Official: Ethereal Censer (320)

[Alastir]

http://forums.play.net/forums/GemSto...leric/view/389

Ethereal Censer is now available to clerics. When cast, it will perform a maneuver attack against one target, then provide a 30 second mana reduction enhancement to the caster. The strength of the attack is determined by Cleric spell ranks, Spell Aiming, and Spiritual Lore, Religion. While the mana reduction enhancement is active, the cleric will gain 20 mana over the duration of the effect. The spell has a 30 second cooldown, but has a small chance to end early every 2 seconds with Spiritual Lore, Religion increasing the odds.

The base mana reduction benefit is 20% and increases once a cleric has more than 200 skill in Spirit Mana Control (up to 25% at 2x SMC and 30% at 3x SMC, using the formula of ((SMC skill - 200) / 20)). In addition, there is a spell rotation bonus for casting different spells. Everytime the cleric casts a different spell than the previous few spells, the bonus is +5%, up to +25% after 5 spells. If at anytime the cleric recasts any of spell they had already cast since starting the rotation, the bonus resets to 0%.

GameMaster Estild

[Gelston]

lolspellaiming

[Donquix]

seems super underwhelming on my baby cleric (2x spell aim, 1x cleric, no relgion lore, sub 30 so not the best representation)

He's still based around physical attack so, might be better to "combo" after more if i was but not so much now

[audioserf]

I'm not too proud to admit I'm too dumb to understand what this spell is supposed to do

[Taernath]

I'm not too proud to admit I'm too dumb to understand what this spell is supposed to do

It seems like an opener which provides mana reduction if you switch up the spells you use while under its effects. I guess the intent is to have clerics vary which spells they use during a hunt. The spell is, if I'm reading it right, essentially free because you gain the mana you spent on it back, so you could probably just use it by itself for an attack.

It's a decent addition unless I'm missing something.

[Taernath]

Re: Ethereal Censer (320) on 11/14/2018 10:57 AM MST

A few notes:

The mana reduction does not benefit spells level 20 or higher.

The mana reduction benefit does keep track of partial savings. Meaning, if you cast 302 and it cost 2 mana, it will keep track that you should have saved 0.4 mana and once you combine it with a future savings to reach more than 1.0, it will grant that amount of reduction.

GameMaster Estild

.

[peam]

I'll continue one-shotting with 306.

If anyone capped or close takes this out for a spin, let the thread know.

[Wrathbringer]

I'll continue one-shotting with 306.

If anyone capped or close takes this out for a spin, let the thread know.

Lol @your rep

[Taernath]

OM1E5GA
What type of damage does the maneuver attack do and does it do enough that you want to cast the spell just for that?

It deals disintegration criticals. I want to stress that the attack portion of the spell is secondary to mana benefits of the spell. It's very intentionally weaker than other maneuver spells like Earthen Fury (917) and Spike Thorn (616) even though 320 is higher level. The attack itself is simply a way to make the spell more interesting than just prep/cast every 30 seconds. If you're lucky, it can disable or kill your target, but your other attacks will potentially be better.

OM1E5GA
Looks like it could be useful, though there are a couple points that temper my optimism. Since my cleric's in the middle of an undead gap in RR, it'll be a while before I'm fighting anything I can really try it out on (gold wands and 111 are just so much better against trolls then anything else and I don't see myself casting 111 enough times in 30 sec to really benefit), so I'll be interested in what others think of the spell:
I suspect higher level characters will find it most useful just due to having the mana to cast higher level spells more often... is the damage and mana reduction balanced enough for it to be attractive to characters below level 50 that might not actually save much/any mana casting it. Since it has an up front cost of 20 mana, you'd need to cast 5 level 10 spells just to pay off the spell but most lower level clerics will be aiming to clear a room in fewer casts and/or will be using lower level spells when possible (they also won't have the SMC to increase the bonus)... but the damage the spell causes it's self could make it attractive even if you only break even or end up spending a little more mana then you otherwise would have....

The spell is useful to clerics of any level. It cost 20 mana, but you get back 20 mana over 30 seconds. Specifically, every 2 seconds, you gain 1-2 mana. So effectively, the spell is free to cast. This is in addition to the mana reduction benefit of the spell. Unless you just don't care about the free attack or mana savings, there's almost no reason not to cast the spell.

OM1E5GA
You mean skill bonus and not skill ranks, yes? Doesn't make much sense with ranks, but you know, clarity and all that...

Yes, skill bonus.

GameMaster Estild

.

[Donquix]

so i just did a rotation with it on the baby cleric.

starts at an 80% reduction (without enough SMC to trigger that benefit) and goes up +5% per different spell up to an additional, i assume additive, 25%

320: (refunds self over 30 seconds) - net 0 mana
web bolt: 9 * 0.8 +
fire spirit: 11 * 0.75 +
holy bolt: 6 * 0.70 +
bane: 2 * 0.65 +
divine: 17 * 0.6

total: 31.15 mana cost (base cost would be 45 mana)

i started at 87 mana, i finished at 58 (as opposed to 42)

but the TLDR is if you cast 320 every 30 seconds and ignore the stacking crap, it's a "free" attack and changes the mana cost of your spamaable spell

< 200 SMC skill:
302 = 1.6
306 = 4.8
317 = 13.6

cap 2x SMC:
302 = 1.5
306 = 4.5
317 = 12.75

cap 3x smc:
302 = 1.4
306 = 4.2
317 = 11.9