Ok, so I'm bored today and have nothing else to do so I'm gonna go through and categorize illy spells into 3 types: Useful, in that they are about where they should be. Useless, which should be doing a job, but don't, also, they can be annoying in the extreme. And Waste, spells that have no use, should never be pressed, and probably taken off your hotbar. Disclaimer: this is all based upon my experience in pve raiding SF content, mostly easy mode, if you disagree with anything said here, feel free to post a wordy explanation, or just flame me, dosn't matter to me. Useful: -UV beam, while I'd like it to hit for more then 10k, in raids, with full buffs and a debuffed mob, it gets the job done. -Prismatic chaos, highest hitting spell at ~35k per spell cast. The biggest issue is in order to get the most dps out of it, it has to proc 5 times every 9 seconds, which might not happen depending on your tank. And i refuse to macro it to a scout, that seams excessive for a 35k spell. -Nightmare/Nullifying staff, hits for next to nothing, but what's useful here is the 3k/2k arcane debuffs. -Bewilderment, Our hardest single hit spell at 13-15k, the detaunt is nice, but if you ever pull agro anyways something is horribly wrong with your tank. -Speechless, the recast is a bit long, the stifle is worthless and the cast time is longer then most of my spells, but it hits for 10k so I won't complain. - Peace of mind, Destructive Rampage, two temp buffs, both do sizable dps increases for short term, in the long term you might get 4-8% increase group dps zone wide... but they can easily double my dps for the first 20-30 seconds of a fight. -Incinerate, ok, not technical an illy spell, but with how squishy we are, if you can time it right I've gotten a 120k crit that double attacked for another 100k, not too shabby for a support class. But it's more for my ego then actuall dps, considering wizards are critting for that much every 20 seconds or so. -Mana flow, 10% after 15 seconds, useful for keeping a healer up... i guess. -Synergism, ya ya ya, it does damage, all the casters in the raid like it, what more do you want? -Chromatic shower, 3-4k damage on hit and another 2-3k every so often and another 3k on termination on an entire encounter, would prefer more damage for it's recast but I still use it so can't complain. Useless: -Personal reflection, in groups it's fine, but in raids, I don't bother keeping it up, it dies almost instantly on the first aoe, if it did respectable dps that would be almost useful, but it dosn't so... -Order of Construct, see above -Rapidity, I normaly have it up for personal dps, on trash i can melee more melee hits = more PoM procs, but past that, it's just an excuse for me to not throw out another synergism. -Time Compression, I know, you wizards love to fight over this thing, but it's not self castable, and until it is, I will never put those 5 points into the 5% spell Dbl Atk, and if you have an issue with that, tough. -Flash of Brilliance, Ok, it's not terrible, I can throw it up before a pull and never bother with it again, but other then pulling my int above 2k the dps increase is minimal. -Chromatic Storm, I cast it to proc item effects and synergism, but unless you're dealing with a massive encounter it's basicly worthless. -Illustory arm, if the melee guys arn't already dbl atk capped, they are doing it wrong, this is a free 25% dbl atk for me. Waste of Time: -All mezes, Stuns, roots, ect. They have no place or use in a raid. -Illustory allies, the illusions die instantly and then so do you because you just mem wiped the mob and unless the tank is fast on rescue so does the raid. -Phase, a random memwipe... seams usefull.. if you wanna be guild kicked. -Time Warp, the dps increase is minimal ZW, yet it increases wizard egos by so much that they are bound to fight over it and annoy you to death about 'why did you cast it then not in 10 seconds like I asked?' or 'comet was down! You should of been paying attention!' so I only cast it on myself for the purpose of doubling with an incinerate. -Dismay, if it reduced the melee stuff enough to matter, or did some damage to I might cast it, but now, I don't bother. -Blink, minor detaunt and forces you to reposition disrupting perpetuality, don't bother hitting, easier to just die and eat some chips while waiting for a rez, not that blink will ever save you anyways.
Tenoris wrote: Seriously? Do you even know anything about your class? I read through your post and found a lot to pick a part, a few things i agree with, but this stood out over all. Cast it on yourself, for what, its mediocre deminished returns? Are you kidding me? With how little utility we have left, and you want to wast this spell on yourself with how little it will do for you? really? 5% double not worth it? Do you have any idea what your class' role is and how to up your raids dps at all? 5% spell double attack is huge, go see how much spell double attack can be gained from other sources and look at how much dps mage classes spells hit for... See, here the problem, some of us have viable complaints about the class, but then people like you come in an muck it all up by running your mouth when you havent a clue how to play your class well. BTW, you gave permission for me to flame you, and if you have read the flames at all, you should have known i would call you out. go reroll, you already failed the class.
desinence wrote: The reason I put TC down as useless, aside from my hatred of buffs that arn't self castable (while other similar buffs are -pointed stare ate UT-) is similar to what you mentioned, the diminishing returns from cast/reuse/recovery speed. Last before SF illies were one of the few classes to make casting speed cap, atleast easily. Where as now, with all the casting speed on gear, TC is mainly used for the reuse speed which everyone still wants. Yes, TC is still better put on wizard or warlock (summoners tend to prefer UT for whatever reason) instead of myself, especially in raids. But in groups when the only other caster is a conjy who is pulling 2k dps WITH TC and Synergism I feel I'm well within my rights to deny them TC rights and cast it on myself, as I tend to pull 10k dps. But now, all I can do is cast it on the healer, and lets face it, they don't really need it so long as they can keep the group up, or my pet. Granted, the pet is probably a bigger insult, but still. And ya, I know the 5% spell dbl atk is Cerius Buiznus but this is about the principle damnit.
Tenoris wrote: UT is prefered due to the fact it makes dots tick faster, summoners and warlocks will gain more from that. Yes i am rather perturbed that UT became a great desire to most mages, but TC is still a good buff and with 5% spell double attack, it puts it back on par with UT... The split dps of summoners also makes them a less prefered choice, however with current hook ups they have, it is also quite beneficial. As for casting it on self, i fear to many craptastic illies would cast it on themselves instead of trying to up overall dps. Its not as easy as you think to hit casting speed cap, but that aside, the reuse remains heavily important. i can agree the spell may be slightly outdated, however, to consider it useless is way too far. Again I think the biggest point illies are dealing with right now is that they want us to be full utility with no utility abilities that really set us apart anymore. Alot of our so called utility has an equivalent useful in some other class, and in the end we remain simple mana refuelers. Perhaps they feel this is enough to nerf the hell out of our dps, but i do not agree. They'll eventually realize things suck when its like kunark again, and seeing an illy is like seeing an endangered species, or perhaps even worse... pre-sky... which seems to be the definition of the class they are trying to return to.
