Just wanted to copy Balgrum's thoughts about Seraph's Wing here for the record (below), as they've already been buried deep in the Battlefield.

I agree about both Shadowbane and Elysian Shower, both seem off with too little damage and/or too much self lag. I think quite a simple tweak would make Shadowbane actually useful:

- one round self lag
- mana cost slightly less than Demonfire (if it isn't already)
- normal damage slightly less than Demonfire (so against vuln_light it would be superior to Demonfire, also if you wanted to save a bit of mana when spamming damage against non_vuln, you could opt for Shadowbane instead of Demonfire)

Elysian shower has a random number of 2-5 hits (IIRC) with greatly varying damage, from lower case to rare uppercase. Here I think a good compromise might be Balgrum's idea of making it an area attack, and probably upping the damage a bit or have it have some lasting effects.

Though, all of this seems rather academic now as only Avderlain has the path as an option... (I can't fit a PK-centric char around his religion).

By the way, SHAMAN PATHS still lists Aarn. Also, there's an anchored Shaman path post by Valg (on the Annoucements I think) that hasn't been updated.


-------------------------------------------------
"Seraphs Wing critique."
Author Balgrum (Anonymous)
Date Wed 24-Aug-16 09:45 PM

So, I wanted to point out a few things that I found sort of... useless with the Seraphs Wing path. If I were to do another lightwalker shaman, I would not pick this path, as I found only two of the supplications to be moderately useful.. perhaps three if you take soldier of the light/dispel evil buff into account.

Biggest issue, is the shadowbane supplication, and the elysian shower supplication. Both I found to be near completely useless. Demonfire is far better in literally every situation I had and could dream up, namely because both supplications are 2 rounds of lag, for inferior damage (elysian shower FAR inferior damage). Neither to my knowledge produce any side effects or useful maledictions (see emblaze, which to my eyes was identical to shadowbane, except you get the searing armor effect which is like immolate.) Which made the 2 round lag worth it from time to time with emblaze. Elysian shower was just a joke in my opinion... dealing decimates or mutilates at best, with random damage types so you never knew if you were going to hit a vuln or a resistance. Best I ever saw was 3 bolts one cast, and couldn't compete at all with demonfire. I would see it much more useful if it was an area affect spell, that did comparable damage to emblaze/shadowbane.

Celestial choir. I did manage to find some interesting uses for this, but all in all it's pretty buggy, and I couldn't think of a way you would want to use this if you weren't in the fortress.. This supplication got me booted from the Inn twice (see bugboard post..) Even though I was inside the inn and never fought anyone outside the brawling room. If someone happened to walk by angels that were not in my party, or under my control, the bouncers would just start attacking me. The angels could be 100 rooms away and they would still attack me, and kick me out. In front of the fortress, the angels can only roam two rooms, which makes them really useful, because you can control the place of engagement, to make sure they help you, or at least make retrieval more of a pain. Most other places I would use them, they just wander off aimlessly, and chances of them wandering in on my opponent were slim. I think this spell could be much more useful, with a 2 room wander instead of wander dictated by area size. All in all, this was the supplication I wanted to try the most, so it is why I took this path. Not totally disappointed... but not exactly super useful either.

The archons choir path I found much more useful, and could see a tribunal shaman with that path ROCKING. Holy justice is amazing when fighting a criminal. undispellable sanctuary from majesty also incredible against opponents who dispel. Virtually every spell in that arsenal had a certifiable good use. And I will add that it's very possible I wasn't able to find, or dream up a great use for the above mentioned skills of the seraphs wing, but I think I tried them out pretty liberally in different situations, and just wasn't impressed.