I think I'd prefer the ability to be called *Spell Fluency* rather than Mastery as it does not imply any increased facility with the spell, only the ability to cast it (fairly) freely:

fluency |ˈflo͞oənsē|noun
the quality or condition of being fluent, in particular:
• the ability to speak or write a foreign language easily and accurately: fluency in Spanish is essential.
• the ability to express oneself easily and articulately.
• gracefulness and ease of movement or style: the horse was jumping with breathtaking fluency.
ORIGIN early 17th cent.: from Latin fluentia, from fluere ‘to flow.’

I think removing per-encounter spell is way too much. Spell mastery is not enough. I think more compensation would be required, like increasing spells per rest or extra damage and so on.

I think removing per-encounter spell is way too much. Spell mastery is not enough. I think more compensation would be required, like increasing spells per rest or extra damage and so on.

Oddly enough, I actually prefer it this way. It gives more meaning to higher level spells once you run out of lower level ones, whereas in the past most fights can be easily cleaned up with just using the per encounter spell levels over and over without any repercussions.

Per encounter spells at lvl 9/11/13 were way too powerful. And the bonus spell talents were meaningless because of that. It all makes more sense now. But I agree that spell mastery should also improve the mastered spell in some way - be it duration, damage or whatever.

So no spell in particular has been buffed or nerfed, but pretty much the spamability been reduced, just like with cipher powers.

Can anyone explain why nobody is whining about this change?

Because the best cipher spells were also severely nerfed AND they nerfed cipher drugs at the same time. That's why. Plus: The huge change in focus cost just makes nearly all powers above lvl 3 pretty useless. Can't say that about wizards, priests and druids.

My L13 cipher protagonist has gone from leading damage dealer to second rate ranged fighter

 

Aloth is doing fine and now opens most fights with (mastered) Expose Vulnerabilities.

Well, that sucks. I was planning on playing a cipher for the expansions ... I don't think I've ever seen a non-MMO game have so many radical changes to the gameplay almost a year after release. From reading various forums, this appears to have been going on for some time. One comment seems to be particularly apt, "The Devs just can't seem [to] leave well enough alone." Damn, maybe I'll wait another 9 months to play to see if this lunacy will end so I can play a character and not worry about their abilities being nerfed into the ground a week later.

Well, that sucks. I was planning on playing a cipher for the expansions ... I don't think I've ever seen a non-MMO game have so many radical changes to the gameplay almost a year after release. From reading various forums, this appears to have been going on for some time. One comment seems to be particularly apt, "The Devs just can't seem [to] leave well enough alone." Damn, maybe I'll wait another 9 months to play to see if this lunacy will end so I can play a character and not worry about their abilities being nerfed into the ground a week later.

 

 

The next beta patch should have a lot of positive changes to cipher powers to balance things out; lots of the underpowered powers are getting buffed to compensate for the increased costs. I suspect that as the level cap got higher they had to rework ciphers to keep them from getting crazypowered.

Edited February 2, 20169 yr by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

 

Well, that sucks. I was planning on playing a cipher for the expansions ... I don't think I've ever seen a non-MMO game have so many radical changes to the gameplay almost a year after release. From reading various forums, this appears to have been going on for some time. One comment seems to be particularly apt, "The Devs just can't seem [to] leave well enough alone." Damn, maybe I'll wait another 9 months to play to see if this lunacy will end so I can play a character and not worry about their abilities being nerfed into the ground a week later.

 

 

The next beta patch should have a lot of positive changes to cipher powers to balance things out; lots of the underpowered powers are getting buffed to compensate for the increased costs. I suspect that as the level cap got higher they had to rework ciphers to keep them from getting crazypowered.

 

 

I hope you're right. I can wait a few months if necessary, I have some books to catch up on 

One comment seems to be particularly apt, "The Devs just can't seem [to] leave well enough alone." Damn, maybe I'll wait another 9 months to play to see if this lunacy will end so I can play a character and not worry about their abilities being nerfed into the ground a week later.

Truth to be told, this abrupt Cipher change was the only time a class really was "nerfed to the ground", and it is a temporary thing of this beta version.

 

All in all, the game truly is much more balanced than at release, and while not all may agree that it made the game more fun, I think it was worth it.

Edited February 3, 20169 yr by DreamWayfarer

 

I don't think I've ever seen a non-MMO game have so many radical changes to the gameplay almost a year after release. 

 

 

 

I think it's because the Devs actually care about this game on a personal level. It's their baby, their own IP. They want to get it right.

I really like the constant changes, but I guess I played to many PvP games.

So, I would like to clarify something since it is still not clear for me:

 

How this will work? When do you get the chance to master the spells?

 

 

a) 1 master spell since level 1 

 

b) 1 master spell since level 9-10?

 

 

Thanks!

B.

 

When an entire spell level would have previously switched from "per rest" to "per encounter", you now get to master a spell from that level instead.

I can't find info about this in 3.0 patch notes. Could someone be so polite and explain me what and how this "Spell Mastery" would work ?

 

thx in advance

^ it's explained in the post above yours.

So after every entire spells level  I'd have to choose one "master spell? One of this level spells in master version yep?

Edited February 16, 20169 yr by Gs11

Heh, i expected we'll get 1 spell mastered per character level starting at lvl 9 (which is still far less than switch to per-encounter) but it's only one per spell level.

 

I should have known better.

At least we can get 4th level spells as a mastery pick now. There's a lot of really amazing ones to pick from.

I'm really disappointed in this change.  Now basically, I need to rest for the sake of it because I'm out of spells I cast in every fight.  I was sort of ok with the redundancy of casting the same opening spells on my priest, mage, and druid to get up the accuracy buffs on PotD.  Now, it's like basically 5 encounters and I need to rest.  That's not really cool when the hardest mode is setup as a buff/debuff metagame.

Per encounter spells at lvl 9/11/13 were way too powerful. And the bonus spell talents were meaningless because of that. It all makes more sense now. But I agree that spell mastery should also improve the mastered spell in some way - be it duration, damage or whatever.

Because you didn't have to rest between encounters if you didn't take adequate damage?  All this change does is force resting....or wanding...

Truth to be told, this abrupt Cipher change was the only time a class really was "nerfed to the ground", and it is a temporary thing of this beta version.

Apparently it is a permanent change, because it is still present in the release version 3.0.

 

Truth to be told, this abrupt Cipher change was the only time a class really was "nerfed to the ground", and it is a temporary thing of this beta version.

Apparently it is a permanent change, because it is still present in the release version 3.0.

 

 

They fixed Ciphers before the patch released today (in the previous beta patch). Essentially, they kept the increased focus cost, but buffed focus gain and many of the powers to compensate.

Edited February 17, 20169 yr by delfador

What he said.