I've seen many threads on 'insta-casting' of monsters the last few days. Many of the posters in those threads are reactionary and are close-minded about this possible change. I have seen no tests done by anyone in these threads, and many of the opponents of this possible improvement haven't even tried it. My goal here is to provide a narrative showing that 'insta-cast' isn't as bad as the detractors say. I encourage EVERYONE to test out these changes before forming your own opinion, but hopefully this small pictoral will help alleviate some fears.

NOTE: This test was performed in Covetous level 3, in Felucca, on Test Center 2.

 

This is what my character started with. I used GM made heavy archer suit, GM made katanas, GM made broadswords, GM made halbreds, GM made kite shields, and GM made bronze shields. All armor/shields were made from valorite. I came stocked with 100 of each reagent, 15 gheal pots, 15 gcure pots, and 20 total refresh pots. I also had 250 bandaids.

 

 

Upon entering Covetous level 3, I was greeted with this spawn. I targetted the skeletons first, then moved on to the 2 lich lords and 1 lich. I never got below 33% health, and never was forced to run outside.

 

 

 

Moving a little further inside, I ran into about 4-5 Lich Lords and 3-4 Liches. I armed my hally and jousted with the Liches, staying away from the LL's melee. After I killed the Liches, I re-armed my shied and katana and went after the LLs. I did a fair amount of dancing around, and had to deal with the summoned skeles a few times, but I eventually killed them all with only one scare...the scare being 4 simultaneous flamestrikes, but with a heal potion and a cast greater heal, I was fine. You can see one Lich Lord just spawning - this area's spawner is one Lich and two Lich Lords. I can only surmise that the higher number earlier was from an earlier player leading them into that room. Here's the aftermath of my battle with those LLs and Liches.

 

My conclusions:

  1. Instacast for monsters add some challenge to PvM.
  2. Instacast is in no way overpowered, as seen by my single-handed clearing of 7-9 high-level monsters...with only GM equipment. I estimate that with a high-end silver vanquishing weapon the spawn would have been gone within 5 minutes.
  3. Instacast is NOT too much for dial-up; I ping about 160 to Test Center, and I had no problem outwitting and outrunning the monsters.
  4. If I was able to easily kill 7-9 high level magic monsters at a time in Felucca, I assume it would be even easier in Trammel.
  5. Give it a try before you knock it.