Elemental lore review archive (saved posts)

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Posts pertaining to the Elemental Lore review that never came to fruition.

Minor Elemental

Category: Magic Spells and Systems
Topic: Minor Elemental Circle
Message #: 2535
Author: GS4-NAOS
Date: 7/3/2009 11:13:45 PM
Subject: Preview: Elemental Lore Review (Minor Elemental)

Here's what we're working with for Elemental Lore benefits for the Minor Elemental spell circle. These ideas and their details are not necessarily set in stone, and could potentially change before release, but this is a solid representation in the direction we are going. Spells and related lore benefits not mentioned in this post are still under review.

Each spell is also noted with one of two designations as to how lore applies to the spell. Overt denotes a direct influence by elemental flavor; fire spell + fire lore = more fire. Secondary denotes that the secondary influences of the element beyond the overt apply.

Elemental Defense I (401):

See Mass Elemental Defense (419).

Presence (402):

Secondary: Air

Training in Elemental Lore, Air allows the caster to sense a presence with enough accuracy to point the individual out of hiding. The target's Stalking and Hiding skill ranks, and any effects providing a bonus to hiding, are taken into account against the caster's ranks in Elemental Lore, Air.

Elemental Defense II (406):

See Mass Elemental Defense (419).

Elemental Blast (409):

Secondary: Fire

Training in Elemental Lore, Fire unlocks the ability to CHANNEL this spell to affect multiple targets at the cost of an extra 5 mana. One extra target will be hit per 70 lore skill.

Elemental Wave (410):

Secondary: Water

Training in Elemental Lore, Water increases the effectiveness of this spell, granting a bonus to its maneuver check.

Elemental Blade (411):

Secondary: Water

Training in Elemental Lore, Water allows for magical weapons without special abilities (e.g. flares, critical or damage weighting, etc.) to be affected. The bonus of the target weapon able to be affected increases by a Seed 3 summation of EL:W ranks. For example, +5 weapon requires 25 ranks, while a +12 weapon would require 102 ranks.

Weapon Deflection (412):

Secondary: Fire, Earth

Training in Elemental Lore, Fire grants a bonus to the Attack Strength reduction of this spell. The bonus increases by a Seed 3 summation of EL:F ranks, for +1 bonus at 3 ranks, a +5 bonus a 25 ranks, and a +16 bonus at 200 ranks.

Training in Elemental Lore, Earth allows the spell to affect multiple targets. One additional target is affected for each 20 EL:E ranks trained.

Elemental Saturation (413):

Secondary: Fire, Air

Training in Elemental Lore, Fire provides a bonus to the persistent Target Defense pushdown effect. The bonus increases by a Seed 3 summation of EL:F ranks, for a bonus of +1 at 3 ranks, +5 at 25 ranks, and +16 at 200 ranks.

Training in Elemental Lore, Air allows the spell to affect multiple targets. One additional target is affected for each 20 EL:A ranks trained.

Additionally, training in Elemental Mana Control provides a bonus to the initial Target Defense (TD) pushdown. The bonus increases by a Seed 1 summation of EMC ranks, for a bonus of +1 at 1 rank, +5 at 15 ranks, +10 at 55 ranks, and +20 at 210 ranks.

Elemental Defense III (414):

See Mass Elemental Defense (419).

Elemental Strike (415):

Secondary: Fire

Training in Elemental Lore, Fire allows this spell to affect multiple targets when CHANNELed at the cost of an extra 5 mana. One extra target will be hit per 70 lore skill.

Elemental Dispel (417):

Secondary: Fire

Training in Elemental Lore, Fire unlocks a 10% chance to dispel an active spell effect in addition to dispelling a prepared spell at 10 EL:F ranks. The chance increases by 3% for every additional 10 ranks.

Additionally, training Elemental Lore, Fire increases the amount of mana that is burned from a target with no active spell effects or prepared spells by 1 point per 15 lore skill. Mana burned in this manner will not cause nerve damage to a target.

Mass Elemental Defense (419):

Secondary: Earth

Training in Elemental Lore, Earth unlocks a chance to create a magical barrier that will deflect a single physical or bolt attack at 25 EL:E ranks. For this self-cast benefit to activate, all three Elemental Defense spells (401, 406, and 414/419) must be active on the target. The chance of activation is 5% when unlocked, plus an addition 1% per 20 EL:E ranks beyond the initial 25. Attackers with significant level advantage are more likely to avoid activation of this benefit.

Major Elemental Wave (435):

Secondary: Water

Training in Elemental Lore, Water increases the effectiveness of this spell, granting a bonus to its maneuver check. This bonus is twice as effective as the bonus to Elemental Wave (410).

No Changes

The following spells are not scheduled to have changes or additions to their lore beneifts: Elemental Targeting (425) and Elemental Barrier (430).

Major Elemental

Category: Wizards
Topic: Major Elemental Circle
Message #: 810
Author: GS4-NAOS
Date: 7/3/2009 11:14:37 PM
Subject: Preview: Elemental Lore Review (Major Elemental)

Here's what we're working with for Elemental Lore benefits for the Major Elemental spell circle. These ideas and their details are not necessarily set in stone, and could potentially change before release, but this is a solid representation in the direction we are going. Spells and related lore benefits not mentioned in this post are still under review.

Each spell is also noted with one of two designations as to how lore applies to the spell. Overt denotes a direct influence by elemental flavor; fire spell + fire lore = more fire. Secondary denotes that the secondary influences of the element beyond the overt apply.

Sleep (501):

Secondary: Air

Training in Elemental Lore, Air grants a chance to cause grogginess after an affected target wakes, resulting in a -20 pentalty to Attack and Defensive Strength and +2 second penalty to roundtime. The chance of grogginess is equal to 1% per 2 EL:A skill bonus.

Thurfel's Ward (503):

Secondary: Earth

Training in Elemental Lore, Earth grants a self-cast bonus to Defensive Strength. The bonus increases according to EL:E ranks: 1+ at 5 ranks, +10 at 96 ranks, and +15 at 180 ranks. (Seed 5 summation.)

Elemental Deflection (507):

Secondary: Earth

Training in Elemental Lore, Earth unlocks a 5% chance to have elemental bolt spells reflected back at the caster at 10 EL:E ranks. The chance of reflection increases by 1% per 10 additional ranks.

Elemental Bias (508):

Secondary: Earth

Training in Elemental Lore, Earth unlocks a chance to increase Elemental Target Defense when targeted by a warding spell at 15 EL:E ranks. The chance increases with additional training: 5% at 15 ranks, 10% at 55 ranks, 15% at 120 ranks, and 20% at 210 ranks. (Seed 1 summation.)

Elemental Focus (513):

Secondary: Fire, Earth

Training in Elemental Lore, Fire grants a chance to gain a +20 bonus to Elemental Casting Strength while casting an elemental warding spell. The chance is equal to 1% per 50 EL:F skill bonus.

Training in Elemental Lore, Earth mitigates the physical Attack Strength penalty imposed by the spell effect. The AS penalty is lessened by 1 point per 25 EL:E skill bonus, to a minimum of -28 at 300 skill.

No Changes

The following spells are not scheduled to have changes or additions to their lore beneifts: Hand of Tonis (505), Strength (509), Floating Disk (511), Ice Patch (512), Mana Leech (516), and Temporal Reversion (540).

Wizard Base

Category: Wizards
Topic: Wizard Spells
Message #: 8127
Author: GS4-NAOS
Date: 7/3/2009 11:14:31 PM
Subject: Preview: Elemental Lore Review (Wizard Base)

Here's what we're working with for Elemental Lore benefits for the Wizard Base spell circle. These ideas and their details are not necessarily set in stone, and could potentially change before release, but this is a solid representation in the direction we are going. Spells and related lore benefits not mentioned in this post are still under review.

Each spell is also noted with one of two designations as to how lore applies to the spell. Overt denotes a direct influence by elemental flavor; fire spell + fire lore = more fire. Secondary denotes that the secondary influences of the element beyond the overt apply.

Minor Shock (901):

Overt: Air/Water

Training in Elemental Lore, Air grants a chance to apply a stun-shock effect on a successful hit that would not otherwise normally stun. The chance increases using a Seed 5 summation according to EL:A skill bonus: 1% at 5 skill, 10% at 96 skill, and a maximum of 20% at 290 skill. The stun-shock effect has a base duration of 8 seconds and will periodically cause either a 1 round stun or a minor lightning flare.

Training in Elemental Lore, Water increases the duration of the stun-shock effect. The duration increases according to EL:W rank: +1 second at 10 ranks and a maximum of +12 seconds at 186 ranks.

Minor Elemental Edge (902):

Secondary: Water

Training in Elemental Lore, Water allows for magical weapons without existing special abilities to be edged. The maximum magical bonus able to be edged increases according to EL:W ranks: +1 at 1 rank, +10 at 55 ranks, and +15 at 120 ranks.

Training in each Elemental Lore skill unlocks an extra effect on attack at 20 Elemental Lore ranks. There is a 10% chance that an effect will activate on attack. If the caster has trained in multiple lore skills, the extra benefit will be randomly chosen from the available abilities.

  • Air grants a chance to haste an attack with the enhanced weapon, providing a bonus of -3 to the attack's roundtime.
  • Earth grants a chance to parry an attack against the wielder of the enhanced weapon.
  • Fire grants a chance to double the normal Minor Elemental Edge AS bonus on an attack made with the enhanced weapon.
  • Water grants a chance to drain 5 mana, +1 per 10 damage inflicted, on an attack with the enhanced weapon.

Minor Water (903):

Overt: Water

Training in Elemental Lore, Water grants a 20% chance to soak the target of a successful hit. The chance increases by 1% per 2 skill bonus, for a maximum 100% chance at 160 EL:W skill bonus (60 ranks). Soaked targets have an additional 30% chance to be affected by stun-shock effects, and stun-shock effects last an additional 3 seconds when applied to soaked targets.

Training in Elemental Lore, Water also unlocks the ability to create temporary watery conditions in the room for 30 seconds with an open cast at 25 EL:W ranks.

Training in Elemental Lore, Fire unlocks the ability to CHANNEL this spell to cast Minor Steam at the cost of 1 additional mana at 20 EL:F ranks.

Minor Acid (904):

Overt: Water/Earth

Training in Elemental Lore, Earth unlocks a 25% chance to splash the target of a successful hit for additional damage over time at 10 ranks. Additional damage is inflicted every 5 seconds for 15 seconds. Training in Elemental Lore, Earth beyond 10 ranks increases the damage dealt by the splash effect.

Training in Elemental Lore, Water unlocks the ability to CHANNEL this spell to cast Major Acid at the cost of 1 additional mana at 30 EL:W ranks.

Once the caster has enough EL:E training to unlock the splash ability described above, training in Elemental Lore, Water increases the chance of splashing a target by 1% per 4 skill bonus.

Minor Fire (906):

Overt: Fire

Training in Elemental Lore, Fire unlocks a chance to ignite the target on a successful hit for additional damage over time at 10 ranks. The chance to ignite a target is equal to 1% per 5 EL:F skill bonus. An ignited target will periodically take fire damage, decreasing with each cycle until being extinguished. Ignition of a target already affected by this effect does not stack, but it does refresh the duration of the effect. Ignition has no effect on targets already on fire as a result of the Immolation spell. Soaking a target (as per Minor Water (903)) will remove this effect.

Tremors (909):

Overt: Earth

Training in Elemental Lore, Earth increases the likelihood that targets will succumb to the effects of this spell.

Major Shock (910):

See Minor Shock (901).

Wizard's Shield (919):

Secondary: Earth

Training in Elemental Lore, Earth unlocks a group version at 50 EL:E ranks.

Enchant Item (925):

Secondary: All

With training in the relevant Elemental Lore skill, the caster will unlock the ability to Enchant equipment that has elemental flares. Additional training in Elemental Lore will increase the chance of successfully enchanting gear with elemental flares of the same element type.

No Changes

The following spells are not scheduled to have changes or additions to their lore benefits. Major Cold (907), Major Fire (908), Call Wind (912), Boil Earth (917), Duplicate (918).

Status

Category: Wizards
Topic: Developer's Corner - Wizards
Message #: 8127
Author: GS4-ESTILD
Date: 11/10/2014 12:15 AM
Subject: Re: General Call -- Time to Help Wizards

Let's be honest for a moment. Wizards are no in danger of slipping into obscurity. As you note, they're extremely self sufficient, offer a great amount of beneficial spells to others, and have some of the top utility in the game. None of that is going to change in the near or far future, regardless of any development other professions receive.

Undoubtedly, compared to others, Wizards haven't received much attention in a number of years, but when you're working with finite amount of resources (Dev GameMasters), they need to be directed to areas that need it the most. We've made a lot of progress in the last 10 years to bring most of the professions in line. For Wizards, one of their top priorities is the Elemental Lore Review, which unfortunately, has been delayed due to numerous reasons. It's still a goal and actively being worked on to get that completed for them, as well as a few other enhancements.

GameMaster Estild