What is going on with combat?????

I've been playing a pure mage for about 2 months now. (lvl 30, fire/heals) And all of a sudden 1 skeleton or one fighter in the sewers of Sol Town kicks my butt when before I could take on 2, 3, even 4 at a time as a proper mage should! for mobs at this low level. ......All I can think is that "you" as the developers of SotA have implemented the most insidious mob leveling scheme ever.....which basically levels mobs up as you level up. If you have done this, please know that this type of (mob leveling with the player) is incredibly cruel to the player and...in the end is self destructive to your game system. For players will eventually wake up to the never ending grind and leave for something better.

 

Nothing actually changed with them during that time other than them dying without res more often from magic i think. Spell damage is getting adjusted a fair bit at the moment as there is a focus on balancing combat out to stop mages being the only choice for pvp.

 

Oh wasn't there something about spell interrupt in the release notes?
If you are a pure Mage vs a mob group then interrupts would be a bad thing.

 

No they made interrupts happen less often, the only thing i can think of that is messing him up is the new fizzle mechanics and he is running out of focus due to that.

 

The only mob remotely able to do that would be the Ebon Cultist Champion.

Unless you have high fizzle and get interrupted a lot, you should have no problems at all. Skeletons have been softened a lot, with the new resurrection mechanics.

 

A Mage should NERVE, EVER be able to take on 3 - 4 targets at a time - SERIOUSLY how does ANYONE think that ANY fighter (especially a mage) should be able to take on 3 or more MOBs at once.

I no way, shape or form should ANY fighter be able to stand up to 3 or more targets at a time. ESPECIALLY a mage, of course mages wearing Heavy armor could, at the beginning, but now they are working it so that if you are a Mage and NOT wearing light armor (or not have regs) you are going to have problems. THIS IS AS IT SHOULD BE.

If you want to pay a game where you run into the middle of a bunch of critters and just bash (cast) away and live sorry but this game is not for you, nor should it be.

Devs please keep up the GREAT work on balancing skills, templates, armor, and weapons to be something that a true PLAYER can use, not just a click away player.

I really wish you would have stop to your guns without putting the ability to place cards in our hands - all you did was setup a macroers dream

 

Well after a certain level a mage can actually kill as many mobs as you can manage to round up, even the strongest of mobs.

 

I KNOW what they can do ATM but, you should NOT be able to unless you are like level 80 ish or higher. And then when the game finally hits I hope you will still at 80 need some help. . . . . Hope

 

While I agree that someone devoted entirely to offense, such as a blaster mage, should not be able to instantly kill enemies faster than they can swarm him, I believe there are two cases where there SHOULD be someone who can take out 3, 5, or even 30 mobs.

The first is when the character is stronger than the mobs. Don't laugh, there are people who don't think this should be the case. There are creatures you fight one on one when you begin your adventure that should fall away as you gain strength, gear, skill, and other forms of power. When you get swarmed by rats, or basic skeletons, at level 50, or 80, or 314, you should be able to STOMP them.

The second is when absorbing hits from multiple mobs is your character's DESIGN. In games that use the holy trinity party build they are called tanks. In other games I've heard them called heavies, defenders, and walls, but the term "tank" is very common, and most know it's meaning. These characters sacrifice damage output, and frequently other things like range, healing and other support abilities, mobility, and quite likely a big chunk of money maintaining all that armor. That type of character most certainly SHOULD be able to take out large groups of mobs on "equal" footing, alone and unaided. It just takes a LONG time for them to do it.

If either of these conditions is not met, it hurts the game significantly. If the first condition is violated, leveling becomes pointless. Finding that MOBs level with you, or scale with your equipment, is equivalent to finding that you don't level, and that all equipment is effectively graphical in nature, rather than actually significant towards combat.

If the second is violated, standard group combat dynamics are impossible. Now, I'm not 100% against that, it would be nice to see things shaken up, but only if the result is functional. I prefer not to burn my house down until I've closed escrow on the next one.

 

I've only started playing in the last couple of weeks but I couldn't get a mage to 'work' for the same reasons - getting pummed to death by crappy low lvl stuff. I've levelled up to 40 now as melee and tried putting on cloth and maging again and there's been very little change from my initial survivability.

Perhaps I'm missing something huge here, but maging doesn't seem doable currently.

 

Mages are so overpowered it's not even funny, actually.

Death magic (damage the enemy while you heal yourself).

Fire magic (damage-over-time lasting forever and ever and then a bit more, while you wander off minding your own business).

Life magic (you can fully heal with a couple of skills and enough passives).

...Just to name a few.

You don't tank enemies with your armor or hit points. You tank your enemies with your raw, insane DPS.

 

And what actually affects mage DPS then?
Int doesn't appear to, and the miniscule bonuses you can craft on gear don't appear to, it was taking me just as long if not longer to kill things with magic as it was just autoattacking them to death? While having to kite around to not die, dying anyway, and spending more than I was making in loot buying reagents?

At what point does this get better?

 

Intelligence passives from the Focus tree, Enlightenment from the Sun magic tree, +Int equipment (fustian cloth, crafted with raw cotton and suet), are your best friends.

Check Themo's video. You should be able to do that around lvl 30-35.

 

Thanks, that is now tonight's project.

 

Welcome kaeshiva!

 

Pfff...always able to do that...

 

No offense, but to be quite honest, level 30 seems to be bit off from proper.

However, at level 30 in R18, one can easily take on 3 mid-level mobs such as skeletons or fighters you mention.

Keep your distance, shoot them fireballs and keep yourself healed.

 

And what if I want to play a pure mage who doesn't use death magic? Why must I be forced to choose an assortment of buffs and things from many different trees?

I find a mage unplayable even at higher levels for my playstyle. A mage is supposed to be high damage and not able to take hits, but every tree in magic starts with a fist attack...That is not the meaning of a true pure mage.

Mages should have the versitility to be powerful in 1 or 2 schools of magic...as it stands they are not. I don't use death magic as I am not a necromancer. I don't like to use life magic, as most mages do not heal, that is the job of a priest or cleric...but it's a must thus far to even hope to survive as a mage.

Ice spells should slow enemies enough for a mage to fight from a distance. There should be other spells that should take enemies out of commision...as a mage, I do not expect to survive upon being hit. But, as a mage in this game, being hit is part of combat for a mage and a melee character.

I will try again in r20 to see if things have changed.

 

@Lord Baldrith

People seem to be hanging on to Death magic thinking it's OP diregarding patch notes & numbers in the combat log. In high level
PvP where DPS takes a huge part, many are opting for other magic trees.

As it is, anyone can be a powerful mage speccing in one magic school. However, I don't see where your getting at with not wanting to use healing... Maybe consumables? Perhaps bandaging? Perhaps the ability to dodge most attacks with nimbleness? How would a mage replenish HP?

All you need is 1st tier Healing Touch for base healing, then leave the higher level healing spells to the priest & clerics.

With all the speed innates & the Sprint skill in the Light Armor tree along with the Dash & Blink spells in the Air tree... Even without the speed buffs, one can simply demolish enemies from a distance without having to worry about getting hit, with the exception of the few ranged mobs. Just don't bite off more than you can chew.

As for unwanted spells such as fist spells... You sacrifice points in skills that you will probably not use in your template so that you can get skills that you want. I see nothing wrong with that.

I am positive that Ice spells slow enemies... Ever tried Ice Field?

Also, Gust, Piercing Breeze and Root work well for crowd control. They are are easy on focus & have quick cool downs.

 

Thus far just going down 1 tree lacks utility for a mage. In order to get roots and stuns and confuse to hold back enemies I would need 4 or more trees...I prefer to play a PURE mage like Fire or Water or Sun etc...Thus far this is not an option.

I am okay with temporarily using healing for my mage, and would love to use bandaids or pots...once they allow pots to be off a rotation and viable in survival...but mages do not generally heal.

You are penalized for movement as a mage or melee fighter. Focus cost goes up and damage goes down when you get off your move buff, so standing still is forced on everyone. I think mages should generally stand still while casting, but you can't or you die since your ranged spells do not effectively stop enemies.

Crowd Control and DoTs are pretty worthless so far. I have tried fireball and it takes more mana than it's worth and generally just gets me in trouble...I try to keep battles to 2 or less creatures. I am even okay with this, but I would like to be able to survive these types of battles more often than not. As it stands, a mage does not survive.

There is no benefit to wearing cloth besides fizzle. You don't regain focus any faster, you do not get a boost to your spell power, you are not any faster, and you die quick. Wearing plate doesn't seem right for my mage as I am not playing a tank-mage.

Also, it appears the system is set up to force us to go in many different trees since you are forced to add 5 new spells every 10 levels. Again, I want to specialize with my mage. I don't mind having characters who are a bit more diverse, but not my mage.

Ah yes, death magic is OP...but I don't like to be forced to go one way or another based on that. I'm tired of the whole do this or you lose type character development system...which is why I was so happy with the UO style of leveling system...which didn't have levels, but had character improvement as the character actually performed the actions.