Changes to casters

[Pestalence]

well according to Patch Notes..

Casters recieved an end of cast LOS check.. as such if you move out of the frontal arc of a caster, the spell fails.. So melee work on your sprint / strafe on NPC casters and PVP opponents.. Casters work on turning while casting .. turn with your mouse and practice it turns 1000 tims faster than using the movement keys.. right mouse button down and turn.. keep target in center of screen.

Casters have had rotating during spell weave removed.. as such your spell weave with LOS checks at end of spell are really important, so positioning your character makes all the difference if you are going to Spell Weave. FC is still looking at Spell Weave Knockback for interrupting spells, Silence / Stuns and Charm seem to be working correctly.. Knockback only works about 40% of the time.

Finally the big issue is Damage reduction of base spell damage of 15%.. this is not as big a factor as people make it out to be. Here is a rough breakdown.

Take for instance my PoM.. I use Smite.. base spell damage is 180-250 damage non critical before patch damage nerf.. now lets go off of maximum damage capabilities non critical.

250 base spell damage - 15% from patch = so my new base spell damage is 212.5 maximum

Now lets factor in gear, stats, etc..

My Pom has gear on for + wisdom and + damage (magic type) and + damage magic.. Smite currently at lvl 67 hits target for 1200 damage average.. so

1200 - 212.5 = 987.5 damage being added by gear / stats.

so damage before nerf was 987.5 + 250 = 1237.5

1200/ 1237.5 = 96% dmage still being done to target.. 4% damage reduction

so the actual caster damage nerf is ~ 3% to 5% .. not the 15% that most casters are crying about.. in most cases, based on gear, the damage difference is closer to about 4% average with the newest patch.

so compared from 1.05.2 to 1.05.3 patches caster actual damage reduction after adding in gear that give the proper stat boosts for your specific damage is only about 4% reduction.. so if you are use to a spell tossing out 3x hits for 1K damage each, that would be 1000 - 4% = 960 damage x 3 hits = 2880 damage vs 3000 damge .. which is still only a 4% damage nerf.

so in conclusion, even though the base spell damage was nerfed by 15%, the over all damage reduction when fully geared out with proper equipment is only 4%.

as for Necros, the pets have been reduced as well for stamina and mana drain.. however it still makes a big difference since melee has to use that stamina for Combos and sprinting (they don't have separate pools like Casters have).. the drain is approx equivalent to running a green lvl 60 pot currently.. as such, any melee needing the extra stamina regen of a pot in combat with pets on him is screwed since the pot is negated.. add to that pets can now almost perma stagger characters (there is no immunity to stagger unless you are a ranger using richochet Feat and kneecapping) when they are hitting in the back, thus virtually eliminating the Melee's sprint.. toss in the fact that a necro can send out pets when at range 25 from opponent and then can run off another 15 meters thus making melee having to close a 40 meter gap, not counting Necro kiting the Melee whom is staggered and losing Stamina / mana .. Necros are still at the top along with Demo for any encounter.. and properly feated and geared Necro, Blighted Ones are still doing 450 DPS with 3K damage burst to start.

Recent tests (1.05.3) in Minigames have shown Demos pulling 25 to 30 kills per match each, Necros pulling 20 to 26 kills per match each, where Rogues and most soldiers (barring the polearm guardian) are only getting 0 to 7 kills per match each.

so when getting into a Minigame.. #1 make sure your team has a PoM.. PoM is one of 3 classes that can virtually 1 shot Necro pets, thus giving your team a fighting chance. #2 Make sure you have a Demo and necro on your team and preferrably a 3rd caster with mage shield for full effect (automatic 40% damage reduction which is currently a game bug.. 3 mage shields stacked should only do 276 reduction to damage per hit as such a 2K hit on an opponent with 3 mage shields should recieve 1724 damage, however with current game bug, the hit is only doing 1200 damage to target from a 2K total damage hit.. basically a commonly used exploit).. the last 2 spots can be filled in with DPS / Ranger / healer or a Polearm Guardian.. Conq and DT can work for carrying the flag, however they will either be cannon fodder or ignored.

Anyhow hope that this breakdown helps out with the way casters are now working..

as an upnote.. the only boost Melee has gotten is in the Assassin tree to take casters out easier, but that is 1 class out of 12.. and the last thing Melee has for damage boost is the ability of having 100% damage on current target, which should help against Pet Nectos who have their pets packed around them.. that use to dilute damage across targets.. now the Necro if targeted gets 100% damage and pets get 50% damage splash if in range and cone of attack.

That is about it.. so not much has changed except for melee primary target Damage and Casters losing 4% of their total damage output and not beig able to rotate during spell weaving.