Did FromSoftware Inc. just BUFF magic?

[Bosper]

Incantations and especially Sorceries being overpowered has been a meme since day 1 of this game. Now I read the patch notes to find out that FromSoftware Inc. INCREASED the damage and/or REDUCED the FP cost of many spells. What is happening? Do you guys think this was a good choice?

[Merik Lobo]

It wasn't a good idea at all. It seems like they decided not to nerf heavy hitter cheese builds like Azur Comet and instead just buff every other spell to make them more appealing. I can't understand that logic at all. At that point why not also buff incantations as well? Why is sorcery the golden child of this game?

[Pixel]

It's time to pull out the glintstone machine guns

[dustin1280]

Originally posted by Bosper:

Incantations and especially Sorceries being overpowered has been a meme since day 1 of this game. Now I read the patch notes to find out that FromSoftware Inc. INCREASED the damage and/or REDUCED the FP cost of many spells. What is happening? Do you guys think this was a good choice?

Yes because the spells they buffed were damn near useless in the current state due to their cost: fp ratio

This makes closer to 20 sorceries viable for PVE/PVP instead of only 10

I suspect incantations will get the next buff on the next patch. They probably just focused one category for that patch.

[Zengar]

All clases can at least cast the lower level spells due to the first great rune and memory slots being items you find.
You also have several items that use FP and reproduce magic in some way or form. Even if you build ugha boogha pure STR, you are still able to cast low level healing magic.
This time, magic is bound to be at least a small part of any character. The absolutely pure melee build is dead in this game imo, relegated to challenge runs.

[Bosper]

Yeah, I agree. Some incantations are very fun to use, like some of the Dragon Breath spells for example, but when you compare the damage and especially the usability of those spells, they fall far behind the overall quickness and damage output of Sorcery.

[Malecite]

Yes, it's called balancing.

If 90% of the spells aren't being used due to a lack of damage or FP cost then an adjustment is a good thing.

[Rezonus]

Whats strange is they didn't mention comet azur, which can one shot basically anything.

[NotAvailable]

The reason is because a lot of them weren't really viable. Having one decent spell for like 50% of the game sucks. Folks like to meme on here, but magic needed help.

[MegaMaid]

my only guess is to add variety to casting builds. the comet azure build is a bit boring. there are alot of unused spells. adding some casting range to glintstone makes it more useful now whereas rock sling was the only semi-cheap distant spell.

[Timbermaw]

Originally posted by Merik Lobo:

It wasn't a good idea at all. It seems like they decided not to nerf heavy hitter cheese builds like Azur Comet and instead just buff every other spell to make them more appealing. I can't understand that logic at all. At that point why not also buff incantations as well? Why is sorcery the golden child of this game?

because of ranni of course!

[dustin1280]

Originally posted by Rezonus:

Whats strange is they didn't mention comet azur, which can one shot basically anything.

This is false...
The comet azur meme build you find everywhere only works under very specific situations with a very specific setup. Most of the time Azur sucks because it's way to costly to be viable.

[Veritas]

they buffed some of the worst sorceries which was a big surprise. Y'all out here complaining about the haorfrost stomp nerf when you could hit harder than some 80 int spells with 0 investment beyond picking up an ash of war

[Peelsepuuppi]

Originally posted by dustin1280:

Originally posted by Bosper:

Incantations and especially Sorceries being overpowered has been a meme since day 1 of this game. Now I read the patch notes to find out that FromSoftware Inc. INCREASED the damage and/or REDUCED the FP cost of many spells. What is happening? Do you guys think this was a good choice?

Yes because the spells they buffed were damn near useless in the current state due to their cost: fp ratio

This makes closer to 20 sorceries viable for PVE/PVP instead of only 10

I suspect incantations will get the next buff on the next patch. They probably just focused one category for that patch.

I hope it will. Some late game incantations have exactly the same problem. You are better off using something else instead.

Particularly many of the dragon cult (not to be confused with Dragon Communion) AoE Spells are in rough spot right now.

[[OTS]EchoZenLogos]

Of the listed buffed sorceries, they seem to have pretty much only buffed the ones that were already weak or undertuned for the most part - so I don't see the issue.

Crystal barrage for example was a joke - so I'm glad it got a damage boost.

Comet was useful, but costs so much FP compared to its damage that it couldn't be used even by pure casters that much. It being buffed makes sense.

Maybe they should have nerfed some of the cheese builds too a bit, but frankly magic has always been able to cheese enemies in FROMSOFT games - that is the consequence of having long-ranged abilities with high damage. The only time magic is "balanced" in PvE is when you don't use any summons (because taking aggression for you makes magic really OP), and don't use cheese builds.

I switched off of a sorcery build because of many of the sorceries being just not fun to use due to their balance issues, so hopefully this makes it more fun to play again.

[M4444]

Nothing wrong with magic being powerful. I'm enjoying magic a lot more than I ever enjoyed it in the Dark Souls games, so it's a win for me.