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Thread: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

  1. #1

    Default Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    This is based upon discussions on Chaos earlier in the week. The discussion centered around BattleMage and ChaosWarrior. What I wanted to do was ask a few questions about BattleMage and get feedback before moving further.

    When looking at BattleMage I don't really see it as having much of a true role. It seems like a cobbled together school with no central purpose.

    1. Do you see BattleMage as a Melee school with Magic support? Or a Magic school with Melee support?

    2. Are any abilities or lines for BattleMage entirely busted or useless?

    3. What would you improve, if anything?
    "Alea iacta est" -- Julius Caesar

    Toot shouted, voice shrill, "In the name of the Pizza Lord! Charge!" (Jim Butcher's Dresden Files)

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spends it whole life believing that it is stupid." -- Albert Einstein

  2. #2

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    1. Melee with magic support. It feels like a school that is most benefited by time with other classes to build onto it.
    2. Battle mage seems to be more flame focused yet magus style changes damage to energy.
    3. I would change magus to do a flame damage style.

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    Personally i'd drop armour in this school to Leather.
    Never seemed right that you could 'get the best of both worlds'

    With new xstals, non spell heals and buffs you could effectivley be just a mage that's wearing Platemail.
    This school could ever so easily become 'over-powered'.

    A tricky school to mess with to be sure ;)

  4. #4

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    Quote Originally Posted by AmonGwareth View Post
    When looking at BattleMage I don't really see it as having much of a true role. It seems like a cobbled together school with no central purpose.
    I would agree their role is a little confusing. I guess the question really becomes: Do all of the classes need a single well-defined role? Is it possible to create hybrid style classes and not have them gimped or overpowered compared to more focused schools?
    1. Do you see BattleMage as a Melee school with Magic support? Or a Magic school with Melee support?
    Going off the abilities, sort of a defensive melee school with magic support. Although you could argue that their stat gains potentially make them equal in both aspects.
    2. Are any abilities or lines for BattleMage entirely busted or useless?
    Not speaking from any direct experience, but to my knowledge they all work as intended. Shimmer field is a little weak. I get why Magus style converts to energy dmg (it procs a stun), yet the school gets a passive flame boost so it does seem a little odd to just throw energy in there. At face value it would seem more fitting for Chaos warrior.
    3. What would you improve, if anything?
    I think of all the mage-melee prestiges, it has the most potential to actually use both spells and melee successfully. Chaos War and Knoc really get pigeon holed into melee due to lack of spells and supporting abilities/stats. I would consider modeling their stat/skill gains around what KNOCs get. BattleMage needs at least one skill to hit the high tier 5 levels w/o talent points.

    All answers assuming a single or very lightly multiclassed character.
    torvos: shadow to chaos shard

  5. #5

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    Quote Originally Posted by AmonGwareth View Post
    When looking at BattleMage I don't really see it as having much of a true role. It seems like a cobbled together school with no central purpose.
    With my Sslik, I enjoy it the way it is currently, but I admit it may be because of heavy multiclassing.

    Quote Originally Posted by AmonGwareth View Post
    1. Do you see BattleMage as a Melee school with Magic support? Or a Magic school with Melee support?
    At least, I use it more as Magic school with Melee support.


    Quote Originally Posted by AmonGwareth View Post
    2. Are any abilities or lines for BattleMage entirely busted or useless?
    With Melee aspect, Blazing Strike lacks of strenght. I find it less useful than the Power Strike of Warrior school with the same recycle time. Otherwise, it's fine to me.


    Quote Originally Posted by AmonGwareth View Post
    3. What would you improve, if anything?
    Well, Blazing Strike ability: either buff it a bit or reduce its recycle.
    Firebrandcrest Arma: Ancient Helian Dragon | Dragon 100 / Dragon Crafter 100 / Dragon Lairshaper 100 / Dragon Crystalshaper 100 (Order) | My MODs: Zexoin's and Firebrand's Sound Emotes Pack v2.5.4.0, Alternate Dragon Bolt Casting v1.4, Old Istarian Ambiance v1.0.8.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    With Melee aspect, Blazing Strike lacks of strenght. I find it less useful than the Power Strike of Warrior school with the same recycle time. Otherwise, it's fine to me.
    Curious about this. Yes, it does less direct damage than Power Strike, but it should hit the target for additional Flame Damage. For example, Blazing Strike I does 5-10 extra flame damage on top of the regular attack.

    Not speaking from any direct experience, but to my knowledge they all work as intended. Shimmer field is a little weak. I get why Magus style converts to energy dmg (it procs a stun), yet the school gets a passive flame boost so it does seem a little odd to just throw energy in there. At face value it would seem more fitting for Chaos warrior.


    The school does get 8 points of Energy per level so it doesn't seem that out of place.
    Last edited by AmonGwareth; May 23rd, 2013 at 03:19 PM.
    "Alea iacta est" -- Julius Caesar

    Toot shouted, voice shrill, "In the name of the Pizza Lord! Charge!" (Jim Butcher's Dresden Files)

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spends it whole life believing that it is stupid." -- Albert Einstein

  7. #7

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    Battlemage is a really nice class, but only with heavy multiclassing. He needs mage/wizzard/conjurer to be effective as a mage, cleric for heals/buffs and a melee class (warrior, but also knoc/reaver) to improve hit points and weapon skills.
    Else, with only 8 points/level in his skills, it is rather mediocre.

    1. To put it genly, battlemage is rather crap with melee. He has too few melee abilities - if he doesn't use spells he will rely to autoattack most of the time.
    Anyways, he makes up for it with his ability to cast all arcane spell - if he has the needed skills in ice/flame/energy/summoning from multiclassing.
    So to conclude - to me he's a plated mage with good defenses (shimmering field and reflect attack)

    2 Blazing Strike sharing timer with Coordinated Strike and Cleave. Also Fiery Judge sharing timer with Multistrike. This doesn't improve his puny melee abilities at all. Those two abilities on their own timer would help quite a bit.
    Shimmering Field sharing timer with Magus Style. Their 30 minutes recycle kinda ads a new level to the insult.

    3. Timer on Shimmering Field and Magus Style - both with 30 minutes recycle with 20 minutes duration. If you cast any of them then die, you're toasted since you have one on full recyle and the other on half of it - aka none of them useable.
    Timer on Coordinated Flame Bolt, 3 minutes recycle with only 30 second of effect seems too much. I noticed all coordinated bolts are on the same 3 minutes timer - shouldn't they be on 1.30 minutes recycle with 30 seconds effect as the coordinated strike?
    Timer on Fiery Judge - 5 minutes. It is rather high to be honest. It could be improved to 2 minutes - 3 minutes tops.

    I played BattleMage quite a lot, admittedly only at endgame vs tiers 5/6 mobs - but i rarely used its melee abilities. I relied only on spell-casting and using his defensive abilities.

    PS> The thing that irritates me the most is not really BattleMage related, but it relates to all Arcane Classes - They're inability to use Enhances and Resurrect. Raises are pathetic - they are 4 times weaker than enhances (half effect and half duration).

    PS2> If improving any of his melee abilities would mean to diminish his mage effectiveness - then i rather have him untouched. We have enough melee classes that can augment their melee abilities with magic (knoc, chsw, reaver, guardian). Battlemage is pretty unique and I'd rather have him this way.
    Last edited by Northwind; May 23rd, 2013 at 08:35 PM.
    Northwind * Ancient, Crafter, Lairshaper * 100/100/100
    Northpole * Spoiled biped * 100 BTLM, 100 CLRC, 100 RVR, 100 RNGR, 100 MAGE, 100 WIZ, 100 SORC, 100 CONJ, 100 SPRT, 100 DRU, 100 HLR, 100 GRDN, 100 MON, 60 WAR, 44 BRSK/SPRM, 40 CHSW * 100 BLK, 100 OUT, 100 JWL, 100 ARM, 100 WPN, 100 FLE, 100 FIT, 100 MSN, 100 SCH, 87 SPL, 85 GTH, 85 MIN

  8. #8

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    To me a battlemage is an armoured mage with a few melee abilities (meaning I use spells most of the time. Most of their skills come in the form of defensive play. Personally I would like to see some small enhancement to this. Perhaps as an idea allow us to gain the shield bonus knocks and spearmen get.

    As for magus style energy damage makes sense though I would like the timer separated from shimmering field an/or the timer reduced for both.
    Last edited by Calyndrell; May 23rd, 2013 at 10:31 PM. Reason: forgot somethit

  9. #9

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    BTLM has high potential, but only with the proper perquisite classes. Without WAR and MAGE at a minimum, you're looking at one gimped char. WAR gives you the proper melee base and MAGE gives you flame. CONJ for MultiCast II. You can include MONK for evasion and SPRM or KNOC for block bonus. All of these chars to really get your BTLM at peak baseline, you're looking at 100 WAR, 100 MAGE, 100 MONK, 90 CONJ, 44 SPRM, and then say current BTLM at 100 gives you a rough rating of 141. Not too shabby, but look at how much rating you're sacrificing for this class alone, not including any revitalize heals or augmentations. Prestige schools are a tricky trap of rating vs min/max your arsenal.

    Skill wise I'm thinking it would be nice to have Energy Sabre I on a separate timer, but that's about it. Magus Style is nice, when it procs, but is not a deal breaker. Shimmerfield is beefy as is, and we're only talking II, masterable at 88.

    Edit: I see BTLM as any hybrid of melee or magic. It's really hard to introduce any unique abilities with WAR and MAGE as your backbone. I would be inclined to say it's more magic oriented simply because of flame potency vs melee wacking. Melee is just as viable though. It's situational.
    Last edited by Dracillion; May 23rd, 2013 at 10:52 PM.
    rip

  10. #10

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    Now having been experimenting with battlemage for quite a long time now I have come to a couple of simple suggestions to perhaps boost the Battlemage.

    If I am comparing it to other armoured mage classes whilst the other classes greatly outstrip the battlemages melee ability I never noticed a massive different in the magic ability (although this may also be partly due to having already mastered Conjuror so I have MCII mastered). my first suggestion was to consider saying give the Battlemage Multicast III but upon consideration that would make it superior to several of the "pure mage" classes. so considering where its backbone stems from my suggestions are as follows.

    Separate Fiery Judge and critical strike's Timers.
    Separate shimmering field from Magus style.
    regarding magus style. increase the stun on it to be inline with the relevant tier Spell tech : Stun (yes I mean introduce Magus style III and IV)
    Allow battlemages to use mages maddening trick and Burnout however limit both to II so that they don't outshine mages.
    Flurry of fire - Flurry version for spells (thinking specifically Flame Repeater)(I honestly don't expect that one)
    And expand on the Energy Spell pool... although this isn't purely battlemage school I still think it would be nice after all it only has a bolt, E strike and E bomb.. how about a DoT? and or an Epic spell DoT (afterall there aren't any of these yet).

    just my two cent.
    Last edited by Calyndrell; June 3rd, 2013 at 10:41 PM.

  11. #11

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    why take plate and chain from battle mage? what are you going to give them in return? what nothing... just a knee jerk reaction about something that doesnt need to be changed? thought so.

  12. #12

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    Quote Originally Posted by Sindala View Post
    Personally i'd drop armour in this school to Leather.
    Never seemed right that you could 'get the best of both worlds'

    With new xstals, non spell heals and buffs you could effectivley be just a mage that's wearing Platemail.
    This school could ever so easily become 'over-powered'.

    A tricky school to mess with to be sure ;)
    I am sorry but i have to seriously disagree with you entirely about the school becoming overpowered just because of armor and even a battle mage pulling too much agro can easiliy become overwhelmed. I am completely against taking away a battlemages ability to wear platemail armor and always will be

  13. #13

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    * Battlemages can no longer wear chain or platemail

    This thread had a nice boomerang effect, with the mention that the boomerang missed its target entirely, returned back and killed the thrower.
    Northwind * Ancient, Crafter, Lairshaper * 100/100/100
    Northpole * Spoiled biped * 100 BTLM, 100 CLRC, 100 RVR, 100 RNGR, 100 MAGE, 100 WIZ, 100 SORC, 100 CONJ, 100 SPRT, 100 DRU, 100 HLR, 100 GRDN, 100 MON, 60 WAR, 44 BRSK/SPRM, 40 CHSW * 100 BLK, 100 OUT, 100 JWL, 100 ARM, 100 WPN, 100 FLE, 100 FIT, 100 MSN, 100 SCH, 87 SPL, 85 GTH, 85 MIN

  14. #14

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    This change was not meant to go live without other supporting changes to the Battlemage school and I'm working with the tech team to create a hotfix today that will restore the capability of Battlemages to wear plate and chain. Apologize for the inconvenience.
    "Alea iacta est" -- Julius Caesar

    Toot shouted, voice shrill, "In the name of the Pizza Lord! Charge!" (Jim Butcher's Dresden Files)

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spends it whole life believing that it is stupid." -- Albert Einstein

  15. #15

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    While it seems human error occurred, there is no way battlemage could ever benefit from having their armor reduced so significantly. Putting aside the immense inconvenience by having to create a whole new armor set before such a change were to go live, you would have to offer up a new multi-cast with a very short timer to alleviate the massive armor reduction (or some other such wildly ludicrous suggestion).
    Last edited by Velea; June 6th, 2013 at 12:48 PM. Reason: profanity clean up
    --- iuvenilis --- [Officer of The Alliance]
    Demonslaying since July 2004

  16. #16

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    Battlemage is (was?) a fine class as it is. The only thing that could be improved, in my opinion, is to work on its timed abilities and put (some of) them on separate timers.
    I honestly cannot see what they could get as a compensation for losing their core ability: being able to wear plate armor.
    Northwind * Ancient, Crafter, Lairshaper * 100/100/100
    Northpole * Spoiled biped * 100 BTLM, 100 CLRC, 100 RVR, 100 RNGR, 100 MAGE, 100 WIZ, 100 SORC, 100 CONJ, 100 SPRT, 100 DRU, 100 HLR, 100 GRDN, 100 MON, 60 WAR, 44 BRSK/SPRM, 40 CHSW * 100 BLK, 100 OUT, 100 JWL, 100 ARM, 100 WPN, 100 FLE, 100 FIT, 100 MSN, 100 SCH, 87 SPL, 85 GTH, 85 MIN

  17. #17

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    Nothing will be gained at all by that would compensate the loss of platemail. The class itself was perfectly fine as it was so in my feelings there is no reason to really even touch this school like it has been. I can accept the change of some abilites of that school getting seperate timers.
    Last edited by starlight; June 6th, 2013 at 03:19 PM. Reason: Different wording choices

  18. #18

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    Hotfix restoring armor to Battlemages is now on Blight.
    "Alea iacta est" -- Julius Caesar

    Toot shouted, voice shrill, "In the name of the Pizza Lord! Charge!" (Jim Butcher's Dresden Files)

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spends it whole life believing that it is stupid." -- Albert Einstein

  19. #19

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    Thank you for understand and restoring platemail to battle mage

  20. #20

    Default Re: Talk to the Team: BattleMage

    Quote Originally Posted by Northwind View Post
    Battlemage is (was?) a fine class as it is. The only thing that could be improved, in my opinion, is to work on its timed abilities and put (some of) them on separate timers.
    I honestly cannot see what they could get as a compensation for losing their core ability: being able to wear plate armor.
    This seems reasonable. Class was fine with armor as it was. They are fixing it.

    The shared timers thing affects many classes. Maybe 50% shared, example 1 ability is 2 minutes, 50% shared timer with a 1 minute ability, player uses the 2 minute ability, the 1 minute abilities recycle is set back only 30 seconds. Basically the same idea as the epic spells. Probably be easier if abilities with shared timers also has the same recycle time instead of different.

    100% shared timer is yuck.

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