Erasculio
23-03-2006, 01:52
With the incoming Factions Preview Event, I thought it would be a good idea to mention some things about the Ritualists we don't know about, and how we could figure them out. My questions would be...
1) What is the range of the spirits?
Some of the Binding Rituals mention the range (Destruction is said to have "nearby" range, for example), but some don't (Dissonance, for example, doesn't). I wonder, do all the spirits have the same range, or are some more far reaching than the others?
One way to test this is at the dummies on the Battle Isles. If you killed all the ones closer to the center and left only the outer ones alive, you could then summon a spirit and see if it attacks these ones.
If they do manage to kill those, another idea would be to stand on one edge of the circle and leave only the dummies at the other side across the circle intact - if the spirit manages to hit the dummy all the way across the circle, then we would know they have a fairly long range.
If the above succeeds (something I believe to be unlikely, anyway), the next step would be to cast a spirit half an aggro circle away from the dummy, and then an entire aggro circle away from it.
2) Do spirits use energy to attack/heal/whatever?
I'm asking this thanks to:
Spirit Siphon: Target spirit loses all Energy. You gain (15..27 [31])% of that Energy.
5 energy cost, 0.25 sec casting time, 3 sec recharge
So the spirits have energy...But do they use it at all?
I think one way to figure this out would be to summon a spirit and then use Spirit Siphon before the spirit does anything - even if the caster is at full energy, he would likely see a purple number over his head showing how much energy he got. Doing the math, it would be possible to learn the spirits' maximum energy. Then the Ritualist would cast the same spirit, wait for him to attack or heal once, and then use the same spell - if the ammount of energy is different, this means the spirit has lost energy, likely thanks to using the attack or the heal.
With some patience, it would even be possible to learn how much energy each ability takes.
3) How much health does a spirit have?
I think the best way to learn this would be by using one of the spirits that lose health when using one of its abilities - since this kind of damage ignores armor, it would be better than by seeing how long it survives when under attack. By using, for example, Wanderlust:
*Wanderlust (Elite Binding Ritual) Create a level 1..8 [11] Spirit. Whenever this Spirit's attack hits a stationary foe, that foe is knocked down and the Spirit loses 70..54 [49] Health. This Spirit dies after 30..54 [62] seconds.
...On the dummies at the Battle Isle, and just counting after how many attacks the spirit dies, it would be easy to see how much HP it has. By doing so with the spirit at different levels, one (someone who knows math better than myself :tongue: ) could figure out what's the formula to calculate their health. If I were to guess, I would think it's more or less the same than for the minions or the pets.
4) How much armor does a spirit have?
Ok, this one I really don't know. Maybe you could take a Minion Master whose minions have a known damage (there's a topic in the Necromancer Forum showing this), and let the Necromancer die, turning the minion against the spirit. By calculating the damage it takes against the damage the minion does against other enemies (the Armor Dummies would likely help with this), one would (maybe) be able to learn what's the armor of the spirits. I think this also changes with levels, though.
Does anyone have better/different ideas?
Erasculio
1) What is the range of the spirits?
Some of the Binding Rituals mention the range (Destruction is said to have "nearby" range, for example), but some don't (Dissonance, for example, doesn't). I wonder, do all the spirits have the same range, or are some more far reaching than the others?
One way to test this is at the dummies on the Battle Isles. If you killed all the ones closer to the center and left only the outer ones alive, you could then summon a spirit and see if it attacks these ones.
If they do manage to kill those, another idea would be to stand on one edge of the circle and leave only the dummies at the other side across the circle intact - if the spirit manages to hit the dummy all the way across the circle, then we would know they have a fairly long range.
If the above succeeds (something I believe to be unlikely, anyway), the next step would be to cast a spirit half an aggro circle away from the dummy, and then an entire aggro circle away from it.
2) Do spirits use energy to attack/heal/whatever?
I'm asking this thanks to:
Spirit Siphon: Target spirit loses all Energy. You gain (15..27 [31])% of that Energy.
5 energy cost, 0.25 sec casting time, 3 sec recharge
So the spirits have energy...But do they use it at all?
I think one way to figure this out would be to summon a spirit and then use Spirit Siphon before the spirit does anything - even if the caster is at full energy, he would likely see a purple number over his head showing how much energy he got. Doing the math, it would be possible to learn the spirits' maximum energy. Then the Ritualist would cast the same spirit, wait for him to attack or heal once, and then use the same spell - if the ammount of energy is different, this means the spirit has lost energy, likely thanks to using the attack or the heal.
With some patience, it would even be possible to learn how much energy each ability takes.
3) How much health does a spirit have?
I think the best way to learn this would be by using one of the spirits that lose health when using one of its abilities - since this kind of damage ignores armor, it would be better than by seeing how long it survives when under attack. By using, for example, Wanderlust:
*Wanderlust (Elite Binding Ritual) Create a level 1..8 [11] Spirit. Whenever this Spirit's attack hits a stationary foe, that foe is knocked down and the Spirit loses 70..54 [49] Health. This Spirit dies after 30..54 [62] seconds.
...On the dummies at the Battle Isle, and just counting after how many attacks the spirit dies, it would be easy to see how much HP it has. By doing so with the spirit at different levels, one (someone who knows math better than myself :tongue: ) could figure out what's the formula to calculate their health. If I were to guess, I would think it's more or less the same than for the minions or the pets.
4) How much armor does a spirit have?
Ok, this one I really don't know. Maybe you could take a Minion Master whose minions have a known damage (there's a topic in the Necromancer Forum showing this), and let the Necromancer die, turning the minion against the spirit. By calculating the damage it takes against the damage the minion does against other enemies (the Armor Dummies would likely help with this), one would (maybe) be able to learn what's the armor of the spirits. I think this also changes with levels, though.
Does anyone have better/different ideas?
Erasculio