Let me start by stating this is more of a plea for help than a posting of results and findings. Over a week ago, we conducted a series of discussions regarding current imbalances within the game and I became convinced that the source of these imbalances is in the discrepancies between the different schools of magic. I took it upon myself to try and evaluate the various schools. Real life has kept me from devoting too much focus towards this goal, but primarily I've run into an issue with inexperience. I really have no clue what I am doing, lol. Regardless, I figured I would post what I've come up with, and maybe somebody more skilled than I can do a better job with what I am attempting.
The first thing I did was attempt to break the various functionality of spells into categories. I came up with 14 total categories. Keep in mind, some spells may fulfill multiple functions.
1) Action Advantage: These are spells which provide you with additional actions you can perform. Spawnpoints, Familiars, and just Creatures in general all fit into this category.
2) Condition Removal: Self explanatory, I think. These are spells you may use to rid yourself of conditions.
3) Counterspells: These are spells which counter your opponents actions and prevent those actions from being performed.
4) Damage - Indirect: These are normal sources of damage such as Attack Spells, Creature Attacks, and Weapons.
5) Damage - Direct: These are sources of direct damage, such as many Curses.
6) Damage - Buff: These are spells which do not cause damage themselves, but do increase the damage other sources are capable of inflicting.
7) Damage - Reduction: These are spells which reduce damage, either by debuffing the source of the damage or by increasing a creatures ability to prevent damage.
8 ) Enchantment Removal: These are spells that negate the effects of enchantments.
9) Equipment Removal: Spells which negate the effects of equipment.
10) Increased Mobility: These are spells which help you to move things around.
11) Reduced Mobility: These are spells which prevent things from being moved around.
12) Healing: Spells which heal damage.
13) Mana Generation: Spells which increase your mana supply, either by increasing channeling or reducing spell costs.
14) Mana Denial: Spells which reduce a persons mana supply.
After creating these categories, I then set about the task of rating the different schools. I tried a few different routes with this, but my final solution was to simply put the schools in order of best to worst within each category. I decided to apply a letter grade to the results, with the best school being given an "A" and the worst given an "F". If the school of magic didn't really have spells that fulfilled the function, I gave it an automatic F. I then realized this only gave a partial picture, and decided to add in a "+" to the grade for any school I felt was self-sufficient within a category, meaning that it had no need to dip outside of that school to fulfill the function. The results were as follows:
Action Advantage: Nature (A+), Arcane (B+), Dark (C+), Holy (D+), War (E+), Mind (F)
Condition Removal: Holy (A+), Nature (B), Arcane (F), Dark (F), Mind (F), War (F)
Counterspells: Arcane (A+), Mind (B), Dark (C), Holy (D), Nature (F), War (F)
Damage-Indirect: Dark (A+), Nature (B+), Arcane (C+), War (D+), Holy (E+), Mind (F)
Damage-Direct: Dark (A+), Nature (B), Arcane (F), Holy (F), Mind (F), War (F)
Damage-Buff: Nature (A+), War (B+), Dark (C), Holy (D), Arcane (F), Mind (F)
Damage-Reduction: War (A+), Mind (B+), Nature (C+), Holy (D), Dark (E), Arcane (F)
Enchantment Removal: Arcane (A+), Holy (B), Dark (F), Mind (F), Nature (F), War(F)
Equipment Removal: Mind (A), Nature (B), Arcane (F), Dark (F), Holy (F), War (F)
Increased Mobility: Arcane (A+), Mind (B+), Nature (C), War (D), Holy (E), Dark (F)
Reduced Mobility: Nature (A+), Mind (B+), War (C), Dark (D), Arcane (E), Holy (F)
Healing: Holy (A+), Nature (B+), Dark (C+), Arcane (F), Mind (F), War (F)
Mana Generation: Arcane (A+), Nature (B+), Mind (C), Dark (D), Holy (E), War (F)
Mana Denial: Arcane (A+), Holy (B), Mind (C), War (D), Dark (F), Nature (F)
At first I thought this was going swimmingly. It seemed to wrap things up nice and neat and keep things simple. It might surprise a few people, but I'm a big fan of simplicity. However, I quickly realized this system was woefully inadequate and does not really allow for much comparison between the different Schools. First off, it is fairly subjective, which I would like to move away from if possible. Second, not all of the categories are equal in importance, so it is currently impossible to compare Arcane's A+ in mana generation to Dark's A+ in Direct Damage. Thirdly, the grades themselves have relative value and don't provide a stable model with which to judge. There could be miles of difference separating an A grade from a B grade, while the B and C grades might be virtually tied, since all I did was order them from best to worst. Finally, we might should expand our evaluation to include the Minor Schools as well as the Major.
So, this is not the best evaluation and I would love to hear from others on how we might do a better job. This does already hint at how Arcane is overpowered though. Arcane has been given roughly twice as many "A" grades as any other school of magic, being rated in first place for 5 out of the 14 categories. Arcane was also labeled by me as being self sufficient in half of the categories.
While I welcome all comments and would be glad to discuss the results of my evaluation, I'd really like to hear about ways we could improve the methodology and create a better evaluation. I know this one is flawed.
