Spellweaving: Exactly what casters need

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[singlepic=26,320,240,,right]Yesterday’s blog downtime killed any time I had to post up a good Age of Conan topic but it gave me the chance to look around and find an article that gives a few details on Spellweaving that I hadn’t seen before. In my PvP Weekend impressions I mentioned that Spellweaving was not in the game or at the very least I couldn’t find it. It turns out that Spellweaving is still under development, but it will definitely be worth the wait.

In this article released yesterday several details about Spellweaving were affirmed:

  • It gives the game’s spellcasting classes a way to significantly alter the way they deal damage
  • Spellweaving is a risk to the player’s surviability – it can be lethal to the player
  • Spellweaving is available for the Priest-type Tempest of Set and Priest of Mitra and the Mage-type Demonologist and Necromancer
  • It’s like the stances that the Soldier Archetype use (Frenzy, Defensive, etc) that can be switched in and out of
  • Spellweaving drains stamina
  • Damage can be increased up to 25%
  • Additional positive and negative effects that add or subtract to the caster’s overall effectiveness (read the article for a few examples)


This sounds like it’s EXACTLY what casters in Age of Conan and even other games need. AoC has already taken melee characters to the “next level” by getting them involved in a pseudo-twitch combat experience so why not the casters? Just like the days of thoughtless button mashing melee are slowly coming to an end, the days of sitting back and lobbing the same spells at your opponents over and over and coming to a close. During the PvP weekend I felt like casters in Age of Conan, more than any other game, needed something to set them apart. Spellweaving’s increase to damage, added bonus effects, and sense of unknown are going to make spellcasters a lot of fun.

Additionally the control that spellweaving gives the casters is unprecedented. The ability to scale your spells forward and go all out or play it conservatively with the 1, 2, 3, Q, and E keys adds another dimension to the spellcasting classes similar to the melee classes combos. They deserve it though. I would have felt really bad for spellcasters in AoC if they were left drooling over the presents Funcom has given melee classes.

I hope that Spellweaving provides a lot of potential for casters in sieges and PvP. Massive spells that rain destruction over the entire battlefield would really be a sight to see. I also feel that since casters are often screwed over on looks that Spellweaving should provide them all the pomp and circumstance that can possibly be afforded them. Even though I’m not going to be playing a caster in AoC I still want them, even my enemies, to really put on a show.

Kudos to Funcom on this one.

  • Just remember how you claimed the archers were overpowered…? casters in too many games are given too much power. As they are a ranged class, same as the archer. I cringed when you cry’d nerf on the archers and now cringe when you gleefully call for overpowering classes that already will heal like no other.Lets just say… being poisoned and sheeped repeatedly is not my idea of pvp. Age of conan by all rights should be dominated by Melee, ever see Conan twittle his fingers?

  • Archers were overpowered in the PvP weekend. That’s not a claim of my own. 😉 Casters felt very underpowered and underwhelming at level 20. Albeit that was level 20 all things considered they were still lacking compared to other classes. This is something they need. The possibility for 25% increased damage/effectiveness and a random element of buff/debuff sounds balanced and dynamic. It’s Funcom’s answer to the combo system for casters.

    Don’t be bitter about WoW mages Polymorphing you. 😛

  • At last, the long awaited Spellweaving has approved my decision of rolling a spellcaster in Aoc. Alltho Age of Conan goes for the end game model of most other allready known MMORPG’s it has these neat things that takes MMORPG feeling a step further to reality. So, even if my enthusiasm isn’t nearly as high as it was when Funcom first announced the game and it’s features, i think this game is still worth looking forward to and aquering, alltho it may not be too worth pre ordering if you don’t mind waiting another 2 weeks after release to get your copy

  • I think spell casters SHOULD be more powerful than melee… right up until melee gets in their face.

    Any word on whether spellweaving will be in open beta?

  • So…

    Spellweaving seems to be one of AoC’s USPs.
    It hasn’t been publicly tested.
    The system is still being designed.
    The game is being released in less than a month.

    Excuse me if I cower under the desk and squeak in horror.

  • @michael:
    Just because it isn’t involved yet doesn’t mean that spell weaving system isn’t designed.
    I think I’ve read that they just didn’t involve it because they want to leave some new things for the release…

    Anyway I like the idea of spell weaving, sounds really interesting, but I’ve got a question, you can’t really weave spells together can you? I mean now the spells just get stronger, get a AoE effect and so on…am I right? Even if yes I’m excited…wanna try it finally ^^

  • Spellweaving does seem to give something interesting to do for spellcaster classes.I just hope they do enough variety in the buffs/debuff that can happen.
    Also would be nice to know if spellweaving has any place in PvP, since 25% damage bonus isn’t that big of deal if you can just spam the spell again and do double damage 🙂

  • @Jack: sorry, you’re quite right. 🙂

    I notice the article didn’t describe what the spellweaver 123QE minigame was (Manaball Lander?), just its impact on the spells cast. The melee system is

    I think I’d rather have a battle-tested, balance system, rather than a last minute surprise. 😉

  • I think spellweaving is an excellent gameplay addition. It gives skilled mages a chance to unleash their power. Also, it is further augmented by the collision detection. A good mage will stay out of arms reach and unleash hell!

    There are various buffs to the spellweave but damage and crit are definately in.

    Ill still be melee though 🙂 LOL

  • great entry!

    spellweving will also really help out the balence issues with casters. although i think the guardian needs to have about 25% more hit points when spell weaving goes live, or a natural resistance to spellweaving. i would vote for the resist as i think that is easyer to keep in balence

  • Hope they have spell weaving by lvl 13 because thats all the higher your able to go in the open beta.

  • Spellweaving is not included at lvl 13 just for the pure logic that you choose a class at lvl 20, so there will be simply no spells to weave

  • For those of you who played in the PVP weekend and think spellweaving was “saved” for release. It wasnt polished enough for the PVP weekend and they wanted to keep it simple. Spellweaving has been in closed beta for a while and is under its 8 or 9th revision.

  • Just wonder kmxs in an article i read some1 claimed that you could actually combine spells is this true or is it really just a beserker stance(damage buff/health risk) for casters.

  • Spellweaving was tested long ago in the beta. Went through several versions until the devs were happy. It will be back in once the game is relesed and I am sure more polished later on.

    The general idea is to move away from the one button spamming of something like wow where as a mage you go 99% of the time in raids; scorch, schorch, fireball and more fireballs for hour after hour..

    And to answer some questions here you pick class at level one (but yes it used to be at level 20 Quandrix). Another questions was it was more like a stance and no it is not. Think of it more like a container where you put several different types of spells and then fire with devastating effect.