Magic in DA4

This is a fun thread!

A Mage-rogue would be my dream class.

I would be very curious to see what an Ancient Elven specialization would look like.

I have to say I had a lot of fun playing a Force Mage in DA2 and I would like to see that back. I would also like the option to have more skills available during combat, like DAO and DA2. It would be nice to see spirit healer back as well.

Out of the three games, I think I have the most fun with DA2's combat.

This would be a great idea. I enjoyed the Faeblades in that game, they were fun to use, i would love to see a weapon like that in DA. Something similar to Reckoning Mode would be a lot of fun as well. 

Faeblades and Chakrams were a blast in that game.

DAI's Focus (especially Haste) definitely felt inspired by KoA Reckoning Mode. And the cinematic finishers in RM were great, especially for its time.

From DAO, I want the glyphs and the hexes back - they were so much fun. And spirit healer pretty please.
I love playing arcane tricksters in DnD, so maybe a mage/rogue hybrid? Maybe a bit like the DnD bards, with rogue weapons instead of staff and other spells. From DAI, I like rift mage - that was great to play. It probably will not called rift mage again, but basically it's a mix between earth spells and force mage.

Give mages the possibility to use other weapons than staffs. Why shouldn't their be able, if they want?

Yes to hybrid classes. Keeping the three base classes, but then also allowing for more customization and freedom if you so choose? Yes please.

I think Assassin is technically supposed to fill this role, despite not being fueled by a form of blood magic. Which is outrageous, and I demand that rogues get more morally questionable "kinda sorta blood magic but not really" specializations 

It was my least favourite for combat so far.
Some things I personally didn't like about combat, and ways they might be improved going forward...

- Lack of fluidity and movement. Introducing roll/dodge would be a great benefit here. I really do love being able to actually move around and circle enemies, particularly when playing as a rogue class.

- Slow combat. I'm not asking for the return of DA2's dramatic anime leaping, but a faster overall pace (movement speed, attacks, jumping, all of it) would do wonders, especially in conjunction with rolling/dodging, as said above.

- Melee. Melee was pretty non-existent in Inquisition, but I'd like if this could be worked on. Maybe giving the classes an ability that would see them using their fists, pommels (already included for sword and board warrior, I believe), staff blades, good ol' krogan headbutt, or whatever really.

Also of note, better implemented staff blades for mages seems to be a popular wish for DA4.

I could live without these but would be happy to see them return. Getting a nice cinematic after fighting a high dragon in Inquisition would have definitely been preferable to the awkward silence you'd get after having already taken down a couple, when Sera, Bull and Cass had already gotten their excitement out and had nothing to say  

Abilities
- Bring back the spell schools as core trees please. Creation, Entophy, Primal, Spirit etc. I shouldn't have to go to a specialisation to get spells other than primal - I want more interesting things than just damage and defense. The breadth of the different types of trees you could invest in (without other trees being locked out like specs do) was great in prev games.
- Ranged Weapon for warriors: crossbow, javelin, bow, whatever. I miss warriors having a ranged attack. It doesn't need to be as good as archery for rogues, just give me something to do with my warrior if I decide that the best tactical decision is to attack from range.

Specs
- Mage Hunter for rogues: Since there aren't supposed to be any real templars in Tevinter a rogue anti mage spec would be good, a bit like Tallis's spec in DA2.
- Arcane warrior: or something similar that allows a mage to melee
- Blood magic spec: since we're in tevinter
- Specialisations whose abilities match their concept(Rift mage was a combination of primal and force mage spells rather than being particurly rifty) and aren't just normal trees mashed together (necromancer = Entrophy + Spirit). Things like spirit healer, force mage and shapeshifter gave us unique abilities suitable to their theme - leave the core spells where they belong.

Combat
- I missed the tactics menu of the first 2 games, I'd very much like it back,
- Weapon switching: In origins I could switch every character between two weapon sets and thereby have a ranged and melee option for every character (or both one combat type but with different damage types) - I would like to see this return and have both melee and ranged options for all classes and the ability to switch if I wish.

The chakrams are also nice:
On topic:
Blood Magic, Force, Spirit healer from DA2, would be nice again, And I liked Arcane Warrior, Shapeshifter and Keeper spec from DAO too. DAI Mage was boring. But the Mortalitasi would interesting, on another way.

Again (and again, and again – seems like this is my obession), I want to see why the blood magic is feared. I want to experience on my character the power and the weakness! Why this worth it to use, and why NOT worth it to use.

Specializations:
I want to see Spirit Healers and Shapeshifters again, and of course Blood Mage will return. I'd also love a Somniari or Fog Warrior specialization. For non-mages, bring back Spirit Warrior and Ranger please.

As we're heading north in the next game, are there certain specs you'd like to see?
Bring on all the Tevinter history/lore! I'd love to see Seheron, too, and learn more about the place where Iron Bull spent so much of his career. And bring on Qunari lore that sheds more light on their origins.

Schools/Spells:
Healing and Entropy spells, please! I don't mind the ability tree structure as it was in DAI, but the game needed a lot more of them instead of just the basic elements and spirit.

It's not a school, but I liked how DAI mages could energize things and create walkways and such. I hope that continues and they expand on it.

Combat:
After-battle healing was lovely in other games and I want to see it return, at the very least on Casual/whatever they call the easiest setting in the future.

I've already said this in another thread, but I'll repeat it here: I'd like to see more emphasis placed on buffing, debuffing, and CC as opposed to everything in combat being focused on DPS. There should be encounters where you simply can't out-DPS the enemies without smart use of support abilities.

I would also like to see a return to more of an emphasis on the tactical, RTwP nature of combat. No more abilities that require you to actively take control of just one character and/or twitch skills to be effective (e.g. Parry). This will never happen, but I'd prefer if the devs would just give up on combat from a third-person perspective and focus exclusively on party control via the tactical camera during combat. In my opinion, giving up control of the other three members of your party to go Rambo-action mode during combat kind of wastes the potential of the party system in general, which is something that is still fairly unique to the DA series and certainly in AAA RPG space.

I'd also like there to be more variety in mechanics across the different classes. In DAI, all three classes played more or less the same, with the only differentiating factor being what abilities you were allowed to use. For example, a mage should have fundamentally different uses in combat compared to a rogue, but in DAI they had almost completely overlapping roles. The lack of viable strategies other than *MOAR DPS* also contributed to this (it's hard to differentiate roles when your choices are X different flavors of doing damage).

Specializations should also completely redefine how a character is used in combat. In DAI only a couple of specs achieved that. Most of them just gave you access to some more abilities. Ideally, specs should introduce new mechanics to a class or allow certain strategies that are either not possible or very sub-optimal with the base class and other specs.

I'd like them to get rid of the 8-ability limit that was in DAI. I'm not completely against such limits. But if they want to implement it they need to build the core combat and character progression systems around that idea. In DAI there was nothing else supporting it (in terms of systems design) to make it an interesting aspect of gameplay and as a result it just felt like an arbitrary restriction.

Finally, I wasn't a fan of the focus system in DAI. Mostly because a focus ability took up a slot that could be filled with a regular ability that you could use every encounter as opposed to every half dozen. It didn't help that most focus abilities were simply not powerful enough to justify their cost/rarity.

I'd just be happy if they could bring back the range of skills and talents, together with the variety of spell schools, that we had in DAO. The same goes for specialisms except I would extend that to include those found in Awakening. Go back to allowing us at least 2 specialism per game when you are going to levels over 20 but preferably three as in DAA.

Bring back Arcane Warrior as it was in DAO, so that it allows mages to use armour and weapons based off their magic rating rather than strength. Let mages use weapons other than staves. Bring back Battlemage, Keeper (elves only if you wish), Force Mage and Spirit Healer.

Let Warriors and rogues be able to train in both melee weapons and bows, restricting them as in DAO according to dexterity or strength score, and let them be able to switch between ranged and melee weapons at least once mid-battle. I preferred the system in DAO where you had two weapon slots and could toggle between them but I'd settle for what we had in DA2 where you had to enter the inventory screen and swap them over mid battle. Let warriors train in dual weapon if they wish and let rogues be able to use something other than daggers. Bring back Spirit Warrior, which is what I believe Cassandra should have been rather than a Templar because the abilities are based on a relationship with a spirit of the Fade, not lyrium. Bring back Legionnaire Scout (dwarves only if you wish) and Shadow for rogues. My favourite build in DAA and DA2 was Shadow Assassin. I had so much fun with that spec.

What I'd really like would be for them to take their Core Rule Book for Table Top Games and allow you to play as close to it as possible on the computer. That is what they did with D&D and Baldurs Gate Series. DAO seemed to be pretty close if you compare the classes, specialisms, skills and spells in the Core Rule Book with what you got in game. Since then it has been constantly watered down despite the fact that it is meant to be a better game engine. The landscape graphics may be prettier but if that is at the cost of the versatility we had in DAO then I rather have the variety in the way you can customise your character (including better choice of hair styles for both men and women).

Taking out the healer class was unnecessary and created a false challenge. We need to find ways to heal your self besides limiting potions.

I add heal on kill to my weapon.