AoE Spells

[Darklake]

I'm trying to remember, didn't AoE spells originally used to hit everything in the area but was then nerfed to be up to 4 targets? If so, at what point was it nerfed?

[Estu]

I don't know about the history, but I'd like to point out that there are still a few AOE spells that hit everything (the ones that come to mind are the wizard Al'Kabor spiral spells). I at first thought these spells were just stupid useless spells because they have such a horrible damage/mana ratio, but then realized that they hit all monsters in range, not just "several".

[Tetrian]

Depends on the type of AE spells.

Most Targeted AE spells where up to 4 targets - Examples, would be the druid lightning line, and the wizard equalents - in short, the quadding spells and similar :)

Rain spells where 4 targets pr wave(3 waves).

PBAE Spells unlimited amount of targets. Same goes for most of the non damaging AE spells, druid blind(god i loved that one during arena events, you could hit an entire event with it.), harmony, mezmerisation (still broke here and limited to 4 tgts - i hate you for it), where all unlimited on live.

[Dr4z3r]

Chords and Denon's (lvl 2 & 18 bard songs) have no limit to how many mobs they can hit that I've ever noticed. Of course, there is the ever-increasing probability of crashing your client, but that's another thread.

[Messianic]

harmony, mezmerisation (still broke here and limited to 4 tgts - i hate you for it), where all unlimited on live.

I think it's broken for nearly all AE spells - I noticed that my Al'Kabor spells weren't hitting more than 4 targets. That must be why. Time to do some bug reporting...

[M.Bison]

I know my Hierophant's Crook (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=549) hits unlimited targets for sure.

[Messianic]

I know my Hierophant's Crook (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=549) hits unlimited targets for sure.

The pic in your sig is really disproportional.

MY BICEP IS AS BIG AS MY HEAD RAWR IM FAT

[Twotone]

Targetted AoE spells did originally hit an unlimited amount of targets, but was nerfed due to druids and wizards being able to kite too many mobs with basically zero risk.

[Mee123]

mezmerisation (still broke here and limited to 4 tgts - i hate you for it), where all unlimited on live.

No, it was 4 targets on live, not unlimited.

edit - Also, AE = Area Effect = Unlimited mobs within xmeters of you AoE = Area of Effect = 4 monsters within x meters of what you cast spell on

[Silvermink]

Rain spells hit 3-4 targets once, 2 targets twice or 1 target 3 times. I thought the Al'kabor line had a limit of 10 targets.

[M.Bison]

No, it was 4 targets on live, not unlimited.

edit - Also, AE = Area Effect = Unlimited mobs within xmeters of you AoE = Area of Effect = 4 monsters within x meters of what you cast spell on

PBAoE - Point blank area of effect - usually unlimited targets localized around the caster.
AoE - Area of effect - usually 4 targets at a distance.

not sure on rain spells, ive never really used them. Although i do know if you used a rain on live at point blank range it would also hit the caster (i did play on rallos though, so the pvp flag might have played a role in that) So i imagine rain spells are in the AoE classification.

[Crone]

Anyone with a mage confirm Rain of Swords, level 49 magic based Rain spell is working? Tried to use it multiple times out at seafuries, when I'm duoing with a friend. We'll have 2, right on top of each other, and I only get the 1 damage message.

[Silvermink]

Rain spells hit the caster here and did on pve servers on live. As such many casters avoid them.

[Zigfreed]

Played a wizzy on live. Which means nothing I guess since we're talking years ago but here goes..

Al'Krapors spells would hit up to 5 targets once but were hugely mana inefficient so no one used them except to grumble about.

Rains would either do 3 (I want to say maybe 4 but..) waves of damage to one mob or one wave of damage to 3 (4?) mobs. High resist rates made them poor for quadding.

The quad kiting spells would hit a max of 4 targets, didn't matter whether druid or wiz spells, they hit four max, one time. The PBaoe spells hit unlimited targets once.

[Cheps]

The low level rain spells are broken on this server I think. Did a few tests with firestorm in oasis at orcs, and I could hit 4 targets 3 times. I remember them hitting 4 times max, so 4 targets 1 time, or 2 targets 2 times, or 1 target 4 times.

It's quite powerful compared to other AE spells, firestorm (lvl 12) on 4 targets is 3x4x28 = 336 damage for for 62 mana, or 5.42 damage per mana. Pillar of fire (lvl 16 researched target AoE) is 4x76 = 304, or 3.62 damage per mana. Also rains don't seem to be more resisted than other spells (but I think it was the same in classic).

[Tetrian]

Referencing mezmerisation,

No, it was 4 targets on live, not unlimited.

edit - Also, AE = Area Effect = Unlimited mobs within xmeters of you AoE = Area of Effect = 4 monsters within x meters of what you cast spell on

I'm a 100% on Mezmerisation being unlimited on targets - I used to keep it memmed to pop it on huge trains as a last ditch effort and for stacking up mobs for AE groups, which is pointless with a 4 target max due to mana effeciency being better on single targets and time contra safety would be a non issue.

It was basicly a holy fuck, pray this works button - sometimes it would, and you would sit with a big fat grin on your face feeling like a god.

The issue with it was, got unlucky on ressists.. you went down like a bitch - The more mobs stacked up, the higher the chance of that happening. Also, if you hit yourself with it (which i also did a few times) its basicly goodbye since the dudes breaking your trance would be the plenty, and pissed.

It was a tool in the box, that sometimes worked. In the end it balanced itself out, since chanter stupidity and luck usually worked against you :)

Been trying to look on old chanter forums for further evidence, but only thread i've been able to find, that referenced its effect involves a bit of random chattery, and a single vague reference that mentions 20 mobs being mezzed by it during a raid.

[Tetrian]

The low level rain spells are broken on this server I think. Did a few tests with firestorm in oasis at orcs, and I could hit 4 targets 3 times. I remember them hitting 4 times max, so 4 targets 1 time, or 2 targets 2 times, or 1 target 4 times.

It's quite powerful compared to other AE spells, firestorm (lvl 12) on 4 targets is 3x4x28 = 336 damage for for 62 mana, or 5.42 damage per mana. Pillar of fire (lvl 16 researched target AoE) is 4x76 = 304, or 3.62 damage per mana. Also rains don't seem to be more resisted than other spells (but I think it was the same in classic).

The rain spells always hit for 4x3 waves (provided you had 4+ mobs stacked up and they stayed put.) Its was effecient on paper, but agro and the requirement for targets to stay in the area, mixed with the spells ability to hit the caster usually screwed it.

For kiting their effeciency isn't as good as the targeted AE spells, and in groups, having 4 or more loose mobs in camp getting hit by x damage by a softie is also pretty bad (The rains does a new targeting round on each wave, meaning its not nessesarily the same 4 mobs getting hit on every wave if there are more targets in the area) :)

Hell even in AE groups it kinda sucked, since it doesnt deal enough damage on enough targets compared to the PBAEs.

[Zigfreed]

Sorry but rain spells never ever hit for multiple waves with lots of mobs. It was as the above poster (Cheps) stated with 4 waves on 1, 2 waves on 2 etc etc.

[Zigfreed]

Although now that I think about it.. You only got 4 targets total when you rained on two mobs. 1 mob=3 waves, 2 mobs= 2 waves, 3=1. 4 mobs and only 3 of them were hit. As always there is a chance I'm wrong about things.. A part of me is trying to nudge the 4 mobs all getting hit as another place where you could get more than 3 total targets out of your spell but..

[Mee123]

Referencing mezmerisation,



I'm a 100% on Mezmerisation being unlimited on targets -

Maybe on this server its unlimited but it wasn't on live.(This is prior to GoD release I don't know if it got changed after then.)

[Estu]

There's a thread in the bug forum about rain spell mechanics that anyone interested should take a look at. It's a few weeks old so you'll need to search for it, but it's got a nice link for reference with some very specific info. For the record, according to that report, rain spells are OP in P99 compared to classic.

[Wildas]

Rains could hit a max of 4 targets TOTAL. It had 3 waves to hit those 4 targets. If the 4 target limit had been reached and there were still extra mobs in range during a wave it would not be damaged. A new wave (up to the 3rd, would commence if the target limit had not been reached)

[Malakriss]

Yeah rain damage was "bugged" for like 10 expansions before they actually went back and looked at it, yet P99 has the fixed version.

PBAE = unlimited
Targeted AEs = 4 mobs
Targeted Rain AEs = Max of 4 hits (any combination of 1-4 mobs over 3 waves)
Al'Kabor Targeted AEs = 5 mobs

[Estu]

Al'Kabor Targeted AEs = 5 mobs

Only five mobs for that much mana? What a shitty line.

[Malakriss]

Only five mobs for that much mana? What a shitty line.

That's why he was known as Al'Crappor

[Zigfreed]

Holy shit, you can rain 3 waves of up to 4 targets each here? That's uhh pretty outta control (in terms of mana/damage efficiency etc etc) in my opinion.

A bit hard to utilize but..

[Cheps]

Yes it's not easy to use, unless you have a high level enchanter stun locking the mobs ;)

As for AE Mez, I'm pretty sure that it was unlimited, at least during Kunark (didn't play enchanter in classic). It was targeted and you could mez yourself, and single mez would not stick over AE Mez so it was very situational (and it lasted only 24s I think?). Still, I sometimes had mez + ae mez + 2 ae stuns + root + slow loaded in XP groups, talk about massive crowd control.

[Torven]

Same goes for most of the non damaging AE spells, druid blind(god i loved that one during arena events, you could hit an entire event with it.)

Sunbeam is only hitting 5 targets on this server. I tested it last night.