04-30-2012, 05:07 PM
Here I will summarise the changes and uses for offensive and harmful spells.
Flame Strike (Spell book)
The spell inflicts a minimum of 47 damage to the target. This damage increases on low AR to a maximum of 51 damage at 0 AR. This AR dependence is small but designed to give a slight reward to people using the very best AR but without breaking the system such that rich players benefit too much.
Mana: 40
Delay: 3.5s
Comments:
With the increased damage some players may wish to use this spell for ganking against opponents in mid to high AR or for starting a dump, particularly against an opponent who is paralyzed or such-like. Otherwise the high mana cost and cast time prohibit use in general PvP.
Flame Strike (Scroll)
The spell inflicts 42 damage on the target. This damage is increased with decreasing AR with a maximum damage of 46 at 0 AR.
Mana: 27
Delay: 2.1s
Comments:
This is still the primary nuking spell with the highest DPS of any offensive spell in the game. The DPM is now slightly worse to offset the increased total damage. However, the spell is still relatively efficient and I expect it to be used in most situations for nuking against opponents who are in respectable levels of AR. Situationally other nuking spells may be better and those situations will be discussed in the comments for those spells.
Harm (Spell book and scroll are the same)
This spell inflicts 21 damage on the target, ignores AR.
Mana: 11
Delay: 2.1s
Comments:
This spell has the poorest DPS of any offensive spell. However, it is also the most mana efficient damage spell available on high AR opponents. There are many situations where this is useful, particularly for harassment during duels. If one wishes to open with a moderate amount of guaranteed damage without losing too much mana, or if one is being chased and wishes to knock the opponent's health down to force a heal then Harm is a highly effective way of doing it without sacrificing too much of your own mana. However, the poor DPS means it is a bad choice for nuking. Observant players will notice that the stats very closely match the old version of Lightning as cast from the spell book. So if Lightning (spell book) used to play a part in your old strategies then Harm should also suffice for that purpose.
Lightning (Spell book and scroll are the same)
The spell inflicts 16 damage on the target, ignores AR.
Mana: 10
Delay: 1.0s
Comments:
This spell has good DPS, but inferior to Flame Strike scrolls. It also has decent DPM but inferior to a number of other spells. However, its strength lies in the fact that it can deliver the hardest guaranteed AR-ignoring punch in 1s making it an ideal finishing move. Again observant players will note that the stats match the Lightning scroll from before the changes and as such the use for this spell is much the same. One should note that depending on AR or stats other spells may serve the purpose of finishing move better, but Lightning is the bread and butter spell for this purpose.
Fireball (Spell book and scroll are the same)
This spell inflicts a base damage of 14 on the target. At low AR (below 45) damage is increased with more the damage the lower the AR maxing out at 22 damage for 0 AR.
Mana: 9
Time: 1.25s
Comments:
In general this spell is inferior as a finisher to Lightning and inferior in harassment to Harm when AR is ~40 or above. However, at low AR, particularly near to 0, the spell outstrips Lightning in terms of damage and Harm in terms of mana efficiency. This means that it is the perfect spell for either finishing or simply bullying a low AR opponent paving the way for either a strong nuke or finishing an opponent off quickly if they heal too fast for a finish using Explosion or Energy Bolt. The low mana cost also means that in a duel against someone in low AR it can be used for cheap hits and forcing your opponent to heal without costing you too much time or mana.
Mana Drain (Spell book and scroll are the same)
The spell removes 18 mana from the target. Once removed an internal timer starts, after 12s the mana is returned to the opponent. If you repeat a cast inside this 12s your cast will do nothing and waste your mana. An animation is played when the duration is over and mana is returned.
Mana: 9
Delay: 1.0s
Comments:
This is one of the least tested features but I will talk about the intended purpose. If an opponent was to nuke poorly or over use GH scrolls then in the old system they would go out of mana and die. This is right. But in the new system with regeneration sometimes an opponent has a greater margin for error for such things. Mana Drain is one of the tools used to destroy this margin for error, if an opponent nukes poorly and wastes their mana then you can drain 18 of whatever remains, if done right the opponent may bottom out and be vulnerable to being finished off without being able to cast Greater Heals or such. The animation that plays when the 12s duration ends will help with reapplying if necessary. Note that if you drain too early and your opponent maxes their mana then when mana is restored they may even go above maximum mana (same formula as mana pots) so you could be doing them a favour, use the spell wisely. Also see Mind Blast for more on this strategy.
Mind Blast (Spell book and scrolls are the same)
This spell is one of the most complex. Its basic function is to do 30 damage, ignoring AR, and also drain 3 mana from the target. The drained mana is not added to the caster's mana pool but is simply destroyed. It is also not returned (i.e. not like Mana Drain).
When the target has imbalanced stats then Mind Blast gains some advantages. For a maximum imbalance of 60 difference between INT and DEX then Mindblast gains 7 damage and drains 1 additional mana. This bonus is smaller for smaller differences in INT and DEX and the formula is linear.
Mana: 17
Time: 1.75s
Comments:
There are two angles to Mind Blast. I will address each separately. First is its use as a nuking spell and in punishing people with imbalanced stats. Some people planning to go Warrior build may be alarmed by this, as are perhaps some people with ganking stats, but everything has a disadvantage and the extremes of stats get the biggest bonuses so there is always a drawback somewhere else. At 37 damage then the mana efficiency of Mind Blast is comparable to the best of any other spell, and the DPS is very respectable second only to Flame Strike scrolls and AR-dependent spells on naked people. This means it is entirely reasonable to use Mind Blast as a primary nuking spell if your opponent has a big stat imbalance. However, it will not significantly out perform Flame Strike scrolls as this would be too good, but the performance may be very close and this is useful if you run out of scrolls or simply cannot afford them. Even at 30 damage on high AR opponents if Flame Strike scrolls are not available then Mind Blast may be your best option having a very similar DPS to Lightning but with additional mana drain.
The second angle to Mind Blast is its use in bottoming out your opponent's mana. From high mana the amount drained (3-4/cast) is not significant and will not cause your opponent to go out of mana before you do yourself. However, if your opponent already wasted a lot of mana scrolling or nuking badly then a well-timed Mana Drain followed by Mind Blast nuking (even at base 30 damage) could be extremely effective. Draining 3 mana per 1.75s exceeds the maximum mana regeneration rate, effectively killing your opponent's mana regeneration. This means if their mana is already low enough and a Mana Drain has been applied your opponent will have extreme difficulty in being able to cast unless he can manage a total mana potion or some very effective LoS breaking.
However, it should be noted like most of the new features that poor use will be penalised. If you nuke using Mind Blast instead of Flame Strike and your opponent is high on mana and/or has balanced stats then you will be sacrificing both DPS and DPM and significantly undermining your own mana management and chance to kill your opponent.
Explosion (Spell book and scroll are not the same but both entered here)
Does a base of 60 damage on 0 AR. However, damage decays with a polynomial order 2 expression with increasing AR such that even by AR 30 you would probably be better off casting something else.
The decay, for those who like the maths, is damage reduced by ((AR/8) + 1) * AR/8.
Mana: 20 (15 on scroll)
Time: 3.25s (1.75s on scroll) (I think, I will check this and adjust later)
Comments:
This new damage formula helps to separate Explosion from Energy Bolt. Now Explosion is clearly superior on vendor-level or below AR whereas on low/mid AR Energy Bolt will perform better (up to about 40-45 AR EB will outperform any of the other primary nukes, but since it is unchanged it isn't going to have its own entry here). In general Explosion does not have a purpose beyond punishing people in low AR with massive damage. The long cast time (even on scroll) means that you may wish to use Fireball in addition to Explosion to finish people off before they can use a Greater Heal scrolls or potion.
Magic Arrow (Scroll)
Inflicts 8 damage on the target, ignores AR.
Mana: 4
Time: 0.8s
Comments:
This has one highly situation purpose, if an opponent is red-lined at 8hp or less then this is the single fastest way to inflict 8 damage and finish your opponent. Since the cast time is matched to Heal it means that in the event of such a scenario if the attacker has a faster trigger finger than the defender then it means either death or at the very least forces the use of a Heal potion if the delay is up. However, in all other purposes the spell is not particularly effective having by far the worst DPS of any spell. The DPM is respectable at 2 damage per mana but the total damage is so low I would not expect to see the spell used for other purposes.
Please note that the book version of Magic Arrow is unchanged and still only does 1 damage meaning that it is still the primary method of removing Paralyze and Magic Reflect.
Poison (Spell book and scroll are the same)
Applies poison to the target. The level is determined by your Magery and Poisoning skills. At 200 total you will mostly apply Deadly level poison.
Mana: 9
Time: 1s
Comments:
The poison damage mechanic is unchanged. However, the new mitigation on heals (see healing spells) means that Poison has an additional dimension. See cure spell for discussion of why careless Poisoning is a liability. As a Poison user it is important to apply a poison in such a way that it will either mitigate a number of heals or will have time to start ticking and actually do damage. To this end applying a poison mid dump makes curing more difficult for an opponent, particularly if the opponent does not have good situational awareness or if the opponent is under a lot of pressure (perhaps being ganked) and cannot afford the 0.9s + lag + reaction time required to cure. Additionally, whilst other harassment spells can do straight up damage some people consider the net loss of only 3 mana to distract an opponent who is trying to run you down with a weapon to be worth it. Just bear in mind that 9 mana and 1s can be used to do something else, and sometimes there are better options, I see a lot of poor use of Poison at the moment in situations where either Harm, Fireball or Lightning would serve a better purpose.
Flame Strike (Spell book)
The spell inflicts a minimum of 47 damage to the target. This damage increases on low AR to a maximum of 51 damage at 0 AR. This AR dependence is small but designed to give a slight reward to people using the very best AR but without breaking the system such that rich players benefit too much.
Mana: 40
Delay: 3.5s
Comments:
With the increased damage some players may wish to use this spell for ganking against opponents in mid to high AR or for starting a dump, particularly against an opponent who is paralyzed or such-like. Otherwise the high mana cost and cast time prohibit use in general PvP.
Flame Strike (Scroll)
The spell inflicts 42 damage on the target. This damage is increased with decreasing AR with a maximum damage of 46 at 0 AR.
Mana: 27
Delay: 2.1s
Comments:
This is still the primary nuking spell with the highest DPS of any offensive spell in the game. The DPM is now slightly worse to offset the increased total damage. However, the spell is still relatively efficient and I expect it to be used in most situations for nuking against opponents who are in respectable levels of AR. Situationally other nuking spells may be better and those situations will be discussed in the comments for those spells.
Harm (Spell book and scroll are the same)
This spell inflicts 21 damage on the target, ignores AR.
Mana: 11
Delay: 2.1s
Comments:
This spell has the poorest DPS of any offensive spell. However, it is also the most mana efficient damage spell available on high AR opponents. There are many situations where this is useful, particularly for harassment during duels. If one wishes to open with a moderate amount of guaranteed damage without losing too much mana, or if one is being chased and wishes to knock the opponent's health down to force a heal then Harm is a highly effective way of doing it without sacrificing too much of your own mana. However, the poor DPS means it is a bad choice for nuking. Observant players will notice that the stats very closely match the old version of Lightning as cast from the spell book. So if Lightning (spell book) used to play a part in your old strategies then Harm should also suffice for that purpose.
Lightning (Spell book and scroll are the same)
The spell inflicts 16 damage on the target, ignores AR.
Mana: 10
Delay: 1.0s
Comments:
This spell has good DPS, but inferior to Flame Strike scrolls. It also has decent DPM but inferior to a number of other spells. However, its strength lies in the fact that it can deliver the hardest guaranteed AR-ignoring punch in 1s making it an ideal finishing move. Again observant players will note that the stats match the Lightning scroll from before the changes and as such the use for this spell is much the same. One should note that depending on AR or stats other spells may serve the purpose of finishing move better, but Lightning is the bread and butter spell for this purpose.
Fireball (Spell book and scroll are the same)
This spell inflicts a base damage of 14 on the target. At low AR (below 45) damage is increased with more the damage the lower the AR maxing out at 22 damage for 0 AR.
Mana: 9
Time: 1.25s
Comments:
In general this spell is inferior as a finisher to Lightning and inferior in harassment to Harm when AR is ~40 or above. However, at low AR, particularly near to 0, the spell outstrips Lightning in terms of damage and Harm in terms of mana efficiency. This means that it is the perfect spell for either finishing or simply bullying a low AR opponent paving the way for either a strong nuke or finishing an opponent off quickly if they heal too fast for a finish using Explosion or Energy Bolt. The low mana cost also means that in a duel against someone in low AR it can be used for cheap hits and forcing your opponent to heal without costing you too much time or mana.
Mana Drain (Spell book and scroll are the same)
The spell removes 18 mana from the target. Once removed an internal timer starts, after 12s the mana is returned to the opponent. If you repeat a cast inside this 12s your cast will do nothing and waste your mana. An animation is played when the duration is over and mana is returned.
Mana: 9
Delay: 1.0s
Comments:
This is one of the least tested features but I will talk about the intended purpose. If an opponent was to nuke poorly or over use GH scrolls then in the old system they would go out of mana and die. This is right. But in the new system with regeneration sometimes an opponent has a greater margin for error for such things. Mana Drain is one of the tools used to destroy this margin for error, if an opponent nukes poorly and wastes their mana then you can drain 18 of whatever remains, if done right the opponent may bottom out and be vulnerable to being finished off without being able to cast Greater Heals or such. The animation that plays when the 12s duration ends will help with reapplying if necessary. Note that if you drain too early and your opponent maxes their mana then when mana is restored they may even go above maximum mana (same formula as mana pots) so you could be doing them a favour, use the spell wisely. Also see Mind Blast for more on this strategy.
Mind Blast (Spell book and scrolls are the same)
This spell is one of the most complex. Its basic function is to do 30 damage, ignoring AR, and also drain 3 mana from the target. The drained mana is not added to the caster's mana pool but is simply destroyed. It is also not returned (i.e. not like Mana Drain).
When the target has imbalanced stats then Mind Blast gains some advantages. For a maximum imbalance of 60 difference between INT and DEX then Mindblast gains 7 damage and drains 1 additional mana. This bonus is smaller for smaller differences in INT and DEX and the formula is linear.
Mana: 17
Time: 1.75s
Comments:
There are two angles to Mind Blast. I will address each separately. First is its use as a nuking spell and in punishing people with imbalanced stats. Some people planning to go Warrior build may be alarmed by this, as are perhaps some people with ganking stats, but everything has a disadvantage and the extremes of stats get the biggest bonuses so there is always a drawback somewhere else. At 37 damage then the mana efficiency of Mind Blast is comparable to the best of any other spell, and the DPS is very respectable second only to Flame Strike scrolls and AR-dependent spells on naked people. This means it is entirely reasonable to use Mind Blast as a primary nuking spell if your opponent has a big stat imbalance. However, it will not significantly out perform Flame Strike scrolls as this would be too good, but the performance may be very close and this is useful if you run out of scrolls or simply cannot afford them. Even at 30 damage on high AR opponents if Flame Strike scrolls are not available then Mind Blast may be your best option having a very similar DPS to Lightning but with additional mana drain.
The second angle to Mind Blast is its use in bottoming out your opponent's mana. From high mana the amount drained (3-4/cast) is not significant and will not cause your opponent to go out of mana before you do yourself. However, if your opponent already wasted a lot of mana scrolling or nuking badly then a well-timed Mana Drain followed by Mind Blast nuking (even at base 30 damage) could be extremely effective. Draining 3 mana per 1.75s exceeds the maximum mana regeneration rate, effectively killing your opponent's mana regeneration. This means if their mana is already low enough and a Mana Drain has been applied your opponent will have extreme difficulty in being able to cast unless he can manage a total mana potion or some very effective LoS breaking.
However, it should be noted like most of the new features that poor use will be penalised. If you nuke using Mind Blast instead of Flame Strike and your opponent is high on mana and/or has balanced stats then you will be sacrificing both DPS and DPM and significantly undermining your own mana management and chance to kill your opponent.
Explosion (Spell book and scroll are not the same but both entered here)
Does a base of 60 damage on 0 AR. However, damage decays with a polynomial order 2 expression with increasing AR such that even by AR 30 you would probably be better off casting something else.
The decay, for those who like the maths, is damage reduced by ((AR/8) + 1) * AR/8.
Mana: 20 (15 on scroll)
Time: 3.25s (1.75s on scroll) (I think, I will check this and adjust later)
Comments:
This new damage formula helps to separate Explosion from Energy Bolt. Now Explosion is clearly superior on vendor-level or below AR whereas on low/mid AR Energy Bolt will perform better (up to about 40-45 AR EB will outperform any of the other primary nukes, but since it is unchanged it isn't going to have its own entry here). In general Explosion does not have a purpose beyond punishing people in low AR with massive damage. The long cast time (even on scroll) means that you may wish to use Fireball in addition to Explosion to finish people off before they can use a Greater Heal scrolls or potion.
Magic Arrow (Scroll)
Inflicts 8 damage on the target, ignores AR.
Mana: 4
Time: 0.8s
Comments:
This has one highly situation purpose, if an opponent is red-lined at 8hp or less then this is the single fastest way to inflict 8 damage and finish your opponent. Since the cast time is matched to Heal it means that in the event of such a scenario if the attacker has a faster trigger finger than the defender then it means either death or at the very least forces the use of a Heal potion if the delay is up. However, in all other purposes the spell is not particularly effective having by far the worst DPS of any spell. The DPM is respectable at 2 damage per mana but the total damage is so low I would not expect to see the spell used for other purposes.
Please note that the book version of Magic Arrow is unchanged and still only does 1 damage meaning that it is still the primary method of removing Paralyze and Magic Reflect.
Poison (Spell book and scroll are the same)
Applies poison to the target. The level is determined by your Magery and Poisoning skills. At 200 total you will mostly apply Deadly level poison.
Mana: 9
Time: 1s
Comments:
The poison damage mechanic is unchanged. However, the new mitigation on heals (see healing spells) means that Poison has an additional dimension. See cure spell for discussion of why careless Poisoning is a liability. As a Poison user it is important to apply a poison in such a way that it will either mitigate a number of heals or will have time to start ticking and actually do damage. To this end applying a poison mid dump makes curing more difficult for an opponent, particularly if the opponent does not have good situational awareness or if the opponent is under a lot of pressure (perhaps being ganked) and cannot afford the 0.9s + lag + reaction time required to cure. Additionally, whilst other harassment spells can do straight up damage some people consider the net loss of only 3 mana to distract an opponent who is trying to run you down with a weapon to be worth it. Just bear in mind that 9 mana and 1s can be used to do something else, and sometimes there are better options, I see a lot of poor use of Poison at the moment in situations where either Harm, Fireball or Lightning would serve a better purpose.