OK, I'll ask....Follow

I am working answering questions for a newbie friend of mine, and the topic turned to specialization, skill level caps, channeling, and so the question was, "What does it get me?" and you know I couldnt answer it a coherent fashion. I was wondering if you 'technical' guys would like to take a few minutes to fill out these questions, I am sure it would help more than just me:

1. What does it get me to keep my spell skills up near the cap?
2. What does it get me to keep my channeling capped out (not that it is hard to do)
3. What does it get me to have 200 in a specialization, and how does it hurt me to have only 50 in the others?

Of course we are talking 46 and below toons here. But I have always been conscientious about skilling these things up, so I would not really know WHAT happens when you dont.

Thanks ahead of time, this should be a very interesting thread!

3. Mana savings.

Neither Specialization nor Spell Casting Mastery are random (the in game description is misleading), but a fixed savings per cast. You still need the "base amout" to cast the spell, but when you are done the savings are refunded.

Specialization

50: 3% savings (or 2.5)
200: 11% savings (or 10)

(so.. Secondary Forte's 100 should be between 5% and 6%.)

Spell Casting Mastery does not add a random check, but rather another fixed percentage of savings:

SCM1: 2%
SCM2: 5%
SCM3: 10%

With SCM2 you are getting a refund of 16% mana on each of your primary spec spells, 8% on the others. Once you get SCM3 you will be getting 13% and 21% respectively.

To summarize, if I read all this correctly:

Fixed Mana Savings (in refund form, after cast):

Spec  SCM0  SCM1  SCM2   SCM3 
50     3%    5%    8%    13% 
200   11%   13%   16%    21%

As posted in http://www.necrotalk.com/index.php?showtopic=4448 and researched largely in http://www.graffe.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3471

So.. you want chose your speciality based on which category of spells you use the most in mana critical situations.

And Spell Casting Mastery 3.. being a flat 10% mana savings (refunded after the cast) that stacks with EVERYTHING.. is the first Achetype AA every Caster should buy. Period.

Edited, Mon Aug 22 17:27:19 2005 by Felicite

Imma gunna give you 5 stars for your post.. cause you are very right.

Necro.. with 70 lich.. I always need mana.. I am a mana addict. Cleric.. most long fights are mana limited. My Enchanter is almost always FM.. unless I am CCing way over my head.. then it's bad anyway.

So.. have to agree.. you are 100% Target what you have an issue with.

But 10% extra Mana Pres is at least nice.