Mages

They are terrible in PVE and even worse now in PVP. Mages dont even bother with pvp anymore. Its still 2 handers destroying everything else.

PLEASE STOP MAGE ABUSE.

 

They are great in a party capacity. Did some party PvP and having a Mage in the back was really essential.
1 on 1 is a totally different game though.

 

Sorcerers in SWTOR were terrble 1v1 in PVP, but they were good in PVE.

Getting the balance is tough but i didn't enjoy my short time as a mage in R11.

 

Setting someone on fire should cause them to stop, drop, and roll. Really...I mean, YOU'RE ON FIRE.

And yeah, squishy mages are still squishy. And why in the Oracle's name does Royal Founder CLOTH gear have slug penalties?

 

Why does any cloth have slugs? It's cloth. The alternative is being naked.

 

Yes Slugs are death. Why are we dealing with slugs when our armor is already nothing more than pajamas. I'm hoping when robes come in they will not create slugs and need to waste points in my light armor tree removing them

 

I think the consensus of everyone is that melee is wildly overpowered. Actually it is not overpowered it is just that mages are underpowered. They just don't do enough DPS. Lightning doesn't stun often enough. Sure they're great in a party, but they get rolled 1v1. Similarly archers seem to be underpowered against high level characters. I had a lvl 50 archer/mage who's arrows didn't overcome my dmg resistance at lvl 30 with full augmented plate. Presumably that guy had maxed out everything.

Str and Dmg Resistance are out of control. With the founders axe you can do 100+ crits with high str. I think this is all to be expected though. Adding in advancement unbalanced everything wildly. Not that it was particularly balanced to begin with.

 

If we're just looking at DPS, sure it's unbalanced. But that's not my major problem with magic. Magic isn't about DPS, it's freakin magic. It's a tool chest. You use your magical tools to solve problems. And right now the only problem that magic attempts to solve is DPS. That's the problem with magic.

Here's an example of what I mean.

Do we believe that Gandalf attempts to solve the problems of Middle Earth using powerful spells that do more damage per second than the evil forces of Mordor? No. Gandalf doesn't spend time calculating DPS.

What Gandalf does is he says "Oh I'm going to a realm of fire!" I'd better know how to stop fire from burning me. Then when someone shoots fire at him, he casts a spell that doesn't let that happen.

When Gandalf wants to sneak past someone, he casts a spell that helps him do that.

When Gandalf needs to freeze time and gain extra precious seconds, he casts a spell that will allow him to perform actions so quickly that everyone else looks like they're running in slow motion.

The point is that being a wizard and casting spells LARGELY has nothing to do with DPS or Cool Downs. Magic is about moments in time where the most powerful person in the room is a mage! There's no need to calculate DPS when everyone but the mage is rooted to the ground for the next 5 minutes! That's what's missing in this magic system....the soul of what it actually means to be a mage and perform real magic.

 

I am not so sure about mages being good in party. They can do only so much and nothing stops the other party targetting them first and killing them in two hits. Their lifespawn in party PvP is even shorter than in 1v1 if anyone suspects them of healing others... I have not been party mage in R11 yet but before I was targeted first and with lags and everything else it is pretty much impossible to escape... besides I can not heal others or cast fire arrows when I am running away.

If others could physically protect me it would be different but nothing stops other party to run through our melees to kill me...



As for other things I have to figure out why I am fizzling level 1 spells with negative fizzle rate.

As for being naked to remove all slugs, i am actually in favor of that (especially since there is slug removing skill, I quite think that being naked to do powerful (ritual) magic makes sense, though I think that most mages do not wish to run around the world naked.

 

Were you carrying a wand or bow? Your fizzle rate could jump from -8 to 22 if you accidentally moved while casting

 

mages are squishy in every game i played. and even when they were squishy they was mostly op because of there range spells and healing abilitys.

whats sad about the mage is that you cant precast spells and dont have to aim in sotoa or that every spell is a skillshot like in Moba games like smite
a mage should be more a supporter with only mana limiting his spells. tab targeting make him op you can never win with a 4 man group vs a 10 man group with proper positioning and strategy i think (like in mortal) + for sure members woud die because of a cc

look for exemple this vid 5 man defeated kranesh from a whole zerg . the mage was a really skillbased character which required month of playing and training to get the situational awareness and this guy play him perfect, you are 2 hit as a mage and everyone focus you. but you are the most important char someone of the group have to take care of and bodyblock in worst case cenarios.
i personally hate the decisiion that a mage can stun in sota , same count for archage ....... 50 man cc fights lol what a ...... game and crap combat without skill



you see a good defencive mage mostly use poison (in nox in ultima) to prevent healing of the enemys ,smaller and greater heals for himself and his mates and sometimes an e bolt (in mortal thunderlash) to always have enough mana to save lifes

so sad they not copied the ultima online spellboook !!!! like mortal copied it from ultima
i hate permanently nameplates and healthbars.... mage should have to aim over the targets to get the info who needs what kind of support, before it get called in teamspeak. showing every name and health over every char in the group and over the enemys make a game a bit too easy .. what do you guys think?

i personally like that a group with an orgenized leader have a bit of advantage.
that you cant tell only a name and everyone directly focus the enemy down... that is not skillbased. but that you have to describe his look ,armor ,the direction he walk so everyone know who you are talking about . because you dont see a name displayed over him only when you have the curser over him.

with a mechanic like this you dont need random fizzel mechanics like in Sota

 

Wand, but it happens to me with both wand and staff. It never happens to me with polearm... not sure why. Anyway I do not want to use polearm as mage.
EDIT: I see that the fizzle for moving with wand is crazy while not changed with polearm, boo. Really +30% fizzle chance while moving? I have to get rid of the wand:-/

 

Yes, this tiny little wand will SO impair my ability to cast magic.

*Lifts giant Lich Axe and chain spams magic spells*

 

There's a reason mages & wizards are always old. It takes a lifetime & a long one at that to master this art. But woe to the enemy of such as one of these.

 

talking about fizzle rates and the weapon you're wielding... i just checked something strange. I have a 20 value on fizzling atm with my leather gear. Equipping a staff, a wand or a bow it drops to 10. Equipping an one handed weapon, a two handed weapon or being unarmed don't modify that value. I can't seem to find the logic on that, and i don't have any skill that lowers my fizzle chance by any means. The conclusion is that if i'm wielding a ranged weapon i'm more proficent with magic? hmm... nope, still no sense .

If we take fizzle chance as the %rate of my character making a mistake in the gestures required to unleash the spell, it's affected by the armor i'm wearing and if i have one or both of my hands occupied. The first factor is already controlled if we don't take in consideration the second. What logic dictates me is that my fizzle chance should be only lowered by skills.

Here are some thoughts taking as a given the assumption made in the first line of this paragraph (if that's not true, fizzle doesn't make sense in my opinion).

• What could i have in my hands that allows me to make gestures better? My answer is nothing. Only unarmed characters should be able to stay with the fizzle rate given by their armor, and i'd go as far as saying that they should get a lower penalty for movement, since they are not unbalanced by anything.
• Having one hand occupied should raise fizzle rate, since there's an additional element hindering your gestures. Being a magical focus, fizzle increment by wands should be half the value of the rest of one handed weapons. Bows should be taken as one handed weapons for that purpose, since archers being able to cast better than other characters seems to be the intention of the dev team.
• Having both hands occupied should raise fizzle rate, adding a value that doubles (or more) the penalty given by having only one hand occupied. Being a magical focus, Staves should give half the value of the rest of two handed weapons (same as a normal one handed weapon). Shields are already taken into account since they add their own fizzle value; that should be added as a plus for the penalty of having both hands occupied.

That's what makes sense to me.

 

Yeah it drops until you move Than it jumps crazy high and you forget how to cast the simpliests of the spells.

Anyway I am fine with wand or staff decreasing fizzle, they are mages tools after all (unlike bow).

 

Yes, a 30 increase is a bit serious for being in movement, and don't forget about 20 reduction on attack. I acknowledge being in movement as a casting hinder because it's harder to make the complex movements required to unleash a spell while you're in movement. As i write this, an image came to my head; people stopping walking to light a cigarette. Skilled smokers are able to do it while they walk!

I stated nothing should low the fizzle rate because it's imposed by your armour; lowering it is implying you're moving better. It could be reasoned as magical synergy, but then you're taking unarmed mages out of the equation, needing to take them back in with innate skills or an additional mechanic. I went with that because i thought it was easier, and still logical.

 

Well said.

 

Yes, not enough spells and they need to continue to develop the skill set.

 

heres some spell that would make a mage more formidable!

-Blindness lasts 3 rounds
-Firewall to keep badguys/or good at bay!
-Lightening storm lasting 2 rounds, only hurting people/monsters not in your party
-Hold Humanoid lasting 2 rounds
-Summon Creature (wolf or something simple)
-Charm creature for as many rounds as they have skill points in it
-Burning Hands
-Magic missile definitely (four missiles of hurt)
-Fog Cloud
-Teleport
-Mirror Image
-Meteor Swarm

For starters