Rays of Disintegration

[Aeralik]

<p>Just wanted to let the wizards ( well all mages ) know that Rays will be changing soon.  Based on past and fan faire feedback, it is not the best spell and definitely not a fun one when you get interrupted by another player while trying to do your own thing. Therefore, I've taken out the group interrupt and forcing other players to cast a spell that they didnt necessarily want to cast.  Wizards are already very beneifical to the group so rather than changing it to a proc or something, it will just become a wizard only nuke.  As a result, it has a bit more damage, wider variance, and a slightly faster casting time.  Hopefully, this will be a nice compromise allowing the group to do what they want while still allowing the wizard to have a nice fire based damage spell.</p>

[tbkib22]

<p>Really? So because some people who happen to be very vocal yet not smart enough to be able to use an ability that requires a tiny bit of communication to be effective, you are going to take away from mages in general again?  I hope you realize that when people are happy with something you generally arent going to get feedback about it, so of course the feedback you have received has been mostly negative.  This is not a good change.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Most mages don't even like it in the first place <em>because</em> of the forced cast and the interrupts. Even when there's warning, it annoys people. Most wizards don't even cast it because there's better spells to cast.</p><p>I for one welcome this change!</p>

[attila]

<p>How about change warlok swarm "Acid storm" to spell? couse all swarm in current form is useless. And i think give top dps class, free nuke on 80k(with naiena ring) its not good idea for class ballance.</p>

[Thinwizzy]

<p>Is the recast going to change or be the same?</p>

[thajo]

<p>...Sounds good to me <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /><img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" /><img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p><p>No more grief for trying to dps! <3</p>

[ailees]

<p>I appreciate, very often I don't use it in raid, because I'm 75% of the time with another sorcerer, warlock or wizard, and they hate being interrupted. The fact that they are right or wrong does not matter, I don't want to upset my friends, then I am happy with the change.</p>

[Pyreflame]

<p>This will be a welcome change! Hopefully the spell being interrupted won't set off the recast too. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Haliken]

<p>Aww, there goes the best Conjuror nuke! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p>

[thajo]

<p>Yeah I totally forgot that this spell will now DA like all the others.  Sweeeeet!</p><p>Although I wont lie, I will miss doing stuff like clicking Rays 1s before someones Call to Guild Hall/Home spell is about to go off.</p>

[speedycerv]

<p>Nice, good to see come positive changes happening to bad skills. Next on the list is the ranger level 80 skill Coverage, right? right? Pretty please? (read the ranger class issues thread if unsure of the issue)</p>

[Piropiro]

<p><cite>Finny@Mistmoore wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Really? So because some people who happen to be very vocal yet not smart enough to be able to use an ability that requires a tiny bit of communication to be effective, you are going to take away from mages in general again?  I hope you realize that when people are happy with something you generally arent going to get feedback about it, so of course the feedback you have received has been mostly negative.  This is not a good change.</p></blockquote><p><3 enchanters. FYI an entire ui was made to auto cancel rays, bc so many mages would rather get interupted, cancel rays and then cast what we wanted to originaly then to even cast that spell. thats how horrible and stupid that spell was. yes its good dps for an enchanter and for a summoner if timed right they're cool with it usually. so bc a support class likes a spell, we should screw over dps classes who get their dps lowered due to another class deciding they will cast for us. you're an enchanter, you're utility, know your place and move on. who cares if wizards get another high nuke with najenas ring, they're freaking wizards. they do extremely high single target dps that should always be on top of the parse for any single target mob. get over it.</p><p>personaly, i'd rather they up it another 20k if thats what it took to never be interupted during a good spell for a pos one like rays is.</p>

[Elfruler]

I am not very happy about that change, but how strong would it be? Like Ice comet or Ball of fire? Is there a ballpark number we can get?

[maddawg138]

<p>I for one am happy with this change. In fact if the way aeralik makes things sound, its going to be another good high damage nuke for wizards which in turn can up a wizards single target DPS.</p>

[thajo]

<p>For Elf, what are you unhappy about regaurding it? o.O</p>

[Elfruler]

Cause to me, it would be like taking away the SK bloodletter or conjy communion. It seems like most classes have that lvl 80 spell that is is usefull and getting rid of rays sucks. I was actually just talking to someone about this, if they made it stronger than ice comet by a few thousand i wouldnt mind it even if they put a longer timer on it

[Piropiro]

<p><cite>Leafsway@Mistmoore wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Cause to me, it would be like taking away the SK bloodletter or conjy communion. It seems like most classes have that lvl 80 spell that is is usefull and getting rid of rays sucks. I was actually just talking to someone about this, if they made it stronger than ice comet by a few thousand i wouldnt mind it even if they put a longer timer on it</blockquote><p>wow, first off the lock 80 spell sucks, 2nd off rays was meh for wizards, good for enchanters, and made other sorcers in grp /afk. thirdly, just wow at the possibility any wizard could be upset that their most hated spell is being changed to a big single target nuke just for themselves</p>

[Elfruler]

if it was a BIG single target nuke i wouldnt mind. But if they make a mid range nuke i would be dissappointed

[Piropiro]

<p><cite>Leafsway@Mistmoore wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>if it was a BIG single target nuke i wouldnt mind. But if they make a mid range nuke i would be dissappointed</blockquote><p>are you a wizard?</p>

[Elfruler]

um, yea. But in big i mean ice comet and midrange i mean Ball of fire

[thajo]

<p>It's our third (naturally) highest spell iirc?</p><p>1. fusion</p><p>2. ice comet</p><p>3. Rays</p><p>4. ball of fire</p><p>I think thats top 4</p><p>Aeralik said he was going to give it a faster cast speed too.  Since right now it does like less than half the dmg of ice comet yet casts the same speed.  If the cast speed is reduced from 4 to 3, then it would match ball of fires cast speed.</p>

[Piropiro]

<p><cite>Leafsway@Mistmoore wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>um, yea. But in big i mean ice comet and midrange i mean Ball of fire</blockquote><p>do me a favor and like put up your int buff because u quite obviously need it. check this. you are not LOSING any dps. your spell is going to double atk now properly, it will get more dps gain from najenas ring now. and its going to be faster and higher... how the hell are you so ignorant to be able to even consider this may be bad. seriously. wizards dont need another ice comet and ball of fire is deece. please just go learn how to play your class instead of comlaining when you get an upgrade at the price of enchanters going emo.</p><p>edit : btw ball of fire is kinda like bigger then any nuke any other class has.</p>

[Elfruler]

<p>This is wh y i dont ever post my opinion on these God forbidden forums. Anything you say is flamed and twisted until i am now getting [Removed for Content] at what you post. I thought I would post what i thought because this does actually pertain to me. Im sorry if I dont think exactly like you do and share the exact same thoughts. I am entitled to my own opinion about this and you are not helping at all.</p><p>And BTW I dont have a najena's ring because ive only seen it drop once and lost the roll to a coercer and dont have the money to buy it because i am a relaxed player</p>

[Piropiro]

<p><cite>Leafsway@Mistmoore wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>This is wh y i dont ever post my opinion on these God forbidden forums. Anything you say is flamed and twisted until i am now getting [Removed for Content] at what you post. I thought I would post what i thought because this does actually pertain to me. Im sorry if I dont think exactly like you do and share the exact same thoughts. I am entitled to my own opinion about this and you are not helping at all.</blockquote><p>opinions are fine so long as its an opinionated aspect. you can't say in my opinion a spell that is gonna do more dmg for me, and cast faster, is a bad change. thats called your an idiot.</p>

[shadowgate]

<p>Glad it is being changed! I never use it as it is not worth the potential issues. I would like it to be fairly big damage but not as slow as some of our spells. Would be nice to have something special about it for us but I have no idea in what way. I will just be glad if it is good enough to be in the first few spells of my spell rotation.</p>

[Dinduit]

<p>This is some good news for Wizards, imo. In our raids, the caster group is pretty stacked, but often has a rotating group of fill-in regulars. While most are okay w/ the use of Rays, some of the folks who regularly make my group are opposed to the use and so it comes out of my rotation. No big deal. If the cast and cool down are on par w/ BoF, then I'm all for adding another mob-melter that I can use in every rotation.</p><p>But I will miss being able to use it just to screw w/ my illy in group when he gets over-enthusiastic about mezzing encounters, hehe.</p>

[Raydenn]

<p>Enyone thought about just tweekin the spell a little , makin it instead of interupting every caster in the group too just drawing a small amount of mana from each caster and blasting for the same efect , fixing the double attack portion of the spell, and making it actualy useful when low on mana or something to that efect? I mean after all Bloodletter draws a portion of hp from all peps in the group and makes it so the tank dosnt die =) sounds like this spell could be handled in a simalar fasion and still persurve the nature of the spell even make it better. Just a thought instead of a rant =-)</p>

[Bridgeplay]

<p>Instead of interrupting other mages, the spell could have had increased damage based on how many mages were in the group. As was said earlier, take a small bit of mana from each, if needed.</p><p>But overall I don't mind the spell being changed.</p>

[Leucippus]

<p>Hurray!</p><p>Maybe this spell will be worth a hotbar spot soon.</p><p>-Leucippus</p>

[Caethre]

<p>(( Speaking with my Conjuror hat on, I'd have to say this is great news.</p><p>I have always detested wizards in a group I am in casting Rays. Like most players, I find it totally un-fun having some other player interrupting my casting order and forcing me to take some other action I had not planned on or requested.</p><p>Wizards using Rays has always started arguments too, in my experience, with angry non-wizard magi all shouting at the wizard. If I was on my Conjuror, it has been ME starting them as well *chuckle*.</p><p>So I am well pleased to hear this change is happening! ))</p>

[DerFunkBlaster]

<p>This is a very good change to rays Aeralik. It goes with what our class is meant to be on the raid. I've always felt Velium Gift + Ice shape was enough utility for the wizard to bring to a raid anyways. Now all we need to do is get ice shape + velium gift into one spell and have it immune to interrupts. =)</p>

[Sixes]

<p>Very unhappy with this change.  Most of our spells are straight nukes; this was one that was situational and required thought and discussion before using.</p><p>This game is gradually, bit by bit, being dumbed down and I see this change as just another step along that route.</p><p>Pity.</p><p>Sevens.</p>

[Griffinhart]

<p>Sorry, this isn't dumbing down anything.  I can count the amount of people I have grouped with that didn't mind me casting rays with one finger....  Oh wait, that's the finger I was shown...</p><p>I have tried many times to demonstrate to the mages I raid with that it actually helps them, but the fact is, no one wants to have their cast order disrupted.  Half the mages I know interupt it before it goes off so they can continue their own rotation anyway.  It is my least used nuke as a result.</p>

[thajo]

<p>Dumbing down is a bit different than changing spell littered with flaws and inefficiencies to a redeemable spell like a brand new level gained spell should be</p><p>1. No proper DA.  We lost damage we were entitled to when this spell DA'd because it recasted instead of granting us our extra DA instantly</p><p>2. Interrupted = full recast.  This is how CA's are suppose to work, not 4 second base cast time spells.</p><p>3. It was a Direct Nuke for us masked with AoE properties due to its nature.  So therefor we launched a DD (for ourselves) that received 1/3 spell damage instead of 100% spell damage.</p><p>4. This goes for other mages in groups and even us when a wizzy used it on us.  Being interrupted mid cast is not good.  It means I casted Rays + however many seconds into my cast I already was.  So if your going by base cast times, and your 2s into a spell and rays hits, grats you just casted rays with a 6s base cast speed.  That is really really poor efficiency, especially on a wizard.  Maybe if it qued this would be a different story but.  I'd sure be annoyed it Rays got qued in between me heading for Fusion.  I've actually missed a huge nuke on a mob because of crap like getting interruped by rays, then having it double cast (double attack), leaving me with no more time to get the nuke I was actually going for off.  Instant interrupt is really poor design.</p><p>Right there are 4 strikes against the spell that with these changes, will be corrected.  So I just have trouble seeing what there is to be upset about, this is glorious news for us. =)  We'll have to see what Aeralik has in store though.  I'm still eager <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Eldooberino]

<p>All I can say is Thank You! Best news in-game since I've been playing!</p>

[Xarcara]

<p>great change for everyone on the surface, however doesnt anyone else feel like there taking somthing away as well, Rays was a unique spell the premise was great however poorly executed, and instead of fixing that they are just making it a staight nuke, sure im not really losing anything, nor was it really class defining however now instead of trying new things liek this they are pobably going to shy away from it, yes i know this fix probably takes the least amount of work but people have been asking for a change to this spell since november and you are just now fixing it and the quickest easiest way possible forgive me if i dont jump for joy</p>

[figohsu]

<p>My suggestion,</p><p>make this spell as a buff,</p><p>This spell can let other class have a new spell icon on the hotbar. They can cast  big nukes like Ball of Fire.</p><p>this buff can cast on self or any Group/Raid memebers (mage only) and use a concentration.</p>

[DerFunkBlaster]

<p>My next question would be, are you touching the recast at all? I noticed you talk about casting speed and damage.. but no talk of recast. Will 2m still be appropriate for this nuke? Will you also be removing the no recovery part after it goes off?</p>

[Azol]

<p>1) As a Wizard I must say I am very happy to see Rays changing into something more useful. In fact, I have even died once because of another &$%#%$ Wizard casting Rays the very moment I grabbed aggro off our tank and he interrupted my 1 position de-hate with that... ugh. 2) I highly doubt that having already</p><ul><li>1 slow cast high damage nuke (Comet)</li><li>1 medium cast medium damage nuke (Ball)</li><li>2 fast casting low damage nukes (Strike and one from TSO AA tree)</li><li>plus some other forms of nukes on different timers</li></ul><p>we are in need of yet ANOTHER nuke in its pure form - no procs, no kiting effects, debuffs or something yummy like that!</p><p><cite>figohsu wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>My suggestion,</p><p><strong>make this spell as a buff,</strong></p><p><strong>This spell can let other class have a new spell icon on the hotbar. They can cast  big nukes like Ball of Fire.</strong></p><p>this buff can cast on self or any Group/Raid memebers (mage only) <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">and use a concentration</span>.</p></blockquote><p>but without using concentration! Great idea, honestly!</p><p><cite>Aeralik wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Wizards are already very beneifical to the group so rather than changing it to a proc or something, it will just become a wizard only nuke.</p></blockquote><p>Emm... not nearly as beneficial as some other *cough* chanters *cough* classes! Turn it into something in line with what Rays used to be - group wide, but controllable by other players (mages).</p>

[Froed20]

<p>You know, the coordination aspect of it is what really sucks.  The spell itself actually does some good damage as long as you have 2 or more casters in the group.  What they should've done, was to not make it interrupt your current spell, but to instead make it queue itself as the NEXT spell to be cast.  That way, it doesn't screw up that long casting spell that the other sorcerer was nearly finished casting, and the other caster classes can still have that extra dps boost.</p><p>If you have to change it though, this is what I'd suggest.  Put it on a high recast timer such as 10 minutes and make it do something on par with or even higher than assassin's execute (or assassinate or whatever it's called now).  Wizards are supposed to blow stuff up.  That is their job.  So give them something worthy of that that doesn't destroy their mana pool and leave them unable to fight.</p>

[Griffinhart]

<p>I'm not going to say no to another fairly sizable fire based nuke, but I have to admit, I do like fig's idea. </p><p>It's like the Fury AA that gives a heal to other players.   Only because the suggestion got me thinking along the fury ability.  The Fury Mythical allows a fury to "buff" another healer.  When the fury nukes, the buffed healer gets a healing bonus based on the amount of damage the furies nuke did.</p><p>It would be a pretty cool ability to link the Damage done by that "buff" to a temporary nuke bonus for the wizard (timed or a set amount of triggers) maybe a +100 spell mod per 1000 pts done for 10 seconds as a feed back effect.  If "rays" hits for 20K a +2000 Spell mod should provide a nice temporary bonus without adding more than what a new nuke would add.</p><p>As I said, I don't mind a vanilla fire nuke, but I think something like this would be interesting as well.</p>

[Poypoyking]

<p>Yay!  Thank you!  Very exited to see these changes.   I haven't used Rays in a long, long time, and it will be nice to get some use out of it again <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[thajo]

<p>I totally love the idea of players in a group getting their own rays, but that would at the least cost a conc. slot, or be limited to 1 ally without totally overpowering us as a t1 dps with group utility.  Enchanters bring the buffs but they are not t1 dps so, thats where the balance is.  I also think tho its because SoE is slowly moving away from enchanters/summoners being pure dps classes.  But this would also be a confusing class role as this would upgrade our group utility and cause us to do the same DPS and our allys to do greater dps than before.  Thats the enchanters and bards jobs to make happen, our ice lash does good enough I think.  Thats why I think hes creating us just a personal high power nuke and veering away from the group utility part of it.</p>

[Trilarian-2]

<p><span style="font-size: medium;">THANK YOU!!!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">I finally don't have to dread having another wizard in raid...</span></p>

[Aule]

There could have been a lot of things done better with Rays. It could have: - been cast in the background and not interrupted cast order. - had the cast time for the wizard only and upon completion dealt a hit for each mage in the group, being completely transparent to the other mages. - shared a 10% pow cost out over the rest of the mages in the group, dealing more damage for each person based on the amount of pow used in total. - applied a group buff of 2 triggers to each mage in group that would fire off a ray of disintegration upon successful spell attack. Give 3 triggers to the casting wizard since they spent the cast time on it. Lot of interesting ways it could have been done. The current implementation is, of course, horrible except in the rare situations where there's good communication.

[Taylen]

<p>Yey!!...woooowooooo!!!</p><p>I soooooooooo welcome this change.   As a Necro, you bloody Wizzies like to cast it when we are Lifeburning...</p><p>I'd maygo as far as giving you a hug right about now..but i won't</p>

[Skwor]

<p>Thanks Aeralik! Really good change imo. I think you nailed this one and appreciate the effort and thought for this change.</p><p>Rays was a so so spell, the communication was easy enough but it in general made many others frustrated becuase of the loss of control. This is a fair complent and imo this is a very reasonable change to address the issue.</p><p>Great customer focus!! Again thanks!!</p>

[CoolBreeze]

<p>I almost never cast Rays. Not because I don't know how to use it, or because I'm not smart enough to coordinate casting it with other players. I don't cast it because I've only met one other mage, ever, who actually asked me to put it in my spell rotation and at least 9 out of 10 of the rest actually send me hate tells if I do. I do, once in a while, use it when I'm the only mage in a group or when I'm soloing.</p><p>I'm looking forward to having another nuke that I might be able to use, and how about this: make it interrupt the mob instead, now that would be useful.</p>

[Azol]

The buff that adds a nuke to all mages in your group would be more in line with what we had before.

[Disma]

<p>First off, thank you so much for fixing this worthless spell..i never cast this spell at all, but could you maybe add a group casting speed increase buff to it and leave the damage where it is? (but maybe a little faster cast time) Wizzies could really use some kind of utility with the coercers putting out T1 dps and being able to power regen and mez....also since you fixed this one can you PLEASE look at surge of ro....that spells damage is pretty much worthless, maybe make it a passive buff that adds to spell damage all the time or better yet casting speed?....PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE lol.</p>

[Lizst]

<p>When will this change go live ?</p>

[Dinduit]

<p>Yeah when??</p>

[SacDaddy420]

<p>Are you trying to tell me I can finally use my lvl 80 spell now without remorse?!</p>

[Krus]

<p>This is great, i've noticed that when rays is used it actually does hit for a good amount so it's nice to see that the interrupt's being removed and the damage is getting boosted too. We're not actually losing the spell, it's just getting upgraded imo.</p><p>Only question i have is concerning the recast, what is it going to be?</p>

[Throndor]

<p>Can anyone in test post the "new" Rays description?  Curious what exactly they changed it to.</p>

[Aarchaangel]

<p>Thank you!</p><p>AA</p>

[Frack]

<p><cite>Aeralik wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Just wanted to let the wizards ( well all mages ) know that Rays will be changing <strong>soon</strong>. </p></blockquote><p>Been over 2 months since this was announced. What exactly is your definition of "soon" ?</p>

[shadowgate]

<p>"Should" go in with Update #53 which is "supposed" to go in Sept 23rd.</p>

[Jayingsoo]

<p><span style="color: #ff6600;">I know the update is already out, but I had to put my 2 cents in.  Perhaps this spell change should have been better thought out, tho.  I welcome this change 100%, but I guess we'll never get what we really want.  Another ball of fire is pretty generic and sad.  For every mage in the group with the wizard, Rays should have an additional 7% (or something like that) base damage on it.  Mage groups could make that thing hit like a truck, and it would still have the useful concept of having more mages in the wizards group.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff6600;">Anyway, I'm glad it's changed to a more useful spell.  At least I won't get the hate spam from Illusionists and Coercers trying to keep up their casting speeds (and don't even get me started on interrupting a fusion 4 seconds into it)</span></p>

[Teh_Person]

<p>I'm loving this quite a bit. It's essentially a better ball of fire with a long recast (as has been said), and is far better than having all mages in my group wanting me to die constantly. Thanks so much for finally throwing us a bone devs, I'm not gonna be one to complain about a little free extra damage. This went from a useless spell that I literally never touched to my next in line after ice comet, and that's just awesome.</p>

[Beghard]

<p>Personally, never usualy cared when other ppl cried about it. It does 20+ damage and is likely more DPS than anything it interrupts. The most stupid comment about this spells was always the chanter "but im a fast caster" argument. BFD i always said to them, that doesnt even make any since. If they continued to argue i would just tell them "Well if your a fast caster, then cast it faster and it wont be a problem." I really always hated those idiot chanters who said that, completely asinine. Anyone who wasnt using this didnt know how to DPS, any one who cried about it didnt either. On raids i can understand, but anyone who wants to cry about this while running thru an easy zone like ive ehard before can suck it.</p><p>Cry less TBPH. At least this change will will make us even more powerful even if it does reduce grp wide DPS.</p>