Saturday, 15th October 2016, 07:08
In Defense of Haste
Haste (Spell) Removal hinged pretty heavily on it being a "no-brainer" that virtually every character wants; this in effect is only true when significantly into extended, when casting a level 6 spell in medium/heavy armour is fairly cheap.
Diverting heavy experience into charms to be able to cast Haste early is actually a bit of a "noob-trap" for several reasons and I'll actually I'll innumerate them.
In short, though Haste (spell) is a no-brainer in EXTENDED when the spell is fairly cheap to cast; before that point, it's simply not as the contamination cost, MP cost, skill cost and needing to switch to lighter armour/having lower AC are non-trivial costs for most the game.
TBH, I think we should have went the other way. The spell is balanced by being difficult to cast in heavy armour, making the characters that benefit most from it ("wizard" types that use support spells with melee) have trade offs to consider; while the consumables are pretty common for most the game and relatively low cost to use in dangerous situations. Consumables (wands) are fairly broken as it is due to ?Recharge being common enough that it they are practically limitless for reasonably powerful characters.
What I suggest is:
Diverting heavy experience into charms to be able to cast Haste early is actually a bit of a "noob-trap" for several reasons and I'll actually I'll innumerate them.
- Most obvious is that consumable haste is common enough that it's not worth the experience to get the spell until after consumables become scarce (especially if you ?Acq for Wands and ?Recharge a /Haste).
- Haste is powerful enough that you want it on all the time, yet you can't do this, the pre-existing control (contam) gave a pretty substantial cooldown between safe casts of Haste; lest you want the glowing EV penalty (and bad mutations if you aren't undead).
- If you do divert to heavy charms to get haste very early this can be quite the trap as you could be weak without the effect you trained for (IE getting the spell online in late Lair and using in Spider).
- Haste is a high enough level spell that for non-pure casters; it's likely to require wearing a lighter armour than you'd otherwise want to.
- For pure casters (particularly conjurers that don't follow Vehumet), until high level and/or high Spellcasting skill, the 6 MP is a non-trivial cost; as it means one less cast of your conjurations/summons in dangerous situations before you have to channel or run away (and sources of reliable channeling are very rare).
In short, though Haste (spell) is a no-brainer in EXTENDED when the spell is fairly cheap to cast; before that point, it's simply not as the contamination cost, MP cost, skill cost and needing to switch to lighter armour/having lower AC are non-trivial costs for most the game.
TBH, I think we should have went the other way. The spell is balanced by being difficult to cast in heavy armour, making the characters that benefit most from it ("wizard" types that use support spells with melee) have trade offs to consider; while the consumables are pretty common for most the game and relatively low cost to use in dangerous situations. Consumables (wands) are fairly broken as it is due to ?Recharge being common enough that it they are practically limitless for reasonably powerful characters.
What I suggest is:
- Reinstate the Haste spell.
- Remove the Haste Wand.
- Make the haste potion significantly less common.
I'm beginning to feel like a Cat God! Felid streaks: {FeVM^Sif Muna, FeWn^Dithmenos, FeAr^Pakellas}, {FeEE^Ashenzari, FeEn^Gozag, FeNe^Sif Muna, FeAE^Vehumet...(ongoing)}
Not "as often as they like" of course, I'd like to be hasted from turn 1 until win but sadly Haste spell does not allow that. Buff the spell, it's bad 
