The Magic Balance Update

[Cheefoo]

As you all know, magic hasn't gotten a decent new update or weapon in a very, very long time. There was Zuriel's equipment with PvP worlds, but that only gave access to a few new, high level spells. There was also the autocast and damage boost update, but that only increased the max hit by a tiny bit, and made it simpler to autocast. Not really going to make it any more powerful. Now, there is the extreme potion update that was recently released, with a potion that boosts magic's max hit by another 40%! However, this is only available to people with very high level herblore, and now can't even be used in PvP.

 

The biggest problem with magic isn't just the fact that it rarely gets updated, but is simply the weakest point of the combat triangle. Sure, it can freeze, it can slow attack speeds (if you have a very high magic level, and a lot of money to spend). But not only does it hit comparatively low to the other ends of the triangle, but it is very inaccurate against anyone smart enough to put on dragonhide or Karil's, which gives gives no negative melee bonus.

 

Not only is it outclassed by the other classes in PvP, it is near useless against monsters. The spells cost too much, are too innacurate, hit too low, and they cost too much. Sure, while melee has to spend millions to get their "top-end" equipment, they last forever, and can even be borrowed. The other, cheaper high-end melee gear costs about as much, if not less, than magic's high-end equipment, not including the cost of runes. Even then, magic hits nowhere near as high or accurately on monsters, and has no real use for PvM. Range also hits quite high, but the equipment is dirt cheap, and the ammunition isn't much more expensive. Magic clearly isn't meant PvM, and has great disadvantages in PvP.

 

However, it has a few uses that melee and range can't even comprehend: alchemy, enchantment, and other spells. However, this is totally unrelated to balance, it's like saying "range is overpowered because it allows you to use grapple shortcuts". I'm not going to get into this, as it's fine the way it is, nothing really needs drastic change.

 

So clearly, magic needs to be fixed. In PvP, they can hardly beat melee fighters, and almost never beat range fighters. In PvM, efficiency is everything, and magic costs loads to use against monsters. It needs fixing, and I have quite a few spells, items, and tweaks to help it have use again.

 

First are the spells. I will list them by type.

 

[hide=Magnetism]

Magnetism spells are designed to deal with the fact that melee fights are able to put on range armor without any penalties. Giving range armor a melee stat deduction will reduce their effectivity in PvM, and cause chaos amongst the range armor markets. To deal with this problem, magic is so diverse and flexible, a spell can be used. When cast, if successfully, these spells will prevent the target from being able to change their metallic armor for a number of seconds. Like ice and bind spells, they cannot be affected continuosly, as there is a period after the spell effect where they cannot be affected for a few seconds.

 

The following spells are found in the original spellbook:

 

Static (F2P)

-Requires 47 Magic

-1 Nature, 4 Earth, 4 Body Runes

-Target, if successfully hit will be unable to change/unequip any metallic armor for 10 seconds.

 

Static Bind (F2P)

-Requires 59 magic

-3 Nature, 7 Earth, 4 Water, 7 Body Runes

-Target, if successfully hit will be unable to move or change/unequip any metallic armor for 10 seconds.

 

Magnetism (P2P)

-Requires 65 magic

-2 Nature, 8 Earth, 8 Body Runes

-Target, if successfully hit will be unable to change/unequip any metallic armor for 15 seconds.

 

Magnetic Bind (P2P)

-Requires 84 magic

-4 Nature, 13 Earth, 5 Water, 1 Soul Rune

-Target, if successfully hit will be unable to move or change/unequip any metallic armor for 15 seconds.

 

Greater Magnetism (P2P)

-Requires 86 magic

-3 Nature, 12 Earth, 1 Soul Rune

-Target, if successfully hit will be unable to change/unequip any metallic armor for 20 seconds.

 

Note: Bronze, Iron, Steel, Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon, Barrows, Statius, Vesta, Dragonfire Shield, Bandos, and Third Age are effected by magnetism. Granite and rock-shell, I'm not so sure if they should be, seeing as they aren't metal. Though it would be more balanced if they were, but if they cost more due to that, it may be a better idea to wear them. Not sure though, feel free to discuss this. [/hide]

 

[hide=Bind]

Just a new spell to match Ancient Magick's 20 second Ice Barrage freeze time. I don't think Ancients should be 100% better for PvP. They do hit higher, and freeze, slow attacks, heal, all while dealing damage, so they're good for multitasking.

 

Gravity Bind (P2P)

-Requires 91 magic

-5 Nature, 10 Earth, 10 Water Runes

-Target, if successfully hit will be unable to move for 20 seconds.

 

Side note: Snare should be made F2P. 5 seconds isn't nearly long enough, especially due to the fact they hit so low. [/hide]

 

[hide=Curse]

Curse spells, are right now, very worthless. They only reduce stats by 10%, and can only be cast once. I propose that new, higher level curses can be used multiple times (like Ahrim's set effect), to reduce the opponent's stats to very low levels, thus forcing them to bring along potions, if not extra ones to restore their stats. Of course, these won't do any damage like normal curses, so you may be wasting your time casting the spells if the opponent has enough potions to restore their stats.

 

The following spells are found in the original spellbook:

 

Braindrain (P2P)

-Requires 76 magic

-1 Soul, 5 Mind, 6 Earth Runes

-Reduces attack by 10%, can be cast multiple times to reduce up to 30%.

 

Shieldsapper (P2P)

-Requires 81 magic

-1 Soul, 5 Body, 8 Earth Runes

-Reduces defence by 10%, can be cast multiple times to reduce up to 30%.

 

Musclemelter (P2P)

-Requires 88 magic

-1 Soul, 8 Body, 10 Earth Runes

-Reduces strength by 10%, can be cast multiple timest to reduce up to 30%

 

Frailty (P2P)

-Requires 92 magic

-2 Soul, 10 Body, 14 Earth Runes

-Greatly reduces opponent's defence for the next attack stuck on them.

 

Side note: Frailty moves slightly slower than an ice blitz. [/hide]

 

[hide=Barrier]

Magic suffers from low defence from not only range, but melee as well. Mages deal with warriors by freezing them in place usually, but they can put on ranger armor without any negative bonuses. The magnetism spells I've come up with help a mage against a warrior, preventing them from changing into their ranger armor for a brief period. However, once that runs out, if the warrior is decently fast about it, they can put on the correct gear before the mage has time to magnetise them again.

 

The new curse spells are primarily used for weakening the warrior while magnetised, so he won't pose all too much of a threat when he comes charging at them with high magic defence, and a dragon dagger, or Godsword. However, the warrior can drink restore potions, or any stat boosting potion to bring their stats back up to normal.

 

Once he does that, he can just run up to the mage, and rip them apart with a dragon dagger special, or worse, dragon claws. The mage takes a lot of damage due to their low defence, so once they miss even one crucial spell, they will most likely take a large amount of damage. While they, eat, trying to heal, the meleer can put on his range gear and has practically won this fight, unless the mage flees, or gives up using magic.

 

To prevent the giant damage that the meleers can induce upon the mage's cloth robes, something needs to be done. If the stats of the magic armor is changed, once again, this will effect PvM too greatly, and costs will fluxuate rapidly. So once again, a spell must be utilized, a spell that can reduce damage for a small period of time.

 

These spells can only be cast once every 30 seconds, like a vengance spell. They reduce the damage they take from melee damage, not range damage, as to prevent the triangle from becoming unblanaced. To further keep the balance, there is a chance of failing the "barrier" spell, depending on your magic attack bonus. It's simple how it works: your positive magic attack bonus is the percentage chance that the barrier spell will be successfull. At zero magic attack or below, you can't succeed with these spells, and you will only waste runes. At 100 or higher, you cannot fail, but you probably sacrificed some melee defence to obtain such a high magic attack.

 

You need to find the balance between melee defence and magic attack, and you need to know how much you're willing to gamble.

 

The following spells are found in the original spellbook:

 

Magic Shell (F2P)

-Requires 37 magic

-5 Body, 8 Earth Runes

-Reduces melee damage by 10% for the next melee attack.

 

Magic Guard (F2P)

-Requires 58 magic

-8 Body, 12 Earth Runes

-Reduces melee damage by 20% for the next melee attack.

 

Magic Shield (P2P)

-Requires 74 magic

-1 Soul, 15 Earth Runes

-Reduces melee damage by 20% for the next three melee attacks.

 

Magic Barrier (P2P)

-Requires 82 magic

-2 Soul, 16 Earth Runes

-Reduces melee damage by 30% for the next three melee attacks.

 

Magic Armor (P2P)

-Requires 94 magic

-3 Soul, 20 Earth Runes

-Reduces melee damage by 30% for the next three successful melee attacks. [/hide]

 

[hide=Dispel]

Magic has to do with changing stats, and causing the opponent to panic and need to prepare in advance. There's one spell I'd find perfect for that. It can either help or hinder your opponent, so be careful when using it. This will bolster the fact that to be a good spellcaster, you need to know what you're doing, and not just click, whip, and eat when necessary. The spell is dispel: it returns all the target's stats (besides hitpoints, prayer, and summoning) back to their base value, and prevents them from changing them for a short period of time. This target may even be you.

 

If your opponent is using potions, for example, you can simply cast this spell and watch them rage. Go ahead, say "Fight? Okay, let's pot up first." And cast dispel on them, reducing their stats to normal. That may not be the most efficient way to use it, as they aren't even fighting yet, however. Using dispel on the enemy before cursing them is usually a good idea (or a bad idea if you mess up the order), so you can drain them quicker because their stats are back to normal. Here's a good scenario:

 

You magnetise and bind your opponent, and start firing curses at them. They're wise to your tricks, so they drink super potions to not only regain the drain, but increase their stats. So instead of being resilient (and stupid) and constantly cast curses, you can cast a dispel on them, and prevent them from raising their stats. Go ahead, curse them as much as you want now, they won't be able to regain it for a while, so you can be at ease briefely, giving you time to heal, use your own potions, or do what you want.

 

Once again, these are only in the original spellbook:

 

Lesser Dispel (P2P)

-Requires 61 magic

-1 Soul, 3 Mind, 3 Body Runes

-Returns target's stats to normal, and cannot alter them themself for the next 10 seconds.

 

Greater Dispel (P2P)

-Requires 82 magic

-2 Soul, 7 Mind, 7 Body Runes

-Returns target's stats to normal, and cannot alter them themself for the next 15 seconds.

 

Self Dispel (P2P)

-Requires 82 magic

-2 Soul, 2 Cosmic, 8 Body Runes

-Returns your own stats to normal, and you cannot alter them yourself for the next 10 seconds. [/hide]

 

 

Working on it. Still. I'm getting kinda tired... Couldn't sleep until 5am last night. I'll work on this again very soon.

[Cheefoo]

Reserve, just in case.

 

P.S. Feel free to post, though keep in mind that I'm not done. I'll tell you when I'm finished, but I'd love to hear some feedback. If anything is unbalanced, just say the word, and I'd love to dicuss it.

[Cheefoo]

I'm not going to bother posting the rest if nobody bothers responding.

[AlexRose]

Do go on, I'm interested in your suggestions. :smile:

[quelmotz]

Quite good ideas IMO :grin:, but I have an issue with the curse spells.

 

By introducing the new curse spells (e.g. shieldsapper, musclemelter, whatever), you aren't solving the problems related to the original curse spells (e.g. confuse, whatever) in the first place. Isn't this about balancing magic, not introducing some new spells to make the old ones even more redundant and useless?