Spell Stacking Limit?

[Cometchaser]

This is a feature that didn't exist last time I played, so I am confused on what it is and how it works. Recently I've been primarily playing melee characters, and occasionally I would see a message that says "Spell Stacking Limit (0/3)" or "(1/3)" or something similar. It didn't seem to be affecting me at the time so I kind of ignored it.

Recently my friends and I have been making a push to try and do some of the higher-level areas and discover some of the end-game "secrets" I've heard briefly about through the grapevine. So yesterday we were attempting to tackle an area and I thought it would be a good idea to bring my Wizard in for some crowd control and AoE damage. However, the spell stacking limit seemed to cripple my effectiveness dramatically. On our first big AoE pull, I cast Time Stop, followed by a few damage spells like Horrid Wilting and Empowered Delayed Blast Fireball. After the first Time Stop wore off, I went to cast another and... nothing happened. I tried casting another Horrid Wilting, nothing happened. Another Empowered DBF, nothing happened. Tried Time Stop again, nothing happened. Since we were still in combat, the log was moving quite fast, but I noticed a yellow message pop up whenever my spells failed to do anything. On a closer look after the fight, I noticed they said something like "Spell Stacking is limited to reduce lag". I was the only caster in the group, and the only other spells being cast were a single cast of Horrid Wilting and Bombardment from a monk in our group who had a few spell books with once per day casts of those spells.

Can you explain how this system is supposed to work? It seems to severely neuter the effectiveness of offensive casters, which surprises me because after the introduction of the Furled Arcane Banner, I was under the assumption that casters were given the Banners as a way to improve their end-game. The spell stacking limit seems like a severe move in the opposite direction. My caster felt completely worthless after the first 2 rounds of combat, and our group wiped because I wasn't able to keep the enemies time-locked like we were planning.

Perhaps this system needs to be tweaked or even removed? In all my time playing Blackstone I have not noticed lag caused by spell spam, so I'm puzzled why this was introduced in the first place. At the very least, maybe make it less restrictive than it currently is?

[driller]

Not sure why Timestop didn't fire. It will not trigger this script. I will disable it for now.

This is a feature that didn't exist last time I played, so I am confused on what it is and how it works. Recently I've been primarily playing melee characters, and occasionally I would see a message that says "Spell Stacking Limit (0/3)" or "(1/3)" or something similar. It didn't seem to be affecting me at the time so I kind of ignored it.

Recently my friends and I have been making a push to try and do some of the higher-level areas and discover some of the end-game "secrets" I've heard briefly about through the grapevine. So yesterday we were attempting to tackle an area and I thought it would be a good idea to bring my Wizard in for some crowd control and AoE damage. However, the spell stacking limit seemed to cripple my effectiveness dramatically. On our first big AoE pull, I cast Time Stop, followed by a few damage spells like Horrid Wilting and Empowered Delayed Blast Fireball. After the first Time Stop wore off, I went to cast another and... nothing happened. I tried casting another Horrid Wilting, nothing happened. Another Empowered DBF, nothing happened. Tried Time Stop again, nothing happened. Since we were still in combat, the log was moving quite fast, but I noticed a yellow message pop up whenever my spells failed to do anything. On a closer look after the fight, I noticed they said something like "Spell Stacking is limited to reduce lag". I was the only caster in the group, and the only other spells being cast were a single cast of Horrid Wilting and Bombardment from a monk in our group who had a few spell books with once per day casts of those spells.

Can you explain how this system is supposed to work? It seems to severely neuter the effectiveness of offensive casters, which surprises me because after the introduction of the Furled Arcane Banner, I was under the assumption that casters were given the Banners as a way to improve their end-game. The spell stacking limit seems like a severe move in the opposite direction. My caster felt completely worthless after the first 2 rounds of combat, and our group wiped because I wasn't able to keep the enemies time-locked like we were planning.

Perhaps this system needs to be tweaked or even removed? In all my time playing Blackstone I have not noticed lag caused by spell spam, so I'm puzzled why this was introduced in the first place. At the very least, maybe make it less restrictive than it currently is?

[Cometchaser]

Thank you, driller! Just to be clear, how is the spell stacking limit supposed to work? I assumed it was specifically targeted at limiting persistent ground AoE spells such as incendiary cloud, Evard's, and stinking cloud.

[Yunim]

Although Driller might have changed it due to this thread, Delayed Blast Fireball, Horrid Wilting, and Time Stop are all affected by the spell stacking limit. So unfortunately you had the worst possible spellbook when dealing with mobs since you can only cast 3 or 4 of the limited spells per minute. Firebrand and Ice Storm are a couple of AoE spells that aren't affected by the spell stacking limit.

If Time Stop is no longer limited then there is one boss fight that will need to be readjusted, perhaps by making the spell stacking limit apply to just that area.

[Cometchaser]

Although Driller might have changed it due to this thread, Delayed Blast Fireball, Horrid Wilting, and Time Stop are all affected by the spell stacking limit. So unfortunately you had the worst possible spellbook when dealing with mobs since you can only cast 3 or 4 of the limited spells per minute. Firebrand and Ice Storm are a couple of AoE spells that aren't affected by the spell stacking limit.

If Time Stop is no longer limited then there is one boss fight that will need to be readjusted, perhaps by making the spell stacking limit apply to just that area.

Interesting, that would explain why I was affected by it so much. I guess I still don't understand the purpose behind it, though. Were those spells really an issue at any point? They are some of the wizard's best spells, so limiting them to a few per minute seems like a HUGE disadvantage to casters.

[driller]

My bad, I didn't see it when I looked at the script. I will leave stacking enabled for the abused spells.

These:

SPELL_BLADE_BARRIER
SPELL_STORM_OF_VENGEANCE
SPELL_CREEPING_DOOM
SPELL_TIME_STOP

-driller

Although Driller might have changed it due to this thread, Delayed Blast Fireball, Horrid Wilting, and Time Stop are all affected by the spell stacking limit. So unfortunately you had the worst possible spellbook when dealing with mobs since you can only cast 3 or 4 of the limited spells per minute. Firebrand and Ice Storm are a couple of AoE spells that aren't affected by the spell stacking limit.

If Time Stop is no longer limited then there is one boss fight that will need to be readjusted, perhaps by making the spell stacking limit apply to just that area.

[Cometchaser]

Ahh okay, so preventing Time-stop locking enemies is an intended effect. Fair enough, I suppose it does trivialize some encounters. So does that mean that Delayed Blast Fireball, Horrid Wilting, and any other spells other than the 4 you listed will no longer be limited?

[driller]

Only the ones above.

Ahh okay, so preventing Time-stop locking enemies is an intended effect. Fair enough, I suppose it does trivialize some encounters. So does that mean that Delayed Blast Fireball, Horrid Wilting, and any other spells other than the 4 you listed will no longer be limited?