Targeted 710 immediately loses all remaining cycles when the target leaves the room. It'll follow, and even when my sorcerer follows too, the storm will immediately die in the new room without any more damage cycles.

I assume this is a bug because why bother making it follow if it's just going to immediately die?

I included a log but this bug is easily reproducible as most creatures have an AI routine to leave the room, dispelling it.

You gesture at a brown boar.

A stiff breeze begins to swirl around a brown boar.

Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

>

The winds swirl and intensify around a brown boar, while dark clouds gather over its head.

>

A brown boar tries to bite you!

You barely dodge the attack!

>

The winds form into a sinister vortex surrounding a brown boar.

>

Large hailstones pound relentlessly on a brown boar.

... 50 points of damage!

Freezing blast opens a gaping hole in the brown boar's chest!

>

Large hailstones pound relentlessly on a brown boar.

... 40 points of damage!

Darn! Frozen ribs take longer to cook, and broken ones to boot!

>

A brown boar grunts and barrels south.

>s

[Neartofar Forest]

Trampled grass marks the beginning of the trails that wander off into the woods to the north. Directly to the north, the land rises to form a high hill, the only landmark in what is otherwise thick forest as far as the eye can see. The river to the south rushes quickly but quietly over a rocky ford. You also see a black boar and a brown boar.

Obvious paths: north, northeast, northwest

>

A focused arctic tempest drifts into the area and hovers over a brown boar.

>

A black bear lumbers in!

>

The vortex of wind begins to weaken.

>sigh

You sigh.

> No reaction? Come on, this makes the spell basically useless against anything that can move :(

I haven't worked on this spell before, but taking a look at it and doing some testing with it, I don't think this is accurate. At lower levels, focused 710 doesn't last an incredible amount of rounds, and moving to follow a target costs a round. If you're roughly the same level as the boar in your log, this behaved as I would expect.

I don't like being the bearer of bad news, so feel free to post more logs if you really feel like something is wrong and I'll keep looking into it.

~ Konacon

Hmm so after some testing, some things I noticed.

-Focused 710 seems to have only about half the damage cycles as open cast. (4-5 vs 7-10)
-Damage is very level based. On critters 4 levels below, it tore them apart. 3 levels above, it often hits for 1-15 damage.
-It will continue to do damage after following if there are still damage cycles left.

I'm really rather unimpressed with the focused version but I will concede it is not, in fact, bugged.

The design seems a bit odd since the focused version is supposed to be an advantage for people training in spell aiming but it seems significantly less effective than open cast. Half the cycles for only one creature doesn't seem very beneficial, generally speaking.


My general suggestions for improvement would be:

-Tone down the level-sensitivity for both versions. It would be preferable if it worked well on creatures within 5 levels of the caster. After all, it's slow, so having to spend a lot of time with that critter is a cost in itself. CS is already quite sensitive to over-hunting due to the way TD scales. Having sorcerers' maneuver-based attacks also fall under this umbrella doesn't leave the player a lot of room to operate when getting bounties 5 levels above one's level.

-Make the focused version on par, cycle-wise, with the open cast version.

Oh, actually the level-based effect is much more pronounced on the focused version. (too lazy to delete/repost which is this forum's version of an edit ;p)

Using open version on creatures below my level wasn't nearly as dramatic and using the focused version. Interesting.


God I wish it worked as well +4 levels as it does on creatures 4 levels below. Then it would be pretty darn good, actually.

Surely 4 levels of uphunt isn't supposed to be some type of debilitating challenge, all my AS-based characters uphunt 5-10 levels almost exclusively. Spending 30sec/creature is hardly going to push sorcerers to the top in this regard.

Over all, I find the level-based penalties rather overblown. 10 levels over me? Ok, tickle him for 1-15. But 4? C'mon!

<< Focused Maelstrom was often my weapon of choice in the Level 20 to 40 range. >>

That is my understanding of when it is mostly used. I might even say up to level 60. If I were a Sorcerer in that level range, I would consider investing in 15 ranks of elemental lore, which should reduce the start time by 6 seconds. I would put all of the ranks in my attuned lore. Later, probably around level 60, I would start training in other elemental lores to help with 719, with the goal of having at least 12 ranks in each.

>That is my understanding of when it is mostly used. I might even say up to level 60. If I were a Sorcerer in that level range, I would consider investing in 15 ranks of elemental lore, which should reduce the start time by 6 seconds. I would put all of the ranks in my attuned lore. Later, probably around level 60, I would start training in other elemental lores to help with 719, with the goal of having at least 12 ranks in each.

That's some interesting advice. I haven't attuned my sorcerer yet, is there an obviously superior element for attunement with sorcerers? The only obvious considerations that jumped out at me mechanically were fire for extra damage on trolls or earth because no (very few?) creatures are impact resistant.

I thought the more general consensus was elemental lores as a post-cap goal but it's something I can keep in mind if I find that I'm using 710 a lot.

Looking at Minor Elemental...

E-Lore Air effects: Presence (%chance to spot hiders), Elemental Detection (30 ranks to detect flare/enhancive), and Minor/Major E-wave (50 ranks gives RT to flying creatures)

E-Lore Earth effects: Weapon Deflection (20 ranks allows +1 open cast), Elemental Defense (25 ranks for 5% reflect chance, +1% every 20 ranks), Elemental Barrier (%chance Crit padding at seed 10)

E-Lore Fire effects: Elemental Saturation (Increase TD pushdown by 1 per seed 5), E-Strike (bonus/2 chance of double cast), and Elemental Targeting (Chance for Crit Weighting on next cast, per seed 10)

E-lore Water effects: Locklore (-1 point off lockpick per seed 10), Traplore (-1 RT off disarm per seed 6), Unlock (Lower lock difficulty per seed 1 up to 10%), Disarm (Lower trap difficulty per seed 1 up to 10%), Minor/Major E-wave (Lowers target defense by unknown formula), Piercing Gaze (chance of Skill/4 to show Unlock and Disarm), Mana Focus (Regard +10 mana per pulse per seed 10)

Looking at the above benefits, 15 ranks is enough to activate at least a 1% chance of any of the seed bonuses. Water looks like a good bet for sorcerers because of the gains to E-wave knockdown power. You need 50 ranks of Air Lore to hit flying creatures, and that is quite a commitment. If you're a big scroll user you may also wish to look at gains made to spells outside of our normally accessible spheres of magic.

I think your test range for levels is also exactly correct. Focused 710 is fairly solid in the 20s, 30s, and even early 40s. I'd actually call it a staple hunting spell; maybe not required for everyone to use, but quite good. I recall using it on krovlin a lot.

---

Check out who's dying any time! https://twitter.com/GSIVDeathLog

>Daid: Pretty sure you have a whole big bucket as your penny jar. You never have only two cents. :p