Meteor Swarm useless?

[knightgf]

Meteor Swarm tends to be more of a NPC spell than a player spell, along with curse.

I find it funny that if hardly any player uses a spell thats unpopular, the NPCS use it most of the time(I.E.:Shroud final boss uses meteor swarm a lot and kills the heck out of the party, Kobold mages use curse on elite, exc.). Of course, the popular spells that players use can also be used by NPC'S, but it happens less frequently than the other mostly unused spells.

[Aspenor]

I've been having pretty good luck hitting with 4 meteors, at least I was before I TR'd.

[Spiffyspiffy]

Bored in my last Reaver, and remembering this topic, I was only getting 3 meteors when casting with no target (Just "across the room", no matter if I was midair, on the ground, or somewhere inbetween with fly.

Killing the reaver himself, with fly so I was nowhere near the ground to eat a meteor, I was still getting only 3.

[Angelus_dead]

Killing the reaver himself, with fly so I was nowhere near the ground to eat a meteor, I was still getting only 3.

It has been reported that Wizards get 4 balls but Sorcerers get 3.

[Kaervas]

It has been reported that Wizards get 4 balls but Sorcerers get 3.

Wizard>sorceror, they have more balls.

[Spiffyspiffy]

It has been reported that Wizards get 4 balls but Sorcerers get 3.

That would make sense, insofar as it would give a reason for the difference.

But it doesn't make sense from the game design, and nowhere is it actually mentioned. Plus other sorcs have said they get 4 meteors from a cast.

[Redcoil]

20 Sorc

300 Casts MS

140 = 2 Meteors
160 = 3 Meteors
0 4 Meteor balls

Others confirm, and maybe try a wizzy?

[whoamilol]

even without any kind of efficiacy or potency, you gain the chance to crit on each meteor and the bludgeon damage cannot be avoided by evasion or fire resistant type mobs

[Redcoil]

You also suffer for fire resist, and if ONE crits you barely benefit. If DBF crits, you know. DBF has larger splash damage area.

You also miss out on mobs vulnerable to fire damage, as 3 meteors = 18d6 fire damage and 6d6 bludgeon, those purple numbers will be smaller.

Only TRUE advantage I see as sorc who only gets 3 balls is that the bludgeon cant be avoided... so even if you miss, you get something :-)

Even if its less...

[Majere_Aumar]

still, ya gotta admit........when there's a group of people standing close together in the pub arena just killing everyone who enters, it looks pretty awesome to jump in, DBFB, FB, MS, DBFB then watch all the ghosts running for the ladder.

From your own perspective you just see the corner of the room explode for 5 seconds then everyone standing there is toast.

[Mindspat]

One of the three other spells that a sorceror would give up to have meteor swarm really cinches the deal for me: energy drain, wail of the banshee, and mass hold monster. For some reason alot of sorcerors think its o.k. to not have mass hold monster which is a specific type of spell that only wiz/sorcs have. There is no other mass monster debilitating spell which leads to insta criticals in DDO. This spell works great on alot of the epic quests. Wail of the banshees is the wiz/sorc insta mass kill spell of choice although alot of mobs are immune to it in epic it is still useful in alot of end game content and for running in non end game content. Energy drain is twice as effective as enervate which is handy although for me this is the third spell of choice for sorcerors because clerics get this spell and sorcerors could just have enervate. Meteor Swarm is number four for me.

Energy Drain against mobs with SR require a higher roll to penetrate due to it being a level 9 spell unless you have Greater Spell Pen IX. It is not always "twice as effective as enervate" even though it is consistently useful.

[ddoer]

In my first TR, as a level 20 Wiz, I could easily cast 4 balls.

In my 2nd TR, as a level 18 wiz right now, Meteor Swarm gives only 2 balls usually, and 3 if I cast from top to down.

The number of balls got something to do with your caster level, I believe.

[chester99]

an important point that I haven't seen in this thread: Meteor Swarm should be BY FAR the most powerful damage spell in this game, outclassing everything by miles and miles.

Instead, it doesn't quite exceed "wall of fire".

The fact that we're having this discussion is kinda sad, in this caster's view. A near-useless level 9 iconic spell, even fully enhanced.

[Arctigis]

I use it, never ever seen four meteors - three at most. It's neat when it crits and it looks cool.

[Majere_Aumar]

Anyone else notice that this has been fixed, possibly in the last patch? 4 meteors every time for me.

......nope my bad, I was seeing the bludgeon as well as fire (only 2 meteors hitting). Can't get more than 3.

[Shandi]

i always thought meteor swarm was based on casting speed... go pick up a few scrolls of meteor swarm and you'll see that you get 4 balls each time

Sorc normal casting speed for me equals 3, if i put on quicken then I only cast 2

so it seems, to me anyway, that it is bugged based on casting speed... which really bites

edit: ya just tested it again

Sorcerer
Quicken = 2 balls
NonQuicken = 3 balls
Scroll = 4 balls

Wizard friend standing next to me
Normal = 4 balls
Quicken = 3 balls
Scroll = 4 balls


can we get this fixed please :0

[Arctigis]

i always thought meteor swarm was based on casting speed... go pick up a few scrolls of meteor swarm and you'll see that you get 4 balls each time

Sorc normal casting speed for me equals 3, if i put on quicken then I only cast 2

so it seems, to me anyway, that it is bugged based on casting speed... which really bites

edit: ya just tested it again

Sorcerer
Quicken = 2 balls
NonQuicken = 3 balls
Scroll = 4 balls

Wizard friend standing next to me
Normal = 4 balls
Quicken = 3 balls
Scroll = 4 balls


can we get this fixed please :0

Nice work

[Aeneas]

I was just searching for a post discussing this so that i could say the same thing as the poster just above me. With quicken turned off on my 20 halfling wiz i'm getting 4 meteors all of which register damge. With quicken on it's 3. Jumping or moving with quicken on i generally only see 2.

[Siskel]

The cookie version of Meteor Swarm hit with 4 balls for me awhile back. Have not tried any more of the cookies. At best when casting from spells without Quicken I get 3 balls. Don't have quicken.

[ddoer]

Wizard friend standing next to me
Normal = 4 balls
Quicken = 3 balls
Scroll = 4 balls

can we get this fixed please :0

useful info. i've just tested and confirmed it.

it needs to be fixed