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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Tuning request for some spells and Blood school suggestion
Rym
Member, Alpha Two
Played mage up to level 18 so far during the Alpha.
Overall the class feels quite good while leveling, not too strong and not too weak. I may create a full feedback thread later, but I mostly don't have many negatives to say about the mage atm.
I would perhaps like to see some changes to cooldowns and cast times on some spells.
1: Blink. I think 30 seconds cooldown is a bit too long of a cooldown. I think 20 seconds would be much better.
2: Slumber. I think the cast time of Slumber is currently too long. I understand it's an AoE sleep, I would like to see more options here, such as:
- Hastened Slumber: Slumber now has a 1 second cast time, but it can only affect one target.
- Slumber Storm: The cast time of Slumber is reduced to 1 second, and it now affects a much larger area, but it's cooldown is increased to 2 minutes.
I would also like to see a Blood Magic School be implemented into the Mage archetype, this is my idea:
- Blood Magic is an enticing, overwhelmingly powerful school of magic, with unparalleled offensive might. Both relentless and inexorable, it devastates both enemies and the casters in mere moments.
- Blood Magic converts all Mage spells to Blood variants, and massively improves their cast time, damage done, cast speed, effects and cooldowns.
- Blood Magic siphons life directly from the caster, all spells now cost HP to cast.
- Mana can be converted into life, at a significantly reduced efficiency.
Examples of Blood Magic converted spells:
- Blood Frostbolt: Use your own life force to cast a powerful bloody frostbolt, inflicting 500% magical damage to the target, and 125-200% damage to yourself, applies Deadly Chill to the target which converts into Absolute Zero after a Finisher attack. Cast time: 1 second
- Absolute Zero: Freezes the target completely, preventing all action from occurring. Cannot be dispelled. Cannot be removed. Absolute CC. Lasts 6 seconds in PvE, 3 seconds in PvP.
- Blood Missiles: Converts Arcane Missiles into Blood Missiles, this attack can be channeled and stopped at any point. Each Blood Missile inflicts 40% Magic Damage to the target, and 10% Damage to yourself. This spell can be channeled indefinitely, and if not stopped in time, will kill the caster. The spell starts out slow, and builds up speed over 4 seconds, after which the volley becomes similar to a minigun.
- Crimson Lightning: Charges up a Crimson Lightning strike, dealing between 400%-1000% Magical Damage to the target. Surrounding targets also take 200% Magical Damage and are affected by Crimson Shock. If the target is under the effect of Absolute Zero, Absolute Zero is immediately consumed and the target takes an additional 400% Magical Damage. The aftershock of this spell will additionally inflict 500% damage to the caster. 2 seconds cast time.
- Blood Slumber: Instantly puts the target, or a group of targets to sleep. No cooldown. The spell requires significant power from the caster, consuming 20% of your max HP per target, or up to 80% of your HP for a group of targets.
And so on, these are just a few ideas I have atm, I don't know if this would make mage broken OP or not. The idea of Blood Magic is that the blood mage is flat out the most powerful character in the world, and that power if not controlled properly will kill both the caster and the target. There would also be ways to restore HP of course so you have some survivability, but this would be meant to be a way to play with at least one healer on you, carefully balancing life and death to devastating effects.
As for what class combo I'd see this on, it would probably be a Warlock.
Overall the class feels quite good while leveling, not too strong and not too weak. I may create a full feedback thread later, but I mostly don't have many negatives to say about the mage atm.
I would perhaps like to see some changes to cooldowns and cast times on some spells.
1: Blink. I think 30 seconds cooldown is a bit too long of a cooldown. I think 20 seconds would be much better.
2: Slumber. I think the cast time of Slumber is currently too long. I understand it's an AoE sleep, I would like to see more options here, such as:
- Hastened Slumber: Slumber now has a 1 second cast time, but it can only affect one target.
- Slumber Storm: The cast time of Slumber is reduced to 1 second, and it now affects a much larger area, but it's cooldown is increased to 2 minutes.
I would also like to see a Blood Magic School be implemented into the Mage archetype, this is my idea:
- Blood Magic is an enticing, overwhelmingly powerful school of magic, with unparalleled offensive might. Both relentless and inexorable, it devastates both enemies and the casters in mere moments.
- Blood Magic converts all Mage spells to Blood variants, and massively improves their cast time, damage done, cast speed, effects and cooldowns.
- Blood Magic siphons life directly from the caster, all spells now cost HP to cast.
- Mana can be converted into life, at a significantly reduced efficiency.
Examples of Blood Magic converted spells:
- Blood Frostbolt: Use your own life force to cast a powerful bloody frostbolt, inflicting 500% magical damage to the target, and 125-200% damage to yourself, applies Deadly Chill to the target which converts into Absolute Zero after a Finisher attack. Cast time: 1 second
- Absolute Zero: Freezes the target completely, preventing all action from occurring. Cannot be dispelled. Cannot be removed. Absolute CC. Lasts 6 seconds in PvE, 3 seconds in PvP.
- Blood Missiles: Converts Arcane Missiles into Blood Missiles, this attack can be channeled and stopped at any point. Each Blood Missile inflicts 40% Magic Damage to the target, and 10% Damage to yourself. This spell can be channeled indefinitely, and if not stopped in time, will kill the caster. The spell starts out slow, and builds up speed over 4 seconds, after which the volley becomes similar to a minigun.
- Crimson Lightning: Charges up a Crimson Lightning strike, dealing between 400%-1000% Magical Damage to the target. Surrounding targets also take 200% Magical Damage and are affected by Crimson Shock. If the target is under the effect of Absolute Zero, Absolute Zero is immediately consumed and the target takes an additional 400% Magical Damage. The aftershock of this spell will additionally inflict 500% damage to the caster. 2 seconds cast time.
- Blood Slumber: Instantly puts the target, or a group of targets to sleep. No cooldown. The spell requires significant power from the caster, consuming 20% of your max HP per target, or up to 80% of your HP for a group of targets.
And so on, these are just a few ideas I have atm, I don't know if this would make mage broken OP or not. The idea of Blood Magic is that the blood mage is flat out the most powerful character in the world, and that power if not controlled properly will kill both the caster and the target. There would also be ways to restore HP of course so you have some survivability, but this would be meant to be a way to play with at least one healer on you, carefully balancing life and death to devastating effects.
As for what class combo I'd see this on, it would probably be a Warlock.
0
Comments
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Blood_magic
Honestly this will likely be some kind of augments acquired from a quest chain that requires very specific conditions and won't be available on every server. It won't be part of any classes actual default kit.
Might even take up the religious augments since I don't think it's compatible with any of the main religions (unless it's part of worshiping The Others)
Mages have always, will always be the control of elements
No need to mess with the fundamentals or core of the mage class