01-09-2004, 07:31 AM
There is no doubt in my mind that the charges thing is either a very nasty bug or an even nastier design flaw.
For one thing, that's the only way to get synergy points from items. Blizzard made sure that no other sort of equipment +skills bonus gave synergies. However, items with charges of a skill you don't have have do give synergies.
For another, it's the only way to get a synergy above level 20. Since only base points are supposed to work, there's a natural limit of 20 on synergies. Marrowwalk's charges are level 33, though.
For yet another, the bug only works when you don't have any points in bone prison. That means you're actually penalized (really, really heavily) for putting a point there while wearing the boots.
Then there's the balance issue. Boots are probably the least valuable slot for necros. However, in this case, a single item will give +495 damage absorption synergy to bone armour, +495% damage synergy to teeth, +231% damage synergy to bone spear,+198% damage synergy to bone spirit and +330% life synergy to bone wall. In order to get this much without bug exploitation, you'd have to spend 33 levels of skill points on that, and then you'd run into the 20 cap for base slvls. This cap also means that the three bone attack spells would normally have a theoretical maximum of 80 points in synergies, but with the bug, you only invest 60 synergy points and get the benefit of 93.
Really, it is a bug and it is a nasty one.
For one thing, that's the only way to get synergy points from items. Blizzard made sure that no other sort of equipment +skills bonus gave synergies. However, items with charges of a skill you don't have have do give synergies.
For another, it's the only way to get a synergy above level 20. Since only base points are supposed to work, there's a natural limit of 20 on synergies. Marrowwalk's charges are level 33, though.
For yet another, the bug only works when you don't have any points in bone prison. That means you're actually penalized (really, really heavily) for putting a point there while wearing the boots.
Then there's the balance issue. Boots are probably the least valuable slot for necros. However, in this case, a single item will give +495 damage absorption synergy to bone armour, +495% damage synergy to teeth, +231% damage synergy to bone spear,+198% damage synergy to bone spirit and +330% life synergy to bone wall. In order to get this much without bug exploitation, you'd have to spend 33 levels of skill points on that, and then you'd run into the 20 cap for base slvls. This cap also means that the three bone attack spells would normally have a theoretical maximum of 80 points in synergies, but with the bug, you only invest 60 synergy points and get the benefit of 93.
Really, it is a bug and it is a nasty one.