Spells: Using underlevelled spells should result in fewer resists or partial resists:

[Jimjam]

In an November 23 interview (1999) with "GZ" (one of the devs?) Caster's Realm had quite an interesting QnA specifically regarding wizards, but with interesting wider implications.

I was particularly interested by the following snippet;

"If you use a lower level spell, your chance of fizzle is almost 0, you do that spells max damage, and we knock a bit off of the creatures resistance. Not a lot, but a bit."


I appreciate in isolation this snippet is basically useless, but perhaps a jumping off point for further investigation.

obligatory link:

https://web.archive.org/web/20000125...sp?Article=468

[Zuranthium]

Lots of player testimonials align with Geoffrey Zatkin's statement: https://web.archive.org/web/20020102...?Id=563&Page=4 (all 4 pages are relevant, I'm linking to page 4)

ROOT PREFERRED TO ENSTIL, By Eleets

I have just reached 20, and having already researched Enstil I decided to use it. After dying more times in one session using Enstil than I did the last 5 sessions with root, I will now use root. I find that Enstil is resisted considerably more. Does not last anywhere near as long on average, and as soon as any dmg is done to the mob, the enstil breaks.

ROOT, By Crodof spiritwalker

I would recomend using ROOT for at least 3 more lvls after obtaining enstill. Why? Because Enstill will be resisted quite abit and by the time you get 23 enstill will be less resisted and work better for your needs. Least it did for me

SO BASICALLY NO UPGRADE?, By Apoo

So as this spell stands, it's a slower cast time, get's resisted more often, and costs more mana.... HMMM, good thing I hit lvl 24 and got the great new spell! errr, no

ENSTILL IS WORTHLESS, By Grenix

Everyone I've talked to says this spell lasts a lot longer than Root when you cast it on an enemy. From what I've seen, it lasts either the same amount of time or less than Root, and it gets resisted more often. Combined with the facts that Enstill is cancelled when you nuke, and that the mana cost is double that of root, AND there's a .5 second larger casting time, I wonder why it's even in the game.

ROOT IS BETTER THAN ENSTIL, By Itzokae blastenburn

Faster to cast Costs less mana Resisted (way) less 'nuff said.

RESISTS, By G on prexus

This spell is resisted a LOT, especially when used at lower levels and against mobs even or higher than you. Some people just stick with Root and dont use Enstill.

PURCHASE AND USEFULNESS, By Endaria

For some reason, this spell is resisted more then the old standby, Root. Extensive testing on blue and white creatures revealed about 20% MORE resists versus Root. So you might want to consider keeping the older spell memorized.

[Danth]

This was a thing. It was always quite noticeable to hybrids in particular since they continue casting level 9 spells even at 60 alongside level 60 spells. In particular, this works in conjunction with the overall base/minimum resist rates posted in other threads--those base values were modified by factors like the level of the spell.

[ricquire]

I remember shamans getting a low level slow on before going for full slow. Long long before disease slow existed. Would support some maybe “magical belief” low level spells had lower resistance rate due to “caster mastery over the magic”

[Goregasmic]

There's a practical reason to do this even on p99. Lower level slows will do 80% of the job for 50% of the mana. I'll usually use tepid deeds in fast groups because 50% slow for 100 mana is good value while 70% slow is 225mana will tank your bar for little gain.

Longer roots are not worth casting either if you're going to nuke. I have both fetter and root on top of my spellbook for that reason.

Also, if you say it gets resisted more SHOW ME YOUR NUMBERS. People easily forget how much parroted folklore there was back then.