New AA's for Next Expansion:

[Voragath]

The long awaited AA so mages get even more mana back from rods we make. Any status on that?

Calebe

This is in code's queue now. They have a lot on their plate and with pets being messed up, it's probably gonna be awhile. I've written off this ability. We are better off asking for a self rod.

[Savil]

We totally need a thread stickied to list *stupid* ideas that have been vetoed in the past, unworkable with current code (and told to us they will not fix it), or just outright so stupid the poster should be shot.

Savil

I'm actually thinking of building a list of things they know about or are going to give us when they have support and a list of things that will never happen for one reason or another. EG:

Pets can't have focus effects (code prevents it)
Reverse CoH/Cross-Zone CoH (Eli opposes, will never happen until he leaves and there are code issues)
Pet Swap (requires a pet code rewrite)
Pet UI (it's on the list when code has some time for it)
etc.

The reason is that PM'ing this stuff actually does the mage community a disservice. Especially so when the devs are looking for new/fresh ideas. It hurts us even more because it shows we aren't focusing on better ideas for the future, just stewing about the past.

This is why I suggested it... Too much time is lost each time somebody argues for cross server coh and the like.

Savil

[jalany]

Reverse CoH/Cross-Zone CoH (Eli opposes, will never happen until he leaves and there are code issues)

code issues are bs since there's already coding in game for gm go to abilities but yeah not going to happen. As for the elemental charms they were fun at the time and it was an interesting spell line, can't say i would be against an upgrade but not something I would immediately push for either.
Lots of good ideas have been posted though.

[Voragath]

This is why I suggested it... Too much time is lost each time somebody argues for cross server coh and the like.

Savil

You see, if I agree with you twice in one day, the universe will implode. I'll just say, "I see your point"

[Jedis]

We totally need a thread stickied to list *stupid* ideas that have been vetoed in the past, unworkable with current code (and told to us they will not fix it), or just outright so stupid the poster should be shot.

Savil

I'm actually thinking of building a list of things they know about or are going to give us when they have support and a list of things that will never happen for one reason or another. EG:

Pets can't have focus effects (code prevents it)
Reverse CoH/Cross-Zone CoH (Eli opposes, will never happen until he leaves and there are code issues)
Pet Swap (requires a pet code rewrite)
Pet UI (it's on the list when code has some time for it)
etc.

The reason is that PM'ing this stuff actually does the mage community a disservice. Especially so when the devs are looking for new/fresh ideas. It hurts us even more because it shows we aren't focusing on better ideas for the future, just stewing about the past.

This is why I suggested it... Too much time is lost each time somebody argues for cross server coh and the like.

Savil

The only problem with this list is, depending on the mood or the currently employed, yesterday's not possible/not getting is tomorrow's "incoming in next patch." But I think it would be a good idea to have.

[Piemastaj]

There is a specific reason why I said NEW AA's.

Group CoH, cross zone CoH, swap companion are OLD AAs. We understand people want them, we need people to understand they are not a reality currently. That is the bottom line right now. They do not want to pursue these areas because of how the code works.

We also need to show that this is for Alternate Abilities, NOT spells. There are numerous ideas in here that belong in the spells section. Generally speaking, if the idea you have is an upgrade to a spell it should be in the spell section. If the idea you have is an upgrade to an AA, it belongs here.

[Savil]

I'm going to have to end up returning to EQ so I can fix this all arn't I... *evil grin*

Clearly Vora needs abuse in SW mage, PJ is falling down on the job.

Savil

[Kitten]

what about an AA to add sometihn like backstabs or stuns or a DD to the pets as a whole like makeing it so the air pet can backstab for say 200 but it would add 500 damage or something to the water pets back stab make the air pet stun a bit better but make others have a chance earth pet's root the dd part of it do more or give it a life tap effect on it and make others have a small dd no idea what to do with the fire pet in that reguard? have a pet that buffs it's slef for 30 mins? fire pet takes 60? (sorry old joke)

[bluejaye]

i've liked the pulling aa's we've gotten. we definitely should push for an upgraded fade of some sort. the timers on drape and con limit how many splits we can make in a spawn cycle. lowering the recast on drape to 2-3 min would be a nice improvement. drape isn't bad for a pulling aa, but it's not very useful when combat goes south. perhaps could have a different line altogether that doesn't require a pet be near and has an invis on it. the recast of the new aa could be quite a bit longer than drape currently is, and we could retain the quicker drape for more limited situations.

i don't really see the point of improving call hither. i'd rather just refund the line. i always saw it as an attempt to give us a coh-like ability with more restrictions, and instead they later gave us the coh aa.

i've read the post on live about a new approach to aa design. instead of adding in standard upgrades, giving classes fewer aa with unique abilities. any ideas on what elidroth has in mind for mages? i'd like to see some sort of cc ability. it could be a knockback so we can put our pet on an add when there's a real tank. something along the lines of shaman vp, but instead of a root our pet would pick it up. for solo/molo, add in temporary pets that act like offtanks similar to rs, but don't have anywhere close to the dps (or mana cost) of rs. mebbe a better comparison is con without the blur, but a pet that is solid enough to hold down an add in current group content, even if it won't keep aggro over a player in melee range.

i definitely would like to see recast lowered on eu and vt, and cast time on vt. my view on vt is it was meant to be sustained, and by coupling it with fbo mages have done what we can to make it more of a burn aa. there's plenty of room in the aa system to make it more concentrated with new aa. conversely, we could shift the line into more sustained by asking for aa to increase the number of times vt can proc. if we go this route, we could look at what it would take for the pet to hit the max counter (unmodded by fbo etc) around the time we can recast it. then the line would be more like a permanent poison pot for our pets.

instead of asking for mod rod specialist, could we ask for aa to reduce the cast time on it for mages? i know we're annoying the devs by not letting it drop, but the reality is mages need some improvements on mana regen. this is an idea they've seemed willing to work with us on.

lower the recast of arcane whisper. i tend to use silent casting with first spire, fire core, etc. one reason is because silent casting has gotten so many of the improvements over the years, while arcane whisper has been largely ignored. if we bring down the recast to be roughly equal to fire core, then i'd prolly promote it to that hotkey.

i wonder if aa is the way to get our exigent clickies some survivability. add in an aa that makes all temporary servants come with a rune. lol even rs! ok that may not happen. or DA! haha ok i'm getting silly. we need these pets to survive tho, if we're going to see the dps improvements that are intended for them. while we're at it, an aa that functions something like our aura could help several pets. short term, mebbe lasts 2 min, increase procs on all pets by 40%. increase the cast rate of servant of ro, increase vt proc rate, increase the proc rate on the minions, increase BS on water pets and nukes on fire pets ...

it strikes me the vast majority of my ideas are more standard upgrade kinds of things. i'm just really curious what new and amazing types of abilities are in store for us if they go a new direction with the aa system. there seem to be so many limits to what mages should have now.

[Potawatomi]

How about an activated aa that consumes our stamina instead of mana.

When activated it consumes stamina but spells cost 25% more.

The duration could be one of three things:
1. On a counter
2. A set amount of time
3. Until our stamina is depleted, this may not work out so the above two are the optimal choices.

Give it a 45 min recast.

Additional ranks could lower the % cost of mana down to 10% at the final rank.