Hey Folks,

Melete asked me to post about some of our spells from my tests in 3.1

Quicken Earth - This used to be one of my favorite spells. Quick little bit of extra damage and a possible stun. Problem is after 600 ranks of TM/Thano (Not sure which it is using these days) it caps. Meaning the spell itself becomes completely useless. Hunting down to backtrain, this thing still gets beaten and killed in seconds. Melete said that the cap was removed from Zombies, and not from Constructs. I hope that something can be done to bring this spell back into having some usefulness.

Idea's - Remove the cap. Maybe not to be so combat effective, but as a pulsing debilitation that can be killed to end it?

Heighten Pain - This spell is amazing, and stacks perfectly with Zombies. Though with the new TM model it seems to be actually lowering the vitality AND damaged caused to body parts.

Idea's - Fix it? heh got nothing else.

Blood Burst - At max casts Blb is costing 12-15% vitality. Which is a HUGE amount in this new 3.0 combat model where vitality means so much more. I would not mind it so much if this spell did something special. The striking a secondary location but no bonus to vitality damage the target takes does not feel like nearly enough.

Idea's - Have the spell work similar to other unique style spells... Namely AE or soul attrition but for vitality, There was always talk of a spell to kill without doing body damage, for zombie making. Or lastly just lower the vitality cost's some to match what Siphon vitality can heal.

Vivisection - in magic 3.1 new TM model this spell does by far the lowest of damages, the other 3 single target TM spells would doing between 19-23% vitality per hit, and this spell came in at a whopping 12-15%. The perception check to see you prep, target or cast the spell is off the chats hard. 600 perception would see 1300 stealth no problem. On top of that it does not work from our Invizo spell. Not worth a single spell slot as it is now.

Idea's - Make it DFA. Not because DFA is super awesome right now. Cause its not. But at least it would have something unique that works.

Siphon Vitality - Best TM spell in 3.1 for Necromancer's. Enough said.

Worm's mist - Seem's overall to do what it is supposed to. In all honesty I don't find a ton of situations where giving up my magic to reduce incoming magic worth it. I've said it before and I will again, Adding a meta ability to cast it on others in an offensive fashion would be unique and very awesome. Just an Idea.

I left out the rest of the spells cause they are mostly buffs that all seem to work as intended.

I remember some GM saying a spell should never become useless. And I know we are the "Pet" Guild and so pet's are new. But it seem's like as long as pet's have a cap on them, the spell will eventually become useless. Though i am sure scaling needs work also.

also, Got Risen?

-Zerreck Arkarm

>Last official word I heard was that it does indeed to extra vitality damage and in Test it outshines all other Necro TM spells in casts to kill, which supports this. I was 2 hitting targets with capped casts where all other spells took at least 3 casts.

Sorry, I am doing my tests with players where it is very easy to see vitalit5y as a percent. I can do roughly the same percent of vitality damage with siphon vitality as blood burst. Blood burst is higher sometimes at 1-2% more. But that's hardly worth 12-15% cost of vitality.

It is very likely that in PVE this spell does drastically more damage. But it does not in PVP.

>>But that's hardly worth 12-15% cost of vitality.

That cost only exits when you cast it without a bleeder.

I also believe the vit starts at 5% and goes up as you pump more mana into it.

>>I can do roughly the same percent of vitality damage with siphon vitality as blood burst.

As far as I can tell, part of 3.0 was that lower "difficulty" spells wouldn't necessarily be pointless as your skill went up. ACS and SV should remain as viable/effective as BLB.

>>Blood burst is higher sometimes at 1-2% more.

That's probably from the additional damage bump that can sometimes happen.

---

Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.

>As far as I can tell, part of 3.0 was that lower "difficulty" spells wouldn't necessarily be pointless as your skill went up. ACS and SV should remain as viable/effective as BLB.

I hope your right, cause as of now, in pvp there is no reason at all to cast blb. Getting hit with up to 15% vitality to cause 22% vitality when you have the option to pay NO vitality and cause 22% vitality will never be worth it. With such a high cost, the spell deserves to even out in some way with some worthwhile perk.

-Zerreck Arkarm

I've not heard about QE capping around 600 (or whatever), and find that pretty disappointing. I thought all pets were tied to the casters TM?

<<I quickly tested yesterday by comparing a capped QE construct against one with a capped IVM, both the 750 TM construct and the 900 TM construct appraised exactly the same.>>

It's possible that summons use only your base ranks (which I'd consider a bug, personally). When 3.0 first came around, I checked to see if a TM Link would make my Guardian Spirit more powerful, and it didn't. I don't know how much the spells have in common, but that might throw a proverbial monkey wrench into your experiment if QE is like GS in this regard.

Thanks,
-Life Sustainer Karthor

>It's possible that summons use only your base ranks (which I'd consider a bug, personally).

That's certainly possible but in Live they do honor skill boosts, or at least CFB does. I admit I use CFB almost entirely over QE, so I could be mistaken on the QE test.

Elusive
mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur

First off I'll quickly admit my necro is not in Zerreck's range so some of my opinions are colored by such, however:

Construct skill capping seems frustratingly low. Speaking from a 150+ vs 150+ necros, the construct currently caps so low its not even worth attacking. The multi penalty from a critter that weak isn't even enough to justify the RT of smashing it (all 5-6 swings it takes), and its special attacks don't have a prayer of causing me any issues.
From the POV of a ~90s Necro, I can already see a sizable difference in power between the Zombie and the Construct. Even when using a very low level critter to make a zombie from. While the scaling issue hasn't rendered mine totally useless in PvE it is at best a gimmick for PvP with a hail mary luck toss on the special attack landing a once in blue moon type stun if I'm already pummelling my target into mulch.
On the subject of pets and scaling, another issue that comes to mind from fighting Zerreck's zombie/Construct is I don't think the health pools of the summoned pets are scaling up properly. If you can tag them they die FAST, even wearing played forged armor.

HP - There seems to be an issue on the PVP side. Limited testing felt like it was LOWERING damage received, not increasing. PVE it seems to function as intended however.

TM spells:

Vivi's interaction with Core Stealth/Invso is frustrating. Additionally as has been repeated, the contest for detecting the targeting of spells in hiding is SERIOUSLY skewed. Even at the lower end, just yesterday I couldn't target a few folks in hiding without being glanced, by people who could NOT search me out of hiding. Please review the Targeting/Hiding interaction. Additionally, I get this spell isn't supposed to be our primary TM spell but the min prep in addition to being punishing on the mana pool also means adding enough mana to overcome barriers is a major investment.

ACS/USOL - Both seem pretty solid in 3.1, USOL might be a smidge powerful though for the mana cost I'd argue its in about the right place.

BLB - This one sticks in my craw a bit. It should be, and messages as, the Cannon type spell for Necros. With the TM tweaks to single shot spells its got a bit of punch again, which is great, however, the extra costs vs the extra damage don't seem to be scaled quite right. I understand the option is there to wait until bleeding to use this guy, but in the 3.x world where you have to deal a chunk of damage to really see any gain its hard to really feel the place of this spell or Vivi.

As the changes are shaking down and I look harder at the 3.x world of casters I'm finding myself feeling boxed into SV being the real go-to spell for Necros. Damage wise its only a smidge behind BLB, and its side effects feel a LOT more beneficial.

Samsaren

>I'm fairly confident that IVM and REI make for a more powerful zombie, but I haven't tested with QE. Hurm.

Got the word from Amifer on test. STATS have no effect on creating a Zombie. So REI is out. But IVM should be making an increased level of Zombie.

>Maybe BLB's secondary effect can work similarly to the base effect of Carrion Call, where it targets an already wounded area. In other words, BLB's primary hit is a primary hit, but the splash effect actually aims to have a wounded part of the target "burst" in some manner.

I have made a few suggestions on BLB in the past, And while this is not better or worse then them. I do believe it is a good one. Also, if it just hit twice at full strength using the single target template would be awesome also. Not sure on the number's, but sounds like it could work.

-Grave Lord Zerreck Arkarm