Since no one has bothered to come here to stick up for the casters yet --
I'll start by saying that I
agree with Daklore on one point: it'd be nice to see melee-intensive classes be able to have a
chance to hit the highest level mobs in the game. Granted, I still wonder sometimes why we have level 250+ mobs aside from the legendary mobs (aside from the obvious -- more experience gained), but I suppose that's another question for another time.
However, I'm going to have to disagree with the remainder of the argument -- and the incessant complaining that seems to be done constantly about mages having too much of advatage in this game. I'll try not to turn Daklore's post into a forum for my own rants.
As it stands, with
90% of the mobs in this game, it's the
melee classes that have the advantage, not the mages. I've seen time and time again where a melee character who has taken the time to gather decent gear for themselves can one-shot even the level 190-200 mobs in this game, while the mages are casting for multiple rounds at a time to down the same mob with the same damtype. Daklore, you yourself brag about how it only takes you four weapon hits to down a young assassin in Tower Fortress, and you're a
priest. If I get onto most of my mages -- including Narise, who as a Chronomancer has speedcast -- I'm lucky to get that same mob down in one round. Most of the time, it's two or sometimes even three rounds if a brand goes awry.
Beyond that, melee classes (and I'll include priests and scouts in this, despite the fact that both can be a bit cast-heavy depending on the class) have quite a few advantages over mages that no one seems to consider. For example:
- HP differential -- customs and gear aside, melee classes get more hitpoints when all things (re: constitution points) are equal. This is a huge, huge advantage when the fights in this game can be decided by a few hitpoints at the most.
- Melee classes -- actually, I daresay ALL classes -- do not need to fill their rune spaces with runes in order to be functional and above average. If a mage doesn't want to have a spell doing minimal damage, they need an arcanina and sometimes two to boost that particular spell. To cover multiple spells, those runes add up. And, with the rarity of some of those runes, trying to rune a mage to be effective is a laborious process even moreso than the questing that people seem to complain about constantly.
- Ability to multitask (for lack of a better word) -- with the exception of the warrior side of fighters, since they are a pure melee class, every other class has an able mixture of melee skills and spell skills to help them in their hunting. Most mages (aside from shapeshifters and evokers who have spells to give them an extra attack) get two weapon hits, maximum, and in turn have to rely on their spell damage to get them through a fight. Priests? Usually have at least one spell or skill to back them up. Scouts? Too many spells to back up their melee. Rogues? Same as priests, and the lower tier of fighter has so many options at their disposal it's ridiculous.
'But mages have gate, which is the ultimate advantage" some may argue. Yes, we do, and mages need it moreso than any other class! We automatically start off as the weakest class in the game. We gain the least HP, we have the least chance of defending ourselves against mob attacks, and at the very beginning, we have one attack, maybe two to defend ourselves with. The number of attacks will barely budge (except in the cases noted above), we do not get any defensive skills like shield blocking or parry, and for the most part our armour boosting spells are quite miniscule, even with our Imbuing runes. The expression
glass cannon is extremely appropriate in describing this class because while we pack a punch, unless you've taken the thousands upon thousands of hours to gear yourself up appropriately, we can't take a punch to save our lives. Literally.
And, that's what this comes down to. A mage is meant to be a damage-dealing class, plain and simple. We're not going to get many weapon attacks, we have no chance on defense without the proper gear, and then to suggest that we suffer more penalties in levelling is ridiculous. Just because most of the powerful mages have spent thousands of hours in this game to make sure that they can hold their own against what they're fighting (re: Tsythor - 4071 hours; Shaia - 3896 hours, Cari - 3827 hours, Alaunae - 3708 hours, and so on and so on) doesn't meant that mages need to be whittled away at until they're a shell of what they're meant to be.
