change to glacial strike plz?

[Gargate]

So I was looking at this spell and other Refuge spells earlier and as I understand it a few of the spells could stand to be upgraded/changed to better suit players and their class's.

I know the original Ranger refuge spell was a pet shelter spell (thankfully it isn't that anymore :toot: ) but a Ranger is mostly range dps. Maybe it could be turned to something a bit more useful.

current Glacial Strike:
Cast time: Instant
Mana cost: 700
Slot 1: Decrease Hit Points by 1650
Range: 15
Resist adjust: -300
Resist type: Ice
Recharge time: 60 seconds

The easiest (and boring) change would a direct upgrade of Icerend

Icerend:
Cast time: 0.5 seconds
Mana cost: 555
Slot 1: Decrease Hit Points by 875
Range: 200
Resist adjust: 0
Resist type: Ice
Recharge time: 12 seconds




Glacial Strike could be:
Cast time: 0.5 seconds
mana 700
Slot 1: Decrease Hit Points by 1100
Range: 200
Resist adjust: -100
Resist type: Ice
Recharge time: 12 seconds

Like I said most boring. The mana to damage ratio remains the same, range increased so it can be used outside of tanking (which we don't do most of the time) maintains some of the negative resist adjustment and increased the reuse time.




Other ideas could be a bit more fun and would need balanced of course.

1: (my favorite) A temp buff that goes in our song buff window that gives "scatter shot" adds a ranged weapon proc that does reasonable AoE damage comparable dps to what the old Glacial strike does now. This would be more in-line with the class and have wider use. The cast time would need to be fairly quick since it would be casted while kiting most of the time or in raids/6mans, duration would probably be something like 3-6 tics, proc rate and damage per proc would need to be balanced so its not game breaking.

2:change Glacial Strike to a ranged AoE nuke keep the current mana cost and change it to 412 damage AoE (1650/4), cast time: 0.5 seconds recast time of 30secs.

3: (least favorite) a weapon proc buff for the ranger pet. It could be comparable dps to what Glacial Strike is able to do but since the bird dies so easy in raids/6mans its use wouldn't be game breaking.

 

[cian2]

glacial strike was part of the eventually-scrapped idea to turn rangers into sort of a melee/range hybrid. this spell and ranger runic2 2.0 were pretty strong indicators - also there was a new ranger stance on the live server for awhile that replaced the guaranteed dbl atk/dual wield one with something more interesting, but i think it was broken. shadowstorm (the tear of elael quest reward for rangers) is yet another example.

rangers have come a long way since then and i would tend to agree that glacial strike feels a little out of place now. it's a useful spell - but having such a limited range makes it very hard/impossible to use on some enemies, and also because it is instant cast, if you fizzle it your spell gems stayed greyed out for ~10 sec. i would like to see an upgraded bee dot, or call of the predator, or warder's protection. yeah, they are bland, but rangers already fill their role nicely

 

[Hyoren]

can't run in do a GS and back out before bow refreshes? anyway if the gray out problem gets fixed for the GS pls do so for bst pet swarm as well. thanks

 

[Gargate]

Cian is probably right that even though it would be bland an upgraded bee dot or a new CoTP is probably the most balanced way to go.

and no Hyoren to get within 15 range for the the nuke and back out to min bow range would cut into time you could be shooting your bow, even if its a half a second your bow (mine at least) has a chance of hitting from 1k-25k and maybe splitting. The dps loss isn't worth the hassle to run back and forth, not to mention not very usefull or in-line with the class. It shouldn't be another point of "this is what we have, deal with it and make due."

 

[Yale1]

I enjoy having the GS spell. I have had it since it came out and raided both high and low tier mobs along with much soloing and have found it to be a great spell adding some "character" into the class. The spell might not fit in for someones Idea of a cookie cutter "Raid game" archer character on a purely mechanics level, but it is a useful spell, I ALWAYS have it memmed. I Also always use it. I especially enjoying using it for soloing, because the mobs I fight have to be fought in melee.

You can use it while bowing. I do all the time and it only helps. Then again I use a higher delay bow.

I personally would like to see this spell stay