Archmage - Experimental Changes

[Marsares]

]General changes:
+ Only one mechanic point is consumed, rather than all points.
The bonuses received by abilities from the career mechanic are now the following:
+ The effects of an ability on other players will use a bonus stat contribution which is derived from a factor of your total bonus stats from items, if this is higher than the ability's normal scaling stat.
~ Reduced stat contribution works as normal.
+ The effects of an ability on other players will use your Career Rank instead of your Mastery Level.
Bonuses for instant cast abilities and channeled abilities:
+ Effectiveness on other players is increased by 25%.
- Effectiveness on you is reduced by 20%.
Bonuses for cleanse abilities:
+ Cleansing abilities will build mechanic points as a healing ability.
+ Cleansing abilities will benefit from a reduced cooldown when used on other players.
Bonuses for all build up cast abilities:
+ The cast time is reduced by 40%.
Bonuses for non-lifetap build up cast abilities:
+ The AP cost is reduced by 40%.
- If you are the heal target, the effectiveness of the heal on you is halved.
Bonuses for lifetap build up cast abilities:
+ These abilities can be cast while moving.
+ These abilities have a 20% reduced chance to be defended.
+ The healing value of I'll Take That! and Balance Essence is 350% of the damage dealt.
+ The healing value of Fury of Da Green and Energy of Vaul is 200% of the damage dealt.
- Stat contribution is removed.
- If you are the heal target, the effectiveness of the heal on you is halved.

Discuss.

[normanis]

i believe now archimages and shamans will be more dps based. in my opinion archimages and shamans was already op compared to athers atleast as dps and survival 1vs1. 22 sec dot is big

[Gobtar]

I am going to wait till I have played with the new changes longer than a couple days to formulate a solid opinion.

Also the game isn't balanced around 1v1s and the Devs said they don't care about that aspect of the game.

[bwdaWAR]

i believe now archimages and shamans will be more dps based. in my opinion archimages and shamans was already op compared to athers atleast as dps and survival 1vs1. 22 sec dot is big

We don't care about 1on1.

[Marsares]

It's some interesting changes. I've dabbled in it last week when a Dev gave me access to take it for a spin. It actually turns the AM into a decent hybrid class and for once you can make good use of your mechanic.

A heal AM can toss out some decent burst damage. Not enough to take a target down single-handedly from 100% to 0%, but certainly enough to help in the assist train. Slap on the heal debuff, a Fury of Asuryan and a Searing Touch and it'll certainly help. Using your lifetap whilst on the move is also a big improvement, as now you can that whilst moving, cleanse, HOT and Healing Energy. We're rather mobile compared to Live, although some of the abilities are not as strong on ourselves.

A DPS AM can toss out some decent healing as well. Group heals that hit for 1,100 and at a reduced cast time of 1.5s when you've got Force in your mechanic, plus improved HoTs etc. A DPS AM is one of the by Order most hated classes, but it's suddenly a lot more friendly and neglecting your healing output would be a total waste now.

I think it benefits DPS AM more than Heal AM, which is a shame. We still have issues as a Heal AM with long cast times and set-backs, which forces us to be mobile whilst being highly squishy. The recent changes do not improve that.

Personally, I'd like to see Magical Infusion changed into an ability like Vengeance of Nagayrthe for the SW. Triggering it (with ability being on a reasonably long CD) will reduce cast times by x% for y seconds. This'll turn it into a "oh ****" button, akin to our M2 but then more on demand or akin to the proc of the Tyrant set on Live but then less RNG.

[Jaycub]

It's an awesome change, it facilitates AM's ability to play as a DPS slot in a 3-2-1 group as a sort of hybrid. It brings a boatload of utility and not too shaby damage, and now it has respectable healing/cleansing.

They also managed to do it in a way that doesn't ascend DPS AM in a 1v1 perspective from a god to a titan.


It's just gonna take some guilds experimenting with it in their 3-2-1 groups to see the full extent of the changes, which alienates a lot of people unfortunately because DPS AM's/Shamans are usually known as solo players etc...

[bloodi]

So i have been trying running this: http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=am; ... 0:;0:0:0:0:

First i tried having Expanded Control but the ap issues were huge, if my Drain Magic got defended people would die on my group just because i didnt have ap to cast heals, a lot can be attributed to me shooting Balance Essences like a machinegun with that setup and the reduced cast time from mechanic, still, i dont feel Expanded Control is worth it at all. So i dropped it for Restorative Burst and my ap issues are mostly gone

Gear is full ruin, with my isha spec jewelry i achieve a grand total of 261 int, i am getting used to it and my keybinds are a total mess, so honestly, it can only get better. SC numbers are nothing to go by but they can show potential, with this shitty gear i am achieving 30k/200k, which isnt bad considering how terrible i am playing and that going full int i probably can mantain those healing numbers while the dps ones should get much higher.

The intention is to stay always on force, so you get boosted heals, trying to mantain healdebuff/transfer force up as much as possible while using Balance Essence for extra dps on the assist target, if people stats eating damage you spot heal or group heal as needed.

Solo healing a group is a challenge if not flat out impossible, however once you add another healer into the mix it can get really stupid, as in stupid good, i can only look forward to try it more and will try to get full merc so i can see where i can get with it.

Overall, i love it.

[Sigimund]

Thanks for that Bloodi, my AM has a similar build. The raised skillcap has really exposed my lack of recent practice.

Do you think your Drain Magics get defended a lot because of your lack of int? Do you use the AOE tactic for it? I have been trying to keep on tranq to power my lifetaps. Whatever I am doing, the SC charts are telling me I am doing it wrong.

[Vdova]

It's an awesome change, it facilitates AM's ability to play as a DPS slot in a 3-2-1 group as a sort of hybrid. It brings a boatload of utility and not too shaby damage, and now it has respectable healing/cleansing.

They also managed to do it in a way that doesn't ascend DPS AM in a 1v1 perspective from a god to a titan.


It's just gonna take some guilds experimenting with it in their 3-2-1 groups to see the full extent of the changes, which alienates a lot of people unfortunately because DPS AM's/Shamans are usually known as solo players etc...

Great to read that! And what does it brins to shamman?.....

[noisestorm]

Great to read that! And what does it brins to shamman?.....

Shamans could potentially rethink their way of how to play the class and move away from just hot spamming into proper focus healing single targets with the casual gheal in between. I dont wanna say hots are useless, but most of the time using DSU should be enough actually. Casting Single and Gheal will be more AP-efficient in the long run as well as simply more healing effective as well. But thats just my thought on it