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They seem like questions that should have really obvious answers but IMO after some thought they don't. What do you think?
Mazrian
Off the top of my head...
I'd still like to see WM DoTs. I'm thinking they might either have debilitation-like preps with no targeting or a very short time to target, like half the time.
Channeled TM, like magic missiles.
A spell that makes the next targeted spell instant or near instant-cast would be neat, although that may work better as an AP ability with cooldown.
Call me crazy, but I also really like spells that have the chance to kill the caster if he or she forgets to do something, like throw up ES. Might be fun, if a little upsetting to Smokey the Bear, to set the ground ablaze applying a DoT to everyone in the area.
I'd still like to see WM DoTs. I'm thinking they might either have debilitation-like preps with no targeting or a very short time to target, like half the time.
Channeled TM, like magic missiles.
A spell that makes the next targeted spell instant or near instant-cast would be neat, although that may work better as an AP ability with cooldown.
Call me crazy, but I also really like spells that have the chance to kill the caster if he or she forgets to do something, like throw up ES. Might be fun, if a little upsetting to Smokey the Bear, to set the ground ablaze applying a DoT to everyone in the area.
> I remember when ES was needed to protect from your own Frostbite.oh, and ES was needed for Static Discharge. I really do not see a need, yet, for ES in my current hunting. Ah, the good old days. (I know, not so good but let me have a moment.)
My very first character was a warrior mage, and I loved the synergy between spells.
ES + Fireball.
ES + frostbyte.
Rising mist + frostbyte.
ES + static discharge + cantrip.
Hm.. I guess I really just loved the synergy with ES. Still good times.
My very first character was a warrior mage, and I loved the synergy between spells.
ES + Fireball.
ES + frostbyte.
Rising mist + frostbyte.
ES + static discharge + cantrip.
Hm.. I guess I really just loved the synergy with ES. Still good times.
To be philosophical with a theory of fun:
A good spell (or ability, really) breaks a game rule in an interesting way, allows you to learn a new aspect of the game. A better spell expands your strategic options. A great spell changes the way you play the game.
YS was almost nominally a great spell, but had external problems: the armor rules it broke are just bad game rules so breaking them was mostly fun because it allowed you to sidestep a part of the game that wasn't fun on its own, and it limited strategic options instead of expanding them. The relatively 'small' number of WM spells also meant that there was no reason not to choose YS at which point you have to look at why this is a spell pick at all and not some default ability.
>Forgive my snark, but welcome to the life of a warrior mage.
A good spell (or ability, really) breaks a game rule in an interesting way, allows you to learn a new aspect of the game. A better spell expands your strategic options. A great spell changes the way you play the game.
YS was almost nominally a great spell, but had external problems: the armor rules it broke are just bad game rules so breaking them was mostly fun because it allowed you to sidestep a part of the game that wasn't fun on its own, and it limited strategic options instead of expanding them. The relatively 'small' number of WM spells also meant that there was no reason not to choose YS at which point you have to look at why this is a spell pick at all and not some default ability.
>Forgive my snark, but welcome to the life of a warrior mage.
I personally would love to see static discharge returned in the old mechanics method; that is to say, I'd like to see a 2-step small-value AoE spell accesable at level 10-15-20, rather than requiring 250-300 TM as normal. It was possibly my favorite WM feature.
I know fireball does some AoE styled attacks, but I miss mini-cl.
I know fireball does some AoE styled attacks, but I miss mini-cl.
Here's my criteria for what makes a good spell:
- The spell needs to have a real, tangible effect that makes you want to cast the spell. Most buff spells are a pretty good example of this - they offer noticeable, instant benefits for casting. Other buff spells are middle of the road (Ethereal Shield comes to mind - it ostensibly IS doing stuff, and you do notice it when fighting things like Oshu or other things using elemental attacks, but aside from those niche scenarios it has no noticeable benefit). Others suck (Y'ntrel Sechra does exactly what it's supposed to do, but because of how Armor skill works, it feels to the caster like it's doing nothing at all).
- The spell needs to be worth the mana to cast. This seems obvious, but a lot of times I feel I can achieve more useful results from repeated weapon strikes in the same period of time as a fully targeted spell. Not necessarily because I do more damage - the spell will usually do a bit more. However, the repeated hits will often result in multiple injuries, or stuns, whereas I rarely if ever stun with a TM spell in the first 10 seconds of a fight. You could make the argument that you can swing while targeting the spell, but doing that means you're either prepping lower (and thus being far outdamaged by your weapon swings) or prepping higher (and being out of attunement after 3 casts). I, and a lot of casters I'm sure, spend their available RT during targeting for the purpose of harnessing.
- The spell needs to "feel" good to use. This can be achieved through powerful effects (but not too powerful or it's overpowered), awesome messaging, or a combination of both.
- The spell should be unique in some way. In a perfect world where all creatures have detectable Elemental weaknesses, all of our Single Target, one shot TM spells would be more useful because we'd feel the need to pick the right swiss army knife attachment for each situation. As it stands though, it feels like a lot of the spells are very similar in effect. I would suggest some sort of secondary effects for the various doppelganger spells to help differentiate them, but I don't think this is necessarily a problem with the spells themselves as it is the fact we can't as players SEE the differences that are certainly there behind the scenes. A spell also needs to be unique without being too niche.
- The spell needs to fit with the lore and theme of whatever guild it is assigned to. Should go without saying.
As a WM, some of our BEST spells, in my opinion:
- Fire Shards
- Intro spell, but multi-shot effect that grows with the caster. Cool messaging.
- Fire Ball
- Advanced spell, solid single target damage, with an AoE bonus effect. Cool messaging.
- Geyser
- Intro spell with good damage, a unique idea that fits the guild (The first non-RM water spell that's not Ice), and has awesome messaging.
- Our Entire Augmentation Suite except for Y'ntrel Sechra's current iteration.
- Every one of our buff spells feels essential to HAVE, if not essential to have cast on yourself at all times.
- Magnetic Ballista
- Unique spin on TM, secondary effect that sort of resembles a TM debilitation spell.
- Both Elemental Transformations are great and I hope to see the rest of the elements represented someday. Bards currently have more Elemental transformations than us.
- I am probably in the minority here, and I can't speak to how they function at high levels of stats against higher level targets, but I think our Debilitation spells are solid.
IMO these spells feel lackluster, but are functionally fine.
- Chain Lightning/Shockwave
- Striking everything in the room one time is underwhelming in the current combat landscape of higher health - the amount of times you need to cast these spells to kill off a swarm will leave you out of mana quickly. You'd be better off annihilating single targets one by one in most scenarios - the one niche these spells can shine in is invasions, but for daily use while hunting or similar, they're just not as practical for learning or killing as other spells, making them expensive, deep-tree investments for niche spells.
- Ethereal Shield
- This spell has great messaging (I would go so far as to say it's an iconic WM spell), but not very many creatures come after us with spells or elemental damage special attacks. Putting it on tends to be a "because I can" and not a "because it's helpful" most of the time. It's also unclear how helpful it is (aside from places like Oshu).
- Grounding Field
- Take all the niche-related stuff I said about Ethereal Shield and put it here too. It's very powerful, but I think it's too restrictive, and too niche in its functionality - this is likely because there's not much that's out there doing Elemental damage though. The inability to release it is unnecessary now in my opinion - with the advent of Ritual spells, I think it should become a ritual, and be releasable/recastable, if you're willing to commit to doing a ritual for that.
- Air Bubble/Rising Mists
- Too niche.
- Dragon's Breath
- This spell's a good source of extra instant damage, but the need to re-cast it every time you expel a charge, generally it's better to cast a real TM spell instead.
These spells I think really could use some work.
- Paeldryth's Wrath
- The idea is good, but instant retreat makes it useless in PvP, and having to cast it multiple times to get away from a swarm in PvE means by the time you push the 4th one back, the first is back at melee.
- Suggestion: Allow PW to have 4 charges and function like BG did. In addition, when used to pull a target, they are given a short RT to allow you to get a hit in. 4 charges because you can be engaged by 4 creature. It also seems like a decent candidate for being a debilitation/TM hybrid spell in some fashion if the engagement-modifying functionality is going away.
- Y'ntrel Sechra, but everyone knows that and that poor horse is already dead.
This is just a random observation, but other than Shockwave, we don't have any sources of Cold damage anymore, do we?
- Starlear, Warrior Mage and Lieutenant of Ilithi's Crystal Vanguard -
- The spell needs to have a real, tangible effect that makes you want to cast the spell. Most buff spells are a pretty good example of this - they offer noticeable, instant benefits for casting. Other buff spells are middle of the road (Ethereal Shield comes to mind - it ostensibly IS doing stuff, and you do notice it when fighting things like Oshu or other things using elemental attacks, but aside from those niche scenarios it has no noticeable benefit). Others suck (Y'ntrel Sechra does exactly what it's supposed to do, but because of how Armor skill works, it feels to the caster like it's doing nothing at all).
- The spell needs to be worth the mana to cast. This seems obvious, but a lot of times I feel I can achieve more useful results from repeated weapon strikes in the same period of time as a fully targeted spell. Not necessarily because I do more damage - the spell will usually do a bit more. However, the repeated hits will often result in multiple injuries, or stuns, whereas I rarely if ever stun with a TM spell in the first 10 seconds of a fight. You could make the argument that you can swing while targeting the spell, but doing that means you're either prepping lower (and thus being far outdamaged by your weapon swings) or prepping higher (and being out of attunement after 3 casts). I, and a lot of casters I'm sure, spend their available RT during targeting for the purpose of harnessing.
- The spell needs to "feel" good to use. This can be achieved through powerful effects (but not too powerful or it's overpowered), awesome messaging, or a combination of both.
- The spell should be unique in some way. In a perfect world where all creatures have detectable Elemental weaknesses, all of our Single Target, one shot TM spells would be more useful because we'd feel the need to pick the right swiss army knife attachment for each situation. As it stands though, it feels like a lot of the spells are very similar in effect. I would suggest some sort of secondary effects for the various doppelganger spells to help differentiate them, but I don't think this is necessarily a problem with the spells themselves as it is the fact we can't as players SEE the differences that are certainly there behind the scenes. A spell also needs to be unique without being too niche.
- The spell needs to fit with the lore and theme of whatever guild it is assigned to. Should go without saying.
As a WM, some of our BEST spells, in my opinion:
- Fire Shards
- Intro spell, but multi-shot effect that grows with the caster. Cool messaging.
- Fire Ball
- Advanced spell, solid single target damage, with an AoE bonus effect. Cool messaging.
- Geyser
- Intro spell with good damage, a unique idea that fits the guild (The first non-RM water spell that's not Ice), and has awesome messaging.
- Our Entire Augmentation Suite except for Y'ntrel Sechra's current iteration.
- Every one of our buff spells feels essential to HAVE, if not essential to have cast on yourself at all times.
- Magnetic Ballista
- Unique spin on TM, secondary effect that sort of resembles a TM debilitation spell.
- Both Elemental Transformations are great and I hope to see the rest of the elements represented someday. Bards currently have more Elemental transformations than us.
- I am probably in the minority here, and I can't speak to how they function at high levels of stats against higher level targets, but I think our Debilitation spells are solid.
IMO these spells feel lackluster, but are functionally fine.
- Chain Lightning/Shockwave
- Striking everything in the room one time is underwhelming in the current combat landscape of higher health - the amount of times you need to cast these spells to kill off a swarm will leave you out of mana quickly. You'd be better off annihilating single targets one by one in most scenarios - the one niche these spells can shine in is invasions, but for daily use while hunting or similar, they're just not as practical for learning or killing as other spells, making them expensive, deep-tree investments for niche spells.
- Ethereal Shield
- This spell has great messaging (I would go so far as to say it's an iconic WM spell), but not very many creatures come after us with spells or elemental damage special attacks. Putting it on tends to be a "because I can" and not a "because it's helpful" most of the time. It's also unclear how helpful it is (aside from places like Oshu).
- Grounding Field
- Take all the niche-related stuff I said about Ethereal Shield and put it here too. It's very powerful, but I think it's too restrictive, and too niche in its functionality - this is likely because there's not much that's out there doing Elemental damage though. The inability to release it is unnecessary now in my opinion - with the advent of Ritual spells, I think it should become a ritual, and be releasable/recastable, if you're willing to commit to doing a ritual for that.
- Air Bubble/Rising Mists
- Too niche.
- Dragon's Breath
- This spell's a good source of extra instant damage, but the need to re-cast it every time you expel a charge, generally it's better to cast a real TM spell instead.
These spells I think really could use some work.
- Paeldryth's Wrath
- The idea is good, but instant retreat makes it useless in PvP, and having to cast it multiple times to get away from a swarm in PvE means by the time you push the 4th one back, the first is back at melee.
- Suggestion: Allow PW to have 4 charges and function like BG did. In addition, when used to pull a target, they are given a short RT to allow you to get a hit in. 4 charges because you can be engaged by 4 creature. It also seems like a decent candidate for being a debilitation/TM hybrid spell in some fashion if the engagement-modifying functionality is going away.
- Y'ntrel Sechra, but everyone knows that and that poor horse is already dead.
This is just a random observation, but other than Shockwave, we don't have any sources of Cold damage anymore, do we?
- Starlear, Warrior Mage and Lieutenant of Ilithi's Crystal Vanguard -
Double post, but I wanted to add that this is just like, thoughts. I'm not implying there should actually be a comprehensive spell review or anything, it's just kind of note-taking via forum post for me, and if any of that gives someone cool ideas, awesome. I am still enjoying playing my WM a lot so nobody should take all the stuff I posted as some sort of crazy "omg fix this or i quit" ultimatum or anything.
- Starlear, Warrior Mage and Lieutenant of Ilithi's Crystal Vanguard -
- Starlear, Warrior Mage and Lieutenant of Ilithi's Crystal Vanguard -
For me, variance has always been the biggest enjoyment. Exclusivity. Playing a class where we have this thing that we can do and nobody else can really lets me feel like I stand out from the crowd.
And not just me, I like diversity for everyone. Knowing that each flavor of guild was very different from the next really adds to the depth of the game.
I play Dragonrealms because it's the most mechanically diverse game out there. You can't touch what DR can do in another game, the closest being games like Eve and Archeage, which still fall short.
One of the big reasons why I stopped playing way back when was the massive shift of thought to parity of guilds/spells/abilities. Some of the recent conversations about spell design have brought back those old feelings of "Everyone's the same this is boring" which is honestly why I've stepped away from the current conversations.
Which is, at the root, why I rail against changes that bring everyone closer to being the same guild, instead of everyone getting their own pedestals.
As the guild skills are further developed, this will certainly help push the similarities further apart, we're just not there yet. The GMs do a great job, but are stretched pretty thin.
So to wind back around, good spells are soundly balanced and staples of nearly every spellbook. They provide utility or functionality that everyone or nearly everyone finds appealing. Great spells provide unique abilities and personal flavor for yourself and your fellow guildmates that push the limits of what you can accomplish, be it offensive, defensive, or utility.
Having multiple great spells that give your guild even further ability to differentiate inside itself, means your guild is friggin awesome.
I wanna be awesome again.
"Game balance is sobbing over in the corner as it considers the ramifications of AoE Blufmor Garaen. Your spell slots send their condolences." - GM Raesh
>I'd still like to see WM DoTs. I'm thinking they might either have debilitation-like preps with no targeting or a very short time to target, like half the time.
Forgot to mention I think WM DoTs should hinder hiding while active. Prevent it, no. Just basically debuff stealth while active. It'd add some strategy options to the warmie v. stealthy fight.
Forgot to mention I think WM DoTs should hinder hiding while active. Prevent it, no. Just basically debuff stealth while active. It'd add some strategy options to the warmie v. stealthy fight.
I've been thinking about the lack of a single-target cold spell but... I'm not sure I even want one? Cold seems to have the lion's share of creature immunity! It's not a very spectacular damage type... but I do miss the frost scythe crit messaging! Classy.
>Forgive my snark, but welcome to the life of a warrior mage.
>Forgive my snark, but welcome to the life of a warrior mage.
<<This is just a random observation, but other than Shockwave, we don't have any sources of Cold damage anymore, do we?
<<Forgot about Rimefang, that definitely is. We have no single target variant of Cold though it seems.
I'm pretty sure Blufmor Garaen is cold and either puncture, slice, or impact depending on your choice of verb.
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<<Forgot about Rimefang, that definitely is. We have no single target variant of Cold though it seems.
I'm pretty sure Blufmor Garaen is cold and either puncture, slice, or impact depending on your choice of verb.
Elanthipedia - https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page
Epedia Admins - https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Elanthipedia:Administrators
<<Wasn't that changed with the fix?
Nope, the damage types are still the same as before. At least according to his post on the changes, which made no mention of them being altered. It just utilizes the multi-strike model now instead of the single strike model to determine accuracy and damage, along with changes to the number of charges and RT behaviour. I.e. it's just like GZ, SS, or FS if they had more hits per cast and did cold+physical damage, but spread out into individual hits rather than all front-loaded at once.
Elanthipedia - https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page
Epedia Admins - https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Elanthipedia:Administrators
Nope, the damage types are still the same as before. At least according to his post on the changes, which made no mention of them being altered. It just utilizes the multi-strike model now instead of the single strike model to determine accuracy and damage, along with changes to the number of charges and RT behaviour. I.e. it's just like GZ, SS, or FS if they had more hits per cast and did cold+physical damage, but spread out into individual hits rather than all front-loaded at once.
Elanthipedia - https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page
Epedia Admins - https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Elanthipedia:Administrators
Now that weapon summoning is out (really cool release, by the way), it'd be really great to see spells and abilities that interact with them. For instance, It'd be neat to be able to store a spell of a certain element in a summoned weapon of the same element. Also neat would be if they could be used to assist targeting (i.e. reduced the target time) for TM spells of that element.
>Now that weapon summoning is out (really cool release, by the way), it'd be really great to see spells and abilities that interact with them. For instance, It'd be neat to be able to store a spell of a certain element in a summoned weapon of the same element. Also neat would be if they could be used to assist targeting (i.e. reduced the target time) for TM spells of that element.
Isn't that sort of how Moonblade works now?
Isn't that sort of how Moonblade works now?
While I won't say "never," I don't expect elemental weapons to get Moonblade's Empower Moonblade functionality. The dynamic between the two abilities is that Elemental Weapons are better at being weapons while the Moonblade has the potential to do quirky stuff.
-Armifer
"Perinthia's astronomers are faced with a difficult choice. Either they must admit that all their calculations were wrong ... or else they must reveal that the order of the gods is reflected exactly in the city of monsters." - Calvino Italo
-Armifer
"Perinthia's astronomers are faced with a difficult choice. Either they must admit that all their calculations were wrong ... or else they must reveal that the order of the gods is reflected exactly in the city of monsters." - Calvino Italo
What he said.
Am I opposed to Warrior Mages being able to do spell storage? Not on the surface (I have't done a deep soul searching) but I wouldn't be okay with a clone of how Moon Mages do it.
-Raesh
"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose
Am I opposed to Warrior Mages being able to do spell storage? Not on the surface (I have't done a deep soul searching) but I wouldn't be okay with a clone of how Moon Mages do it.
-Raesh
"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose
>I wouldn't be okay with a clone of how Moon Mages do it.
I'll chime in to agree with this. Elemental Weapons isn't likely to see a lot more development, and as I said in another thread I would rather move on to other abilities/spells that address specific playability issues. Like an ability targeted at training Summoning at high levels.
>Am I opposed to Warrior Mages being able to do spell storage?
I personally think WMs should have some type of spell storage, since Clerics have it in OM and Moon Mages have it in Empower Moonblade, but I haven't been able to come up with anything I'm willing to propose yet.
Javac
That one guy
If you have questions or comments in regard to this post please email me at DR-JAVAC@play.net.
I'll chime in to agree with this. Elemental Weapons isn't likely to see a lot more development, and as I said in another thread I would rather move on to other abilities/spells that address specific playability issues. Like an ability targeted at training Summoning at high levels.
>Am I opposed to Warrior Mages being able to do spell storage?
I personally think WMs should have some type of spell storage, since Clerics have it in OM and Moon Mages have it in Empower Moonblade, but I haven't been able to come up with anything I'm willing to propose yet.
Javac
That one guy
If you have questions or comments in regard to this post please email me at DR-JAVAC@play.net.
>I personally think WMs should have some type of spell storage, since Clerics have it in OM and Moon Mages have it in Empower Moonblade, but I haven't been able to come up with anything I'm willing to propose yet.
Can fir fams swallow and regurgitate spells? I'm not serious. Yes I am. No I'm not.
Can fir fams swallow and regurgitate spells? I'm not serious. Yes I am. No I'm not.
>Can fir fams swallow and regurgitate spells? I'm not serious. Yes I am. No I'm not.
Warbrolus gestures.
A bolt of lightning streaks out of the sky towards you!
Leaping in front of you to intercept the lightning bolt, a scruffy lynx catches the spell with its open maw, with seemingly no effect other than a loud "NOM".
A scruffy lynx emits a loud roar, and suddenly bolts of lightning tear out of its open mouth towards Warbrolus!
- Starlear, Warrior Mage and Lieutenant of Ilithi's Crystal Vanguard -
Warbrolus gestures.
A bolt of lightning streaks out of the sky towards you!
Leaping in front of you to intercept the lightning bolt, a scruffy lynx catches the spell with its open maw, with seemingly no effect other than a loud "NOM".
A scruffy lynx emits a loud roar, and suddenly bolts of lightning tear out of its open mouth towards Warbrolus!
- Starlear, Warrior Mage and Lieutenant of Ilithi's Crystal Vanguard -
