Flame Ward Announcement and Tree Preview

All the issues with mage->sorcerer are already discussed in multiple topics + discord Mage channel. I am very sure that the devs are already aware of mage->sorcerer issues/problems overall and in particular with most skills+skill trees and passive tree nodes. Even in the channels shown above there are good suggestions on how to improve the class overall. I am just trying to express my opinion on the matter that the things they did to mage->sorcerer class somehow leaves it in more or less in the same position. Buffing something nerfing something and the class stays nearly in the same situation overall. My point of view is that the changes from the last few patches strictly speaking about mage->sorcerer are not pulling the class from the not so good situation/position that is right now and it is possible to make the situation worse.

Of course it is possible that i am wrong we will be able to comment/discuss it more objectively/accurate once the patch is live and we test all those changes properly. For now all we can do is speculate. Although the worries i had and expressed about desintigrate that it wont be viable looking at its skill tree before 0.74 went live turned to be quite true :slight_smile: which reside in another post and can be checked.

Mage->sorcerer issues:
Bad/low base/overall damage on skills beside fireball/volcanic orb/meteor. Bad/horrible skill design/mechanics/functionality overall(especially compared to how good avalanche is performing in direction of how the skill work mechanic/design/functionality wise - not speaking about dmg here). To many x% increased bonus of something with too big y% reduce of something else skill tree nodes. A lot of skill tree nodes not making any sense at all. The situation in which you are forced to take all increase 50% damage + increased 50% mana cost points just in order to do normal/somehow ok damage which brings skill costs to 50/70/100+ basically forcing you to play with Focus skill mandatory with a special skill tree node just so you can sustain casting your skills.

Passive tree… oh Passive tree. So many nodes improving freeze rate/chills and stuff like this while they become quite useless at monolith of fate 70/80+ and arena 250/300+(this is in case we are using the current freezing chance formula). Not a single ward retaliation nodes in sorcerer tree. Not a single node improving BASE DAMAGE of spells. Overall weak +damage nodes. Bad->horrible 2 last tiers of passive node trees(the top ones). Very weak cooldown reduction last tier node (taking in mind the current formula of CDR). I am sorry i dont have the time to give the feedback skill by skill/skill tree by skill tree node/Passive tree node by passive tree node. But i think you can get the overall idea where/what the issues are.

Sorry for going a little more off topic with speaking about mage->sorcerer overall performance.

Maybe you misunderstood my point. I never said my mage build was bad or yours. Never even compared and honestly it doesnt matter that much. Have not played arena since the ladder reset only pushing monolith currently and it is looking good. My concerns are that the changes from the last few patches does not feel favorable for the class overall situation/performance or making an appropriate level of impact the class needs. Try playing Bear swipe Druid or Physical Avalanche build and compare the differences to any Mage->Sorcerer build you choose and probably you will start understanding what i am speaking about :slight_smile: .

Ive played all of the above. I’m only saying there are viable builds for sorcerer. Yes most builds for it oack damage and almost all builds are glass cannony but again. There are ways to do 40k crits on the mage and feel op at times.
Im actually surprised your telling me to try the swipe werebear when you must have seen it at the top of the ladder… with my name in it. lol

Heya, we’ll likely be going with 5 Ward on Block.

When I know when the nominal DPS or skill-specific damage will come in, this xyz% system doesn’t understand anything and how bad my damage is, I just want to know how much damage my ability is and my character’s total damage. .

Unfortunately, this is a huge amount of work.

It’s included in Phase 2 of our Early Access Forecast, but it won’t be ready for Patch 0.7.5.

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Thanks for the quick response! the good that will be implemented at least in the future! good job :handshake:

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I haven’t played sorcerer, but the stats and options on this skill look tasty. Compared to acolyte’s ward generation, which needs a lot of investment and lots of managing, this one button skill looks much more enjoyable. One button, get huge damage mitigation. Simple.

Yes this skill seems quite comparable to the sentinels “Ring of shields” which is a very versatile useful skill.

Base skill: duration is a little freaking short even with the + 1,5 seconde for a 4,5 sec it would get with the duration node i believe… Dunno… Need real test to give a better feedback, my opignon may change.

Art : superb i love it !

Skill tree : over all nice but i guess the lightning tree must be dissociate from the cold one and have this own exclusive tree.

Thank you for new stuff

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My first impression of the mage was that their defense comes from actively using skills to control the battlefield. You can sense this when you first get static orb to knock enemies back. The downtime of this new buff plays into that role to force smart and interactive gameplay choices instead of simply refreshing a buff timer.

As the skill trees advance, I commend the dev team for giving players meaningful choices.

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i have to agree with boardman on most of what he has said.
this game has started moving into a huge meta fest worse the POE by far.
a sorc literally has to be one or two builds to even be effective otherwise your shit.
i don’t like playing fire sorc but apparently thats the only option or nova which i am not really interested in. black hole was fun but got completely destroyed.
i honestly dont even enjoy playing my sorc anymore its like i invest so much time into building a specific build and then they nerf it so i start all over and have to grind up the spells again to get the spec trees fleshed out only to find out that its not going to work becuase i have 0 sustain. Honestly sorc is just broken unless you only use one of two builds that are viable. I was really looking forward to this game but i have not touched it in a few months after the last big patch i played for about 30 min and just shut it back down again.

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I agree with you, unfortunately …

I generally play fists in melee as a magician, for me this skill gave a lot.

In every game ever made there is a best class, best build . Call it whatever you want , Meta, whatever . And it always changes . I’ve never seen a pc game which is continually updated where they did not buff and nerf classes and builds. I just don’t understand the mentality of getting upset when there is a best build or 2 or 5 per class or when said build gets nerfed. Sorc got nerfed too hard last major patch because it was way too good compared to the other classes. Now they will buff them . They will constantly get better at tweaking the buff/nerf knobs to where there isn’t so much of a dramatic change like there was for mage. They will fine tune . That’s why we are in beta.

And thats perfectly fine, but i only play one class because i can’t stand going thru the same content over and over again i just play for endgame and i prefer to only play one class. and when you completly utterly [post moderated —Sarno] the class well i don’t play anymore. every single spell should be able to be used to effect in this game there is literally ZERO reason to have META in any game. you should be able to have builds constructed around every ability in the game thats why they have them. what use is even making a spell if its going to suck [post moderated —Sarno]?
why waste the time coding them. i mean seriously if i make something i am going to not waste my time making a spell that no one will ever use but some newb that will get pissed off because the spell doesnt work end game and then quit. that is not the point of a game.
with that said literally the only build that is worth a pot to piss in is fireball and that’s just lame i mean diablo 1 has better meta then this… and its 25 years old. i can literally play that game with any class and any spell and beat the game. why because it is well written to where every ability has a point in the game. same with diablo 2. here lately games have been more about ladders and competition instead of actually making the game fun to play for those who enjoy being creative. sorry for the ramble but i really was thinking that was where this game was headed. but it appears that its literally going to just be another clone of the “this is the meta this month play it and enjoy” i really hope i am wrong. because i like the premise of what they were doing.
and you are totally wrong about every game ever made that’s your ignorance showing thru because apparently you haven’t played good games like i have.

We are not attempting to enforce a meta; we’re just an indie studio working on a pre-release game and have limited time for balancing at this stage of development.

When all of the classes, items, skills, and specialization trees have been implemented it will be easier to make balancing changes which stand the test of time than what it is now. If we buffed Mages across the board in one patch - and then in the next patch implemented dual-wielding (e.g. for wands) and Catalysts (off-hands) in the next patch, we would likely need to perform another balancing pass on Mages to compensate for them having access to more optimal equipment. Our latest content patch was less than a month ago; our next is less than a week away. Including comprehensive balance changes in each one simply isn’t feasible.

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So we can duel wield wands :slight_smile: Oh how exciting :0
Actually i think i misread that. We still get 1 wand and offhand catalysts. Nvm not as OP as it first sounded.

i appreciate your response, and i do agree that this game is still in beta, what i dont agree with is when people say there is going to be a meta so just deal with it.

one reason i backed this game was because i felt like y’all “developers” were more interested in making a game that would be about creating your own character the way you want it to be developed and it would be functional. would it make it to wave 1000 most likely not. but would it be effective enough in game to be able to have fun with it? thats what i am looking for and i have noticed that y’all have been very diligent in doing so. my first post was more in line with my way of thinking. i just went off the rails when the previous post basically said “suck it up this is the way every game is” which is a total falsehood. Thank you for your response and i do look forward to each patch. i log in and play and see how it goes.
I think i am just salty over the nutering of blackhole still. i really enjoyed that build and didn’t think it was dealt with in the best way but i am not a developer so i sit back and watch the development of this game with hopes that it will bring back some of the enjoyment i had with the old games of years gone by.

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