Tone down Hellstream?

[Nakachi]

maybe tone hellstream the fuck down... like.. seriously. i think it is ridiculous how much damage it does to someone, even through sanctuary... me: Sanced with -55 afflictive - Someone's Hellstream * * * Demolishes * * * you! ... wtf is that? so... think about it

[theobserver]

My *guess* is hellstream will eventually be weakened to encourage diversity in the use of the Invokers spell set.

[m1co]

ahah, diversity...you mean like hitting mutilates with all other spells and hellstream being the only real damage spell for a fragile invoker?
hellstream is just fine as it is, if you downgrade it, upgrade other spells, becoz invokers below level 40 are total crap, you cant do shit with your flame arrows/icicles or fireballs, your hps go down 4x times faster considering the damage you deal...trust me i tried!

[Burzuk]

That's funny, since on the same day I saw an invoker hit a couple of mutilates through sanc with his hellstreams -- at level 50 against a level 47 PC with crap afflictive saves.

The real problem here is the dramatic inconsistency of afflictive saves, which will be addressed soon. Hellstream also has a notoriously wide damage range. Add those two factors up, and hellstream is always a crapshoot, as any experienced invoker knows. I didn't hear that 50 invoker from yesterday complain about his mutilate hellstreams, so I'm not too sympathetic about you complaining about your demolish ones from a 45. One word: dices.

And I've watched your paladin fight that invoker on many occasions, Nakachi. Running like a scared little bunny and letting the invoker initiate repeatedly with hellstream all the time is a sure way to die. Given the long lag on hellstream, there's no reason why he should be getting the vast majority of initiations like he has been against you. You need to play a lot better and a lot more aggressively: mages thrive when people sit back and let them take the first shot. And get some more levels to wipe his level advantage; paladins are much easier to level than invokers are. If you don't believe me, play one.

As for hellstream: it will be different (and not for spam-use), but actually possibly stronger as well, depending on the situation. Just as necros are no longer acid-spammers these days, invokers will no longer be hellstream-spammers once their changes are in.

[Nakachi]

mmk