Do wizards not have arcane assault anymore?

[ArnoldRimmer]

Why not? I loved that

[Ryz009]

Yeah my PC wizard started with a spellbook with it but other than that I haven't seen it. It's really odd.

[fced]

Same, in POE it was the first wizard ability we got (and it do raw damage), now i am stuck with the starting grimoire because the other grimoire i found don't have it...

BTW i am also very disappointed with the spell mechanic in Deadfire (some spells take too long to launch and during fight we have no indication about the time a spell take to launch).

 

[Boeroer]

Arcane Assault was a 2/encounter ability in PoE while the spells were 4/rest per tier. In Deadfire all spells are 2/encounter per tier so I guess Arcane Assault didn't fit in mechanically.

Why they chose to make it a kind-of unique spell that you can only access via grimoire (like the certain other unique spells like Shadowflame, Brilliant Departure or Draconic Fury) instead of turning it into a normal spell that you can learn: no idea. They did it with Arcane Veil (although that was per-rest in PoE and not per-encounter).

Casting times: you'll get used to it.

Caster have a lot more spells uses now because it all turned from per-rest to per-encounter. That means more power. At the same time the devs didn't want to make the spells' effects too weak to counterbalance that. So they had to get longer casting times to prevent wild spell stakkatos. Also they wanted to make interrupts more meaningful. So spells stayed powerful and can have a big impact when cast - but at the same time (if you're a smart player) you can keep an eye on spellcasters and interrupt them with certain abilites. This gives combat more tactical depth and makes interrupting meaningful. In PoE it was just adding (fractions of) seconds to enemies'  actions. I think most experienced players would call this change a big improvement, but it's a bit hard to grasp for new players or people who want to fight as fast as possible because the advantages are not that obvious.

Casting speed/progress: the action indicator above the caster's head should give you a hint during casting. It should show you how long the casting lasts and also how long recovery is. The circle above the head should show an icon of the spell you are casting and the ring around it will show how far you got. The green bar not only shows your health but also should display a recovery bar right under the health bar (not visible in this screenshot I got from Google).

What I said is for RTwP mode. It may be that it's different in Turn Based mode.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Boeroer