Is it just me or do Sunbeam and Sunburst blind "all the time"?

[eachna_gislin]

My freshly half-specced Divine Disciple (I say half specced because I haven't used any LR yet, so no new feats or skills, just enhancement changes) uses the light based spells in her spell book all the time.

I think they're called Sunbeam and Sunburst. One is a single target ray spell and one is an AOE. There's a second single target spell that looks a bit like a lightning bolt but I use that less often.

The two spells I do use blind ALL THE TIME. It's incredibly rare for a mob to save even on Epic Elite content. They may not save at all, I may just miss some in the AOE and have to single target a couple stragglers. In any case, the descriptions note saving throws and my cleric's DC's suck, but the blindness seems to hit everyone.

I believe these spells are also druid spells. Anyone know if these have been blinding that frequently since they debuted, or if this is a recent change, and if they're WAI? Please don't post with "OMG don't tell the devs, think of the children". *IF* this is a bug the devs know already, it's that blatant.

I'm playing this toon to improve my casting skills. If it's just a pair of bugs I'd rather know so I don't get dependant on it.

[FuzzyDuck81]

The holy aura spell used to have the same issue, it was great :) maybe its a return of the same bug

[Scrag]

...There's a second single target spell that looks a bit like a lightning bolt but I use that less often....


You may want to rethink that. With the standard build that everyone seems stuck coming up with, I regularly crit for ~1000 damage with this spell. In level appropriate fights (~15), its pretty devastating to pump out 5 or 6 of these in a row. It is, however, _costly_. A fvs/cleric mix that has enough cleric to get sunbolt would be crazy due to the quantity of sp you can bring to bear.

edit: that 1000 damage isn't even to light vuln mobs; To light vuln mobs, its ~700 non-crit.

[richieelias27]

You may want to rethink that. With the standard build that everyone seems stuck coming up with, I regularly crit for ~1000 damage with this spell. In level appropriate fights (~15), its pretty devastating to pump out 5 or 6 of these in a row. It is, however, _costly_. A fvs/cleric mix that has enough cleric to get sunbolt would be crazy due to the quantity of sp you can bring to bear.

edit: that 1000 damage isn't even to light vuln mobs; To light vuln mobs, its ~700 non-crit.

except that the more FvS you have, the less damage your sunbolt will do, and the less FvS levels you have the less sp you will have available.

Honestly its not worth it to splash heavily into FvS for SP. If anything just take 2 levels of FvS for the 10 temp sp on crit.

The reason sunburst/beam seem to blind so often is that they are a reflex save, which tends to be low on most things. Not a bug.

[Radiodada]

hey, eachna, do you have any past lives? I've been wanting to cook up a "healbot/cc/respectable-ish damage" thing for a decent amount of time, and if it's now possible to do that as a sunmonster now(with like...my new, free cleric feats and SLAs and everything), it seems that like...I HAVE to roll this SLAmonster up.
I just wanna know if I should toss together a sorc with the name I'll EVENTUALLY want(and the assumption of TR's), or if I can just roll up a fancy cleric, and be awesome.

P.S. Why do Orcs/Halflings/Dwarves not get their own dang religions?

[richieelias27]

hey, eachna, do you have any past lives? I've been wanting to cook up a "healbot/cc/respectable-ish damage" thing for a decent amount of time, and if it's now possible to do that as a sunmonster now(with like...my new, free cleric feats and SLAs and everything), it seems that like...I HAVE to roll this SLAmonster up.
I just wanna know if I should toss together a sorc with the name I'll EVENTUALLY want(and the assumption of TR's), or if I can just roll up a fancy cleric, and be awesome.

P.S. Why do Orcs/Halflings/Dwarves not get their own dang religions?

Keep in mind that none of the *sun* spells are SLA's for cleric. They are simply added to your spellbook. If you want to heighten/maximize/empower/quicken them, be prepared to spend 100+ sp per cast.

[Radiodada]

Dear Richieelias27,

Thank you for smashing my dreams.

Like they were pumpkins

And you had a baseball bat.

And it was Devil's Night.

eh. At least now my weird "I can't decide between this divine or that one" thing has gone from a 3 way tie down to just "FVS or Druid"

Now, question time.
1. Can I cast spells WHILE blocking, or no? Either way, I think I need to get that "you can do fancy blocking things with shields" feat. That thing just looks cool.
2. All those fancy light spells that fvs can CHOOSE to get placed into their spellbook: Do those spells have saves? Divines are just confusing. ><

[richieelias27]

Dear Richieelias27,

Thank you for smashing my dreams.

Like they were pumpkins

And you had a baseball bat.

And it was Devil's Night.

eh. At least now my weird "I can't decide between this divine or that one" thing has gone from a 3 way tie down to just "FVS or Druid"

Now, question time.
1. Can I cast spells WHILE blocking, or no? Either way, I think I need to get that "you can do fancy blocking things with shields" feat. That thing just looks cool.
2. All those fancy light spells that fvs can CHOOSE to get placed into their spellbook: Do those spells have saves? Divines are just confusing. ><

All is not lost! Cleric does still get some amazing SLA's. Namely - Flamestrike, Holy Smite, Searing light, and nimbus of light (choose light path). Or if you choose dark you can have - Chill touch (actually a very nice spell), Necrotic Bolt (crappy), Necrotic Burst (Amazing for palemasters), and Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds (an ok spell, but not great).

As for casting *while* blocking - no. You stop blocking during the cast and resume blocking after the spell goes off. If you time it right you can get your spells off inbetween hits though.

Also note that none of the above applies to FvS. They do not get the divine disciple tree at all. Instead they get Angel of Vengeance for more crits, Sp gain on crits, and other little goodies.

[eachna_gislin]

hey, eachna, do you have any past lives? I've been wanting to cook up a "healbot/cc/respectable-ish damage" thing for a decent amount of time, and if it's now possible to do that as a sunmonster now(with like...my new, free cleric feats and SLAs and everything), it seems that like...I HAVE to roll this SLAmonster up.
I just wanna know if I should toss together a sorc with the name I'll EVENTUALLY want(and the assumption of TR's), or if I can just roll up a fancy cleric, and be awesome.

P.S. Why do Orcs/Halflings/Dwarves not get their own dang religions?

My Divine Disciple is on her first life. However, she's been my main for questing and raiding for close to six months and nearly fully maxxed Destinies.

The healbot part is easy. Get +120 devotion (or more with the newest loot pass), a bit of Heal skill, and run heals in Exalted Angel (extra spellpoints, extra positive spell power). If you want to be a full-on healbot, take enough Radiant prestige to get the aura. However, you can still be an excellent healer and only take the burst. My policy is to use Renewal and Rejuvenation Cocoon as my "cure spell" and "big heal" respectively.

CC I'm still learning. I believe your only option is to make things lie down (Command/Greater Command, Cometfall).

Damage, you have a few options, but they boil down to Light damage (a number of spells) and instakills/negative attacks (Necromancy). Blade barrier and implosion are there, but I find them better for soloing.

Clerics also have a nice selection of buffs and debuffs. A couple mass debuffs, Greater Command, then Energy Drain, and instakills go pretty smoothly.

I'm still playing with the new Divine Disciple SLAs and spellbook spells, but you can definitely be an awesome engine of destruction. I've been farming XP/loot/frags in eNorm/eHard Tharashk Arena, and the Light ray followed by the Negative ray is amazing. With maximize on I'm often killing things with just a Sunburst and then those two spells. And, I don't have tricked out gear (yet). I have a Staff of the Necromancer, and nothing with Radiance, while my enhancements are Light Spellpower based with no Necromancy boost. I don't have skill points in things that give spellpower (except what my base stats give), and whatever boosts my blue scale set gives.

So, if I took the time to wield a pair of Radiance/Evocation Mastery and Necromancy/Necromancy Mastery scepters and burn my LR for thorough re-spec, I bet I'd be effective (not awesome, but fully contributing as more than just a healbot) in EE content, all on a first lifer.

Edit: Oh yeah, and if I swapped my two mental toughnesses for casting feats.

[eachna_gislin]

Dear Richieelias27,

Thank you for smashing my dreams.

Like they were pumpkins

And you had a baseball bat.

And it was Devil's Night.

eh. At least now my weird "I can't decide between this divine or that one" thing has gone from a 3 way tie down to just "FVS or Druid"

Now, question time.
1. Can I cast spells WHILE blocking, or no? Either way, I think I need to get that "you can do fancy blocking things with shields" feat. That thing just looks cool.
2. All those fancy light spells that fvs can CHOOSE to get placed into their spellbook: Do those spells have saves? Divines are just confusing. ><

Clerics should definitely be brought back into the mix. :D

Not getting free metamagics on the sun line of spells does not make them worthless. I'm running around with a bit under 3000 sp (I think I'm at 2800 these days) and I have at least 1/4 of my bar left when I hit most shrines (if not more). This is with heals, buffs, debuffs, and offensive casting and I mostly leave maximize on all the time in quests. If I do look like I'm getting low, I'll turn off maximize and pick off things the melees are hitting. That's right, I've turned into one of those kill-stealing casters. :D

As already mentioned the free SLAs are nice. I use Searing Light SLA to pick off those pesky things at range with a sliver of health (or to grab aggro on a ranged target). I also hit everything with Holy Smite SLA, it doesn't blind as much as Sunburst but it usually proccs one or two and it seems to do more damage. I didn't take Flame Strike but I probably would after my respec. I have a lot to juggle learning to cast and I've shelved that SLA till later.

[eachna_gislin]

You may want to rethink that. With the standard build that everyone seems stuck coming up with, I regularly crit for ~1000 damage with this spell. In level appropriate fights (~15), its pretty devastating to pump out 5 or 6 of these in a row. It is, however, _costly_. A fvs/cleric mix that has enough cleric to get sunbolt would be crazy due to the quantity of sp you can bring to bear.

edit: that 1000 damage isn't even to light vuln mobs; To light vuln mobs, its ~700 non-crit.

Doing damage is very new for me (I've literally been a useless healbot screaming "Not in the face" when mobs charge at me until now) and I need a bit more repetition than most people to really "get" things.

I'll eventually work my way through all the new spells and SLAs, it'll just be a few weeks of practice.