Official: 540 Proposal

[Fallen]

I somehow missed this item in my reading. Thanks to Teylarun's player for bringing it to my attention. What will follow is the proposal for the spell 540, and subsequent GM responses to comments.

-----

Description:

The caster of this spell molds the essence around him in such a way as to partially deflect the full brunt of elemental magic directed towards him. Years of dedicated study have allowed wizards to learn the innate secrets of the magic they control, and thus are best prepared to combat its effects. A wizard can use his well-honed knowledge of the elements to weaken the strength of incomming elemental attacks.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Mechanics:

A wizard with this spell active will receive a base 15% reduction to the severity of elemental criticals that he is struck with. Training in Elemental Lore will increase the reduction percentage for the given element trained in. A wizard that is fully doubled in elemental lore (202 ranks) can achieve around a 60% reduction in a specific element, and the base 15% reduction in all other elements.

Duration is 10 minutes.

It is likely that there will be a few percentage point bonus reduction to your attuned elemental. The name is likely subject to a lot of change, as I don't like it.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Discuss them now, because this is our current design plan for 540.

Nilven

[Fallen]

>IF the spell is designed to take into account any and all elemental crits, then I think it's worthy. IF the spell is designed to work only with elemental spells cast directly at the wizard, I say you need to go back to the drawing board.<

It provides a reduction to any elemental-based damage. I.e. a fire flare from a weapon, a splash from a ball spell etc. What is not considered elemental is say the initial damage from 415. Another example, it would guard from the elemental damage from DC, it would not guard from the initial flames of essence.

Nilven

[Fallen]

>Will 540 stack with ranger resistance? Say you have 40% armor resistance against fire and you're maxed on fire lore at level 100, will you get 100% resistance against fire?<

Yes. I've read the posts about this being a slap in the face to rangers, which I disagree with. The ability to add critical resistance to armor is a great ability that I think rangers deserve, but they should by no means be lulled into believing that they have the monopoly on all things relating to elemental criticals or the protection thereof. With a profession in the game that is considered to be the master of elements, it'll only lead to disappointment for rangers to think that elemental protection is limited to them.

>Will 540 work on manuevers that have to deal with said element? ie, krynch manuevers, stone giants throwing dirt at you, things like that.<

Yes, any type of attack that involves fire, ice, water, lightning, mud, rocks, earth, air, etc. will be guarded against. Essentially any time damage is done as the result of something elemental, this'll reduce the severity.

Nilven

[Fallen]

I'd like to get a better handle of where we strayed in regards to this spell. I appreciate the suggestions for improvement and we are considering them and evaluating our options. Players have argued that bolt spell defense is not something that troubles wizards. We saw defense against elemental criticals as a common sense area for improvement of wizard defenses since magical DS is usually lower than physical DS. I recall posts by wizards being disappointed by the fact that warriors with dfredux can effectively survive very harsh bolts whereas wizards, masters of elemental magic, get charred quite crisply when they are hit.

There are really four areas where we can provide added defense: physical defense, bolt defense, MA defense, and TD/magical defense. MA defense is an area where we will generally not be generating additional protection for pures unless we see a specific deficiency relative to other pures (some will point to the 704 MA defense effects that sorcerers gained, but that was due to a relative deficiency they would have under the revised MA system that Warden is working on; such a deficiency doesn't exist for wizards because they have mock dodge ranks). That rules out an MA defense spell. A TD enhancer, unless it is a situational TD enhancer, is also unlikely as that is an intended wizard-specific deficiency relative to spiritualists. That leaves two areas for defensive improvements: physical DS and bolt DS. Since bolt DS generally trails physical DS, I assumed it would be an ideal area to concentrate our efforts.

Indirectly, this spell does help MA defense as someone on the boards here has mentioned. A fair chunk of MA attacks involve elemental damage, and 540 will reduce the severity of said damage so essentially this spell is providing defense against bolts and MA attacks in a somewhat unconventional way, two areas that we thought would benefit wizards greatly. Ever get hit by an ice chunk in Pinefar? This?ll help. Ever get fire e-waved on Teras? This?ll help. Do wizards often find themselves being hurt as a result of these things? Fire clouded damage in fire guardians? This?ll help.

MAs have always been a bane to my wizards; I was under the impression that lessening the severity of those strikes would be well-taken. Is this really not a big a problem for other players as it is for me? Please share your feedback on this issue. I?d really like to get a sense of where the disconnect is coming from between us and so many players as the damage from ball spells and elemental MAs are something that my wizard has concerns with. Solving this perception gap would go a long ways towards reworking the proposal into something acceptable for everyone.

One idea proposed here that sounded interesting was the sphere charging up as it is absorbing power from elements. I like the idea of the sphere ?charging up? with power from water strikes and allowing the wizard to use 903 with an increases AS, for example, or an increased DF (I?d rather go with an increased AS since lores already increase DF). Another interesting idea was converting absorbed energy into health or possibly mana (although this would be a difficult one to get approved and the mana conversion would likely not be outstanding.

Someone asked what the typical critical reduction would be for someone with 100 ranks, since most wizards don?t double in lore. The reduction percentage would be around 40%.

Nilven

[Latrinsorm]

100% resistance to anything is pretty sweet.

[Snapp]

I like!

[Drew]

Between some of the rangers who are better at using 620 and having some lores and this spell you could have 100% resistance. Yikes. Izthir weapon flare lightning?

[Makkah]

Fucking stupid and anti-climactic. If they made it charge with each attack and then unleash a shitstorm when charged, that'd be cool.

[Askip]

I have already stated on the Simu BBS that for a level 40 spell this proposal is teh suck.

Defense, especially elemental, is not something that mages lack.

Ah well, I guess they are too busy gearing up for the next two rounds of the Waveduncer to come up with a nice utility spell.

:D

[Snapp]

Originally posted by Makkah
Fucking stupid and anti-climactic. If they made it charge with each attack and then unleash a shitstorm when charged, that'd be cool.
That'd be a pretty cool add-on actually.

[Drew]

Originally posted by Askip
I have already stated on the Simu BBS that for a level 40 spell this proposal is teh suck.

Defense, especially elemental, is not something that mages lack.

Ah well, I guess they are too busy gearing up for the next two rounds of the Waveduncer to come up with a nice utility spell.

:D

I think 650 really set the stage for crappy high level spells. Although, 540 as proposed is definately better than 650, so at least you've got that.

[The Ponzzz]

Yea that's kinduva disappointment... Major dispel woulda been much better... Just another reason why fixskill will be used for evil... "Oh I'll hunt the stronghold for 20 levels" *BUMP EARTH LORES*

[Jayvn]

Yeah major dispell woulda rocked, but even with a high bolt ds, any kind of damage reduction is nice when you do get hit... bein wizards can only wear fulls without hinderance they aren't really all too covered. It sounds like stone skin part 2 - the elements
Super cone woulda been more fun.. like a critter focused major ewave that was people friendly...shrug

[The Ponzzz]

I mean lightning to me looks like it will have the most use now with feras and such...