Patch on TEST

[Danille]

imho mages are in the best shape they have been in years

[Calebe]

I agree mages are in some of the best shape since the beginning of EQ. Still there is room for improvement, and while the rain fix was needed it was not a priority. I don't agree with the get one thing lose something else mentality some have.

Ask for it all, get something, move on and ask for something more important. Remember what is important depends on the person and play style. For instance if you raid, pet survivability while tanking is not high on your list, but pet DPS would be. If you solo, pet surviving is more important then more DPS because when the pet dies you die, so you need it to survive longer. So the answer ask for both, more pet DPS and in the same breath ask for it to survive to do that DPS. Raiders would ask for it to survive better during aoe's and solo or grouped survive better when being hit.

So I take it as a good sign they have not forgotten mages. It means they are thinking of us. We don't let them say hey we removed rains from the same timer your fixed, we say, no you fixed an issue that was put in by devs long ago, now as for those more pressing issues and we move forward.

Not being forgotten is good, letting the say we are fixed with a minor change is bad and with a new expansion coming up we won't allow to happen.

Want some encouragement? Here is my take on the new expansion.

This one is being planned early, they have asked for input on the new BP, aa's and spells way earlier then ever before. They are making some changes even though they could wait to do it or not, as they are minor, but it shows they are working on the game and fixing them as they come across them. They put in new mercs before the expansion for free. That was done before beta meaning that Sklug will not be working on them in Beta but on content. Think over that a bit, they are finishing things up including making the 10 max per bag increase go in before the expansion. All those things you may expect as as perk for a level increase and to buy is basically being given to us for free in advance.

That spells good things for the amount of time they will have available for working content, spells, aa's and listening to concerns the classes have. I have not seen this type of activity and freebies given before a paid for expansion in a long long time. It bodes well, and I hope that comes true. Look at the positives and I have a hunch many aren't and I know for good reason if you look at the past level of neglect we got on spell development, but pets and aa's have been very solid last few expansions. I am hopeful for a lot of good things in the next expansion.

Calebe

[qibrme]

imho mages are in the best shape they have been in years

Yup, the proof is inthe Class Balance Forum which has been practically dead for a long time now.
In past years and on the olf forums it was one of the most active forums as magicians had lots to complain about when comparing our standings to other classes.

Sued...

[Danille]

imho mages are in the best shape they have been in years

Yup, the proof is inthe Class Balance Forum which has been practically dead for a long time now.
In past years and on the olf forums it was one of the most active forums as magicians had lots to complain about when comparing our standings to other classes.

Sued...

yes and no. It also depends on the makeup of the people who post on the board and the ratio of whiners to realists too!

Seriously though, we had 13 mages online in our guild last night with all of them having a blast. I do not remember that ever happening before in the last 11 years of playing. We typically have 5 mages and a druid in our raid group and when we run parses the 5 mages are typically in the top 10 dps! That us because we use 30% damage potions, water pets and spell weaving ingame hotkeys that make use of RS pets whenever the spell gem is not greyed out.

[JerusEQ]

imho mages are in the best shape they have been in years

Yup, the proof is inthe Class Balance Forum which has been practically dead for a long time now.
In past years and on the olf forums it was one of the most active forums as magicians had lots to complain about when comparing our standings to other classes.

Sued...

yes and no. It also depends on the makeup of the people who post on the board and the ratio of whiners to realists too!

Seriously though, we had 13 mages online in our guild last night with all of them having a blast. I do not remember that ever happening before in the last 11 years of playing. We typically have 5 mages and a druid in our raid group and when we run parses the 5 mages are typically in the top 10 dps! That us because we use 30% damage potions, water pets and spell weaving ingame hotkeys that make use of RS pets whenever the spell gem is not greyed out.

Which ones are the 30% damage portions? I know the Tonic of Resonant Fire XIV which adds a proc but is there a "bard" focus potion?

[deadman1204]

Calebe raises a great point. They are doing this before an expansion. Changing things like which spells are linked means they are examining class dps as it currently stands. While the change doesn't do much now, it bodes very well. They are examining dps of classes WELL before any proposed expansion upgrades are considered.

[Piemastaj]

The problem is, rains have never been our DPS spell. And as I mentioned before they are frowned upon on almost every raid event, and a good amount of group events aswell. The only way we are going to see the DPS upgrades we need is by twincasting RmS, or splitting the spell into 2 and allowing us to cast 2 RmS back to back. So, yes Rain spells is a slap in the face when we actually need twincast to work for a spell it should alrdy work for. Even if they brought rains into the dmg range of Fickle, it still wont increase our DPs by that much where we can compete with wizzies and some melee DPs.

I'm sorry but I have to agree with Malleria here, they are giving us these smurf upgrades so they can say we gave mages something. Even though we have a long list of things we could actually use, and would benefit the class as a whole. Whereas, as the game stands right now rains can't be used in a good amount of the content they made for us. So as of right now the upgrade to the spell doesn't matter unless they change how events and raids go in the next expan.

[Danille]

There are alot more things to do in today's EQ than just raid. Sorry but thats the truth. It is no longer a monolopy!

[JerusEQ]

There are alot more things to do in today's EQ than just raid. Sorry but thats the truth. It is no longer a monolopy!

There is, but thing is some people only play to raid, so they need a reason to be in that raid. When a class doesn't add any utility to raiding they need another niche or to be able to compete in an area. For mages that other area is dps, which happens to be like half the classes out there, so raid dps is kinda important. Either way I'm enjoying mage and thing they do pretty well especially on like 2.5 min + fights compared to other classes, the only class I am scared of at that length is necro really, although others can beat us I'm sure, that is just talking from personal experience.

[Piemastaj]

Re-read my post before you think I leftout groupers. In my lasts 2 posts I specificially mentioned GROUP events that will be affected by this. Namely the 2 named on upper floors in Convort, both summon adds and both sets of adds rape the group if they are not mezzed. Not enough room to really kite so mezz is the only option. Also, the group mini-event in Convort which requires CC to make it a success. Please use rains on these events and wipe your grp......

Jerus said it though, we are a DPS class. Regardless what/where you play or how you play. And there are also like 6 other classes out there who do the same job. But, those classes can actually DPS when mobs are being controlled by mezz. If they push our rain spells so that they are so good that they become the MAIN source of our DPs from a casting perspective, then our desireability goes to practically 0. And currently the only way to make mobs/events harder is to swarm you with adds at certain %s. So while some of you are happy with this, think about the future of our class if they decide to make rains the end all be all for us, because down the line it will be a dark future.....