What wizard needs for single player experience: Wizard's problems start at the beginning - when you level up. The combination of low magnitudes and dependency on arcane stacs, certain class features and feats leads the class to under-perform for quite a while. (I suggest less emphasis on stacks, more on magnitude - this needs a thorough rewamp and testing.)
Wizards AoE at-wills use charging up mechanics, which makes them less than ideal for solo. (pretty good for opening the fight, but then their utility drops) I would swap Magic Missile to some "chain lightning". (something similar to Shuriken Toss the rogue has)
There is no reasonable AoE encounter power at the beginning - and the starts are therefore pain. (I would love to see Steal the Time as the first encounter common to both paragons, but only if Thauma would not lose access to the current choices... well, the M16 design is what made it impossible. If I have to sacrifice something, it would be Shield.)
Shorten the CD on Entangling Force by 1 sec.
Return the gathering effect for Entangling Force in mastery slot (bararians Come and Get It mechanics, just no aggro ) - this would make levelling at least somehow more reasonable
Shorten the CD on Icy Terrain by 2 secs
Make Smoulder tick faster by 1/3 and double its magnitude.
Revert the single target Fireball (=bring back the original magnitude and bigger AoE) - the change was contra-productive
Ray of Frost sometimes gets stuck in the animation if the targeted creature dies. (you have to jump to interrupt the animation)
edit: I forgot about one low risk/high yield possible improvement: grant CA over hard controlled enemies (frozen solid/lifted to the air)
+Being a pain to level up a wizard is canon. But at level 9 wizard gets the Wish spell, the greatest action a mortal can do. +The arcane stacks makes the difference in skill, and do not have enough impact as it is. Without arcane stacks the number 1 factor in performance will be the internet speed. .
Dome some testing. This is really premature, but here are a few observations:
- BoA contributes under 3% damage to the class and hence is no longer bis unless you can cap percentages without it. - Ray of Frost seems to proc BoA less frequently than Magic Missile, which means you cannot fully utilize Chilling Presence and BoA together in single target - Arcane Power Field seems competitive in single target, but I still prefer Chilling and Storm Spell - Without BoA procs I'm not able to fully utilize the gear that gives stat bonus on hits > 10% of HP. The max I'm getting to is 7 stacks in single target.
No agro bug fix. BIS only changes , mid level players will continue to suffer hard. why do devs only test for bis players and neglect the rest!!!! mid-level This will not help player bleed
No endgame Wizards are using these powers that are being fixed.
It’s always nice to see work being done to fix classes for all players, not just endgame. The changes so far have not been met with much positive feedback because they were non issues for the most part and the community was looking for more solutions based on all the lists and info given when this whole process started.
Which makes it seem like there is a disconnect between the two.
Until the points made by the community are addressed, it’s a waste of everyone’s time and money.
I’ve watched Players corral the wizard community on multiple forums to get the devs a clear list of concerns. It’s not just folks asking for Mor Powah!
Fingers crossed that the changes asked for will happen.
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unknowndramaMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 115Arc User
This what i can say and add if there is something to be change made better some powers are never used and some are used because they are less awful then others and some other wizards player can add. Frequently used: Ray of enfeeblement thaumaturge arcanist Entangling force thaumaturge arcanist Repel thaumaturge arcanist Disintegrate arcanist Ice rays thaumaturge Chill strike thaumaturge Conduit of ice thaumaturge Icy terrain thaumaturge
Shield Never - the casting animation and utility is awful it should be reverted to what it was before change Arcane conduit Never Lightning bolt Never Maelstrom Never Arcane bolt Never Fireball Never - the casting animation is awful and the dmg Fanning the flame Never
You can actually remove most of the skills and people will not miss them because they don't have any utility or usefulness.
> @unknowndrama said: > This what i can say and add if there is something to be change made better some powers are never used and some are used because they are less awful then others and some other wizards player can add. > Frequently used: > Ray of enfeeblement thaumaturge arcanist > Entangling force thaumaturge arcanist > Repel thaumaturge arcanist > Disintegrate arcanist > Ice rays thaumaturge > Chill strike thaumaturge > Conduit of ice thaumaturge > Icy terrain thaumaturge > > Shield Never - the casting animation and utility is awful it should be reverted to what it was before change > Arcane conduit Never > Lightning bolt Never > Maelstrom Never > Arcane bolt Never > Fireball Never - the casting animation is awful and the dmg > Fanning the flame Never > > You can actually remove most of the skills and people will not miss them because they don't have any utility or usefulness.
I use Icy Terrain on arcanist aoe as I love the Icy Terrain, Stealth Time combo. I use Fireball on Thaumaturge, but the animation and magnitude does suck. It's fun to use, I just wish it were better.
i would ask if the cw can be reviewed again and to have the following changes implemented:
Ray of frost magnitude increased from 55 to 60
Scorching Burst magnitude increased from 30-80 to 45-80
Chill Strike Spell mastery magnitude increased from 225 to 325
Shatter Strike: Powers with control effects now deal 250 magnitude (up from 150) against CC immune targets
Lightning Bolt Encounter: Remove it altogether or change the animation and targeting to guarantee it hits
Entangling Force: In Spell Mastery change it so it grants an additional attack where you can slam the enemy into the ground after raising them in the air.
Icey Terrain: reduce cooldown by 3 seconds
Ice Storm: Instead of the knockback effect have it freeze all enemies within its radius for 4 seconds for 650 magnitude and for cc immune targets let it do 750
Maelstrom of Chaos: Reduce the animation time and increase the area of effect. Currently the animation time is so long that by the time it hits the enemies have already moved from the location.
Imprisonment was disliked only because it didnt do any damage. All you had to do was add damage to the power and it would have been acceptable. Give us back Imprisonment as an aoe with 325 magnitude and Spell Mastery makes it ST 450 magnitude with the arcane conduit effect.
Also keep in mind that all the other classes have multiple encounters that hit for more than 500 magnitude and arcanist and thaum both barely have any. I think between the 2 paths they have 2 encounter power that are over 500 and for one of them that is only in Spell mastery slot
None of these are big changes except for Ice Storm and Imprisonment but i believe they would go a long way in making players a little bit happier with the cw.
@sageone I am kinda against fortifying aspects that are already pretty much a must, or trying to force an alternative to an already good option.
Arcanist is dependent on Storm Spell, Thauma on Shatter Strike. Fortifying any of those does not make sense, just further twits the class and makes bad levelling experience openly intentional. (but, of course, if you nerf them, you must increase magnitudes of powers)
Most wizards are already fine with having RoE in mastery slot for single target, trying to bring other single target miracles to mastery slot is wasting of time. (and Entangling Force has already increased CC effect based on arcane stacs to some really respectable length)
UPDATE: The balance fixes are now in. These aren't 100% final (we still have a couple of weeks for bugfixes, testing, and tuning), but every spell, feat, class feature, etc. has been looked at and evaluated for possible changes. Below are the changes (they should be arriving on Preview soon, ideally some time this week).
Short version is lots of 10-20% increases across the board, with bigger (sometimes much bigger) increases to things that looked especially weak. Smolder in particular was increased dramatically, in part because Thaumaturges needed the help and in part because all the Smolder-improving Feats and Class Features were pretty pointless while Smolder was so weak. (Some of those Smolder improvements might be a lot better now, even if their numbers didn't change, just because Smolder is so much better.) Almost all buffs; only nerfs are Storm Pillar no longer serves as an AP generator during downtime (which was never intended), and Arcane Empowerment doesn't give quite as much recharge speed as it used to (although it continues to give an awful lot, and should still be very strong).
Note the goal of these changes wasn't just to give some buffs to powers everyone uses already. We also want to bring up as many powers as possible into the usable category. The hope is that some powers that were long considered "useless" might now be worth of consideration.
Base Class * Magic Missile: Mag increased from 40 to 50 * Shield: Mag increased from 230/253 to 300/350; Shield amount increased to 30%/40%; casting time reduced from 1.6s to 0.53s * Arcane Singularity: increased Mag from 800 to 1000 * Ice Knife: increased Mag from 1800 to 2000 * Arcane Presence: increased from 0.5% to 1.0% * Orb of Imposition: increased from 20% to 25%; added "Your control powers do 5% more damage against control-immune targets."
Arcanist * Storm Pillar: will no longer generate AP if you don't hit any targets * Arcane Bolt: increased Mag from 60 to 100 * Lightning Bolt: increased Mag from 200 to 300 * Steal Time: increased Mag from 260 to 300 * Arcane Tempest: increased Mag from 300 to 350 * Arcane Conduit: increased Mag from 200 to 250 * Maelstrom of Chaos: increased Mag from 600 to 1200 * Arcane Empowerment: increased damage bonus from 10% to 20%; decreased recharge speed bonus from x5 to x3 * Eye of the Storm: decreased internal cooldown from 20s to 10s * Storm Fury: increased Mag from 50 to 150; fixed a bug where it was critting every time * Arcane Power Field: Fixed a bug where it didn't accept buffs or mods. This should be a significant power increase. * Alacrity: increased cooldown reduction from 2 seconds to 5 seconds * Snap Freeze: increased Mag from 40 to 60 * Chaos Magic: increased proc chance from 5% to 7% * Elemental Reinforcement: increased damage bonus from 5% to 7%
Thaumaturge * Scorching Burst: increased Mag from 30-80 to 50-100 * Chilling Cloud: increased Mag from 65 to 80 * Fanning the Flame: increased base Mag from 100 to 400, tick mag from 33 to 100, and reduced cooldown from 21 to 18 * Conduit of Ice: increased Mag from 230 to 300 * Fireball: increased Mag from 250/550 to 300/600 * Furious Immolation: increased Mag from 700 to 800 * Ice Storm: increased Mag from 600 to 1000; eliminated knockback and replaced it with knockdown * Swath of Destruction: increased bonuses from 5%/2% to 10%/3% * Combustive Action: increased AP bonus from 1% to 5% * Frost Wave: increased chill stacks from 3 to 6; fixed bug where it failed to Freeze * Relative Haste: increased max cooldown speed bonus from 10% to 20% * Smoldering Recovery: reduced Directed Flames bonus from 1.5% to 0.3% (still a net buff due to changes to Directed Flames) * Glowing Flames: increased damage from 20% to 30% * Icy Veins: increased range from 15' to 20' * Frigid Winds: increased damage bonus from 1.25% to 1.5% * Directed Flames: reduced damage from 80% to 25%, but can now proc every second (down from every 12 seconds, although there was a bug that meant it wouldn't even proc that often) * Smolder: increased damage per tick from 40 to 150. Note this will affect a number of Smolder-related Feats and Class Features as well.
Known Issues * Lightning Bolt: Does not reliably hit its targets, especially on rougher terrain. * Arcane Empowerment: UI can get slightly out of synch with actual ability to cast powers, especially in the presence of lag. * Combustive Action: triggering is very unreliable * Relative Haste: does not count Chill stacks correctly
Obviously this all needs to be tested before I could comment meaningfully, but looking at the balance updates at first glance the Thaum changes at least look interesting enough that it could make for a competitive build.
My only question for now, @rgutscheradev, is what the rationale is behind the Arcane Empowerment recharge speed boost decrease? I recognise it's still powerful, but most ST Arcanist builds are only effective right now because of what this daily can do. I don't necessarily see other changes that would balance out the loss of potential damage here (again, needs some ACT testing to see the impact).
Are there any players helping yall with tests/providing feedback? Have they not realized these are nerfs? Was the goal to make the Arcanist as useless as the Thaumaturge?
On a related topic, can we get a class reroll token? I have over 90% of the companions/mounts/artifacts in the game but they're stuck on my soon to be nerfed wizard and have no intention of getting everything on another character again
Wizards are a solid % in damage behind almost every dps class right now. I like the buffs, but the nerf to arcane empowerment single handedly makes this an overall single target nerf. I'd suggest leaving AE exactly how it is, 10% with 5x recharge speed, and leave the other small buffs.
UPDATE: The balance fixes are now in. These aren't 100% final (we still have a couple of weeks for bugfixes, testing, and tuning), but every spell, feat, class feature, etc. has been looked at and evaluated for possible changes. Below are the changes (they should be arriving on Preview soon, ideally some time this week).
Short version is lots of 10-20% increases across the board, with bigger (sometimes much bigger) increases to things that looked especially weak. Smolder in particular was increased dramatically, in part because Thaumaturges needed the help and in part because all the Smolder-improving Feats and Class Features were pretty pointless while Smolder was so weak. (Some of those Smolder improvements might be a lot better now, even if their numbers didn't change, just because Smolder is so much better.) Almost all buffs; only nerfs are Storm Pillar no longer serves as an AP generator during downtime (which was never intended), and Arcane Empowerment doesn't give quite as much recharge speed as it used to (although it continues to give an awful lot, and should still be very strong).
Note the goal of these changes wasn't just to give some buffs to powers everyone uses already. We also want to bring up as many powers as possible into the usable category. The hope is that some powers that were long considered "useless" might now be worth of consideration.
Base Class * Magic Missile: Mag increased from 40 to 50 * Shield: Mag increased from 230/253 to 300/350; Shield amount increased to 30%/40%; casting time reduced from 1.6s to 0.53s * Arcane Singularity: increased Mag from 800 to 1000 * Ice Knife: increased Mag from 1800 to 2000 * Arcane Presence: increased from 0.5% to 1.0% * Orb of Imposition: increased from 20% to 25%; added "Your control powers do 5% more damage against control-immune targets."
Arcanist * Storm Pillar: will no longer generate AP if you don't hit any targets * Arcane Bolt: increased Mag from 60 to 100 * Lightning Bolt: increased Mag from 200 to 300 * Steal Time: increased Mag from 260 to 300 * Arcane Tempest: increased Mag from 300 to 350 * Arcane Conduit: increased Mag from 200 to 250 * Maelstrom of Chaos: increased Mag from 600 to 1200 * Arcane Empowerment: increased damage bonus from 10% to 20%; decreased recharge speed bonus from x5 to x3 * Eye of the Storm: decreased internal cooldown from 20s to 10s * Storm Fury: increased Mag from 50 to 150; fixed a bug where it was critting every time * Arcane Power Field: Fixed a bug where it didn't accept buffs or mods. This should be a significant power increase. * Alacrity: increased cooldown reduction from 2 seconds to 5 seconds * Snap Freeze: increased Mag from 40 to 60 * Chaos Magic: increased proc chance from 5% to 7% * Elemental Reinforcement: increased damage bonus from 5% to 7%
Thaumaturge * Scorching Burst: increased Mag from 30-80 to 50-100 * Chilling Cloud: increased Mag from 65 to 80 * Fanning the Flame: increased base Mag from 100 to 400, tick mag from 33 to 100, and reduced cooldown from 21 to 18 * Conduit of Ice: increased Mag from 230 to 300 * Fireball: increased Mag from 250/550 to 300/600 * Furious Immolation: increased Mag from 700 to 800 * Ice Storm: increased Mag from 600 to 1000; eliminated knockback and replaced it with knockdown * Swath of Destruction: increased bonuses from 5%/2% to 10%/3% * Combustive Action: increased AP bonus from 1% to 5% * Frost Wave: increased chill stacks from 3 to 6; fixed bug where it failed to Freeze * Relative Haste: increased max cooldown speed bonus from 10% to 20% * Smoldering Recovery: reduced Directed Flames bonus from 1.5% to 0.3% (still a net buff due to changes to Directed Flames) * Glowing Flames: increased damage from 20% to 30% * Icy Veins: increased range from 15' to 20' * Frigid Winds: increased damage bonus from 1.25% to 1.5% * Directed Flames: reduced damage from 80% to 25%, but can now proc every second (down from every 12 seconds, although there was a bug that meant it wouldn't even proc that often) * Smolder: increased damage per tick from 40 to 150. Note this will affect a number of Smolder-related Feats and Class Features as well.
Known Issues * Lightning Bolt: Does not reliably hit its targets, especially on rougher terrain. * Arcane Empowerment: UI can get slightly out of synch with actual ability to cast powers, especially in the presence of lag. * Combustive Action: triggering is very unreliable * Relative Haste: does not count Chill stacks correctly
Obviously needs testing whenever the PTS gets patched, but no upgrade to the current meta means the "10-20% increases" has to come from new alternative builds. I mean I don't mind if there's a new build that's bringing more output in both ST and AoE, but not seeing the currently used powers and builds buffed is irritating.
Thanks for the update. I'm looking forward to seeing the changes on Preview, but the current list has me taken aback. Still no changes to the steal time visual and audio cues, which have been broken since the charge animation was changed? Here's a thread with discussions and videos. There is no need for artist work; several companions use the same audio and visuals, so they're still in the game.
Numbers going up is not the only thing that makes powers feel more powerful. Audio and visuals have a big part in that. After all we are playing a visual game, not a text-based adventure. You said on stream that you wanted the Wizards' abilities to feel powerful. Right now, Steal Time (on live) feels very lackluster and that is because half the audio and visual effects are missing. The current visual is the player character flailing their arms, followed by light bulbs orbiting the apparently hit enemies for bit. There is not even any indication of its range. It's completely missing the shockwave circle moving outwards from the cast location, the hourglasses are invisible behind the lights, and when cast from the mastery slot, there is no audio.
Obviously this all needs to be tested before I could comment meaningfully, but looking at the balance updates at first glance the Thaum changes at least look interesting enough that it could make for a competitive build.
My only question for now, @rgutscheradev, is what the rationale is behind the Arcane Empowerment recharge speed boost decrease? I recognise it's still powerful, but most ST Arcanist builds are only effective right now because of what this daily can do. I don't necessarily see other changes that would balance out the loss of potential damage here (again, needs some ACT testing to see the impact).
Yeah I don't like this either. The main Arcanist powers for ST remain unchanged plus a nerf to the main daily means a shift of the meta to Thaum at best. But with such a rework you would definitely hope for a variety of playstyle, meaning that if "10-20% improvement" is your goal the current Arcanist ST should get a boost as well, which I don't see from the changelog.
Oh no, I just realized I forgot to report a bug here that hadn't been mentioned as fixed yet!
Right clicking the wizard mastery slot (in order to change the slotted power) fills the list of options with the same options of whatever type of power slot you last clicked.
Short version is lots of 10-20% increases across the board, with bigger (sometimes much bigger) increases to things that looked especially weak.
I know this isn't DPS increase, but please know that CWs need at least a 30-40% increase to be competitive. I severely hope this is the conclusion you also came up with internally and the rework is based on that target goal.
Obviously needs testing whenever the PTS gets patched, but no upgrade to the current meta means the "10-20% increases" has to come from new alternative builds. I mean I don't mind if there's a new build that's bringing more output in both ST and AoE, but not seeing the currently used powers and builds buffed is irritating.
I'm hearing this said a lot, but we're not seeing it in our data.
The top Wizard builds (which basically means the Arcane Empowerment build) are doing quite well -- competitive with the other top dps builds. We're certainly not seeing them at 30-40% below everyone else across the board.
That said, I do want to take a closer look, and to get another data pull from when the Band of Air changes have sunk in (that hurts more than just Wizard, of course, but Wizard is definitely one of the classes that can use Band of Air effectively).
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arazith07Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,719Arc User
Obviously needs testing whenever the PTS gets patched, but no upgrade to the current meta means the "10-20% increases" has to come from new alternative builds. I mean I don't mind if there's a new build that's bringing more output in both ST and AoE, but not seeing the currently used powers and builds buffed is irritating.
I'm hearing this said a lot, but we're not seeing it in our data.
The top Wizard builds (which basically means the Arcane Empowerment build) are doing quite well -- competitive with the other top dps builds. We're certainly not seeing them at 30-40% below everyone else across the board.
That said, I do want to take a closer look, and to get another data pull from when the Band of Air changes have sunk in (that hurts more than just Wizard, of course, but Wizard is definitely one of the classes that can use Band of Air effectively).
It might help future discussions if we had a rough chart or something to see how the devs see class balance, with the usual caveats stated. We as players will only see the results of our own ecosystems. One Master group will be drastically different from another and often won't see a lot of cross pollination.
That said, I do want to take a closer look, and to get another data pull from when the Band of Air changes have sunk in (that hurts more than just Wizard, of course, but Wizard is definitely one of the classes that can use Band of Air effectively).
Currently BoA is around 2% of total damage on my single target build. I don't see the reason to play with it anymore.
As for Arcane Empowerment, you should leave it with x5 recharge bonus. We using this daily during artifact call and trying to make best use of our encounters during this limited time. This is very important. I think such change will have negative impact.
I'm hearing this said a lot, but we're not seeing it in our data.
The top Wizard builds (which basically means the Arcane Empowerment build) are doing quite well -- competitive with the other top dps builds. We're certainly not seeing them at 30-40% below everyone else across the board.
That said, I do want to take a closer look, and to get another data pull from when the Band of Air changes have sunk in (that hurts more than just Wizard, of course, but Wizard is definitely one of the classes that can use Band of Air effectively).
I mean even if, these changes make the current best build weaker thanks to the Arcane Empowerment nerf unless the damage bonus offsets the recharge speed. But you yourself called it a nerf so I'm guessing it is. In a dummy situation I'm seeing up to 600k/sec for other classes while Wizards are stuck at 350k-400k/sec. Sure that's a controlled environment and ranged classes in battle often have some advantages (see current ancient fights), but that's still a lot of raw damage to overcome.
BoA single-handedly made Wizards competitive because the sheer percentage of damage BoA contributed to any build brought them closer to other classes. I'm sure that's something you considered and had ways of looking at what Wizards gained from powers minus BoA compared to other classes. That's why I'm very surprised this is your conclusion since the experience on the field doesn't match. I'm starting to get really concerned we might not see the boost many had hoped for.
Are there any players helping yall with tests/providing feedback?
Yes, among others, AsteR, the same one who couldn't wait for the Band of Air nerf.
Unfortunately it seems there was a little bit too much focus on bringing the paragon paths closer together. I mean it was absolutely necessary and I support different playstyles and all, but the fact that one class has two paragons that compete against each other because they fill the same roles is stupid in itself. I always said make one path a controller and the other a true glass cannon. I know groups currently do not need control utility, but I still like the distinct difference and maybe just maybe we'll have content in which crowd control does play a role again at some point.
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arazith07Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,719Arc User
Are there any players helping yall with tests/providing feedback?
Yes, among others, AsteR, the same one who couldn't wait for the Band of Air nerf.
Unfortunately it seems there was a little bit too much focus on bringing the paragon paths closer together. I mean it was absolutely necessary and I support different playstyles and all, but the fact that one class has two paragons that compete against each other because they fill the same roles is stupid in itself. I always said make one path a controller and the other a true glass cannon. I know groups currently do not need control utility, but I still like the distinct difference and maybe just maybe we'll have content in which crowd control does play a role again at some point.
Might work for Wizards, however with Rangers, the current higher DPS path (Hunter) has all of the control powers, all the utility/buff powers, etc. The weaker paragon (Warden) is just 'damage'.
Lots of comments, does anyone save for other players read these?
Look, as a veteran tabletop player and DM, I don't care about 'balance.' A wizard/mage/sorcerer a.k.a. "Spell Chucker" is the top dog in ranged damage dealing in the Dungeons & Dragons game, only a cleric can get close hovering in with a burst of divine power. The fact that software development focus is on making classes fairly equal so new people and longtime players don't all jump to wizard class is so we can all have a go at what we like, not what is needed to have the highest DpS in the score charts.
I mentioned this in a previous post: the spell animations and sound effects, are why I am here, playing the wizard. There is no other reason for my time on Neverwinter. I am NOT an endgame participant, I simply do not have time to do the dungeons and raids with a group of dedicated people when I have so many other real-world responsibilities, nor do I wish to impose on others to help or 'carry' me through one of them just to get a tiny chance at a token or piece of gear to try and make me a little more powerful or protected. In seeing the alliance chat, it took one player 105 attempts to get all his ingredients to make this now nerfed Band of Air. I would never waste my precious time like that.
I would suggest cleaner (quicker) casting animations, the steal time, arcane empowerment waste a portion of the actual spell's effects on an animation sequence. Perhaps take a read in some AD&D novels and see that the waggling fingers, speaking of arcane phrases, briefly glowing eye color changes or a nimbus of sparkling motes around the caster's hands, maybe if the spell is an evocation, such as lightning bolts or fireballs, the energy coalesces spatially in front of the caster before streaking to the target.
Fix the targeting system too, I keep my mouse button down never letting it up at all, and use side buttons to blast my encounter powers, so I have a ray of frost streaking over a group from say right to left, unfortunately, the second one from the right that was moused over is the second target to be struck even when they have moved further away from me. I have to release the button to reacquire a closer target that is a more substantial threat to me now. The subroutine used to calculate enemy targets should consider distance and also actual threat they impose to the caster. We are playing one of the more intelligent classes, the brains for casting have to be there for a Wizard, so they are going to know what type of monster they are fighting is more of a problem and needs to be neutralized first.
I like seeing stunningly beautiful graphics displays on my high-quality gaming machine. It sports an RTX3080 and can handle lots of visual artifacts amazingly. With our current hardware technology, so many players here do have decent graphics cards in their systems. Take advantage of this and create the hallmark of the mage. Let's see some impressive casting sequences and the effects that follow on our adversaries in game.
I don't think I need to comment on any numbers, simply because you are going to do what you want to and anyone here who makes suggestions generally is ignored. I don't care if I have poor DpS. I just wish to enjoy the game for what it is, a distraction from reality.
One suggestion I do encourage is that those players who have gone the extra mile to get end game content gear/weapons, well they will have higher DpS that others in their same class who do not have that gear. Test your new changes with toons that DO NOT have any end game items equipped. This is fair and practical because as I mentioned above, not everyone is a dungeon delver or raid veteran. It lets you see what "Joe Average" can do.
Well, someone had to have the courage to address Arcane Empowerment. The decreased recharge speed it is a very logical step given the reality of everyday gameplay. -In reality most of us could not benefit fully from Arcane Empowerment because of server/client route.- That is why we had false cooldowns. And that is why some wizards outperformed others wizards in ST. Some might not like to hear it, but is true. We all have the same ST build since mod 16. There is no extra skill involved, is just the connection speed. If the exploit of 2 Alliance Battlehorns ap gain use could be address will be nice too. And if the animation would be cut in half I would be ecstatic. . rgutscheradev- If it was a- Courage- achievement I would vote for you to receive it. You not only took the correct step, but had the stomach to put it in reality.
Well, someone had to have the courage to address Arcane Empowerment. The decreased recharge speed it is a very logical step given the reality of everyday gameplay. -In reality most of us could not benefit fully from Arcane Empowerment because of server/client route.- That is why we had false cooldowns. And that is why some wizards outperformed others wizards in ST. Some might not like to hear it, but is true. We all have the same ST build since mod 16. There is no extra skill involved, is just the connection speed. If the exploit of 2 Alliance Battlehorns ap gain use could be address will be nice too. And if the animation would be cut in half I would be ecstatic. . rgutscheradev- If it was a- Courage- achievement I would vote for you to receive it. You not only took the correct step, but had the stomach to put it in reality.
I'd save awarding the courage achievement until devs routinely give reasons for such changes when first announcing them. You're assuming this was the rationale, and maybe it was, but we don't know because no reason given.
Obviously needs testing whenever the PTS gets patched, but no upgrade to the current meta means the "10-20% increases" has to come from new alternative builds. I mean I don't mind if there's a new build that's bringing more output in both ST and AoE, but not seeing the currently used powers and builds buffed is irritating.
I'm hearing this said a lot, but we're not seeing it in our data.
The top Wizard builds (which basically means the Arcane Empowerment build) are doing quite well -- competitive with the other top dps builds. We're certainly not seeing them at 30-40% below everyone else across the board.
That said, I do want to take a closer look, and to get another data pull from when the Band of Air changes have sunk in (that hurts more than just Wizard, of course, but Wizard is definitely one of the classes that can use Band of Air effectively).
We need the Wizard bugs fixed before balancing can start. Band of Air is so bad right now, its not worth using. Currently most Wizards cannot easily proc their Chest or Head pieces fully, thus missing out on lots of stats then in turn missing out on DPS. The Band of Air was certainly the one reason that the top Wizards were competitive in some trials. In dungeons there was a gap, now its a GAP because of the way Wizards AOE works.
Well, someone had to have the courage to address Arcane Empowerment. The decreased recharge speed it is a very logical step given the reality of everyday gameplay. -In reality most of us could not benefit fully from Arcane Empowerment because of server/client route.- That is why we had false cooldowns. And that is why some wizards outperformed others wizards in ST. Some might not like to hear it, but is true. We all have the same ST build since mod 16. There is no extra skill involved, is just the connection speed. If the exploit of 2 Alliance Battlehorns ap gain use could be address will be nice too. And if the animation would be cut in half I would be ecstatic. . rgutscheradev- If it was a- Courage- achievement I would vote for you to receive it. You not only took the correct step, but had the stomach to put it in reality.
Sadly some Wizards were using different builds, trusting tooltips... Also some refused to move with the times and adjust builds/playing styles to be competitive.
Comments
Wizard's problems start at the beginning - when you level up. The combination of low magnitudes and dependency on arcane stacs, certain class features and feats leads the class to under-perform for quite a while. (I suggest less emphasis on stacks, more on magnitude - this needs a thorough rewamp and testing.)
Wizards AoE at-wills use charging up mechanics, which makes them less than ideal for solo. (pretty good for opening the fight, but then their utility drops) I would swap Magic Missile to some "chain lightning". (something similar to Shuriken Toss the rogue has)
There is no reasonable AoE encounter power at the beginning - and the starts are therefore pain. (I would love to see Steal the Time as the first encounter common to both paragons, but only if Thauma would not lose access to the current choices... well, the M16 design is what made it impossible. If I have to sacrifice something, it would be Shield.)
Shorten the CD on Entangling Force by 1 sec.
Return the gathering effect for Entangling Force in mastery slot (bararians Come and Get It mechanics, just no aggro
Shorten the CD on Icy Terrain by 2 secs
Make Smoulder tick faster by 1/3 and double its magnitude.
Revert the single target Fireball (=bring back the original magnitude and bigger AoE) - the change was contra-productive
Ray of Frost sometimes gets stuck in the animation if the targeted creature dies. (you have to jump to interrupt the animation)
edit: I forgot about one low risk/high yield possible improvement: grant CA over hard controlled enemies (frozen solid/lifted to the air)
But at level 9 wizard gets the Wish spell, the greatest action a mortal can do.
+The arcane stacks makes the difference in skill, and do not have enough impact as it is.
Without arcane stacks the number 1 factor in performance will be the internet speed.
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- BoA contributes under 3% damage to the class and hence is no longer bis unless you can cap percentages without it.
- Ray of Frost seems to proc BoA less frequently than Magic Missile, which means you cannot fully utilize Chilling Presence and BoA together in single target
- Arcane Power Field seems competitive in single target, but I still prefer Chilling and Storm Spell
- Without BoA procs I'm not able to fully utilize the gear that gives stat bonus on hits > 10% of HP. The max I'm getting to is 7 stacks in single target.
This is all fairly depressing.
The changes so far have not been met with much positive feedback because they were non issues for the most part and the community was looking for more solutions based on all the lists and info given when this whole process started.
Which makes it seem like there is a disconnect between the two.
Until the points made by the community are addressed, it’s a waste of everyone’s time and money.
I’ve watched Players corral the wizard community on multiple forums to get the devs a clear list of concerns. It’s not just folks asking for Mor Powah!
Fingers crossed that the changes asked for will happen.
Frequently used:
Ray of enfeeblement thaumaturge arcanist
Entangling force thaumaturge arcanist
Repel thaumaturge arcanist
Disintegrate arcanist
Ice rays thaumaturge
Chill strike thaumaturge
Conduit of ice thaumaturge
Icy terrain thaumaturge
Shield Never - the casting animation and utility is awful it should be reverted to what it was before change
Arcane conduit Never
Lightning bolt Never
Maelstrom Never
Arcane bolt Never
Fireball Never - the casting animation is awful and the dmg
Fanning the flame Never
You can actually remove most of the skills and people will not miss them because they don't have any utility or usefulness.
> This what i can say and add if there is something to be change made better some powers are never used and some are used because they are less awful then others and some other wizards player can add.
> Frequently used:
> Ray of enfeeblement thaumaturge arcanist
> Entangling force thaumaturge arcanist
> Repel thaumaturge arcanist
> Disintegrate arcanist
> Ice rays thaumaturge
> Chill strike thaumaturge
> Conduit of ice thaumaturge
> Icy terrain thaumaturge
>
> Shield Never - the casting animation and utility is awful it should be reverted to what it was before change
> Arcane conduit Never
> Lightning bolt Never
> Maelstrom Never
> Arcane bolt Never
> Fireball Never - the casting animation is awful and the dmg
> Fanning the flame Never
>
> You can actually remove most of the skills and people will not miss them because they don't have any utility or usefulness.
I use Icy Terrain on arcanist aoe as I love the Icy Terrain, Stealth Time combo. I use Fireball on Thaumaturge, but the animation and magnitude does suck. It's fun to use, I just wish it were better.
Ray of frost magnitude increased from 55 to 60
Scorching Burst magnitude increased from 30-80 to 45-80
Chill Strike Spell mastery magnitude increased from 225 to 325
Shatter Strike: Powers with control effects now deal 250 magnitude (up from 150) against CC immune targets
Lightning Bolt Encounter: Remove it altogether or change the animation and targeting to guarantee it hits
Entangling Force: In Spell Mastery change it so it grants an additional attack where you can slam the enemy into the ground after raising them in the air.
Icey Terrain: reduce cooldown by 3 seconds
Ice Storm: Instead of the knockback effect have it freeze all enemies within its radius for 4 seconds for 650 magnitude and for cc immune targets let it do 750
Maelstrom of Chaos: Reduce the animation time and increase the area of effect. Currently the animation time is so long that by the time it hits the enemies have already moved from the location.
Imprisonment was disliked only because it didnt do any damage. All you had to do was add damage to the power and it would have been acceptable. Give us back Imprisonment as an aoe with 325 magnitude and Spell Mastery makes it ST 450 magnitude with the arcane conduit effect.
Also keep in mind that all the other classes have multiple encounters that hit for more than 500 magnitude and arcanist and thaum both barely have any. I think between the 2 paths they have 2 encounter power that are over 500 and for one of them that is only in Spell mastery slot
None of these are big changes except for Ice Storm and Imprisonment but i believe they would go a long way in making players a little bit happier with the cw.
Arcanist is dependent on Storm Spell, Thauma on Shatter Strike. Fortifying any of those does not make sense, just further twits the class and makes bad levelling experience openly intentional. (but, of course, if you nerf them, you must increase magnitudes of powers)
Most wizards are already fine with having RoE in mastery slot for single target, trying to bring other single target miracles to mastery slot is wasting of time. (and Entangling Force has already increased CC effect based on arcane stacs to some really respectable length)
My only question for now, @rgutscheradev, is what the rationale is behind the Arcane Empowerment recharge speed boost decrease? I recognise it's still powerful, but most ST Arcanist builds are only effective right now because of what this daily can do. I don't necessarily see other changes that would balance out the loss of potential damage here (again, needs some ACT testing to see the impact).
On a related topic, can we get a class reroll token? I have over 90% of the companions/mounts/artifacts in the game but they're stuck on my soon to be nerfed wizard and have no intention of getting everything on another character again
Numbers going up is not the only thing that makes powers feel more powerful. Audio and visuals have a big part in that. After all we are playing a visual game, not a text-based adventure. You said on stream that you wanted the Wizards' abilities to feel powerful. Right now, Steal Time (on live) feels very lackluster and that is because half the audio and visual effects are missing. The current visual is the player character flailing their arms, followed by light bulbs orbiting the apparently hit enemies for bit. There is not even any indication of its range. It's completely missing the shockwave circle moving outwards from the cast location, the hourglasses are invisible behind the lights, and when cast from the mastery slot, there is no audio.
Right clicking the wizard mastery slot (in order to change the slotted power) fills the list of options with the same options of whatever type of power slot you last clicked.
The top Wizard builds (which basically means the Arcane Empowerment build) are doing quite well -- competitive with the other top dps builds. We're certainly not seeing them at 30-40% below everyone else across the board.
That said, I do want to take a closer look, and to get another data pull from when the Band of Air changes have sunk in (that hurts more than just Wizard, of course, but Wizard is definitely one of the classes that can use Band of Air effectively).
As for Arcane Empowerment, you should leave it with x5 recharge bonus. We using this daily during artifact call and trying to make best use of our encounters during this limited time. This is very important. I think such change will have negative impact.
BoA single-handedly made Wizards competitive because the sheer percentage of damage BoA contributed to any build brought them closer to other classes. I'm sure that's something you considered and had ways of looking at what Wizards gained from powers minus BoA compared to other classes. That's why I'm very surprised this is your conclusion since the experience on the field doesn't match. I'm starting to get really concerned we might not see the boost many had hoped for.
Look, as a veteran tabletop player and DM, I don't care about 'balance.' A wizard/mage/sorcerer a.k.a. "Spell Chucker" is the top dog in ranged damage dealing in the Dungeons & Dragons game, only a cleric can get close hovering in with a burst of divine power. The fact that software development focus is on making classes fairly equal so new people and longtime players don't all jump to wizard class is so we can all have a go at what we like, not what is needed to have the highest DpS in the score charts.
I mentioned this in a previous post: the spell animations and sound effects, are why I am here, playing the wizard. There is no other reason for my time on Neverwinter. I am NOT an endgame participant, I simply do not have time to do the dungeons and raids with a group of dedicated people when I have so many other real-world responsibilities, nor do I wish to impose on others to help or 'carry' me through one of them just to get a tiny chance at a token or piece of gear to try and make me a little more powerful or protected. In seeing the alliance chat, it took one player 105 attempts to get all his ingredients to make this now nerfed Band of Air. I would never waste my precious time like that.
I would suggest cleaner (quicker) casting animations, the steal time, arcane empowerment waste a portion of the actual spell's effects on an animation sequence. Perhaps take a read in some AD&D novels and see that the waggling fingers, speaking of arcane phrases, briefly glowing eye color changes or a nimbus of sparkling motes around the caster's hands, maybe if the spell is an evocation, such as lightning bolts or fireballs, the energy coalesces spatially in front of the caster before streaking to the target.
Fix the targeting system too, I keep my mouse button down never letting it up at all, and use side buttons to blast my encounter powers, so I have a ray of frost streaking over a group from say right to left, unfortunately, the second one from the right that was moused over is the second target to be struck even when they have moved further away from me. I have to release the button to reacquire a closer target that is a more substantial threat to me now. The subroutine used to calculate enemy targets should consider distance and also actual threat they impose to the caster. We are playing one of the more intelligent classes, the brains for casting have to be there for a Wizard, so they are going to know what type of monster they are fighting is more of a problem and needs to be neutralized first.
I like seeing stunningly beautiful graphics displays on my high-quality gaming machine. It sports an RTX3080 and can handle lots of visual artifacts amazingly. With our current hardware technology, so many players here do have decent graphics cards in their systems. Take advantage of this and create the hallmark of the mage. Let's see some impressive casting sequences and the effects that follow on our adversaries in game.
I don't think I need to comment on any numbers, simply because you are going to do what you want to and anyone here who makes suggestions generally is ignored. I don't care if I have poor DpS. I just wish to enjoy the game for what it is, a distraction from reality.
One suggestion I do encourage is that those players who have gone the extra mile to get end game content gear/weapons, well they will have higher DpS that others in their same class who do not have that gear. Test your new changes with toons that DO NOT have any end game items equipped. This is fair and practical because as I mentioned above, not everyone is a dungeon delver or raid veteran. It lets you see what "Joe Average" can do.
Finality
The decreased recharge speed it is a very logical step given the reality of everyday gameplay.
-In reality most of us could not benefit fully from Arcane Empowerment because of server/client route.-
That is why we had false cooldowns.
And that is why some wizards outperformed others wizards in ST.
Some might not like to hear it, but is true.
We all have the same ST build since mod 16. There is no extra skill involved, is just the connection speed.
If the exploit of 2 Alliance Battlehorns ap gain use could be address will be nice too.
And if the animation would be cut in half I would be ecstatic.
.
rgutscheradev- If it was a- Courage- achievement I would vote for you to receive it. You not only took the correct step, but had the stomach to put it in reality.
Also some refused to move with the times and adjust builds/playing styles to be competitive.