Thauamaturge wizard (yes, again)

bifflinculte

On the changes of thaumaturge wizard:

- Fireball on mastery becoming single target: no1 asked for this, and it's a bad change. The larger radius on mastery was a good feature. It gets a high magnitude but contrary to other single target encounters, it doesn't proc Shatter Strike. So, best single targets encounters are still Repel, followed by Icy Rays on mastery. Moreover Fireball still has its annoying long cast time.

- Even with fastest cooldowns from 20s to 18s, Fireball and Icy rays' cooldowns are still too long

- With a much higher magnitude, Icy Rays finally becomes a good single target spell

- Furious immolation finally becomes a good daily, now beating Oppresive Force.
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On the no-changes of thaumaturge wizard:

- Fanning the flame still is wizard worst encounter: longest cooldown and lowest magnitude. Imo boosting or reworking ftf is higher priority than making Fireball single target.

- Conduct of ice should isn't bad, but still useless. It should at least add chill stacks at each tick.

- Ice Storm still is a filler daily, a useless relic from pre mod 16 times.


And finally, some words about SMOLDER. Every spells got magnitude boost and smolder/rimefire's still is 20 a tick, meaning it deals less damage than before (around 1-2% of total damage on preview). The only purpose of smolder is to grant a buff when the Rimefire Weaving feat is on.
Moreover, and despite many corrections, it is still easy to stack Smolder and Rimefire. Smolder need a deep overhaul (how it's coded, how it can be triggered, its dps, its mechanics and implication in buff mechanics).


Wizards expected deep overhaul of the Thaumaturge, we only got minor modifications. Encounters buffs are good, but we are far from the mark. Gameplay remains exactly the same.

onethree13

@bifflinculte make a designation under your post that this is for developers, otherwise it's unlikely that someone will read it ...

onethree13

What would I suggest from myself for a more comfortable game. Maybe something will coincide with the opinion of bifflinculte, but maybe not ...
Hopefully, I'm not asking much.

Suggestions for improving the Wizard class (for #CrypticDevelopers)

Arcanist

• Lightning Bolt - please make the animation more "comfortable", because it is impossible to understand where this spell hits and how it hits. Something like Maelstrom of Chaos would be very good.
  
• Steal Time - the animation is also terrible + there is a chance that monsters will interrupt your spell. I would also suggest making it more "comfortable" and preferably for a long distance.
  
• Spell Twisting - I would increase the value to 1.5-2%.
  
• Storm Spell - reduce cooldown.
  
• Nightmare Wizardry - increase % chance to 20-30.
  

Wizard

• Chilling Presence - I would return % to 1.
  

Thaumaturge

• Smolder - I would increase the magnitude. Now, even with all the feats to increase damage and critical damage, Smolder does very few damage (2-3% of the total damage, lol).
  
• Chilling Advantage - replace this feat. For example, +% damage or +% Smolder damage for every stack of Chill or something like this.
  
• Fireball - replace the animation with a more comfortable one (see Lightning Bolt hereinabove).
  
• Fanning the Flame - Deals too few damage. I would increase the base magnitude or magnitude when monsters deal damage to a burning target.
  
• Shatter Strike - increase chance (from 20 to 30-40%) or magnitude.
  
• Smolder & Rimefire Mechanics - When Rimefire is activated, I would suggest keeping activated Smolder active as well. 1- this will increase the damage of the Thaumaturge, 2- this will eliminate the problem with interrupts of Rimefire & Smolder. If this is not possible for any reason, I would add the Rimefire prefix to Swath of Destruction, Critical Burn and other similar Class Features and Feats. So, at least if Rimefire is activated the Thaumaturge will be able to do more damage too.
  

bifflinculte

I basically agree, but I think the thaumaturge needs a new mechanics and gameplay. For now, both paragons are too similar, the only great difference is the gameplay based on the Arcane empowerment daily (arcanist). And if it's powerful, spamming the encounters keys isn't a great gameplay...

Arbiter cleric has a very different cast system based on divinity.
Both ranger paragon are also very different and offer the choice between close, ranged and mixed combat.

The thaumaturge cast system needs something in this way. For example, an efficient cd reduction system based on element alternation or chill/smolder stacks (the present 10% cd reduction when someone is chilled is poor). Or make all element encounters not cd based but on a kind of mana, which is regenerated by chill/smolder stacks.

For the thaumaturge, element spells should be much better than arcane spells, by the way of better magnitudes or cast frequency.
Maybe the paragons need even more spell differenciation: the aracanist has access to 10 arcane encounters, and the thaumaturge to 4 cold, 2 fire, 2 lightning encounters + 2 utility arcane encounters (shield, ray of enfeeblement). Before lvl 30, the wizard has access to a mix of encounters, and when he choose a paragon, he removes some spells (arcane or element) from his spellbook.

Smolder is under-exploited. A pair of feat should grant 2 different smolder mechanics.
For example, without feat, smolder is a weak dot. With feat a on, the dot is removed and smolder can be triggered anytime. With feat b on, it buffs other spells or reduces targets defense.

The counterpart of this powerful smolder would be, that adding smolder and even keeping on foes isn't as easy as now. Only fire spells could add smolder. And cold spells could hinder smolder - unless a specific feat or passive spell is on.
And why not add stacks on smolder, exactly like chill and create a feat that makes smolder and chill stacks interact.

Chill stacking is a good mechanic for both paragons, however i think only the taumaturge should be able to slow and freeze targets. This would make chilling presence more powerful for the thaumaturge - chilling presence with at least 1% buff/stack.
Arcanists control foes directly with control arcane spells. Thaumaturge's control relies on chill stacks.

There's a lot to imagine. Recently the wizard got some magintude increased and some cd reduced, noticeably improving its dps. But all mechanics (and bugs) remain exactly the same. The old control wizard has to be killed once for all. The arcanist and the thaumaturge need a new start.