I'm only level 8, and didn't play beta. However, looking at sites that show Wizard spells I've noticed alot of them say does damage to the enemy and "surrounding encounter members." The first thing that comes to mind is: Will these spells break mez? Are they AoE?
To answer your questions: 1. Yes they break mesmerize spells. 2. Yes they are area effect spels...but they only affect those in the target's encounter group.
No! I've found that AE spells like Storm of Lightning do not hit mezzed things in your encounter unless you specifically taget something that's mezzed! And the same holds true for heroic opportunities that have AE effects! When I'm in groups, I happily let off my Storm of Lightning without worrying about breaking mez. It's a very nice change! Message Edited by Alciril on 11-13-2004 04:52 AM
Hmmm...not sure I care for that. Yes, it's nice that it doesn't break mez, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense and makes things easier that perhaps shouldn't be. On the other hand, I'm not playing at that level yet, so perhaps I'm talking out of turn.
your allowed to bash the bad things they do to classes, NOT the good things that we like, your talking out of turn, SILENCE infidel!
Just because something makes the game easier to play doesn't mean that it's good. That's my point...infidelish at it might sound to the generation weaned on Star Wars Galaxies...the MMORPG locked in perpetual easy mode. :smileytongue:
What it also appears to do is only target creatures that are in the same group. So if you are fighting multiple groups of enemies, then the AE spell won't hit all the enemies. So much for PBAoE groups. Hopefully I am wrong about this, and we'll have a way of doing these high risk and exhilarating combats.
I think that AEs only hitting the current encounter is a good thing a lot of the time. You don't have to worry angering any nearby encounters that haven't engaged you, for one thing. And if you're fighting more than one encounter at the same time, I think that something is wrong. There's no bonus for fighting two encounters at the same time, so you may as well pull that second group after you've already defeated your current one.
Oh wow this is so good to hear. Back in EQ, for those of you that never played (or never played Wizards). The basic problem was that you couldn't convince a group to let you use AoE spells. It wasn't until those of us brave enough to put together AoE groups got to use an entire spell line that was largely ignored. I'm definitely making a Wizard now hehe...
alciril, why should one want to kill 50 mobs after each other if he can kill em at once in 1/50th of that time? thats what aoe is good for and currently i dont see any real use for aoe spells, some comparison: aoe sorcerer fire spell: around 45 mana, around 40 dmg, ages of casttime blaze: around 20 mana, around 70-80 dmg, half the cast time, ice dot: around 100 dmg and lowers resits, about the casttime of blaze, magic dot: around 50dmg, like no cast time lets assume the group faces some encounter with 4 mobs, any more isnt very common, perhaps at higher lvls dont know one aoe = 4x 40dmg = 120 ice dot + magic dot + blaze = 120 dmg just from the inital dmg on the dots, more following and resists are lowered also as a wizzy you need to kill fast, reduce the mobs so the healer has less to do, casting one aoe after another may even do more dmg on encounters with more mobs, but till em all dead they can deal dmg emselfs, focus on one and kill it, fast aoe spells are for farming, aggroing 30+ mobs of half the levl then you then kill em with aoes in a couple sec and loot, repeat, wich doesnt work since you cant hit all 30 unless they are one single encounter, wich isnt possible i think. means aoe are pretty much useless. with a chanter in group even more since he will mez most others so your aoe will prolly only hit one or 2 mobs.
There is nothing to stop you from engaging in multiple encounter simultaneously. My experience is that AE spells effect all engaged mobs not just a single encounter. They will NOT effect non-engaged mobs... mobs that wander up and start bashing you or mobs minding their own business - nor will they effect mezzed mobs (unless targeted).
Hello, Aoe spells effect the tragets group only. If your group pulls a group of 4 and a wandering monster aggros to make 5 you aoe's will either hit the group of 4 or the single not both. This is of course dependent on which mob you have targeted. While Melees Aoe hit everything in a limited area ours hits just the Mobs that are linked together.
I rarely have enchanters.. usually better not to mez and just aoe nuke them to death. Only time mez is useful is for named.
AoE's are great! For a certain quest you fight a commander and about 12 orcs with him. Now you can take them all out (except commander) with 4 rounds of AoE's (8 ticks) ... Or you can take them out with 24 rounds of Blaze [2 each] (24 ticks)... Now if there is a second sorceror AoE on plus of that.. you just eliminated 12 orcs in 4 ticks.... while if you both had blazed you would of killed 4 in that same time. You used up less mana, and you saved your tank and healers a LOT of grief Its all about knowing when to use AoE's, When to go for DoT's, When for Nukes.. And when to mix it all up together.
AOE s are great I typically use them in all group encounters unless there is a caster then I will blast him into ashes and start the aoe's afterwards as I usually want that caster gone very quickly.
I think AE is situational. It costs a lot of power to AE, so if you are doing fast pulls in group you won't have time to recover. Against a small group of tougher mobs with high hp I would argue it is often more effective to dot + single nuke instead, with or without chanter. But under the right circumstances it can be very effective. It is possible to calculate the optimal strategy for an encounter comparing average dmg and the power cost for both the single target approach and for AE. You will find that you need a certain number of mobs in a linked group to justify AE nuking. What that number is depends on the spells used and upgrade level of course, but it's all about dmg/power. You do more total damage to power if the number of mobs is large, hence justifying AE. There are no other strong arguments for using either approach. Either your group kills the first mob fast and then the other(s) just as fast - a consequence of your single target approach together with the melees focusing on one target. Or you kill the first mob slowly and the rest very fast - a consequence of your AE together with the melees focusing on one target at a time. It's all the same to the healer.
I used to nuke alone. But last night I was hunting owlbears. I would start with Chilling Wind(adedt 1) and then I would lay into them using lightning flash(adept 1). Lightning Flash does 75 dmg per mob. Cast time is 2 secs and recoverery is 2 secs. You can just chain these. So for this group I am putting out 300 total damage every 4 seconds at a cost of approx 75 mana. If I use blaze it costs me half as much mana. I avg around 100dmg every 5.5 seconds. So say over 48secs with blaze I have done 800dmg with a mana cost of 290ish. With the lightning flash I would have done 825dmg EACH at a cost of 825ish. Much more damage but a much higher mana cost. So AoE does work but it's situational. Not necessatily good for chain hunting. Good for taking down a named etc. Or if you healer seems to blow thru mana faster then you and you are stuck waiting for him after a fight. That was my situation. Our healer was waiting to med up and I could painful med back into shape before healer was gtg. I am going to have to try this with an enchanter. I definately want to test what was said on the boards about AoE's not breaking mez on othe rtargets. Of course the AoE stops being advatageous as some of your targets drop and you will have to switch back to nukes if there is 1 or 2 left. Message Edited by zalipolo on 12-02-2004 03:47 AM
In addition to the damage done by lightning flash(90-110/mob adept 1 at level 26) it also has a chance to proc a very nice dot of 25-35/tick to each mob. A couple flashes and all the mobs now have that dot going at the same time as chilling wind, very nice. I'm a little curious if they intended the spell to have no recast timer.
Slightly off topic, but you have to be carefull with AE spells when doing quests. AE is very buggy with quests. If you use AE on quest mobs, a lot of the time you won't get the quest recognition after the fight - especially if you kill them with AE's. Message Edited by Eleron on 12-02-2004 05:43 PM
