Has anyone noticed the increase in casters dispelling?

[likuei]

Over the last few weeks of soloing, I have noticed a DRAMATIC increase in monster casters dispelling. It seems now that the are now debuffing before they buff and s. There also seems to be an increase of those same casters buffing the melee monsters while they attack. Even on quests that I would normally not have to much of a problem soloing, the difficulty has ramped up because of this, even on normal. I enjoy a challenge, but when I can no longer solo quests because the casters can spam anything with no loss of mana or even failed a concentration check , it kinda takes the fun out of soloing for fun and loot. Is it just me or was there a change in casters buffing/debuffing; did I miss an announcement on this?

P.S. I'm not complaining, just looking to see if I have to change my tactics and focus on more spell resistance to solo. Being in Japan, not being ain an Australian guild and not speaking Korean, makes it kinda tough to group.

[sirgog]

These changes make a lot of sense, from an AI point of view.

During mod 4, the best spell in the game was generally considered to be Greater Heroism (this was before spammable maximised firewalls, back when they cost some serious SP). Having the mobs use simple, effective countermeasures to the power of GH (not to mention resist energy and charm spells) adds quite a bit challenge-wise.

Of course, since mod 5 the best spell has become Wall of Fire, and the best countermeasure to that is fire immunity - witness the Temple of Vol.

[xanvar]

I understand the buffing and debuffing by monster casters. I still don't get why they don't make concentration checks and have unlimited mana.

[Newtons_Apple]

Over the last few weeks of soloing, I have noticed a DRAMATIC increase in monster casters dispelling. It seems now that the are now debuffing before they buff and s. There also seems to be an increase of those same casters buffing the melee monsters while they attack. Even on quests that I would normally not have to much of a problem soloing, the difficulty has ramped up because of this, even on normal. I enjoy a challenge, but when I can no longer solo quests because the casters can spam anything with no loss of mana or even failed a concentration check , it kinda takes the fun out of soloing for fun and loot. Is it just me or was there a change in casters buffing/debuffing; did I miss an announcement on this?

P.S. I'm not complaining, just looking to see if I have to change my tactics and focus on more spell resistance to solo. Being in Japan, not being ain an Australian guild and not speaking Korean, makes it kinda tough to group.

Ok, I'm sure you don't want to hear this, but this is a game which has been designed toward grouping in mind, not soloing. It is unfortunate that you have a tough time finding groups. If it's possible for you to log onto the Argonesson server and are looking for a decent guild that always has members on, look up Stormbringers. Some of us even run with the Aussies in the early morning weekday hours of 5-6 am EST.


I understand the buffing and debuffing by monster casters. I still don't get why they don't make concentration checks and have unlimited mana.


They may not have unlimited SP's. In Von 3 for example, the group has to fight wave after wave of fresh drow spellcasters. They're just sitting there around their campfires, all charged up and waiting for the next group to come slaughter them with maximized, empowered, superior potent firewalls...

[Cheg]

I understand the buffing and debuffing by monster casters. I still don't get why they don't make concentration checks and have unlimited mana.

Because how often would a caster get a spell off whilst being beaten by a barbarian? Never. Then the spellcasters suck completely, and it becomes boring.

[Staedtler]

The only mobs I can think of which cast dispells frequently are drow scorpions and hobgoblins in Gianthold. I haven't noticed any change in the frequency of the castings. Can you be more specific, OP?

[kensihin_Himura]

I have always noticed that the enemy ai is a bit buggy. The cast cast spells on the move, they can attack and cast spells at he same time, they can cast buffs and damage spells one after another, they can hit you with a melee weapon from far away. But I have seen people able to disrupt the spellcasters ability to cast before. Not sure if it's just a bug or if they do have to take concentration tests. Them having infinnate spell points isn't really a problem because they usually die before they would be able to use up their spell points anyways. Guess my big problem is them hiting me from far away, usually being a couple of feet or after I got out of they way of the attack.

[Lillitheris]

Monster spellcasters do have a concentration check of sort. If they lose enough of their HP in one swing, their spell is interrupted. This was verified by a developer a while back.

[Ranmaru2]

I want to know what the heck they're casting with their dispels, because they're wiping out about 20 levels of buffs in one casting. I'll have:
Expeditious Retreat - 1 Lvl
Jump - 1 Lvl
Nightshield - 1 lvl
Blur - 2 Lvls
Resists (Fire, electric, and acid) - 6 Lvls
Haste - 3 Lvls
Rage - 3 Lvls
Displacement - 3 Lvls
Stoneskin - 4 Lvls
Greater Heroism - 6 Lvls
and (a lot of the time) Invisibility - 2 Lvls
----------------------------------------
Total: 32 Lvls of buffs

I'll have a Gnoll caster (Aeromancer, Spell Howler, Eremite, Ascetic, doesn't matter) cast a dispel, and suddenly I've lost, Expeditious, Jump, nightshield, 2 resists, haste, displacement, stoneskin, and Rage. That's 20 levels of spells in one dispel. The CR for these casters does not suggest that they're capable of casting Greater Dispel, so I have no clue what they're casting to get rid of our buffs, but it's certainly acting at 2x effectiveness or something! I've had them clean wipe ALL of the aforementioned buffs in ONE casting. Unless they're casting Dysjunction (or as I know it by: Mordenkainen's Dysjunction), or an always 20+20 for Greater Dispel, this is beyond ridiculous. I keep away from the scorrow area in the desert for this very reason, as almost everything in that area is capable of casting dispel...and not just one dispel...CHAIN-SPAMMED dispels..

[death_smurf]

soloed lair of summoning in house k on my lowvie ranger on elite yesterday to open up an extra bank slot. the end boss is a fire elemental who dispeled me no less than 20 + times. i wasnt attacking using a bow i was twf and the second i moved in he would remove my fire resistance then as i ran around healing up and using velah cookies from the jester the ele continued to dispel away without abandon. that is only a lev 6 quest on elite (i think) but the spam dispel were very annoying to say the least. i find mob casters dispel more lately at least it seems more than they used to. could be because i solo way more than i used to and mobs probobly died at a much faster rate when i run in full groups.

[Shade]

Because how often would a caster get a spell off whilst being beaten by a barbarian? Never. Then the spellcasters suck completely, and it becomes boring.

Uhh thats already the case and it's not boring. Instead of balancing each mob with a good concenration score they just made it a set % of hitpoints dmg to interupt them, which works fine.

You need to deal about 20% of a mobs hp per swing to interupt them.. And interupting them stop spell casting and even melee attacks too, my barbarian does it all the time.

But it only works on certain mobs, many are imune to it. You can often tell if its working because the mob will make a different sound effect when hit hard enough (flesh renders scream loudly its pretty cool)
Works on:
Most any humanoid monster (player races, goblins, kobolds, few others)
Most evil outsiders (flesh renders, fire reavers, etc)
Doesn't work on:
Most undead
Magical Beasts
Beholders (well most abberations, but tharrak hounds are expecially weak to it - during there dance of death animation if you hit them hard enough they will straight fall over like you tripped them - even tho you didn't)

[Shade]

And well on topic:

Well not an increase in old monsters - no, they have the same spell lists as ever.

But new monsters definetely, it seems more and more casters love to cast dispell - and most mod4/5 now use greater dispell which sucks even more.

Really not a fan of it because I like the group aspect of getting everyone buffed up as best you can.. But when mobs just constantly dispell that tactic is ruined and everyone just plays for themselves and results in less teamwork.

Plus the fact we often face multiple casters higher level then us that have unlimited mana, no cooldowns and almost all of them use quicken...

Just doesn't seem like good AI to me.. I mean how many players use lots of dispell in PvM? Almost none.. AI would benefit more from using more powerful spells and metamagics to deal more damage so our pidly 30 resists aren't such a huge problem for them.

[likuei]

Sorry it took so long to get back to this. Thank you Ranmura2, that is exactly what I was talking about. And The Chamber of Summons was one of the quests that I was thinking about when I posted this (end Boss shredding my resists). A caster/monster of note are the Ogre Magi and their ability (especially when there are two in a skirmish) to spam Dispel. At lvl 16 and the corresponding Spell Resistance cast and a worn Spell Resistance item (SR: 19), I can't keep many buffs up, as they just get peeled away. I thought that it seemed strange that a lvl 6 caster would have the strength to dispel a high casters spells, especially when it was such a HUGE lvl disparity.

Now that there are others that have noticed it also, I WILL have to adjust my play style. Guess I'll start looking for SR 22 items to wear (or focus more on sneak/insta-kills for enemy casters). Thank you for verifying this for me.

[MrCow]

Ummm... I thought Dispel Magic had no spell resistance check. :confused: