The mage gauntlets are the most insane increase ever.
Help me understand this, Gorka, because that was not my intent. My intent was to add something fun, cool, and exciting, providing an pretty sweet *Huzzah* moment, not something that seriously hypes power in some massive, huge way. So, for example, I believe it takes about 20 blasts to earn an unleash on the largest epic in the game. How that plays out in real mage life is that they occasionally get this huge blast that is sweet, but their average xp run stays about the same. So on paper their damage output went up by some large amount, but it wasn't amortized across all the mobs that it took to get there, so their average pain level against typical mobs is the same. On the one mob they unleash against, it's sweet, but that's not the average case. Typical xp runs for a mage will still involve approximately the same number of heals, the same number of blasts... what am I missing?
I think the point I'm trying to make is that power increases should be measured by xp/hour, not raw total damage #'s. Take the extreme example... I give you an item that requires 50 blasts to do 500k damage... your total damage output went up by some absurd amount, but your xp run didn't really change that much other than 1 easier mob.
It would appear that warriors have a different perspective on damage than monks, thieves, mages, and clerics do. You say +10 damage doesn't matter that much in solo... eh? A monk with +10 damage does 150 more on his deathtouch, which means all of those mobs that deathtouched to 15% now die. Whether or not the mob dies on a deathtouch matters a huge amount, because even 1 round of fighting against a 5mil mob does 300+ damage, which is 62 mana of heals. So if the mob suddenly dies now, your runs extend a huuuuuuge amount. Mages and clerics have the exact same issue. If their blast goes up by 50 effective spell bonus (between saves and spell bonus), then that means that many more mobs die to the blasts without ever entering battle. That's a huge bump in xp/hour even though their damage only crept up by a small margin.
So when you look at the increases in the rebirth shop vs. something like the mage gauntlets, I would say for most players, the mage gauntlets don't even move the needle on the power scale, whereas the rebirth shop is freaking amazing. The extension of their solo runs and xp/hour goes up a lot more due to the shop than the gauntlets or the Sphairai.
And yes, groups will see an increase in power as well.
I still think they need some sort of buff to help them sustain their mana in group.... Its boring to see mage running out of mana and end up chopping in group but thats another topic.
