Are Line of Sight spells an unfair advantage?
by Dan O'Halloran 
Sep 9th 2007 at 4:00PM
Player Amithral of the Magtheridon server has a complaint about LoS (Line of Sight) spells. These are channeled spells like Mindflay, Drain Mana, Drain Life, etc. Pretty much anything where you see a particle animation of a continuous beam from the caster to the target.His complaint is that if the target breaks LoS, the ray spell continues. Hunters are plagued by LoS issues, but Priests and Warlocks seem to get a free pass as long as they have LoS when they first cast their spells.
Community Manager Tharfor responds that the ray-like spells are considered to be a "working feature and there are currently no plans to change it." However, he also went on state this game mechanic may need to be reevaluated and he will bring it up to the dev team to see if they want to address it.
What do you think? Is the lack of a LoS check after casting an unfair advantage (especially in PvP) or should it be considered an advantage of the classes that have it?
Filed under: Priest, Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, PvP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sephirah Sep 9th 2007 4:07PM
yawn... just another "nerf locks" thread...
robotrock Sep 9th 2007 4:12PM
Either have it break when LoS is altered or severely nerf the range. Its infuriating I can run away and still be drained when even a hunter couldn't be hitting me...
Jake Miller Sep 10th 2007 12:48AM
I think that LOS casts should be interrupted when the caster has no LOS. Hunters get screwed when they come against a lock or priest because a hunter is forced to move around to get to the lock/priest while they just stand there and cast away. It should be changed.
Aes Sep 9th 2007 4:24PM
In my opinion, ray-type spells should break when LOS is lost. My standpoint is purely from the plausibility side of the argument though. Why should your spell continue to cast on your target if you can't see them? However, coming from a Priest, I'd rather not see our main bread and butter spell for Shadow spec be nerfed. Hopefully, Blizzard will re-evaluate and implement a new type of mechanic where breaking LOS would stop the channeling spell but do a certain amount of damage to the target of teh spell or something.
Avonturier Sep 9th 2007 4:34PM
IIRC the hunter's autoshot is instant, followed by a cooldown untill the next autoshot. A caster on the contrary has to complete the whole casting time before the spell is complete. Maybe this difference is one of the reasons for the difference in the way LOS is treated.
Deus Mortus Sep 9th 2007 4:42PM
Wrong, when you fire and autoshot, you first get the cd and then the shot, in which time you have to stand still and keep in proper range, I wish it was an instant...
Pudie Sep 9th 2007 6:59PM
If it's already on you, it should stay on you. It's magic going through a wall, beam, whatever. It's a mystic "thing" as opposed to a solid object like an arrow.
bites Sep 9th 2007 5:06PM
Ever had to use a "channeled" spell ? .. It sucks .. nerfing them more wouldnt make sense.
synack Sep 9th 2007 5:08PM
Um... The range on Mind Flay is already only 20 yards. Nerfing it to a shorter range? Are you joking? That's the disadvantage right there. 20 yards? Even with "Shadow Reach" it's only boosted to 24 yards. Hunters DEFAULT max range is 35 yards. With talents that's up to 41 yards... *almost* twice that of Mind Flay. Give it a rest.
alithium Sep 9th 2007 5:21PM
As a 41/20/0 mage, I would be pretty pissed off if I spent the 740 mana to cast Arcane Missiles only to get off one or even zero missiles with it. It's a high-cost spell that I have a lot of points in that I would hate to have to change because it's a staple of my PvP spells. And while I am not PvP spec'd, I like being able to get my PvP on when I'm not raiding. If they changed it so that the mana was not spent until AFTER the spell was complete, I would change my tune but until then, as long as I'm spending the mana, it's only fair to let me get the spell off.
Murloc Warlock Sep 9th 2007 5:28PM
i don't think that breaking rays along with los will change much. it's pretty much a nerf-lock-whine.
Drew Sep 9th 2007 5:40PM
Imo it's not a big deal either way, it was for arcane missiles, but priests and warlocks have enough DOTs so you don't benefit from moving out of LOS unless you abuse it.
Btw my main is a hunter, we're not all crybabies, some try to overcome the weaknesses of a class by adapting rather than whining on the forums for buffs (even though the latter is quite effective).
Sargentd Sep 9th 2007 5:51PM
I think channeled spells are like missiles that have a Lock-on. The line of sight is because the hunter (if the arrow could go through the wall) still wouldn't know where to put it. Channeled spells don't let go unless the distance is maxed out or the spell is through. Magic can go through walls.
Sterling Sep 9th 2007 6:03PM
I think the devs should take a look at the LoS of casters. Being on a PVP server, and playing a melee character, I cannot count the number of times that I've been killed in the world and BGs because I was out of line of sight. I can't charge or intercept them when they aren't in my LoS but are targeted. So, why is it totally cool for them to burn me down, literally, when I am technically out of their range. At least, there should be some form of diminishing returns implemented that will offset a bit of the damage done by and taken from the out of LoS casts. I can't recall a single time I've done an instance run or grouped up with a caster where they targeted a mob, ran around a corner to barely see the mob at the end of it patrol path, and cast anything in its direction when it was clearly not in a line of sight. But, somehow, it's okay for them to do it all the time in a PVP situation. Since just about every caster has a pet now (all the easy classes have 'em), the argument about melee getting too close is a moot point and can forever be ignored. If diminishing returns when out of LoS is too much for the casters to accept, Blizzard should consider killing some of the cooldown time on melee's 30 minute timers. Or change the mechanics of the various charge abilities so we can have an equal opportunity to catch the casters by surprise. Ah, a world where I can target somebody hiding around a building, charge and stun them, the beat the squishy crap out of them. Oh ... wait ... Blizzard hates melee. Continue crying casters. We'll get nerfed while you get buffed ... again.
YPEELS40 Sep 9th 2007 6:17PM
To sum up what commenter 13 said:
Im a warrior, I cant charge thru walls no fair. Nerf casters, it wont affect instances. So many classes have pets, no fair. Lower my 30 min cooldowns (recklessness,retalliation, shield wall) or let me charge people thru the wall.Buff warriors, QQ.
Sterling Sep 9th 2007 7:44PM
@ 14:
What I was saying was that you have a large portion of the caster community that post on sites like this that get all nerf-crazy when somebody suggests making any sort of change to anything caster related, such as limiting spells to LoS like they did to hunters. I've got friends in game and in real life that play casters that tell me they think they are overpowered compared to a lot of the other classes. The fact that Blizzard decided to give most of the casters pets to offset some of the melee damage they receive and to cause melee damage they can't do themselves helps justify why they should toss in a LoS variable: if you're too scared to go around the corner to cast another fireball or shadowbolt, have your pet chase them down.
As far as my suggestion for a change to LoS for chargers (feral druids included), I wasn't complaining about the way things are now. I'm saying that if there is no change to the LoS mechanics for casters, there should be a tweak to the charge mechanics for melee classes: increase the angle of a corner your charge can go to a maximum of 45 degrees or something. Any angle greater than 45 degrees would just be insane: being able to do an instant 180-turn/charge maneuver would be called out by everybody in an instant. Even though the target isn't in the direct line of site, they still have a chance of having some damage done to them. Going through walls is just an idiotic and unrealistic (even for this game) idea that only an overpowered caster would think of when their e-peen has shrunken down to microscopic size.
In the end, this is just a game. I'm content with the way things are. The idea of trimming down some LoS-abusing abilities is a nice thought though.
Seraya Sep 9th 2007 7:53PM
I just hate how LoS plagues me in places like Kara or Shadow Lab, since apparently I need to see my pet to use Bestial Wrath or throw a Mend Pet.
Slayblaze Sep 9th 2007 8:35PM
Its working just fine now, no change needed.
The caster must be in los to get the initial hit - after that as long as the target stays within physical range the spell shouldn't care whether the target steps behind a material object or not. It is a *spell* similar to a dot. Dots dont disappear when the target steps behind an object because its a magical effect, not an arrow or bullet.
Grimm Sep 9th 2007 9:00PM
As others have mentioned, a priest/warlock needs LoS to his target when he casts a leash spell, just like a hunter does when lining up a shot. How often does a hunter pay the mana for a shot and get deprived of the effect because he lost LoS half a second later?
Furthermore, how many hunter shots are interruptible by damage after the mana's already been spent? Do hunter shots create huge green/blue beams that shout out "Kill the clothie standing still right here!" to anyone paying attention? Are hunters vulnerable to spell-locking effects shutting down a primary school after they pay the mana but before they deal full damage?
Saying "hunters can't do this, so clothies shouldn't be able to either" is a pretty weak argument when you consider all the relevant factors.
Septih Sep 9th 2007 9:07PM
For all those saying "it's magic, therefore it should go through walls, etc" Aren't Fireball, Frostbolt, Shadowbolt, etc magic too? Should they be allowed to go through walls as long as the target was initially in LoS? I always thought that part of the cast time would be locking onto the target, mainly due to the frustration when levelling of casting 5 seconds of pyroblast for the mob to go out of range or behind a box right at the last second :P