Death Magic on the Battlefield

MaxWilson · #1 May 23rd, 2008, 02:25 PM

Quote:

sum1lost said:

Quote:

MaxWilson said:
Have you tried this? Because I don't think it will be as cheap as you think. Say you've got two D4 casters. I project that getting each of them to cast Shadow Blast four times in a battle will take somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30 gems. I had an E9 Cyclops yesterday blow 6 gems casting Earthquake. The spellcasting AI, for some reason, likes to use huge numbers of gems, which makes Shadow Blast a fun niche spell for defending the laboratory and surprisingly good on D2 mages, but not as good as Cloud of Death for powerful mages. (D9 Cloud of Death covers almost 20 squares and does 19 AN damage! Best scalability in the game.)

-Max

The AI uses ALOT more gems if you have your mage well stocked. If you only give him a few, he will be far more careful about using htem.

Yeah, but if you want multiple Shadow Blasts you will have to make sure he's well stocked. That E9 Cyclops had 7 Earth gems in the hopes that he would use 3 on the first Earthquake and 3 on the second, with 1 extra in case he went a little overboard on the first. If you give a D4 mage 6 Death gems I bet he'll only get off two Shadow Blasts.

-Max

Aezeal · #2 May 23rd, 2008, 02:28 PM

YOu can't boost with more than one gem right? Unless I'm not correct I don't get the cyclops example

thejeff · #3 May 23rd, 2008, 02:30 PM

Right, far more effective to give 1D to 4 mages than 4D to 1 mage and hope he casts 4 times. (Of course that requires 4 mages...)

MaxWilson · #4 May 23rd, 2008, 02:34 PM

Aezeal,

You can boost with more than one gem for fatigue purposes, but only one of them counts for path purposes. A D5 mage can use 5 death gems to let him cast a D4 spell at +6 (for 1/7 fatigue, not sure if it helps penetration), but he still couldn't cast a D7 spell.

This is contrary to how Kristoffer has described it in the past, so it may be a bug. I sure *wish* it were capped at +1, it would make battlefield gem spells so much more economical.

-Max

thejeff · #5 May 23rd, 2008, 02:37 PM

It appears that the common assumption, held at least at one point by KO, that you can only boost with one gem is wrong.

My current working theory, that is by no means fully tested or confirmed, is that 1 gem can be used to boost your level to be able cast a spell, others, up to the total of your path level, can reduce fatigue. I think I've seem mages use more gems than their level, but I haven't been able to duplicate it.

Aezeal · #6 May 23rd, 2008, 02:48 PM

DO others agree with tehjeff and max.. cus it's the first time I heard of this