What counts as a spell?

Sharee

Since harness magicka now only protects against spells, what counts as one?

For example, is an ability that is powered by magicka and scales with spellpower but is resisted by armor and crits with weapon crit a spell or not?

Sypher

Lava Whip isn't counted as a spell towards harness.

The initial hit of unstable flame isn't counted as a spell, the dot is counted as a spell.

Light attacks don't count as spells .. But they still return magicka on harness magicka for some reason..

Caltrops too I think?


This isn't hurting my head..

Use the visual queues and the default UI, ignore the numbers and get immersed in the game. If you think about the numbers you will be amazed at all the damn inconsistencies this game suffers from. xD

Sharee

So it seems to roughly follow the logic of 'if it looks/feels like a melee attack, it is not a spell'. Good enough, thanks

RedTalon

-predicts bow users now have favorite targets-

willienugget

This now appears to be a caster based skill that is better for non-casters.

Forestd16b14_ESO

i asume it's anything that uses magic

Tintinabula

the way I started figuring out what was what ,I got jewelry with added weapon damage to it and would wear it and take note of my skills descriptions. If the damage fluctuated depending on whether or not I wore the jewelry that was a weapon skill..not a spell.

PS ( same could be done with spell damage. Add spell damage to jewelry and if spell damage goes up on skills description when jewelry is worn..its a spell.)

willienugget

That sounds like a nice tester. I'd like to know which of my enemies' skills are spells or not though. If it goes off spell damage, it should logically be a spell but we know better from ZoS.

Sypher

Tintinabula wrote: »

the way I started figuring out what was what ,I got jewelry with added weapon damage to it and would wear it and take note of my skills descriptions. If the damage fluctuated depending on whether or not I wore the jewelry that was a weapon skill..not a spell.

PS ( same could be done with spell damage. Add spell damage to jewelry and if spell damage goes up on skills description when jewelry is worn..its a spell.)

Lava Whip is increased through spell damage. But it isn't considered a spell against harness magicka.

Same applies to: Biting Jabs, Teleport Strike, etc..

Confusing stuff.

Tintinabula

Sypherpkub17_ESO wrote: »

Tintinabula wrote: »

the way I started figuring out what was what ,I got jewelry with added weapon damage to it and would wear it and take note of my skills descriptions. If the damage fluctuated depending on whether or not I wore the jewelry that was a weapon skill..not a spell.

PS ( same could be done with spell damage. Add spell damage to jewelry and if spell damage goes up on skills description when jewelry is worn..its a spell.)

Lava Whip is increased through spell damage. But it isn't considered a spell against harness magicka.

Same applies to: Biting Jabs, Teleport Strike, etc..

Confusing stuff.

yea that's just dumb..and weapon damage increases staff skills but those same skills use magika.
what about unstable flame?

Morvul

disclaimer: I have not actually tested the new harness magicka yet.

But I would have assumed that they linked it to the damage type: everything doing physical damage (ie: lava whip) ignores the shield, while everything doing some sort of magickal damage is interacting with the shield.

But: syphers statement that caltrops DO interact with the new harness magicka throws that theory out the window... (as caltrops are physical damage)

GwaynLoki

Do Caltrops use spell crit?

willienugget

Sypherpkub17_ESO wrote: »

Lava Whip isn't counted as a spell towards harness.

The initial hit of unstable flame isn't counted as a spell, the dot is counted as a spell.

Light attacks don't count as spells .. But they still return magicka on harness magicka for some reason..

Caltrops too I think?


This isn't hurting my head..

Use the visual queues and the default UI, ignore the numbers and get immersed in the game. If you think about the numbers you will be amazed at all the damn inconsistencies this game suffers from. xD

Do you get magicka return on each dot tick of Unstable Flame?

Maulkin

Basically since the change to harness magicka, ranged casters are buggered while melee casters are fine and dandy because all their spell dmg-augmented magic attacks are actually...not spells. Nice

willienugget wrote: »

This now appears to be a caster based skill that is better for non-casters.

Pretty much so. Basically if you're a stamina build facing a ranged caster, then Harness Magicka can be of great help to you keeping you magicka topped up, but the other way round it's useless. ZOS logic.

GwaynLoki

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

Basically since the change to harness magicka, ranged casters are buggered while melee casters are fine and dandy because all their spell dmg-augmented magic attacks are actually...not spells. Nice

willienugget wrote: »

This now appears to be a caster based skill that is better for non-casters.

Pretty much so. Basically if you're a stamina build facing a ranged caster, then Harness Magicka can be of great help to you keeping you magicka topped up, but the other way round it's useless. ZOS logic.

This is why I asked about spell crit. Because the majority of class melee range skills use weapon crit. So maybe everything that uses spell crit is considered a "spell" in the case of Harness Magicka.

Maulkin

GwaynLoki wrote: »

mike.gaziotisb16_ESO wrote: »

Basically since the change to harness magicka, ranged casters are buggered while melee casters are fine and dandy because all their spell dmg-augmented magic attacks are actually...not spells. Nice

willienugget wrote: »

This now appears to be a caster based skill that is better for non-casters.

Pretty much so. Basically if you're a stamina build facing a ranged caster, then Harness Magicka can be of great help to you keeping you magicka topped up, but the other way round it's useless. ZOS logic.

This is why I asked about spell crit. Because the majority of class melee range skills use weapon crit. So maybe everything that uses spell crit is considered a "spell" in the case of Harness Magicka.

Yep, that certainly seems to be the case.

S&B, light-armor, melee caster or GTFO. Best build template in the game by far.

jkirchner71ub17_ESO2

my head is spinning

SeltzerDuke

Sypherpkub17_ESO wrote: »

Use the visual queues and the default UI, ignore the numbers and get immersed in the game. If you think about the numbers you will be amazed at all the damn inconsistencies this game suffers from. xD

This is what I do, and why I freely consider myself a bad player, heh. I'm sure the numbers, if I did crunch them, would baffle and amaze. Until the nerf to annulment, I had never put it together to realize the 50% spell damage reduction would apply to the entire damage shield you've got active while it lasts, even if most of it isn't even from harness magicka. Man, I would have been popping it before every single barrier/shielded assault/blazing shield if I had been smart, ha.

willienugget wrote: »

This now appears to be a caster based skill that is better for non-casters.

Yeah - we now have a light armor skill that medium/heavy armor wearers would prefer, and a heavy armor skill that light armor users use. The circuit is now complete.

Tankqull

1)everything with more than 8m range wich does not consume stamina
2) any type of dot (the dot aplication though may not if it falls under #1)