Shard Storm II

[Felmerian]

Our epic 3.0 is underwhelming to say the least. The Manipulated essence that hastens the reuse timer on scout and fighter abilities doesn't appear to do anything. Stormfront looks like it could be good but the Crit Bonus Overcap amount could do with increasing and the duration increasing. 500 CBOC for the group with a minimum 20 second duration would make it a genuinely useful buff. The fervor value of 7 is very much out of date also and should be much more and include fervor OC with it too.

 

[Twean]

Our epic 3.0 is underwhelming to say the least. The Manipulated essence that hastens the reuse timer on scout and fighter abilities doesn't appear to do anything. Stormfront looks like it could be good but the Crit Bonus Overcap amount could do with increasing and the duration increasing. 500 CBOC for the group with a minimum 20 second duration would make it a genuinely useful buff. The fervor value of 7 is very much out of date also and should be much more and include fervor OC with it too.

The ancient version also drops the cboc value back to 129 CBOC vs the GM

 

[Beee]

It took a long time to get Shard Storm (I+II) working, but YES it's not a usefull spell

Celestial Stormfront (245,7 CB overcap for the group) is too short with the 8 seconds. It would be usefull if the duration would be 1 minute or something like that.
Elemental Manipulation drops too early (can be easy reproduced by klicking a shard instant when it's up again) and even with the 3 stacks of the celestial versions the additional damage (max 27,8 T istead 27,3T) is not really noticeable and not worth mention it for a spell rotation.

In a normal group or raid there is almost no need/use for a player to use an essence.


BTW: I'm using an ACT trigger if a grouped player gets mana from using the essence
<Trigger R="Replenish Essence refreshes" SD="Essence" ST="3" CR="F" C=" General" T="F" TN="" Ta="F" />

 

[Beee]

The ancient version also drops the cboc value back to 129 CBOC vs the GM

would guess the tooltip is wrong (dame as the celestial version) but it shoould give the correct Stormfront buff

 

[FuRiouSOne]

The ancient version also drops the cboc value back to 129 CBOC vs the GM

tool tip is wrong, check the buff, its correct there.

 

[FuRiouSOne]

Our epic 3.0 is underwhelming to say the least. The Manipulated essence that hastens the reuse timer on scout and fighter abilities doesn't appear to do anything. Stormfront looks like it could be good but the Crit Bonus Overcap amount could do with increasing and the duration increasing. 500 CBOC for the group with a minimum 20 second duration would make it a genuinely useful buff. The fervor value of 7 is very much out of date also and should be much more and include fervor OC with it too.

You do know the shard stacks? When all 6 players in group uses a shard thats 6x cb oc for 4-7 seconds depending on skill rank. Think its like 230 cb oc for 6.7 seconds at ancient, so 6x 230 = 1380 cb oc for almost 7 seconds.

Your request of 500 cb oc for 20 seconds would be insane OP if they stacked as they do now.

 

[Goezer]

You do know the shard stacks? When all 6 players in group uses a shard thats 6x cb oc for 4-7 seconds depending on skill rank. Think its like 230 cb oc for 6.7 seconds at ancient, so 6x 230 = 1380 cb oc for almost 7 seconds.

Your request of 500 cb oc for 20 seconds would be insane OP if they stacked as they do now.

Almost 7 secs.. which means you MAY get a spell off that's worth casting with the extra CB..

 

[Felmerian]

Yes I knew they stacked but I must confess I had forgotten when writing this so apologies. Maybe its just the duration that needs adjustment on the Stormfront buff.

 

[FuRiouSOne]

Almost 7 secs.. which means you MAY get a spell off that's worth casting with the extra CB..

most our skills are 1.5 seconds or less cast time, math?

 

[Beee]

most our skills are 1.5 seconds or less cast time, math?

In a group it's hard to get players press critical thinking and much harder to let players use shards without seeing direct benefit.

If a player has to stop his casting order to use a shard for a 7 sec benefit, there are only very very few players who will do this - and to be honest: I dont think one lost spell because of using a shard will give you a better personal output within the 7 seconds than not klicking the shard.

 

[Swanga]

most our skills are 1.5 seconds or less cast time, math?

Those spells would do F all if you timed with shards. Spells he's referencing are the "Burst chain spells".

 

[Goezer]

most our skills are 1.5 seconds or less cast time, math?

Yeah because Crystal Blast has been good. No more looking at spells that actually account for our dmg. Now, you may get lucky and pet hit with FoE or something during that time.

 

[Ohhno]

most our skills are 1.5 seconds or less cast time, math?

True but depends on what you're casting. The following are some of the top DPS spells for Conjuror that we cast.

At 100%+ Casting Speed and Reuse Speed:

Consuming Inferno - Cast Time 2.5 seconds, Recast 35 seconds.
Communion - Cast Time 2 Seconds, Recast 1 Minute
Aqueous Swarm - Cast Time 1 Second, Recast 30 seconds.
Roaring Flames - Cast Time 1.5 Seconds, Recast 30 Seconds
Vampire Bats - Cast Time 1 Second, Recast 6 Seconds

What I see as the biggest problem with the 7 second (Actual is 6.7 seconds) window is the recast of most of these abilities. I suspect this is the same problem for other DPS classes when/if they use our shards for the CBOC and not power. Timing wise I can get off 2-3 of these abilities when I cast my own shard storm/use a shard. Coordinating this with an entire group is near impossible in the 7 second window except at the very beginning of a fight due to the recast times. I have never even attempted to get my group to coordinate using their shards all at once, and no one wants too anyway. Generally, people in group/raid wait to use a shard/heart when they need it for power, not because of the CBOC, or fervor in the case of hearts. The CBOC when group members use their shard is nice when it actually lines up with what I'm casting, but it rarely happens from what I have seen.





The shard itself says 4.2 seconds for Stormfront but testing it shows the full 6.7 seconds. The effect works on the entire group. I believe the developers are not just looking at summoner cast/recast times. They are looking at other DPS such as sorcerers and scouts too when these are used. I'm not sure how much other DPS classes benefit from these shards, but I doubt it's much if they only use it for power and don't time it with their big hitting abilities.

Slightly more time would give a bit more wiggle room when it comes to spells/abilities available to use with the buff and may make people consider using them more so groups actually benefit from hearts/shard.

 

[Beee]

Shards are only usefull if you are out of mana and it's not a ticking decrease of your mana

There is no logentry if someone uses a shard, so you can't trigger the usage from groupmenbers.
To use shards you hace to wait ultil your spell queue is empty
Using the shard needs time too, so oberall a 6,7 seconds benefit is not worth casting because you loose at least one spell and the benefit is not as big.

And if your group uses the 6 shards they are asking for new.. which needs a lot of time too