Fixing Magic

[Bluddy]

Some people have reported that other than armor not counting enough (which is being worked on), there was a problem that magic stops being effective after a certain level. Do people feel this has been fixed?

[abomination5]

I've always found magic extremely strong. Past a certain level you need at least one good cast time reduction item though.

[Nobear]

My 68 Wizard with maxed-out DPS skills feels about the same before and after the armor/resistances change. However, I would expect the situation to be improved for classes with weaker magic, or a more balanced build with less DPS focus.

It will be interesting to see, for instance, if my 27 Priest is more viable now. Before, since I was focused evenly among healing, buffs and damage, my damage spell was barely able to cut through resistances at all, and thus did close to 0 damage. I was literally better off hitting individual guys with my staff, than spamming my AOE damage spell. Now I'd expect the spell to be more effective since all spells are reduced by a certain (relatively low) percentage now, but I haven't tested it out yet.

Abom I think is the one with the frost mage/sorcerer hybrid with whom I've played and seen steamroll everything in his path at level 100. Maybe I'm confusing him with Stardusts though, I forget.

[Shadow]

Patch 1.015 should have reduced monsters resistances quite a bit, so I'm also curious how people are finding the magic balance now.

[abomination5]

Actually, I did notice that my spells were stronger after the patch. I thought it was just me!

[Bluddy]

My 19th level necromancer is faring quite well against monsters of his level after the patch, except for the occasional hellish level and superboss. Since I'm playing at normal difficulty, I consider this to be a good difficulty curve so far. Oh I should mention that he uses lightning chain as his main attack.

[EternalChampion]

Yeah, my lvl 24 Reaver/Shaman hybrid can one or two-shot even the biggest baddest bosses as he's usually on a dexterity or strength potion and then cast Champion and then Ravage away. It's *almost* anticlimactic. Luckily, there's some super fast monsters that can sneak-up before I can magic-up and do the same to me.

The only other Shaman skill I use is Holy Fire which is incredibly handy for long distance pyrotechnics (setting barrels and doors on fire, etc.) that weaken and/or kill hapless fiends that are trapped. The only Reaver skills I've bothered with are Two-Handed Mastery, Ravage, Breach, and Plate.

Of course having Grel's Axe (+75% Crushing Blow, +75% Magic Crushing Blow among lots of other things to go with it's 31.8 DPS) has helped. Most every strike is a crushing blow or deep wounds. And Din forbid there be a Life Steal obelisk nearby.

[DeathKnight1728]

Do you use hardiness as well? Ive played a weaponmaster/shaman and they are awesome and very similar to your build.

[Bluddy]

One or two shot the biggest baddest bosses? That's extreme. Perhaps some nerfing is needed for that build

[DeathKnight1728]

Not really. The shaman only gives the reaver the ability to take almost any hit. Hardiness is a buff that shamans get that almost doubles your life which makes warriors insanely powerful. It also makes it so you dont have to add as much health every level because you have the buff. This only gives the reaver more chance to survive, not more killing power.