Arcanist playtest

[Kinneus]

Also not happy about the grab bag of nerfs. I mean, they nerfed Cloud of Daggers? I haven't seen anybody actually take that spell since the days of pure PHB I.

Something about the Wall of Fire change in particular rankles me. I think it's mostly that they took something incredibly simple (start your turn in the wall or enter the wall, take damage) and added something else to track ("Wait, did this guy already take this damage this turn?")

The various changes from 'start of turn' to 'end of turn' were predictable, but are still disappointing. Flaming Sphere, a fan favorite that has survived since the original publication of the Player's Handbook, is now a much, much, much less attractive option. The only good news I can think of is the fact that this is a playtest. Maybe if we complain loud enough, we can get some of these changes rescinded? Or, at the very least, get some buffs in exchange for the countless nerfs? The Scorching Burst < Freezing Bursts has always bugged me.

And while I'm sure I'll be in the only person in the world to complain about this, I'm disappointed and confused as to why they took the Fear keyword out of the Prismatic spells. Most people will interpret this as a buff, because undead and constructs will no longer be immune to these spells. But I have a build that needs a Fear spell, and they were top pick. It's really, really, weirdly hard to find a Fear spell, these days. Or a decent one, at any rate.

Anyway, the constant changes to parts of the game that already worked fine continues to rankle me. I keep making characters I really like, only to have the rug pulled out from under them on key powers or elements. I'm honestly considering picking up another system to play for a while, just to get away from the whole, "Oh, your character who was awesome a month ago sucks now, sorry about that" thing.

EDIT: I initially misread Wall of Fire. It seems the 'adjacent' damage has no limit, which is nice, and which helps. I'm still worried that an enemy can get pushed through the Wall of Fire, take its damage, and then on its own turn, waltz right through it without taking damage again. It just breaks immersion apart for me. I'd feel a lot better if it was once per round instead of once per turn, I think.

Also, I must admit that it's not all bad. Half damage on a miss is nice. Not great, and I'm not sure why it has suddenly become the Wizard's shtick to deal half damage on Encounter powers, but even those who are disappointed in these changes (like me) have to agree that this is a buff.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Looks to me like it's more change just for the sake of change. I don't remember any of these spells being overpowered or stepping on anyone else's toes.

I think they change stuff just to make it seem like a change was needed to start with.

You've never seen Stinking Cloud or Flaming Sphere be overpowered? Then all I can say is you've never seen them used properly and proactively.

And agreed that Class feats seem to be a thing of the past. I also think that the orbizard and staffizard (i.e. the best two IMO) are competative with the mage and the others aren't.

 

[ForeverSlayer]

You've never seen Stinking Cloud or Flaming Sphere be overpowered? Then all I can say is you've never seen them used properly and proactively.

And agreed that Class feats seem to be a thing of the past. I also think that the orbizard and staffizard (i.e. the best two IMO) are competative with the mage and the others aren't.

Give me a scenario where those two spells are overpowered.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Give me a scenario where those two spells are overpowered.

Any time you have a lot of minions. I've seen Stinking Cloud wipe out a 5*4 column with just the use of a move action in addition to the vast amounts of damage it did as it was cast. Any time you have a confined space that you can prevent the monsters leaving. I've dropped Flaming Sphere into a barracks, fighter and swordmage blocking one door and storm pillar blocking the other. There were no survivors despite theoretically overwhelming odds. The only question was whether the two defenders would fall to melee when both had IIRC superior cover and ordinary concealment.

For that matter, textbook tactics involves combining a flaming sphere on one side of a couple of monsters with a knight on the other. The monsters try to move and the knight smashes them down. And they are taking hideous auto-damage. This still works.

An extra auto-hitting damage roll per turn moves you into twin striking ranger territory while adding even more control than you normally have by blocking squares. Two extra such rolls per turn move you into ranger daily territory for damage. With lots of bad guys or environments where they can't spread out both spells are simply sick.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I told them that I felt the Arcanist needed free magic missile and the Arcanist spellbook needed to be like the Mage's spellbook, otherwise there's no reason to ever be an Arcanist.

Also I feel there needs to be something that makes the different implement masteries feel more different, other than once per encounter. And Wand of Accuracy still sucks.

 

[Mengu]

Give me a scenario where those two spells are overpowered.

Stinking cloud was stinking powerful. Once it's out there, You hit a creature with a push/slide power, it takes damage from your attack, and you push it into stinking clout, it takes damage, then it starts its turn in there, it takes damage. It's not twin strike, it's triple strike, with two of the damage rolls not even requiring a to hit roll. You start building a party around it so everyone has a push/slide power, and it gets crazy.

 

[Zaran]

Wizard spells that automatically kill minions?! They must be nerfed!

 

[Mengu]

And Wand of Accuracy still sucks.

Wand of Accuracy is great. It's wand support that sucks. Poor power riders, poor feats, poor superior wands, poor magic wands, etc. They need to start putting dragonheart string, phoenix father, or unicorn hair in their wands, so maybe they'll work better.

 

[Klaus]

Just a reminder: this is a Playtest article. If you don't like something about it, send your feedback to WotC! That's the whole point of it being a playtest!

 

[Kzach]

I'm surprised, Staff of Defense is pretty good... it's a second Shield spell every encounter. Orb of Deception is pretty good... it's like an extra attack every encounter. Tome of Readiness is pretty good.

Erm... you got confused somewhere along the line there. I was referring to Ritual Casting.