Magicians Root Spell line and Cold spell line (in line with the power we have)

Why doesn't Mages get a root line? They are supposed to masters of Fire, Water, Air and Earth (yeah Earth pet get them but we are masters of these Elements), I don't see any game breaking of giving them a root line of spells when you consider they are masters of all these elements.

Another thing I would like to add is as we can combine air and water, why does not the Mages have and cold ❄ spell line (not as powerful as wizard and more in the line of what we have in fire or magic).

Could any of the Devs or whomever watching this explain this, we can conjure ice spells and evoke them, but I don't see it as game breaking to give Mages these spell lines as we are masters of the Elements.

because the game originally had 5 saves - fire, cold, magic, poison, and disease.
While thematically it makes ZERO sense for mages to not have cold, they wanted wizards to have something mages didnt, since wizards lacked a pet.

As for current day and lack of things like root? There is no reason. Utility used to be an excuse for why some classes did more damage than others. Then those other classes got alot of utility added on. So now the best answer is that things are the way they are, because thats how they are.

Current dev team very much does not like to change or rock the boat, as demonstrated by the same few classes being winners or losers for a very long time now.

Magicians are a conjuration/summoning class. They're masters of elementals not the elements. They really should have only had some basic magic nukes to begin with.

Not having root spells brings a feeling of adventure!

Never know if you get one mob or more, never know if your swarms will handle those 23 adds that come with the one mob you meant to pull or you will have to gate, who would give up all this and want root spells???

Seriously though, no need for root, just need to learn the area where you fight.

No need for cold spells either imo.

Edit: There is something I would like and that is the old un-nerfed rains.

elementalist is a class name for mages...

I understand why mages don't have cold for game balance, but its a very specific and narrow interpretation to go down the road you are.

Yep, echoed in the "bolt" design of spell that was prima facie weaker than plainer nukes (but mysteriously comes with +50% spell range? EQ things) because it conjures a thing that then has to travel to the target, subject to physical blocking. And the rains that are just like "let's make a mess in the sky right there and hope to hurt what's under it", flavor wise.

One has to tell a whole story of 25+ years of layered development oddness to explain why magician nukes are any stronger than those of, e.g., druids whose class power is split, too. That story exists, it is part of the heritage that makes EQ what it is today, but it's not some house of cards trivially undermined by "the word element means I get ice spells & root!"

The correct path is often a very specific and narrow one.

Putting the lore/fantasy aspect aside for a minute.

Magician's have good dps and respectable group tanking capabilities with their pet. Adding CC to their arsenal would make them too much of a jack of all trades.

Classes were intentionally created to fill certain roles really well, other roles mediocre, and other roles not at all. Which creates the need to play with others. In the case of mages they have no real CC/pulling capability and thus pair well with, and rely on, a puller/CC type class. That is the way the game was designed and I think is a net positive.

Root? Who needs root. Pull the house. It's more fun that way.

I kinda remember being able to 'iron sights' bolt spells back in original kunark. Still works with 'flare' I think.

lining up a mob in the center of the screen, and casting a bolt spell with no target, it would hit the mob and do damage.

and there were a few mobs that you could do that at just the right range they wouldn't chase you, so you could bolt them to death with no risk.

but that was so long ago, I'm not sure I trust my memory on that.