The State of Wizards with New Ra

New RAs have lots of perks. Lower cooldowns etc.. but there are some drawbacks.

The Wizard class in particular loses out on a lot with the new RA system.

Volcanic Pillar now costs 30 realm points and has a 2 second cast time. With the Old RA system it cost 14 realm points and was instant cast. Volcanic Pillar has always been a staple of the class, not just for fire, but for all lines.

With this new RA system you need to spend 30 realm points for an inferior version of the spell. It is not worth bothering with. The new RA system has crippled an already weak class.

I have never suggested any buffs or spell changes to Wizards until now. The class needs some sort of additional spell or buffs. Even if Wizards had the old Volcanic Pillar as a baseline spell, they still wouldn't be a strong class. Losing out on Volcanic Pillar removes much of the thrill of playing Wizards and leaves them in an underpowered state.

The optimal change would be to just return Volcanic Pillar to its original Old RA state. There should be some way to make up for the changes brought on by the new RA system.

Wizards are weak here on Phoenix, more so than they were back during SI. Wizards need some help after the recent new new RA change.

Possible changes would be buffs to the Ice line, such as 179 to 219 on Ice Blast. Higher debuff % than 10% on the Ice debuff spell. An Ice bolt would be cool too.

There isn't really that much that can be tweaked with fire apart from adding more utility like bolt range root or a debuff on the DD.

Lower spec costs on MoC and Volcanic Pillar from 30 to 20 could help the class as well. Removing the cast timer on VP could also work.

Good luck, but realize that Wizards are perhaps the weakest class on the server.

Wed 7 Nov 2018 10:08 AM by Druth

RA 1.81, classes 1.81...

Think this is needed...

Bring on ToA!!! I want to spend 8 hours doing ML3 again

Thu 8 Nov 2018 6:14 PM by defiasbandit

I never advocated for Wizard buffs before. The new RA changes make VP no longer worth speccing. 34 ra points for a 2 second cast 550 damage spell?

I think Wizards could receive some other buff to compensate. Perhaps lower cd on specline DDs or a debuff built into their spec DD.

I look at how powerful runemasters and elds are, and I understand Wizards were always weaker, but now the gap is even wider.

Fri 9 Nov 2018 12:57 AM by Niix

Wizards issues is they meant to be a glass cannon and lack all forms of utility that for some reason cabalists and sorc were given over abundance of. This is all a result because alb was given 1 extra caster class and the original designers messed up by not merging the wizard and theurg into one class.

Fri 9 Nov 2018 7:58 AM by Koljar

Speaking about theus: You guys cry about the useablity/worth of volcanic pillar and theus got siege bolts... Whoot!

Fri 9 Nov 2018 3:20 PM by poisonclover

So wizards are trash because they have a class RA that cost a lot of points and no longer insta-casts.

/ponder

Stop it.. stop soloing on a wizard and trying to blow up stealthers lol.. that is not working as intended and why it was changed in NF RAS lol.

it breaks CC, it was never a staple of the wizard class, unless groups ran multiple wizards and built their group around VP. Nobody ran VP.

Fri 9 Nov 2018 6:12 PM by defiasbandit

Bring back old VP.

Remove the 2 second casttime. Change the RA Point cost.

Fri 9 Nov 2018 6:16 PM by defiasbandit

Niix wrote: ↑
Fri 9 Nov 2018 12:57 AM
Wizards issues is they meant to be a glass cannon and lack all forms of utility that for some reason cabalists and sorc were given over abundance of. This is all a result because alb was given 1 extra caster class and the original designers messed up by not merging the wizard and theurg into one class.

A glass cannon class with damage barely higher than other casters.

Read this post from SI. This is with Old RA VP too.

https://www.ign.com/boards/threads/fire-wizards-not-the-highest-damage-dealers.452392832/

Fri 9 Nov 2018 6:51 PM by daocgod

Wizard sucks just like Thane, Valewalker and Paladin. Just something you have to learn to deal with.

Fri 9 Nov 2018 7:47 PM by defiasbandit

daocgod wrote: ↑
Fri 9 Nov 2018 6:51 PM
Wizard sucks just like Thane, Valewalker and Paladin. Just something you have to learn to deal with.

Im convinced Thane is better caster than wizard now xd

Fri 9 Nov 2018 8:11 PM by defiasbandit

Lower the spec cost from 30 to 14. Frees up ra points. The Old ra spec cost was 14.

Sat 10 Nov 2018 5:31 PM by defiasbandit

Wizards are weak here on Phoenix, more so than they were back during SI. Wizards need some help after the recent new new RA change.

Possible changes would be buffs to the Ice line, such as 179 to 219 on Ice Blast. Higher debuff % than 10% on the Ice debuff spell. An Ice bolt would be cool too.

There isn't really that much that can be tweaked with fire apart from adding more utility like bolt range root or a debuff on the DD.

Lower spec costs on MoC and Volcanic Pillar from 30 to 20 could help the class as well. Removing the cast timer on VP could also work.

Good luck, but realize that Wizards are perhaps the weakest class on the server.

Sun 11 Nov 2018 12:42 AM by defiasbandit

The recent patch notes today have done a lot of to help the Wizard Class. Recent changes to Volcanic Pillar hav partly remedied the issues brought on by new new RA.

Sun 11 Nov 2018 3:07 AM by Sepplord

defiasbandit wrote: ↑
Sun 11 Nov 2018 12:42 AM
The recent patch notes today have done a lot of to help the Wizard Class. Recent changes to Volcanic Pillar hav partly remedied the issues brought on by new new RA.

Where can i find those recent PAtch Notes?

Because https://playphoenix.online/patch-notes has the last notes from 8-11?

Sun 11 Nov 2018 3:29 AM by defiasbandit

Sepplord wrote: ↑
Sun 11 Nov 2018 3:07 AM
defiasbandit wrote: ↑
Sun 11 Nov 2018 12:42 AM
The recent patch notes today have done a lot of to help the Wizard Class. Recent changes to Volcanic Pillar hav partly remedied the issues brought on by new new RA.

Where can i find those recent PAtch Notes?

Because https://playphoenix.online/patch-notes has the last notes from 8-11?

You will need to log into the server to see them. /servernews

Sun 11 Nov 2018 9:25 AM by schreon

The easiest solution would be to move the elemental debuffs currently located in the Body Destruction speclineof the Sorcerer to the speclines of the Wizard. No body sorc is ever adding those spells to their hotbars anyways, so nobody will miss them.

Debuff (Matter) --> Path of Earth
Debuff (Cold) --> Path of Ice
Debuff (Heat) --> Path of Fire

This would turn Wizards to competetive specline nukers, who still lack utility (no pet, no nearsight, no disease or whatever). They will be unique in that sense that they become the only class in the game able to debuff their own specline nukes.

Fire Wizards would actually be the casters with the highest damage output in the game.

Ice Wizards could team up with Theurgists, nuking on baseline cold (also mind Ice Theurg pets).

Earth Wizards would still be difficult to justify. Debuffed DoTs might be funny though (Sorcerers could even throw in their baseline matter DoT, but, well , DoTs ...).

IMHO, moving those debuff spells to the Wizard's speclines would be a custom change that would enable a lot of variety in Albion group setups as well as help the Wizard class. At the same time, I do not expect this change to threaten realm balance in any way. Wizard would become an easy choice when building PUGs on Albion.

Sun 11 Nov 2018 10:36 AM by yaru

interesting idea @schreon but i think making them able to for example debuff their 219dmg spec-DD and 331dmg bolt would be too great of a buff. playing/dpsing as a wizard wouldnt require any form of coordination/teamplay with others and still be one of the highest dps in the game.

whats usually the case on other classes tho, lets say the enchanter, or rm, that the resistdebuffs (15%, 30%, 50%) are in the line without their spec dd/bolts/(aoe). so u can only get the 50% debuff+corresponding basenuke at the same time. so mana spec is the debuffspec, but light spec the spec-DD one. rc the debuffspec on rm, but dark the spec-dd one.

so what about adding the debuffs to wizards speclines, but either mix all of them in a way, that the debuffs are outside their corresponding nuke-line, or go like - put heat-debuff in ice, cold-debuff in fire, and leave matter-debuff in matter-line (cos i think this one needs the most upgrade of all of them).

aside from this idea, that others already suggested to some extent, i think giving wizards the updates they got in later patchlevels on live, might be a good thing.
things that come to mind for me (which i already mentioned in another thread):

integrate a 15% heat-debuff into the 219dmg fire spec-DD
nearsight in matter-line
aoe-dot in matter-line (is not a thing here i think yet, right? so this spec could atleast be used better for zerg/aoe)

i also thought about what would happen if we would give them access to one of the more powerful RA's, now that VP, their trademark RA, is no longer very good.
since mentalists for example get ST (insanely strong, mentalists being the caster dps of the realm btw), what if wizards got it too? - imo this would make them alot stronger/viable in solo/smallman and even 8man rvr. sure they still dont have speed and other useful stuff to solo, but atleast they'd have a very strong tool on their hands. only thing i could see being honestly op is them being able to drop ST and (moc) bomb groups on their own if encountered in for example medding position, where everyone is clumped and not paying alot of attention

.

this would all in all most likely be too much imo, but i think it would be great and very necessary if some of these ideas would make it into the game. cos wizards need love, i think most will agree with that.

Sun 11 Nov 2018 12:02 PM by schreon

I generally like the idea of putting Cold Debuff into Path of Fire and Heat Debuff into Path of Ice and actually, I also thought about that.

However, compare an ice-wizard + fire-wizard combo to a mana-enchanter + light-mentalist combo. The wizards would nuke on heat (Ice-Wizard would have role of the enchanter), one baseline and one spec, dealing roughly the same amount of damage as enchanter+mentalist. But then, look at the rest of what the classes have to offer ... wizards get bolts, while ench+mentalist get 2 pets, demezz, a small heal, strong realm abilities ... The same is valid for the cabalist/body-sorc combination. The latter also deal roughly the same amount of damage, but get nearsight, disease, mezz, demez, ... just no PBAE. In the end, still no one would pick up a Fire/Ice-Wizard combo, because sorc+cabalist can do the same, but more.

Hence, I think making Wizard the unique class that can debuff their own spec damage type would be important, because they at least can work as a one-man show. You can pick up 1 wizard into any group, regardless of the composition, and it will work okayish. It would still not be op, because the total lack of utility.

I know that coordination/teamplay are an important factor, but considering Wizard being an "easy" class that has the sole purpose of dealing damage, it would be okay in my opinion. It is that little advantage, being an autonomous damage unit, which might convince some groups to pick up a wizard.

Sun 11 Nov 2018 12:12 PM by yaru

could actually also be an option to just put the resistdebuffs (heat, cold, matter) altogether into the matter-line. that way wizards could maybe even be played as utility(ns)/debuffer and compliment eachother if there were even more wizards (right now a rather unlikely scenario, but if there was some synergy, anything is possible i guess

). earth line with debuffs+ns would actually be fun to play i could imagine. having aoe root, ns, resistdebuffs, and a strong bolt, aoe snare (+gtaoe for keeps) sounds great to me. this way there could be, as i said before, even setups with more wizards, like double-rm on mid for example. i always liked that theres such great synergy between one and the same class, just with different specs (rc - dark). also like this, an earth wizz would even be able (just like a chanter for example) to debuff his own (weak, cos variance) cold or heat base-nuke.

*edit: the more i think about it, i believe that moving the elemental-debuffs from sorcs body-line to the wizard earth-line are the key to make this class more viable/fun to play, without getting too custom/buffing it too much.