To extend or not to extend....

[xtchizobr]

i've seen a lot of posts in this thread that say drop extend and take quicken.. why the **** would you not already have quicken? you're a sorc. if you want to drop anything drop spell pen. while not a useless feat instakill spells are not very thematic with a nuking sorc.

i'm on my 3rd sorc life on my sorc who will have 3/3/3 past lives of sorc/wiz/fvs. even with 1 less dc then final there are very few "evade's" when i blast. and thats on a warforge. you want spell pen get past life wiz or fvs... or both! there's more spell pen there then feats will ever give.

i like having haste/rage/displace on at all times. 1 feat to cast them half as often is not at all a waste to me. my dc's are high due to past lives. my spell pen is high due to past lives. that leaves meta's and i take em.

if anyone should drop extend, it would be the feat-starved Sorc with all that surplus SP laying around...

[Thorzian]

if anyone should drop extend, it would be the feat-starved Sorc with all that surplus SP laying around...

there's no such thing as surplus sp. i dont care if you have 4k, a torc, e-ss ring, and a bauble. by the end of the quest, or the next shrine, you should be empty or you're not using that sp to its potential. blast away nukers. blast away.

[Ungood]

there's no such thing as surplus sp. i dont care if you have 4k, a torc, e-ss ring, and a bauble. by the end of the quest, or the next shrine, you should be empty or you're not using that sp to its potential. blast away nukers. blast away.

This is actually very good point, because If you are not using your spell points, then they are not really doing you any good.

[Swimms]

So for anyone who is still following this thread, I dropped extend for greater SF evocation and then dropped greater spell pen for past life cleric. I do not miss extend one bit and have not heard a complaint from any groups to date.

Past life cleric has exceeded all of my expectations. The 3rd charisma enhancement would put me at 41 cha so I put those 6 points into healing amp as a human sorc. The 5 self heals hit me for 197-230 on normal casts and upwards of 400 on crits, and they are very fast casting. All in all a very nice compliment for an emegerncy heal, it also allows me to keep my torc on full time rather than swapping the cartouche for no fail heal scrolls. It may not be for everyone but for me, I am digging past life cleric.

http://my.ddo.com/character/argonnessen/neurik/

[xtchizobr]

there's no such thing as surplus sp. i dont care if you have 4k, a torc, e-ss ring, and a bauble. by the end of the quest, or the next shrine, you should be empty or you're not using that sp to its potential. blast away nukers. blast away.

so.... basically you don't know what you're saying?

you use Extend to save your precious 3k SP that you insist needs to be completely gone instead of simply casting haste again?

but also, there's not unlimited monsters to kill between shrines, so it's just outrageously fallacious to suggest that nukers should always go oom before resting. the measure of your success as a party member is NOT related to what your blue bar is doing. it's ok if you're a noob, or a kid, or just an idiot, but please... keep that dumb mouth shut.

[wax_on_wax_off]

there's no such thing as surplus sp. i dont care if you have 4k, a torc, e-ss ring, and a bauble. by the end of the quest, or the next shrine, you should be empty or you're not using that sp to its potential. blast away nukers. blast away.

If SP is so important to you then you better get all those mental toughness feats, right?

No one would suggest that extend is a bad feat, it is just the opportunity cost involved in taking it.

If you take extend then in a 10 minute period which I consider an average period of time between shrines you can save about 60 SP if you have haste/displacement/rage constantly running. Obviously there are more uses for extend but with the removal of offensive spells from the extendable list SP efficiency is much lower than what it used to be. Fireshield is another spell for which extend can be quite useful but it is situational.

Now, as to the opportunity cost. Fact is, I am pretty sure than in a majority of challenging encounters that +1 DC on your chosen school (usually evocation) will see a higher DPS over an extended period than what the SP savings would provide from being able to cast extended buffs. Certainly for shorter time periods the spell focus will be better.

Extend for many casters and especially sorcerers is a bad players crutch. Please forum community, don't encourage it.

Disclaimer: These arguments only apply post-U9, pre-U9 (where most players developed their habits) extend was a much more solid choice.

[Thorzian]

so.... basically you don't know what you're saying?

you use Extend to save your precious 3k SP that you insist needs to be completely gone instead of simply casting haste again?

.

when did i say i took extend to save sp? i take extend to save time. why would i want to recast buffs every 2 minutes when i can do it every 4. maybe you like to dungeon crawl, hit enemies with dot's or firewalls and wait.. i like to kill them and move on with my life.