The Penalty (Counter) to Death Magic

Death Magic is OP. Always will be in this system until there is a real counter.

Here's an easy one that would also make some of the other spells more meaningful.

Proposal:

The more you use Death Magic, the more damage you take from life spells. Now it make sense to carry Banish Undead in PVP. This would also mean that if you were spamming heals on top of using death magic you would eventually hurt yourself more than you healed yourself.

Make it so!

 

Is that your perception based on your vast experience in playing the game? Or do you have real data with a rigorous methodology behind it that backs up your point?

 

Let he who has maximum playtime cast the first stone.

 

*picks up a stone* I don't know if I disagree with the suggestion but I find the premise that death magic will ALWAYS be overpowered to be a bit much. A find a certain lack of in Portalarium in a claim like that.

It seems to me that if a death magic user takes damage from life magic.. would that not negate their ability to use life magic themselves? That seems a little contrary to currently known design goals.

 

What should be looked at is how underpowered and impractical other spell trees thereby necessitating the use of death magic. I've used it through all the releases and at times it has been the only thing keeping my character alive

 

Outside of making death magic so gimped that it was useless, I stand by my statement.

If you use life magic against me now, and nothing else...can you kill me? Nope.
But if I use death magic against you and nothing else, not only can I kill you, but I can also heal myself.

That's why it's OP. It performs the function of both Life and Death magic.

My solution in the OP would fix that.

 

Right, but what you're explaining is translated (thus far in all the releases) as the developers going back and making other spells and skills more powerful (i.e. doing more damage).

And in case you haven't figured it out yet. When your entire system is based on DPS, that type of change just drags everything down to the lowest common denominator. You're robbing peter to pay paul, so to speak. The overall system is completely broken. You can't fix it by tweaking it. You have to make major changes to the way this system operates.

Life vs. Death Magic is a perfect example. If you make the use of Death Magic counterable by Life Magic...you've just changed the nature of the core system.

 

Conversely, a death magic attack on an opponent 'X" could also place a life skill improvement buff on "X" so that if "X" healed himself after being hit by death magic, his or her heal might be slightly improved. Another way to skin the orc.

 

Perhaps. I agree with the spirit but not the application.

I'm not trying to gimp death magic. It's cool, and I want to use it. But there's no downside, unless it's in some release where it happens to do less DPS than some other magic tree. There's no way to counter it, unless again you have a better DPS formula.

By default, the way the OP is written, it's essentially doing the same thing you're proposing, only it doesn't allow for exploits. Like having your friend hit you with death magic so you can increase your healing power.

 

So fro this I gather you have no data but just pulled it out of the blue. So we're supposed to take this critisism seriously?

 

What reason is there not to? Do you have a set of gathered data that proves this premise behind the suggestion incorrect?

 

You personally can do whatever you like. You can ignore me. You can disagree with me. You can ask questions and debate the OP on the merits of the idea. But you can't ask questions about "playing time". That doesn't devalue or make my points less true. It just makes you in violation of the forum rules.

 

He actually does. It stopped being overpowered months ago, to the point where some people are asking for it to be "fixed". A while ago we suggested that the more you use death magic, the less effect life magic had on you. Right now death touch is useful but not necessary in a mage build, death ray is less useful but a combo card for fiery decay (which is very powerful) and death shield has gone back to being semi useful but not a common pick. Death field is not that great due to interrupts but some people like to use it to compliment earthquake. Long way from overpowered in any situation. Huge changes incoming to all aspects of combat in a few weeks also, lots more than just use based progression so its hard to suggest balance changes before we get to test all the new stuff. Highly anticipated QA.

 

I don't have to defend any claim since I've not made one. However a claim was made it was overpowered without any data to back it up. When called on it, he reverted to threats of violating forum rules. Now I'm curious which one(s) I broke, at least in his opinion?

 

Death has indeed lost its clout, and boy, have I noticed the change! Against my lowly wolf opponents I used to use death touch a lot. It enabled me as a cloth bearer to kill even two at close range by spamming death touch. That is no longer possible. I still have death touch in my deck, but I hardly ever use it, because it is suicide to let enemies get close. I also seldom bother using Death Ray as a standalone spell. I do use it for the Fiery Death combo which is still a good DOT ranged spell. A single Fiery Decay can kill a beginner's little brown spider, but unless it was a lucky shot with high damage, I still have to keep running circles around it until it dies. Against an enemy like a timber wolf one fiery decay is useless, because it heals faster than the DOT. I used to use Death Field as an AOE spell but it is far less useful now and I had to take it out of my deck in favor of the Ring of Fire one.

If they end up making fire DOTs less effective as well, I will have to bite the bullet, don plate and go melee. I was recently in Wynton's Folly with a melee guildmate of a similar level, and it was hard for me to even hit a skeleton with a ranged spell, because by the time my spell was cast and had travelled the distance to the enemy, it was already dead from being clobbered by the melee warrior.

 

awwww maaaan... I was planning to rely on death ray as healing mechanic to keep my archer alive. Is death ray unreliable also as that kind of support spell? shall i need to invest in healing as well to stay alive, or having some defensive skills up while using death ray may be enough?

 

Its not bad, it has just had its life transfer greatly reduced. It can not be counted on as a heal anymore, it often transfers a very small amount. If you are good at staying outside of melee range you may still enjoy it, but healing touch is cheaper,instant and heals allot more.

 

Healing is better in my experience. Death Ray takes time to cast and you have to stand still when casting it, so your enemy is closing in on you while you do so. Healing is possible on the run. You can surprise an enemy at a distance with Death Ray, but unless you are attacking beginner foes, the damage it makes is minimal, and usually if you are surprising the enemy and not already in the middle of a fight, your health doesn't need any regeneration anyway.

 

mmhkay, so the tradeoff is some damage for less healing, am i right? makes sense for a skill that does two things to do them only half well. For now I think i'll lock a healing touch glyph and use death rays to heal while helping with damage (i already invested on death magic so...)

Thanks for your advice guys.

 

Yes, the health transferred to the caster is too low to make it worth my while to use Death Ray. You mentioned one of my pet peeves in the current release: melee range. Enemy reach is insane, and it is not just due to lag. I hope they fix that soon, because it makes life so much more difficult for cloth bearers.