So the devs have finally said somehting about INT modifiers...

[Shamb]

http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=combat&message.id=47464

 

This is already in progress as part of the upcoming balance changes. Every spell is getting looked at.

The reason our current system has some of these problems is that our spells grow two ways: by level and by quality. Your App3 at level X is not the same as your App3 at level Y, and because of that there can often be crossover points where one spell of a given quality is the same as a higher quality--or potentially less desireable in some way. We simply don't have enough headroom without making spells that do crazy damage.

 

That's why we're doing away with the concept of spells growing by level. This will allow us to make sure spells and arts have clearer benefits as you increase their quality tier.

 

We're also going to be organizing the knowledge book into spell lines so that upgrade paths are a lot easier to understand. There will likely be new spells added to flesh out some of the lines a bit more, so current spells that grow infinitely will likely be replaced by spell lines that accomplish much the same thing.

 

Not all the spell changes we're making are about balance. Another good reason for them is to make our spell system more consistent and easier for players to understand.

 

As for the next phase of the changes that will be showing up on Test server soon: Intelligence will provide a much more noticeable bonus to spell damage, and Wisdom will be important for mitigating the damage bonus of your opponent. So yes, you will have a good reason to buff your INT and WIS, just like many of you have been asking for.

[Xlap]

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Shamb wrote:

http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=combat&message.id=47464

 

This is already in progress as part of the upcoming balance changes. Every spell is getting looked at.

The reason our current system has some of these problems is that our spells grow two ways: by level and by quality. Your App3 at level X is not the same as your App3 at level Y, and because of that there can often be crossover points where one spell of a given quality is the same as a higher quality--or potentially less desireable in some way. We simply don't have enough headroom without making spells that do crazy damage.

 

That's why we're doing away with the concept of spells growing by level. This will allow us to make sure spells and arts have clearer benefits as you increase their quality tier.

 

We're also going to be organizing the knowledge book into spell lines so that upgrade paths are a lot easier to understand. There will likely be new spells added to flesh out some of the lines a bit more, so current spells that grow infinitely will likely be replaced by spell lines that accomplish much the same thing.

 

Not all the spell changes we're making are about balance. Another good reason for them is to make our spell system more consistent and easier for players to understand.

 

As for the next phase of the changes that will be showing up on Test server soon: Intelligence will provide a much more noticeable bonus to spell damage, and Wisdom will be important for mitigating the damage bonus of your opponent. So yes, you will have a good reason to buff your INT and WIS, just like many of you have been asking for.

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:smileysad: i remember this from EQ1...you'll be great when you get the spell, but the level before you get the upgrade you'll be seriously underpowered...i hope they dont do it like that

[Ellestil]

So does this mean the spells effectiveness will decline each level we gain? That wouldnt be improvement if so. Or do they mean the only way to up your spells effectiveness is to buy upgrades and increase your intelligence? Ellestil 50 Conjurer Shadow Syndicate Najena

[BigRedWo]

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Ellestil wrote:
So does this mean the spells effectiveness will decline each level we gain? That wouldnt be improvement if so. Or do they mean the only way to up your spells effectiveness is to buy upgrades and increase your intelligence?

Ellestil 50 Conjurer
Shadow Syndicate
Najena

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I read it to mean that the spell will not need to be upgraded via purchase, it will scale with your level like it did in EQ.  That's my understanding of what was said...

[Ishbu]

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BigRedWood wrote:

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Ellestil wrote:
So does this mean the spells effectiveness will decline each level we gain? That wouldnt be improvement if so. Or do they mean the only way to up your spells effectiveness is to buy upgrades and increase your intelligence?

Ellestil 50 Conjurer
Shadow Syndicate
Najena

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I read it to mean that the spell will not need to be upgraded via purchase, it will scale with your level like it did in EQ.  That's my understanding of what was said...

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In moorgard's post it clearly says they are doing away with spells scaling as you level so that upgrading the spell quality (ex- app1 to adept 1) will provide clearer benefits.  Personally I have mixed feeling about this.  On the one hand its nice that there will finally be a reason to upgrade my spells (and nice that my adept 3's and masters will be significantly better).  On the other hand spells not scaling as you level means you get the spell and thats that.

[BigRedWo]

I guess I misunderstood it then. :smileyvery-happy:

[laedyana]

I think both these things are good in general. Int helping us with our damage output is great as it adds incentive to get good gear and see character progression as equipment improves.

The current spell system was designed to fix all the limitations that existed in the EQ1 spell system and while in theory it looked good - in practice the result is a spell system that is too complicated, has unclear spell lines, and has insufficient differentiation between spells.

Cleaning this up and going to a system where spells no longer scale with level is a good thing. Hopefully we will get clearer spell lines, and spell quality will have a more meaningful impact to us.

That said - I am concerned about what happens with pets. Pets are the one area where the ability to scale damage by level is important. Currently as we level, our pet increases also. When we are level 45 we summon a level 45 pet, not a level 38 tellurian veteran which is about when we get the spell. Hopefully they have a good solution for this.

[Xlap]

laedyana .....EXACTLY! that's what im most worried about. and if they just give us 4 new pets every level....well...anyone else thinking the price of spell rares is gonna skyrocket from all the people trying to adept3 all their pets?

[Ben]

I second that! :smileymad:

 

I am worried now...

 

[Ishbu]

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laedyana wrote:

I think both these things are good in general. Int helping us with our damage output is great as it adds incentive to get good gear and see character progression as equipment improves.

The current spell system was designed to fix all the limitations that existed in the EQ1 spell system and while in theory it looked good - in practice the result is a spell system that is too complicated, has unclear spell lines, and has insufficient differentiation between spells.

Cleaning this up and going to a system where spells no longer scale with level is a good thing. Hopefully we will get clearer spell lines, and spell quality will have a more meaningful impact to us.

That said - I am concerned about what happens with pets. Pets are the one area where the ability to scale damage by level is important. Currently as we level, our pet increases also. When we are level 45 we summon a level 45 pet, not a level 38 tellurian veteran which is about when we get the spell. Hopefully they have a good solution for this.

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I never even thought of this.  Now Im worried.  I imagine I will be logging in the day after they patch this and instead of having a level 50 pet, mine will be at level 38 or 45 or something.

Also, if SOE has done nothing else, they have remained consistant about having a soft cap totally screw people over on stats.  For example, if you raise your int over 200, you get around 1.4power per int point.  Just useless basically.  I would be willing to bet that they have a similar soft cap in for the increase damage, in wich case there will be no reason to upgrade gear again.

[laedyana]

Also interesting is how +Int will be a damage modifier for us - will it impact the size of each DoT tick? if so that's only half our damage compared to wizzies who do all their damage  via DD spells.

Given the way our class works +Int as a damage modifier should also impact our Pet DPS. It will be interesting to see how this works once it's on test.

It's pretty easy to parse pet DPS with +int equipment off and +int equipment on and see if we're getting an improvement there - or only on our DoTs.

 

..David

[Ge]

Quote from Moorgard: "There will likely be new spells added to flesh out some of the lines a bit more, so current spells that grow infinitely will likely be replaced by spell lines that accomplish much the same thing".

 

I hope this means new spells to replace the current pets.  If indeed the pet will stop leveling with you, then a new pet spell will be the obvious solution.  I do hope they've taken the conjurors pets into serious consideration on this.  :smileyhappy:

[Shamb]

Yeah, but then you have to upgrade those new spells.