Visions of Avarice trivializes melee encounters?

[kerbarian]

Visions of Avarice is a new wizard daily 5 in Arcane Power. It creates a one-square zone (sustain minor) that lets you make a minor-action attack each round. The attack is a burst 5 from the zone that pulls enemies 3 squares towards the zone and then, if they're in or adjacent to the zone, immobilizes them (save ends). So it effectively immobilizes within a burst 4.

It only targets enemies, and it's a huge burst, so it's easy to hit lots of creatures with it. Once they're hit and immobilized, it's extremely difficult for them to break free. They need to make their save, but then the wizard gets another chance to re-immobilize them before they can act. It's an attack vs. will, which is often low for melee creatures. If they have a 55% chance to save and then a 30% chance to be missed by the wizard's repeated attack, that's a 16.5% chance to break free. That means that, on average, they'll be immobilized for six rounds, which is probably the whole rest of the fight.

Is there anything about this that I'm reading incorrectly? Does anyone have experience with this power being used in their games, and was it a problem?

 

[shadowoflameth]

Immediate Reactions

Remember that a character only gets one immediate action per round. If I am understanding the power description, the wizards attempt to immobilize a foe anew is an immediate action.

 

[im_robertb]

I think what Shadow means is that a character only gets one minor action per round. For the wizard to sustain this power, it takes a minor action, and then it takes a separate minor action to make the attack. This means that the wizard is either not moving, or not making any other attack. It is a daily power, too.

Also, it has more uses than for screwing over melee creatures. Grab a bunch of artillery, pull them towards the center, and it makes it that much easier for the defender to keep them all occupied.

 

[Kamai]

Minor sustain+minor attack=either no attacking or no moving. To keep locking the enemy, the wizard needs to keep using those two actions. At the same time, 1 or 2 misses can have the creatures raining on the wizard's parade, and then the wizard will have to choose between keeping the attacks up, and getting away from the couple that get loose, and the defender probably can't keep them marked because they keep getting pulled away into the mob. This power seems like it could quickly become suicide against more than about 3 or 4 enemies, because your strikers aren't likely to wander in that mob, and your defenders may think about the same.

 

[keterys]

Last I checked, nullifying 20-60% of the combat is well worth two minor actions a round from one character.

That said, the crazy necrotic daze zone from Dragon at daily 5 still seems better, and frankly Stinking Cloud is still pretty badass.

 

[Starfox]

The general idea seems to add some real control to Wizard dailies; I think this is a good thing, considering how bad the Wizard's reputation currently is.

it is just sad that old standbys like Web and Fireball are no longer good spells. They used to be a legacy of 1ed and retained their power when everything else was downgraded. Now, they were the first powers created, and the wizard is on an upwards power curve, making them obsolete already. It's kind of sad, really.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

what about material components to increase power of fireball?

I don´t have adventurers vault, but i could imagine rituals to make your bat guano and sulfur into a component which adds a bit of damage to fireball...

 

[Stalker0]

My wizard used this in a fight recently, combining it with his orb, spell focus, the phrenic crown, and a +3 earthroot staff.

The fight was an eidolon, a big spider, and waves of 40 minions in 10 minion bundles.

He kept 80% of the minions, the spider, and the eidolon on permanent lockdown the whole fight. The eidolon had a -10 to his saves, so only on a 20 could he break free. The spider had a -6, but after his successful save he was attacked again on teh wizard's turn and the immobilized was reapplied.

Its a heck of a lot better than web

 

[Pickles JG]

Its a heck of a lot better than web

Sounds cool. It also highlights the difficulty in creating control effects. They travel a narrow path between too weak & making encounters trivial. This one sounds pretty good - you still have to kill the enemies so unless you are the vaunted all ranged party they will get to fight back just in manageable chunks.

 

[keterys]

You don't have to be all ranged. You can just tell melee to stay out of reach, look at the DM and go 'So, yeah, do we win already?' and if not, make the rolls to crush the enemies while they can't do anything.

It's a bit of a flaw with melee-only enemies in general, though.