Hello all,
As I am playing through Dragon Age Origins (DAO), I find I like the concept of the Mage (Wizard) doing MASS amounts of damage that can hurt both friend and foe alike.
I have a fire tornado spell that can wipe out an entire enemy army, but it can also wipe out my team. Because the damage is so great, the duration is so long, and the mana cost is so high, there is no taunt that will save the Mage should an enemy get through the carnage. And the way the armor works, the Mage is defenseless.
I would like to see this in Pantheon. Just sheer awe inspired damage that can dominate the battlefield but places the Wizard, and his/her team, in a dangerous situation. Learning to balance that destruction, learning to focus the damage, learning to manage agro, and learning to not fratricide.
Agreed, it can make battles much more interesting and tactical. Improving player situational awareness is a must. From the FAQ:
"13.6 Will there be any friendly fire or negative friendly effects?
There may be a few rare, extremely powerful AOE spells, that could affect others in your group. You’ll want to use them judicially and make very sure your group is positioned correctly. That being said, this would be the exception, not the rule."
In EQ, a lot of the wizard and enchanter AoE spells affected the caster. This was also a common issue dealt with on PvP servers that added another layer to grouping with others. This was where you could easily identify skilled players that "grew up" on the PvP server compared to the players that transferred from a PvE server and started wiping out their tank or accidently mezn' their own healer.
Unlike DAO (Which I loved), Pantheon is a multiplayer game and friendly fire with death penalty MMO will lead to trolling, grudging, griefing, etc.
I am really against it and I am curious to see how they manage to affect the party, because if this is in place, you will find player to exploit it and be asses with it unless they are directly affected/punished by it.
I remember having to be so careful with AoEs and PBAOEs on Tallon Zek and Rallos Zek. I've also killed myself quad kiting when my pack got too close.
I think it's a strange idea, and that there are hundreds of other things I hope the devs work on BEFORE massive mega powerful spells that could also potentially kill my group. That being said, sure, why not?
