U68 Preview 1: Wild Magic & Surges General Info

[The Narc]

I'm not sure about this thing. I'm not against Wild Magic and Wild Mage. It fits with MD, and can be interesting. Playing one way too many years ago was pretty fun.

But it needs to combine having the unique feel and identity of wild magic with being actually playable in an MMO. One thing is what is great fun in a PnP session, another is messing up stuff in an MMO... too many people will get annoyed.

So yes, the good things need to be good enough to actually want to play this. And the bad things need to be softball enough that people aren't going to either not want to play one, or start blocking them from groups. And all this while not making it so OP that it's the only caster to play.

It seems a very fine line to thread to me. And it doesn't look like the current version is there. At the moment we're somewhat on the meh side of the good effects.

Is one thing for people to do chaotic things and get themselves killed, to each their own.

But…..

When someone has something chaotic that can impact my game play, they can think its so much fun but they will find themselves with less grouping options for sure.

The future of the sorceror class is now very uncertain.

 

[EvilDragon]

Wild Magic Surges in PnP are fine to be bad to players, but in DDO, there should be no bad effects to player-side.

So, this means...

• To enemies
  • Having bad effects: OKAY
  • Having good effects: OKAY
• To players
  • Having bad effects: NO (in PnP, it's okay)
  • Having good effects: OKAY

Rather than giving penalties to players directly by debuffing them, giving penalties to players should be done by giving 'Good effects' to enemies.
For example, giving force shield to enemies is valid to be 'very bad', or giving the mob a kind of 'Heals to full health when dies' like light champions. This is for sure very bad because we'll be difficult to kill them. Doom reaper gets full health because of wild magic? sounds good to me.
CC'ing players shouldn't be a thing for this RNG.

 

[Kipp]

Who's Dead? - Dead allies in the general area are true resurrected and living enemies near you die no save (up to 6 targets, boss immunities apply, as does reaper ward for the rezz). This can only occur once a quest.

This isn't "very good". If this was somewhat controllable, I think as a once-per-quest spell it would be quite a nice addition as "legendary magic", but as a random effect and the nature of the game, it will end up proccing a lot of the time when a) nobody is dead and b) you're not fighting anything worth instakilling. Also when there are only 3 very good and 2 are very situation specific, I think maybe there needs to be 1-2 more very generic stuff (burst of damage, offensive buff) added, otherwise most of the time this spell and the damage reduction will proc at a time when it doesn't really have any great affect on gameplay. I like the unicorn though, I feel all of the positive effects associated with wild magic should be as situation generic as that, more healing and damage is almost always useful. More offensive oomph is always useful. Maybe for the force bubble you could reduce the damage reduction to 50% and double the duration?

 

[HoopleHead]

glad I kept my white gold ring

Here's my problem.... lag is more prevalent than ever.. it's practically the standard of play now, and rather then put more effort into eliminating the causes that they implemented that result in lag, staff are just sitting back and waiting for equilibrium to set in and everybody just get used to it.

So now they are going to slip in even MORE random checks & results...

Yeah... this isn't going to make things worse at ALL... nope :unsure:

 

[Scrag]

glad I kept my white gold ring

Here's my problem.... lag is more prevalent than ever.. it's practically the standard of play now, and rather then put more effort into eliminating the causes that they implemented that result in lag, staff are just sitting back and waiting for equilibrium to set in and everybody just get used to it.

So now they are going to slip in even MORE random checks & results...

Yeah... this isn't going to make things worse at ALL... nope :unsure:

Team of wm? Raid full of wm? Raids can already get whacked out on lag if just a small number of certain characters are present. 3 or more wild mages in a raid I feel would definitely cause some sort of problem.

 

[DBZ]

Can we get a UI option to turn it off thanks

 

[HoopleHead]

... Raid full of wm? Raids can already get whacked out on lag if just a small number of certain characters are present. 3 or more wild mages in a raid I feel would definitely cause some sort of problem.

I while back was running Fire Over Morgrave & lag was magnificently bad. My Inquis couldn't target anything but ice spheres...

was insane...

 

[Rage]

This isn't "very good". If this was somewhat controllable, I think as a once-per-quest spell it would be quite a nice addition as "legendary magic", but as a random effect and the nature of the game, it will end up proccing a lot of the time when a) nobody is dead and b) you're not fighting anything worth instakilling. Also when there are only 3 very good and 2 are very situation specific, I think maybe there needs to be 1-2 more very generic stuff (burst of damage, offensive buff) added, otherwise most of the time this spell and the damage reduction will proc at a time when it doesn't really have any great affect on gameplay. I like the unicorn though, I feel all of the positive effects associated with wild magic should be as situation generic as that, more healing and damage is almost always useful. More offensive oomph is always useful. Maybe for the force bubble you could reduce the damage reduction to 50% and double the duration?

From what friends inside the game have been telling me however, is that most of the Wild Magic Zones are avoidable as long as you stay out ?

 

[Ptalon]

While I do think it was a wise choice to not have the bad effects affect other players, it sure does seem to take a lot of the fun out of it.

I think you should make a commitment to periodically add more effects to keep things interesting.

Is there a way to make a monster only agro on the caster? Invisible stalker comes to mind. (maybe a phasing invisible stalker to make it harder for players to target.)

A mischievous spirit that insults you for five minutes.

Those effects that turn you into something else, like the Taken cookie. (but make it last awhile.)

For good stuff, damage and healing and increased DCs are always good. But have them come with some sort of visual effect.

Fly Come on! Let us Fly!

gravity effects.

Weight

Race changes (isn't there some way to make these have an appearance change?)

Suddenly you breath water but not air.

separate effect: a bubble of water surrounds you.

Catch on fire!

Glitter dust surrounds you.

Collectable bags appear around you.

piles of gold

Charm aura

Living spells!!!!!!


(let us have more than one summons temporarily. Like the next five spells you cast become living spells, or five minions appear to fight for you.)

 

[Aelastiar]

You can't have random negative effects in an MMO, it just doesn't work. Wild Mage has always been just a D&D joke for having fun, but it just doesn't work in any serious capacity like a video game, especially a multiplayer one. Instead I think you should change this to only random positive or neutral effects and make this like the new shiradi MM caster.
You get to cast your normal spells, with a random chance of something fun (neutral like free beer) happening, or good (extra damage, cc, etc) happening on your normal spell casts. This gives purpose again to MM builds and then maybe with the gutted shiradi tree (which never got fixed from being nerfed to the ground for spellcasters) there with be enough randomness to have good dps and the build will become viable again.

You can even add a chaos damage imbue to spellcasting fitting the theme and having synergy with the shiradi imbue dice factor in prism. This again makes missiles fun!

Yes I really want a MM caster again and wild mage gives this the perfect opportunity to be actually viable while still FUN.

 

[Rage]

While I do think it was a wise choice to not have the bad effects affect other players, it sure does seem to take a lot of the fun out of it.

I think you should make a commitment to periodically add more effects to keep things interesting.

Is there a way to make a monster only agro on the caster? Invisible stalker comes to mind. (maybe a phasing invisible stalker to make it harder for players to target.)

A mischievous spirit that insults you for five minutes.

Those effects that turn you into something else, like the Taken cookie. (but make it last awhile.)

For good stuff, damage and healing and increased DCs are always good. But have them come with some sort of visual effect.

Fly Come on! Let us Fly!

gravity effects.

Weight

Race changes (isn't there some way to make these have an appearance change?)

Suddenly you breath water but not air.

separate effect: a bubble of water surrounds you.

Catch on fire!

Glitter dust surrounds you.

Collectable bags appear around you.

piles of gold

Charm aura

Living spells!!!!!!


(let us have more than one summons temporarily. Like the next five spells you cast become living spells, or five minions appear to fight for you.)

-50% and +50% movement speed for very bad and very good respectively.

 

[Rage]

You can't have random negative effects in an MMO, it just doesn't work. Wild Mage has always been just a D&D joke for having fun, but it just doesn't work in any serious capacity like a video game, especially a multiplayer one. Instead I think you should change this to only random positive or neutral effects and make this like the new shiradi MM caster.
You get to cast your normal spells, with a random chance of something fun (neutral like free beer) happening, or good (extra damage, cc, etc) happening on your normal spell casts. This gives purpose again to MM builds and then maybe with the gutted shiradi tree (which never got fixed from being nerfed to the ground for spellcasters) there with be enough randomness to have good dps and the build will become viable again.

Yes I really want a MM caster again and wild mage gives this the perfect opportunity to be actually viable while still FUN.

Just to clarify, while Myth Drannor is still in development, most wild magic zones you should encounter will be visible, and avoidable or manageable through some mechanic.

I think you'll find it on the mild side of some of the things you can run into in DDO.

 

[Teh_Troll]

I've only read the first page, but this all sound like a colossally stupid idea.

Scrap the entire thing.

 

[FuzzyDuck81]

Idea for the beer - a refreshing beverage that grants temp HP & SP that scale with character level for 60secs, but grants a -2 penalty to all stats for 60secs

A few suggestions for other effects;
Shinies! - You & your party gain the benefit of a CL20 goldskin spell. For 12 seconds, you gain an aura that causes all nearby enemies to become blinded with no save (immunities apply)
Earworm - Gain the benefit of Xachosian Spell Frenzy. When it expires, you automatically get the Xachosian Larva effect.
I Am The Pumpkin King - Gain an aura of menace (including the usual debuff) for 30 seconds that also has a chance to paralyse enemies with fear. You gain a pumpkin head for the duration.
Laundry Day - All visual gear effects are removed for 30 seconds. When this initially procs, all nearby enemies are dazed for 6 seconds with no save as they can't quite believe what just happened.
Hello Darkness My Old Friend - You gain an aura of obscuring darkness (effects identical to the tiefling racial spell & if you or party members have the associated enhancements will benefit from them too) that follows you around for 30 seconds.
Bears Are Bad News - Summon a bear for 30 seconds. It's hostile to everything but also has the hate magnet effect, drawing enemy aggro to it.
99 Problems But The Lich Ain't One - suffer a curse, 1d3 negative levels, poison, disease, intercession & immunity to incoming healing for 12 seconds. Also summons a powerful lich ally for 30 seconds.

 

[saekee]

At some point Wild Magic needs to summon Shavarath Blades or turn the caster into a Gelatinous Cube. Or a Flaming Sphere.

yes to flaming sphere! Very useful!

Does spell absorp gear work to protect a caster from adverse wild magic happenings?

 

[Phoenicis]

yes to flaming sphere! Very useful!

Does spell absorp gear work to protect a caster from adverse wild magic happenings?

I certainly hope not.

 

[Rage]

Where Am I ? : Randomly teleports the caster into some different part of the dungeon.

Unlimited Power ! : For the next 60 seconds spells cost no mana.

Stoned : Turn into a soulstone for 60 seconds. All the attributes of being dead.

Charmed, I'm sure : Caster will randomly fire off last offensive spell cast . . with friendly fire on.

Test Dummy : Get turned into an immobile training dummy for 15 seconds, all monsters will instantly revert aggro to you.

Mystra's Chosen : +25% divine movement speed, all spells are instantaneous, all spells do double the affect including damage, healing, and duration. Infinite mana. 30 seconds.

 

[Ptalon]

Turn all nearby enemies into Kobold Wild Mages.

Turn your mainhand weapon into a bouquet of flowers.
(This should be a spell that certain monsters can cast on everyone.)

 

[The Narc]

Turn all sorcerors into LFG needy beggers.

My LFM will clearly stat no sorcs allowed

No Sorcs in my groups!

 

[Yamani]

Who's dead should bypass reaper/raid wards since you can't control when it would proc and it can only happen 1x anyways.