How are you guys getting around the long cast times? Are u finding ways?

[Teclis23]

I’m really struggling to justify selecting spells at level up that have long cast times and finding very hard to actually use them in battle.

 

Ciphers seem to have a lot of good spells with acceptably short cast times and recovery’s so I am using cipher spells a lot.

 

Priests and druids for some reason have a lot of really slow casts, druids especially. Quite a lot of there spells are usually something like a 3 sec cast and then a 4 sec recovery and that’s not including any armor penalty which can add substantially more time. On top of that a lot of these spells require a successful accuracy hit vs a stat like will/ fort/ reflex to even hit.

 

Because of all of this I have come to the conclusion that the vast majority of spells just aren’t worth using unless they are fast cast or buffs that buff your own party members so there is no saving throw that can cause the spell to miss.

 

Multiclass melee characters that have quick self buffs in this game are just so much more powerful then casters it’s not funny.

 

Has anyone found anyway around this? And do you think obsidian will recognise this as a problem and fix in future patches? I hope they do.

Edited August 3, 2018 by Teclis23

[Boeroer]

Dex is good. And there are some items that give you universal speed bonuses (for example Squid's Grasp). Those apply to casting time and recovery. There are armors (e.g. Miscreant's Leather or Reckless Brigandine), weapons and maybe other gear that I can't remember now. And consumables of course.

Also multiclassing is a very good way to reduce casting times. One example: Warlock (Barbarian/Wizard) can use Frenzy, Bloodlust and Blood Thirst to reduce casting time and casting recovery. Paired with the ability Rapid Casting and good DEX (also use stuff like Alacrity or Fleet Feet to gain +5 DEX and use items) you can cast pretty fast. Once the killing starts you will have no recovery and casting times are short. I love my nuking Warlock. You'll loose dmg per cast though because your Power Level isn't as high as that of a single class caster. But who cares if I can put out twice as many spells in the same time.

Pure Wizards can use Alacrity + items + Rapid Casting.

Monk/Casters can use Swift Strikes.

Streetfighter/Casters can reduce recovery a lot by getting flanked and increase crit damage of spells like crazy, but they can't reduce casting times other than with items and Rapid Casting.

 

And so on.

 

After all that tweaking the casting times are pretty fast. I mean not really really fast, but it feels a lot better than with the base values. So don't dump DEX - it really hurts. You can feel the difference best with spells that have a very long casting time - because the chunk that gets cut off is bigger (in flat seconds) - so it feels a lot faster than say with spells that only have casting times of 0.4 secs - obviously.
 

Edited August 3, 2018 by Boeroer

[ManifestedISO]

it is really satisfying to 'crack' the recovery/cast time systems

 

high Dexterity, a few talents, enchant the right armors and weapons, as stated above, it's a lot of fun reducing a 6.0 cast to like, 3.4 seconds

[1TTFFSSE]

-Keep track of the recovery modifier on your armour (the closer to 0% it is the better) but 0% are robes, 20% leather, 35% scale etc

-Pump dex it directly modifies action speed

-the best weapon setup for pure speed is dual wield + two weapon talent, Xoti's Sickle with urgent harvest upgrade+any other weapon that modifies speed and maybe useful for caster - griffon sword is a good choice.

[Manveru123]

Xoti's Sickle? What's the range on that ability though? "Near" does not sound like a place my Wizard wants to be :D

[1TTFFSSE]

Xoti's Sickle? What's the range on that ability though? "Near" does not sound like a place my Wizard wants to be :D

Ah yeah that is a problem for ranged wizards, probably 2 meter range or so,  if you are a melee battle caster the sickle+griffon's blade (+10% spell damage) is pretty good though. 

[anathanielh]

Deadfire tweaks mod makes cipher cast times reasonable and not overpowered. Same for priest.

 

And mods don’t disable achievements so I can just leave it forever and ever and ever and ever.

[Dorftek]

Also, put the combat speed tweaker to max!

[Frog Man]

Dex is good. And there are some items that give you universal speed bonuses (for example Squid's Grasp). Those apply to casting time and recovery. There are armors (e.g. Miscreant's Leather or Reckless Brigandine), weapons and maybe other gear that I can't remember now. And consumables of course.

 

Also multiclassing is a very good way to reduce casting times. One example: Warlock (Barbarian/Wizard) can use Frenzy, Bloodlust and Blood Thirst to reduce casting time and casting recovery. Paired with the ability Rapid Casting and good DEX (also use stuff like Alacrity or Fleet Feet to gain +5 DEX and use items) you can cast pretty fast. Once the killing starts you will have no recovery and casting times are short. I love my nuking Warlock. You'll loose dmg per cast though because your Power Level isn't as high as that of a single class caster. But who cares if I can put out twice as many spells in the same time.

 

Pure Wizards can use Alacrity + items + Rapid Casting.

 

Monk/Casters can use Swift Strikes.

 

Streetfighter/Casters can reduce recovery a lot by getting flanked and increase crit damage of spells like crazy, but they can't reduce casting times other than with items and Rapid Casting.

 

And so on.

 

After all that tweaking the casting times are pretty fast. I mean not really really fast, but it feels a lot better than with the base values. So don't dump DEX - it really hurts. You can feel the difference best with spells that have a very long casting time - because the chunk that gets cut off is bigger (in flat seconds) - so it feels a lot faster than say with spells that only have casting times of 0.4 secs - obviously.

 

Warlock sounds amazing

[Teclis23]

Im really having trouble with my Herald at the moment (Paladin/ Chanter)

 

 

He is just to slow compared to other melee guys, my arcane knight and my thief/monk who both have access to haste

 

I thought the herald would be a good tank and be able to use summons but by the time he puts plate armor on and casts the summons which have huge cast and recovery times he gets completely smashed

 

I think Im going to kick him out of my party

[1TTFFSSE]

Im really having trouble with my Herald at the moment (Paladin/ Chanter)

 

 

He is just to slow compared to other melee guys, my arcane knight and my thief/monk who both have access to haste

 

I thought the herald would be a good tank and be able to use summons but by the time he puts plate armor on and casts the summons which have huge cast and recovery times he gets completely smashed

 

I think Im going to kick him out of my party

Chanters should be run Troboudour, Sasha's Singing Sciminat+Xoti's Sickle (Urgent harvest) dual wield with two weapon style, Fleshmender or Garari Cuiress Armour, Rapid Casting and Quick summoning

[Teclis23]

 

Im really having trouble with my Herald at the moment (Paladin/ Chanter)

 

 

He is just to slow compared to other melee guys, my arcane knight and my thief/monk who both have access to haste

 

I thought the herald would be a good tank and be able to use summons but by the time he puts plate armor on and casts the summons which have huge cast and recovery times he gets completely smashed

 

I think Im going to kick him out of my party

Chanters should be run Troboudour, Sasha's Singing Sciminat+Xoti's Sickle (Urgent harvest) dual wield with two weapon style, Fleshmender or Garari Cuiress Armour, Rapid Casting and Quick summoning

 

that build is far from  a tank

[1TTFFSSE]

 

 

Im really having trouble with my Herald at the moment (Paladin/ Chanter)

 

 

He is just to slow compared to other melee guys, my arcane knight and my thief/monk who both have access to haste

 

I thought the herald would be a good tank and be able to use summons but by the time he puts plate armor on and casts the summons which have huge cast and recovery times he gets completely smashed

 

I think Im going to kick him out of my party

Chanters should be run Troboudour, Sasha's Singing Sciminat+Xoti's Sickle (Urgent harvest) dual wield with two weapon style, Fleshmender or Garari Cuiress Armour, Rapid Casting and Quick summoning

 

that build is far from  a tank

 

If in that armor you feel too squishy equip Hearth Defender Scale, Black plate or The Bloody Links. Dual Wield rather than weapon + shield is still preferable though because it does increase your action speed a lot especially with the weapons I mentioned.  

[thelee]

Main thing is to wear light armor or cloth to make sure your recovery isn't through the roof. But even then super slow spells (6s cast) have short recoveries (2s) so they aren't hurt by armor as much.

 

Honestly, I don't understand why spell cast times are such a common complaint. If you're overused to BG2 or Diablo 3 then yeah the transition can be rough, but mostly you just need a bit of planning and positioning and you're set. You can retarget spells mid-cast and that takes care of that bit if sluggishness from slow casts. TBH I didn't completely love it when they shrank cast times in the backer beta for non-cipher spellcasters because it made it harder to land interrupts on the enemy (and made concentration less relevant).

 

Xoti's Sickle? What's the range on that ability though? "Near" does not sound like a place my Wizard wants to be :D

The range on the speed boost is massive, like basically if your wizard is close enough to be relevant to the fight they get the speed buff. But IIRC most speed boosts on weapons only affect the specific weapon (they don't even affect the other weapon if you're dual-wielding).