new AA's

[Eanelder]

ya, there are dozens of situation where your swarm pets are just standing there and you have no way to pull aggro to "get hit" and if you did, you wouldn't survive the hit.

Also, I don't just mean when the mob dies, have your swarm pets attack another target. I mean if i want to switch to another target when the current target is still alive I think I should have that option.

[MeatnPotatoes]

would be nice to type /pet assist me (or just click AA button) and make *ALL* pets of yours, that are already out in play, attack your target. (swarm pets, RS, regular, etc)

[Voragath]

First: They said during beta that they aren't turning spells into aa's going forward. Note, they did NOT say "spell-like." So, malosinete is NOT a spell but is spell-like, and so is perfect invis, perfected lev, etc. You won't see, for example, Velocity show up on the aa list.

Second: Pet power increase is not a buff. Pet focii call an entirely different pet into existence when worn. To power up an existing pet would require a code change. The idea is good, but it would have to be a multiple stat buff going to our pet. I like it. Though, making it EM5 to EM6 will not be feasible but I like the idea.

Finally, it almost looked like Wire was calling the necro's OP. /sarcasm off Funny stuff there Wire I agree, we shouldn't hold back like Koz did because OP ideas just may lead to a lesser aa but still a huge benefit to us. I think being reasonable shot us in the foot this expansion. However, be careful not to go so crazy like the wizards did or it'll backfire.

I agree, our elemental forms need to mean something again. The water pet should have uber regen placed on it if they aren't going to fix Thaumatize. Fire core is still really nice but I think the other 3 could use a boost for sure.

[Redius]

As far as the elemental forms go, here's something I pm'ed to Elidroth a while back;

1. I'd love to see the mage elemental forms be useful again. Lets face it; water form maxxed out gives an additional 4 points of mana regen. Hardly groundbreaking in the day and age of 40k+ mana pools. Likewise, the other forms are underpowered for current content. Now, as far as fixing these outdated (and in my opinion class defining) forms, I have a few ideas. Firstly, by updating water form, you can address one of the longest standing complaints/needs of the mage class; i.e. mana regen. Unlike the other caster classes, mages have few options to get mana back quickly. Don't get me wrong, mod rods, symbiosis, and the new thaumatize pet are all somewhat helpful, but simply don't return mana in the same way that harvest or deathbloom do. Matter of fact, they don't even come close. Now, i'm not arguing for mages to be made the pre-imminent masters of mana regen, but i'd like them to be more in line with the other casting classes.

Air form could be made useful by adding %'s to stun resistance over the cap along with lev and resist bonuses.

Earth forms can give massive AC and/or HP boosts (which for a silk class would have to be pretty significant....or could switch our combat tables to say Rangers for a short time. Assuming code allows something like that).

Fire, instead of a DS, could serve to bump up the damage from our fire spells (not massive amounts, but enough to make it noticable).

I have thought hard about the 4 forms and why I chose these as possiblilities; they'd ALL be of value, and you'd have to make a decision as to which is the most intellegent form to use for specific grouping and raiding situations. Sometimes the extra spell damage from Fire form would be best; or a long fight awaits? Use water! Mob has a massive AE spin stun? Air! Lots of adds spawning to deal with? Earth! Have these 4 forms available, BUT which a shared timer that doesn't allow fast switching between them....say 3-5 minutes between form changes to prevent abuse. And go ahead and link all the forms together as opposed to having the 2 separate branches for them.

I personally believe this would be incredibly well accepted in the mage community; we'd have some individuality again, more personalization/strategy would go into picking forms for your fights.

I'd also like to see the permanent illusion aa tied to these elemental forms (and strictly these elemental forms, not all mage possible illusions), but if that treads too close to the bards and chanters, i'd be willing to leave it out to appease them.

Another concept that ties into this is (and i'm not sure how and if the code supports this) but if the mage and mage pet share the same form, then the bonus attached to that form is greatly/somewhat/minorly increased. Both pet and mage are water? No longer 4 mana regen, but 40....or 80, or whatever number you think is balanced. Etc and apply to the other forms as well. Personally, I like my revamp of the elemental forms better, but if this is an easier solution to implement/code/balance, i'd be at least a decent compromise, and would achieve the goal of making the forms useful again.

[MeatnPotatoes]

lol *F* that.. i play a bard as my main, and a mage box. and i could personally care less if mages got perma, actually scratch that, ide be excited because it means any of my mage buddies are gonna be better yet, and having a group member be tougher is never a bad thing. being overpowered is one thing, and as far as balance goes, this isnt considered OP. anyone who bitches about another class getting something as trivial as this is too petty for me to take their opinions with anything other than a grain of salt. so i say, dont back down on perma illusion (for ele forms) because of bards, and enchies, etc. these 4 illusions are OURS and we should have perfected versions, we cant turn into a chair or a tree or whatever on command like an enchie, but we got 4, and their ours, and thats enough

[nako]

Enchanters had elemental illusions 2 years before we did, from the beginning even. Permanent isn't as much of an issue as shrink illusion bugs atm, would much rather have dev time allocated to fixing that. As far as the elemental forms are concerned, I think that's a great list :)

I'd be happy with just a clicky belt aa though, tbh.

-nako/saryrn

[Elmago]

If the devs don't want to make mage illusions permanent, a nice concession might be to ask for the same 6 hour timer as Wizard Familiars. Also, wizard familiars have a 1 minute shared refresh timer; I see no reason that mage elemental forms could not also share the timer. If wizards can benefit from enhanced damage or mana regen, with 1 minute between changes I would fight for mages to have the same flexibility between illusion form changes.

[Tweelis]

I have requested this before but no luck so far. Please please please give us an aa that makes our gargoyle pet come out shrunk. As a gnome I expect some issues simply from being short but not being able to see mobs because I have a pet that is 3X my size standing in front of me is very very annoying. Heck, I wouldn't even be all that concerned with the aaxp cost; just let me create a garg pet that's as small as say a double shrunk earth pet.

[Voragath]

Didn't we upgrade our lines to the "core" abilities? Fire core is already a very nice dmg boost. Earth has a melee rune, water has a spell rune, and air has that worthless spell hate and bash hate reduction

Fire Core rank 4 increases spell dmg by 60%. Ice Core reduces spell dmg by 50% up to 13k at rank 4 which is pretty much one or two casts from raid mobs these days (and a totally worthless ability in group). Stone core is a direct duplicate of ice core but replace spell with melee (one hit from a raid mob and it's gone but still useful in groups since the UF standard is quad hitting mobs). It's obvious, the only one of use is Fire Core. They all stack, btw and last a little over 2 mins.

[Eanelder]

Id love to have Annul Magic become an AA. Although it would probably lead to an expansion where ever trash mob had buffs.