Most useless spells?

[Red_Knight]

Just for giggles I started thinking about what spells in DDO are 'the most useless' for sorcerers. Here's my rundown, but I'd be interested in hearing other people's lists and reasoning.

Mage Armor: Okay, it starts out handy... at level one. But bracers/robes/rings/whatever of Armor are common these days. And it doesn't take very long to get a +4 robe. Heck, I was looting them while still on Korthos. And even back in the day when bracers of armor were a valuable commodity, Black Widow Bracers were fairly easy to get by around level 3. And back then those would tide you over till at least level 8. So for the most part all it does is provide 4 AC when fighting wraiths/ghosts. Other then that this spell wastes space in your rather limited spell book.

Cats Grace/Owls Wisdom/excreta: Once again, here's an entire set of spells that start out useful, but are quickly made pointless by gear. In this case it's due to the fact that stat boosting gear is rather common. The Mass versions of these spells are even more pointless. By the time you can cast a Mass version of Cats Grace, for example, everyone who cares about it will already have a +4 dex item, or better.

Flaming Sphere: I want to like this spell. I really want to like it. In PnP I've used it to great effect. And yet it falls flat in several big ways. To begin with, it's save DC is really low. Which means pretty much everything will save 98% of the time. But when it does hit it does good damage, right? Not so much, no. Flaming Sphere does 2d6 damage and never increases. Okay, so spell power can increase the damage but that's about it. And then there's the fact this thing is SLOW. So slow in fact that a one legged elderly kobold can hobble faster then it moves.

Niac's Cold Ray: I'll admit, when this spell works it works very well. With it dealing 1d5+5 damage per level, with a cap of 5d5+25 it can deal some serious damage. The problem is the low save and all or nothing effect. While you can use Heighten to raise the save DC, is it really worth doubling (at least) the cost of this spell this spell?

Haste: The attack speed boost and other benefits are nice, this I'll grant you. But at 6 second duration per caster level, it's more of a situational buff. Yet so many view it as mandatory to maintain the entire duration of a quest.

Grease: In all the times I've tried to use this spell it's only caused 3 enemies to fall over. But it almost always knocks down players. Even the ability to light Grease on fire for some area damage doesn't help this spell out.

Melf's Acid Arrow/Black Dragon Bolt: While they do some good damage with no save possible, these two spells run afoul of another issue. Namely that enemies tend to die faster then they can deal their damage. If given a choice between dealing 12d6 damage over 8 seconds or 12d6 damage instantly, DoT rarely will win out. In short, it typically takes far too long for these spells to do anything useful. By the time they've managed to severely hurt/kill the monster, it's probably beaten you to a pulp. Or you could have already beaten said monster if you chose a different spell. And since they're single target, you have to spread the slow damage around, costing more SP. For damage over time, spells like Wall of Fire or Cloudkill are far superior. Now that I think about it, Burning Blood fits in with this issue too.

Contagion: Wow, this spell is so bad for DDO I'm not sure how it was considered a good idea. No, seriously! How many fights last longer then a minute? And the fights that will last for a minute or longer, how many of them will be against something that can't make the fortitude save whenever they want? This is a spell that's so situational, I fail to see when the situation would crop up in DDO.
EDIT: After messing around with Contagion-Slimy Doom this variant may sometimes be useful, maybe, due to it's effect going off every 6 seconds instead of 60 seconds. But I'm still seeing it do jack and diddly quite often due to things making the fort save twice in a row.

Anyway, that's my list of sorcerer spells I've found so far to be rather pointless. What about you guys? What spells do you consider to be not worth considering?

[Hiponic]

I took a different then most route on my sorc and LOVED every minute of it.

Web>Acid Rain>Cloud Kill

All you need. I soloed 1-17 i think it was with that sorc.
Never touched a cold or Fire spell.

I've never seen any one else play a sorc like that. Normally they do the same old Water savant over and over and over and over.

But there are some great combo's of spells people dont use cause the numbers arent huge.

[JOTMON]

Paladin spells.. most of these suck.. by the time they can cast them they are pointless.. at higher levels even more so.
only good thing is there are so few spells available to paladin that no real choice has to be made as to what to take.

Level 4 spell.. so cant cast until Level 14..
Neutralize Poison .. meanwhile cheap chuggable stacks of non-interruptable potions area available from almost every regular vendor and usable at level 1.

Level 3 spell.. so cant act until level 11
Remove Curse ... (same reason as poison above)


Especially...
Bears/Bulls/eagle/owl/fox.... - An ally gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength for 1 minute per caster level.
and mass versions of these by casters.. by the time you can cast them they are well beyond worthless as far as I am concerned.
~would like to see these changed to a Profane bonus of +1/10 caster levels. so wouldn't stack with Litany but would still be useful to party members at all levels and still desirable at endgame..

Ranger/Paladin spells need to scale with level.

Barkskin sucks due to the +5 ac cap and bad visual.. should just change the players skin to bark look.. not everthing the character is wearing. or covering cosmetics... it is well outdated and needs revamping.. and cap of +5 removed.
random gear trumps the spell early in the game.

Camouflage on multiple targets giving a +10 circumstance bonus to Hide

Longstrider, Mass Longstrider.. increasing base run speed 15%... doesn't stack with haste, or any striders.. like expedious retreat that can we wand cast at level 1 and gives 25%..
pretty pointless and misrepresented spell .. says it increases "base run speed" so it implies like it is similar to Barbarian/monk that actually give "base run speed" that stacks with haste/striders..... but the ranger one doesn't stack.

[TitusOvid]

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[psykopeta]

no offense but...

mage armor: you are right, turbine's fault cause avoiding the touch attack, that's why i put dex on my cleric when i started playing ddo
stats spells: iirc they work on hires even when they are supposed to have better items equipped, ofc not everydboy has a +6 item for every stat (i use to ignore some)so that may be of some use there too
flaming sphere: the ultimate sneaking spell, there's even a thread showing how to use it... as scroll!!!
niac cold ray: as most reflex stuff, save = 0 damage, ofc some mobs don't have evade, the ones you don't care, iirc there was on old rule that said "a lvl 1 spell heightened to lvl 9, doesn't mean it's a lvl 9 spell"
haste: that's what extend is for, i mean, there're really few uses for that meta, displace, haste and tenser, unless you grab another buff as non pure caster which will prolly hit your sp pool if you extend it
grease: the ultimate griefing spell, btw, with fireball works wonders, it's not knocking down, it's the movement speed it reduces
melf and black dragon: 2 dots that hit like a truck

imho they aren't as bad, ofc they don't need to fit your playstyle, but that's what variety means

[UurlockYgmeov]

its all about how you use them... tactics 101

or

improvise, adapt, overcome.

[Red_Knight]

melf and black dragon: 2 dots that hit like a truck

imho they aren't as bad, ofc they don't need to fit your playstyle, but that's what variety means

Yeah, they do hit like a truck. My issue with them has long been that they take too long to hit like a truck. Before the current enhancement tree system I was specing my pale master with acid as the secondary damage type. But ran into problems with my best acid spells taking too long to deal with foes. So I kept dying over and over when facing undead or things immune to neg energy.