Feldon Xelgad has responded to a detailed thread on Illusionist Class Issues:
Hey guys, long time no see! We got some good feedback at Fan Faire which I wanted to share.
I agree that Time Warp ended up being more annoying than it is fun or rewarding. Unfortunately, it was one of those things that looked okay on paper but didn’t work in practice. We have it changed internally so that there is no longer an immunity timer associated with the spell, and it now grants the Illusionist the buff as well as the target. This should be coming to the test servers with (or before) GU58. If you want, you can just macro the spell to a group member and spam it as a self-buff, but I envision some players being more tactical with it. You can even spam it on yourself, but you don’t get double benefit – unless, of course, you cast it on your pet. We also changed the icon so that the warning icon looks different than the actual buff, and the buff now looks like the Tsunami (Monk ability) icon, so that it shouldn’t be shared with any other mage abilities.Some of your other issues, such as buffs providing no benefit due to being capped, will be addressed with the upcoming expansion. There are some other changes that we hope to make before the expansion, but I can’t promise anything yet.
Please feel free to continue to post constructive feedback.
In response to questions about Base Crit Bonus, Illusory Arm, and single target buffs persisting through death, Xelgad had further responses:
A) Coercers have the same base crit multiplier, but they are not having DPS problems this expansion, so there has to be a more targetted fix for your DPS issues. Unfortunately, we need to take the time to really study the class to see what the root cause to the problem is so that we provide the correct targetted fix. It may be red adornments or something like that, which would be something we could fix before the expansion, but we have not had the time to really study the issue yet. If you guys have other ideas, it would definitely not hurt to hear them.
B) As far as IA goes, this is going to be fixed by the next expansion. It could happen as soon as GU58. Unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to discuss the mechanics changes in play at this time, but we’d like to avoid changing the ability now only to have to change it again in the future. We will look into Arms of Imagination to see if there’s something we can do to make it more appealing for single-target fights, but it may end up just being that you only take the advancement if you’re planning to play in AE content.
C) Yes, making single target buffs persist through death is a huge pain. We’ve already spent quite a bit of effort on it but have yet to succeed. This isn’t to say we’ve given up on it, though. We can definitely look into making your pet more survivable. We aren’t sure on an ETA but we should be able to get a change in before the expansion, at least.
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Glad to see some dev attention to class balance. These changes are probably too late for a lot of people that already quit those classes/the game, but we’ll see what happens.
dont think illusionists have many options to quit, their guildies would have a fit. 🙂
Seems SOE really are intending to take a look again at class balance, just hope my swash gets some form of flurry/single target dps boost, even the chanters have AE auto-attacks nowadays. The awesome idea of a blue ae proc on the myth never happened due to playerSOE miscommunication, all the sensible community wanted was for it to be toggleable, all soe wanted was to l;leave it blue. ::'(:
Yes, every time an illy fits their guildmates have a fit. That’s why so many guilds are currently looking for chanters 😉 In all seriousness though, many old members of the illy community have quit. I don’t want SOE to make all classes bland versions of each other by any means, but I’m glad they’re taking a look at balance and I too hope it applies to all classes.