General Conjurer thoughts...
It seems like I am coming full circle. I started as an Ice Disciple, and couldn't cut it, went through SpiritD, Guardian, and now with Conjurer I am coming back to Ice spells as my most powerful casting ability hehe....
Some general thoughts:
I LOVE this class as a supplemental class.
Spells:
It's major spell categories are Ice, Summoning, and then to a lesser degree, flame. Since there are only 2 summoning spells, and those are generally LONG casting times, close range, and mediocre power for the casting times I think that those can be ignored. (I'm NOT an arcane caster so please let me know if I'm missing the 'ultimate combo' here).
Ice has some useful general utility spells. For instance, it has 2 roots , one of which allows you to hit the monster at range while it stays rooted, though it DOES give THEM a fire buff, another is an evasion debuff which is nice for meleers. Main problem is I am generally a Mystic caster, so I only get ice Shackles and bolts that transfer.
Flame, well.. it's flame. Bombs and DoTs. Nice for those long combats if the damage procs.
Overall the bombing abilities for these two skills is impressive.
Skills:
The DOWNFALL, is that compared to Mage, the skills you get are NOT worth it. You get 10 Summon, 10 Ice, 9 flame.... Mages get 8 Summon, 9 ice, 10 flame, 10 energy, 8 mind, MUCH more flexible. Conj. SHOULD get 10 to each of the ones they can cast at least, if not 11 to Summon and Ice just to make up for the lack of Mind/Energy.
To top it off, Mage also gets 10 Armour use (keeping you in the best of cloth armour), and also 10 Magic evasion. Conj definitely gets the short end of the stick here. So Mages get 3 Energy, Ice, and flame bombs so farming as a Mage is the way to go. In addition they get Mind's debuffs and crowd control , and energy's stun techs to add to the mix.
Shining Blades... LOOKS great BUT have been hunting for over a week now for a set of bottle caps. It's horrible and frustrating enough I opened a ticket to make sure that it's 'as intended'. I have gained over 12 levels (65-77 and counting) at just 2000 xp a kill... that's a LOT of kills, thousands..... The problem will be when I get it since I think it only does around 200 damage, and probably 'as designed' or 'bugged' depending on how you think about it, to be physical Slash damage. Meaning all those melee mobs out there just shake it off. In action I have seen it do around 170-220 damage, but that might just be the mobs we smacked.
If you are looking for damage, go with Ice bomb VBlades does have flash though. Shame too, I spent a LOT less effort (less than a week solid hehehe) and got more story/satisfaction out of the Dark Cyclone Quest, and that does around 300-350 damage a cast, which is significant.
Abilities:
Most are powered by Flame or Ice Elements, you get 8 every 15 minutes, then you have to resummon another 8. Don't die on your first pull or you'll end up waiting a while for it to become available again hehe.
Dancing Rapiers: For me, my entire build is towards damage avoidance. So the dancing rapiers makes me darn near untouchable while it's up. The problem is if I get hit for 200 pts or so it goes away and needs to be recast. Doesn't transfer. Uses 1 ice element.
Quills: A WEAK WEAK damage shield, Only lasts 20 hits. Takes 1 ice element. I think Quills IV against level 70 warrior types only does around 70-100 damage a hit. COmpare that to Pulsing spectrum at almost 200, there is no comparison, and then there is the recasting every 20 hits. Doesn't transfer. Has a class level restriction to cast it on others.
Pheonix Rising, A moderate AoE bomb. Short recycle, doesn't transfer. Equivalent to about 2 bombs of the appropriate level.
Pheonix Shield: I call this the Pheonix Hug, it's essentially a 'spirit walk' that negates the next attack. Doesn't transfer. Uses 1 flame element, so if you use this once a pull, better not kill more than say 5 monsters every 15 minutes hehe since you also have to power:
INFIX FURY: DOES transfer, and really did make a difference. At level 1 it's like a +10 flame damage add to each hit. Pretty nice. Lasts around 25 attacks at level 1. +5 damage and +10 additional hits per 'tier' or so. One of my main reasons for taking this class. Uses a flame element
Ice Barrier : Actually starts making a significant difference in my damage at around III or so. Does transfer, a nice little buff. Uses 1 Ice element.
Multicast: It's the mage equivalent of MultiStrike. If you take Conjurer to 90 you transfer Multicast II out of it. VERY nice ability. Though, for some reason there's a 'hole' I would think that Multicast IV SHOULD fit in at around level 94-100 or so. Would give Conjurer a distinct advantage for a change over a Mage for the initial Alpha strike if the Summon spells were actually worth the time.
Overall:
An incredibly weak solo class, but the transferables make it useful for melee oriented multiclasses. Getting Flame/Ice gives you Ice/Flame Attacks which increases your flexibility in combat against mobs resistant against say, crush like golems. And increased damage against their vulnerable monsters. The Ice Bolts would be good for drawing and the shackles would give you a little crowd control.
Also many of the monsters seem to not have a particular resistance to Ice which is nice. I think that there were so few ice casters since there were no bolts initially that they never went in and customized the Ice resists when they went through and gave all the mobs their 'buff' and Ethereal armour and Nature/Energy/Flame resists. (The 'rebalance'.) I think the addition of Ice Bolts makes it a bit easier to 'live' as a Conjurer main, but still comes a little short of the mark. I would feel like a mage 'lite'. The use of 'elementals' (you get 8 every 15 minutes) to power your abilities is unique, but ends up being more annoying than useful, since you have to keep recasting, especially during the longer combats.
I will take away Infix II, Multicast 2, ice barrier I and the ice bolts from this multiclass. Since I deal with fast hits, the Damage ADD as opposed to a delay adjusted is a nice touch. Multi II is great for Dark Cyclones or the initial alpha strike on pulling a big scary mob.
-HratLi
(NOT a caster, but just a review from a Meleer's prospective.)
Originally Posted by tjl
But infix? With that flurry gnomie burst, ~8 melee hits per second.... yeah, infix goes too fast to be useful. Doing gnomie without flurry? Still roughly 2 rounds per second.