uberwookie
Green Slime
So, after testing nearly all the damage output skills, Meteor, Chain Lightning, Fireball, Flamethrower, etc, and comparing them to the damage output of a simple melee class with Shadow Clone and Static Touch, it should be noted that MAtk based skills are severely underpowered.
The issue with this is twofold.
1) There is not as much gear that enhances the 'magic' play styles compared to a Physical Attack/HP build.
For a physical character you can concentrate on tank builds, (HP/DEF), damage builds (PAtk/Crit), or skill/buff builds (Static Touch/Summons while you hack n slash with a sword style).
For a mage style characters you concentrate on MAtk, EP, EP Regen, and, as a necessity, HP.
Going through crafting recipes and all the loot I have acquired up until the season hydras... I have 3 pieces of physical gear play style for every piece of magical play style gear, and the magic stuff is stuff I bought almost exclusively, where almost all physical gear can be crafted (and is far superior stat wise).
2) The damage for Magic attacks are roughly equivalent to physical skills when you have the same attack stats, which is not balanced because of how focus for a Magic build character necessitates splitting stats.
To gain an optimal Magic style character you would typically concentrate on ranged attacks, buffs, or summons... right now there is not many buffs (and those that do exist tend towards enhancing melee play) and summons are static based solely on the skill you put into them (and still tend to be better for meleers).
Since summons have no duration and just a reduction in total EP (a limited static pool) there should be gear that makes summons 'cheaper' do more damage, or have more HPs... AFAIK none of these exist. Buffs are currently Haste (more useful for melee than magic), Shield (I haven't been able to determine much usefulness of it to be honest), and lastly, Static Touch... which is a MUST for melee damage builds has almost no advantage to a mage.
In order to make a character that does tons of damage from far away, or to do a consistent little bit while kiting, you need to split your stat boosting gear on Matk, EP, and HP if you have some extra slots, but you sacrifice PAtk, Defense, Crit Change/Damage, and HP. Physical builds, have to just focus on PAtk or Crit chance/bonus, Defense and HP are more or less automatic, but necessary in a passive way.
The problem is, overall with how skills are balanced, this does not work. The lack of Defense and the reliance on the limited pool of EP makes hit and run tactics that do the same damage as physical skills, but without the ability to tank while my EP regens and inferior damage by far.
I d0 1/4th the damage in melee when I use mage gear, have about 2/3rds the HP, and around half the defense.
This means I can get hit about 6-7 times by a hydra boss with mage gear, but about 15 times with melee gear before dying. This is a trade off most games have, but what they also do is boost magic damage to do between 2-5x as much as a melee skill does because mana (or EP in this case) is a limited resource and physical attackers can either passive dodge /and or soak damage better due to superior defense and HP.
Essentially, I suggest MAtk do 2x-5x damage for skills that rely on it, since you have to be constantly kiting or risk getting hit while charging skills to be worth it. Meteor is a good skill, but for it to be good, I have to be standing in a safe spot and charge and aim it and it does not have nearly enough payoff for the risk. I can be in/out with 3 shadow clone strikes in the same time I can do one charged meteor and they will do more damage, and hey, if I get hit while playing a tank, no big deal, I can get hit 10 more times. If I get hit while focusing a meteor, there goes 1/4th my life.
The issue with this is twofold.
1) There is not as much gear that enhances the 'magic' play styles compared to a Physical Attack/HP build.
For a physical character you can concentrate on tank builds, (HP/DEF), damage builds (PAtk/Crit), or skill/buff builds (Static Touch/Summons while you hack n slash with a sword style).
For a mage style characters you concentrate on MAtk, EP, EP Regen, and, as a necessity, HP.
Going through crafting recipes and all the loot I have acquired up until the season hydras... I have 3 pieces of physical gear play style for every piece of magical play style gear, and the magic stuff is stuff I bought almost exclusively, where almost all physical gear can be crafted (and is far superior stat wise).
2) The damage for Magic attacks are roughly equivalent to physical skills when you have the same attack stats, which is not balanced because of how focus for a Magic build character necessitates splitting stats.
To gain an optimal Magic style character you would typically concentrate on ranged attacks, buffs, or summons... right now there is not many buffs (and those that do exist tend towards enhancing melee play) and summons are static based solely on the skill you put into them (and still tend to be better for meleers).
Since summons have no duration and just a reduction in total EP (a limited static pool) there should be gear that makes summons 'cheaper' do more damage, or have more HPs... AFAIK none of these exist. Buffs are currently Haste (more useful for melee than magic), Shield (I haven't been able to determine much usefulness of it to be honest), and lastly, Static Touch... which is a MUST for melee damage builds has almost no advantage to a mage.
In order to make a character that does tons of damage from far away, or to do a consistent little bit while kiting, you need to split your stat boosting gear on Matk, EP, and HP if you have some extra slots, but you sacrifice PAtk, Defense, Crit Change/Damage, and HP. Physical builds, have to just focus on PAtk or Crit chance/bonus, Defense and HP are more or less automatic, but necessary in a passive way.
The problem is, overall with how skills are balanced, this does not work. The lack of Defense and the reliance on the limited pool of EP makes hit and run tactics that do the same damage as physical skills, but without the ability to tank while my EP regens and inferior damage by far.
I d0 1/4th the damage in melee when I use mage gear, have about 2/3rds the HP, and around half the defense.
This means I can get hit about 6-7 times by a hydra boss with mage gear, but about 15 times with melee gear before dying. This is a trade off most games have, but what they also do is boost magic damage to do between 2-5x as much as a melee skill does because mana (or EP in this case) is a limited resource and physical attackers can either passive dodge /and or soak damage better due to superior defense and HP.
Essentially, I suggest MAtk do 2x-5x damage for skills that rely on it, since you have to be constantly kiting or risk getting hit while charging skills to be worth it. Meteor is a good skill, but for it to be good, I have to be standing in a safe spot and charge and aim it and it does not have nearly enough payoff for the risk. I can be in/out with 3 shadow clone strikes in the same time I can do one charged meteor and they will do more damage, and hey, if I get hit while playing a tank, no big deal, I can get hit 10 more times. If I get hit while focusing a meteor, there goes 1/4th my life.