[Kameron8]

Although there aren't any sweeping spell reworks or additions being done right now, I've recently been giving some thought to invocation spells and what some higher level variations might look like. In the event Dev plans to add them in the future, I went ahead and made a small list of spells I think would fit nicely -- even if only to serve as mild inspiration should a time come when new spells were being added.

Evoker:

1. Ice Age

Domain: Aquarian

This skill requires a Rank B Invocation (See the Invocation talent for more details).

Mist skill. When cast, the battlefield is covered in a dark blue mist for 3/3/4/4/5 rounds that seems to chill everything to the bone. While active, every tile on the battlefield becomes an ice tile, and all enemies receive a penalty to cold resistance equal to 5/10/15/20/25%. Any ice tiles that are destroyed will reappear at the beginning of each round. Enemies benefiting from the effects of Sanctuary will not suffer any losses to resistance. (Only one Mist skill can be active on the battlefield at a time; the last one cast will take priority and nullify previous ones.)

Rank 1: 6M, 5% Weakness, 70 FP
Rank 2: 10% Weakness, 65 FP
Rank 3: 15% Weakness, 60 FP, +1 Duration
Rank 4: 20% Weakness, 55 FP
Rank 5: 25% Weakness, 50 FP, +1 Duration

2. Cataclym

Prerequisites: Overload Rank 3, Isenshi Rank 3, Exgalfa Rank 3, Intensify Cold Rank 3, Vydel Rank 3
Domain: General
Enemy Only

This skill requires a Rank S Invocation (See the Invocation talent for more details).

Sunder the earth and leave everything in ruin. When cast, all enemies on the battlefield are struck with Exgalfa, Overload, Intensify Cold, Vydel, and Isenshi. Every tile on the map becomes Pillaged.

Rank 1: Learn Spell. 6M, 60 FP

Hexer:
1. Black Hole

Domain: Huggessoan
Enemy Only

This skill requires a Rank A Invocation (See the Invocation talent for more details).

Tear open a dimensional singularity in the center of the battlefield, vastly altering the gravity of the nearby area. The vortex resides in the middle of the battlefield with a size of 3x3 for 5 rounds. While the singularity exists, the following effects come into play:

• All skills that launch projectiles are redirected into the singularity.
  
• All enemy bow and gun attacks suffer a -100 penalty to hit.
  
• At the start of each round, all enemies are dragged 4 tiles closer to the singularity. (Does not change direction characters are facing)
  
• Enemies that move in the opposite direction of the singularity can only go half as far. (Ice tile effect for fleeing the vortex)
  
• Enemies who begin their turn looking directly at the singularity have a 35% chance to become Stunned for one round.
  
• Enemies who touch the singularity (regardless of whether from the dragging effect, being pushed, or walking in on their own volition), suffer magical Akashic damage equal to 350% Scaled Weapon Attack + 250% Dark Attack. This damage can only apply once per round to each enemy.

Rank 1: 70 FP, 3 Round Duration
Rank 2: 60 FP, +1 Duration
Rank 3: 50 FP, +1 Duration

Priest:

1. Menzu

Domain: Mercalan
Ally Only

This skill requires a Rank B Invocation (See the Invocation talent for more details).

Flood the battlefield with life, restoring all that has been lost. First, all negative statuses are removed from all allies (including badly beaten). Then, all unconscious allies are revived. Lastly, all allies are healed for a value equal to X% of their max life.

Rank 1: 6M, 30% max life heal.
Rank 2: 65% max life heal.
Rank 3: 100% max life heal.

I've mainly created this thread to give my opinion that not having lengthy invocations is a missed opportunity. Players could potentially have access to spells that make them feel incredibly powerful, while the immense charge up would almost always be enough to keep the powerful spells from getting out of hand.

[Chaos]

Ice Age - This is basically a poor man's Intensify Cold with no damage and an effect that belongs in a Verglas class. I think the decreased resistance should be replaced with a LV (Rank*10) Frostbite for the duration of the mist and the Sanctuary clause removed, and even then, I would be more inclined to give this to Verglas, the class known for turning the entire battlefield into an iceberg.

Cataclysm - The elements required to make this worth its weight is a bit much. For an invocation spell of this caliber, I would make it deal Akashic Damage to all enemies, equal to 75~80% of the target's maximum HP or 700, whichever is greater.

Black Hole - Looks fine to me.

Menzu - Looks fine to me.

[Rendar]

Honestly, I can never see Black Hole being a thing hexers should have. Maybe for an astramancer/gravity manipulation mage class, but never a hexer. It's just fickle.

Cataclysm is cool, but I'd also suggest it maybe go in a astramancer class just to be something akin to a nuclear explosion.

Ice Age is cool, but, again. definitellyyyy something I'd see Verglas wanting more than an actual mage. Unless, of course, we're wanting it to be a way to cut off people from approaching a mage and combining well with expanding ice/ice skate. In which case, I'd be kinda down to clown with that.

A lot of these, however, look like they would be C rank invocations, or even higher. 350% weapon scaling is huge. That would turn someone like Uilosson's 130ish scaled damage.. into 462... then we add in 2.5x my dark damage, which is, again, a lot. I have like.. 65-70 dark damage. That's 175 damage from that, plus 462 from the weapon scaling. That's a good 637 damage of Akashic, which means that you can't resist it. You're solely relying upon your RES stat to save your ass, which is fine. However it also lasts for a LONG time too. So, it's situationally useless, unless you're in a big team fight, or have friends. In which case you can get "GGEZ" real quick like.

Menzu's cool though. I like Menzu.

[Autumn]

I mean, if you think about it Hexer already has a lot of other worldly stuff in it's kit, black swirling static, bubbles that burst into purple water, oil that can hit many people at great distances, it makes sense in this case.

Other than that, I do support the idea of higher level invocations, especially with words of power the way it is now, and admittedly Menzu sounds super cool.

[Rendar]

Oh whoops. I'm dumb and didn't read that these are like B+ rank.

Yeah okay, these are good. Kinda OP, but dude. that's like 20 momentum. (or a lot less with HSDW). So, if someone lets you set up, they deserve the dunkage.

[Kameron8]

So, if someone lets you set up, they deserve the dunkage.

Players could potentially have access to spells that make them feel incredibly powerful, while the immense charge up would almost always be enough to keep the powerful spells from getting out of hand.

Agreed, that was what I was trying to get at with the section at the bottom.

I can never see Black Hole being a thing hexers should have. Maybe for an astramancer/gravity manipulation mage class, but never a hexer. It's just fickle.

That's a fair assessment, but I was just working with the most appropriate class we currently have for the example that came to mind.

Cataclysm - The elements required to make this worth its weight is a bit much. For an invocation spell of this caliber, I would make it deal Akashic Damage to all enemies, equal to 75~80% of the target's maximum HP or 700, whichever is greater.

This would actually do less damage, and almost never kill anyone. The original one can benefit from Charge Mind, which would overkill the entire map. Anything that survives either used 70% Guard or body of isesip.

This is basically a poor man's Intensify Cold with no damage and an effect that belongs in a Verglas class.

Yeah, I think this is also fair. This is more useful for a Verglas than a mage, since it just gives mages easy keep-away potential.

[Esther]

The Ice Age one can ~synergize~ with Verglas really well though! Which is good, for a class that normally is only really seen paired with duelist promos.

Black Hole, honestly? Seems like something that fits ~Void Assassin~ more than Hexer. Is there any reason ~not~ to give Void Assassins an invocation?

Hexer seems more to me like the kind of class that would bring the maze of Lazarus coterminous with the physical, creating a maze-like array of 'soul tiles' that punish people for stepping (or even sidecutting/crane-hopping/winged-serpenting!) over them with potent Akashic damage, requiring actual teleport skills to traverse unharmed. The idea is that they're not something that's just on the ground, they're immaterial walls that height and speed aren't good enough to bypass -- you either use a 'real' teleport, move along the paths the maze gives you, or take damage for passing through the wall.