Is it possible to see how many remaining seconds a buff still has?
Ian579
Member Posts: 241
Protection From Magical Weapons is a useful spell in a certain fights, but it has a short duration (4 rounds = 24 seconds). After casting the spell, I need to know how many remaining seconds it still has on my character so that I can re-cast it before its duration runs out.
I was thinking setting a timer on my smartphone and start the timer as soon as I cast the spell. But then I realized that pauses are often needed during the combat and would make the timer on my smartphone become unsynchronized with the spell.
I was thinking setting a timer on my smartphone and start the timer as soon as I cast the spell. But then I realized that pauses are often needed during the combat and would make the timer on my smartphone become unsynchronized with the spell.
Post edited by Ian579 on
0
Comments
as it has a very short casting time if is cast at the begin of a round will last exactly 4 rounds, the ones you cast it included + the 1/10 of round you need to cast it again. But you have to be active all the ronds, attacking, using items or casting to have actually the rounds begin for the toon.
if you cast it at the middle of a round, maybe because you do some attacks then cast it, it is more tricky, you can cast it again after the 4rth autopause using only 3.something of its 4.0 rounds of duration or you can look constantly at the toon image on the right part of the UI to see when the spell icon disappears.
if you let the spell disappear to cast it again there is some risk that the character takes some damage, or much worst the spell gets disrupted, even if the casting time is so fast it is not impossible, even more if a high apr or more then one enemy have the focus on the toon.
a real life clock, as you say, is not reliable, because of the pause.
the autopause on end of round is the best game timer, and it is also better to have the fake cosmetic only mlee attacks disabled in the game options so knowing the toon apr and the casting time of the spells ( corrected if RoV and/or AoP are in use) to have a certain control of what a character does inside a round.
also the pendulum that is in the bottom left of the UI can be used, for a finer control, but then you have to use a lot the manual pause, basically keeping your eye constantly on that pendulum as soon as the game is not paused.
but knowing exactly how the time flows in the game is useful and sometimes necessary to implement complex tactics.
like to time a dragon's breaths and buffets to have expendable cheap spawns sucking them and the party members outside of the area of the breath/buffet.
or to have your thief go invisible behind a mage right before your mage can breach him when the distance from the dark place where the thief is almost sure to have 100% chance to hide successfully and the protected mage is so long that most of the time he is hidden will be spent to reach the mage.
to use PFMW usually such fine control is not needed, you can have some stoneskin also active and as soon that you start to read something different then weapon not effective on the battle log or see the icon disappear on your mage you can cast again PFMW and at least the physical part of the attacks that can happen before you notice that PFMW is expired and cast it again will be avoided.
only if it is used to protect from a vampire level drain or mind flyer int drain, that go trough the stoneskin, you have to really cast it again before it expires and be covered by it 100% of the time.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/66358/mod-jimfix-ascension-scs-fixes-general-tweaks/p1
Also bubbz (a modder on here) looked to be looking at the possibility of have a visual timer bar (like on the toolbar) showing time left for certain things, although I think it may have been for time left in a round for each character; and not sure if it came to fruition.
100% agree on this one, and it’s weird. The devs poured out their hearts and souls implementing this amazing, epicly deep spell system. Probably more content in the spell book than there is in the rest of the game. Then they somehow forgot simple stuff like countdown timers or showing area of effect. It’s not like these were new ideas, Dark Sun nailed it 10(?) years earlier. It’s just like they... forgot.