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This applies to other classes as well, but seeing as I'm currently a 16 Psion I know more about them than anyone else. At the moment, with all of my auras and items I can get my Telekinesis to approximately 30 damage at 2 PP per cast. My Mind Jab does about 50-55 damage for 5 pp a cast. And my Psionic Blast can do about 100-105 damage per cast, at 13 pp.
If you use Mind Jab once it costs more PP and does less damage than Telekinesis twice. The same goes for Psionic Blast.
As of right now, at least, the only purpose to use a stronger spell than Telekinesis is more damage with less opportunities for the opponent to hit you. The problem with that is, by the time you get to level 10 or so you don't get hit enough for this to be an issue, and the best way to conserve PP when patrolling is to spam Telekenesis. So I was wondering if we could get a high-level spell that we could use to replace Telekinesis that did more damage and costed less PP than spamming Telekinesis. It's more of a convenience issue than anything else, as it would reduce the amount of page loads we need per combat.
The problem with that is the damage to PP ratio would have to be more than 15:1, so it would have to be, for instance, a spell that did 90 damage for 6 PP. I just wanted to bring this issue to your attention, Ryme.

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TheK3vin- #325

http://soundcloud.com/thek3vin

I completley agree with you. Ima level 12 Psion, soon to be 13 and i find the same problem that you. What is the point of using a spell that costs more to use than Telekinesis and makes almost the same damage. Now that you reach level 10 with all high level armor (I use plasteel armor) its almost impossible to get hit, and if you get really low damage.

It means that you can survive tough combats. Sure, you might lose PP, but it means that you can survive those tough boss battles by killing them extremely quickly. That's the reason why they're more expensive but less efficient. They deal a truckload of damage at once instead of little bits over a longer period of time.

So basically, those big spells are for big monsters. Or as a panic button. Your choice.

Generally, if you're not getting hit enough to make using the bigger spells at least a consideration, you're fighting below your level, which means you should be concerned with conserving PP regardless of time taken to kill.

When you fight at your level, I assume you'd be getting hit enough to make the extra PP in killing them faster worth it, in terms of the cost to heal.

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out-out the lights-out all! and over each quivering form
the curtain, a funeral pall, comes down with the rush of a storm
and the angels all pallid and wan, uprising unveiling affirm
that the play is the tragedy man, and its hero the Conqueror Worm.

Depends on what boss. Buzzkill was able to hit 25's even with my best armor on. I had to heal with green tea mochi balls thingys . I was desesperated for my PP not to run out and finish casting Telekinesis on him to finish him off. So as you said, Big spells are for big monsters.

Don't forget about Elementals! When I first got ice lightning bolt it was doing the same damage as ice bolt despite costing twice as much! That was a while ago so it might have been changed or I might have been used some sort of gear that made it do that but still - anecdotal evidence!

Forgive me as I drag out a KoL analogy, but it works here.

Back before (L)TS was nerfed into uselessness, two TSs cost less and did more damage than a single LTS; however, there were times when you needed or wanted the extra damage of LTS, and it was worth "wasting" the MP in order to use it.

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The churches are empty / The priest has gone home / And we are left standing / Together alone
--October Project: "Dark Time"

I know this, but by now the only thing that is actualy my level is the Fiendish Pit, and even there I don't take enough damage to use the stronger spells. It just seems useless after, like, 15. But whatever. I guess not many other people agree with me.

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TheK3vin- #325

http://soundcloud.com/thek3vin

Personally, I think the ratio of PP to damage is fine. To me it just makes more sense to have it this way. I'm a level 19 psion, and I can see how it might get to be more convenient to have the skill cheaper as far as PP goes, but I don't think it needs to be...

I mean, in most games that I've played it is like this, and it really is for killing bosses, or finishing battles quickly. One thing that would be cool though is if the damage scaled with your stats. That makes more sense in my mind, and would have the same effect as you wanted (in the first post). Anyways, that is my two cents.

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Part Spock, part Yoda... a bit of a freak, to be sure!
Of only one thing can you be certain...
He DEFINITELY has pointy ears.

The problem is that Lightning Bolt and Ice Bolt deal 41 and 38 dmg respectively with my lvl 12 Elementalist alt.

Only that Lightning Bolt costs 5 PP (Scepter + TiaB) and Icebolt costs ONE PP.

This is just plain wrong. Three to four damage difference and /five/ times the cost?

Firestorm, on the other hand, is something else entirely. The Big Guns, so to speak. When something just /has/ to go down in two rounds, pp be damned.

But the Ice Bolt/Lihgtning Bolt ratio needs to be looked at, and I'm rather hoping for a pimp to LB instead of nerfing IB to be closer to Sparks.

Yar.

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"The world of madness is a lot bigger than the world of sane."

Cornuthaum, #1234

Most of those spells do scale with a combination of stats and level. Some have caps, some don't and some don't have a cap but tail off quickly.



The spells are balanced (theoretically balanced, anyway) independently of other items. To make them imbalanced without items so that they seemed balanced once you had high-level equipment would be a little illogical, it seems to me. In particular this would require either making ice bolt do significantly less damage, or cost significantly more, and I don't think anyone wants that.

Maybe just a high level spell that would have a good PP:Dmg Ratio for buffed spell damage. Like Psionic Explosion or something.

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TheK3vin- #325

http://soundcloud.com/thek3vin

It's possible that higher level spells intrinsically amplify +spell damage (you don't need to point this out in any descriptions, it's just there). Such as the highest level spell doing 1.5 times the extra spell damage you get from items.

_________________
out-out the lights-out all! and over each quivering form
the curtain, a funeral pall, comes down with the rush of a storm
and the angels all pallid and wan, uprising unveiling affirm
that the play is the tragedy man, and its hero the Conqueror Worm.