ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

While I continue to believe that the older Disruption Shield was better (merely needed a mechanic to prevent it from breaking on first strike after resting) but that is another matter... I just wanted to note my continued objection, ha ha.

1. Get rid of the light damage on Phantasmal Shield. It's just an example of a skill trying to do too much. However, I do think that the effect of avoiding damage entirely should be increased slightly.

2. Manasurge runes... given the change to Disruption Shield, manasurge runes need a tweak. I'd suggest a slightly higher initial mana recovery.

3. Arcane/Aether... this skill is fine but the Arcane/Aether category has lost a bit of focus. Thematically, it was "powerful but risky" and now... well, it isn't. I suggest a handful of thematic changes:

- When Arcane Vortex explodes, you should be susceptible to being hurt by that damage.
- Aether Avatar should add aether affinity while active.
- Pure Aether should drop the level 5 bonus that removes a status effect. It's just so tacked on that it feels silly. Instead, simply have this ability increase your mana pool a little per active talent level and then remove the resistance penetration cap at level 5.
- Arcane Power... I still think that the old Aether Permeation prodigy would be good here. Have this ability replace your resistances with 2/3 your aether resistance but I would add that it ought to increase your resistance cap by 3% per active talent level. No bonus to spellpower or to arcane resistance though.

4. Slightly reduce damage on lightning skills.

5. Slightly increase damage on fire skills.

6. Ice/water is great BUT I still think that the "wet" effect should grant -10% lightning resistance and +10% fire resistance.

Thoughts?

Alternative idea on Arcane Power...

This is a skill that most every Archmage will pick up on their way to Disruption Shield, but few will make much use of. More so, given the nature of the new Disruption Shield, spending mana on unnecessary sustains is not a good idea. The 1-point buff isn't really worthwhile, for the most part. Thus, it's just a skill you throw on at the end of the game when your mana pool is large enough to afford it comfortably.

So... replace it with:

Basically the opposite of the old "quicken" sustain. This would be a sustain that increases the cooldowns of your spells (by turns, not a percentage) in exchange for lowering their mana cost, including other sustains. I'd suggest that it starts at +10 to every spell and reduce down to +3. In exchange, it reduces mana costs from 10-50% and increases the efficacy of manasurge runes by the same percentage.

This would significantly improve your ability to stay in a fight with disruption shield up. More so, it would encourage having a larger array of spells and pairs well with the new Meta. The penalty could largely be mitigated if you're a pure Aether Build.