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<pre{{log2}}>Since these are able to be 'read' & 'invoke'd from, like a scroll, are these something that will be considered "a magical item" (when held in the left hand) for purposes of runestaff (being held in the right hand) defense?</pre>
<pre{{log2}}>Since these are able to be 'read' & 'invoke'd from, like a scroll, are these something that will be considered "a magical item" (when held in the left hand) for purposes of runestaff (being held in the right hand) defense?</pre>
No, they are a runestaff first and foremost. It would act the same as if holding any other runestaff.
No, they are a runestaff first and foremost. It would act the same as if holding any other runestaff.

GameMaster Estild

{{saved-post
| category = Paid Events: Adventures, Quests, and SimuCoins
| topic = Duskruin Arena
| messagenum = [http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Paid%20Events:%20Adventures,%20Quests,%20and%20SimuCoins/Duskruin%20Arena/view/10072 10072]
| author = GS4-ESTILD
| date = 08/24/2018
| subject = Sigil Shop
}}
RAGZ<br>
Any other caster, when comparing the flare damage output of any flare versus a T5 sigil staff, would (almost certainly) have to admit that the flare from the sigil staff is superior. As a 515ing wizard, I'm not so sure. Would a single sigil staff flare outpace 3x Greater elemental flares in the same span of time? Is that a question I should be asking for an item priced at over 400,000 bloodscrip?


I understand the comparison you're making, but even if the greater elemental flare is better due to working with 515, that's not a justification for letting the Sigil Staff's multicast flare work with 515. That just means all runestaff flares probably should have factored in 515. No, I'm not going to change it at this point, but nor am I'm going to exacerbate the situation by allowing it to go unchecked for higher level (in terms of effectiveness) flares. As with the T4 mana reduction benefit, I designed it so it lasts 30 seconds or for 10 spells, thus preserving the 515 benefit, but that also keeps it balanced for all professions. That, unfortunately, isn't always possible.

It'll be up to each individual player to weigh if all the benefits of the Sigil Staff (easier access to spells from scrolls, able to dispel a target, mana reduction ability, and the multicast flare) are worth it. You're mainly just getting 1 benefit from the greater elemental weapons, which is the extra flare. Even just evaluating flare ability for both runestaves, the greater elemental flare is more than likely going to trigger against a different target each time, so you have to ask yourself how often does that flare actually make a difference in combat (i.e. kills the target, thus saves you time on a follow-up attack)? Now compare that against something like an extra cast of Minor Steam or Earthen Fury. The former can easily result in 100-150 extra damage and the latter can easily result in an outright crit kill (especially since your initial cast will probably prone the target).


GameMaster Estild<section end=savedpost />
GameMaster Estild<section end=savedpost />

Revision as of 10:14, 12 January 2022

Category: Paid Events: Adventures, Quests, and SimuCoins
Topic: Duskruin Arena
Message #: 9753
Author: GS4-Estild
Date: 08/24/2018 12:06 PM
Subject: Sigil Staff

Available at the next Duskruin Arena (proper, not Delirium Manor, etc):

>get runestaff
You remove a sigil-carved glowbark runestaff from in your dark book satchel. At your touch, a number of sigils worked into its grain take on a faint luminescence.

>read runestaff
You focus on your glowbark runestaff and notice brightly burning sigils corresponding to these spells:

(904) Minor Acid
(1611) Patron's Blessing
(207) Purify Air on a vibrant sigil
(1711) Mystic Focus
(215) Heroism

>get palimpsest
You pick up a glowing palimpsest.

>read palimpsest
It takes you a moment to focus on the glowing palimpsest.
On the glowing palimpsest you see
(516) Mana Leech
(502) Chromatic Circle
(901) Minor Shock
(508) Elemental Bias
(502) Chromatic Circle
(402) Presence

>transfer 502 runestaff
Murmuring a precise incantation, you focus your concentration on the Chromatic Circle spell scribed on your glowing palimpsest. The arcane symbols flicker and fade from the palimpsest entirely before flaring to life as a pale sigil on your glowbark runestaff.

>read runestaff
You focus on your glowbark runestaff and notice brightly burning sigils corresponding to these spells:

(904) Minor Acid
(1611) Patron's Blessing
(207) Purify Air on a vibrant sigil
(1711) Mystic Focus
(215) Heroism
(502) Chromatic Circle

>invoke 1711
1d100: 28 + Modifiers: 320 == 348

Holding your glowbark runestaff before you, you focus intently on the Mystic Focus sigil illuminated within its grain. In response to your murmured invocation, the sigil's power blazes forth in trails of pale energy and surges into you!
>cast
You gesture.
A sudden clarity of thought comes over you, and you realize that you now understand arcane mysteries that were previously incomprehensible.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.


>wave runestaff at rat
A decisive gesture sets sigils all along your glowbark runestaff ablaze. Tendrils of pale energy lash out at a small black rat and cage it within bands of concentric geometry that constrict as one, shattering upon impact!

The bright luminescence fades from around a small black rat.
The elemental aura around a small black rat wavers.
The silvery luminescence fades from around a small black rat.
The light blue glow leaves a small black rat.


>look Estild
...
A slowly rotating ring of sigils encircles each of his hands, scribed on the air in pale energy.
...


>raise runestaff
You raise your glowbark runestaff high! Pale sparks jitter along its grain as sigils flare to life one after the other. Sharp lines of energy pulse in the air around you, the swift shifting of their patterns a dizzying yet curiously regimented dance. So invoked, the arcane energies continue to visibly flow about you even after you lower your runestaff.

>mana
Remaining Mana Points: 300

>incant 919
You trace a series of glowing runes while chanting the phrase for Wizard's Shield...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture.
A translucent sphere forms around you.
The shifting energy surrounding you clarifies the pattern of your spell.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

>mana
Remaining Mana Points: 291


>incant 317
You chant a reverent litany, clasping your hands while focusing upon the Divine Fury spell...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a small black rat.
Particles of dust and soot rise from the ground at your feet as you release a pulsating, platinum ripple of energy toward a small black rat!
CS: +560 - TD: +315 + CvA: +25 + d100: +82 == +352
Warding failed!
The black rat is cloaked in a blinding platinum light and assailed for 247 points of damage!
... 50 points of damage!
Glaring burst to the black rat's chest dances across skin leaving smoking holes!
The black rat is stunned!
... 30 points of damage!
A small, but painful slice of neck vanishes!

Numerous sigils along your glowbark runestaff abruptly flare to brilliance! Pale energy surges from each, twining into an echo of your last spell...

Particles of dust and soot rise from the ground at your feet as you release a pulsating, platinum ripple of energy toward a small black rat!
CS: +560 - TD: +315 + CvA: +25 + d100: +27 == +297
Warding failed!
The black rat is cloaked in a blinding platinum light and assailed for 237 points of damage!
... 45 points of damage!
Plasma scorches a hole in the black rat's weapon arm!
... 30 points of damage!
Strips of flesh disappear from the black rat's back.

>incant 910
Your hands glow with power as you invoke the phrase for Major Shock...
Your spell is ready.
You channel at a plump white rat.
You hurl a powerful lightning bolt at a plump white rat!
AS: +412 vs DS: +228 with AvD: +33 + d100 roll: +21 = +238
... and hit for 75 points of damage!
Nasty shock to left hand stiffens fingers. Nice and painful.

Numerous sigils along your glowbark runestaff abruptly flare to brilliance! Pale energy surges from each, twining into an echo of your last spell...

You hurl a powerful lightning bolt at a plump white rat!
AS: +412 vs DS: +228 with AvD: +33 + d100 roll: +60 = +277
... and hit for 93 points of damage!
Nasty shock to right hand stiffens fingers. Nice and painful.


>analyze runestaff
You analyze your glowbark runestaff and sense that the creator has provided the following information:

This is a tier 5 Sigil Staff.

Tier
1: a standard runestaff with some special messaging
2: allows spells to be TRANSFERred from scrolls onto itself, number of spells the runestaff can hold are unlocked separately (up to 6 spells), currently holds 6 spells
3: can be WAVEd at a target to dispel 1-3 spells (requires 500 mana to have been spent casting spells to fuel the ability and has a 5 minute cooldown) and adds special LOOK messaging
4: can be RAISEd to lower the mana cost of all spells by 50% for 30 seconds or 10 casts (requires 5000 mana to have been spent casting spells to fuel the ability and has a 60 minute cooldown) and adds ambient messaging
5: unlocks the ability for the runestaff to multi-cast (repeat the last cast spell) as a standard flare

Unlocked verbs: draw, hug, invoke, point, prod, read, spin, transfer, touch, wave

The runestaff can have the color or quality of its sigils and magic effects customized with a descriptive word or phrase. Various messaging will include this custom setting.

The current setting is: pale

Messaging using this custom setting must make sense in the following context examples:
a/an [adjective] sigil
[adjective] energy/sparks/tendrils/haze

Customization should remain simple, nothing so complex as to require a comma.
Examples of functional customization choices: pale, dark, bright, shadowy, fiery, blue-green, coruscating violet, silver and gold
Examples of nonfunctional customization choices: shapes, anything that is not an adjective, anything lengthy enough to require a comma for grammatical purposes
Try to keep it to three words or less, and if three words, see prior rules. ('silver and gold' works, 'red, blue, and green' does not because of sentence structures, 'incandescent viridian and gold-speckled cerulean' is long enough to be cumbersome)
When in doubt, use a distinct color.

You might be able to have a talented merchant lighten the glowbark runestaff for you.


This showcases multiple tiers, with the latter being the highest and extremely high end, so set expectations accordingly.

GameMaster Estild

Category: Paid Events: Adventures, Quests, and SimuCoins
Topic: Duskruin Arena
Message #: 9758
Author: GS4-Estild
Date: 08/24/2018 12:21 PM
Subject: Sigil Staff

You must purchase one of the runestaves available in the Sigil Shop. They're basic runestaves, but can then be augmented with other properties (flares, etc). There will then be unlock certificates available, in a similar fashion to others that are currently sold at Duskruin (more lower tiers available at lower prices, then higher tiers more limited and much more expensive).

GameMaster Estild

Category: Paid Events: Adventures, Quests, and SimuCoins
Topic: Duskruin Arena
Message #: 9758
Author: GS4-Estild
Date: 08/24/2018 12:21 PM
Subject: Sigil Staff

KRAKII

Is the second line a spell description that I don't recognize [so it hit 4 spells in the example], or is the staff effect considered a Realm Dispel effect?
If it is considered a Dispel effect, is it based on the Realm of the first spell affected [because this mass-dispel effect hit two different Realms, unlike the capability of the mass-Dispel spells]?

Yes, that's the standard dispel effect. It will randomly use one of the normal types of dispels.

KRAKII

Are there certificates to raise the minimum spells hit Dispelled? The maximum?
If not, can there be?

Not at this time.

KRAKII

It looked like your example had four 'normal' spell sigils & one SK sigil.
For the 'normal' ones, do the number of charges transfer over from the scroll entirely?
If a given spell is already a sigil on the staff, can more charges be added to it?
Do the SK sigils vanish after a single use, same as a scroll would?
.
If a scroll has been Infused, does all of that love go to the staff?
Can the staff itself be Infused?

When a spell is transferred, all the charges along with it are also transferred. Transferring a spell that is already on the runestaff will simply use another slot. Spell Knowledge scroll spells are only one use (but also if infused for a longer duration, that also transfers over). The runestaff cannot be infused. Transferring a spell will lock a scroll.

LEAFIARA

1611 normally doesn't appear on scrolls. Is that about to change or was it put on the runestaff for testing purposes only?

That was for testing only.

KRAKII

Since these are able to be 'read' & 'invoke'd from, like a scroll, are these something that will be considered "a magical item" (when held in the left hand) for purposes of runestaff (being held in the right hand) defense?

No, they are a runestaff first and foremost. It would act the same as if holding any other runestaff.

GameMaster Estild

Category: Paid Events: Adventures, Quests, and SimuCoins
Topic: Duskruin Arena
Message #: 10072
Author: GS4-ESTILD
Date: 08/24/2018
Subject: Sigil Shop

RAGZ
Any other caster, when comparing the flare damage output of any flare versus a T5 sigil staff, would (almost certainly) have to admit that the flare from the sigil staff is superior. As a 515ing wizard, I'm not so sure. Would a single sigil staff flare outpace 3x Greater elemental flares in the same span of time? Is that a question I should be asking for an item priced at over 400,000 bloodscrip?


I understand the comparison you're making, but even if the greater elemental flare is better due to working with 515, that's not a justification for letting the Sigil Staff's multicast flare work with 515. That just means all runestaff flares probably should have factored in 515. No, I'm not going to change it at this point, but nor am I'm going to exacerbate the situation by allowing it to go unchecked for higher level (in terms of effectiveness) flares. As with the T4 mana reduction benefit, I designed it so it lasts 30 seconds or for 10 spells, thus preserving the 515 benefit, but that also keeps it balanced for all professions. That, unfortunately, isn't always possible.

It'll be up to each individual player to weigh if all the benefits of the Sigil Staff (easier access to spells from scrolls, able to dispel a target, mana reduction ability, and the multicast flare) are worth it. You're mainly just getting 1 benefit from the greater elemental weapons, which is the extra flare. Even just evaluating flare ability for both runestaves, the greater elemental flare is more than likely going to trigger against a different target each time, so you have to ask yourself how often does that flare actually make a difference in combat (i.e. kills the target, thus saves you time on a follow-up attack)? Now compare that against something like an extra cast of Minor Steam or Earthen Fury. The former can easily result in 100-150 extra damage and the latter can easily result in an outright crit kill (especially since your initial cast will probably prone the target).

GameMaster Estild