Helping Traditional Templates PvM (PvE)

Thalon

The purpose of this thread is to brainstorm ideas to aid the base Templates compete in PvM with the higher performing Templates such as Sampire and Spellweaving-tamers. This should not be done by nerf-hammer or penalizing players of popular templates, but by boosting traditional templates. 

This example might be the oldest in-game: Evaluate Intelligence Skill and Anatomy Skill combine to create a passive Weapon Skill value that is used in place of Wrestling when the character is attacked, but for defense only, not to attack. This made Magery-based Templates more survivable without requiring skill points in Wrestling.

So three questions in the poll:
1) which templates deserve to be brought up in effectiveness?
2) how would you do it?
3) which two templates do you currently use most often in PvM

Thalon

I did not realized that the poll was 1 answer allowed only, so two answers are not possible for question 3. I will also outline an example for improving the traditional Warrior template. To figure out what the Warrior is lacking, let's compare the Sampire, Samurai and Paladin first...

The Samurai and Paladin are not far off from the Sampire. All rely on similar equipment: Resists, Damage Eaters HCI, DCI, Swing Speed, Stamina/Dex boosters and Lower Mana Cost. The Sampire's primary advantage as access to Chivalry over the Samurai, and access to Vampiric Embrace and Bushido specials are the advantage over the Paladin.

The Warrior is lacking access to a) Chivalry, b) Bushido and c) Vampiric Embrace.

a) Chivalry is a remarkable toolkit. Remove Curse, Enemy of One, Consecrate Weapon, Divine Fury.  Most Sampires won't use Close Wounds or Cleansing Fire, they just keep swinging and Leeching Life.

b) Bushido gives access to Perfection and Special moves.
    i)The Warrior does not care about Honoring targets and will not be building Perfection.  The  Mastery abilities such as Thrust, Onslaught and Focused Eye can offer bonuses, but only at a steep mana cost which means the Warrior will not have mana for Special moves. Honoring an opponent means you get the bonus at no mana expenditure.
   ii) Weapon Special can offer similar bonuses to Bushido attacks, and are sometimes prefered. Double Strike instead of Lightning Strike, or Whirlwind instead of Momentum. I don't believe a any help is needed here.

c) Being able to cure remove poison in Vampire Form without expending mana or bandages gives a unique advantage. Life Leech can be compensated by equipment and Stamina Regen by equipment or Focus Skill.

So what can be done to help boost the Warrior?

Offer a pure-template Warrior (a character without specific Skills; ie:: Magery, Chivalry, Necromancy, Mysticism, Spellweaving, Poisoning, Hiding) additional advantages through the Skill Mastery System:
  HARDINESS - pure warrior is more resistant to Poison and Curses. They are less effective and duration is decreased when used on a pure Warrior.
  WELL PRACTICED - a pure warrior knows their gear. Weapons gain extra Swing Speed Increase, Hit Chance and Defense Chance (possibly a specialized Cap increase). Also a further mana discount on Mastery Toggle Abilities such as Thrust and Onslaught.
  FIND A WAY - a special move Attack which costs mana. The character gets a Hit Chance bonus and results in extra Direct Damage. Should be a good replacement for the Lightning Strike/Consecrate weapon combo.

Feigr

1) Paladin, 2) Synergies, 3) Paladin.

The reason I said Synergies is because I feel like if you have those template of skills with inter-changable melee fighting skills (Swordsmanship and Fencing, Lumberjacking and Parrying) you should get a huge boost to survivability equating to slightly more powerful than the most trained pet.  It should be balanced with healing. 

Or maybe healing just needs to be reworked to tick more frequently as the skill goes up.  Something equating to what a Sampire can heal.

Grace

I was thinking how much I dislike using a swamp dragon with barding as the armor goes poof at inopportune times and it dies whenever I die. edit- also it is ugly creature imo.

Thus, I would like a warrior type to have the same bonus as a paroxysmus dragon's 12% damage reduction in PVM without having to ride one. This would work whether on foot or on an ethy or on a normal mount. 

If someone wanted the full 20% that an exceptionally barded dragon they can still ride one, but it would not stack with the 12% inherent.

This would only be inherent bonus if there is 400 skill points in a weapon skill, tactics, anatomy, and healing combined.  If you go into a form, such as vampiric embrace, this inherent bonus is voided.

Rock

One way to help a lot of templates would be to allow skill level in primary skills to assist secondary skill level.  Consider the Samarai build in the OP's list (#4 of question 1).  The primary skills are Swords (just to choose one), Parry, and Healing. Secondary to these are Tactics, Bushido, and Anatomy, respectively. Some skills, such as Resist Spells, are neither primary nor secondary. They function in a stand-alone manner.  This set would make a great 7x build, but modern PvM end-game content (and PvP in general), you would be facing foes with skills at least 20 higher than yours.

Hence, 6x builds, which maximize 6 skills and hope that not having the seventh will not cause major problems.  In the case of this Samurai, he would likely let Resist Spells go. Let's do a thought experiment and see what might be done via the assist.  Assume 20% of a primary skill counts towards the level of its secondary. A primary skill would not assist more than one secondary skill.  So you could achieve a 6x equivalent build with:

1. 120 Swords, supporting Tactics -- 20% of 120 is 24, so if Tactics were 96, it would be equivalent to 120 as well. The character would still need to have a Tactics power scroll to allow its equivalent level to go over 100, however.
2. Same with 120 Parry allowing 96 points of Bushido to count as 120.
3. And same with 120 Healing allowing 96 points of Anatomy ...

Add everything up, and the sum is 648 points.  If your skill cap is 720, that leaves 72 points for Resist Spells or some other skill.

But, note that the element of balance and sacrifice still exists in this framework.  Maybe you don't need 120 as your goal.  What would happen if you settled on 110?

1. 110 Swords, supporting Tactics -- 20% of 110 is 22, so if Tactics were 88 it would be equivalent to 110 as well.
2. 110 Parry, 88 Bushido
3. 110 Healing, 88 Anatomy

Now the sum is 594. If you wanted your 120 Resist Spells, you could have it, with 6 points left over to go to one or two of the other skills. (For example, 5 more in Parry and 1 more in Bushido would give an equivalent 115 to Parry and 112 to Bushido.)

I have not thought this system completely through.  Threesomes exist, such as Ninjitsu, Hiding, and Stealth. That's an expenditure of 340 if you want to max them out under the current system (maximum for Hiding is 100).  Perhaps Ninjitsu would be considered primary for Stealth, and Stealth would be primary for Hiding.  Then 120 Ninjitsu allows for 96 Stealth to act as 120. However, to avoid "double-dipping", the third skill of the set would only be assisted by the actual points of Stealth, and at a 10% rate rather than 20%.  So now the sum is 120 + 96 + 90.4, or 306.4. Compared to 340, that is a savings of 33.6 points. I don't know if that is the best way to handle it, I'm just sitting here in stream-of-consciousness.  Maybe you'd only allow Stealth to be assisted, so the Hiding would still need its full 100 points to max out.

However it would work out, the Skills Gump would simplify things, by default showing assisted skill levels.  There would be a button, though, to toggle actual skill levels to see what was actually happening.

Cookie

Good post. I'll bite.

1. I'd like pure mage, and pure warrior to become more effective in pvm.

2. Fix is hard.

For pure warrior, I believe their healing options are not as strong as other templates, they have bandage healing which is slow, disturbable, and doesn't deal with many specials + whatever leech the weapon gives them. These don't compete with Confidence + Vampiric Embrace etc. Maybe Confidence and/or Vampiric Embrace style skills, need to come with Parry Skill as masteries.

For pure mage, everything out there is designed to disturb their spells, or monsters have huge resist so they cannot even do any damage. For example, warriors have armour ignore, which can cut through armour, with a thrower, I can solo Stygian Dragon - a mage just cannot do any damage at all, the Dragons HP regeneration is faster than any damage I can do. Putting protection on to pvm to deal with interuptions non stop is no fun, its like playing the game at half speed. Maybe for Scribe Mastery, they can add a Protection style skill, at max casting speed, and change some of the spells, so they are far more effective in pvm. Mind Blast and many others for example, are almost forgotten spells. Mind Blast was meant to deal with low cold resist, EQ is the only Physical spell mages have, but completely ineffective as a lvl 8. So not only were mages spells not suitable for when AoS style elemental resists came out, the monsters got so much resists, they made all the spells pointless anyway.

3. For pvm, my 2 most effective templates are tamer and mystic mage. My favourites are Scribe/or SW mage, but hardly useable, and Pure Warrior, but again hardly useable. I won't go near a Sampire, I really would rather quit than be forced down this road, like it seems they have been trying to do to everyone. Every new player these days, is pointed straight down the "build a Sampire" path - it's tragic.

Thalon

Cookie said:

Good post. I'll bite.

1. I'd like pure mage, and pure warrior to become more effective in pvm.

For pure mage, everything out there is designed to disturb their spells, or monsters have huge resist so they cannot even do any damage. For example, warriors have armour ignore, which can cut through armour, with a thrower, I can solo Stygian Dragon - a mage just cannot do any damage at all, the Dragons HP regeneration is faster than any damage I can do. 

... 

So not only were mages spells not suitable for when AoS style elemental resists came out, the monsters got so much resists, they made all the spells pointless anyway.

Yes, the pure mage is very handicapped by the hp/resists of the mobs.I brought my pure mage to Sorcerer's Dungeon for the event. Meteor Swarm and Chain Lightning were great for wiping out low-level spawn, but the bosses? No way. Discordance or Corpse Skin can help, but that is a hybrid necro/bard, not a pure mage.

On the other hand I tried bringing a samurai hybrid at an EM event in February. The character was doing damage but never earned looting rights because the tamer/spellweaver combo has much higher damage output, I could not compete!

Cookie

Hi Thalon,

I accept there will always be instances of one template is better than another template for a specific event or boss, if it happens here and there, that is fine.

My Thrower is ideal for soloing Navrey and Stygian Dragon. My Mystic can do Dreadhorn. etc.

But when you have 1 template that can wipe the board with 80+% of Events and Bosses, it becomes a joke. The Sampires in my guild solo all of the games top content - they solo the Harry, the Roof, Doom, Champ Spawns, Peerless etc.

My mage cannot come close. I cannot solo Roof, Harry, Doom, Champ Spawns. I cannot even solo the tier 2 pvm content (most Peerless), and I'm stuck with tier 3 pvm content - Stygian Abyss mini champs.

But what hurts more, is when they add in specific anti mage event/boss abilities that are designed to completely keep the mages out.

On the Roof, if you hit the boss with a spell, lots of additional mobs spawn, yet a pet or a warrior can hit it absolutely fine and penalty free - what is that about? They have completely shut off the games top content from an entire class.

In Doom, warriors again can hit the bosses fine, but the Dark Fathers for example, pull the mages in on every single spell (they may have reduced this now, but the damage is done) - but again, what sort of anti Mage game design is this?

Seriously, what the hell are they doing to be so anti mage?

Honestly, at this point, you have to question their fitness to be game designers for UO.

Thalon

Cookie said:

Hi Thalon,

I accept there will always be instances of one template is better than another template for a specific event or boss, if it happens here and there, that is fine.

My Thrower is ideal for soloing Navrey and Stygian Dragon. My Mystic can do Dreadhorn. etc.

But when you have 1 template that can wipe the board with 80+% of Events and Bosses, it becomes a joke. The Sampires in my guild solo all of the games top content - they solo the Harry, the Roof, Doom, Champ Spawns, Peerless etc.

My mage cannot come close. I cannot solo Roof, Harry, Doom, Champ Spawns. I cannot even solo the tier 2 pvm content (most Peerless), and I'm stuck with tier 3 pvm content - Stygian Abyss mini champs.

But what hurts more, is when they add in specific anti mage event/boss abilities that are designed to completely keep the mages out.

On the Roof, if you hit the boss with a spell, lots of additional mobs spawn, yet a pet or a warrior can hit it absolutely fine and penalty free - what is that about? They have completely shut off the games top content from an entire class.

In Doom, warriors again can hit the bosses fine, but the Dark Fathers for example, pull the mages in on every single spell (they may have reduced this now, but the damage is done) - but again, what sort of anti Mage game design is this?

Seriously, what the hell are they doing to be so anti mage?

Honestly, at this point, you have to question their fitness to be game designers for UO.

I think your last statement is a bit harsh.

Time of Legends may favor warriors/tamers over casters on The Roof, but other encounters are doable by other template (all you need for the Bar is a mount). While not developed by Broadsword the two expansions following Samurai Empire (Mondain's Legacy and Stygian Abyss) have a mix of content favoring a variety of templates which you mentioned in your post.

Sampire has always been a special case. Look at High Seas, both Corgul the Soulbinder and Osiredon the Scalis Enforcer were released with "Tainted Life Force" which kills any player using life-leech, very ANTI-Sampire. I wasn't subscribed to UO at the time but I can imagine the uproar that caused. Riktor use to set any dragons fighting him wild which made many tamers cry. Lord Paraoxymus eats pets/summons to regain life...definately handicaps tamers. Numerous mobs in Samurai Empire are immune to bard skills and fandancers reactively damage caster templates. Making a single template handicapped isn't the best solution, but it has been regularly used.

Cookie

Harsh but fair, they've been building in this direction solidly for at least 10 years.

They don't even see it.

With regards to your small justifications, that is what they are, small justifications, I have said - to have it here and there, is fine, but not as a solid theme throughout the entire game. There is a solid anti mage theme, as if the lead designer only plays a Sampire.

On Stratics, I challenged Mesanna to show me her playing a Mage, to solo 80% of the games content - she never did. One of my friends uploaded video's of him soloing 80% of the games content on a Sampire as my side of the challenge. I have written to her about this, and I've seen developers state they think the mage is balanced. (Because it has 64 spells that do lots of things {except complete game content}).

It is unforgivable. I'll stop now, you've hit a nerve.

I agree Pure classes, and many classes need buffing, all my posts back this up.

What winds me up, is they seem to have no intention of doing anything about it. So UO just gets more and more 1 dimensional.

Thalon

Cookie said:
...

On Stratics, I challenged Mesanna to show me her playing a Mage, to solo 80% of the games content - she never did. One of my friends uploaded video's of him soloing 80% of the games content on a Sampire as my side of the challenge. I have written to her about this, and I've seen developers state they think the mage is balanced. (Because it has 64 spells that do lots of things {except complete game content}).

It is unforgivable. I'll stop now, you've hit a nerve.  

...

I appreciate your contributions to the thread. You clearly feel passionate which is good.

As much as this thread is about boosting traditional templates rather than bringing out the NERFHAMMER, the Sampire is the outlier.  Sampire can complete content meant for groups as a solo character. Comparing any other Template to Sampire will never be equal on all counts. Some bard, tamer or mystic builds may compete forr soloing specific fights, but not all. So mage VS samurai VS bard VS archer vs etc in group oriented content MIGHT be considered balanced by the Devs....but the Sampire NO. So you have two options 1) boost other templates 2 ) NERF the Sampire.

This thread is about option 1). Will all templates be as sucessful as the Sampire? No, but Devs could close the gap a bit with boosts. Sampire can be left alone as EASYMODE for players that want it and have invested the time in their build.

The_Higgs_1

I would like to see mages get leeching abilities added to spellbooks, this would bring them up to par with sampires or at least much closer.  Of course the mage can still be interrupted, but at least they can keep on high dmg spells without worrying about mana.

Sitromis

This post has aged, but its content remains valid.

As one who has always enjoyed the pure mage, I find it very unfortunate that a large portion of the game is not available to me (as a soloist in this guise) - even with excessive power gear. 
At this point, most veterans have purchased, won or otherwise acquired a large amount of wealth and gear; when applied to certain templates, Skill Points can challenge the 800's … take a Mage/Tamer for example … there are specific items designed to allow for this and having a well trained beast along ones side, coupled with the large Skill Point pool is an immense advantage compared to most specializations. 

Further comparisons remain valid (today) involving the Sampire; again the pure mage pales even further. Sampires have versatility in the extreme and when played correctly, their strength against one or many is impressive; frankly, ludicrous but great for a solo-player. Only I shouldn't be confined to playing a Sampire if I want to see "80% of the game content" …

Sure there are other class specialization that require attention; but the popular vote on this thread is that pure mage needs work, so we're tracking here. The hope is at some point this gets the attention it needs - when mailing Mesanna directly doesn't. 

As one who has provided direction for the majority of my career, I take no criticism without an equal amount of solutioning. Most (obviously) agree here, so let's offer some solutions that could be of benefit. With that, I see the plight of the pure mage as one who is hobbled, hinder and/or compromised further by the addition of skills (such as Barding, Alchemy or even Inscription) and not empowered. Sure, there is added versatility, but the power of their casts remains largely unaffected. There is simply not enough Skill Points to go around to compensate for that... even with end-game gear. So, let me offer a few VERY simple (to code) solutions that could easily change "the game" for a pure mage. There is a lot of directions this could go, but I will detail three concepts a pure mage would passively choose a proficiency - a Summoner, an Elementalist or a Sorcerer. 

But first, Alchemy and Inscription combined with the standard mage base (i.e. Magery, Evaluate Intelligence and Meditation) should yield a significantly larger bonus to Spell Damage, Cast Speed, and Recovery Speed. With those two Skills in any Mage template, there is no room to add other skills to that create the edge certain classes have with power and versatility; thus the reason the combination of Skills should empower the pure mage further. From a development (i.e. code work) perspective, this would be a very simple adjustment to make. 

As for the passive proficiency selection, this would be accomplished by merely combining further skills into the template; which would then produce unique changes in the how Magery behaves. 

The Summoner - Magery, Evaluate Intelligence, Mediation, Alchemy, Inscription, Herding and Anatomy would passively put the mage on this path. Why Herding and Anatomy? Herding should not remain useless, it's difficult to GM and resonates with Humility. Anatomy seems like something a Summoner would be required to know about what it calls into being. The two primary additions to this proficiency would include summons with greater statistics (e.g. those found with the 'greater' prefix) and an addition to how many creatures can be controlled. Imagine a Summoner with three EV's that did not easily dispel or die. 
 
The Elementalist - Magery, Evaluate Intelligence, Meditation, Alchemy, Inscription, Resisting Spells and Focus would enable the Elementalist proficiency. Perhaps more of what some of us have in mind when we think about a pure mage, the Elementalist has ALL of benefits of empowered spell casts and can withstand a greater amount of magic as well. Their offensive spells dealing with elemental damage (i.e. fire, cold, electricity, etc.) would sustain a damage modifier and in coming elemental effects could perhaps benefit the Elementalist (e.g. leech?) while other harmful magics might be lessened altogether. Perhaps a bit more code involved here as each spell would need to be addressed, but very doable with regards to implementation.
  
The Sorcerer - Magery, Evaluate Intelligence, Mediation, Alchemy, Inscription, Poisoning, and Taste Identification would become the Sorcerer. You know who was a Sorcerer? Mondain! How about a proficiency that brought back the potency of Potions and Poison during combat?! Frankly, if you examine the combination of skills, there's some excellent synergy here. There are some very interesting potions these days, but their effectiveness would require a stronger boost in Enhanced Potions than we presently can receive. Perhaps spell the spell damage increase that I suggest with Alchemy and Inscription, combined with Enhanced Potions would suffice?? This too would be an easy adaptation for the thin ranks of Broadsword to withstand. 


The funny thing about code and imagination, the possibilities are endless. If you made it this far, I hope it inspires, because its been entertaining imaging a more effective pure mage than what we have today. 

Be well. 

WornOutYourTool

Bushido and chiv are too strong, offering so much utility and power for not really a lot of sp.  Any boost to traditional warrior template will just make these things stronger.  Sampire same deal. 

  I can't believe that was ever allowed to exist.  If necro spells and forms actually required negative karma maybe it wouldn't have been.  The necromantic blood sucking vampire that believes in good virtue and honorable combat against foes that have zero chance of competing will remain king and a living contradiction.

Thalon

Sitromis said:

This post has aged, but its content remains valid.

As one who has always enjoyed the pure mage, I find it very unfortunate that a large portion of the game is not available to me (as a soloist in this guise) - even with excessive power gear. 
At this point, most veterans have purchased, won or otherwise acquired a large amount of wealth and gear; when applied to certain templates, Skill Points can challenge the 800's … take a Mage/Tamer for example … there are specific items designed to allow for this and having a well trained beast along ones side, coupled with the large Skill Point pool is an immense advantage compared to most specializations. 

Further comparisons remain valid (today) involving the Sampire; again the pure mage pales even further. Sampires have versatility in the extreme and when played correctly, their strength against one or many is impressive; frankly, ludicrous but great for a solo-player. Only I shouldn't be confined to playing a Sampire if I want to see "80% of the game content" …

Sure there are other class specialization that require attention; but the popular vote on this thread is that pure mage needs work, so we're tracking here. The hope is at some point this gets the attention it needs - when mailing Mesanna directly doesn't. 

As one who has provided direction for the majority of my career, I take no criticism without an equal amount of solutioning. Most (obviously) agree here, so let's offer some solutions that could be of benefit. With that, I see the plight of the pure mage as one who is hobbled, hinder and/or compromised further by the addition of skills (such as Barding, Alchemy or even Inscription) and not empowered. Sure, there is added versatility, but the power of their casts remains largely unaffected. There is simply not enough Skill Points to go around to compensate for that... even with end-game gear. So, let me offer a few VERY simple (to code) solutions that could easily change "the game" for a pure mage. There is a lot of directions this could go, but I will detail three concepts a pure mage would passively choose a proficiency - a Summoner, an Elementalist or a Sorcerer. 

As for the passive proficiency selection, this would be accomplished by merely combining further skills into the template; which would then produce unique changes in the how Magery behaves. 

...

The funny thing about code and imagination, the possibilities are endless. If you made it this far, I hope it inspires, because its been entertaining imaging a more effective pure mage than what we have today. 

Be well. 

I appreciate the your continued interest in this topic and thread.  And yes, about the only thing that has changed in the past year is "The Roof" encounter from Time of Legends has been altered so Tamed Pets now generate spawn; making Tamer characters more equal to other templates running The Roof rather than a "trump card".

Your thoughts on creating new abilities/bonuses for specific skill combinations/templates appears well-thought out, but in two cases ends up turning the mage into something that functions like another exisiting template. Your examples Summoner=Tamer and Sorcerer=Alchemist/NoxMage). I don't quite get what sort of game mechanics you are suggesting for the Elementalist.

However, since a "pure mage" is Magery/EvalInt/Meditation/Wrestling/Resist/Inscript. Swapping one of the traditional 6 skills makes it a new template; which doesn't really help the true "pure mage" template.

I've thought on the subject a bit over the last year. I currently think the problem is templates which rely on Magery spells for damage are underpowered against targets with high resists. Players which also include Necromancy, Mysticism or Spellweaving in their caster template are much more effective in my experience.
- Necromancers can use Corpse Skin to debuff target's Fire and Poison resists.

- Mystics can combo Spell Plague with Hail Storm or damaging spells.

- Spellweavers don't do a lot of damage at first, but Word of Death outdoes other damage spells once the target's hitpoints drop low.

- As far as summoned creatures; Reaper with Spellweave Mastery, Rising Colossus with Mysticism or spamming Animate Dead with Necromancy will get you a much better tank than any 8th circle Magery spell.

So rather than forcing "pure mages" to add a second spellbook or change their template to replace one of the original 6 skills with a different skill, what could be done to increase their effectiveness? Rather than stick to something that helps only the "Pure Mage" I'd like to make a suggestion that would assist all caster templates, but maybe close the gap between Magery-only and hybird templates.

A new Item Property might help. Rather than a spellbook in hand which has Spell Damage Increase (let's face it, against a target with 90 Fire Resist a Flamestrike when you are at 60% SDI isn't much different from a cast at 90% SDI); instead create a new item property: all casters equip a book/rod/wand/staff which lowers the target's effective Resist for their spells by -5, -10 or -15. Each could be damage type specific, Fire/Cold/Energy etc.

Just like warriors swapping between weapons during a fight, if a mage is facing an opponent with high Resists, the mage would equip the Resist reducing book/rod/wand/staff. When they are facing a low resist boss or generic monster spawn, Spellbooks that grant SDI property or Slayer property will be the better option to equip. 

Merus

Thalon said:

Sitromis said:

This post has aged, but its content remains valid.

As one who has always enjoyed the pure mage, I find it very unfortunate that a large portion of the game is not available to me (as a soloist in this guise) - even with excessive power gear. 
At this point, most veterans have purchased, won or otherwise acquired a large amount of wealth and gear; when applied to certain templates, Skill Points can challenge the 800's … take a Mage/Tamer for example … there are specific items designed to allow for this and having a well trained beast along ones side, coupled with the large Skill Point pool is an immense advantage compared to most specializations. 

Further comparisons remain valid (today) involving the Sampire; again the pure mage pales even further. Sampires have versatility in the extreme and when played correctly, their strength against one or many is impressive; frankly, ludicrous but great for a solo-player. Only I shouldn't be confined to playing a Sampire if I want to see "80% of the game content" …

Sure there are other class specialization that require attention; but the popular vote on this thread is that pure mage needs work, so we're tracking here. The hope is at some point this gets the attention it needs - when mailing Mesanna directly doesn't. 

As one who has provided direction for the majority of my career, I take no criticism without an equal amount of solutioning. Most (obviously) agree here, so let's offer some solutions that could be of benefit. With that, I see the plight of the pure mage as one who is hobbled, hinder and/or compromised further by the addition of skills (such as Barding, Alchemy or even Inscription) and not empowered. Sure, there is added versatility, but the power of their casts remains largely unaffected. There is simply not enough Skill Points to go around to compensate for that... even with end-game gear. So, let me offer a few VERY simple (to code) solutions that could easily change "the game" for a pure mage. There is a lot of directions this could go, but I will detail three concepts a pure mage would passively choose a proficiency - a Summoner, an Elementalist or a Sorcerer. 

As for the passive proficiency selection, this would be accomplished by merely combining further skills into the template; which would then produce unique changes in the how Magery behaves. 

...

The funny thing about code and imagination, the possibilities are endless. If you made it this far, I hope it inspires, because its been entertaining imaging a more effective pure mage than what we have today. 

Be well. 

I appreciate the your continued interest in this topic and thread.  And yes, about the only thing that has changed in the past year is "The Roof" encounter from Time of Legends has been altered so Tamed Pets now generate spawn; making Tamer characters more equal to other templates running The Roof rather than a "trump card".

Your thoughts on creating new abilities/bonuses for specific skill combinations/templates appears well-thought out, but in two cases ends up turning the mage into something that functions like another exisiting template. Your examples Summoner=Tamer and Sorcerer=Alchemist/NoxMage). I don't quite get what sort of game mechanics you are suggesting for the Elementalist.

However, since a "pure mage" is Magery/EvalInt/Meditation/Wrestling/Resist/Inscript. Swapping one of the traditional 6 skills makes it a new template; which doesn't really help the true "pure mage" template.

I've thought on the subject a bit over the last year. I currently think the problem is templates which rely on Magery spells for damage are underpowered against targets with high resists. Players which also include Necromancy, Mysticism or Spellweaving in their caster template are much more effective in my experience.
- Necromancers can use Corpse Skin to debuff target's Fire and Poison resists.

- Mystics can combo Spell Plague with Hail Storm or damaging spells.

- Spellweavers don't do a lot of damage at first, but Word of Death outdoes other damage spells once the target's hitpoints drop low.

- As far as summoned creatures; Reaper with Spellweave Mastery, Rising Colossus with Mysticism or spamming Animate Dead with Necromancy will get you a much better tank than any 8th circle Magery spell.

So rather than forcing "pure mages" to add a second spellbook or change their template to replace one of the original 6 skills with a different skill, what could be done to increase their effectiveness? Rather than stick to something that helps only the "Pure Mage" I'd like to make a suggestion that would assist all caster templates, but maybe close the gap between Magery-only and hybird templates.

A new Item Property might help. Rather than a spellbook in hand which has Spell Damage Increase (let's face it, against a target with 90 Fire Resist a Flamestrike when you are at 60% SDI isn't much different from a cast at 90% SDI); instead create a new item property: all casters equip a book/rod/wand/staff which lowers the target's effective Resist for their spells by -5, -10 or -15. Each could be damage type specific, Fire/Cold/Energy etc.

Just like warriors swapping between weapons during a fight, if a mage is facing an opponent with high Resists, the mage would equip the Resist reducing book/rod/wand/staff. When they are facing a low resist boss or generic monster spawn, Spellbooks that grant SDI property or Slayer property will be the better option to equip. 

I think you could accomplish much of what you want for mages with a couple simple changes:

~ Adjust the curse spell to be more impactful in PvM ... something like lowers enemy resists by 5% - 25% for 60 seconds (scaled based on real evaluate intel)  This could stack with other spell school debuffs.  Curse/Corpse Skin would be extremely powerful for PvM with both skills at 120 real.

~ Add "mana leech" to some nice SDI spellbooks and allow mages the same ability that virtually every warrior class out there is using for life/mana/stamina.

Thalon

Merus said:

I think you could accomplish much of what you want for mages with a couple simple changes:

~ Adjust the curse spell to be more impactful in PvM ... something like lowers enemy resists by 5% - 25% for 60 seconds (scaled based on real evaluate intel)  This could stack with other spell school debuffs.  Curse/Corpse Skin would be extremely powerful for PvM with both skills at 120 real.

~ Add "mana leech" to some nice SDI spellbooks and allow mages the same ability that virtually every warrior class out there is using for life/mana/stamina.

Curse spell is not a bad idea, but most creatures with 80+ damage Resists (cold/fire etc) also have high Resist Spells skill which opposes the effectiveness of the Magery spell Curse.

As for mana leech, running out of mana is not a problem I typically have on my Mage. Just have to make sure gear has Mana Regen and Lower Mana Cost.

monkgamer

I feel that many more characters need to be raised to be able to do pvm like tamers and sampires. having 2 choices to play the game effectively is REDICULOUS.

1. mages need more raw power or better defense to solo more high end bosses.
2. warriors need more raw power and not to miss so much, so they can go toe to toe with the greatest of enemies.
3. unnerf provocation, dont make anything unbardable, thats pretty lame and I get why they did it back then but its rediculous now. The game just doesn't have enough players to constantly run groups for everyone.

They beefed up the monsters and made the game generally harder, but in response to that did nothing but nerf everyone such as making BS and EVs get auto dispelled because you cant having anyone but tamers have any fun in the game. They did do a few things to compensate but it was never enough. 

Solo play should be an option in this day and age. Why have content that can't even be played? Or only played on atlantic?

Urge

monkgamer said:

I feel that many more characters need to be raised to be able to do pvm like tamers and sampires. having 2 choices to play the game effectively is REDICULOUS.

1. mages need more raw power or better defense to solo more high end bosses.
2. warriors need more raw power and not to miss so much, so they can go toe to toe with the greatest of enemies.
3. unnerf provocation, dont make anything unbardable, thats pretty lame and I get why they did it back then but its rediculous now. The game just doesn't have enough players to constantly run groups for everyone.

They beefed up the monsters and made the game generally harder, but in response to that did nothing but nerf everyone such as making BS and EVs get auto dispelled because you cant having anyone but tamers have any fun in the game. They did do a few things to compensate but it was never enough. 

Solo play should be an option in this day and age. Why have content that can't even be played? Or only played on atlantic? 

There are many choices in gameplay and many hybrid templates to choose from. 

1)Mages can have an insane amount of SDI in pvm. It's just that spells cost mana and they can't leech it back. These templates are often hybrid with spellweaving which makes word of death do over 1k damage at times. 
2) If you increase warriors it'll just increase the sampire as they're basically the same. Sampires can already solo everything in the game with the right set up.
3) The only issue i have with bard is the timer. Harder things should take longer to accomplish. 

Almost everything can be soloed. I have ran Shadowguard with 1 friend and it was easy. 

monkgamer

so because sampires are like they are, other types of warriors are right out of luck. I think other warrior templates need a serious boost.

mages: then mages need more powerful spell defense. If sampires and tamers can just stand there,then mages who need to kite need better spell resist spells. I hoinestly don't care how its done, something needs to be done. There was ZERO reason to nerf evs and blade spirits. end of story. 

I agree harder monsters need to be harder but not impossible to solo and if you look at other shards most of the content is untouched because the vision of having huge groups do content was misplaced and not in the spirit of uo up to that time. Re balance bosses to be challenging for the solo player end of story.

Urge

monkgamer said:

so because sampires are like they are, other types of warriors are right out of luck. I think other warrior templates need a serious boost.

mages: then mages need more powerful spell defense. If sampires and tamers can just stand there,then mages who need to kite need better spell resist spells. I hoinestly don't care how its done, something needs to be done. There was ZERO reason to nerf evs and blade spirits. end of story. 

I agree harder monsters need to be harder but not impossible to solo and if you look at other shards most of the content is untouched because the vision of having huge groups do content was misplaced and not in the spirit of uo up to that time. Re balance bosses to be challenging for the solo player end of story.

Sampires are a combination of the best of 3 templates. I'm not sure how you could even go about making a plain warrior better without in turn doing an indirect boost to a sampire. 

The standard mage was meant to add more skills to it. Mage Med Eval and Resist leaves room for 2-3 more skills to be added to compliment it.

If it's about the AI of Mobs auto dispelling then i can agree with that. You could do a mystic and cast RC. Those seem to do much better than EV.

Grace

A boost to healing skill speed for bandages at 120 heal 120 anat real skill would 
be a start to  making warriors a choice.

Urge

Grace said:

A boost to healing skill speed for bandages at 120 heal 120 anat real skill would 
be a start to  making warriors a choice.

That might be better served as a passive mastery for healing. 

How about a DCI overcap increase for using a shield if wep skill = 100+? You have to tie it to a wep skill or else parry mages would reap the rewards. 

monkgamer

well the sampire would get boosted by most boosts for warriors but there has to be a way to help other templates.  im honestly not sure how that would be done.