[Wizard] [Firestaff] Feedback / Balancing suggestion

Hey fellow wizards, hey all other classes and hey Notorious,

as with the current season not having a too big of a playerbase and mostly veterans are playing there is always a lot of discussions that “this class is op” and “this class is bad”.

Firestaff on Wizard in my opinion is arguably one of the most discussed classes (maybe right after warrior).

Gathered problem statements:

1. The firestaff wizard oneshots everyone

2. The triple blink invisibility of wizard overall is too strong

3. The wizard hardly ever stams out

Problem Statement 1: Oneshots

The firestaff wizard has several combos to damage people but there is two main combos:

Spells abbreviations for easier readability:

• FC = Frozen Cyclone

• TW = Timewarp

• TWR = Timewarp Re-activation

• AL = Arclight

• DB = Dragonsbreath

• OC = Overcharge (Insta Fireball)

• OL = Overload (Iframes while casting + 30% damage)

• CF = Conflagerate

• IV = Invisibility

1. Oneshot Combo: TW → TWR → FC → AL → DB → OC → CF

   • this is dodgeable by any class that can get out of roots, has some sort of stagger immunity or can stagger the wizard while comboing

   • this usually takes between 80% to 90% of the enemies hp depending on a crit of the OC

   • the damage comes from the combination of OC hitting before AL proccs resulting into a confirmed crit of AL and the Spellweave Shoulders trait where you gain OL for some seconds after you TW yourself or an enemy target

2. Confirmed Combo: TW → TWR → FC → DB → OC

• this is not dodgeable if the wizard spaces correctly

• this usually takes between 40% to 60% of the enemies hp depending on a crit of the OC

• the damage comes from the OC and the Spellweave Shoulders trait where you gain OL for some seconds after you TW yourself or an enemy target

Problem Statement 2: Triple Blink Invisibility

In order to do both of this combos mentioned above, the wizard needs to blink (be it double or triple, mostly triple) into melee range and spend 2/3rds of his stamina.

If he misses his TW, the TW gets killed or he misses the FC, then the wizard is not in a good position. Arguably thats why the invis after the triple blink is “justified” for engaging.

Problem Statement 3: The wizard hardly ever stams out

This class is all about stamina management as in the current meta you dont have any good tools to cope with the insane staggering in melee range. You dont really have any other possibility then to blink away and try to do some actions afterwards.

Classes that can create immense pressure (Rogue/Warrior/SnS Priest) can indeed stam a wizard out if they know how to play the matchup.

In the current meta wizard is kind of forced to play stamina pots and energy pots (even thought they share CD) paired with bandages and health pots. Ring wise and gear wise you will want to go for stamina regen everywhere just to be able to play against most classes.

Balancing/Tweaking Suggestions

This balancing and tweaking suggestions are from my point of view after playing the class/weapon a lot and against a lot of good players.

1. Damage Output

I think that the current damage output might be a bit too high especially when crits and shoulders come into effect.

My balancing take here:

• Overcharge

  • should not be able to crit

• Spellweave Shoulders Trait

  • tune down / remove the damage (probably only tune down if you remove the crits from Overcharge)

  • keep the casting iframes (you might want to move this to a trait and give the shoulders something else)

2. Triple Blink Invisibility

In my opinion the triple blink invisibility might be a bit too long/strong.

My balancing take here:

• Either:

  • Reduce length of invisibility

• Or

  • Make the wizard invisible only the first second and camouflaged afterwards

3. Wizard hardly ever stams out

In my opinion that statement is not entirely true and it might be okay to not change anything here.

My balancing take here:

• If you would want the wizard to rely less on his blinks then you need to give him the possibility to have something in melee range to cope with pressure/stagger.

As said, all of this is from my point of view and I just want to give my opinion on how the class could be more “balanced”.