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What Do You WANT From Mage Augments Specifically?
Azherae
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
So I've had old threads that compiled this sort of thing indirectly, but normally, given the timing of those threads, there was a lot of 'accepted' (grudgingly) reasons to not go into specific desires relative to Augments except in broad terms for the Archetype I was compiling for.
So I've never gathered up 'what people actually expect from Mage Augments' or any other, as a singular thing.
As 'starters' here is the old data from old threads, referring only to NON-Mage-Primary choices (I figure these are still relevant since we haven't received any new info since then):
Two Scions (one also considering Spellhunter) wanted to have mobility and utility as a magic archer, six others wanted elemental crits/effects (even specifically some debuff), another wanted to sustain CC on targets, another wanted a 'super long range artillery caster', five others wanted this class (one of these wasn't actually explicit about this choice)
One Spellshield (probably) wanted to go the Evasion route, another had specific desires that were considered for the schema, another wanted to explicitly be a Magic Tank (ice magic), four others wanted this class
One Spellsword specifically wanted 'Rune Stacking' from their Elemental augments, another was unsure which way to combine archetypes, based on Augments, a third was most interested in teleportation Augments and a fourth in Ice ones, two others wanted this class(to look sexy), yet four others were less obviously interested in the sexiness.
One Magician wanted mobility. Another wanted to increase resistances. Another wanted wind magic.
One potential Oracle really wanted water based healing, two others considered this class
One Nightspell specifically said that they were looking for elemental enhancements for their attacks, DoTs and additional survivability. Another wanted speed like (and with) lightning, but would accept teleportation. Eight others just said they wanted this class and really love its components and the idea of it.
There was no data for Spellmancers. Take that for what you will. Not that I didn't make a Summoner Thread, just that there weren't any clear Spellmancers in the data compiled.
So I've never gathered up 'what people actually expect from Mage Augments' or any other, as a singular thing.
As 'starters' here is the old data from old threads, referring only to NON-Mage-Primary choices (I figure these are still relevant since we haven't received any new info since then):
Two Scions (one also considering Spellhunter) wanted to have mobility and utility as a magic archer, six others wanted elemental crits/effects (even specifically some debuff), another wanted to sustain CC on targets, another wanted a 'super long range artillery caster', five others wanted this class (one of these wasn't actually explicit about this choice)
One Spellshield (probably) wanted to go the Evasion route, another had specific desires that were considered for the schema, another wanted to explicitly be a Magic Tank (ice magic), four others wanted this class
One Spellsword specifically wanted 'Rune Stacking' from their Elemental augments, another was unsure which way to combine archetypes, based on Augments, a third was most interested in teleportation Augments and a fourth in Ice ones, two others wanted this class(to look sexy), yet four others were less obviously interested in the sexiness.
One Magician wanted mobility. Another wanted to increase resistances. Another wanted wind magic.
One potential Oracle really wanted water based healing, two others considered this class
One Nightspell specifically said that they were looking for elemental enhancements for their attacks, DoTs and additional survivability. Another wanted speed like (and with) lightning, but would accept teleportation. Eight others just said they wanted this class and really love its components and the idea of it.
There was no data for Spellmancers. Take that for what you will. Not that I didn't make a Summoner Thread, just that there weren't any clear Spellmancers in the data compiled.
♪ One Gummy Fish, two Gummy Fish, Red Gummy Fish, Blue Gummy Fish ♪
2
Comments
When it comes to the teleportation school, I'd want it to have different mechanics for the TPs. Pre-base-effect tp, post-effect tp, influence the target tp (say, javelin tps the target to you instead of pulling), positive influence target (tp your mates), conditional tps (say, every 3rd basic hit tps you in some direction) and other stuff like that.
Now, the wiki words it as if TP is a part of the elemental school, but listening to Steven it seems that Elemental and TP are two different schools of a mage. So I'd want the other two to be essence and mana. Essence would give you additional magic atk effects and mana would give better control/manipulation of that resource.
In other words, a mage would provide a mobility school, a damage sidegrade one, a damage upgrade one and a utility one. And I'd probably expect other archetypes to do kinda the same, but with their own flavor.
Speaking a little deeper on the subject of the elements , I would like to see the combination of various elements or artifacts / things that cause / create new elements or similar as metal , lava , vegetation , gravity , void / darkness , time , imagination/psychic powers , blood , things that are different and have a need for combination of other elements / artifacts / things to be discovered.
Bumping this and pinging you for a specific question that maybe would be better in the Q&A but having the answer to it might really help out in a specific way if it is possible to get it early/via forums.
We've been waiting for a while without any absolute confirmation of how exactly the Mage Augment Schools are 'structured', which is part of the reason I made this thread, but with the Upcoming Dev Discussion being Mage related and the possibility of a 'Mage Showcase' soon, I have a big request.
We really need to know if the Elemental School covers all elements and if the player gets to choose.
That's really all. If you can ask someone and get confirmation, if the person in charge of Mage can come 'confirm' or at least 'say that they can't confirm', or if the Showcase can be tailored to make this as clear as possible even if no one can come clarify on forums.
I understand that everything's subject to change and probably no one wants to commit to anything or cause overspeculation, but this specific thing is a 'problem' because no one is 'going to talk about it', they're just going to make a bunch of assumptions and then argue if this isn't made as clear as possible, in my opinion.
I personally don't need any details at all on how the elemental school is applied to anything or even if it CAN be applied to all skills or not. Just 'is there a single school specifically tied to Elemental affinity and if so does it allow for choosing different elements for the same Augmented Skill?'
Wherever this answer comes from or doesn't come from, thank you anyway.
Fire augments
Convert some damage to elemental and tend to apply burn effects that could potentially make the next fire damage hitting do more damage.
Wind/lightning augments
Convert part of the damage to elemental and add some utility like push back, knock down or stun chances.
Ice augments
Again damage conversion; added slow effects, maybe with cold stacks that turn into a stun if high enough.
Teleportation augments
Mainly crazy movement but also CC and for abilities that were mobility oriented before shorted cooldowns. Think of a Fighter blinking over the battlefield in ruthless pursuit of an assassin class - terrifying to a Rouge, a savior to the allied healer.
Oracle - Divination-flavored buffs. (Like Astrologian from FFXIV if you're familiar.) Extra barriers/damage prevention rather than straight heals. Magic circles on the ground instead of the normal glowy healing zones, probably with offensive buffs or debuffs.
Also I feel like time magic should go somewhere, but that'd probably be a Mage-primary. Not sure...
Oh, and in general, all mage secondary classes should have at least one augment option that does big AoE damage. I think that's one the primary strengths of a Mage from a gameplay perspective, so secondary-mages should be able to lean into that a bit, too.
For anyone wondering/wanting a quick link: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Mage#Skills.2Fabilities
Teleport School - Covers all that, including stuff to pull or phase teammates and make/activate portals.
AoE Enhance School - Radial power control to make AoE skills bigger
Mana Control School - Mana drain, mana restoration, redirects, etc
Elemental School - The Pivotal school of this thread
I would like to see things like Blink also drops a snare or root at the point the mage blinked away from. DD's that also fling a fire ball at the attacker but also increases the gap by flinging the mages back a few feet. Or knock the target back a few feet. Maybe even fire shields that do significant damage to anyone that hits them with melee attacks.
My expectations are very similar, but i predict Curse School or Gravity School instead of AoE Enhance(Space) School which i believe will belong to summoners.
Aren't we all sinners?
It probably was explicitly avoided, but in case it wasn't, I bump this thread.
There's a lot more speculative reason to believe that there might be ways to do this, but no clarity that I perceived.
To be clear, at least for my group, this makes a massive difference. Enspells (FFXI) and Elemental Charge (Onigiri) are hard to ignore in their effectiveness. It doesn't even matter if they don't 'build stacks'.
As for augments, as a fighter I want additional utility, effects, and flashiness on my abilities. Seeing the elemental addition to weapon attacks is a great example, I want a fire glaive. It would be cool to see finishers, like a dash through the enemy that blows them up behind you - no turning around allowed. Cone of cold proccing when you impale someone real good.
As a mage-fighter, I want the fighter augments to the mage to mostly effect how the spells interact with the world. Blizzard joins spin to win for a flurryious winter tornado. Magic missile gets added to bow attacks. Fireball gets baseball batted out to the soon to be fried corndogs in the stands, or whatever unfortunate thing catches it first. Lightning bolt becomes a charged physical attack. Teleport makes you a punch wizard.
With that said, we really have enjoyed reading the augment theory-crafting here, and there are some very creative ideas!
Thank you very much!
Also, if the team is interested in the response to this part specifically:
I hope some examples of some of the abilities shown on the April livestream helped give an idea of what is currently planned for the Mage's kit.
Kit yes, Augments - not even a little bit.
But I'm glad to have it clarified that we shouldn't be expecting that information at this time, and I'll reference this answer if it comes up in further conversation. Looking forward to whenever the team feels things are ready enough to share (or Alpha-2, since I personally don't really see a reason to share it before then, if it wasn't included in the showcase).
Please, of course, also send my thanks to the team working on this.