If I wasn't arbitrarily limited to 1 suggestion, here are many things I would suggest. They are not oriented purely at PvE and not looking at anything related to PvP in mind.
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Arcane Stacks: Upon casting 3 encounter powers in combat, you fourth encounter power will clear up to 5 stacks of Arcane Mastery.
In exchange it will reduce any recharging encounter powers' cooldowns by 0.4 seconds per Arcane Mastery stack cleared and adds 30 magnitude damage to your next encounter power used in combat.
Reasoning:
Now, there is a purpose to accumulating your Arcane Stacks before attacking, rather than Arcane Stacks just sitting in the background doing nothing. You gather them up, then spend them on cooldown reductions.
If this sounds like the Warlock's Soul Scorch and ... you're not wrong. Warlock works as a caster because they have a way to reduce their cooldowns via Soul Scorch or the Puppet attacks.
Arcane Bolt: Arcane Bolt no longer builds up Arcane stacks. Arcane Bolt now reduces your recharging cooldowns by 0.2 seconds per hit. Reasoning:
The proposed changes to Arcane Bolt make it mechanically distinct from Magic Missile.
Magic Missile is for quickly building up Arcane Stacks and to fish for procs. Arcane Bolt is for when you have full Arcane stacks and want to reduce your cooldowns.
Lightning Bolt Fix the bugs related to its targeting on uneven terrain For every target hit by Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt will shock to 5 nearby targets (within 10' of original target). The extra shock deals for 5 magnitude damage, multiplied by the number of Arcane stacks you have.
Spell Mastery version: For every target hit by Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt will shock up to 10 nearby targets (within 10' of original target). The extra shock deals for 10 magnitude damage, multiplied by the number of Arcane stacks you have. The extra shock stuns enemies for 0.1 seconds, multiplied by the number of Arcane stacks you have.
Reasoning:
Sudden Storm, renamed to Lightning Bolt, has been bad since Mod 16.
Instead of making it a high damage, I suggest turning Lightning Bolt it into a chain lightning type effect that deals more damage based on your Arcane stacks (places importance on stacking Arcane stacks once again).
The Spell Mastery version can chain to more enemies, deals extra damage and chain stuns enemies, for that true chain lightning experience.
Steal Time (Spell Mastery version): Spell Mastery version: return the increased movespeed and guaranteed CA on targets from its pre Mod 16 iteration.
Reasoning:
Make Steal Time's mastery use distinct from other AoE spells as a sort of self buff spell (the guaranteed CA).
Assailing Force: Allow At-wills to proc Assailing Force in addition to encounters OR make Assailing Force a guaranteed proc if you hit 10 stacks of Arcane Mastery. Reasoning:
The idea behind this change is to make Assailing Force less random, by making players work for the proc.
The version that works off At-wills gives your At-wills a purpose besides using them while waiting for encounters to come off of cooldown: to fish for the Assailing Force proc.
Making Assailing Force guaranteed upon hitting 10 Arcane stacks gives additional purpose to build up Arcane stacks, rather than just letting them run in the background.
Chaos Magic: Allow at-wills to trigger the any of the buffs, but put a 10 second ICD on triggering any of the buffs.
Reasoning:
I would prefer if these buffs were more predictable and something you integrate into your gameplan (ie, things like Power Surge occurring 100% of the time after using 4 encounter powers or Quick Action always occurring after using daily attacks), but the change to make it trigger off of at-wills is (presumably) a faster change that can be implemented.
Iced Lightning: Using Storm Pillar, Lightning Bolt, Arcane Tempest, or Steal Time will clear any stacks of Chill you have on targets, but deal 40 magnitude per stack of Chill cleared, (up to 240 magnitude/6 stacks cleared). Reasoning:
Iced Lightning currently is a very very bad feat.
The proposed changes to Iced Lightning help Arcanists kill things quickly in AoE while also making the accumulation of Chill Stacks matter, besides freezing enemies and some small damage buff that runs in the background. Now, you want to build up Chill Stacks on the enemy, then use one of the listed encounter powers to detonate the stacks for some damage.
While I don't think Iced Lightning would be that useful for single target situations, players could opt to proc it with the combo of Ray of Frost and Storm Pillar while waiting for things to cooldown.
Eye of the Storm: Change effect to reduce enemy Critical Avoidance by 10%, increase duration to 7 seconds and reduce internal cooldown of 15 seconds. Reasoning:
This passive, once upon a time, used to give guaranteed Critical hits when activated.
Nowadays, nobody uses it because 10% Critical Chance for five seconds isn't worth the slot, primarily due to how short the uptime is and how poor the duration is. It also won't be used by geared players due to having more reliable sources of Critical Chance available.
So, the changes I propose address those issues.
Changing Eye of the Storm to reduce enemy Critical Avoid makes it useful no matter how geared you are. It also provides it some utility beyond increasing your damage, as decreasing enemy Critical Avoid also would help your teammates deal more damage. Increasing its duration to 7 seconds gives it just enough duration for you to fire off all your encounter powers. Changing its internal cooldown to 15 seconds gives you more times to use this proc.
Smolder Raise base damage to 100 magnitude per tick. Lower tick rate to once every 2 seconds (down from once every 3 seconds). Lower DoT duration to 8 seconds (down from 12 seconds). Every tick of Smolder lowers the cooldowns of currently recharging encounter powers by 0.2 seconds per tick.
Rimefire Smolder: Upon converting Smolder into Rimefire Smolder, immediately deal 40 magnitude damage per stack of Chill on target and instantly reduce cooldowns of currently recharging powers by 0.2 seconds times the number of Chill stacks applied to the target. (So 6x stacks of Chill -> 1.2 seconds per tick).
Reasoning:
The path seems to overestimate how hard it is to put Smolder on enemies and how useful it is. For most people, it's some small, insignificant thing that runs in the background for self buffs, not because Smolder is relevant as a mechanic.
Changing Smolder to my suggestions do the following: 100 magnitude/2 seconds tick results in a base MPS of 50, which is (mathematically) on par, if not slightly stronger than some of the stronger encounter powers Wizard has. It makes Smolder relevant while also speeding up how fast
Giving Smolder some passive cooldown reduction also helps solve a core Wizard problem: of Wizard having long cooldowns, but no ways to speed up their cooldowns.
Adding some extra effects to Rimefire Smolder to have extra effects base on Chill stacks gives it depth beyond "Smolder but you keep it up indefinitely with Chill stacks".
You can time your Rimefire conversion, mid rotation, to cooldown powers faster and add some chip damage. Or you can build up Chill Stacks on targets so your Rimfire Smolder provides better.
Chilling Cloud: Make all hits of Chilling Cloud hit in a 10' AoE. Optionally make it a universal At-will. Reasoning:
Wizard doesn't have an AoE At-will. Scorching Burst "hits" in an AoE, but I don't think any player willingly charges up Scorching Burst to full to hit multiple targets.
Changing Chilling Cloud to hit in an AoE makes it mechanically distinct from Ray of Frost as both an AoE power and an AoE chill builder. You can optionally make it a universal power so both paths have some sort of AoE At-will option.
Fireball Move to unlock at level 11 (swaps places with Fanning the Flame). Raise base damage to 350 magnitude. Raise radius to 20'. Raise base cooldown to 15 seconds. If Fireball hits a target afflicted by Smolder/Rimefire Smolder, Fireball removes Smolder/Rimefire Smolder, but leaves an area of fire (like the one on the Arbiter Cleric's feat) dealing Fire DoT is 30 magnitude per second, ticks every half second, lasts 3 seconds.
Spell Mastery version: Hits only a single target, but hits for 750 magnitude. Can still trigger the DoT if you hit a target afflicted by Smolder or Rimefire Smolder.
Reasoning:
Fireball is the most iconic spell in the book. Making it level 11 gets new players excited to pick Thaumaturge and chuck some fireballs at enemies.
I suggest raising the base damage (and slightly raising the cooldown to compensate) such that players get exited for their big, high impact fireball, rather than spamming a lower damage fireball every ~10 seconds. I suggest 15 seconds base cooldown as an inbetween for its proposed cooldown of 12 seconds and current cooldown of 18 seconds. Raise the base radius to 20' for the people that liked the spell mastery increased radius.
The DoT on Fireball also adds to Smolder doing something unique (being a damage proc you consume for some damage), rather than Smolder being some background buff for purposes of feats.
Fanning the Flame: Change to level 19 power (swaps places with Fireball). Lower base cooldown to 18 seconds (from 22). If Fanning the Flame hits a target afflicted by Smolder, immediately consumes Smolder, dealing 200 magnitude damage to all afflicted targets and daze the target for 1 second. If Fanning the Flame hits target afflicted by Rimfire Smolder, consumes all stacks of Chill and Rimefire Smolder, dealing 150 magnitude damage immediately and an additional 20 magnitude damage per stack of Chill removed.
Spell Mastery Version: Only hits 1 target. Target takes 10% more damage from magic and melee attacks. If Fanning the Flame hits a target afflicted by Smolder, immediately consumes Smolder and deals 600 magnitude damage and stuns the target for 1 second. If Fanning the Flame hits a target afflicted by Rimefire Smolder, immediately consumes all stacks of Chill and Rimefire Smolder, dealing 450 magnitude damage and deals 60 magnitude per stack of Chill removed.
Reasoning:
Fanning the Flame has been bad since Mod 16. It is supposed to be some sort of self buff for your Smolder, but given how bad Smolder is, you never use this power at the moment.
Changing FtF to immediately consume your Smolder for some extra effects damage makes Smolder more interesting as a mechanic, as some sort of finishing move, or something you consume. The regular Smolder version is for crowd control, the Rimefire Smolder version for raw damage.
The Spell Mastery version changes Fanning the Flames to work as single target attack. It isn't as strong for raw damage as, say, Fireball, but it has greater utility in the damage increasing debuff.
Icy Veins: Adds 3 stacks of Chill on target. Reasoning:
For quickly getting into fights.
Shatter Strike: Powers with control effects now deal 225 magnitude (up from 150) against CC immune targets.
Reasoning:
From Mod 16 through Mod 18, Ranger's Thorned Roots dealt 150 magnitude immediately against CC immune targets. In Mod 19, Thorned Roots was buffed to deal 225 against CC Immune targets in Mod 19.
May as well apply a similar adjustment to Thaumaturge's Shatter Strike.
Chilling Advantage: Change effect to add 10 magnitude more damage to Rimefire Smolder per stack of Chill on target.
Reasoning:
Chilling Advantage is currently a penalty.
I think that making Chilling Advantage add up to 60 more magnitude damage per tick of Smolde, if not more, should make it a decent single target alternative to Shatter Strike.
Directed Flames: Lowers base damage of Smolder & Rimefire Smolder to 80% of its normal damage per tick, but allows Smolder to trigger as fast as you can attack.
Reasoning:
Giving Directed Flames a long cooldown was a terrible idea. This change is to revert it back to its Mod 16 behavior.
Swath of Destruction - Scorching Burst now leaves a burning swath of fire for 8 seconds equal to its cast radius. Any enemy standing within the ring of fire takes 50% more damage from your fire based attacks. You may only have one Swath of Destruction active at a time. Casting a new Swath of Destruction will remove any existing Swath of Destruction.
Weapon and Armor enchantments, if fire based, would be included.
I think an across the board magnitude adjustment for the wizard is needed. All other dps classes that I play have two low magnitude At-will powers and two higher magnitude At-will powers.
At-will power numbers. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, Placement of at-will in character sheet left to right. Number after is the magnitude of the at-will power in that position at this time.
I understand that the wizard is like the cleric where if you build stacks, things are suppose to hit harder. But the indicator for those stacks is tiny balls around the orb and is not easily visible while in a fight. I would say that a more static gauge on screen like many other classes have, might be a fix for players to know they need to build stacks to use.
Encounter powers are much the same. 1st, 2nd, ect, then magnitude. Mech is for Mechanics of that class.
You know what? I've been here since beta but only have a single endgame toon, my wizard. I've always known we had lower magnitudes. I just never realized just how big the differences are. I never actually looked.
Now seeing this list right in front of me makes me a little angry. This is ridiculous. We are significantly underpowered. Our highest magnitude power is less than half that of other classes and is only that strong when the enemy is half dead. On top of this, every one of our dailies takes 100% of our AP while other classes dailies only use 25% giving them an advantage using items/abilities that are triggered by dailies.
It is only player skill that keeps this class alive.
you can't compare performance of a class by magnitudes only, there are several factors that bring the damage output of a class, such as feats, class features, class mechanics and combos, of course each class needs to have its magnitude appropriate to the type of game it owns, just scaling up to be equal to other classes would put the wizard above the curve and we don't want that. I'm main Warlock and I play wizard sometimes, my warlock has a consistent damage and you can see that the skill magnitudes are not high, being below the wizard magnitudes mostly, which makes my best ST rotation is using AoE skills which in fact is somewhat inconsistent, however, the cooldown reduction mechanics of skills makes me use skills more often which helps to balance the final damage output. despite knowing that there are classes above in dps such as the ranger, the fact is that it's not just the magnitudes that matter, the real balance has to be seen in a macro way, and that's why I made a comment talking about mine point of view on this macro view on class change. finally I would like to resolve that the issue of classes that use 25% of the daily applies only to the ranger, so it's not as if the wizard is the only one affected with this issue of not being able to activate passives with dailys frequently, even this is a The ranger's motives are on top of the curve, due to the arcturia music box set, but that's another discourse.
- ALQUImist-WL@alquimistgg#0914
5
micky1p00Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,594Arc User
I think an across the board magnitude adjustment for the wizard is needed. All other dps classes that I play have two low magnitude At-will powers and two higher magnitude At-will powers.
At-will power numbers. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, Placement of at-will in character sheet left to right. Number after is the magnitude of the at-will power in that position at this time.
I understand that the wizard is like the cleric where if you build stacks, things are suppose to hit harder. But the indicator for those stacks is tiny balls around the orb and is not easily visible while in a fight. I would say that a more static gauge on screen like many other classes have, might be a fix for players to know they need to build stacks to use.
Encounter powers are much the same. 1st, 2nd, ect, then magnitude. Mech is for Mechanics of that class.
If you want an actual comparison, even without taking into account the procs, you need to divide by the cast time, or in case of encounters by cast time + cooldown (iirc damage activated after cast time here too).
@armadeonx (and everyone else commenting on the bugs) I would be more in favor of the devs removing and replacing long-term buggy mechanics. Many times these bugs are deeply rooted and very difficult to squash, wasting precious time that may be devoted elsewhere.
In the short term, buff encounter AoE magnitudes for better AoE burst to align with other classes. Cast time for AoE needs to be much quicker than for single target. Buffing AoE will also improve leveling. For single target encounters, keep magnitudes the same but lower cooldowns.
In the long term, replace buggy feats and class features with brand new mechanics. As I said in one of my previous posts, I would like to see AoE elemental combo mechanics able to be executed quickly (i.e. short cast times) that result in additional magnitude damage. For example, cold+fire wave explosions, arcane+lightning electric chains, cold+lighting ice shatters, etc. These classes really do need to be more engaing and fun to play.
The number of new suggestions has tapered off at this point. Closing the thread and we will have some updates to powers in the works for future patches.
Comments
They are not oriented purely at PvE and not looking at anything related to PvP in mind.
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Arcane Stacks: Upon casting 3 encounter powers in combat, you fourth encounter power will clear up to 5 stacks of Arcane Mastery.
In exchange it will reduce any recharging encounter powers' cooldowns by 0.4 seconds per Arcane Mastery stack cleared and adds 30 magnitude damage to your next encounter power used in combat.
Reasoning:
Now, there is a purpose to accumulating your Arcane Stacks before attacking, rather than Arcane Stacks just sitting in the background doing nothing. You gather them up, then spend them on cooldown reductions.
If this sounds like the Warlock's Soul Scorch and ... you're not wrong. Warlock works as a caster because they have a way to reduce their cooldowns via Soul Scorch or the Puppet attacks.
Arcane Bolt:
Arcane Bolt no longer builds up Arcane stacks.
Arcane Bolt now reduces your recharging cooldowns by 0.2 seconds per hit.
Reasoning:
The proposed changes to Arcane Bolt make it mechanically distinct from Magic Missile.
Magic Missile is for quickly building up Arcane Stacks and to fish for procs.
Arcane Bolt is for when you have full Arcane stacks and want to reduce your cooldowns.
Lightning Bolt
Fix the bugs related to its targeting on uneven terrain
For every target hit by Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt will shock to 5 nearby targets (within 10' of original target).
The extra shock deals for 5 magnitude damage, multiplied by the number of Arcane stacks you have.
Spell Mastery version:
For every target hit by Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt will shock up to 10 nearby targets (within 10' of original target).
The extra shock deals for 10 magnitude damage, multiplied by the number of Arcane stacks you have.
The extra shock stuns enemies for 0.1 seconds, multiplied by the number of Arcane stacks you have.
Reasoning:
Sudden Storm, renamed to Lightning Bolt, has been bad since Mod 16.
Instead of making it a high damage, I suggest turning Lightning Bolt it into a chain lightning type effect that deals more damage based on your Arcane stacks (places importance on stacking Arcane stacks once again).
The Spell Mastery version can chain to more enemies, deals extra damage and chain stuns enemies, for that true chain lightning experience.
Steal Time (Spell Mastery version):
Spell Mastery version: return the increased movespeed and guaranteed CA on targets from its pre Mod 16 iteration.
Reasoning:
Make Steal Time's mastery use distinct from other AoE spells as a sort of self buff spell (the guaranteed CA).
Assailing Force: Allow At-wills to proc Assailing Force in addition to encounters OR make Assailing Force a guaranteed proc if you hit 10 stacks of Arcane Mastery.
Reasoning:
The idea behind this change is to make Assailing Force less random, by making players work for the proc.
The version that works off At-wills gives your At-wills a purpose besides using them while waiting for encounters to come off of cooldown: to fish for the Assailing Force proc.
Making Assailing Force guaranteed upon hitting 10 Arcane stacks gives additional purpose to build up Arcane stacks, rather than just letting them run in the background.
Chaos Magic:
Allow at-wills to trigger the any of the buffs, but put a 10 second ICD on triggering any of the buffs.
Reasoning:
I would prefer if these buffs were more predictable and something you integrate into your gameplan (ie, things like Power Surge occurring 100% of the time after using 4 encounter powers or Quick Action always occurring after using daily attacks), but the change to make it trigger off of at-wills is (presumably) a faster change that can be implemented.
Iced Lightning: Using Storm Pillar, Lightning Bolt, Arcane Tempest, or Steal Time will clear any stacks of Chill you have on targets, but deal 40 magnitude per stack of Chill cleared, (up to 240 magnitude/6 stacks cleared).
Reasoning:
Iced Lightning currently is a very very bad feat.
The proposed changes to Iced Lightning help Arcanists kill things quickly in AoE while also making the accumulation of Chill Stacks matter, besides freezing enemies and some small damage buff that runs in the background. Now, you want to build up Chill Stacks on the enemy, then use one of the listed encounter powers to detonate the stacks for some damage.
While I don't think Iced Lightning would be that useful for single target situations, players could opt to proc it with the combo of Ray of Frost and Storm Pillar while waiting for things to cooldown.
Eye of the Storm: Change effect to reduce enemy Critical Avoidance by 10%, increase duration to 7 seconds and reduce internal cooldown of 15 seconds.
Reasoning:
This passive, once upon a time, used to give guaranteed Critical hits when activated.
Nowadays, nobody uses it because 10% Critical Chance for five seconds isn't worth the slot, primarily due to how short the uptime is and how poor the duration is. It also won't be used by geared players due to having more reliable sources of Critical Chance available.
So, the changes I propose address those issues.
Changing Eye of the Storm to reduce enemy Critical Avoid makes it useful no matter how geared you are. It also provides it some utility beyond increasing your damage, as decreasing enemy Critical Avoid also would help your teammates deal more damage.
Increasing its duration to 7 seconds gives it just enough duration for you to fire off all your encounter powers.
Changing its internal cooldown to 15 seconds gives you more times to use this proc.
Smolder
Raise base damage to 100 magnitude per tick.
Lower tick rate to once every 2 seconds (down from once every 3 seconds).
Lower DoT duration to 8 seconds (down from 12 seconds).
Every tick of Smolder lowers the cooldowns of currently recharging encounter powers by 0.2 seconds per tick.
Rimefire Smolder:
Upon converting Smolder into Rimefire Smolder, immediately deal 40 magnitude damage per stack of Chill on target and instantly reduce cooldowns of currently recharging powers by 0.2 seconds times the number of Chill stacks applied to the target. (So 6x stacks of Chill -> 1.2 seconds per tick).
Reasoning:
The path seems to overestimate how hard it is to put Smolder on enemies and how useful it is.
For most people, it's some small, insignificant thing that runs in the background for self buffs, not because Smolder is relevant as a mechanic.
Changing Smolder to my suggestions do the following:
100 magnitude/2 seconds tick results in a base MPS of 50, which is (mathematically) on par, if not slightly stronger than some of the stronger encounter powers Wizard has. It makes Smolder relevant while also speeding up how fast
Giving Smolder some passive cooldown reduction also helps solve a core Wizard problem: of Wizard having long cooldowns, but no ways to speed up their cooldowns.
Adding some extra effects to Rimefire Smolder to have extra effects base on Chill stacks gives it depth beyond "Smolder but you keep it up indefinitely with Chill stacks".
You can time your Rimefire conversion, mid rotation, to cooldown powers faster and add some chip damage.
Or you can build up Chill Stacks on targets so your Rimfire Smolder provides better.
Chilling Cloud: Make all hits of Chilling Cloud hit in a 10' AoE.
Optionally make it a universal At-will.
Reasoning:
Wizard doesn't have an AoE At-will.
Scorching Burst "hits" in an AoE, but I don't think any player willingly charges up Scorching Burst to full to hit multiple targets.
Changing Chilling Cloud to hit in an AoE makes it mechanically distinct from Ray of Frost as both an AoE power and an AoE chill builder. You can optionally make it a universal power so both paths have some sort of AoE At-will option.
Fireball
Move to unlock at level 11 (swaps places with Fanning the Flame).
Raise base damage to 350 magnitude.
Raise radius to 20'.
Raise base cooldown to 15 seconds.
If Fireball hits a target afflicted by Smolder/Rimefire Smolder, Fireball removes Smolder/Rimefire Smolder, but leaves an area of fire (like the one on the Arbiter Cleric's feat) dealing
Fire DoT is 30 magnitude per second, ticks every half second, lasts 3 seconds.
Spell Mastery version:
Hits only a single target, but hits for 750 magnitude.
Can still trigger the DoT if you hit a target afflicted by Smolder or Rimefire Smolder.
Reasoning:
Fireball is the most iconic spell in the book. Making it level 11 gets new players excited to pick Thaumaturge and chuck some fireballs at enemies.
I suggest raising the base damage (and slightly raising the cooldown to compensate) such that players get exited for their big, high impact fireball, rather than spamming a lower damage fireball every ~10 seconds.
I suggest 15 seconds base cooldown as an inbetween for its proposed cooldown of 12 seconds and current cooldown of 18 seconds.
Raise the base radius to 20' for the people that liked the spell mastery increased radius.
The DoT on Fireball also adds to Smolder doing something unique (being a damage proc you consume for some damage), rather than Smolder being some background buff for purposes of feats.
Fanning the Flame:
Change to level 19 power (swaps places with Fireball).
Lower base cooldown to 18 seconds (from 22).
If Fanning the Flame hits a target afflicted by Smolder, immediately consumes Smolder, dealing 200 magnitude damage to all afflicted targets and daze the target for 1 second.
If Fanning the Flame hits target afflicted by Rimfire Smolder, consumes all stacks of Chill and Rimefire Smolder, dealing 150 magnitude damage immediately and an additional 20 magnitude damage per stack of Chill removed.
Spell Mastery Version:
Only hits 1 target.
Target takes 10% more damage from magic and melee attacks.
If Fanning the Flame hits a target afflicted by Smolder, immediately consumes Smolder and deals 600 magnitude damage and stuns the target for 1 second.
If Fanning the Flame hits a target afflicted by Rimefire Smolder, immediately consumes all stacks of Chill and Rimefire Smolder, dealing 450 magnitude damage and deals 60 magnitude per stack of Chill removed.
Reasoning:
Fanning the Flame has been bad since Mod 16.
It is supposed to be some sort of self buff for your Smolder, but given how bad Smolder is, you never use this power at the moment.
Changing FtF to immediately consume your Smolder for some extra effects damage makes Smolder more interesting as a mechanic, as some sort of finishing move, or something you consume.
The regular Smolder version is for crowd control, the Rimefire Smolder version for raw damage.
The Spell Mastery version changes Fanning the Flames to work as single target attack.
It isn't as strong for raw damage as, say, Fireball, but it has greater utility in the damage increasing debuff.
Icy Veins: Adds 3 stacks of Chill on target.
Reasoning:
For quickly getting into fights.
Shatter Strike: Powers with control effects now deal 225 magnitude (up from 150) against CC immune targets.
Reasoning:
From Mod 16 through Mod 18, Ranger's Thorned Roots dealt 150 magnitude immediately against CC immune targets.
In Mod 19, Thorned Roots was buffed to deal 225 against CC Immune targets in Mod 19.
May as well apply a similar adjustment to Thaumaturge's Shatter Strike.
Chilling Advantage:
Change effect to add 10 magnitude more damage to Rimefire Smolder per stack of Chill on target.
Reasoning:
Chilling Advantage is currently a penalty.
I think that making Chilling Advantage add up to 60 more magnitude damage per tick of Smolde, if not more, should make it a decent single target alternative to Shatter Strike.
Directed Flames: Lowers base damage of Smolder & Rimefire Smolder to 80% of its normal damage per tick, but allows Smolder to trigger as fast as you can attack.
Reasoning:
Giving Directed Flames a long cooldown was a terrible idea.
This change is to revert it back to its Mod 16 behavior.
Swath of Destruction
- Scorching Burst now leaves a burning swath of fire for 8 seconds equal to its cast radius. Any enemy standing within the ring of fire takes 50% more damage from your fire based attacks. You may only have one Swath of Destruction active at a time. Casting a new Swath of Destruction will remove any existing Swath of Destruction.
Weapon and Armor enchantments, if fire based, would be included.
You should end up with magnitude per second.
In the short term, buff encounter AoE magnitudes for better AoE burst to align with other classes. Cast time for AoE needs to be much quicker than for single target. Buffing AoE will also improve leveling. For single target encounters, keep magnitudes the same but lower cooldowns.
In the long term, replace buggy feats and class features with brand new mechanics. As I said in one of my previous posts, I would like to see AoE elemental combo mechanics able to be executed quickly (i.e. short cast times) that result in additional magnitude damage. For example, cold+fire wave explosions, arcane+lightning electric chains, cold+lighting ice shatters, etc.
These classes really do need to be more engaing and fun to play.
Thank you for the discussions and write ups.