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At yesterday's mage discussion on discord, I ended up leaving disgusted after hearing that 3 of the 5 users who joined the call to talk with the devs, joined with the sole purpose of making sure that the mage (a class they will never use) isn't "too strong". Those same users were saying in the text channel stuff like "sigma players don't play mage", or when the same users joined the call in the second discussion point went "yeah we've got the power!".
I honestly hope that devs don't listen too much what the community has to say over the FEW information we still have. We don't know many relevant information like cooldown times, what ability ranks will improve for the abilities revealed, mana costs for optimal rotations and in different situations (pvp, bosses etc.), what other classes will be able to do (mage is the only class besides cleric with more revealed abilities) and more.
I will play all classes except for rogue (probably) on AoC, and mage is a class I've tons of experience with in other MMORPG (one of my main classes together with Paladins, Druids or Knights), and mage is BY FAR the class who receives the most hate in every game. Players pretend that mages have to "play smart" to perform good, but at the same they play oonga boonga classes which often deal more damage and don't get punished by mistakes as mages do.
And now I wanted to counterargue some of the discussed points I've read from a numerous amount of players:
- "Casting while walking is unnatural!": B**** please, magic is unnatural in essence. This is a fantasy game, and each game shape their world's normality. Is it "normal" for you being able to swing your sword while running and cleaving all the enemies in front of you like melee classes can do? In a "normal" world I can ensure you it's not. From what I watched mage walking speed while casting is highly reduced. In PvP that won't let you escape from being destroyed at melee range. In fact, a big concern for me is that I have only seen 1 non casted ability, Cone of Cold. All other abilities are casted. Whenever a mage have to move in PvE their dps drops a lot, while melees (and other classes like ranged) can just avoid areas or reposition and their rotation is not compromissed.
- "Mana managament is a must for mage". I agree, but only for mage? Mages and healers are always the ones whose mana depletes sooner. So, at the same time you want that mages don't deal more damage than other classes, but their mana drops much faster than other dps? Bit unfair innit? Running out of mana in mid of a boss fight means death (or raid leaders picking other dps classes who will perform well during all the fight unlike mages). Same for massive PvP fights like sieges. If a mage runs of out of mana and needs to back down to restore while other classes can stay infinitely... wonder how many people will decide to use mage.
- About the CC debate: All mages can do is snare with their frost spells, and all 3 of them are casted. In order to freeze they need 5 status stacks, and that takes all 3 of those abilities to achieve (or 2 plus 1 weapon attack).
About slumber, that's the weakest form of hard CC that exists. 1 attack and the enemy is awake. And it's casted, so while is being casted, it can be interrumpted, potentially enemies can escape from it with dashes, or just deal a bunch of damage at melee range while it's being casted (just to wake up with 1 attack). It will be completely useless in massive PvP fights because enemies affected by it will inmedietly be awake. The only scenario where I find it potentially problematic is in 2v2 and 3v3 coordinated PvP. If we compare it to ranger's air strike, Slumber is casted, AS is not; Slumber doesn't deal damage, AS does; AS repositions yourself, slumber doesn't; AS rootss enemies in place so they can't chase you, Slumber vanishes as soon as you attack them... but nobody is talking about AS and everybody freaks out about Slumber.
All what mages have is damage. They always have lower hp pool, armor, mobility and often even CC... and their damage is not even superior to other classes in most MMORPG (so other classes don't get outsinhed in the dpsmeters I guess...) but at the same time that makes mages a non viable class for PvP, compared to more all round classes who can heal, who are more bulky, who have better mobility... and the same damage (if not more)
It's hard to balance a game with many different type of fights, and I'm not sure if all classes should perform equally in all situations... but anyway, I trust that the tools the game offers (double archetype, augments, being able to modify your ability kits etc.) will let all classes be fun to play and "viable" / adaptable for different scenarios.
Just, again, don't listen to what people who is missing tons of information have to say about a class they will never use.
I honestly hope that devs don't listen too much what the community has to say over the FEW information we still have. We don't know many relevant information like cooldown times, what ability ranks will improve for the abilities revealed, mana costs for optimal rotations and in different situations (pvp, bosses etc.), what other classes will be able to do (mage is the only class besides cleric with more revealed abilities) and more.
I will play all classes except for rogue (probably) on AoC, and mage is a class I've tons of experience with in other MMORPG (one of my main classes together with Paladins, Druids or Knights), and mage is BY FAR the class who receives the most hate in every game. Players pretend that mages have to "play smart" to perform good, but at the same they play oonga boonga classes which often deal more damage and don't get punished by mistakes as mages do.
And now I wanted to counterargue some of the discussed points I've read from a numerous amount of players:
- "Casting while walking is unnatural!": B**** please, magic is unnatural in essence. This is a fantasy game, and each game shape their world's normality. Is it "normal" for you being able to swing your sword while running and cleaving all the enemies in front of you like melee classes can do? In a "normal" world I can ensure you it's not. From what I watched mage walking speed while casting is highly reduced. In PvP that won't let you escape from being destroyed at melee range. In fact, a big concern for me is that I have only seen 1 non casted ability, Cone of Cold. All other abilities are casted. Whenever a mage have to move in PvE their dps drops a lot, while melees (and other classes like ranged) can just avoid areas or reposition and their rotation is not compromissed.
- "Mana managament is a must for mage". I agree, but only for mage? Mages and healers are always the ones whose mana depletes sooner. So, at the same time you want that mages don't deal more damage than other classes, but their mana drops much faster than other dps? Bit unfair innit? Running out of mana in mid of a boss fight means death (or raid leaders picking other dps classes who will perform well during all the fight unlike mages). Same for massive PvP fights like sieges. If a mage runs of out of mana and needs to back down to restore while other classes can stay infinitely... wonder how many people will decide to use mage.
- About the CC debate: All mages can do is snare with their frost spells, and all 3 of them are casted. In order to freeze they need 5 status stacks, and that takes all 3 of those abilities to achieve (or 2 plus 1 weapon attack).
About slumber, that's the weakest form of hard CC that exists. 1 attack and the enemy is awake. And it's casted, so while is being casted, it can be interrumpted, potentially enemies can escape from it with dashes, or just deal a bunch of damage at melee range while it's being casted (just to wake up with 1 attack). It will be completely useless in massive PvP fights because enemies affected by it will inmedietly be awake. The only scenario where I find it potentially problematic is in 2v2 and 3v3 coordinated PvP. If we compare it to ranger's air strike, Slumber is casted, AS is not; Slumber doesn't deal damage, AS does; AS repositions yourself, slumber doesn't; AS rootss enemies in place so they can't chase you, Slumber vanishes as soon as you attack them... but nobody is talking about AS and everybody freaks out about Slumber.
All what mages have is damage. They always have lower hp pool, armor, mobility and often even CC... and their damage is not even superior to other classes in most MMORPG (so other classes don't get outsinhed in the dpsmeters I guess...) but at the same time that makes mages a non viable class for PvP, compared to more all round classes who can heal, who are more bulky, who have better mobility... and the same damage (if not more)
It's hard to balance a game with many different type of fights, and I'm not sure if all classes should perform equally in all situations... but anyway, I trust that the tools the game offers (double archetype, augments, being able to modify your ability kits etc.) will let all classes be fun to play and "viable" / adaptable for different scenarios.
Just, again, don't listen to what people who is missing tons of information have to say about a class they will never use.