[BUG] Wizard Summoned Weapons Aren't Benefiting from Bonuses to Power Levels

[JerekKruger]

As far as I can tell Wizard summoned weapons (Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff and Citzal's Spirit Lance) gain a scaling bonus to Accuracy, Damage and Penetration at power levels 3, 5 and (presumably) all odd power levels after that.

 

This should mean that when a level 3 Conjurer summons Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff it should have +4 Accuracy, +15% Damage and +1 Penetration (since it's a Conjuration spell), but at the moment it has no bonuses and they have to wait till level 5 like non-Conjurers.

 

The same is also true of the bonus power levels given by the Nature Godlike's Wellspring of Life ability. If, at level 2, you cast, say, Fleet Fleet to activate Wellspring of Life your power level is 3; but if you then cast Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff it summons the version with no bonuses i.e. the power level 1/2 version.

[crystalis78]

Summoned weapons scale Accuracy / Damage / Pen based on the character level, rather than Power Level. Otherwise, summoned weapons would be less viable for multiclass characters. Increased Power Level does affect the duration of summoned weapons. If you right-click on a summoned weapon spell, such as Parasitic Staff, and hover over the duration value, you'll see a tooltip showing the bonus from Power Level on duration.

[Boeroer]

Summoned weapons scale Accuracy / Damage / Pen based on the character level, rather than Power Level. Otherwise, summoned weapons would be less viable for multiclass characters.

And that would be bad?

[AndreaColombo]

And that would be bad?

 

I've spent the afternoon thinking of ways to boost my Power Level on a Devoted/Conjurer build specifically to avoid lagging behind a single-classed Wizard when it came to summoned weapons, so I can't say the news is bad for me

[Boeroer]

But you already get +3 PEN, 50% hit to crit and grazes with your scaling summoned weapon. A bit lower power level isn't that bad. There has to be some kind of drawback if you multiclass.

[AndreaColombo]

Less spells, no high-level spells or abilities, lower power levels

[Boeroer]

Two resource pools...

[JerekKruger]

And that would be bad?

 

I wouldn't say so no. After all, one would expect a single class wizard to cast a more powerful version of a spell than a multiclass wizard, and moreover a Conjurer to cast a more powerful version of a conjuration spell than a non-Conjurer, and added duration doesn't really express this (especially since the duration is plenty long enough already).

[Boeroer]

I agree.

[SaruNi]

Added duration isn't usually useful because weapon autoattacks kill so quickly that combat doesn't last very long. 

 

Once most weapon DPS is slowed down, duration might become more valuable. But iirc it is a pretty long base duration.

Edited December 7, 2017 by SaruNi

[JerekKruger]

But iirc it is a pretty long base duration.

 

At level 9 with 16 Intellect it was around 90s for me. Perhaps for the first few levels the bonus duration will be useful, but I can't see needing much more than 90s myself.

[CottonWolf]

I've only just realised how bad this makes the conjurer subclass (having just fiddled with one). Half the conjuration spells are summoned weapons, so you're essentially trading half your spell options for spells for no advantage (as other people have said +duration is terrible when the base durations are high) and a terrible pet.

 

Worst subclass?

[Nail]

Now think about tough fights (dragons) potd solo, such fight can take way longer then 2 minutes, most likely re-conjuring new weapon during such fight is like a death sentence.

Summoning weapons should be faster, then it's not a big problem.

 

Offtop:

P.S is it only me thinking that timeline of implemented ability as a filling circle is kinda poor visible?

Edited February 9, 2018 by Nail

[CottonWolf]

A subclass having value in PotD solo is such an edge case it almost shouldn't count. The number of people who'll actually ever do that is tiny.

[AndreaColombo]

I don’t think that’s what Nail was trying to say. He was actually making a point that summoned weapons should have faster casting times—something there appears to be a strong consensus about on the boards. Anything slower than 0.5s casting with 0.0s recovery makes attacking with your regular weapon a more efficient choice, seeing as summoned weapons in Deadfire aren’t really spectacular.

 

I also agree they should scale with power level, as part of the general issue with power level being very inconsistent in its application and not impactful enough to make single-class characters appealing.

[Nail]

A subclass having value in PotD solo is such an edge case it almost shouldn't count. The number of people who'll actually ever do that is tiny.

It's the moment when you get the most of the game - maximum awareness and game experience.

All entire game should be built around that option.

[AndreaColombo]

I guess I stand corrected?

[Nail]

I guess I stand corrected?

I meant that no abilities should be unperformed.

Summoning time right now seems to be unreasonable decision, still I may be wrong.

Every ability should be viable, no reason to make something just for overall picture, game depth and balance are extremely important if the game intend to be iconic.

And I hope Josh wants to make Deadfire iconic, I so no evil in that.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Nail