Originally Posted by
Amnaught
All I'm saying is that Adaptation, Gladiator's Medallion, and Relentless were grade-A examples of what talents should look like. Something that actually changes a spell in a tangible way. Decreasing a 10 minute cooldown to a 9 minute cooldown isnt a talent. It's boring. It's pathetic.
Example:
Lay On Hands A: As expected. 10 minute cooldown, massive heal.
Lay On Hands B: Works like a blessing. Place it on someone (only one active at a time), and when they would die, they instead get a massive heal. Lower cooldown, but can be dispelled.
Lay On Hands C: Instead places a shield on an enemy that absorbs 50% of incoming healing up to X amount.
Lay On Hands D: 5 minute cooldown, 50% healing, but adds a few seconds of casting time.
Lay On Hands E: Battle Rez.
Now do that to every spell. Mages can choose whether they get firebolt, frostbolt, or frostfire bolt, with enough variation in cast time and secondary effects to feel different, but not clutter their action bars because they only get one at a time. Replace some cast times with cooldowns. Let some spells be cast while moving, or un-interruptable, etc.
And most importantly, and I can't stress this enough, bring back Grimoire of Supremacy.
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By not making the ability interactions more complex than they need to be. They already have to balance around each party having a combined kit of a MASSIVE amount of abilities. It doesnt matter though, because interaction between those abilities is minimal.
What I mean is, stacking abilities like "Judgment heals you when it hits. Judgment does more damage. Judgment has another charge. Judgment has a chance to grant a charge of Judgment." doesnt need to exist in any exteme fashion. It's only a real problem in a talent tree like we're getting, because you can pick all of them.
Like glyphs, problematic talent combinations should just be mutually exclusive. Problem solved.