Arelith

Hi

To me, a gish style character is about combining spellcasting and melee combat in a way that allows you to use both in combat in a meaningful way.
I believe spellsword is trying to do accomplish that and the recent addition of arcane flux is trying to improve upon that.

I'm just theorizing, but I think the idea was to make spellsword capable of casting spells in a few more encounters without giving them more or longer burst windows.
I wholeheartedly agree with that intention. I have mixed feelings about the implemention though.
First off, I'm never a fan of additional RNG. The nature of it means that you will never be able to rely on it and having another mechanic which can be the victim of a streak of bad luck is not something I like.
While it's still definitely a buff to the class, you can quickly loose track of whether or not you currently have AF available. Having to use "-cooldown" to check if it is, is detrimental to the quality of life of playing the class.
Now I know this is a minor issue, but that's how I personally feel.
Lorewise, I don't see how arcane flux can fit into the spell preperation process that a spellblade uses. As far as I know it's the same process wizards go through and not the spontaneous casting that sorcerers use.

Lastly, the offensive/damaging arcane spells of the spellblade suffer from the same issue as the wizard. (The issues wizards face are the topic for another thread.)
With Arelith's enemies having a lot more health and weapon damage progression being what it is, casting arcane spells to deal damage is.. usually a waste of time and precious spell slots. Pre-epic you will find yourself being able to make use of those spells and a well placed wall of fire can be devistating, but sooner or later you will just rely on swinging that weapon and use spells almost exclusively for buffs, debuffs and CC.
IE getting turned off when you use that proc doesn't help either.

That was a lot of ranting to get here..
-If the intention is to put more offensive/damaging spells into the arsenal, these spells would need to either do more damage than they currently do or be something that you can activate without interfering with the melee combat.
-I honestly think the RNG aspect should be replaced with a simple cooldown.

I wanna finish this by saying that I really appreciate all the work that has been put into creating the class.

Thought I would give my 2 cents here.

I play a spellsword and have tried this feature out. Something to note is that while -cooldown (or -cd for QoL) does let you know if you have the arcane flux charged, you also do get notice in the combat log when it hits. It's not prefect, but you can see it if you are paying close attention.

I find that it is handy as an opening technic. You can use a Wall spell (fire/ice), or something frost nova, or even a chunky meteor swarm to soften up a mob then move in with a Maelstrom and subsequent elemental strikes. If you are lucky you'll trigger another flux which you can use in against the next mob. If not, then you will likely have if for the next encounter. So it translates to a decent AoE effect more reliably at every other encounter.

It definitely adds flavor to the combat style of the Spellsword, though admittedly this is likely far more effective a thing in PvE as opposed to PvP.

In some manner I do disagree with the notion that the implementation is flawed really. Aside from the QoL of know the charge was there, the somewhat random, but ultimately reliable, fashion of it works just fine in my experience.

To add a bit of clarity I say ultimately reliable is because in most PvE encounters you are going to go through 10 to 20 hits with some giving a 10% chance of charging and others giving 20%.... it would take amazingly bad luck for this to not charge over the course of 2 or 3 encounters.

Is War Cry considered an offensive spell for Arcane Flux? It's the only thing I thought about seriously using.

Good Character wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 9:18 pm Is War Cry considered an offensive spell for Arcane Flux? It's the only thing I thought about seriously using.

no. this is a list of offensive spells posted by Kalopsia on Discord:


the ability does seem to be more of a pve cookie than anything else, but even then you're probably better off just hitting mobs than casting at them. one day someone will roll a 1 when i cast that seventh Maze on them, though...

maybe making it an instant cast of a weak spell depending on your imbue would be cool. lesser isaac's for magic, frost nova for cold, etc. it's just an idea and it would need some careful consideration, but i don't see people using flux a lot in its current state.

There are a few on there that have some nice pve crowd control effects, like confusion, mind fog (also nice for those will save imbues) thunder clap, and mass blindness. It is just a nice tool for when you are fighting a big group. I also use vampiric touch on my marauder for a little bonus health.