Least Favorite Spells

[Fallen]

I decided to X-post this topic over here for shits and giggles.

I would like to hear what everyone's least favorite spells are for the given profession of sorcery. If you want to expand beyond Minor Elemental/Spiritual, and Sorcerer to the rest of the circles go right ahead. List why you particularly dislike the spell you chose over all others and what changes could be made to fix it.

[Fallen]

Minor Elemental - Elemental Deflection (412)

- I simply never had a need to lower something's AS by 25. That is meaningless to me. Back when 25 AS could make or break me I wouldn't blow 12 mana and 3 seconds of my time casting it. I think the spell could be improved if a number of factors dramatically increased the AS penalty. Even then I would rarely use it. A mass form of the spell would certainly be useful as well.
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Minor Spiritual - Fasthr's Reward (115)

- I know many will pick Undisease/Unpoison here and I was sorely tempted to do so myself, but honestly those spells don't irk me as much as 115. This spell has seemingly so much potential, yet all it seems to do is waste 15 mana and annoy the crap out of me. How could it be improved? Duration needs to be stackable, or atleast have a higher rate than 10 minutes. I would improve it by having the option of CHANTING one spell at the casting of 115, and will provide greatly improved defense when going up against your selected spell. This feature could also be used with scrolls/Living Spell. You simply have the spell prepared, then CHANT it or whatever other command you wish to use to have 115 recognize it and provide special protection. Have lores provide how high of a spell threshold you can chant (1 ranks of blessings for a level 1 spell, 3 for a level 2 spell, etc)
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Sorcerer - Disease (716)

- No surprises here. While several other spells irk me due to their squandered potential (717, 710, 725), nothing comes close to that of Disease. NUMEROUS well written posts have been made as to how to fix this spell. It was even slated for review and revision by GMs on more than one occasion, yet here it is after all these years. Unchanged. See previous discussions for how to fix this spell.

[Izzy]

I have the distinct pleasure of the ranger circle which is not only full, but is full of useful spells. There isn't a single ranger spell I dislike. However, from minor spiritual:

106-Never used in any combat situation, though I could see this being more useful for a CS casting pure. Only redeeming quality is the hide w/summoning lore, but that's more flash than function.

115-Dur.

135-Haven't actually used this myself, but every clip I've seen has made it appear to be a mana-intensive POS.

MnE:
418-This seems to do more harm than good, when I use it.

MjE:

502-Pointless
504-Pointless
517-Worthless now.
525- lol. worthless.

[Xiandrena]

135 does suck really bad...

There are spells I might not use very often in the major spiritual list but I don't dislike any of them.

I like all of the spells on my Sorceress, but then again she doesn't get used very often.

My least favorite spell in the entire game.. is hands down "empathic link". 17 mana to link to one thing, then 17 mana to link to something else, and so on and so forth and if you kill anything in the chain of linked things when you cast...well you're fucked cuz you just wasted mana linking them.

Whoever thought up that spell needs slapped.

[zhelas]

Personally I don't like the DOT spells.

701 is okay when I need blood fast
Focused 710 takes way to long to get going. It would be nice to see lore training speed that up
Disease- I agree with Evarin
Nightmare- I know folks use it for Griffins and such. But again another DOT spell.
718 - And another!

Stop the DOT insanity!

[thefarmer]

Minor Elemental - Elemental Deflection (412)

- I simply never had a need to lower something's AS by 25. That is meaningless to me. Back when 25 AS could make or break me I wouldn't blow 12 mana and 3 seconds of my time casting it. I think the spell could be improved if a number of factors dramatically increased the AS penalty. Even then I would rarely use it. A mass form of the spell would certainly be useful as well.
----

Minor Spiritual - Fasthr's Reward (115)

- I know many will pick Undisease/Unpoison here and I was sorely tempted to do so myself, but honestly those spells don't irk me as much as 115. This spell has seemingly so much potential, yet all it seems to do is waste 15 mana and annoy the crap out of me. How could it be improved? Duration needs to be stackable, or atleast have a higher rate than 10 minutes. I would improve it by having the option of CHANTING one spell at the casting of 115, and will provide greatly improved defense when going up against your selected spell. This feature could also be used with scrolls/Living Spell. You simply have the spell prepared, then CHANT it or whatever other command you wish to use to have 115 recognize it and provide special protection. Have lores provide how high of a spell threshold you can chant (1 ranks of blessings for a level 1 spell, 3 for a level 2 spell, etc)
----

Agreed on 412. It is pretty much a waste.


115 though, comes in handy for Semis. We generally can't get as much TD as pures can, so that extra enhanced chance to ward something is nice.

[Izzy]

Personally I don't like the DOT spells.

701 is okay when I need blood fast
Focused 710 takes way to long to get going. It would be nice to see lore training speed that up
Disease- I agree with Evarin
Nightmare- I know folks use it for Griffins and such. But again another DOT spell.
718 - And another!

Stop the DOT insanity!

718 Is fucking awesome.

I would like to add 1613 to my list though. Not only is it useless until you die, it doesn't even guarantee that whatever killed you dies. WTF is the point?

[droit]

I have the distinct pleasure of the ranger circle which is not only full, but is full of useful spells. There isn't a single ranger spell I dislike.

Wow, yeah. I just looked over the ranger circle again and I use almost every single spell often enough to be considered useful. I just wish 619 affected more things at cap cause it was an awesome spell at lower levels (does it calm ithzir for more than a round?). 650 has a lot of potential, but it's still so terribly designed that I rarely use it. Same with 630. And 620 is great, but only if you're trained for it.

As for the minor spirit circle, 109 tops the list with 106 a close second. Fire spirit is pretty useless for us too, but it has given me my fair share of giggles when I target a rolton and end up incinerating a room full of Grimswarm trolls.

[Stunseed]

106 is golden against high AS / lower DS like constructs. Of course I've got the lore for the hide as well.

109 is horrid, though.

[Drew]

As far as ranger spells go, our top level spells are either awesome (630 summon animal companion, 640 wall of thorns) or worthless shit (635 natures' fury, 650 assume whatever).

[Drew]

Before they messed around with the duration of 106 I used to go around skeletal troll kings and cast it in all the rooms (only 6). They swing two handers hard but have pitiful DS. The extra DS made me much tougher to hit and the extra DS was of little consequence to them.

[droit]

yay thread hijack in the sorcerer folder

[zhelas]

718 Is fucking awesome!

I will grant you that it has some nice effects and it is handy towards griffins, fire mages etc.

Like I mentioned though. How many DOT spell do we need? We have 5 in our spell list.

[Izzy]

As far as ranger spells go, our top level spells are either awesome (630 summon animal companion, 640 wall of thorns) or worthless shit (635 natures' fury, 650 assume whatever).

I personally really like 635, and 650 is an exceptional utility spell, albeit expensive. You can boost pretty much any skill/stat you need for a particular situation. Grizzled d-bag? Toss up your AS boosting stat. Herb task? Toss up yierka. Etc, etc.

630 is very cool, less useful. Still leaps and bounds more valuable than, say, 109. 620 I don't make use of, but people like Regyy have shown its value pretty well.

[mgoddess]

I would like to add 1613 to my list though. Not only is it useless until you die, it doesn't even guarantee that whatever killed you dies. WTF is the point?
This. 1613 is a waste of a spell slot and mana. Every other Paladin spell I have found useful (though, I haven't used 1608 personally, I can certainly see it's potential).

I'd also add in my dislike of 109 and 115. 109 because I haven't found it useful for combat situations and 115 because of it's crappy duration, non-stackability, and because it only has a (base) chance to activate (50% on spirit, 25% on semi-spirit, and 12.5% on non-spirit spells).

(Sidenote: Holy. Fucking. Shit. I just read the fine text on 1604 (Purify) - it pops the Graveyard Gate! Man, I should read the fine text on spell descriptions more often!)

[Widgets]

This. 1613 is a waste of a spell slot and mana. Every other Paladin spell I have found useful (though, I haven't used 1608 personally, I can certainly see it's potential).

I'd also add in my dislike of 109 and 115. 109 because I haven't found it useful for combat situations and 115 because of it's crappy duration, non-stackability, and because it only has a (base) chance to activate (50% on spirit, 25% on semi-spirit, and 12.5% on non-spirit spells).

(Sidenote: Holy. Fucking. Shit. I just read the fine text on 1604 (Purify) - it pops the Graveyard Gate! Man, I should read the fine text on spell descriptions more often!)

yeah, originally it didn't...But they changed it at one point so that it did pop the gate. It's great especially if you are a low level Paladin...Makes hunting in the GY so damn simple

[Athgo]

My least favorite spell in the entire game.. is hands down "empathic link". 17 mana to link to one thing, then 17 mana to link to something else, and so on and so forth and if you kill anything in the chain of linked things when you cast...well you're fucked cuz you just wasted mana linking them.

Whoever thought up that spell needs slapped.

This needed repeating. Worst spell ever.

[Ignot]

Meteor Swarm.

[Stunseed]

502 is worse. :)

405 with psinet/spell active. etc and so on.

[BigWorm]

I think I am one of the few people who think 135 was a cool spell. It is a really nice open in a swarm, but you need more than 35 ranks in 100s to make it useful. The people I hear bitch about it most are rangers and sorcerers, which are professions that don't tend to focus on the 100 list, and who don't need a mass disabler in the first place. It works well for clerics and empaths though.

Also, 115 is teh lame.

[Danical]

I would think Clerics would use Censure over 135; I did.

[BigWorm]

Yeah, but what about empaths?

[Danical]

RE: 650.

I love the idea but not the execution.

1) Allow a specific aspect to be assumed for longer than 2 god damn minutes. Maybe have ranger spell ranks past 50 to increase the time of assuming a single aspect and possible to achieve a constant aspect for 10 minutes draining 25 every 2.

2) Add Aspect of the Cheetah: Base Haste Effect of -1. SL:B increases the % chance to add an additional -1 RT by 1% per rank.

3) Add Aspect of the Wolverine: Stamina Regeneration increases by 10% + 1% Seed 1 SL:B. Health Regeneration increases by 10 + Seed 1 SL:S

4) When assuming an aspect, if the aspect TYPE (canine, rodent, feline, avian) is that of your chosen Animal Companion, you receive a bonus of +10 SL:B and SL:S for the purposes of determining the benefits of 650.

5) Add some messaging when LOOKing at the character to show what type of aspect is assumed (canine, rodent, feline, avian).

[Danical]

Yeah, but what about empaths?

All empaths can die in a fire. :(

They're too good already.

[Renian]

All empaths can die in a fire. :(

They're too good already.

Pfft. Bards > Empaths. Empaths can just heal with mana.

[Danical]

Well, yeah.

[Tea & Strumpets]

RE: 650.

I love the idea but not the execution.

1) Allow a specific aspect to be assumed for longer than 2 god damn minutes. Maybe have ranger spell ranks past 50 to increase the time of assuming a single aspect and possible to achieve a constant aspect for 10 minutes draining 25 every 2.

2) Add Aspect of the Cheetah: Base Haste Effect of -1. SL:B increases the % chance to add an additional -1 RT by 1% per rank.

3) Add Aspect of the Wolverine: Stamina Regeneration increases by 10% + 1% Seed 1 SL:B. Health Regeneration increases by 10 + Seed 1 SL:S

4) When assuming an aspect, if the aspect TYPE (canine, rodent, feline, avian) is that of your chosen Animal Companion, you receive a bonus of +10 SL:B and SL:S for the purposes of determining the benefits of 650.

5) Add some messaging when LOOKing at the character to show what type of aspect is assumed (canine, rodent, feline, avian).

Lores are a lot more important (and have a lot more benefits) for bards, as compared to rangers. They are also cheaper to train in, so any seeding chart for rangers would have to have lower thresholds than whatever the setup is for bards.

Also, do you think they'll ever nerf sonic disruption? That spell is so overpowered, and it's in the hands of a semi for goodness' sake! That spell is starting to get into the implosion realm (ie. it's been overpowered for so long, that the GM's don't want to bother nerfing it because of all the tears). I think they initially ignored how overpowered the spell is because of the rarity of bards.

[Danical]

Lores are a lot more important (and have a lot more benefits) for bards, as compared to rangers. They are also cheaper to train in, so any seeding chart for rangers would have to have lower thresholds than whatever the setup is for bards.

Also, do you think they'll ever nerf sonic disruption? That spell is so overpowered, and it's in the hands of a semi for goodness' sake! That spell is starting to get into the implosion realm (ie. it's been overpowered for so long, that the GM's don't want to bother nerfing it because of all the tears). I think they initially ignored how overpowered the spell is because of the rarity of bards.

I'm not sure why you quoted my 650 ideas since you didn't address any of them.

:confused:

1030 should be nerfed but it won't for two primary reasons: first, QQfest 20xx and secondly, it would require time to recode, balance, QC, etc. which would take resources away from MONKS!!!!!!!!!!11

[Izzy]

RE: 650.

I love the idea but not the execution.

1) Allow a specific aspect to be assumed for longer than 2 god damn minutes. Maybe have ranger spell ranks past 50 to increase the time of assuming a single aspect and possible to achieve a constant aspect for 10 minutes draining 25 every 2.

2) Add Aspect of the Cheetah: Base Haste Effect of -1. SL:B increases the % chance to add an additional -1 RT by 1% per rank.

3) Add Aspect of the Wolverine: Stamina Regeneration increases by 10% + 1% Seed 1 SL:B. Health Regeneration increases by 10 + Seed 1 SL:S

4) When assuming an aspect, if the aspect TYPE (canine, rodent, feline, avian) is that of your chosen Animal Companion, you receive a bonus of +10 SL:B and SL:S for the purposes of determining the benefits of 650.

5) Add some messaging when LOOKing at the character to show what type of aspect is assumed (canine, rodent, feline, avian).

I like it. Esp. #2. However, as far as #5 is concerned, there's already an option that makes you take on features of whatever animal you're assuming...so your proposal is a slight backstep from that.

[Gelston]

502 - there is no possible fucking reason for it to exist. It was useless even when you had prep times.

[Stunseed]

650 should allow us to have the semi's unstun ( BESEECH, SHOUT ). 25 mana if wearing 650 active, 50 mana if not, just like animals are able to break stuns faster.

[droit]

Re: Dan's post on 650

1) yes
2) yes
3) yes


4) When assuming an aspect, if the aspect TYPE (canine, rodent, feline, avian) is that of your chosen Animal Companion, you receive a bonus of +10 SL:B and SL:S for the purposes of determining the benefits of 650.

There is already a bonus in place for this, but it's something shitty like +1 bonus to stat or whatever.


5) Add some messaging when LOOKing at the character to show what type of aspect is assumed (canine, rodent, feline, avian).

Again, already in place:

>assum spider
The scaliness of your complexion fades away, taking with it your natural-feeling fluid movements.
You concentrate your focus upon the Aspect of the Spider. You feel a tingling sensation shiver through your limbs as your field of vision darkens and expands.
Assume Roundtime 3 Seconds.
>peer mirr
You look at yourself carefully in the full-length mirror...

You see Droit Dassamar the Slayer.
He appears to be a Giantman of the Maeramil Clan.
He is tall and appears to be an adult. He has bulbous, yellow-rimmed, featureless black eyes and smooth, ashen skin. He has coarse, stubby black hair sprouting from his scalp and down his neck. He has a square-jawed face and a short beard. Thin, spindly fibers run down the length of his arms.
He has a modwir tree tattoo on his arm.

[droit]

650 should allow us to have the semi's unstun ( BESEECH, SHOUT ). 25 mana if wearing 650 active, 50 mana if not, just like animals are able to break stuns faster.

That's why Sigil of Escape is teh shiznit for rangers.

[Baelog]

3) Add Aspect of the Wolverine: Stamina Regeneration increases by 10% + 1% Seed 1 SL:B. Health Regeneration increases by 10 + Seed 1 SL:S

You forgot to add the claws for Brawling, limb regeneration, and the fact that you become the best at what you do, and what you do aint pretty

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/famecrawler/2008/07/01-07/wolverine14.JPG

[CrazyEyesMcKinney]

My least favorite spell is Meteor Swarm. STOP DAMAGING THE WORLD

[Danical]

You forgot to add the claws for Brawling, limb regeneration, and the fact that you become the best at what you do, and what you do aint pretty

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/famecrawler/2008/07/01-07/wolverine14.JPG

Yeah, I had x-men char in mind :D

[Danical]

650 should allow us to have the semi's unstun ( BESEECH, SHOUT ). 25 mana if wearing 650 active, 50 mana if not, just like animals are able to break stuns faster.

Aspect of the Boar:

Passive Effects: Stun Round(s) reduced by 3 + 1 SL:B Seed 10. Chance to break web/immobilization/sleep effects every round at 70% + 3% SL:B Seed 1 - 3% per second left in the duration. Only one status effect will be removed per round. The minimum rate 50%. Additionally, the Ranger suffers no AS/DS hindrance from HP loss.
Active Effects: While under the effects of a stun/web/immobilization/sleep effect, the Ranger may attempt to remove all of the above effects via EMBODY 650. The base chance is 90% + 3% SL:B Seed 1 - 3% per second left in the duration. Each effect is checked independently. The minimum rate is 75%. The mana cost is 50. Upon attempting to EMBODY 650, the spiritual connection between man and beast is severed for 30 minutes (i.e., the Ranger immediately loses any aspect currently active and can't ASSUME Aspect or EMBODY 650 for 30 minutes).


Aspect of the Albatross:

Passive Effects: AS/DS & CS/TD rolls may be rerolled for a more favorable outcome. The base chance to activate is 25% + 3% SL:S Seed 1. If activated, a second roll is generated and if more favorable (i.e., Higher for outgoing AS/CS, Lower for incoming DS/TD) the second roll is applied.

[Danical]

I think I added 1 from each category now.

wolverine = rodent
boar = canine
albatross = avian
cheetah = feline.

SOMEONE SUGGEST ON THE OFFICIALS?

[Stanley Burrell]

1613.

[droit]

I think I added 1 from each category now.

wolverine = rodent
boar = canine
albatross = avian
cheetah = feline.

SOMEONE SUGGEST ON THE OFFICIALS?

You've just got to dupe them into hiring you, Dan. Then you can make GS good again.