Wild Mages and their new spells.

[Orian_666]

Hello.
Just wondering if we can get a bit more of a detailed run down on the wild mage changes.
What is shown in the update notes and their new spells descriptions is fairly vague and doesn't tell us much, when before these changes we at least had a pretty solid idea of how it all worked.

For example the new spell "Chaos Shield" says;
"Chaos Shield increases a Wild Mages chance to gain a favorable result when a surge occurs. every time a roll is made on a Wild Surge chart, an extra 20 is added to the die roll.

This effect is removed when the next wild surge is triggered.

This spell can only be used by Wild Mages."

To me that simply states that if I, for example, roll 76 "Super Thunderclap Spell on Target." it'll instead be 96 "A tiny volcano erupts from the ground!", not exactly a positive or negative example, but certainly a big change that may be entirely unwelcome. More importantly does it look. If I roll 96 instead, does it loop around and then give me 16 "Lightning strikes down on the Caster.", a clearly negative surge.
If so then technically speaking the +20, or +40 from the other one, could just as easily cause negative effects instead of the stated "increases a Wild Mages chance to gain a favorable result when a surge occurs"

Or has surging, the surge table, and how it's rolled on, been changed entirely? If so can we get information on that. I feel it's very important for us to know how the class works in detail so people newly picking it have an idea of what they're getting into. Even if the results in game are to be random (which is how wild magic should be) we should definitely know how the system itself works.

Thank you.

EDIT: Forgot to add that "Chaos Shield" is in the second spell level, not the third as stated on the update!!

[ActionReplay]

Hello.
Just wondering if we can get a bit more of a detailed run down on the wild mage changes.
What is shown in the update notes and their new spells descriptions is fairly vague and doesn't tell us much, when before these changes we at least had a pretty solid idea of how it all worked.

For example the new spell "Chaos Shield" says;
"Chaos Shield increases a Wild Mages chance to gain a favorable result when a surge occurs. every time a roll is made on a Wild Surge chart, an extra 20 is added to the die roll.

This effect is removed when the next wild surge is triggered.

This spell can only be used by Wild Mages."

To me that simply states that if I, for example, roll 76 "Super Thunderclap Spell on Target." it'll instead be 96 "A tiny volcano erupts from the ground!", not exactly a positive or negative example, but certainly a big change that may be entirely unwelcome. More importantly does it look. If I roll 96 instead, does it loop around and then give me 16 "Lightning strikes down on the Caster.", a clearly negative surge.
If so then technically speaking the +20, or +40 from the other one, could just as easily cause negative effects instead of the stated "increases a Wild Mages chance to gain a favorable result when a surge occurs"

Or has surging, the surge table, and how it's rolled on, been changed entirely? If so can we get information on that. I feel it's very important for us to know how the class works in detail so people newly picking it have an idea of what they're getting into. Even if the results in game are to be random (which is how wild magic should be) we should definitely know how the system itself works.

Thank you.

EDIT: Forgot to add that "Chaos Shield" is in the second spell level, not the third as stated on the update!!

Chaos Shield (2nd Circle, yes - that is the correct wrong in update notes) and Improved Chaos Shield (7th Circle) will have your roll basically be:

Chaos Shield:
20 + d80

Improved Chaos Shield:
40 + d60

It lowers the chances to be on the negative side of the table is all. They don't loop around, its still random but within a smaller span.

[Orian_666]

Okay I get it now, that makes more sense.
As for the table itself, it seems like it likely got a fair few changes not listed, will we be getting the new updated table any time soon?
Or is the only change to 55?

[ActionReplay]

Okay I get it now, that makes more sense.
As for the table itself, it seems like it likely got a fair few changes not listed, will we be getting the new updated table any time soon?
Or is the only change to 55?

Most of the changes are reduction to certain surges that was too strong and smaller changes like Monolith not removing summons for non Wild Mages (It used to spawn a badger or something for them).

As stated in the update I'll go over the table in the near future, replacing some surges that made it to spells now.

[Subutai]

Do these increased chances of favorable results depend on target? Will a buff cast on a friendly target while under Chaos Shield cause them to be more likely to receive something good, like gold or combat readiness? Or will they end up more likely to get his with avascular mass? Because that definitely isn't a favorable result in that case.

[Orian_666]

One final question actually.
Is the duration of the Chaos Shield spells permanent until a surge/rest?

[Orian_666]

Do these increased chances of favorable results depend on target? Will a buff cast on a friendly target while under Chaos Shield cause them to be more likely to receive something good, like gold or combat readiness? Or will they end up more likely to get his with avascular mass? Because that definitely isn't a favorable result in that case.

Pretty sure it's not, just doing some tests now and i've already gotten Lightning Strike: Target and Thunderclap: Target on myself, and that was with the improved one too.

[ActionReplay]

Do these increased chances of favorable results depend on target? Will a buff cast on a friendly target while under Chaos Shield cause them to be more likely to receive something good, like gold or combat readiness? Or will they end up more likely to get his with avascular mass? Because that definitely isn't a favorable result in that case.

Think of the Chaos shields as stripping away the first 20 or first 40 effects on the table, the rest are game with equal chance each. The span is just smaller leaning towards the positive side.

[ActionReplay]

One final question actually.
Is the duration of the Chaos Shield spells permanent until a surge/rest?

Its permanent until the next time you get a surge. Casting any Chaos shield while already under the effect of one will replace the other. Its removed on rest.

[Sea Shanties]

Is there any chance the original AOE chaos shield could come back (perhaps as "chaos field" or something?)

I always thought that particular ability was a lot of fun and if additional wild mage spells are ever added it would be great to be able to use it again.

[ActionReplay]

Is there any chance the original AOE chaos shield could come back (perhaps as "chaos field" or something?)

I always thought that particular ability was a lot of fun and if additional wild mage spells are ever added it would be great to be able to use it again.

Yeah I mean I'm not closing any doors. I'm gonna remove some surges and replace them so having Chaos Shield (The original original) on the table is an alternative.

[RedGiant]

Please please please bring back orginal chaos shield, even if only a table effect.

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=22843&p=181511&hil ... ss#p181511

While I understand while some wild mage abilities were toned down, the "surginess" theme remains. I struggle with the fact that wild mages used to get a linear progression of ability based on level, and now it is more or less based on spell-slots. This makes Deep Imaskari the go-to wild mage choice. You can also now be a silly-good with surges just by slapping 1st lvl spell slots on all your items. And if you are a Deep Imaskari who does this...well then...


As I never used the new chaos shield with my character, since it didn't fit his take on wild mage, I also can't see ever using a precious seventh level spell slot just to adjust a table occurrence without a sickly awesome table rework. I know this is underway, but this seems a bit costly just to push a sometime future random occurrence into the green zone, especially when said random occurrences, even when good, sometimes totally hoses you or your party anyway (elemental monolith replacing your buffed summons, blasphemy accidentally killing your paladin friend, etc.).


All the spell stuff is GREAT though. Seriously great.


*Edit - I also do not like how what was once an instant action to change a spell on the fly, now requires the casting of two spells. Wild Mages are now inherently clunky. The play style encourages not wildness, but very precise forethought. In this sense, they're actually more wizardly than many a wizard.

*Edit 2 - Wow. This sentence is very misleading. "A spell replenished (Or Greater Wild Surge) has been removed to replenish a spell from artificial means, e.g Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, but can still be replenished from a regular passive 5% Wild Surge occurence." Unless this is a mistake, casting Nahal's isn't causing my next spell cast to replenish. This sentence seems to suggest that you could still replenish a spell with artificial means (e.g. Nahal's) or from the 5% passive chance. If not, then I'm not sure why Nahal's was even mentioned here.

Is spell replenishment completely gone, save for the passive 5% surges?

If this has been down-graded, truly the only guaranteed beneficial thing left to the class is -fate. Before, you might kill your entire party, sure, but you could at least count on having up to six extra spells for all your trouble (at lvl 30).

*Edit 3 - Bug forum seemingly answered my bold question. Another issue maybe just with me not understanding the syntax used in the update announcement.