So how do you plan to use your metamagics post U9?

[Bardgellor]

With the drastic reduction in sp costs for many of the staple damage spells I am considering not using metamagics except for boss fights when dps trumps conservation.

In the past, maximize made sp sense for any lv. 4 nuke or higher, as 2x damage only cost the sp to cast a lv. 4 spell. Now, you can case 3 fireballs for the price of 1 maximized fireball. Or 5 scorching rays for the price of 1 max. Or to get really silly, 7 niac's for the price of 1 max. Particularly with sorc. who can really spam spells, this seems the way to go.

One problem I see is that one of the great benefits of SLA's is the free use of metamagics. However, if I end up wasting tons of sp in inefficient castings between SLA cool downs (which are only getting longer), or have to waste time clicking my metamagics on and off, the benefit of the SLA seems muted. (In the context of Archmage evocation and the new elemental PREs, free heighten for other ARchmage SLAs still seems good).

So what is the communities thoughts on metamagics going forward?

Edit: Forgot to add: in the context of low level play. At cap when you are using higher level spells, and have significantly larger sp pools, it makes sense to keep your metamagics running most, if not all, of the time.

[Asketes]

If you want to DPS as a caster, you use metamagics. which means spells still cost about the same since they didn't bother adjusting the metamagics.

[Pikeman]

Personally, I plan on not playing my caster at all for a few weeks until people sort out new strategies for them.

[danotmano1998]

Don't play Mages!!!! They're DOOOooOOooOOOOOmed!

Just kidding. Yeah, the spell cost vs metamagics is now definately skewed.
Why cast a maximized fireball (2x damage) when you can throw 3 of them for the same cost?

Eh.. can anyone say "Kill them before they kill me?"


I'm looking at the new enhancements and thinking I'm going to just forget mages until folks figure out the bugs and the devs fix the inevitable errors and such. Then some wonderful person who plays this game way too much and has a heart of gold will post a build that is worthy, and I'll add to their rep, use their build as a template, tweak it to my liking and playstyle, and go from there.

7 Niac's ??? Really? I can just see that fight happening in my head.
Mage - "Wait wait! I'll just cast this spell of doom at him and he'll drop dead in no time"

*casts*
*casts*
*casts*
*casts*
*casts*
*cas......

Fighter - "Well, I guess I'll just take a rest then, no point in lifting my sword since you've got it so well covered."
Rogue - "Yeah, covered. Riiight." *Picks the pocket of the dead caster that the troll is eating now*

Fighter - "I told him he should have taken maximize.. Anyone got a rez?"
Cleric - "Noob."

[richieelias27]

They did state that they are looking into making the metamagic system such that you can select which spells you do and dont want them applied to. They didnt give any details beyond "We are looking into it" though, so how it will ultimately work is still unknown.

As for me, I will be testing things out by running with zero metamagics at all. No heighten, no extend, no empower, no maximize.... on a Sorc :P

I'm wondering if I can use the new weaken effects to my benefit and just come up with efficient combos and possibly free up 3 feat slots (after spending 1 for Savant)

[bryanmeerkat]

Personally, I plan on not playing my caster at all for a few weeks until people sort out new strategies for them.

Lol so you are gonna wait until someone tells you how to play ?

[GotSomeQuestions]

7 Niac's ??? Really? I can just see that fight happening in my head.
Mage - "Wait wait! I'll just cast this spell of doom at him and he'll drop dead in no time"

You do realize that maximize doesn't multiply your damage by 7, right? If it takes one or two maximized casts to kill the enemy, non-maximized spells will get it done in 3-4 casts, hardly the end of the world especially since we now get double range for free.

In general, you'll do quite well at very low levels turning off metamagics and just spamming your spells instead. You don't need to kill stuff in 1 hit if your spell has a 1 second cooldown--cast it twice for 8 sp, instead of one maximized cast for 29 sp.

[danotmano1998]

You do realize that maximize doesn't multiply your damage by 7, right? If it takes one or two maximized casts to kill the enemy, non-maximized spells will get it done in 3-4 casts, hardly the end of the world especially since we now get double range for free.

Yes, hence the humor in my above post.

[steelblueskies]

could be worse, at least he isn't telling others how to play.

the biggest step to gaining knowledge and wisdom is learning what it is you DON'T know.

[Pikeman]

Lol so you are gonna wait until someone tells you how to play ?

Yessir

[patang01]

I'm dropping extend. Other then for buffs is serves no purpose for my FvS.

[Osedox]

I'm dropping extend. Other then for buffs is serves no purpose for my FvS.

On a non-melee FVS this may be a possibility, however, its definitely worth squeezing in on a sorc, 2 min haste is the pits. (Take it from someone who has played without it on Lamm, after 2-3 char builds without extend I was about to shoot myself.)

[Zirun]

Rolling up my new Elven 18 Wizard/2 Rogue Pale Master, gonna make quite a few choices I wouldn't have made pre-update.

I'm dropping most of the metamagics, not that I'd take any to begin with. Maximize and/or Empower are going, and that's not a huge deal since I play almost entirely solo and mad deeps doesn't matter as much as stretching resources. Extend I was considering not using before, now with reduced spell point costs and less spells being effected by it, I can finally cut that loose.

In their place, I'm taking Shield Mastery and Improved Shield Mastery, hoping to eventually use a Tower Shield and some heavy armor in combination with the Elven ASF reduction enhancements to get a useful AC without any ASF.

Dunno what I'll have left for feats after that. I'll probably take Combat Expertise in place of Extend, and maybe take an extra Toughness or Improved Mental Toughness if I have another one leftover (which I don't think I do, but I'm too lazy to check).

So... I'm planning on using my metamagics by using every single one of the 0 metamagics I have (assuming I have enough Wizard bonus feats that aren't metamagics to take!). :P