Hello everyone
So before I start, let me give you a little disclaimer: This is by no means an attempt at giving mages unfair advantages, having more spells than other classes and whatnot. The point is that I don't know what should be added to other classes so I'll let others talk about that. It goes without saying that all suggestions should be balanced to fit the gameplay.
With that out of the way, I'd like to suggest some spells to be added to mages:
Arcane Burst: kinda similar to how it is in TBC. The point here is to allow a pure arcane mage to use presence of mind on an arcane spell other than conjure food/water.
Invisibility: i am not sure how exactly to implement this. It could be 1. kind of like in TBC, but otherwise 2. maybe simply make it an immobile channeling spell lasting 30 seconds. If the player moves, the invisibility stops. A 3. option is something similar to the second, but instead giving it an aoe effect to include nearby party members. Any attack will of course end the invisibility for the mage or any of his allies.
Water Elemental: This was introduced in vanilla as a pre-TBC spell. To be honest, this spell was introduced to us all the way back in Warcraft 1. I think there are two options here. 1. Make it like in TBC, a damage booster for a short while. 2. make it slightly more like in WC3, a longer lasting, but less dpsy minion - but with more hp. It should not have taunt spells (unlike voidwalker for example), but it could have slightly threat increased basic damage, furthermore it should be frost resistant. Its damage will of course be water based. Players are required to have at least 30 points in frost to make water elemental available.
Fire Elemental: Same as water elemental, but with fire damage, resistance, and 30 points in fire tree to be available.
Slow: Well, it's already in the game (and has been in the lore since at least WC2). So a spell based on that to make arcane full spec better in a balanced way would be appreciated. Should require 30 points in Arcane talents (similar to TBC)
What do you guys think?
New mage spells
Re: New mage spells
I would be fine with more mage spells as long as they do not affect the mage’s dps in raids unless if it is arcane spec as it needs dev intervention to make it optimal. I would be fine if they are just extra utilities to make them feel cool. The developers should gather ideas from TBC and future expansions to add new abilities/talents to every class in order to avoid the fallout of complaints that one class gets more than others(Sachin and a few devs are doing that as of now). Although there will be complaints from PvPers due to more utilities, they should be ignored because the PvP meta will change with every custom change added, even if it is unintentional to affect PvP. For example, most active PvPers on the server spam tea with sugar nowadays.
Mage invisibility if added should be similar to the TBC version by making yourself not being able to see everything else while invisible, and it should share a special CD with any invisible pots to prevent abuse in raids.
The rest of the abilities should be adjusted to make it serve a purpose without affecting mage dps of the fire and frost trees.
Mage invisibility if added should be similar to the TBC version by making yourself not being able to see everything else while invisible, and it should share a special CD with any invisible pots to prevent abuse in raids.
The rest of the abilities should be adjusted to make it serve a purpose without affecting mage dps of the fire and frost trees.
Re: New mage spells
Every single one of these except Invisibility 2 and *possibly* Arcane Burst would be OP.
Invisibility 1: Mages are now able to solo even more instances, as unskippable trash is currently a huge barrier to their ability to do so (invis pots are a 10 min cd, which throws a huge wrench into skipping).
Invisibility 3: Same as invisibility 1 but even more OP.
Water Elemental: Mage pulls tons of mobs, Ice Blocks, mobs all run to elemental. Trivializes AoE farming but also increases the number of mobs a mage can reasonably farm & increases the list of AoE farmable mobs.
Fire Elemental: see above.
Slow: PvP balance issue, also makes mage soloing even more OP.
Invisibility 1: Mages are now able to solo even more instances, as unskippable trash is currently a huge barrier to their ability to do so (invis pots are a 10 min cd, which throws a huge wrench into skipping).
Invisibility 3: Same as invisibility 1 but even more OP.
Water Elemental: Mage pulls tons of mobs, Ice Blocks, mobs all run to elemental. Trivializes AoE farming but also increases the number of mobs a mage can reasonably farm & increases the list of AoE farmable mobs.
Fire Elemental: see above.
Slow: PvP balance issue, also makes mage soloing even more OP.
Re: New mage spells
Fair points Fizzles and I totally agree on invisibility and taking inspiration from later expansions.
Well, Axoc, the point of the elementals was not to give mage a tanking pet, but more like a utility, extra thing. You made me think about it and perhaps scrap the idea of a threat increase. Instead the elementals could increase Fire resistance/frost resistance of the mage at the cost of decreasing resistance to the opposite element. Furthermore a slight buff to that school of magic as long as the elemental is alive. In this alternative design it would be pretty easy to kill and a by no means a damage dealer or tank itself. I suppose that fits better with the mage's role of being a glass cannon on his own.
Slow is not OP for soloing. It completely depends on how it is implemented. It could have a long cooldown, only slow by a quite limited percentage, have a high mana cost or a mix of those. This is about fine tuning.
Well, Axoc, the point of the elementals was not to give mage a tanking pet, but more like a utility, extra thing. You made me think about it and perhaps scrap the idea of a threat increase. Instead the elementals could increase Fire resistance/frost resistance of the mage at the cost of decreasing resistance to the opposite element. Furthermore a slight buff to that school of magic as long as the elemental is alive. In this alternative design it would be pretty easy to kill and a by no means a damage dealer or tank itself. I suppose that fits better with the mage's role of being a glass cannon on his own.
Slow is not OP for soloing. It completely depends on how it is implemented. It could have a long cooldown, only slow by a quite limited percentage, have a high mana cost or a mix of those. This is about fine tuning.
Re: New mage spells
Slow alone is ridiculously overpowered. Invisibility is already there via alchemy. Fire and Water Elementals would be a unit that would break the balance of the whole game. Just Arcane Burst.
I'd suggest another approach, alas, it's contagiously unpopular; let mages cast Slow Fall on anyone they are allied with, also, let all their spells get multiple ranks with a different cast time and mana costs.
For example; we got Frostbolt Rank 1 with 25 mana cost and 1.5 second cast time. Obviously a novice spell hence its damage is very low - 18-21. So imagine we get 2 sliders which would determine how much damage would another (let's call it a Mastery Spell) ranks had with more cast time and less mana cost or less damage and faster cast with bigger cost… Catch my drift?
So you could have Mastery Frost Armor with 3 seconds cast time and a very low mana cost for example. Same with raid buff spells. For example, you cast Arcane Brilliance for 3 seconds for like 10% of what we have now. But that's just me …
I'd suggest another approach, alas, it's contagiously unpopular; let mages cast Slow Fall on anyone they are allied with, also, let all their spells get multiple ranks with a different cast time and mana costs.
For example; we got Frostbolt Rank 1 with 25 mana cost and 1.5 second cast time. Obviously a novice spell hence its damage is very low - 18-21. So imagine we get 2 sliders which would determine how much damage would another (let's call it a Mastery Spell) ranks had with more cast time and less mana cost or less damage and faster cast with bigger cost… Catch my drift?
So you could have Mastery Frost Armor with 3 seconds cast time and a very low mana cost for example. Same with raid buff spells. For example, you cast Arcane Brilliance for 3 seconds for like 10% of what we have now. But that's just me …
Slowly turtling my way up.Re: New mage spells
Well, slow doesn't have to be like in TBC. The fact that "invisibility is already on Alch" doesn't mean that it isn't a mage spell. For all these suggestions, it is about striking a good balance. Slow could have a long cooldown, high mana cost or annoying casting time to make it work better.