What Spell(s) Do You Find To Be Underappreciated?

Grinkles

Grinkles

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Based on your own experience, what spell or spells do you think are underappreciated by your fellow players? By "underappreciated," I mean either of the following:
  1. Players generally don't understand the sheer difference the spell can make (such as applying Divine Benevolence to an entire raid, for instance)
  2. Most members of the class seem to ignore it, overlook it, or simply fail to give it a chance
Recently, I was boxing my wimpy Cleric alt and rediscovered the wonder of Circle of Completion, a glorious Level 60 spell that, as you might guess, completely heals the entire group (pets included). I had forgotten about the spell for ages because a Cleric's spellbar is typically jam-packed with tons of heals as it is (big heal, quick heal, group heal, single HoT, group HoT, possibly two single-target CHeals -- you get the picture), yet when I happened to swap out my GHeal for something else momentarily, Circle of Completion caught my eye. I did some quick analysis and realized that it blows the almighty Cleric Relic GHeal clear out of the water in almost every way:
  • Heal Value -- 20k vs. 2.7k
  • Casting Time -- 3 seconds vs. 4 seconds
  • Mana Cost -- 650 mana versus 790 mana
  • Ease of Acquisition -- buyable Level 60 spell vs. 65+ raid loot reward
The only parameter in which Circle of Completion falls short is, of course, recast time (a whopping 5 minutes compared to the Relic's instant recast). This gives the spell an inescapable downside, but despite all the good it has to offer, I can't recall even once hearing a Cleric make mention of the spell even in passing! I suppose it is simply overshadowed by its instant recast brethren, but I still find it to be an amazing spell in a pinch if you have the spell gem to spare....

Anyway, what are some underappreciated spells that you'd like to shed some light on? o_O
 
Casting Speed increment doesn't affect complete heals so the difference isn't a full second if you have CSI. My cleric has CSI 6 and it's 3.5 second casting. Group CH is still faster, and on a 1 cast basis group CH is obviously still better. I just wanted to tag in the CSI part.
 
I've always thought the bard song Kazumi's note of preservation has been forgotten. 30 seconds of grp invulnerability... I can think of several fights where this would be useful, like at 40% on murkwater or anytime a raid has to sit around eating aoes and is unable to attack. I think I've been asked to use it once ever and it was only for a pull, which also seems like it could be used for more often. Now its been so long since I've memed it I dont know if it would be useful or not but i think im going to try sometime.
 
Pacify line - its even better here than on live cause there is no level cap for mobs a Pally can pacify.
Tangling Weed - Ranger short duration/fast cast snare spell to get mobs off of casters.
Divine Glory - (55)Pally hp buff,175 hps instead of 145 for the group version(every little bit helps :) )
Ancient Fatebind - Cleric debuff spell,noticable difference in damage output of mobs and they are easier to hit + (minor at 65) dot - I use it all the time.

About group complete heal - I always have it up on my Cleric main though it is used rarely
 
Lvl 39 Bard DD does not gray out the song gem after you cast it like most (all?) other bard DD songs. You can recast it almost instantly. At 50 mana per 132 damage (lvl 65), it is more efficient than the Lvl 55 Bard DD which costs 100 mana for 232 base damage (lvl 65).

You might be thinking to yourself "well its not worth my time to do a measly 232 damage". But the beauty of the Lvl 39 DD is that it lands TWICE (when cast with a click, only once when pulsing). So for the same 100 mana you are using, you get 32 extra damage; a 13.79% increase in efficiency. This song is fantastic for kiting when paired with the first real chant that bards get.

When grouping (exping) in the traditional sense, however, you must be careful not to overuse this. There is a knockback component that moves the mob and may stop a member (especially boxed) from swinging momentarily, which might negate any gains from using this wonderful song.

ILU Raxton
 
Mages:

Scars of sigil, I love that quickcasting little guy, the reason for which should be readily apparent as soon as someone looks at the spell. It isn't ideal in every situation, which is partly because of it's nature as a DD, and bladewind is better damage/mana, but it beats bladewind in several situations fairly readily.

Til's intervening enchantment- You need to cast this on your pet, every single time. Seriously. Doing this has even prevented the odd wipe or two when Tacotown picked something up and resurrected himself like he was crazy pet Jesus.

Flamecall - When you first get this thing, it blows preeeetty hard. Mostly because if you cast it you have a tendency to quickly get your ass handed to you immediately thereafter. After your characters start to get relatively beefy it isn't really all that big a deal, and hot damn does it put out some damage. It's like 9 points of damage per mana. If you are pulling big heaping gobs of stuff that your tank can control, or you could tank, it's a reasonable idea to use.

Aegis of magic - for things where you need every last bit of magic resistance, and there are a few, you might want to remember this includes some of it.

Summon: Coldstone - if for some reason you encounter someone bitching about not being able to see things due to race, popping one of these in your ammo slot will give you ultravision. This surprised more people than I expected over the time I played.

Manastorm - it isn't great but there are a few niche uses for something that helps drain mana, most people do not even realize it does that. Tbh I always wanted to see a component of that in a higher level rain, but it never happened.

Talok's Taunting Echoes - I rarely saw a compelling reason to not have this buff on after you have recall minion maxed. If you get aggro and your pet can't take it, just recall and resend. The main downside is it's short duration (10min). While this helps if there is a situation where you absolutely do not want it on, I always wished it were longer.

Druids?
Blizzard. It's often underappreciated, but it appealed to me much more than nightfire (slightly higher damage per mana, even on a single target 4.05 v 4.4). Also a quicker cast time 3.5 v 5.5 so you take less time to actually cast it. It was a mainstay of my spellbar until Imeriaz got a reasonable amount of haste and a decent weapon to melee with.

Fist of Shiritri too, on the rare occasion where something needs to be interrupted a whole lot it can be handy to slap this up there as a backup. If I remember right there is another interrupty type spell much further down. The name escapes me at the moment though.

Lull animal can occasionally be useful as well, but given it's limited amount of targets people tend to forget about it.
 
mind wrack- 400 mana every 3 minutes is like 13ft under optimal conditions. wrack has limitations (perhaps too many since so many mobs somehow cast without mana) but blows the much more lauded paragon (480 mana every 15 minutes) out of the water with the right mobs.

zevfeers- tap dot that heals the group for a little bit. takes some pressure off heal lite groups. between this and life flows you can pretend to be a healer for easy stuff or ninja afk heakers.

Endowed death- just for the lols

Allencia's - bard 22 song thatbstrips group buffs. Did i say buffs? I meant debuffs. You should NEVER use this song to annoy people.
 
Valv said:
I've always thought the bard song Kazumi's note of preservation has been forgotten.
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That's a great candidate for this thread. I've yet to tinker with this song first-hand (my BRD toon is pitiful!), but it sure sounds like it could save the day in the right situation.
Ulandx said:
Ancient Fatebind - Cleric debuff spell,noticable difference in damage output of mobs and they are easier to hit + (minor at 65) dot - I use it all the time.
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I've always liked the idea of both Doom and Ancient: Fatebind (they are classed as the same spell line, aren't they?), but I simply don't have even close to enough space on my poor Cleric's spellbar! This might come down to my perhaps unusual habit of always having both Complete Healing and Complete Recovery on my lineup at all times because I love to have them in a pinch. If I had the Archaic and/or a Charm that gave heal crit bonuses, I might feel more confident in my regular heals, but for now my cramped lineup still serves me well enough when I casually box my CLR alongside Grink.
vistachiri said:
Mages:
Scars of sigil, I love that quickcasting little guy, the reason for which should be readily apparent as soon as someone looks at the spell. It isn't ideal in every situation, which is partly because of it's nature as a DD, and bladewind is better damage/mana, but it beats bladewind in several situations fairly readily.
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Kind of reminiscent of the DRU Calefaction, another quickshot fire DD that appears out of the blue at 44 and is never heard of again. Sometimes these one-off spells have a great uniqueness to them, and it's a shame that they weren't incorporated into a fleshed-out spell line with at least a precursor or two if not a follow-up for even higher-level utility!
vistachiri said:
Manastorm - it isn't great but there are a few niche uses for something that helps drain mana, most people do not even realize it does that. Tbh I always wanted to see a component of that in a higher level rain, but it never happened.
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This is also a big plus for the otherwise ordinary final WIZ rain, Tears of the Void. Admittedly, these would find their way onto spellbars much more often if NPC mana were played up a bit more.
vistachiri said:
Druids?
Blizzard. It's often underappreciated, but it appealed to me much more than nightfire (slightly higher damage per mana, even on a single target 4.05 v 4.4). Also a quicker cast time 3.5 v 5.5 so you take less time to actually cast it. It was a mainstay of my spellbar until Imeriaz got a reasonable amount of haste and a decent weapon to melee with.
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I always wanted to see the DRU cold rain line expanded a bit. (As a kid, I found the 24 rain Pogonip to have such a funny-sounding name!) DRUs are the only class that receives a long-running rain line that is solely cold-based, yet it fizzles out after 55 for no apparent reason. :( Fist of Shojar, which you also mention, could easily be rejigged to give finality to the spell line, but I suppose a balance guru dev would be quick to say how that would infringe on Magicians or Wizards or some such. Still fun to think about either way.
donfolstar3 said:
Endowed death- just for the lols
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I love when a NEC is quick enough on the draw to hit me with this in a pinch. It's unexpected and sure beats "LOADING, PLEASE WAIT..." On the other hand, how in the world does any Necromancer find room for this luxury on their spell bar?! The class has more utility than I'd know what to do with, yet its main role is still being the big bad DoT machine -- and they've got what seems like a dozen worthwhile DoTs already vying for a spot on the spellbar!
 
way to mention no calefaction or blizzard upgrade in a single post grink-rip my heart out already.
the thing with necro dots is once you have 5-6ish you start butting up against keeping the good ones rolling what with lag and moving and fapping (all necros are chronic fappers). add a tap and you still have a spot or two for wrack (or should it be wack?), scent, endowed, or lich if you are lazy about dememming that ridiculously short duration buff.
 
Grinkles said:
Kind of reminiscent of the DRU Calefaction, another quickshot fire DD that appears out of the blue at 44 and is never heard of again. Sometimes these one-off spells have a great uniqueness to them, and it's a shame that they weren't incorporated into a fleshed-out spell line with at least a precursor or two if not a follow-up for even higher-level utility!
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Always personally wondered whether that was just someone not realizing it would even be desirable (very few of us I'd imagine are familiar enough with more than a handful of classes to pick up on old overlooked spells). I've been harping about no scars continuation/no fastcast rains for ages, then that cold one came around. Not sure if anyone ever even got that because I left before that point. Throwing scars in-between rains is a big favorite of mine for big hurry up and kill this thing moments though.

Grinkles said:
I always wanted to see the DRU cold rain line expanded a bit. (As a kid, I found the 24 rain Pogonip to have such a funny-sounding name!) DRUs are the only class that receives a long-running rain line that is solely cold-based, yet it fizzles out after 55 for no apparent reason. :( Fist of Shojar, which you also mention, could easily be rejigged to give finality to the spell line, but I suppose a balance guru dev would be quick to say how that would infringe on Magicians or Wizards or some such. Still fun to think about either way.
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It seems like winter's claim would be the logical next step for it, but winter's claim in it's current form I've always considered to just be lame and unwieldy. The handful of chances I had where it was semi-useful it was readily eclipsed by something else I could be doing.
 
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