Auto Attack for magic

Should mages and schools of magic have an achievable method for an auto-attack method for doing their school of damage (even though it may be nullified by certain mobs ie: undead and death magic).

Or should mages be forced to use bows/polearms/swords to do a constant reliable source of damage? Should wands/staffs be imbued to have the ability to cast or transfer a specific school of damage? Like a fire-wand that shoots fire arrows? Or gloves that do stone strike? Staff that does sunray?

Just curious on community feel for such a thing. It doesn't have to be like a polearm like spam-auto-free-cast fireball. Maybe a version of firearrow/ice arrow/ stone strike/death touch / sun ray / lunar beam of death / chaos bolt / shock ect.

Or just leave it as spells are basically utility or secondary to the damage of a melee weapon?

Civil thoughts/opinions?

Edit:

Popular choices:
1 - "but as for just casting spells because you are a mage - Sorry NOPE" So no spell casting as a mage. use a melee weapon.
2 - "imbue/enchant wands and staffs to either cast out a ranged/melee attack with the benefits of the circle of choice and attunement"
3 - "imbue/enchant wands/staffs or gear to lower cooldown/focus cost of low tier spells as to provide a sort of filler
4 - "use a polearm"

 

How about wands when they get their Spells ataached they can fire them, But nothing higher than tier 2, maybe 3, But more power more cost - coold downs etc?

Bt as for just casting spells because you are a mage - Sorry NOPE.

 

Why not just tier 1? since most those are powerful enough.

But yea mages should use polearms to deal the bulk of their damage. That's the general feel I get from most people - be all you can be.

Unless you are RPing I guess. Talking straight mechanics and the Metagame here.

 

I could see wands and/or staves as being a magic based auto attack. In fact, wands will do that now, they just count as ranged attacks and not a particular school of magic. But yea, having magic school related wands or staves that give off a low-level school spell as auto attack damage would be fair IMO and give magic a flare of fun and individuality.

It would have to be low enough damage that it couldn't keep up with the natural combat regen of an average melee though. Sort of like a filler to help reduce some of those insane regen rates. But if it's too strong, that would be too OP with combinations of roots/stuns and the ease of focus-free kiting for a mage.

I always thought of the melee vs mage balance was: melee has better base damage dps, but must be in range and up close... whereas a mage has slower attacks but more powerful burst with the advantage of range to keep them away from melee. But SOTA could put a new twist on this stereotype by adding this feature.

To make things more balanced, the ability to use a school-specific wand/staff should require some degree of skill training in that school before being available, or at least to be able to get an auto-attack feature for that wand/staff... like an innate ability that can be learned in say Tier 3-4 range?

 

Why should a mage be required to use polearms or any melee weapons?

I'm very much of the school that wands and staves should be able to auto-attack (if that's the play style desired) for a similar damage to ranged or melee. The glyphs are supposed to be more powerful attacks just like melee and ranged glyphs are. I would love to see school based wands, but I wouldn't have it coded to what the mage has leveled up, instead I'd leave it tied to how the wand/staff is made. Craft it with an embedded element like regular weapons, ruby = fire, obsidian chip = chaos, nothing = non-ele based force blast.

If it were tied to spells at any tier then people would cry foul for being OP.

 

Yes. All of the spells should be cast automatically. Like from a machine gun. Just fire away!

 

Not sure what that means. Spells can ultimately do more damage. I've actually found that even as someone who relies on a melee weapon, spells make a good backup, because, the way the game works, you can use them even when your weapon breaks. They don't require reagents. So, if my sword breaks, rendering it unusable, and all I have left is Flame Fist, then I can completely fall back on Flame Fist. How much this helps depends on the enemy, of course.

OF course, ideally, I would either keep on top of repairs, or have a second weapon with me for backup, or steal a weapon from someone I killed, so I can use it in a fight.

But the way the game works currently, mages don't have to worry about costs in many scenarios if they don't want to, and everyone else does. How does that make melee weapons better?

And what would be wrong about having a mage rely on a melee weapon as a backup (even a staff usable for fighting), in case they were cornered and couldn't hide or had no reagents?

 

Only if they implement a spell of explosive bowel movements... That would be hilarious to equip in town and run through the streets.

 

Imbueing the wands would be interesting, but then again I think most people would like to see mages stay weak and melee weapons do much more. At end game doing 70-100 with a polearm is reasonable for an auto attack while a ranged wand should be around 5-10 since its at range, at least it seems to hats what some people want and I can see that, it is a single player game with mmo features after all.

 

Currently, there isn't a way to not use melee as a mage. Even using pets, a lot of mobs ignore the pet tank and run straight for the mage, or pets lose aggro REALLY quickly. You can't effectively kite as a mage as the wand does minimal damage at best and moving makes it harder to cast spells (many spells force you to stop moving and you lose the stillness bonus). Although you don't HAVE to use reagents, it makes focus and fizzle drop significantly, and without focus a mage is useless (spell only fights deplete it quickly). My armor needs to be repaired every bit as quickly as a melee fighter's (and in many ways faster because melee kills stuff quicker than magic does currently due to melee auto-attack added damage).

 

Yeah exactly what you said. Melee does more overall, with spells backups and utility like Gust and stunning and healing.

Of course that's why some people want all spells to require reagents to make it even with melee, that they both need a cost.

Except life tree, since its op and everyone needs it

 

Is this ranged damage also going to apply to bow users as well?

 

I'd rather see wands and staffs reduce reagent requirements / fizzle chance for one school, then tie first-tier spells to reagents. So he'd get at least first-tier spells from that school free, and maybe more, if the staff is more powerful.

I wouldn't completely be against them also having an auto-fire; the problem is I think that the auto-fire would have to be pretty weak to make it balanced. You'd also want the auto-fire to be stronger for mages than for fighters at any rate. But there's nothing wrong IMO with giving mages a different set of choices than fighters. A mage can use a weapon (even staff) as a backup, and if he doesn't want to do that, he can stealth and use cover, and if he doesn't want to do that, he can rely on crowd control spells as he fires off damage, and if he doesn't want to do that, he can summon elementals to do his work for him, Etc.

I also posted a thread on traps and magic traps, which would be a good addition to a mage's repertoire.

 

No, its especially why life needs reagents!

 

A staff can have several functions, for any one school of magic,

Reduce fizzle and thus reagent reqs (in that one school)
Increase attunement (in that one school)
Decrease focus cost (in that one school)

Added bonus... can be used as a polearm

Maybe.. Auto-fire.

 

Auto-fire on wand is currently capped a 1-4 no matter how high your level is. It can only target 1 mob at a time (melee can hit multiple depending on weapon and damage is WAY higher). Most spells are single target only. Crowd control and elemental summons do not hold groups of mobs well.

Again I wouldn't tie wands to fizzle or reagent reduction as that then forces a mage to have to use a wand or staff, and kills diversity of builds. I would like to see a wand or staff wielding mage be viable for solo play though.

 

I don't see a problem myself with making wands or staves very attractive. I would say add things like amulets, but then that would allow a mage to wear an amulet plus use a staff, and I'm not sure how that would be managed.

But I'm sure wands and staffs could also have some maintenance cost, too. Plus, the more magic relies on reagents (for base casting), the more leeway devs have to increase its power.

 

Spells currently deal alot of damage, especially if you stack them before firing them. There is an auto attack, but the damage is minimal because it is ranged, and it doesnt cost anything. U can fire bolts till your wand/staff breaks.

The plan for wands and staffs is to be able to craft them to attune to certain spell trees. A life wand for life mages, a fire wand for fire mages, etc that will increase your damage and effectivness with spells fromt he corresponding tree.

 

I'm not even talking about making a wand or staff very attractive. I'm talking about making it basically functional for combat. A wand currently doesn't do enough damage to offset regen on any mobs over 1 skull. Amulets and other things to make attunement or magic more powerful (including wands or staves making magic more powerful) would be nice, but aren't quite on target for the intention of the post.

Short of making magic one or two shot mobs on level for character (which would NOT be good in my opinion as it makes the game WAY too easy), there needs to be something a purist mage can use to fill the damage auto-attack does for melee.

 

I love the prospect of a staff with benefits to my chosen school of magic. I would also hope that the damage of that school's spells were increased based on the quality of the staff.

I do not want auto-fire unless it can be turned off. That ruins my mage's start spell because the auto fire would attack before my cooldowns were done and my arrow was cast...I like my ele to gain some attack on the target before I do damage...it seems to help.

I also want a staff to be able to be carried like a cane for us older mages.

Also, the ability to bonk mobs with my staff and cause knockdown/knockback or stun effects would make sense for a mage weapon.