Question(s) for the Developers on Spells

[Mr. Magniloquent]

1. I've noticed that many spells are actually missing their target, rather than grazing at minimum. Is this behavior intentional?
2. Can you elaborate on spells which have a primary and secondary effects? More specifically, how they are applied. I would be grateful.

I was able to capture a screen shot of both in one single spell. Thank you!

 

 

*Edit: Attached wrong SS

Edited October 10, 2014 by Mr. Magniloquent

[Razsius]

Yup that's intended.  Welcome to just one reason why wizards suck so bad in the BB.  Wizards make a roll on their spell casts just like melee do with their attacks.  Doesn't help that you'll often target defenses that are higher than deflection either.  Anything that targets fortitude tends to make me cry.  That +10 or + 15 accuracy on the spell won't help you when their respective defense is 15-20 points higher anyway.

 

As for secondary effects I believe graze will halve the duration on it, hit is normal duration and crit is +50%.

Edited October 10, 2014 by Razsius

[Cubiq]

Ok i also got a question, does a miss have anything to do with why my fireball sometimes hits my allies even though i was careful with the cast location?

[Gfted1]

Iirc, all spell include friendly fire. Missing the enemy wouldn't cause it to hit your group. Perhaps you misjudged the cast location slightly?

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Yup that's intended.

 

Sigh. I held the understanding that spells could not miss on a roll--that the Graze was merely adjusted from 45% (base) to 50%. This has a significant impact on my calculations, as they are very fastidious. Ugh.

 

Yup that's intended.  Welcome to just one reason why wizards suck so bad in the BB.  Wizards make a roll on their spell casts just like melee do with their attacks.  Doesn't help that you'll often target defenses that are higher than deflection either.  Anything that targets fortitude tends to make me cry.  That +10 or + 15 accuracy on the spell won't help you when their respective defense is 15-20 points higher anyway.

 

As for secondary effects I believe graze will halve the duration on it, hit is normal duration and crit is +50%.

 

I've noticed that base saves (Fortitude, Reflex, Will) are 30 for all classes in addition to attribute bonuses. I'm not sure why they've done that as it does not reflect how each class starts with an inherent preference/role. It certainly slants things against anyone using an ability that's for sure. I haven't quite figured out the bonuses provided by attributes, as they are not linear. Rolling new character and adjusting values to see resulting bonuses quickly becomes tedious.

 

As for secondary effects, are you saying that those only pertain to duration? The wording made me think that for a spell which has multiple effects (-10 Will, 20sec. Daze), that those conditions were applied under separate criteria. If the "additional effect" prompt regards only duration (graze/hit/crit), then it makes more sense.

Edited October 10, 2014 by Mr. Magniloquent

[Cubiq]

I don't know the distance between where i target the spell and where it lands is pretty huge.

First i thought it was some kind of mechanic where it detonates as soon as someone gets it's path. But it doesn't seem to be.

Then i thought maybe i accidentally targeted an enemy character instead of the ground and so the spell location moved as the enemy moved, so i became extra careful of even that, yet it still sometimes lands right in the middle of everyone fighting, hitting both my party members and enemies alike.

Edited October 10, 2014 by Cubiq

[morhilane]

 

Yup that's intended.

 

Sigh. I held the understanding that spells could not miss on a roll--that the Graze was merely adjusted from 45% (base) to 50%. This has a significant impact on my calculations, as they are very fastidious. Ugh.

 

 

Everything can miss if your accuracy is too low compared to the target's deflection/defense (depending what it is attacking).

 

Also, Fortitude/Reflex/Will shouldn't be 30 for all the classes going by old posts by Sawyer (noted in the Wiki). That explain why everyone has more defense than deflection at the moment though.

[Matt516]

Also, just wanted to point out that spells missing is hardly an invention of PoE. Saving throws in IE made a lot of spells really variable in their usefulness.

 

That said, there was a lot more variability in how spells were affected by saving throws as well. Some couldn't be saved, some were save for half damage, etc. A little variability in how PoE spells responded to attack resolution could go a long way to making magic feel more interesting to use.

[BMac]

As for secondary effects, are you saying that those only pertain to duration? The wording made me think that for a spell which has multiple effects (-10 Will, 20sec. Daze), that those conditions were applied under separate criteria. If the "additional effect" prompt regards only duration (graze/hit/crit), then it makes more sense.

 

Attacks that have secondary effects make an additional attack to apply those effects, as long as the first attack doesn't miss.  For example, a poison attack might make a primary roll against Deflection - then, if that doesn't miss, the attack will make a secondary roll against Fortitude to apply a poison effect.  The secondary effect can miss, graze or crit independently of the primary attack.

[Mr. Magniloquent]

That's exactly what I wanted to know. Thank you!

[PrimeJunta]

Yup that's intended.  Welcome to just one reason why wizards suck so bad in the BB.  Wizards make a roll on their spell casts just like melee do with their attacks.  Doesn't help that you'll often target defenses that are higher than deflection either.  Anything that targets fortitude tends to make me cry.  That +10 or + 15 accuracy on the spell won't help you when their respective defense is 15-20 points higher anyway.

 

As for secondary effects I believe graze will halve the duration on it, hit is normal duration and crit is +50%.

 

Try synergizing with other caster classes. A combo of a druid casting a group fortitude debuff followed by a wizard attack against fortitude is pretty powerful.