Curse

Kaida the Heartless · Mar 17, 2011, 06:59 AM // 06:59

Due to the necessity of speed during vanquishes, more and more players have switched from Signet of Ghostly Might to Soul Twisting in favor of Mobility over Damage. The bars perform the same function, Soul Twisting just makes the spirit platform more mobile. The question I ask is: Why didn't people switch to Reclaim Essence Instead?

Check it out:

Soul Twisting:
Elite Skill. For 5...37...45 seconds, your Binding Rituals cost 15 less Energy (minimum 10) and recharge instantly. Soul Twisting ends after 1...3...3 Binding Ritual[s].

Reclaim Essence:
Elite Spell. All of your Spirits die. You gain 5...17...20 Energy and all of your Binding Rituals are recharged if a Spirit died in this way.

Other 7 Skills:
Anguish
Disenchantment
Dissonance
Shadow Song
Pain
Signet of Creation
Boon of Creation

The biggest and most obvious advantage are the front loaded energy gains for Soul Twisting. It takes 45 or 50 energy to fully drop the platform on the Reclaim Essence Rit, while it takes 20 (15) or 40 (35) for the Soul Twisting (depending on the first 3 Spirits and Spawning Power rank). Both usually require Signet of Creation to maintain reliable levels of energy. Both will have the Ritualist's Energy fully recovered by the end of the battle.

The big difference is that the Reclaim Essence Rit, while needing to be micro'd a single skill after each fight, has their entire platform recharged and ready by the next fight. The Soul Twister will have at least 3 up at each fight. The question I am asking is: Is Reclaim Essence a Viable alternative and worth the extra (minimal) effort of a button click per battle?

AndroBubbles · Mar 17, 2011, 08:14 AM // 08:14

I prefer ST simply because it's a bit more versatile, but I do see your point and I do see the potential RE has over it it some situations. ST has the main advantage of being better for prolonged fights for keeping spirits up that die before they recharge (dissonance, etc.) while reducing immediate energy costs significantly.

AndrewSX · Mar 17, 2011, 10:59 AM // 10:59

The biggest problem is lay down 3 spirits w/o using the ST cost reduction. Expecially if using shelter, dissonance(25 e), union, shadowsog(15e)... the total energy required to put up 3 communing useful spirits can easily go over 50. And it is possible only using appostite item spell(voruzin/lee sa, if i remember well), which means MORE microing.

Still nice idea, could work if is possible to resolve the energy problem.

Dzjudz · Mar 17, 2011, 01:07 PM // 13:07

At 13 Spawning Power (nobody should go higher), Reclaim is 13 (18-5) energy every 30 seconds.

At 13 Spawning Power, Soul Twisting reduces the cost of 3 spirits by a maximum of 15 energy every 15 seconds for a cost of 5 energy per 3 spirits.

This means that even using only 1 Shelter/Dissonance in 30 seconds, Soul Twisting saves you 10 energy (15 reduced cost - 5 energy ST cast). Even 1 15e or higher costing spirit later Soul Twisting saves you more energy than the 13 from Reclaim. After that, Soul Twisting can save a maximum of 55 energy more on the next 4 spirits.

Furthermore, Soul Twisting can work multiple times on the same spirit, helpful especially for spirits that kill themselves (e.g. Shelter).

Soul Twisting is unconditional and provides superior energy management.

Like someone put on wiki on the Reclaim Essence page when referring to Soul Twisting and other energy management skills:

Quote:

These skills provide superior energy-management, a faster recharge bonus, do not require pre-existing spirits to function at full potential and they do not destroy spirits.

In the end, a hero with just Boon of Creation and 5 spirits on his bar will run out of energy fast, no matter which elite you choose. Without Summon Spirits, a full spirit bar on a hero is useless. You might as well get some utility out of it.

Winterclaw · Mar 17, 2011, 03:35 PM // 15:35

ST looks like it'd be better if you were using it on shelter or one of the other defensive/utility spirits that tend to die quickly or more expensive ones. If you are using several cheap spirits, then reclaim would be better.

Kaida the Heartless · Mar 17, 2011, 08:02 PM // 20:02

The energy isn't an issue. Fifty max is easy to achieve and allows both to drop their entire skill bar. Both have their energy full after the fight.

Naturally Soul Twisting is better with Shelter and the defensive spirits. I was talking more about the SoGM build that's running around atm, as indicated by the "other 7 skills" I listed at the top.

Also, Communing seems to lack any real Utility that I would want to bring. Dulled Weapon seems decent, until you realize Aegis or Enfeebling Blood do the same thing more effectively and cheaper. Binding Chains almost seems decent, but I'd still rather have another Spirit procing Painful Bond.

Reclaim Essence might be the closest thing we get to "Draw Spirits" on a Hero Bar.

FoxBat · Mar 17, 2011, 08:13 PM // 20:13

The energy savings on soul twisting allow you to drop signet of creation. What goes in that spot? Not another offense spirit as you already have all 5; Shelter or displacement go in there and proceed to rock your world. You don't need to dedicate a full-on defensive spirit guy to get amazing defense out of just one of those skills, and as ST can only spam one spirit every 5 seconds anyway, it's almost as good to keep putting the same one defensive spirit up over and over. You get great mobile offense and defense compressed into one bar.

The one advantage of reclaim is not that big. If you felt like microing anyway, you'd refresh ST at the end of combat, and almost certainly have it recharged at the start of the next combat. That's 6 ST spirit casts from the start of combat, which is more than enough for your 5 offensive, plus one instance of the defensive.

I think you could make reclaim essence work but, I don't see much of an advantage.

Dzjudz · Mar 17, 2011, 08:26 PM // 20:26

For utility I agree that there's not much in Communing.

I was thinking something more like this if running an SoS hero, or this if running SoS yourself (I don't bring Splinter on my bar when I SoS).

I don't know, heroes with a lot of spirits are just clumsy. Micro'ing Reclaim Essence would indeed come closest to a 'Summon Spirits hero', but the lack of Spirit Siphon is what makes it not really viable.