There were recently several changes made to the magic rules and they were great, but I feel that several parts of the magic rules need to be revised or removed entirely. I'll go by the articles in the magic rules.
Area of Effect - This portion states, "[The area of effect spell] deals 75% of its rank in damage in the affected area [outside of the center of impact]." This part of the rules needs to be removed completely because (1) no one follows it and (2) the staff certainly doesn't enforce it.
Duration - When this rule was made, I imagine it was created with DoT (damage-over-time) spells solely in mind. Many approved duration spells, with the exception of DoT spells like poison or burn spells, break the 150% rule. I myself have had spells that deal 300% - if not more - ranked damage over their duration. Thus, this portion of the rules needs to be revised or at least mention it only applies to DoT spells.
Mixed - This part of the magic rules is in most need of fixing because, just like with the area of effect portion, no one follows nor does the staff enforce it... and justifiably so: no one wants to have a spell that deals 0.9 B-rank damage on one post followed by 0.3 B-rank damage on the following three posts. It greatly complicates things, especially in PvP situations in which the players already have to estimate damage by themselves. I think it would just be best to mention that a spell should be weaker if it has multiple affects.
Additionally, article two goes over damage alone whilst neglecting other categories such as healing and defensive spells. From what I've seen, the general rule is that a simple defensive spell can take 2 spell rank damage before collapsing. How is a new player supposed to know this? Same with healing spells and any other significant spell type. I realize that we as a community tend to shy away from hard rules, but they need to be changed to reflect the reality of how spells are graded.
More than anything, I think this portion should make a mentioning of some kind that the effects of spells (damage, buffs, etc.) can be increased if they are appropriately balanced. I'm sure it's second nature to some of you by now that you can make some spells exceedingly strong by giving them good weaknesses, but a new player might not be aware of that. If any one thing in my suggestion is taken seriously, I hope it's this.
Lost Magic - This part is cryptic and just seems pointless. It should be removed entirely or at least have useful information.
Slayer Magic - Did you know slayers get increased physical states and damage resistance against their own element and it doesn't count as either an ability or a strength/weakness to the magic? If you're new, you probably didn't because it's an unwritten rule. In addition to that bit I just mentioned, I think the slayer portion of the rules should say there's a limited number of slayer positions and that they need to be applied for. I only make that suggestion because I've seen new players ask countless times if they can have slayer magic.
Health Regen - I think I'm just splitting hairs at this point, but it might be helpful to clarify if a passive ability can heal up to 5% HP per post or per thread.
Same thing with article four.
Joke! There is no article six! There are, however, two article sevens.
This isn't in the magic rules, but it does regard the spell template. We are told in the template that the cooldown for a spell is typically one post more than the duration, but one (maybe two) staff member has been pointing out that spells have a minimum cooldown that gets larger with the rank, regardless of the duration. Again, new players won't know this.
Other things that need to be considered when (if) revising the magic rules is duration, range, and speed of spells. There is a rough maximum duration, range, and speed for all spell ranks. I think it would save everyone a lot of time and headache if the rules mentioned what these general maximums are. If a green player creates a spell to fast, he or she is going to have to revise it. If he or she makes it too slow, the spell won't be able to compete with similar spells of the same rank (if the person grading his or her app is doing the bear minimum to help that is). The same concept applies to range and duration.
Why these suggestions need to be taken into serious consideration:
Article 2:
Area of Effect - This portion states, "[The area of effect spell] deals 75% of its rank in damage in the affected area [outside of the center of impact]." This part of the rules needs to be removed completely because (1) no one follows it and (2) the staff certainly doesn't enforce it.
Duration - When this rule was made, I imagine it was created with DoT (damage-over-time) spells solely in mind. Many approved duration spells, with the exception of DoT spells like poison or burn spells, break the 150% rule. I myself have had spells that deal 300% - if not more - ranked damage over their duration. Thus, this portion of the rules needs to be revised or at least mention it only applies to DoT spells.
Mixed - This part of the magic rules is in most need of fixing because, just like with the area of effect portion, no one follows nor does the staff enforce it... and justifiably so: no one wants to have a spell that deals 0.9 B-rank damage on one post followed by 0.3 B-rank damage on the following three posts. It greatly complicates things, especially in PvP situations in which the players already have to estimate damage by themselves. I think it would just be best to mention that a spell should be weaker if it has multiple affects.
Additionally, article two goes over damage alone whilst neglecting other categories such as healing and defensive spells. From what I've seen, the general rule is that a simple defensive spell can take 2 spell rank damage before collapsing. How is a new player supposed to know this? Same with healing spells and any other significant spell type. I realize that we as a community tend to shy away from hard rules, but they need to be changed to reflect the reality of how spells are graded.
More than anything, I think this portion should make a mentioning of some kind that the effects of spells (damage, buffs, etc.) can be increased if they are appropriately balanced. I'm sure it's second nature to some of you by now that you can make some spells exceedingly strong by giving them good weaknesses, but a new player might not be aware of that. If any one thing in my suggestion is taken seriously, I hope it's this.
Article 3:
Lost Magic - This part is cryptic and just seems pointless. It should be removed entirely or at least have useful information.
Slayer Magic - Did you know slayers get increased physical states and damage resistance against their own element and it doesn't count as either an ability or a strength/weakness to the magic? If you're new, you probably didn't because it's an unwritten rule. In addition to that bit I just mentioned, I think the slayer portion of the rules should say there's a limited number of slayer positions and that they need to be applied for. I only make that suggestion because I've seen new players ask countless times if they can have slayer magic.
Article 4:
Health Regen - I think I'm just splitting hairs at this point, but it might be helpful to clarify if a passive ability can heal up to 5% HP per post or per thread.
Article 5:
Same thing with article four.
Article 6:
Joke! There is no article six! There are, however, two article sevens.
Miscellaneous Magic Stuff:
This isn't in the magic rules, but it does regard the spell template. We are told in the template that the cooldown for a spell is typically one post more than the duration, but one (maybe two) staff member has been pointing out that spells have a minimum cooldown that gets larger with the rank, regardless of the duration. Again, new players won't know this.
Other things that need to be considered when (if) revising the magic rules is duration, range, and speed of spells. There is a rough maximum duration, range, and speed for all spell ranks. I think it would save everyone a lot of time and headache if the rules mentioned what these general maximums are. If a green player creates a spell to fast, he or she is going to have to revise it. If he or she makes it too slow, the spell won't be able to compete with similar spells of the same rank (if the person grading his or her app is doing the bear minimum to help that is). The same concept applies to range and duration.
Why these suggestions need to be taken into serious consideration:
- They'll give new players more help with creating spells without having to bug the staff.
- Players will have a better idea of what to look for when making their spells, thus saving the staff time and increasing their efficiency.
- They'll better reflect how spells are really graded.
- The staff will be less likely to contradict each other when grading magic applications.
- The disadvantage new players have with making spells compared to veteran players will be significantly reduced.
- And finally: