Rains of Fire Testing for Update on 20/7/15

After the recent change in Rains of Fire, I did a test at a Magic: 145, Mana 30 setting. Mob chosen was Almuhara (lazy to walk) in a fully dispelled state. I stacked AP to 120 and did continuous blasting so it is easier to do a screen capture without snitching up multiple screen shots for the same effect.

According to the changelog  

Rains of fire has been buffed to have higher subsequent damage (+50%)

That sounds like a huge buff. So naturally it got Eken (probably the only other active firemage) and me excited at the prospect of a real boost in our games. Within 5 minutes of the change, Eken tested it and concluded that "play with handphone, cannot see that well."

Upon seeing Eken's lacklustre response, I was considerably less eager in leveling up to 48 to test ROF. I just fused a few hours before the change and my max hp gain dropped to 134 per mob (even if I kill, say, Esper the Gatekeeper) I think Nobody must be insane or feel terribly alienated in real life to somehow Gen Up to >20. But he can do some cool botting tricks to help out and I can't. Thus I am not going to get there for sure. When my tnl reaches the 10k mark, it will be where I'll stop because it is a classic case of diminishing marginal utility. My enjoyment of the game nosedive with this illogical XP gain system. I'll probably play another Gen 1 if I want to bring the grind/enjoyment equation closer to equilibrium. Perhaps I should join Eken in the near impossible project of getting hands for a wraith to play a proper class.

Cutting the bullshit short, this is a result of an E8 ROF at Magic 145, Mana 30, on a fully dispelled Almuhara with a binded ROF staff and a full Integen Set.

And this is my review:

My take remains the same. For me, to make this skill logical, we should choose between a random number of fireballs and a diminishing damage but not both at the same time. Else the skill will be nothing but an over-rated aesthetically pleasing skill. I'll pick diminishing damage as the main issue here. With the diminishing effect, it is probably pointless to have more fireballs. As you can see from the screenshot, the damage beyond the 2nd fireball is negligible, unless we expect players to be fighting fido mutants and get XP out of it by the time we obtain this spell at level 48 (excellent mage rating). Thus, even if ROF is not capped at 5 fireballs max and I will be able to potentially rain 10 fireballs down with high E, the damage remains insignificant after the second fireball. This entirely destroys the beauty of the idea behind the spell.

I think a random number of fireballs is a good idea to keep the spell from being OP. From my observations (can provide data if requested), I rarely achieve 4 fireballs during my battles, seeing mostly 1-2 fireballs for the majority of the casts. So I don't think removing the diminishing effect, leaving the subsequent damage random will make the spell OP. Even with random damage, I will rarely get full fireballs raining down anyway and due to the wide range of damage, it is probably going to get me 2-3 small damage and 1 big one during the luckiest strike. I think that's not a lot to ask for at E8. In fact, it won't be even close to DS, even after its recent nerf. I'll still take the option of getting 1 guaranteed (potentially 2) Megawrecks of typeless damage over 1 Annihilate, 1 devastate and a series dark green fire damage any day.

I'll still recommend potential mages to stay out of the Fire School due to the fact you can't depend on the spells to level up. The only AOE is firestorm, at level 45 (if you can even reach there killing mobs at 134 xp per pop with your magic missiles and flamestrikes hacking away a TNL close to 10k) and the most bitter pill of it all, when you finally get to the grand prize of ROF at level 48, it sucks.


If you think I am over critical on this Spec Spell,  let me put things into perspective. I can achieve this kind of damage with an E5 Iceball (3E less than my ROF) that only requires me 6 slots to obtain (don't even need adept) compared to 21 slots for ROF at 8ap and 11ap respectively.

And the most bitter pill of it all