Mines - are they useful?

[madcow]

Has anybody been able to get any use out of mine type weapons?  I find with them far too unwieldy to use effectively.  While mines would be cool the way they work not so much.

I think if they were triggered by proximity, had remote detonation, or were throwable (basically a grenade) they would be better.  But as it is the drop then wait out the timer and hope somebody is over it then has been useless to me. Anybody else have a different experience?

[Jerebaldo1]

I don't think they are worth it at all in their current form. It's one of the aspects of the Apothokinesist that makes that class very underpowered.

[Pepisolo]

Actually, I've just sent a report into Mantis about the various spells, balance issues etc. The Apoth detonating spell was one of the main issues. Might as well post the link:

http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=10445

I've graded the spells and the Apoth mine one received an E. Pretty useless as far as I can see.

[Misery]

I've been using them, actually.  They're very situational and take some practice to use, but they tend to do quite a bit of damage.

The damage and detonation time, I think, do not need changing much.   What needs changing is the explosion size.  It's very.... small.  Which is the whole reason they're hard to use.   Currently I still use them at times regardless, though.

[tigersfan]

In case you didn't see it yet, they explosion radius in them has been significantly increased.

[LayZboy]

In the time it takes a mine to explode you can do more damage with the other spells.
That's why I don't use them.

[Misery]

In case you didn't see it yet, they explosion radius in them has been significantly increased.

Aye, they're about a million times better now.   They're good in many situations where other types of spells will put you at lots of risk.    They're even good against some types of enemies that you wouldnt expect..... like those horrible things that kinda look like little airplanes that zoom around and drive me totally nuts that I cant freaking hit with most any other spell.... found a way to use the bombs on them.   I've been using them on quite a number of things, actually, when I'm using a spell set that has them.

I think some players still arent going to use them, because they ARE still difficult to learn to use, but if you get the hang of them they're amazing at this point.

[x4000]

I think it's a really good thing to have some spells that are basically skillshots that require particular styles of play or particular levels of skill.  So long as something isn't genuinely useless where nobody favorites it at all, or so absurdly useful that everyone would be mad not to use it, then I think having some large variance in what people prefer is a good thing.

[tigersfan]

Ninja'd.... again.....

What Chris said.

[Billick]

I love that there are some spells that are usually really useless, but are really powerful in certain situations.  It gives you that "I have a big bag of tricks" feeling.