Sorry if this is fully discussed in another post; please simply link to that thread if that's the case.
I have a question about how crowd control can be mixed with AOE effects. From the information I have read and playthrough videos it seems Crowd Control is key and almost required in any group composition. I was wonder how that could mix well (or at all) with AOE abilities and spells? I suppose CC'ing a mob and moving away from it; then AOE could work if space permits.
What am I missing?
Thanks
They don't mix. You have to be super careful with each action you do. Even putting a DoT on the wrong mob could be catastrophic for an encounter.
Down the road, Enchanters may get an aoe mez, but I would assume an aoe mez is a really short lasting spell.
I don't see Pantheon being the type of game that you would pull several mobs and just aor them all down. Maybe if you have just the perfect group you'll have a chance to do things like that but it won't be the standard way a group will run. '
i too hope this will be more like EQ1 than EQ2, where mezzed mobs couldn't be touched by PBAE only by direct damage. So if you cast an AE in the vicinity of a mob, it will hit regardless of mezz state. I just really hope (from an enchanters point of view) there won't be any AE dot spells.
torac said: ... What am I missing? ...
Currently, what they've demo'd in the videos thus far, you can't change spells while in combat. So, for casters who want to "switch to AE", well, they can't, while in that encounter. As you can imagine, this also limits long/boss/raid/quested/scripted/etc encounters where you, as a designer, want to have waves of many weaker mobs interspersed with stronger single targets, with dynamic immunities/weaknesses/resistances, without allowing casters to go out of combat to memorize appropriate spells.
To me, it seems unlikely, given the incomplete yet large spell lists provided to date, that casters would "waste" a spell slot on an AE they might use, rather than a DD/Utility they must use.
Or put another way, it's probably going to be a very unusual set of circumstances whereby a caster would "waste" a slot in this fashion. Unless they turn up ambient mobs to 11 just for kicks and giggles. :)
In the distant past, they did mention the ability to dynamically change spell features while in combat, such as changing the number of targets (from DD to AE) but they have not spoken of it in almost 2 years, and have never demo'd it in action. It's also not currently mentioned in the FAQ, that I could find, so that feature may have been cut/dropped.
Well there are a few things you can do with Mez and AOES. Like AOE mez abilities chaining together with aoe dmg spells killing like 10-20 mobs at once, if they have an aoe mez in this game that is.
Other than that, depending on the group, you could probably get away with no CC and an AOE comp. But you will mainly see that type of shenanigans in a raid setting.
torac said:Sorry if this is fully discussed in another post; please simply link to that thread if that's the case.
I have a question about how crowd control can be mixed with AOE effects. From the information I have read and playthrough videos it seems Crowd Control is key and almost required in any group composition. I was wonder how that could mix well (or at all) with AOE abilities and spells? I suppose CC'ing a mob and moving away from it; then AOE could work if space permits.
What am I missing?Thanks
In my opinion, I don't think such abilities should be denied/allowed explicitly, but at the same time there should be pros and cons to a given use. I think explicitly allowing a spell without affecting another provides intrusion into player decision pro/cons' of play. At the same time, I do think allowing some elements of its use to provide varying functionality to be interesting to play as well. Maybe allow an AoE spell to provide a standard negative application (ie it interrupts a mez or breaks a root), but then at the same time may allow a positive element of play based on that interaction (maybe the roots on a mob with a fire based AoE cause a DoT or the mez reaction causes a mind altering effect that impairs a mobs ability, etc...). The point is to balance out pros/cons of play. The idea over all is that if you approach a given situation with a specified focus, and someone messes it up, the spells while SEVERELY causing an issue with the approach, still provide a net positive, to which some quick thinking could result in an adaption to solution, and eventual resolution.
Personally, I think this is a game and everything should be focused to that concept, of achieving a "game" result, not one focused to "entertainment". After all, some may find picking their nose "entertainment", but do we really want to qualify that as a "game"? /shrug
torac said:Sorry if this is fully discussed in another post; please simply link to that thread if that's the case.
I have a question about how crowd control can be mixed with AOE effects. From the information I have read and playthrough videos it seems Crowd Control is key and almost required in any group composition. I was wonder how that could mix well (or at all) with AOE abilities and spells? I suppose CC'ing a mob and moving away from it; then AOE could work if space permits.
What am I missing?Thanks
I'd say if your group is set up with spell based crowd control as a core component then you are explicitly saying 'AE is out'. If, however, you decide to have a more off-tank heavy group where you can actively engage 2-3 mobs at a time then here you're saing 'AE is good'. It should depend upon your group composition. The former is a safer approach while the latter is riskier.
The environment also plays a big part in this. Out in the open where you have room to park CC'd NPCs such that you could AE 1 or 2 while not hitting the 3rd or 4th parked nearby? Great, go for it. But in a tight dungeon where moving too much around could result in unwanted additional aggro that could not be handled? AE isn't a good idea.