No MORE CRIT FW?!

[Khellendros13]

Firewall is a good spell to save up some spell points but that's about it. That's reason enough to have fire/cold lines. There are moments you want to save spell points. I like this new way how firewall works with critical calculate per tick.

Only problem with this that I see is that fire/cold enhancement line will cover both spells. That means most casters will be specialized for both. If fire and cold would have a seperate line or if there would be some DoT acid/lightning spells to compete.. We would start seeing ice mages, lightning mages, fire mages and acid mages. It would make people need to pick their preference of DoT(or DoTs if they pick multiple). I would love to see different kind of casters, not clones.

That was mentioned, splitting the elemental enhancements into 4 separate lines. It was said that the AP cost would be similar or less, so really, you would still take fire and cold for the same or less AP...taking only 1 puts you at a disadvantage when fighting either undead or fire immune mobs.

The option of fire and cold VS acid and lightning is false, due to the extreme immunities and double damage where it matters IMO. Ice Storm now reinforces this fact. Only a DoT lightning spell to compete with Ice Storm or firewall will make lightning an option now.
Acid is useless...fogs dont slow down enemies, they are annoying to fight in and again the immunities. Cloudkill is the only usefull one, concealment and the con damage on a limited number of mobs. I turn off empower and max if I have time and remember anyway, 99% of the time it is for concealment.

[vVAnjilaVv]

This is a pretty big nerf when fighting self-healing enemies ( scorpions in claw, shamans in tharashk arena, etc.) since if its not a consistent crit wall, they can just heal through the damage and it will take ages to kill those. I guess another challenge for the soloing arcane that needs a work-around found.

Are you talking about epic stuff...because sorry.....I really really really do not think the devs had in mind that Epic would be easily solo-able by Arcanes with crit-fishing Walls of Fire.

If that is what you meant then this by all means proves how much the spell NEEDS to be nerfed.

[Khellendros13]

This is a pretty big nerf when fighting self-healing enemies ( scorpions in claw, shamans in tharashk arena, etc.) since if its not a consistent crit wall, they can just heal through the damage and it will take ages to kill those. I guess another challenge for the soloing arcane that needs a work-around found.

What about stacking 3-4 walls? In theory any that crit the biggest will do damage on that tick. I have not tested firewall on Lammy yet though.

Then you can try Ice Storm though, roughly 300dmg a tick non crit, similar to a crit firewall I guess. 2-3 Ice Storms in succession VS 3 or so firewalls fishing for a crit?

[shagath]

The option of fire and cold VS acid and lightning is false, due to the extreme immunities and double damage where it matters IMO. Ice Storm now reinforces this fact. Only a DoT lightning spell to compete with Ice Storm or firewall will make lightning an option now.
Acid is useless...fogs dont slow down enemies, they are annoying to fight in and again the immunities. Cloudkill is the only usefull one, concealment and the con damage on a limited number of mobs. I turn off empower and max if I have time and remember anyway, 99% of the time it is for concealment.

Heh, I wasn't saying there's an option now to go acid/lightning DoT, I was just saying those would cool to get(via adding new spells or modifying existing ones) so we would see more different kind of casters.

Btw, I too turn off max/emp for cloudkill(as a wizard that is, as a sorc, had full lightning/acid and more sp so didn't) unless it's VoD. And also heighten off for halt undead. :P

[Pape_27]

This is a blow for Fire/cold specced casters who critfish with Firewall.

Pretty much no one else is affected.

Radiant Servants, maybe, with their aura.

All in all, I don't mind this change at all.

When the aura first came out, each tick could crit or not and the devs changed it it all or nothing, so you either crit or you dont.

Now, they are going to change back? It doesnt make sense.

[BruxaDo71]

When the aura first came out, each tick could crit or not and the devs changed it it all or nothing, so you either crit or you dont.

Now, they are going to change back? It doesnt make sense.

Yep. Currently on Lamannia, each tick has a proc to crtic, as the first version.

[Missing_Minds]

Please Devs, say it ain't so!

HoT and DoT spells now are crit-per-tick, instead of all or nothing. Please do not let this go to live!

When the hoopla hit from clerics playing RS wanting their Aura to do the random highs again, I warned people what would happen.

The turn about is probalby the store is going to be hit up a bit less by arcanes wanting that crit wall now.

[Dsox]

Just a couple of questions that are not any way related :-)

Why can't Ice storm be extended? - there is no spell point nor length of effect increase with or with out extend selected

Won't the new Firewall rolls lead to more server-side calculations? I was under the impression that everything was being done to actively reduce and even eliminate lag. Surely an extra roll - per tick - per Firewall can only add to the server load?

I am guessing that Firewalls are being brought into line with other DOT spells, but to reduce server load would it not be better to make all other persistent or DOT spells, be like firewall used to be. I.E once cast, one roll to see if it crits or not?

[trespasser]

Are you talking about epic stuff...because sorry.....I really really really do not think the devs had in mind that Epic would be easily solo-able by Arcanes with crit-fishing Walls of Fire.

If that is what you meant then this by all means proves how much the spell NEEDS to be nerfed.

Never said its easy, but its doable. I'm glad you know what the dev's have in mind, I would love you to share some more of their thoughts, because some of the latest updates have me confused.

That won't stop any arcanes from soloing epics, you can be pretty sure of that. It will just make us think of a different strategy that is all.
And crit walls really do not matter for non-epic content (as has been mentioned many times already), you can pretty much instakill everything already with necro spells (yes,that includes Amrath).

What about stacking 3-4 walls? In theory any that crit the biggest will do damage on that tick. I have not tested firewall on Lammy yet though.

Then you can try Ice Storm though, roughly 300dmg a tick non crit, similar to a crit firewall I guess. 2-3 Ice Storms in succession VS 3 or so firewalls fishing for a crit?

Ice storm might work. Once it hits live it will be tested and figured out
There are other options for a soloing arcane too, just slower.
Mostly what I was saying is that its a nerf to firewall and arcane fire DPS (per SECOND, meaning you will get the same damage in a longer period of time), no matter how some people try to twist it.

Another problem might occur is with aggro - a few crit ticks on a mob not being hit by other party members can get you unwanted aggro. If you see that the wall is crit now, you will be prepared for that. You can't know if its random per tick. On the other hand, you can not reliably hold aggro with a wall that is random like that and will lose it to melees/arcanes regularly.

Edit: Can anyone write how this change affects Blade Barrier?

[Khellendros13]

Heh, I wasn't saying there's an option now to go acid/lightning DoT, I was just saying those would cool to get(via adding new spells or modifying existing ones) so we would see more different kind of casters.

Btw, I too turn off max/emp for cloudkill(as a wizard that is, as a sorc, had full lightning/acid and more sp so didn't) unless it's VoD. And also heighten off for halt undead. :P

I know what you mean and agree, in the future maybe...

I just played in Von1 with firewall. Stacking does not seem to help much in generating crits. Against self healing epic mobs, I will agree random crit ticks on a firewall do not cut it and probably wont kill such a mob easily without lots of SP use. I died to a disintegrate so didn't get far in the arena fight to test much more :P

Maybe this was part of the motivation...it is pretty obvious Turbine do not like players zerging and/or soloing epics easily...look at the changes to Von1 scroll farming, Big Top and now this.

I will probably agree that this is a nerf for epic soloing.

[Khellendros13]

Never said its easy, but its doable. I'm glad you know what the dev's have in mind, I would love you to share some more of their thoughts, because some of the latest updates have me confused.

That won't stop any arcanes from soloing epics, you can be pretty sure of that. It will just make us think of a different strategy that is all.
And crit walls really do not matter for non-epic content (as has been mentioned many times already), you can pretty much instakill everything already with necro spells (yes,that includes Amrath).



Ice storm might work. Once it hits live it will be tested and figured out
There are other options for a soloing arcane too, just slower.
Mostly what I was saying is that its a nerf to firewall and arcane fire DPS (per SECOND, meaning you will get the same damage in a longer period of time), no matter how some people try to twist it.

Another problem might occur is with aggro - a few crit ticks on a mob not being hit by other party members can get you unwanted aggro. If you see that the wall is crit now, you will be prepared for that. You can't know if its random per tick. On the other hand, you can not reliably hold aggro with a wall that is random like that and will lose it to melees/arcanes regularly.

Edit: Can anyone write how this change affects Blade Barrier?

Yea I thought about the agro side if the firewall but forgot to mention it.

As for Bladebarrier, I have a feeling it is a boost - who fishes for crit BB with only 9% chance max?
Stacking them means you lose half your ticks so I have never bothered to fish with it...do others?

[trespasser]

Yea I thought about the agro side if the firewall but forgot to mention it.

As for Bladebarrier, I have a feeling it is a boost - who fishes for crit BB with only 9% chance max?
Stacking them means you lose half your ticks so I have never bothered to fish with it...do others?

No, because there are no mobs resistant to it (evasion mobs still take 0 damage from crits if they save) and its a waste of SP - you just kite on whatever you get.
That is why I was asking, it would actually be nice to get random tics on a BB. I have not seen any confirmation that the way BB works has changed though.

Afterthough: Do you get your crit chance calculated when you cast the spell or during? Can I swap lore items and still get the greater amount of crit ticks or do I have to keep the lore item equipped?

Edit: Too many questions nobody will answer arise, so I will just wait until it hits live and test I guess. I was just throwing some thoughts for everyone to give their comments on

[Khellendros13]

No, because there are no mobs resistant to it (evasion mobs still take 0 damage from crits if they save) and its a waste of SP - you just kite on whatever you get.
That is why I was asking, it would actually be nice to get random tics on a BB. I have not seen any confirmation that the way BB works has changed though.

Afterthough: Do you get your crit chance calculated when you cast the spell or during? Can I swap lore items and still get the greater amount of crit ticks or do I have to keep the lore item equipped?

Edit: Too many questions nobody will answer arise, so I will just wait until it hits live and test I guess. I was just throwing some thoughs for everyone to give their comments on

Yea I saw crits with a scroll and shield equipped.

Shield and lifeshield thrower:



EDIT: While I still had 9% chance to crit from enhancements, the number of crits I saw seem like the chance is locked in at cast time then calculated against that % per tick for ice and bludgeon.

[trespasser]

Yea I saw crits with a scroll and shield equipped.

Shield and lifeshield thrower:

Nice, thank you.

[Khellendros13]

Nice, thank you.

NP.

I want to test if Ice Storm has a cap on damage...going to bed now but if anyone can test with the archmage set it would be appreciated

[Ebuddy]

I don't know about you, but even on my Sorc, who's fully specced and geared for Acid/Lightning, I buy twice as many Hearts of Hens as I do any other spell component.

That, I find distastefull.

That the hens find it more distasteful...

[Ganidel]

This I think would be a game breaker for me. I only came back like 2 weeks ago and thought things were looking up for the game but if this gos live I think Ill cancel my sub.

When I saw cleric crit aura I was glade to play my cleric. I like my sorc because I have enough sp to FW spam untell I get a crit on a boss and what not.


Also this seems like another down grade to give us another so called boost aka sorc prestige.

[Thrudh]

Personally, I'm amazed it took them this long to swing the nerf bat at FW. With all the *****ing and crying from noobs about how over powered it is/was it was just a matter of time.

It IS overpowered... but this change doesn't reduce it's power much at all...

You'll still see the same number of crits over multiple firewalls...

Anyone who is any good should have zero problems with this change.

[Thrudh]

Firewall is still as effective as it's ever been.

You're still going to get -exactly the same- Damage over time out of it.

You just won't get the tremendous spikes in damage output that a crit firewall gave before.

Exactly

[hityawithastick]

Isn't this just hurting the people who run through the quest, aggro everything, and then hide on a pillar and spam firewalls?

I personally try to play my caster like a 'caster' would fight; fireballs at groups of enemies, cone of cold through doors, walls of fire at choke points, disintegrate/necrotic ray at bosses. And IT WORKS. My caster does not cause parties to autofail. I can solo. And--ask someone who knows--my toon is one of the squishiest around.