I've made a few updates to Sigil Staves:

1.) There is now a +25 bonus to the activation check when invoking a spell from a Sigil Staff.
2.) Invoked spells from a Sigil Staff now receive a +15 AS/+10 CS bonus when cast.
3.) Starting at tier 2, Sigil Staves have a (scripted) dispel flare, for up to 1 spell, that triggers before a spell attack resolves. At tier 3, the dispel flare can affect up to 2 spells (1d2) and if no spells are active on the target, triggers a SMRv2 (using MIU ranks at 1x for baseline) and subjects the target to disruption damage if they fail. At tier 4, the dispel flare can affect up to 3 spells (1d3).
4.) When transferring spells from a scroll to the sigil staff, it will now combine charges if the spell is already on the staff and it is not above 40 charges. Any charges past 40 are put into a new slot on the staff. For SK scrolls, this results in a higher duration for the SK scroll effect.

GameMaster Estild

I am incredibly excited about these updates. Thank you.

--Jen
>Darcena says, "But I cannot give my heart to someone else, when I no longer own it."
>Balley nods, "I hope you will find your heart and heal one day."
>Darcena admits, "I think he ate it."
>Balley's jaw drops, "Really. Men are jerks at times."

Great updates! This makes me want a sigil staff significantly more. Any chance we can have another visit from the merchant with the T5 unlocks, now since the sigil staves have been upgraded?

I made a few more updates since yesterday and updated the original post: http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Paid%20Events:%20Adventures,%20Quests,%20and%20SimuCoins/Duskruin%20Arena/view/11736

GameMaster Estild

KRAKII

And it sounds like the staff does the math for us, just capping the first storage spot at 40 and then rolling the leftovers into a new?

Correct.

GameMaster Estild

And I was just thinking about this earlier, too: speaking as a Bard who is frequently laying several different effects onto enemy creatures--"Depression" is the one that matters most, but potentially also Elemental Saturation, Lullabye, Rage, and so on--I would hope that there may be a check to work only on creature buffs/positive effects, rather than malware that we have added to them?
(Basically the reverse of last spring's Channeled Dispel announcement #3372 by Estild. That hits only negative effects--good for clearing bad things from your friends & yourself--and the staff should hit only good things [to de-buff the enemy you're casting at].)

That will be tremendous, Estild. Good decision, and great job circling back to update the not-quite-Tier-5-yet staves to be more useful & attractive for folks. :)

.

I debated about getting some of the Mana-armor, but decided to go with the Karma-armor instead (this time), since I think that will be more useful to my lower-level guys.
I would be highly interested in seeing someone with the combined effect firing off, though....

Tasty. :)

Thanks, Dalaran!

That link--as posted--does not work for me. (MSIE 11, I think it is, in Winvirus10.)

SVEN2010

Do you think there will ever be a day where standard dispel flares (kroderine and otherwise) fire off before combat?

The whole after combat thing has always greatly reduced the effectiveness, and it's such a neat mechanic otherwise.

It's definitely possible. Standard dispel flares probably should work like the Sigil Staff script dispel flares (before combat and damage if no active spells). The standard dispel flares are too lackluster as is.

GameMaster Estild

I would love to see that.
I would start the Bard grinding the Arena just to get a kroderine runestaff to see that happen... :)

Kroderine and dispel flares getting the same treatment as sigil stave dispel flares would be a very welcome addition. If we could also get the shield maneuver "shield strike" to perform the shield bash before the strike, that would be another very welcome change.

As I gaze over the horizon, the wind tugs at my cloak and whispers, "Adventure" in my ear.

A squeaky halfling nearby asks, "Why you playing with orcs heads and troll rearends?!"

Ragz

I bugged my stick in game as well, but this does not seem to be functional for my orase buddy.

This should now be resolved.

GameMaster Estild

You mistake my interest in "now with free flares!" for "being the least bit inclined towards fluff."
(See also my brief rant about the 'Shenanigans' session.)
Basically the two things I do with armor are put it on, and take it off.
(And I'm looking forward to eventually having the Karma-Armor go all explodey on some poor hapless critter, but that's still pending. Okay, and the morphing armor[s] I change around from time to time. And when the Mana one gets upgraded a bit, for its things.
So these FIVE things are the things I do with armor...)

.

(But thanks for the heads-up about having at least one there. I'm sure it will be useful to people who use fluff verbs. :)

Yes, sorry Estild. I meant Shield Strike Mastery.

As I gaze over the horizon, the wind tugs at my cloak and whispers, "Adventure" in my ear.

A squeaky halfling nearby asks, "Why you playing with orcs heads and troll rearends?!"

Estild, a quick question for you:
"At this tier, Sigil Staves acquire a scripted dispel flare (which does not take up the Cat B script slot) that triggers before a spell attack resolves and dispels up to one spell." -- GSWiki article, tier2
"3.) Starting at tier 2, Sigil Staves have a (scripted) dispel flare, for up to 1 spell, that triggers before a spell attack resolves. At tier 3, the dispel flare can affect up to 2 spells (1d2) and if no spells are active on the target, triggers a SMRv2 (using MIU ranks at 1x for baseline) and subjects the target to disruption damage if they fail. At tier 4, the dispel flare can affect up to 3 spells (1d3)." -- your announcement, #11736

.

Is it the case that this effect is supposed to REPLACE the casting of the spell? Or just be "another source of flare"?
a) If the first... can that be a toggle?
b) If the latter, I think it may be broken?

Because I just used my (shiny, new Tier5!) sigil staff in the Arena, and I had a couple of casts result in the SMR line against the opponent, yes.
But there was no "bang" from Disruption (the spell being actually cast).

(On the other hand, I had the Tier5 double-cast happen twice, including once on the 25th rank Champion, so I was happy about that aspect.)

But I would a lot rather (choice 'a', above) get the 100-200 damage from the Disrupt than the 7-10hp and a "that seems ineffective" message, for my 3s RT in a timed event.

Estild, some further observations:

1) I think I have been unfairly maligning Tier2 as the one responsible for the sucky SMR stuff. After re-(re-re-re-)reading the information, Tier2 is the dispel effect beforehand, and that is in fact firing off just fine. (Completely unnoticed in the Arena, since nothing there wear spells... but I did see it on Reim creatures when I went over to get some LTE boosts.)

.

2) That flare is in fact attributed to Tier3... so, "yes," I believe it to be broken IF the information is accurate as released.
The dispel flare (granted by Tier2) happens "before a spell attack resolves" (your announcement, #11736).
NOT "in place of" the spell attack. (Unless you happen to have left that out.)
At Tier3, if there are no spells to be dispelled--such as everything in the Arena--trigger SMRv2 for disruption if they fail.

- I keep getting "no spell attack" when I cast. (Problem #1.)
and
- Even though I am using single-target Disruption/1030 (which should be only ten [10] mana), this disruption attempt keeps charging me thirty (30) mana. (Problem #2.)

I submit that both of those situations are correctly "bugs".

.

3) The SMR conferred at Tier3 with MIU to trigger... the only thing that this check actually does is answer, "does a flare happen," correct? And then the flare itself is random, on the disruption table?

Because I can see precisely NO correlation between the SMR results--like that open-163 I posted previously, end result of 235... that did a whopping 10hp--and the damage inflicted.

Here are some of today's serious winners:

---

Your spellsong is ready.
You weave another verse into your harmony, directing the sound of your voice at a dark-crested basilisk.

[SMR result: 205 (Open d100: 86, Bonus: 75)]
Tendrils of pale energy lash out from your fireleaf staff toward a dark-crested basilisk and cage her within bands of concentric geometry that constrict as one, shattering upon impact!
... 25 points of damage!
Flesh bubbles on the dark-crested basilisk's left leg.

That does not seem to work.
Sing Roundtime 3 Seconds.

---

Your spellsong is ready.
You weave another verse into your harmony, directing the sound of your voice at a shaggy tusked ursian.

[SMR result: 215 (Open d100: 62, Bonus: 82)]
Tendrils of pale energy lash out from your fireleaf staff toward a shaggy tusked ursian and cage him within bands of concentric geometry that constrict as one, shattering upon impact!
... 35 points of damage!
Oozing sores appear on the tusked ursian's left hand.

That does not seem to work.
Sing Roundtime 3 Seconds.

---

Your spellsong is ready.
You weave another verse into your harmony, directing the sound of your voice at a flat-nosed hobgoblin shaman.

[SMR result: 170 (Open d100: 81)]
Tendrils of pale energy lash out from your fireleaf staff toward a flat-nosed hobgoblin shaman and cage him within bands of concentric geometry that constrict as one, shattering upon impact!
... 15 points of damage!
Large lesions sprout on the hobgoblin shaman's shield arm.
The hobgoblin shaman is stunned!

That does not seem to work.
Sing Roundtime 3 Seconds.

---

Your spellsong is ready.
You weave another verse into your harmony, directing the sound of your voice at a patchy wart-covered vor'taz.

[SMR result: 137 (Open d100: 60)]
Tendrils of pale energy lash out from your fireleaf staff toward a patchy wart-covered vor'taz and cage him within bands of concentric geometry that constrict as one, shattering upon impact!
... 25 points of damage!
Minor muscle tearing on the wart-covered vor'taz's left leg.
The wart-covered vor'taz is stunned!

That does not seem to work.
Sing Roundtime 3 Seconds.

---

Your spellsong is ready.
You weave another verse into your harmony, directing the sound of your voice at a haggard snow witch.

[SMR result: 173 (Open d100: 87)]
Tendrils of pale energy lash out from your fireleaf staff toward a haggard snow witch and cage him within bands of concentric geometry that constrict as one, shattering upon impact!
... 30 points of damage!
Blood flow to the snow witch's left eye cut off.
The snow witch is stunned!

That does not seem to work.
Sing Roundtime 3 Seconds.

---

Your spellsong is ready.
You weave another verse into your harmony, directing the sound of your voice at a grey-skinned gnoll ranger.

[SMR result: 235 (Open d100: 67, Bonus: 85)]
Tendrils of pale energy lash out from your fireleaf staff toward a grey-skinned gnoll ranger and cage him within bands of concentric geometry that constrict as one, shattering upon impact!
... 10 points of damage!
The gnoll ranger's stomach muscles jerk uncontrollably.

That does not seem to work.
Sing Roundtime 3 Seconds.

---

(This one is actually from a Tier5 double-cast.)

Numerous sigils along your fireleaf staff abruptly flare to brilliance! Pale energy surges from each, twining into an echo of your last spell...


[SMR result: 299 (Open d100: 160, Bonus: 68)]
Tendrils of pale energy lash out from your fireleaf staff toward a dark-crested basilisk and cage him within bands of concentric geometry that constrict as one, shattering upon impact!
... 20 points of damage!
Major bones in the dark-crested basilisk's right leg crack loudly!

That does not seem to work.

(When this flare happens as part of the Tier5 double-cast flare, it correctly charges me zero [0] mana.)

---

That 137 total is one of the BETTER results (25hp). All of the 173-through-299 totals don't have a lot going for them by comparison.

Now with that said... VERY occasionally there will be something good, but it doesn't happen often.

And in fact, it seems--completely anecdotal observation, no actual analysis to back it up--to be MORE effective on end results in the 110-145 range.

---

Your spellsong is ready.
You weave another verse into your harmony, directing the sound of your voice at a banded cave worm.

[SMR result: 110 (Open d100: 44)]
Tendrils of pale energy lash out from your fireleaf staff toward a banded cave worm and cage him within bands of concentric geometry that constrict as one, shattering upon impact!
... 30 points of damage!
The cave worm's eye swells and cracks head open! Instant death.
The worm rolls over and dies.

Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

---

The effect itself appears to be completely random: pick a body part, pick a crit level, just like a normal flare.

Why even bother calling this SMR, and just make it a straight MIU activation?

If I, as a PC, were hit by ANY of those >200 results by ANY SMR calculation, I'd be at least stunned into next week, and most likely dead. Pick-A-Maneuver, wouldn't matter.

.

4) I believe you used precisely the same check for the Tier3 flare on the staff, and the Set Bonus flare from the staff+armor combination (for the rooting effect).

Could you possibly REMOVE the "That does not seem to work." from that check, when it is staff-only? Since it is never going to work, because it is not the staff+armor chunk of script?
(As an alternative, if you were feeling generous, I would be perfectly willing to accept having it fire off the staff+armor chunk of script, if the user is in fact also wearing the armor.)

Two things worth pointing out here are 1) randomization means we can't really take any 1 or 2 rolls and compare them to another 1 or 2 rolls, and 2) we're looking at different targets that may have differing levels of crit and damage padding and resistance to the damage type (though in fairness I don't think many things have specific resistance to disruption)

Heh. So I got to a bit of thinking about the Staff tiers, and some HESS certificates, and looking at some of the questions over in the Combat category \ Weapons topic.

- Start with a sigil staff. (1k to 10k 'scrip.)
- Use a Tier1-to-Tier2 ('pale') certificate. Staff now has dispel flares. (10k 'scrip.)
- Use a HESS ('dispel boost' booklet to crank up the dispel flare. "The bearer of this booklet is entitled to have +1 added to a dispel flare (max of 3 total). Item must already have the dispel flare." (30k 'scrip.)
- Do it again. "max of 3 total" (Another 30k 'scrip.)
- End with a Tier2 staff able to do a three-banger Dispel flare...

...for 71-80 thousand 'scrip, instead of 161-170 thousand. (Net cost for Tier3 + Tier4 on top.)

Of course, if you ever DO wind up boosting it up to a higher Tier, those Dispels wouldn't be effective so it would be a burn of 30k each time.

.

.

Estild, is this notionally a legal construction?

I... had not considered that. Great thought!

And since I have been largely unimpressed with all of the flares that I've tried--I confess, I am pretty much spoiled rotten by watching Sonic Weapons go off--that may well be something that I turn my hand to. Stripping defenses off before the attack even tries to hit 'em? Winner all around.