How hard is it to run 3 steps forward and cast a spell... In a 3 mob encounter, even if your horribly suck and only manage to get fusion to land on a single mob, you just matched the dmg of a warlock using rift on all 3. Of course this example gets much worse if you cut the amount of mobs down to 2 or 1. Lets see, on a single mob (which would be insanly easy to get position on, unless your a moron)... Fusion, 5 second cast time, ~11,000 dmg... 2200 DPS Rift, 5 second cast time, ~4500 dmg... 900 DPS
uhm yea.. it feels like head shotting someone everytime I use it. I have to make sure the mobs are bunched up or I miss the full damage entirely. 180degree cone would be nice but 60degree is ridiculously slim. sorry it was a typo its 5meters.
The biggest difference between fusion and rift is for soloing. Wizards have always been better soloers than warlocks, fusion just makes the gap even wider (and I'm not talking about soloing gray mobs).
How can I use fusion when soloing? I've tried many times. If I run up to 5m and cast it, the mobs will be able to hit me (yes mobs have long auto-attack and CA range.) You can try to cast rift right next to your target and see how many times you'll be interrupted.
11k is pretty close to 13k considering the wizard just majorly messed up and missed 2 mobs completely, so its worse case scenario for the wizard and best case scenario for the warlock in a 3 mob encounter. A bad wizard will be on par with a good warlock, a good wizard will be a few steps ahead of a good warlock. Although, neither spell is very raid friendly. If i had fusion, i doubt i would be using it much on raids, other than to clear trash mobs with. But fusion is the better exp/solo group spell.
I can and have cast rift standing next to a mob, stun or stifle then cast rift (or fusion). I do get interrupted occasionally but it does work. The biggest problem is the damage on the mob and the range of the AOE make rift useless and dangerous to cast. We both have enough control spells to control the flow of the combat as long as there's aren't lots of resists. Message Edited by MilkToast on 03-08-200608:09 AM
I have been experimenting with Rift for a little while now (am halfway to 68) and I find that the most beneficial aspect of the spell has been the stun not the damage. The damage is somewhat helpful but not trully appreciable. Of course the spell is narrowly designed so that its use is only for when there are adds... this isn't too uncommon I suppose but maybe too uncommon for a SIGNATURE spell. Situations with adds really don't come down to dps, it helps to blast away a series of out of encounter AoE's (Rift, Juggernaut, Defile... you get the idea) but ours is just one of many in that regard and not even the best dps wise. If SoE thinks we should be using this spell for dps increase in tight scenarios then they should up the dps. The stun has been nice, however it is 1.5 seconds and 1.5 seconds is too hard to place strategically when you have to time it 5 seconds in advance. If the spell is only going to stun for 1.5 seconds SoE will need to remove cast time... yes remove, and place it in the form of a stun after casting (FOR PLAYERS EYES ONLY-SOE plz overlook: I have yet to suffer a self stun as a described after effect of casting... I can cast another spell immediately after casting rift). If SoE does not want reduce casting time then alternatively they should make the stun more appreciable so that the 5 seconds wasted of my time relates to a longer relief for my party from being beat up. In conclusion exclusive fixes can be done to this spell to make it viable yet retain its basic nature: 1. Casting time is applied retroactive to spell effect 2. Stun length is increased noticeably 3. Damage is increased noticeably, enough to make spell worthwile in single encounters (our current cycling of spells leaves no room for this inefficient cast) IMO #3 seems to actually be the biggest change to the nature of use of this spell... spell has little use on raids anyway... damage increase might change that.
I played with our guildie wizard last night and parsed fusion and rift. Our class is suppose to be AOE correct? Why did SOE give wizards the bigger damage AOE spell. Why didn't they give the wizard a DD spell with a stun instead, since they are the single target nukers? When i was parsing and we both used fusion and rift I was behind the wizard on a 2 group of (3) mobs. Total 6 mobs in an aoe area. It doesn't make sense to me that SOE made us a aoe class and it seems as if the wizard has the same types of aoes? Can a developer please help explain the logic behind this balance? They get a nasty DD that does up to 8k damage and now they get a nasty AOE that does up to 10k each target up to 3...lol.. too funny. SOE needs to follow through with how they want to develop each class. If the wizard is single target nuker, make him that, but kicking the warlock in the teeth by giving the single nuker a better aoe that does 2.5 more damage per mob is terrible. I don't get into to much statistics in the game, but I would love to compare the aoes from a wizard and warlock back to back. Can some one provide back to back master 1 spells for the major aoes in each class? When are we going to really use rift on a group of 12 mobs? PPtR ? wow Thanks Message Edited by TheSlashman on 03-09-200605:39 AM Message Edited by TheSlashman on 03-09-200605:41 AM
Seeing so many warlocks complaining about how unfair wizards getting an AE.... as a wizard player, I'd rather have fusion only hits one target (same damage,) and make it 35m range like ice comet and reduce its mana cost / recast. It'll be a much more useful spell than a melee, extremely small radius ae.
I for one am not complaining about wizards getting fusion. Sorcerers have been lagging in the DPS department for a long time so both classes needed a boost. Grats to wizards for getting a respectable boost; I just wish SOE had done the same for warlocks. Since there seems to be fewer zones that are AE friendly (i.e. lots of groups of 3+ mobs), I'm really feeling underpowered since our single target DPS has had very little improvement.
Cannot say much about fusion except Gratz wizards. Rift - the cast time is a bit too long. the nil crystal use is kind of insulting. my gripes with rift: the damage is applied after the 1.5 seconds of bad animations. the 'throws target back' part... hum... target is caster. maybe that's why this part doesn't work. if you are on stairs above or below creatures (but clearly within a 15 M radius) its seems there is a good chance that the spell will do nothing except steal your nil crystal, 598 power and make you wait 3 minutes to cast it again. in some zones 15m seems to be just about the same as 7.5m. Max AOE targets 12 explaination of gripes. warriors have some [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] quick cast PBAE CAs which can be cast and land quicker than 1.5 seconds of stun. So if a guardian/zerker pulls a group of ctritters over and you start so the targets are within range at the end of the pull - the zerker/guardian can still kill everything before your spell damage lands. the throw back part being broken means that when the spell is fixed and I'm stunned for those 1.5 seconds, the mobs which are immune to stun because the devs thought it was too easy to clear HoF will be right next to me KILLING me before the damage lands. it's just absurd that stuff within range (without breaking the 12 critter rule) isn't being hit in all situations. or is there some reason my dps drops in these encounters and I do not see any damage from myself on termination of rift slam?? the 15m radius thing is just weird, in some zones 15m looks like 15m. in other zones 15m looks like 7.5m. nothing scinetific about this, just what I've observed. max aoe targets for warlock, but apparently some other classes don't have this problem... and yeah, it's what I've been told, and it's the only possible explination I can fathom as to how a fighter could train like 30 of the tripple down drakota and kill them ALL before rift lands.
QQFatman you have always been biased towards your wizard hehe, and even though you also play a warlock, all your other toons play second fiddle in your discussions which is why your wizard is always the first to 60 and 70. You say Rift is better by arguing that you would much rather Fusion be something else? LoL ummm ok. So you would rather fusion be this and that and this and that and be basically even better than it is - o sure, who wouldn't. In the current state of the spells, you know very well that Fusion is multitues better than Rift. Raid ae dps is already extremely high, a warlock is unlikely to even get off his full arsenal of aes anyway, let alone a 5 sec casting ae which is not even worth the time unless there are close to 10 mobs in an area. These kind of encounters with this many mobs are few and far between and are always trash mobs which ultimately don't warrant any distinction. The last thing a warlock needs is another ae. Fusion is the victor in 99% of situations simply because the important ~3 mob encounters in this game are the most plentiful along with singles, and Rift will never surpass Fusion in those situations. Not to mention for some reason Rift costs 60 more power than Fusion and consumes a prerequisite to cast (nil crystal). Edit: Fusion's stun duration is also longer and it's resistability is also higher by 10% at master 1 at 40% compared to 30% resistability with master1 Rift. In ae encounters, Fusion will always deliver it's full damage output while Rift is only able to equal when there is more than 8 mobs in an area. How many times have people seen that, honestly? Any idiot will see why Fusion is better from that last statement. Fusion is by far the best lvl 65 KoS dmg spell in the game at the moment. And with it being an ae - probably the best in the game - it brings them up to warlocks in the ae department and that is the only edge warlocks had over wizards all this time. To all the wizards who insist Fusion is worse off than Rift in most situations - it is the exact opposite and Fusion has by far the higher damage outlet. The wizards know it inside, they just don't want it balanced as they have whined their way to KoS, and if given a choice at 65 between Rift and Fusion, 99.9% of them would pick Fusion. But hey, so would I. Message Edited by SmEaGoLLuM86 on 03-13-200612:22 PM
Wizard is my main character... so I always level up him first. And I never siad rift is better, I said fusion is not better. That means they are both kinda useless in many situations. Rift: it's too dangerous to cast if there are many mobs around, and the damage is not high enough if you only use it on one mob. Fusion: you have to go melee, and it's very hard to hit 3 mobs. Even I try to move 3 mobs in line, it usually only hits one, sometimes two, but rarely 3. Both seplls are not very useful although they can do great damage. I'd rather have an uber buff like conjurors' so I can always use it, in every situation. (maybe a 1 min buff, 10 mins recast, that allows us to cast spell without using mana, or 100% critical.)
Hey that's cool man, at least you have a choice hehe, and you made the right choice. Don't get me wrong, I am happy for wizards in general, and right now I am more concerned with summoners, namely conjurors owning everyone in almost every department, not just dps. Mind you those 'everyone' have about 90% masters, like our wizard (who is always ahead of the warlock btw) has about 90% masters (all dmg spells are master except for one) is getting hammered by our conjuror who is not as outfitted as well either. I am not happy for seeing classes nerfed, but conjuror pets buffs alone are overpowered.
All of these problems stem from the same fundamental issue - the devs just still haven't grasped the limitations of playing an AOE focused caster class, hence with Rift we see exactly the same design problem that we saw with the LU13 changes. It's depressing that the devs don't seem to learn from their mistakes.
Well as a wizard i knew that the sorcerer level 65 spells werent going to be as great as we thought they were. I like fusion, but like others have stated it has such limited use in a raiding environment, has a huge power cost, long cast timer and is very difficult to hit 3 mobs with (besides forcing you to be in melee range, literally climbing on the back of the mob before you cast). Besides that, having to time the aoe, and getting within melee range = bad for paper armor. Not only that, when i finally do get this spell to land on 3 mobs at once i die instantly(yes i put up concussive before i land it, doesnt matter though). Tanks just really dont have that uber of aoe taunts that you can go hitting a mob (that the tank isnt targeting) with a 11k+ nuke, i die from it literally everytime. Its best used for a single target nuke, at least that way the tank has enough aggro that the mob doesnt maul you within seconds.I see rift as being somewhat of the same problem but worse. Casting a high damage aoe spell like that has to be pretty much insta death for any warlock. Rift and Fusion are almost fluff spells due to the limited useability of them. I honestly think that Rift and Fusion need a deaggro added to them. I mean c'mon scouts get passive deaggro, cant we at least have some sort of guarantee that we can land our biggest nuke/dot and not die everytime??? I think that maybe the grass looks greener on the other side (referring to warlocks likeing fusion beter then rift), but nonetheless sorcerers are finally given a really uber spell that just seems lack luster at the moment due to the massive stipulations put forth on each spell, along with the massive amount of aggro generated when you finally do land the spell..... I would LOVE to see Rift and Fusion both get a larger range and some sort of deaggro added to them. I think that then we can actually be happy with these spells and get the most out of them. I'm not asking for a 50m reach on fusion, but even doubling it from 5m to 10m would make the world of difference. Between timing raid mobs aoe's, getting the perfect placement to hit all 3 mobs, the huge amount of aggro you get, and the large power costs these spells require, i dont see them as being a class defining or end all spell...
First off a little background on myself, I have a 70 wizard on Nagafen, and a 64 warlock on Mistmoore. I have not yet attained Rift, so I can only speak in general terms until I do. In general though from my experiences of playing both classes (I was a warlock first, then made wizard when PVP opened, and now I play both) WIZARDS >>>>>>>>> WARLOCKS. I'm sorry but that's the truth. To me when I see my fusion on the wizard doing 10.5k damage, and freezing winds Master II doing barely less damage than devastation, with a much shorter recast time, I have to wonder what the dev team is thinking. I mean let's be realistic here: - Warlock spells are no better than wizard spells in any way, even if we consider that my thinking may be off and they are evenly balanced, then WHAT IS UP WITH THE NIL CRYSTALS? How annoying is it to have to cast spells that aren't very useful just to farm crystals. What is the point? Either warlock spells that use crystals should be stronger, or they should be elminated. To give us a 65 spell where wizards and warlocsk are both AEs and the wizards is far better in most circumstances, yet the warlocks requires a nil crystal is a backhand to the face. - Warlocks do have an advantage in AE with our two damage add lines (one which requires a nil crystal) and better overall AEs... But that advantage isn't anywhere near as strong as the wizards advantage in single target monsters. Ice comet is good on groups of mobs or ^^^ singles, where the ae's aren't. Furthermore the wizards single target nukes are so much stronger than warlocks as compared to our AEs with theirs. If I could respec my warlock as a wizard on Mistmoore I would do it in a heartbeat, it doesn't even require thought. - Catalyst is a huge spell for wizards, for warlocks I don't even plan on using it. On my wizard every time it refreshes I use it with either an Ice Nova or a Fusion. On the warlock, why waste 8 points. - Wizard utilities are greater than warlock utilities. In a hairy situation mesmerize is useful. If you get an add fusion > rift. You can burn down ^^^ mobs (which is the majority of group mobs) quicker with single target nukes. Evac and mana regen are debatable now that the mana regen lost the nil crystal component, depends on the situation. - Wizards are far better soloers. I'd even go so far as to say on grouped mobs, unless they are non-heroic. As a warlock it's dangerous to use your AE on heroics, even lower level groups of 4 where you are at your strongest. Because you need the devastation damage, and chances are it's going to break the mobs. The wizard can effectively AE root then single target nuke them down one at a time better than a warlock can brute force it in most situations. Furthermore my wizard was soloing ^^^ named mobs that were close to my level range in KOS, my warlock could never dream of doing that. Rift is a nice spell, but you have to wonder why once again warlocks got the short end of the stick. My best guess is that the warlock team lead simply isn't as aggressive in getting the things that the class needs, where the wizard team lead is. Whatever the case, wizard >>>>> warlock.
you always forget pvp. there rift is much better because in pvp fights you often fight against full groups or even raid groups. whenever i am hunting in a group and we know that the other group has a warlock the guys say "the warlock has to fall immediately" - they don't want to kill the wizzi or the healer but the warlock because a warlock is THE pvp killer with his encounter and aoe spells.
