Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

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cosmic ray
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by cosmic ray »

I know the tactics to try and minimise dispel damage, although when you are hit with multiple dispels in a row, you will necessarily eat a number of them, as you can't defend against all at the same time. The point is not that there are sometimes solutions, but that the display lling tactic on the part of NPCs is used ad nauseam. That's all they ever do, thus making characters with CL lower than 30 complete trash to play here, as Ravial and others have rightly said.

Now, I rarely suffer with this, personally, since I refuse to play casters with CL lower than 30 unless they have HiPS (ideal defence) or are spontaneous casters (not ideal, but passable, depending on build). However, surely everyone can see how insane this is: find out what the maximum building potential is and balance the server based on that. It reminds me of that Seinfeld joke about people who take steroids and the like: "find out what kills me, then take it down just a notch".
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by Snarfy »

matelener wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 4:48 am Would you mind sharing some details where were you dispelled so much? Also, almost everywhere seems like a massive exaggeration.
cosmic ray wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 5:25 am It was in Oghrann ruins, which is a permanent dispel festival. The Duergar compound is the same thing and half the drider area too. Every boss has 1-2 mords for you, even if it makes no sense for the monster type, and some have up to 3-4. Let's not even mention the Netherese Maze and the Lava Caverns.
Vault of the Dead is pretty bad too.

Just as an example of how bad the dispelling is, before the free RCR period I took my Cleric 16/Sacred Fist 10/Monk 4 to the VoD 1st floor to explore it. Of course I had completely forgotten that SF doesn't get full progression, and so I was literally hit with a dispel or three every time I ran into those Mohrg's. I'm a fairly able player, as in: I'm quick enough on the keyboard/mouse to deal with most video game things, but I do not possess the ninja-like reflexes to mitigate dispels being thrown at me from multiple angles repeatedly, much less counter a cheating AI that automatically knows my caster level as well as each and every protection my character has up.

Since I found this entirely aggravating, and also since I've only visited the VoD twice in ten RL years, and wanted to explore the dungeon some more before I eventually retire from BG(it's one of many dungeons that I still haven't fully explored due to the difficulty/dispels), I decided to use my free RCR and remove a level of monk(sacrificing ki-strike adamantine) and thus get my CL up to 29, just to give it a go. Well, I'm actually not sure if it worked, since on my first return trip I ran into a bone golem just inside the front door(which are, as we all know, not even classified as undead)... and even nearly fully buffed, I couldn't muster much damage output, or the willpower to really explore much after using all my healing spells in the first fight :lol: .... :| ... ah well, I'll try again later.
(and please spare me any "find a group" comments in advance, as zerging through a dungeon with a pack of loot munchkins requires me to be at least 6 beers in)

Rest assured, if the dispelling wasn't such an issue, I wouldn't have bothered trying to squeeze out that extra CL via RCR. Honestly, it's quite annoying to come up with interesting concepts, and then realize later that your concept is going to get obliterated by dispels. The same issue arose with my 30th UD bard, who had GFK levels(for flavor) before free RCR time, and a CL of about 25. I literally couldn't take him to any of the primo UD epic areas without getting stripped naked, so I RCR'd the GFK levels out of him entirely.
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by Deathgrowl »

Since there are people here saying that 25-29 CL is fine already, and having success playing builds with those CLs, what kind of builds would actually become a problem if the Greater Dispel cap was returned to Vanilla NWN2 numbers?

Remember also the reason it was increased in the first place, was to counter the fact that at the time all buffs were checked on HD rather than CL for dispels, so UMD users had effective 30 CL in regards to dispels.

Comparing Greater Dispel to PnP in this respect also isn't useful, since in PnP, you are unlikely to spend 10-15 rounds buffing up as you enter combat, and also the 60 sec/level spells are treated far more as situational in PnP, given the time between encounters. On BGTSCC, we have balanced the server around all these buffs being active on the classes that can cast them.

Also, in PnP, you are unlikely to run into more than 2-3 NPCs capable of casting dispel in one day, if even that many.

Game context matters in the case of Greater Dispel.
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by Tanlaus »

cosmic ray wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 5:25 am It was in Oghrann ruins, which is a permanent dispel festival. The Duergar compound is the same thing and half the drider area too. Every boss has 1-2 mords for you, even if it makes no sense for the monster type, and some have up to 3-4. Let's not even mention the Netherese Maze and the Lava Caverns.
The ruins of Oghrann have two regular dispelling spawns, occultist who are warlocks and use devour magic and soothsayers which are casters. It’s kind of hit and miss there, you might get a ton of both or you might not. Last night for instance is was all savages which was its own kind of pain. I bring this up because the thing about that area- unlike some others- is that the enemies casting dispel legitimately should have it.

Same with the duregar compound. Out of two possible caster spawns only one had dispel. The dudes with the pink shirts. It is a little bit insult to injury to be taken down by someone with such a terrible fashion sense but they actually spawn less than the other, more properly dressed, casters.

I’m not quite sure you are correct about being dispelled by driders. The arcanists spam PK there all day but I don’t recall them ever throwing dispels.
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by Steve »

I suggest you read this:

viewtopic.php?f=64&t=50150

and this:

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=50711

and see how The Issue has been an issue for 5 years now! And do pay attention to Who said What back then!!

The Dispel fix was mainly done to end UMD users from receiving CL-based-on-HD for their consumables. It kinda made non-DC casters irrelevant.

As was also argued long ago, the mobs that cast any type of dispel should be and have been reduced throughout the Server. Some work was done on this, but likely not enough, which is why any Character of CL 27 or lower will likely avoid certain areas altogether. But is that totally stopping RP? I’d there then are equally a number of high CR areas that don’t have caster mobs, is there anything preventing adventuring of a fair type?

From a builder perspective, the way it goes is the lower the CL on gishes, the more raw power one can mechanically attain, which is then even further bolstered to god level by spells. Without the dispel fix in and dispel levels as they are, gishes would simply shame casters and non-magic using melee…as they universally were before the Dispel Fix went in.

From a player perspective, just one who seeks out fun, I’d love to have an equally powerful CL 25 Gish as a CL 29 Gish, and use the split levels for more flavor and variety. So much variety could open up if the Dispels calculation was reverted to Vanilla NWN2, which though isn’t PnP, I do think the game designers realized that while playing the game itself, the experience would be really poor if a player kept getting their PC dispelled from the millions of mobs one slaughters during the PC’s—and the player’s!!!—lifetime.

So the vanilla NWN2 calculation actually makes sense, considering the context, AND especially since the Dispel Fix now makes UMD users pay dearly (do read through those links above!).

The PnP calculations from Core Rules make sense IN THE PnP context. Not so much in a CRPG context. And even if returning to Vanilla application, things like Mords from Bosses and Breached will continue to spank any low CL build, and players will just have to accept their choices.

But in turn, more players will enjoy more builds during general RP and adventuring, which WILL have the direct effect of keeping people interested in the Game, AND the Server.

A return to Vanilla Gr. Dispel would translate to CL 25+ being immune. If that seems too generous a change toward power creek, then consider an adjustment half way, to CL 27 (Gr. Dispel calculating at 1d20 + 17 max caster level).

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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by Ravial »

Okay. It's one of those moments when I agree with Steve! I have to praise you for your due diligence with the posts links as well as your very crystal clear explanation.

I have one thing to note, however, that I haven't before because I was too lazy before and more concentrated on making my point.

Firstly, wands are an expense. An expense can be a possible solution, but it shouldn't be considered as the solution for everything, due to how nerfed they are on BG as compared to the PnP and their absolute usefulness thereof.

Secondly, sources of transporting yourself to the enemy before they get the chance to dispel you are wishful thinking. All dispels are homing-missile targeted on you and literally the first spell that is cast upon a warder player character.

Thirdly, summons can't bait dispels if they're not buffed themselves. That requires you to buff your summon with spells that are on the dispel list- that takes away your spell slots and directly contradicts the argument of "Just have more buffs memorised".

Point number four, I have no idea who thought a 20+ caster level character would invest in setting traps. They might, but that's an argument you can make for sneak casters only.

Fifthly, Hips requires a highly skilled player to time it well. Not everyone has the same reactionary response as our elite players are.

Lastly, but not least, it takes quite some strange mind or lack of actual information, to suggest that Counterspelling can be used to combat dispels. I'm sorry, but if you're a CL 25 caster character, for example, you have roughly a 30% chance for counterspell to work. You do realise how small the chance is? If you don't believe me, do look up on bgtscc wiki in Counterspelling article how it works.


And, to address a point that made me scratch my head the most...
matelener wrote: Which brings me to the point: if gishes of 25 CL have it so hard (by your standard) than there are dozens of other character classes/concepts who have it even harder. And with your suggestion in place, it may come off as helping the wrong "crowd" as there is a plethora of powerbuilds within that range of Caster Level.
So yours and some of the others' idea of "combating this issue" is to force us to powerbuild our powerbuilds, because my proposal is going to help powerbuilds that will be able to powerbuild differently while obtaining the same powerbuild results?

I'm sorry, but that's how your message comes off to me. There are FEW players that refuse to 100% powerbuild, for one reason or another, and the vast majority that does absolutely insane powerbuilds only to be able to actually play the content without playing a real-time strategy in an RP game. In a game that encourages and forces people to powerbuild in order to get experience points ((let's be honest, we don't have that many players on this server anymore to reliably find parties for all RP-alignments and philosophies that work together anymore)) what more harm will cause opening more character concepts and playstyles by lowering the CL back to its Vanilla values? Almost everyone powerbuilds. Nothing will change.
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by Ravial »

Additional Point to the Case that reflects the issue perfectly: Deathsingers and Bladesingers that are built in a split of 10 wizard / 10 Bladesinger / 10 Eldritch Knight are vastly superior to everything else one can build with those PRCs.

I'm not sure if you have the testing reports on QC forums, but I remember Chad was testing Bladesinger PRC extensively and came to the conclusion that, unless you're a masochist, there's literally no other build for a bladesinger character than this + longsword.

The same goes for a number of other PRCs and class combinations that are meant to have less CL by their design, but come short at all times due to the artificially raised CL on dispels after the dispel fix went in.
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by EasternCheesE »

Ravial wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 12:42 pm Okay. It's one of those moments when I agree with Steve! I have to praise you for your due diligence with the posts links as well as your very crystal clear explanation.

I have one thing to note, however, that I haven't before because I was too lazy before and more concentrated on making my point.

Firstly, wands are an expense. An expense can be a possible solution, but it shouldn't be considered as the solution for everything, due to how nerfed they are on BG as compared to the PnP and their absolute usefulness thereof.

Secondly, sources of transporting yourself to the enemy before they get the chance to dispel you are wishful thinking. All dispels are homing-missile targeted on you and literally the first spell that is cast upon a warder player character.

Thirdly, summons can't bait dispels if they're not buffed themselves. That requires you to buff your summon with spells that are on the dispel list- that takes away your spell slots and directly contradicts the argument of "Just have more buffs memorised".

Point number four, I have no idea who thought a 20+ caster level character would invest in setting traps. They might, but that's an argument you can make for sneak casters only.

Fifthly, Hips requires a highly skilled player to time it well. Not everyone has the same reactionary response as our elite players are.

Lastly, but not least, it takes quite some strange mind or lack of actual information, to suggest that Counterspelling can be used to combat dispels. I'm sorry, but if you're a CL 25 caster character, for example, you have roughly a 30% chance for counterspell to work. You do realise how small the chance is? If you don't believe me, do look up on bgtscc wiki in Counterspelling article how it works.


And, to address a point that made me scratch my head the most...
matelener wrote: Which brings me to the point: if gishes of 25 CL have it so hard (by your standard) than there are dozens of other character classes/concepts who have it even harder. And with your suggestion in place, it may come off as helping the wrong "crowd" as there is a plethora of powerbuilds within that range of Caster Level.
So yours and some of the others' idea of "combating this issue" is to force us to powerbuild our powerbuilds, because my proposal is going to help powerbuilds that will be able to powerbuild differently while obtaining the same powerbuild results?

I'm sorry, but that's how your message comes off to me. There are FEW players that refuse to 100% powerbuild, for one reason or another, and the vast majority that does absolutely insane powerbuilds only to be able to actually play the content without playing a real-time strategy in an RP game. In a game that encourages and forces people to powerbuild in order to get experience points ((let's be honest, we don't have that many players on this server anymore to reliably find parties for all RP-alignments and philosophies that work together anymore)) what more harm will cause opening more character concepts and playstyles by lowering the CL back to its Vanilla values? Almost everyone powerbuilds. Nothing will change.
1) Ima scroll costs 167 gold in Soubar and, as arcane gish, you don't need to invest into UMD to use it. Same for other lowlevel yet very useful wards.

2) Invis potion, dimension door wand, shadow step. There are a dozen of ways to make transportation instant. Though, it doesn't work for all builds, that's true.

3) Look 1). Cheap long lasting UMD buffs like mage armor and protection from alignment.

4) Because they can? You have your particular build in mind, but, in fact, it works for UMD rogue in dispel-heavy area just fine.

5) Hips requires you to look at combat log, see "mob X casts Y" and then you have 3 seconds to press your hide button on your hotbar. It totally doesn't need Jet Pilot reaction time to do. But yeah, sure, hipsing gish is a smaller part of gish archetypes. Once again, i listed possible solutions, not all of them will help to everyone.

6) Sorry, but usage of duelward + active counterspelling on my CL 20 PC is quite enough to counter most dispels in UD, except for bosses, sure. Most mobs are not full casters. Unless you make CL 12 PC, counterspelling is an option for many encounters. I tested this just yesterday.

My own feeling on dispel thing is that areas require to be reworked so 1 out of 5 caster mobs spawn with dispel memorized. So one has to be cautious, but not getting dispel attempt every 100 meters they walk.
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by Hoihe »

EasternCheesE wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 1:23 pm

5) Hips requires you to look at combat log, see "mob X casts Y" and then you have 3 seconds to press your hide button on your hotbar. It totally doesn't need Jet Pilot reaction time to do. But yeah, sure, hipsing gish is a smaller part of gish archetypes. Once again, i listed possible solutions, not all of them will help to everyone.

This is completely negated by

Case A:

You encounter the enemy. You HiPS dodge their greater dispel, and while it's on cd, they hit you with Iron Horn and dispel you on the floor.

Case B:

You are fighting a melee mob when inexplicably a caster mob spawns within aggro range, and as the flurry of red text fills your combat log, you miss the single purple line indicating you need to HiPS dodge.

Case C:

You HiPS dodge a mob. While on CD, they re-cast the dispel and dispel you anyway.

Case D:

2 caster mobs at once. You dodge 1, get dispelled by the other.

Case E:

Combat log is full of spam, but you use vfx to tell when to dodge. But! enemy has multiple spells with dispel vfx, or maybe used a save or die spell. So you dodge based on the wrong vfx and get dispelled afterwards.




And making an enemy fail their concentration by attacking them is unreliable at best. I played a melee gish for 8 years with 0 concentration (2 years I played a rogue/SD/Divine seeker). Getting hit while casting a spell rarely if ever triggers the concentration check.
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by Tanlaus »

Hoihe wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 1:38 pm
EasternCheesE wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 1:23 pm

5) Hips requires you to look at combat log, see "mob X casts Y" and then you have 3 seconds to press your hide button on your hotbar. It totally doesn't need Jet Pilot reaction time to do. But yeah, sure, hipsing gish is a smaller part of gish archetypes. Once again, i listed possible solutions, not all of them will help to everyone.

This is completely negated by

Case A:

You encounter the enemy. You HiPS dodge their greater dispel, and while it's on cd, they hit you with Iron Horn and dispel you on the floor.

Case B:

You are fighting a melee mob when inexplicably a caster mob spawns within aggro range, and as the flurry of red text fills your combat log, you miss the single purple line indicating you need to HiPS dodge.

Case C:

You HiPS dodge a mob. While on CD, they re-cast the dispel and dispel you anyway.

Case D:

2 caster mobs at once. You dodge 1, get dispelled by the other.

Case E:

Combat log is full of spam, but you use vfx to tell when to dodge. But! enemy has multiple spells with dispel vfx, or maybe used a save or die spell. So you dodge based on the wrong vfx and get dispelled afterwards.




And making an enemy fail their concentration by attacking them is unreliable at best. I played a melee gish for 8 years with 0 concentration (2 years I played a rogue/SD/Divine seeker). Getting hit while casting a spell rarely if ever triggers the concentration check.
I have a few points in response here.

1) Yes HiPS dodge does not work all the time. Things happen, that's part of the fun of the game.

2) When I play a HiPSter 99% of the time I scout a room before attacking anyone in it. That's part of the stealth game. So if you see multiple casters find a way to bypass them, shut one down before you attack the other, or draw one with a ranged weapon. For all the talk of AI gaming the system, it's still really stupid and easy to provoke a single target with a bow while the others don't know you're there.

3) In the case of someone spawning on you, yes happens to me too. See point 1.

Multiple caster mobs are- outside of high spot bosses- the hardest thing to deal with for sneaks, whether they are gishes or not. As most sneaks have pretty terrible will and fort saves and either need to avoid being cast on or have wards up, which are easily dispelled. But they can be dealt with very successfully with a little strategic gameplay. And that I think it what is often missing.

The assumption is, "if I get dispelled so often I can't just charge into a room and win." When it should be, "if I charge into this room I will get dispelled so how do I play it to stack the odds in my favor to win?"
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by Hoihe »

Tanlaus wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 1:50 pm
Hoihe wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 1:38 pm
EasternCheesE wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 1:23 pm

5) Hips requires you to look at combat log, see "mob X casts Y" and then you have 3 seconds to press your hide button on your hotbar. It totally doesn't need Jet Pilot reaction time to do. But yeah, sure, hipsing gish is a smaller part of gish archetypes. Once again, i listed possible solutions, not all of them will help to everyone.

This is completely negated by

Case A:

You encounter the enemy. You HiPS dodge their greater dispel, and while it's on cd, they hit you with Iron Horn and dispel you on the floor.

Case B:

You are fighting a melee mob when inexplicably a caster mob spawns within aggro range, and as the flurry of red text fills your combat log, you miss the single purple line indicating you need to HiPS dodge.

Case C:

You HiPS dodge a mob. While on CD, they re-cast the dispel and dispel you anyway.

Case D:

2 caster mobs at once. You dodge 1, get dispelled by the other.

Case E:

Combat log is full of spam, but you use vfx to tell when to dodge. But! enemy has multiple spells with dispel vfx, or maybe used a save or die spell. So you dodge based on the wrong vfx and get dispelled afterwards.




And making an enemy fail their concentration by attacking them is unreliable at best. I played a melee gish for 8 years with 0 concentration (2 years I played a rogue/SD/Divine seeker). Getting hit while casting a spell rarely if ever triggers the concentration check.
I have a few points in response here.

1) Yes HiPS dodge does not work all the time. Things happen, that's part of the fun of the game.

2) When I play a HiPSter 99% of the time I scout a room before attacking anyone in it. That's part of the stealth game. So if you see multiple casters find a way to bypass them, shut one down before you attack the other, or draw one with a ranged weapon. For all the talk of AI gaming the system, it's still really stupid and easy to provoke a single target with a bow while the others don't know you're there.

3) In the case of someone spawning on you, yes happens to me too. See point 1.

Multiple caster mobs are- outside of high spot bosses- the hardest thing to deal with for sneaks, whether they are gishes or not. As most sneaks have pretty terrible will and fort saves and either need to avoid being cast on or have wards up, which are easily dispelled. But they can be dealt with very successfully with a little strategic gameplay. And that I think it what is often missing.

The assumption is, "if I get dispelled so often I can't just charge into a room and win." When it should be, "if I charge into this room I will get dispelled so how do I play it to stack the odds in my favor to win?"


1) - Problem, you get dispelled. Time to wait 20 minutes until you can play again.

2) Enemies spawn on top of you in a number of areas (much to my annoyance).

3) Don't see much fun in "Go and sit down for 20 minutes for failing to dodge 1 mob out of the 30-50 it takes to get to the boss." (depending on map. VoTD is on the high end)


Also
Ravial wrote:I'm sorry, but that's how your message comes off to me. There are FEW players that refuse to 100% powerbuild, for one reason or another, and the vast majority that does absolutely insane powerbuilds only to be able to actually play the content without playing a real-time strategy in an RP game. In a game that encourages and forces people to powerbuild in order to get experience points ((let's be honest, we don't have that many players on this server anymore to reliably find parties for all RP-alignments and philosophies that work together anymore)) what more harm will cause opening more character concepts and playstyles by lowering the CL back to its Vanilla values? Almost everyone powerbuilds. Nothing will change.
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by EasternCheesE »

Hoihe wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 1:38 pm
EasternCheesE wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 1:23 pm

5) Hips requires you to look at combat log, see "mob X casts Y" and then you have 3 seconds to press your hide button on your hotbar. It totally doesn't need Jet Pilot reaction time to do. But yeah, sure, hipsing gish is a smaller part of gish archetypes. Once again, i listed possible solutions, not all of them will help to everyone.

This is completely negated by

Case A:

You encounter the enemy. You HiPS dodge their greater dispel, and while it's on cd, they hit you with Iron Horn and dispel you on the floor.

Case B:

You are fighting a melee mob when inexplicably a caster mob spawns within aggro range, and as the flurry of red text fills your combat log, you miss the single purple line indicating you need to HiPS dodge.

Case C:

You HiPS dodge a mob. While on CD, they re-cast the dispel and dispel you anyway.

Case D:

2 caster mobs at once. You dodge 1, get dispelled by the other.

Case E:

Combat log is full of spam, but you use vfx to tell when to dodge. But! enemy has multiple spells with dispel vfx, or maybe used a save or die spell. So you dodge based on the wrong vfx and get dispelled afterwards.




And making an enemy fail their concentration by attacking them is unreliable at best. I played a melee gish for 8 years with 0 concentration (2 years I played a rogue/SD/Divine seeker). Getting hit while casting a spell rarely if ever triggers the concentration check.
1) Silence wand
2) Invisibility potion to get close (doesn't work on soothsayers though)
3) Reliable source of damage + way to transport yourself to enemy before they dispel you
4) Summon scrolls as bait
5) Traps
6) Hips
7) Counterspelling


While i feel fun just arguing about things that you claim not working while i myself use them in the most dispel-infested area of UD, let me sum up my own experience of this. I never saw your playstyle to guess why it didn't work for you:

1) World like charm. Pop Silence wand under their feet and and you have free round to cut your distance for hits. Pop one more if needed. Gold consuming, but one of the most reliable ways and works very good in combination with other methods.
2) Clearly a way to cut my distance when i want to make sure i can come, deliver a flurry, hips, deliver another flurry.
3) ... My pc has 0 points invested into concentration and if i get 20 damage while trying to cast midcombat, i get my spell broken immediately. I don't know what is the source of your uninteruptible casting, but i clearly don't have it. Dealing 50 damage to CR 26 mob is super enough to kill their concentration.
4) I use those vs mord when i go to kill some boss. Works like a charm. Use 300 gold on UMD and you have summon bait that chugs mord for you.
5) I myself don't use them, but i saw a person who made things i considered impossible into something trivial with right pointing, ranged weapon for baiting etc.
6) Obviously, it won't work all the time. Yet, with some practice, it solves 90% of dispel situations. My rogue is a dispel target in most cases when i go to Yuan ti with party. How many times i get dispelled? Maybe once per area, because hips out.
7) I tested it and it worked. However, i have too low int, thus, too few spellslots. I wish pilfer magic qualified for counterspelling (should raise that suggestion btw), that'd give me more chance to use counterspelling.
8) What Tanlaus proposed - scout your area.
9) Oh, i just recollected. A tricky, but working thing - break Line of sight, which works just like hips. This one is really tricky and requires precise timing and good knowledge of area.

Most time i feel people complain about something, it clearly shows that they want to just go forward and chop, without planning and strategy. Please, just use tactics. It's not a slasher game to just go kill everything as fast as possible. We had tons of fun time playing lowlevel rogues raiding Oghranns because of traps, all the kind of baiting, it took eternity to loot that area, but it was a real challenge and fun experience.

What i myself do when i approach caster:
1) Just run to them till i see purple vfx and/or "casts dispel/devour magic" in my combat log. Hips out immediately.
2) Flurry, they are down to about 50% hp. Feint on second flurry.
3) If feint fails, i queue silence wand under their feet (since hips is still on CD). If it succeeds, i break their dispel attempt with damage in about 95% occasions.
4) While they are silenced, i just keep hitting till i can hips.

What i do when there are several casters:
1) If they don't have true vision and i'm not eager to make it long, i pop invis pot/wand.
2) Flurry, feint on second flurry, third flurry.
3) If i see them casting dispel magic, i hips, if not, i keep landing my feint sneak attacks.
4) Either the caster is down or very low hp, i simply keep hitting until one of them is dead or another dispel is about to happen.
5) If caster is dead, look points about what i do when i meet single caster, if it's still not dead, i repeat from point one.

I surely get dispelled by accidental caster i didn't spot before or if any of steps i speak of fail. That's why i have a double set of most essential wards, triple set for greater heroism and scrolls of IMA, heroism pots and some other lowlevel useful UMD when things go ugly.
Just, try to find your own creative way to combat dispels and don't hurry, give yourself time to think. If you see mobs, it doesn't mean you should rush them immediately. switch to some mundane bow and just shoot at one. Place traps if you can. Dispels have their radius of cast and you can use it.

Once again, i clearly feel that only 1/5 of currently dispelling mobs should have dispels ready on all current areas at random, because battling dispels every few steps in Yuan-ti hills and some other areas is super tedious. My point is, that while evading being dispelled is not easy task, it obviously is possible in constant manner with rare failures when you get used to it.
With most of them not having dispel ready, but just some having, it is way less punishing but still is dangerous.
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by Deathgrowl »

Since none of you responded so far to my question, but have indeed responded to the thread and pointed out all the ways your powerbuilds (and high skill play - something you can't expect in even most players, including myself) work even at low CL, I will repeat my question:
Deathgrowl wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:34 amSince there are people here saying that 25-29 CL is fine already, and having success playing builds with those CLs, what kind of builds would actually become a problem if the Greater Dispel cap was returned to Vanilla NWN2 numbers?
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by EasternCheesE »

Deathgrowl wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 2:37 pm Since none of you responded so far to my question, but have indeed responded to the thread and pointed out all the ways your powerbuilds (and high skill play - something you can't expect in even most players, including myself) work even at low CL, I will repeat my question:
Deathgrowl wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:34 amSince there are people here saying that 25-29 CL is fine already, and having success playing builds with those CLs, what kind of builds would actually become a problem if the Greater Dispel cap was returned to Vanilla NWN2 numbers?
Speaking of such builds (and sorry for big bunch of offtopic, it wasn't very related to original topic), any build that has 29 CL due to practiced spellcaster, will be able to free up one feat. To me, doesn't sound too spooky, honestly.
As of CL 20 builds (cl 16 + practiced spellcaster), they will get 25% dispel chance per ward vs 50% dispel chance, which is quite strong. That simply means they could free up some of their spellslots for more defensive/offensive wards.

In terms of still having practiced spellcaster, it effectively mean someone can take 4 less spellcasting levels in return of +4 high BAB non-spellcasting levels. For arcane casters, it mostly mean +2 BaB with possibility to hit 21 BaB (or 27 BaB with just 6 wizard levels and other high bab). It's +1 APR, or more AC or any other utility they can invest to or get with being allowed to have further dip into martial class. It's really hard to just go and build several of those just on purpose, at least, for me.
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Re: Revert Temporary Dispel "Fix"

Unread post by Ravial »

EasternCheesE wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 2:57 pm As of CL 20 builds (cl 16 + practiced spellcaster), they will get 25% dispel chance per ward vs 50% dispel chance, which is quite strong.
Against what CL opponent? Because that information is lacking. And CL 25 against CL 29 already has 20% chance of resisting a dispel chance, mathematically speaking. 20 vs 29 or even 30 CL is just not comparable.
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