Wizard Spells

[Eric D. Braden]

I must be missing something. I never played a wizard in EQ. Played
an enchanter up to about 30, but that was more than 4 years ago, so my
understanding of the spell system is pretty weak.

My current nooblet question concerns the spell Icestrike (and also
Shock of Flame, Fingers of Fire and Column of Frost). I don't
understand why the latter spells are so insanely weak compared to
Icestrike. Icestrike is 3 AOE waves of 46ish damage for 17 mana. FoF
is 28ish PBAOE damage. And it costs something like 47 mana. Is there
some advantage to the higher cost spells that I'm missing?

[Mark Rafn]

Post by Eric D. Braden
My current nooblet question concerns the spell Icestrike (and also
Shock of Flame, Fingers of Fire and Column of Frost). I don't
understand why the latter spells are so insanely weak compared to
Icestrike.

PBAOE has a huge advantage in that it's not limited in number of targets.

Post by Eric D. Braden
Icestrike is 3 AOE waves of 46ish damage for 17 mana.

Rain spells can hit at most 3 targets (maybe 4, memory is fuzzy), and
usually don't even hit that many. Targetted AOE can hit up to 4. Lucy says
Icestrike is Targetted AE, Direct Damage, so I'm surprised it does 3 waves...
http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?id=377&source=Live

Post by Eric D. Braden
FoF is 28ish PBAOE damage. And it costs something like 47 mana.

PBAOE can hit as many mobs as you can pack into range. We used to routinely
AE hundreds of mobs at a time in Fungus Grove back in the day. Enchanter
PBAOE stun to lock them down, wizard and druid PBAOE to kill them.

Post by Eric D. Braden
Is there some advantage to the higher cost spells that I'm missing?

Yes, but it'll probably never matter. They'll sit in back of your
spellbook, never seeing use at all, except for the higher-level ones when
you're killing hundreds of greenies for tradeskill drops.
--
Mark Rafn ***@dagon.net <http://www.dagon.net/>

[Eric D. Braden]

Post by Mark Rafn

Post by Eric D. Braden
My current nooblet question concerns the spell Icestrike (and also
Shock of Flame, Fingers of Fire and Column of Frost). I don't
understand why the latter spells are so insanely weak compared to
Icestrike.

PBAOE has a huge advantage in that it's not limited in number of targets.

Post by Eric D. Braden
Icestrike is 3 AOE waves of 46ish damage for 17 mana.

Rain spells can hit at most 3 targets (maybe 4, memory is fuzzy), and
usually don't even hit that many. Targetted AOE can hit up to 4. Lucy says
Icestrike is Targetted AE, Direct Damage, so I'm surprised it does 3 waves...http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?id=377&source=Live

Post by Eric D. Braden
FoF is 28ish PBAOE damage. And it costs something like 47 mana.

PBAOE can hit as many mobs as you can pack into range. We used to routinely
AE hundreds of mobs at a time in Fungus Grove back in the day. Enchanter
PBAOE stun to lock them down, wizard and druid PBAOE to kill them.

Post by Eric D. Braden
Is there some advantage to the higher cost spells that I'm missing?

Yes, but it'll probably never matter. They'll sit in back of your
spellbook, never seeing use at all, except for the higher-level ones when
you're killing hundreds of greenies for tradeskill drops.
--

Thanks for the info :) I thought I noticed a target limit with
Icestrike, but wasn't sure.

[Tony Evans]

Post by Mark Rafn
Rain spells can hit at most 3 targets (maybe 4, memory is fuzzy)

If 1 target in range, 3 waves
If 2 targets in range, 2 waves, hitting both targets
If 3 targets in range, 1 wave, hitting all three targets
If 4+ targets in range, 1 wave, hitting at most 3 targets

[Eric Sursa]

Post by Tony Evans

Post by Mark Rafn
Rain spells can hit at most 3 targets (maybe 4, memory is fuzzy)

If 1 target in range, 3 waves
If 2 targets in range, 2 waves, hitting both targets
If 3 targets in range, 1 wave, hitting all three targets
If 4+ targets in range, 1 wave, hitting at most 3 targets

The last time I played EQ, this would not have been correct.

1 target = 3 waves
2 targets = 2 waves, hitting both targets
3 targets = 1 wave hitting 3 targets, and 1 wave hitting 1 target
4+ targets = 1 wave hitting at most 4 targets

But they certainly could've changed it since I left.

PC pets used to count as a target for rain spells (although,
obviously, no damage was done to them,) and a change to the
way rain spells worked was propagated so that they no longer
did (maybe 4 years after they learned it was broken.) When
they made that change, they made it so that NPC pets as well
as PC pets didn't count as targets (NPC pets were still damaged,
however.) You used to be able to eke a little more efficiency out
of rain spells when NPC pets were present. I have no idea if that
is still the case, though.

[Eric D. Braden]

Post by Eric Sursa

Post by Tony Evans

Post by Mark Rafn
Rain spells can hit at most 3 targets (maybe 4, memory is fuzzy)

If 1 target in range, 3 waves
If 2 targets in range, 2 waves, hitting both targets
If 3 targets in range, 1 wave, hitting all three targets
If 4+ targets in range, 1 wave, hitting at most 3 targets

The last time I played EQ, this would not have been correct.
1 target = 3 waves
2 targets = 2 waves, hitting both targets
3 targets = 1 wave hitting 3 targets, and 1 wave hitting 1 target
4+ targets = 1 wave hitting at most 4 targets
But they certainly could've changed it since I left.
PC pets used to count as a target for rain spells (although,
obviously, no damage was done to them,) and a change to the
way rain spells worked was propagated so that they no longer
did (maybe 4 years after they learned it was broken.) When
they made that change, they made it so that NPC pets as well
as PC pets didn't count as targets (NPC pets were still damaged,
however.) You used to be able to eke a little more efficiency out
of rain spells when NPC pets were present. I have no idea if that
is still the case, though.

Another thing I noticed but haven't had the time to really
investigate: In the non-subbed Escape to Norrath tutorial, I wasn't
receiving damage from the rain spell. Which was pretty great. I
remember there being a great 2hb that I used on my monk to level up
the skill (it was insanely fast with a good ratio). It was a
fantastic bo, but at 44 or so it became terrible, because it had a
rain proc that would start proccing at that level.

Anyway, my glee was tempered when I registered my account and did the
movelog to Stromm. Apparently that immunity is only on the isolated
Escape to Norrath, because I was receiving damage. Also, I could
damage myself with DD spells either, which I know I did in the past to
level up my Evocation skill on my enchanter. I forgot to check that
once I registered, though.

Thanks for all the info, though. I thought the spell was bugging out
when I was only getting one wave. It's still pretty dang powerful for
a single target though.

[Lief]

"Eric D. Braden" <***@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:***@k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
. It's still pretty dang powerful for

Post by Eric D. Braden
a single target though.

From what I remember with my wiz, rains were fairly pointless in any
situation....

[the wharf rat]

Post by Lief
From what I remember with my wiz, rains were fairly pointless in any
situation....

IMHO they have 2 advantages: one is they don't draw as much
aggro as a regular nuke because of the dot-like action. The second
is that you can cast a rain then cast a regular nuke, boosting your
DPS.

[Tony Evans]

Post by Lief
From what I remember with my wiz, rains were fairly pointless in any
situation....

They're low aggro, efficient damage (since the innate resist was removed),
but they're situational. However, since you can cast a rain, and then also
nuke while it's landing at various levels of the game they can be a good
dps boost.

[Lief]

Post by Tony Evans
(since the innate resist was removed),

Oh, didnt know that :)

[Eric D. Braden]

Post by Lief

Post by Tony Evans
(since the innate resist was removed),

Oh, didnt know that :)

I'm also thinking Icestrike is some sort of error... I just got
another rain spell, a fire one. It does waves of 28ish damage for
60some mana. While Icestrike does waves of 46 damage for 17 mana.
Seems like something is out of whack. Currently, I'm having fun with
Root -> Icestrike -> sit -> repeat. I usually end with the close to
as much mana as I started with :).

[Faeandar]

On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:41:58 -0700, "Eric D. Braden"

Post by Eric D. Braden

Post by Lief

Post by Tony Evans
(since the innate resist was removed),

Oh, didnt know that :)

I'm also thinking Icestrike is some sort of error... I just got
another rain spell, a fire one. It does waves of 28ish damage for
60some mana. While Icestrike does waves of 46 damage for 17 mana.
Seems like something is out of whack. Currently, I'm having fun with
Root -> Icestrike -> sit -> repeat. I usually end with the close to
as much mana as I started with :).

probably not an error. What will you do with Icestrike when you run
into mobs that are immune or highly resistant to cold?

~F

[Eric D. Braden]

Post by Faeandar
On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:41:58 -0700, "Eric D. Braden"

Post by Eric D. Braden

Post by Lief

Post by Tony Evans
(since the innate resist was removed),

Oh, didnt know that :)

I'm also thinking Icestrike is some sort of error... I just got
another rain spell, a fire one. It does waves of 28ish damage for
60some mana. While Icestrike does waves of 46 damage for 17 mana.
Seems like something is out of whack. Currently, I'm having fun with
Root -> Icestrike -> sit -> repeat. I usually end with the close to
as much mana as I started with :).

probably not an error. What will you do with Icestrike when you run
into mobs that are immune or highly resistant to cold?
~F- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

Use fire/lightning, of course :) I'm just confused by the huge
disparity in efficiency. Fire rain spell is 25ish waves for 60+
mana. Ice rain spell is 46ish waves for 17 mana. That's not even in
the same ballpark.

[Tony Evans]

Post by Eric D. Braden
Use fire/lightning, of course :) I'm just confused by the huge
disparity in efficiency. Fire rain spell is 25ish waves for 60+
mana. Ice rain spell is 46ish waves for 17 mana. That's not even in
the same ballpark.

Sony went through all the spells a while back,

Ice = efficient small nukes
Magic = medium nukes and some weird nukes
Fire = inefficient big nukes