Magic end game

[Lerrasien]

I understand that magic needed a nerf from when they first released, but the damage disparity is an absolute canyon in the opposite direction now. I'm low 30s and my level 29 Staff with Eternal spells requires casting anywhere between 4 and 10 spells just on the most basic of enemies that I'm currently fighting and they're only level 27. Meanwhile, if I switch to a melee build, I mop them up with a same level melee weapon... Why was it decided to make spells drastically weaker?

[LyaranTirel]

Probably because you cant melee some of the flyers. Like the end game dragon

[Lerrasien]

Originally posted by LyaranTirel:

Probably because you cant melee some of the flyers. Like the end game dragon

Isn't that what the new grappling abilities are for? Also, it'd be a bit weird to gimp an entire playstyle because of a lack of balance for melee for 1 or 2 enemies.

[Valor]

They over nerfed it, and admitted they over nerfed it. They did a survey awhile back about the opinions of the community members and buffed it a bit.

But it should still have a small buff imo, the wands are pretty solid end game with the wand gear, but the magic takes so long to cast, if I am not with a tanky friend it doesn't feel good.

[CrappyBark]

Originally posted by Valor:

But it should still have a small buff imo, the wands are pretty solid end game with the wand gear, but the magic takes so long to cast, if I am not with a tanky friend it doesn't feel good.

Too bad you don't get to actually AIM the wands and just have to trust the game to make the right decision when picking which target to send the projectile at the right enemy/direction. Also I hope that enemy isn't more than 4 steps away from me or else the wand projectile will never hit them since they'll be out of range

Honestly I would like wands to have no more seeking projectiles, increase projectile speed slightly to compensate for no seeking, give em about 50%(ish) increased range, and remove the awful auto aim system they have so I can use wands (and bombs) without the game deciding that I am in fact making the wrong decision by trying to hit the enemy punching me in the face and that I should instead be wanding at the archer in the back who is out of wand range but not out of auto aim range(whatever idiot came up with that last idea; I hope the battery of every recreational device you own runs out within 15 minutes of being replaced/recharged)

[Lerrasien]

Originally posted by Valor:

They over nerfed it, and admitted they over nerfed it. They did a survey awhile back about the opinions of the community members and buffed it a bit.

But it should still have a small buff imo, the wands are pretty solid end game with the wand gear, but the magic takes so long to cast, if I am not with a tanky friend it doesn't feel good.

That's how I feel. But even the wands don't feel that good because of how clunky they run and your inability to actually dodge or block if you're attacking, unless you just wait between each attack, reducing your ability to deal damage. Not to mention it relies on chance (double attack) to deal the better damage and even more chance (crit) to deal their best damage. But yeah, the staves just aren't good late game. I end up running out of mana killing a single enemy with 15 mana regen and almost every Spirit point along with another 50 or so mana from armor. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it isn't completely OP anymore, but the staff damage going from 150+ to mid 20s is just... who would even think that's a reasonable nerf... lmfao

[Nokturnal]

I never played Pre-nerf, but I run around with magic end-game due to the AoE abilities being able to just insta-delete multiple enemies. Chain Lightning drops scavs super quick, Light Burst makes Shroud enemies a joke, even Fireball and Icebolt can handle flyers well enough.

Compared to the boredom of Spamming Arrows with Archer or how boring AF melee combat is and how terrible Mericiless Strike is, I prefer it.

[Lerrasien]

Originally posted by Nokturnal:

I never played Pre-nerf, but I run around with magic end-game due to the AoE abilities being able to just insta-delete multiple enemies. Chain Lightning drops scavs super quick, Light Burst makes Shroud enemies a joke, even Fireball and Icebolt can handle flyers well enough.

Compared to the boredom of Spamming Arrows with Archer or how boring AF melee combat is and how terrible Mericiless Strike is, I prefer it.

That's how I felt until I reached where I am. I was doing at least enough damage that it was pretty smooth for groups, but I'm only in the Kindlewastes now and I'm already having to use upwards of 10+ spells just to kill a single medium tier enemy variants, like the 1h weapon shroud enemies or the dual poison weapon guys. It just feels bad altogether in comparison. You can cheese, sure, but it just doesn't feel good. The orbs don't even drop with fireball at all, either. I see them sometimes with other spells, but I can hit 10+ enemies at a time and after 4 casts, see 0 orbs. Whereas, I can cast just about any other spell and see several per cast in an aoe or one every other cast or so for the single targets. Even the healing has been shot to hell with the lowered staff damage.

[Nerevar]

eternal chain lighting is bonkers. it has a 1s charge time and does area dmg and it fills enemy stun bars like no tomorrow.

pure builds suck. no matter if melee ranged or magic. go hybird.

[Valor]

So, magic is "good" objectively, like, it's one of (if not the best) build for solo'ing the Hallowed Halls.

But the problem is imo, the magic system is only good if you're dodging, moving around and hot swapping as needed.

Before it was fun to just throw a fire ball out and watch things go "boom!" and with that gone, the general population just doesnt feel good when playing mage anymore, because most people didn't get this game for a survival souls like experience and with all of the added effort, it's the feeling that it has.

In regards to the wands, they are pretty strong right now if you are at end game imo, being mobile and spamming wand shots is pretty strong, pheonix aura to keep the critters at bay and just being aware let's you be pretty powerful, it's again just more methodical in it's game play than I signed up for.

Also, to add, the need to use defensive armor over the mage armor is poor game design, objectively speaking, mages shouldn't NEED to use heavy armor in games (however, T-mogging into it is awesome.). After like 1200 hours in Portal Knights, I don't personally see them doing a "great job" with mages, we'll likely never see spells like Levitate or other utility spells that people mention.

[HermesXI]

Preface: Endgamed mage- gear, weapons, spells, buff scrolls/pots, everything. Only quests I haven't completed are ones that are bugged. So I am dealing the maximum amount of damage that a mage can currently as far as I can tell (around 4k crits with Fireball IV on a downed Fel Dragon Youngling is a rough idea of where I am at).

Eternal is nice and I always carry all the eternal spells, but Fireball IV is really the true endgame spell. Eternal is barely Fireball II in practice. I still use it most of the time, but using the consumable spells for serious damage dealing is the way. I usually carry a couple stacks when adventuring since when you reach endgame you don't really need to have a ton of inventory space (at least if you are preparing for adventures anyway).

I get by pretty well as a mage and honestly haven't died to anything other than server lag or my own bad gliding/stupidity in quite awhile. If they up the magic damage any more than it already is, I would need a mob spawn setting higher than "extreme."

[Mr.Pessimism]

i am really early game barely level 25. i just had to start investing into archery because of cas mobs always attacking me. its definitely not a single class game.

[Lerrasien]

Originally posted by HermesXI:

Preface: Endgamed mage- gear, weapons, spells, buff scrolls/pots, everything. Only quests I haven't completed are ones that are bugged. So I am dealing the maximum amount of damage that a mage can currently as far as I can tell (around 4k crits with Fireball IV on a downed Fel Dragon Youngling is a rough idea of where I am at).

Eternal is nice and I always carry all the eternal spells, but Fireball IV is really the true endgame spell. Eternal is barely Fireball II in practice. I still use it most of the time, but using the consumable spells for serious damage dealing is the way. I usually carry a couple stacks when adventuring since when you reach endgame you don't really need to have a ton of inventory space (at least if you are preparing for adventures anyway).

I get by pretty well as a mage and honestly haven't died to anything other than server lag or my own bad gliding/stupidity in quite awhile. If they up the magic damage any more than it already is, I would need a mob spawn setting higher than "extreme."

I haven't unlocked any spells that deal more than the Eternal ones yet, so maybe I'll get a ramp up in damage once I reach the snow biome portion of the map. But as of right now with enemies having 4x hp and only having the eternal spells for damage, my spells are lucky to hit 500-600 with a crit, which is around 1/4 of what yours seem to be doing. I guess I'll just have to be patient and just let my friend do most of the combat while I just support until we get further.

[HermesXI]

Originally posted by Lerrasien:

Originally posted by HermesXI:

Preface: Endgamed mage- gear, weapons, spells, buff scrolls/pots, everything. Only quests I haven't completed are ones that are bugged. So I am dealing the maximum amount of damage that a mage can currently as far as I can tell (around 4k crits with Fireball IV on a downed Fel Dragon Youngling is a rough idea of where I am at).

Eternal is nice and I always carry all the eternal spells, but Fireball IV is really the true endgame spell. Eternal is barely Fireball II in practice. I still use it most of the time, but using the consumable spells for serious damage dealing is the way. I usually carry a couple stacks when adventuring since when you reach endgame you don't really need to have a ton of inventory space (at least if you are preparing for adventures anyway).

I get by pretty well as a mage and honestly haven't died to anything other than server lag or my own bad gliding/stupidity in quite awhile. If they up the magic damage any more than it already is, I would need a mob spawn setting higher than "extreme."

I haven't unlocked any spells that deal more than the Eternal ones yet, so maybe I'll get a ramp up in damage once I reach the snow biome portion of the map. But as of right now with enemies having 4x hp and only having the eternal spells for damage, my spells are lucky to hit 500-600 with a crit, which is around 1/4 of what yours seem to be doing. I guess I'll just have to be patient and just let my friend do most of the combat while I just support until we get further.

I'd be happy to drop off a couple stacks of Fireball IV if you're ever hosting a game.

[Faceplant]

Originally posted by Nerevar:

eternal chain lighting is bonkers. it has a 1s charge time and does area dmg and it fills enemy stun bars like no tomorrow.

pure builds suck. no matter if melee ranged or magic. go hybird.

How is the OP going to get stronger by moving some of his skill points to melee or archer?

I made a short video to show how much melee "sucks" in this game (it's actually OP IMO).

This was just a spur of the moment run of two roots that I hadn't cleared yet (because why?). No potions except the shroud potion, basic food, rare-level weapon, stock armor, and I think it's obvious I'm not a master player. I'm barely functional with a bow, and just swing my big mace.

You can probably skip most of it, since I'm mostly wandering around, swatting bugs and trying to figure out where I need to go.

https://youtu.be/Y1Uqj-W5Gso