Honestly this is like the least attractive rare spell to me in the game and it hasn’t even been added to the game yet.
You cast it and the blasts just float above your head before automatically shooting themselves towards the target, but I have a few questions regarding this.
How will it determine which player to shoot? What if I’m fighting someone and Array just decides to go towards a passing/spectator player instead? What if I’m fighting multiple people and I need to finish off the one with less health, but the spell shoots the healthier guy instead?
You might say that it’d be great for punishing, but you don’t choose exactly when to launch the spell, you just designate a delay before it fires off by itself. You can’t notice your opponent airstalling and think “alright time to let off Array,” because you literally can’t. In order to punish people with it, it looks like you need to predict the future.
Also, with the amount of movement in AO combat, I highly doubt whatever script this spell has can keep up with the zipping and zooming players are always doing. What I mean is, I think Array will do very little apart from missing its target constantly because of how heavily focused this game’s combat system is on maneuvering and dodging.
From the twitter clip showcasing the spell, it looks like each projectile does very little damage by themselves. Which means even on the very rare occasion that one of these things actually do hit whatever they’re supposed to, it’s gonna barely make a difference at all.
if you’ve ever grinded calvus for his drops, you’ll understand the pain of getting hit by his array once and having ur entire hp bar deleted with no way to predict and avoid it
that’s what it’s gonna be like, but used by competent players who won’t have a goofy boss ai
B) they were incredibly easy to dodge already and the only reason why they were so devastating is because players get too comfortable with him constantly jumping around harmlessly and slowly charging up his attacks
if i had to guess, probably a third of an average fight is spent casting an ability (i am a lightning conjurer with 240 atk speed)
maybe one half if i really have to sweat against a good player
this number increases by a lot when i’m doing a damage trade which the array user could force by playing super aggro so yeah there’s that
we have no idea how much damage they do given that we don’t know how much power the player had in the twitter clip
if that is its base damage, then it’s gonna be very strong
and i said it’s still gonna be free damage so unless its damage is literally zero it’s still gonna be annoying to fight against
it doesn’t matter how good it is on slow magics, it’s gonna be op on fast magics especially since arrow shape exists
you’re also forgetting that Array doesn’t automatically fire when you’re in endlag, there’s a timed delay meaning the other player can’t even punish you properly when you’re casting. Also wtf? half of the time? Stop holding down your keys man.
If you ever think it does a lot of damage, there’s also the G key.
Literally only mages can use this and I wonder how many mages in total ever use a fast magic?
My point still stands. It’s not inherently “useful” because it accomplishes little apart from annoying the other guy. It’s not worth whatever goods people are gonna trade it for and it won’t worth the time people will try to spend to get it.
you’re talking as if it’s gonna hit every single time someone casts it? Why??
Autoaiming matters little considering how heavily movement-based this game’s combat system is (second time I’ve said this). If you think code can predict and anticipate where the other player is going to go better than a human behind the screen, I have no idea what to say.
There’s literally no strategy nor thinking involved behind Array, you can’t tell where it should shoot, when it should shoot, and even if you’re unlucky enough to get hit by one, you ought to have the brains to dodge out of the way and only suffer 1-3 or so hits from it, which stack up to little damage at all.
because it’s free pressure
think about it this way:
you see someone cast array, then run towards you playing super aggressively
do you a) focus on avoiding the autoaim ability with no starting and ending lag once it fires, taking the hits without punishing or do you
b) attack back and try to punish them, risking getting hit by the autoaim ability with no starting and ending lag once it fires
it’s a lose lose situation, which is why i keep saying it’s literally just free damage
in a bad way
rewatch the twitter vid those bullets were fast as hell
if u get hit by one ur getting hit by the rest of them 9 times out of 10
play super aggressively as a mage, with a fast magic? Yup, then get owned by the other guy who can be of legit any other build to body you. Warlord, Warlock, Berserker, Warrior, hell, even Conjurer. Playing “super aggressively” just to get one spell’s hit in is a dumb move to begin with.
the target was within spitting distance of the caster in that video, it’d be hard to convince me that you know much about pvp if you think that’s the usual distance fights in this game occur. If you see yourself on the receiving end of this, zoning exists. Or, you know, just don’t be dumb enough to get into their face when you see those orbs floating around them.
if it’s on a fast magic and you’re caught in endlag then you’re screwed. you could be immediately full-blinded by a Light mage and that’s gonna both suck and really hurt.
still can be handy if you’re using Light or Wind (magics that’ll generally benefit from it), because then you either full-blind them if they’re caught by all the blasts or send them flying off a bit. so decent for anti-teaming.
i feel like they were pretty quick, but keep in mind that, since it was just a showcase, i wouldn’t be shocked if Vetex had like, 0 Attack Speed, and if that’s the case, watch out for Light Mages using 200 Attack Speed Array.
i mean, you could run up and Snare to get into it. also sucks when Warlocks get access and then Rush > Sledgehammer > Array, especially stun builds.
if it’s a mage v mage/warlock v mage, etc. etc. then you could probably zone them without much damage falloff, which is probably Array’s biggest drawback; it’s startup. you see the blasts form above their heads, so if you flee before they launch you can probably dodge most if not all of them while still attacking from a distance.
wow, the pressure tool doesn’t do that much damage! who could’ve expected that?
anyways, I think it’ll still be pretty useful, since second magics are getting a tier increase in this next update, which would make them actually viable. Array basically lets you use two magics at the same time.
Light + crystal mages are going to have a great time with this spell.
