Redesigning fire 1

[Rongway]

A solution could be re-designing F3 to be a direct replacement of F1.
- F3: replaces F1, has 180 potency and 40% chance to let you cast an upgraded version of F3 which is instant and has 260 potency (same mana cost as F1).

However, this would also affect the swap time between AF and UI which would be accelerated and easier (remember, current F3 has 3.5s cast time).

This change would not affect the swap time after Lv40 (acquisition of M&MII trait, allowing a third elemental stack). From then on, three stacks grant opposite spells a 50% cast time reduction but 0% recast reduction. As Fire III has a cast time of 3.5s, its cast time under the effect of Astral Fire III is 1.75s, but the GCD remains 2.5s. Reducing its cast time to Fire's 3.0s cast would reduce its cast time under the effect of Astral Fire III to 1.5s, still with a 2.5s GCD. Ergo, no change.


A note about the potency you listed for Firestarter Fire III, though. The potency is currently 240. Changing Fire III to be a direct upgrade and replacement of Fire I would make it much harder to cast the "wrong" spell, in regards to when Firestarter procs. Currently, you have a fraction of a second to notice the marching ants and decide to cast Firestarter Fire III instead of Fire I. If you're not quick enough, you'll keep your finger on Fire I and potentially waste and overwrite the proc. If Fire III became the spam spell replacing Fire I outright, this source of player error would be eliminated, and the potency of Firestarter Fire III should be reduced slightly to compensate.

[Metallus]

This change would not affect the swap time after Lv40 (acquisition of M&MII trait, allowing a third elemental stack). From then on, three stacks grant opposite spells a 50% cast time reduction but 0% recast reduction. As Fire III has a cast time of 3.5s, its cast time under the effect of Astral Fire III is 1.75s, but the GCD remains 2.5s. Reducing its cast time to Fire's 3.0s cast would reduce its cast time under the effect of Astral Fire III to 1.5s, still with a 2.5s GCD. Ergo, no change.


A note about the potency you listed for Firestarter Fire III, though. The potency is currently 240. Changing Fire III to be a direct upgrade and replacement of Fire I would make it much harder to cast the "wrong" spell, in regards to when Firestarter procs. Currently, you have a fraction of a second to notice the marching ants and decide to cast Firestarter Fire III instead of Fire I. If you're not quick enough, you'll keep your finger on Fire I and potentially waste and overwrite the proc. If Fire III became the spam spell replacing Fire I outright, this source of player error would be eliminated, and the potency of Firestarter Fire III should be reduced slightly to compensate.

1) You are correct, nothing really changes in gameplay by being 0.25s faster on an already fast spell when the gcd is 2.5s. I just wanted to address any potential change it could have in order to keep things as they currently are.

2) I wrote the wrong potency (flare), so pretend it's 240 pot. Also the source of error would be eliminated only for sub60 gameplay. In fact, in current gameplay, you actually hold on F3 procs when they happen in order to refresh AF after another session of F4 spam. Rarely you find yourself casting F1->F3 back to back. It only happens if you have to transpose and regain 2 stacks of AF quickly. But with this change you wouldn't even need to do that because one single cast of F1(now F3) would get you the 2 stacks on the first cast.

Also to clarify, the aim of this change is to keep everything as it is gameplay-wise (because I know people are not prone to such changes, just like me since I enjoy current gameplay), but it's only to make all high level gameplay look good instead of waving in that ridiculous will'o wisp between explosion spam