ArchWizard Round Table

As a career Caster, here's a playstyle option I'd like to see for the double-dipped Mage, ArchWizard.

Give players the ability to NOT equip a wand in exchange for massive damage!
No unnecessary spammy filler wand attacks, just massive damage burst, then we must rest.
Make us spec into the Passive tree somewhere to unlock it, give us increased cooldowns and Mana cost if you have to - but give us the option to be a glass cannon like the days of old!

Below are a few examples of Glass Cannons at work, comment below on what you'd like to see for ArchWizard!

Blackmage from Final Fantasy XI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRnneZSZqBA

Megumin from KonoSuba!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXjr05MqH2g

Comments

  • HumblePuffinHumblePuffin Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    edited April 2022
    Idk if they would go the route of just not equipping a wand because I feel like at the very least your wand would be a stat stick.

    Going off their preview skill trees from alpha 1, I feel like your end goal is achievable by not putting any skill points into your weapon skills and instead pumping all of skill points into your abilities and x/mage augments.

    I think you’ll see the different spell casting weapons fit into this general theme too. In alpha 1 wands had a really fast attack speed while tomes had a much slower attack speed with more damage behind each hit.

    We haven’t seen orbs yet but I could see them fitting into a niche where they do crap basic attack damage, very slow attack speed, but strongly effect your abilities as you channel the power from them. They could potentially float around you to freely allow casting with both hands. Maybe some animations/weapon skills where you channel the power from them to power up your next ability, or a weapon skill where you channel the power from them to replenish mana like a battery.

    I definitely agree with the general concept you’re giving off though where archwizard is all about the command of their magical abilities. Big channels with powerful effects, fireballs that go from a single fire ball to a barrage of fireballs.
  • AtamaAtama Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    Weapon skills are a big part of every character. I don’t see this idea working for Ashes. This isn’t like other MMOs where the weapon is just a base damage number your skills are based off of, there is an entire advancement tree coming from it.
     
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  • DygzDygz Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    I don't see this as option for Ashes for the same reason Atama stated - Weapon Skills.
    Highly unlikely that we will get bonuses for not using a weapon, just as we won't get bonuses for not wearing gear.

    Glass Cannon means you have high burst damage with a realitively low health pool while wearing light armor.
    That really has nothing to do with the weapon conduit for magic.

    Expect Ashes Mages to have high burst damage with Wands.
    Light armor has stats to increase Magical attacks and defense. Expect Mages to be like glass when facing melee Physical damage.
  • Long cast times with massive damage output would be cool. Perhaps a channeled ability where you can charge it up, consuming more and more mana, until you run out of mana I suppose, for one humongous meteor. Your tanks and allies would have to protect you while you channeled.
  • VaknarVaknar Moderator, Member, Staff
    I think glass cannons are integral to the MMORPG genre :) I myself never play them in MMOs (though I love playing them in D&D)

    I like the idea of assigning skill points into larger hitting abilities at the cost of other parts of your kit for big damage. I suspect spell casters in Ashes of Creation will have the possibility of outputting major damage, but we shall see as we progress further through development ;)

    What other cool ideas can you come up with for the Archmage? ^_^
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  • VeeshanVeeshan Member
    edited April 2022
    Dygz wrote: »
    I don't see this as option for Ashes for the same reason Atama stated - Weapon Skills.
    Highly unlikely that we will get bonuses for not using a weapon, just as we won't get bonuses for not wearing gear.

    Glass Cannon means you have high burst damage with a realitively low health pool while wearing light armor.
    That really has nothing to do with the weapon conduit for magic.

    Expect Ashes Mages to have high burst damage with Wands.
    Light armor has stats to increase Magical attacks and defense. Expect Mages to be like glass when facing melee Physical damage.

    expect mages being glass on physical dmg might nto always be the case, Mage/Fighter is a abttle mage would i would suspect to be more close range ordinated so they would expected to have higher defence capability will have to see how thing play out when they go into classes a bit more.

    I do think mage/mage should be rather glassy with high dmg or high AoE capability (Having a class focused on AoE wouldnt be a bad thing tbh, makes them excel at larger scale stuff but not as well in smaller scale when they prety squishy.
  • DygzDygz Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    edited April 2022
    Mage/Mage who wants to maximize burst damage would probably be glassy, but...
    Mage/Mage could be a Ren'Kai with some heavy armor.
    At some point, they will be able to ask Master Blacksmiths to add magic dmg/defense stats onto heavy armor.
  • To echo Atama - the main reason is that weapon skill tree will be a core part of the combat system. That said, I would assume that while not all classes will be able to build glass cannon-esque - alot of class/archetypes should be able to. To what extremes we shall see!
  • CadveunCadveun Member
    The current state of spamming low damage spells makes the mage to close to the ranger. They both have abilities that look different, but they are essentially filling the same role. If one does it a little better, it will make the other class obsolete. I agree with OP. The Archwizard should have devastating attacks that turn the tide of battle but there is a drawback of long cast times or heavy mana use/stamina penalties.
  • DepravedDepraved Member
    As a career Caster, here's a playstyle option I'd like to see for the double-dipped Mage, ArchWizard.

    Give players the ability to NOT equip a wand in exchange for massive damage!
    No unnecessary spammy filler wand attacks, just massive damage burst, then we must rest.
    Make us spec into the Passive tree somewhere to unlock it, give us increased cooldowns and Mana cost if you have to - but give us the option to be a glass cannon like the days of old!

    Below are a few examples of Glass Cannons at work, comment below on what you'd like to see for ArchWizard!

    Blackmage from Final Fantasy XI
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRnneZSZqBA

    Megumin from KonoSuba!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXjr05MqH2g

    wait, do you mean unarmed combat?

    wouldn't it makes sense to do more damage with a weapon equipped?
    doesn't have to be a wand, it could be a staff or whatever.
  • CadveunCadveun Member
    Spellbook!
  • AszkalonAszkalon Member


    Oh, the funniest Mage Anime-girl of recent Years of Anime History. :mrgreen:



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    But Hands down, i think it would break Ingame-Balance if People could skill their Mage's to be like -> able to shoot AAALL their Power into a single Blast and then create a gigantic Explosion at the Cost of not being able to move for an Hour or above. :sweat_smile:

    Glass Cannon Builds are funny in World of Warcraft however. " IF " People manage to play it right. >:)
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    ✓ Occasional Roleplayer
    ✓ Kinda starting to look for a Guild right now. (German)
  • ApokApok Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    FFXI was well thought out though, black mage didn't just do high damage but it's ancient magic had a long cast time and you also wanted to burst it so it wasn't just using a powerful spell it was two melee's using the right combination of weapon skills while you started precasting and finally cast once the weapon skill goes off in order to magic burst your AM for maximum effectiveness.

    also you needed your staffs, yeah it's easy to do massive damage when you're using high level magic against a low level mob but try to do that in an Ouryu fight and you'll get resisted
  • DepravedDepraved Member
    Aszkalon wrote: »


    Oh, the funniest Mage Anime-girl of recent Years of Anime History. :mrgreen:



    ekd7msknhxiz.gif






    But Hands down, i think it would break Ingame-Balance if People could skill their Mage's to be like -> able to shoot AAALL their Power into a single Blast and then create a gigantic Explosion at the Cost of not being able to move for an Hour or above. :sweat_smile:

    Glass Cannon Builds are funny in World of Warcraft however. " IF " People manage to play it right. >:)

    damn I need to catch up with konosuba ;-;
  • blatblat Member
    edited May 14
    Surely someone's mentioned the spellbook already..
    Cadveun wrote: »
    Spellbook!

    Ah there it is :smile:
  • PyrololPyrolol Member
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  • edited May 15
    I actually just had this fantasy while driving. I was thinking about the mage wand video and thought “in practical terms why would a mage carry a spell book or a wand around?” I’m not gonna poke anything with a stick when I can obliterate it with fire and lightning.

    So the theory question is “is the wand a necessary tool for controlling and harnessing the essence?”

    If not, definitely let mages go hands free and add cool spell hand positions/movements to make the first ever pure caster class in MMO history.

    Give us a real mage; not a dagger wielding caster who can’t do anything but enchant the dagger for aesthetics. Same with a wand… why? A staff makes sense because staves are usually a source of power through some mounted artifact/gem that is most conveniently carried by the caster on the end of a staff.

    Give the mage instant effect protective spells to time blocking/dodging making the essence their weapon.

    Any hand holding a weapon is a hand that can’t conjure. If I were a mage IRL I’d drop that damn stick and wreak pure havoc with both hands immolating with the fervor of a berserker.

    I suggest calling it a “Mage” as is but if we have to change the name of the class I’d like to present: Battlemage or Archmage

    Maybe you could choose to dual wield essence with no conduit (staff or wand) but lose accuracy for the increased damage.
  • FinovFinov Member
    Vaknar wrote: »
    I think glass cannons are integral to the MMORPG genre :) I myself never play them in MMOs (though I love playing them in D&D)

    I like the idea of assigning skill points into larger hitting abilities at the cost of other parts of your kit for big damage. I suspect spell casters in Ashes of Creation will have the possibility of outputting major damage, but we shall see as we progress further through development ;)

    What other cool ideas can you come up with for the Archmage? ^_^

    I don't like using weapons in the form of wands, staffs, or books at all. I always liked to shoot from the hand more. Please make a weapon in the form of a magic glove or the ability to visually not use weapons during the cast, as some games do.
  • Depraved wrote: »
    As a career Caster, here's a playstyle option I'd like to see for the double-dipped Mage, ArchWizard.

    Give players the ability to NOT equip a wand in exchange for massive damage!
    No unnecessary spammy filler wand attacks, just massive damage burst, then we must rest.
    Make us spec into the Passive tree somewhere to unlock it, give us increased cooldowns and Mana cost if you have to - but give us the option to be a glass cannon like the days of old!

    Below are a few examples of Glass Cannons at work, comment below on what you'd like to see for ArchWizard!

    Blackmage from Final Fantasy XI
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRnneZSZqBA

    Megumin from KonoSuba!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXjr05MqH2g

    wait, do you mean unarmed combat?

    wouldn't it makes sense to do more damage with a weapon equipped?
    doesn't have to be a wand, it could be a staff or whatever.



    No. In Ashes every class has a ranged weapon slot.
    It's used for filler attacks in the rotation, etc.
    I'm saying let ArchMage remove the ranged slot entirely, no spammy filler attacks
    In exchange for greatly increased MH and 2H base spell damage.
  • ariatrasariatras Member, Founder
    I’ve never been fond of spammy attacks. If filler abilities are truly necessary (which I don’t think they are), I’d prefer them to be automated. In my view, casters should wield their staff, book, wand, or other magical implement as a true spell focus, channeling their magic through it. This approach would open up a world of customization, allowing foci to grant subtle, unique effects or simply serve as a powerful cosmetic enhancement. Imagine a rare, hard-to-obtain wand that could alter the very color of your spells—an elegant and rewarding way to express individuality. Beyond just aesthetics, different foci could slightly shift how spells manifest, adding depth and variety to casting without overwhelming players with needless inputs. This system would keep combat engaging, while still allowing players to focus on the magic itself, rather than managing unnecessary filler abilities.
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  • Depraved wrote: »
    As a career Caster, here's a playstyle option I'd like to see for the double-dipped Mage, ArchWizard.

    Give players the ability to NOT equip a wand in exchange for massive damage!
    No unnecessary spammy filler wand attacks, just massive damage burst, then we must rest.
    Make us spec into the Passive tree somewhere to unlock it, give us increased cooldowns and Mana cost if you have to - but give us the option to be a glass cannon like the days of old!

    Below are a few examples of Glass Cannons at work, comment below on what you'd like to see for ArchWizard!

    Blackmage from Final Fantasy XI
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRnneZSZqBA

    Megumin from KonoSuba!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXjr05MqH2g

    wait, do you mean unarmed combat?

    wouldn't it makes sense to do more damage with a weapon equipped?
    doesn't have to be a wand, it could be a staff or whatever.



    No. In Ashes every class has a ranged weapon slot.
    It's used for filler attacks in the rotation, etc.
    I'm saying let ArchMage remove the ranged slot entirely, no spammy filler attacks
    In exchange for greatly increased MH and 2H base spell damage.

    so remove your ranged weapon and use only a melee weapon to do higher damage with your spells?
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