I was watching the Lord of the Rings today, and having grouped with Mages and seeing some of their new playstyle options, I would like to suggest a Gandalf-style Spellblade option for a variant Mage playstyle that adds melee weaving/melee defense capability for Mages based on new Runes and scaling with caster stats, specifically buffing melee attacks with Swords or Daggers while you have the rune equipped and adding an elemental effect to your melee attacks that synergizes with your talent specialization or last casted spell.
Spellblades have historically been one of the often-requested “classes” (though they’re more like a mix of existing classes in most settings) along with Demon Hunters, Bards, Tinkers, and the like. Logically, why can a Mage carry a Sword or Dagger if not to use it?
These rune suggestions could be used on a spectrum from a small dip into a melee-weaving playstyle to a full dive into a fully fleshed melee DPS specialization option. This is not meant to be another Melee Hunter fiasco, and should not be tuned or kitted in a way that significantly outshines the existing Mage playstyle options in all forms of content. They should be viable and useful but not ridiculously overpowered.
This playstyle should be handy for running into any pesky Balrogs on bridges and letting everyone in STV know that you’re a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor.
Mechanically, it could work like this:
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Use the Spellblade rune to empower your melee damage with Swords and Daggers based on your caster stats (like Meta warlocks). Adds elemental damage to each melee attack - Fire, Arcane, or Frost damage according to your talent specialization or the damage type of your last damaging spell. Adds armor as a percent of Intellect.
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Use the Secret Fire rune to emit a sphere of light around you, temporarily shielding you from physical and magical damage (up to X, where X is an amount meant to stop a few hits but not last long) while you have an item equipped in the off hand.
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Use the Spellstrike rune to learn the Spellstrike ability, an instant attack that charges your weapon with elemental power according to your specialization (or last damaging spell) and unleashes a powerful attack with your equipped melee weapon. Fire damage: deals instant Fire damage in addition to Physical damage, as well as adding a unique Fire DoT to the target for 15 seconds. Frost damage - deals instant Frost and Physical damage and slows the enemy by 50% for 10 seconds. Arcane damage - deals instant Arcane and Physical damage and applies Regeneration to the caster.
Open to additional ideas. Some things that come to mind are: imbued weapons, two handed swords, dual wielding, attack speed increase, conjured weapons, or adding another melee attack for a Spellblade playstyle that favors staying in melee combat over using ranged spells.
*Note: Rune suggestions are thematic in nature and have not been tested for potential power imbalance issues. Subject to change, suggestions, and balancing. Not meant to be #1 top DPS in raids but viable in PvE and useful for Solo and PvP content. Mostly for fun.