(Discussion) Spell Line - Ideas for Improvements

[fireblade]

Thinking about it an idea that had been at back of mind for quite a while is a Horde based Gift/Ability

The way it would work is that when the Gift/ability is active you gain bonuses
based on what "magic" items you have put into your horde

im not entirely sure about best % for this but something along the lines of

1% of sum of enhancements on hoarded items (20)
2% (40)
3% (60)

etc.

with a maximum limit of how much you can get on each skill/attribute

e.g you have hoarded items that give you sum of 2000 in a skill (6% at 100) is 120 point bonus

not having played my dragon in a while im not sure but think that might be a bit much so have to have a suitable maximum for that level

not sure maybe 1 point every 2 lvls for skills so at lvl 100 is limited to a 50 point bonus

[Guaran]

On the topic of Dragon Gift, all they need to do there is add the level 90 quest for Dragon's Gift V, which has been MIA.

[Casyle]

While I'm thinking about it, there are two changes I'd like to see.

Give us more powerful versions of Burning Sky. Burning Sky is only a tier II spell. More powerful versions, or even just a teir III or IV version, would help bombers a lot.

Fix Shining Blades! It's supposed to be an Epic Spell for crying out loud, yet my teir III Flame/Energy/Ice bombs do more damage! It's far weaker than the other Epic Spell, Dark Cyclone, and not only that, unlike Dark Cyclone, Shining Blades can't even be multi-cast.

[Casyle]

Oh, and look at the recycle times on some of these spells/abilities. I've never seen so many 10+ minute recycle times.

AC 2 did spells and abilities like HZ, but you didn't see 10 minute recycle times that often. When you did the ability usually lasted at least half of that 10 minutes.

I just got Banish Armor and was excited until I saw that it lasted for 30 seconds, which is fine, but has a 10 minute recycle?! C'mon! Fusion Burn allows you to do Ethereal damage and it's only on a 2 minute recycle.

Please, when you're looking at spells/abilities, consider reducing some of those 10 minute recycle times.

[Oakleif]

Dragon spells would be completely rounded out with two additions.
1) a "slow" spell with about a 30 second duration, or a complete "root" with a 15 second duration that we could use to hold mobs at a range or slow down their getting to us while we cast the two debuffs and start the damaging spells. As is, I get the pull in for free then one ability or spell while the mob is charging, then its wacking on me before the third spell can go off.
2) the equivalent to gold rage and silver strike using the Primal ability.

[Kulamata]

A little beside the topic, and I apologize. Nor is it an original idea. Still....

I'd like to see the Gifts and Buffs be castable without regard to level. The effect should be level-dependent, but the casting not so. Thus I could cast Crown of Thorns V on a level 17, and the damage that it caused would be the same as if I had cast CoT I. Or Alacrity V, with the same effect as if I had cast Alacrity I.

I thought that the changes that discouraged multi-tier grouping were a big step backwards, and making this change to the spells would help. And it would cut down a bit of the spell book clutter, as did the linkage changes.

And after all, I can cast a heal of any level on anyone; why not a buff?

[gopher65]

I'd like to see dragons have more gifts and things too. But make sure they are castable by dragons on Bipeds as well. Dragons are currently in groups as Tanks, but it'd be nice if they had some additional buffing power as well.

I am firmly against giving dragons more healing power, but a non-automatic self cleanse would be a great ability to quest for (non-automatic meaning that it acts more like purify than like Self-Detoxify, which is a bit overpowered). I think it should be adult only, starting at level 40 every ten levels.

[Kyrieath]

This thread's been quiet for a bit but had some ponderings of my own toward dragon-spells. As a Helian, I've always been wanting to see this expanded to allow for a greater definition between Lunus and Helian.

Buffing spells: while we have primal roar as a skill-based buff, one to enhance our focus and/or accuracy would also be appreciated. These are stats we often have to sacrifice putting points into if we want to be effective in other areas and trying to counter the imbalance with scales and techs isn't really viable if you want to be able to survive a heavy fight. I think that if these were implemented as individual spells, however, make them like our 'ignore' spells; only one can be active at a time to preserve the overall balance.

Gifts: I'm actually rather fine with just the one Gift we have..it makes sense when you consider how Dragons work. It would be rather hard to give them anything not already in the game that bipeds don't already cast on us when we walk by. As a friend of mine once said; if it walks by, a biped will Gift it.

Battle Spells: I would like to see some DD spells other than the two we have; prime bolt and imp prime bolt ARE quite nice, but their casting times are very slow as battle terms go. They have a definite pro in that they automatically start recasting; but if the enemy is up close and personal, that timer can get a Helian who really is living up to their faction's perceived role killed. Our ice breath isn't effective enough to allow us to root and regain our distance in most situations. Something that is quicker, is on a (not TOO long) timer, has lower damage, is not an AoE (which can invite trouble in the wrong situations) and perhaps has a mild stun or slow effect would be nice. It also gives us an option if our ice breath is down for recycle.

DoTs: Presently the only DoT dragons have if I recall is Bite; which doesn't do a caster dragon too much good. A single line of DoTs would be nice; nothing too massive but just an extra little ticker. Dragons have some spells calling on wind, plainly, through their primal magic; perhaps a primal wind spell designed to visit some periodic damage could fit into the scheme. Stifling wind or the like; choking the target by denying them breath.

Root spells: The caster dragons already have a 'root', it just isn't very reliable at present. I'm rather all for leaving this as a breath-granted ability since Lunus don't really need it. They aren't really meant to be caster types, after all.

I know this is all heavily biased toward Helians, but given the number of Helians I've seen over my various comings and goings playing pretty much as Lunus due to the lack of spell variety and the long timers or wanting to avoid having to use AoEs in crowded areas...why not give them a little love? There's considerably more physical combat options open to dragons than magical combat.

I would also like to see the ice breath improved a bit; it makes sense for the caster dragons to have that kind of skill over the melee ones, but so far it doesn't do us much good.

[Vermithraxx]

The changes made to the spell timers and fixing the linking of tiered spell timers is but the first of many many changes and fixes to help improve and expand gameplay.

-Menkure

It's been over 3 months since this posting and that badly thought out nerf, any ETA on when any of those many changes might happen?

[Creme]

Buffing spells: while we have primal roar as a skill-based buff, one to enhance our focus and/or accuracy would also be appreciated. These are stats we often have to sacrifice putting points into if we want to be effective in other areas and trying to counter the imbalance with scales and techs isn't really viable if you want to be able to survive a heavy fight.

I'd have to agree with this. I've never understood why there's a spell for stre/dext and not one for focus/power.

On a general note, the conjurer class could use some serious techniquing abilities, as well as the blight line. There's barely any spells you can stick 3 blight techniques on as the few that are available don't play nice with each other.

[cauri_order]

Add to the tech requests: Primal based ones would be nice as well

[Vengeance]

Conjurers need more spell additions. I would also like to see a new version of the Flame/Energy/Ice attack line for melee wpns. Instead of adding bonus element damage to melee attacks have it add a % chance to activate a proc of some sort. Converts the damage to whatever spell-variety is cast plus a 2% chance per tier of doing a set effect which increase with the tier.

[Greenclaw1]

Talking of spells. It would be nice if they could put all those great spell effect eye candy that was shown in trailers when Horizons was coming up to is pre mature retial release. Unless they've already have since I've been gone awhile. They truely did look neat.

[tramsan]

Those are for the epic spells, and are pretty big tasks to put in the game with everything that's around them... There are already three of them ingame, and hopefully more will be put in as we go along.

[evilkarl]

Summoning, mind, and ice lines need some more spells a blight attack spell would be nice although I know this isn't the purpose of the line. Some ideas...

Summoning
Dancing Sword (any other might and magic players?) - Sword appears and slashes at the opponent (maybe more swords with higher tiers) damage could be physical or magic type.
Summon Golem/Elemental - Not sure if this is doable in the engine, but summon a mob to fight next to the caster, lasts until it runs out of hit points or is dismissed (I see a system where the cast is given a "buff" that can be removed to dismiss the mob)
Transform - Caster transforms into <x> and takes onto <x>'s attributes
Pillar of Flame - Summons a Pillar of flame..initial damage + high damage dot and keeps roaring

Mind
I see this kind of like psychic powers so a psyhic bolt of sorts would be cool

Blight
An aoe debuff, a blight blast, corrosive bolt or something


Just some thooughts..

[Favoran]

DoTs: Presently the only DoT dragons have if I recall is Bite; which doesn't do a caster dragon too much good. A single line of DoTs would be nice; nothing too massive but just an extra little ticker. Dragons have some spells calling on wind, plainly, through their primal magic; perhaps a primal wind spell designed to visit some periodic damage could fit into the scheme. Stifling wind or the like; choking the target by denying them breath.

Not quite, dragons can hit foes with Burning Embers, as well as the DoTs available through your claw crystals. But as for spells or abilities, Bite is just about it.

[Nisse]

Not sure if this has been said yet here, but some visuals for the dragon spell line wound be nice. Grazing winds, and the others are Air/Wind, so something other than the red particle effects'd be nice.

And I've always wanted to be a healer dragoness. A continuation of the Ancient things would be nice. Something like those old specializations mentioned long ago.

[Steele]

Ok... I'm going to break these ideas up into multiple posts for sanity's sake.

Mind: I think where the Blight line really finds its identity in dispell, str/dex/armor debuffs and DoTs, the Mind line would hit its stride complimenting Blight, but for power/focus/speed/haste.

Mind has Stupidity and Scatterbrain for power/focus debuffing; those compliment Debase, which hits delay and footspeed. PLEASE lower the recase on Debase! 1min recycle on a 55sec duration (at level 95!!) is ridiculously long compared to Dispirit Foe (15sec, 1min duration, level 9, in a class whose primary focus isn't slowing opponents), which routinely overwrites Debase by the way... why can't they stack? It's rather rough to lose the snare because someone tries to "help" by casting Dispirit... sometimes the "helper" even sticks around to heal you when the mob, now free of its snare, quickly runs you down - and runs you through.

Mind could also use a casting haste spell... make it like Blood Bolt; in other words, Sorceror only. Change the Fog tech to lower Mind Ward, instead of Resistance; that would make it alot more useful. Mind doesn't need nukes - it's not a nuke line; Sorcerors do get ice for that. Which leads me to...

Ice: as many have stated, Ice needs some serious love. First off, ice doesn't need another AE. AEs go against mez, which is the real strength of a Sorceror - leave that to Fire, Energy, Summoning and Nature.

Give Ice a repeater bolt. I would have sworn there was an ice bolt way back when... not sure what ever happened to that, but resurrect it. Please? Additionally, two single-target ice DD spells would be good: one that does medium damage on a 20sec timer, and the other a Sorceror-only nuke that does heavy single target damage+durable AE root on a 60sec timer. Also add a Sorceror-only single-target medium-DoT spell that snares (Sleeting Rain, anyone?) on a 60sec timer.

Sorcerors should be master of controlling the pace of battle... whether that means how frenzied the battle is via # of active targets, or how fast mobs can chase party members down; that would help define their role, and I think make the class itself alot more fun to play - instead of simply being a great class to inflate rating with.

[Steele]

Summoning: yeah... well, Ice Hammer (crush+ice DD) and Flame Spear (pierce+flame DD) are great concepts! Let's expand on them: add Energy Shard (slash+energy DD), and then Conjurer-only Poison Lance (pierce+nature DoT), Pestilent Cleaver (slash+blight DoT), and Holy Star (crush+life DD). Those should provide ample choices for single target attacks.

Conjurer-only AEs: Psionic Daggers (pierce+mind DD), and Shadowed Flails (crush+spirit DD) would mix things up a bit and give folks added incentive to play and stay in the Conjurer class.

Shining Blades... everyone says its ineffective for its level - I'm guessing for two reasons: 1) most mobs have high armor and healthy physical resistance, dodge & evade for their level, and 2) I'm guessing that because it's physical damage, and many casters of this spell have low-mid range strength, the damage multiplier isn't as high; this lower damage would be exacerbated by high armor, etc. Possible solution: don't boost the spell's base damage, but instead give it Critical Strike's ability to prevent dodge/evade/block, and add a hefty mandatory (100% chance to apply) direct-bleed DoT, on top of the initial hit. It's supposed to be Epic - let's give it an effect to justify it's badass graphic.

[Steele]

Nature: needs serious retuning. It heals (via revitalize), it regens, it does direct damage, it does AE damage, it stuns (without techs), it AE stuns (without techs), it roots, and it snares... it even does windows! Seriously, for a jack of all trades line, Nature is WAY too good at too many things. I agree with a friend of mine, and this is going to make me rather unpopular, but Dark Cyclone needs to be restricted to nature/life/spirit/blight based schools; if resurrection is powerful enough to warrant that restrition, then DC sure as heck is. Look yourself in the mirror and be honest - you know it's true. That's the first step.

Now, halve the tick time of the Regrowth line from 10sec to 5sec, then add a second *stackable* Nature-based regen: duration 10min, recycle 10min, 10sec tick time, castable by Druid-only, that also gives a minor frenzy effect (one extra attack, call it Lupine Aspect) or a slight minor bloodlusted haste+damage (Ursine Aspect) effect. Lower the stun durations of shocking blast, thunder and thunder cloud to 1sec, but make them instacast; let them act as strategic interrupts instead of a means to stun-lock. Leave the Petrify and Thorns abilities alone (yes, I know they're not spells, but I want those protected from change). Add Slash and Pierce Resists to Earthen Crust... ever try to cut or stab granite with a knife? Not easy. And finally, decrease the damage of Lightning Bolt and Improved Lightning Bolt by 10%, but also decrease their casting time by 10%.