introducing Academy mages into Arena play?!?!

[farkas1]

Alright i have overheard the desire to bring some of the Academy mages into play for Arena.  I have started thinking of ideas of how to do this and need some input. 

So I originally thought just straight porting over the academy mages with the current abilities with updated life, channeling, and melee of course back up to base 3. 

I think that is the simple solution. 

maybe giving them a little more extra life keeping channeling around the base for each mage class they are under Arena.  For instance the Kelsar Grove Beastmaster would be at 9 and Dsjer Tet Forcemaster would be channeling 10 similar to her Arena Forcemaster counterpart.    

With only one ability they would ideally need a little more help in the life department.  Possibly increasing there life a few points based on each mages strength of their ability.  So for instance taking a standard straywood and joktari averaging them to 35 life.  The Kelsar grove only has one ability.  it is one of the better abilities so maybe  increasing life +3 up +5 for a total of 38 or 40 life.  im leaning higher bc no way does the kelsar grove one ability match up with the AC Crown abilities and life total.  and it still maybe on the unfair side of things for the beastmaster. 

or

The other option would to either create a new ability to add to each academy mage.

 or

choose one from an existing mage class counter part.  For instance we could give quick summoning to the kelsar Grove or give him fast.  Then again reflect on total strength of the chosen ablitites and come up with a fair life total. 

What does people think?  dumb idea?  which option do you prefer?  I am going to try and work on some ideas for new abilities or porting over one or two from arena mages for funzies. Then post them back here on the thread.  I would love to see some of these academy mages be utilized in regular arena matches. 

[Puddnhead]

I would take the Academy Forcemaster's ability over my Deflect as an Arena FM any day.

[jacksmack]

Quick casting lvl 1’s and have them ready.... now we are talking swarm!

[farkas1]

Academy mages converted to Arena Mages


Bael Warlock 38 life, channel 9.

Blood Reaper,
Sacrifice of Blood

Kelsar Grove Beastmaster 32, 9

Quick summoning
Battle skill +1 melee
Stir the Beast

Sistarra Wizard 34,10

Extend Magic
Range +1 to attack spells only

Dsjer-Tet Forcemaster 32,10

Force Pull
Power Transfer
Force Barrier you may pay 1 mana in upkeep to get +1 armor for round

Ivarium Warlord 34,9

Battle Orders
Battle Horn  once per round when you summon a lvl 1 soldier you may summon another soldier by paying mana equal to Level +1.
Battle skill +1 melee

Asyra Priestess 33, 10

Blessing of Champions
Holy Avenger

[farkas1]

So that is first draft for conversion of academy mages into arena.   I tried making combos with each mage work with thier academy ability and at least one arena ability counterpart.

  I did add a few new abilities where I thought fit.  I hope you like them and if you think balancing on some of the combos is too OP please let me know. 

Again I tried to balance the power of the abilities with life total.  So many mages may feel or appear more squishy because I stacked the abilities and the synergy of some of these are really good.

I hope people like them and please let me know what you think. 

Also I went the simple route not adding too many new abilities.   I’m still thinking of entirely new abilities for several mages but balancing them I feel is much harder.  But if people feel the synergy is too strong than creating a new ability maybe the right answer to solve those issues. 

[Puddnhead]

Oh man, that upgraded Forcemaster looks so sexy! 

[Obsidian Soul]

Academy Mages should not be better than Arena Mages.  I have been contemplating the idea as well, though I think that they should be 'free' Familiars (with Epic and Legendary) that come in with an Academy Mage.  The combined spellbook for the team would be 160 SP (120 SP for the Arena Mage and 40 SP for the Academy Mage) and the survival of the Academy Mage would be worth +1 Victory Point.

[farkas1]

Hey Obsidian.  Yes I love your idea as well and would like to try it out.

 I would like to think of my method thematically as not academy mages but they graduated from the academy.  So they need to be just as strong as the other arena mages.  I have seen a few comments about the ones I converted to being maybe too strong.  So I will be working on new abilities to add to make them and taking away the transfers ability.  hopefully it will make it feel less OP.

So if we were to make this work, is there any Graduates (Acadmey>Arnea mages) that feel balanced at the current moment?  Any unbalanced? Ect.  Again I just want to make it easy to include these mages into arena, feel competitive, and balanced.  With that being said I know with balancing play testing these mages out a several times will remain key to achieve balance. 

[farkas1]

Academy mages converted to Arena Mages with new abilities 1.2


Bael Warlock 36 life, channel 9.

Hell Fire Curse:  you may pay 1 mana and place a burn on a creature if they have a curse and no other burns.  Also enemy creatures with curses have a +2 to effect die when rolling for burn conditions.

Sacrifice of Blood

Kelsar Grove Beastmaster 34, 9

Fury of the Beast: nature enchantments targeting Animals cost 1 less, once per round if a friendly animal has a nature enchantment you may pay one mana to give it +1 melee for the round. 

Stir the Beast

Sistarra Wizard 32,10

Extend Magic
Lightning Charge during upkeep you may pay 1 mana your mage has +1 armor until you cast a lightning spell.  your next attack gains +1 melee and +1 range to lightning attack
Weather Influence
once per round cloud, wind and frost spells cost 1 mana less
any freeze conditions on enemy creatures also gain +2 to effect rolls when attacked


Dsjer-Tet Forcemaster 34,10

Power Transfer
Force Barrier you may pay 1 mana in upkeep to get +1 armor for the round and the first time your mage is damaged by a melee attack you may place a stagger on the attacking creature. 

Ivarium Warlord 32, 9 

Battle Orders
Battle Horn  once per round when you summon a lvl 1 soldier you may summon another soldier by paying mana equal to Level +1. 


Asyra Priestess 33, 10

Blessing of Champions

Asrya Blessing:  During upkeep, you may pay 3 mana to heal 2 damage to a friendly creature in arena.  If you do that creature  gains +1 melee for the round. 

Retribution:  non-mage friendly light attacks gain +1 melee and +1 Range

[keejchen]

I would play it!

[steack]

for tested !!!

Can you actualized the first post with the last mages's academy  evolued ?

just before, you can  include a number of version .

With that it s easy to see the final versions or  the mages for tested .

tkx for your job .

For me these arena mage should be included in the academy extension .

[farkas1]

hey Steack.

Yea so the original post I developed a system based on strength of ability and used life almost as a cost for abilities.  So the original arena abilities and life totals were key to get a feel for how much life the abilities cost for each mage.


I have a couple of reasons I wanted to make changes from the first draft.  The first and foremost is I think the Graduated academy mages should feel different from the original arena counterparts. 

Secondly IMO and the feedback from others the first iterations with the arena ability, they had too much synergy with the acadmey abilities.

From here on out i will try and get these play tested and let you know what I find out.  I also agree if we could get these on OCTGN for playtesting it would be sweet.  With some coordination with Shark and some of the other Arcane Duels peeps I think we can make it happen. 

If you have playtested these please come back and give feedback.  Also I’m sure there maybe need to reword some abilities or tweak them if they appear too strong or weak.  I think for the most part they are fairly balanced.  But again who knows someone may break one or two of these mages.  So let’s get some games in!!!!

[Beldin]

Warlord. 6 goblin legionnaires from one action?

[Puddnhead]

Warlord. 6 goblin legionnaires from one action?

Goblin legionnaire has a hard limit on number of summons per round. Max 3.