BloodMage is currently boring and bad.

[Killdemon Zyklön]

This situation is truly disappointing. I’ve been waiting two weeks for the Bloodmage archetype to receive meaningful improvements, but nothing has changed and I’m growing increasingly frustrated. I will voice my profound dissatisfaction with these delays, as the Bloodmage lineage urgently requires a fundamental redesign. Currently, its mechanics force players to pay both life and mana simultaneously, a glaringly inefficient and unbalanced system. It’s such a flawed approach that any inexperienced player encountering this will likely just quit. Facing bosses under these conditions elevates the difficulty to near-Uber levels, making content at least a hundred times more complicated compared to other lineages. Additionally, if you don’t search online for builds that address these shortcomings, the experience becomes even more deplorable than playing Diablo 4.

[DirtyMick]

Hasn't been out two weeks.

[5ean5ean]

Originally posted by DirtyMick:

Hasn't been out two weeks.

The OP is right. They need to do something with Bloodmage or take her out of EA. She's a noob trap in her current condition.

[XBOCTIK]

Caste the curse - hp. Castling zombies - hp. Caste any skill that does not beat the enemy -hp

[RedFaster]

If you have to pay life and mana for skill costs then you could say all costs are doubled. And for what?

I do feel sorry for the newbie that thought it would be fun and cool. Seems like a dirty prank.

[Colton]

How far into the game have you gotten after ascending to Blood Mage?

[rasper_nor11]

I couldn't disagree more. They give us mana-free spells on our wands to get new blood mages going, and if you don't use the purposely mana-dumping spells of the sorc it isn't much of an issue anyway.

The consistent stream of blood droplets gives amazing sustain that no other build could hold a candle to with leech, and being able to double your hp pool to survive big hits you missed the telegraph for is kind of game-breaking.

This class is completely OP, and it is from the start.

[Kan3da.]

Originally posted by RedFaster:

If you have to pay life and mana for skill costs then you could say all costs are doubled. And for what?

I do feel sorry for the newbie that thought it would be fun and cool. Seems like a dirty prank.

raises hand... I was wondering whats so cool about ascendancy and now i also pay health on top of mana....

For now i unspecced that point that just gives me aids until i have ascendancy points to get something that its gating.

But id rather find out the hard way than watch some loud schmuck talk fast in SEO gobbledigook instead of playing the game.

This is fine

[Nemi]

I wanted blood mage so I went blood mage and I regret it heavily, it does no damage at all and no skills really match blood mage. Blood mage needs her own set of skills, like siphon life which can only be taken when blood mage is taken, and other blood abilities. The problem is you have to spam fire balls and such which has nothing to do with blood to do any damage. I wish I never went blood mage now and I can't change anything about it because once you choose its chosen, this is really seriously bad game design.

[rasper_nor11]

Originally posted by Nemi:

I wanted blood mage so I went blood mage and I regret it heavily, it does no damage at all and no skills really match blood mage. Blood mage needs her own set of skills, like siphon life which can only be taken when blood mage is taken, and other blood abilities. The problem is you have to spam fire balls and such which has nothing to do with blood to do any damage. I wish I never went blood mage now and I can't change anything about it because once you choose its chosen, this is really seriously bad game design.

Try bone skills, they cost less than the chaos/curse skills of occult.

Later levels gives more flexibility, but Raging Reaper's build notes are employable pretty soon after ascension. While working to it, just spam bone blast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIeQaUTNVgs&t=830s

[Lazykid]

I have a 65 blood mage that just started end game, I spend 100 mana and 100 health to blow up the whole screen and the health orbs the enemies drop overflow my health from 2k to 4k, I am nearly always overflowed on health. She is already tankier than my 80 monk in terms of self-sustain. On bosses just use low mana spells and the crits will drop enough health orbs to sustain. Don't see what the issue is here, she feels incredibly strong to me.

[peremoger]

Yes, it's bad, that why I canceled my ascendancy and TPed out of the room with the coffins and ascendancy machine, Its actually both ascendancies are very bad and flawed and making the game unplayeble. If i accidentally went blood id probably quit the game

[Big Iron]

Originally posted by Killdemon Zyklön:

This situation is truly disappointing. I’ve been waiting two weeks for the Bloodmage archetype to receive meaningful improvements, but nothing has changed and I’m growing increasingly frustrated. I will voice my profound dissatisfaction with these delays, as the Bloodmage lineage urgently requires a fundamental redesign. Currently, its mechanics force players to pay both life and mana simultaneously, a glaringly inefficient and unbalanced system. It’s such a flawed approach that any inexperienced player encountering this will likely just quit. Facing bosses under these conditions elevates the difficulty to near-Uber levels, making content at least a hundred times more complicated compared to other lineages. Additionally, if you don’t search online for builds that address these shortcomings, the experience becomes even more deplorable than playing Diablo 4.

On the other hand somehow a bloodmage was top 10 in hardcore so maybe theres something people dont understand about the build just yet...

[RodHull]

People you realize that less than half the skills available at release are currently in the game right. Probably way less than half, but at least less than half. A lot of the ascensions that lack support will come online as other things are added (chonk for example has a similar issue of no chaos melee support) just chill give them time.

In the meantime try building weird s***, I did wonder if a melee blood mage was possible that had super high health regen, might try it at some point

[TheMasterBlaster]

yeah, the right side of that heart shaped Ascendancy tree is a joke.

step 1 - all spells now have life & mana base cost, and a chance for a life remnant orb to gain back your life.

Step 2 - 25% of life loss from HITS is spread over 4 seconds. this doesnt even help mitigate the life loss from step 1, or lots of other types of damage.

Step 3 - ES Body Armor also grants life bonus. hooray.

so, what exactly is the point of all that? where's the upside other than the chance to spawn life orbs that you have to run over to pick up. god forbid you're mano y mano vs a boss and when you crit the life orbs are right next to the boss. you sure as heck better time it right when you dash in there to get your precious life orb because you lost life to cast that crit spell!

a person short of a few chromosomes could have slapped together a better Ascendancy tree than that raging dumpster fire of nonsense.

[Panthaz89]

Originally posted by DirtyMick:

Hasn't been out two weeks.

I mean it has but it should have been obvious the downside of life remnants makes certain bosses just straight up harder for no reason because you are downing your own lifebar just to deal damage to a boss and some of them drop globes in areas that can't even be accessed by the player so the ascendancy is literally only hurting you in the fight which makes no sense.

Your ascendancy should never feel like a gimp. Certain spells are just literally downgraded because they don't deal damage to enemies.