Skills that need tweaking:
- Syphon: Bloodmages are a healer class. While syphon is very pretty, it just doesn't do enough at the moment, and it actually grants the caster slightly more health than it takes when used on self, which shouldn't be possible at all. It would be nice to see syphon become an ability that can only heal other users, as I believe it was first intended, and then to remove the cooldown entirely so bloodmages can transfer large amounts of hp from themselves to a party member with ease, making healing others much easier . Mana cost hanging around 10% and a total of 5hp transferred from the caster to the target is fine, so that Bloodmages can transfer a maximum of 50 before having to wait for the mana to regenerate. (Update to this: I just noticed that Bloodmages don't have Syphon right now. Bring it back.)
- Drainsoul: Bloodcasting hp loss makes drainsoul slightly pointless as far as draining that hp goes. As deadandown said, it's inferior to smite because of its lower range and higher CD when compared to smite. I supported smite's removal from the Bloodmage's arsenal, as having both was silly, but drainsoul does need to be able to qualify with smite offensively.
- Skills that need removal or a lot of changes:
- Bandage [Bloodmage version]: As mentioned with syphon, bloodmages are a HEALER class. At the moment, bandage has been nerfed to very long cooldown for the bloodmage to discourage bandaging in combat (According to Multi). While the idea of this is sensible enough, bloodmages do need to heal themselves away from combat, as well as healing other users a respectable amount. Waiting 16 seconds for bandage to be used is annoying, and if syphon were tweaked and another non-combat heal provided, bandage isn't really needed anymore for a healer class. After all, they forgot smite, so they could forget how to bandage too.
- Skills that make me want to hug you. Don't eat them.
- Transfuse. I love you, Multi.
- Soulleech. I love you, Kain. (Edit: Nerfed as of end of Dragongarde Testing because I used it in a very unfairly overpowered way while raiding the Tree Creepers and it was basically making me immortal ;P I think the new version is very slightly underpowered, but does need a slight buff to the HP regain for the caster. Apart from that, amazing skill, although I'm a little sad to see the Bloodmage's signature skills being given to the Dreadknight.)
- Stealessence. I believe this is actually a fairly useful skill and I do see people use buffs pretty commonly. Would be nice to see it being able to steal Invuln and Smoke (somehow).
- Chant. We needed a heal that was worth using. This is it.
- Skills ideas to improve that Bloodmage thing. Yay!
Skillname: Relief
Cooldown: 40 Seconds
Duration: 30 Seconds
Reagent: None
Rampup Time: Same as original Bandage
Mana Cost: 75%
Effect: Caster heals {amount} health points per second for 30 seconds, restoring most of the Bloodmage's health, but is rooted while healing. Breaks if user is damaged, but if this happens, the mana is still lost.
Notes: Root and break prevents use in combat unless you're a complete idiot. Effectively keeps you healed away from combat. Probably needs some tweaking to make it less godlike, but the concept is basically to be able to heal yourself easily away from combat without the use of bandage, which is supposedly removed.
Skillname: Love [I know, I'm corny]
Cooldown: Several long hours
Duration: 60 seconds
Reagent: Red Rose
Rampup Time: 10 seconds (Mostly to give you an opportunity to break the rampup if you accidentally used it)
Mana Cost: 100%
Effect: Caster loses 10 hp every second to give target (Party member) invulnerability. If caster is killed or the 60 seconds are up, target becomes vulnerable once more.
Notes: Caster isn't expected to survive the 60 seconds. This isn't something urgently needed, just a skill that would be unique and interesting and reflect the Bloodmage's nature in my eyes.
Skillname: Bloodcasting [PASSIVE]
Cooldown: Five Seconds per toggle
Duration: Passive
Reagent: None
Rampup Time: None
Mana Cost: Not applicable
Effect: Switches Bloodcasting on or off. While on (Which is the current Bloodmage default), mana costs of abilities are reduced, but they cost more hp than usual to be used. While off, mana costs are increased but hp will not be lost.
Notes: Bloodcasting can get VERY annoying. It'd be nice to be able to turn it off.
Skillname: Inflection
Cooldown: 60 Seconds
Duration: 15 seconds
Reagent: Flint
Rampup Time: None
Mana Cost: 50%
Effect: All physical hits made by caster within next 15 seconds will grant 5 hp to caster and nearby party members. However, caster is silenced during this time.