Am I the only one to think mages are underpowered ?

[Darakus]

The few spells available to mages do little to no damage and don\'t progress with level in the magic class they are coming from.

Added to that a few modifications have been made :

Mage cannot cast spells when running anymore (works for me except for the fact that spells take so long to cast that you cannot even imagine fighting a non-mage anymore, they\'ll be on you before you can even complete any spell and you cannot defend while casting)

Staying out of the range of a spell or running out of its range will see the spell fizzle (no problem there that is pretty logical)

Basically being a mage is having a deathwish nowadays, not only do you have less HP, limited mana, and very limited range to your spells, you also have to wait for a time before a spell is being cast while only walking to get away from your enemies because otherwise the spell will fizzle.  In the meanwhile your enemy can run to you to start an attack and get his hits in with no problems before you can even cast something (if you actually cast it because there is still a natural chance of the spell failing on its own) which with the mage\'s HP means he is death before even fighting.


Now I\'m not saying that the situation won\'t fix itself as new spells arrive and the casting time/damage is finally adapted to reflect the experience (training) of a mage but for the present this mage will learn how to handle a sword and buy a few good pairs of sneakers cause magic won\'t give him any advantage.

[Erinys]

I agree, I keep failing my spell summon missile and it doesn\'t even tell the dmg, but I suspect it\'s low since I need to hit a rat for 5+ times to kill it. That way I\'m using hit and run for like 3-4 minutes, I kill a rat with my falcion in less than 20 secs.
I admit I only have 1 skill points in crystal way, because I\'m a dark mage but weakness is useless, it doesn\'t fail often but you have to be in touching range, and it takes very long to cast (lucky it doesn\'t interrupt when you get hit) and still I can\'t see the advantage of it because I take 70% dmg when casting the skill on a gobble and for what? the 10 points of str less or the few hp it reduces? Anyway I do\'nt stand a chanca against a weakened gobble with my 30% hp left while I can kill a gobble without weakness with 100% of my hp.

[yuha]

Mages are pathetic because of the limited power levels of the available spells - I\'ve developed crystal way to 15th lvl, now my summon missile does about twice as damage as when it did when I had 1 lvl in crystal way. It\'s also not fair that mages are loosing their mana attacking as long as warriors doesn\'t loose their fatigue. I think that \"weakness\" is unusable - if the casting time is that loooong then it shouldn\'t be required to be in the touch range with the attacked creature. If you\'re using weakness, you\'re asking for trouble.

[Merdarion]

And there is one thing thats also unfair.

Mages can run and even sendtheir spells trough walls, giving them a huge advantage against fighters

[ramlambmoo]

Cant you still run and cast spells?  One problem seems to be that putting points into crystal way does pretty much nothing.  It takes 40 progression points to get to level 10 sword, which does at least 15+ damage each hit.  (Double if you have 2 swords).  On the other hand it takes 140 progression points to get level 10 crystal, and the arrow does only does a bit more damage (thats assuming it even does do more damage-the difference isnt big enough to tell because it dosnt tell you how much damage you do).  The only cool thing about mages is when you challenge someone when they\'re along way away, then just cast spells and run  Works every time.  Unless thats been changed, i havnt tried it lately.

[Zellgadess]

......................the magic system you see now is nothing. It is meatly a couple of small spells to get started off with. Everything will be fixed and balanced as the game is updated. I am a sorcerer my self, and i cant win anycombat what so ever. Give it time....

[Feran]

Originally posted by Zellgadess
......................the magic system you see now is nothing. It is meatly a couple of small spells to get started off with. Everything will be fixed and balanced as the game is updated. I am a sorcerer my self, and i cant win anycombat what so ever. Give it time....

I second this. Actually since about the 28th when I first started PS, the balance between Fighter and Mages has oscillated. First it was just way too difficult to get any PP to be a high level mage, so fighting was the way to go. Then it became viable to get PP and tia and Magic meant (a) being able to deal additional damage and (b) being able to have safe ranged attacks.

Now both fighter and mage have become more difficult, but the mage has a really hard time. The main reason is mostly though the difficulty of the higher level opponents.

Let me explain. I used to be able to win, with patience, against any mob in the game as both fighter and mage. (Fighter, sword lvl 20, Mage crystal lvl 30). Now this is not the case anymore. The fighter has a reasonable chance against the rogue, and the mage has with hard work. The mage has no change anymore in duels (it used to be the opposite due to running).

The interesting thing is though that a lvl 20 sword fighter and a level 30 crystal mage have invested vastly different amounts of PP and tia to get where they are because raising crystal costs much more than raising sword. Before the balance i would have though that they were about equal in power with advantages and drawbacks. But that means in terms of investment, a mage already was weaker, but, I admit, he used to be more fun to play due to more combat options.

Now mages are sitting ducks (even if they also have lvl 20 sword due to low hps). A step into the wrong room in the arena and the big T will crush you with one hit. A fighter will hopefully at least take two.

But more spells and more options for fighters in combat (shields, kicking, ...) will reshufflings again and again. So things will keep on oscillating between the two until one is faced to balance three (ranger types), four (thief types), five (healer types), six (universalists)

As a note i\'d hope that high level mages at least have a change at succeeding at magic while moving. Also I hope that fighters don\'t stop dead right on a dangerous monster because the system believes that he\'s out of range and stops motion. This is probably the main thing that keeps killing me with high level monsters... very frustrating because there is little control.

Both of these changes have made fighting less fun (slow and disrupted pace) in attempts to make things more balanced.

[Jaedru]

Personally I was surprised to learn that I could cast spells while moving at all. Pleasantly surprised, as I agree that some spells like freeze seem to take a very long time to cast. If we can\'t move, we need those spells to happen in a reasonable amount of time.

I did like being able to move a lot, and hope it comes back, at least in some form. With Summon Missle fizzling out like crazy for me, it\'s hard enough to get practice points in it. But that\'s up to the wisdom of the dev\'s.

Now, where\'s my tea...

[Erinys]

I think a change easily implemented is to show the amount of dmg you deal, since I don\'t have a clue how much dmg my summon missile does, further I think the problem will solve itself with more spells. Warrior will get stronger with the implementing of armor and the schools.

[Kiva]

Nothing is overpowered, nothing is underpowered. This does NOT need to be discussed at all.

The game is 1/10% finished, so would you quit yapping and either just use swords for now or go play EQ2 or WOW.