So... Spell Consolidation

[Mirander_1]

With the news from Fan Faire, this looks to be the next big combat change we can expect to see.  The devs are going to be combining spells to reduce the spammy nature of combat (for some classes), reduce redundancy, and perhaps cut down the number of hotbars players need.  I don't think we're the foremost target of this particular revamp (melee classes have a tendency to feel more spammy in my experience), but I imagine we can still expect some degree of consolidation.  With that in mind, I figured some degree of discussion on what spells could be combined would be in order. So here's some spells I could see being consolidated: Translocate Antonica, Commonlands, and Greater Faydark > Translocate There's no need for these to be three separate spells.  Combine them into one that, when clicked, provides a list of places you can port to. Portal Antonica, Commonlands, and Greater Faydark > Portal See above. Fortify Elements (group +power, +heat and cold resist) and Voice of the Tyrant (group +str and int) Combine into one spell with a 2 concentration slot requirement. Power Replenishment Spells. We have three or four power replenishment spells, two self-only and one or two on-target.  Combine them into either one self and one target, or even into just one on-target spell.  Of course, increase the amount of power regained to balance out the loss of the spells. Irradiate (heat nuke+DoT) and Fiery Convulsions (heat DoT) > Irradiate Do we need two heat DoTs?  Drop Fiery Convulsions, and increase the potentcy of the DoT component of Irradiate. Sunstrike (heat nuke) and Ball of Lava (big heat nuke) > Ball of Lava I'm more reluctant to suggest this one, but it could work.  Drop Sunstrike, and decrease the cast time and recast time by a moderate degree, and decrease the damage by a smaller degree, of Ball of Lava; making it less powerful, but capable of being cast more often. There you go.  Roughly thirteen spells decreased down to roughly six.  Anyone else have any thoughts?

[Kaycerzan]

Sure. As soon as every single, heroic, and epic encounter in the game is mash-potatoed into the same "consolidated" format. The only things I would reasonably accept in consolidation would be: The portal spells (per your suggestion) and combining Cardinal Intromission with  Vital Conversion into one "targeted" spell. Leave my combat spells alone.

[daray]

From what I can gather, one of the main aims is to consolidate buffs, and to consolidate debuffs. If this is the main aim of the devs then we will see very limited changes.

[Avokk]

Spell rotations are what makes a good wiz over a bad one... We need more spells that could be more situational. Otherwise, why not make one single spell that death touches, insta complete heal and makes caster invincible for 24h ? I mean come on, do we really need to have so few spells that plat farmers / botters only have one macro to cycle over and over while on autofollow ?

[suroktheslayer5]

I'm afraid it would turn into Everquest 1 if they consolidate too many spells. When I played  Eq1  you basicaly had  small hand full of spells you used. Think only having  Ice Nova and  Ball of Lava for your single target nukes  <img src="/smilies/136dd33cba83140c7ce38db096d05aed.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />. Like someone said before, spell rotation is what makes a good wizzy different from a bad wizzy. But I wouldn't mind if they consolidated buffs and non damage spells. All this is probably a reaction to the raise of the level cap to 80. The devs know that new spells will be included into the game thru levels 71-80 thus eating up more hotbar space. So in order to perhaps keep the same amount of hotbar space utilized at lv 70 to the same as 80 then some spells will have to be consolidated. <img src="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b344/suroktheslayer/Suroksig.jpg" border="0">

[Mirander_1]

It might have something to do with RoK, but I'd imagine that the bigger reason for the change is that combat being 'too spammy' is one of the more common critiques of those who once played the game but no longer do so.  Again, I doubt Wizards are the primary targets of this revamp, so the changes to us likely won't be huge.  On the other hand, I imagine I'll see some notable changes on my Zerker alt when this change goes through.

[Tin]

I just recently came back to the game, but I actually enjoy the spammy nature of the spells. Your cast order actually can make a huge difference to how much damage you can do and I think thats cool. I also feel like Im "fighting" more then just spamming one key. I played a warlock in WoW for a long time and tbh I had some dots I cast but the majority of the time it was shadowbolt shadowbolt shadowbolt shadowbolt. Spamming my two key until I get carpel tunnel really is not more fun then having 20 different spells to cast!