:) I think it is balance, those shields are way too unfair.
Being a balance-wizard myself, I disagree. People forget that it only takes one earthquake to waste every, last shield or blade we may have put up.
Balance is a defense-school. We don't have many spells, least of all anything that does any real damage- by the time we get enough pips to run something like Judgment or Power Nova, the boss we're fighting has already:
1. Fully healed. 2. Sapped us dry, with something like Vampire or Wraith. 3. K.Oed our poor Mander Minions. 4. Cast an Elementalzilla of some kind at us, multiple times. 5. Wasted all of our defenses with that silly Earthquake. 6. Put up 5 or so Tower Shields.
Were I to go on, I could write a book the size of all 7 Harry Potter novels stacked together. Also, keep in mind that:
1. We have more shields, but yours block more damage. Balance shields only block 50% - every other school blocks 70%.
2. Balanceblades give us a 25% attack boost (or 35%, for the elemental & spirit blades; Bladestorm is a group buff for 20% boost)- every other school's blades add 40% .
3. Our traps add 30%- if you are any other school, yours add 70%.
4. Our minions cost pips to cast. I can't count the number of times I've been asked, "why is your minion only a rank 1?", and I have to explain to them that balance minions are not X spells, like the other classes.
5. We can't dispel anything.
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I've been seeing a lot of "Masters of" hanging around lately. Don't know any Masters of Balance, though that's probably because most people get annoyed and lose patience before they get to level up- I know one Legendary, and she's the only Balance wizard I know who's higher-level than me.
Hey vonawesome1. I agree and disagree. I have a legendary balance among other wizards.
vonawesome1 wrote:
Being a balance-wizard myself, I disagree. People forget that it only takes one earthquake to waste every, last shield or blade we may have put up.
Very true... though the same thing applies to every school.
vonawesome1 wrote:
1. We have more shields, but yours block more damage. Balance shields only block 50% - every other school blocks 70%.
True, they are only the same amount as tower shield. However, it is the only school that can natively block every kind of damage except balance damage, and for that you have weakness. That is with the exception of tower shield... which is also 50% and can be triggered and removed by anything including a secondary school DoT spell such as fire elf.
vonawesome1 wrote:
2. Balanceblades give us a 25% attack boost (or 35%, for the elemental & spirit blades; Bladestorm is a group buff for 20% boost)- every other school's blades add 40% .
Stormblade is a 30% boost. Fireblade and mythblade are 35% boosts. Balance damage is limited in terms of things that can boost it, however, it is also the only school that can deal damage from other schools. Additionally, balance damage boosting is mitigated by virtue of having so few ways to block balance damage. Balance is also an ideal school to use with a secondary master amulet as it is the only one with native blades to boost any other school's trained spells, particularly when you consider that you also get hex and spirit and elemental traps as well.
vonawesome1 wrote:
3. Our traps add 30%- if you are any other school, yours add 70%.
Not true. A 70% trap is feint, a death spell. Many people train it as a secondary school specifically for that spell, same as many also train balance to weakness, or ice to tower shield. You can use hex with any spell and also get spirit and elemental traps which can add an additional 25%. Most school traps are 25%, with death trap being 30% (death also has curse which is like a weak hex at 20%), ice being 30%, and storm also having windstorm which traps every opponent at 20%.
vonawesome1 wrote:
4. Our minions cost pips to cast. I can't count the number of times I've been asked, "why is your minion only a rank 1?", and I have to explain to them that balance minions are not X spells, like the other classes.
Only myth and death have rank X minion spells. Outside of myth, balance is the only class with more than one minion.
vonawesome1 wrote:
5. We can't dispel anything.
Also not true. You now get a spirit and elemental dispel at level 35 (if you complete the appropriate quests) and you also get the balance dispel, unbalance. You are the only school to be able to dispel anything.
All that being said, I don't think any school is "overpowered" or "unfair". They are all different, but it may be fair to say that each school has one or two others that are difficult to fight without proper preparation.
Hey vonawesome1. I agree and disagree. I have a legendary balance among other wizards.
vonawesome1 wrote:
Being a balance-wizard myself, I disagree. People forget that it only takes one earthquake to waste every, last shield or blade we may have put up.
Very true... though the same thing applies to every school.
-I agree with you, though we are the only school that is shields & blades- almost exclusively- until around level 30, or thereabouts.
vonawesome1 wrote:
1. We have more shields, but yours block more damage. Balance shields only block 50% - every other school blocks 70%.
True, they are only the same amount as tower shield. However, it is the only school that can natively block every kind of damage except balance damage, and for that you have weakness. That is with the exception of tower shield... which is also 50% and can be triggered and removed by anything including a secondary school DoT spell such as fire elf.
-you're right here, too. But it's annoying when I've finally gotten rid of the tower-shields with my spark and am about to cast a power nova when, lo and behold, up goes ANOTHER tower-shield. Total waste of pips/time.
vonawesome1 wrote:
2. Balanceblades give us a 25% attack boost (or 35%, for the elemental & spirit blades; Bladestorm is a group buff for 20% boost)- every other school's blades add 40% .
Stormblade is a 30% boost. Fireblade and mythblade are 35% boosts. Balance damage is limited in terms of things that can boost it, however, it is also the only school that can deal damage from other schools. Additionally, balance damage boosting is mitigated by virtue of having so few ways to block balance damage. Balance is also an ideal school to use with a secondary master amulet as it is the only one with native blades to boost any other school's trained spells, particularly when you consider that you also get hex and spirit and elemental traps as well.
-Does that mean that life and death-blades are the only ones with 40% boost?As I've said many times, of course life & death are the most powerful- they have to be, or else the Malistaire/Sylvia Drake subplot doesn't hold up. I've heard that Balance is supposed to get a boost against the spirit-schools, though I have yet to see it.
vonawesome1 wrote:
3. Our traps add 30%- if you are any other school, yours add 70%.
Not true. A 70% trap is feint, a death spell. Many people train it as a secondary school specifically for that spell, same as many also train balance to weakness, or ice to tower shield. You can use hex with any spell and also get spirit and elemental traps which can add an additional 25%. Most school traps are 25%, with death trap being 30% (death also has curse which is like a weak hex at 20%), ice being 30%, and storm also having windstorm which traps every opponent at 20%.
-Death is my tertiary class, and I just unlocked Feint. I swear I've seen another school's version of it before, though I don't recall where. Perhaps I'm thinking of something else.
vonawesome1 wrote:
4. Our minions cost pips to cast. I can't count the number of times I've been asked, "why is your minion only a rank 1?", and I have to explain to them that balance minions are not X spells, like the other classes.
Only myth and death have rank X minion spells. Outside of myth, balance is the only class with more than one minion.
-Now that I think about it, I've never seen a Life minion... Do they even have them?
vonawesome1 wrote:
5. We can't dispel anything.
Also not true. You now get a spirit and elemental dispel at level 35 (if you complete the appropriate quests) and you also get the balance dispel, unbalance. You are the only school to be able to dispel anything.
-Okay, I lied. But it's not level 35- I just got the spirit/elemental dispels at level 53, after completing a quest in Hrundle Fjord. Unless the game has changed (which is probably has, as I've been away from it for a few months and just started playing again this week), there's no way to get that quest at level 35- even at this level, I still need help with those rank 9s.
All that being said, I don't think any school is "overpowered" or "unfair". They are all different, but it may be fair to say that each school has one or two others that are difficult to fight without proper preparation.
-I have 5 other characters: one each of Death, Storm, Life, Fire, and Myth (am only missing a thaumaturge). They are all different, though some are stronger than others. Storm, Fire, and Death are attack-based schools, with lots of powerful, hard-hitting spells; Balance, Life, and Ice are defensive ones, with tons of shields, blades, & traps, & Myth seems to be somewhere in between- they've got a mix of both spells and buffs, though I've never seen a conjurer heal before... Can they?
Of course, my rather-unfortunate diviner may disagree with this- she can't cast her own school's spells without fizzling, and it's a bit disconcerting.
Still, thanks for your input- t'was much appreciated.
-I agree with you, though we are the only school that is shields & blades- almost exclusively- until around level 30, or thereabouts.
I suppose that's one perspective, but you do have all the way up to spectral blast (at least... I can't remember for certain everything you have by level 30) by Level 26... so a significant amount of attack spells plus your basic blades, traps, weakness, black mantle, your first minion, and helping hands. I know that a lot of people play balance defensively, but personally... I play it balanced. lol. It has a little bit of everything and is highly adaptable, particularly as you get into the legendary gear where the damage boosts let you do some pretty awesome damage. Ice, by way of comparison doesn't get its blade until level 38.
vonawesome1 wrote:
-you're right here, too. But it's annoying when I've finally gotten rid of the tower-shields with my spark and am about to cast a power nova when, lo and behold, up goes ANOTHER tower-shield. Total waste of pips/time.
Yes... that can be very frustrating. Something to try is to build 5 power pips, then hit with sandstorm and immediately follow it with power nova. Additionally, this can be the type of enemy where a spectral minion can make sense as either the fire or ice minion will aggressively go after enemies thereby killing shields.
vonawesome1 wrote:
-Does that mean that life and death-blades are the only ones with 40% boost?As I've said many times, of course life & death are the most powerful- they have to be, or else the Malistaire/Sylvia Drake subplot doesn't hold up. I've heard that Balance is supposed to get a boost against the spirit-schools, though I have yet to see it.
Life, Death, and Ice get +40% blades. Balance doesn't boost against anything (I suppose as compensation for very few things blocking balance damage) except when dealing elemental damage trough hydra or spectral blast. However, spirit attacks do boost against balance enemies.
vonawesome1 wrote:
-Death is my tertiary class, and I just unlocked Feint. I swear I've seen another school's version of it before, though I don't recall where. Perhaps I'm thinking of something else.
Well, I know there is the jewel of the feint amulet, plus its in a number of pieces of gear. Additionally, with the advent of gardening, there appears to be tons of feint treasure cards roaming around... perhaps that is it?
vonawesome1 wrote:
-Now that I think about it, I've never seen a Life minion... Do they even have them?
Yes, life does get a minion at level 18 for a cost of 4 pips. If you pvp, you'll likely see it in action quite a bit. Even though it has very low health, its still quite useful.
vonawesome1 wrote:
-Okay, I lied. But it's not level 35- I just got the spirit/elemental dispels at level 53, after completing a quest in Hrundle Fjord. Unless the game has changed (which is probably has, as I've been away from it for a few months and just started playing again this week), there's no way to get that quest at level 35- even at this level, I still need help with those rank 9s.
Well, it was just added with the advent of wintertusk and I know they had some placement problems with it at first, but for newer wizards... the requirements are getting to level 35 and then completing the "one in the snout" quest in Mirkholm Keep. The level 55 spell requires completing "su su sudrilund" in Wintertusk.
vonawesome1 wrote:
-I have 5 other characters: one each of Death, Storm, Life, Fire, and Myth (am only missing a thaumaturge). They are all different, though some are stronger than others. Storm, Fire, and Death are attack-based schools, with lots of powerful, hard-hitting spells; Balance, Life, and Ice are defensive ones, with tons of shields, blades, & traps, & Myth seems to be somewhere in between- they've got a mix of both spells and buffs, though I've never seen a conjurer heal before... Can they?
Personally, I think of myth and storm as the attack focused schools in each group (spirit and elemental), fire and death as the cunning attack schools (fire uses DoTs and has link to heal while attacking, death steals health while it fights. Both are cunning strategies.), and ice and life as the defensive schools with balance right in the center drawing something from each of the other 6 schools. As to myth having healing, not directly... but, a good option is cast a 0 pip minion (golem minion) and then hit it the following round with sacrifice minion. If you're in first position, you can even let it take a whack at your enemies first.
vonawesome1 wrote:
Of course, my rather-unfortunate diviner may disagree with this- she can't cast her own school's spells without fizzling, and it's a bit disconcerting.
Hang in there... storm gets very accurate eventually.
vonawesome1 wrote:
Still, thanks for your input- t'was much appreciated.
