Mage Class

This.

And also bring reactive armor back.

I love playing a mage, I’d prefer to hunt with one, but they really are just an accessory in the end game, even if they are essential to the economy.

I’m just curious from the developer’s point of view, what’s holding back from sending them to the forefront? Has there been other shards that have experimented with adjusting the class?

Raziel/Frayed

As someone who’s played a mage and ranger everyday since the relaunch, here’s my 2c w.r.t. the suggestions in this thread…I may not have 30 ppl in my guild to have every item known to man but im active as much as the next guy (for whatever the fck that should be worth)

Moffe: Here are some suggestions, coming from one of the few playing mage out in the field on this server.

Raziel: seen this character 6 times in 3 months…everyone is grinding, bitching or not (ironic I know)

Moffe: If other classes get to have combat skills for free, mages should atleast be able to use staffs to defend themselves.

Raz: no class should have free skills; play a pp if u want other skills

Moffe: Magic damage on monsters must be increased. It sucks so bad that you cant even kill a skeleton on 1 mindblast as a lvl 5 mage with +20 magic effiency.

Raz: circle 6, normal spell book…try something else, I cant 1 shot a skele with a power bow either…everyone runs by this shit regardless

Moffe: To kill a celestial dragon you need about 6-7 energy bolts, which you could always kill with 1 or 2 before. Most orange bosses cant even be hurt by magic.

Raz…again, try other spells, celestial drag should be harder considering how rare it is (they don’t exit outside champ spanws afik)…normal spells are just that, normal spells

Moffw: Being able to meditate while running (yeah I know I’ve brought it up before and its supposedly been fixed) Right now it works like 50% of the time at best.

Raz… If a tick doesn’t work while running it should (pretty sure it does), otherwise use pots like the rest of us

Moffe: Many spells are not working like they should or dont work at all (Shapeshift,Polymorph,Liche, Sacrifice, Necro freeze, Darkness, Earth portal, Telekinesis, Incognito, Summon creature, Summon Mammals, Animate dead, Spellblind, Summon Spirit, Control Undead)

Raz….Implement the various shapeshifting spells when they stop crashing clients……paralyze spells should be prot dependent instead of free action for all…..the other spells have always been useless and/or for griefing

MOffe: Maybe make Spirit Speak a better useful skill somehow?

Raz…can see ded ppl talk, seems useful to me/has been to decide whether or not to res someone

Moffe: Nerf protections a little bit. Maybe remove lvl 5-6 from elemental/necro prots. And make it so you can actually be paralyzed by spells if you dont have the proper prots (lvl 4 necro/holy minimum).

Raz…agree with the paralyze comments. If mages can override lvl4 + prots Id make books regular items (ie: e/h/n books not blessed)

MOffe: Being able to reveal thiefs if you stand on the same tile atleast.

Raz…Theif hiding should have no protection against reveal spell (unless they have BR/MS/MR)

Thatoneguy: My biggest concern has always been that mages are just all glass and no cannon.

Raz: mages risk nothing, if u want to 1 shot ppl (which they already can) u need to risk more. ive collected plenty of gear risking nothing but 60 reags/ a few ebook scrolls…

thatoneguy: Completely agree that the damage needs to be increased for spells, especially ones beyond the regular spell book that require pagans and heaps of mana.

Raz…exaggeration, I have more pagans than I know what to do with (even though id love to see the quantities of drops increased for alchemy)

thatoneguuy: A ranger has tracking to gain information, a thief has stealth. Evaluating Int. is good for PvM, but it would be nice if Eval Int. also gave protection information for player characters. Bumping elbows in town and sizing someone up for what they are wearing doesn’t seem too improbable, plus if you actually take the time in a moments-notice-pvp scenario to use Eval Int on your enemy and do it successfully enough to not die and use the information, i’d say you deserve it.

Raz…like the idea of evaling the prots a char is wearing but beyond that it makes no sense to give anyone an advantage by observing them in town

while im ranting, other stuff outside this thread:::::::

Raz: 50 fishcakes a loop…unbalanced gold farming…

Tipsy: shard will be closed in a month

Raz: tired of seeing it man, u never play anyways (seen once when an alt was ghosting/jailed for it), quit being so negative. not everyone plays for what ur playing fir

Russia: love the competition but stop abusing game mechanics. Using items to block crafters into going out of town is obv…explicit rule or not its evidenced by the fact u cant drop shit in dungeons

Champ spawns: should respawn more frequently or have more of them

Brazi Dazzles: Loved fighting them, haven’t seen a modern day shrard survive where they played (ie cheats/DDDOS when jailed for cheating)

Two suggestions: int mods and casting from books.

Int mods: currently, strength and dexterity mods are high value because they directly translate into more survivability and faster attack speed = more damage output. Intelligence mods, on the other hand, are useless because int does nothing for a mage (except larger mana pool which doesn’t really matter – at least not enough to wear int mods on your gear).
One suggestion is to have intelligence impact spellcasting in some way, either by simply increasing damage, or by reducing spell delay/casting speed (e.g. time beween casting until target reticle appears), or some other variant. Just make it worthwhile. Strength suffers from diminishing returns (up to a point; going from 400 to 410 str doesn’t matter much for your survivability) while dexterity is always a strong stat (400 -> 410 dex is as much a damage increase as 130 -> 140). Do something similar for int mods.

Earth, necro and holybooks can only be used while stationary. If you run while casting e/n/h spells you instantly get interrupted. Aligning these with how normal spellbooks work would make them more feasible, i.e. allowing running while casting but have to stop to target.

Another option would be to let damage scale only by “base int”, such as raw intelligence and int modifiers from items, but not let damage scale from int buffs (such as bless, cunning, enlightenment or liche). This would make int items and int stat potions attractive for mages, while letting int buffs serve only to increase the mana pool. Might be a nice middle ground not to make it too powerful yet still find some use for int mods.

A good mage do not only carry reagents in the same manner that a good warrior do not only carry a spear or a ranger with bow and arrows. Sure you can do some damage with any of them but chances for survival is pretty slim.
I think a solution for mage class is either nerf prots a bit (have been tested and various servers before). Something like this:
Lvl 6 prot 90% instead of 150% (lvl6 necro should also include necro paralyze)
Lvl 5 prot 75%
Lvl 4 prot 60%
Lvl 3 prot 45%
Lvl 2 prot 30%
Lvl 1 prot 15%

Or let mages pierce through prots in line with their spec lvls.

Sometimes we need to stop improving/making things stronger and more op to even things out which ultimately makes the game more and more hysterical. Sometimes it is better to tune the mechanics in the opposite direction as well.

Moff say true

I had joined this shard as its based on ZH rules and one of the things I was looking forward to was making a mage as I recall back in TFR – The forgotten realms the South African shard, Mages were really deadly and you could always rely on them, I hope they get some buffs so their spells are a bit more spicy or maybe dependant on the Class mage multiply the damage output of all spells/buffs?