Hybrid Casting (AKA selective spell haste for Rng, SHD, PLD)

[Dokuton]

Hybrid Casting

Hybrids that cast spells in combat were taking double penalties at higher levels. The casting times of their spells went up, and the amount of melee damage they do per second went up. This results is having to take longer to cast spells, and losing more damage/second for each second taken in casting. To help offset this, Rangers, Paladins and Shadowknights casting non-beneficial spells that have casting times greater than or equal to 3 seconds, now get a 3 % reduction in casting time for each level over 50. 3% at 51, 6% at 52, etc., to 30% at 60. Again, this applies only to non-beneficial spells.


https://wiki.project1999.com/Patch_Notes#Hybrid_Casting

I was leveling my SHD and I noticed his life taps were going off sooner than the casting bar showed (55SHD 15% spell haste). I asked a lot of higher level SHD's and no one knew what I was talking about. I started digging, I remember hearing some random person on the forum mention Hybrid casting so I looked into the patch notes and found exactly what was up. Passing on the knowledge now.

FYI: non-beneficial is basically all your nukes and dots. This seems extra dope for SK and Ranger. I don't really see it being all that great for Paladin but maybe someone can enlighten me? I guess it speeds up dispels for you guys, not that great compared to rangers nukes and SK's dots/taps.

[mattydef]

I always noticed that too but just kind of figured it had something to do with server lag, that’s actually really cool.

[Ennewi]

I mostly just noticed this when casting lifetaps on the SK and always assumed it was a bug, not a feature. If detrimental spell haste does truly go up to 30% at 60, and from memory that checks out, it is a significant perk. Paladins do have undead DDs, with only 2 of those taking over 3 seconds to cast, nothing quite as good as rangers or shadow knights (who also have those undead DDs). Dumb how I never put two and two together after all of this rime. Good find.

[Danth]

Here I thought everyone knew about hybrid spellhaste. It's implemented slightly incorrectly on P99 due to the usual issue of client weirdness. On P99 the spell finishes its cast "early" with part of its cast bar remaining. In the original game the player would start casting and the spell casting bar would already show a third of the way through the bar.

The offensive spell haste serves as a nice bonus on the shadow knight. It improves the high-level lifetaps, undead direct damage spells, damage over time spells, snares, and cancel magic line. Something like Drain Soul improves from a sluggish 6.1 second cast into a much more manageable four and a quarter seconds or so. I expect rangers would get fair use from it as well. Less so for paladins since they only have a few hasted spells.

Danth

[Baler]

Something else about Hybrid Casting is they are the only classes that can swing their weapon immediately after casting a spells.
Their swing timer cooldown is active when they are casting.

This is a bug on P99, any class get's immediate swing after casting. Instead of waiting for the full swing timer after the spell cast.
In my opinion this would dramatically affect the early levels for casters. If it was how it's supposed to be that is.

I brought this up before but no one seems to think it's that important, despite it being a major boon for hybrids during our era of eq.
(and nerf to other classes)

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Anyone remember that bone necro melee playstyle people were doing on p99?
That wasn't a thing on live in classic because after the necro would cast it had to wait for the full swing timer to melee hit the mob.
On p99 they swing their weapon, cast a spell and immediately after the cast (if it's long enough) they swing their melee weapon.

[Dokuton]

Good find. Thanks Ennewi, big fan of your work and appreciate this.

Here I thought everyone knew about hybrid spellhaste. Danth

Danth one of your comments might of been where I first heard mention of HSH. I didn't feel like digging to find out where I first heard mention of it.


Something else about Hybrid Casting is they are the only classes that can swing their weapon immediately after casting a spells.
Their swing timer cooldown is active when they are casting.

This is a bug on P99, any class get's immediate swing after casting. Instead of waiting for the full swing timer after the spell cast.


Interesting, I love weaving spells between weapon swings for this exact mechanic and to find out its a feature of these classes (I guess all classes) is pretty awesome.


If anyone knows how to edit the class wiki pages, it might be useful to add mention of this in somewhere. This is a really cool perk.