Cybereyes & spells

[Bardagh]

Do cybereyes improve % hit chance with weapon spells (Powerbolt, Acid Bolt)? Direct target spells (Manabolt)? AoE spells (Ball Lightning)?

[frdnwsm]

The best cybereye is the Alpha, which increases hit probability by 6%. It works like the Aim spell to give an increased hit probability with weapons or spells. Well, OK, I'm not sure about AOE spells, since I didn't check those, but I can't see any reason it wouldn't work for them also.

The bigger question is whether the gain of 6% hit probability is actually worth the loss of one of your six precious spell slots. In HK this isn't an issue, since the cyber affinity skill lets even a pure spell caster get up to 2 essence worth of cyberware without losing a spell slot. This skill doesn't exist in DF, making the decision to give a spell caster any cyber additions much more difficult.

If you decide that you absolutely must have this enhancement, I'll point out that it only costs 0.5 essence to install one of these. There are a couple of other cyber enhancements that also cost 0.5 essence; since you will lose a spell slot anyway, you may as well go ahead and grab one of those as well.

[Zadok]

AoE is not affected but all single target spells and weapons are iirc. AoE is pretty easy to hit most of the time anyway.
Mind there are two side effects: a lost spell slot for every two essence you no longer have and every spell's cooldown is increased by the essence lost. Especially the very valuable Flamethrower III with its one turn cd suffers greatly. Weapons don't have cooldowns nor spell slots ofc so it doesn't matter for those.

[frdnwsm]

Yeah, I just re-read the description of the Aim spell, and it specifically states it doesn't affect AOE attacks. But with AOE spells, as with grenades and hoseshoes, a near miss counts.

[Bardagh]

Thanks for the help. This is for my decker/mage, he's already .5 essence down so I'm debating between cerebral booster and alpha cybereyes.

[Bardagh]

Any tips for spell choice when you're rocking +1 cooldown?

[frdnwsm]

If you're already down 0.5 essence, then the Alpha cybereye is a good choice, assuming that you have some sort of combat skills. What do you use for combat, mage spells? Weapons?

Decker-mage is a very odd combination. What spell ranks do you have so far?

[Bardagh]

Seemed like a fun thing to try, and others have made it work. Powerbolt 2, Aim 2, Armor 3, Lightning Bolt 3 I think. Something like that anyway. I considered shaman (so I wouldn't have to invest in willpower) but mage spells (with the exception of haste and maybe the barrier spells) are much better if you don't have the karma to invest in spirit control. No strength, quickness, dodge, or nonmagical weapon skills.

[frdnwsm]

OK, so you have spell slots open. Might want to consider an AOE spell like Fireball. If I recall, Powerbolt falls under the category of weapons, and not spells? That leaves you with another spell slot open. I'd consider getting some charisma and conjuring. 2 ranks of each will get you Haste 1.

With the rest of your karma, you might pump up WIll and Spellcasting further to increase your accuracy with hermetic spells; other possibilities include beefing up body more, or getting some quickness and dodge. The best armor is the heavy armor 9 from the weapons dealer; it gives +1 body also. That will help you block a lot of hits, and save your armor spell for use on your crewmates. You might even consider getting more charisma and conjuring to get Haste 2.

There's a number of possibilities.

[Bardagh]

The nice thing about the Armor spell it it lasts a whole combat - it's not too difficult to get everyone armored up, every combat, so I'll probably go with the Lodge armor (+1 to all stats).

I agree re AoE; I like -AP so I'll probably get ball lightning. Long recharge but it's basically a free grenade every few rounds :-)

[Bardagh]

I run with Dietrich, he can handle Haste (though I might switch him out for Dante later if I can swing enough karma to up my conjuring - it would also get me a totem, which is nice)

[Zadok]

I'd say usually Flamethrower III is the best damage spell due to a cooldown of 1 turn. With the cd *doubled* it isn't that great anymore. I guess Ball Lightning is a good choice then. As soon as a mage loses essence he cannot be the only damage dealer anymore since he'll be too slow hurling his spells. Even with Flamethrower III & IV and full essence he falls off as soon as you use all the combat drugs and got a bunch of AP you can't spent on damage, while a shooter just shoots stuff on every AP. AoE support is nice though and extremely powerful. Only that you'll want another damage dealer.

[Bardagh]

I just checked, I'm also using Blindness. Might switch out lightning bolt for ball lightning.

[Bardagh]

Damage is what Glory & Eiger are for. And Dante, once I get to that point.

[frdnwsm]

Originally posted by Tyro:

Damage is what Glory & Eiger are for. And Dante, once I get to that point.

I was just thinking something similar. Instead of trying to deal damage, get enough conjuring and spell casting to handle some intermediate buff/disabling spells. Blind you mentioned, and is a good disabler. You might also want to get Heal2, Armor2, Aim2 and Haste2 ... or perhaps Lightning Barrier. Combine that with laser painting a target for your combat guys, and you're good to go. Instead of the Alpha eye, get the one that has a blinding flash (I forget the exact name at the moment) to screw up the enemy's aim.

[Bardagh]

What about a Bliss auto-injector? I don't need strength, and the damage reduction could be nice