Link/Chain casting

[mrchris]

Ok, heres a question, what is linking?
I can deduce chain casting as being simply casting the same spell over and over, but dont know what is mean't by linking.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[richaden]

Ok, heres a question, what is linking?
I can deduce chain casting as being simply casting the same spell over and over, but dont know what is mean't by linking.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Some types of spell, especially offensive affliction/defensive affliction, require you to form a 'link' with your target.

In most cases, the effect of the spell (such as Blind for instance) only lasts for as long as the link does. Once the link is broken (by you performing another action, the mob dying, or the link simply being broken after enough resistance from the target), the spell effects end.

Other spells to use links are the "Damage over Time" spells.

[dakhound]

Ok, heres a question, what is linking?
I can deduce chain casting as being simply casting the same spell over and over, but dont know what is mean't by linking.

Any help greatly appreciated.

chain casting as you stated is casting over and over again

with affliction you can create links with the mob that then lasts for the duration of the spell. if you chain cast affliction you are destroying potential links every time you recast

[kibsword]

yup exactly right, cant add anymore to that =D

[linkzero]

It's very easy to see a Link

The person linking a spell will have a nice round "bubble" above his head.
This means that this person is über everyone else, and should be given
Royal treatment ,minimum 50000 dappers and a mount

[iphdrunk]

Ok, heres a question, what is linking?
I can deduce chain casting as being simply casting the same spell over and over, but dont know what is mean't by linking.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Those two terms are related due to gameplay reasons.

As stated in the previous posts, some spells need you to form a link to be truly effective, typically offensive and deffensive afflictions. When casting afflictions there are several degrees of "efficiency":

* Your incantation fails: failure depends on your level and the level of the spell you are using. A way to reduce the failure rate is to overcredit spells (use more credit stanzas than required) or use lower level spells. For example, iirc, a lvl 185 healer will fail less with a double lvl 100 heal than a single lvl 200 spell. This is the % you'll see when setting up your action.

* Your incantation is broken: typically when the target is attacking you, it will affect your chaces of casting due to "interrupts". To increase your chances, use the "Concetration skill"

* You cast successfully, but the target resists your spell (you'll see a white/gray bubble around the target and an annoying sound ). This takes into account your skill level and the mob resist to that spell. It is part of the lore to know which mobs resist/are immune to what spells

* You cast successfully and your spell affects the target, but with instantaneous effects (with 1-2 secs of intertia) but you can't really see the "bubble" on top of your head. You do see some effects (visual and FX) on the target. The common term is "the spell lands". "Lands" is used as a generic term to refer to a spell (link based or not) that is not resisted.

* You cast successfully and your spell affects the target, and you form a "link", which duration depends again on the levels: periodically, the target will try to break it, taking into account your level and the target's level.

The link based spell will be considered as a successful action if at least it "lands", thus getting a proportional share of the XP according to the actions you have performed.

In this sense, in order to get XP you need to make sure that the spell lands. Since the time it takes to make sure your spell lands is greater than the minimum inter-cast time by "chain-casting" spells you increase the chances of at least "landing" thus getting XP.

Although (and most noticeable at high levels) there are slightly-but-not-reliable visual clues to know if the spell will land or not (this is my own theory), with the short duration of kills, chaincasting is a common technique to improve your levelling rate, at least at lower levels, when your chance of landing is low.

The main problem is that chaincasting means that the second cast is considered an action, and it may break a perfectly good link. At higher levels, chaincasting becomes less needed, and with average kill durations, you may make sure the spell did not link before casting again. Yet, you will miss xp a few times.


Hope this helps,
Anissa

[glipe]

I say this to my guildees all the time but I'll say it here too. I love madness! My favourite spell effect. You'll know when it's hit because (aside from the sys info window telling you) a dark cloud will form over the head of your enemy and evil laughter will reverberate around the area.

MWA HA HA HA HA!

[oetken]

Excellent read so far!

I want to add that there are linking-spells which require a link to effect the target and spells where subsequent castings do not disrupt the spell effect.

Requiring a constant link:
stun, blind, madness

Not disrupted by further castings:
fear, sleep

Please add to the list, as it is incomplete yet.

Edit: just found out, that an active link is *not* broken by being stunned.

Vivy

[borg9]

Edit: just found out, that an active link is *not* broken by being stunned.

Vivy

At one point the link was only check every 'tick', but since the closed the sit-regen loop hole in harvesting this may have also corrected this.

Example link was not broken if you we hit between checks or moved between checks.



On an aside - but related

Fact - attacking from behind with melee increase you hit chances, this I have found is also true will spells.

Two casters standing next to each other casting rot on a Stinga, equal chances of resists (these plants have very high resist to rot )

Two casters standing about 10-15m apart creating a triangle. Caster who has the stinga's eye gets normal resists, the other caster has much few resists.

Can I get comfirmation on this, or was it just one of those 'ryzom coincidences'