12-09-2004, 12:31 AM
Occhidiangela,Dec 8 2004, 11:07 PM Wrote:You seem to have skimmed the skirmisher model I suggested as the counter to AOE killers, and went straight to "AoE versus a clump" picture. I probably should have expanded a bit further on the thin mention of the team (albeit small) of PK mages, who use the synergy of differing spells to fix and frag their targets. I would not expect a single mage to pull it off, due to spell cool down times, a factor that did not register in my head while making the previous post.
Occhi, I still can't see how even a full party of mages could do it if they wanted to use AoE spells. You, I think, like many new players, are vastly overestimating the capability of the mage's AoE arsenal. If mages are going to grief, they're going to do it with fireballs, frostbolts, arcane missiles - not AoE stuff that can be avoided with a little movement. Fix them? With what? Polymorph regens them to full HP immediately and the first hit from an AoE spell pops them out of sheep form (plus, the random wandering of the sheep offers a distinct chance of the AoE missing). Frost Nova goes back to the problem of the mage in the middle of everyone (who'd scatter as he came in) and the first spell would shatter the ice, freeing everyone to move again. The worst that could happen would be someone's 3-point Improved Blizzard, but even so, the most panicky, disorganized scatter will clear them out of the way. And that's not even mentioning how AoE damage tends to be slightly to vastly inferior to single-target damage.
The scenario for a team of mages griefing is something like: party of mages engages party of targets. Each mage sheeps an opponent. All of them cast fireballs on one sheep at time for instant kills. No AoE.