2010-05-27, 01:49 PM
FrozNlite Wrote: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).
The auras can fuse if you have 2 in a party, and since adv dark aura is such a huge boost i think that alone will make up for their low DPS. It's not like you have to stick with one aura or anything. o.o If the party needs to survive, cast blue. If it needs to do the most damage, cast dark. If they need speed cast yellow. As far as i can see yellow affects magic attacks as well, but that's only by assuming that battle mage skills count as magic skills (which i'm sceptical about because the blow skills negate the stun from chains, which magic isn't supposed to do). I think yellow is the least useful though...but it does make everything around you slower which is awesome.