parsnip
Grandmaster
Mainly for @eppy's benefit but I thought I'd post here so that others can chip in. Having had a little bit of time to poke around at level 10, here are a few tweaks and ideas for improving the meta mage and making it a little more competitive against meta dexxers:
Talisman
Unless you can afford one of the rare slayer spellbooks, mages don't have the luxury of choosing an appropriate slayer or the ability to take advantage of other damage modifiers. The talisman could benefit from a little bit of extra damage.
Following a recent change, the shadow disciple relic has a change to decrease the targets resist for a short period. This could perhaps be added as a passive benefit of the talisman (1% per level?)
Relics
Dispersion: Fun when it triggers but rarely get the full benefit of hitting 10 mobs. The limited range means that mobs have to be stacked on top of each other which is quite rare, even at champs. Would like to see the relic have greater range but hit fewer mobs. For example, range and number of mobs could alternate with each level. Level 1 - Hit two mobs, 3 tile radius. Level 2 - Hit two mobs, 4 tile radius. Level 3 - Hit three mobs, 4 tile radius... And so on.
Vivify: Tanky at level 10 but prone to dispelling. EVs still win. A mechanism to increase resistance against PvM dispelling would be welcome. It would also be nice to get a little bit of mana back when Vivify triggers (half the spell cost?). I've had vivify fail to trigger and regular summoned daemon be instantly dispelled. On second attempt, a vivify daemon was summoned but I was then left with almost no mana. By the time I could fire a few e-bolts, the vifify daemon has been dispelled too.
Focus: No complaints, works as advertised. It might be cool to add a damage boost if a character has another skill (e.g. Inscription), much like Phase Shift benefits from having Hiding/Stealth.
Shadow Disciple: Following the changes mentioned above, I think this is a more useful relic but could still do with some tweaking. If resist % decrease is added as a passive to the talisman, I think this relic should focus on helping with mana management. One idea being to stick with the mana return when it triggers but, rather than further decreasing the target's resist for a period, decreasing the cost of casting offensive spells by a % on PvM targets. The easier alternative would be to leech mana with every spell for a brief period when it triggers.
Talisman
Unless you can afford one of the rare slayer spellbooks, mages don't have the luxury of choosing an appropriate slayer or the ability to take advantage of other damage modifiers. The talisman could benefit from a little bit of extra damage.
Following a recent change, the shadow disciple relic has a change to decrease the targets resist for a short period. This could perhaps be added as a passive benefit of the talisman (1% per level?)
Relics
Dispersion: Fun when it triggers but rarely get the full benefit of hitting 10 mobs. The limited range means that mobs have to be stacked on top of each other which is quite rare, even at champs. Would like to see the relic have greater range but hit fewer mobs. For example, range and number of mobs could alternate with each level. Level 1 - Hit two mobs, 3 tile radius. Level 2 - Hit two mobs, 4 tile radius. Level 3 - Hit three mobs, 4 tile radius... And so on.
Vivify: Tanky at level 10 but prone to dispelling. EVs still win. A mechanism to increase resistance against PvM dispelling would be welcome. It would also be nice to get a little bit of mana back when Vivify triggers (half the spell cost?). I've had vivify fail to trigger and regular summoned daemon be instantly dispelled. On second attempt, a vivify daemon was summoned but I was then left with almost no mana. By the time I could fire a few e-bolts, the vifify daemon has been dispelled too.
Focus: No complaints, works as advertised. It might be cool to add a damage boost if a character has another skill (e.g. Inscription), much like Phase Shift benefits from having Hiding/Stealth.
Shadow Disciple: Following the changes mentioned above, I think this is a more useful relic but could still do with some tweaking. If resist % decrease is added as a passive to the talisman, I think this relic should focus on helping with mana management. One idea being to stick with the mana return when it triggers but, rather than further decreasing the target's resist for a period, decreasing the cost of casting offensive spells by a % on PvM targets. The easier alternative would be to leech mana with every spell for a brief period when it triggers.
