Shattered Kingdoms

I'm sure there's a much simpler way to "fix" walk in final strikes, without actually messing up the entire casting system. I voted no.

A few possible solutions:
- final strike only working in the room where you started casting, meaning if you started concentrating in room A and someone walked you into room B before you finished casting the spell would simply fail
- "restarting" the casting process once moved to a new room (don't like this one)
- breaking concentration ONLY for final strike when being moved during casting (if it is only applicable to a single spell)
- removing final strike

Voted no, it should not be changed.

Casting things like refresh while moving makes it easier to do things like escort lowbies around and reduces tedium and time-sink on long trips to various PvE locations.

Casting aggressive, room-affecting spells is a perfectly valid tactic in PvP. Sometimes, it is the only way for a caster to get an advantage over the majority of other non-magical classes, whose skills lag AFTER activation, unlike the caster's, whose spells lag pre-activation. If spell concentration lag was tacked on after the spell fires (something I really don't think should happen either), then I could get behind making it impossible to cast while moving. That's the only situation I could see myself supporting such a change.

Casting while moving already has downsides that make up a valid balance for the ability to do so. One, it puts you at the mercy of whomever is dragging you around. Two, it means you run the risk of ending up concentration-locked for the first round or two of battle if your group walks into enemies while you're trying to do something like refresh or sanctuary. Three, there's already additional lag due to movement on spell length.

Using final strike as an example of why the ability to do this should be removed is borderline fear-mongering to sway the vote. Fortunately, most players realize the spell itself is the problem, and not the ability to use it by surprise.

The only spells in which this affects PvP to a large extent is final strike, holy word, and <redacted MC spell>. All other spells that can be cast while moving are by nature defensive and as such gain no -benefit- from being casted while moving, since movement lag still plays into casting time lag (You can take 20 seconds to cast refresh if you are following someone that never holds still after you start casting.)

Given that final strike is most certainly stupid and should be fixed in and of itself, holy word is a spell that is at best underused, possible to be used on both sides, and also very costly anyway, and that the MC spell has already received some nerfs in relatively recent updates, I see no reason as to why it's necessary to stop casting while moving.

The only good change that would come about from it is that final strike would effectively be removed because it takes maybe 4-5 rounds to cast and 40% of even a large mana pool (in other words, it -can't- be used as it is in last-ditch situations as it is "supposed" to be used), and as such people just wouldn't use it unless they were harlequin because if at any point you saw a caster walk into a room of enemies and then concentrate for 4 rounds you could just walk out.

As for the balance on holy word, holy word is a very good spell, but given that it is not only available to all auras, it takes a large amount of PE and mana, and is a high level spell and thus (rightly IMO) it should be feared, I don't see why balance dictates the change necessary. Holy word effectively screws over necros, but necros have been thrown through the wood chipper as far as balance is concerned anyway, so who knows whether or not they need this micro-buff. No one has even played a necro that I can tell since the recent changes. Well, except Trag and my gnome merc completely trashed him, and while I did use walk-in holy word to do so, Alefi and I would have kicked him to the curb regardless of whether walk-in holy word was a possibility.

If this change were to go through, however, the game would be made much more frustrating for both casters and leaders, in that leaders would have to worry about interrupting friendly spell-casting constantly, and casters would have to be prepared for their leader to interrupt their spell-casting constantly. The largest footprint this change would have on the game would not be on those who use walk-in holy words or those who use walk-in final strike, but rather everyone else who casts refresh, gate, heal, identify and locate object while their group leader is moving, and it would get really old, really fast, to keep getting interrupted.

I agree with Mourning Song. Haven't read page 2 or 3 yet, though.

I would hate to be casting refresh while at very low PE and then my group walks away from me.

I can personally deal with hword bombs, and final strikes by OA during IMM rps.

This is also a Nerf to high charisma races. Holy word bomb is a good tactic and I'd hate to see it gone. Sometimes it is the only way a small force can deal with a large one.

I agree with the trogs, this is a bad idea and will cause more grief than it fixes. Fix the broken spell our if you feel you have to change it add concentration to movement while casting, don't remove it completely.

I think it's a bad idea in general - mostly for utility spells' usefulness (gate, buffs) However, since most of the comments tend to be anti-final strike, and pro-holy word...how about tacking on a "movement allowed while casting" ability to combat casting, and strip movement cast from other classes? It's still a band-aid, but it is an idea.

I like this idea. Movement with Combat Casting seems cool. It is more of a buff to the lighties than to darkies, but I still think it is the best idea to come out of this thread.

How does moving = combat? This idea is dumb as well. I have a better idea. Just remove final strike and give sorcerers tiger rain. Way better than restricting casting while moving.

I seriously do not see why moving while casting is such a problem. As a group leader, I tend to stop when I see people casting because the movement lag that can be piled on while moving can really add up for a spellcaster. This is also probably one of those changes that would be up there with recall taking xp. It's dumb, serves no purpose, and has such a narrow focus.

I'd like to see actual problems with the game addressed, like swashbucklers.