what ever happenned to cloud kill

[Manko-ALE]

i like to play this game, ALOT... recall in the past, cloudkill used to be used very often, now, while running about , it's hardly ever used any more.. i realize that they shortenned the duration. however, if your running say temepset spine with say 8-10's, cloud kill along with melee types using wounders is an excellent way to kill tons of stuff withoout have the clerics spaming heals all over the place...it works great on those hard to hit vermin on elite...

is it because everyone i'm playing with is impatient? or are all the characters rerolls, twinked to the max with vorpals and they are trying to vorpalize mobs.

on another note, i'm trying out AoC and i have to say that the game play ,especially the combat, on ddo is superior. imo...

[Aeneas]

I think the main reason is that the aggro mechanic for non damaging spells was changed. Cloudkill could bake a mob and they'd stand there stupid until they died, now they get one whiff and make a bee-line for the caster.

Another big reason could be that they fixed the ability to use AOE clouds and firewalls through doors.

It is still a valid spell in tight quarters, especially if the group is using wounding/puncturing. Gets a bit tough to use in that situation though as most mobs will be dead before you can finish flailing your arms and cast the spell. Almost better off hitting them individually with poison or a con damaging disease.

[Turial]

Cloud Kill was changed to generate aggro a few mods ago and people stopped using it as much.

[MrCow]

Cloudkill is still a very useful tool in certain quests where monsters respawn from specific locations or if you place it with some form of mass crowd control (Otto's Sphere of Dancing, Web, etc.).

Primarily I use cloudkill while soloing or to take down archers.

[Tuney]

well it still isn't to bad to use cloudkill or fight in it because mobs have to fight though a concealment bonus while inside it so they get cooked and tenderized by the meleer's. But I think the hardest part is getting people to fight in "croud control zones" I know I do at times.

[Draclaud]

The twig that broke the back of cloud kill was when the A.I. changed from "Hey there is a green cloud at my feet and I'm choking. I wonder how this happened, let me sit here and choke while I ponder that..." to "Stupid caster threw a cloud kill on me! I instinctively know that he snuck up on me from the left coridoor and is hiding behind the 3rd box and is invisible, and you will not be able to change my aggro from him!" The A.I. change makes it impossible to use except on ledged archers IE Chains of Flame, Ritual Sacrifice, Madstone ect. Most people will use Otto's Dancing Sphere instead now.

[winsom]

At level 12+, with lots of great weapons now available at the auction house DDO's melee characters have become a lot more powerful. Melee kill monsters faster than ever before. Such a monster might only lose a few points of CON in a Cloudkill before it dies. Not necessarily worth the spell points.

Cloudkill is still great for killing some very hard to hit monsters, like elite scorpions. I still use it occasionally at level 16 if I know someone is using wounding weapons, or I plan to pull a bunch of monsters into a dancing sphere + cloudkill.

[Varr]

Yep. Becuase of the probelm of ck picking up agro as listed, It becomes the 3rd spell in a chain that makes sence for most casters in a controled battle. Since your going to pick up agro with any of the three, makes sence to solid fog or acid fog first..........then place a nasty firewall in there to deal with your agro. If alot of funneling will be done, a ck still makes sence there........but most of the time by the time you get the first two off, that pocket of things to kill are dead or the full compliment of things to fight. There is a door fight in ts that makes sence to fog the ck, and there are a pair of them in running with the devils also. It is just tough for many casters that are super speced to do fire damage to pass on the sexy firewall. There are also now not alot of places you can use ck by itself on stationary mobs.....like the coal chamber main shaft. I have this spell on all my casters (wis and sorc) but says more for the weakness of the other level 5 spells than the potency of the ck currenly in place.

[Sue_Dark]

My sorc combines CK with FtS alot of the time. Imobilize the mob, CK and move on. Even more fun if you can FtS in a door and CK the mob and any buddies behind him, because he blocks the door for you :)

I also like to use CK to give a little concealment to melees, since I havent respec'd to acid fog yet. I rarely play my sorc, so changing out spells is usually something I'll do to help out on a tough quest, if someone suggests something reasonable. (if someone offers to pay for the exchange, you bet i will, and have, change out something for what they want...heh)

[Riddikulus]

The main problem with cloudkill these days is that:

1) mobs typically die so fast from the melee (and instakill spells) that it is very situational to get benefit from the spell tactically
and
2) unless you waste the mana to extend it, which seems pointless, the duration is barely long enough to use strategically. Mobs automatically aggroing to the caster even without LOS just compounds the strategic problem.

The duration of cloudkill really needs to be doubled to become useful again. If not that then redname immunity should be removed from it so that you can use it tactically during a boss fight.

[Nikorr123]

My caster buddy still uses CK alot when we small man quests, I intimidate them all into the CK and turtle up keeping them there until they die. Nice way to small man some tougher stuff for loot.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

The twig that broke the back of cloud kill was when the A.I. changed from "Hey there is a green cloud at my feet and I'm choking. I wonder how this happened, let me sit here and choke while I ponder that..." to "Stupid caster threw a cloud kill on me! I instinctively know that he snuck up on me from the left coridoor and is hiding behind the 3rd box and is invisible, and you will not be able to change my aggro from him!" The A.I. change makes it impossible to use except on ledged archers IE Chains of Flame, Ritual Sacrifice, Madstone ect. Most people will use Otto's Dancing Sphere instead now.

My thoughts exactly! :(

it's still useful, but in most cases the mobs die before it helps much.....leaves me feeeling like I wasted a casting.

That agro thing affects more than Cloudkill. it is one of my major complaints in this game. They should have to search for you!

I don't know why they cannnot design an AI that says "Ouch! I'm being hurt! gotta get outta this cloud/fire..etc!.....ok, I'm safe now.....now where's the bastich that did this to me? Why can't I see him? Maybe he went over there.........
There he is!....oh, but he's on the other side of that fire, and those friends of his are blocking the door.....hmmm.......Korg will kill me if I don't go get them........maybe I should charge into the fire......I'lll have to beat up his friend first though....and some fire resist would help........
Or for non intelligent slimes, dogs....etc.......................Ouch! Run!. ......I'm backed into a corner.....fight!
And for the realy smart guys. I'll teleport straight to the cleric and devour his soul first....then I'll point to the Wizard and tell him he's next!

[augie]

Situational at best. CK works nicely for the bridge/ledge archers in Chains of Flame since they just sit and bake in it. That's about the only place my sorc uses it on a regular basis though.

[Nevthial]

It has always been a situational spell, but , I still use it in conjunction with para weapons and/or crowd control spells.

[sirgog]

Situational at best. CK works nicely for the bridge/ledge archers in Chains of Flame since they just sit and bake in it. That's about the only place my sorc uses it on a regular basis though.

One Charm effect does the same thing, however - neutralises the archers long enough to pass them.


Main place I see it used is in Running with the Devils. It's the Wizard's Wounding weapon.