[Un] Minor Ball Spells

[Narvius]

Lately I've been playing Un for real for the first time. One thing that bothered me were the low-level ball spells - for example Minor Acid Ball, dealing 3 damage in a radius of 1. For 6 Mana. I don't exactly understand the logic behind it...?

It might be useful if it would melt molten floor further, so it would start hurting these who walk over it, but it's not that way, so I don't see any benefits using it. You get Stinking Cloud, which deals more than thrice more the base damage and is cheaper, earlier. It is poison-elemental, yes, but before monsters start resisting it, you won't bother with it anymore anyways.

[Bandobras]

What you write is reasonable and it's true both in the stable and development versions. Please keep it coming. UnAndrew is in the process of redesigning spells (see his blog series about it), so such player comments should be useful.

BTW, how does the new NPP mage spell collection play?

[andrewdoull]

Lately I've been playing Un for real for the first time. One thing that bothered me were the low-level ball spells - for example Minor Acid Ball, dealing 3 damage in a radius of 1. For 6 Mana. I don't exactly understand the logic behind it...?

It should be 3 damage + 1 damage per level e.g. 14 damage at level 11 when you can first cast it.

This compares to 10 damage plus 1 per every 2 levels for stinking cloud e.g. 15 damage at the same level 11. Note that the stinking cloud damage is effectively doubled, as the same amount of damage is applied again over time, however damage over time is a lot less effective than instantaneous damage for general survivability. As noted, poison is commonly resisted.

I'm not sure whether this is a UI bug or a damage calculation bug; I'll investigate further when I get back to Sydney...

Andrew

[Narvius]

(see his blog series about it)

That's what animated me to write this...

BTW, how does the new NPP mage spell collection play?

My opinion is "More mage-y." And I find it awesome to have an arc spell.