brow27
09-14-2005, 07:47 PM
<div></div>So I managed to get in game yesterday afternoon, and watched as I received a ton of new spells, which was pretty cool. My UI (Fetish Nightfall) was partially messed up, so I ended up just disabling it for the time being. The first thing I did was to choose all the new racial traits, master strikes, master IIs, etc. I don't recall exactly what all I chose for the lowest level, but I did choose Ball of Fire M2, Chilling Wind M2 (because even though I have an Adept III of Icy Wind, that M2 will come in handy if I mentor), and Flamestrike M2. I ended up choosing Flamestrike because it is our fastest recast damage ability, and I had all the others at Adept 1/3 or better, as well as it's a while before Flamestrike gets upgraded. The next thing I did was redo all my hotkeys. I wiped everything that was there before, and started from scratch. I have to say, the sort feature of the knowledge book is interesting, and kinda handy, though not perfect. The new icon for Arcane Augur (our HO starter) has changed completely, and was throwing me off for a while. I actually told my guild it was the worst thing about the change hehe. Once I had finished looking over all the spells and got my hotkeys ready, I decided to do a little killing to see how it went. I must say, everything went pretty smoothly. It definitely was different having to pay attention to roots again (like before RoC), but that wasn't all that bad. It seemed to me like blue mobs had more hitpoints, but I think that was because I used to just open with Immolation and do close to 1000 damage. After a bit of practice I could solo no-arrow yellows and blue ^s with ease. One of the most important things I think after the revamp is this: PAY ATTENTION! So many of us became sloppy and careless after using RoC, and now you actually have to play with some skill again as before level 41.6 before. Now I'll hit the negatives first, because so many people here seem to love latching on to those: Linked timers: Obviously most things have been separated into separate spell lines now, and if you cast something in a specific line, the timers are linked for all other spells of that line. Definitely a downside, but not problematic. DoTs: It was quite nice to be able to stack Icy Coil and Piercing Icicles before this, but the above change prevents this. Also there is no big initial damage and the dot and debuff are lower. Still useful though, as it has a short cast time, and longer duration than recast time. I think it's great for groups, not quite so great for soloing. Mana transfers: Obviously a lot of people are unhappy about this. We lost our line that transfers a large chunk to someone and stuns us. Our line that stuns us and gives power has been changed to something of a dot that still stuns us but transfers power every second instead of all at once. You can end the stun/power conversion early if there is trouble, which is nice. Our self health/mana (vital flow line) does have much reduced power. Debuffs: Icy Wind no longer carries a debuff (not a big deal considering the damage it does now), and the Icicle line does less of a debuff. Now since our spells actually hit for what they say WITHOUT debuffing, this isn't all that big of a deal. Immolation: Sadly this does WAY less damage than it used to, but hurray for the short cast/recast timers! Buffs: Our group buffing ability has been pretty severely curtailed. The only group buffs we have now are the Tyrant line (str and int, no more resistance) and Augmentation line (+power and some resists). The personally buffs are interesting, I'll go into those in a bit. Adds: Adds have always been dangerous, I'd say they are more so now. If you get an add, don't try and finish off your current mob before you touch the add, you'll likely die (unless its green). Attempt crowd control, and if that doesn't work, break combat and run like Forrest. Overall: Avoidance is lower, mit is lower, no more parry. As mobs hit for less than they used to this isn't as big of a deal as it used to be. Oh, almost forgot this, I seem to get a lot of spells resisted, even Adept IIIs. It's more than before, but not devastating by any means. Ok that ends it for the bad in my opinion, hope I didn't forget anything. Now on to the positive stuff! I now have a good bit more health and power than I used to. I didn't even choose the options to increase max power pool, I hit up the in-combat power regen. Damage: I haven't parsed it out exactly, but it seems like an increase overall in DPS. Let's go into specific spells (hope I don't forget any like I did on my hotkey bars, lol). Spells: Enfeeblement (stifle line): Fantastic! This is an instant cast now, and stifles for I think 9 seconds. The icon has changed, and I moved it, so I keep forgetting to use it every fight, but if the mob happens to get all the way to you, it's a life saver. Paralyze (stun line): This has changed greatly from what it was before, and I love it! It used to have a 1-second cast (very nice!), 6 second stun (also very nice), and 3 minute recast (HORRIBLE). Now it is 2-second cast (not bad), 3.5 second stun (not as good, but still not bad), and a 30 second recast (excellent!). It used to do no damage, now, at only Adept 1, it does up to 1,200 damage. This is amazingly sweet. Heat Convulsions (dot w/ chance to stilfe): I was very sad this morning when I realized I forgot to put it on my hotkey bar last night! It now casts much faster than before, and does more DoT damage. It still has a stifle component, but it doesn't list the how or the duration, just 'chance' to stifle. Before it was a 5% chance to stifle anytime the mob was struck with melee damage, making it VERY useful against big mobs when in a group. I'm guessing it will be just as useful now. Ball of Flames ("Ball" line): This has changed a fair amount. It now has a 3-sec cast timer instead of 2, and a 9-second recast timer instead of 6. This is about a 50% increase in time to cast, but it now does about 50% more damage than it did before (maybe more) so I'd say it's pretty balanced. I'm blessed with a Master 1 of this, and I've hit mobs for over 1,700 (maybe 1,800) damage. Flamestrike (quick cast DD line): This is actually a useful spell line now, and I took Flamestrike as Master 2. We are talking a 2 sec cast, 4 second recast on this spell. This is now our shortest recast spell, and probably them most-often used spell I have. At Master 2 and Int in the mid 200s it does at least 500 damage. I can't recall of the top of my head what the max damage was. Immolation (hit + dot line): This used to be a unique spell, that did HUGE damage over the course of a few seconds. It had a very slow cast time and very long recast time, I used to use it for pulling. Now it does far worse damage, but has a 2 sec cast and a 6 sec recast. A decent and still often-used spell. Ice Flame (bloodline chronicles spell): This spell is really similar to how it was before. I think it does just a tiny bit less damage, but snares for a bit more. It shares a recast timer with another of the main spells, I don't recall which one. Still very useful! Ice Comet: Wow! This has a minimum damage potential about 400 or so points lower than before, but the upper damage potential is MUCH higher, a little under 5,000 I think at my mid-200s Int. This is a great spell to start a fight, or finish a fight. Most of the time my hits are in the 3500+ range. Also, don't forget the stun effect, VERY handy! Inferno (AE heat damage line): Use with caution!!!!! This spell is NON-ENCOUNTER-LINKED. This means that everything in its radius will be damaged. You could have 80 mobs around you, and if they are in range, they will ALL get hit. Use it wisely. That said, this spell is probably ten times better than it used to be. It did, what, ~150 damage, took *5 SECONDS* to cast, and had a horrible recast as well. Now this is our fastest AE spell, at only 2 sec cast time. It also does over 600 damage per mob! I haven't compared recast timers, but I'm pretty sure its the same or shorter on that. The combo of short cast time and high damage makes this formerly rarely-used spell into an often-used spell. Icy Wind (high damage AE "dot"): Elemental debuff aside, this spell RULES! Slow cast time? Yes. INCREDIBLY high damage? YES YES YES! When a spell does 400+ damage 4 times within 9 seconds to the entire encounter (max of 5) you have GOT to be lovin it. Screw the debuff, I like the damage! Shocking Flash (med damage magic AE "dot"): After a reasonable 3-sec cast time, this spell smacks out damage in the mid-upper 100 range 5 times. It has a recast of only 9 seconds, so anytime you are fighting a group of mobs, it's quite handy. Also, it's magic damage, so if your targets are fire/ice resistant, its good for that as well. Overall damage is usually >600 per mob. Much better than before. Truss (Single target root line): With a 2-sec cast time, a 10-sec recast, and a *50* second duration, this spell is definitely extremely useful. It no longer re-roots the target, but has a very nice snare. I've heard that lower spells in this line, such as Frozen Manacles, work just as well at a lower power cost. I tried out FM today and it seemed to work just as well, if not better (have a master of FM). Ring of Cold (AE root line): Obviously this is no longer unbreakable, but that is the ONLY downside to this spell from before. The 2-sec cast time instead of 4 is WONDERFUL. On top of that you have the minimal 10 sec recast time, and 50 second duration. There is also a snare for when this breaks. I can honestly see winning a fight against a group solely between this and Icy Wind (tactics aren't that hard to figure out, use the "k" word). Mail of Frost: This spell isn't much different from before. Very nice, but the slow recast timer makes it a rarely-used type of thing. Frostshield (damage shield line): I LOVE the new version of this spell. Before it was a 10% chance to do something like 150, now it is 100% chance to hit for 400+ damage 3 times within 20 seconds. You'll want to cast this at the beginning of EVERY fight. If your root breaks, this could be a lifesaver. Fiery Surge (dot on heat spell damage line): This line used to be power transfers to others with a stun to you. It has completely changed now. What it does now is every time you hit a mob with a heat spell, this spell puts a small dot on the mob that does 60+ damage. This happens EACH time you hit the mob with a heat spell. It lasts for 30 seconds with a 90 sec recast. Another good spell to cast at the beginning of a fight. Icebound gift (extra damage on cold spell damage line): This line used to be a HP/resist buff. Not anymore. This spell, when cast on your group, will cause the mob to take extra damage (around 150) any time it's hit by a non-heat, non-physical damage spell. When soloing its great to cast this at the start of fight, and hit the mob with Icicles, Ice Flame, and Ice Comet, which will net you a bunch of extra damage. I'm sure there are a few spells here that I've missed, my brain is starting to go numb. On to my tactics (soloing): Before you even start a fight, I would recommend casting Fiery Surge (or Icebound Gift, or both) and Frostshield on yourself. This will ensure that you do extra damage without even having to try. Btw, I will put in parentheses below the cast/recast of a spell. To start the fight I usually root the mob with FM or Truss. Cast Icicles for the debuff. Hit the HO starter (I think it's still called Arcane Augur) and follow it up with Ball of Flames (3/9). Finish off your HO with Flamestrike(2/4). Cast Immolation (2/6) followed by Flamestrike (2/4) again. By this time Arcane Augur and Ball of Flames are back up, and you can follow the process over and over if you want. This is the basics of the strategy, and it really works quite well. Each rotation of the four spells will net you around 3000 damage in a matter of about 11 seconds. Obviously depending on what happens with your root, variations will apply. Depending on the distance to the mob, I recommend casting Paralyze (2/30) which will do a LOT of damage and stun the mob long enough to easily re-root, or get in that last big spell to finish it off. You can ALMOST (shy about 1 sec) get a full cast of Ice Comet in during the stun time. If the mob is quite close to you, or is a caster, and you don't have time to re-root or stun before it gets to you, stifle it (enfeeblement at my level). In the case the mob gets to you they are doing pretty low damage, and you can usually re-root. If it is still decently early in the fight, they will take a TON of damage from your Frostshield. Ice Comet comes in very handy, and you can drop it just about anytime you feel like, though I would suggest re-rooting right before you do it, just so you have a lesser chance of being interrupted during its long cast time. On something of a side note, I decided to run through Harclaves last night. I figured it would be a fairly easy place to figure out the new spells, since the buff makes you near-unstoppable (unless you're an idiot). Harclaves is AMAZING post revamp. I had over 10k hit points, and over 17k power. Drop RoC on a group, hit it with Icy Wind, Shocking Flash, and Inferno (if nothing else is too close). The root will probably break during this time, but its easy to reapply due to the short recast and cast times. Also, now that we get 5 skill points per level in crushing and piercing, harclaves is a GREAT place to make up that skill difference, because you are hasted. Just drag a ^^ to a safe spot and put it on autoattack. Sit back and watch your attack skill go up. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> So needless to say, I am VERY pleased with the combat changes. Feel free to comment, praise, bash, flame, or otherwise critique my info. Peace.<div></div><p>Message Edited by brow27 on <span class=date_text>09-14-2005</span> <span class=time_text>10:08 AM</span>