[Spellbinder] How to manage the active energy cost?

[Geber]

Deathchill Aura is working well for my Spellbinder (Defense/Spirit).
I want to move on to Ravages of Time but like Deathchill it's listed as
"1 Active Energy Cost/Second."

Q: Does that mean that Deathchill+Ravages will cost 2 active energy/sec?

If so that's going to really hurt. I've low INT and am wearing warrior, not magic user armour. I can barely muster a mana recharge rate of about 2.3. It's ok at (2.3 - 1.0 - 1.3) but 0.3 is going have me drinking mana potions like crazy. I'd have to turn Ravages/Deathchill off when out of combat, which would be a nuisance.

Any comments? Do active energy costs in a given tree stack? I presume so. How has your Spellbinder coped with it?

I'm about lvl 25, with everything in Defence except 3 mastery points and 6 Deathchill skill points in Spirit.

[Lanced]

The energy costs do stack. It's a playbalancing feature. There are so many +energy regen items though, you ought to be able to boost your energy rate pretty easily.

[Lillis]

Rally + upgrade?

[Geber]

> Rally + Upgrade?

I've not maxed this.. do you end up getting more mana back than the Rally cost?

[EasymodeX]

I've not maxed this.. do you end up getting more mana back than the Rally cost?

Yes, it is REALLY powerful. Note, you do not need to be "maxed" in it -- I found that ~2 points is good enough, but you probably burn more mana than I do.

Reason is as follows:

It adds a FLAT +mana/sec. That's amazing. Your Int bonus and +%regen gear STACKS with that. If you have a modest +50% or +100% mana regen on the rest of your gear (or through Int), then instead of:

1.0 (base) * 1.5 (50% bonus) = 1.5 mana regen

You get:

[1.0 (base) + 2.0 (Rally buff)] * 1.5 (50% bonus) = 4.5 mana regen


So ... yeah, it very quickly exceeds the mana cost of Rally. Ideally, you can get your Adrenaline upgrade up high enough to get Rally to recharge most of the time, so you always have heavy mana regen.

Currently, I have a steady (slow, but steady) mana drain from using my abilities in general. However, using Rally usually blasts my mana to full, so it's no problem.

[Geber]

OK! Time to respec some points into Inspiration! But... I notice that Inspiration level 2 says, "3 second duration / +3.6 regen/sec". Rally level 1 costs 51 mana and lasts 10 seconds.

If Inspiration lasted all 10 seconds, +3.6/sec will cover the 51 cost. But if it only lasts 3 seconds (the first 3?) then it'll come nowhere close. Which is it?

[Denethor]

I think the 3 seconds is added onto Rally's total duration. Inspiration and all it's modifiers that are listed are applied directly to Rally.

[Arox]

use dark covenent and some that converts dmg to life.

[Geber]

Well, at level 4 Inspiration is certainly returning more mana than it cost. I've not added Ravages of Time yet but yes, I think it'll work out. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts.

[Chris Woods]

As a long term Spellbinder I can safely say: Max Inspiration ASAP.

I have Deathchill + Ravages running 100% of the time and only like 1.73 mana regen. Contrary to what math suggests, I don't actually lose mana but I don't gain it either.

However, max Inspiration gives +10 sec, +6.8 regen which results in 20 * 6.8 = 136 Mana gained back, and yes it most certainly does work this way.

With +2 skills I generally rally as soon as I hear adrenaline kick in, then I activate all my other energy skills (Shield Bash and Quick Recovery) and Rally regens enough energy to completely fill my bar back up despite use of a level 10 QR and level 3 SB.

It's so totally worth it.

EDIT: For what it's worth, my current (level 34) build is here.

Chris Woods