The Elemental Wheel

[Edellis]

I am very, very glad magic damage isn't put on a rock-paper-firenation wheel in this game. It's drab, it's outdated, it requires alot of good design and customization to get right, and almost no MMO ever does this. Magician classes in MMOs are typically either borderline OP or completely subpar thanks to this. I remember playing TERA and realizing how awesome it felt to just blow stuff up, dealing massive damage without having to respec my abilities everytime i switched areas. I think centering Black Mage around MP management, cast-time and stack mechanics was a way better idea than just convoluting their skill tree with a crapload of elemental equivalents. It's really just added redundancy more than anything. There's nothing special or clever about it.

Seriously, 99% of the time you have it figured out before you even hit the monster, and if you're wrong, you just go down the list until you're right.

I feel like they went down the right path with Fire = damage and Ice = MP regeneration. Hopefully in the future we can get some Thunder / Arcane synergy that promotes Spell Speed & Crit Rate, and maybe juggle those to along with Fire/Ice. The possibilities are endless when it comes to creating good mechanics with the spells. But shoehorning everything into a counter wheel is really boring.