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#1
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Flash of Light
Thanks for the recent changes to Flash of Light. The blindness effect now works almost exactly as I remember.
What doesn't seem the same--and the reason I'm posting this thread (a continuation of the thread from the old forums)--is the aggro generated by this spell. Specifically, it feels too low. This is a spell which was second only to a Shadow Knight's Disease Cloud for massive threat generation, and not that far behind. Flash was so strong for threat that it remained useful into the PoP era. On P1999, however, Flash of Light appears to generate less threat than a single cast of 'expulse undead' (my wife will pull aggro if we each cast one spell, me Flash, and her Expulse). Overall it seems to generate much less threat than I remember; in some cases I've spammed the spell half a dozen times in a row or more and still lost aggro to a groupmate. That experience in no way correlates to anything that I recall from my previous Paladins; only an SK spamming Disease Cloud could out-threat Flash. Flash should generate such substantial threat that a few casts (at most) ought to be sufficient to ensure aggro for the duration of a typical-length encounter even against nuke-happy wizards. In some cases, just a single cast was sufficient to pull off a Warrior who had been building aggro for significant time. I'm afraid I can't provide hard numbers. Use of this spell was always something of a mysterious art, rather than science. I speak from my experience on many Paladin characters as a dedicated player of the class. I do not expect things to be 100% identical to Live on this server; if it could be made 'close enough' that'd be satisfactory to me. Danth | ||
#2
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Oh, and to make sure I'm putting it plain, there's nothing subtle about the problem described above. Flash of light feels like it's barely doing anything at all, when it ought to be one of the highest-aggro spells in the entire game. Perhaps this ties into the greater spell aggro issue discussed in another thread.
Danth | ||
#3
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I have also noticed that Flash of Light doesn't pull the same aggro it did back in the day. Used to be a handy tool for keeping the attention on the paladin so the other classes could do their business
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#4
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I remember Flash of Light being very effective for keeping aggro. From what I've seen on our server, Flash of Light is definitely not working as it is supposed to be / did.
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#5
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Update: This spell still does not make mobs stick to me like it did on Live. In fact I occasionally lose aggro even when spam-casting it back to back to back, something that simply never, ever happened. This spell. like Disease Cloud, remained good for threat generation into the Planes of Power time frame (for an idea of how strong it was). Right now it's sort of adequate, but just barely, but a pale reflection of its Live counterpart. It frustrates me more than probably any other bug on the server.
As I noted previously, providing hard numbers for this sort of thing is rather a lost cause, but that doesn't mean it isn't in need of tweaks. Danth | ||
#6
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Just a thought, maybe it was never the aggro it was generating that made the mobs stick to you... but in fact the blindness that it caused?
Maybe it's the blind portion of the spell that's broken? Blind mobs will run away unless there is somebody within reach. If there is somebody within reach they stick to that player. Anyway, just a thought. Not having flash of light, I have never tested tested it on this server. I messed around with the Enchanter blindness spell a bit when I first got it and it seemed to get mobs to stick to my pet but it also wore off very quickly which is why I didn't bother to keep it in my spell bar (spell was too situational at best). | ||
#7
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Quote:
Now, later on, when most mobs are immune, like TOV/VP, it could jack some serious smack aggro. Although, I don't ever remember it being on par with disease cloud/snare/stun, it was still pretty stiff.
__________________
I have walked my way since the beginning of time. Sometimes I give, sometimes I take & it is mine to know which and when.
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#8
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Maybe it changed in a recent update, but it isn't working like live in this respect:
On live say you were in melee with a mob, and flashed it. If you backed off it would run away. If you stayed in melee range it would keep on meleeing. Here it follows you if you try to back off. I haven't used it in groups, but it was wonky on live. If you weren't close to a mob, and the mob was fighting a pc, if you flashed it sometimes it would run away and maybe make a train. But only sometimes. My best guess is it had something to do with the aggro list, but that is only a guess. A lot of people would not use that spell in dungeons. But here it acts like a fear spell basically. I think it only sticks to you if you are in melee range, but I'd have to play with it to see exactly how it is behaving. Danth what happens if you flash something and hit it with a ranged attack if it is running? | ||
#9
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Quote:
If Flash of Light is cast on a mob and it follows you when you run away from it then one fo two things are happening. A. The blind portion of the spell is broken.... or B. You actually aren't moving out of melee range, or at least not quickly enough. So it's easy to discern the difference. If you are obviously out of melee range then the mob isn't actually being blinded. ----------------------------------------------- As a side not, I could be confused with another game but aren't there certain spells where part of the spell effect would stick and others would not? (Like for example Enchanter nuke on a giant deals damage but doesn't stun.) In this case the mob could have resisted the blind effect and only the debuff portion landed... or something like that. Anyway, these are all possible things to consider and any combination of the above could be happening with the Flash of Light spell. | |||
#10
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Right, Flash of Light does have a miniscule debuff component which might factor in somehow.
Danth | ||
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