Wizard rework - Phoenix Freeshard

After seeing a post about earth wizard I got reminded of some things I have been thinking about since I made a wizard.

For starters, I'm grateful that the devs took a look at earth line and made it viable in RvR, sadly they might have overdone it a bit and now it's too powerful compared to the other 2 specs. Self debuff damage, dots, AE dot, nearsight, AE snare nuke, bolt, GTAE nuke and what not.

My suggestion is to move around a bit to make the 3 trees more equal in lvl 50 RvR and to fill different roles.

1) Earth tree
Remove AE dot
Remove AE snare nuke
Add single dot with slightly higher value in place of AE dot
Add ground target unbreakable snare instead of snare nuke (similar to Bone dancers)
Add purple con GTAE damage spell
(These changes make the earth spec still very viable for single dps with self debuff but less of a force in engaged RvR zerg combat, with the GTAE snare and GTAE damage they can be truly terrifying in keep and milegate fights, it also feels more in line with controlling the earth)

2) Fire tree
Add AE dot throughout the spec tree
(Setting a lot of people on fire should be the main aspect of this tree and with a stronger AE presence in engaged RvR zerg combat they can be a more reliable force)

3) Ice tree
Add AE snare nuke throughout the spec tree
(Lacking a way to be useful at range in AE combat the ice wizard could make use of the snare nuke now in earth tree, it's also more in line with freezing people)

Best regards,

Wed 17 Apr 2019 11:30 AM by jelzinga_EU

I think you're right that Earth is way too strong currently. I'm uncertain about the changes you propose - as I do not play a wizard. What I do know:

* Current Earth DoT-damage is already borderline OP (currently it is possible to die from 1 AoE-DoT as an assassin with 1750+ hp - let alone if you're an enemy caster or if the wizard would use the resist-debuff) - I do not think it is wise to increase delve even more. To add some insight -> I have died from just 1 AoE-DoT which had a hefty crit which was casted on someone near me while I was stealthed, that is just absolutely out of control and should not happen.

* You mention GT-AoE unbreakable snare similar to BD. The BD one is channeled (focussed) and I do not know if a focussed / channeled GT-AoE is the way-to-go ; that seems very OP that a single-wizard can slow down a choke-point safely out of LoS (e.g. milegates/keepfights)

Wed 17 Apr 2019 12:15 PM by Zzang

jelzinga_EU wrote: ↑
Wed 17 Apr 2019 11:30 AM
I think you're right that Earth is way too strong currently. I'm uncertain about the changes you propose - as I do not play a wizard. What I do know:

* Current Earth DoT-damage is already borderline OP (currently it is possible to die from 1 AoE-DoT as an assassin with 1750+ hp - let alone if you're an enemy caster or if the wizard would use the resist-debuff) - I do not think it is wise to increase delve even more. To add some insight -> I have died from just 1 AoE-DoT which had a hefty crit which was casted on someone near me while I was stealthed, that is just absolutely out of control and should not happen.

* You mention GT-AoE unbreakable snare similar to BD. The BD one is channeled (focussed) and I do not know if a focussed / channeled GT-AoE is the way-to-go ; that seems very OP that a single-wizard can slow down a choke-point safely out of LoS (e.g. milegates/keepfights)

I can agree to that DoT damage is a real pain in the ass when soloing and the AE dot value is maybe already high enough, didn't consider crit damage as well. Keeping the same delve could be fair, especially as you would probably debuff when doing it on a single target.

Yes, it is a very powerful ability and perhaps it might prove too powerful when you can cast it out of sight. An option would be to put it on cooldown like the GTAE damage spell and make it drain power REALLY fast, something like 2 mins recast timer and a maximum of 30 seconds channeling before going out of power maybe.

Edit: My hope as I have suggested previously is to make all Ground Target spells require line of sight, this would make it less OP as well.

Wed 17 Apr 2019 2:05 PM by teiloh

Wiz AOE dot does about the same damage as any other AOE dot unless they single you out with a debuff

Fri 19 Apr 2019 6:16 PM by jelzinga_EU

teiloh wrote: ↑
Wed 17 Apr 2019 2:05 PM
Wiz AOE dot does about the same damage as any other AOE dot unless they single you out with a debuff

Yes - you're right - except the other classes who AoE DoT you don't see in RvR because their lines aren't very good in RvR. Earth is very packed with abilities and is now the goto-line for a wizard.

Maybe a mana menta or matter cabby or bone-army BD can dish out same damage + ticks - but I rarely see those in RvR as they are mostly PvE-chars. In any case, I don't think it is balanced 1 cast of AoE-DoT can kill fully templated chars as the DoT with crit ticks for obscene amounts.

Fri 19 Apr 2019 6:27 PM by Zzang

Especially in the current meta AoE-Dot is a very strong spell since so many "normal" fights are one-sided and people are either fleeing, chasing or camping a milegate. In normal fights between balanced groups with healers a dot spell makes very little difference, if you however hit someone in a small man or solo it can make a huge impact.

I currently think earth wizard is too strong, not only compared to the other wizard specs but also compared to the other realm counterparts.

Fri 19 Apr 2019 6:56 PM by teiloh

jelzinga_EU wrote: ↑
Fri 19 Apr 2019 6:16 PM
teiloh wrote: ↑
Wed 17 Apr 2019 2:05 PM
Wiz AOE dot does about the same damage as any other AOE dot unless they single you out with a debuff

Yes - you're right - except the other classes who AoE DoT you don't see in RvR because their lines aren't very good in RvR. Earth is very packed with abilities and is now the goto-line for a wizard.

Maybe a mana menta or matter cabby or bone-army BD can dish out same damage + ticks - but I rarely see those in RvR as they are mostly PvE-chars. In any case, I don't think it is balanced 1 cast of AoE-DoT can kill fully templated chars as the DoT with crit ticks for obscene amounts.

You will have to use a heal pot in that case. The Wizard not only has to crit, but get a high crit, which is quite rare.

Sat 20 Apr 2019 4:56 AM by jelzinga_EU

teiloh wrote: ↑
Fri 19 Apr 2019 6:56 PM
You will have to use a heal pot in that case. The Wizard not only has to crit, but get a high crit, which is quite rare.

Asssuming high RR a DoT can tick for ~170. DoT's can crit up from 10-100% in RvR; so average crit is 55% thus the average critted DoT ticks for (170*1,5)*7 = 1787. I don't think it is balanced at all that 1 AoE-DoT can dish that out, and on multiple persons at the same time.

A lot of classes do not have this amount of HP - not even with a healpot. If the crit is above average a healpot would not be sufficient to save a melee-hybrid who's pot-buffed.

Sat 20 Apr 2019 7:05 AM by teiloh

jelzinga_EU wrote: ↑
Sat 20 Apr 2019 4:56 AM
teiloh wrote: ↑
Fri 19 Apr 2019 6:56 PM
You will have to use a heal pot in that case. The Wizard not only has to crit, but get a high crit, which is quite rare.

Asssuming high RR a DoT can tick for ~170. DoT's can crit up from 10-100% in RvR; so average crit is 55% thus the average critted DoT ticks for (170*1,5)*7 = 1787. I don't think it is balanced at all that 1 AoE-DoT can dish that out, and on multiple persons at the same time.

A lot of classes do not have this amount of HP - not even with a healpot. If the crit is above average a healpot would not be sufficient to save a melee-hybrid who's pot-buffed.

The DoT ticks 6 times. 170 is also extremely high for a base against 26% resists. I think the average on a temped 26% target is 120 right out of the box. 170 without a debuff is not likely unless I'm remembering wrong.

Sat 20 Apr 2019 7:38 AM by jelzinga_EU

teiloh wrote: ↑
Sat 20 Apr 2019 7:05 AM
The DoT ticks 6 times. 170 is also extremely high for a base against 26% resists. I think the average on a temped 26% target is 120 right out of the box. 170 without a debuff is not likely unless I'm remembering wrong.

I stand corrected on the amount of ticks then, having no wizzie I ended up with 4s frequency and 24s duration as 0,4,8,12,16,20,24 ==> 7 ticks but if it's 6 I believe you.

As for the damage : I'm not making up that number, see screenshot:

Now this toon has 24% matter-resists - which means the tick would hit for 170 with 26% matter-resists (e.g. 175 +55 = 230 * 0,74 ==> 170 dmg). I think the total damage is still way too high, especially for an AoE-DoT

Sat 20 Apr 2019 7:42 AM by teiloh

jelzinga_EU wrote: ↑
Sat 20 Apr 2019 7:38 AM
Now this toon has 24% matter-resists - which means the tick would hit for 170 with 26% matter-resists (e.g. 175 +55 = 230 * 0,74 ==> 170 dmg). I think the total damage is still way too high, especially for an AoE-DoT

Ouch. He must have everything poured into dmg RAs.

Tue 23 Apr 2019 6:26 PM by Horus

I was hoping alb would not figure out how OPed the wizard earth line is. Bullcrap AE Dot that never existed in 1.65 and debuffing of their own dmg type.

The wiz was perfectly fine the way it was. Sure a one trick pony, but it did that trick exceedingly well. Just because meta 8v8ers complained about it didn't mean it was bad.

Tue 23 Apr 2019 8:35 PM by hellcon

The caster is RR10, effective 70 spell spec. With a lot of acuity and MOM. It hits hard, but what do you expect from a RR10 anything