Nerfing SM

[UmarilsStillHere]

Knight vs staff mastery mage = knight has a great chance of winning
Barb vs staff mastery mage = barb has a decent chance of winning
Marksman vs staff mastery mage = marksman has a fantastic chance to win
Hunter vs staff mastery mage = hunter has a fair chance of losing
Standard Warlock vs staff mastery mage = 50/50 (depends on resist chance)
Standard Conji vs staff mastery mage = 50/50 (depends on resist chance)

This is all from the point of the "Warju" Warlocks are differant in someways and I consider Warjus more powerfull than SM locks.

A warju vs a knight, the conju can use SS+Barrier to take up the little damage a knight can do, and thats if the knight cen even get near the conju through CC spells, mostly Mind push. Conju simply needs to outlast Ao0 and they have won, Since once Ao0 is down those SM hits start to stack very quickly.

A warju vs a barb, well UM can help with most CC effects but not Mind push, a barb has little to no resistance vs magical dmg, so you will take heavy damage even trying to get near enough to land a single hit, which would most likely be "0" because of barrier+SS, With Balestra nerfed its even harder to get the mage in one spot long enough to get into Hitting range,

With both Knights and Barbs IF you can get close, IF you have mindsquasher skilled IF you have mana for it and IF it works then the fight becomes very easy. But that dosnt happen very often. (Basicaly only if the mage has poor CC/no mindpush)

A warju vs a Marks, Marks have =/greater range and close damage, Also some elemental attacks to work around SS, Ranged dmg reduction helps a lot as well. Personaly I think the Marks has the greatest chance of all class's but SS will still reduce normal hits greatly and if the warju has will doman and beetle at a decent level it will be more difficult.

A Hunter vs a Warju, well realy if a Hunter finds a Warju best bet if to try get into camo quick, since SM will tear you a new one in seconds, try wait out the buffs then hit with confuse as they start to re-cast staff magnifications. Without getting the drop on them though, as they are with many class's the Hunter is sqrewed.

A Warju vs a Warlock, Many Elemental spells to work around SS, Meteor to prevent some CC or re-buffing, SK/vamp go through SS. And Windwall to reduce Dmg, Id say a lock has a decent chance vs a warju if he has good mana spells, otherwise the warju will soon drain all his mana and leave him defenceless.

Just my Opinions, Also I know a few people who have grinded to the mid 30s without SM, since in my eyes SM isnt worth it untill you have at least 2/3 Magnifications. Mages are already faster than other class's at grinding, so they can lose a little speed to bring them down into the grind pit with the rest of us :P