Magic Specialisation Quest

[lukep]

This quest would be a counterpoint to the Antimagic quest, granting you access to two skill trees in exchange for giving up access to infusions and all nature-infused items. It would start with a worldmap NPC at around level 10, who would give you the option to accept the quest, to clear an area of all nature, returning it to the state it was in during the Spellblaze. Continuing would bring you to a smallish level with many Honey Trees, Poison Vines, Bears, Snakes, and a unique, magical boss tree at the centre. Once you have cleared the level, you are rewarded with the talent trees Runic Mastery and Arcane Blasting. (both from edge's Hedge Wizard thread, Runic Mastery from myself and Nagyhal, Arcane Blasting inspired by Sirrocco's idea.) The trees are below, with comments written in blue.

Spell/Runic Mastery

Greater Runecraft Activated, 20 Mana, no cooldown
Improve a rune by imbuing it with the power of a gem. Grants stat scaling to the Rune, increasing with high grade gems (Grade 3 equivalent to current egos). In addition, there is a (20-100)% chance that using an upgraded gem will not trigger or be affected by Runic Saturation. Can only be applied to non-ego runes. You can use grade (1-5) gems based on raw talent level.

One way to split up gems:
Agate/Opal/Onyx/Ruby/Diamond- scales with Magic
Spinel/Topaz/Lapis Lazuli/Sapphire/Moonstone- scales with Dexterity
Zircon/Aquamarine/Emerald/Jade/Pearl- scales with Constitution
Ametrine/Amethyst/Garnet/Amber/Fire Opal- scales with Strength
Citrine/(no gem here)/Quartz/Turquoise/Bloodstone- scales with Cunning

Rune Dervish Activated, 20 Mana, cooldown 100
Reduces all rune cooldowns by (0.5+0.5 per TL, rounded down) turns each turn for (8+2 per talent level) turns.

This would reduce your rune cooldowns by two to four each turn instead of one for a short time.

Automate Rune Sustained, 50 mana, cooldown 20
Automate one of your runes, placing it on cooldown until you stop sustaining it. The automated rune activates every (15-11) turns based on talent level.

Damage dealing runes will target random enemies within range, PD and teleport would teleport you, CPD would prompt for a destination, and shielding and manasurge runes would need balance because they would be overpowered.

Runic Thesis Activated, 100 mana, cooldown 100
You study a damage dealing rune from your inventory, destroying it to gain intimate knowledge of its workings. This gives you a spell that does (25-33)% of the original damage, with a cooldown of (45-25)% of the original, with a minimum cooldown of (7-3). You can only have one Runic Thesis at a time, it cannot be used for automate rune, and is unaffected by Rune Dervish.

This grants you a mid powered, zero cost damage spell. I'm not sure how acid wave should be handled here.

Spell/Arcane Blasting

Arcane Blast activated, 20 Mana, 5 cooldown, instant travel speed, 10 range.
Shoot a radius 0 ball at a target, hitting it for (50 early game to 400 by end game) arcane damage.

Meant to be slightly more powerful than manathrust and the other basic attack spells, at higher cost and cooldown

Arcane Focus Sustained, 30 mana, 20 cooldown
Turns all non-arcane damage you deal into (20-100)% arcane damage. Drains (0.5-2.5) mana per turn.

Similar to Alchemist's infusions, but applying to all damage you deal, not only fire damage.

Arcane Seeker 50 mana, 20 cooldown, 300% normal travel speed.
Summons an arcane seeker next to you, an invulnerable, untargetable creature, with a lifetime of 5, that runs up to the first enemy it sees or senses with its telepathy, and explodes, dealing (150 early game to 600 late game) arcane damage in a radius of (1-3 based on talent level)

Going for a similar damage to fireflash, useful for shooting around corners, as the seeker AI should be able to find any nearby enemy, and has the lifetime to run 15 squares.

Arcane Font Sustained, 50 mana, 30 cooldown
Increases Arcane Damage by (2-10)%, and ignores (10-50)% of the arcane resistance of your targets.

Wildfire/Uttercold/Tempest for Arcane Damage

This quest reward needs more balance, and the quest itself is quite sketchy and bland, but I think that it's a good place to start from.

[Hedrachi]

I like it, but I don't think I'd be doing it ever unless I was playing a class with a heal spell. No Regen/heal infusion means you're relying on lifebinding staves of warding, rings of life/regeneration and the like, which hampers your damage output (and resistances too, come to think of it). Maybe a talent which turns Rune: Shielding into a "Heal Any" spell (to benefit undead, too)?

[lukep]

You're right about lack of healing, but I don't think that the skill should transform one skill into another (Shielding to heal self). Perhaps replacing Arcane Focus or Arcane Blast with the following skill would fix it.

Arcane Leech Sustained, Instant cast speed, 50 Mana, 30 cooldown
While this talent is sustained, you regain life equal to (10-30)% of all the damage you deal. When you stop sustaining this talent, you get a temporary (5-7) turn buff, granting you (80-120)% life steal.

I don't know how well balanced this would be, and the 120% life steal could be exploited to heal yourself by casting damage spells, but it would help with the lack of healing options. Another balance issue to consider would be placing a cap on the sustained skill's life leech per turn, perhaps around (20-100) HP/turn.