[Interview] Magic and Alchemy the first half of reorganization

• JoeyDee9 wrote on 2013-02-09 22:26
  Hmm, I'm really interested to see what they end up doing.
  -huggles the orphaned magic and alchemy- You'll be getting a new home soon.
• Kaeporo wrote on 2013-02-09 22:29
  Magic shouldn't require many changes in order to be less situational and more efficient. Alchemy, on the other hand, needs to be reworked completely.
  
  Magic Skill Issues:
  1. Blaze - Suffers from the following:
  - Weapon restriction
  - Time/Position dependency
  - The down gauge factor further reduces its usefulness
  2. Fusion Bolt
  - Easily canceled
  - Rarely worth the time investment
  3. Thunder
  - Difficulty of switching weapons during standby period
  - Standby period lasts for-fucking-ever (which is a severe concern during team play)
  4. Fireball
  - It simply does not produce enough damage to warrant its heavy load time.
  5. Hail Storm
  - It sports rather unfortunate initial load and crystal charge times.
  6. Ice Spear
  - N/A, still a ridiculously powerful skill
  
  General Magic Issues:
  1. The intelligence formula sucks.
  2. Casting speed effects don't stack properly.
  3. You need multiple weapons in order to utilize all skills (I don't believe that the Hermit Staff can cast Fusion Bolt).
  3a. Certain weapons are pretty lackluster (pretty much all lightning wands and the combat wand).
  4. There aren't very many elemental enemies.
  
  DevCat has been talking about an alchemy renewal for a pretty substantial amount of time. I almost doubt that they'll even do anything.
• JoeyDee9 wrote on 2013-02-09 22:41
  -Blaze-
  I agree with the weapon restrictions...but,
  If they completely redid blaze it would lose its....fun factor? I don't feel like it's an easily stand alone skill but it's very much an excellent support skill. I find myself subbing a combat wand when I'm supporting a party with hailstorm, whenever I see a cornered monster and just go over and unleash a fully charged blaze. People forget that this skill can still do 10+k damage crits easily. Of course the frequency you can do this damage is not high enough...Best solution would be raising the minimum non knock black damage and raising the maximum damage to adhere to every others skillsets higher DPS now.
  
  I agree with everything else that Kaeporo said.
• truefire wrote on 2013-02-09 22:53

  Quote from Chihaya;1029533:

  
  Why can't NA Nexon be like this? =|
  

  
  
  Because NA Nexon can't even develop a bad case of smallpox, let alone Mabi. That's why. If we had an NA Devcat division and maybe more free reign over what can and can't be implemented...
  
  Thanks for pointing out the major highlights in the article.
• Kenero wrote on 2013-02-09 23:05
  Thanks for the translation Chihaya, and yea... alchemy needs love too!
• Sepia wrote on 2013-02-10 01:57
  Thanks for that, Chihaya.
• Dracius wrote on 2013-02-10 03:14
  Raid system? Sorry if I'm slow, but is that the whole mass dragon army in Iria or something else entirely?
• Poptart wrote on 2013-02-10 12:14
  There's really two problems with magic.
  
  One, we've no real instant skills- well, Shockwave is coming, but still. First bolt should load time-free, at the least- maybe not on chaincasters (or firebolts at all? Too many possibilities if it did...). And if Hailstorm loaded much faster, I think we'd all be okay with the crystal charge time...
  Two, server lag eats MP. Serious, why can't it all be like party healing? Even bolts drain a little.
• Chihaya wrote on 2013-02-10 15:56

  Quote from Dracius;1029716:

  Raid system? Sorry if I'm slow, but is that the whole mass dragon army in Iria or something else entirely?

  
  
  Yeah, that's it. They're talking about the contribution system being rather unbalanced. I've personally never participated in a Raid, so I'm not sure.
  
  

  Quote from Poptart;1029894:

  There's really two problems with magic.
  
  One, we've no real instant skills- well, Shockwave is coming, but still. First bolt should load time-free, at the least- maybe not on chaincasters (or firebolts at all? Too many possibilities if it did...). And if Hailstorm loaded much faster, I think we'd all be okay with the crystal charge time...
  Two, server lag eats MP. Serious, why can't it all be like party healing? Even bolts drain a little.

  
  
  The thing about mages is that they're already pretty powerful with reforges. Have you seen the damage of Crisis + Hailstorm? O_O;;
  
  If some spells like bolt magic was insta-load, a noob mage can simply switch between Fire +4 Wand and Ice +4 Wand to spam firebolt (damage) and icebolt (cooldown) to be pretty much overpowered at total... 300-500 ish?
  
  The problem with mages is actually pretty complicated. They can't really solo any of the more difficult missions (because multiaggro will almost always > a solo mage), but if they're given any form of opportunity to cast their magic in such situations, they become easily overpowered. Other than the casting time, there's really nothing that hinders a mage in party situations.
  
  And the above is why I created that one thread in the past about "waiting for mages to charge". Usually, in areas where mage skills are not absolutely necessary, mages are generally too full of themselves if they request people to wait for them to charge. (Of course, this assumes outside of guild-play or casual runs) I kinda feel glad that Nexon made the Lord Missions, where magic skills are pretty much useless
  
  /flameshield
• tyu161 wrote on 2013-02-10 19:18
  I just hope this will make more ppl go mage and alchemist i can count on 2 hands the mages and alchemist I know.
• Dracius wrote on 2013-02-10 19:45

  Quote from tyu161;1029994:

  I just hope this will make more ppl go mage and alchemist i can count on 2 hands the mages and alchemist I know.

  
  
  That's....
  1, 2, 3, 4...
  
  That's like 10!
• Azareel wrote on 2013-02-10 19:53

  Quote from Dracius;1030012:

  That's....
  1, 2, 3, 4...
  
  That's like 10!

  
  
  dey 2 populer obv needs nref lik srsly it 2 op
• Kenero wrote on 2013-02-10 20:01
  Is it okay if I am counted as an Alchemist? :)
• Karaage wrote on 2013-02-11 00:09
  Mage pryde!
  
  #manaswag
  #donthatedahice
  #Icespear
  #Hailstorm
  
  In other news, a buff would be welcome, make my int worth something besides gunner.
• Aubog007 wrote on 2013-02-11 00:19

  Quote from Kenero;1030025:

  Is it okay if I am counted as an Alchemist? :)

  
  
  I have all but 5 alchemy skills mastered! do i count as well :(