Magic Hero Classes [Open Beta]

[ModernMatt]

I personally think that the Elementalist Class is very well thought through. The flexibility you get with damage types and ability combinations is great.

Ritualist and Warlock are a step in the right direction for me, but not as good because they don't have the same level of flexibility, and Spirit Damage is notably missing from all of these sub-classes.

I'd suggest removing summons from Warlock and pathing it out into damage/debuff/lifestealing using mostly blight and spirit damage variation. Then move summoning under Support and give that class Control (AoE)/Summoning (Nature or Undead)/ Healing as paths.

Readers of my other suggestions will likely pick-up on the theme here that I think the game should provide comparable (if not equal) opportunity for someone to do any playstyle with any element/affinity... At present, I see the Elementalist class having much better Synergy with Combat Spells and Unit enchantments than the other two magical Hero Classes.

 

[Diovidius]

I think the failure of the previous iteration of Ritualist was that it was thematically unfocused because it had healing, plant summoning, elemental summoning and undead summoning all as part of the same class. You seem to want to return to this to an extent.

What I greatly enjoy about the current iteration is that there is thematic focus. There is a dark mage with dark summons, an elemental mage with elemental summons and a nature mage with nature summons. Of course there is no doubt room for mechanical improvement but thematically I strongly feel that this is the way to go.

 

[ModernMatt]

I think the failure of the previous iteration of Ritualist was that it was thematically unfocused because it had healing, plant summoning, elemental summoning and undead summoning all as part of the same class. You seem to want to return to this to an extent.

What I greatly enjoy about the current iteration is that there is thematic focus. There is a dark mage with dark summons, an elemental mage with elemental summons and a nature mage with nature summons. Of course there is no doubt room for mechanical improvement but thematically I strongly feel that this is the way to go.

I'm with you on the lack of a coherent theme being an issue in previous iterations. I think where you and I are having a departure, on ritualist anyway, is that, to me, Summoning additional units is a Support ability and so does belong on Ritualist as an alternate path for Healing; and not on all the other classes. IMO the mechanics of the Ritualists skill Tree should be Buffs/Summons/Healing and if they want to flavor them Spiritual and Nature then fine.

I don't like that Warlock has summoning, and I REALLY don't like how heavily it leans into Undead. Not everyone uses Undead units in their builds, so it too heavily favors one playstyle/build. What I'd prefer from Warlock is if its skill tree was: AOE Control Effects/Debuffs/Boon Stripping (I've had an opportunity to play with the class a bit more since my first post so please forgive my shift in perspective.)

I guess I'd challenge you that it isn't really an elemental mage, a nature mage, and a dark mage; it is an Elemental Mage, a Nature Support, and a Dark Hybrid Caster. Ritualist does not have sufficient offensive capabilities to serve as a nature mage. If the design direction is trying to be based on Elemental/Nature/Undead, then each of these classes should have clear Control/Damage/Buff channels so that they can adequately fill either the Battle Mage or Support role while staying 'on theme.'