a little love for mage-2
Posted: Wed May 13, 2020 7:49 pm
OK, so I haven't been here long but it looks like missionaries/palys got love early on in Bear's edited board, and a year or two ago rangers were brought up to speed to be more competitive with them (a kickass room spell, some other benefits, and maybe the drop in xp chart). That leaves the mage-2 hybrids as the black sheep.
I'm thinking about playing a warlock and one thing I noticed: despite their being Mage types, so natural room spellers, the highest room spell they get is blizzard (damage 80-310; 45 mana) at level 40. Rangers, a magic-1 class, blow this completely out of the water by a factor of ~10 with Nature's Horde (damage 770-1450). It only seems natural for mage-types to outdo druid-types when it comes to straight damage spelling, just like their magic-3 equivalents in classic MUD.
It also might make warlocks a bit more interesting because you'd have to balance mana regen against combat stats. Currently, nothing about a high level warlock appears to take any appreciable mana to maintain, making them pretty much a melee+buff class.
Then there's the question of buffs: rangers get Nature's Camo & Nature's Protection. Warlocks & gypsies: nothing but a high level version of confuse!
Should there be another armor shell for Mage-2? Or alternatively, what about getting Wind of Haste and Shimmering Mirage a few dozen levels later than a mage, so warlocks could keep some of the cool party buffing abilities of the mage class? Or a big life draining heal, like an upgraded version of dtch?
I guess my suggestion would be all of the above:
- 1 solid room spell in the 1k-2k damage range.
- 1 upgraded armor spell above Ethereal Shield at level 5.
- The two mage buffs (at higher levels than mages, just like healers get priest heals later): wind and mira.
- A life drain heal, cast between rounds, for ~100-200 damage or thereabouts.
What say you, Realm?
I'm thinking about playing a warlock and one thing I noticed: despite their being Mage types, so natural room spellers, the highest room spell they get is blizzard (damage 80-310; 45 mana) at level 40. Rangers, a magic-1 class, blow this completely out of the water by a factor of ~10 with Nature's Horde (damage 770-1450). It only seems natural for mage-types to outdo druid-types when it comes to straight damage spelling, just like their magic-3 equivalents in classic MUD.
It also might make warlocks a bit more interesting because you'd have to balance mana regen against combat stats. Currently, nothing about a high level warlock appears to take any appreciable mana to maintain, making them pretty much a melee+buff class.
Then there's the question of buffs: rangers get Nature's Camo & Nature's Protection. Warlocks & gypsies: nothing but a high level version of confuse!
Should there be another armor shell for Mage-2? Or alternatively, what about getting Wind of Haste and Shimmering Mirage a few dozen levels later than a mage, so warlocks could keep some of the cool party buffing abilities of the mage class? Or a big life draining heal, like an upgraded version of dtch?
I guess my suggestion would be all of the above:
- 1 solid room spell in the 1k-2k damage range.
- 1 upgraded armor spell above Ethereal Shield at level 5.
- The two mage buffs (at higher levels than mages, just like healers get priest heals later): wind and mira.
- A life drain heal, cast between rounds, for ~100-200 damage or thereabouts.
What say you, Realm?