I apologize in advance for the harshness of this post.  I am a big fan of the developers and loved POE1 and CRPGs in general. Now that is out of the way...

 

The POE2 cast times are, to put it as gently as possible, terrible. I know the developers are aware of this, but really, they can't be made aware of it enough. I think I've got 450+ hours in POE1 (hard and POTD) and I struggle to push my way through a second play through of beta. Not due to difficulty - but due to how unenjoyable casters are. I'm not a grognard, I can deal with change. I know "it's just beta" (Insert your standard disclaimers here). It's just not fun watching my casters sit around for 3-9 (!) seconds to cast a spell (that might just miss, since graze no longer exists) followed by a 3 second recovery.

 

Probably my biggest fear is that the game is already balanced too deeply based upon these cast times to change. Say it ain't so?

 

 

 

 

Grazes are coming back for all attacks.

Fairly sure they also said they’re looking into casting times.

I personally really like casting times. PoE's spells were very effective, but casting them felt unsatisfying. No doubt there is some serious balancing still to do.

I personally really like casting times. PoE's spells were very effective, but casting them felt unsatisfying. No doubt there is some serious balancing still to do.

 

This.

I also love the long casting times, the problem atm is in spells not having enough of an impact after they have been casted. Rather then having quick casted spells that barely do anything, I would like to have long casted spells with significant impact. With long casting times, another strategic layer of interrupting enemy casters and not getting interrupted yourself while casting comes into play, which is good.

The problem is that if it takes my caster 10 to achieve the same result my melee guys do in 5, there’s no reason for me to take a caster. (Numbers are in an arbitrary unit of time for the sake of exemplifying.)

 

At present, by the time I’m done casting most enemies are dead or badly hurt. My melee guys got it; no need for the caster to do anything. Also no reason for summoned weapons to be anything but fast cast, to be honest

Edited December 7, 20178 yr by AndreaColombo

The problem is that if it takes my caster 10 to achieve the same result my melee guys do in 5, there’s no reason for me to take a caster. (Numbers are in an arbitrary unit of time for the sake of exemplifying.)

At present, by the time I’m done casting most enemies are dead or badly hurt. My melee guys got it; no need for the caster to do anything. Also no reason for summoned weapons to be anything but fast cast, to be honest

Sure, Therefore rebalancing is needed, whenever it is shortening casting time or increasing spells effectiveness. If you use one handed weapons on you melee keep in mind that those are broken right now. They don’t have recovery time, resulting in way higher DPS than intended. Will be fixed in next update.

I know. I elevated the achievement of no recovery on my frontline to an art, though, so it won’t super make a difference for me

Eh, if they beef up spells to compensate for the longer cast times, they would feel better. Not sure I'd like the pace, personally, but at least it's workable/improvement, and you can feel like a return on taking the time to cast a spell. Right now, you have the worst of both worlds:

 

Long cast time

Little result

 

It's readily apparent just by glancing at POE1 spell list. Concelhaunt's staff, for example, was a "fast" (.5 second) spell in POE1. Now it is 6 seconds (plus 3 second recovery time). That's 8.5 seconds before you can even do anything with it.

 

I wish this was an outlier but that's common across the board. More disheartening is JS seems to think people think casters are slow just because melee is moving at a brisk pace and/or some bugs with melee. No. People think casters are slow because most everything takes an additional 3-8.5 seconds.

The main problem is.

 

Long cast time = risk of auto-interrupt.

 

"Holy crap, I MUST heal my team... and I charge since 8 seconds..."

 

If atm you cut your move = Big loss of time AND loss of power source point.

 

No this system is very very bad...

The bg2 system has similar cast time... A lot cleric spell takes very long to cast. But the maximum is around 6 second I think, and they can be cast before battle...

 

And there are a lot method to fasten your spells, some gears, spell sequencer and etc.

 

If the Deadfire wanna keep the cast time long, they really really need to enhance the spell effect. Now the spells have the same damage/radius and duration as POE 1, but with longer cast time.  They should be either fast and low effect or slow but devastating.

 

I remember in some video they said the cast time is longer but the spell would be more powerful, I only see the former not the latter.

Edited December 7, 20178 yr by dunehunter

And there are a lot method to fasten your spells, some gears, spell sequencer and etc.

 

 

Like Physical classes.

 

Atm, there is no wizard, cipher and priest in my projected team. Truly...

 

1 abilitie point = 1 spell point now.

 

Disciplined barrage (Instant) VS The excellent... the wondrous Necrotic Lance (6 seconds). I hesitate... I hesitate...

 

No seriously...

Edited December 7, 20178 yr by theBalthazar

 

And there are a lot method to fasten your spells, some gears, spell sequencer and etc.

 

 

Like Physical classes.

 

Atm, there is no wizard, cipher and priest in my projected team. Truly...

 

1 abilitie point = 1 spell point now.

 

Disciplined barrage (Instant) VS The excellent... the wondrous Necrotic Lance (6 seconds). I hesitate... I hesitate...

 

No seriously...

 

 

I mean bg2

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94528-spell-takes-forever-to-cast/page-1

 

Here's the thread on cast time. They are definitely aware it's an issue.