The Current State Of Mage

Howdy everyone,

A very large discussion topic has been the recent changed to mage, and if it is justified or not. I'm making this thread to give my own opinion on this topic, but also to hear what the community has to say about it, as the voice of the community is also very important.

What heal was before
Now, let's start going back to the good ol' days, mage heal before the nerf. This is the point where i have to agree with the GM team, heal was way to good. It made mage dominant is PVE and PVP, as a good mage build would have to be one-shot to die, otherwise they would just heal back up. The previous heal system had a lot of flaws, healing little when on the brink of death, but healing a lot when you had a lot of health already (seriously doe it should have been the other way around right?). Mage made potions obsolete as with the press of three buttons you would be full health again, while other classes actually needed potions. Heal needed a well deserved nerf.

What heal is now
It's quite obvious heal isn't suppose to be what it is now ether, otherwise i wouldn't have made this thread. The reason heal feels weak now is because of how good it was before. While some flaws have been fixed with this system, it brought some others with it. First of all it is very nice to see how water damage now actually helps with healing (even tho in my opinion it can be increased even more). The fact that heal is now a constant is also nice. One new problem is the feeling that somehow, if you are running a mana spammy build, the second tier heal is better than the third. Sure you have a lot of afterheal with the third tier heal, but Heal tier 2 would heal me up to full much quicker if i spammed it, as i do not have to wait for the afterheal to take effect. This is, in my opinion, a HUGE flaw in the system that needs fixing.

The problem with mage
Expected me to rant more about heal? I didn't for the sole reason that i think heal is not the problem mage currently has. What i feel is the problem with mage right now are the items. Most mage weapons are balanced towards mage's pre-nerf heal, and are thus (compared to items from other classes) lacking in either dps or stats. Mage weapons should be balanced around the new way heal works, which i know will take a long time, but it will fix the imbalance that the community feels now.

Conclusion
Mage's heal can use a small buff, nothing significant (also fix the tier 2 thingy being better to spam than tier 3). But where the real problem lies is the balancing of the items around this new heal system, if this is rebalanced, i feel like mage would be in a much better and much more balanced spot.

Now i would like to know what you all think: is mage balanced now, and if not, what needs change? In a game where balance is such a big factor, the community of players that experiences these buffs and nerfs should be talking about what they think, as a community voice is still something important to listen to.

- RemRin out.

ps: the reason this is in general and not feedback is because i want this to be a discussion thread so that we can see what the community thinks.

 

I feel like just changing back to the first heal being more powerful than the 2nd and 3rd pulse should be good enough.

 

The thing is, the new heal system's design is to prevent mages being immortal by spamming heal, which is very frustrating and an unfair gameplay mechanic. Mage is supposed to be a support, and not a tank. Mages being not needing to rely on potions and insane clutch huge ability is a huge flaw the higher-ups do not want at the first place but lack the technology to fix it, which is why it is how it is right now. We would appreciate if the community can understand and try to learn the new system.

While we might revise the self-heal mechanic very soon, a buff in ally heal is already in the works, if you haven't noticed, a factor was introduced to increase the heal amount for allies compare to yourself, and we plan to increase that factor even further to solidify mage's ability in being support instead of a straight tank. If I have permission to post the heal formula I would but for now lets stick to this

Edit: For mage weapons, a lot of water damage on wands are already placed there for the purpose of balancing mages heal ability, namely Judas, Monster, Lament and King of Hearts

 

Well, herein lies the issue; a single 10% heal at such a low level is nearly useless, and Mage doesn't get anything useful for offense until Lv 21, so that has to be compensated for somehow, right? An original suggestion was that the heals should be 5/10/15 for its pulses, but that was nixed for the fact that it would feel like too much of a downgrade. I get that the 10% also is, but we can't really do much better without bringing in the imbalance and perpetuating spam-healing.

That's fair, and it's something we're going to be looking into a bit.

 

Better to use potions,than heal spell

 

Yep ^^, potions are to save your life like a first aid kit while heal is to top you up and keep you healthy like an IV bag

 

Exactly. Both are relevant to Mages now. Water Mages a bit less-so, but still.

 

I agree with everything you just said. Both of you.

 

So.... How is the new Heal Spell progression any worse than Arrow Storm's progression?

 

I actually have a problem with scaling % health heals in the first place. It just rewards building tank too much by mailing them even more unkillable. I also think an increase in % health scaling for spell levels is kind of dumb, since you will have more HP, so you will heal more anyways. Whilst I like Water DMG effecting a spell directly (and would like to see similar scalings on other spells), it only opens the option for water builds (or tanks) to utilize Heal effectively.
Why don't make heal scale on either damage or the Spell Damage ID either directly or increasing the % health healed. To make a fix to the spell levels maybe add a fixed heal amount. So the total formula could be like (20/100/500)+(Spell Damage RAW)+0.01(Weapon Damage*Attack Tier Multiplier*Spell Damage) %HP+0.2(Water Damage) %HP.
Note: The scalings are most likely bullshit, but I think the formula makes sense, since it rewards a riskier playstyle but is still okay for tanks. I think the raw values are fine, but the %HP values will have to be changed 99%.

 

I'm quite sad about the mage nerf, the healing is so little now might as well just use healing potions （ ; ; ）

 

Why not make the heal spell have a "regenerate" effect, like a potion?
Proposed Heal buff (or change):
1. It will heal 50%/40%/35% of your total health in total over a period of 7/5/3 seconds.
(Key: Level 1 Heal/Level 2 Heal/ Level 3 Heal)
Bonus Water Damage would affect the heal amount up to 50% extra (1% per 5% Water dmg bonus) bonus and -50% penalty (-1% per -4% water dmg) Might be too harsh/lenient with it but idk.

For example,

Scenario 1: I have 10k health and have a 50% water damage bonus. I cast a heal spell.
Formula:
[(10000/100) x 35] x (100+10)% = 3850 total health healed over a period of three seconds

Scenario 2: I have 12k health but I now have -50% Water damage.
Formula:
[(12000/100) x 35] x (100-12.5)% = 3675 total health healed over a period of three seconds

If you cast it repeatedly, the duration would only reset. It won't stack.
Yes, it would work alongside with a potion. Allies would get a bonus in total health healed (Probably 25% bonus) to support the "Support Mage" play-style.

I don't know anything else than that. I'm not creative with solutions, nor am I good at balancing crap.

 

I gotta be honest man, I one trick the shit out of mage and I think this heal is fine. It’s obiously worse than the previous heal, but the nerf was needed. As is, you still heal about a third of your hp over the duration. While that isn’t fantastic, it isn’t terrible. A solution would be to change your play style a bit. Whenever you take any damage as mage, just immediately start a heal spell ticking. While I’d obviously prefer having a fat heal on the first tick so I can spam it twice and get back to full, this is still fine. Mage is still plenty strong, and a half decent build can still solo every boss in the game.