Spells: Flash of Light

[Halladar]

Maybe it changed in a recent update, but it isn't working like live in this respect:

On live say you were in melee with a mob, and flashed it. If you backed off it would run away. If you stayed in melee range it would keep on meleeing.

Here it follows you if you try to back off.

I haven't used it in groups, but it was wonky on live. If you weren't close to a mob, and the mob was fighting a pc, if you flashed it sometimes it would run away and maybe make a train. But only sometimes. My best guess is it had something to do with the aggro list, but that is only a guess.

A lot of people would not use that spell in dungeons.

But here it acts like a fear spell basically. I think it only sticks to you if you are in melee range, but I'd have to play with it to see exactly how it is behaving.

Danth what happens if you flash something and hit it with a ranged attack if it is running?

[guineapig]

Originally Posted by Halladar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Maybe it changed in a recent update, but it isn't working like live in this respect:

On live say you were in melee with a mob, and flashed it. If you backed off it would run away. If you stayed in melee range it would keep on meleeing.

Here it follows you if you try to back off.

I haven't used it in groups, but it was wonky on live. If you weren't close to a mob, and the mob was fighting a pc, if you flashed it sometimes it would run away and maybe make a train. But only sometimes. My best guess is it had something to do with the aggro list, but that is only a guess.

A lot of people would not use that spell in dungeons.

But here it acts like a fear spell basically. I think it only sticks to you if you are in melee range, but I'd have to play with it to see exactly how it is behaving.

Danth what happens if you flash something and hit it with a ranged attack if it is running?

What you are saying makes perfect sense. Blind and fear are essentially the same thing except that blind happens when the mob is not within melee range of something on its agro list. Once it's in range it doesn't matter who has how much agro, it sticks to the closest enemy.

If Flash of Light is cast on a mob and it follows you when you run away from it then one fo two things are happening.

A. The blind portion of the spell is broken.... or

B. You actually aren't moving out of melee range, or at least not quickly enough.

So it's easy to discern the difference. If you are obviously out of melee range then the mob isn't actually being blinded.


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As a side not, I could be confused with another game but aren't there certain spells where part of the spell effect would stick and others would not? (Like for example Enchanter nuke on a giant deals damage but doesn't stun.)

In this case the mob could have resisted the blind effect and only the debuff portion landed... or something like that.

Anyway, these are all possible things to consider and any combination of the above could be happening with the Flash of Light spell.

[Danth]

Right, Flash of Light does have a miniscule debuff component which might factor in somehow.

Danth

[Datante]

As Flash of Light is currently my most effective aggro-to-me machine, I am a bit wary of tinkering with its coding. Yes it could be even better at pulling hate, but the last thing I want to see happen is the return of potential train-causing 'fleeing' in dungeons that I saw on occasion back in '99.

Datante (mid 20s paladin)


Edit: Great analysis overall though everyone; thanks for bringing the topic up Danth. Paladins rock!

[Danth]

Oh, I absolutely WANT to see it pull trains when used improperly, that's what balanced out the spell--insane, unmatched aggro (except by disease cloud spamming) at the price of risk in the event that you get knocked out of melee range somehow. In particular we Paladins should be terrified of using this spell against mobs which do things like Grav Flux and other such knock-back spells.

Disease Cloud has its own drawback; as a DOT, it renders the SK unable to use Feign Death.

Danth

[Datante]

A knock-back out of melee range (such as from TTs in Najena) still causes erratic pathing by the mob when flashed (as it should). My concern is when a flash causes a flee when you are standing right next to the mob in melee range, as seemed to happen on occasion in Live.

Danth that is pretty interesting with SK DoTs preventing a good feign death. Just out of curiosity, is any DoTd mob 'immune' to an FD?

[Wenai]

They aren't immune to FD .. the problem is that as soon as you stand up, your DoT is going to hit another tic and then your aggro will refresh. You need to make a dash for the zoneline. Somehow. So if you are in a dangerous area with no chance of zoning. Your choices are:

a) wait for it to wear off
b) continuoulsy inch your way to a zoneline
c) /q out

The issue with /q'ing out is I think there may be a bug where /q cancels your FD. I can't confirm this 100% but perhaps someone could test it as it may be a bug.

[Danth]

"as seemed to happen on occasion in Live."

I believe this happened due to lag and positions not updating correctly. At any rate, I only ever saw that happen when the above symptoms were taking place. Nonetheless, I do agree that the mob-wanders-erratically blind effect is close to what it should be in its current form on P1999; so as to not be misunderstood, if it's off, it's only off a little, not by much. The aggro, on the other hand, makes me want to put my fist through my monitor at its relative ineffectiveness.

Danth