#spell nerfs

it took me a couple days of questing to even realize that KI did a huge spell audit in the summer update (its been a while since i played a lot of the changes didnt even register). from what ive seen, a lot of players dislike a lot of the nerfs, which is def an expected reaction. i cant really comment on the shadow spell nerfs since i havent gotten to that point in the game, but honestly the rest of the changes dont even seem that bad to me.  (and in comparison to the nerfs in the test realm, it could have been a lot worse jdhajdfhad)

i fell down a bit of a research hole, and im so fascinated by their very thorough  standardization of the damage outputs relative to a spells rank and how a spell’s utility and/or tempo change the rank-damage calculation. i find the different schools’ damage curves super cool from a purely mathematical perspective. this is a more thorough article on the specifics of the improved dpp (damage per pip) system, but basically each school has a base dpp (ice/life have the lowest dpp and storm the highest ofc) and the rank of a spell, which is proportional to the number of pips it requies, is multiplied by the base dpp with a slight exponential modifier as rank increases. the damage calculation is also affected by its secondary effects, and i find the calculations of how the damage is affected by the rank of the secondary utilities/tempo so fascinating.

also, the spell balance audit diary post from the devs explains the reasons for the audit, and their logic seems good to me, but i honestly cant say if the spell changes are actually detrimental in game bc i dont really have enough experience with some of the high-rank spells of some schools (altho the 20% health reduction of all mobs in celestia and onward def takes the edge off of some nerfs).

honestly, i think a lot of schools are actually better off. balance got buffs to hydra, chimera, power nova, and balance of power. yea ra is a bit useless now but power nova is now a super good aoe that balance needed. like the other x-pip spells, judgement was left untouched for now, but i expect a neft in the future bc it is a lil overpowered. myth gets aoe cerberus, which is great for myth, and death’s drains now get full enchantment boosts.it seems that life had some spells shuffled around so now forest lord is cheaper and more powerful. 

fire, ice, and storm sort of got the worst of the nerfs, but within the refined dpp system, the nerfed spells were overpowered

overall i dont hate the audit, and i guess its nice to see that KI is putting thought into the mid/end-game metas as well as planning for the game’s future expansion