Also, I've been trying out Energy magic for a while on my current character (and also back in Esshar), and I thought I'd share my findings. It's not looking good, honestly. Compared to genuinely powerful trees and subtrees like Air, Nature, or Sand, I just can't see the point of investing heavily into it... which sucks, given how cool it is.
![[Image: oJu8kG1.png]](https://imgur.com/oJu8kG1.png)
(please note that 'dogshit' is used for effect, each of the spells described as such can be good but broadly I view them as bad in comparison to spells equal in tier within other trees - i can give examples if needed)
To be honest, with the state that it's in, it feels like the tree exists solely to act as support to Holy/Occult/Cosmic without any thoughts of it standing on its own. Three of the basic spells are good, Rapidfire is okay if you have a root because otherwise its tracking is horrible, and the two Masteries can be fight-winning but eat into your mastery points. Its intermediates are middling at best despite having cooler visuals than most spells in the game - one will get you killed if you don't take out your opponent before it ends, and the other doesn't work as well if your opponent is corner-hugging (which is a bug that'll hopefully be fixed). Eburst stuns for a decent while but is both easy to dodge and hard to hit, and Force Wave's self-root upon casting makes it difficult to use in a fight despite its numbers being nice.
In my view, the tree needs love in terms of a niche which it can excel in beyond 'becomes stronger under 50% HP', because that isn't doing enough for it right now. I've come up with two potential solutions.
First, a combo mechanic that rewards you for combining the Energy spells together by gradually debuffing the enemy's DR or AP. The more you land, the more debuffs you deliver. You could even have spells that are Holy, Occult, or Cosmic (as well as Armed/Unarmed) not break combos in progress, with magic from other trees breaking them. This rewards you for investing heavily into Energy and its subtrees. The tree would start off weak, but the more you invest into Energy, the stronger it becomes. Imagine doing a multi-hit Energy combo and breaking apart the enemy's DR before hitting them with a Holy or Shadow Cannon.
Alternatively, just give it more damage. A lot more damage. Its spells are all hard to hit (aside from Constriction), so reward people for hitting them. Energy magic is the raw expression of mana in its purest form, and that's a deadly force when it's focused, even if it's not molded into any particular substance like fire or lightning. It should be tearing through people, not just lightly tickling them. The first solution is better, in my opinion, given that 'huge amounts of damage with barely any utility' is Fire and Lightning's gimmick.
This was written from the perspective of a mage who really doesn't want to go into a ton of other trees in order to make Energy worth it. To me, those two routes I've described above are potentially good fixes for the issues that Energy has. It should be either the 'high damage without utility or debuffs' tree or the 'middling damage with crippling debuffs on hit' tree. It can't be the 'middling damage with no debuffs' tree that it is now - that just makes it, as I said in my helpful chart, dogshit.
(please note that 'dogshit' is used for effect, each of the spells described as such can be good but broadly I view them as bad in comparison to spells equal in tier within other trees - i can give examples if needed)
To be honest, with the state that it's in, it feels like the tree exists solely to act as support to Holy/Occult/Cosmic without any thoughts of it standing on its own. Three of the basic spells are good, Rapidfire is okay if you have a root because otherwise its tracking is horrible, and the two Masteries can be fight-winning but eat into your mastery points. Its intermediates are middling at best despite having cooler visuals than most spells in the game - one will get you killed if you don't take out your opponent before it ends, and the other doesn't work as well if your opponent is corner-hugging (which is a bug that'll hopefully be fixed). Eburst stuns for a decent while but is both easy to dodge and hard to hit, and Force Wave's self-root upon casting makes it difficult to use in a fight despite its numbers being nice.
In my view, the tree needs love in terms of a niche which it can excel in beyond 'becomes stronger under 50% HP', because that isn't doing enough for it right now. I've come up with two potential solutions.
First, a combo mechanic that rewards you for combining the Energy spells together by gradually debuffing the enemy's DR or AP. The more you land, the more debuffs you deliver. You could even have spells that are Holy, Occult, or Cosmic (as well as Armed/Unarmed) not break combos in progress, with magic from other trees breaking them. This rewards you for investing heavily into Energy and its subtrees. The tree would start off weak, but the more you invest into Energy, the stronger it becomes. Imagine doing a multi-hit Energy combo and breaking apart the enemy's DR before hitting them with a Holy or Shadow Cannon.
Alternatively, just give it more damage. A lot more damage. Its spells are all hard to hit (aside from Constriction), so reward people for hitting them. Energy magic is the raw expression of mana in its purest form, and that's a deadly force when it's focused, even if it's not molded into any particular substance like fire or lightning. It should be tearing through people, not just lightly tickling them. The first solution is better, in my opinion, given that 'huge amounts of damage with barely any utility' is Fire and Lightning's gimmick.
This was written from the perspective of a mage who really doesn't want to go into a ton of other trees in order to make Energy worth it. To me, those two routes I've described above are potentially good fixes for the issues that Energy has. It should be either the 'high damage without utility or debuffs' tree or the 'middling damage with crippling debuffs on hit' tree. It can't be the 'middling damage with no debuffs' tree that it is now - that just makes it, as I said in my helpful chart, dogshit.