Feedback: Magister

[oberon131313]

Just got "Arcane Adept" and it's only giving a 5% discount to SP costs as opposed to the 10% it claims:

(Effects): You benefit from your Arcane Adept.
(Effects): --- Enhancement modifier to Spell Cost Multiplier: +5%
(Combat): You are affected by arcane adept.
(Combat): Your spells cost 5% less to cast.

Any word on if it's going to be nerfed to 5%? IMO it's pretty lacklustre if it's nerfed to 5% for 2 points.

You should verify that it is actually only 5%; it's just as likely that the combat log is wrong.

[oberon131313]

Allow sigils to be effected by Quicken or sorcerer/FS fast-casting. They probably want us to invest in the summoning line to reduce their casting time.
The sigils of Warding and Energy Negation look useful for assult-style quests, like Vision of Destruction, Devil Assult, and some challenges. I would not call them useless, they're just not very interesting.

Unless something has changed, sigils already can be quickened.

[NUDS]

You should verify that it is actually only 5%; it's just as likely that the combat log is wrong.

Wail: 50 SP base.
With Arcane Adept (10%): Should be 50-(50*0.1) = 45 SP.
Actual Values: 48 SP consumed (Which is 50-(50*0.05) i.e. 5% reduction, rounding up).

Finger of Death: 40 SP base.
With Arcane Adept (10%): Should be 40-(40*0.1) = 36 SP
Actual Values: 38 SP consumed (Which is 40-(40*0.05) i.e. 5% reduction).

Protection from Elements: 30 SP base.
With Arcane Adept (10%): Should be 30-(30*0.1) = 27 SP.
Actual Values: 29 SP consumed (Which is 30-(30*0.05) i.e. 5% reduction, rounding up).

So unless maths can't be trusted...the reduction is 5% instead of the stated 10%.

[PopeJual]

Wail: 50 SP base.
With Arcane Adept (10%): Should be 50-(50*0.1) = 45 SP.
Actual Values: 48 SP consumed (Which is 50-(50*0.05) i.e. 5% reduction, rounding up).

Finger of Death: 40 SP base.
With Arcane Adept (10%): Should be 40-(40*0.1) = 36 SP
Actual Values: 38 SP consumed (Which is 40-(40*0.05) i.e. 5% reduction).

Protection from Elements: 30 SP base.
With Arcane Adept (10%): Should be 30-(30*0.1) = 27 SP.
Actual Values: 29 SP consumed (Which is 30-(30*0.05) i.e. 5% reduction, rounding up).

So unless maths can't be trusted...the reduction is 5% instead of the stated 10%.

Math never helps anything.

[wizardsguild]

Math never helps anything.

LOL nice you made me laugh +1

[oberon131313]

Wail: 50 SP base.
With Arcane Adept (10%): Should be 50-(50*0.1) = 45 SP.
Actual Values: 48 SP consumed (Which is 50-(50*0.05) i.e. 5% reduction, rounding up).

Finger of Death: 40 SP base.
With Arcane Adept (10%): Should be 40-(40*0.1) = 36 SP
Actual Values: 38 SP consumed (Which is 40-(40*0.05) i.e. 5% reduction).

Protection from Elements: 30 SP base.
With Arcane Adept (10%): Should be 30-(30*0.1) = 27 SP.
Actual Values: 29 SP consumed (Which is 30-(30*0.05) i.e. 5% reduction, rounding up).

So unless maths can't be trusted...the reduction is 5% instead of the stated 10%.

Thanks for testing, did you submit a bug report? Also, were you already using other items that would reduce your spell point cost? (Power Store I think it is)
Just trying to cover all bases.

[NUDS]

Thanks for testing, did you submit a bug report? Also, were you already using other items that would reduce your spell point cost? (Power Store I think it is)
Just trying to cover all bases.

No Power Store, no Metas and I went naked just to be sure :P

Tested on level 23 Air Savant.

Doesn't seem to affect SLAs either, though technically it probably wouldn't anyway - tested on Wind Dance (10 SP) which should be reduced to 9 SP with a 10% reduction but the current 5% reduction means it rounds up to 10 SP.


Should I submit a bug report? From reading the forums it seems these usually take week if not months, and would be better off trying to get the Devs attention on the forums.

[oberon131313]

No Power Store, no Metas and I went naked just to be sure :P

Tested on level 23 Air Savant.

Doesn't seem to affect SLAs either, though technically it probably wouldn't anyway - tested on Wind Dance (10 SP) which should be reduced to 9 SP with a 10% reduction but the current 5% reduction means it rounds up to 10 SP.


Should I submit a bug report? From reading the forums it seems these usually take week if not months, and would be better off trying to get the Devs attention on the forums.

As Lelo pointed out, the Dev for Magister is MIA, so a bug report should be filed for whoever covers that.

Thanks again for testing.

[Faent]

Turbine, what's the deal with the DEV assignment for these destinies? Have we lost Genasi? (That'd be a shame.) If so, has anything been done about that?

[Krell]

Wail: 50 SP base.
With Arcane Adept (10%): Should be 50-(50*0.1) = 45 SP.
Actual Values: 48 SP consumed (Which is 50-(50*0.05) i.e. 5% reduction, rounding up).

Finger of Death: 40 SP base.
With Arcane Adept (10%): Should be 40-(40*0.1) = 36 SP
Actual Values: 38 SP consumed (Which is 40-(40*0.05) i.e. 5% reduction).

Protection from Elements: 30 SP base.
With Arcane Adept (10%): Should be 30-(30*0.1) = 27 SP.
Actual Values: 29 SP consumed (Which is 30-(30*0.05) i.e. 5% reduction, rounding up).

So unless maths can't be trusted...the reduction is 5% instead of the stated 10%.

It would be nice if this was included on the patch 2 or known issues lists.

[Vargouille]

Should I submit a bug report? From reading the forums it seems these usually take week if not months, and would be better off trying to get the Devs attention on the forums.

If you want to make sure something is tracked and eventually fixed, please always submit a bug report. It really does help some things from slipping through the cracks. Thanks.

[guardiankaiser]

And if math can not be trusted either, equip the level 20 wizard set (War Wizard, Evening Star) and look in the log, it tells you its 5% and doesn't stack (which when i hit the final tier of magister and thought WOW I'm gonna have 20% off then only got 5% then it didn't stack man was I sad lol)

[Nyvn]

If you want to make sure something is tracked and eventually fixed, please always submit a bug report. It really does help some things from slipping through the cracks. Thanks.

Despite repeated examples that show otherwise?

[YYZAZ]

grand summoner is not working on my pet. all other summons recieve it just fine. Is this a known issue? if not, well, it should be. its a pretty major issue, my pet needs his buffs too.

[wax_on_wax_off]

Is it WAI that the level 5 magister ability "Arcane Adept" doesn't stack with items that grant 10% spell point discount? Was certainly my impression that enhancements and items should always stack.

[Lyria]

Tested out a few of the epic summons (though for some reason the cost to respec my destiny bumped up to 45,000, vs the 60p or so it was on the live server, so I couldn't test all of them). I had Augment Summon, but not Grand Summoner.

For all the tests I went out into kings forest and picked on groups of 2-3 drow, defending myself and letting the summon do its work. The summons were all buffed with greater heroism, bull's strength, bear's endurance, blur, haste, and rage.

Abjuration (Animate Armor): Its dps was abysmal. It was hitting the drow archers for about 30-40 per swing, with a fairly slow swing speed (and would miss a LOT). When the mobs would finally notice it and attack, it would drop fairly rapidly. One archer focusing on it killed it in about 30 seconds.

Conjuration (random Epic Golem): Like the armor, the dps on the golems was pretty much garbage. They're VERY slow to run around (grand summoner would probably help that), attack extremely slowly, and seem to have negligible +to hit, as they would miss well over half the time. They're also surprisingly fragile for golems -- even the iron golem went down very quickly with a single drow engaging it. Additionally, their AI is amazingly bad -- two archers split apart and were pingponging the golem back and forth for about a minute while I tossed repair spells on it. It would run towards one, then the other archer would hit it so it would turn around and slog back towards the other one. Repeat. It did this for about 30 seconds until I finally got tired of it and killed one of the archers.

Enchantment (Succubus): The succubus has several spells she cycles through (charm, fireball, lightning bolt), but seems to have rather low DCs on them, as she was getting evaded about 70% of the time by drow archers, and the charm never landed at all. Once she was out of mana, she'd teleport around trying to melee/shoot her bow at them, doing about 10-15 damage per attack.

Evocation (Living Meteor Swarm): The one really solid epic summon. It seems to have high DCs with its spells, and casts them relatively intelligently. It can actually solo a lone drow, and against two of them will kill one and seriously hurt the second before it runs low enough on mana that it can't keep throwing spells without lengthy delays to regen mana. Overall, it's pretty solid.

Necromancy (Lich): The lich is another caster, cycling through fear, magic missile, symbol of weakness, and I think one other spell. The damage is mediocre at best, however, and it gets resisted most of the time. The magic missiles hit for about 10-12 per shot, so about 50-60 damage per volley. Once it's out of mana, it just runs around trying to attack in melee, hitting for about 10 per swing (if it hits).

I haven't tested Transmutation or Illusion yet (didn't have the money to respec again), but overall other than evocation, the epic summons are in DIRE need of a major (MAJOR) boost to power. If it needs to be turned into a 2pt power rather than 1pt in order to beef them up, so be it, but frankly the summoned pets are something of a joke right now. It's almost a waste of points unless you're an evocation specialist.

Ideally I'd like to see them be about half the strength of the equivalent class henchman. Meaning that the casters would have 1000+ mana instead of the 300-400 that they seem to have now (the living spell runs out of mana after about 6-8 casts). The melee summons need to have their to-hit ramped up substantially, their AC/DR increased, and their health about doubled -- they shouldn't be casually killed by a single drow warrior, who doesn't even break a sweat to chop them in half. Their damage needs to be increased by about 500% (no joke), as well. If they're attacking as slow as they are, they need to hit for 150ish per swing, not 30-40.

Additionally, I'd like to see the grand summons have a control bar for them like henchman/pets do. You NEED to be able to tell them what to do, to maximize their (at the moment minimal) damage. It would be nice to see the same thing for monster summoning and the PM pets as well, honestly.

[Shade]

Tested out a few of the epic summons (though for some reason the cost to respec my destiny bumped up to 45,000, vs the 60p or so it was on the live server, so I couldn't test all of them). I had Augment Summon, but not Grand Summoner.

For all the tests I went out into kings forest and picked on groups of 2-3 drow, defending myself and letting the summon do its work. The summons were all buffed with greater heroism, bull's strength, bear's endurance, blur, haste, and rage.

Abjuration (Animate Armor): Its dps was abysmal. It was hitting the drow archers for about 30-40 per swing, with a fairly slow swing speed (and would miss a LOT). When the mobs would finally notice it and attack, it would drop fairly rapidly. One archer focusing on it killed it in about 30 seconds.

Conjuration (random Epic Golem): Like the armor, the dps on the golems was pretty much garbage. They're VERY slow to run around (grand summoner would probably help that), attack extremely slowly, and seem to have negligible +to hit, as they would miss well over half the time. They're also surprisingly fragile for golems -- even the iron golem went down very quickly with a single drow engaging it. Additionally, their AI is amazingly bad -- two archers split apart and were pingponging the golem back and forth for about a minute while I tossed repair spells on it. It would run towards one, then the other archer would hit it so it would turn around and slog back towards the other one. Repeat. It did this for about 30 seconds until I finally got tired of it and killed one of the archers.

Enchantment (Succubus): The succubus has several spells she cycles through (charm, fireball, lightning bolt), but seems to have rather low DCs on them, as she was getting evaded about 70% of the time by drow archers, and the charm never landed at all. Once she was out of mana, she'd teleport around trying to melee/shoot her bow at them, doing about 10-15 damage per attack.

Evocation (Living Meteor Swarm): The one really solid epic summon. It seems to have high DCs with its spells, and casts them relatively intelligently. It can actually solo a lone drow, and against two of them will kill one and seriously hurt the second before it runs low enough on mana that it can't keep throwing spells without lengthy delays to regen mana. Overall, it's pretty solid.

Necromancy (Lich): The lich is another caster, cycling through fear, magic missile, symbol of weakness, and I think one other spell. The damage is mediocre at best, however, and it gets resisted most of the time. The magic missiles hit for about 10-12 per shot, so about 50-60 damage per volley. Once it's out of mana, it just runs around trying to attack in melee, hitting for about 10 per swing (if it hits).

I haven't tested Transmutation or Illusion yet (didn't have the money to respec again), but overall other than evocation, the epic summons are in DIRE need of a major (MAJOR) boost to power. If it needs to be turned into a 2pt power rather than 1pt in order to beef them up, so be it, but frankly the summoned pets are something of a joke right now. It's almost a waste of points unless you're an evocation specialist.

Ideally I'd like to see them be about half the strength of the equivalent class henchman. Meaning that the casters would have 1000+ mana instead of the 300-400 that they seem to have now (the living spell runs out of mana after about 6-8 casts). The melee summons need to have their to-hit ramped up substantially, their AC/DR increased, and their health about doubled -- they shouldn't be casually killed by a single drow warrior, who doesn't even break a sweat to chop them in half. Their damage needs to be increased by about 500% (no joke), as well. If they're attacking as slow as they are, they need to hit for 150ish per swing, not 30-40.

Additionally, I'd like to see the grand summons have a control bar for them like henchman/pets do. You NEED to be able to tell them what to do, to maximize their (at the moment minimal) damage. It would be nice to see the same thing for monster summoning and the PM pets as well, honestly.

Yep.

Tho even the meteor swarm is awful imo.

I mean a living spell that after less then a minute can't cast its own spell?
Semes like a cruel joke to me that these even have mana bars at all.

I mean they were INTENTIONALLY gimpified by a dev to make them worse then the very weakest meteor swarms in the lowest levle casual quest they appear in. Pretty sad if you aask me. The thing also gets 1 shot by any monster that poses any real threat. They could of simply copy and pasted the elite version from enter the kobold and called it a day. Would of saved time and resulted in a balanced, useful summon.

Pretty bad that 6+ years into this game, the only worthwhile summons remain to be the CC air elem, epic tharaak hound and (rarely) the hezrou (when used at the absolute minimum lvl you can summon it).

Every so called "epic" summon which basically require you to be lvl25 given how deep in the tree they are, are insanely weaker then said air elemental, which you can use at lvl - 4 -.. Zero sense it makes.

Well heres to hoping they make a new epic air element gem in CC v2epicmode heh.

PS: Un-nerf my epic tharaak hound. The fact they he gained acid blast and cyclonic blast is a nerf - they both do weak damage for their slow cast time, and cyclonic blast erases all of my firewalls/icesotmrs/dance balls/etc, very annoying.

[soulaeon]

Pretty bad that 6+ years into this game, the only worthwhile summons remain to be the CC air elem, epic tharaak hound and (rarely) the hezrou (when used at the absolute minimum lvl you can summon it).

LOL if no one was going to mention the air elemental, I was going to. You guys nailed it with this one.
Summoned monsters were generally never very useful at high level content, and it seems like the developers were still in that mind-set when they created this destiny. Do any of them actually play casters? One would think with all the brown-nosing they give wizards yet they can not come up with a balanced set of summons to make them more palatable. At the least, summons' levels and abilities could scale with their content upon being cast.

[Lyria]

LOL if no one was going to mention the air elemental, I was going to. You guys nailed it with this one.
Summoned monsters were generally never very useful at high level content, and it seems like the developers were still in that mind-set when they created this destiny. Do any of them actually play casters? One would think with all the brown-nosing they give wizards yet they can not come up with a balanced set of summons to make them more palatable. At the least, summons' levels and abilities could scale with their content upon being cast.

Perhaps they could include a new 'tier' of summons once your caster level reaches 21+. Same mobs as MS-9, but their level is cranked up to match yours. That way your summons would still be useful, rather than being a waste of a spell slot in epics.

Pretty sad that a random wolf out in king's forest can tear a hezrou apart in seconds.

[Pantronic]

If they gave it stacking spell power, that would discourage you from every unloading the charges to use the epic moment.. Counter-intuitive.

That's ok.. usually, before I got enough charges for epic moment, I either shrine or go through a portal.