Ideas on how to improve Enchanters

cornelweezy

Dalayan Elder
Hi.

Enchanters are fundamentally broken on SoD and have fallen behind each and every other class in both specialization and damage potential. Today, after the Enchanter refactor, Enchanters are distinctly difficult to progress, dull to play in both exp and raid settings, and have a vastly lower ceiling than all the other int casters in their cohort. I believe they are definitively the worst class in the game as of now after previously competing with pre-rework rogues and shamans for this position in the past. Rework Rogues are vastly improved and Shaman itemization and the reality of their status as healers gives them far more opportunities to be impactful even if they are markedly behind in their priest cohort. All this is to say, Enchanters are not fine, and some improvements are in order.

I think the devs should abandon the damage mimic mechanic and remove Incarnate Bond (44), Somatic Bond (65), Runic: Avatar of Destruction (65), and Corporeal Bond I/II (EJ) from the game. I remember previously before Ikisith when Enchanters used Gift of the Giantkin. Controversy followed as Enchanters could not appreciate their finite contributions to fights. I also remember when Necromancers traded Festering Curse for tons of improved damage and playability with their dots; I want the same thing for the Enchanter spellkit. The damage mimic mechanic seems to have become a pain to balance around since it was totally neutered in the refactor. So, let's just remove it and shift some or all of that power to a more active playstyle. Below, I outline my ideas for Enchanters in three sections. First, ideas on new and old spells lines. Second, a short rant on charm pets. Finally, some additional buff lines that would help overcome the fact that Enchanters buffs are often trivialized by potions.

Better Buttons

-The Chromatic DD line should be removed in its current red gem form. The idea is nice enough; do a DD and put a small rune on your target's target. They crowd the spell bar however and make the Enchanter rotation feel clunky. The Chromatic line should be replaced with a pet-only beneficial that grants raw attack, haste akin to the Magician's Burnout line, and a chance to proc a chromatic nuke. That frees up a precious spell gem and makes the Enchanter's pet (animation or charmed mob) the vessel for the damage + rune effect, which is more intuitive than another red gem.
-Make Reverse Damage Shields a core dps mechanic. Today, these are negligible riders on Misery of the Swamp (17hp) and Brazen Bull (Shadowknight - 14hp). I suggest the RDS on Misery be removed and Enchanters be granted a new independent RDS line beginning at level 1 in the single digits and culminating in the 60s doing dozens of damage. This method of doing damage makes sense thematically as Enchanters are the arcane masters of manipulation and perception.
-Add a swarm pet akin to Monster Summoning that works alongside an animation or charmed mob. The swarm pet lasts for 10 ticks or until the mob is dead. The swarm pet does ok damage, but for as long as it is attacking the mob, it applies a debuff so the mob's accuracy and evasion are reduced. Short cast time and 5 minute recast.
-Remove the recharge time from Relic: Chaotic Visions. This spell should be treated as the spammable Enchanter red gem nuke, even if the cast time must increase somewhat to accommodate that. If there's nothing else for an enchanter to be doing because of the group make up/relative mob difficulty/a more progressed enchanter is handling heavy duty responsibilities, this should should be spammable for DPS. Enchanters do not get a variety of resist types, interesting ways of spreading out their DD damage, or the crit potential of Wizards. Spamming Chaotic Visions should rarely be the best use of mana, but in a world even where damage mimic has not been removed and Chromatic nukes have not been shifted into a pet buff, spamming it should be an option. The 8 second recast timer is ridiculous.

On Charm Pets

-Just make most mobs level 64 and below charmable. This would require upgrading Word of Command or adding a new charm spell. I appreciate the ad hoc charm fixes to zones by adding special charm mobs, but these creative a myriad of issues for Enchanters mainly in trying to sustain the special charm mobs for optimal DPS. No other class has such an out of sync risk-reward calculus to do damage (pouring one out for Rangers regardless). Just open up 64 and below mobs to charm and keep immune those mobs that simply shouldn't be charmed for fear of exploiting encounters, griefing zones, or breaking content. I have exp'd on Cornel (who I consider to be between t9 and t10) in just about every exp zone there is, including every 6/12 man (I think) and I don't get why I can't just charm *any* of the trash mobs among these zones? Why am I limited to light blues only? Given the way itemization has played out and the dps potential of even t11+ BSTs and Bards has gone, the answer cannot be "balance."
-Bring back dire charm in some iteration. There has to be a point in enchanter progression where one can permanently charm a mob. This ties in to the point above: considering the weapon procs, bracer procs, ammo procs, tome benefits, and otherwise outrageous power spikes some classes get far enough into progression (some toons being able to pull entire exp zones with basically zero risk of death, healers being able to cosplay respectable melee DPS with some weapon/gear set ups AND proc crazy heals, tanks being able to destroy low tier raid mobs damn near solo) what could possibly be game breaking about dire charm for enchanters? The worst part about charm is the unpredictability of charm breaks; enhanced control helps mitigate this but that makes the enchanter bound up in making sure there's an enhanced control button available and you have to admit, that's really punishing. Dire charm should be in the game even if it's gated behind dozens of AAs like suspend minion is. Also, this is not something enchanters should share with the other classes who have charms available as they are already crazy powerful in their own rights; dire charm should be an Enchanter special. I suggest a trigger be added to Word of Command so that if an Enchanter with a requisite amount of CHA (say, 375) lands it on a mob then the mob is dire charmed and a emote displays in chat. I say humbly that dire charm is frankly non negotiable to get Enchanters on track with charm as a core component for DPS (it will never be core for Druids, Necros, Bards, or Shamans). Charm is just too damn clunky otherwise in all phases of the game.

On Buffs

Enchanters got crushed by the buff changes and alchemy revamp as they were already a nonessential class in the majority of use cases. The solution at this time is not to revert the buff change, but to give Enchanters attractive buffs that cannot be potioned. I have three suggestions.
- A line of proc buffs that trigger from melee and/or archery. Relic: Blades of War (65 Wizard) does 125hp/65m, and Blades of Magi (54 wizard) does 95/45, so perhaps a final 60s Enc buff in this line could be a purple gem as well as magic based and fall somewhere around 100hp with no mana damage. This line would not stack with the wizard line but would be thematically appropriate as, ya know, a weapon enchantment.
- A sort of Savagery But For Casters. Spitballing, such a spell could grant 1000m, 10% faster spell casting speed, 5% increased spell damage, and a 3% chance to double cast DDs. Like Savagery, it would last twice as long as its recharge, so if perfectly managed, it could be up on 2 targets at once.
- Turn the Visage lines of aggro management spells (29 - Haunting, 39 - Calming, 56 - Horrifying, 58 - Glamorous) into single target 10m buffs, and keep 54 - Beguiling self-only but also made into a 10m buff.
- Shared Mind remains totally bad ass, but I have a suspicion the numbers aren't working as advertised. I need to test this more.

There are other excellent ideas for how to improve Enchanters floating around the forums but unless we're reverting the refactor and going back to the glory days of mimicking as many targets as GCDs will allow, we should just remove those spells altogether and focus on more active ways for the Enchanter to do damage. The Chromatic nukes add too much clunkiness and should be shifted onto a pet buff. Charm is still too risky to be fun, and would seriously benefit from dire charm after a certain level of progression to smooth out some of its rough edges. Reverse damage shields could be an interesting way to stuff dps while keeping with an Enchanter's theme.

Please, Devs, do something.
 
I hate shimmering rune VI with the fury of a thousand suns, please throw this spell in the trash and reconsider the enchanter nuke situation. I have no idea how it even lands on me half the time but it eats a buff slot and gets confused with acumen. I know atleast half of the tanks have it blocked as well. a 400 point rune does not justify the buff slot.
 
i didnt read your post yet but a person pointed out to me recently that using https://wiki.shardsofdalaya.com/index.php/Spell:_Insanity instead of https://wiki.shardsofdalaya.com/index.php/Spell:_Chromatic_Aberration nets you more dps since it scales with magic focus and magic dmg. in addition my entire raid having https://wiki.shardsofdalaya.com/index.php/Shimmering_Rune_VI blocked due to buff slot issues makes that spell just not castable.

Yes this is a nice thing to point out but then you're still sitting there with 2 greyed out nukes for a few gcds, I haven't parsed this over any kind of fight to see if it's more sustained DPS but C Aberration is slightly less mana cost than Insanity fwiw.
 
I haven't parsed this over any kind of fight to see if it's more sustained DPS but C Aberration is slightly less mana cost than Insanity fwiw.
reports from enchanters in my guild are they literally never run out of mana, they don't even have to use gather mana on 12min fights. duo/grp exp is another story.

fwiw i see nothing changing besides maybe enchanters getting spellsurge????

as it stands now if they have one of the new OP charm pets (the ones in UT and SH) they end up somewhere in the top 5 on parses usually. couple that together with also bringing goe/jb/shiritris ward/corporeal bond/dampening/striking/rending/unmaking, being a top 5 parser and a support god in raids means no reason for anyone on staff to adjust it further.

(didn't mention vex or runic2 because lul who would waste their time casting those spells when the new versions of sk/pal are walking around the tankiest they have ever been, im legit tanking mobs on stahp now instead of cynik/fieldss and its comical, seriously believe the numbers need to be readjusted but in the meantime this gives me the opportunity to run 3 healers on most raids.)

id love to hear the explanation as to why the new spell had to be chromatic, why not just make it magic and forgo adding a new focus to the game and while youre thinking about that why did they only add 5% spell focus instead of the normal 8% we can obtain for every other element type in the game.

anyways hope i wasnt being to much of a dick in this thread just the point of a view from a guy who logs in far too much.
 
reports from enchanters in my guild are they literally never run out of mana, they don't even have to use gather mana on 12min fights. duo/grp exp is another story.

fwiw i see nothing changing besides maybe enchanters getting spellsurge????

...

anyways hope i wasnt being to much of a dick in this thread just the point of a view from a guy who logs in far too much.

I don't see you being a dick at all and I welcome feedback because I have never played at t13+ but I just feel like being really really good (still not exceptional or even truly great) on one or two endiest of the present end game encounters does not make up for being mostly garbage across the board on the other 99.2% of stuff in the game. This is not a new take.
 
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