Archmages are also considered masters of the staff

[Loomdun]

Sooooooooo, does this mean that archmages will have some relative Melee based moves + the ability to parry attacks?

[Kilrogg-WHA]

Considering they're already nuker/healer hybrids, I would kind of doubt it :p.

[seVere]

what is there auto attack then if they don't have any close up moves? They havnt really told us if toons with staffs can attack with them or if there just for show. I mean the runepresit one looks like it could do alot of dmg if you get hit with it. Parrys would be cool.

[VeriusCarth]

I'm assuming that simply means the staff isn't for show, and the Archmage CAN engage is combat with his staff, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be as good, or even come close to his skill with magic.

[Gemini]

Well, the numbers Mythic gave us were 20 skills, 5 core and 5 in each mastery. No mastery paths have anything to do with staff attacks, so that leaves 5 skills. Assuming the Sprint skill that everyone gets counts as one of those 5, we have 4 left. Might one or two of those be a staff attack? Sure, I'd say it's propable. Will all 4 be staff attacks? I really and truely doubt it, but it is possible.

So, assuming those numbers haven't drastically changed, I'd wager a guess and you won't see Archmages beating melee classes down with their staff instead of kiting, but they very well could get an attack or two if they get in a sticky situtation or just feel like pretending their name is rambo.

[Murder]

Well, the numbers Mythic gave us were 20 skills, 5 core and 5 in each mastery. No mastery paths have anything to do with staff attacks, so that leaves 5 skills. Assuming the Sprint skill that everyone gets counts as one of those 5, we have 4 left. Might one or two of those be a staff attack? Sure, I'd say it's propable. Will all 4 be staff attacks? I really and truely doubt it, but it is possible.

So, assuming those numbers haven't drastically changed, I'd wager a guess and you won't see Archmages beating melee classes down with their staff instead of kiting, but they very well could get an attack or two if they get in a sticky situtation or just feel like pretending their name is rambo.
Only 5 base skills? Wow, that's ridiculously low.

[Tyranus]

Closest thing i can see to a staff attack is perhaps a magically enhancement that does some fire damage on hit or something similar. As for a staff specialization or skills focused on increasing melee damage i doubt there will be very many of those implemented as healing/ranged magic dps have already been given to the mage.

[Grondoth]

Only 5 base skills? Wow, that's ridiculously low.

I think he meant not tied to any mastery.

[Aqe]

Only 5 base skills? Wow, that's ridiculously low.
Base skills = the basic of the class, for a healer class i guess its 1-3 Heals and 1-3 Dmg spells 0-2 buff spells.

You still have access to 20 skills, and tell me a game where you actually used 20 skills on a class.

[Gemini]

Yes, thank you Grondoth and Aqe, that is what I meant. Mythic said when describing the mastery path system you have 5 actions that aren't effected by the paths, and 5 that are effected by each path, which in the Archmage's case are healing, buffing, and damage. Addiontal actions may be bought in their respective paths. And none of that even takes into account morale abilities and tactics.

[RedAries]

You still have access to 20 skills, and tell me a game where you actually used 20 skills on a class.

Guild Wars. Yes, granted you can only equip 8 skills at a time, but each class has over 100 skills and most of those are useful for a variety of purposes. Playing Mesmer, I quite often swapped out skills and I used at least 20 of the skills at various points.

I'm REALLY hoping that '20' was just an example number (I know which video he said it in, the Career Mastery video, given the context it sounded like an example, not a hard-core number. I believe it was "Lets say you have 20 abilities. 25 percent of them, or 5, will be your core skills. Additionally, you will have 25 percent of them, 5 each, in each of the mastery paths." Something like that.

[Gemini]

Care to expand on why you don't want it to be 20? Do you want more? Less? Was there a traumatic event in your childhood involving 20 clown cars packed with 20 thousand metric tons of 20-gauge shotgun shells?

[Aweraw]

i think it was 20 base, 5 core and 5 in each mastery, then add a few from specialization, so you are looking at 20-25, then consider moral abilities aswell, prolly another 10 options, of which you can equip like 4, so that will put you at about 25-30. Then consider reknown abilties, that you will likely get sooner or later, thats prolly another 1-5 active abilities. putting us at 25-35.. Now consider that maybe items will have activated abilities with cooldowns, that will like give you a few more toys to play with.

[Foofmonger]

I don't think Archmages are going to get any melee based moves, sorry guys!

[Njordin]

http://uk.gamespot.com/video/520538/6186186/videoplayerpop?

3:35 - 3:47, we see two Archmages "staffing" people but it looks more like an auto attack, no special abilities.

[VeriusCarth]

http://uk.gamespot.com/video/520538/6186186/videoplayerpop?

3:35 - 3:47, we see two Archmages "staffing" people but it looks more like an auto attack, no special abilities.

That makes sense, really. It'd be odd not to at least give them an auto attack, but melee skills would be somewhat of a waste of time, considering that they're probably too frail to be up in the front lines, beating on people.

[Loomdun]

That makes sense, really. It'd be odd not to at least give them an auto attack, but melee skills would be somewhat of a waste of time, considering that they're probably too frail to be up in the front lines, beating on people.

They may be frail but using your staff as a defensive measure against other melee attackers would imo be a amazingly useful capability within group pvp and solo, Fire mages, whom are a offensive caster class will gain the ability to imbue there staff with fire power allowing there melee strikes to deal absurd damage. So as a defensive healer/support class who is considered master of the staff... I was wondering if they would gain anything for defensive-tactic staff abilities.

[Aelthurian Elthrai]

Hmmmm, perhaps Archmages are going to be tougher than we think. Look how many Dark Elves it takes to bring one down...

:mrgreen: CLICKY! (http://warhammervault.ign.com/screenshots/full_res.php?ss=1146) :mrgreen:

[VeriusCarth]

They may be frail but using your staff as a defensive measure against other melee attackers would imo be a amazingly useful capability within group pvp and solo, Fire mages, whom are a offensive caster class will gain the ability to imbue there staff with fire power allowing there melee strikes to deal absurd damage. So as a defensive healer/support class who is considered master of the staff... I was wondering if they would gain anything for defensive-tactic staff abilities.

I realize the use it would give, but using up skills for imbuing your weapons with magic, or something along those lines would promote the Archmage running in and meleeing. It'd be nice if you had like... maybe one or two specials that effected your staff, that scaled with your level, but had relatively short duration and a long cooldown. That way it's not promoting an Archmage to run up and smack things in the face, but it would be extremely helpful in those sticky situations where you need just that little bit of edge.

Hmmmm, perhaps Archmages are going to be tougher than we think. Look how many Dark Elves it takes to bring one down...

:mrgreen: CLICKY! (http://warhammervault.ign.com/screenshots/full_res.php?ss=1146) :mrgreen:

Oh-ho! Now that is an impressive spell effect. A nice big vortex of energy (though, I can't assume that it's necessarily her spell, due to it being of purple color. I would assume so, though. Unless Disciples have odd debuffs or something.

That said, Archmages could (after seeing this screenshot) easily have AoE spells with the range extending from their body. In case they get caught up in combat, it'd be a nice way to ward off some potential attackers, and wouldn't use up a skill on the staff. (Though the Archmage could still staff people with some sort of auto attack.) Either one would work with me though. :D (I think I prefer imbuing weapons though, since there's something particularly cool about making the end of a staff light on fire, and then swinging it into someone's face, as you imagine the terror.) Not as useful in RvR situations as an AoE spell would be though, I imagine.

[Loomdun]

I realize the use it would give, but using up skills for imbuing your weapons with magic, or something along those lines would promote the Archmage running in and meleeing. It'd be nice if you had like... maybe one or two specials that effected your staff, that scaled with your level, but had relatively short duration and a long cooldown. That way it's not promoting an Archmage to run up and smack things in the face, but it would be extremely helpful in those sticky situations where you need just that little bit of edge.



Oh-ho! Now that is an impressive spell effect. A nice big vortex of energy (though, I can't assume that it's necessarily her spell, due to it being of purple color. I would assume so, though. Unless Disciples have odd debuffs or something.

That said, Archmages could (after seeing this screenshot) easily have AoE spells with the range extending from their body. In case they get caught up in combat, it'd be a nice way to ward off some potential attackers, and wouldn't use up a skill on the staff. (Though the Archmage could still staff people with some sort of auto attack.) Either one would work with me though. :D (I think I prefer imbuing weapons though, since there's something particularly cool about making the end of a staff light on fire, and then swinging it into someone's face, as you imagine the terror.) Not as useful in RvR situations as an AoE spell would be though, I imagine.

If we had any staff attacks I would much rather have parry style ability

[Dastion]

That disciple to the side of her is obviously in the middle of some sort of special attack or spell animation (has both swords slammed into the ground) so some of the spell effects could be him.

Looks like a PQ to me though, given the massive amount of Witch Elves and Disciples, which makes it just an NPC Elf caster of some sort, not necessarily an Archmage. I wonder if those were the only two available Dark Elf careers. I seem to remember hearing something about there potentially only being 2... though I did figure that they would implement the healer, whatever it ended up being, before they opened up dark elves for play simply because attempting to level, group, and do PQ's, pvp ect. without a healer would be a bad way of testing things.

[VeriusCarth]

That disciple to the side of her is obviously in the middle of some sort of special attack or spell animation (has both swords slammed into the ground) so some of the spell effects could be him.

Looks like a PQ to me though, given the massive amount of Witch Elves and Disciples, which makes it just an NPC Elf caster of some sort, not necessarily an Archmage. I wonder if those were the only two available Dark Elf careers. I seem to remember hearing something about there potentially only being 2... though I did figure that they would implement the healer, whatever it ended up being, before they opened up dark elves for play simply because attempting to level, group, and do PQ's, pvp ect. without a healer would be a bad way of testing things.

Due to a lack of spell effects around his hands, I feel like only the red looking slashes are from the Disciple.

[mongoose]

I actually created a thread about this very topic (http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22001)some months ago.

[Slice]

If we had any staff attacks I would much rather have parry style ability
Anyone who uses a weapon (which is to say everyone in the game, afaict) has the ability to parry melee attacks (and perhaps arrows, but that requires insane reflexes IRL) and dodge.

[Estebar]

Some of the Archmage spell animations involve quite a bit of overhead helicopter-style staff whirling, so the Archmage's dexterity is not to be denied. However, that could only be when he's casting spells.

I think some recent Sorceress vid showed her using a similar staff animation. The Archmage/Sorceress would twirl their staff about their head and then slam it into the ground, making a healing spell or some kind of damaging curse respectively.

[VeriusCarth]

Some of the Archmage spell animations involve quite a bit of overhead helicopter-style staff whirling, so the Archmage's dexterity is not to be denied. However, that could only be when he's casting spells.

I think some recent Sorceress vid showed her using a similar staff animation. The Archmage/Sorceress would twirl their staff about their head and then slam it into the ground, making a healing spell or some kind of damaging curse respectively.

One for the Archmage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgsi6xXslX0

[Ridiculous]

As masters of the staff we have to have some staff ability imo.
We should be able to crack somebody in the face for a stun attack.
And like someone else said have a parry ability.

Crack Somebody in the Face: Stun Target for 2 seconds(30sec cooldown).
Staff Parry: Increase parry by X% for 7 seconds(60sec cooldown).

Some defensive staff abilities like that could offset the fact that we wear robes for armor..(Lightest of the healing classes?)

[Dastion]

I do hope to see some sorta of staff combat based abilities for the Archmage. Similar to how Valewalkers in DAoC could trigger spells with their attacks. So essentially it combines an attack with a spellcast, with the spell being rather more powerful than most since you have to be in melee range to use it.

Here's a great example of an ability I would love to see a version of in WAR.

Essentially it is a "Oh , I'm gonna die" spell sorta like the Goblin Shaman's "Eeek!" ability we have seen where he makes all nearby enemies, including himself, fly off in a random direction. A channeled ability that drains your special mechanic and reduces all damage you take. The animation being you twirling your staff around in a near impenatrable defense to both fend off attacks and spells. Perhaps, depending on just how high the defenses go, add in the ability to gain some stored energy whenever you are attacked with a spell so that potentially enemies risk feeding your stored magic so you can just keep it going longer. The idea being that you just make yourself harder to kill, while being unable to do anything else, and of course on a bit of a long cd like most emergency abilities.

[wellsy]

I like that idea Dastion; a bit like the Swordmaster swinging his sword so fast that it becomes, in effect, a shield.

However, I think something more along the lines of a "Force Push" sort of power would be implemented (like the duel between Gandalf and Saruman in LOTR, and yes, Force Push from Star Wars), simply because its more unique.

[seirios]

idea! maybe he could get a staff "trip" skill to knock down a melee enemy for 3 seconds or so, so he could get range.


or i imagine, a magical staff attack where he charges his staff and pokes the enemy throwing him back and knocking him down for a second.


as for parry, i'd like to see a skill thats something like this: " u'll parry the next melee attack made against you " ofc with a cooldown (15-20" ?)

[Arcantir]

Sorry to burst ya bubles but I seriously doubt that archmages willl have any abilities tied to the staff other than an auto-attack.

[Loomdun]

Sorry to burst ya bubles but I seriously doubt that archmages willl have any abilities tied to the staff other than an auto-attack.

You would think, but yah you never know with mythic, they added the Fire staff attack to bright wizards, so theres a possibility

[Tombaugh]

Considering they're already nuker/healer hybrids, I would kind of doubt it :p. Oi, nothings set in stone yet mate, you never know if they might turn it around. I can see where he got the thought after all the Archmage in the video was using his staff to block the Witch Elves attacks. But I'm thinking they probably won't and will be following a healer/caster role.

[Arcantir]

I really can't grasp how people are still clinging to the hope that mythic (who are aiming for an autumn release) is going to turn the archmage calss round to a melee DPS/healer hybrid....

It just isn't going to happen.

I'm afraid the Archmage will not be 'master of the staff' in WAR, at least not untill an expansion when all the classed have been nerfed and buffed such that they are no longer recognisable as the calss they were at launch ^^

[Kaeldor]

I really can't grasp how people are still clinging to the hope that mythic (who are aiming for an autumn release) is going to turn the archmage calss round to a melee DPS/healer hybrid....

It just isn't going to happen.

I'm afraid the Archmage will not be 'master of the staff' in WAR, at least not untill an expansion when all the classed have been nerfed and buffed such that they are no longer recognisable as the calss they were at launch ^^

Well, a lot of people in the thread were just saying something like "they might get a kind of "force attack" to psuh enemies away ...", which could very well happen, as we know there are a lot of knockbacks in the game.

Generally though, the AM won't have any kind of melee abilities, becasue as you said it's a nuker/healer, not a melee/healer hybrid.

[Circumference]

Oh I can definatly see that.

"Fear me druchii, I am Archmage, master of high magic and student of wise Hoeth!" *bonk*

[Howley]

tbh at this point of beta theres no chance they will revamp the class to a dps/healer... their nuke/healer and will stay that way. And i seriously doubt an expansion would convert them to dps/healer either... think about how many ppl would be pissed off coz of that? by the point of an expansion only the ppl that want to play a nuke/healer will still be playing the 'AM' coz of its nuking ability and wouldnt want a change over to dps...

[DunRaven]

Doesn't the Staff act as a sort of focus or conduit for their High magic? I'm sure it can if they want (hence the elaborate, expensive looking Staves)

So all they were doing in the video etc was using their Staff to channel their power and used it with their spells or whatnot?

That's how I see them anyhow - Like true Mages - Muahahahaaa..! ;)

[Kalea]

Master of the staff would mean to me, skilled in using one for magic. Aren't they supposed to possess powers. Not just for show.

I wouldn't like to think a caster/healer would have any melee attacks.

[Iconic]

Only 5 base skills? Wow, that's ridiculously low.

I think you supplement that with morale/tactics and abilities gained via renown, tome of knowledge, etc.

[Valrin]

Lore wise, it's the bright wizards, if any of the casters, who get a little more defense when in melee, because they are commonly trained with the armed millitia to be used as battle mages for the empire.

[KaosShaman]

What about an attack the pushes the opponent back afew yards so u can run away

[logicalmayhem]

i think its all relative.

i have a demonic shark that eats people... you have a stick dont think you will be dooing any more melee damage than me XD