Mage "autospell" feature

IMO we need Magic Missles ALA D&D.
-something we could craft/conjuror in off-times (personally like the idea of conjuring them)
-wouldn't be huge damage, but moderate
-all mages could make
-Give us at least some dps when we have no power, other than 100 dps from meleeing the mob, something in the 1k dps range would be nice
The possibility of making different types of missles would be cool too, for example,
- ones that do less damage, but proc power
-ones that eat health too and do more damage
-ones that do less damage but debuff the mob etc etc

Give us a ranged auto-attack that converts our equiped melee weapon into a ranged magical auto-attack.
The damage would convert from physical to magical and would use spell stats and INT instead of melee stats and STR.
The delay and base damage would depend on the weapon equiped, this way you can't do both melee auto-attack and ranged spell auto-attack at the same time.
Make the max range 25-35 meters.

Extend the range on melee weapons for all Mages to normal casting range, then Mages can put a Phantom type adornment on their weapon and proc power back to themselves.
I do not want Mages to wind up sitting on top the mob like Scouts, primarily because Mages are far too squishy to consistently be melee'ing the mob.

Personally, I liked how the Wizard class in Freerealms*** had their auto-attack implimented, and since I had experianced that, I have always wondered why EQ2 hadn't implimented a similar aspect. Now, granted, Freerealms isn't as Fun as EverQuest 2, thus why I prefur it over something so simple. However I feel that things such as the above mentioned in Freerealms that is lacking in EverQuest 2.


*** In FreeRealms when a Wizard is between spell attacks, he 'auto attacks' like any other combat, except it's range is limited to the casting range of the wizard's spells. No Casting timer attached, just like a melee and ranged auto attack, but not signifigant enough on it's own, but does allow the wizard to deal damage when out of power.

With a few leftover AA's in the Enchanter tree, illusionists can buff up our melee to add about 300 dps from straight autoattack damage. If we are using our epic, autoattacks regularly proc power regen. The added power can be used to cast other power regen spells, and the more power we have, the more chances we have to proc more instant power refresh from the epic. Only once, on a specific encounter with massive power drain, have I had to resort to melee for power regen. Within 10 seconds, I had enough power to be back in business.
So this issue is probably not relevant for epic illusionists, but I do like the idea of some sort of some hybrid arcane/ranged melee attack. It would be cool to put something useful in the ammo slot. Every mage could be given a special ammo type that would have a specific damage; sorcerors would deal fire/cold damage in the 300-500 dps range with a snare proc, conjurors would deal damage in the 200-400 range with a pet heal proc, and enchanters would deal 200-400 range with a mana regen proc.
Instead of crafting or buying this ammo, it could be achieved via a buff proc similar to what necros and warlocks get, so you'd have to build up a stash before depleting them on raids.
Priests can have something similar, with an emphasis on group heals or wards. To use this ammo, like any melee class, you'd need a wand or some symbol in the ranged slot.
Would be cool to see something like that in the game.

I support this idea.

First of all I play a necro, so power is never a problem for me personally.
But anyways, the way I see it mages are quite often at the top of or close to the top of parses, so don't really feel we need even more dps. And giving us som silly "wand" auto attack seems like you just want easy mode. Staying at a safe distance and nuking, plus having some boosted autoattack thingy, without having to get close.
Sure, fighters and scouts do more than mages if forced to only autoattack, but they also have to be close to the mob, and joust when needed and so on.
At the moment I think things are fairly balanced in dps output. And if you are having problems keeping your power up.... uhm, well get some power regen, or have a chanter/bard in group. Not sure if all of us have some way to replenish power, but most of us do at least, and then there are others that can provide you with power.
Next I'll bet you want roots that run their full duration and instant cast super nukes. Guess I'll play the annoying guy and say learn to play properly, and power/dps won't be an issue, or roll a different class if you want uber autoattack dmg.

Zagbab_Dorfbasher wrote:

It's rare, but being out of power for me at least only tends to happen when I am without a chanter(bards dont even really factor into power regen anymore) or I get zapped by some crazy effect in a raid. Most mages do have some kind of self power regen but they increase power by a raw number only modifiable by crits.
That model is rather worthless since not only has the amount of power we can achieve gone up, but to compensate all NPC power drain effects zap a percentage of power making things worse than they generally ought to be.
Yay, I got zapped by Ykulka/Nax's power drain that drains 100% power instantly and every few seconds and cant do jack for a while...nice.
Anyways, mage autospell or no I doubt it would make much of a real difference since we will just get the annoying reactive damage shield procs to go off more often...they are already crippling enough as is.

True, some power draining effects can be a pain, sometimes even for me as a necro.
The only real issue I have with mages lacking the autoattack capabilities of scouts is on the third named in Kurn's, can be a real pain getting rid of the stifle effects with our crappy hit rates.

Zagbab_Dorfbasher wrote:

So true, it always take days to get rid of it because of that.

Interesting. I could see this tying into both the grand item stat unification, and the hinted at "you will need to click fewer buttons" changes they'd been talking about.
If it was implemented using the primary weapon stats, this would make weapon types for mages a lot more meaningful. They could make mage weapons do, say cold or poison damage instead of piercing or crushing. They could even make, say dagger-type weapons have melee ranges, and wand-type weapons have slightly longer ranges, perhaps 15 or so meters. They could have special weapons (or use the ranged slot perhaps) for really long range wands, but I think it'd be too easymode for mages to be able to sit at 25-30 meters and autonuke, at least not with every weapon... maybe with some of the weaker ones?
If they based how the weapons work, more or less exactly like the melee weapons in terms of double attack, DPS, Haste, etc, it's make gearing up a mage a lot more interesting. It'd also make stuff like the enchanter STR line more meaningful. Though I think that the weapon hit ratios should be based off spell stats (INT and disruption) rather than melee skills... A "cold" type weapon would use disruption skill the same way a "piercing" weapon uses it's skill. Further, they should give us a decent autoattack table if we are using the disruption-based weapons. The real reason mage DPS with melee is so low is that our autoattack table is awful..., even fully buffed and with decent STR, we still couldn't do any real autoattack damage.
This would open up a lot of interesting itemization choices for mages. 2-H weapons would be a lot more meaningful (though I'd hope that they'd make the enchanter STR line work on 2-H... silly it doesn't really, when priests can 2-H with their, much better, melee specs.) They could even make really powerful traditional "piercing" or "crushing" type weapons where the caster gives up their now-decent autoattack damage because the stats are so good.
If the weapons used the regular spell damage types (cold, heat, mental, poison, etc) then it'd add another dimension to it, since the different mages debuff different damage types. So it'd be to an enchanter's advantage to have a mental-based weapon, while a sorcerer would probably want a cold weapon.... or maybe not? Perhaps they'd want a weapon opposite their usual damage type for encounters that are like Grush in WoE? Perhaps, even, the weapons could all use generic "spell" damage (or call it disruption, to parallel the melee types), and then, like another poster said we could incorporate the ammo slot to vary it up. Crafters could make mage ammo which would be required to power the wands, staves and daggers nuking capability. Then you could vary the damage type of the weapon depending on what ammo you were currently using. They could also even make it work a little like poisons where you can trade damage for power or health from your autoattack. (Ammo that does, perhaps, 50% less damge than normal but sifons health or power.)

EDIT: I'm imagining the update notes for this now....

• Various existing priest and mage-oriented weapons have had their damage type changed to "disruption". Look for these weapons in crafter books, and in dungeons througout Norrath.
• Tailors can now make Satchels, which go in the ammunition slot. (Satchel's carry the new type of ammunition only useable by classes which have the disruption skill, mages, priests, bards, crusaders....)
• Sages (or perhaps Jewelers?) have a number of new recipes in their books. (For the arcane ammuntion.)

I don't really think I would like an autoattack spell personally. I like chain casting and not having to worry about timed autoattack, we do plenty of damage now and everything said about procing detrimantals is major. I think instead of mage autoattack it would be better to try and get our self power spells made to be more useful to deal with the more deadly power drains than anything.

Or a way to make in combat power regen worth while so that we don't end up relying on a mage ranged auto attack. Picking a scout means you accept certain truths including the way they function. Picking a mage also means you accept certain truths including the way they function. You knew going into the class that they had heavy reliance on power just like I knew when I rolled my mage. Rather than giving a way to be reactive, why not give a way to be proactive?
Currently, it's pretty much summed up by get a chanter and your power issues are no more which is poor class balance practices in terms of the value of specific utility classes no matter how you roll the dice. The bard power regens are a JOKE comparatively seeing as they cost a concentration and do very little and + combat power regen items and power conversions are pathetic as well. An alternative means of which to combat the reliance on power is to make the ability to regain power less dependant on if you have a chanter with their epic weapon because then you can take power regen into your own hands including the scenario of a power drain. Perhaps making everyone regen a blanket 1% base power per tick and then from there leave it to itemization. Increase the power regained by health sacrifices such as manastone and mage conversion spells so that they mean something again. Problem solved and without adding the can of worms that a ranged mage auto attack could turn into (a spell based dps class with powerless ranged auto attack and root... can't see that being potentially problematic balance wise in the slightest).

Lets make mages even more over powered in comparison to melee classes... That's the ticket!

Carthrax wrote:

Do you even play this game?

Yup... Question is...Do you?
Maybe you're stuck running Deep Forge every day, when you get into raiding your perception will change dramatically.. When was the last time you saw an assassin parse 30-40-50-60k on a raid encounter?

Carthrax wrote:

who cares doing 100K damage instantanely, when on the long run it doesn't parse at more than 6K raid wide, where troub does 7K and assassin does 12K raid wide? (seen in raid TSO the mad crusader...)

mages are far ahead of scouts right now do to hit rates and detrimentals. sure in easy fights a scout can keep up but any of the fights with complex scripts and reactive debuffs leave scouts well bellow mages for the most part.
unless soe does something to balance the mage vs. scout gap any boost to mage dps (specialy sorc) will be very unbalancing.

Davngr1 wrote:

sure, the mad crusader is an easy fight with easy script... perharps you should learn how to play a scout
Because in EVERY raid, scout outparse raid wide any mage.

Akina@Storms wrote:

LOL! ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!? If your wizzy's can't parse more than 6k zone wide in ToMC, I suggest you find different ones.. The issue isn't the class, it's your raid force.. Or maybe it's your raid leader not having a clue on group makeups.. Sounds like it might be both tbh.