Gonna do some complaining using a thread for individual problems, suggestions, and concerns. Here's one for acid storm. In light of the recent changes to RoD for wizards, I feel we have the right to ask for some fixes to our lvl 80 spell as well. This spell doesnt do enough dmg and has too long a cast time to be of much use outside of casting prepull in a raid. It's basically useless for heroic content because those fights dont last near long enough for acid storm to be effective. Also when quickly moving from one spot to the next acid storm again becomes inaffective because it is supposed to follow a mob that is more than likely dead so it will move to you, away from the action. And no I dont believe a mage should be standing in the fray to autoattack and take point blank dmg from all the mobs. My suggestions to make it better are fairly simple. Up the dmg some, we dont need anything major, just a bump to make it put out wothwhile dmg. Decrease the cast speed to make it useful to cast during a fight instead of only before the pull. The major change I would like to see would be the most beneficial. Allow us to cast it on a player, not a mob, and let it follow them around. That way the spell will still be usefull for it's entire duration even if the group is moving, rather than moving back to you away from the fight. With the recent decrease in HP's on raid mobs, and the low hps on heroic mobs, have hurt all dots considerably, especially ones that last as long as acid storm does. These would be faily simple changes I believe that would make this spell actually desireable for us as a class.
There was a time that acid storm was a very viable spell in all situations... now it is highly situational based on LARGE groups of mobs or the ability to time it to take near 0 cast time cause u timed it perfect as the tank pulls a mob. Being that it was the ability given to us at lvl 80 as a "Level cap mastery spell" for the class it should have some sort of revival... however we're coming into a new expansion. There are two ways they could play this one. Either: A.) Keep it as a lvl cap special ability style spell. And fix it. Possible fixes: 1.) Make it able to be cast while moving... I don't see this as being too op seeing as it is a swarm pet on a long recast timer. The spell is currently used as a early fight spell and this would make it a viable option while we run to the mob. 2.) Make it faster casting... The amount of time it currently takes to cast this spell is too long for the amount of damage it puts out. 3.) Make it do more damage... This spell has fallen behind in strength with all the gear we've gotten since it came out. This is directly related to the fact that it does not get affected by our crits, +sd or +base sd. This is a common problem in class balancing atm paticularly with summoners and they tried to fix it with gear that buffed their pets. This of course does not affect swarms and therefore doesn't affect us. B.) Make it an afterthought, and just another possible spell that is overly situational. BAD IDEA! The way this game works, no spell can afford to be an afterthought. The game is built on reuse timers and spells with long reuse timers like this one are supposed to be used early when they are up and be big spells. Only thing I disagree on is the concept of who the mob follows. I like that it is cast on the mob and follows the mob and I'm glad it follows me afterwards. It is my acid storm, not another person's and makes the most sense to follow the caster around.
I am in disagreement rather have it follow the tank around makes more sence as they are the ones that will normally be in melee range lare
With the "fixing" of Rays for wizards..Acid Storm desperately need to have a look taken at it by the dev team or people(s) responsible. Up the damage considerably on it, have it affected by our stats/ modifiers, whatever would make it so that it would be kept in line with Rays. Wizards can have their Rays hit for 50k+ damage in one hit. With so many mobs this xpac dropping debuffs, or Storm dying to ae's, ours is lucky to even get 1/10 of that.
Rays is actually getting 80k+ hits, while we are virtually ignoring our 80 spell. I'm afraid there just isnt enough warlocks throwing a fit about the numerous instances that we get the short end of the stick for soe to do anything to balance us with wizards. More than likely due to the majority of very knowledgeable players seeing the wizzy trend and betraying to the class that gets all the love. The few that are left either dont visit these forums, are have given up on soe's ability to even attempt sorceror balance. I dont want wizards nerfed, dont get me wrong, the more soe gives them the better for the groups and raids I'm in, but I would like us to have the same attention. At the very least in side by side spells such as acid storm vs rays, and our tso endline spells which are also out of whack, and fission vs rift which is rediculously in their favor even though we are the designated ae class. And this is ignoring the biases in debuffing single target vs ae, and the new fascination with so many mobs wiping not just debuffs but dots(our bread and butter) off of themselves.
Laretha wrote: follow what tank around? this would mean we would be casting the spell on the tank, not on the mob, making it a beneficial spell (not affected by hostile cast/recast benefits) And if the tank jousts away from the mob then so does our acid storm. What if the tank dies? Not worth the change imo... The concept of acid storm following a person only happens when your target you casted it on dies. So there are few times when it will be following you... and I rather it follow me than follow a tank that doesn't know that there is a pulsating aoe attached to him.
Saltaf@Unrest wrote: I love the idea of being able to move while casting it. Unfortunately, I don't really think it's likely that they will make that change for us. It seems to me that the best (and most likely) changes would be a combination of 2 and 3. As Saltaf stated above, the long cast warrants more damage than it currently delivers. Or, if they don't tweak the damage then MUCH faster casting and frankly a faster reuse as well. I like this spell in the "perfect situation" but really don't find a use for it all that often.
Azian@Everfrost wrote: I agree it would be nice to cast on the move but very doubtfull we would acquire that capability as it is an offensive spell and only things i have seen castable on the move are AA related. They should address #2 & #3 so we can atleast equal the Wizard levle 80 spells.
nereid27 wrote: I guess, I haven't seen anything like that. Not that I've tested it mind you. It isn't in the spell description so I'm curious how you reached this conclusion?
Ok, I did run a test on this using training dummies stacked tightly together. Indeed, the max number of targets is 8. In my tests I always had 10-12 dummies out and I'd do nothing but cast acid storm once. After it had run it's course I individually checked how many had sustained damage. Always 8 targets. I was not in combat with the remaining 2-4 which were undamaged. It isn't often that we have more than 8 targets at once but nevertheless I find it a bit disappointing that a spell with such a long cast and relatively small damage has this limit in place.
I'm restating my plea that the developers take another look at acid storm and plaguebringer. The recent changes to Rays of Disintegration, the wizard lvl 80 spell, has caused a huge imbalance to become even bigger. I never bothered arguing with rays while it was still the way it was, as it benefitted multiple mages, and when used right, even the warlock, but with the recent change in which the cast time and damage have been tweaked it has imbalanced the classes hugely. At the moment, Rays does more than plaguebringer. For the wizard in my guild, it does 200-300 DPS on any given zonewide, while, using acid storm every time it is up nets me about 30 DPS. The cast time on rays was reduced to 3 seconds, while acid storm remains 4 seconds. This may seem small, but when balance between classes comes into play it makes a HUGE difference, not to mention the fact that the more powerful of the two spells can be cast more quickly. Please either change the damage output of acid storm to be more in line with Rays, or readjust the spell all together to make it more useful. For the damage it does and the 4 second base cast time, it simply isnt worth casting, nor where is should be given recent changes.
Why not make Acid Storm to something like a another blue dot that makes damage to 8 targets, that way it would be used more. I guess asking for another green dot would be to much. I rarely use this spell even in raid. Only real place you can get the full out of it at times is in 1 instance maybe 2. that being Caverns of Afflicted and Deep forge big encounter in the final nameds room.
I was reading through some of these old posts and decided that although I rarely post, I'd also like to add my 2 cents, for what it's worth. Please devs, take a closer look at improving Acid Storm.
Kahini@Blackburrow wrote: LOL. Dear Devs, please make our 80 special spell not suck. TY and regards from your warlock community.
