Idea Mage (Proposed changes)

I 100% agreed with this forum, mage is just a spammy class. With what Foodcourt said, if a mage user catches you in a narrow hallway well they got the upper hand with holding S and spamming you with the damage spell. I do propose an idea for a whole new rework for the class as to change the heap factor down to only having a limit (like only having 5 heal spells) so the whole freezing healing lightning process can stop. I just have another thing. What will we do about the other spells in the class? Yes the other spells are hella op but what will we do to change the class but still making it fun for well “mage users” I feel sick after saying mage is a “fun” class.

 

Ok but first off
Mage issues take priority p far down the line, other classes are in more desperate need of help

and when you think about it mage is only good at annoying people, and it's really easy to kill with any mobile or ranged class, only when people are good at it is it impossible to deal with. A lot of these changes you're proposing will not make mage balanced, it will make mage useless. It's like teemo in league, everyone hates it, sure. But is it broken, no. It's pretty balanced in terms of a lot of the game, so if you wanna weaken some of it, you gotta give it some help.

Also I think the 5 health spell thing is a decent idea but it would be restored by medic so not that big of a deal. But I don't really like the removal of kb on damage spell cuz if you miss ice and miss lightning, which isn't hard to miss both at all, mage has like 0% survivability then. Honestly mage is just annoying, but in a good place compared to other classes.

 

I agree and disagree, Mage can be incredibly annoying in the right hands but often ends up being an underwhelming class. In a 1v1 scenario, mage shines against melee classes and tanks such as Heavy and Medic, but if it goes against many of the light armored classes, ranged threats, and recently buffed chemist, it's doomed from the start (and don't get me started about 2v1). Mage could see some tweaks to make it less spammy, but in return anything that consists of longer cooldowns or less knockback should be buffed damage wise. Attacking with Left Click isn't a huge problem as mentioned previously, but I could see some heavy tweaking being done to the class (not nerfing, but tweaking).

 

imo mage is pretty balanced as is rn albeit it can be very annoying to deal with. could remove the knockback from the damage spell and buff the damage and knockback for the lightning spell to compensate.

 

Mage isn't really that problematic in terms of the objective, and its damage output is rather mediocre compared to other classes, its just annoying.

 

Exactly the reason no one ****ing likes the class.

 

Well........

I think mage fills a niche which no other class can, and just for that fact we should not alter its damage spell cooldown (make it longer as you have suggested in this thread) but I feel that mage needs to be punished more for getting too close to enemies (since many enemies are melee and mage is supposed to a 'keep your distance' kind of class) so yes, maybe we could try removing knockback that enemies would receive from them hoe attacks. I feel like being spammed from a distance is fine but not being able to hit the thing from like 2 blocks away because they are spamming their damage spells AND hitting you back with their attacks and you can't get close to them it is very ANNOYING

So yes I think having hoe knockback removed completely would allow there to be at least some form of counterplay towards mages (and maybe if mage is too underpowered against ninjas with this change, then maybe make the knockback change applicable to all classes except ninja?)

Also maybe....

Damage spell could do more damage if this change is put into effect to compensate for the loss of melee damage (aka increase in amount of ranged damage instead)

That's all I got to say for now :') I am very incompetent when it comes to mage so for all I know my opinion is irrelevant and inapplicable. But thanks for reading it anyways.

P.S. The knockback I'm talking about in the thread is the knockback from the left-click of the hoe, NOT the knockback you get from the damage spell. I think the knockback from the damage spell should remain unchanged.

 

I personally prefer the slower firing rate on damage spell best among the suggestions you mentioned, and that alone could balance Mage dramatically since it's often a fall back when a mage exhausts all other spell abilities in the moment. I think it's too easy to abuse damage spell because it's almost like a short-ranged Archer, BUT they have the ability to quickly strafe while firing at full power and they have no gravity arcing their aim at all so it's literally just point and shoot...again and again. The fire rate should be less than an Archer shooting arrow after arrow at full-draw strength because it has those other advantages in both mobility and direct aim.

As for lightning, I think it's too wonky to be reliable so I think nerfing that would really only change things circumstantially and not very consistently overall.

About the knockback and punching damage, I doubt a Mage swinging a hoe to bap us away in desperation is going to be changed. Sure, the damage it causes is no joke to the low-armored classes, but basically if your class wields a powerful sword and you didn't kill the Mage early on the advantage definitely goes to the Mage after that no matter what...and if you're running in close you should have a much stronger weapon than the Mage for melee and should be indulging in the rare moment that a Mage is within melee range and waiting on all cooldowns.

What bugs me about Mages is how they only need to get far enough away when the fight gets rough and that single heal spell essentially brings them back as if they were fresh out from the spawn room...and any non-Mage is starting the next round with whatever damage they suffered, or whatever steaks or items/ammo was depleted. Mages have NO diminishing returns currently, and ALL other classes do unless a Medic comes to the rescue (the same Medics which Mages currently have absolutely no need for, except maybe as another target to distract the opponents).

. . .

Perhaps another idea for a balance instead would be to introduce a kind of "magic dust" to the hotbar that Mages carry around to fire off spells as quickly as they do. If the stack has less than its maximum (let's say 24 spells for a maximum), then it increases by 1 for every second that passes whether the Mage is active or passive until it reaches its maximum again. Each time the Mage casts any spell, one of the magic dusts is spent as a reagent. Every time the stack is completely depleted to zero, the cooldown timer delays on all spells activate simultaneously with no spell effect. This is the moment that the Mage should escape for a bit to regain a supply of magic dust over time or seek a Medic to top them off instantly. The Mage would still be pretty powerful and the playstyle would be unchanged in this case at first, but they wouldn't be able to go nonstop without a Medic's help after a few rounds. So it's still a nerf, but this one's not a nerf to the way that a Mage would be controlled but instead it's a nerf to how many times a Mage can start and stop a battle without the aid of a Medic or a period of downtime ... or respawning at their spawn zone like the rest of the classes when they need to start fresh.