Activation range of Soul Hunter skill, not radius.

Yes cooldown is not a bad idea and would certainly help mages be on par with other classes, and yep they could just spam other skills while waiting for finale's or new powerful 5th tier magic skill's cooldown to be over, and agreed it looks like some people hate mages and don't want mages to get the much needed improvements to excel and be on par with other classes, and those people oppose the cooldown system and want to keep the horrible casttime system that made mages so Impractical and far behind other classes in the first place!!

 

Oh so it's about survivability then. Let's ignore Ether, Guardian Beam, Earth Release, Shadow Walk, Stone Barrier, Tough Combo Tag, and certain Shield Skills because they're probably useless for protecting mages.
My understanding for some of your opinions is: "I want mages to be strongk, speedy, and bulky at the same time" which is quite achievable right now even with finale, isn't it?
Let's be close-minded and stick with the idea [Jack of all trades, master of none].
Cooldown is good because people can save skill points instead of investing to the said skills, great idea!

Let's balance mages to be level:Zara !

 

1. Finale Mages are far from speedy, they are the complete opposite of speedy , that is self explanatory with unreduceable long cast time on top of long motion time totalling 7 seconds and many opportunities for super speedy high end and also future bosses to 1 hit kill the finale mage outright even with all the protection stuffs combined even with mirage evasion

2. Yeah even with all of those supposed protection stuff combined finale mages will still get 1 shotted by high end and also future bosses even with mirage evasion especially with new and newer and also future bosses coming out and their damage potentially being capable of reaching 500,000+ and beyond ((far exceeding the threshhold of any of those protection stuffs)), instant magics combined with mobility is a far better form of survival than all of those combined

3. a jack of all trades mage that has instant magics moderate cooldowns and decent dps and decent mobility and survival especially with cooldown system replacing casttime system would be much preferable and superior to a super slow mage following casttime system that can be 1 shotted at any time even with all protection stuffs and mirage evasion by super speedy high end and also future bosses that can deal 500,000+ damage and beyond ((far higher than the threshhold of all the protection stuffs combined))

 

I never got 1-shot while using Shadow Walk on high damage attacks especially meteors. I never got 1-shot with my Shield Finale Mage, even with Gespenst II's Fractional Star Reap. We might be experiencing different circumstances so pardon me if I never empathised. If those aren't a hyperbole, I might try my best to find a situation like that and try my luck to cope up with it.

 

i meant high end bosses in the future which should have the potential for "raw" power capable of 1 shotting even the bulkiest of builds, and if they also designed those future bosses to also combine speed to their extremely high power, then mages will never stand a chance against them, and i will guarantee that, also i am not talking about fractional damage from those bosses, but raw power that can deal 500,000+ damage to player which no amount of resistances nor protection buffs can ever hope to defend against, and i don't intend any hyperbole, i mean what i say, against a boss that can outright deal 500,000+ "raw" damage to players and actively unleashes such damage extremely often and consistently, no matter how much protection stuffs the finale mage have, they will never stand a chance against that boss

 

I don't think it'd be that simple, though. There are a few points that I have to agree with momo.
Anyway...
Guardian Beam only generates attacks while channeling magic, which only capable of protecting caster from weak mobs. Basically it's more of a farming protection.
Earth Release only reduces lrd, and up to 25% at lv10. It's useless if you take damage while within 7m from foe, but ok if you can manage to stay 8m or further away.
Ether Barrier can help with magic flinch. But well, the duration is only 5s, and if you get hit with a lethal attack, it'd be pointless.
Stone Barrier, Tough tag, Shield skills, they can reduce damage taken, yes. And there's also p.def which can not only negate the damage but also heal. Though, none of them can help against certain interrupt like fts, and pdef is not useable during finale (which is the "favored" skill).
Shadow Step is great, though you'll need to set it up a little bit. Unless you're willing to spend some times to spam backstab or backstep to gain stacks, else there'd be no difference between having the skill activated or not.
Oh, and some of them can't be used together. You need sub dagger for Shadow Step, and sub shield for the shield skills. So people will have to make a choice.

And those are only under the scenarios where you can either survive or evade the hits. Later on there might, or will be enemies with attacks that can even kill the toughest tank with ocean level of hp and plenty of def/mdef and resistance. Can you expect a mage to survive those?

 

Those are exactly how i wanted side character to understand, eventually there will be super speedy bosses that will be so powerful in terms of "raw"((none of the fractional fatal stuff, just raw)) power that they can one shot even the toughest of builds consistently which will absolutely render all forms of protections absolutely useless, in which mobility will be the only way to survive and win against such formidable bosses!!!

 

and i have already even made an idea of how such a boss would be like to help visualize it
https://toramonline.com/index.php?threads/main-story-boss-idea-share-yours-too.52522/

 

Although I like the idea of cooldown replacing cast time, there are a few problems.

Aside from attack magic skills, there are some skills I'd prefer having cast time instead of cooldown. I mean, there would be a major shift in meta if cast time of some skills are replaced with cooldown instead, some might render other useless. Example, everyone would just use mp charge instead of wcos, since they'd both be instant cast, but mp charge has no cost and can make the followed up maximizer instant also, while wcos costs 100mp and needs low hp for 300 mp recovery.

There's also the issue with mp consumption and proration. With the main dps skills being instant cast with long cooldown, you might be using other skills while waiting. But most magic skills inflict magic proration. And using skills more means more mp consumption. Well, the proration can be solved by having pt/merc/pet, or you can just auto attack by yourself.

Oh, and you know who might benefit the most from cast time being replaced with cooldown? Magic Warriors. They have plenty of skills they can use while waiting for magic to cooldown without ruining magic proration. And bowgun md would have the biggest laugh because of decoy. Literally infinite mp with it, without having to use mp charge nor wcos nor any other mp recovery skill. Though, at least they have the downside of having less matk than pure mages, and tbf eburst buff is only barely enough to reduce the gap.

 

Glad you can also see the beauty of cooldown replacing casttime.

And yes while some skills would face the issue of becoming obsolete there can be work around to reinstate usefulness to those skills, such as wcos can be modified to drastically lower hp which means reaching 1hp easier which can help certain builds that need to avoid fractional aoe to do so, so wcos with that change can be used as both a mp recovery in addition to a quick and efficient 1 hp maker for fractional aoes, and also another buff to wcos can be to increase ampr by 20 or more if used in combination with quick aura which can help reinstate it's usefulness, and other skills can have similar readjustments based on their effects

And yep magic warriors and md bowgun would also benefit alot from the cooldown system!!

 

Still doesn't change the issue of Finale being the only damaging magic in the game worth using.

On the topic of survival however, shield mages have automatic guard if Finale is used, evasion type mages can focus on magic burst and abuse the i-frames from the skill.

Bow has to rely on speed, Sword users have i-frames galore, Knux has nothing.

Cooldown however, exactly what does it change that allows mage so much more diversity in gameplay?

 

Lol have you only ever played toram?
You should check out other games that has cooldown on skills, you will understand what great difference it can make.

 

Do other mmos have an MP bar that function as Toram's does? Or would that be the next suggestion?

Where does it end?

 

Such arrogance.

Mp bar is nothing special.
Every skill has fixed mp consumption, which can be increased or decreased.
Which is exactly same as any other mmo games.
That bar makes no difference.
At most mp bars give a controlled visual at how much mp is left, rather than looking at specific numbers of MP.

 

Agreed and that explanation is correct mp bar is nothing special every skill has fixed mp consumption that can either increase or decreased which is of course the same thing with all other mmo games with absolutely no difference!!

 

Guardian Beam is great for fighting bosses such as Venena and Usasama, mages especially tanks have an infinite range of hitting the enemies for everyone's convenience. Guardian Beam obliterates the ball coenubias, and helps maintain Gespensts' inactivity in Usasama battle. There are a lot more uses, but I think they would be ignored again as usual.

Also, Shadow Step cannot be used by Staff users. Ailment resistance exists to prevent FTS, except on absolute ailment attacks or when inflicted by [Sick] which is almost everyone's problem.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Shadow Walk can be used without sub dagger, but only stays 10 stacks, so players can still survive an attack every 2+ minutes even if they're using Staff+Shield with Shadow Walk, then may switch to dagger if needed depending on their build. Backstep or Mirage Evasion could help maintaining the distance for Earth Release. Stone Barrier could be casted before using Finale for extra survivability of all Staff users, no matter the sub weapon except when using Godspeed Wield.

Eagle Eye gem case is helpful for Finale Mages too because it may reduce 10% incoming damage just by looking at the opposite side of your target while Guard still activates if you're using a Shield, and when paired with Mirage Evasion, your character will look away from the enemy if used correctly so it's another incoming damage reduction from Eagle Eye.

So both of your points are Finale Mages should be tougher than tanks and deal a lot more damage than DPS? Zara level indeed. This discussion could go on forever with such ideals. If I don't reply to any of the next comments, I might be thinking of ending this loop of ideas. The points are too broad with a very few consequences, and some people tend to stay close-minded just to avoid agreeing to the other side of the coin. This isn't worth to be called a discussion anymore, it's a debate.

 

1. You are ignoring the main point, the main point is that mages need to be redesigned to be supermobile and superspeedy at all times for best outcomes of survival and battle practicality and also to be on par with other classes who currently by far outmatch casttime mages in all areas of practicality and combat capabilities and in order for mages to be on par with other classes, that absolutely requires mages to be redesigned to be capable of instantaneously firing off their spells and simultaneously be capable of manually evading all lethal attacks from enemies at all times, and a cooldown system replacing casttime system will allow for that to be possible.

2. no matter how tankiness and protective stuffs you add on to a casttime system bounded mage they will never be able to take on future bosses that are super speedy and capable of consistently delivering 500,000+ to 100,000,000+ and beyond raw((no fractional fatal stuff, just raw)) damage to the player which far exceeds all threshholds of all protective skills and equipments and character stats etc could ever handle combined, proving to be always lethal no matter how tanky any character could ever be or hope to be

 

Dead horse argument at this point.

 

Wouldn't AGI stat fill that gap? there are certain equipments that boost the stats of an AGI mage, not to mention the stat itself gives a little bit of CSPD too. Also, consumables are an option such as Giga Speed Potion which is really easy to make. Take one route or the other, it has its downsides. Whether Toram will release a cooldown system of your suggestion or not, it will have its downsides and people will complain about those again, like an endless loop.

 

And that is coming from someone that wants mages to remain far inferior and far supassed by almost all physical classes in terms of practicality and combat capabilities, and for mages to remain either a party handholding dependent finale user or a burster which is better than a finale user or thirdly a luk farming slave which is the most common use of mages!!