2010-05-27, 01:44 PM
KaidaTan Wrote:You make it sound as though having amazing party buffs is a point against them. Sure they can affect everyone, that's why they're awesome. It's not like they'd be worse if the auras were personal buffs.
I agree with the rest of what you said though. Finish Blow is slower than I thought it'd be, and the first 5 hits are pretty much garbage.
Amazing party buffs are great, but the fact that they Auras don't stack makes the class stand out that much less, to the point where they can be replaced by classes that already exist. My point is, we have Arans that can use Combo Barrier AND provide amazing DPS to both mobs and bosses. Why bring a Battlemage to a boss for Blue Aura over that? Sure, there's the cooldown issue on Combo Barrier, but hey, just throw a second Aran in and you're set. Want to argue to bring a Battlemage for Advanced Dark Aura? While that's essentially the place they're most useful, it doesn't help if they can't survive something like Pink Bean without Blue Aura.
As of what they look like right now, especially when compared to GMS DPS gods, Battlemages are nothing more than buff mules. The fact that their Auras don't stack is a huge hit to their usefulness, and so in the reality of deciding who to bring in a 30 person squad, I can't see Battlemages having much prominent usefulness. Ex.: A HornTail run may take, what, 3, one for each Range 1, Range 2, and Melee 1. Fantastic.
Finally, my comment regarding the skills as party buffs earlier was merely to compare single target DPS between classes. If all classes can benefit from something, it's not an advantage to just one class. In the end, you're right, though, because such buffs do make the difference (such as giving a NL Sharp Eyes).