Spells: Wizard Bolts are Not Actual Bolts

[uygi]

The wizard bolts:
Frost Bolt
Fire Bolt
Lightning Bolt

Are not bolts. There is no projectile or travel time. Instead, they're just an extended range instant nuke, which should not be possible. The following are reposted from a dead thread that incorrectly addressed this as a mechanics issue instead of a spell issue.

Copying the mechanics of mage bolts would make these far more classic.

[uygi]

A couple of the below posts indicate that once a wizard bolt is in the air the caster can cast another spell without interfering with the bolt already en-route, including having multiple bolts in the air at once. I specifically recall using this tactic as a mage in Kunark/Velious eras; I would bolt from max range, then again before the first bolt landed, and then run away from the mob during recast delays and keep nuking to kill the mob before it ever reached me.

From Allakhazam on 12/6/00:

If my memory still serves correctly, my lil wizzy was here from 16-20 hunting EEs..it was GREAT xp!! The wizards get a bolt spell at 16, which has EXTREMELY long range, so.. you go to the EE place, and back yourself up all the way back against the wall. Watch out for wandering minos/mud ppl, and cast your bolt spell. Cast one after another, and finish off with your regular shock. The beauty of this is that your 1st bolt will hit the EE and at that instant, the 2nd will already be on its way. You should be able to fire 3 bolts before he/she/it comes within charming range of you. usually 3 hits is enough to kill the EE, and after that, you just blast the crap outa his weak pet (2shots maybe??), and go back and med. PBB is great loot, and ive obtained quiet a few while i was there.. anyhow, hope that helps for fellow wizzies..

From Allakhazam on 4/11/01:

The trick for solo Wizards in this zone is to stay as close to the border as much as possible. Take a peek. Pull with your Fire Bolt and run. Don't wait and watch to make sure the Bolt will hit, it will, just run and watch your text box. Stay no more than 10 steps away from zoning out. Then root as it approaches. If the mob has more health than you have manna.. Zone out unless you have him down to the runner phase and can proceed to beat him with your stick.

From the Station board on 10/7/2004:

Once you hit 8, you get Fire Bolt. This is where you start mini kiting for a few levels. Now, this isn't real kiting, but it's kinda like it, it's more a rootnuke with a kite feel to it.

Fire Bolt has a really long range. If you can pick up an Extended range item, a mob will never touch you.

What you do is go to the limits of the spell (cast from a really far place away and nudge in till your in range, after awhile you'll get the feel for the range.) and cast it. The mob will not be hit right away like your other spells. This spell travels to the mob then hits them. While the spell is traveling, your gems will refresh. If the bolt hasn't hit the mob yet, go ahead and cast it again. This way, you've basically hit the mob twice before he knows your there. As soon as the first one hits he'll begin running at you. Your gems will refresh, start spamming root till the mob gets in range and it casts. As soon as it's rooted, run to your distance again, and caste fire bolt till it breaks root or dies. If it breaks, reroot and run to distance again.

This post from P99 server chat discusses wizard bolts and how they should behave like mage bolts, though it lacks actual evidence. Other posts on P99 discussing mage bolts cover proper bolt behavior, but the case could be made that mage bolts are inherently different from Wizard bolts...

[uygi]

From Fire bolt and Sr. Apprentice Robe question:

I'm still a newbie Wizard in EQ but if you want my opinion get the
Robe. The bolt spells annoy the hell out of me, most of the time I
don't even hit!

Indicates that wizard bolts were actual bolts, just like mage bolts.

[uygi]

Bump.

[Nirgon]

Yeah the mage and wizard bolts at lvl 8 aren't a hint either

[uygi]

Originally Posted by Nirgon [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yeah the mage and wizard bolts at lvl 8 aren't a hint either

Huh?

Anyways, bump.

[Chokan]

This won't get fixed. There's a 9+ page thread about the mage bolts that hasn't even been responded to.

[Vega]

Bump

Now that mage bolts seem to be more inline, could we get a similar fix to wiz bolts? This would make these lower level bolt spells useful. Also some very nice pulling implications for Ragefire bracer.

[Arkaan]

Probably requires a lot of work to fix this. But yea, bolts were made into DD's at some point. Classically bolts should fire from caster and actually follow and hit the target. More like a ranger arrow that looks like a fireball.

That and also you could cast bolts with no target, and a bolt would travel all the way across the zone, if it hit a mob along the way it would dmg it.

[Pudge]

remember shooting just a glowing blue/white ball out straight? that was the whole point of one of the spells, it didnt even do any damage. just a glowing ball pretty cool