1.8 Mage Changes

[V1rul3n7]

So i had a look through the alterations and all together i genuinely believe Trion has done the best job they can to balance, Warriors now have to scale up in combat to gain full potential which is much more reasonable since they should be just as dependent on the team in order to scale up as a mage/cleric is to wind up. They also took care of Riftblade/Paladin having too many stuns/snares by removing improved frozen armor, a change i definitely welcome.

Riftstalker/Nightblade seems to have taken the appropriate hit, they plain and simple had far too much mitigation and healing, they synergize better with blade dancer now but at least they will require more skill to play.

Im also glad to see the line of sight alteration to Nysyrs rebuke and the warden alterations.

Anyway on to our changes:

MAGE

ARCHON
* Consuming Flames: Can no longer be cast on a target under the effect of Purifier's Rite of the Ancestors or Spiritual Conflagration.
* Cleansing Flames: Now removes one Poison, Disease, or Curse from up to 10 party or raid members in the target area. Only chooses targets that have an effect to remove.
* Leeching Flames: Reduced duration to 8 seconds.
* Pillaging Stone: The ability description will now correctly update the stats given by this buff as you spend points in Strength of Stone.
* Searing Vitality: Reduced duration to 8 seconds.

By analyzing the data we can see that there were some slight damage improvements to Searing Vitality and Leeching flames. Personally i dont believe this is enough for the Archon tree.

Suggestions for 1.8:

Alter purging flames so purification is also granted the power to cleanse buffs from enemy targets, this would mean that archons will be able to either AoE cleanse/purge or single target cleanse/purge for a greater amount.

Remove swift thoughts and rebalance mental flare with a 2m 45s cooldown.

Replace swift thoughts with a new ability, something like:

Flowing thoughts: Reduces the cooldown on flowing sand by 15/30 seconds.

Then alter flowing sand so that when it is activated it dispels movement impairing effects and increase its base cooldown to 1m.

This will give higher tier Archons the ability to actually escape snares effectively and kite to wind up.

And will also provide other classes with a potential synergy for 6 points in archon to have a movement impairment dispel on a high cooldown, at present all we have is either Wild Abandon which takes a considerable investment into the Chloromancer tree, or Flicker for 11 points into the Pyro tree.


CHLOROMANCER
* Lifegiving Veil and Lifebound Veil: Healing in PvP increased by 15%.
* Natural Conversion: Fixed a case where this could be consumed by an existing damage over time effect instead of on the next damaging spell cast.
* Natural Healing: No longer affected by pushback while casting.
* Withering Vine: Now instant cast. Increased duration to 16 seconds.

Can't argue with these changes, seem perfectly reasonable.

DOMINATOR
* Charged Shield: Will no longer remove your Mage Armor buff if cast on an ally.
* Haunting Pain: Increased duration to 16 seconds.

Also cannot argue.

ELEMENTALIST
* Icy Carapace: Increased duration to 16 seconds.
* Ignite: Reduced duration to 8 seconds.

I would have like to have seen more changes to elementalist to be honest.

NECROMANCER
* Corpse Explosion: Increased duration to 30 seconds.
* Necrosis: Reduced base duration to 10 seconds. Spending points in Flesh Rot now increases the duration of Necrosis by 2-6 seconds, increases base damage by 20-60%, and increases the benefit to Necrosis from Spell Power by 20-60%.

Seem completely reasonable, should improve necromancers nicely, I would like to suggest that Lich form also dispels movement impairing effects in addition to its normal effects, this would really benefit necro's as a whole.

STORMCALLER
* Fixed some spells granting Charge while Storm Guard is active.
* Forked Lightning: Increased max number of targets this can hit to 8.

The forked lightning changes seem quite reasonable, cloudburst and ice shard are still a little weak though and could use a slight damage increase. Hopefully with the changes to debuff/buff stacking priorities Hypothermia effects wont be overwritten/wiped so easily and this will make stormcallers very useful as a control/AoE class

WARLOCK
* Defile: Fixed Defile continuing to consume Charge if it was cleansed from the target.
* Empowered Darkness: Now costs 75 Charge to cast, but no longer consumes Charge or blocks Charge gain while active. Reduced the damage bonus for the Warlock to 70% while Empowered Darkness is active. 15 second maximum duration.
* Life Leech: Reduced base duration to 10 seconds. Spending points in Improved Life Leech now increases the duration of Life Leech by 2-6 seconds, increases its base damage by 20-60%, increases the benefit to Life Leech from Spell Power by 20-60%, and increases the amount healed by 10-30%.
* Sacrifice Life: Damage: Reduced cooldown to 30 seconds and increased the damage bonus granted to 20%.

Excellent warlock changes imo.

Thanks very much for listening!

[Swiftspell]

The warlock changes needs more to it.

*Life leech need to be made instant cast, i gladly trade it for a 8-10 sec CD on the skill for providing us with the change.

*Dark Touch DMG need to be changed to act just like life leech and necrosis does.

*Neddra¨s Torture dmg need to be increased to 10% instead of 3% as it is now, also the dmg it does when expire need to be increased by ALOT and alos make it instant cast aswell (it already have a CD, why do it have a cast time???)...

*Neddra's Grasp dmg need to be increased by ALOT, also the 5 times it can occur doing DMG to your enemy while he perform an action should be increased to 10 times instead.


*The CD on Mortality need to be removed, the Heal gain from it also need to be unaffected by Healing debuffs.

*Shadow Life CD needs to be lowered to 1min atleast, also the healing from shaddow life needs to either be unaffected by healing debuffs or be increased by 50%!

*The Dmg from cating Draining Bolt need to be increased by ALOT and it need to heal for 100% of the dmg done instead of only 50% as it it now.


Elementalist

Ignite need to Stack up to 5 Times, each stack increase the DMG your DoTs do by 5% per stack


This would solve alot

[Hunt55511]

A few things:

1) FL hitting 8 targets is insane -- not reasonable. You have no idea how big of an increase this is in SC AE DPS.
2) Cloudburst hits about where it should for a soul focused on AE. If you had no buildup, you could easily pull 3-3.2k DPS using cloudburst. The buildup is the weak part in the SC st rotation.
3) Ice Shard does not exist. I'm not sure if you're talking about Storm Shard or Ice Shear, but both do their jobs well.
4) Archon is fine as-is. It does what it needs to very well.
5) The changes don't really fix Necro or make it good enough to be usable outside of soloing. Really.
6) Yeah, Ele needs more love. Not sure what to do to fix it though, other than upping it's base damage.
7) RB/Pal having too many stuns/snares: It had two snares and one stun. How is that too many? o.O

Not commenting on anything else as I either have nothing to say, don't know about it, or don't care to post about it.

[Hunt55511]

*The CD on Mortality need to be removed, the Heal gain from it also need to be unaffected by Healing debuffs.

.........................................

I just laughed so hard. You honestly don't see how overpowered that would be in a DPS soul? Imagine Natural Splendor having no CD.

[Swiftspell]

.........................................

I just laughed so hard. You honestly don't see how overpowered that would be in a DPS soul? Imagine Natural Splendor having no CD.

Overpowered??? You have no clue have you?...

[V1rul3n7]

Right, let me clean a few things up.

Life leech doesn't need to be instant cast, just use it on opportunity or refresh it with void bolt, making it instacast woulld be completely ridiculous, its been nicely buffed and i think this patch altogether is the closest to balance yet imo.

Stormcaller as i say, it is a nice DPS increase but im waiting to see how it pans out first and cloudburst, its only a tiny tiny bit of damage barely significant.

Archon does need some changes, sure they do what they do very well but i believe the suggestions i have posted will help class synergy as well as improve the archon spec as a whole. They are too snare vulnerable when they have auras up unbuffed by making the alterations i have suggested high tier archons would be much better off. Also they have just WAY too many mana replenishment talents as a pure archon which negatively affects their performance in pvp. Exhiliration + Leeching Flames + Mental flare is a total of 9 points all practically only for mana replenishment, its a little excessive is what i am saying.

Elementalist definitely needs addressing further but at least Necromancer got a little bit of love, i can see see that with the reduction in cleric AoE heals the damage a necromancer will be able to pull of in Zerg V Zerg will be quite nice against single targets.

Of course we will have to wait and see what happens but i tried to suggest the most MINIMAL of alterations to benefit high tier Archons as i have stated, I also think the purification alteration also makes sense so that against a single target an Archon still has an effective debuff. This would be exceptionally handy against Tanks and Healers and i think its only fair that archons can have the choice between AoE debuff or single target debuff that cleanses twice. Afterall other callings can debuff single targets VERY rapidly, i think its only fair that archons can do the same.

I honestly tried to be as fair about it as I could be after considering all the information i know about the different classes and how the next patch will affect them.

That's all, Please dont turn this thread into another Troll thread.

[mo0trix]

.........................................

I just laughed so hard. You honestly don't see how overpowered that would be in a DPS soul? Imagine Natural Splendor having no CD.

Even as a mage, I gotta agree that these would be stupid with no CD.

You'd literally be unable to die in a solo PvE situation with no CD on mortality..... wait... wait... brilliant idea! gieffff!

[V1rul3n7]

The warlock changes needs more to it.

*Life leech need to be made instant cast, i gladly trade it for a 8-10 sec CD on the skill for providing us with the change.

Protip: Use it on opportunity, your suggestion would make it far too spammable, its being buffed a considerable amount anyway.


*Dark Touch DMG need to be changed to act just like life leech and necrosis does.

Agreed, it could use a slight base damage increase, I stress SLIGHT

*Neddra¨s Torture dmg need to be increased to 10% instead of 3% as it is now, also the dmg it does when expire need to be increased by ALOT and alos make it instant cast aswell (it already have a CD, why do it have a cast time???)...

I think it should be 5% personally dont forget warlock is getting a lot of alteration to sacrifice life: damage and empowered darkness. Also it doesn't need to be instant cast, cast it on an opportunity.

*Neddra's Grasp dmg need to be increased by ALOT, also the 5 times it can occur doing DMG to your enemy while he perform an action should be increased to 10 times instead.

As i said with Dark touch, perhaps a SLIGHT damage increase, dont forget these are stacking buffs..


*The CD on Mortality need to be removed, the Heal gain from it also need to be unaffected by Healing debuffs.

I think a better solution is to keep it as it is and alter it so that it cleanses self like phase shift used to.

*Shadow Life CD needs to be lowered to 1min atleast, also the healing from shaddow life needs to either be unaffected by healing debuffs or be increased by 50%!

It's fine as it is, cleanse you're healing debuffs. :P

*The Dmg from cating Draining Bolt need to be increased by ALOT and it need to heal for 100% of the dmg done instead of only 50% as it it now.

Id say 75% heal, no damage increase.


Elementalist

Ignite need to Stack up to 5 Times, each stack increase the DMG your DoTs do by 5% per stack

Disagree, i think it should increase the damage the target takes from your elemental much like necrosis or deathly calling.


This would solve alot

Replied in the quote.

[V1rul3n7]

Even as a mage, I gotta agree that these would be stupid with no CD.

You'd literally be unable to die in a solo PvE situation with no CD on mortality..... wait... wait... brilliant idea! gieffff!

Exactly, it's a poor suggestion. I think it should Cleanse self though personally like Phase Shift used to since you have to be stationary to use it and its affected by healing debuffs, you usually use it at low HP so having it cleanse debuffs as it is channeled would improve its effectiveness a good deal without making it ridiculously OP like that suggestion.

[Hunt55511]

Replied in the quote.

I agree with basically everything you said there, though I'm not sure on Mortality cleansing...Seems off for a DPS soul.

[V1rul3n7]

A few things:

7) RB/Pal having too many stuns/snares: It had two snares and one stun. How is that too many? o.O

Light's Hammer = Ranged 3s stun
Stonespear = Ranged 5s stun
Frozen Armor = Movement speed debuff
Shield charge = 2 second root.
Riftwalk = 2 second root

+ Avatar of Wind = 10% movement speed increase
+ 0 points in Champion = Out of combat charge

That's too many when mages only have

Flicker (11 points pyro)
Wild Abandon (18 points chloro)
Break free

[Hunt55511]

Light's Hammer = Ranged 3s stun
Stonespear = Ranged 5s stun
Frozen Armor = Movement speed debuff
Shield charge = 2 second root.
Riftwalk = 2 second root

+ Avatar of Wind = 10% movement speed increase
+ 0 points in Champion = Out of combat charge

That's too many when mages only have

Flicker (11 points pyro)
Wild Abandon (18 points chloro)
Break free

Let me clear a few things up for you:
1) Stonespear is a root, not a stun.
2) In the standard RB/Ch/Pal, you don't have Shield Charge, but you do have in-combat Bull Rush (1s root, I think?)
3) No self-respecting PvPer would use AoWind over AoWater in PvP except when running a stone. 10% movement speed simply isn't worth losing 10% mitigation. Either way, both are purgeable.
5) You missed Windspear (5s silence) and Earth Burst (Snare, can't remember length)
4) Everything you mentioned has a 20m range. Mages have a 30m range.

[V1rul3n7]

I agree with basically everything you said there, though I'm not sure on Mortality cleansing...Seems off for a DPS soul.

The reason i suggest that is because usually its a last minute resort when you are at low HP. Healing debuffs reduce the healing effectiveness to the point where it might aswell not have a healing portion to it.

Either they up the damage and do away with the healing to make it deal good DPS

Or they allow it to cleanse healing debuffs because with them on its weak at both healing AND dps'ing and as i say, its usually used at a medium-low hp count, so usually you really rely on that healing to pick yourself back up if Shadows Life/Essence are on cooldown.

[V1rul3n7]

Let me clear a few things up for you:
1) Stonespear is a root, not a stun.
2) In the standard RB/Ch/Pal, you don't have Shield Charge, but you do have in-combat Bull Rush (1s root, I think?)
3) No self-respecting PvPer would use AoWind over AoWater in PvP except when running a stone. 10% movement speed simply isn't worth losing 10% mitigation. Either way, both are purgeable.
5) You missed Windspear (5s silence) and Earth Burst (Snare, can't remember length)
4) Everything you mentioned has a 20m range. Mages have a 30m range.

1) Root then, i call everything that stops me doing stuff a stun and with mages mitigation/hp mobility loss is a major factor. :P
2) You could easily add it.
3) The option is there at least.
5) Exactly, yet another snare that I missed.
4) 20m is a lot of range for a fighter who also tanks dont you think?

You didnt mention anything about my comment on Flicker/Wild Abandon/Break free being our only movement dispels did you? Exactly.

Its either 11 points in Pyro, or 18 points in Chloro, otherwise all a mage has is Break Free and thats universal to ALL callings so really it doesnt count.

[Hunt55511]

1) Root then, i call everything that stops me doing stuff a stun and with mages mitigation/hp mobility loss is a major factor. :P
2) You could easily add it.
3) The option is there at least.
5) Exactly, yet another snare that I missed.
4) 20m is a lot of range for a fighter who also tanks dont you think?

You didnt mention anything about my comment on Flicker/Wild Abandon/Break free being our only movement dispels did you? Exactly.

Its either 11 points in Pyro, or 18 points in Chloro, otherwise all a mage has is Break Free and thats universal to ALL callings so really it doesnt count.

Well, I guess I can comment on the mage mobility thing, though I didn't think it was necessary...Here's a list of tools you can use to help escape a warrior:
1) Stormcaller: Knockbacks, snares, movement speed charge consumer.
2) Pyro: Flicker, root (Longest in the game, mind), snare, stun.
3) Dom: SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP (Seriously. Best tool for escape EVER), stun(s), AE confuse, knockback...
4) Archon: Flowing Sand (Snare AND speed buff!)
5) Necro: No clue, never touched necro thankfully
6) Ele: Water elemental, I think?
7) Chloro: Wild Growth, Wild Abandon
8) Warlock: Fear, AE fear, Snare.
9) Universal: Rift Tomb, Break Free.