I agree with butterfli, with those wands AMs could have had standing chance to solo bosses like the other classes do with reasonable time (and maybe being more welcome at HT?). It's understandable for a Bishop to not be as effective at soloing bosses, because they have other skills that are more suited to supporting the attackers like heal & res. Nowhere in the description of Arch Mage does it list supporting as a function, nor are they capable of doing that; they needed that damage boost for single-target DPS. Given the difference between MA and WA, they obviously don't stand a chance at competing with BMs, NLs, and Heroes.. and they don't have useful or necessary party skills like DKs.. and there are even people who complain that CL causes lag/DC (which is BS; it's no worse than the ~10+ or so NLs, BMs, and Heroes spamming away at TT+SP, Hurricane, & Brandish <_<).
Stereo is correct about the vastness of the Magician population, but just how many of them are Priests/Bishops? Especially out of levels 16x+ when the costs really start to hurt? Hell, that's probably a question better left unanswered. It should be taken into account though that a lot of those players have quit and it's more than likely not the Bishops that have the highest quitrate of the three subclasses. If Bishops had a crappy 4th job, I betcha the prices on all things INT would drop by a more than considerable amount. They were a good class with reasonable balance before Genesis, but with it they're just plain broken.
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As for "who cares if Bishops are better than you"? Obviously AMs care. Considering they're a class that is meant to attack and unable to support, while a Bishop can run around doing both better than any other class. They can even train for free by selling leech services without their %/hour suffering due to HS with money left to spare to work on equips w/ the lower MP costs (they're the most desirable class for this in the eyes of the leecher as well & don't have to charge as much for it to be profittable). Add to that that they're welcome at the majority of bosses for even more income. Nope, not done yet, with Invi & ER training is even cheaper & there's a significantly lower risk of 1hko due to a badly timed ultimate cast. They're just plain broken, there's just no denying it. No one has any hope of being "better" than them, so y'might as well just not compare the other classes to them.
That being said.. AMs were given a skill that was supposed to make them stronger (AMP) with a negative side effect (MP cost) and a skill that was supposed to make them faster. Bishops don't have these skills, the least an AM could expect is that they would still be stronger and faster even if the MP cost was outrageous. Instead, they are neither of the above and still the MP cost is outrageous. Elemental weapons in training were supposed to help even out the damage and the cost, and potentially make other skills worth using for training AND bossing (Paralyze and Chain Lightning @ new areas anyone?). While it's worth noting that Global has the best pots available for the spamming of ults, that doesn't change the other uses for the elemental weapons (bossing, training effectively with other skills, etc).
Personally I wanted them so I could have a hope of using CL to train. I'm quite fond of the skill, and wouldn't mind if they made the wands/staves nonfunctioning with all 3 ultimates. Honestly, that sounds like the best way to me. :/
Stereo is correct about the vastness of the Magician population, but just how many of them are Priests/Bishops? Especially out of levels 16x+ when the costs really start to hurt? Hell, that's probably a question better left unanswered. It should be taken into account though that a lot of those players have quit and it's more than likely not the Bishops that have the highest quitrate of the three subclasses. If Bishops had a crappy 4th job, I betcha the prices on all things INT would drop by a more than considerable amount. They were a good class with reasonable balance before Genesis, but with it they're just plain broken.
-~- - -~-
As for "who cares if Bishops are better than you"? Obviously AMs care. Considering they're a class that is meant to attack and unable to support, while a Bishop can run around doing both better than any other class. They can even train for free by selling leech services without their %/hour suffering due to HS with money left to spare to work on equips w/ the lower MP costs (they're the most desirable class for this in the eyes of the leecher as well & don't have to charge as much for it to be profittable). Add to that that they're welcome at the majority of bosses for even more income. Nope, not done yet, with Invi & ER training is even cheaper & there's a significantly lower risk of 1hko due to a badly timed ultimate cast. They're just plain broken, there's just no denying it. No one has any hope of being "better" than them, so y'might as well just not compare the other classes to them.
That being said.. AMs were given a skill that was supposed to make them stronger (AMP) with a negative side effect (MP cost) and a skill that was supposed to make them faster. Bishops don't have these skills, the least an AM could expect is that they would still be stronger and faster even if the MP cost was outrageous. Instead, they are neither of the above and still the MP cost is outrageous. Elemental weapons in training were supposed to help even out the damage and the cost, and potentially make other skills worth using for training AND bossing (Paralyze and Chain Lightning @ new areas anyone?). While it's worth noting that Global has the best pots available for the spamming of ults, that doesn't change the other uses for the elemental weapons (bossing, training effectively with other skills, etc).
Personally I wanted them so I could have a hope of using CL to train. I'm quite fond of the skill, and wouldn't mind if they made the wands/staves nonfunctioning with all 3 ultimates. Honestly, that sounds like the best way to me. :/