Patch 1.10

[Techie Will]

I don't think we should assume that mage problems are going to disappear with the expansion, or that devs recognize the current extent of these issues and are currently tuning them. All we really know is that various mage souls have had long term pvp issues outside of pyro offensively and dom defensively.

But the issue with having one "offensive" and one "defensive" soul is the same with all the other three classes.

No class has every soul viable in PvE or PvP.

It would be nice to see Trion create a system where all souls provided the same amount of damage or healing, but I do not think we will see that for a long while. It would be amazing, but flavor of the month top DPS builds will always reign supreme.

[Galibier]

I actually never want to see that. I like having one soul that does better dps on fights with little movement and disconnects, another more tolerable of disconnects. It makes the souls and builds different in more ways than just particle effects. In EQ2 my most feared update, which they shelved was fighter 2.0. I rolled a Beserker because I liked a tank where my aggro management was tied in large part to my dps. If I wanted to gold aggro through taunts and hate position tools I would have rolled a Guardian. The fact they were just going to make fighters tank in a largely identical fashion annoyed me to no end.

Now this is NOT to say that every calling should not be viable in different encounter types. Only to say all SOULS should not be as viable as each other. If all souls were equally viable there would be no point to different souls other than one souls attack looks like a lightning bolt and another a fire bolt.

[Primalthirst]

Have to agree with Galibier, souls should not all be equally viable in every situation.
Making them so only leads toward homogenisation and away from the wonderful variety the soul system offers.

If they broke things down so that each soul had a particular niche such as Necromancer being the ultimate burst spec with its very potent cooldowns but poor for sustained fights then I would be happy, as long as encounter design complements the soul strengths available.

[Jeremiahcp]

I do hope our speculation about no class changes happening before Storm Legion is correct. I don't want to see any band-aids before the expansion. Just take your time, Trion, and fix the souls and new abilities the right way.

Mage PvE DPS is only competitive now due to a band-aid fix. The mage souls were never fixed in the first place and they have had plenty of time to address the issue. Had this been a newer issue I might have agreed with you, but it's not. The current imbalance in the mage souls is a long standing problem and only persist due to neglect by Trion. To have the mage community wait after they have been so patient already is not the best of customer service.

Also, just because you have a mage alt that does not mean you understand all the issues with mages. I also have a level 50 of each calling and I won't mind horrid soul imbalance on one my alts, because they are alts.

[Inixia]

souls should be equally viable in the avg situation, or at least gain viability in certain environments. The ideal of course is to have a diversity on how they are viable, not whether or not they are. Having equally viable souls doesn't necessarily homogenize gameplay if the playstyles are different (aoe, single target, stealth, cc, etc...). On the contrary having souls differ along how viable they are homogenizes gameplay because it means there is a constant pressure to play only certain specs- and this ends up being the issue mages have had to deal with for several patches.

[Slipmat]

All traces of Summerfest are gone from the PTS, maybe a sign some new stuff will be pushed on soon ?

[Atrlion]

Why do mages always complain, you still have viable specs in pvp, you are able to pvp, both as healing and as a glass cannon.

Have you seen how far behind the cleric dps is to everything else? Unless there is 0 movement and we can use our broken Bolt and Jolt spec.

Trion has never fixed cleric dps, and never really showed any intention of it. I hope they wait until the expac for any changes, and make them right. Be nice to have more people playing clerics if we didn't have to have people tell us "you can do everything, so you shouldn't do anything well" and we could dps, tank and heal on par with other classes, because atm we only can heal on par

and before you mages say anything, i have a mage, i am rank 46 atm, and while i see some problems, they are not that bad. and i have been playing since beta.

[Hawkmoon0028]

It would be nice to see Trion create a system where all souls provided the same amount of damage or healing, but I do not think we will see that for a long while.

I actually never want to see that. I like having one soul that does better dps on fights with little movement and disconnects, another more tolerable of disconnects. It makes the souls and builds different in more ways than just particle effects.

^This right here, not just for mages, but all classes. The thing Trion brings to the table is variation and viability (although the latter needs some serious work). They have already said the new souls are mostly done and being messed with in-house. This leads me to believe they're probably working on, at this point, tweaks and finalization of the new souls, and are moving on to the additions to the old souls (this too, has been confirmed: old souls will get new root/branch abilities above 51 points).

It's going to be a long road to wait until Storm Legion arrives... But I think all we can really expect at this juncture would be band-aid fixes to hold everything together until the 'big class re-work' that's coming from the expansion.

/inb4 PTS Note: *Mein of Aggression: Increased the single target damage output while using this buff by an additional 15%....

[Galibier]

souls should be equally viable in the avg situation, or at least gain viability in certain environments. The ideal of course is to have a diversity on how they are viable, not whether or not they are. Having equally viable souls doesn't necessarily homogenize gameplay if the playstyles are different (aoe, single target, stealth, cc, etc...). On the contrary having souls differ along how viable they are homogenizes gameplay because it means there is a constant pressure to play only certain specs- and this ends up being the issue mages have had to deal with for several patches.

But to an extent I think we have that. Viable does not means 100% equal. It also does not mean it will be viable in every situation. There are souls in every calling better at ST or AE damage, better at these in a moving or stationary encounter. Souls are better at soloing, better in short trash fights or better in long named fights. Now maybe people have a favorite soul that they wish they could just do 51 pts in or they wish was ST instead of AE etc but the lack of this in the price of a game with this many souls.

[Aguni]

But to an extent I think we have that. Viable does not means 100% equal. It also does not mean it will be viable in every situation. There are souls in every calling better at ST or AE damage, better at these in a moving or stationary encounter. Souls are better at soloing, better in short trash fights or better in long named fights. Now maybe people have a favorite soul that they wish they could just do 51 pts in or they wish was ST instead of AE etc but the lack of this in the price of a game with this many souls.

Viability can occur in muliple scenarios, and homogenization is a result when the souls play the same way not when they are equally viable in a raid scenario.

For example, defilemancer is a DoT based spec.
Zoomancer was a pet based spec.
Building storm was an AE spec that managed debuffs on the target and properly utilized building storm stacks to maximize damage.

Warriors and rogues both possess souls that are capable of both AE and ST competitively.
Rogues also have a pet spec viable for soloing and is viable for top raid DPS.

No one cares about clerics (i know nothing of them sorry ).

So it can be done.

[Aguni]

Why do mages always complain, you still have viable specs in pvp, you are able to pvp, both as healing and as a glass cannon.

Ahahahahaha...no.

The only frontload based class is that of pyro/dom. This means you are squishy, and rely on the gimmick of squirrel to get spell hasting.
Backload damage is based around countdown and having charge, but other specs such as sab which backload can do this much more efficiently and have far better mobility.

Healing wise is laughable.

Off for a week.

[Galibier]

Viability can occur in muliple scenarios, and homogenization is a result when the souls play the same way not when they are equally viable in a raid scenario.

For example, defilemancer is a DoT based spec.
Zoomancer was a pet based spec.
Building storm was an AE spec that managed debuffs on the target and properly utilized building storm stacks to maximize damage.

Warriors and rogues both possess souls that are capable of both AE and ST competitively.
Rogues also have a pet spec viable for soloing and is viable for top raid DPS.

No one cares about clerics (i know nothing of them sorry ).

So it can be done.

Well clerics aren't in a bad spot...atm, that said they are/will fall behind soon necause what got them to where they are is a non-scaling Mein which added a flat bonus % to damage. They have arguably one of the best AE specs in Cab a dang competitive melee spec in Jolt & Bolt as long as the fight is hort on disconnects, and 51 inquis while not top of the pops in not horrbile ST dps either, bring a much needed debuff and does fair AE dps as well. Since it does decent AE dps in the same package I would say being a little behind on ST is a fair trade off. When I was raiding on my cleric, in HK mind you, I could run most of the fights with Jolt no problem. Again though without a change in ID they are drifting behind due to MoA and how it works.

[Purutzil]

Always with the mages hijacking patch threads to cry about mages needing PvP buffs. Sure I'll trade you any soul of mine for your dom soul then please. I can give you that Mages need buffs in PvP in terms of variety (aka combos without Dom) but just throw Dom in and your pretty much going to sit pretty as the strongest class 1v1 in game if you know how to play it right.

Shush about balance and crying that 'mages are weak'. The only people I see crying about it are BAD mages who don't know how to play their class in PvP. You should have plenty of space to make one in your class section complaining about mages just like I see for warriors all the time and those I skim through rogue and cleric.

What you should be asking is "Dom is a bit too powerful but the other souls are over-all subpar without it, how can we make them better while nerfing Dom so it balances out and really lets mages play a more diverse soul layout without dom needed?"

[Lloigor]

Band-aids? Mages especially need major changes and fixes to their souls especially in PVP, I doubt many mages are willing to wait tilll expansion for this, I know I certainly am not. I can imagine other classes wanting few changes so they stay polished and mages stay gimped but hopefully this is not part of Trions business model.

I 100% agree with you.

[lomax]

qq


my main is a mage , boxxybabee

i got a AOE spec SC / Pyro / Chloro
solo tank PA grinding spec Ele / SC / Dom .
Leveling Ele / Pyro or SC / Chloro
Pure dps Pyro / Lock / Arch
Mage tank Lock / Chloro / Dom
Heals deep Chloro
plus there are support specs that i do not run


what you want to do is make Solo and leveling and some of the other specs full end game in both PVE and PVP why ? would you ruin ELE for soloing and remove the tank pet and go pure dps ? what will you do when you need a tank ?

Only SC and necro needs to be reworked and it would be nice if Necro could swap with Ele as a solo and leveling and SC could swap with Pyro in any setup so we can have a bit of variation.

what i see is end game PVP and PVE leetest players think every spec must work for there style of game play .