I'm very excited and have a lot of hope for MOD16 and the future of this game..
However, I'm a bit underwhelmed with the current state... I was really hoping for some new great At-Wills like Arcane lightning,or a Arcane beam and a Fire ball or Fire Beam At-wills... But we got arcane bolt... I know Cryptic can do better than this... !!!! IF arcane bolt was MUCH faster and applied a arcane stack on EACH hit them maybe BUT man what a missed opportunity in mu opinion.
Think about this... Arcane lightning shooting out of a wizards fingers with a GOOD range that build stacks quickly and then you can use RoE and Disintegrate at 5 or 10 stacks.. That is cool ,that's a TON fun... A chance to stun a target, do decent damage, build stacks and then boom Disintegrate.. That's rewarding That's worth my time... I know you have this animation already with your with new enemy that does shoot lightning... Take that same animation add some purple to it and now a player can really have a wizard... But arcane bolt is really lame...Sorry
Arcane Stacks- So Far it's VERY HARD if not impossible to maintain arcane stacks at 5 let alone the proposed 10 with " A step above Mastery".. this is because of the insane cool downs. at the current state I just don't see this mechanic working....On a test dummy it took 15 seconds to build 5 arcane stacks and the stacks fell off in 4.5 seconds.. Again we need some At Wills that build stacks very quickly IF the stacks are going to drop off that fast...The payoff just is just not worth it... I strongly suggest you take a hard look at putting some time into creating some better At Wills for the Wizard if the cool-downs are going to be 15-20 seconds for encounters.
Spell mastery -is weak and doesn't feel impactful it's more of just another slot now.
I know Cryptic cares about this game so please step it up for the Wizard At-Will because we're going to be using them a lot more now and they need to be great to keep interest!
I must say that i cant wait till we get a DevBlog, we spent alot of time with my fellow Wizard friend (@ralf1835) for testing and as we see all the comments we decided to throw a few suggestions for devs. We used the forum ideas as well, so everyone who finds their statments, we want to thank you from the depths of our hearts for your knowlage, shoutout for ya with the best regards. Please don't feel like we steal your ideas, it's more like we use them for better good as Wizards. 5 documents of raw suggestions awaits for a proper moment (hopefuly as soon as possible this week), and by proper moment i asume the DevBlog about Wizards ;p We are proud that we can be a part of this feedback thread and provide our suggestions to all of you, DevTeam and fellow Wizards. Skullface@ralf1835 and Ryuichi@rysiek86 greets you all
This is going to be a pretty lengthy wall of text. I apologize in advance. I've been going through a lot, and I feel like now after spending an unhealthy amount of time on both Paragon Paths, I can speak on what I think needs to be adjusted to improve the quality of the Wizard in M16.
Let's start at the Ability Scores. This has been mentioned on numerous other feedback threads, and I believe that Ability Scores in Neverwinter on Preview, should NOT make their way to a Live launch. Ability Scores, in D&D mean something, as they use to mean something here in Neverwinter. Choosing your Ability Scores should be the place where a player can decided whether they want a little more damage vs healing vs mitigation vs survivability. What you've done with the current system, is take away any player choice, that a player had when creating their character from scratch.
I remember when I made my 2nd Control Wizard, I spec'd into Int. & Wiz. To gain that extra Control Bonus, AP Gain, and Recharge Speed, that was almost ideal for a Wizard wanting more control, with the chance to gain their Daily at a faster rate(support wiz). Currently, this isn't the case.
I'd advise switching some Ability Scores around, to better suit the Class, or at least their effects, or bring back to the option to Roll our scores. I'm not saying that it has to be perfect to match DnD Rules. But at least for other classes, and to keep some uniqueness and player choice, when creating our characters. To not launch with the current M16 Preview System for Ability Scores.
As stated on numerous DnD websites, forums, live events, and the game itself "A Wizard can have every arcane spell inscribed in their spellbook" - What you've done is the complete opposite of this quote/rule.
The split between both Paragon Paths, is a horrible design, honestly. As a Spellcaster in every MMO. There has always been a distinct difference between the 2 options at hand. I'm not saying that there isn't right now, but the difference to me at least, is minimal at best. Separating Powers between both Paragon Paths, isn't how a Wizard should be played. It doesn't seem fun or enjoyable. I don't think anyone likes the idea that you can now only use certain spells that we're a defining ability of what a Wizard is, on a certain path. It doesn't make any logical sense, that being a Wizard, with access to every spell inscribed in their spellbook, I cannot use a simple spell like Steal Time but I can use Chill Strike or Conduit of Ice.
I believe Sharp mentioned somewhere earlier, that the Wizard is in a better position for DPS. But let's think about that for a moment. If all DPS classes in the game, are fine, and people just only worry about DPS this and DPS that, when all classes do roughly the same amount of DPS, what is the point of playing a Wizard, if not a Ranger, or Rogue?
You play a specific class to get the feeling of that class. While playing Master of Flames for the past 5 years, because of the lack of a Sorcerer Class in the game. I've done the best that I could do to get the best out of that path. Right now as a Thaumatuge, there's nothing that really draws me into wanting to play a Wizard, who was once a "Master of Flames." Now I seem like any generic Wizard, that doesn't even have Fireball.. like there's more Cold Base Spells, on the Wizard path that is more for Fire.
*insert Bill Nye Meme 'this doesn't make any HAMSTER sense'*
Enough of the mini rant, back on topic...
Let's discuss some Powers. Where's the Lighting Bolt? FireBall? Meteor Swarm? Controlling Flames? etc. I mean hell, we have Magic Missile. One of the most iconic DND Spells... After all this time of being a Master of Flames, its a real let down to see what Cataclysm has become.. It's a real let down to see the lack of real Wizard abilities in the game, with an update this large..
I recommended, since we all know that the animations are available, since they're used by other NPC's in the game.. to at least, change Cataclysm into Meteor Swarm. Use the same animation that is used in IG, or hell even better. With another animation that can be found in IG, remove Cataclsym and call it Lakes of Lava. It could be the same status effect, and everything. Target x Radius, enemies with x Radius take x damage for 4 seconds if effected by smolder already, this damage is doubled.
I think to at least please some Wizard players to make a change to Catacylsm. After all this time, this is the best that we get? A Heart of the Dragon animation looking like a circus clown? I'm sorry but that's definitely not my thing.
To be honest, how powers are set up right now, I think, any true dnd fan would be appalled at the what this class has become.
Each Paragon Path should have 5 At Will Powers. I think having Magic Missile, Fire Ball(new), and Arcane Bolt(please change to Lighting Bolt) should be default for both Paths. This would allow both Paragon Paths, access to a different type of Wizard ability. A Wizard is known for being an elemental, a mage, a master of the dark arts.. What we have right now, is a Wizard that can't make up his mind of whether or not they want Fire base spells, lighting, cold, mixture of the both, might as well become a healer at this point.
For the Arcanist Path, At-Will should be as followed - Magic Missiles, Fire Ball, Chill Touch, Storm Pillar, and Arcane Bolt For the Thaumatuge Path, At-Wills should be as followed - Magic Missiles, Fire Ball, Chill Touch, Scorching Burst, and Control Flames
Chill Touch: Develop a storm within target location, decreasing movement speed, and stacking chilling every 2 seconds for 5 seconds Fire Ball(similar animation to chilling cloud): Hurl a massive ball of fire at target enemy. Upon the 3rd cast, the fire ball explodes dealing massive damage to target enemy, dealing half damage to enemies around the target spreading smolder Control Flames: Still working on a description : p
Encounter Powers... Again, I don't think they need to be as separate as they are now. If I could have it my way, I think... These 5 should be default for both paths Entangling Force, Ray of Enfeeblement, Shield(call it Mage Armor) Repel, & Steal Time
Arcanist, should have these Powers Conduit Of Ice, Sudden Storm, Disintegrate, Shard of The Endless Avalanche, do we really need Imprisonment?.. Maybe replace with Banishment?
Banishment: You attempt to send one creature within range to another plane of existence, at the expensive of increasing their outgoing damage by x for x seconds. If enemy takes x amount of damage in 5 seconds and isn't dead. Target will be instantly killed. ( Sounds OP, I know.. cya Orcus!)
It's really sad to see where Daily Powers have gotten. It's even more frightening to see one of the first dailies you get into the game, turn into the last one you get in the game. I don't even think it's that good. With 3 Dailies being defaulted, I think Ice Knife, Oppressive Force, and Contingency(new) should be default. I think Thaumatuge should NOT have Ice Storm, but instead replaced with Meteor Swarm.
As for the feats, they really don't seem like they're making a difference. Maybe I'm doing something wrong in my build, or my rotation, but whether or not I have Feats selected or not, I seem to be doing the same amount of damage regardless. So if anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to hear advice.
Closing remarks.
It seems like the Wizard is still being punished. I don't feel like a Wizard in this game anymore. I don't care about DPS, I don't care about being Top pain giver and bragging to everyone. I care about how this class performs, how it's suppose to play, what a Control Wizard, or Wizard is suppose to do. The combat in this game was one of the number one reason why this game is still one of the best MMO's out in the market. The combat playing as a Wizard, with 18k+ item level (if that matters) is bad. I don't feel like I have control, I don't feel like a Wizard, it doesn't feel fun to play this class anymore. I've never wanted to play a Healer in Neverwinter, but what you guys did with healing, is awesome I love that. What you've done with the Wizard, I don't like.
TL;DR If I could have it my way. I would suggest replacing these powers
Arcane Bolt -> Lighting Bolt (Arcanist) Entangling Force -> Telekinesis Fire Ball (NEW) -> At-Will (Thaumatuge) Ice Storm -> Meteor Swarm (Thaumatuge) Chill Touch (NEW) -> At-Will Controlling Flames (NEW) -> At-Will Cataclysm -> Please Replace For The Love Of Tymora Imprisonment -> Banishment (NEW) -> Encounter
I hope you took the time to read this, and what I previously posted on the other forum. I love the Control Wizard, I don't want this class to die, nor do I want this class to not be a Wizard. I've always played a Wizard and I believe I know what makes a Wizard a Wizard. I have more notes and things I want to share for improvements coming. I hope there is still time. My computer crashed, so there's very little I can do.
Thanks for reading.
#MakeCWsGreatAgain
Nova - Thaumaturge Wizard Bardtholomew - Minstrel Bard Mariah Carries - Devout Cleric Darth Bane - Thaumaturge Wizard on Xbox
Icy Terrain (IT) can not be cast out of combat (sometimes!)
Not sure if reported or not but this had happened on a couple of my tests on my CW. Sometimes things seem to work correctly and I can not replicate the issue. But then another time the bug starts occurring again and repeatedly and consistently from that point on.
IT when slotted for the Tab key and targeted does not always allow you to target and cast prior to combat having been started. Engage and kill set of mobs using IT (and combat ends) then move toward second set of mobs (not starting combat) and await remaining cooldown on IT to complete,.. at this point IT can not be cast to start combat... so no ranged chill and root. As soon as combat initiates in any other way the ability immediately becomes castable.
currently the feats of the thaumaturge path really just feel like : you want to do this with ice or this exact same thing but with fire. no actual playstyle choices seem to feel avaiable and i really hope that changes as the other paragon path seems to have a lot more actual choices aplied to it. i love playing mof on live. hope i can enjoy thaumaturge just as much. it s really only the feats that bug me. but they bug me ALOT for this specific paragon path. Maybe with some actual playstyle choices like: movement or just even actual choices like: deal more dmg the more stamina u have or more dmg the LESS stamina you have. wich might seem like a small thing but makes a big difference to how u feel like you want to play.
1
thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
TL;DR If I could have it my way. I would suggest replacing these powers
Arcane Bolt -> Lighting Bolt (Arcanist) Entangling Force -> Telekinesis Fire Ball (NEW) -> At-Will (Thaumatuge) Ice Storm -> Meteor Swarm (Thaumatuge) Chill Touch (NEW) -> At-Will Controlling Flames (NEW) -> At-Will Cataclysm -> Please Replace For The Love Of Tymora Imprisonment -> Banishment (NEW) -> Encounter
Its actually really obvious why these posts irritate me and its because the person thinking about them isn't thinking about the work that goes into making it happen and is also not bothering to test if the new system 1) works and 2) is fun. So, although I am not a game developer, let me give my, "impression" as it were, of what it would be like to step into a game developers shoes and what goes into designing a new power.
The Hypothetical Fireball Encounter:
Imagine we are hypothetically coming up with the Fireball encounter. First, we need a base line, what are we balancing it around. Well, lets use Chill Strike as a base line, which has:
Cast Time: 0.4
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Magnitude: 500
AP Gain: 0.668
Target Cap: 1
Additional Effect: Adds Chill
Now, we know Chill Strike hits 1 target, where as Fireball would hit multiples. For arguments sake, lets make fireball hit 5 targets. As a result of this, we need to reduce the damage of fireball, so lets divide it by 2. We have:
Cast Time: 0.4
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Magnitude: 250
AP Gain: 0.668
Target Cap: 5
Additional Effect: Adds Chill
Now, we don't want it to have the same cooldown as Chill Strike, so lets differentiate the power a bit. Lets say it had a Cooldown of 9 seconds and a Cast Time of 0.6 seconds. This gives it a "combined cooldown of 9.6 seconds, compared to the combined cooldown of 15.4 seconds. In order to balance this, we will need to reduce the Magnitude accordingly. 9.6/15.4*250 = 0.62337*250=155.8, ~155 magnitude. So, lets give it 155 magnitude. As a part of reducing the cooldown, the AP Gain is also changed, more specifically, in this case it increases to 1.002. We now have the following power:
Cast Time: 0.6
Cooldown: 9 seconds
Magnitude: 155
AP Gain: 1.002
Target Cap: 5
Additional Effect: Adds Chill
Now, a Fireball that adds Chill is quite silly, so we will remove that and instead make it apply Smoulder. Since Smoulder is such a significant damage increase however, (specifically, it adds 80 magnitude over 4 seconds), we will have to reduce the magnitude of Fireball. As a result of this, we have a power with a magnitude of 125. Furthermore, as it is an AoE power, it needs a radius. I will, for the sake of argument, set the radius to 15'.
Cast Time: 0.6
Cooldown: 9 seconds
Magnitude: 125
AP Gain: 1.002
Target Cap: 5
Additional Effect: Adds Smoulder
Radius: 15'
And this is just the work that goes into concept design. This is not counting coding the power, designing an animation (since the skill animation for monsters is about 3 seconds long so you have time to react, a 3 second long animation would feel horrible for a player to use) or the testing phase.
In short, asking for new powers is naive, there is not enough time to design and balance them. But hey, if you want to propose a Fireball, that suggestion in spoilers should be a more "reasonable" request then what you are throwing around. At least it has some forethought into it. Aside from all that, I can almost guarantee you that you will not get a new power, there was a quote from @asterdahl in 1 of the feedback threads where he talked about them only having enough time for 3 new powers for each class, this would fall outside of that scope.
TL;DR If I could have it my way. I would suggest replacing these powers
Arcane Bolt -> Lighting Bolt (Arcanist) Entangling Force -> Telekinesis Fire Ball (NEW) -> At-Will (Thaumatuge) Ice Storm -> Meteor Swarm (Thaumatuge) Chill Touch (NEW) -> At-Will Controlling Flames (NEW) -> At-Will Cataclysm -> Please Replace For The Love Of Tymora Imprisonment -> Banishment (NEW) -> Encounter
Its actually really obvious why these posts irritate me and its because the person thinking about them isn't thinking about the work that goes into making it happen and is also not bothering to test if the new system 1) works and 2) is fun. So, although I am not a game developer, let me give my, "impression" as it were, of what it would be like to step into a game developers shoes and what goes into designing a new power.
The Hypothetical Fireball Encounter:
Imagine we are hypothetically coming up with the Fireball encounter. First, we need a base line, what are we balancing it around. Well, lets use Chill Strike as a base line, which has:
Cast Time: 0.4
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Magnitude: 500
AP Gain: 0.668
Target Cap: 1
Additional Effect: Adds Chill
Now, we know Chill Strike hits 1 target, where as Fireball would hit multiples. For arguments sake, lets make fireball hit 5 targets. As a result of this, we need to reduce the damage of fireball, so lets divide it by 2. We have:
Cast Time: 0.4
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Magnitude: 250
AP Gain: 0.668
Target Cap: 5
Additional Effect: Adds Chill
Now, we don't want it to have the same cooldown as Chill Strike, so lets differentiate the power a bit. Lets say it had a Cooldown of 9 seconds and a Cast Time of 0.6 seconds. This gives it a "combined cooldown of 9.6 seconds, compared to the combined cooldown of 15.4 seconds. In order to balance this, we will need to reduce the Magnitude accordingly. 9.6/15.4*250 = 0.62337*250=155.8, ~155 magnitude. So, lets give it 155 magnitude. As a part of reducing the cooldown, the AP Gain is also changed, more specifically, in this case it increases to 1.002. We now have the following power:
Cast Time: 0.6
Cooldown: 9 seconds
Magnitude: 155
AP Gain: 1.002
Target Cap: 5
Additional Effect: Adds Chill
Now, a Fireball that adds Chill is quite silly, so we will remove that and instead make it apply Smoulder. Since Smoulder is such a significant damage increase however, (specifically, it adds 80 magnitude over 4 seconds), we will have to reduce the magnitude of Fireball. As a result of this, we have a power with a magnitude of 125. Furthermore, as it is an AoE power, it needs a radius. I will, for the sake of argument, set the radius to 15'.
Cast Time: 0.6
Cooldown: 9 seconds
Magnitude: 125
AP Gain: 1.002
Target Cap: 5
Additional Effect: Adds Smoulder
Radius: 15'
And this is just the work that goes into concept design. This is not counting coding the power, designing an animation (since the skill animation for monsters is about 3 seconds long so you have time to react, a 3 second long animation would feel horrible for a player to use) or the testing phase.
In short, asking for new powers is naive, there is not enough time to design and balance them. But hey, if you want to propose a Fireball, that suggestion in spoilers should be a more "reasonable" request then what you are throwing around. At least it has some forethought into it. Aside from all that, I can almost guarantee you that you will not get a new power, there was a quote from @asterdahl in 1 of the feedback threads where he talked about them only having enough time for 3 new powers for each class, this would fall outside of that scope.
Wizard is already great. I am enjoying it a lot next module and feel it only needs minor tweaks, if any at all.
This is why I always say Fireball should just be the ranged Icy Terrain power, or the Chill Strike power but with the AOE baked in, or literally the Warlock's Fiery Bolt (which I like because it's easy to aim). OBVIOUSLY you don't want to force the dev team to have to create new art assets or to implement radically new balance ideas. (The "Fireball as an at-will" idea seemed dumb to me, but I guess Scorching Burst as Fireball would work? Not a fan)
It's not a huge leap to implement, it's something that people have been clamoring for for a LONG time, and there's just not a good counter-argument for it. There's a counter-argument for some *specific* implementations, but not for Fireball in general.
Aside from that, it seems that when the Dev team DOES decide to add something new, they never bother looking at the IP they're using. If the Dev Team doesn't want to make D&D associated content, maybe Cryptic shouldn't have licensed a D&D brand in the first place.
But maybe I'm just sore from Neverwinter crowding out a Neverwinter Nights 3 still. Never gonna live it down.
2
thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
Some of these ideas have already been stated, but it's also been suggested to think about it from a devs shoes. This is what I think. For Fireball, just steal the animation from Warlocks power Fiery Bolt , change it orange, give it it's own cd, damage magnitude, make it apply smolder, and perhaps allow it to be cast like icy terrain on tab, with a circle to cast it when we want, like to damage foes around a corner would be cool. Then replace that junk Cataclysm with new Fireball encounter.
Also give the Wizard an At-Will called Fire Bolt and use the Warlock's Eldritch Blast animation and similar things like fireball, change it orange, etc. And replace Magic Missle in thaum path.
Alright than, i cant wait to share with everything that we created with @ralf1835. But first i want to craft some theory. What if all that went on preview was the state that all alpha testers got for their tests, what if theres several more builds of game that contains already improved state of game, what if this all is made to get records from alpha testers, from curent mimic testers and compare all the results and create great final product ?? Im just sayin that we are simply baited to check how hardly we will panic and rage about those changes ... thats only my theory. Going to the clue... I want to bring very important statment that crutial to all that we are going to present. We are absolutly aware that all we are going to present is only loose sugestions, those absolutely are not demands, everything what next posts contain is made only because we think it is worth considering. If any of presented ideas can come true it would be more than a succes for us that we could make useful feedback.
Chilling Cloud changed to Gust of Wind - This skill animation can look like it does now. Damage stays the same and 3 step attack as well. The change - instead of adding chill stack it refreshes duration of targets chill/arcane mastery/smoder/rimfire. Damage becomes arcane based
Paragon at-wills
Thaumaturge
Scoarching Burst - works good
Ray of Frost - it should stay channeled skill for 6 sec, damage tick every 1 sec that gives 6 ticks of dmg that apply chill stack every second. In addition lower the magnitude to 25 but while channeling the target takes 2% more damage from every source
Arcanist
Storm Pillar - works good
Arcane Bolt - The change - it could be channeled skill like Ray of Frost with duration of 6 sec, tick every 1,2 sec that gives 5 ticks of dmg and in addition final tock gives 3 stacks of arcane mastery. Every hit of Arcane Bolt sustains the arcane mastery stacks on target.
As most of Wizards, I also would like to se the key mechanic of our class that makes us different from others... Spell Mastery on additional encounter slot (default TAB)
Shared Encounters
Entangling Force Normal slot - works good Spell Mastery slot - it should stay as it was - main target works like a magnet that pulls sorrounding targets to it giving 1 spell mastery stack for every target pulled.
Icy Terrain Normal slot - works good Spell Mastery slot - couldnt we just make it larger ?? Simple thing that increases the radious from 15' to 25' while on Mastery. Everything else stays unchanged.
Repel Normal slot - works good Spell Mastery slot - it should stay as it was (or as it is at the moment), becomes an Area of Effect skill and gets lower magnitude as a cost.
Ray of Enfeeblement Normal slot - increases the target's damage taken by 5% (from all sources). Spell Mastery slot - each arcane mastery stack gives additional 1% damage taken (10% max in Taumaturge and in specific synergy in Arcanist it can give max 15%) or Spell Mastery slot - each arcane mastery stack gives additional 0.5% damage taken (7.5% max in Taumaturge and in specific synergy in Arcanist it can give max 10%)
Shield Normal slot - works good Spell mastery slot - works good
Paragon Encounters
Thaumaturge
Fanning the Flame Normal slot -increase the magnitude please, it feels that the encounter is realy weak comparing it to others, and also i have a strange feeling that the skill does work excacly the same way as in live... I mean on preview tolltip says that it works 2 ways, burning target takes and gives dmg back to sorrounding burning targets in radious 15'. Check it please, because it seems that the burning target only takes dmg. Example. The main target is sorrounded by 3 targets. Every target burns already. You cast FtF to main target. "Gathering flames" from 3 targets hit the main target for the same letts say 1000dmg that gives 3000dmg total. The main target "Gathered flames" now are spread back to sorrounding targets. 3000 total dmg is divided to those targets, "Spreading flames" hit for (3000/3) for 1000dmg each. That makes the formula Initial dmg + DoT component (Gathering Flames + Spreading flames) are the Fanning the Flame Encounter Spell Mastery slot - It deals damage to main target only as well but in addition it burns all sorrounding targets in radious 20' (not 5 targets, all targets sorrounding the main target)
Icy Rays Normal slot - You create 2 frost shards, magnitude 200 each, in addition every frost shard applays 1 stack of chill. (make it pure dmg skill without any control effect like 1 sec stun as it is on preview and live) Spell Mastery slot - it is basicly the same effect as on live. You create 3 frost shards, magnitude 200 each, in addition every frost shard applays 1 stack of chill. (also no control effects)
Chill Strike Normal slot - Magnitude 400-500. You hurl a powerful icicle to your target and on impact it freezes for 0.5 sec. (it basicly stays the same) Spell Mastery slot - Magnitude [(400-500)]/3. Chill Strike becomes an AoE skill. You hurl a powerful icicle to your target and on impact it freezes for 0.5 sec. In addition the blast of icicle hurts sorrounding targets (max5) that main target and sorrounding targets gets equal damage.
Conduit of Ice Normal slot - lower the magnitude to 150 but for that cost give the CoI the ability to stack the chill every tick to main and sorrounding targets, or leave the magnitude as it is, but give 1 stack of chill to main and sorrounding targets on initial cast. (on preview only the main target gets the chill stack) Spell Mastery slot - The main and sorrounding targets have Accuracy decreased for 2500 while the Encounter is active (basicly more powerful blizzard makes enemies some statistics decrese)
Cataclism Everything with this encounter is bad.The aiming is bad, the damage is bad, if you use it on icy terrain i does not gives smolder, the animation is bad, the circus clowns do better fire breath. As a cataclysm it shoud be some serious Encounter, in the current state it is cataclism itself. Suggestions what the skill should be redesigned
Meteor Swarm Normal slot - Magnitude 300. You cast a swarm of meteors (skillshot radious 20') on desired area dealing fire damage and every target hit get smolder effect. The damage is DoT component lasting 6 sec and ticks every 2 sec. Spell Mastery slot - All targets affected by Meteor Swarm at every tick of damage become dazed for 0.5 sec. or Fireball (why warlocks have Fiery Blast with green color scheme and we cant have with red orange one ??) Normal slot - Magnitude 600. You hurl a mighty molten shard that hits the target with a great power. In addition the target gets smolder effect Spell Mastery slot - the damage you would deal to one target splits to every target around the main target spreading smolder to every target hit. or Burning Ground (my personal favourite) Normal slot - Magnitude 300. You summon a hellish flames sorounding you (radious 15') and dealing damage over time to all targets hit. In addition targets gets smolder effect. Spell Mastery slot - Basicly similar to Icy terrain. the area grows to radious 25'
BG + IT = a fantastic rimfire smolder effect on ground... wouldnt it be great ??
Arcanist
Sudden Storm Normal slot - check the aiming, because at this state it is barely possible to hit anythinng with that skill Spell Mastery slot - every target hit by the encounter gets shocked. Gets additional damage over time (magnitude 50) for 3 sec every 1 sec. or simply make it Lightning Bolt Normal slot - Change Maelstrom of Chaos into Lightning Bolt, same radious, same skillshot,cast time 1,2 sec, lower magnitude to 400 and quit the knockback mechanic cuz it simply doesnt work with tossing the monsters around. Spell Mastery - every target hit by the encounter gets shocked. Gets additional damage over time (magnitude 50) for 3 sec every 1 sec.
Desintegrate Normal slot - (it was and it should stay most powerful single target Encounter) Magnitude 500. If the target is below 30% hit points an an attempt to Desintegrate is made increasing the damage dealt by 50% Spell Mastery slot - Doubles the damage to magnitude 1000. The reason is that will creat a dillema for players what encounter to use on mastery acording to how they are made in current state ( as imprissonment for example. What to chose ?? more dmg on 1 skill or more dmg on all arcane skills ???)
Steal Time Normal slot - works good Mastery slot - as it is a steal time, what about a little twist. Every target slowed (max 5) gives a caster a 0,5 sec cooldown reduction (max 2,5 sec)
Shard of Endless Avalanche Normal slot - how about reduce the arcane mastery stack gain to 2 sec ?? Spell Mastery slot - bring the Potato a skillshot again First cast summons a boulder in desired location (and the boulder falls from above). Second cast tosses the boulder to a desired location if the boulder didnt explode on impact with targets while summoned.
Imprisonment (this revamped Encounter is amazing and gives alot of opportunities and personel dillemas to players where and if to use this encounter) Normal slot - works good Spell Mastery slot - works good
Arcane Singularity - works good, but as it is shared daily instead of giving one stack of arcane mastery make fallen targets dazed for 2 sec ?? Radious 40'
Ice Knife - it is a very powerfull daily, but how about instead of giving knockdown effect and adding chill it now consumes all applayed chill stacks from target and every chill stack consumed adds 50 magnitude to overall magnitude ?? (i know Fighters have some skill with 3000magnitude, why Wizadr cant have 2800 one if used well ??)
Oppresive Force - works good
Paragon Daily
Thaumaturge
Furious Immolation - in addition to the pull and burn effect make fallen targets dazed for 2 sec ?? Radious 40'
Ice Storm - Revamped well but, how about quit the knockback mechanic that is realy bad and make it like this: If any target hit by Ice Storm has any stack of chill applayed it gets frozen. If a frozen target gets hit by Ice Storm the freeze effect extends by additional 2 sec. (pvp targets 1sec.) Magnitude stays the same.
Arcanist
Maelstrom of Chaos - long cast time shoud reward us with a huge effect with lightning sparks all around us in radious 40' and a big lightning fallin from the sky paralizing (make it prone if u want) all targets hit for 1sec. Come on, its a daily, it honestly looks like an encounter in current state. Make it big, willing to be cast by players !!
Arcane Empowerment - very, very, very well designed
Thaumaturge (as we compare the paragon class features in current state on preview, the obvious choice it to even bother playing thauma build... Thaumaturge should be an alternate build providing additional support features as more buffs and debuffs in cost of own damage input)
Critical Conflagration - works good
Swath of Destruction - increases Smolder damage by 5%, and targets affected by smolder take 5% (not laughable 2%, come on)
Combusive Actions - when one of your smolder targets is killed, you and allies gain 1% max Action Points
Frost Wave - When you activate a Daily power you consume all applyed stacks of chill from the targets sorrounding you. Targets affected by Frost Wave take 1% more damage from all sources for each stack of chill consumed.
Arcanist
Eye of the Storm - works good
Storm Spell - works good
Storm Fury - radious 10' spark every 1,5 sec with magnitude 25. Why would someone want to be damaged to give any ammount of damage back ?? make it passive feature.
Overall revamp of the feats is pleasuring, choosing the paragon really determinates how we want to play. One thing wonders me the most ?? Do we realy want to have 2 equal damage paths ?? The answear is NO, because it is impossible to balance those two paragon paths that they will be as equal as possible. that is why one of the paths should provide a self sacrifice factor. Thaumaturge does less damage by himself but in cost of that gives more damage for party members. Arcanist gives "nothing" for a party but provides a massive damge output. This solves mostly all player preferences, some like to support some like to top the charts, some like to play with Area of Effect skills and some like to choose single target... All the changes we suggested create this varieties for players. As it was mentioned before there are two Arcanist feats (Icy Veins and Frigid Winds) that doesnt fit there a all. How about replacing Snap Freeze with Icy Veins on Thauma (Removing Snap Freeze entirely) and merge Frigid Winds with Chilling Advantage but cuting them by half so the feat is now: Chilling advantage - each stack of chill on the target provides additional 2% critical severity and 0,5 % more damage. In that case we have got empty tier 2 and tier 3 slot.
Tier 2 Arcanist feat
Living Conductor - the electricity flows through your body and makes every enemy close to you be shocked for every arcane mastery stack applayed on them. every stack of mastery provides 10 magnitude damage every 1,5 sec (max 50 and 100 with Astep above Mastery Feat) This change provides a dillema at player, to choose safier playstyle from a range or to be risky one and throw yourself in a bunch of monsters. the valuses of magnitude may be changed to fit a tier 2 feature.
Tier 3 Arcanist feat
Lightning fast - Whenever you use at-will power there is a 5% chance that other Encounters on cooldown will get 1 sec refresh time.
Tier 4 Arcanis feat change
Nightmare Wizardy - this feat is absolutley usless while it provides Combat Advantage for the Wizard only. If we want to be a Wizard only Feat that is competetive to the other tier 4 feat it should be like: Nightmare Wizardy - your critical strikes have a 10% chance to give you 20% of your Combat Advantage Damage over 10sec. As positioning is a main source of combat advantage making it from whatever point i stand to be active is useless and brainless. But giving a Nightmare Wizardy another source of additional damage on certain conditions... that make sense.
And what about cooldowns on encounters you ask ?? they are deffinetly to long the longest base cooldown shouldnt be higher than 16secs.
As i stated, dont take everything uber seriously, those are only loose sugestions. And forgive me for my editing skill in powers :D:D We realize that testing anything without lvl 80 gear, without properly working perks, atributes, bonuses, companions is a mistake. But still, it would be nice to see all your reactions, create a meaningful discussion. And maybe give DevTeam some worth solutions ;p
0
thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
Thaumaturge (as we compare the paragon class features in current state on preview, the obvious choice it to even bother playing thauma build... Thaumaturge should be an alternate build providing additional support features as more buffs and debuffs in cost of own damage input)
Critical Conflagration - works good
Swath of Destruction - increases Smolder damage by 5%, and targets affected by smolder take 5% (not laughable 2%, come on)
Combusive Actions - when one of your smolder targets is killed, you and allies gain 1% max Action Points
Frost Wave - When you activate a Daily power you consume all applyed stacks of chill from the targets sorrounding you. Targets affected by Frost Wave take 1% more damage from all sources for each stack of chill consumed.
Arcanist
Eye of the Storm - works good
Storm Spell - works good
Storm Fury - radious 10' spark every 1,5 sec with magnitude 25. Why would someone want to be damaged to give any ammount of damage back ?? make it passive feature.
Arcane Power Field - works good
Thaumaturge is much better at AoE. Clearly you have not tried taking the bottom row of feats then stacking smoulder on enemies.
Thaumaturge (as we compare the paragon class features in current state on preview, the obvious choice it to even bother playing thauma build... Thaumaturge should be an alternate build providing additional support features as more buffs and debuffs in cost of own damage input)
Critical Conflagration - works good
Swath of Destruction - increases Smolder damage by 5%, and targets affected by smolder take 5% (not laughable 2%, come on)
Combusive Actions - when one of your smolder targets is killed, you and allies gain 1% max Action Points
Frost Wave - When you activate a Daily power you consume all applyed stacks of chill from the targets sorrounding you. Targets affected by Frost Wave take 1% more damage from all sources for each stack of chill consumed.
Arcanist
Eye of the Storm - works good
Storm Spell - works good
Storm Fury - radious 10' spark every 1,5 sec with magnitude 25. Why would someone want to be damaged to give any ammount of damage back ?? make it passive feature.
Arcane Power Field - works good
Thaumaturge is much better at AoE. Clearly you have not tried taking the bottom row of feats then stacking smoulder on enemies.
I wanted to go Arcanist, but I read some guy some rando wrote on the internet that stated basically just that!
I don't see why you would ever want to use Arcane Bolt as a viable at-will. The cooldown time on it compared to Magic Missile and Ray of Frost makes it not something I would ever choose. I like the animation for it and it looks really neat, just not that it takes (what feels like) forever to cast.
If I'm standing really far away from a group and another party member/my companion is attacking I can sit back and hold the button down and watch it hit the groups from afar, but currently I'm struggling to keep it on the bar as my second at-will. In in-your-face battles it just feels slow and clunky and like I can't get my at-wills off before I die. If the thought is to use your at-wills in between your Encounters (which admittedly have some lengthy cooldowns) the at-wills should feel fast, not slower than slow.
I'm no expert here, and it may be this way on live right now for all I know, but how is anything an "at-will" if it has a cooldown?
Forgive my laconicism. I can only use google translate.
It seems to me that the changes of the wizard are chaotic and inconsistent. Most users have already indicated this. What I would support and add.
Arcane Mastery should increase faster and last longer. "Arcane Bolt" requires a reduction in casting time, or better complete remake. Now it is only suitable for the dummy. "Imprisonment" should be a AoE power, no cost increase. "Arcane Empowerment" should stun nearby enemies and last a little longer (for example, 12 seconds instead of 10). "Repel" and "Chill Strike" need to swap. "Cataclysm" requires a significant increase in the area (or simply change the name to "random sneeze"). "Ice Storm", hmm...
Now what the wizard needs is real. As a hero using 4 encounters, not 3, like other classes, the wizard deserves a greater choice of encounters, not 10, but 12, for example. Also, the wizard has always sought the synergy of his powers. Therefore, I ask you to add new powers to the game anyway.
Taumaturge - powers already named: 1) "Cone of cold" - The wizard deals cold damage to targets in a cone in front of him. Enemies who had stack of chill instantly freeze. 2) "Fireball" - hard to say something but i will say. Fireball should remove chill, but deal double damage on freezing targets. So, Taumaturge will be able to combine several powers in different situations with the required efficiency.
Arcanist: New At-will power instead "Arcane Bolt" - "Lightning charge": You attack the target with a lightning strike, dealing a damage and charging it for 5 seconds. If you charge a second target nearby (may be 20 ft), a discharge will appear between the charged targets, hitting intermediate enemies.
New Encounter: 1) "Arcane Storm" - in fact, like Arcane Bolt, but over a large area.
2) "Gedlee's electrical loop" (or just a "Chain of lightning"): You create a stroke of lightning that cycles through all enemies in the area of effect, stunning them.
So, Arcanist will be able to effectively combine damage and control.
Yes, I understand that it is difficult for developers. But you need to work to make money.
Thanks for reading. I will not be able to participate in the discussion anymore, it is too long and difficult for me.
I'll tell you right away. I hate play as pure DPS, meanwhile you gave me the opportunity to play DPS or ... yes, just DPS. So if I can't play the buffer/debuffer, I want to be able to play as a controller. At the cost of damage you can increase the effect of control on one of the paths. (Why the hell have you separated the ice terrain and steal time?) At least this... Because at this moment you are forcing me to abandon my main 18k cw ...
Better to feed the troll than listen to the idiot .
3
thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
edited March 2019
Ok, here is some of my feedback.
Red = Bad. Purple = Synergizes better on the opposing path. Arcanist Thaumaturge
The purpose of the above chart is to break down where the different CW feats are useful, to give you a better idea of how to build that character.
The way I play wizard at the moment, I treat Arcanist as a single target path and Thaumaturge as an AoE path, which, looking at the feats, makes sense as the Thaumaturge feats are better suited for splash damage then heavy single target hits. To fully take advantage of Thaumaturge, you need to play aggressively. You cannot pull 1 pack of monsters at a time, the Smoulder proliferation mechanic works best when you take advantage of your distinct lack of target caps and pull every monster available.
Arcanist, you play by taking advantage of every available Arcane Buff and then self buffing Arcane powers. It very much lives up to its name and excels on single target damage. Due to Arcane Empowerment you have a very fast, spammy rotation which should be reminiscent of the old CW.
The wizard's power, for the most part play into this very well, as you can see below:
Red = Area of Effect Blue = Single Target Yellow = Utility
Arcanist Thaumaturge
I think swapping Chill Strike with Repel and then giving it back its AoE on mastery would help better define Thaumaturge, whilst also strengthening the identity of Arcanist, which would then have another Arcane Power to use. As far as feats go, I feel the cold feats in Arcanist belong more in Thaumaturge and something non cold should replace them. I suggest replacing Relative Haste and Shatter Strike, then add back a watered down version of Focused Wizardry to Arcanist, along with something like uncontrolled obliteration.
People in this thread keep mistaking FtF with a single target power, when it is in fact an AoE which has the primary purpose of synergizing with Smoulder. It should never be used on single target, it does nothing there. If any encounter should be changed, in my opinion it is cataclysm. This encounter feels awful and it is already a copy paste of the heart of the black dragon. Please copy paste something else.
Here is a relative ranking of the DpS of powers, it has not really changed since week 5 since Wizard encounters have not really been touched much since then:
Blue = Best universal power in that type (for example, encounters). Orange = Best paragon locked power in that category. Target Count AoE = How many targets an AoE power needs to hit to beat the best single target power, in a sustained fight. In a short fight it is much lower. Note I did not rank Fanning the Flames in the AoE column, despite the fact that it is an AoE as it is more difficult to quantify how it works relative to other things.
Lastly, the place where imo CW needs the most work is class features and the offhand powers:
Red = Bad. Purple = Synergizes better on the opposing path. Arcanist Thaumaturge
The way I play wizard at the moment, I treat Arcanist as a single target path and Thaumaturge as an AoE path, which, looking at the feats, makes sense as the Thaumaturge feats are better suited for splash damage then heavy single target hits. To fully take advantage of Thaumaturge, you need to play aggressively. You cannot pull 1 pack of monsters at a time, the Smoulder proliferation mechanic works best when you take advantage of your distinct lack of target caps and pull every monster available.
Arcanist, you play by taking advantage of every available Arcane Buff and then self buffing Arcane powers. It very much lives up to its name and excels on single target damage. Due to Arcane Empowerment you have a very fast, spammy rotation which should be reminiscent of the old CW.
The wizard's power, for the most part play into this very well, as you can see below:
Red = Area of Effect Blue = Single Target Yellow = Utility
Arcanist Thaumaturge
I think swapping Chill Strike with Repel and then giving it back its AoE on mastery would help better define Thaumaturge, whilst also strengthening the identity of Arcanist, which would then have another Arcane Power to use. As far as feats go, I feel the cold feats in Arcanist belong more in Thaumaturge and something non cold should replace them. I suggest replacing Relative Haste and Shatter Strike, then add back a watered down version of Focused Wizardry to Arcanist, along with something like uncontrolled obliteration.
People in this thread keep mistaking FtF with a single target power, when it is in fact an AoE which has the primary purpose of synergizing with Smoulder. It should never be used on single target, it does nothing there. If any encounter should be changed, in my opinion it is cataclysm. This encounter feels awful and it is already a copy paste of the heart of the black dragon. Please copy paste something else.
Here is a relative ranking of the DpS of powers, it has not really changed since week 5 since Wizard encounters have not really been touched much since then: Note I did not rank Fanning the Flames in the AoE column, despite the fact that it is an AoE as it is more difficult to quantify how it works relative to other things.
Lastly, the place where imo CW needs the most work is class features and the offhand powers:
First of all, the first time I played mod 16, I had some deception about how long are the cool-down on encounter now. However, more I played it, more I liked it. Like other players mentioned it, I think some adjustment is required. One thing I noticed is Arcanist have more AoE CC, so it's more annoying to solo as a Thaumaturge because without Steal Time you cannot CC enemies.
Like other player suggested I think Icy Veins should replace snap freeze in Thaumaturge feats. With this feat and Icy Terrain a Thaumaturge will be able to instantly freeze enemies and it would help for solo.
For the Arcanist feats, bring back an old feat in place of Icy Veins like Critical Power (when you land a critical hit you gain 5% AP, 20 sec cool-down)
Rename Frigid Wind for Arcane Wave or the name you want. Instead of Increasing damage for each chill stack, Increase your damage by 1% for each Arcane stack you have.
With those feats change, all feat with chill will be in the Thaumaturge path.
An other thing that others player have mentioned is the change to mastery slot. Personnally I'm not totally against it because a lot of power are useless in mastery slot. (Icy Terrain, Shard of endless avalanche, repel)
10% damage is good, but something need to be added to this. 2 second cool-down reduction could be an option. With this, players could choose which encounter will have a cool-down reduction.
The only power I think who really need to keep their mastery version are:
Chill Strike. The AoE version of Chill Strike could be good for Thaumaturge and help them for AoE.
For Conduit of Ice, I think you should replace the normal version by the mastery version. The AoE zone is bigger, it adds chill stack on all target.
An other change that I don't like is : Swath of Destruction : targets affected by smolder take 2% more damage.
It is very low, I understand that you have removed a lot of debuff, but other class have kept some debuff that are higher than wizard.
I think this value could be an increase to 5% to have the same debuff value than the HR power commanding shot (5% increase incoming damage from all source)
“He raised his staff. There was a roll of thunder. The sunlight was blotted out from the eastern windows; the whole hall became suddenly dark as night. The fire faded to sullen embers. Only Gandalf could be seen, standing white and tall before the blackened hearth.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
I don't see why you would ever want to use Arcane Bolt as a viable at-will. The cooldown time on it compared to Magic Missile and Ray of Frost makes it not something I would ever choose. I like the animation for it and it looks really neat, just not that it takes (what feels like) forever to cast.
If I'm standing really far away from a group and another party member/my companion is attacking I can sit back and hold the button down and watch it hit the groups from afar, but currently I'm struggling to keep it on the bar as my second at-will. In in-your-face battles it just feels slow and clunky and like I can't get my at-wills off before I die. If the thought is to use your at-wills in between your Encounters (which admittedly have some lengthy cooldowns) the at-wills should feel fast, not slower than slow.
I'm no expert here, and it may be this way on live right now for all I know, but how is anything an "at-will" if it has a cooldown?
Sorry, I mixed up the words there, I meant the cast time on it.
Some changes coming for the next update based on the feedback here:
Encounters Repel and Chill Strike have been swapped. Feats Icy Veins and Frigid Winds have been swapped. Arcane Bolt we are going to look into taking off the induction charge which will speed it up a little bit. The final attack of the combo will grant arcane mastery and the damage has been adjusted to align with the change in speed.
Fireball is something we can look into, but there are no promises that would be added into the class.
10
theycallmetomuMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,861Arc User
Some changes coming for the next update based on the feedback here:
Encounters Repel and Chill Strike have been swapped. Feats Icy Veins and Frigid Winds have been swapped. Arcane Bolt we are going to look into taking off the induction charge which will speed it up a little bit. The final attack of the combo will grant arcane mastery and the damage has been adjusted to align with the change in speed.
Fireball is something we can look into, but there are no promises that would be added into the class.
I don't suppose I can convince you to change the name from Sudden Storm to Lightning Bolt?
Also thanks for taking the Fireball issue seriously-I get that even doing something like repurposing a power that exists elsewhere is still a game balance concern, but I'd say there's a significant contingent of the player population that wants it.
Comments
You open that pandora's box, there ain' no goin' back!
I'm very excited and have a lot of hope for MOD16 and the future of this game..
However, I'm a bit underwhelmed with the current state...
I was really hoping for some new great At-Wills like Arcane lightning,or a Arcane beam and a Fire ball or Fire Beam At-wills... But we got arcane bolt... I know Cryptic can do better than this... !!!!
IF arcane bolt was MUCH faster and applied a arcane stack on EACH hit them maybe BUT man what a missed opportunity in mu opinion.
Think about this... Arcane lightning shooting out of a wizards fingers with a GOOD range that build stacks quickly and then you can use RoE and Disintegrate at 5 or 10 stacks.. That is cool ,that's a TON fun... A chance to stun a target, do decent damage, build stacks and then boom Disintegrate.. That's rewarding That's worth my time... I know you have this animation already with your with new enemy that does shoot lightning... Take that same animation add some purple to it and now a player can really have a wizard... But arcane bolt is really lame...Sorry
Arcane Stacks- So Far it's VERY HARD if not impossible to maintain arcane stacks at 5 let alone the proposed 10 with " A step above Mastery".. this is because of the insane cool downs. at the current state I just don't see this mechanic working....On a test dummy it took 15 seconds to build 5 arcane stacks and the stacks fell off in 4.5 seconds..
Again we need some At Wills that build stacks very quickly IF the stacks are going to drop off that fast...The payoff just is just not worth it... I strongly suggest you take a hard look at putting some time into creating some better At Wills for the Wizard if the cool-downs are going to be 15-20 seconds for encounters.
Spell mastery -is weak and doesn't feel impactful it's more of just another slot now.
I know Cryptic cares about this game so please step it up for the Wizard At-Will because we're going to be using them a lot more now and they need to be great to keep interest!
5 documents of raw suggestions awaits for a proper moment (hopefuly as soon as possible this week), and by proper moment i asume the DevBlog about Wizards ;p
We are proud that we can be a part of this feedback thread and provide our suggestions to all of you, DevTeam and fellow Wizards.
Skullface@ralf1835 and Ryuichi@rysiek86 greets you all
#DontMessWizard
I've been going through a lot, and I feel like now after spending an unhealthy
amount of time on both Paragon Paths, I can speak on what I think needs to be adjusted to improve the quality of the Wizard in M16.
Let's start at the Ability Scores. This has been mentioned on numerous other feedback threads, and I believe that Ability Scores in Neverwinter on Preview, should NOT make their way to a Live launch. Ability Scores, in D&D mean something, as they use to mean something here in Neverwinter.
Choosing your Ability Scores should be the place where a player can decided whether they want a little more damage vs healing vs mitigation vs survivability. What you've done with the current system, is take away any player choice, that a player had when creating their character from scratch.
I remember when I made my 2nd Control Wizard, I spec'd into Int. & Wiz.
To gain that extra Control Bonus, AP Gain, and Recharge Speed, that was almost ideal for a Wizard wanting more control, with the chance to gain their Daily at a faster rate(support wiz). Currently, this isn't the case.
I'd advise switching some Ability Scores around, to better suit the Class, or at least their effects, or bring back to the option to Roll our scores. I'm not saying that it has to be perfect to match DnD Rules. But at least for other classes, and to keep some uniqueness and player choice, when creating our characters. To not launch with the current M16 Preview System for Ability Scores.
As stated on numerous DnD websites, forums, live events, and the game itself
"A Wizard can have every arcane spell inscribed in their spellbook"
- What you've done is the complete opposite of this quote/rule.
The split between both Paragon Paths, is a horrible design, honestly. As a Spellcaster in every MMO. There has always been a distinct difference between the 2 options at hand. I'm not saying that there isn't right now, but the difference to me at least, is minimal at best. Separating Powers between both Paragon Paths, isn't how a Wizard should be played. It doesn't seem fun or enjoyable. I don't think anyone likes the idea that you can now only use certain spells that we're a defining ability of what a Wizard is, on a certain path. It doesn't make any logical sense, that being a Wizard, with access to every spell inscribed in their spellbook, I cannot use a simple spell like Steal Time but I can use Chill Strike or Conduit of Ice.
I believe Sharp mentioned somewhere earlier, that the Wizard is in a better position for DPS. But let's think about that for a moment. If all DPS classes in the game, are fine, and people just only worry about DPS this and DPS that, when all classes do roughly the same amount of DPS, what is the point of playing a Wizard, if not a Ranger, or Rogue?
You play a specific class to get the feeling of that class.
While playing Master of Flames for the past 5 years, because of the lack of a Sorcerer Class in the game. I've done the best that I could do to get the best out of that path. Right now as a Thaumatuge, there's nothing that really draws me into wanting to play a Wizard, who was once a "Master of Flames." Now I seem like any generic Wizard, that doesn't even have Fireball.. like there's more Cold Base Spells, on the Wizard path that is more for Fire.
*insert Bill Nye Meme 'this doesn't make any HAMSTER sense'*
Enough of the mini rant, back on topic...
Let's discuss some Powers.
Where's the Lighting Bolt? FireBall? Meteor Swarm? Controlling Flames? etc.
I mean hell, we have Magic Missile. One of the most iconic DND Spells...
After all this time of being a Master of Flames, its a real let down to see what Cataclysm has become.. It's a real let down to see the lack of real Wizard abilities in the game, with an update this large..
I recommended, since we all know that the animations are available, since they're used by other NPC's in the game.. to at least, change Cataclysm into Meteor Swarm. Use the same animation that is used in IG, or hell even better. With another animation that can be found in IG, remove Cataclsym and call it Lakes of Lava. It could be the same status effect, and everything. Target x Radius, enemies with x Radius take x damage for 4 seconds if effected by smolder already, this damage is doubled.
I think to at least please some Wizard players to make a change to Catacylsm. After all this time, this is the best that we get? A Heart of the Dragon animation looking like a circus clown? I'm sorry but that's definitely not my thing.
To be honest, how powers are set up right now,
I think, any true dnd fan would be appalled at the what this class has become.
Each Paragon Path should have 5 At Will Powers.
I think having Magic Missile, Fire Ball(new), and Arcane Bolt(please change to Lighting Bolt) should be default for both Paths.
This would allow both Paragon Paths, access to a different type of Wizard ability.
A Wizard is known for being an elemental, a mage, a master of the dark arts..
What we have right now, is a Wizard that can't make up his mind of whether or not they want Fire base spells, lighting, cold, mixture of the both, might as well become a healer at this point.
For the Arcanist Path, At-Will should be as followed
- Magic Missiles, Fire Ball, Chill Touch, Storm Pillar, and Arcane Bolt
For the Thaumatuge Path, At-Wills should be as followed
- Magic Missiles, Fire Ball, Chill Touch, Scorching Burst, and Control Flames
Chill Touch: Develop a storm within target location, decreasing movement speed, and stacking chilling every 2 seconds for 5 seconds
Fire Ball(similar animation to chilling cloud): Hurl a massive ball of fire at target enemy. Upon the 3rd cast, the fire ball explodes dealing massive damage to target enemy, dealing half damage to enemies around the target spreading smolder
Control Flames: Still working on a description : p
Encounter Powers...
Again, I don't think they need to be as separate as they are now.
If I could have it my way, I think...
These 5 should be default for both paths
Entangling Force, Ray of Enfeeblement, Shield(call it Mage Armor) Repel, & Steal Time
Arcanist, should have these Powers
Conduit Of Ice, Sudden Storm, Disintegrate, Shard of The Endless Avalanche,
do we really need Imprisonment?.. Maybe replace with Banishment?
Banishment: You attempt to send one creature within range to another plane of existence, at the expensive of increasing their outgoing damage by x for x seconds. If enemy takes x amount of damage in 5 seconds and isn't dead. Target will be instantly killed. ( Sounds OP, I know.. cya Orcus!)
It's really sad to see where Daily Powers have gotten.
It's even more frightening to see one of the first dailies you get into the game, turn into the last one you get in the game. I don't even think it's that good.
With 3 Dailies being defaulted, I think
Ice Knife, Oppressive Force, and Contingency(new) should be default.
I think Thaumatuge should NOT have Ice Storm, but instead replaced with Meteor Swarm.
As for the feats, they really don't seem like they're making a difference.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong in my build, or my rotation, but whether or not I have Feats selected or not, I seem to be doing the same amount of damage regardless. So if anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to hear advice.
Closing remarks.
It seems like the Wizard is still being punished. I don't feel like a Wizard in this game anymore. I don't care about DPS, I don't care about being Top pain giver and bragging to everyone. I care about how this class performs, how it's suppose to play, what a Control Wizard, or Wizard is suppose to do. The combat in this game was one of the number one reason why this game is still one of the best MMO's out in the market. The combat playing as a Wizard, with 18k+ item level (if that matters) is bad. I don't feel like I have control, I don't feel like a Wizard, it doesn't feel fun to play this class anymore. I've never wanted to play a Healer in Neverwinter, but what you guys did with healing, is awesome I love that. What you've done with the Wizard, I don't like.
TL;DR
If I could have it my way.
I would suggest replacing these powers
Arcane Bolt -> Lighting Bolt (Arcanist)
Entangling Force -> Telekinesis
Fire Ball (NEW) -> At-Will (Thaumatuge)
Ice Storm -> Meteor Swarm (Thaumatuge)
Chill Touch (NEW) -> At-Will
Controlling Flames (NEW) -> At-Will
Cataclysm -> Please Replace For The Love Of Tymora
Imprisonment -> Banishment (NEW) -> Encounter
I hope you took the time to read this, and what I previously posted on the other forum. I love the Control Wizard, I don't want this class to die, nor do I want this class to not be a Wizard. I've always played a Wizard and I believe I know what makes a Wizard a Wizard. I have more notes and things I want to share for improvements coming. I hope there is still time. My computer crashed, so there's very little I can do.
Thanks for reading.
#MakeCWsGreatAgain
Bardtholomew - Minstrel Bard
Mariah Carries - Devout Cleric
Darth Bane - Thaumaturge Wizard on Xbox
Discord ◆ Youtube ◆ Twitter ◆ Twitch
Not sure if reported or not but this had happened on a couple of my tests on my CW. Sometimes things seem to work correctly and I can not replicate the issue. But then another time the bug starts occurring again and repeatedly and consistently from that point on.
IT when slotted for the Tab key and targeted does not always allow you to target and cast prior to combat having been started. Engage and kill set of mobs using IT (and combat ends) then move toward second set of mobs (not starting combat) and await remaining cooldown on IT to complete,.. at this point IT can not be cast to start combat... so no ranged chill and root. As soon as combat initiates in any other way the ability immediately becomes castable.
Its actually really obvious why these posts irritate me and its because the person thinking about them isn't thinking about the work that goes into making it happen and is also not bothering to test if the new system 1) works and 2) is fun. So, although I am not a game developer, let me give my, "impression" as it were, of what it would be like to step into a game developers shoes and what goes into designing a new power.
The Hypothetical Fireball Encounter:
Imagine we are hypothetically coming up with the Fireball encounter. First, we need a base line, what are we balancing it around. Well, lets use Chill Strike as a base line, which has:
- Cast Time: 0.4
- Cooldown: 15 seconds
- Magnitude: 500
- AP Gain: 0.668
- Target Cap: 1
- Additional Effect: Adds Chill
Now, we know Chill Strike hits 1 target, where as Fireball would hit multiples. For arguments sake, lets make fireball hit 5 targets. As a result of this, we need to reduce the damage of fireball, so lets divide it by 2. We have:- Cast Time: 0.4
- Cooldown: 15 seconds
- Magnitude: 250
- AP Gain: 0.668
- Target Cap: 5
- Additional Effect: Adds Chill
Now, we don't want it to have the same cooldown as Chill Strike, so lets differentiate the power a bit. Lets say it had a Cooldown of 9 seconds and a Cast Time of 0.6 seconds. This gives it a "combined cooldown of 9.6 seconds, compared to the combined cooldown of 15.4 seconds. In order to balance this, we will need to reduce the Magnitude accordingly. 9.6/15.4*250 = 0.62337*250=155.8, ~155 magnitude. So, lets give it 155 magnitude. As a part of reducing the cooldown, the AP Gain is also changed, more specifically, in this case it increases to 1.002. We now have the following power:- Cast Time: 0.6
- Cooldown: 9 seconds
- Magnitude: 155
- AP Gain: 1.002
- Target Cap: 5
- Additional Effect: Adds Chill
Now, a Fireball that adds Chill is quite silly, so we will remove that and instead make it apply Smoulder. Since Smoulder is such a significant damage increase however, (specifically, it adds 80 magnitude over 4 seconds), we will have to reduce the magnitude of Fireball. As a result of this, we have a power with a magnitude of 125. Furthermore, as it is an AoE power, it needs a radius. I will, for the sake of argument, set the radius to 15'.- Cast Time: 0.6
- Cooldown: 9 seconds
- Magnitude: 125
- AP Gain: 1.002
- Target Cap: 5
- Additional Effect: Adds Smoulder
- Radius: 15'
And this is just the work that goes into concept design. This is not counting coding the power, designing an animation (since the skill animation for monsters is about 3 seconds long so you have time to react, a 3 second long animation would feel horrible for a player to use) or the testing phase.In short, asking for new powers is naive, there is not enough time to design and balance them. But hey, if you want to propose a Fireball, that suggestion in spoilers should be a more "reasonable" request then what you are throwing around. At least it has some forethought into it. Aside from all that, I can almost guarantee you that you will not get a new power, there was a quote from @asterdahl in 1 of the feedback threads where he talked about them only having enough time for 3 new powers for each class, this would fall outside of that scope. Wizard is already great. I am enjoying it a lot next module and feel it only needs minor tweaks, if any at all.
It's not a huge leap to implement, it's something that people have been clamoring for for a LONG time, and there's just not a good counter-argument for it. There's a counter-argument for some *specific* implementations, but not for Fireball in general.
Aside from that, it seems that when the Dev team DOES decide to add something new, they never bother looking at the IP they're using. If the Dev Team doesn't want to make D&D associated content, maybe Cryptic shouldn't have licensed a D&D brand in the first place.
But maybe I'm just sore from Neverwinter crowding out a Neverwinter Nights 3 still. Never gonna live it down.
Should read Spell Mastery.
Alacrity does not work.
For Fireball, just steal the animation from Warlocks power Fiery Bolt , change it orange, give it it's own cd, damage magnitude, make it apply smolder, and perhaps allow it to be cast like icy terrain on tab, with a circle to cast it when we want, like to damage foes around a corner would be cool. Then replace that junk Cataclysm with new Fireball encounter.
Also give the Wizard an At-Will called Fire Bolt and use the Warlock's Eldritch Blast animation and similar things like fireball, change it orange, etc. And replace Magic Missle in thaum path.
We are absolutly aware that all we are going to present is only loose sugestions, those absolutely are not demands, everything what next posts contain is made only because we think it is worth considering. If any of presented ideas can come true it would be more than a succes for us that we could make useful feedback.
AT-WILLS
Shared at-wills
Arcane Missile - works good
Chilling Cloud changed to Gust of Wind - This skill animation can look like it does now. Damage stays the same and 3 step attack as well. The change - instead of adding chill stack it refreshes duration of targets chill/arcane mastery/smoder/rimfire. Damage becomes arcane based
Paragon at-wills
Thaumaturge
Scoarching Burst - works good
Ray of Frost - it should stay channeled skill for 6 sec, damage tick every 1 sec that gives 6 ticks of dmg that apply chill stack every second. In addition lower the magnitude to 25 but while channeling the target takes 2% more damage from every source
Arcanist
Storm Pillar - works good
Arcane Bolt - The change - it could be channeled skill like Ray of Frost with duration of 6 sec, tick every 1,2 sec that gives 5 ticks of dmg and in addition final tock gives 3 stacks of arcane mastery. Every hit of Arcane Bolt sustains the arcane mastery stacks on target.
ENCOUNTERS
As most of Wizards, I also would like to se the key mechanic of our class that makes us different from others... Spell Mastery on additional encounter slot (default TAB)
Shared Encounters
Entangling Force
Normal slot - works good
Spell Mastery slot - it should stay as it was - main target works like a magnet that pulls sorrounding targets to it giving 1 spell mastery stack for every target pulled.
Icy Terrain
Normal slot - works good
Spell Mastery slot - couldnt we just make it larger ?? Simple thing that increases the radious from 15' to 25' while on Mastery. Everything else stays unchanged.
Repel
Normal slot - works good
Spell Mastery slot - it should stay as it was (or as it is at the moment), becomes an Area of Effect skill and gets lower magnitude as a cost.
Ray of Enfeeblement
Normal slot - increases the target's damage taken by 5% (from all sources).
Spell Mastery slot - each arcane mastery stack gives additional 1% damage taken (10% max in Taumaturge and in specific synergy in Arcanist it can give max 15%)
or
Spell Mastery slot - each arcane mastery stack gives additional 0.5% damage taken (7.5% max in Taumaturge and in specific synergy in Arcanist it can give max 10%)
Shield
Normal slot - works good
Spell mastery slot - works good
Paragon Encounters
Thaumaturge
Fanning the Flame
Normal slot -increase the magnitude please, it feels that the encounter is realy weak comparing it to others, and also i have a strange feeling that the skill does work excacly the same way as in live... I mean on preview tolltip says that it works 2 ways, burning target takes and gives dmg back to sorrounding burning targets in radious 15'. Check it please, because it seems that the burning target only takes dmg.
Example. The main target is sorrounded by 3 targets. Every target burns already. You cast FtF to main target. "Gathering flames" from 3 targets hit the main target for the same letts say 1000dmg that gives 3000dmg total. The main target "Gathered flames" now are spread back to sorrounding targets. 3000 total dmg is divided to those targets, "Spreading flames" hit for (3000/3) for 1000dmg each. That makes the formula Initial dmg + DoT component (Gathering Flames + Spreading flames) are the Fanning the Flame Encounter
Spell Mastery slot - It deals damage to main target only as well but in addition it burns all sorrounding targets in radious 20' (not 5 targets, all targets sorrounding the main target)
Icy Rays
Normal slot - You create 2 frost shards, magnitude 200 each, in addition every frost shard applays 1 stack of chill. (make it pure dmg skill without any control effect like 1 sec stun as it is on preview and live)
Spell Mastery slot - it is basicly the same effect as on live. You create 3 frost shards, magnitude 200 each, in addition every frost shard applays 1 stack of chill. (also no control effects)
Chill Strike
Normal slot - Magnitude 400-500. You hurl a powerful icicle to your target and on impact it freezes for 0.5 sec. (it basicly stays the same)
Spell Mastery slot - Magnitude [(400-500)]/3. Chill Strike becomes an AoE skill. You hurl a powerful icicle to your target and on impact it freezes for 0.5 sec. In addition the blast of icicle hurts sorrounding targets (max5) that main target and sorrounding targets gets equal damage.
Conduit of Ice
Normal slot - lower the magnitude to 150 but for that cost give the CoI the ability to stack the chill every tick to main and sorrounding targets, or leave the magnitude as it is, but give 1 stack of chill to main and sorrounding targets on initial cast. (on preview only the main target gets the chill stack)
Spell Mastery slot - The main and sorrounding targets have Accuracy decreased for 2500 while the Encounter is active (basicly more powerful blizzard makes enemies some statistics decrese)
Cataclism
Everything with this encounter is bad.The aiming is bad, the damage is bad, if you use it on icy terrain i does not gives smolder, the animation is bad, the circus clowns do better fire breath. As a cataclysm it shoud be some serious Encounter, in the current state it is cataclism itself.
Suggestions what the skill should be redesigned
Meteor Swarm
Normal slot - Magnitude 300. You cast a swarm of meteors (skillshot radious 20') on desired area dealing fire damage and every target hit get smolder effect. The damage is DoT component lasting 6 sec and ticks every 2 sec.
Spell Mastery slot - All targets affected by Meteor Swarm at every tick of damage become dazed for 0.5 sec.
or
Fireball (why warlocks have Fiery Blast with green color scheme and we cant have with red orange one ??)
Normal slot - Magnitude 600. You hurl a mighty molten shard that hits the target with a great power. In addition the target gets smolder effect
Spell Mastery slot - the damage you would deal to one target splits to every target around the main target spreading smolder to every target hit.
or
Burning Ground (my personal favourite)
Normal slot - Magnitude 300. You summon a hellish flames sorounding you (radious 15') and dealing damage over time to all targets hit. In addition targets gets smolder effect.
Spell Mastery slot - Basicly similar to Icy terrain. the area grows to radious 25'
BG + IT = a fantastic rimfire smolder effect on ground... wouldnt it be great ??
Arcanist
Sudden Storm
Normal slot - check the aiming, because at this state it is barely possible to hit anythinng with that skill
Spell Mastery slot - every target hit by the encounter gets shocked. Gets additional damage over time (magnitude 50) for 3 sec every 1 sec.
or simply make it
Lightning Bolt
Normal slot - Change Maelstrom of Chaos into Lightning Bolt, same radious, same skillshot,cast time 1,2 sec, lower magnitude to 400 and quit the knockback mechanic cuz it simply doesnt work with tossing the monsters around.
Spell Mastery - every target hit by the encounter gets shocked. Gets additional damage over time (magnitude 50) for 3 sec every 1 sec.
Desintegrate
Normal slot - (it was and it should stay most powerful single target Encounter) Magnitude 500. If the target is below 30% hit points an an attempt to Desintegrate is made increasing the damage dealt by 50%
Spell Mastery slot - Doubles the damage to magnitude 1000. The reason is that will creat a dillema for players what encounter to use on mastery acording to how they are made in current state ( as imprissonment for example. What to chose ?? more dmg on 1 skill or more dmg on all arcane skills ???)
Steal Time
Normal slot - works good
Mastery slot - as it is a steal time, what about a little twist. Every target slowed (max 5) gives a caster a 0,5 sec cooldown reduction (max 2,5 sec)
Shard of Endless Avalanche
Normal slot - how about reduce the arcane mastery stack gain to 2 sec ??
Spell Mastery slot - bring the Potato a skillshot again
Imprisonment (this revamped Encounter is amazing and gives alot of opportunities and personel dillemas to players where and if to use this encounter)
Normal slot - works good
Spell Mastery slot - works good
DAILY POWERS
Shared daily
Arcane Singularity - works good, but as it is shared daily instead of giving one stack of arcane mastery make fallen targets dazed for 2 sec ?? Radious 40'
Ice Knife - it is a very powerfull daily, but how about instead of giving knockdown effect and adding chill it now consumes all applayed chill stacks from target and every chill stack consumed adds 50 magnitude to overall magnitude ?? (i know Fighters have some skill with 3000magnitude, why Wizadr cant have 2800 one if used well ??)
Oppresive Force - works good
Paragon Daily
Thaumaturge
Furious Immolation - in addition to the pull and burn effect make fallen targets dazed for 2 sec ?? Radious 40'
Ice Storm - Revamped well but, how about quit the knockback mechanic that is realy bad and make it like this: If any target hit by Ice Storm has any stack of chill applayed it gets frozen. If a frozen target gets hit by Ice Storm the freeze effect extends by additional 2 sec. (pvp targets 1sec.) Magnitude stays the same.
Arcanist
Maelstrom of Chaos - long cast time shoud reward us with a huge effect with lightning sparks all around us in radious 40' and a big lightning fallin from the sky paralizing (make it prone if u want) all targets hit for 1sec. Come on, its a daily, it honestly looks like an encounter in current state. Make it big, willing to be cast by players !!
Arcane Empowerment - very, very, very well designed
CLASS FEATURES
Shared Class Features
Evocation - works good
Arcane presence - works good
Chilling presence - works good
Orb of Imposition - works good
Paragon Class Features
Thaumaturge (as we compare the paragon class features in current state on preview, the obvious choice it to even bother playing thauma build... Thaumaturge should be an alternate build providing additional support features as more buffs and debuffs in cost of own damage input)
Critical Conflagration - works good
Swath of Destruction - increases Smolder damage by 5%, and targets affected by smolder take 5% (not laughable 2%, come on)
Combusive Actions - when one of your smolder targets is killed, you and allies gain 1% max Action Points
Frost Wave - When you activate a Daily power you consume all applyed stacks of chill from the targets sorrounding you. Targets affected by Frost Wave take 1% more damage from all sources for each stack of chill consumed.
Arcanist
Eye of the Storm - works good
Storm Spell - works good
Storm Fury - radious 10' spark every 1,5 sec with magnitude 25. Why would someone want to be damaged to give any ammount of damage back ?? make it passive feature.
Arcane Power Field - works good
FEATS
Overall revamp of the feats is pleasuring, choosing the paragon really determinates how we want to play. One thing wonders me the most ?? Do we realy want to have 2 equal damage paths ?? The answear is NO, because it is impossible to balance those two paragon paths that they will be as equal as possible. that is why one of the paths should provide a self sacrifice factor. Thaumaturge does less damage by himself but in cost of that gives more damage for party members. Arcanist gives "nothing" for a party but provides a massive damge output. This solves mostly all player preferences, some like to support some like to top the charts, some like to play with Area of Effect skills and some like to choose single target... All the changes we suggested create this varieties for players.
As it was mentioned before there are two Arcanist feats (Icy Veins and Frigid Winds) that doesnt fit there a all. How about replacing Snap Freeze with Icy Veins on Thauma (Removing Snap Freeze entirely) and merge Frigid Winds with Chilling Advantage but cuting them by half so the feat is now: Chilling advantage - each stack of chill on the target provides additional 2% critical severity and 0,5 % more damage.
In that case we have got empty tier 2 and tier 3 slot.
Tier 2 Arcanist feat
Living Conductor - the electricity flows through your body and makes every enemy close to you be shocked for every arcane mastery stack applayed on them. every stack of mastery provides 10 magnitude damage every 1,5 sec (max 50 and 100 with Astep above Mastery Feat)
This change provides a dillema at player, to choose safier playstyle from a range or to be risky one and throw yourself in a bunch of monsters. the valuses of magnitude may be changed to fit a tier 2 feature.
Tier 3 Arcanist feat
Lightning fast - Whenever you use at-will power there is a 5% chance that other Encounters on cooldown will get 1 sec refresh time.
Tier 4 Arcanis feat change
Nightmare Wizardy - this feat is absolutley usless while it provides Combat Advantage for the Wizard only. If we want to be a Wizard only Feat that is competetive to the other tier 4 feat it should be like:
Nightmare Wizardy - your critical strikes have a 10% chance to give you 20% of your Combat Advantage Damage over 10sec.
As positioning is a main source of combat advantage making it from whatever point i stand to be active is useless and brainless. But giving a Nightmare Wizardy another source of additional damage on certain conditions... that make sense.
And what about cooldowns on encounters you ask ?? they are deffinetly to long
We realize that testing anything without lvl 80 gear, without properly working perks, atributes, bonuses, companions is a mistake.
But still, it would be nice to see all your reactions, create a meaningful discussion. And maybe give DevTeam some worth solutions ;p
It seems to me that the changes of the wizard are chaotic and inconsistent. Most users have already indicated this.
What I would support and add.
Arcane Mastery should increase faster and last longer.
"Arcane Bolt" requires a reduction in casting time, or better complete remake. Now it is only suitable for the dummy.
"Imprisonment" should be a AoE power, no cost increase.
"Arcane Empowerment" should stun nearby enemies and last a little longer (for example, 12 seconds instead of 10).
"Repel" and "Chill Strike" need to swap.
"Cataclysm" requires a significant increase in the area (or simply change the name to "random sneeze").
"Ice Storm", hmm...
Now what the wizard needs is real.
As a hero using 4 encounters, not 3, like other classes, the wizard deserves a greater choice of encounters, not 10, but 12, for example.
Also, the wizard has always sought the synergy of his powers.
Therefore, I ask you to add new powers to the game anyway.
Taumaturge - powers already named:
1) "Cone of cold" - The wizard deals cold damage to targets in a cone in front of him. Enemies who had stack of chill instantly freeze.
2) "Fireball" - hard to say something but i will say. Fireball should remove chill, but deal double damage on freezing targets.
So, Taumaturge will be able to combine several powers in different situations with the required efficiency.
Arcanist:
New At-will power instead "Arcane Bolt" -
"Lightning charge":
You attack the target with a lightning strike, dealing a damage and charging it for 5 seconds. If you charge a second target nearby (may be 20 ft), a discharge will appear between the charged targets, hitting intermediate enemies.
New Encounter:
1) "Arcane Storm" - in fact, like Arcane Bolt, but over a large area.
2) "Gedlee's electrical loop" (or just a "Chain of lightning"):
You create a stroke of lightning that cycles through all enemies in the area of effect, stunning them.
So, Arcanist will be able to effectively combine damage and control.
Yes, I understand that it is difficult for developers. But you need to work to make money.
Thanks for reading. I will not be able to participate in the discussion anymore, it is too long and difficult for me.
So if I can't play the buffer/debuffer, I want to be able to play as a controller. At the cost of damage you can increase the effect of control on one of the paths. (Why the hell have you separated the ice terrain and steal time?)
At least this...
Because at this moment you are forcing me to abandon my main 18k cw ...
Red = Bad.
Purple = Synergizes better on the opposing path.
Arcanist
Thaumaturge
The purpose of the above chart is to break down where the different CW feats are useful, to give you a better idea of how to build that character.
The way I play wizard at the moment, I treat Arcanist as a single target path and Thaumaturge as an AoE path, which, looking at the feats, makes sense as the Thaumaturge feats are better suited for splash damage then heavy single target hits. To fully take advantage of Thaumaturge, you need to play aggressively. You cannot pull 1 pack of monsters at a time, the Smoulder proliferation mechanic works best when you take advantage of your distinct lack of target caps and pull every monster available.
Arcanist, you play by taking advantage of every available Arcane Buff and then self buffing Arcane powers. It very much lives up to its name and excels on single target damage. Due to Arcane Empowerment you have a very fast, spammy rotation which should be reminiscent of the old CW.
The wizard's power, for the most part play into this very well, as you can see below:
Red = Area of Effect
Blue = Single Target
Yellow = Utility
Arcanist
Thaumaturge
I think swapping Chill Strike with Repel and then giving it back its AoE on mastery would help better define Thaumaturge, whilst also strengthening the identity of Arcanist, which would then have another Arcane Power to use. As far as feats go, I feel the cold feats in Arcanist belong more in Thaumaturge and something non cold should replace them. I suggest replacing Relative Haste and Shatter Strike, then add back a watered down version of Focused Wizardry to Arcanist, along with something like uncontrolled obliteration.
People in this thread keep mistaking FtF with a single target power, when it is in fact an AoE which has the primary purpose of synergizing with Smoulder. It should never be used on single target, it does nothing there. If any encounter should be changed, in my opinion it is cataclysm. This encounter feels awful and it is already a copy paste of the heart of the black dragon. Please copy paste something else.
Here is a relative ranking of the DpS of powers, it has not really changed since week 5 since Wizard encounters have not really been touched much since then:
Blue = Best universal power in that type (for example, encounters).
Orange = Best paragon locked power in that category.
Target Count AoE = How many targets an AoE power needs to hit to beat the best single target power, in a sustained fight. In a short fight it is much lower.
Note I did not rank Fanning the Flames in the AoE column, despite the fact that it is an AoE as it is more difficult to quantify how it works relative to other things.
Lastly, the place where imo CW needs the most work is class features and the offhand powers:
Fireball.
However, more I played it, more I liked it. Like other players mentioned it, I think some adjustment is required.
One thing I noticed is Arcanist have more AoE CC, so it's more annoying to solo as a Thaumaturge because without Steal Time you cannot CC enemies.
Like other player suggested I think Icy Veins should replace snap freeze in Thaumaturge feats. With this feat and Icy Terrain a Thaumaturge will be able to instantly freeze enemies and it would help for solo.
For the Arcanist feats, bring back an old feat in place of Icy Veins like Critical Power (when you land a critical hit you gain 5% AP, 20 sec cool-down)
Rename Frigid Wind for Arcane Wave or the name you want. Instead of Increasing damage for each chill stack, Increase your damage by 1% for each Arcane stack you have.
With those feats change, all feat with chill will be in the Thaumaturge path.
An other thing that others player have mentioned is the change to mastery slot. Personnally I'm not totally against it because a lot of power are useless in mastery slot. (Icy Terrain, Shard of endless avalanche, repel)
10% damage is good, but something need to be added to this. 2 second cool-down reduction could be an option.
With this, players could choose which encounter will have a cool-down reduction.
The only power I think who really need to keep their mastery version are:
Chill Strike. The AoE version of Chill Strike could be good for Thaumaturge and help them for AoE.
For Conduit of Ice, I think you should replace the normal version by the mastery version. The AoE zone is bigger, it adds chill stack on all target.
An other change that I don't like is :
Swath of Destruction : targets affected by smolder take 2% more damage.
It is very low, I understand that you have removed a lot of debuff, but other class have kept some debuff that are higher than wizard.
I think this value could be an increase to 5% to have the same debuff value than the HR power commanding shot (5% increase incoming damage from all source)
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
Encounters Repel and Chill Strike have been swapped.
Feats Icy Veins and Frigid Winds have been swapped.
Arcane Bolt we are going to look into taking off the induction charge which will speed it up a little bit. The final attack of the combo will grant arcane mastery and the damage has been adjusted to align with the change in speed.
Fireball is something we can look into, but there are no promises that would be added into the class.
Also thanks for taking the Fireball issue seriously-I get that even doing something like repurposing a power that exists elsewhere is still a game balance concern, but I'd say there's a significant contingent of the player population that wants it.