Long time veteran here- I've been around long enough that I remember the overwhelming gratitude I felt when mounts were released -so I've seen lots of spells come and go. Nothing, to me, will compare to the awesome feeling of the 7-pip spells when they were released. Notably the most powerful we've ever seen, fantastic animations, distinct flavor for each school.. And the rework seems to have stolen a lot of that for me.
Example- Orthrus's double hit, a great indicator of the removal of shields soon to come with Shatter and Mystic Colossus. Instead, now it does the flat damage, and to all enemies. Not to mention the massive powercreep of doing 700 to all enemies, instead of 700 to one... But all the same, the flavor of the double hit is gone.
Same with Frost Giant. While the new animation is far more user-friendly, the loss of the frost-breath to stun is sorely missed, as a long-time Thaumaturge. Not to mention the great discrepancy in damage- 460? Before now, the greatest (and only) difference between Life and Ice damage at the rank-6, Centaur vs. Colossus, where Centaur does a whopping 15 damage more... Not 160, minimum. Don't get me wrong, the decision to make Forest Lord a rank 7 spell is undoubtedly well-loved, and gives Theurgists Rebirth just in time for Waterworks. But the damage gap is MASSIVE, and starts the decline in the usefulness of Ice wizards that continues through the rest of the game, without an efficient and effective form of taunt for Ice wizards to tank successfully.
It seems, as well, that if Frost Giant's damage were not to be increased, then the stun should be removed from Storm Lord. With the rework of the 7 pip spells to be representative AoEs for each school, do so-- example:
Storm should be flat damage, as the hardest hitter. Fire's DoT outpowers the flat rate of Storm, but as a DoT, outnumbers it. Ice's stun reduces incoming damage for a round, playing on the tank. Death's drain embodies the school, as would Orthrus's dual-hit, circumventing shields. Of course, Forest Lord doesn't heal- but that's alright, seeing as Life desperately needs an AoE at that point.
Frost Giant is, without doubt, underpowered. Removing the stun from Storm Lord would at least hide that fact in some small regard, and restoring a dual-hit of Orthrus, and the animated stun from Frost Giant, would add back in the flavor that was so beautiful when the spells were first released.
