Effectiveness of Snare or Spike Growth

[xberto]

Has anyone ever tried a Heightened Snare or Spike Growth spell? How effective you think they would be with a 20 Wis ranger wearing a Transmutation item casting a Heightened and Extended Snare or Spike Growth? Anyone thats tried it like to share their thoughts? I'd like to know if they would be effective to use with an archer build.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Snare is treated as a Cleric Glyph. It takes 4 seconds to cast and, IIRC, is gone when a mob hits it. It *might* be useful for a solo player, but overall not a good use of mana. The mob is ensnared and makes a STR check every 2 seconds versus 10 + 2 + 5 = 17 Spell DC to escape. Most every mob in the game is going to pop right out of that on the first try.

Spike Growth is equally useless (not to mention hideously ugly, I thought my gfx card blew up the first time I saw it). It's 4 second long animation to cast, short spell duration (10+caster level seconds), and does 1d4 damage. Then, the same 17 DC to negate the crippling effect.

/sigh :(

[Meriadeuc]

Snare is treated as a Cleric Glyph. It takes 4 seconds to cast and, IIRC, is gone when a mob hits it. It *might* be useful for a solo player, but overall not a good use of mana. The mob is ensnared and makes a STR check every 2 seconds versus 10 + 2 + 5 = 17 Spell DC to escape. Most every mob in the game is going to pop right out of that on the first try.

/sigh :(

Snare does have some limited use for soloing. True, it almost never last longer than 2 seconds, but it does have the advantage of always holding a mob for at least that 2 seconds. Sometimes stacking a group up in a doorway for a little while gives you enough time to thin them out a bit with a paralyzing bow and improved precise shot so that you're not facing quite as many at once.

[xberto]

I took heighten at 12 and "toyed" with both spells. Useless! Completely useless. Spiked growth might be useful if it's duration was longer and it didn't take so long to cast. Real disappointed here because because I think the spells could be kind of fun and really be benificial to a "ranged" ranger. Someday I hope the ranged Ranger will get some love.