But no. They had to go and pointlessly streamline the magics instead of just tweaking them we had and then call it "variety" and "choice". Go figure.
Whats mystifying is that DAI was meant to be a step forward from DA2 in terms of customisation and choice. Combat is at the heart of the game and they appear to be reducing customisation and choice of combat abilities even from DA2 levels.
Whats mystifying is that DAI was meant to be a step forward from DA2 in terms of customisation and choice. Combat is at the heart of the game and they appear to be reducing customisation and choice of combat abilities even from DA2 levels.
we can have choices, choices that were made for us two months ago
Really? 3 out of 4 are elemental trees?
Ugh.
The lightning tree better have a good mix of Entropy in it.
So, what no damaging spells anymore? Or all they just describing the effects of the spells?
So no enemy every attacked your mage in Melee?
Well, New Lighting Bolt have paralyze effect that cool.
And as a Front Line Mage, speel like Mind blast is very useful (In DAII, I enjoy use Force magic so much)
With the 8-ability limit, it is highly unlikely that there would be more than 4 core skill trees. I'm guessing the previously-freely available skill trees like entropy, death magic, hexes etc. are simply relegated to the specialisations this time, specifically the Rift mage (walking bomb maybe?) and the Necromancer(there was a couple of raise undead spells in DA:O). I mean they did "free up" the specialisation slots by removing blood mage and spirit healer. Knight Enchanter could simply be back by popular demand, though I think it is gonna be quite different from the Arcane Warrior.
3 out of 4 core skill trees being strictly elemental does seem excessive, even if they are integrating some form of crowd control with them.
hey now, I'm one of those peasants, but I won't defend this, its just ridiculous to strap this restriction on PC players
Except it is obvious that this isn't a console or MP limit as neither requires the 8 limits see both previous games or ME3.....but of course good lies are hard to kill.
Some say: "Small number of swiss knife spells is totally OK with 8 ability restriction!".
But that's backwards. What it actually means is that to conform with arbitrary 8 abilities limit BW gutted and "streamlined" whole magic system, denying certain previously viable playstyles the right to live.
Except that we expect to get some of that "back" with specializations. What we might not get are 4 different hex spells for example which isn't a really big loss.
What this has the effect of doing is making your specializations matter a lot more and be more "core" to your character as opposed to DAO where every mage could be the same and I was picking specializations for the base boosts and not the spells.
These are just four abilities. Let's not jump to conclusions, all.
Indeed, there seems to be some extreme overreactions here. This is a SAMPLING of mage abilities, not the entire list.
So far all we can take away from this is they split elemental from BG2 into Fire and Cold trees, nothing more. We do not know how many other trees there may be.
Why, reacting this way is like seeing the Warrior preview and screaming bloody murder at Sword and Shield no longer being an option, and the complete lack of Vanguard abilities! 
I'm confident there's more trees to choose from. These aren't even trees - just powers.
Not to mention we have no idea what trees the Specializations open up.
@Itkovian: Semi-Confirmed rumor! Neither swords nor shields are available in DA:I.
@Itkovian: Semi-Confirmed rumor! Neither swords nor shields are available in DA:I.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! 
Indeed, there seems to be some extreme overreactions here. This is a SAMPLING of mage abilities, not the entire list.
So far all we can take away from this is they split elemental from BG2 into Fire and Cold trees, nothing more. We do not know how many other trees there may be.
Why, reacting this way is like seeing the Warrior preview and screaming bloody murder at Sword and Shield no longer being an option, and the complete lack of Vanguard abilities!
I'm confident there's more trees to choose from. These aren't even trees - just powers.
Not to mention we have no idea what trees the Specializations open up.
@Itkovian: Semi-Confirmed rumor! Neither swords nor shields are available in DA:I.
I am sorry but you are not correct.
This image is the final confirmation we needed about which were the skill trees. We already knew 2 of them, we already knew they were going to be 4 skill trees, and we already knew aproximately 90% of the basic-tree spells, which are an estimated total of 20. If you do not agree with this, or do not believe me, just read the "skill trees" thread, where all the information, references, and prove is posted.
This new image is just a confirmation of everything posted there, and the new information is just that the tree where lightning bolt, static cage and chain lightning spells are included, is going to be classified as a "lightning" tree of some sort, due to the icon the skill tree has. This is the only new part.
If you want the entire list of spells, go to that thread. There are only 2 or 3 spells missing.
Specialisation consisting of 3 active abilities? Unless BW have some very-very creative passives there, the "added depth" line is an elaborate ruse. In no way it'll bring back the variety of even DA2 spells.Except that we expect to get some of that "back" with specializations. What we might not get are 4 different hex spells for example which isn't a really big loss.
What this has the effect of doing is making your specializations matter a lot more and be more "core" to your character as opposed to DAO where every mage could be the same and I was picking specializations for the base boosts and not the spells.
Well i really hope we have more then 4 skill trees, id hate to have to pick up a spec, necro for example, just to have access to the old-style entropy spells.
Well i really hope we have more then 4 skill trees, id hate to have to pick up a spec, necro for example, just to have access to the old-style entropy spells.
You probably wont though, Necro might have Walking Bomb or something like Entropic Cloud, but I can't imagine it having more than that since each specialization only appears to have 3 active abilities and I would hope they'll create new and interesting spells for them.
What appears to have happened is that those indirect attack spells like Horror and Affliction Hex and so on that inflict status effects are gone from the game, at least as individual attacks. Instead they seem to have been incorporated into the direct attack spells we have. So setting someone on fire may come with a chance to inflict a Fear status on them, Lightening Bolt has a chance to inflict Paralysis on them. So the decision seems to have been one of streamlining the Magic Schools by layering them together. This will be good or bad in my mind depending on how viable those secondary status effects are alone and not simply as added bonuses to the primary damage of the spell.
You probably wont though, Necro might have Walking Bomb or something like Entropic Cloud, but I can't imagine it having more than that since each specialization only appears to have 3 active abilities and I would hope they'll create new and interesting spells for them.
What appears to have happened is that those indirect attack spells like Horror and Affliction Hex and so on that inflict status effects are gone from the game, at least as individual attacks. Instead they seem to have been incorporated into the direct attack spells we have. So setting someone on fire may come with a chance to inflict a Fear status on them, Lightening Bolt has a chance to inflict Paralysis on them. So the decision seems to have been one of streamlining the Magic Schools by layering them together. This will be good or bad in my mind depending on how viable those secondary status effects are alone and not simply as added bonuses to the primary damage of the spell.
The highlighted portion would be a problem, its just plain laziness if they simply reuse old all-accessible spells and simply rename them and then re-tagged them as spec exclusive.
If you are going to create a new spec you need to create new spells/ability's or your just being plain lazy, that goes for all class of course, fighters for example really got the shaft spec wise when it comes to innovation.
The highlighted portion would be a problem, its just plain laziness if they simply reuse old all-accessible spells and simply rename them and then re-tagged them as spec exclusive.
If you are going to create a new spec you need to create new spells/ability's or your just being plain lazy, that goes for all class of course, fighters for example really got the shaft spec wise when it comes to innovation.
I'd be OK if they reused it as a base but changed it or added to it in an interesting way that reflected the Spec well. Walking Bomb is such a fantastic spell I couldn't begrudge them reusing it. If they did something like having any enemies killed by the explosion became undead allies or something like that, I would be cool with it.
Specialisation consisting of 3 active abilities? Unless BW have some very-very creative passives there, the "added depth" line is an elaborate ruse. In no way it'll bring back the variety of even DA2 spells.
I agree, and I am really interested in the specializations. Right now the only information we have is what we have seen in rather old demos, Reaver and Knight Enchanter, and both of them had 3 actives, total 10 skills. So there were a lot of passives and upgrades there.
I really really hope those passives are awesome and redefine how your character fights. I dont want them to be upgrades to your specialization, I want them to affect you globally.
I have faith in Bioware. I know the reason for limiting 8 skills, the new gameplay mechanics, why we can only choose 1 specialization, etc. It all comes together, and I strongly believe they will be able to make it so each spell is interesting, each spell is fun, and each specialization is truly different from each other, making it a nightmare for us to choose between them.
I'd be OK if they reused it as a base but changed it or added to it in an interesting way that reflected the Spec well. Walking Bomb is such a fantastic spell I couldn't begrudge them reusing it. If they did something like having any enemies killed by the explosion became undead allies or something like that, I would be cool with it.
Or, being "walking bomb" now an upgrade of the spell animate dead that creates an AoE explosion when one of your minions die.
Or, being "walking bomb" now an upgrade of the spell animate dead that creates an AoE explosion when one of your minions die.
Ohh thats cool too.
There has to be more trees than just 4. If these 4 were the only ones then were would stone fist fit? We saw a mage inquisitor using it in the Redcliffe demo, and the icon's color scheme did not match any of these ones.
Stonefist doesn't seem to fit in to any of the trees, imo it's the freebie all mages will get at the beginning of the game.
But abilities are all over the place in the demo vids. Iron Bull has templar abilities in one.
There has to be more trees than just 4. If these 4 were the only ones then were would stone fist fit? We saw a mage inquisitor using it in the Redcliffe demo, and the icon's color scheme did not match any of these ones.
The mages in that demo were also using the "hand blast" auto-attack, and we know that's been removed. There's no guarantee that Stone Fist made the final cut.
Stonefist doesn't seem to fit in to any of the trees, imo it's the freebie all mages will get at the beginning of the game.
But abilities are all over the place in the demo vids. Iron Bull has templar abilities in one.
Well Stonefist was previously in the Primal tree in DA2 along with Chain Lightning, so it could be coupled with those again in DAI, but from the time's we've seen the Lightening tree none of the spells seem to correspond, but we have seen the trees alter bit. Winter use to have 10 abilities total, but last we saw of it only had 9.
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