Mage Balance Discussion: Ether

Peppermaster

Hi, I just want to discuss with other Solomon fans about their thoughts on some spells and possibly suggest solutions that can be helpful for Mr. Raptis.

For this discussion, let's talk about Ether, the best "sub primary spell".

Ether has been used a lot because most the welding spell related to ether are good and ether charge(ultimate tier subskill) is very useful against bosses. 

However, if you attempt to use solely ether, you will face problems with mass late game skeletons, and low dps.

So here is the questions:

1. Is piercing (new ultimate tier subskill in Solomon Dark) going to solve the problem that pure ether user have?

2. Is ether charge making magic missile "un-fun"?

3. What secondary spell would be helpful for pure ether users other than magic shield to deal with its weakness? You can design one up if you feel that is not enough.

4. Is magic boulder superior to magic missile with piercing?

5. If you are Mr. Raptis, what other changes would you give to ether spells?

If there are things that you would like to discuss about ether other than those stuff up here, please feel free to talk. Also, ask anything that you do not understand about the question or ether.

CombustionMan

1. i would say yes!!! In Dark i used ether the most bc i progressed much further. In SK and SB frost jet is the best skill In Dark i would say its ether.

2. I wouldnt say un-fun. But it makes things easier. But you can improve this skill very easily for example when it doesnt work on boss monsters.

3. Hmm good question hahah

4. It depends.. on a single monster i would say ether is better..but on masses i think boulder with Rock surge or whatever the name of that skill was that lets you instantaneously have a full grown boulder...but then again i progress much fruther wit ether so idk hahah

5. At this moment i would say nerf ether blast and piercing maybe..but other than that not many changes.. i feel like the other spells deserve some kind of changes with new skills bc with ether you can practically do anything and it gained a lot with Dark

Peppermaster

@CombustionMan

1. As a frost lover, I want to know why ether is superior to frost jet (btw, frost jet's dps got increased due to the addition of hail  hail frost jet ).

2. What I mean by un-fun is that basically you only use magic missile to use ether blast on boss and totally abandons it for the rest of the fight because ether charge cannot be used to reduce more health to that boss again. I feel like it should rather deal damage based on max health rather than reduce max health (of course the damage should be lowered).

4. Magic Boulder is ether+earth weld spell. The one you are thinking is a normal boulder (Rock Surge does not work on weld magics). Magic Boulder shoots slower but do more damage and can pierce at lower level. It also shoots automatically when fully charged. 

CombustionMan

1. i luuuve frost! That was my shit in SK and SB..but i feel like ether got soo much better in Dark and i didnt come as far with frost. Ok you still have the advantage to fend off arrows and you have harden. But with ether i leveled up magic shield as much as possible and with focus on mind disciplines i didnt have a problem with mana so i would shoot mostly non stop and in addition with piercing i was able to kill the enemies off screen and eliminate archers more quickly.

Buuut maybe i just got bad with frost jet :))

2. Does it only reduce once? I thought you can do it multiple times..or is it once in dark but multiple times in SK/SB?

Hmm but dealing damage wouldnt change much, would it? I mean dealing damage is kiiind of reducing max health..

4. Ohhh hahah...then i rly dont know whats better..whats do you think? :)

Peppermaster

@CombustionMan

1. Unless you are looking for some really late game when the enemies' stats become insane, I guess ether would be a good choice. Theoretically, frost has the best late game but I bet no one can play this game for hours holding attack button and wait for all enemies to die. (I actually fell asleep after 2-3 hour with frost jet I-)  )

2. Both dark and sk/sb does not reduce max health more than once. This is why u can never kill anyone by using ether blast alone. (If this ever gets changed, there should be a feat for killing lots of enemy with this ability :D)

4. If Solomon Dark allow players to get 5 lvl battle mage in early game, ether is better (you can do that in Solomon's Keep. You just need to farm gold by watching ads and buy skill from the yellow guy). If you have a problem waiting till level 30, go for Magic Boulder.

CombustionMan

1.  >>I guess ether would be a good choice

Well after watching phrostyphace i would say its fantastic hahaha

2. Oh hmm ok now i understand why you find it kinda un-fun.. although its quite helpful... but i wouldnt mind making ether blast little more fun...it seems that you want something you can use multiple times and not only once but then theres the danger that the skill becomes to op...maybe we can come up with something good and then you will get the feat in keepHD :D

4. ok i see but whats superior in late game? ..excluding phrostyphace ether demonstration, under normal circumstances :))

Peppermaster

@CombustionMan

4. If you are talking about magic missile vs magic boulder in late game, magic missile is better late game because it is more accurate, faster attack speed, thus more dps. 

CombustionMan

4. Ok i see thanks ^^

1. >>Theoretically, frost has the best late game but I bet no one can play this game for hours holding attack button and wait for all enemies to die. (I actually fell asleep after 2-3 hour with frost jet   )

How far did you actually come in that run?

Peppermaster

@CombustionMan

I killed Discorperal and rest of the waves were same ol' skeleton zombie stuff until I die. There weren't any significant changes to the wave enough to make me doze off.

phrostyphace

i died with my magic missile dude btw lol. i made it to somewhere in the 200's, tbh i only died to carelessness, the game gets SOOOOO boring at some point. the way the game was programmed there is apparently no cap to how much hp enemies can have, even with almost max possible dps i still was sitting and watching enemies take tons of magic missile hits before going down. had i not been bored and spacing out i still would not have died, but really i was getting to the point of like, i want to start over now, so idc if i die.

twas fun, and i made almost 100k gold in one run!

Peppermaster

@phrostyphace

That is why most frost spells, especially Frost Missile, are theoretically the best late game spell in the game. Even if it takes tons of shots to kill a single skeleton, the enemies either cannot come close or shoot arrows because of chill wind. What about mages? Dampen should solve it(if it does not crash the game, which it always does). 

Of course, the great weakness of late game frost spell is your own suicidal urge due to boredom. Guess too much ice is bad for me.