The useless spell list

[Nils_Dacke]

Oh and hawk's gaze (also marks/aiming) is a rare sight indeed. At (5) it costs 500 mana (sic!) for a measly +25% attack speed, has a cast time of 2s, and on top of that is rests in peace as the highest skill in the aiming tree.

Compare that to arcane acceleration (mages/staff mastery) which yields +25% at all levels and for the same duration (60s) at level 5 costs a measly 130 mana, and mana is very very cheap for a mage.

[Mr_Egg]

Originally Posted by platyna

From health tree also Material and Magic Barriers are not used on more than L1.

Material wall's useful, and I've seen it on level 5, for someone tanking against a boss. The only real problem with material wall though is that the cooldown's the same as the duration, so it can't be cast on more than one person at once, making it useless for a conj in a war.

Magic barrier is pretty useless though. I've only ever seen one person put points in it (for a "really experimental setup" he said), and even he was disappointed with it. It does have a great animation though, so it's a fun buff to cast when there's not really anything going on.

[Jeeposnl]

Originally Posted by Umaril

Archers

Short Bows

Meditation --> Concentration gives you more chance of succes on a spell
Adaptability --> Does work at high lvl.
For both these spells I would say use them when you grind with a support conj.

Long Bows

Point Shot: Does it work? --> Like I said above.
Obfuscate --> Worthless

Tricks

Finesse used it, but it's waste because most archers have eagles eye or sumthin buffed their hit chance

Evasion

Cat Reflexes: Does it work? Evasion is a rare thing, I used to use it when I was grinding ( lvl 40-45 or so )
Spell Elude [I] broken after update ... [/I]

Scouting

Track Monster before update ... some mobs where on a high hill and you couldn't find them, this could be used.
Track Ally Just stay in touch with your mates
Camouflage Corpse Sucks

Pets

... --> Depends on your setup

Added comments in Italics.

[UmarilsStillHere]

Everything in a quote window is in Italics :P But I see your points.

That list was made long long ago, so some spells may have changed since then, Ill take a look at it a bit later.

[bois]

I can't believe I never noticed this thread before.

Btw, Very useful thread.

I would start with my favourite class Knight. Actually not much has changed from the original list but I will still list what I consider as the most useless or unused skills (skilled at 1 only) for this class.

Knight:

Crash - No point skilling it past one for a reduction in evasion. 40% is good enough.

Fatal strike- 240 mana for -40% protection at level 3 when disabling does the same on level 1 for 200 mana. Result is obvious.

Ribs breaker - No point past one as it is too low in damage and the immobilisation is better placed with balestra for the range advantage it gives.

Execution- not even sure if this works. I have tested it and found no measurable improvement. If you use blunt as a main you are better off putting the points in Mind squasher.

Jaw breaker, Thunder strike -this is the domain of Knarbs and if you were going to use one , you might as well skill both. I see Knarbs tend to use typhoon because the whole tree give you more raw attack potential. The idea of a Knarb is to kill rather to control. "If you are dead then you cannot attack my team mates" is the motto.

Impale - you are not going to catch an archer too often to use this. No point. Simpler and cheaper to disable limb/balestra, knock and hack if you can.

Brain pierce - often you are not going to get in range to brain pierce a conjurer or warlock. brain piercing anyone else is just not worth the effort.

Multiple thrust, lightning strike - putting out so much points and mana for spells that give marginal yields are a waste for knight. Devastate is much lower on its tree and gives similar results with less expense.

Martial defense- I used to use this but I found it to be quite useless considering blocking, resisting and evading are a knight's best defense. With Martial reflexes not working what is the point either.

Throat cutter- as a Knight this skill could be effective but only as a lvl 4 or 5 spell. 525 instant death especially on a defensive knight setup could be very potent. I do not see it used at any level much though.

Back slam - I sometimes use this on level 2 or 3 because of the issues with shield bash at the moment. It is instant but the downside is there is a 50 % chance. I like the odds because often times Shield bash will not fire when you want it to.

Martial reflexes - broken in my opinion.

Challenge - anything past level 1 is negligible and with points scarce most will not have the luxury of putting points to reduce hit chance. If you are kicked or feinted then you have 0 hit chance during the duration.

Provoking blow - I always skill this to 2 . Most do not because it is considered a waste of points. Reducing a player's concentration and dexterity -15% while still doing damage is very attractive to me.

Rigorous preparation, Awareness - waste of points. Waste of mana. These should be adjusted again or retired for something more useful. Confuse type spell anyone?

Arcane constitution- works but not worth the points.

Shield bash- very good spell but used less now because of the 0.5 cast time.

Ethereal mantle- good spell . Hardly used past 1 because of the ridiculous short range it has. Would be used more if the range was increased to 6m or even 10m. In such a case reduce the spell duration to 30s. It would serve as a nice compliment to DI.

Auras: the change of auras to 130° arc of influence has seen the decline in the use of almost all of them. Heroic presence is the last one standing in terms of common use. Until an arc of about 220° is used , I am pretty sure the decline will continue.

What started out as a list of hardly used spells turned out to be a bit of a review of spells. What should be noted is that some of the spells are still useful but in a RvR sense. If you have no cover, or consistent cohesive attack plans a lot of useful spells will never be popular even though they are useful and still work.

Best Regards
Artec

[Mattdoesrock]

Point Shot works 100%. I have pics if you need.

[Gourmandine]

Track Ally
Useful at lvl1 in swamp ^^

Camouflage Corpse :
I must be the only stupid hunter using it at lvl5, but I believe this spell can be useful. Most of players are spamming chat with "rez needed", but (especially since sanct has been nerfed) conjurers can't rez someone who died far from fort if the group is under attack. It allows him to stay under allies cover and to wait for a better time to rez the dead player (or to wait for cd).
For example, yesterday many of us died in front of fort at efe. After we lost the castle, they said "we were protecting conju to help them rezing people". How can you protect a conju from a sultar? Imo, it was hunters job to hide the most important players corpse.


Curse, Blindness : This 2 spells could be really helpful but are they really working? I think the spell focus malus is, but I'm not sure for the hit chance. A few days ago I asked a Knight on amun to hit me after i casted these 2 spells at lvl 5 on him : 1 evade/miss for 10 hits despite the actual evade rate. Same question for Shifting Silhouette, is it working?

[Neliel_]

Track ally is useful and used at lvl 1, just not seen by non hunters. Ask yourself the question : why should i cast track ally if i've _already_ allies around me ? Also the big problem of this skill, as i pointed out before, is the casting time and information gathered ; they should be in par with enemy surveillance.

For a "defensive" class it's a shame that we gather better infos about our enemies than our allies we're supposed to "protect"

I've track ally lvl 2 usually since i'm quite a loner, and this make a huge difference. Imagine this, being alone:

Enemy surveillance (2)
South
Mage (5) [+150m], Archer (3) [+100m]

Without track ally:
You run

With track ally:

Track Ally (2)
South
Mage(2), Archer(3), Warrior(2)

You win





Also about Hawks Gaze, it's one of the game most badass combo with rapid shot, you can see Jakka here with her AK-47 (+60% atk speed) setup, look at 1:40, you'll need to see it twice because it's so fast, 6 fuckin' seconds, 6

http://es.xfire.com/video/10f795/

Please, don't label things "useless" because it's not the way you're playing

[El_Naso]

about Hawks Gaze...

Best spell in my entire setup next to recharged arrows and paraolic shot. Couldn't live without it ever since since it was officially implemented. Dunno why most marksmen apparently don't use it... maybe because they prefer the hunt/pvp setup with tricks and/or evasion, like I knew...

But ever since the attack speed "cap" (bug?) was removed (or fixed), it became

one of the game most badass combo with rapid shot...

And I couldn't agree more. And though the video dates back before the damage adjustment patch, it still grants tremendous dps while active, enabling marksmen to do stuff like this:



NOTE: I was lucky, real lucky to get barely any shots evaded, plus the friendly giant toltar missed a few of his own, giving me the edge I needed to win. Point remains the same, I killed it in under 20 seconds.
Another note: my equipment is far from uber, except maybe the bow, wich has a pretty decent damage bonus

I say it don't belong on this list.

[UmarilsStillHere]

It was never on this list.