Meteor and Fall Speed

Mage
1

I wonder about two things with the fall speed of Meteors: What does it mean to have more than 100% reduction in fall speed and is it worth it to invest 5+ points (or should it be cheaper)?

I would imagine that there is a minimum delay between clicking and the impact of the meteor (which deals the damage). This is because there needs to be an animation of the falling meteor, so it cannot be instant like Elemental Nova. With 100% reduction of fall speed I would assume that this minimum is reached.

However we could actually get 160% fall speed reduction. Is this capped at 100%, so the three additional points are just wasted? Or does it work somehow differently?

I like some convenience and consistency, therefore I specced heavily into fall speed reduction (right now at -120%). It feels like there is still room for improvement, it is not as quick as I would like it to be.

It would make hitting fast or erratically moving enemies easier, which would then increase the damage (and make it more consistent) for such enemies, but otherwise it does not seem to be as helpful as a damage increase or Mana cost reduction. Is it even worth it to spend so much points into it? Or are the costs maybe too high? I wouldn’t mind if I could spend as little as 4 or maybe 5 points in order to have a smallest possible delay between clicking and damage delivery.

2

That would be how long it takes from when you cast to when the rock hits the ground. 100% would represent a halving of the time before you splatter your target’s brains out over the floor. 160% would be a reduction to 1/(1+1.6) = 38.5% of the original fall time. It’ll mean you need to lead smaller/faster targets less

1 Like
3

Thanks for the explanation. So each additional point spent reduces the delay by less than the previous point - which makes sense, as the node description talks about increasing the falling speed (instead of reducing the impact relay). But it also is kind of unfortunate, as I would have hoped to reduce the delay even more. Spending eight points into that is quite an investment already and getting only to about 60% of fall time reduction is quite mediocre imho.

Would anyone mind if we could reduce the falling time by 80% with 4-5 points spent? I think that could make this node / these nodes somewhat competitive. Or would that already be too good?

4

For me, it would be good. Not only that but I feel this node is mandatory for controller users, since you do not have the option to cast ahead of the target. If it takes too long to land, the target is out of the area.

5

This is a proposal to make the effect of the fall speed increase stronger. I assume that the default delay (without any points spent) is two seconds - that may be slightly off, though, I do not know the real time it takes. Currently you can spend eight points like so:

points | speed modifier | delay modifier | delay (s)
  0    |       100%     |      100%      |   2.00
  1    |       120%     |       83%      |   1.67
  2    |       140%     |       71%      |   1.43
  3    |       160%     |       62%      |   1.25
  4    |       180%     |       56%      |   1.11
  5    |       200%     |       50%      |   1.00
  6    |       220%     |       45%      |   0.91
  7    |       240%     |       42%      |   0.83
  8    |       260%     |       38%      |   0.77

I propose to (a) dramatically increase the speed per point and (b) reduce the overall number of points necessary like so:

points | speed modifier | delay modifier | delay (s)
  0    |       100%     |      100%      |   2.00
  1    |       160%     |       62%      |   1.25
  2    |       220%     |       45%      |   0.91
  3    |       280%     |       36%      |   0.71
  4    |       340%     |       29%      |   0.59
  5    |       400%     |       25%      |   0.50

This would make it necessary to change two nodes: Rapid Descent would be reduced to 3 points maximum and Celestial Celerity would be reduced to 2 points. Celestial Celerity then needs adjustments of the other values, too: cast speed increase and mana cost increase to 30% per point each.

One disadvantage of this approach is that the actual desired effect (the delay) is much more reduced by the first points than the last ones. Taking one point is almost a no-brainer, as it cuts a huge chunk from the delay. This could be bad for variety, as this point might be set, regardless of how Meteor is skilled otherwise.

So another proposal would be to affect the delay directly, which results in an even decrease of impact delay:

points | delay modifier | delay (s)
  0    |      100%      |   2.00
  1    |       85%      |   1.70
  2    |       70%      |   1.40
  3    |       55%      |   1.10
  4    |       40%      |   0.80
  5    |       25%      |   0.50

Now I did not spend that much time with the game yet, I only have one character (Sorcerer level 51). These proposed changes might have consequences that I do not see. So what do you think about this idea? What are the disadvantages? Did I go too far? Can there be problems with the animation if the fall speed is that high? Or could it work without being broken/OP?

6

I have thought about it a little. Maybe having 8 total points available to increase the falling speed isn’t bad at all. This gives the player some more choice (do I only want falling speed or want to combine it with casting speed?) and yet Meteor will not get ridiculously quick, as the effect of the later points is diminished.

But I’m still very much in favor of tweaking those numbers towards more falling speed.

7

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