Any word of earth magic?

[KingHITTA]

Earth seems like the most unpopular element school, anyone tried it out yet?

[Prionburger]

It's the first that I got. It's fine. The acid arrow spell does about 25-35 damage in the back with a noob staff, about 20 in the front to a naked test subject. With a rank 20 darkheart staff it does up to 45 in the back. Deerhead and a rank 60 .36 damage staff had similar damage. Unless I'm missing something, this is just like the other schools. My only gripe is that acid arrow uses resin. I'd much rather use sulfur, because it's more available from the places I hunt. I usually get 4 sulfur for every resin I get from hunting.

To make matters worse other spells compete for using resin like Mana to Stamina. So if I get carried away with acid arrow, I'll soon find myself without any resin left to get stamina. It's not that bad. And thank the jesus that it has a decent casting sound, unlike air.

Oh, and I've killed at least 3 people with it :D

I'll report back when I get 25 skill.

[Sabbathius]

Don't forget to mention that Brawn, a Strength buff, has zero effect on melee damage, all it does is increase your health by 5 points for 3 mins. Awesome, for 350g... :rolleyes:

P.S. Any tips on where I can farm Resin, besides trees? Akathar only drop 2 a pop.

[Mulciber]

while true that str is a bit odd, most are noticing about 8-9 points in str increase average damage 1 point(several 100 hits tested).

people cannot say that str is borked cause drains dont impact their dmg,

to me drains are borked . . .

[Sabbathius]

while true that str is a bit odd, most are noticing about 8-9 points in str increase average damage 1 point(several 100 hits tested).

people cannot say that str is borked cause drains dont impact their dmg,

to me drains are borked . . .

I put on a sword that adds 3, and cast Brawn, which adds 10, and saw exactly zero difference over about a dozen swings. Small sample size, sure, but enough to convince me that Brawn ain't worth casting.

[morde]

Earth seems like the most unpopular element school, anyone tried it out yet?

I like Acid Arrow. As soon as I make some more $ I'm going to buy intensify EM and the skill that makes EM use less mana. Even though I hear Earthquake sucks I'm still going to buy it to see for myself and hope it gets better as you go along.

I was hitting mounts for 36-Low 40's with Acid arrow though. On a player it seems from the front its usually low 20's and from the back I saw a 36 so far.

[LanMandragon]

Acid arrow is good. Ill let you know when i hVe more feedback to give at 25 earth magic.

[Nowind]

I put on a sword that adds 3, and cast Brawn, which adds 10, and saw exactly zero difference over about a dozen swings. Small sample size, sure, but enough to convince me that Brawn ain't worth casting.

It seems like most if not all buff/debuff spells are bugged at the moment. They have no effect.

[Jackson]

how does acid arrow's damage compare to fire bolt/icecicle/lightening whatever?

[Sakaar]

how does acid arrow's damage compare to fire bolt/icecicle/lightening whatever?
Thers no big difference between starter spells

[keeperofstars]

earthquake in beta was pretty nice, granted you hurt yourself, but if you wear robes that have resists you win the damage fight. Key part to earthquake is lots of enemies few friends aroudn when you cast it.
It's a spell of scale. Meaning in a 1vs1 fight or even a 2 vs 1 fight you lose casting it, but in the 6 enemies in range to hit, its worth casting.

It's a very situational spell.

Brawn is worth casting, while it won't "jack" your damage up if you notice it will bring your low end damage up to a more consistant range. IE if you average between 10-15 damage, you will notice more of your hits fall in the upper part of that range around the 15 damage mark.

Also as you get up in skill with brawn it increases more. It's all a scale though, your str is a damage mod that stacks with your weapon skill mods, that stacks with your weapons mods. Most people have low increases on everything, so they see bad returns on all skills but once you complete all your skills you will see the mods increase more.

Your str determines your base weapon damage.

So lets say 20 str = 10 damage, and 25 str = 12 damage (I tested this extensively in beta, so that is a valid example)
So 5 str = 1-2 damage, for arguments sake lets say 1 damage per 5 str.

So now you take that 1 damage and start multipling it by your damage mods.
Weapon with .5 increase, skill with .6 increase, melee skill with .7 increase

So 1.8 increase to that 1 damage gives you 2.8ish / 3 extra damage per swing vs the same guy with same skill level and same weapon, and same melee skill.

So 5 str does make the difference, once you get your weapon, combat, and gear up.

problem is we dont have the other skills to have str increases or any stat increase seem to make a huge amount of difference.

[Sabbathius]

Got Acid Arrow, does 21 average front, 32 average back, with newbie staff, at 1.0 skill, on a naked target.

Unfortunately, it costs 24 mana, and eats 2 Resin per cast. So, with a Mana bar of 175 (at 29 Intelligence), I can cast a max of 7 Acid Arrows, before I'm out of mana completely, doing 147-224 damage, assuming 100% hit rate. So, at best, I will kill one person running away from me, before I am utterly out of mana.

Not too hot, not hot at all.

Archery, with 30 skill, and rank 30 bow, does identical damage, with 1 reagent per cast, and you can do a hell of a lot more than 7 shots before you run out of mana.

I'm seriously considering tossing magic out the window at this point.

[Larocco]

impale has low damage, low range and it takes longer to cast than acid arrow. there is also a cooldown. skill goes up very fast and animation is nice though.

[Darkwish]

Good armor usually reduces dmg a lot tough but idd archery is still better since u can hit easier.

[Sabbathius]

Good armor usually reduces dmg a lot tough but idd archery is still better since u can hit easier.

I've been wondering about that. Good armor reduces magic quite a bit too. Not as much as shield reduces arrow damage, but enough. And even when all is said and done, an archer can squeeze off what, 30-40 shots before running out of stamina? Can a mage squeeze off that many Acid Arrows? With Mana Efficiency, maybe he'll get off 10, or 15. Can those 15, even without armor reduction, do the damage of 30-40 arrows? I very much doubt that. And while splash damage of magic is great for multiple mobs, it's a nightmare in group PvP, unless you engage in a line battle.

Personally, I'm *THIS* close to tossing magic away and going Archery. I spent 2 hrs yesterday just doing lumber/iron gathering, and I got 250 timber, 250 iron ore, 30 sulfur and 30 resin. That's enough for 200 arrows, or 15 casts of Acid Arrow and 15 casts of Earthquake. So, from the same amount of work, a mage gets 30 rounds, an archer gets 200 rounds. Even if your bowyer has a 70% fail rate, that will STILL be 60 arrows made.

[Aramir]

Isnt starter staff have penalty to elemental and advanced (arcane / necromancy) magic ? So acid arrow with starter staff do 20 damage, but if you upgrade to rank20 staff you will start doing 30+ frontal damage ?

[Sabbathius]

Isnt starter staff have penalty to elemental and advanced (arcane / necromancy) magic ? So acid arrow with starter staff do 20 damage, but if you upgrade to rank20 staff you will start doing 30+ frontal damage ?

Correct. Rank 20 staff, Traitor's Glory, does 28 average front, 38 average back, me naked, on naked target, with Acid Arrow at 3.8 skill. One hit was as high at 42 damage.

However, basic bow with 1.0 Archery skill, does 12 damage front, 20 damage back. And when I said I harvested 250 timber and 250 iron ore per 30 sulfur and 30 resin, and that it made me hundreds of arrows, I was mistaken. 250 timber is 100 wood, and 250 ore is 100 ingots, meaning 100 sets, meaning 100x20 arrows, meaning 2,000 arrows total. Can you guys farm up 2,000 resin in 2 hrs, solo? I can't. And if your bowyer has 70% fail chance, you still get 600 arrows for 2 hrs of harvesting. Compared to enough resin for 15 Acid Arrows, and enough sulfur for 15 Earthquakes? Quite a bit more bang for your buck. Quite a bit more.

EDITED FOR EXTREME IDIOCY

[Larocco]

uploaded vid of impale. forgot to record sound again lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBe8t_abPRw

[Sabbathius]

uploaded vid of impale. forgot to record sound again lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBe8t_abPRw

Hard to see the numbers, can you give an average per 20 shots or something?

Also, anyone got any advice on mobs that drop Resin? Goblin Shamans, if memory serves, drop some. Not sure about Trolls.

Akathar only drop 2 per kill, compared to 7 Mandrake, so not particularly effective, though they do drop Sulfur, which can be used to Earthquake. How's Earthquake for leveling Earth Magic skill, any good?

[Larocco]

i will test damage tomorrow and post it here its pretty low though but might be better at 25, i dont know. goblin shamans drop resin, trolls dont. i didnt purchase earthquake so i cant comment on this.

[Ozkar67]

I'm hoping that it isn't useless, spent a while grinding up my gm.

[In Nox]

uploaded vid of impale. forgot to record sound again lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBe8t_abPRw

REAL MCCOY! YES! ANOTHER GREAT SONG!

Vid isn't that helpful though, looks exactly like acid arrow and can't see damage. Thanks though.

[Z_E_N]

Impale is the spell that a normal Troll always casts, so I'm sure most of you have seen it first hand a LOT =).

Before I got earth magic myself, I always assumed trolls cast lightning bolt.

Don't forget that Earth Magic also gets Stoneskin (which may also be bugged), and then Stamina Leech (which should be a very useful in any situation.)

[Bomanz]

Hard to see the numbers, can you give an average per 20 shots or something?

Also, anyone got any advice on mobs that drop Resin? Goblin Shamans, if memory serves, drop some. Not sure about Trolls.

Akathar only drop 2 per kill, compared to 7 Mandrake, so not particularly effective, though they do drop Sulfur, which can be used to Earthquake. How's Earthquake for leveling Earth Magic skill, any good?

Troll Shamans, Goblin Shamans were the best I found. Usually 7 Resin each. Manscorpions drop lots of reagents as well, one of which being about 5 resin I believe.

BTW I think your comparison of making arrows versus harvesting reagents is flawed since (as I htink you know) killing monsters is the best way to get reagents, even if you have to use some MM. Of course, it's irritating that Archery is so easy to level and potent. OP IMO.

[Darkwish]

Have been in around 100 man battle yesterday and gota say using magic with that much lag(fps drop down a lot) is near impossible imo, i even had a real hard time with bow tough melee was fine so you should also consider this about magic :(

[Finddus]

It seems to me that magic gets stronger in the end. Just that almost no one has come close to the end so far.

[Aramir]

If at level 1 archery is stronger than level 1 elemental magic then at level 100 archery will be still stronger than magic :P
Atm archery is must for every char - mage or not.

[Sabbathius]

Hmm, well, my problem is that nearest goblin shamans are hell and gone from clan city, and the troll spawns are bugged out or turned off, went to do Troll Hunt, and nothing, no mobs anywhere. Same near next spawn. So trees are pretty much the only thing I can do for now.

Comparison to archery isn't flawed at all, it's very apt. If it takes less time to gather or harvest enough arrows for 1,000 shots than it is to harvest reagents for 1,000 spellcasts, assuming they do more or less the same damage, then archery is a clear winner. For example, for 1,000 Acid Arrow shots you need 2,000 resin, at 5 per kill, is 400 kills, at 1 kill every 30 seconds and no rest, 3.3 hrs to gather, provided you're not disturbed, and the spawn is entirely yours, and you can kill 2 mobs a minute, and they spawn that fast. Realistically, due to spawn time, and other people, and PvP, you'll be lucky to get 100 resin an hour, which will take you TWENTY HOURS just harvesting the reagents. An archer will harvest for 1-2 hrs, get 2,000 arrows, which is more than he can reasonably use up in 2-3 days, and spend the rest of the time fighting, killing, dying, having fun.

[Sabbathius]

Went to check Goblin Shamans, since Trolls are currently bugged where I bind. Took a long time to get there, and they come mixed with many fighters, who drops nothing I want. Bottom line, Goblin Shamans drop 3 Resin per kill. So, as of yet, can't find a mob nearby that drops at least 5 resin a kill, and is soloable. There's some elf NPCs that take a party of 6 to take down, they drop about 4 resin a kill, but out of party of 6, all of whom want Resin for Mana to Stamina, you won't get that much RPH (Resin Per Hour).

Any way I look at it, Archery is the way to go. I'll still level magic, whenever I accumulate enough reagents, but I won't focus on it any longer. But please provide feedback on damage increases (skill level, staff you use, front and back damage, armor on target).

[Larocco]

Hard to see the numbers, can you give an average per 20 shots or something?

Front with starter staff:
1st hit 13 damage
2nd hit 16 damage
3rd hit 16 damage

Front with r40 staff:
1st hit 21 damage
2nd hit 19 damage
3rd hit 16 damage

similar damage in the back. trying to think of a way how this spell could be useful for something but i cant.

i will get it to 25 and see if its any better

[Elelish]

Front with starter staff:
1st hit 13 damage
2nd hit 16 damage
3rd hit 16 damage

Front with r40 staff:
1st hit 21 damage
2nd hit 19 damage
3rd hit 16 damage

similar damage in the back. trying to think of a way how this spell could be useful for something but i cant.

i will get it to 25 and see if its any better

Its seems to have a big AoE compared to other spells...

[Sabbathius]

Its seems to have a big AoE compared to other spells...

Not that I noticed, no. I had a few near misses where it hit the ground very close on target, where mana missile would have scored a hit, but no damage.