Astral magic seems overpowered

[Gregstrom]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

I also feel that Holy magic should be a fully realized path of it's own, instead of a tiny group of mostly redundant spells, and that it should be combineable with the Elemental paths--and only the Elemental paths--to make up for their straightforwardness and Late Game deficiencies.

Sounds a bit like the Holy War mod to me...

[thejeff]

Frost Brand may be the worst brand, but that still leaves it as one of the better weapons. And if you're fighting Abysia, it's far better than a Fire Brand.

It's all situational.

[Omnirizon]

FR might be more likely then CR, due to so many items that are popular on SCs giving FR. Also, there are generally other uses for E gems, so Frost Brand makes a great alternative (unless you are going to be fighting hordes of undead.)

My personal fave, actually, is Demon Whip. As long as you don't encounter FR, you're good to go, and it is only Const 2 and 5 F gems. By far the most economical SC/thug weapon.

[theenemy]

Wow, so they finally took away clams? this is news to me

[Tolkien]

Originally Posted by theenemy

Wow, so they finally took away clams? this is news to me

CBM 1.6. Made all gem-producers unique (including bloodstone, but we'll probably see a substitute earth booster next version).

[theenemy]

Originally Posted by Tolkien

CBM 1.6. Made all gem-producers unique (including bloodstone, but we'll probably see a substitute earth booster next version).

So it's only a mod then

[Tolkien]

Originally Posted by theenemy

So it's only a mod then

Yeah, but CBM is pretty much the quintessential MP mod.

[theenemy]

damn, looks like a dictatorship to me.
all heil CBM!

[Quitti]

Well, CBM is enabled in around half or more of llamaserver MP's, which seem to be the majority of multiplayer games organized here. I can't say for other forums though.

But getting back to the topic - astral seeming too good. It is good. Very good. You can't go wrong with recruiting astral mages really, it offers very good spells, but mostly in the form of MR negating effects - there are a few exceptions like stellar cascades and Astral geyser which don't seem to see the use they should (well, perhaps astral geyser isn't that good afterall, it's a good opener if you call a few horrors though). SCs can easily have around 25-30 MR, I've seen 40 MR without artifact MR gear (mainly mage bane) used on a pretender. Death has it's own version of soul slay and has very good summons in conjuration (tartarians, different types of mages) and in echantment (liches, behemoths) and even their own remote raiding spell which beats pretty much any reasonable PD in the game, and one should never forget soul vortex which is one of the best tools an SC can have vs. armies.

The elemental paths have useful spells, but are a bit easy to counter or easily reduce the effectiveness of them in the form of resistance spells and thug/sc immunity gear, with maybe the exception of combination of water and fire in the form of acid spells. Still, they have their uses like it has been said in this thread.

[HoneyBadger]

CBM is the standard, and in this case I'd suggest it's appropriate. Dom3 is a beautiful game, even out of the box, but I think it's just too complex for someone as close as the Devs, to the game they created, to balance it appropriately. CBM fulfills that purpose admirably (if not perfectly--there are certain points at which I disagree with certain choices. Also, CBM tends not to actually add any new content.).

I can't absolutely say that CBM is a "dictatorship" as such, but I think it's a great jumping off point, for either adding new content to, or to tweak what's already been done.

And I for one certainly wouldn't want to redo everything Quantum_Mechani has already done.