I was wondering if anyone can shed some light behind KI's reasoning to set the attack levels to Ra as they did. It seems to me that Ra in the very basic is pretty weak for a level 58 spell, especially without some other effect. Seems like Balance got left out to dry with that spell as is. Was there something with the monster/gargantuan spells that work with Ra better than the other level 58 spells? Or does the balance gear lend itself better for strengthening Ra then the other schools gear for their respective level 58 spells? Any information and explanation would be helpful. Like I said, it seems that Ra is pretty weak for a level 58 spell.
You have to remember that Ra, like most of the other Balance spells (barring Hydra and Spectral Blast, and the upcoming Chimera) have one major advantage over any other school: You can ONLY defend against Balance damage with a tower shield, and even the best treasure cards only protect against 55% of that - and there's not that much gear that provides a sufficiently decent resistance against Balance that it'll be notable...
So, yes, compared to many of the other spells, Ra is weak. As are many balance spells. But unless you are up against Balance monsters, you'll be sorely pressed to find anyone who can withstand the power of a literally unblockable attack.
Seriously, why else did you think that Balance doesn't get as many blades as the rest of us? We'd be swimming in Balance wizards if they did!
You have to remember that Ra, like most of the other Balance spells (barring Hydra and Spectral Blast, and the upcoming Chimera) have one major advantage over any other school: You can ONLY defend against Balance damage with a tower shield, and even the best treasure cards only protect against 55% of that - and there's not that much gear that provides a sufficiently decent resistance against Balance that it'll be notable...
So, yes, compared to many of the other spells, Ra is weak. As are many balance spells. But unless you are up against Balance monsters, you'll be sorely pressed to find anyone who can withstand the power of a literally unblockable attack.
Seriously, why else did you think that Balance doesn't get as many blades as the rest of us? We'd be swimming in Balance wizards if they did!
You do make a few good points, though I have to agree with the OP. Sure, we have the advantage of being supposedly 'unblockable', though we also have several strikes against us as well:
1. Spirit schools (Life, Death, and Myth) get a boost on us, but we don't get one back.
2. Balance is heavily elemental-based, making our spirit blades pretty useless (unless your secondary is Life or Death, which mine is not).
3. We are not an attack-based school- much like Ice and Life, Balance is a defensive school, meaning that whatever spells we do have are very weak. By the time we have enough pips to cast something like Judgment, our enemies have either completely healed or pounded the stuffing out of us.
(Worth noting: A bladed, criticaled Ra, cast by a sorcerer in level 60 Waterworks gear, only does around 1000 damage per enemy; even my level 38 necromancer deals more damage, and I've seen a Forest Lord do 8 times that, without buffs or crits. ).
4. Until at least Dragonspyre, non-Balance bosses spam Weakness traps. Imagine if all monsters could spam Tower shields- you get the idea.
5. We do have more blades and shields than the other schools- we get ours, plus the Elemental/Spirit sets and Bladestorm (the group one). However, they only block at 50%, like the Tower Shield; our blades boost only 20-25%, or 35 for the elemental/spirit ones, significantly less than the other schools.
6. Also worth noting: Balance is 75 percent blades and shields, until around level 30, when we get Spec (which, in theory, isn't even a Balance spell- it's an elemental one) and Judge.
My general conclusion is that Balance makes a great 'helper' class (if you like group game-play) or excellent secondary for an attack-based school (Fire, Death, or Storm), but is pretty useless on its own. I know only one other sorcerer, besides myself, who is legendary- I lost patience with it and nearly gave up, after I hit Grandmaster status, and I'm guessing that a lot of other people do the same.
As I always say, I know that Life and Death have to be the most-powerful- if they weren't, then the whole Malistaire/Sylvia plot (and, presumably, the other arcs as well) wouldn't hold up. That's why the Spiral is swimming in Death wizards- had I known then what I do now, I probably wouldn't have picked this as my primary.
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From what I've seen on Youtube, it looks like Chimera is a spirit-school version of Hydra... if this is the case, then hats off to KI, for finally giving us a use for those Spirit Blades that doesn't involve taking up space in our decks for no apparent reason. Lol.
While I agree that Balance is an excellent helping school, I disagree that ours is weaker than other schools of magic. Rowan, my legendary sorceress, is incredibly powerful as a soloist, she is my best PvP fighter, and she is an exceptional leader in group battle. Sometimes she plays super minion for a group, and she's fabulous at that as well.
What I like best about Balance is the necessity for strategy, forethought, and a cool head in the heat of battle. Rowan challenges me to think a little harder about how I stack my deck, choose gear, and contribute to team battles. I also enjoy the versatility of a Balance deck, especially in PvP, as I can surprise my opponent with an-off school attack and win the match :-)
Balance rocks! (especially when our school is complete, and we wield not only the power of the elements, the sun, and cosmic justice, but also life, death, and dreams.
About Ra, I summon him much more often than I cast Nova, but less than Spectral Blast, and usually before I cast Judgement. That way I take down the health of my enemy but leave enough pips to take one out. Then I save pips while I shield and blade up to cast Judgement or Spectral Blast. LOL, Ra is my "icebreaker" spell!
I love Ra, aka Mr. Ripped.
Warmest Regards,
Rowan Earthsong, Legendary Sorceress, Master of the Elements, Life and Death (and soon, Dreams)
1. Spirit schools (Life, Death, and Myth) get a boost on us, but we don't get one back.
How are enemies boosting against you? PvE enemies cannot boost on you, nor can PvP. From what I've seen only polymorphs can receive boosts against. Only NPCs receive boosts against.
vonawesome1 wrote:
2. Balance is heavily elemental-based, making our spirit blades pretty useless (unless your secondary is Life or Death, which mine is not).
Yes, Balance is heavy on elemental damage outside of Balance damage, but it is still more versatile than any other class (none of the others can even switch like that!!!) The new Chimera spell no longer makes the spirit blades useless.
vonawesome1 wrote:
3. We are not an attack-based school- much like Ice and Life, Balance is a defensive school, meaning that whatever spells we do have are very weak. By the time we have enough pips to cast something like Judgment, our enemies have either completely healed or pounded the stuffing out of us.
That's why your given Elemental Shields and Spirit Shields for free....to spam them. Balance can use shields consistently to save themselves enough pips to use judgement.
vonawesome1 wrote:
5. We do have more blades and shields than the other schools- we get ours, plus the Elemental/Spirit sets and Bladestorm (the group one). However, they only block at 50%, like the Tower Shield; our blades boost only 20-25%, or 35 for the elemental/spirit ones, significantly less than the other schools.
But your also forgetting that all the other schools can have shields of 80 to 85% percent resist put up against them. I would rather have low blades and face a shield of 50% than those any day.
vonawesome1 wrote:
6. Also worth noting: Balance is 75 percent blades and shields, until around level 30, when we get Spec (which, in theory, isn't even a Balance spell- it's an elemental one) and Judge.
Yes, as you already mentioned, Balance is a support school, not an attacking school. So, that's why you have all those support spells.
First off, I just want to say that I disagree with the notion that balance is a "defense" school. Its balance. Its the only school of its kind. It has liberal amounts of everything. Its all in how you set it up and how you decide to play it...
As to the OP's question, I think that Ra is set up like it is because first and foremost, at 560-640 base damage to all that's an average of 75 damage per pip to all enemies and that puts it ahead of sandstorm which only averages 68.75 damage per pip to all enemies. When you factor the potential of gargantuan and consider the gear damage boost you can have at level 58, (mine for instance is 67%), that comes out to 1377.75 balance damage to all enemies. That figure assumes that I don't critical, don't have any blades, and that I use the trained gargantuan. That's a LOT of difficult to shield against damage. As to why it doesn't get an after effect, its because the damage per pip is too great to justify one. Power nova is only 67.143 (rounded) damage per pip to all enemies, a clear 7 damage per pip less than Ra.
If Ra were to critical, it couldnt do less than 1080 damage, and thats NOT including blades/damage boost/etc. So obviously, that comment was false. Also, it was mentioned that the person who casted it had full waterworks gear, which gives an extra 67 % balance boost. There's no way a critical Ra could do around 1000, unless the mob was balance and resisted.
