If you would ever play a bow scout your would feel even more betrayed - I understand you being mad about the nerf but it is needed bot not far enaugh in my opinion.
And you asked if scouts should deal as mutch damage as mages? Considering that scouts have no tank ability anymore (no high def, dodge, hp pool or MANASHIELD that blocks 15.000 damage easily) yes they should deal at LEAST the same amount of damage!
Now you will point out that scouts have camouflage - oh wow camouflage a 50 seconds cooldown skill that can be canceled in animation easily and helps nothing once you are stunned or muted!
And well for PvP games a pure Manashield AoE mage can still get all skillpower (or not all skillpower passives but accuracy + lot of skillpower) passives easily even including all AoE unique stun skills so - as I said mages are masters in specialisation.
Raiders are not the only counterclass for mages, think twice, I would not have to spill an entire page of lecture regarding that. There are mages who are more powerful in 1on1 situations, and for that, they lose war capability. It's a tradeoff. Class A is the counterclass for mage in 1on1, yet class B is the best counter for mage in wars. There's a difference.
When a mage in AoE build defeats a class that is designed to assasinate 1 target and JUST 1 target it becomes redicilous.
It's simply not balanced if you look at it from the perspective of every class. Mages do not have the capacity to escape, nor the defense to tank. Even with a high MP gauge I assure you, they will fall if the enemy team wants that mage to fall, and easily. Say no and then that team doesn't know how. Scouts however, are given high MS through passives, and are capable of setting traps to facilitate escapes. Furthermore, they have Camouflage, something so useful to a mage that they simply cannot have, because after all, they are mages, not scouts.
That is why I said to use the full potential of mages you have to play in a well coordinated team that protects its mage by knight taunts/cleric purifies. If you think a scout even with camouflage could sustain even close to as good as a mage can then I see no point in discussing with you because then you might have never played a bowscout.
(Bow)Scouts have 1 MS passive with +150 (oh wow...) and 1 SUPER WEAK slow so they can't even kite properly - all (bow)scouts have is their burst damage out of Phoenix and Impact Arrow - wuhu...nice that you try to compare it with scouts - they are seriously weak at the moment. Traps I won't even bother listing cause yes they are nice but considering their long set up time and the chance to avoid them just very situational.
Again, any mage who is tanky enough to survive longer than average, loses it's offensive capability AoE wise. If they choose AoEs instead, then they lose the capacity to do powerful single target attacks. That alone is a logical tradeoff.
Have you ever played a Mage with buffed 50.000 manapool manashields? Its crazy what you can tank with it compared to other ranged AoE classes! and you still have high AP through the high Int and enaugh points for all AoE or single target skills that you want to have! Of course you can't have everything but still all you want if you specialise...
If that cannot be done then by all means consider other options and be open for ways to improve them; I myself am telling this to everyone right now: Mages no longer deal the damage a "Mage" should. A slight push back up will bring them to life once more, and that will truly be appreciated. I hope no other class complains about this though. A mage like me loves killing raiders, especially when they were nerfed, but I never acted like an innocent child saying that you all deserved it because you are OP.
I don't say they deserve it I say it is needed - mage is still the hardest class to play/master.
Edited by iMatt, 18 July 2014 - 08:25 AM.