Ok, maybe there is something important to this mechanic that I'm missing...

Here I am again, poking at something that probably has a reason to exist.

My thoughts are this..

Why do wizards change stances to cast spells?

Ok, now here is my reasoning for the question

Ward Casters cast spells from guarded stance...
yet with a single macro (and every aspiring wizard can use this idea) "\xstance offensive\r \xincant (spell number)\r \xstance guarded\r" you are essentially doing the same thing.

I'm going to sum this up in case I just confused someone with that.
As a wizard, using a single macro you can instantly change from offensive, cast a spell, and back to guarded without giving anyone a chance to attack in between. Exactly the same thing that ward casters do, just without all the mess..

Is what I'm saying making sense?

>Yeah you make sense. No, the system doesn't make sense.

Lots of things don't make sense. Like the limitation to some one-handed weapons not being allowed to be used with TWC.

Maybe they can implement the idea that your spell can be cast in defensive with the same AS as offensive, but the strength (DF) of the spell is greatly hindered. So, instead of say the DF being .750 against your target while casting in Offensive, the DF would be closer to .45 while in Defensive.

They already have something like this in place for warding spells such as Bone Shatter. If you CHANNEL the spell while in offensive, your spell hits harder (even more so if your have 1 empty hand and more so with 2 empty hands). You don't have to CHANNEL it, but casting from defensive it still works, just not as well.

-Drumpel

I'd have to agree with Taakhi's perspective - in fact it is even more noticeable as one progresses in levels. It happens often enough between stance switch and spell cast, as noted.

Now add in that spell cast that is deflected, so even the opportunity of potentially stunning a foe disappears.

The disabler spells for the wizard are supposed to help mitigate this significantly. In practice, the 'strong offense' is usually the first defensive measure tried - increasingly with less-than-satisfactory results.

Doug

The fact that you have combined 3 commands into 1 macro doesn't make it 1 command as far as the game is concerned. It's still 3 separate commands.

~ Haliste ~
The Forest Gnome of Silverwood Manor
ASGM, World Development