A list of changes I feel might be necessary, particularly after the latest patch that nerfed Mana Shield and all AoE skills. Most of these are to help skills that aren't really worth taking at the moment, in my opinion at least. The rest are to free up some skill points since Mages are a bit SP-starved.
Knowledge Training- Change it to give 5% +25 Intelligence. This could be done for all classes with their similar primary stat passives. The 5% is only taken from base stats, not your total. For balance reasons.
Mana Pool- Boost the ratio to give 10 MP per 1 Intelligence (so it's also a bit more useful for Clerics).
*Mana Stream- Reduce the ratio to 10 MP per 1 Intelligence (only if the Mana Pool change is implemented).
Meditation- Change the base MP Recovery to 10 and the ratio to 1 MP Recovery per 10 Intelligence at max level. Add a new effect: After casting four skills, your next skill deals 5/10/15/20/25% additional damage. Obviously works with Clerics too since it's a Muse skill. 
Mystic Armor Training- Increase Magic Defense to 5% +20 per level.
Mana Shield Siphon- Change MP Recovery Rate to a percentage of max MP, or make its existing MP Recovery effect stronger.
Combine Staff Attunement and Staff Unity into a single passive and put it on the Mage tree. Or remove these as prerequisites for Mana Stream.
Merge Sorcerer's Sight and Clarity of Sight into one passive and put it on the Offensive tree.
Aural Pierce- Rework into a self-buff that gives 4/8/12/16/20% Magic Defense Piercing for 10 seconds with a 60 second cooldown. The cooldown doesn't begin until the buff expires. At the very least, increase the radius to 15m at max level to match the Mage's largest AoEs if changing it to said buff isn't an option.
Change elemental masteries so that they no longer require skill points. Instead, the mastery skill is acquired for free upon maxing all skills for that particular element (excluding PVP and PVM versions of course). It just makes sense. And it still comes at a cost.
Sorcery Mastery- Add Magic Defense Piercing stacks on the caster so that it becomes useful in PVM and feels better overall. It's a bit clunky right now.
Remove prerequisites for Fierce Cudgeling and Staff Stun to allow more flexibility with builds.
Elemental Wave- Give 20% Mute chance by default and increase the PVP version to 40%.
Permafrost Chill- Add Dodge Down and Movement Speed Down debuffs. Or just make it AoE. It's currently the worst final skill of all the elemental branches since it's single-target and the Attack Speed Down debuff is on the weaker side.
Water Mastery- Rework its effect into something else, like Ice Armor, giving 5% Defense and 5% Critical Defense per stack with a max of 3 stacks. Or something else that's defensive. Mana Fissure flat out isn't good. It can be useful, sure, but it's not good.
Teachings of the Magi and Technique of the Magi- Increase Skill Power to 10%.
Thoughts?
EDIT: Cleaned up the entire thread and updated or removed various skills following the recent balance adjustments. Also added a few more skills to the list.
Edited by Mugendai, 25 August 2016 - 12:35 AM.
