Spell Aim

[Greng]

Curious as to how often any other sorcs use or rely on spell aim. The last time I used it was just for fun in DR arena, but it didn't even seem necessary to use. I'm considering dropping it all together along with some MIU/AS to 1x in shield and brawling since I'm sick of disarm. Any thoughts or feedback from others who've gone that route?

[Maerit]

I dropped spell aim in my 60s, and am 15mil post-cap as a sorcerer, and just now started to bother re-training spell aim.

Benefits are 720, and 713 IMO (to a smaller extent 118 bolt and 111 in rare niche environments). 708 is a fun little niche spell, but 90% of the time 709 & 703 are just as capable of disabling the targets you need disabled. Focused 710 is also pointless. The primary benefit is being able to blow something up you are struggling to ward, or being able to contribute damage in an AE group setting. Since neither of those issues are a problem for my selfish / solo artist dark elf with extremely high CS, I saw no reason to bother until way post-cap.

My priorities at cap were to get 2x AS so I could maximize the value of 714, which has paid off greatly over the years as I can infuse and reuse scrolls for months before having to find a replacement, and I use these scrolls across multiple characters and accounts sourced by a single sorcerer, so it's amazing. After that, I wanted combat maneuvers for defense against things like disarm/charge and such. Because the disarm changes have made it impossible to lose my runestaff permanently, I no longer see any significant reason to train shield use and brawling, though that was a consideration prior to the new RECOVER mechanics. There is still a slight benefit to shield use, although you lose DS, you do gain the ability to outright block certain maneuver attacks and become immune to tricks like having your weapon snaked in SoS.

After AS/CMAN I went for 42 ranks in Demon lore so I can have better phase utility. Next, I did 2x in HP making Voln a more viable society, so I do not need to wrack or use PRAY more than 3x in the arena. With 400+ mana, I can finish a DR arena in under 2 mins with mana to spare.

Now I'm going to finish 2x in spell aim as my next post-cap goal, but I am thinking 2x MIU might have been a better for various imbeds and to bring value to all these fancy x/day items being sold at DR (that I did not bother to buy having only 1x MIU). Also, elemental lores might pay out more defensively and offensively (719 mainly) than having 2x spell aim. While 720 is great for those targets you are struggling to ward, those targets are often not worth the hassle.

So, at the end of the day, I say get rid of spell aim, max out your spell ranks, max out your support skills and mana, and then when you get the itch to aim spells, start picking it back up.

[Greng]

Thank you! Some good looking advice that I will play around with.

[Winter]

>Also, elemental lores might pay out more defensively and offensively (719 mainly)

Do you have any logs of Dark Catalyst? I don't think I've ever seen it being cast and can't find any logs of it on the boards, is it spell damage plus 4 elemental flares?

[Maerit]

Yes. Here's an example of one that didn't crit kill on one of the 1st flares, but finished them on the last flare:

You gesture at a siren.
CS: +578 - TD: +398 + CvA: +20 + d100: +23 == +223
Warding failed!
... and hits for 40 points of damage!
A siren is suddenly engulfed in flames of pure essence!
... 30 points of damage!
It is knocked to the ground!
The siren is stunned!
... 85 points of damage!
... 30 points of damage!
Heavy shock gives the siren fits!
... 70 points of damage!
The siren gives a plaintive wail before she slumps to her side and dies.
The brilliant luminescence fades from around a siren.
You feel 3 mana surge into you!
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

719 does damage followed by a flare of each element. 12 points (I think) in an elemental lore adds 1 crit tier to the associated flare, and 50 is the 2nd tier from my recollection. However, most sorcerers are of the mindset that you focus more on a single advantageous lore. Earth being highly touted as the strongest defensively, and water having the most utility available with how both of them modify the MnE circle spells. Fire and Air lores tend to impact the fewest number of spells for Sorcerers.

[drauz]

Yes. Here's an example of one that didn't crit kill on one of the 1st flares, but finished them on the last flare:

You gesture at a siren.
CS: +578 - TD: +398 + CvA: +20 + d100: +23 == +223
Warding failed!
... and hits for 40 points of damage!
A siren is suddenly engulfed in flames of pure essence!
... 30 points of damage!
It is knocked to the ground!
The siren is stunned!
... 85 points of damage!
... 30 points of damage!
Heavy shock gives the siren fits!
... 70 points of damage!
The siren gives a plaintive wail before she slumps to her side and dies.
The brilliant luminescence fades from around a siren.
You feel 3 mana surge into you!
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

719 does damage followed by a flare of each element. 12 points (I think) in an elemental lore adds 1 crit tier to the associated flare, and 50 is the 2nd tier from my recollection. However, most sorcerers are of the mindset that you focus more on a single advantageous lore. Earth being highly touted as the strongest defensively, and water having the most utility available with how both of them modify the MnE circle spells. Fire and Air lores tend to impact the fewest number of spells for Sorcerers.

30 ranks in Air lore are great for telling if an item is enhancive with 405.

[rolfard]

Energy Maelstrom (710)
Training in Air Lore will increase the damage of lightning cycles (and not vacuum). Any combination of Elemental Lore ranks will speed up the formation of the storm at 5, 15, 30, 50, and 75 total ranks, with the storm forming in a less than 10 seconds at 75 ranks.
Dark Catalyst (719)
At 12 ranks of a given lore, the critical rank of the relevant damage cycle is increased by one level; at 50 ranks, it is increased by 2 levels; and at 100 lore ranks, it is increased by 3 levels. This flat modifier is unaffected by the warding margin.

I started with 12, 13, 20, 30 for the required 75 for energy maelstrom and min dark catalyst. Quite expensive and Def post cap.

I would also go shield/brawl over spell aim, but both are good for different things. I wouldn't sacrifice miu or any ensorcell skill, that's was always primary after CS.

[Winter]

Yes. Here's an example of one that didn't crit kill on one of the 1st flares, but finished them on the last flare:

You gesture at a siren.
CS: +578 - TD: +398 + CvA: +20 + d100: +23 == +223
Warding failed!
... and hits for 40 points of damage!
A siren is suddenly engulfed in flames of pure essence!
... 30 points of damage!
It is knocked to the ground!
The siren is stunned!
... 85 points of damage!
... 30 points of damage!
Heavy shock gives the siren fits!
... 70 points of damage!
The siren gives a plaintive wail before she slumps to her side and dies.
The brilliant luminescence fades from around a siren.
You feel 3 mana surge into you!
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

719 does damage followed by a flare of each element. 12 points (I think) in an elemental lore adds 1 crit tier to the associated flare, and 50 is the 2nd tier from my recollection. However, most sorcerers are of the mindset that you focus more on a single advantageous lore. Earth being highly touted as the strongest defensively, and water having the most utility available with how both of them modify the MnE circle spells. Fire and Air lores tend to impact the fewest number of spells for Sorcerers.

Well.. that's bloody insane and I can now understand the uproar over the 519 changes.

[Avaia]

Well.. that's bloody insane and I can now understand the uproar over the 519 changes.

Sirens are among the creatures who are highly susceptible. The same spell against Combatants in the same area would do considerably less damage.

[Maerit]

Well.. that's bloody insane and I can now understand the uproar over the 519 changes.

Yeah, this only works well on pure type creatures and some semis. Also, only works on the 3rd floor of Nelemar, as you're likely going to shock yourself on the 2nd floor (719 in watery areas triggers the lightning effect, as does nervestaff shock damage flares).

This is what really works for me in Nelemar:

You gesture at a triton radical.
You stare at a triton radical.
The dull golden nimbus surrounding a triton radical suddenly begins to glow brightly.
CS: +560 - TD: +405 + CvA: +25 + d100: +21 == +201
Warding failed!
The triton radical looks at you in utter terror!
The triton radical drops its bronze scaling fork.
The triton radical lets out a blood curdling scream!
The triton radical gurgles once and goes still, a wrathful look on his face.
The dully illuminated mantle protecting a triton radical begins to falter, then completely fades away.
A white glow rushes away from a triton radical.
The dull golden nimbus fades from around a triton radical.
The brilliant aura fades away from a triton radical.
The very powerful look leaves a triton radical.
The white light leaves a triton radical.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

That's 717, which will wreck the squares in Nelemar (executioners & combatants) and has about a 75% of insta-killing the radicals with a 25% chance it will send them fleeing (which means no loot, but still kill credit for bounties, necro energy, and XP). Also, bear in mind this requires you to be enhanced to the max (+40 AUR/WIS) and it doesn't hurt to be a dark elf. You're not getting those CS numbers without a lot of investment. Once I started hitting that 75+% chance to instant kill things from my excessive training in Duskruin, I stopped killing the "slow" way, and moved to this.

Now the only thing that takes multiple casts in Nelemar are the defenders (and GWE if I can be bothered to hunt them). Since they're non-corp crit immune with nasty maneuvers, they have to be 711+705 killed. Undead are immune to 717 and defenders are non-corp so 719 sucks vs them.

You want to see 719 shine, you hunt OTF or SoS. You can 1-shot 75% of OTF and 90% of SoS (sentinels might take 2 casts and monstrosities are probably not good 719 candidates). If you get 100 ranks in an E lore, you'll probably kill most crit-vulnerable targets with 719 in a single cast, 200 ranks and it's really likely that it will kill. Especially if you dedicate 100 ranks two different lores meaning you'll get T3+ crits with those elemental types.

[Greng]

Dropped spell aim, some cm since I don't need disarm, some miu/as training and went full 1x brawl and 1x shield. Hunting in OTF my DS got a huge spike and it has greatly improved his survivability. Thinking about taking on griffins now.

[Avaia]

Dropped spell aim, some cm since I don't need disarm, some miu/as training and went full 1x brawl and 1x shield. Hunting in OTF my DS got a huge spike and it has greatly improved his survivability. Thinking about taking on griffins now.

I'm curious. How much exactly is a "huge spike" in DS? What kind of shield do you have?

[Greng]

7x tower shield - I don't remember the exact numbers but it's well over 100

A greater construct raises its massive foot and attempts to smash you!
AS: +443 vs DS: +700 with AvD: +43 + d100 roll: +41 = -173
A clean miss.

I don't recall it ever going over 600 previously with a 5x runestaff

[Darcthundar]

……...That's 717, which will wreck the squares in Nelemar (executioners & combatants) and has about a 75% of insta-killing the radicals with a 25% chance it will send them fleeing (which means no loot, but still kill credit for bounties, necro energy, and XP).


That is not entirely true. You may not get gems or silvers but if they have a box they will throw it down and run away. The bad news if you are running Bigshot it will not recognize the loot and it won't be picked up


You trace an intricate sign that contorts in the air while forcefully invoking Evil Eye...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a triton combatant.
You stare at a triton combatant.
CS: +540 - TD: +369 + CvA: +20 + d100: +4 == +195
Warding failed!
The triton combatant looks at you in utter terror!
The triton combatant drops its brine-stained parma.
The triton combatant drops its silvery blue trident.
She tosses a dented mithril box aside!
The combatant turns and runs screaming into the distance, never to be seen again.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.