Useless Spell? Grasp of the Spirits!

[Klaskin]

Maybe its just me but this spell does no where near 1500 damage. The first tick starts at 5, and the last tick ends at 43. It increases 2 damage with each tick. According to my calculations that is around 540 damage. I have never noticed a tick of this dot causing it to break root, so i dont think it does. This spell is basically useless as far as i am concerned with a few exceptions. This spell stacks with the other shaman root spells, and it always lasts the full duration, unless broken by damage.
Having the ability to have 2 roots on a mob can be quite helpful when dealing with high mr mobs that root wont usually stick on. Of course most of them time you are dealing with highly mr mobs, they will probably summon from the damage of grasp of spirits, making it useless once again. With all that being said, i do think the mana cost is a bit extreme.

it used to last the full duration.. but it no longer last the full duration.... and when trying to use it in WW now adays is useless....casted on a dragon last for prob less then 30 sec... i seriously think the dot on the root broke the root..because i didnt cast any thing eles after...same thing happens on other mobs every now and then when soloing...

 

[Wiz]

Maybe its just me but this spell does no where near 1500 damage. The first tick starts at 5, and the last tick ends at 43. It increases 2 damage with each tick. According to my calculations that is around 540 damage. I have never noticed a tick of this dot causing it to break root, so i dont think it does. This spell is basically useless as far as i am concerned with a few exceptions. This spell stacks with the other shaman root spells, and it always lasts the full duration, unless broken by damage.
Having the ability to have 2 roots on a mob can be quite helpful when dealing with high mr mobs that root wont usually stick on. Of course most of them time you are dealing with highly mr mobs, they will probably summon from the damage of grasp of spirits, making it useless once again. With all that being said, i do think the mana cost is a bit extreme.

it used to last the full duration.. but it no longer last the full duration.... and when trying to use it in WW now adays is useless....casted on a dragon last for prob less then 30 sec... i seriously think the dot on the root broke the root..because i didnt cast any thing eles after...same thing happens on other mobs every now and then when soloing...

Apparently this did not seep into your brain in my last post:

No, DoTs do not break roots.

Here, try another color.

No, DoTs do not break roots.

How about this.

No, DoTs do not break roots.

Backwards.

stoor kaerb ton od sToD ,oN

Vertical.


N
o

D
o
T
s

d
o

n
o
t

b
r
e
a
k

r
o
o
t
s
.


So can we put this rumor to rest now

 

[Raherin]

However, Raherin, you may have used the spell a lot to solo with DoTs, but did you consider that using Paralyzing Earth + DoTs is more mana-efficient and thus better for solo'ing? You can kill mobs just as fast (faster if you have the higher DoTs) then if you used Grasp of Spirits.

There's rarely a case where Grasp of Spirits would be used.

Being a shaman I never really worried much about mana. I found the spell worked fine, a little bit extra mana for more damage.

Edit: If the DoT has a DD portion, THAT has a chance to break root, not the actually DoT ticks. Cleared that up with Rab. So if it's not right you can blame him.

 

[Lyte]

However, Raherin, you may have used the spell a lot to solo with DoTs, but did you consider that using Paralyzing Earth + DoTs is more mana-efficient and thus better for solo'ing? You can kill mobs just as fast (faster if you have the higher DoTs) then if you used Grasp of Spirits.

There's rarely a case where Grasp of Spirits would be used.

Being a shaman I never really worried much about mana. I found the spell worked fine, a little bit extra mana for more damage.

Edit: If the DoT has a DD portion, THAT has a chance to break root, not the actually DoT ticks. Cleared that up with Rab. So if it's not right you can blame him.

True, mana is not an issue as much for Shaman; BUT, if you use Paralyzing Earth + regular DoTs, you can kill faster! Using Grasp of Spirits + DoTs does not kill that much faster because by the time you kill the mob, the DoT ticks are still around the 30-40 range for the average DB mob at 65.

For example, the Cmal Golems, using Grasp of Spirits then DOTs, I kill the Golems when the Grasp of Spirits DoT has only hit 20.

For Eldenals trash, it's even worse, Grasp of Spirit often hits less than the 20-dmg tick.

If the extra manacost *was* for extra damage, that'd be awesome. However, right now we're casting 237 extra mana for about 200 extra damage

 

[Raherin]

However, Raherin, you may have used the spell a lot to solo with DoTs, but did you consider that using Paralyzing Earth + DoTs is more mana-efficient and thus better for solo'ing? You can kill mobs just as fast (faster if you have the higher DoTs) then if you used Grasp of Spirits.

There's rarely a case where Grasp of Spirits would be used.

Being a shaman I never really worried much about mana. I found the spell worked fine, a little bit extra mana for more damage.

Edit: If the DoT has a DD portion, THAT has a chance to break root, not the actually DoT ticks. Cleared that up with Rab. So if it's not right you can blame him.

True, mana is not an issue as much for Shaman; BUT, if you use Paralyzing Earth + regular DoTs, you can kill faster! Using Grasp of Spirits + DoTs does not kill that much faster because by the time you kill the mob, the DoT ticks are still around the 30-40 range for the average DB mob at 65.

For example, the Cmal Golems, using Grasp of Spirits then DOTs, I kill the Golems when the Grasp of Spirits DoT has only hit 20.

For Eldenals trash, it's even worse, Grasp of Spirit often hits less than the 20-dmg tick.

If the extra manacost *was* for extra damage, that'd be awesome. However, right now we're casting 237 extra mana for about 200 extra damage

If you use paralizing earth you are also lowering the amount of dots you can use. Shaman nukes really suck.

Poison DoT, Disease DoT....root dot ;p

Edit: I'm also not arguing that it's better to use Grasping Roots. I'm moreso stating that it isn't a bad option. And shamans are probably one of the best off classes for having almost no useless spells. And if they do have some, they have the best buffline, dps (for priests), and one of the most versatile classes in the game.

 

[Lyte]

It's true Shamans are one of the more balanced classes overall, just wondering if useless spells for classes were low priority but being looked at in the future, or if they are just something every class lives with for good.

 

[Manluas]

EDIT BY WIZ:

NO/size][/list]

 

[Raherin]

It's true Shamans are one of the more balanced classes overall, just wondering if useless spells for classes were low priority but being looked at in the future, or if they are just something every class lives with for good.

Basically live with it. Every class has their more useless spell. This spell is more geared towards your play style, so I wouldn't really put it in the useless area.

If there is a class with too many useless spells we overhaul them. But it could take some time as there are constaintly tons of changes happening all the time on SoD.

 

[Rambler]

I personally never use the spell as I only use root in cases where I need something fast casting and low mana cost due to someone getting eaten for some reason.

With that said, I could see how it'd be handy in certain situations, and not useless at all. But it doesn't suit my play style and thus I never use it.


But then again, I rarely use Festering Insects...our class defining spell. /shrug. Different strokes, different folks.