Mage Revamp Lies. LIES.

Pypo

Merry Christmas everyone! To each and all of your families I truly hope you all got something special, may your year be full of cheer!

Tiur

Direction decision made, things are moving on Sciomancy again. Technically we're in testing. I just need a break for stupid promotional items.

Kalak

Tiur said:

Direction decision made, things are moving on Sciomancy again. Technically we're in testing. I just need a break for stupid promotional items.

That sounds both ominous and mysterious!

What was the direction decision, boss? If we may ask?

Tiur

Decided to go with a sort of Shadow Sickness instead of direct cost on Shadowprice.

Tiur

Elemancy
You know the following Fire spells:
Ignite Render them ablaze with a snap of your fingers.
* Scorch A gout of flame will cripple their limbs.
* Firelash Whip their body with a lash of flame.
* Conflagrate Bolster the flames upon their body.
Fireball Send a flaming meteor at your foe.
Cauterize Seal their wounds with agony.
Inferno Master the flames around you.
Consume Envelop yourself in the flame.

You know the following Water spells:
Flood Cover your surroundings with water.
Hailstorm Pelt them with frozen stones.
* Frostblade Carve into their body with a frozen sword.
Torrent Send someone flying into the sky.
Fog Conjure up an obscuring fog.
Direfrost A creeping, perpetual chill.
* Coldsnap A chilling burst to deaden the mind.
* Gorge Cause an opponent to have their fill.
Icicle Pierce their body with a frigid spike.
Shatter Cause them to fall to pieces.
Blizzard Create a powerful winter storm.

You know the following Air spells:
Gust Knock your target from your location.
* Pressurize A sudden shift in local air pressure.
Cyclone Pull them from the skies.
* Lightning Shock your victim with a burst of electricity.
* Windlance Send a spear of air to pierce their shields.
* Thunder Crush them with the roar of the storm.
Transfix Create a dazzling whirl of colour.
Whirlwind Make egress an impossibility.

(There's a skill or two strategically deleted from these lists)

Eliadon

Alas, gorge still exists. Here's hoping we have actual salve stuff to buffer it. D;

Vyxsis

oh great and wise @Tiur, bequeath unto me this knowledge: will REPLICATE still exist? (pls say no)

Tekias

(plz say yes)

Eliadon

Replicate is both the best and worst skill in current mage kit, I like it a lot <_<

Kalak

Pls neither confirm nor deny the existence of Replicate in the revamp.

Vyxsis

*shakes fist at replicate, her one true nemesis in aetolia*

Kodaza

REPLICATE! DETONATE! ANIMATE! ANNIHLATE!

Kasimir

Will this revamp make enchanting mercantile?

Will existing enchantments and scrollrack charges be wiped out // continue existing?

Kinda worried about dumping gold and comms into scrollracks if they're not going to exist.

Tekias

Unless things have changed, Enchanting will become Mercantile, much like Forging and Toxicology used to be guild-specific but are now available to all. And from what I've gleaned, Enchantments will get a few tweaks when it goes public, but I can't imagine scrollracks will be going away.

Tiur

Enchantment -> Mercantile

No plans to drastically alter it and break anything players are using. It's honestly a perfectly workable skillset, it just has a lot of items that are boring and unused.

Xavin

I don't know if I would say a lot of them are unused. The sigils all have their uses, and the augment-item enchantments are pretty commonly used with maybe the exception of pestilence, coldpocket, and augment itself. The created enchantments are the ones that are, well...less than common.

Kalak

Xavin said:

I don't know if I would say a lot of them are unused. The sigils all have their uses, and the augment-item enchantments are pretty commonly used with maybe the exception of pestilence, coldpocket, and augment itself. The created enchantments are the ones that are, well...less than common.

When you compare in the mercantile scale, you should consider usefulness of the provided stuff. Basically poisons, pills, equipment, potions are your everyday stuff that you have to take part in. Enchantments on the other hand contains several redundant and boring items which become obsolete after awhile. Some of them are entirely situational that you may not need to use them at all. Some examples:

Worrystone: Boring, unused piece.
Flask: Story skill related to Bloom.
Brooch: Deathsight, it is easily acquirable by Vision and it is literally the first skill in Necromancy. Can be considered redundant.
Concealment: Nice small gimmick to obscure your inventory. Will you pay for it? Maybe, maybe not. I would not.
Spiritbulb: It is about containing essence...and majority of the players will not use it.
Whirlwind: It has tattoo counterpart which is more accessible. Some classes has skills to bring down fliers.
Dreamcatcher: Well sleeping becomes no longer an activity after a point and to replenish Willpower/Endurance there are far better options. After awhile becomes obsolete.
Negation: Lacking widespread usage. It removes all afflictions and defenses, so it is a wildcard trick.
Rainstick: Well another Willpower/Endurance option, while you could recover them in better forms. After awhile becomes obsolete.
Allsight: Only good for freeing a tattoo slot.
Pestilence: Glorified Loki poison.
Augment: Well, people generally does not want to scrap a well-crafted weapon that quickly in exchange of a random stat increase.
Coldpocket: Stasis enchantment for foods. Far more effective, though I think they do not work always? I remember once they allowed all scrumptious cakes to be decayed.
Firewall: Not as much popular as Icewalls.
Frostblast: Since Firewalls are not as popular, that makes putting them out as unpopular as well.
Key: Well locking rooms can be automated already.
Knife: Only viable usage of this one is that in a long-winded battle you have arti-tattoos and your opponent does not have them. So you can waste down their tree tattoo.
Impact: Brother of flame sigil, less popular overally. So if something can be taken, it cannot be destroyed by mushrooms. To me sounds not an every day item.
Orb: Only useful against Indorani chaos entities.

Aishia

I made someone quit the game for like a week with negation! augment is more for armor sigils are all super important except ok orb pestilence has some niche uses firewall has some GREAT niche uses coldpocket is more popular with crafty people than most of us pk weebs know. uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh make frostblast able to freeze the ground maybe for xtra deliciousness worrystone lowkeysecret op concealment can be useful or at least some people like to hide their underwear.

Toz

@Cariv does weird things with augment enchant that make me, as a forger, deeply uncomfortable.

And also it makes him hit like a truck.

Xavin

@Kalak You'll note that most of what is on your list is created enchantments, which I did say were less than common. The implication being that they should be looked at. There are a lot of people who would swear by using allsight rather than using a mindseye tattoo -because- tattoo slots are limited and there's a ton of useful tattoos. And just because there is another way to do something or something has a niche use doesn't mean it's not useful.

Kalak

Xavin said:

@Kalak You'll note that most of what is on your list is created enchantments, which I did say were less than common. The implication being that they should be looked at. There are a lot of people who would swear by using allsight rather than using a mindseye tattoo -because- tattoo slots are limited and there's a ton of useful tattoos. And just because there is another way to do something or something has a niche use doesn't mean it's not useful.

If there is another way to do something, that would devalue the worth of the physical product. If there was no mindseye tattoo and any other alternate way to get the defense...now then it would be something worthy of selling. If a product gets obsolete after awhile, then you are losing upon the mercantile edge. For example, Thanatonin in Herbalism is as obsolete as Brooch because Deathsight will be so easy to acquire with minimal investment.

You call it "less than common" or "niche" to downplay the situation. I call it "makes no sense in trading", "boring" and "unused". Mercantile items after all should be desirable in order to circulate around.

In the long run reducing redundancies between skillsets and mercantile would support the ingame economy.

Caolan

Spiritbulbs are used in certain quests
Allsight enchant is 100% worth it to free up a tattoo slot imo, certainly not nonsensical/boring/unused
You don't really use firewalls and icewalls in the same situations, they have different effects
Key sigil super helpful when you -don't- have your triggers up, eg on phone or on a different computer
Using a tattoo in place of a whirlwind uses up a limited space slot, where you can wear like 50 bajillion pieces of jewelery and hold all the items you need.
Augment is pretty helpful when you decide to use it!

You have a few points in there Kalak but the majority of your post just feels like you're posting opinion as fact, and while I agree some new/changed content could make enchanting more relevant, there's nothing wrong with a bit of overlap - it occurs in more areas than just enchanting. It helps keep the world on relying on specific things and if you don't have it you're messed up.
Having that little bit of overlap can be seen as a safety net for the economy as much as everything being separate, because supply doesn't hit rock bottom and inflate prices if a particular skill goes mostly unused etc.

Kalak

@Caolan If you read my lines, I already stated that Allsight does free a tattoo slot. I did not call it nonsensical/boring/unused. For Key function there is even a built-in function in the game itself. How many key sigil you see around? It may be used yes, but is it profitable? Whirlwind also maybe used considering that you have a great need to bring down fliers in pursuit. But most people do not and those who feel that need already have means of doing so.

I will not press thousands of thanatonin because it is not profitable but I shall be pressing opiates, euphoriants, anabiotics in droves. Because they are used extensively. I will not press thousands of brooches, key sigils, whirlwinds etc. because it is not profitable but I shall be filling my shop with monolith sigil, resistances, waterwalking, purity in droves. Because they are used extensively.

What I was trying to tell is that boring, redundant and specific items in the Enchantment skillset is far more compared to others.

The real deal in commerce is "sustainability". So yes, there was this item I used when I was a newbie which helped me but I no longer need that. It is obsolete now. There is a distinct difference between "safety net" and "being obsolete due to redundancy".

And if there are no Enchanters to produce something, the skyrocketing prices would motivate people to take up the craft in order to make a good profit. Eventually price stabilizes back to a more palatable level.

Kodaza

Kalak said:

@Caolan If you read my lines, I already stated that Allsight does free a tattoo slot. I did not call it nonsensical/boring/unused.

Kalak said:

If there is another way to do something, that would devalue the worth of the physical product. If there was no mindseye tattoo and any other alternate way to get the defense...now then it would be something worthy of selling. You call it "less than common" or "niche" to downplay the situation. I call it "makes no sense in trading", "boring" and "unused".

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Xenia

firewall can be actually very useful and tactical in PK. It's niche, perhaps, but something good to keep.

Tiur

Okay, we already have plans for this stuff, no use debating

Razmael is just handling it, so I don't have it off the top of my head.

Koda

Tiur said:

Razmael is just handling it...

AB ENCHANTMENTS
You possess the following abilities in enchantment:
Polymorph - An enchantment used to turn a foe into a sheep for a short bout of time.

Kelliara

Koda said:

Tiur said:

Razmael is just handling it...

AB ENCHANTMENTS
You possess the following abilities in enchantment:
Polymorph - An enchantment used to turn a foe into a sheep for a short bout of time.

And suddenly every Shapeshifter in Sapience invested in Enchantment for mutton lunches.

Tiur

Snapshot updated as I finally get my server fixed and am now testing Sciomancy/Gravitation. Messageless testing, but hey.

You use shadowprice.
Msg2

A gray mist sloughs away from your body, returning color and warmth to your flesh as Shadow releases its hold on you.

(The messages are written, mind you. It's just easier to test with obvious phrasing like this. Thought someone might enjoy seeing how it happens!)

Tekias