also improved vs fizzles which was a more complex buff (may also included small mana regeneration effect too), but I can't remember now what it was.

[Rocums]

Also, the familiar orbs reduce fizzle. There are AAs that do as well. Make sure you are spec'd in the right casting skill and fizzles become pretty much a non factor.

[ChaosSlayer]

Thats a No on familiar orb
When I made the vanity pets, I simply copied the spell description of the actual Wizards familiar, but they do not actually have that effect

[Rocums]

sad face