Arcane lvl 7 Spell List is Trash

[rise_of_chaos]

As an evoker/conjuror the lvl 7 spell list is worthless, aside from delayed blast fireball there is not a single spell of use. The level 8 spell list has polar ray, sunburst, incendiary cloud, black dragon bolt, greater shout. arcane tempest, horrid wilting.

That is 7 to 1. Taking it a little further, as a founding player, the spells pretty much dry up in terms of enjoyability around lvl 5. Everything is samey samey with 1 or 2 spells each level that you take life after life.

And then while we're on the subject, once you hit lvl 9, everything else becomes irrelevant and a waste of time to cast. You've got the 3-4 big damage dealers, which are kind of dull and boring to cast, and it really isn't worht it to even have anything lower in the rotation anymore if your doing challenging content.

Acid well is boring to cast, Meteor storm is annoying to everyone else, Lightning Strike and Iceberg are ok I guess, also a bit boring in terms of not really much skill to use em just select the target and hit for massive damage.

I am not holding my breath but I see they are actually fixing a lot of things these days, so thought I would throw out my suggestions.

Redesign acid well and meteor. Acid well is just kind of bleh. Meteor could be a lot smaller, its cool as the one casting it but incredibly annoying to everyone else. Lightning Strike and Iceberg are just like easy button massive damage, no skill required, overall boring while also making anything lower level irrelevant and not worth spending the time to cast. Ice storm is agonzingly annoying to everyone else especially when you end up in a group someone who is casting it constantly right on top of you.

What happened to Acid Fog? Is that for our inner artist who likes to pain pretty pictures? -4 to AC? 2D6 damage per 2 seconds?

Redesign cloudkill, acid fog. Redo the visuals of acid well. Tone down Meteor Storm and make it more 'poignant'... maybe rocks 1/5th size with the same arc etc. Make Polar Ray look cooler its boring.

On a positive note, Sunburst is cool and interesting. Why not make it lvl 7? Incendiary Cloud... also interesting and not boring... also could be level 7. Black Dragon Bolt could be level 7 or even 6. Lvl 8 list is loaded with 7 good choices, the level 7 list has delayed blast fireball... 1 spell. Again, this is for evoker/conjuration type casters. I know people like finger of deah, ottos' sphere of dancing etc.

Overall being an arcane just loses a lot of steam starting with lvl 5 spells. Just boring-ish. Could be easily fixed though with some of what I said.

DDO is a great game in terms of its a multiplayer action game, not on rails etc... not a management simulator... i.e. your intereacting with other players, enemies, casting things in strategic places, using the environment, playing in real time, with many spells. A few fixes to late level arcane casting would go a long way to making it even better.

 

[Ethril]

Prsimatic spray is also an evocation spell.

 

[Xaxx]

you know if they are to do anything with your post it will simply be to go oh there is one good spell, well lets just remove that and make everything even....

 

[droid327]

I mean you're right, but really the correct solution is a holistic rebalancing of the whole Arcane tree - updating spells that are pointlessly out of date, reorganizing spell progression to better spread spells across all levels, and adding in new spells where there are gaps in certain lines (like more useful Force spells between MM and ATem/Meteor, or more options for Illusion)

 

[FuzzyDuck81]

Prismatic spray is a decent one that's still usable in endgame for the instakill chance & even if it's not your primary school it's worth taking Otto's Impromptu Disco as it'll often catch a few of the enemies with poor will saves, handy especially if you're at a doorway, spawn point or having enemies come to you & symbol of stunning is similarly useful for area prep.

Acid well is one of those ones that yeah, it's kinda boring but as a conjuration spell with a fort save that means no evasion & much fewer things have acid immunity so it's solidly reliable, but it's a shame they actually fixed it to have a maximum range now.

 

[Xaxx]

I mean you're right, but really the correct solution is a holistic rebalancing of the whole Arcane tree - updating spells that are pointlessly out of date, reorganizing spell progression to better spread spells across all levels, and adding in new spells where there are gaps in certain lines (like more useful Force spells between MM and ATem/Meteor, or more options for Illusion)

you expecting the guys running this game to have any idea what being able to balance something is......

You know i had this conversation with a friend after dessert had been out for like a year (so like 15 or so years ago) where I made the comment that it was sad that the game had been out for so long already (2 years or so at this point) that the devs were still balancing with a sledgehammer when balancing should be done with a feather and after 2 years the team should know their game enough to be able to do that a bit.... here we are all this time later (yeah yeah i know i keep poppin back into this game because the base of it is actually fun in spurts)... and all i see is a bunch of sledgehammers wielded with the average precision of a ticked off 3 year old with a hammer and a pile of lego they dont like.. it has about the same effect for the stability and playability of the game as that pile of lego stayin together.....

So you might just be barking a little (waaaay WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY) up the wrong tree here with these kind of expectations... and if anyone says im insulting the crew running the game, by all means take a look at the back and forth yanking around of "balance" from even the last 5 years... speaking an uncomfortable truth isnt an insult

 

[Lazuli]

There's no point in moving the spell level. Those spells are of that level because in pnp they are of that level. Stop kicking the game, please,

I don't agree that acid well, polar ray or meteor swarm are boring. They are what you should be, if you are bored of playing a nuker maybe you should change your playstyle for a while. Leave these spells alone, please.

Primastic spray is a great evocation spell.

Cloud-type spells, dots, force spells, and disintegrate were not improved during the spell pass. Those are still waiting for a pass that makes them competitive, although the devs have probably already forgotten about that. This team of devs in recent years has gone from one project to another, changing their minds every few months, and leaving almost everything unfinished. The spell pass, the bank pass... so many other things.

 

[Enoach]

I'm all for adding more spells to the game. Especially for schools that have few options.

I may be an odd duck here but I really don't want everyone to gravitate towards a single best spell. I want the diversity to be there to make the feature to switch up spells not only valuable, but an envy of to those classes that cannot simply rest to switch a spell

 

[DBZ]

2 more acid spells so you could make an acid sorc at cap would be an epic quality of life fix

Along with a stupid filigree pass so all the sets get 5 crits or remove ices

 

[FVSHasBeenEvenMoreGutted]

since when is horrid wilting and incendiary cloud good?

 

[DBZ]

Cloud can blind - kill eye balls not the worst out there

 

[Gimp-1]

since when is horrid wilting and incendiary cloud good?

I do know horrid wilting works well when the Vengence reapers use it. YMMV

 

[The Blonde]

Horrid Whilting is garbo when used by players AFAIK.

 

[Fizban]

As an evoker/conjuror the lvl 7 spell list is worthless, aside from delayed blast fireball there is not a single spell of use. The level 8 spell list has polar ray, sunburst, incendiary cloud, black dragon bolt, greater shout. arcane tempest, horrid wilting.

That is 7 to 1. Taking it a little further, as a founding player, the spells pretty much dry up in terms of enjoyability around lvl 5. Everything is samey samey with 1 or 2 spells each level that you take life after life.

And then while we're on the subject, once you hit lvl 9, everything else becomes irrelevant and a waste of time to cast. You've got the 3-4 big damage dealers, which are kind of dull and boring to cast, and it really isn't worht it to even have anything lower in the rotation anymore if your doing challenging content.

Just to correct your post.

New Ttile: I Don't Like Most of the LVL 7 Spells

Foundation from my perspective. My main and my favoroite class to play is an Arcane Wizard or caster. I enjoy and use that following level 7 spells regulary.

Level 7: Finger of Death, Dancing Ball, Delayed Blast Fireball, wavess of Exhaustion (good for bosses)

 

[droid327]

There's no point in moving the spell level. Those spells are of that level because in pnp they are of that level. Stop kicking the game, please,

I don't agree that acid well, polar ray or meteor swarm are boring. They are what you should be, if you are bored of playing a woman maybe you should change your playstyle for a while. Leave these spells alone, please.

Primastic spray is a great evocation spell.

Cloud-type spells, dots, force spells, and disintegrate were not improved during the spell pass. Those are still waiting for a pass that makes them competitive, although the devs have probably already forgotten about that. This team of devs in recent years has gone from one project to another, changing their minds every few months, and leaving almost everything unfinished. The spell pass, the bank pass... so many other things.

Honestly, I wish the devs would devote an update cycle entirely to refreshing outdated content...old spells, weak enhancement trees, obsolete quest lines and gear...it's low hanging fruit, and at this point a lot of that would be like making entirely new content, at a fraction of the effort.

 

[l_remmie]

DDO spells need a massive overhaul. They are all 20 years old scaled for low level pen and paper characters. The game needs a ton of new spells and all old buffs and debuffs need to be updated. It's beyond baffling why they don't make exciting new spells in a game about magical spells. They don't have to be the best people will enjoy anything new at this point.

 

[Speed]

I know it is not gonna happen, but would be cool if we could choose spells from lower levels if wanted.
7-9 offer less options to choose, so it is better to take some lower situational/utility than something that you know that will not be used, because you already may have other similar spells/abilities to use often enough, it is not your playstyle or you are not build around it (different spellpower/school).

 

[Fizban]

DDO spells need a massive overhaul. They are all 20 years old scaled for low level pen and paper characters. The game needs a ton of new spells and all old buffs and debuffs need to be updated. It's beyond baffling why they don't make exciting new spells in a game about magical spells. They don't have to be the best people will enjoy anything new at this point.

I just disagree. DDO spells are pulled directly from D&D spells and should always be in sync. They do not need an overhaul. For the most part from normal up to Reaper 10 a good caster dominates, and all players know it. This in and of itself means spells and caster power is very good.

 

[Striga]

If anything good comes out of this thread, think also about bard's level 5 spells. particularly if not stormsinger. Needs a lot of help.

 

[Dom]

The level 7 spell list does have a few things in there that are pretty useless, however there are pretty standard spell selections that are useful for sorc and wizard no matter what the main purpose of the build is (except for melee/ranged of course).

Banishment - Not needed when levelling (and definitely wouldn't take on a sorc due to limited number of spells), but pretty useful at end game if you're doing things like ToEE, dailies (grim and barett, subversion, tavern brawl, etc), and a handful of others.

Otto's Sphere of Dancing - Sort of sucks the higher you go in reaper skulls due to decreased duration, but pretty helpful in certain quests and situations (for example, demon assault, having one up each wave to have initial crowd control).

Delayed Blast Fireball - Good.

Prismatic Spray - Good. Sucks spamming as a wizard but still good.

Finger of Death - Good.

Protection from elements, mass - again, not needed, but if you need to take an extra spell as a wizard, its a decent option for absorbing some extra damage.

There's your 3 to 5 spells at cap (depending on if you're a wiz or sorc). Could there be more useful ones? Definitely. Are you struggling to find good spells to use? Nope.