New int change treats a symptom instead of disease. The main issue was mana regen didn't work and was regenerating just fine in heavy armor while resting and psy instead of just doing damage reduction or resist chance was doing both. Mage wasn't doing enough to be worth it and being a dex mage wasn't worth the mana regen because there was no difference with resting. Instead of fixing those the whole system got thrown aside and now you have the illusion of choice but really if you don't put all points into int you are just nerfing yourself erasing all choice and nerfing magic resist by making it so you can't choose to have it.
Tbh, without changes to clade gifts, and buffing specific builds, there's no way to balance int / magic correctly.
Patch resulted in this:
- Fatmages - buffed;
- Dex mages - minor dmg buff (around 5 dmg), but still not worth playing due to dex being worst stat in the game;
- Hybrids - got nerfed pretty hard, requiring to dump from Psy to Int.
What should've been:
- Fatmages - kept on the same level;
- Dex mages - got buffed and dex reworked;
- Hybrids - should've received gift clades that have + / - to them. Like being able to cast spells, but reducing max armor weight etc.
Mana regen will fix nothing in these cases, and nerfing mana regen would just result in a more poorer / less dynamic PvE as a mage. (if there's any at all atm)
Mages overall need a buff, but those do not actually involve int at all. They need pinpoint buffs for specific builds. Not generic / overall solution.
And from speculations / rumors I've heard that SV might be planning to implement it like this in the future through the clade gifts.
(hopefully)
Plus, spells themselves require tweaking, to be both viable in PvP and not boring in PvE.
Also a bit offtopic:
Allowing mages to actually cast while moving would be one of the steps towards more dynamic and interesting fights in both PvE and PvP.
This can be balanced by implementing cast speed stat, which would solve lots of problems between fatmages X dex mages X hybrids.
E.g. by reducing cast speed while moving. And improving cast speed from dex (faster fingers / articulacy?)
Magic school proficiency should also affect cast speed, so it should promote spending more points into it.
But alas, I don't think it will ever happen. Just in case made a separate thread for cast speed suggestion here to discuss:
Allowing mages to actually cast while moving would be one of the steps towards more dynamic and interesting fights in both PvE and PvP. This can be balanced by implementing cast speed stat. E.g. by reducing cast speed while moving. And improving cast speed from dex. (faster fingers / articulacy...
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