that’s not the point at all, and as a matter of fact this way of drawing the ice lance works reliably usualy (when condition are good), what’s important is the consistency, or lack thereof.
to be honest these runes far from perfect, I’m surprised you can get them off reliably. It looks like on the edge between success and fail, instead of success and perfect. Apologies if I sound harsh, just trying to help.
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have you watch the whole thing ? if you say that from the first minute i understand. if so, i would really to see you casting, i m really wondering how other runemages do it.
But after the first minute, not all cast are perfect, but a lot of them, shoud trigger and do not, especially when right after a failed cast, pretty much the same cast trigger the spell.
Okay, so thank you for recording that video. I think this is a great opportunity to analyze the Runemage casting and hopefully explain a little what’s going on here for everyone.
So, I selected a moment about 1 minute into the video where you had two failed Affliction 2 casts in a row, followed by a success, which I assume is the kind of behavior you are talking about. I took a screenshot from the video at the point right before you submitted the cast, and then I put them side by side so you could see them compared.
As I’ve said previously, the most important thing about Runemage casting is the proportions. You can draw the spell larger or smaller and that’s fine, but your proportions (and therefore things like angles) need to line up. In that image, I have placed a green, red, and yellow line. Those lines are the exact same size in each picture.
I think the most important ‘features’ of this particular rune are the shape of the base and the size and angle of the “cap.” You can see based on the lines that:
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In your two failures, the base of your rune is not nearly as square as it is in your success.
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In your two failures, the angle of the cap is not 45-degrees, and the cap is much taller.
You can also see some other mistakes such as in the second failure not fully connecting the interior of the rune’s X.
In addition, I took two screenshots from when you had several Affliction 2 failures in a row followed by a success (around 1;40 in I think). I overlaid one of the failures on top of the success in the bottom-right of the image. The runes were drawn at different sizes (the failure large and the success small), so I re-sized them to be the same size (again, since the proportions are what matters), and I overlaid them on top of each other. You can clearly see that they are different.
I did the same thing with two of your successes from two different parts of the video in the bottom-left. Again, I resized them to be the same size. As you can see, although you didn’t draw the rune exactly the same, proportionally it’s extremely close. The size of your cap is the same. The squareness of the base is the same.
Now, we can discuss all day if the Runemage class itself is too punishing, or if it should accept a less-perfect rune and still cast the spell. However, to answer the specific point being raised in this thread, and that has been raised elsewhere, the Runemage spell detection is doing its job here – if you draw the rune the same every time, it works. When you draw it differently, it may fail.
It’s also worth noting that even on your success, you did not get a “success with bonus”, which means that’s still just barely crossing the threshold, so if you deviate from that at all, you are going to fail. My recommendation is that you actually draw that rune a little wider, I think that will help.
Let me know if you have any questions on that.
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This type of feedback for casting is really helpful, it would be super awesome if the game somehow let you look at your spell casting mistakes so you knew what you needed to work on when you’re casting a spell. (maybe like a potion or something you could craft to help you see your drawing errors)
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thanks for the feedback, this is indeed very interesting…
What about the frost spell starting a 3’21’ ? i guess you are going to say i barely made the cut, to trigger the cast ? but every cast in that sequence do look very similiar…
I don’t think you can get the perfect cast of affliction 2, without the circle… i have been experimenting with the circle and i do have much better results, a lot more perfect casts.
According to what you say, i really think casting is a little bit too difficult, i have some days off, so i have been able to play a little bit, but when reality is gonna knock back on my door, and i won’t have as much free time. I don’t expect to be able to play rune mage without re learning spells every time i play (especially if i can’t play for a few days).
My point is, even in the heat of action, it should be obvious to the caster why the spell didn’t cast, and for the kind of deviation we are seeing here… without some slow mo, it s very difficult to know what went wrong… i would suggest giving more leeway.
Another thing, is the sculpture, on top of the rune of Fire 2, the frostbolt 3? is the right way to cast it (doesn’t work for me btw) ? if it is, the few times i have successfuly casted it, it was not looking like that at all.
I think my dexterity/muscle memory is still not on point…
Thanks again for taking the time to analyze and answer !
Ooo, I like that idea! A 3 minute potion where your runes stay after casting and turns green or yellow when you successfully cast, and faded/transparent red when it fails. With something like a Max of 5 or 6 casts visible at one time. Even if it can only be used in your house or starting Arena area.
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Yeah absolutely, having it in the training grounds or your house is a really good idea, the training grounds even makes more sense when you think about it. You could even use a combination of the player journal and the potion so the game would know what spell you were trying to cast so it knows how to apply any feedback it could give.
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No it doesn’t. Guardian Bart hates magic. He’d fall over dead if he saw you casting in the training grounds.
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I wouldn’t worry about that. Guardian Bart is as blind as a sponge. He doesn’t even respond when you shoot a fireball in his face -.-
I mean…as you say yourself, if you draw the rune completely you have a higher success rate. I’m not sure how the rune not being drawn as it’s intended means the casting it too difficult.
I dunno, my take on it is, if you aren’t at a point where you can trust your muscle memory to give you a 80%+ casting rate, you’re probably not ready to take that spell into combat yet. Yes, that does mean you have to practice a lot before you can go into combat as a Runemage.
That’s an interesting idea, I will look into it. I do think some better practicing tools would be nice to have.
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I didn t mean that the casting was too difficult specifically for affliction, i meant all around… like in the video aroud 3min20, the frostbolt…
As for showing what went wrong, it s more for the first time drawing the rune, would be way easier to learn…
Edit clarification: Also For casual players, you can’ texpect to build a decent muscle memory while playing 2 hours a weeks. and even for hardcore player, coming back from a break or even the next day, it would help, not creating bad habits.
I’m glad to hear that this is on the bug list. I’ve noticed it in several other situations so if they’ll all fall under the same bug, great! If not, here are some other causes I’ve noticed:
Some spells’ sound effects when cast by other players, most noticeable with Ice Lance. When that WSSHHHT noise hits, my spell-shape often spikes away from my actual line.
Some players microphones. It happens often in party with loud or consistently open-mic players, but my best example is when about a week ago, I was grouped with a Ranger that was loudly breathing into his mic. For two hours my spell-shapes were all over the place. When I would mute him, they’d be fine, but whenever I’d un-mute to converse, they’d start jumping around again.
The Airship. Might just be loading lag, but I’ve learned to avoid farming under the airship’s path. I’m not positive it is the sound effects causing it, it might be the airship model generating, but since they happen at the same time, I always get a spike in my drawing right as I hear it fly in.
Hope the extra info helps a little!
Ok so for possible clarificaton as it was explained to me by a level 17 mage if you have agro of a monster in combat the system is more lax on the way you need to draw it but out of combat or without agro (like in a party) its harder to draw because you need to be more precise
may or may not be correct but this is how it was explained to me
Is there any truth to this? I feel like the dev would have mentioned this system. Can we get a confirmation?
I have doubt that the more lax drawing system in combat exists. I haven’t heard this anywhere or noticed anything myself. In none of the patch notes and in none of the forum threads this is mentioned.
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Yeah. It would be terrible design to make your skills change in group combat. Specially if you practice one way then all the sudden it fails. I wouldn’t bet a dollar that system is in place. It’s most likely lag/stress and difficulty of group mechanics.
This is 100% not true.
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i think it’s worth looking into, because where there is smoke, there is a fire 
There is no smoke. I’ve already responded to this post you made and given a very thorough explanation of what was going wrong with your casting. You’ve made another post claiming the exact same thing (that something is wrong with the spell system) where other players have chimed in to say they are not having any problems once they practice.
I have no idea where this rumor got started, or who is spreading it, but as the person who wrote the code, I can tell you, there is nothing in the code that says “do this differently if you are in a party or have aggro.” It’s simply not true, and there’s nothing else to say on the matter.
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