In my opinion, PvP has completely lost its point. I thought PvP was where you "match your skills against other player's" as said in the PvP section of the website. However, that's not what PvP is like anymore. Ever since Wizard101 introduced the Shadow Enhanced Spells, the victor of a duel has often been the first one to execute their Shadow Enhanced Spell with Shadow Shrike. Yes, you could argue that I could use Shrike and my own Shadow Enhanced Spell myself, but that is aside from the point I am trying to make. I'm not saying that I don't want to use my tools correctly, I am saying that the tools we're given are too overpowered.
For example, a Fire wizard used Shrike and then Fire Elf to get rid of my shields. I did use a Tower Shield in fear of Fire From Above, and she knew I could Mana Burn the next turn. Instead of her waiting on casting Fire From Above, she used it anyway, and I thought I was somewhat safe. I was wrong. The attack did exactly 4642 damage (with a critical unblocked). That, from second, is virtually unstoppable. Imagine if I didn't have a Tower Shield on me. That attack would do double the damage. I also have 49% resistance, so you cannot argue that my resist is too low if that's what you're thinking. I find that the Shadow Enhanced Spells do far too much damage even with our health jump, and their aftereffects can also be very game changing.
Another example I want to point out is outside of 1v1. In many team PvP matches, I have seen a combination of Earthquake + Call of Khrulhu spamming. What this did was fully regenerate a Death wizard's health (415 heal x 4 in 4v4 is a 1660 health regeneration base). I have also seen more than enough team matches where a Death wizard changed the tide of an entire match by simply getting an unblocked stream of Call of Khrulhu's.
In conclusion, many of these spells are extremely overpowered for what we're given. I personally believe that these spells should be nerfed to do lower damage. PvE players and people who are currently farming Darkmoor can't complain about that, because if your own Shadow Enhanced Spell is nerfed, a boss's Shadow Enhanced Spell will be nerfed too. If we weren't giving such dramatic amounts of armor pierce or critical from the Darkmoor gear, then the Shadow Enhanced Spells would be fine, but now I also believe that the Darkmoor robe should give 45 block rating (7%) and that the Wizard101 should stop "babying" our athame's block rating (they still only give 1%, which is completely useless) and finally give us maybe 3-4% from it. If our block rating from the robe and athame were increased, people with Mastery Amulets can still compete with people who use stats giving amulets (which is currently not the case). And if the spells are to not be nerfed, then at least decrease the tremendous amounts of armor pierce we receive from Darkmoor gear, as the average now is about 25%.
Feels like there is not enough play testing going on before these new spells or mechanics are implemented. Feels like instead of creating balanced updates new stuff is just tossed in to counter old problems which begets more problems.
You can hardly "spam" call of khrulhu and earthquake in unison being that one cost 6 pips to cast and the other 5 with a shadow pip.
I agree with you however that the spells need to be changed. By that I mean the fire, ice, storm, balance, and life ones are grossly overpowered. They should all hit for the measly 830 damage call of khrulhu was reduced to, end of story. Squall should have been the first one to be nixed.
To your point about the pierce we get at that level, that shouldn't be up for debate. On one thread you're complaining about juju being a problem, and here you're saying cut the high pierce we receive that makes hitting through juju in some instances mostly effective. Surely the only benefit of reducing pierce would be that it would give certain schools like, I don't know.. say ice? even more of an advantage, especially with the new spell the way it is.
When it comes to PvP - you'd think there's no pleasing anyone...
...all the wizards able to put on their big wizard pants and bring anything and everything, will continue to experience more victories in PvP; over unprepared and unwilling players.
I personally think its unfair to one armed wizards, that wizards with both arms, get to choose to play with either arm; so all arms should be banned.
And then there's all those wizard bounding to and fro on just one leg, having to face off against wizards with two legs; that makes me hopping mad, and all legs should be banned!
And don't get me started about wizards that do PvP on a computer using the internet against wizards in PvP not able to use a computer or get on the internet...
...the point is, put on your big wizard pants - and bring your best PvP; because everyone else is who wants to win!
The happier PvPers are, the longer my PvE fights are. Have not gotten CoK yet, as I am solo and Darkmoor is "tough" for solo players. But everytime PvP gets unbalanced, PvE suffers from the fix.
You can hardly "spam" call of khrulhu and earthquake in unison being that one cost 6 pips to cast and the other 5 with a shadow pip.
I agree with you however that the spells need to be changed. By that I mean the fire, ice, storm, balance, and life ones are grossly overpowered. They should all hit for the measly 830 damage call of khrulhu was reduced to, end of story. Squall should have been the first one to be nixed.
To your point about the pierce we get at that level, that shouldn't be up for debate. On one thread you're complaining about juju being a problem, and here you're saying cut the high pierce we receive that makes hitting through juju in some instances mostly effective. Surely the only benefit of reducing pierce would be that it would give certain schools like, I don't know.. say ice? even more of an advantage, especially with the new spell the way it is.
Yes, you can spam any Shadow Enhanced Spell. The chance of getting a Shadow pip is higher than everybody anticipated (could even be 35% due to my testing a while back) and you can repeatedly use Empower and then cast the spell. It's not very hard to spam at all.
When I talked about Bad Juju, it had nothing to do with armor pierce, as armor pierce has nothing to do with a weakness. The problem was that Bad Juju itself was still able to be multiplied, not the lack of armor pierce.
When it comes to PvP - you'd think there's no pleasing anyone...
...all the wizards able to put on their big wizard pants and bring anything and everything, will continue to experience more victories in PvP; over unprepared and unwilling players.
I personally think its unfair to one armed wizards, that wizards with both arms, get to choose to play with either arm; so all arms should be banned.
And then there's all those wizard bounding to and fro on just one leg, having to face off against wizards with two legs; that makes me hopping mad, and all legs should be banned!
And don't get me started about wizards that do PvP on a computer using the internet against wizards in PvP not able to use a computer or get on the internet...
...the point is, put on your big wizard pants - and bring your best PvP; because everyone else is who wants to win!
Since when did I say that I wasn't willing to improve my gear/strategy? I also never said I was unprepared or unwilling, as I have every (good) piece of armor required in the game (including wands, many varieties of pets, etc.) and I have been switching my deck around more than enough times. I did so until I came up with the conclusion that the gear/spells that we've received from Darkmoor are unbalanced and don't go together. If armor pierce didn't get as big as it is right now, or if we simply received more block from gear, then the spells would be okay, but as of right now, they're not. Before Darkmoor, I could win 90% of duels from second, but right now, it seems like the one to burst a critical (going first) with Shrike up wins, and our gear just helps that become even more of a possibility.
The happier PvPers are, the longer my PvE fights are. Have not gotten CoK yet, as I am solo and Darkmoor is "tough" for solo players. But everytime PvP gets unbalanced, PvE suffers from the fix.
KI could easily nerf the health of bosses in Darkmoor to suit the Shadow Enhanced Spells if they were to be nerfed. But PvE has already "suffered" ever since Darkmoor. My boss fighting build (and mob fighting on my Storm) is strictly Gaze of Fate and Glowbug Squall as attacks, I don't keep anything else anymore. Since the spells do such high amounts of damage for such a low pip cost (double the amount of any other 5 pip spell), they have made every other attack spell basically useless. PvE is just as broken as PvP, as nobody needs to use their other spells anymore. If that's happening, then that's a huge sign that these spells are significantly overpowered compared to the other spells in the game.
KI could easily nerf the health of bosses in Darkmoor to suit the Shadow Enhanced Spells if they were to be nerfed. But PvE has already "suffered" ever since Darkmoor. My boss fighting build (and mob fighting on my Storm) is strictly Gaze of Fate and Glowbug Squall as attacks, I don't keep anything else anymore. Since the spells do such high amounts of damage for such a low pip cost (double the amount of any other 5 pip spell), they have made every other attack spell basically useless. PvE is just as broken as PvP, as nobody needs to use their other spells anymore. If that's happening, then that's a huge sign that these spells are significantly overpowered compared to the other spells in the game.
Or just disallow the Shadow Enhanced spells in PVP.
They eliminate strategy. All you have to do is Blade stack > Dot > New spell GG. Rinse and repeat with shields and heals, Until someone loses.
This PvP age is just about who can use their spell to kill faster, Instead of actually using cards to out play their opponents. Take Balance for an example, It's strength was limiting an opponent, but had a hard time vs Blading strategies. Under this update, You can one shot a balance by using a Combo, similar to the one above with ANY school. If the opponent has any idea on how to reduce healing, You're done for.
Mana burn > Doesn't matter. Lore master > Doesn't do Damage Scorpion > Just removes a tower, which could be a fatal move from second if they use a dot. Gaze > 5 Pips, For a shield breaker and a bubble. Doesn't do Elemental or spirit damage, because people shield for its second hit. Then change the bubble to their 2 pip bubble.
If you're a balance, You're severely outclassed by most classes. Yesterday, i watched level 100 Warlords around 1.7k rank to 2.5k rank. Balances had won 30 matches and lost 80. If you're a balance, Don't pvp. Control Strategies are Dead.
~~
Fire on the other hand, Is just about unstoppable. Then I'd put ice / Death / Life Tier 3 Storm, Balance
PvP has no point, As its gotten to the point where anyone can just spam spells and win. The Chess and card game feel are lost. Way too much Pierce, and critical where Block should have been added to Balance / Life / Death. (~80% Block, 65% Crit)
I'd support a Balanced Ice Crit / Block build since it doesn't have a school specific heal. (~80%, 85% Crit Block, ) Storm / Fire need to lose block and keep their critical ratings. (85% Crit, 60% Block), I'd Reduce the pierce from 20 to 10 Max. (16 With Arena ring)
They eliminate strategy. All you have to do is Blade stack > Dot > New spell GG. Rinse and repeat with shields and heals, Until someone loses.
This PvP age is just about who can use their spell to kill faster, Instead of actually using cards to out play their opponents. Take Balance for an example, It's strength was limiting an opponent, but had a hard time vs Blading strategies. Under this update, You can one shot a balance by using a Combo, similar to the one above with ANY school. If the opponent has any idea on how to reduce healing, You're done for.
Mana burn > Doesn't matter. Lore master > Doesn't do Damage Scorpion > Just removes a tower, which could be a fatal move from second if they use a dot. Gaze > 5 Pips, For a shield breaker and a bubble. Doesn't do Elemental or spirit damage, because people shield for its second hit. Then change the bubble to their 2 pip bubble.
If you're a balance, You're severely outclassed by most classes. Yesterday, i watched level 100 Warlords around 1.7k rank to 2.5k rank. Balances had won 30 matches and lost 80. If you're a balance, Don't pvp. Control Strategies are Dead.
~~
Fire on the other hand, Is just about unstoppable. Then I'd put ice / Death / Life Tier 3 Storm, Balance
PvP has no point, As its gotten to the point where anyone can just spam spells and win. The Chess and card game feel are lost. Way too much Pierce, and critical where Block should have been added to Balance / Life / Death. (~80% Block, 65% Crit)
I'd support a Balanced Ice Crit / Block build since it doesn't have a school specific heal. (~80%, 85% Crit Block, ) Storm / Fire need to lose block and keep their critical ratings. (85% Crit, 60% Block), I'd Reduce the pierce from 20 to 10 Max. (16 With Arena ring)
Whoa, pause. Which fantasy world are you living in? Balance is bottom tier at max level- huh? 23/50 max lvl leaderboard wizards are balance. The next highest is life with 11/50 and the other schools are standing at 3-4/50 on the leaderboards. Balance is far and away the top tier school in this meta. Loremaster often does 1000+ damage with 2 utility effects, still the best crafted spell period. This meta is highly reliant on combos, which spell is the best combo disruptor in the game-mana burn. Gaze is far more than a shield breaker, it is the hardest shadow enhanced spell to shield from period and leaves an offensive bubble which adds an incredible amount of pressure. As for critical and block- if storm and fire lost block they would be even easier to kill due to their low health buffers. 10% pierce in an era when everyone is carrying 50% resist? No thanks.
They eliminate strategy. All you have to do is Blade stack > Dot > New spell GG. Rinse and repeat with shields and heals, Until someone loses.
This PvP age is just about who can use their spell to kill faster, Instead of actually using cards to out play their opponents. Take Balance for an example, It's strength was limiting an opponent, but had a hard time vs Blading strategies. Under this update, You can one shot a balance by using a Combo, similar to the one above with ANY school. If the opponent has any idea on how to reduce healing, You're done for.
Mana burn > Doesn't matter. Lore master > Doesn't do Damage Scorpion > Just removes a tower, which could be a fatal move from second if they use a dot. Gaze > 5 Pips, For a shield breaker and a bubble. Doesn't do Elemental or spirit damage, because people shield for its second hit. Then change the bubble to their 2 pip bubble.
If you're a balance, You're severely outclassed by most classes. Yesterday, i watched level 100 Warlords around 1.7k rank to 2.5k rank. Balances had won 30 matches and lost 80. If you're a balance, Don't pvp. Control Strategies are Dead.
~~
Fire on the other hand, Is just about unstoppable. Then I'd put ice / Death / Life Tier 3 Storm, Balance
PvP has no point, As its gotten to the point where anyone can just spam spells and win. The Chess and card game feel are lost. Way too much Pierce, and critical where Block should have been added to Balance / Life / Death. (~80% Block, 65% Crit)
I'd support a Balanced Ice Crit / Block build since it doesn't have a school specific heal. (~80%, 85% Crit Block, ) Storm / Fire need to lose block and keep their critical ratings. (85% Crit, 60% Block), I'd Reduce the pierce from 20 to 10 Max. (16 With Arena ring)
I really doubt storm is still in the bottom, nor is balance in the bottom either. Balance is still control, all you have to do is utilize spells that you need, it works out, plus most people use tower shield as the only shield to block balance, not to mention all you have to do is utilize your shields in the process, bring out your auras, unless balance, and don't forget you can use mana burn, you can use black mantle when they use the spell. Then Storm is definitely not in the bottom, they have high crit, and everyone lost a lot of block now, so its not as high as you think, then utilizing that damage with Storm Squall, the Tempest with Enfeeble, that is deadly, just complete death waiting to hit. 1100 x 2 = 2200 x 2= 4400 with out any blades to everyone ( this is before resist and pierce ) on your first turn, now imagine pvp, in a 4v4 imagine the damage when people play teams, and they get the spell now, since there is 4 players, the probability of someone getting that spell on the first turn is now raised. now imagine 2 storms using that spell= 4400 x 2= 8800 and not to mention the team work that can be utilized by them.
They eliminate strategy. All you have to do is Blade stack > Dot > New spell GG. Rinse and repeat with shields and heals, Until someone loses.
This PvP age is just about who can use their spell to kill faster, Instead of actually using cards to out play their opponents. Take Balance for an example, It's strength was limiting an opponent, but had a hard time vs Blading strategies. Under this update, You can one shot a balance by using a Combo, similar to the one above with ANY school. If the opponent has any idea on how to reduce healing, You're done for.
Mana burn > Doesn't matter. Lore master > Doesn't do Damage Scorpion > Just removes a tower, which could be a fatal move from second if they use a dot. Gaze > 5 Pips, For a shield breaker and a bubble. Doesn't do Elemental or spirit damage, because people shield for its second hit. Then change the bubble to their 2 pip bubble.
If you're a balance, You're severely outclassed by most classes. Yesterday, i watched level 100 Warlords around 1.7k rank to 2.5k rank. Balances had won 30 matches and lost 80. If you're a balance, Don't pvp. Control Strategies are Dead.
~~
Fire on the other hand, Is just about unstoppable. Then I'd put ice / Death / Life Tier 3 Storm, Balance
PvP has no point, As its gotten to the point where anyone can just spam spells and win. The Chess and card game feel are lost. Way too much Pierce, and critical where Block should have been added to Balance / Life / Death. (~80% Block, 65% Crit)
I'd support a Balanced Ice Crit / Block build since it doesn't have a school specific heal. (~80%, 85% Crit Block, ) Storm / Fire need to lose block and keep their critical ratings. (85% Crit, 60% Block), I'd Reduce the pierce from 20 to 10 Max. (16 With Arena ring)
This is the most radical thing I have ever seen on any forum.
Whoa, pause. Which fantasy world are you living in? Balance is bottom tier at max level- huh? 23/50 max lvl leaderboard wizards are balance. The next highest is life with 11/50 and the other schools are standing at 3-4/50 on the leaderboards. Balance is far and away the top tier school in this meta. Loremaster often does 1000+ damage with 2 utility effects, still the best crafted spell period. This meta is highly reliant on combos, which spell is the best combo disruptor in the game-mana burn. Gaze is far more than a shield breaker, it is the hardest shadow enhanced spell to shield from period and leaves an offensive bubble which adds an incredible amount of pressure. As for critical and block- if storm and fire lost block they would be even easier to kill due to their low health buffers. 10% pierce in an era when everyone is carrying 50% resist? No thanks.
You have to take into account that those results were from pre-Darkmoor. Balance was very successful (in team PvP usually) during Hades but sloped down a lot lower ever since the release of Darkmoor. Since then, many of those high ranked Balance wizards who continued to do 1v1 dropped at a much lower rank and the ones who continued to do team PvP have gained some rank, obviously because they were paired with Storm and Death. But you can't assume that every Balance on the Leaderboard did 1v1 to achieve their rank, it was most likely done with 2v2.
They eliminate strategy. All you have to do is Blade stack > Dot > New spell GG. Rinse and repeat with shields and heals, Until someone loses.
This PvP age is just about who can use their spell to kill faster, Instead of actually using cards to out play their opponents. Take Balance for an example, It's strength was limiting an opponent, but had a hard time vs Blading strategies. Under this update, You can one shot a balance by using a Combo, similar to the one above with ANY school. If the opponent has any idea on how to reduce healing, You're done for.
Mana burn > Doesn't matter. Lore master > Doesn't do Damage Scorpion > Just removes a tower, which could be a fatal move from second if they use a dot. Gaze > 5 Pips, For a shield breaker and a bubble. Doesn't do Elemental or spirit damage, because people shield for its second hit. Then change the bubble to their 2 pip bubble.
If you're a balance, You're severely outclassed by most classes. Yesterday, i watched level 100 Warlords around 1.7k rank to 2.5k rank. Balances had won 30 matches and lost 80. If you're a balance, Don't pvp. Control Strategies are Dead.
~~
Fire on the other hand, Is just about unstoppable. Then I'd put ice / Death / Life Tier 3 Storm, Balance
PvP has no point, As its gotten to the point where anyone can just spam spells and win. The Chess and card game feel are lost. Way too much Pierce, and critical where Block should have been added to Balance / Life / Death. (~80% Block, 65% Crit)
I'd support a Balanced Ice Crit / Block build since it doesn't have a school specific heal. (~80%, 85% Crit Block, ) Storm / Fire need to lose block and keep their critical ratings. (85% Crit, 60% Block), I'd Reduce the pierce from 20 to 10 Max. (16 With Arena ring)
From an old school Magic the Gathering player I think you hit it right on the nose (Take another swing for the KO!)
There is little deviation in the type of spells that are created. Next update you will get a more powerful attack. The update after that, another even more powerful attack spell. There is very little as players we can come up with other then slug it out. My point is the higher you get the more the decks look the same, the more the gear is the same. When the next more powerful spells are out everyone will switch to that too. There is no incentive to be creative, well unless you want to win, and the prevailing way to win is get your shadow enhanced spell out first.
You have to take into account that those results were from pre-Darkmoor. Balance was very successful (in team PvP usually) during Hades but sloped down a lot lower ever since the release of Darkmoor. Since then, many of those high ranked Balance wizards who continued to do 1v1 dropped at a much lower rank and the ones who continued to do team PvP have gained some rank, obviously because they were paired with Storm and Death. But you can't assume that every Balance on the Leaderboard did 1v1 to achieve their rank, it was most likely done with 2v2.
These results are post-darkmoor, taken on January 29th. As for the team argument; max lvl storm has a leaderboard presence of 3 while max level death has a leaderboard presence of 4. Combined these 2 schools have less than half the max lvl leaderboard presence of balance. This is clear indication that balance is not the low tier school the prior poster portrayed it to be.
In my opinion, PvP has completely lost its point. I thought PvP was where you "match your skills against other player's" as said in the PvP section of the website. However, that's not what PvP is like anymore. Ever since Wizard101 introduced the Shadow Enhanced Spells, the victor of a duel has often been the first one to execute their Shadow Enhanced Spell with Shadow Shrike. Yes, you could argue that I could use Shrike and my own Shadow Enhanced Spell myself, but that is aside from the point I am trying to make. I'm not saying that I don't want to use my tools correctly, I am saying that the tools we're given are too overpowered.
For example, a Fire wizard used Shrike and then Fire Elf to get rid of my shields. I did use a Tower Shield in fear of Fire From Above, and she knew I could Mana Burn the next turn. Instead of her waiting on casting Fire From Above, she used it anyway, and I thought I was somewhat safe. I was wrong. The attack did exactly 4642 damage (with a critical unblocked). That, from second, is virtually unstoppable. Imagine if I didn't have a Tower Shield on me. That attack would do double the damage. I also have 49% resistance, so you cannot argue that my resist is too low if that's what you're thinking. I find that the Shadow Enhanced Spells do far too much damage even with our health jump, and their aftereffects can also be very game changing.
Another example I want to point out is outside of 1v1. In many team PvP matches, I have seen a combination of Earthquake + Call of Khrulhu spamming. What this did was fully regenerate a Death wizard's health (415 heal x 4 in 4v4 is a 1660 health regeneration base). I have also seen more than enough team matches where a Death wizard changed the tide of an entire match by simply getting an unblocked stream of Call of Khrulhu's.
In conclusion, many of these spells are extremely overpowered for what we're given. I personally believe that these spells should be nerfed to do lower damage. PvE players and people who are currently farming Darkmoor can't complain about that, because if your own Shadow Enhanced Spell is nerfed, a boss's Shadow Enhanced Spell will be nerfed too. If we weren't giving such dramatic amounts of armor pierce or critical from the Darkmoor gear, then the Shadow Enhanced Spells would be fine, but now I also believe that the Darkmoor robe should give 45 block rating (7%) and that the Wizard101 should stop "babying" our athame's block rating (they still only give 1%, which is completely useless) and finally give us maybe 3-4% from it. If our block rating from the robe and athame were increased, people with Mastery Amulets can still compete with people who use stats giving amulets (which is currently not the case). And if the spells are to not be nerfed, then at least decrease the tremendous amounts of armor pierce we receive from Darkmoor gear, as the average now is about 25%.
Truthfully with new shadow are really messing up pvp
first they came out with 3 shadow spells
the blocking one witch i will say is not that bad
the healing one witch i say is ok
but the shrike one that was something has to be done i mean it way to overpower i mean for a storm it a really good cheat the only class that stand a chance of blocking it without jade gear is ice because it has 50 tower and 70 storm with 30 tower
the shadow minion there perfect i mean there well balance and we at lest have resistance to them
the new shadow spell need something done i mean there power just over the top crazy
and hate to say this but anyone who is disagree is fooling them self because i open to new spell and stuff like that but kl is letting pvp fall apart and just letting the balance go poof
These results are post-darkmoor, taken on January 29th. As for the team argument; max lvl storm has a leaderboard presence of 3 while max level death has a leaderboard presence of 4. Combined these 2 schools have less than half the max lvl leaderboard presence of balance. This is clear indication that balance is not the low tier school the prior poster portrayed it to be.
You can't tell if the results have been different before/after Darkmoor because there hasn't been a rank reset after Darkmoor. Balance may have been overpowered during Hades, which it was, but is now a low tier school because many new spells and schools are better than Balance. If the Shadow Enhanced spells were nerfed or didn't exist, Balance could be as good as it was since bladestacking wouldn't be as dangerous, and Balance's weakness is blade stacking.
You can't tell if the results have been different before/after Darkmoor because there hasn't been a rank reset after Darkmoor. Balance may have been overpowered during Hades, which it was, but is now a low tier school because many new spells and schools are better than Balance. If the Shadow Enhanced spells were nerfed or didn't exist, Balance could be as good as it was since bladestacking wouldn't be as dangerous, and Balance's weakness is blade stacking.
There does not need to be a rank reset for the effects of a total tier reversal to be shown. If balance was overpowered during hades and is now a low tier school it would be reflected on the leaderboards. Instead balance occupies almost half of the max lvl leaderboard. Having a weakness to bladestacking is far from being low tier since balance does have tools to prevent ohko-high health buffer, weakness, shields, loremaster, artorious and the tools to stop combos-mana burn and a reliable critical heal. Anyone claiming balance is low tier based on dubious anecdotal evidence is disconnected from the reality of max lvl PvP.
There does not need to be a rank reset for the effects of a total tier reversal to be shown. If balance was overpowered during hades and is now a low tier school it would be reflected on the leaderboards. Instead balance occupies almost half of the max lvl leaderboard. Having a weakness to bladestacking is far from being low tier since balance does have tools to prevent ohko-high health buffer, weakness, shields, loremaster, artorious and the tools to stop combos-mana burn and a reliable critical heal. Anyone claiming balance is low tier based on dubious anecdotal evidence is disconnected from the reality of max lvl PvP.
The reality of max level PvP is that Balance isn't overpowered anymore. Mana Burn is easily countered by Empower, which removes a Weakness from oneself and gives 3 pips (the same that Mana Burn takes away). It's also known that using Mana Burn to take somebody's 2 power pips away isn't a very smart idea -- once they get to cast their Shadow Enhanced spell, you would have done minimal damage to your enemy, with little to no aftereffects.
Balance being overpowered would not be reflected on the Leaderboards, as I have just explained. Most, if not all Balance's actually, were already present on the Leaderboard. Since then, most of their ranks have been unchanged or decreased.
Every school also has tools to prevent a OHKO (Death's being Bad Juju, Empower, Sacrifice, Dark Pact, Plague, Virulent Plague; Life's being Guardian Spirit, Luminous Weaver, Hungry Caterpillar, Triage; Myth's being Earthquake, Cleanse Ward, Medusa, Basilisk, Dimension Shift; Storm's being Enfeeble, Glowbug Squall, Disarm, Fire's being Efreet, Immolate, King Artorius; Ice's being Tower Shield, Frozen Armor, Ice Armor, Abominable Weaver, Winter Moon, Woolly Mammoth, Lord of Winter) so I don't see what makes Balance so special there, especially since all the other schools have the ability to stack for a OHKO as well as the ability to prevent a OHKO.
Balance's "reliable critical heal" isn't as good as Life's Satyr, as Satyr heals the Life wizard all at once. HoT's haven't been as useful in this era because usually, when you have low health and you try to heal with a HoT, your opponent will have enough pips to cast a hard hitting spell in the next turn or two, which a Shadow Enhanced spell is perfectly suited for. For PvP to be balanced again (and for Balance to compete), the Shadow Enhanced spells must go.
In my opinion, PvP has completely lost its point. I thought PvP was where you "match your skills against other player's" as said in the PvP section of the website. However, that's not what PvP is like anymore. Ever since Wizard101 introduced the Shadow Enhanced Spells, the victor of a duel has often been the first one to execute their Shadow Enhanced Spell with Shadow Shrike. Yes, you could argue that I could use Shrike and my own Shadow Enhanced Spell myself, but that is aside from the point I am trying to make. I'm not saying that I don't want to use my tools correctly, I am saying that the tools we're given are too overpowered.
For example, a Fire wizard used Shrike and then Fire Elf to get rid of my shields. I did use a Tower Shield in fear of Fire From Above, and she knew I could Mana Burn the next turn. Instead of her waiting on casting Fire From Above, she used it anyway, and I thought I was somewhat safe. I was wrong. The attack did exactly 4642 damage (with a critical unblocked). That, from second, is virtually unstoppable. Imagine if I didn't have a Tower Shield on me. That attack would do double the damage. I also have 49% resistance, so you cannot argue that my resist is too low if that's what you're thinking. I find that the Shadow Enhanced Spells do far too much damage even with our health jump, and their aftereffects can also be very game changing.
Another example I want to point out is outside of 1v1. In many team PvP matches, I have seen a combination of Earthquake + Call of Khrulhu spamming. What this did was fully regenerate a Death wizard's health (415 heal x 4 in 4v4 is a 1660 health regeneration base). I have also seen more than enough team matches where a Death wizard changed the tide of an entire match by simply getting an unblocked stream of Call of Khrulhu's.
In conclusion, many of these spells are extremely overpowered for what we're given. I personally believe that these spells should be nerfed to do lower damage. PvE players and people who are currently farming Darkmoor can't complain about that, because if your own Shadow Enhanced Spell is nerfed, a boss's Shadow Enhanced Spell will be nerfed too. If we weren't giving such dramatic amounts of armor pierce or critical from the Darkmoor gear, then the Shadow Enhanced Spells would be fine, but now I also believe that the Darkmoor robe should give 45 block rating (7%) and that the Wizard101 should stop "babying" our athame's block rating (they still only give 1%, which is completely useless) and finally give us maybe 3-4% from it. If our block rating from the robe and athame were increased, people with Mastery Amulets can still compete with people who use stats giving amulets (which is currently not the case). And if the spells are to not be nerfed, then at least decrease the tremendous amounts of armor pierce we receive from Darkmoor gear, as the average now is about 25%.
shadow enhanced spell are fine way it is! I agree they overpower "but" mostly people getting sick people complain about spell beside new spell "pips to high" useless example of: rank 11 spell or rank 12 spell "would be useless to use because balance mana burn
people complain to much about balance loremaster spell and I did her going chance loremaster before test realms of darkmoor come and that going make loremaster harder spell to cast for a balance because to op but didn't so, chance older crafting spell so, everybody own loremaster spell! so, people stop complain about op spell?
so these spell now loremaster spell own school
Lord of Night (damage buff) same effect Brimstone Revenant (damage buff/new effect) apply a +25% Fire Trap Handsome Fomori (new effect) apply -25% Accuracy. Luminous Weaver (damage buff) same effect Keeper of Sacred Flame (damage buff) same effect Catalan (new effect/damage buff) apply -25% Accuracy.
