Have you actually tested any of what you are saying or are you basing this purely on theory?
Because the reason why it doesn't work like that is simply due to enemy magic resistance.
Yes. I have and that is why I'm confused on the statment; Spirit damage can only have up to a 50% damage resist or a immunity according to the game; I have a PS3 so I can't go in and look at the code. Hex of Tormet lasts longer than a split second as well; I just finished the game again last night and Hex of Torment left bosses gray for at least a couple of seconds and Misdirection Hex deifinately had them slowed. So unless the games visual cues are off in regard to what is actually happening, I'd say that the effects are still there. If otherwise, could I hear differently from a developer? Spirit damage is extremely useful do to this-- the only things immune to spirit are Fade Creatures and Blood Mages. Fire/Electric/Ice Immunities are more common. And considering all but a couple battles are against Normal/Elite enemies, once again I don't see how the tree is useless. Some spells can be used for debuffing single strong targets, the others can be used for masses of enemies. And I'm sure I've seen an immunity table somewhere around here, but Spirit/Nature are definately the two types of damage that are LEAST likely to be resisted.
The fact is also that MOST spells have greatly diminished effects against bosses. Bosses aren't really going to be affected by force, some bosses can be Petrified for BRITTLE, but not frozen in place, AOEs burn mana against a single boss, so basically the argument is, again, what type of Mage do you want to play. Yes, you can have Merrill act as a debuffer, but again, if YOU want to play debuffer, you can STILL have an effecient group with Hawke in that role. You know, maybe you won't have as much Burst damage as a Nuker Hawke and I have never argued that point; but not everyone wants to play a high DPS character. If that weren't so, why wouldn't they just leave the Entropy tree to Merril, similar to how Bethany does not have the Primal Tree and Merril does not have the Creation Tree. The same instance goes with Warriors, if someone wants to act as a Tank, instead of using Aveline or a Burst DPS Warrior, the game can still be beaten on Nightmare with ease. Just because your Hawke isn't an overwhelming damage dealer doesn't mean the game cannot be enjoyed, played effectively and a proper group can't be tuned around your build choice. It may be more technical, or may require a little more knowledge of the game, but it is still not useless. Think of it like an MMO, Everquest for instance: It's easiest to Solo with a Necromancer, but for some reason there are people that like playing an Enchanter, because they enjoy debuffing. Does it make any less viable? No. Do both have their strengths and weaknesses? Yes.
Overall what I'm getting at is that while the entropy tree has its uses (especially early game), having hawke specialise in it (which indicates late game) is not optimal and will generally mean that you are gimping your total damage potential. This is why most mage players avoid wasting hawke's points in it- hawke just has so many better options to take. If you still refute this then please, by all means go record a video of an entropy hawke in action. I wouldn't mind a bit of enlightenment if such a build turns out to be amazing. But as it is, my stance is that for an optimal party setup you don't want to have hawke as the debuffer, just use merrill instead.
I'd love to post a video, but once again I'm on PS3 and I asked in my guide for suggestions on how to record videos that aren't over the shoulder cams without geting sued by Sony. I agree with you for the most part here, but again, I think it comes down to player choice. Again, taking Entropy may lower Hawkes potential as a damage dealer, yes, but it can effectively used to create further damage potential for the group as a whole. An example is, having both Merril and Hawke spec Entropy and having Merril spec CCC's and Hawke Creation/SH. Your can debuff multiple enemies at a time and effectively utilize all the CCC's availible to Mages. Or you can have Merrill and Hawke both spec in CCCs and Entropy. Again, overall damage capacity of your group is very high. Or, you could go the unorthodox 3 Mage group (which limits your CCCs by eliminating DISORIENT or STAGGER, thereby lowering your damager potential, or optimization if you will). Basically, what I'm saying is that speccing in heavily in any Tree over speccing toward CCCs dimishes your end game DPS. My argument here is simply that: "The Entropy Tree is NOT useless."
And I wouldn't suggest that any Mage fully invest every point in a single tree (Unless it's Creation). But I still haven't been proven why the Entropy Tree is "useles". I did a Mage playthrough maxxing out both Primal/Elemental Trees, because for RP reasons, I wanted a classic "Wizard" Arch-Mage. This was pre-1.03, mind you, and Fire is much more powerful, and the Fact is, this build was not exactly the most powerful until end game. From that, I'd say take what you want in Entropy (ALL Entropy spells have their situational uses, like spells from any tree, other than Creation) if you like debuffing, and take spells from other trees as well. I think it's unjustified, however, to say any of the Spell Trees is "useless".
Modifié par mosesofwar, 16 juin 2011 - 12:34 .
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