Hi everybody!

As everyone saw this past weekend, the new SMR (SMRv2?) has gone live! A few lucky people have gotten to play around with it for a few days, and now it's your turn (If you're a wizard... Or maybe hated by tree spirits?)! Let me just get my shenanigans out of the way. I promise there's going to be a MECHANICS section down there somewhere. So if you want to roast me for shenanigans, I'm gonna tell you "HEY. I didn't ASK you to read this. There's a mechanics section down there!"

Boil Earth (917) has been updated and renamed to Earthen Fury! It's like 6 spells in one! And because you know I love me some water lore, there's even an icy option! Exclamation points!!!!1!

Excited yet? Good. Because it's time for you wizards to show that the time to take back the SMR is now! Too long have the critters kept this lovely killing machine all to themselves. Today...

Today is your day.

=== MECHANICS ===

Earthen Fury (917) uses SMRv2 to determine it's chance to hit, with Wizard Circle spell ranks determining the wizard's attack prowess. The spell is designed around being at least 1x trained in the Wizard circle, so less training than that will result in reduced effectiveness (Though it is still very useable depending on circumstances). When the spell is cast, a critical cycle occurs, with more critical cycles occuring every 2 seconds for the next 10 seconds (A total of 6 cycles). When a cycle successfully hits, it will target the legs of the target IF the target can be knocked down and isn't currently knocked over. If the target can't be knocked or is already lying down, it will instead choose any body part.

The spell has two options, cold and fire. These can be used when casting by typing CAST (cold or fire) <target> or INCANT 917 (cold or fire). Fire 917 will do impact and heat criticals, and cold 917 will do puncture and cold criticals.

More details on the SMR are coming very soon, but it is important for this update that Earthen Fury is significantly more effective against targets that are not standing as well as against targets that are stunned.

Earth Lore is effective for both the fire and cold versions of this spell. It works on cycles 2-6 of this spell (NOT the first), and adds (100 * Earth Lore Ranks / 202)% of the bonus for the target being stunned if the target is not stunned, and the same percentage of the bonus for the target being knocked down if the target is not knocked down. This means that Earth Lore is very effective when the first cycle misses, or against targets that can't be stunned or knocked down.

Fire Lore and Water Lore both work the same way, but only affect their respective versions of the spell. When a cycle successfully hits, these lores grant a (Ranks / 5)% chance for a second, more powerful crit immediately.

Let me know if you have questions, comments, concerns, etc. I'm excited to hear what everyone thinks and how they use it!

=== EDITS ===

- If no element is chosen for 917, the element type is chosen by:
1) If the caster has more fire than water lore, fire will be chosen. If more water than fire, cold is chosen.
2) If fire or water attuned, that element will be chosen if fire and water lore ranks are equal.
3) If neither of the above, it's random.

- Overtraining in the Wizard circle increases the effectiveness of the spell.
- The spell will follow the target to another room, but the cycles will only do damage if the caster and the target are in the same room. So, if you find yourself a target of this spell, running away and waiting for the spell to wear off is a great way to defend against it.
- Casting 917 at a target already under the effect of 917 refreshes the cast. It does not create two separate instances.
- The chance to hit with each successive cycle is the same, but the base critical damage for each successive cycle is lower. This can easily be offset by things such as earth lore, the creature being more heavily injured, stunned, prone, etc. to produce stronger damage because of the bonuses from those effects though.
- The spell only does critical damage. There is no bonus hitpoint damage.
- Fire lore grants a benefit for every single rank. Technically there is a small chance (Obviously less than 1%) of getting a double crit with only one rank of Fire lore.

~ Konacon

> [SMR result: 1070 (Open d100: 9)]

Estild OP. Also WHY. I AM SO GOOD TO YOU.

~ Konacon

Thank you so much, Konacon and team! Very happy to see this finally see the light of day.

Has anything changed significantly since the test server version in terms of effectiveness or lores/spell ranks required?

>Did you by chance mean (Earth Lore Ranks /2)% ? Having to get to 202 ranks to get 1% would be rough indeed! :p

The typo was actually the other direction; he meant (Earth Lore Ranks / 203)%! You need at least one enhancive to get that first 1%.

(Finros is not being helpful)

> (Earth Lore Ranks / 2)%

It would technically be (100 * Earth Lore Ranks / 202)%. My mistake there. At 202 ranks, it's a 100% bonus. :)

> Has anything changed significantly since the test server version in terms of effectiveness or lores/spell ranks required?

Nothing is significantly different from the test server version that you used.

> Also, it appears to only have 5 cycles:

I'm seeing 6 when I play with it... But I do see your log. Let me know if it's always 5 for you or if you see a mix?

~ Konacon

Sorry to say there are a couple of things to add here... There's a lot of details to this spell! I tried to get it all in the initial post, but have failed you once again.

1) I didn't technically specify that being overtrained in the Wizard circle does help.
2) The spell will follow the target to another room, but the cycles will only do damage if the caster and the target are in the same room. So, if you find yourself a target of this spell, running away and waiting for the spell to wear off is a great way to defend against it.

~ Konacon

So, if you find yourself a target of this spell, running away and waiting for the spell to wear off is a great way to defend against it.

~ Konacon

---

Unless you're being targeted by Estild who has a very specific skillset. He will find you, and he will kill you.

Viduus

It's past my bed time so I could only play with it a little. Some initial feedback based on my limited testing in Temple Nelemar (don't look for any statistical analysis here - that's not my bag):

My current training is Wizard 113/Minor Elt 76/Major Elt 113
Lores: Air:33, Earth: 25, Fire: 24, Water: 30

The cold crits did seem a bit more effective in my limited usage of the cold version against critters that could be effected by cold. I'll need to experiment with this a bit more.

It was slighting irritating that I couldn't default to fire (due to 30 ranks in water) so I'll need to setup another special case in my casting stance macro to handle the different spell syntax for 917 (incant 917 FIRE target). As we add more spells with elemental based version it would be a great add to be able to set a Default Elt via INCANT SET ELEMENT spell (or something similar)

The spell seems to destroy caster types and be less effective against physical types. I assume that is because critter CM ranks or something similar is being utilized in the defense. So Defenders, combatants, GWEs it wasn't very effective against. Sirens, Dissemblers, and even executioners were pretty much destroyed. Effective against sentries in that I didn't need a super high warding roll or AS roll to hit them but didn't seem to kill them without some additional help.

The spell is rather spammy and I initially wanted to watch it play out before casting anything further (oooh... pretty fire) but once I got past that I think the spell is useful for piling on additional damage quickly even if it doesn't kill the target outright by itself (so cast 917 then follow 3 seconds later with your bolt spells for more damage over a short period). It does tend to increase danger a bit in that I would occasionally miss when the sentries would stand back up, etc. due to the screen scroll - more highlights probably needed here and this may not be very group friendly in this regard, especially when there are lots of critters involved.

I tried double casting it on the same target and I wasn't certain but it looked like the spell was canceling the first cast out (more testing needed here but it didn't feel like 2 sets of the spell were firing off at that point).

It seems to stun well but for unstunnable critters they tended to get right back up so it's probably better to open with a disabler. I've been using a lot of Call Wind lately but I think Immolation would work pretty well here as well as they will be put into some RT and will lay down on their own 75% of the time if the spell didn't knock them down. Without a stun or a disabler though it becomes riskier with the screen scroll - especially for critters that cast bad spells when they are standing up!

Observed (keeping in mind its late and I didn't go back and check every cast in my logs) Bonuses were in the low 20s against Defenders, Sentries, and GWEs. As high as 80ish against Dissemblers, Sirens, and the like.

For sirens (not a hard thing to kill) I usually knock them over with call wind then bolt them but 917 straight up seems like a good single cast substitue (so 3 seconds back!) With more testing I'll see if it is reliable enough - I get 90+% knockdowns with RT adders with Call Wind.

A few sample casts at different critters (Note: I looked for Konakon but he wasn't in the temple at the time of my testing!):

>Your hands glow with power as you invoke the phrase for Earthen Fury...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a siren.
The ground beneath a siren suddenly frosts and rumbles violently!
[SMR result: 165 (Open d100: 63)]
The earth cracks beneath a siren, releasing a column of frigid air!
... 40 points of damage!
It is knocked to the ground!
The siren is stunned!
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
>
Cast Round Time in effect: Setting stance to guarded.
>
[SMR result: 266 (Open d100: 106, Bonus: 58)]
Icy stalagmites burst from the ground beneath a siren!
... 45 points of damage!
Shot shatters shoulder and severs right arm!
>
[SMR result: 256 (Open d100: 89, Bonus: 66)]
Icy stalagmites burst from the ground beneath a siren!
... 55 points of damage!
Strike to wrist severs left hand quite neatly!
The siren's oyster shell shield falls to the ground.
>
[SMR result: 266 (Open d100: 90, Bonus: 75)]
Icy stalagmites burst from the ground beneath a siren!
... 45 points of damage!
Strike to wrist severs right hand quite neatly!
>
[SMR result: 211 (Open d100: 27, Bonus: 83)]
The earth cracks beneath a siren, releasing a column of frigid air!
... 35 points of damage!
Base of skull frozen, removing any feeling from the neck down. The siren lives just long enough to realize a painless death!



>Your hands glow with power as you invoke the phrase for Call Wind...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at an ethereal triton sentry.
A gust of wind tugs at your sleeves. Suddenly, a fierce wind rips through the area, scattering everything in its path and making it difficult to remain standing.
An ethereal triton sentry is knocked over by the wind.
The wind then subsides.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

>incant 917 fire
Your hands glow with power as you invoke the phrase for Earthen Fury...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at an ethereal triton sentry.
The ground beneath an ethereal triton sentry begins to boil violently!
[SMR result: 171 (Open d100: 75, Bonus: 20)]
Fiery debris explodes from the ground beneath an ethereal triton sentry!
... 50 points of damage!
Body swirls violently from a strong hit to the back.
Neat effect!
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
[SMR result: 232 (Open d100: 129, Bonus: 24)]
Craggy debris explodes from the ground beneath an ethereal triton sentry!
... 70 points of damage!
Amazing strike enters one side and exits the other, neatly cutting the triton sentry in half!
To your horror the two parts rejoin a moment later.
>.cc 906 stance offensiveincant 906stance defensiveYou are now in an offensive stance.
>Your hands glow with power as you invoke the phrase for Minor Fire...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at an ethereal triton sentry.
You hurl a stream of fire at an ethereal triton sentry!
AS: +485 vs DS: +360 with AvD: +34 + d100 roll: +28 = +187
... and hit for 62 points of damage!
Quick strike to the right leg!
The triton sentry makes no bones about it.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
>Cast Round Time in effect: Setting stance to guarded.
>[SMR result: 78 (Open d100: -35, Bonus: 34)]
Craggy debris explodes from the ground beneath an ethereal triton sentry!
She dodges out of the way!
>[SMR result: 149 (Open d100: 36, Bonus: 34)]
Fiery debris explodes from the ground beneath an ethereal triton sentry!
... 15 points of damage!
The triton sentry fades for a second as the blow passes through the chest.
.cc 906 stance offensiveincant 906stance defensiveYou are now in an offensive stance.
>Your hands glow with power as you invoke the phrase for Minor Fire...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at an ethereal triton sentry.
You hurl a stream of fire at an ethereal triton sentry!
AS: +489 vs DS: +356 with AvD: +34 + d100 roll: +6 = +173
... and hit for 55 points of damage!
Strike swipes cleanly through the abdomen, but seals up a moment later!
The triton sentry emits a hollow scream as ribbons of essence begin to wend away from her and into nothingness!
The bright luminescence fades from around an ethereal triton sentry.
The deep blue glow leaves an ethereal triton sentry.
A shadow seems to detach itself from an ethereal triton sentry, swiftly dissipating into the air.
The dull golden nimbus fades from around an ethereal triton sentry.
The brilliant luminescence fades from around an ethereal triton sentry.
An ethereal triton sentry glances around, looking a bit less confident.
The ground beneath an ethereal triton sentry suddenly calms.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.



Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a spectral triton defender.
A gust of wind tugs at your sleeves. Suddenly, a fierce wind rips through the area, scattering everything in its path and making it difficult to remain standing.
A spectral triton defender is knocked over by the wind.
The wind scatters the cloud.
The wind then subsides.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
>Cast Round Time in effect: Setting stance to guarded.

>incant 917 fire Your hands glow with power as you invoke the phrase for Earthen Fury...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a spectral triton defender.
The ground beneath a spectral triton defender begins to boil violently!
[SMR result: 175 (Open d100: 75, Bonus: 22)]
Craggy debris explodes from the ground beneath a spectral triton defender!
... 30 points of damage!
The triton defender's hand explodes from the brutal strike!
Trails of ether spurt high into the air in all directions.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
[SMR result: 200 (Open d100: 94, Bonus: 23)]
Craggy debris explodes from the ground beneath a spectral triton defender!
... 35 points of damage!
Strong smash to the left hand!
The triton defender quails and sinks momentarily as its left hand reforms before your eyes.
>.cc manaleech stance offensiveincant manaleechstance defensiveYou are now in an offensive stance.
>[SMR result: 145 (Open d100: 37, Bonus: 25)]
Fiery debris explodes from the ground beneath a spectral triton defender!
... 20 points of damage!
Swift strike would have hit more than an ear, if only it were there.
>You intone a phrase of elemental power while raising your hands, invoking Mana Leech...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a spectral triton defender.
CS: +545 - TD: +410 + CvA: +20 + d100: +10 == +165
Warding failed!
A dull grey beam momentarily materializes between you and a spectral triton defender.
She shakes violently!
You feel a sudden rush of power as you absorb 48 mana!
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
>Cast Round Time in effect: Setting stance to guarded.
>[ Mana Leech Cooldown: +0:02:25, 0:20:00 remaining. ]
[SMR result: 178 (Open d100: 69, Bonus: 26)]
Fiery debris explodes from the ground beneath a spectral triton defender!
... 25 points of damage!
Good hit!
Left shoulder is ripped from its socket then wriggles back into place.
Magma erupts from the ground, striking her!
... 25 points of damage!
Quick strike to the left leg!
The triton defender makes no bones about it.
>[SMR result: 121 (Open d100: 10, Bonus: 28)]
Craggy debris explodes from the ground beneath a spectral triton defender!
... 5 points of damage!
Glancing blow to the left arm leaves a trail of vapor in its wake.
[SMR result: 182 (Open d100: 70, Bonus: 28)]
Craggy debris explodes from the ground beneath a spectral triton defender!
... 10 points of damage!
Wild attack passes through the right leg, viciously assaulting the air!
The ground beneath a spectral triton defender suddenly calms.
>A spectral triton defender struggles to rise but fails in the attempt.
>.cc 906 stance offensiveincant 906stance defensiveYou are now in an offensive stance.
>Your hands glow with power as you invoke the phrase for Minor Fire...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a spectral triton defender.
You hurl a stream of fire at a spectral triton defender!
AS: +485 vs DS: +285 with AvD: +26 + d100 roll: +82 = +308
... and hit for 98 points of damage!
Strong hit to the chest!
Tendrils of mist explode as the strike passes right through.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
Cast Round Time in effect: Setting stance to guarded.
>A spectral triton defender stands up with a grunt.
>.cc 906 stance offensiveincant 906stance defensiveYou are now in an offensive stance.
>Your hands glow with power as you invoke the phrase for Minor Fire...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a spectral triton defender.
You hurl a stream of fire at a spectral triton defender!
AS: +489 vs DS: +329 with AvD: +26 + d100 roll: +83 = +269
... and hit for 70 points of damage!
A strong blow bursts the left calf open in a spray of vapor.
New muscle erupts from the middle of the wound, consuming the injured tissue.
The spectral form of the triton defender tenses in agony as she begins to dissolve from the bottom up!
A spectral triton defender seems slightly different.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
>Cast Round Time in effect: Setting stance to guarded.

-- Robert

A powerful whirlpool is suddenly overtaken by a windy vortex!

> I tried double casting it on the same target and I wasn't certain but it looked like the spell was canceling the first cast out (more testing needed here but it didn't feel like 2 sets of the spell were firing off at that point).

It does cancel out the initial cast. It doesn't start two separate instances.

> Does this mean that you are now technically specifying that being overtrained in Wizard circle does help? :-)

Yes. Being overtrained in the wizard circle definitely increases the effectiveness.

~ Konacon

> I mean the GWE log I posted didn't hit anything, nor did any of the fire lore double strikes activate. Am I just that unlucky, or are they gone? Maybe I need to do more testing.

The double strikes only have a chance to occur on cycles that hit.

~ Konacon

Honestly, thankyou very much for adding the water lore option or I would have never used the spell, brilliant changes all round :D.

>>More details on the SMR are coming very soon, but it is important for this update that Earthen Fury is significantly more effective against targets that are not standing as well as against targets that are stunned.<<

Can't stress this enough. In my limited experience so far using the SMR offensively I see a dramatic increase in success if the target is stunned/prone/immobilized.

Very cool update. Can't wait to see the new 917 in action.

---

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. - Albert Einstein

Well, I think I already got killed by it. :( Though that does explain the follow-on rounds of crits.

It makes perfect sense to me that I would be more vulnerable to the ground beneath me blowing up in fire and shrapnel, when I'm laying down on it (prone) and slow-to-respond (stunned).

I'm not sure I follow the internal reasoning behind the spell's follow-ons getting stronger... if the first one misses.
(i.e. I'm penalized for... getting GOOD results? I did NOT fall down from your clumsy earth attack, so I'm now MORE vulnerable to your clumsy earth attack? I did NOT get stunned from your clumsy fire attack, so now I'm MORE vulnerable to your clumsy fire attack? Even though I know that, hey, more attacks coming, because I've been alerted by, I don't know, your first clumsy attack?)

.

.

Are we to assume that all creatures are considered:
a) fully singled in the Wizard base?
b) fully singled in Earth Lore?
c) fully singled in Fire/Water Lore, as appropriate to their creature type?

i.e. "really frickin' dangerous" with it.

> I'm not sure I follow the internal reasoning behind the spell's follow-ons getting stronger... if the first one misses.

I may have not specified this in the initial post, apologies again. The chance to hit with this spell may remain the same, but the base damage for each progressive cycle is lower. This can easily be offset by things such as earth lore, the creature being more heavily injured, stunned, prone, etc. to produce stronger damage because of the bonuses from those effects though. Let me know if this didn't make enough sense as I explained it. Essentially, if the first one misses, the next cycle should not be stronger than the first one would have been.

> Are we to assume that all creatures are considered:

For the purposes of this spell, creatures are considered 1x trained in the Wizard circle and 0.25x trained in Earth and Fire lores.

~ Konacon

> He gave very helpful advice.

I (and others) are keeping a watchful eye on the overall danger this spell presents to players right now. If you feel things are out of line, feel free to post logs and I'll look into it.

~ Konacon

>>As the fire strikes the ice block surrounding an ethereal triton sentry, a rush of steam is released!

Alright. So I'm in a position where I can't really do any testing on this exciting new add just yet. That's coming Friday!

And, sadly, I think my youngest wizard is a couple of levels shy of having this spell - so I won't be able to directly observe the 'youth' side of this for a bit. Sad panda. Hmm. . . might try to do some of that on the test server if it's still available.

But - I saw this line, Robert (of the Middlin' Way. ;) Have you, or anyone for that matter, tried ice on ice, instead of fire on ice? I'm looking forward to testing it myself, if no one else has. And I'm very interested in discerning the bonus difference between non-rooted, rooted and immobilized. I would think the order of increasing bonus would be something like:

Prone
Stun
Prone+Stun
Rooted
Immobile (?)
Rooted+Prone
Rooted+Prone+Stun
Immobile+Prone
Immobile+Prone+Stun

Tactics, tactics, tactics. . .

Doug

>Speaking of which!

>Would it be possible, for any of the long-term SimuCoin boosters, to include their expiration info somewhere? Particularly for the things that weigh heavily [heh] into so many factors, like encumbrance. Maybe when the duration gets down to as low as 250 minutes, it starts popping in the "spell active" display, so we know it's going to crap out soon? I don't need to see it when it's still got 28 days on it, though.

>So, "spell active"
>Encumbrance Potion ... 04:07:28

>I'm not sure I could reasonably expect to find out that my Enhancive pour is wearing off--unless I was holding the item at the time, so it was active, and I did an "info" [or "skill", or "mana", or "stamina", or "health", or whatever verb displays what the item is Enhancing]--but it would definitely be an added bonus to see
>"INFluence 100 (35) ... 136 (53) 02:15:47"
>so that I know there's a SimuCoin item running out soon.

>I know the activation (doing the pour) gives you the expiry information, but it's a drag having to note that in your calendar.

>(And really this is only a problem for the month-long items. The short-term ones, the character's probably going to know about it, because, well, he JUST ACTIVATED the darn thing 12 minutes ago. I would not impart anything like this for any of the Boost-conferred things that aren't already there (I know that Loot does, but I have no knowledge of whether or not the short-term Encumbrance does).)

>.

>Failing something tied to the verbs showing where the Enhancive shows up...

>...could it be added to the SimuCoin verb? Have a separate section showing you what activations you have still running? (Something other than a new page of 'deliver', because that can sort of run on for a while.)

This thread hasn't been going on long enough for you to derail it yet! :/

~ Methais

> Methais offers Konacon the Gift of Jericho. Click ACCEPT to drink it in maaaannnn or DECLINE to be put back on the list. The offer will expire in 30 seconds.

ACCEPT

~ Konacon

"The brooch seems to be out of charges." -- GiftBox item

.

"Influence (INF): 100 (35) ... 105 (37)

Urchin Runner Uses 13 uses
Encumbrance Reduction Expired on Tue Dec 20 22:50:12 ET 2016
Enhancive Pauses 19 uses" -- Bard wearing GiftBox item

.

GiftBox item should be running out at about 4:00pm Eastern, if I posted the correct date/time in my calendar when I applied it.

Any possibility of adding those Enhancives' durations?

I got hit with the new spell & commented that I knew why it was as bad as it was which was why I had an idea for improvement,
got told it was such a good idea that it was already a year old,
appreciated the quick implementation, and
checked on that improvement before requesting expansion to the existing implementation of the previous good idea.