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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 4356612" data-attributes="member: 2011">This is true. As a minion killer, Scorching Burst becomes strong when Spell Accuracy is available. But, Cloud of Daggers is still automatic whereas Scorching Burst is not.The two main disadvantages with taking Scorching Burst with Illusory Ambush (instead of with Cloud of Daggers) is that instead of having a high damage single target and a moderate damage AoE, one is instead using a moderate damage single target and a moderate damage AoE, and one does not have an auto-minion killer. Both Scorching Ray and Illusory Ambush can miss. Cloud of Daggers can only miss killing a minion opponent if that foe is somehow removed from the area.The main advantage with taking Scorching Burst with Illusory Ambush is that the caster has a Reflex attack and a Will attack which allows for some cases where he hits more often, but for less damage per hit.Actually, Cloud of Daggers also controls a square for a round (up to 2 rounds with an Orb). A DM who allows non-minions to just willy nilly walk through CoD spells is not really roleplaying them properly and following the rules:This rule does not necessarily allow a creature to know how much damage a given CoD area does, nor what the spell even does unless the power is actually affecting the creature. All a non-affected creature knows is what it can perceive, that there are whirling daggers of force (unless it makes some form of skill check or has other knowledge).Now, there could be times when a creature would want to take the chance and move through a CoD (such as when marked with Divine Challenge and it cannot get to the Paladin), but as a general rule of thumb, CoD controls a square for a round.And, it does this minor amount of terrain control every single time it is used (unlike Ray of Frost and Illusory Ambush whose extra abilities depend on several external factors as to their utility). Combined with Thunderwave or other forced movement powers, CoD can allow a Wizard to smack a creature multiple times with it. Combined with good party tactics, it can prevent flank, slow up enemies, etc.And yes, Illusory Ambush does what you say: ~6% of the times it is used (60% chance to hit * 10% chance of it actually affecting the outcome). This actually jumps up to ~11% of the time versus a specific creature if a creature can do two attacks in a round, but that is fairly rare.If Illusory Ambush is used 4 times on average in encounters, then it stops a single enemy attack 1 encounter in 4 on average.So, it tends to help out a tiny bit (saving one Healing Surge and possibly preventing one condition) once per day (assuming 4 encounters a day).Whoop de doo! Hold the presses! <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" />Which is only slightly relevant as to which At Will powers are more useful.There are still only (typically) 5 or 6 Per Encounter powers, even at high level. Some of those might not be applicable in a given encounter, or the player might hold some in reserve, just in case a new encounter spills into the current one with no 5 minute break.Even at 2nd level, we have had 3 or 4 times where we went from encounter x to encounter x+1 without a break. I suspect that happens sometimes in most games. Players (or DMs) who try to force breaks every single time are, IMO, metagaming a bit too much.</blockquote>

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