First off - I might be wrong as I have yet to try my hand with a fire wizard and test it. So if I am wrong - correct me. I am going on assumptions from my experience as a theurgist.
As a life/frost wizard - I have a strong set of charms that reduce incoming damage. Meaning I have the 50% tall shield spell and the 70% fire from the legend shield.
It is effective to use one or the other or both when fighting an enemy. It can take a 300 damage attack and drop it to almost 40 damage. It's nice. However, I notice this only applies to what I will call "punch" damage. This means the initial damage. In cases of spells without periodic damage - this refers to the overall damage.
In my case, we'll be approaching periodic damage. Unfortunately it seems that the charm can only reduce the "punch" damage. This means that it reduces the whopping 30-70 damage the spell does when first cast down to 12 or so. That is sarcasm as the real pain of the spell is the periodic tick of the spell. Although I reduced the initial punch, it had no effect on the overall damage of the spell. Each periodic tick still hits for its maximum damage even though the spell card itself was reduced.
Here's where the assumption comes in - and is based on experiences. I have seen fire wizards and creatures use charms to increase their card damage and it applies not only to the "punch" damage, but it also applies to the periodic tick. Again, this is an assumption so correct me if I am wrong.
Herein lies the problem. A wizard can increase their "punch" damage and periodic damage with one charm yet you can't use a charm to reduce the periodic damage - just the "punch." This gives periodic damage a huge advantage when it comes to the application of charms as a damage increase.
My suggestion is this: When a charm is used to reduce incoming damage from a damage card in general - it should reduce the overall damage of the card. Even if the damage goes beyond the "punch."
This would ensure that in PvP, even in PvE, that attacking with a periodic damage card would not give an advantage when attacking someone defending against it.
I know it's a lot to read - but with almost five years of MMO experience, I hope you will take it serious. I have seen game imbalances that players will run with and this could easily become one of those. I will keep my eyes open and continue to look for other imbalances and bugs.
I don't know if the charm boosts the damage of the perodic damage, because this works partially the same way as the Minotaur, something to pierce the shield and then deal damage. I agree the real damage is the damage over time from the attack.
We'd need someone to actually test, since at this point I will have a hard time just doing damage over time, my only spell that does that comes from an item that gives me a damage boost already. i don't think the fire blade boosts the damage over time, since the initial punch is what triggers it, like the minotaur, the base boost shouldn't be applied to the second hit, unless you have a second boost.
While I'm sure other people will weigh in, I would like someone who can talk to the programers to give a 'the program calculates it like this' statement so we know. I'm fine with the way the Damage over times work, as long as the blades only apply to the punch damage and not the total damage that gets divided over turns after the punch.
Charms DO affect the entire overall damage of an aura spell (which is, by the way, what they're called). Wards ONLY affect immediate damage in one stage of an aura spell.
This is just the way the game works, and it's what gives the fire school its perks.
And as for the minotaur, well, here's what I have to say:
Being a conjurer, you should know (and you should know WELL) that a main point of the school is to remove charms and wards and deal 'pure' damage; namely, damage dealt by the spell, affected as little as possible by charms and wards. The small hit in the minotaur preceeding the more substantial hit is meant to accomplish just that.
Look on the bright side; you'll easily overrun shields!
