please put it back...

[rizo/nawkia]

the spell linking thing...please take it away an let spells go back to what they were...i die more often an hunting has become a chore rather than fun.........games are about fun not chores...an ownage is fun

[Dhalin]

From what I heard, the spell linking thing made it especially hard for Helian Dragons to be.... eh... Helian.

I bet it would really suck, for Helians who have what, 3-5 offensive spells, Only, to *only* be able to cast their highest tier, and end up meleeing in between spells?

I never did get the chance to ask a Helian just how bad it is now, only casting just a few offensive spells, now that they essentially removed the ability to cast lesser tier spells.

I would -hope- they plan on giving Dragons more spells, because quite honestly, we Need more spells. We have Always needed more spells. Dragons are supposed to be mythical, MAGICAL creatures, but yet bipeds have 100x the amount of spells any dragon would ever have. Heck, dragons can make all of those biped spells, but not cast a single one of them.

Especially Buffs.

Dragons get what, 3 buffs, and one of them is only used in the very rare situation that Primal is actually casted on you? Woo. Bipeds can cast like... heh, two dozen or so. Dragons get -one- gift, and it's not even a Spell, it's an Ability. We get, what, 5 gift slots, and can only use One, unless we beg a biped to cast Gifts on us? That's kinda lame. Give us more Buff spells, and a few more AoEs, if you're going to link the spells to prevent us from using T4 spells amongst our T5 ones...

Not trying to turn this into a Dragons vs Biped debate, but really, the spell linking thing only did all the more damage to spellcasting dragons... I wonder if the Devs are trying to say "Now now, silly dragon... spells are for bipeds!" and expect everyone to gold rage everything to death...

[Pharcellus]

Well, thing is, it makes sense in a situation where the change is part of a larger set of changes and not done in a vacuum. Much of the game is about higher-tier powers/effects overwriting/overriding lower-tier ones. Problem is that there are quite a few other issues that need to be resolved as well (including, but not limited to, "finishing" the Primal spell line).

IE, you really shouldn't need your lower-tier spells once you have "upgraded" them, but since they are all stand-alone instances which can even be teched differently, the old way has its uses.

I would say revert it if it goes beyond the pale, and wait for the more comprehensive balance changes, but at the same time, it is invaluable for testing the balance with the change in, so they know to what degree to fix/finish the other parts of the game next. The issue there is that the play experience will be one of beta testing on live again, but hey, this is Horizons; that's been the rule since before release.

[Casyle]

Suck it up you sissy!




Kidding! They really need to finish/fix the spell lines before they go doing stuff like this. *My biped is a mage, my dragon is melee*

Hunting Fire-based creatures is very odd now. I mean, there's only, what, 2 damage Ice Spells in the game, including the AoE? *I don't mean de-buffs that do damage, of which there's, like, 2 more, but spells specifically to do damage* I needed the lower teir version of Ice Bomb to hunt creatures like Giant Flame Beetles.

I'll live, but it sucks. I only hunt THREE, count 'em, THREE different kinds of monsters up to 100 now. *The lvl 60 gap is VERY awkward for me since that's mostly fire creatures*

[Kulamata]

On changes like this, I've always thought it was more reasonable to put the jacks in, THEN remove the foundation. Some attempt at maintaining balance simultaneously, even if only a first pass subject to change, would have been much better, since the game has been formed around this "flaw" for 4 or so years.

I thought Pharcellus' post put it well.

[Gorek]

Greetings

Very good observations from the previous posts.

Point one: I have a biped and 100+ spells to cast and many times I am waiting for one to become active so I can cause some damage, sure I can cast healing and debuffs but am always waiting for damage dealing spells/abilities.

Point two: Agree about the Dragons gift slots, could do with something to fill those slots without asking bipeds for buffs but they really rule on damage dealing, with silver strike and gold rage etc, my 85 Dragon Adventurer is as strong as my 100/100/40/20/15 multi-classed biped.

Regards

[rizo/nawkia]

Hz staff thx for everything ya've done. i am glad yall do but i still cant approve of the spell linking...that pretty much destroyed my character:/
i dont see why they decided to change it after 4 years anyway or 5 years if people have gotten used to it letem be used to it

[Casyle]

Ooo, Gorek, yeah, this is the first time I've ever played a game where there'd be a point where I couldn't cast anymore AoE spells for a bit. Not to mention I really wish they'd add in a stronger version of Burning Sky.

[Drevar]

I too thought my Helian would be utterly crippled by the linked timers, but it turns out he isn't. Those who go primal tend to also go power heavy. Spiked scales, whose damgage is boosted by power is still extremely effective against multiple targets. Spiked/Gold Shield/Refreshing breeze is still very viable. Blast off your AoEs and then pick a single target to beat on with bolt or Gold Rage while your AoE timers reset. I have found that I can hold off more foes for longer than my Ranger with full druid and healer abilities can.

Mage schools I cannot speak to as I have very little experience in the Arcane.

Drev

[Dhalin]

I too thought my Helian would be utterly crippled by the linked timers, but it turns out he isn't. Those who go primal tend to also go power heavy. Spiked scales, whose damgage is boosted by power is still extremely effective against multiple targets. Spiked/Gold Shield/Refreshing breeze is still very viable. Blast off your AoEs and then pick a single target to beat on with bolt or Gold Rage while your AoE timers reset. I have found that I can hold off more foes for longer than my Ranger with full druid and healer abilities can.

Mage schools I cannot speak to as I have very little experience in the Arcane.

Drev

Except that Refreshing Breeze has a 5 minute timer, you can't exactly do that every battle, can you? Also, gold shield also requires a fairly good sized chunk of one's hoard, as well.

Given the rarity of hoard items up for sale on AH lately (at least, on order...), spamming one's hoard abilities doesn't seem like the wisest thing to do, especially now that they are "cleaning up" (aka, nerfing) the mobs' loot tables, which gives us even less to work with. Most of the mobs they claimed they "cleaned up" (aka, nerfed), I am hearing reports that they are dropping vastly less than they did before.

[awdz]

I was a bit distressed to find that after casting Rez V that I could no longer immediately cast Rez IV or Rez III. This is frustrating during hunts when multiple folks are down having to wait for the all around rezzes...

[Dhalin]

I was a bit distressed to find that after casting Rez V that I could no longer immediately cast Rez IV or Rez III. This is frustrating during hunts when multiple folks are down having to wait for the all around rezzes...

Heh, don't even get me started on the lack of dragon resses too...

I mean, 1h cooldown on a -5k hoard-, Lv100, Quested ability as their only rezzing option? Heh, my Lv12 cleric can res more, and easier, than that.

[Deth]

As a Helian Dragon and someone that has always done it this way. Thank you for changing it for all to do it this way. I hope it is seen that dragon casters and other casters now need a little bit of love.

[Jaraiden]

Yeah, what Pharcellus said.

the spell linking thing...please take it away an let spells go back to what they were...i die more often an hunting has become a chore rather than fun.........games are about fun not chores...an ownage is fun

Like the developers said, just adapt your tactics.

As a dragon with spiked scales, the change makes sense. Tempest IV then Gust IV, then Tempest III then Gust III, then ohhh, how about Blast IV then . . . . just didn't make sense and bordered on abuse of a game mechanic. How can you really explain (or justify) expending that much primal energies . . . . continuously? It is a fix of a poor game mechanic.

I was a bit distressed to find that after casting Rez V that I could no longer immediately cast Rez IV or Rez III. This is frustrating during hunts when multiple folks are down having to wait for the all around rezzes...

Ditto. Need better tactics.

[Soars]

4 friends and counting who have left the game because of this change

[Dhalin]

Yeah, what Pharcellus said.


Like the developers said, just adapt your tactics.

As a dragon with spiked scales, the change makes sense. Tempest IV then Gust IV, then Tempest III then Gust III, then ohhh, how about Blast IV then . . . . just didn't make sense and bordered on abuse of a game mechanic. How can you really explain (or justify) expending that much primal energies . . . . continuously? It is a fix of a poor game mechanic.


Ditto. Need better tactics.

All of the tactics ain't going to help you when the mobs were designed to be balanced with the way characters were in the past. Nerfing characters makes mobs much harder, especially when the WA are considered. These mobs overwhelm you with instant and constant respawns, and are ridiculously powerful. Nerfing characters only makes the mobs even more powerful. It wouldn't be so bad, if they would also nerf the mobs to preserve balance, but last I heard, they didn't. They still throw mobs at you at an endless stream with no opportunity to rest up after a pull or two, in many cases.

Also, with Flame enemies, as someone said above, there are only 2 or 3 ice-based damage spells, and lower tier spells were near necessary to fight them.

So it falls upon the devs for implementing this change -before- and -without- introducing more spells to fill the gaps created by not being able to use lesser tier spells, and also, without nerfing the mobs' power to preserve the mob-player balance.

[Justa Mirage]

You know what disturbs me about this thread and the discussion... again I repeat...

The player base has been spoiled.

The fact is, players have been using the non-timer-linked spells for so long that there never was a thought that it might get fixed.

People who were used to being "Uber" are now finding it harder and harder to insta-kill mobs and survive without too many bruises.

Now the outbreak of "My Dragon is busted, my mage sucks now... I QUIT!!" are starting to pour from the woodworks. I guess I was a lucky one... I never set up my hotkeys in such a manner, and always used my highest tier spell / ability to combat so I don't feel this "unbalancing"

I can see where Helian dragons are going to feel the pinch with this, I have a Helian dragon, I have pumped training points into T&C so I can do some decent damage with melee attacks to make up for my lack of having damaging spells to use.

Dragons have "breeze" abilities and spells and 1 instant heal. DOT heals are not that impressive for lasting in battle, and having a Helian rely on melee because they lack in attack spells doesn't fit the lore or the Helian way.

Again, Virtrium has had the game for 2 months, they do listen to feedback, and again, they might fix / reverse things if it makes the remaining veteran players start to jump ship. For new players, they start with a perspective of "This is how it is" and deal with it.

Having them come in and finally "Fix" things that were not supposed to work that way by design pinched a few nerves because it was nice to be able to "wade through the mobs" with chain casted bombs, tempests, and blasts.

Now the game is tougher with the change... how tough depends on whether you can adapt to the new changes. I read a SIG the other day (either here or somewhere) that was a quote from Charles Darwin:

"Survival will not come from the strongest, nor the most brilliant of minds, but those who are able to adapt to change."

[Teto Frum]

I feel its about time the that the spells got linked , healing spells have always been, i can only assume the rest were always meant to be, for melee classes wehavent spent years trying to figure out why rend armor and power strike have been linked we just dealt with it. Weve all reaped the advantages of the old system , but lets view it as an adventure of relearning how to play your character , not a reason to leave some place you love. Theyve made comps easier to get from a drop stand point, so lets imbrace the fact that theyve made killing them harder from a caster standpoint. I for one play for the challenge of killing not the joy of butchering without risk. So i say kudos to the linking that makes casters more on par with the rest of us.

[Creme]

Now the outbreak of "My Dragon is busted, my mage sucks now... I QUIT!!" are starting to pour from the woodworks. I guess I was a lucky one... I never set up my hotkeys in such a manner, and always used my highest tier spell / ability to combat so I don't feel this "unbalancing"

I wouldn't exactly call this an outbreak. There are a few players posting regarding the effects of linking the spell timers and I think this is good feedback at least from a mob-balancing perspective.

I think it does also identify areas where more spells might be needed, i.e., the Ice line of spells.

[Durand]

I play as a warrior and generally solo most of the time. I pull one or two mobs that are at or above my level at a time, not groups, and I play smart. If you need to have 3 rezzes available for your group at a time, I would seriously question the number and level of mobs you are pulling, the armour, weapons and type of damage you are using, unless you like deathpoints.