IAVITNI wrote: »

MagSorc used to be infamous for it's instant 3-combo burst: Curse>Fury>Frag.

IAVITNI wrote: »

First off, thanks.
Minor Berserk is a welcome buff. Not really addressing the classes current weakness but it does allow some things to be moved around. The additional damage means that some stats can be moved into survivability, which is what magsorc really struggles with.

Having said that, if you look at the sorc skills, there are quite a few powerful abilities that would improve the class if slotted.The challenge is figuring out what to give up in order to get these abilities on our bar.

The Real Problem
Currently, Elemental Susceptibility and Mage Light are two common abilities that find their way on a magsorcs bar. As just mentioned, the problem is that they also take up bar slots.

Magsorc does not need additional buffs but rather additional bar space. This is achieved by shifting some of the power gained from some multiple n abilities and consolidating them into n-x abilities, thereby freeing up bar space.

As an example, Major Fracture gained from Elemental Susceptibility provides some much needed penetration. Even with this powerful Major Buff, magsorc still lacks a bit of damage (although not it's main weakness, but the Minor Berserk buff would suggest that ZoS also feels damage isn't quite there).

MagSorc used to be infamous for it's instant 3-combo burst: Curse>Fury>Frag. Any og magsorc has had this combo seared into their minds at some point. The fact that most magsorcs don't slot this ability could somewhat justify a claim that magsorcs have lost ~1/3rd of their total burst damage (1 of 3 abilities removed). Getting this ability back onto their bar would therefore equate to a (grossly oversimplified) 33% damage buff. So why not just slot the ability? It's currently a loss to drop Major Fracture for Fury, despite the whopping theoretical ~33%, pre-multiplier, burst contribution. An execute is useless if you can't get the enemy low enough.

In order to get Fury on the bar you need it to address a need that is filled by another ability that currently lives on magsorc bars. As an example, a Major Breach/Prophecy substitute. But how do we do that? Easy, just slap it on an ability like Fury, right? Wrong. At least, if we want this change to be healthy for the overall game state. The approach is critical here.

What ZoS Won't Read
I know ZoS hates ability suggestions, but I'd like to provide one for the purposes of highlighting the type of approach that should be taken.

Mage's Fury (Live)

Call down lightning to strike an enemy, dealing 870 Shock Damage. If the enemy falls to or below 20% Health within 4 seconds of being struck, an explosion deals an additional 3195 Shock Damage to them and 695 Shock Damage to other enemies nearby.

In theory, an absolutely amazing ability despite the relatively low execute threshold. This is more than made up by the fact that the ability can be applied at range and bypasses global cooldowns since it can proc within 4 seconds after application. So let's just slap a Major Buff on it yeah? To that, I say stop skipping ahead and read the whole text.

Instead of taking the 5head approach, lets change the base ability:

Mage's Fury (theoretical)

Call down lightning to strike an enemy, dealing 871 Shock Damage. If the enemy falls to or below 20% Health within 4 seconds of being struck, an explosion deals an additional 3195 Shock Damage to them and 696 Shock Damage to other enemies nearby. This ability also applies Minor Fracture to the targeted enemy.

This instantly makes either morph competitive with Elemental Susceptibility or Caltrops. While the penetration gained isn't as high, it comes attached to an entire ability that ignores global cooldowns. If one wishes to take it one step further, Endless Fury could apply Major Fracture if the enemy is below 20% Health.

Outcomes:

1. Not a 100% buff. This approach really leans into the idea that a magsorc needs to land all three abilities to secure a kill without overbuffing them outside of execute. Remember, we haven't added any power outside of Fury damage since Elemental Susceptibility was previously on our bar. We also are not increasing magsorc damage strictly by the Fury tooltip since the Status Effect damage is lost
2. Does not invalidate Elemental Susceptibility as a choice. If you want better sustained damage, it's still the clear winner, but Fury caters better to the burst play style.
3. Clearly defines one morph as the AoE Champion (Mage's Wrath) and the other as best for single target/sustain (Endless Fury)
4. Bonus: this has negligible impact on PvE, where these buffs are constantly up anyways, leaving the class open to buffs that would specifically benefit PvE

This should be the approach to buffing MagSorc.

• We don't need to throw in random damage buffs that do nothing, we need incentive to slot other abilities that isn't overshadowed by what is lost.
• We create clear morph identities
• We don't invalidate other abilities that fill similar roles
• We don't sacrifice PvE balance for PvP or vice-versa

The same approach should be applied to Major Prophecy. The goal here should be to tack it onto a less used ability so that Mage Light still serves a niche (more baseline damage + shield buff). Tacking Major Prophecy onto Boundless Storm or Rune Cage would makes these abilities far more attractive without encroaching on Mage Light's niche.

Misc. Quality of Life Changes
Some small changes that aren't really a buff but would definitely smooth out gameplay

• Remove Overload activation from the global cooldown. This has made using the ability incredibly clunky and deadly when in combat/lag
• Revert the Streak change so that magsorcs move in the direction the camera is facing and not the character
• Allow Bound Armor and morphs to provide the 8% resource buff regardless of bar swap, similar to Arcanist's Tome-Bearer's Inspiration
• For the love of god, please let Rune Cage deal damage on Stun activation and not expiration
• Same ^ for Shattering Prison
• Daedric Mines cost is no longer matched by it's damage. A small cost reduction would help. Skill functionality is fine.

Other wish list items:
Streamline pet performance
More distinction between Atronach morphs

IAVITNI wrote: »

First off, thanks.
Minor Berserk is a welcome buff. Not really addressing the classes current weakness but it does allow some things to be moved around. The additional damage means that some stats can be moved into survivability, which is what magsorc really struggles with.

Having said that, if you look at the sorc skills, there are quite a few powerful abilities that would improve the class if slotted.The challenge is figuring out what to give up in order to get these abilities on our bar.

The Real Problem
Currently, Elemental Susceptibility and Mage Light are two common abilities that find their way on a magsorcs bar. As just mentioned, the problem is that they also take up bar slots.

Magsorc does not need additional buffs but rather additional bar space. This is achieved by shifting some of the power gained from some multiple n abilities and consolidating them into n-x abilities, thereby freeing up bar space.

As an example, Major Fracture gained from Elemental Susceptibility provides some much needed penetration. Even with this powerful Major Buff, magsorc still lacks a bit of damage (although not it's main weakness, but the Minor Berserk buff would suggest that ZoS also feels damage isn't quite there).

MagSorc used to be infamous for it's instant 3-combo burst: Curse>Fury>Frag. Any og magsorc has had this combo seared into their minds at some point. The fact that most magsorcs don't slot this ability could somewhat justify a claim that magsorcs have lost ~1/3rd of their total burst damage (1 of 3 abilities removed). Getting this ability back onto their bar would therefore equate to a (grossly oversimplified) 33% damage buff. So why not just slot the ability? It's currently a loss to drop Major Fracture for Fury, despite the whopping theoretical ~33%, pre-multiplier, burst contribution. An execute is useless if you can't get the enemy low enough.

In order to get Fury on the bar you need it to address a need that is filled by another ability that currently lives on magsorc bars. As an example, a Major Breach/Prophecy substitute. But how do we do that? Easy, just slap it on an ability like Fury, right? Wrong. At least, if we want this change to be healthy for the overall game state. The approach is critical here.

What ZoS Won't Read
I know ZoS hates ability suggestions, but I'd like to provide one for the purposes of highlighting the type of approach that should be taken.

Mage's Fury (Live)

Call down lightning to strike an enemy, dealing 870 Shock Damage. If the enemy falls to or below 20% Health within 4 seconds of being struck, an explosion deals an additional 3195 Shock Damage to them and 695 Shock Damage to other enemies nearby.

In theory, an absolutely amazing ability despite the relatively low execute threshold. This is more than made up by the fact that the ability can be applied at range and bypasses global cooldowns since it can proc within 4 seconds after application. So let's just slap a Major Buff on it yeah? To that, I say stop skipping ahead and read the whole text.

Instead of taking the 5head approach, lets change the base ability:

Mage's Fury (theoretical)

Call down lightning to strike an enemy, dealing 871 Shock Damage. If the enemy falls to or below 20% Health within 4 seconds of being struck, an explosion deals an additional 3195 Shock Damage to them and 696 Shock Damage to other enemies nearby. This ability also applies Minor Fracture to the targeted enemy.

This instantly makes either morph competitive with Elemental Susceptibility or Caltrops. While the penetration gained isn't as high, it comes attached to an entire ability that ignores global cooldowns. If one wishes to take it one step further, Endless Fury could apply Major Fracture if the enemy is below 20% Health.

Outcomes:

1. Not a 100% buff. This approach really leans into the idea that a magsorc needs to land all three abilities to secure a kill without overbuffing them outside of execute. Remember, we haven't added any power outside of Fury damage since Elemental Susceptibility was previously on our bar. We also are not increasing magsorc damage strictly by the Fury tooltip since the Status Effect damage is lost
2. Does not invalidate Elemental Susceptibility as a choice. If you want better sustained damage, it's still the clear winner, but Fury caters better to the burst play style.
3. Clearly defines one morph as the AoE Champion (Mage's Wrath) and the other as best for single target/sustain (Endless Fury)
4. Bonus: this has negligible impact on PvE, where these buffs are constantly up anyways, leaving the class open to buffs that would specifically benefit PvE

This should be the approach to buffing MagSorc.

• We don't need to throw in random damage buffs that do nothing, we need incentive to slot other abilities that isn't overshadowed by what is lost.
• We create clear morph identities
• We don't invalidate other abilities that fill similar roles
• We don't sacrifice PvE balance for PvP or vice-versa

The same approach should be applied to Major Prophecy. The goal here should be to tack it onto a less used ability so that Mage Light still serves a niche (more baseline damage + shield buff). Tacking Major Prophecy onto Boundless Storm or Rune Cage would makes these abilities far more attractive without encroaching on Mage Light's niche.

Misc. Quality of Life Changes
Some small changes that aren't really a buff but would definitely smooth out gameplay

• Remove Overload activation from the global cooldown. This has made using the ability incredibly clunky and deadly when in combat/lag
• Revert the Streak change so that magsorcs move in the direction the camera is facing and not the character
• Allow Bound Armor and morphs to provide the 8% resource buff regardless of bar swap, similar to Arcanist's Tome-Bearer's Inspiration
• For the love of god, please let Rune Cage deal damage on Stun activation and not expiration
• Same ^ for Shattering Prison
• Daedric Mines cost is no longer matched by it's damage. A small cost reduction would help. Skill functionality is fine.

Other wish list items:
Streamline pet performance
More distinction between Atronach morphs