General

@firebolt it's the worst, isn't it? ugh. infinity... it honestly wouldn't be that bad if i didn't have to keep watching for the cooldown to reset and all.

@hangwithhung: Yeah while infinity should be giving me big damage boosts I rarely get to use it as I keep it on a key where I can't see if the cooldown if finished. I know that I should put it on a correct key but as a F/P mage I have enough cooldowns to track as it is. Trying to time the 5 sec ME cooldown while keeping up my 5 DOTs while avoiding bosses takes a lot of my focus while I am ensuring that meteor and megiddo flame is being used and the right time.

@hopelessworld that's true. but mages naturally have far higher multipliers with their skills. almost all mages have damage increased naturally by 30% with native skills in 2/3rd job, and the base damage on our weapons is higher than most weapons except spears and polearms? +50% from Ele Magic, +20% from Storm/Burning Magic, +40% from Arcane Aim, etc, and those are the only ones I can think of at the moment.

Anyway the one thing that really bothers me the most about arch-mages is how difficult it is to use Infinity. The massive cooldown makes it difficult to time and despite its powerful buff I rarely use it because I feel that it goes to waste if I can't get the timing right to where I'm knocking crazy amounts of damage onto a boss right before it expires. I'm sure I can't be the only player who feels using it is too situational and inconsistent that the skill goes unused and ignored for the most part... I'd rather have a longer lasting, more consistent but less powerful boost, something like Body Boost for BaMs all that time ago.

@hangwithhung: except other classes have way higher damage multiplier than mages. Most mages are stuck at 1.0x and 1.2x at best, which is lowest in the game. Non-mages have at least 1.3/1.5 and classes like NL sitting at whopping 1.7x multiplier. Honestly mages doesnt deserve to have ele reset nerfed. At least not from 100 to 10% that is way too much of a nerf.

@sweetbanana what's lightning spear? keep thinking of thunder spear from forever ago. i think lightning orb is only 8 seconds atm. kind of sucks with ele reset being pooped on but i guess mages had it coming. bishops never had it and no other class really could avoid ele def/physical def to that degree either.

interested in seeing how tele-mast range is going to change. kind of like the added distance.

thanks for your input!

@hangwithhung: The skill changes will negatively affect the I/L against elemental-resistant bosses(82.5% to 86.25% of original damage, depending on Insight level). However, I/L will experience an increase of damage against non-elemental resistant bosses. I would have to test it out once the patch hits to see the effects of the changes. So far, the following will be applied(taken from Orange Mushroom):

Extreme Magic(I/L): instant kill chance has been removed

Elemental Reset: elemental property reduction has been decreased from 100% to 10%, now has a new passive effect that increases final damage by 50%

Chain Lightning: number of monsters hit has been increased from 5 to 6

Lightning Spear: damage has been decreased from 300% to 250%

Ice Aura: cast animation has been removed, MP consumption has been changed to 60 MP per second

Blizzard: delay before you can use Teleport after using this skill has been decreased

Teleport Mastery - Add Range: has been changed into an on/off skill

Not really sure how Frozen Orb functions though I suspect the damage increase is a reference to total damage(could be wrong though). I also suspect the 20% final damage from Extreme magic applies to frozen stack as I observed the first stack made a lot larger jump than the 2nd one.

The 170 hyper 'Lightning Orb' is going to be changed from 300% to 250%. As of now, it is a incredibly powerful hyper as it hits like ~25-30/sec during use alone?(don't quote me on that one). It will still be viable even with the changes, just not going to do as extreme as before.

Overall, I have a rather mixed feeling about the patch. On one hand, I would no longer cap against late game bosses(I hit around 52-55mil against most bosses? so I guess ~43-47mil). On the other hand, I do have a rather large interest to do Dojo post-patch.

@sweetbanana thank you for your input. I'm just wondering what the bossing prospects are in the long run, given that I/Ls are apparently going to be nerfed... but we do get +40% from FO if we keep it on (not to mention that FO procs FA like no tomorrow). Any input on the lv 170 hyper? I hear it's a godsend, hitting 300 for 7 lines. My only wish is that CL had a bit more distance and hit a few more mobs but I guess I'd turn to a Lumi for that huh

As an I/L main, I will explain what an I/L mage would fare in the situation you have inscribed.

In terms of damage, when concerning about Gollux, I have only tested out one type of Gollux which is Hellux. From what I've seen from my minimum damage testing, an I/L mage would need ~18-20mil average damage with Chain Lightning(w/o Infinity active) in order to have a successful run(it's possible to do it lower atm, but the skill changes may impact the average damage). I will upload a video of a Hellux minimum damage run soon as a reference.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n33ZRepB5Y

As for survivability, there is only one skill that will allow an I/L mage to avoid a fatal situation. The skill 'Freezing Breath', grants invincibility while in use. However, you must cast it around a second prior to the event. It's probably better to put it with only one point as the CD is based on the skill level(Level 1 is 62 seconds, while Level 30 is 120 seconds). Bind does not allow the I/L mage from attacking, so as a solo player it is useless to max it as it is extremely rare to be stuck in a particular situation for more than 10 seconds.

In the case of Gollux, I say the I/L mage are fairly easy as Chain Lightning will bounce from Gollux to the bottom mob from the side the I/L character is facing. Commerci runs are a breeze for an I/L, though you may want to get a Mihile for Livy in order to avoid the super knock back.

Do note that I cannot explain the side of the Bishop as I have never extensively played them so I would think an expert from the Bishop side should cover it.

*Edit: got the level for freezing breath wrong, max level is 30
*Edit #2: added Video