Keeping 703 up in crowded rooms - is it worth using?

[Sorcasaurus]

Just curious if anyone has any tips, or even scripts, for keeping 703 on mobs. Do people even bother after a certain point? Would it be better to stun/limb disrupt/dc depending on the mob?

I started using it more regularly in the stronghold because some of the mobs would break stun to cast, and seem to have kept it around out of habit more than trying to go without it. I was uphunting and the TD pushdown from the spell made the difference between 100% warding and a potential miss. That 100% to prevent the spell was a comfort I might have grown a bit too used to.

It's not so much a problem hunting solo, but comes up when in a warcamp or a bigger group. The screen scroll and multiple mobs with the same name make it a bit more challenging, and the shroud keeps me from just using aoe spells to stop them.

[Whirlin]

Without the same relationship between endroll and damage the way that we have with bolt spells, the answer becomes a bit more subjective. It's difficult to determine if increasing your endroll by 10 will generate X extra damage consistently.

So lets assume a constant amount of damage, and that it'll always take a constant amount of casts to kill a critter.

a = Base chance to hit
b = TD Pushdown
c = Mana per cast
d = # of hits to kill

Total Mana Req w/o 703: (D*C)/A
Total Mana Req w/ 703: 3+ Roundup((D*C)/Min(A+(B/100),1),0)

excel form: =3+ROUNDUP((B4*B3)/MIN(B1+(B2/100),1),0)

So... if you have a 100% hit rate already, I can't quantify the additional damage, OR whether or not that would be material in decreasing the amount of casts to kill.

But hey, there's also the added bonus of not casting... if you're fighting a caster mob.

[Gibreficul]

I don't use 703 if there's more than 2 casters in the room. The spell's 15 second duration (12 after you wait your cast RT) just isn't enough to keep more than that under the effects and still have time to damage or kill. Blowing off the right arm is a great way to keep stuff from casting. Otherwise, if that isn't an option, focused implode to just get rid of them NOW, and keep yourself safe. You're a sorcerer, you have lots of options!

[Astron]

I don't use 703 if there's more than 2 casters in the room. The spell's 15 second duration (12 after you wait your cast RT) just isn't enough to keep more than that under the effects and still have time to damage or kill. Blowing off the right arm is a great way to keep stuff from casting. Otherwise, if that isn't an option, focused implode to just get rid of them NOW, and keep yourself safe. You're a sorcerer, you have lots of options!

I agree. We have a lot of options. Other than focus implode, there's evil eye (717), and pain (711) - both great disablers of 706-immune critters.

[Czeska]

Stop hunting Stronghold. Problem solved. :p