Board Thread:Suggestions/@comment-25407979-20140911162102

Hey Folks, I'm writing this after having tried a thief, ranger and mage up to about lv20-30 (pre hardmode). What I find is that Mages currently aren't set up to be balanced in the right way.

--- Problems (Mod Wise) --- - Useless Mana, why have 700 MP at lv20 Mage (23 Char) when a Lv10 skill takes just 67?

-  IMMENSE warmup ... it takes 20 seconds (!!!) to charge up a Level 10 Magic Missile. That's 20 seconds of walking/flying very slowly. It's not worth the risk.

- Cooldown too low in comparison to warmup (The "Magic Missile" attack at lv10 takes as long as 3x the cooldown ...)

- Passive Skills do not complement the (mod!!!) Mage class. They add Mana and Mana Regen --- you don't need that at all because the skills take virtually no Mana and take so f*ing long to cast, that you have more than enough time to regen it. Note the "Mod" up there, of course Mana is very useful for Vanilla Terraria Content.

-- Comparing LV10 Skill vs Wood Wand (Magic Stick) --

Magic Missile:
 * I press F3 to start casting
 * I try hard to avoid mobs while casting because I'm slow as sh*t now
 * the spell casts after 20 seconds, I miss the first few shots because my cursor was somewhere else as I was avoiding mobs
 * the other 7 projectiles hit, I deal about 5*45 damage and 2x 100 damage criticals, making for 475 DMG
 * the skill ends. I waited half a minute to deal 475 damage while getting close to dying a lot.

Magic Stick (crappy wood weapon):
 * I spam click LMB at different ranges
 * for the first 4 seconds the enemy is further away and only a few projectiles hit, slowing it down. I get 10 attacks in.
 * 10 seconds I spend very close up to the monster, spamming LMB, 5 projectiles hit (1-2 almost always go into the ground) per attack. I can land about 35 attacks within these 10 seconds.
 * the remaining 6 seconds I spend looking into the wrong direction or missing because I'm dodging by jumping
 * within 20 seconds, I had no problems dodging attacks and dealt the following damage:

(10 Attacks * 2 Projectile + 35 Attacks * 5 Projectiles) * (20 to 40 damage, 87 critical) = roundabout 6825 Damage

Verdict

Using high level skills as a mage - you end up dying because you can't dodge. You wait forever and lose time, you deal crappy damage. Using the first, easiest obtainable low tier weapon made from wood you dodge attacks and deal more than 14 times the damage you deal with skills.

Solution (in the Mod): "You can put points in DEX, this decreases Skill time!" Hooray. I shall be a FULL DEX Mage. Makes sense.

Solution, as it should be: - much larger Mana cost for SKILLS (I have 700 mana on a lv23 char, Lv10 Magic missile takes 1/10th of it only) - much lower warmup phase (warmup sucks. It makes sense if you read scrolls - yes. But it sucks balls!) - longer cooldown after skills (make it so you need to wait AFTER -successfully- attacking. Currently the cooldown of Lv10 Magic Missile is done before the attack even ended halfway) - either INT or WIS should make skill usage faster. Or there should be a passive skill for it.

Mages are, by my definion: Weak in health and strength, casting either few but very powerful and expensive spells, or casting many cheap and weak seplls.

I hope someone can understand the points I made here. I don't want any class to be more powerful than another - but I would like to be able to play each class effectively in combat in both SP and MP.

Thanks for reading my lengthy post! Let me know what you think  