Request: faster spell casting

[dwarrior]

I am hoping someone can make a mod that reduces the time it takes to charge up a spell, especially for the sorcerer class It is almost impossible to actually use one of the higher level spells in the middle of a fight except against larger monsters if you have a good party to keep them distracted. I am not looking for instant casting but maybe something like a 50% or 75% reduction on the casting times.

[Sagesan]

I'd love to see this happen. Although 40% reduction in casting times would be pretty well balanced I think.

[Blademaster1215]

Considering how damn overpowering High Comestion is, the thought of being able to cast it even 15% faster is scary.

[Kanri]

Well... Perfectly it would be great to be able to stop casting at any moment (or even make more "steps" in casting process) with reduced power of the spell.

[dwarrior]

Considering how damn overpowering High Comestion is, the thought of being able to cast it even 15% faster is scary.

Well 15% is already in the game (wyrmking's ring and the augment articulacy have this effect) I am hoping for something more substantial so I can use the more powerful spells in situations other than opening attacks or large bosses

[Dragonbaern]

If someone could make it so spells naturally take 20% less time to cast it would make a world of difference to the overall speed of combat, with the wyrm ring giving a total of 35% less cast time.

 

I can't stress enough how unfair and frustrating it is to be a mage or sorcerer in dragons dogma, let me bring to light just what we're dealing with here.

 

Before we even talk about actual spells lets take a look at the spell users BASIC combat abilities.

 

The standard charged shots take MORE time than even a basic fireball spell, due to the fact that the way attacks are programmed, you have to complete a normal attack animation before you can begin charging up for that (Mage 101 attack) that is designed to knock enemies away from you, this is the BASIC SURVIVAL TECHNIQUE for mage's! it shouldn't take a whole 10 seconds to charge! and the wyrm ring doesn't even effect its charging time to my knowledge as its a core skill not a spell, plus it does very minimal damage ultimately making it not worth the time it takes to charge.

 

Now for the spells.

 

I think Comestion is just a tad too slow considering that you can't move while charging it and even after you cast it your character is frozen in place for an additional 5 seconds pretty much ensuring that the enemy will get a hit on you regardless of where you run and hide, but it isn't the worst by any means.

 

And then there's Frigor...this is "supposed" to be the Ice equivalent to Comestion, you even learn it at the same rank, but it takes about 15% longer to cast, you can't move while casting, its CONSIDERABLY less accurate and enemies can easily wander out of range of it after it casts cos it takes almost 5 seconds to even shoot out of the ground! this is not an end game level spell peeps! in fact it tends to do bugger all damage to anything besides Drakes and Saurians which have like a 200% weakness to ice, it is rendered almost useless by its cast time for this reason.

 

Finally, there is of course the Sorcerer spells, Bolide and Gicel do great amounts of damage true, but the casting time is pretty over the top, we're talking like, about 20 seconds-ish to fully charge, and as usual you can't move while casting, its just too long standing around, unless your standing miles away from the enemy, their AI combat selection can easily go through your pawns and then to you and you will STILL be charging.

 

Now Maelstrom and Seism, peeps...the casting time on them versus their purpose is bloody pathetic, both spells can take approximately 25 maybe 30 seconds to cast! and the funny thing about Maelstrom is that it seems designed more for sweeping up smaller faster enemies as one of my pawns continuously used it on Cyclops, Chimera's and other large enemies and it was doing almost NO DAMAGE! and Seism barely does any more damage than Bolide/Gicel so why does it have such a longer cast time?! and of course its attack AI or whatever is so random that even IF you manage to cast it, it will often fail to hit the huge enemy your fighting at all!

 

I dunno about you folks but I can't be the only one that sees that we are in desperate need of a casting time mod here, magic just doesn't feel like it fits in the game for me, on one hand you have the Fighter's/Warrior's/Strider's/Ranger's that can do very powerful attacks INSTANTLY, like the Fighter's Dragon's Maw I think its called that completely wrecks small enemies in one hit and does a pretty good amount of damage to big ones, and Strider's that have that Whirly mid-air attack (I forget the name) which with the Strider's ring from Bitterblack Isle, can be spammed to kill Large enemies VERY quickly, I mean I was killing Garms on Bitterblack Isle in seconds on HARD DIFFICULTY with that move!

 

And then you have Sorcerers, whose attacks damage relies largely on the enemy's weakness to that element, the casting times taking forever, and the fact that you have no basic force attack that Mage's SHOULD have to blow enemies away from you cos that takes a stupid amount of time to charge.

 

Sorry this was so long but I hope now dragons dogma lovers will see the value of making a mod like this, magic in DD is cool, but at the moment its too damn grindy and boring to play with, Casting is like watching paint dry.

[Signette]

@chaosangel239

 

I completely disagree on spell casting speed, I would even say that Wyrmking's Ring is rather cheat item and overall casting times are more than adequate for Mage and Sorcerer both. This comes from player who went through all the content, finished main game, post-game Everfall, BBI - several runs through entire dungeon pre-and post Daimon who I killed about 5 times in both forms no sweat, and I can say that Sorcerers are VERY powerfull class if you know what you're doing.

 

There are already mods that increase your cast time almost to instant, tho it breaks game balance real hard, you can try and see how broken it is for yourself.

 

Core skills:

Standard attack is very powerfull and one of the most usefull across classes, tho other skills are pretty much useless, yes. Levitation is great, both as utility and combat.

 

On spells note:

Comestion is absolutely MOST powerfull spell in both Sorc and Mage arcenal, it has guaranteed knockdown (launch upward) for normal enemies and stunlocks big ones, so either way you do FULL damage to enemy no matter what. Targetting is easy and you simply can't miss, explosion is instant, damage is ridiculously high + burning. I dunno what else you might want from that...

 

Frigor is half utility spell, yes damage isn't so great, but auto-lock, knockdown and stagger are VERY usefull, specifically great vs enemies with low ice resistances. Honestly I can't remember that I missed with this spell a lot, if any...

 

Bolide is basically useless in vanilla made for scenery rather than combat, I rebalanced it, and now it's much more usefull on par with other top tier spells.

 

Gicel is basically broken, it has auto lock on enemy and does insane amount if damage which you basically can't miss + spikes do damage on their own. I've been brutally butchering Grim Reaper himself with this spell and he felt like a joke...

 

Maelstrom is also pretty broken and overpowered, I can't remember how many enemies I have devastated with this spell, giving you LONG stunlock so you can go for several nukes or just kicking helpless enemy, and even targetting isn't a problem, it sucks enemies (even big ones) at epicenter. The only drawback is that it has Dark element rendering it not so usefull vs. lategame foes, which really isn't big of a deal. This spell is still essential killing machine.

 

Seism is hit or miss spell, best thing about it is Holy+Physical damage, which means it works great vs. almost any types of enemies, but since it has random spread, casting it isn't always worth the risk. Anyway, I rebalanced this spell and now it feels MUCH more usefull and reliable.

 

I agree on difficulty, Hard with its stamina drain is overkill, I was desperately trying to mod it with no luck so far sadly, but everything else is fine as it is. I can't say other classes are better than caster, maybe Magick Archer is a bit OP, but it's really that he is easy to play. If you play casters right, they gonna be on par with power and maybe even stronger.

 

Also I like the focus of the game unlike most other RPGs when your mage is basically pushed at certain element. Here game forces you to use multiple elements to succeed. My all time spell list is this:

- Comestion

- Levin

- Frigor

- Bolide/Gicel

- Maelstrom

- Seism

And I do VERY well with this setup, since I cover all the elements. Remember to be aware of surrounding MOST of the time, use high ground as much as you can, at take tough warrior or fighter pawn with agro skill, it will make your life much easier.

 

P.S. As I said before, I do some spell rebalance mods, you can check them out.

Edited March 18, 2016 by Signette

[textitexto]

 

[Dragonbaern]

@chaosangel239

 

I completely disagree on spell casting speed, I would even say that Wyrmking's Ring is rather cheat item and overall casting times are more than adequate for Mage and Sorcerer both. This comes from player who went through all the content, finished main game, post-game Everfall, BBI - several runs through entire dungeon pre-and post Daimon who I killed about 5 times in both forms no sweat, and I can say that Sorcerers are VERY powerfull class if you know what you're doing.

 

There are already mods that increase your cast time almost to instant, tho it breaks game balance real hard, you can try and see how broken it is for yourself.

 

Core skills:

Standard attack is very powerfull and one of the most usefull across classes, tho other skills are pretty much useless, yes. Levitation is great, both as utility and combat.

 

On spells note:

Comestion is absolutely MOST powerfull spell in both Sorc and Mage arcenal, it has guaranteed knockdown (launch upward) for normal enemies and stunlocks big ones, so either way you do FULL damage to enemy no matter what. Targetting is easy and you simply can't miss, explosion is instant, damage is ridiculously high + burning. I dunno what else you might want from that...

 

Frigor is half utility spell, yes damage isn't so great, but auto-lock, knockdown and stagger are VERY usefull, specifically great vs enemies with low ice resistances. Honestly I can't remember that I missed with this spell a lot, if any...

 

Bolide is basically useless in vanilla made for scenery rather than combat, I rebalanced it, and now it's much more usefull on par with other top tier spells.

 

Gicel is basically broken, it has auto lock on enemy and does insane amount if damage which you basically can't miss + spikes do damage on their own. I've been brutally butchering Grim Reaper himself with this spell and he felt like a joke...

 

Maelstrom is also pretty broken and overpowered, I can't remember how many enemies I have devastated with this spell, giving you LONG stunlock so you can go for several nukes or just kicking helpless enemy, and even targetting isn't a problem, it sucks enemies (even big ones) at epicenter. The only drawback is that it has Dark element rendering it not so usefull vs. lategame foes, which really isn't big of a deal. This spell is still essential killing machine.

 

Seism is hit or miss spell, best thing about it is Holy+Physical damage, which means it works great vs. almost any types of enemies, but since it has random spread, casting it isn't always worth the risk. Anyway, I rebalanced this spell and now it feels MUCH more usefull and reliable.

 

I agree on difficulty, Hard with its stamina drain is overkill, I was desperately trying to mod it with no luck so far sadly, but everything else is fine as it is. I can't say other classes are better than caster, maybe Magick Archer is a bit OP, but it's really that he is easy to play. If you play casters right, they gonna be on par with power and maybe even stronger.

 

Also I like the focus of the game unlike most other RPGs when your mage is basically pushed at certain element. Here game forces you to use multiple elements to succeed. My all time spell list is this:

- Comestion

- Levin

- Frigor

- Bolide/Gicel

- Maelstrom

- Seism

And I do VERY well with this setup, since I cover all the elements. Remember to be aware of surrounding MOST of the time, use high ground as much as you can, at take tough warrior or fighter pawn with agro skill, it will make your life much easier.

 

P.S. As I said before, I do some spell rebalance mods, you can check them out.

 

Well I daresay my experience with the game is very different from yours then lol, you say that you have beaten the Daimon as a caster? with the vanilla game I'm assuming? how? because the Daimon is a cheating bastard who can cast spells rapidly and with practically no casting time, he can hit you with his spells no matter where you hide, I TRIED to beat him with a sorcerer but he never gave me enough time to cast anything other than the most basic spells and maybe comestion, and he seems to be very strong against many forms of magic meaning I was doing like a pixel of damage to him each hit! and that was with my old 200 level character!

 

And you said that the caster's standard attack is the strongest?! dude, most large enemy's I've hit with the standard attack have taken 1 damage from it, if any, the charged version is better but still does less than a fireball and takes a second longer to cast, so I should ask...what is your build? it sounds like you play as a pure sorcerer with over 1000 magic at level 200 or something, I like to play a magic knight but the stats are crap so I have to start as a fighter, than warrior until level 50 for health and strength and then a mage/sorcerer for the other 50 for magic and the augments, than I go to strider/ranger/assassin for stamina and strength so yeah I like to be an all rounder.

 

All in all, you have to spend a huge amount of levels on just getting the augments you need for the character you want meaning you won't get the stats you want unless you wait all the way until level 200 to collect them.

 

I spend time as a warrior, upping my health, getting all the Augments that increase my poise so I can tank hits while casting...it doesn't work cos 90% of foes have attacks that instant stagger or interrupt you regardless, saurians come running at you and knock you down, wolves do that annoying bite grapple, the end game harpies (succubus) bite grapple you, hellhound's send you flying with rapid fireballs as well as other wolf attacks, gargoyles tail stab you petrifying you, and ALL enemy offensive spells stagger or knock you down, I could go on and on, you have to constantly cancel your spells to re-position until you finally get a spell off, by the time you do, a strider or fighter could have done 5 times more damage then a maelstrom, I'm currently using a mod that increases articulacy's effects to 30% less casting time and with the wyrm ring's 10% its a lot better being a sorcerer now but it still has other problems in my mind.

 

When your fighting multiple enemies as a mage/sorcerer you have absolutely no way of defending yourself, you can't give your pawns specific instructions like "distract" "heal" etc, you can't dodge, your charged "so called" "DEFENSIVE" Magic Orb attack, the one that summons orbs around you doesn't even flinch most end game enemies, the best and only defense you have is the Necormancy spell, its a great spell, but takes quite a while to cast and costs nearly half my stamina and then the animation takes ages, leaving me open for longer than necessary.

 

Now I'm not saying its impossible to play a caster, but it does feel enormously slow and tedious compared to other classes, my main issue is that it isn't nearly as fun as it rightly should be, I see no reason for spells in the vanilla game to take half as long to cast as they do, even the super strong ones, because other classes have some charged skills like the warrior's indomitable lash, that takes 5 seconds to fully charge and if you hit the enemy in the right place can demolish an entire section of a bosses health bar in one hit! I mentioned the strider's whirly spin attack that is instant and can rapidly destroy enemies when spammed.

 

The mystic knight's Orb cannon skill is my favorite, it casts super quick and you can summon up to 3 at a time, it also auto shoots enemies that come too close, protecting you while you cast or whatever, if you summon just 2 and then use Full moon slash on the orbs they shoot literally HUNDREDS of shots in one hit, so many that the game tends to lag out, they lock on to enemies and the Mystic knight can enchant his own weapon which also affects the damage type of the orbs, making it the most strategic and OP class in the game, on my old character I could kill the offline Ur Dragon in the first round before he even runs away! XD

 

It made being a sorcerer feel utterly pathetic as a mystic knight can use both magic, melee AND defend himself with the shield, you have to admit, there is little incentive to be a sorcerer when the other classes are that much better, it seems like they intentionally made it so that you had to suffer through poorly constructed mechanics until level 150 at least if you wanted your character to have good stats, when they could have made that climb more enjoyable by making magic users more fluid and more like the other classes, for instance they could have made it so the most powerful spells took about 8 seconds to cast and took almost all your stamina so you couldn't spam them, then there should be more lower grade spells because Frazil is pathetic, too slow to short ranged, Levyn and any thunder magic in my experience has been useless, for some reason nothing seems to be weak to it so it just doesn't do an adequate amount of damage to be useful, Grand ingle (if you have the staff users ring) is singularly the only good low level spell as it charges quick and does huge damage to many enemies also knocking them down.

 

By the way, I don't think Seism does holy damage, I distinctly Remember the guide saying that the Mystic Knights ultimate spell was the only holy spell besides the holy enchantment, I think Seism is designed to do raw blunt damage, cos some enemies are strong against all magic so the caster has to have SOME means of killing those kind of enemies otherwise it would be impossible to kill certain enemies as a caster, to truly balance casters they should have given them a vast array of spells with different mechanics, strategies, and made the casting animations a bit less showy so your not left standing around like a fool waiting to be hit so much, having to waste your valuable healing items after every cast to make up for the beating you took trying to cast!. Argh! I didn't want this to turn into a rant but its hard, maybe you have to be a pure caster to be good with it but I don't like being restricted to just one playstyle, you only get one save file so if you want to change, you have to delete your old character, that makes it all the worse. X(

[Signette]

@chaosangel239

Oh, I see your problem now, you have utterly broken caster build and that's why you suffer so much, no wonder...

See, what I did was levelling mage till maybe level 30, than switched to Sorc and never switched to another vocation ever. What is absolute must for you is Magick Attack parameter, you can go running naked, forget about armor and everything else, but Magic Attack must be as high as possible, you should do everything you can to get best possble archistaff, dragon forge it and upgrade to last tier no matter what. My Sorc now is ~150 level, I have 3200 m. attack power and 2500 stamina, damage of my spells is purely insane. I killed Daimon on level ~110 for the first time. You need only Gicel and Holy enchanment for this fight (from pawn works too). Get to his throne and use it to manuever and dodge attacks, cast Gicel only when you're absolutely safe, like when he grabs your pawn or something, the rest of time shoot standard holy enchanted attack. And if your M. Attack parameter is high enough, you should do some damage, but doing big damage only possible when he charges, dragging your pawns and you to him. ASAP start casting Gicel and when you close enough, unleash it, he will be staggered than with consecutive attacks bring him down and you either kill him or do insane damage. Second form of Daimon is a complete joke compared to first one, too easy, doesn't even need explaining.

 

Sorc is Glass Cannon, it's ok to be almost 1 hit killed by most enemies, but if you're good enough, you can avoid it. Get Gravitas Augment, helps a ton, in early game you can also use Inflection (I fixed it, you can download and it works great now). Also Seism does Holy damage, as it scales with you m. attack power, I dunno which guide you are refering to, even wikia page says it does holy damge.

 

I have played some other classes, and yes, they have some powerfull gimmicks, but I didn't have even remotely as much fun as playing Sorc, tho it's safe to say I built him right so probably that's why... maybe this vocation is just not for you?