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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.
ArchWizard Round Table
Veil Mistwarden
Member, Alpha Two
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
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=KRnneZSZqBAMegumin from KonoSuba!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXjr05MqH2g 1
Comments
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.
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.
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? ^_^
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.
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.
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.
Oh, the funniest Mage Anime-girl of recent Years of Anime History.
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.
Glass Cannon Builds are funny in World of Warcraft however. " IF " People manage to play it right.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
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
damn I need to catch up with konosuba ;-;
Ah there it is
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.
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.
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?