Theorycrafting: Conformity and Deviations in the Schools of Magic

Hey, readers;


Thanks for putting up with my absence, I realize I haven't posted in months, and I'd give you an excuse for that, but I'd much rather give you a post. As usual, I am not the first to post about new content, and still I haven't started my "It's a Jungle Out There" series for Zafaria. This post is a more of an attempt to imitate Kevin Battleblood's scholarly take on the Spiral; unfortunately, I have neither Kevin's command over technology, nor his ability to simplify the intricacies of W101, so you'll have to put up with a lay man's look at the lay of the land. (Sorry about the alliteration, AP Language and Comp is getting into my head).


Conformity and Deviation in the Schools of Magic


An MMO is different from a single player game in that in a single player game, the player  can be as powerful as the game's designer allows him or her to be, with no boundaries aside from the difficulty level of the game (think; Super Mario). But in an MMO, the social aspect of the game (read: the fact that player play alongside other people) requires that a player's avatar (what we would call our characters) have differentiated abilities (characters can do different things). This variation in ability gives us our class system... in our case, the Schools of Magic.


Now, in order to give each player sense of identity, Kingsisle created the Schools for us to give us reason to play with other people; a Storm wizard wouldn't need a Theurgist on a Chancel run if he could heal as well as the Life wizard could. By alloting strengths and weaknesses to each class, KI . Taking a look at the first fifty levels of the game, it's easy to see that

• Life was meant for healing; AoE and Single Target (Rebirth, Unicorn, Fairy, Satyr)
• Storm and Fire were both handed the damage roles, with Storm handicapped accuracy-wise, and Fire cut short magnitude wise. 
• Ice was given the best defenses in the game; shields and counter shields (Tower Shield and Steal Ward).
• Myth was given a more tactical role, it could call in fire support and backup with its Minion spells, break through shields with Minotaur and Orthrus, and stun with Medusa.
• Death and Balance were intended as the optimal soloing classes, with an even mix of all four roles mixed into the schools and received debuffs early on (Weakness and Plague).

However, these Schools have deviated, or changed, from what we see as their original roles; Life, Ice, and Death were all given powerful AoE damage spells with the release of the Lvl 48 or 58 spells, and suddenly, everyone can AoE Damage, even the Life wizard. 


How some of them have changed: and how they might change in the future....

• Death now has replaced Fire as having the highest DoT; Bone Dragon. As death and decay go hand-in-creepy-hand, I could see Necromancers rising to the top of the DoT damage charts.. (There are no actual charts.... It's just the author trying out cliches
  Blaze's Guess: DoT Life-Drain
• Fire seems to be taking on a debuffing role; nothing kills a fully buffed and bladed Bone Dragon like the debuff from an Efreet. I could see the School of Fire taking on a more DPS+Debuffing role, or, given its most recent spell, AoE damage...
  Blaze's Guess: AoE damage that lowers accuracy of all spells by 40%
• Life has undergone the most change, perhaps; with spells like Forest Lord and Garden Gnomes turning what was once one of the game's most difficult classes to solo quest and/or PvP with into one of the most difficult opponents one could run into in the Arena. (2 hours in the Arena with a Triage and Satyr spamming Theurgist does not make for a happy Necromancer. And... Forest Lord packs a punch, ST or AoE...)
  Blaze's Guess: Single Target Hit, AoE Team Heal. (Think opposite of Crow)
• Ice has gone from being everyone's friendly dps-challenged meat shield to everyone's friend dps-dealing meat shield with the creepy spell (Snow Angel... somehow manages to unnerve a Death wizard. That says something, doesn't it? ....No, Brandy, it doesn't say I need some liquid courage..... go to your room.)
  Blaze's Guess: AOE damage, applies absorb soaking up 500.
• Storm seems to have developed into a Single Target Damage school; with spells like Leviathan and Insane Bolt showing off the flashy damage that comes with enrolling as  a Diviner....
  Blaze's Guess: Big Single Target, Removes all Blades.
• Balance seems to be, well, balanced..... Hey! Enough of the rotten fruit, I know my puns are worth punishment..... but Balance does seem to be sticking to "one blade fits all".
  Blaze's Guess: Astral Hydra
• Myth also seems to remain unchanged in its support and cover fire roles (Medusa puts an enemy spellcaster out of the action for 2 rounds, and Talos is very distracting.)
  Blaze's Guess: Temporary minion, Enemies are forced to attack for 1 round.

It's obvious that Kingsisle will continue tweaking with the classes, and the predictions of a humble Death wizard have no bearing on the decisions of the devs, so a little harmless theorycrafting can't hurt, right? Feel free to read over the ideas I just put forth for your School or others and comment below.

Stormthief out.