Echoes of Creation — v0.2.10: Mage: The Sixth Class
Adventurers,
A sixth class arrives, and it does not play like the other five. The Mage trades armour and an off-hand for reach — meteors, a nova that swallows a camp, a lance that pins what it hits. Alongside it, combat itself got heavier: hits stop for a moment when they land, swings throw an arc of light coloured by the gems in your weapon, and monsters fall over instead of blinking out of existence.
The Mage
Greatstaff, two hands, seven skills, and nowhere to hide. The widest reach in the game, and the thinnest skin to carry it.
- Meteor Fall. Meteors come down where you aim, and each one bursts on the ground it lands on
- Flame Nova. A 13.5 metre eruption centred on your target — and it sets what it touches burning
- Frost Lance. A 300% freeze that drives through its target and stays lodged in it
- Void Singularity, Arcane Bolt, Chronoshift and Avatar of Flame round out the tree
A greatstaff line of its own, from the Worn Greatstaff up through Apprentice, Arcane and Genesis to the Worldsunder. Its own talent tree, with Arcanum built as the tempo lane — crit rate and cast speed rather than raw numbers. Two hands, no off-hand — the slot you give up is folded back into the staff.
Every Hit Lands
The same swing, and it feels like something now.
- Hits hold for a moment. Both you and what you struck stop on contact — longer on a critical — and the camera kicks with it
- What you hit flashes, and sparks scatter off the blow
- Swings throw a crescent of light along the arc of the strike, and no two are quite the same
- Your gems colour it. White to start, then green at four, blue at five, purple at six, red at seven — and other players see your colour, not theirs
- Things fall over when they die. Four different collapses, picked at random, instead of freezing in place and vanishing
- That includes you, and everyone you can see
- Screen shake stays yours. All of this respects the slider in Options, including turning it all the way off
Reach
You connect from where it looks like you should.
- Melee reach is 4 units, up from 2. The gap between where a swing looked like it landed and where it actually did is gone
- Daggers stay shorter at 3 — close work is the trade for their speed
- Skills centred on you grew with it: Whirlwind Slash 4 to 6, Ragebreaker 6 to 8, Sacred Nova 13.5 to 15.5
The Corrupted Zones
- Twice as busy. 132 corrupted monsters across the four zones, with all six corrupted classes now in every one
- They come back faster — 20 seconds instead of 30
Starting Out
- New accounts get a 7-day Patron's Crest, free. The whole pass, from your first login — nothing to claim and nothing to cancel
- It is per account, so every character you roll is covered by it
Fixed
- Legendary gear that could not be listed can be listed again. A handful of pieces had their identity saved wrongly, and every attempt to sell them failed outright. The pieces are repaired and the cause is closed
- Warrior's Void-Husk sells at its proper price — it was capped at 10 Lumina while the listing screen offered up to 20
- The Genesis Axe is visible. It was being drawn far too small to see
- A character's save can no longer be written into another character's slot on a hosted map
- Collections that only ask you to own the gear now accept it, and the Register button does what it says
- Combat Power no longer climbs from a temporary buff — a crit-damage potion was inflating the number
- On maps with more than one arena, boss effects now play on the boss that cast them
- Enemy afflictions sit below the health bar, so hovering one tells you what it is
- The enchant panel no longer warns you about a stone you are already holding
Pick up a staff. Set something on fire.
— Tipreth