Is the spell Protection bugged ?

It has been happening to my character, and too often, if I can add, that with Protection on, which should guarantee the 100% casting of spells at the expense of a faster casting and faster cast recovery penalty, that when I cast a spell, I see the Word of power over my character's head but.... no spell is cast...

And this, very often, especially when I need a Greater Heal, results in my character getting killed since with the faster casting and fast cast recovery penalties, casting again to get that heal much needed, takes too long and I get killed before I can heal up...

@Kyronix , could you please look the Spell Protection up and make sure that it works as it should, ALWAYS, that is, guaranteeing the casting of spells no matter what ?

I am fed up of seeing my character dieing because of the combined effect of Protection failing to guarantee the casting of spells and the penalties of Faster Casting and Fast Cast Recovery being in effect because my character has Protection on but often it does not work...

Thanks.

“Not guaranteed, protection prevents concentration disturb only.

Yoshi said:

“Not guaranteed, protection prevents concentration disturb only.

Could be a few things

You could’ve been mana drained/vamped while casting. Most likely. Or hit with concussion blow while casting causing your mana to drop below required amount. Or hit with a mana drain weapon. Or if you have mana shield on that drains your mana if you receive damage. Or other mastery such as consume damage that uses your mana. I think also if someone attacks you who is in wraith form I think that has a mana vamping effect.

could’ve been paralysed just after casting, either by the spell or shield bash or reactive paralise or the special attack paralise.

could’ve been stunned, nerve strike or stun effect sometimes from bombard (no debuff from those 2)

could’ve been force arrow attack that penetrates protection.

(obviously if you’re poisoned or mortalled you can cast heal but won’t be able to heal yourself)”

I was not poisoned.

As in regards the other issues that you mention, I will pay more attention to my mana bar since I do have the mana shield up and some of the monsters do hit with concussion blow, I do not recall being paralyzed when this happens...

The thing though, is that I clearly can read the Words of Power of the spell being cast over my head but I get no spell ....

Regardless, though, if, as you say, there is so many causes which can stop a spell from being cast regardless whether one has Protection up and running.... well, then I think that a debate is needed about the current effectiveess of this spell, given its very very heavy penalties....

Personally, I consider the Faster Casting and Fast Cast Recovery penalties associated with Protection, to be among the most  severe penalties in th game, for a spellcasting chacacter.

They really, but REALLY slow down the ability of a spellcasting character to cast spell a whole lot.

Such very severe penalties, to my opinion, should, at the very least, 100% guarantee the casting of spells no matter what.

Yet, if all those actions which you mention can result in hindering the ability of a spellcasting character to cast spell regardless their having Protection on AND, at the same time, remain them with such heavy toll Faster Casting and Fast Cast Recovery penalties, the combined effect results in spellcasting characters being too much hurt in their gameplay, me thinks.

popps said:

I consider the Faster Casting and Fast Cast Recovery penalties associated with Protection, to be among the most  severe

By far the main reason for casting to fail when in protection is the lack of mana to complete the task. Mobs are annoyingly adept at stealing your mana just when you need it most. 

 An alternative way to heal under such circumstances, or the discretion to 'leggit' before it becomes too critical, is highly recommended. My warrior uses both chiv and bandies to heal - my tamer is a peace tamer and uses area peace to get out of the way, you could also use potions, if you've a free hand to drink it, or if you have a thief, try to get some 'seed of life'. Spellweavers can use 'gift of renewal', mystics can use healing stone (I think?).

I don't always succeed and die at least as often as most, and a lot more than some. 😂

Trying to heal while still aggroed by a paragon is pointless invis to break aggro then heal 

To side with popps, there are times when i cast. Get the animation and frozen, and it just never casts(no fizzle, no mana vamp ect) casting again fixes it.

Yoshi said:

popps said:

I consider the Faster Casting and Fast Cast Recovery penalties associated with Protection, to be among the most  severe

"There are no fast cast recovery penalties from this spell,

Also you might be interested to know that the protection buff does not actually reduce casting to 0 as described, but actually only reduces the casting cap by 2 (bug report raised https://forum.uo.com/discussion/1461/protection-buff-description-is-not-technically-correct/p1 )

So spellweaving faster casting is at cap 4, reduced to 2 with protection.

so your spellweaving spells are still casted at speed faster casting 2, fast cast recovery 6, (assuming you have faster casting 2/6 on your char)"

Thank you for the clarification about faster cast recovery.

In regards to the faster casting penalty, unfortunately, there is no Spellweaving spell to heal/cure...I wished, that Spellweaving carried an additional spell like the Mysticism's Cleansing Winds....

I would actually see it very much fitting within the Spellweaving nature of spells.... yet, there is none... and this forces me tostill have to use, at the 0 faster casting penalty, the Greater Heals and arch Cure Magery spells....

Petra_Fyde said:

By far the main reason for casting to fail when in protection is the lack of mana to complete the task. Mobs are annoyingly adept at stealing your mana just when you need it most. 

 An alternative way to heal under such circumstances, or the discretion to 'leggit' before it becomes too critical, is highly recommended. My warrior uses both chiv and bandies to heal - my tamer is a peace tamer and uses area peace to get out of the way, you could also use potions, if you've a free hand to drink it, or if you have a thief, try to get some 'seed of life'. Spellweavers can use 'gift of renewal', mystics can use healing stone (I think?).

I don't always succeed and die at least as often as most, and a lot more than some. 😂

Unfortunately, I do not have any hand available for potions since I need to hold a Spellbook with properties as well as a Shield ....

McDougle said:

Trying to heal while still aggroed by a paragon is pointless invis to break aggro then heal 

Casting Magery's Invisibility spell, is the first this that I do....

Unfortunately, just like other spells, as i mentioned, even with Protection on, quite often I see the Words of Power over my head, but the spell does not come up....

Norry said:

To side with popps, there are times when i cast. Get the animation and frozen, and it just never casts(no fizzle, no mana vamp ect) casting again fixes it.

Same here, it’s a bit frustrating.  It’s like the targeting cursor gets canceled before you can see it… it’s definitely not a spell getting fizzled.

“What client?
there is a bug on CC, you have to turn off auto open corpses because the client cancels the target when it tries to open the corpse, even if it’s a creature someone else slayed near you.
bug has been reported 
https://forum.uo.com/discussion/8761/auto-open-new-corpses-while-in-combat#latest “

If you are referring to casting in Destard there seems to be a casting hesitation there now that was not there after the change that was made after about two days in.  When I cast a spell, after it is cast there is a fairly long delay, maybe a second or two, before I actually see the animation, for example an energy bolt, ev.  or invis.  Can be fatal if I am relying in invis. to survive. Don’t know what caused this but it is definitely there and have been playing a mage long enough to know it is not part of normal play.  It also interferes with may targeting macro.
Paras that can cast and wisps that are nearly impossible to target when things heat up I don’t attempt to go toe to toe with if the are targeting me.  They simply cast to quickly for me and sometimes, as others have mentioned, I all of a sudden don’t have any mana.  With these the best defense I have found is to simply run away invis. if you need to and then heal and then go back to the battle.
One last thing that might explain what you mentioned in your post.  You cast heal in the heat of battle while being hit by spells cast by you advisory.  While you are casting your enemy has already killed you but you just are not dead yet because the game has not caught up with the action yet.  You see the words of the spell but since you are already dead the spell cannot heal you.  This is not always the real time game it try’s to be.

popps said:

In regards to the faster casting penalty, unfortunately, there is no Spellweaving spell to heal/cure...I wished, that Spellweaving carried an additional spell like the Mysticism's Cleansing Winds....

Not totally true. Spellweaving has gift of renewal, which restores health and can cure.  While it does have a short cool down (unless you die, which cancels the cool down out) many spellweavers will cast it when they judge that they are in a difficult encounter, ie when facing a stronger mob of the group.
https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/skills/spellweaving/

Petra_Fyde said:

popps said:

In regards to the faster casting penalty, unfortunately, there is no Spellweaving spell to heal/cure...I wished, that Spellweaving carried an additional spell like the Mysticism's Cleansing Winds....

Not totally true. Spellweaving has gift of renewal, which restores health and can cure.  While it does have a short cool down (unless you die, which cancels the cool down out) many spellweavers will cast it when they judge that they are in a difficult encounter, ie when facing a stronger mob of the group.
https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/skills/spellweaving/

All the schools of magic could you more spells 

It happens outside of combat as well.  I've cast recall with 172 mana in the middle of nowhere and nothing happens. Not even the fizzled out sound.

If you have it in a macro that happens to me too.  Macro works fine for months and then becomes unreliable.  Have to cast over and over until it works or I just give up and use the book.
Also have had that happen when using a rune book.  Everything appears normal except that nothing happens.  Think that is a bug with the thing you check on in the book.

TimSt said:

It happens outside of combat as well.  I've cast recall with 172 mana in the middle of nowhere and nothing happens. Not even the fizzled out sound.

I have had that happen and recast it and get the message that the location is blocked.

I've had spells cast lately in protection that I've never got the cursor.
I cant tell why something changed lately but it does happens from time to time
Spell words will be shown above head , with no cursor appearing.

Popps again noticed something that has been going on for years.  

Now try to reproduce it consistently.  That's the hard part.

Or be forgetful like me. Did I cast a spell or am I just standing here waiting on something.

Merus said:

Norry said:

To side with popps, there are times when i cast. Get the animation and frozen, and it just never casts(no fizzle, no mana vamp ect) casting again fixes it.

Same here, it’s a bit frustrating.  It’s like the targeting cursor gets canceled before you can see it… it’s definitely not a spell getting fizzled.

This is basically what I have been experiencing from time to time.... I use the Classic Client....

Petra_Fyde said:

popps said:

In regards to the faster casting penalty, unfortunately, there is no Spellweaving spell to heal/cure...I wished, that Spellweaving carried an additional spell like the Mysticism's Cleansing Winds....

Not totally true. Spellweaving has gift of renewal, which restores health and can cure.  While it does have a short cool down (unless you die, which cancels the cool down out) many spellweavers will cast it when they judge that they are in a difficult encounter, ie when facing a stronger mob of the group.
https://uo.com/wiki/ultima-online-wiki/skills/spellweaving/

Yes, Gift of Renewal exists yet, its downtime, which to my opinion is quite long, definitely not a short one, IMHO, makes it not usable "consistently" but, rather, only in "special" occasions, when dealing with special and stronger foes....

It could be good when having to fight Paragons, for example, but the problem is, that when several players are in the dungeons, Paragons just spawn a go go thus making Gift of Renewal not much a practical healing spell to use because of its quite lengthy downtime.

When dealing with a spawn like that in Destard, one needs continuous healing abilities, not something like Gift of Renewal that has a downtime timer....

popps said:

When dealing with a spawn like that in Destard, one needs continuous healing abilities, not something like Gift of Renewal that has a downtime timer....

Mana management is something that any mage should know about. If you are running out of mana, there are many things you can do. All of which you should know by now but I'll list them because I have time and someone else might find them useful. 

• Change your stats around
• Look to your armor to see where you can get more mana regen or an INT boost
• Combine lower level spells with the higher level ones. Refamiliarize yourself with each monster and it's weakness so that you can manage your spellcasting more effectively
• Eat! There are pies and magical foods that help with mana regen. With the satiety cure, you can consume them all day. There is also a monster stealable that helps with your mana ... 
• Buff up ... cast Strength and eat a petal. They stack. I believe the petals stack with the potion too. Heal and now you have more HP and have to heal less
• Change your playstyle ... mana is less of an issue if you play in a group.

You seem to be looking to UO to be something where you go wherever you want and you stand toe to toe with whatever or whoever with no chance of your failure. That's not a game. A game is a "form of play or sport, especially a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck." In the case of PvM ... the competition is against the AI monster. 

You don't need continuous healing abilities ... you need to ability to heal when you need it and that is vastly different. 

also.. mana vampire is your friend!

Casting still exceptionally slow in Destard.  Takes forever to invis. after casting the spell.  Also, protection spell disappears sometimes.  Know I had cast it and saw that is there but later on when I check it is gone.  Something I fight may have dispelled it.  Don’t really have time to keep an eye on it when fighting or running so do not know how it gets removed.

Arnold7 said:

Casting still exceptionally slow in Destard.  Takes forever to invis. after casting the spell.  Also, protection spell disappears sometimes.  Know I had cast it and saw that is there but later on when I check it is gone.  Something I fight may have dispelled it.  Don’t really have time to keep an eye on it when fighting or running so do not know how it gets removed.

Maybe the monsters have purge magic abilities to remove buff.

We used to call it overcasting and it doesn't just happen with protection. It happens a lot in pvp and especially old school mage dueling.

It happens in lag situations and due to the player "freaking out" and trying to cast faster than the spell can cast.

I can see both causes in this situation. 

Protection lasts till you die. I have used it for years. I have never seen it go away until I remove it or I die.

"as far as i know the only thing in destard that can purge your buff, is when you attack your guild mate's rising collosus"

Suspect paragon shadow wyrm can purge protection spell.  That is just a guess but think para white wyrm in the ice dungeon has done it to me.  Remember something routinely purged it but honestly don’t remember where that happened but it was at an event like this one and sort of think it happened in the ice dungeon.  The mage I use here is actual 110 getting plus 10 from a ring so that might make a difference.

I know getting hit for xxx amount of damage will stop your Bard buffs maybe this the same 

if the bard gets hit for 40 damage their buffs stop. casting focus has a chance to stop that, and peace mastery reduces the damage they take. 

i do notice when jumping from 1 client to another, sometimes i have to double tap a macro key to get my spells to cast. this isn't the same thing tho.  a mouse click doesn't seem to "wake" the client that it is the active one, and it seems to happen more on my side monitors than my main one.

the casting and not getting a target reticle just seems to happen randomly with the CC, no add ons. and i don't have open corpses turned on because of issues with it recording my settings from 1 character to another randomly as well. so it sucks when i am on my rogue and it opens a corpse, and boom, i am no longer hidden.

i have also noticed that sometimes on the CC, the curser "forgets" to change to a reticle. 
also if you have pulled a bar, and click on the name part, it lags for about 3-5 seconds before it becomes a target reticle again. i think this is because its checking to see if you can rename it
(i constantly have 4-5 bars of friendlies up, then 2-3 for mobs 

McDougle said:

I know getting hit for xxx amount of damage will stop your Bard buffs maybe this the same 

No it is not. It is a permanent spell until you die. He died and forgot to re activate the spell and thought it was purged.  He can not reproduce it I guarantee.

I doubt he is fighting RCs also.

Pawain said:

Popps again noticed something that has been going on for years.  

Now try to reproduce it consistently.  That's the hard part.

Or be forgetful like me. Did I cast a spell or am I just standing here waiting on something.

There is definitely an occasional bug, at least in EC, where spells cast, and no cursor pops up.  It even happens sometimes when you have full mana, and there is no combat on screen, and no aggressive action being taken.  You see the spell words of power, but no cursor is displayed by the client.

The best mitigation in EC for this is to avoid using the cursor variation of the spell casting in your macros.  Target Current is usually faster too...