Rework of Old Magic Schools (Part 1/5) – Ecumenical

[Marchioro]

Although I have proposed a series of changes in a compilation of posts named “Changes that MUST be made considering long-term development of MO2”, as I am not sure what Star Vault's next steps will be, all proposals in this new compilation will ignore the previous ones. However, for those who followed the previous posts, you will see that it is fully possible to incorporate such suggestions here, especially with regard to part 3 (Magic Schools Fundamentals).

Ecumenical... Ah Ecumenical, the good old school of magic in Nave... Curious fact: Some tend to find the nature of the spells incorporated in this school strange as they imagine that, based on the name, such spells must be related to the sacred. However, one of the meanings of this name is "general knowledge", which implies a school that theoretically should encompass the foundations of magic.

The problem is the fact that the school that should only be an introduction to magic in the game, is actually the best in any and every foundation it shares with advanced magic schools... And all this for just 100 points. It is extremely bizarre to conceive of the following facts:​

• “I need peels, please healing me!” - “Okay, I have healing in ecumenical and only 2 options in Elementalism, which one should I use?” Guess what, Ecumenical...​
• “We need to dismout a rider!” - “Okay, I can cast Earthquake, Bolder and Starfall, which one should I use?” Guess what, most cases the answer is Earthquake...​
• “I need some kind of protection against magic!” Sure, Ecumenical... and only that.​
• “Oh, I’m under effect of some evil curse, please help me!” Sure, Ecumenical...​
• “Don’t let that mage play” Ok, spurt seems the best in option here.​
• “We need to kill X! X is half, mage bang him!” What do you think will be the answer? Flamestrike, Thunderslash ... Wait, the answer is in ecumenical too...​

The most broken part of this school, besides of course being the only one to have some mechanics (magic reflect, purify, ...) is the fact that it is the only one that allows a player to choose the exact moment to use it, since it is possible to hold a cast and keep moving for 20 seconds. This is extremely important in a game based on a single server (many players with high ping) and with many hitscan spells. It would not be a huge exaggeration to say that about 80% of the problems, the answer lies in ecumenical.

It is extremely uncomfortable to know that although there are other advanced magic schools, all my most important binds are used by ecumenical, since unlike the other schools, of the 13 spells it has, 12 are absolutely perfect for their purposes, that is, the entire school is not situational, but mandatory.

Can you see that a mage who only has ecumenical skills can be considered a mage and be extremely useful in combat? But the same does not apply to other magic schools... Even if we allowed the use of Lesser and Greater heal, it would still be impossible to play with just the other schools or combinations of them, since Thunderslash and Flamestrike are the decisive spells to deal damage in tactical combat. In addition, of course, to all the other utility spells at the school...
​

It seems absurd, but honestly, it wouldn't be completely wrong to say that the determining factor for be considered as a mage is having ecumenical in the build... Yes, I know there are hybrids and some fighters have access to ecumenical, but you get the idea.

I am aware that because it is the first school of magic to be launched in the previous game, and it lasted for a long time as the only option, it is expected that yes, it was developed to deal with all the most relevant situations of the time, but that doesn't change the fact that it shouldn't always be the best option.

In this context, I would like to propose some changes that aim to reduce this discrepancy between schools, of course, without destroying the importance of ecumenical in the game.

• Spells such as corruption, fulmination, in addition to all the debuffs in the game, must have a clear visual effect, which allows players to identify their presence without the need for a target. Although, I don't think this detection should be possible for all builds. https://mortalonline2.com/forums/threads/changes-that-must-be-made-considering-long-term-development-of-mo2-part-1-5-–-attributes.12609/
• Elemental spells in Ecumenical should also incorporate the debuff mechanics present in Elementalism. Although such mechanics do need to be revised... But this is a topic for another post;

 

[Marchioro]

With this in mind, it is possible to review the functioning of each spell in this school, as well as propose the creation of new ones that aim to meet a certain demand from many mages:

All numbers proposed here will assume a base Intelligence and Pysche of 100, Mental Offense and Focus at 100, no trinkets and no masteries. Since I have no way of testing the impact of the proposed values, keep in mind that they are certainly subject to possible corrections. The important thing here is to reflect about the idea.

Outburst - Solid option for ranged combat and useful for poke someone or to get agro of some mob.​

• Add a low chance to cause Ignited;​

Lightning – This is the only, until now, useless spell in the entire school... It should be a viable option between outburt and thuderslash. Its problem is simple to fix.​

• Increase the range to something between 3000 - 3200 cm;​
• Add a low chance to cause Shock;​

Thunderslash – Perfect.​

• Add the capacity to cause Shock;​

Fulmination – Solid to ambush a semi afk target.​

• Add the capacity to cause Warmed;​
• Add visual effect that allows us to continuously identify its presence;​

Flamestrike – Perfect for high int characters.​

• Just lower the base damage a bit in 6 - 9 damage;​
• Add the capacity to cause Ignited and Warmed;​

Magic Reflect – Perfect.​

• Add a visual effect that allows us to continuously identify its presence;​

Physical Reflect (New Spell) - This one has been promised a long time ago. Basically it is the physical counterpart of Magic Reflect.​

• Same mana cost as magic reflect, 25;​
• Same reagentes cost as magic reflect. (I know that some think that the cost has to be expensive, but if that is the case, then the Magic Reflection costs should be increased too);​

Spurt – Perfect. This is just my personal opinion, I would find it more stylish to interrupt another mage's spell with a kind of counterspell... Not by shooting a water bullet at him. Basically changing the name and effect to something more "arcane"...

Mindblast – Perfect;

Earthquake – Perfect;

Corrupt – Perfect.​

• Remove from ecumenical and transfer to Necromancy. It no longer makes sense to keep this spell in ecumenical, since we already have a school more suitable for this type of magic;​

Lesser Heal – Perfect.

Greater Heal – Perfect.​

• Such a spell is too powerful a to be present in ecumenical... It should be transferred as soon as possible to a more advanced magic school, preferably something dedicated to protection in general. While we wait for a magical school of this kind, it wouldn't be a bad idea to temporarily transfer to spiritism;​

Purify – This is the most broken spell in the entire game. Currently there is no counterplay against such a spell, Purify it is the counterplay in each scenario of the genre. It's absurd that for 6 mana anyone is able to remove all "magical debuffs" from the game at once in the same casting period as a spurt...​

• Rename it to Lesser Purify;​
• The mana cost must be equivalent to the most basic magical debuff in the game, corrupt, i.e., 9 mana;​
• Can only remove magical debuffs one at a time, prioritizing cast order (older);​
• Some magical debuffs are too powerful and can not be removed with a simple Lesser Purify (I'll explain more about it in future post related with Necromancy);​

Greater Purify (New Spell) - This spell will be the counterpart to greater heal, in this case, an improved and balanced version of Lesser Purify​

• Mana cost will respect the same proportion between Lesser and Greater Heal, that is 3.75x, in this case 34 mana;​
• 2.8 seconds to cast;
• Removes all magical debuffs from the target, regardless of quantity and power;​
• Same case as Greater heal... Too powerfull to be in Ecumenical;​

Arcane Armor (New Spell) - This will be the first of some spells that will require the use of light armor, as its use requires a mana regen of 100%. It will be usefull to increase the ammount hits you need to kill a mage, usually from 2-3 to 3-4.​

• 20 Mana to cast;​
• 15 minutes duration;​
• Increases the defense of each armor piece by 5 +25% of armor defense;​
• The defense bônus only applies while the user has 100% mana regen. Which means, if the mana regen for some reason (Benumb Mind) is under 100% the buff will still be there, but the effect wont applies. It will be back to normal when mana regen comes back to 100%;​

Arcane Shield (New Spell) – This one will be what water ward should have been... I had even considered a way to behave such a spell on the same ecumenical foundations, but unfortunately, aiming a better work, it must have to be the exception to the rule. This will be the game's first spell based on channeling (Hold the button).​

• 5 mana to cast at 100% mana regeneration, otherwise it will costs 10;​
• Instant cast, Always self cast;​
• “Creates an arcane shield (a small Bubble like magic refelct) that stores kinetic energy around the user. While channeling the spell, the shield will persists draining the same amount of mana used to cast per second”​
• Can not move while channeling the spell;​
• The shield has the following Properties:​
  • The shield’s defense scales with psyche at a maximum of 100 psyche;
  • At 100 psychee, it will block most of physical attacks, including AI creatures. Certain weapon skills at 125 strength (it will not consider the material of the weapon) and pet abilities are too powerfull to be blocked;
  • It will block any kind of projectile or AOE spell, and just a few histcan spells based on impact, physical and elemental damage according to the level of the spell used (maximum range) and target’s psyche. For example, a fighter with 65 psyche will be able to block a fireball (lvl 65 Aggregation), but at the same time will not be able to defend himself from a lightning bolt (lvl 95 Aggregation).
  • Spiritual damage (Spiritism) and magical debuffs (curses, hexes) currently only present in necromancy can not be blocked;
  • For each damage absorbed, 1 “Energy Charge” until a maxiimum of 10 will be accumulated, lasting up to 10 seconds and renewing whenever a new charge is gained;
• To powerfull to be in ecumenical in long term, i.e, it must be transfered to another magic school when the time comes...​

​

 

[Marchioro]

Arcane Pulse (New Spell) - This spell can indeed be used on its own, but it will really shine in conjunction with the Arcane Shield as a magic disengage tool.​

• 40 Mana to cast;​
• 4 seconds to cast;​
• Can be holded for 20 seconds;​
• Only self cast;​
• “Creates a burst of kinetic energy around the user in a 4 meter radius, dealing 40 damage and pushing targets up to 6 meters away”;​
• Can consume “Energy Charge”. For each energy charged consumed, the cast time will be reduced in 1 second until an instant cast. After 4 Charges, additional charges can be consumed increasing th damage in 10 and knockback distance in 500cm per charge;​
• Inflicts 50% slow in AI creatures during 2 seconds;​
• To powerfull to be in ecumenical in long term, i.e, it must be transfered to another magic school when the time comes...​

As you can see, I chose not to consider the material of the weapons when it comes to the shield's defense capacity, but rather just the strength of the user. The reason itself is very simple... I want to limit the possibilities of destroying the shield according to archetypes.

We know that Star Vault is working on weapon skills, I believe that some of them can be used as a way to destroy such defense. In this case, I only consider weapons such as two-handed axes and two-handed hammers due to their impactful damage capacity. Also, it would be interesting if a bow could have such an effect with some kind of penetrating shot.

In both cases, I set strength = 125 as a condition. This way, only a few builds of Thursar, Oghmir and Kallard/Sidoians Humans (with trinkets) wielding such weapons will be able to destroy the arcane shield. As far as Alvarin is concerned, they will only be able to do the same with bows, this is of course assuming that Star Vault improves their gifts in calde tree for this (I really hope they will do it).

I know that some believe that mages should have ways to use a type of magical parry similar as fighters, but I disagree with this idea. Unlike other MMOs, in MO2 mana is a very scarce resource... There are no viable ways to recover it in combat, at least not in the same proportion as stamina and hp. Furthermore, spells consume a significant amount of mana, so it makes sense that if this resource is used, some kind of advantage is provided, in this case the ability to block without direction. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against using parry on mages, I just don't think it makes sense to consume my mana for it. Parry will only make sense when staff magic is released, i.e, without mana involved, or maybe with some kind of "one handed magic".

Maybe it wasn't clear to some, but Arcane shield it's not a broken spell, since one way to deal with it is to simply watch the mage waste his mana while you hold back the hit. It ends up being more useful as a way to buy time and with even greater potential in group fights, since eventually someone will end up hitting the shield, whether with physical or magical damage, then guess what? Arcane Pulse!

Furthermore, it is interesting to note that psy fighters will now have access to even more ways to deal with magic... in most cases against projectiles (Elementalism). The ability to block ecumenical is not as strong as it seems given the very nature of the school... It is difficult to predict the exact moment that someone will cast the spell on you, in practice it would be more of a kind of bonus. So if any mage is upset about this, I'm sorry but I just have something to say: "Stop crying because you played wrong and just deal with it."

It's worth remembering that the arcane shield will also be used to deal with AI creatures in general, thus finally allowing a higher quality PVE scenario for mages.

OBS: With changes in purify, it is interest to note that alchemy must be in pair with that, which means Lesser and Greater Purify must be two different properties in potions.

With these changes I believe that ecumenical will still have a place in the game in the long term, as the remaining spells will still be useful, especially for low-investment hybrid builds, but it will no longer be a dominant school as Greater Purify, Greater heal, Corrupt, Arcane Shield and Arcane Pulse are transferred to other schools.

In short, all the changes proposed here aim to:​

• Balance ecumenical according to its proposal and the current state of the art in MO2;​
• Encourage the use of light armor;​
• Create new playstyles;​
• Introduce a magic defense and magic disengage mechanic, which can be used by different builds;​
• Improve mage PVE capabilities;​
• Counterplay potential for all mechanics mentioned here;​

Unfortunately these posts take time to make, and surprise you, ecumenical isn't even the biggest one... At the moment I'm working up the courage to make the next ones... Spoilers: Spiritism has my favorite defense mechanic!

Until then, see you on the Nave!​

 

[Alicate]

We really need this upgrade in the game, it just doesn't make sense for Ecumenical to be so absurdly strong and superior compared to other magic schools.

Magic spells that require 100% mana regen are very good for balancing certain types of builds.

Mages really need a variety of ways to protect themselves so SV can restrict the ridiculous use of tower shield and I say that as a melee player.

sorry for the bad english

 

[ElPerro]

Long range chargeable hitscan spells are too OP imo.

Shock only competes because of the low mana cost and Death hand has very short range