A lot of the Wizard arsenal has been kept "in check" because you could perform combinations very quickly using 515. Well, that is slated to change now that 515 is getting some attention. This is a "give and take" approach that makes the change a little easier to handle and expands Wizard hunting options.
Due to this, I think it's time to revisit some of these restrictions that have been barely utilized due to a number of reasons, and the primary factor is that Rapid Fire prevented them from being "accessible" or "reasonable".
1. Shatter.
Shatter is a great hidden gem for Wizards, but it comes at a very hefty cost. First, you need a significant investment in Water Lore, which gives you very little added combat benefit compared to other elemental lores. Secondly, the setup requires 2x casts of 512 for 24 mana AND you must then channel your bolts requiring you to be in offensive stance with hard RT as a pure wizard.
I propose we adjust the setup expectations. Shatter's power does seem to warrant the excessive lore cost, and with Ascension and enhancives, that can be achieved without sacrificing too much in other areas. The setup cost was always justified because you could cast 512 2x with Rapid Fire in just 2s, and follow up with a 516 to recoup the mana cost. Well, that's going away. Now it will take twice as long to setup shatter, and you will not want to risk another 2+ seconds of RT to cast a 516 on a target that can still attack or cast.
There are multiple ways to address this:
- Add an evoked version of 512 that can be cast at a single target, and since you are focusing all your energy on a single target it will entomb the target in ice with a single cast (costs between 10-12 mana).
- Allow sufficient warding margin on the current version of 512 to entomb a target in ice.
- Allow lore training to grant a % chance (reasonable, capped at say 50%) to entomb a target with a single cast.
The above options would reduce the requirements to setup a target for a follow up shatter attack. It would make Shatter feel more appropriately paced since you are still going to need at least 2 follow up channeled bolts to eliminate the target(s).
2. Fire & Ice.
While on the topic of 512, there's another way to leverage this spell by following it up with a Fire attack. This causes a steam flare to hit the target, but the flare is fairly weak overall. I think in all my testing I saw it deal a max of 30 damage. It would be a great improvement to see ways to introduce added strength to this synergy attack when trained in the appropriate lores (water/fire).
- When 512 is followed up with a fire attack, there is a % chance that the entombed effect is maintained based on the Wizard's water and fire lore training. Each fire attack that lands while the entombed effect is active will be subject to a steam critical.
Example, wizard has 100 ranks in both Fire and Water lores, and that gives them say 75% to maintain the entombed effect. They follow 512 with a 519, which hits the target with 4 rounds of fire damage instantly, each round fails to break the root effect and the target is also dealt a steam critical for each round of fire damage. They survive, but the subsequent recurring fire damage activates breaking the root, but also dealing a final steam critical.
Alternately, the same wizard could use a Fire Bolt w/ the fire DoT or a 512 + 502 (fire) attack to create a warding synergy that previously didn't exist.
This bakes in a lot of synergy for a high mana attack and forces lore choices. Previously, it would be insane to deal this kind of damage with just 3s of cast RT in guarded. However, with the potential changes to 515, it would be more in-line with the damage-per-second + mana cost (24+19).
3. Stone Fist
Right now, I don't think Stone Fist is really balanced even with the current 515 implementation. It simply takes way too much earth lore to make this spell usable. On top of the earth lore requirements, the Stone Fist actions ignore 515 completely, so if you have 515 running you will still have 3s cast RT for pound/clench/throw etc. It seems to me this spell should be reviewed, and the lore requirements adjusted. Ultimately, stone fist doesn't compete for damage with shatter for amount of lore required, and has less potential vs more than 1 target. I'd like to see some fixes to the Stone Fist combat style.
- Adjust the lore requirements to be more in-line with the other combat styles (making pound/clench usable at 100 ranks of earth lore).
- Add an Explode option for 10 mana to cause the fist to explode dealing significant damage to the target, but also inflicting shrapnel SMR damage to a # of targets in the room based on earth lore training. This will immediately terminate the stone fist effect on the target, but can inflict high rank criticals to chest/back and abdomen. Great on crit-vulnerable targets, and completely in-line with spending 24 mana. Explode should be available regardless of how much earth lore is trained, but it will only be useful if you commit to the lore training.
This is my initial thoughts on some different combat options currently available to wizards, but significantly sub-par by comparison. Even after the 515 change is finalized, the current state of these options would still be less than ideal when compared with standard bolting tactics. It seems to me that the future of 515 makes it reasonable to see changes made to these options so they can expand the Wizard hunting styles and force interesting and useful choices.
