The "What T1 Mages Need" Letter

[Mogrim]

The point of this post is to try to give a short consolidated list as to what the 4 T1 Mage classes really need changed, based on what we see in Beta.<br /> <br />Gear: We want "pure mod" options on armor. "hybrid mod" options cause our ability-based-classes to not get as much mod as we need to compete with scouts. 4-5 armor pieces should have options that have Potency/Crit Bonus/Abil Mod as the only 3 stats, to allow us spec our gear and stats appropriately.<br /> <br />Balance:<br /> <br />A) Summoners: Need some slight improvements on AOE dps to avoid being nearly irrelevant on these fights. In addition, need some improvements on single target dps as this has generally been the focus of the class. Beyond that, Summoners, while now being a T1 class, really **should** have significant utility as well. Sorcs have group DR and procs. Hearts and Shards just don't cut it, and should be reworked to be meaningful and cool.<br /> <br />1) Conjurers: Most of the class is working fine if the primary summoner needs are addressed. <br /><br />2) Necros: Main extra issue for Necros is that Lifeburn scales very poorly. It needs to be bumped up a metric ton.<br /><br />B) Sorcerers<br /><br />1) Warlocks: The changes to CB caps and Focused Casting combine to be a bit of overkill. Long-term this class can't scale well with gear anymore. A few small adjustments are requested.<br /> a) Our Right Side Prestige Conversion "Plaguelord" should grant 1 point of Potency for every 12 points of Potency. We are punished more than others for having more CB than needed, and this conversion makes things worse. <br /> b) Focused Casting should be slightly tweaked still. The Caster's Potency should be increased by 25% of the caster's Base //Potency//, not Crit Bonus. This will help prevent the class from scaling so poorly.<br /> <br />2) Wizards: This class still seems to be a little bit underpowered like Necros. Primarily, the fixes revolve around allowing Fiery Blast to work more reliably. It may be worth looking into allowing the base recast of Fiery Blast to be 2 minutes, but that remains to be seen.<br /> <br />Utility:<br /> <br />Our utility is really getting the shaft right now. Here are the main things we need fixed.<br /> <br />Illusionists: Must have an improvement to Time Compression AND Time Warp. These abilities are significantly losing value as players approach 100 self-buffed SDA.<br /><br />Fix Ideas:<br /> <br />1) Time Compression should be able to be cast on anyone regardless of Upbeat Tempo, etc, and give the target potency = to the amount of cast speed the target has, maximum 400 potency.<br /> <br />2) Time Warp should give the group 33% Spell Doublecast and 25% Ability Final Damage for 12 seconds. (Slight increase in duration)<br /> <br />Troubs: Primary issue here is that the Troub is far outmatched by Dirges in terms of VC recording ability AND buffs now.<br /> <br />Fix Ideas:<br /> <br />1) Energizing Ballad: The downtime of this ability makes it significantly inferior to be "improved" compared to Battle Cry. As a result, I'd suggest either greatly increasing how effective it is (by a factor of about 10) or moving the improvement to a different ability. <br /> <br />2) As an alternative, Upbeat Tempo could be improved similarly to how Battle Cry was improved. Perhaps a bit less of an improvement since it would be allowed to stack with Time Compression. Maybe a similar setup though: Target of Upbeat Tempo also gets Potency equal to Cast Speed, maximum 400. <br /><br /><br /><br />Any other ideas out there?

[Foretold]

I think that about sums it up. Doubt any of it will happen, though.<br /> <br />The good news is, Fallout 4 is REALLY REALLY good, so I'll probably be shooting wasteland inhabitants instead of finger waggling in EQ2...

[Jsnappy]

If time warp worked similar to temporal mimicry and doubled all spell and SDA during time warp, instead of the now almost obsolete 100% SDA, I think mages would still remain competitive this xpac. <br /><br />OR limit the new CB cap to scouts and allow SWDB to be uncapped beyond 300% especially since scouts got base damage increase to compensate for these caps and the issues with auto attack nerf was due to scouts not mages.

[Errrorr]

If you are going to fix Illu utility for Mages, can we fix Coercer utility for scouts too?<br /> <br />Yes we have BC from dirges, but thats 1 buff, that has pailed in comparison to previous years of TC, UT, TW etc.<br /> <br />Coercers give practically nothing.

[Olli]

<div class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeQuote" data-author="Errrorr"> <aside> <div class="attribution type">Errrorr said: <a href="index.php?goto/post&id=6283648#post-6283648" class="AttributionLink">↑</a> </div> <blockquote><span class="ae_quote_symbol">“</span><span class="ae_quote_content">If you are going to fix Illu utility for Mages, can we fix Coercer utility for scouts too?<br /> <br />Yes we have BC from dirges, but thats 1 buff, that has pailed in comparison to previous years of TC, UT, TW etc.<br /> <br />Coercers give practically nothing.</span><span class="ae_quote_symbol">”</span></blockquote> </aside></div>I THINK COERCERS NEED A LOT OF LOVE, people mention chanters and its always the illie. a good played illie is doing t1 dps easily they do bring buffs to group as if no illie in raid there is a right moan,<br /> <br />Our utility is really getting the shaft right now. Here are the main things we need fixed.<br /> <br />Illusionists: Must have an improvement to Time Compression AND Time Warp. These abilities are significantly losing value as players approach 100 self-buffed SDA.<br /> <br />Fix Ideas:<br /> <br />1) Time Compression should be able to be cast on anyone regardless of Upbeat Tempo, etc, and give the target potency = to the amount of cast speed the target has, maximum 400 potency.<br /> <br />2) Time Warp should give the group 33% Spell Doublecast and 25% Ability Final Damage for 12 seconds. (Slight increase in duration)<br /> <br />NOTICE ABOVE THE UTILITY BEING SHAFTED and its illi mentioned again not coercer!!!!

[sycla]

<div class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeQuote" data-author="Mogrim"> <aside> <div class="attribution type">Mogrim said: <a href="index.php?goto/post&id=6283599#post-6283599" class="AttributionLink">↑</a> </div> <blockquote><span class="ae_quote_symbol">“</span><span class="ae_quote_content">A) Summoners: Need some slight improvements on AOE dps to avoid being nearly irrelevant on these fights. In addition, need some improvements on single target dps as this has generally been the focus of the class. Beyond that, Summoners, while now being a T1 class, really **should** have significant utility as well. Sorcs have group DR and procs. Hearts and Shards just don't cut it, and should be reworked to be meaningful and cool.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Any other ideas out there?</span><span class="ae_quote_symbol">”</span></blockquote> </aside></div>When the dev's tried fixing summoners the entire thread was derailed by other classes calling for nerfs. Now considering that they will be 7/8th on DPS list they will only get a chance to raid if the guild has difficulty filling spots or if you are the RL's gf<br />It should be possible for a well played summoner to keep up with other t1 DPS considering they dont have any util at all.

[Labeleth]

for necros-<br /> <br />either remove rez or improve it. being masters of death is embarrassing with a craptapular rez spell<br /> <br />reduce reuse speed on undead horde or allow it to be effected by items that would allow it to be reused more often<br /> <br />remove/improve ooze pet aa. the healing is negligible and not even worthy of group content(solo content maybe, but only as a last resort)<br /> <br />remove temp pet reuse reduction in aa's. they are literally unusable with 100% reuse<br /> <br />improve vampiric orb. right now it is only valuable as a precombat cast and even then it's barely worth that.<br /> <br />allow pets to proc again

[Anunnaki]

<div class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeQuote" data-author="Mogrim"> <aside> <div class="attribution type">Mogrim said: <a href="index.php?goto/post&id=6283599#post-6283599" class="AttributionLink">↑</a> </div> <blockquote><span class="ae_quote_symbol">“</span><span class="ae_quote_content">Gear: We want "pure mod" options on armor. "hybrid mod" options cause our ability-based-classes to not get as much mod as we need to compete with scouts. 4-5 armor pieces should have options that have Potency/Crit Bonus/Abil Mod as the only 3 stats, to allow us spec our gear and stats appropriately.<br /> <br />Balance:<br /> <br />A) Summoners: Need some slight improvements on AOE dps to avoid being nearly irrelevant on these fights. In addition, need some improvements on single target dps as this has generally been the focus of the class. Beyond that, Summoners, while now being a T1 class, really **should** have significant utility as well. Sorcs have group DR and procs. Hearts and Shards just don't cut it, and should be reworked to be meaningful and cool.<br /> <br />1) Conjurers: Most of the class is working fine if the primary summoner needs are addressed.</span><span class="ae_quote_symbol">”</span></blockquote> </aside></div> <br />For starters, yes, give the option of getting gear with pure mod on it. There are too many blue stats on the new gear which effectively reduces the reforge potential for gear. On the chest and legs ideally, but having another option for all would be useful.<br /> <br />To help with AE on summoners, reduce the reuse time on ETox to 60 seconds base and return the damage back to the level it was when it was introduced on Beta before everyone cried and got it nerfed. That's really all I can think about without asking for a % increase to our AE spells.<br /> <br />Aside from that point, Conjurors are not "working fine." They are broken, and have been for some time. They made a good deal of changes in AoM that were a step in the right direction, but in order to compete with the massive boost scouts are getting, Conjurers need to be *fixed*. I am only asking for a *fix* to the abilities that we already have that have been outdated for ages.<br /> <br />Since Final Ability Damage is a thing now, I think Plane Shift should be reworked (again.) Make it give, say, 25% Final Ability Damage to the pet for the duration. Or go with 30-50% base potency for the pet for the duration. This is a spell on a 5 min (modified) recast and is supposed to be class defining, make it worthwhile.<br /> <br />Pet stances need a complete rework. Both of them still give or take away Auto-Attack stats like those are supposed to make a difference for a pet, but it was explicitly stated that pets should not have an auto attack that is significant (thus why those stats don't share.) On the GM offensive stance for Conjurers, the pet gets 8.7% Potency, change that value to base potency at a minimum. For defensive stance, increase the ward size and give a damage reduction. There should be no reason that most of us use a level 14 GM Defensive pet stance in a raid setting since the max health % gain for it > 8.7% potency the level 98 offensive stance gives us.<br /> <br />While we are on that thought, there are still AA's that grant weapon auto attack increases for the pet, while including a minimum increase to something useful (pot/CB). Ideally, they should be reworked to give an appropriate amount of useful stat while removing the auto attack stat increase.<br /> <br />Flameshield is useless, and at times can create aggro problems in non-ideal situations (kinda like ward aggro.) For what reward? Terrible damage? It really needs to be changed. The endline leftside prestige adds 7.5% hate transfer to the target. I think this should be flat out added to flameshield. No one specs left side, and that endline can be changed to something else, or it can just add 7.5% to the 7.5% that would already be on it (giving 15%.)<br /> <br />Fire Seed is another spell that needs to be looked at. I think this should be changed to be like ETox used to be, where it procs on every hit for a duration for the group. The damage and duration just need to be balanced so that it is in line with the group proc spells that other T1 Mages get (like Frigid Gift or Curse of Darkness.) I don't think this will cause the lag issues that ETox did, since ETox had a lot more parts to it.<br /> <br />Shards (or Hearts for Necro) need a serious revamp. I don't have any good suggestions for this, but this is one of our "utility" that is completely outdated. I can't remember the last time I cast shards. Maybe some other summoner has a suggestion.<br /> <br />Scout pet Buffs unbalanced and outdated. I detailed the issue in this thread - <a href="https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/scout-pet-buffs.560345/" class="internalLink">https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/scout-pet-buffs.560345/</a><br /> <br />Communion is broken on linked encounters. I detailed the issue in this thread - <a href="https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/communion-bug.563314/" class="internalLink">https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/communion-bug.563314/</a><br /> <br />Finally, pets need to get more stat sharing. I would like, at a minimum, the addition of % max health increase and casting skill, e.g. disruption.<br /> <br />Some of these are the same issues that were brought up by many from the AoM beta forums, and a few have been mentioned for a few years running now. Some things got changed (thank you for that) but with things getting so out of balance in ToT, a lot of these changes are *needed* to keep the class viable. A lot of the suggestions above may not be balanced as a sum, but I'm sure they can be balanced. Most of those changes are also limited to Conjurers; Necros need a lot of work too, I just don't know enough about the class to speak for them.

[Skulls]

Well since you went there Annunaki, I will add a few things broken on summoners/conjuror.<br /> <br />1. Flameshield and Sacrifice are useless since they don't do any crit damage, they hit or heal for almost nothing. I agree Flameshield needs to have a hate transfer on it, and Elem Tox de-threat is useless this needs to be changed to 2 position hate drop.<br />2. Shadowstep for both summoners is useless, since we have to spend AA points into it, can we at least have it proc its damage regardless of which pet your using and regardless of whether or not it ports the pet your using. Shadowstep doesn't hit for much damage anyway but 90% of the time you cast the spell it does NO damage.<br /> <br />3. Both summoner healer pets are still completely useless and the healers need to also crit to make them ever useable.<br /> <br />4. Conjuror left prestige side has always been the most useless line that any mage ever got, just ridiculous. Left side reduces our damage so harshly, the small group or raid utility is never worth it.<br /> <br />5. Conjuror stoneskins recast timers are way too long to be of any help to anyone, the damage they absorb is gone after 10 seconds from the mob pull and then we have to wait minutes to get anything back. Also our stoneskins absorb any little hit because they say they will absorb any hit greater than 10% of our max health, they need to be changed to, will absorb any hit greater than 30% or 40% of max health to be useful and not gone immediately after tank pulls. Conjuror good until cancelled group stoneskin buff, Runes of Geomancy protects only from physical damage. Years ago this was great (or if conjurors were ever in main tank raid group, but were not, so its useless) but now that most damage the mage group gets hit with is magic damage, this should be change to absorbs all damage or change the physical damage to magic damage to make it useful.<br /> <br />6. The buff package that's on the conjuror scout pet is useless, just horrible. For the necromancer scout pet you put the 30% de-hate group buff on the wrong pet, it should be on the mage pet. First Its very rare for any tank to lose agro on a single target fight where you would be using the scout pet. Even weak under geared tanks have no problem holding hate on single targets. Where the de-hate buff really needs to be is on the mage pet on large encounter or aoe pull fights, this is where all tanks have the most problems holding hate or agro. The necromancer scout buff really needs to be given to the necro/conj mage pets.<br />7. Conjuror Winds of Velious needs the recast time of the spell to really be 6 seconds if you going to tie our interrupt to the spell. Your attempt to fix this by adding Interrupt to Earthqwake with a 1 sec cast timer, has been a complete failure, its not useable.<br />8. Conjuror pets and yes even the scout pet who has a group buff with in combat health and power regen, doesn't regenerate health or power when in combat its broken.

[Tabri]

**Throws hands up** What they said sigh

[Luzionist]

Just a thought on Necros why not allow the rez to give them an undead pet of the character they rezzed for say 60 sec or duration of rez sickness?

[emufrombeyond]

Wish they put the like buttons on the beta forum. I literally can't agree any more than I do with all that has been said as a conj.

[Anaranj]

I totally agree with the previous post. I have difficulty expressing myself in English and I need that button. I fully agree with what was said by Anunnaki and Skulls. I love this class and now, with the new expansion, it seems that we will be mediocre compared to other dps classes. Sorry, bad English <img src="/images/smilies/smile.gif" alt="Smile" />

[DoomDrake]

For Warlocks - would be nice if instead of Pot FC will give spells casting flurry (triple cast will do I guess) and every point above hard cap 3000 with FC converts into spell casting flurry (same way flurry work for melee)

[Scrappyz]

<div class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeQuote" data-author="Mogrim"> <aside> <div class="attribution type">Mogrim said: <a href="index.php?goto/post&id=6283599#post-6283599" class="AttributionLink">↑</a> </div> <blockquote><span class="ae_quote_symbol">“</span><span class="ae_quote_content">Illusionists: Must have an improvement to Time Compression AND Time Warp. These abilities are significantly losing value as players approach 100 self-buffed SDA.<br /> <br />Fix Ideas:<br /> <br />1) Time Compression should be able to be cast on anyone regardless of Upbeat Tempo, etc, and give the target potency = to the amount of cast speed the target has, maximum 400 potency.<br /> <br />2) Time Warp should give the group 33% Spell Doublecast and 25% Ability Final Damage for 12 seconds. (Slight increase in duration)</span><span class="ae_quote_symbol">”</span></blockquote> </aside></div>I completely agree with this.. For starters, Time Compression either needs to be tweaked with or as Mogrim said, changed to where it can be cast on anyone. It's very rare that I give that buff out as 99% of mages have the Dragon tree "UT" endline, I pretty much keep that on my pet since no one ever wants it.<br /> <br />Secondly, Time Warp definitely needs to be reworked as it's going to be easy to obtain 100 doublecast. The 25% final damage would be nice and would make TW viable for scouts and not just mages.

[Gigglezzz]

100% agree with Skulls and Anunnaki. Could not have been stated any clearer. And thanks you two for posting it.