Ether Lord Question

Garan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Mar 2005

Ether Lord
Description: You lose all Energy. For 5-9 seconds, target foe suffers Energy degeneration of 1-3 and you experience Energy regeneration of 1-3.
Energy Cost: 10
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Recharge Time: 20 seconds
Skill Type: Hex
Linked Attribute: Inspiration Magic

I am looking into Ether Lord for my energy needs and having a few questions come up due to the fact that I have never used the skill.

1. Do I continue to have energy regeneration even if my target runs out of energy?

2. Do I continue to have energy regeneration even if the Hex is broken on my target?

3. Is the energy regeneration set at 1-3 after the use of the spell, or is it a bonus of +1-3?

4. This is a bit off topic but, how does energy regeneration work during casting? Do I continue to regenerate my energy even though I’m casting or do I have to stop casting in order to regenerate energy? And does the effect of Ether Lord change this is anyway?

Thanks to all of those willing to enlighten me.

Ellestar

Ellestar

Munchking

Join Date: Mar 2005

Russian Federation, Moscow

Ladder to Hell (ATM playing with Rus Corp)

Let the all-powerful Forum Search to enlighten you

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ght=ether+lord

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

Quote:
Originally Posted by Garan
I am looking into Ether Lord for my energy needs
See that "Lose All Energy" part? That tells you pretty much everything that you'll ever need to know about Ether Lord as an energy management skill - it destroys your energy.

Ether Lord doesn't care if your target has any energy. You could drop them down to -1 pip of energy regen and you'll still get your full pips. If Ether Lord is removed, this effect ends.

You gain a bonus of +1-3 energy regeneration while Ether Lord is in effect. This translates into .333-1 energy per second over the duration of the hex.

Energy regenerates continuously - it doesn't matter if you're attacking, casting, or whatever. If you have the pips they're working as long as there's energy capacity to regenerate.

Peace,
-CxE

Garan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Mar 2005

Thank you for the quick replies. So much for using Ether Lord to gain energy.

ThePaper

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2005

I live in an atom bomb in Japan

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign
See that "Lose All Energy" part? That tells you pretty much everything that you'll ever need to know about Ether Lord as an energy management skill - it destroys your energy.
Actually this doesn't make it any worse at energy managment, because if you have very little mana (i.e. just enough mana to cast the spell) then you have pretty much nothing to lose, and all to gain. The spell is designed mainly FOR energy management, dont let the description fool you.

Garan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Mar 2005

I read through the link that Ellestar posted and came to the conclusion that even if you were at exactly 10 energy you are still better off not using Ether Lord.

The only time I think it might be useful is perhaps with conjunction with something like Mantra of Persistence. I am not counting the casting cost of MoP against the gains from Ether Lord due to the fact that you can cast MoP before the start of the battle. Though having to use-up another skill slot makes even this combo completely useless in my opinion.

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

Quote:
Originally Posted by ThePaper
Actually this doesn't make it any worse at energy managment, because if you have very little mana (i.e. just enough mana to cast the spell) then you have pretty much nothing to lose, and all to gain.
Yeah, I did gloss over the fact that you can work around the lose all energy drawback, but in practice it ends up being a really big deal. Energy management is something that you really don't want to be timing sensitive - you want to be healing, or dealing damage, or shutting down, or whatever at the moment when it's needed, and when you find a spare second or two you toss out your energy management skill to keep yourself restocked for those critical seconds. So while you can time it to work around the lose all energy drawback, in practice that's more trouble than it's worth.

But a bit more damning is just the energy flow that comes out of this skill. It costs ten energy to use, and at level 12 it will gain you 1 energy per second for 9 seconds - netting you a loss of one energy over its lifetime. Energy regeneration that's a net loss? No thanks.


That said, slapping someone with -3 energy regen is pretty vicious, as it can effectively lock someone out of the game for 9 seconds if timed right. The problem is that 'lose all energy' part. If you're attacking someone's energy to the point where you can pin them down, you're trying to build up a significant energy advantage over them, where you can do your thing and they're stuck there helpless. But with lose all energy, you have to give up any advantage you might have to lock them down - in exchange for a slow stream of energy? It basically kills the skill. That might be a good thing, as energy degeneration is one of the least fun mechanics in the game.


I agree that this skill is designed to be an energy regeneration skill, though, which means at the very least it needs its cost dropped to 5. A slight duration bump would probably be needed to make it playable in this regard, too, but again I refer to the danger of having a skill that locks someone out of the game for more than ten seconds.

Maybe they have to elite the skill to save it - elite it, crank some power into it, and make it playable. Might as well use the mechanic for good on occasion, eh?

Peace,
-CxE