In Patch 0.7.5 we are introducing the new Mage skill, Flame Ward!

Flame Ward is intended to be a reactive option that gives Mages survivability when they need it most. The goal is to remove Fire Shield and Ice Ward due to neither of them typically seeing active use in combat. We will be taking some of their functionality and making it available through Flame Ward, class passives, specialization tree nodes, and unique items.
 

  Flame Ward

23 Mana

Grants a burst of 300 Ward. Then for 3 seconds, hits deal 30% less damage to you and have a 20% chance to cause a retaliatory burst of flames. 10 second cooldown.

Specialization Tree Preview

 
We are aware that there are some concerns regarding the survivability of Mages - Sorcerers in particular. Our original intention had been to implement Flame Ward and remove Fire Shield and Ice Ward in the same patch. We are currently reviewing this decision, and we will probably perform this transition more gradually than we had originally anticipated.

While we recognize that some builds rely on Fire Shield and Ice Ward to bolster their defenses, we would prefer that this wasn’t necessary - and we do not believe that Mages benefit from such passive effects requiring skill slots & skill specializations to acquire. We will be adjusting class passives when removing these skills to ensure Mages are in a good place.

We just received the finished skill art from the art team.

Unfortunately, we aren’t sure just yet.

I’ll try to remember to follow up here when I know more.
 

The skill’s 2d art and its visual effect aren’t that similar at all, to be honest.

There are different demands placed on each - one has to look good while being quite small, the other has to avoid creating too much visual noise (and be performant, as you say).

Probably something which could have been demonstrated with a single example.

Heya, we’ll likely be going with 5 Ward on Block.

Unfortunately, this is a huge amount of work.

It’s included in Phase 2 of our Early Access Forecast, but it won’t be ready for Patch 0.7.5.

We are not attempting to enforce a meta; we’re just an indie studio working on a pre-release game and have limited time for balancing at this stage of development.

When all of the classes, items, skills, and specialization trees have been implemented it will be easier to make balancing changes which stand the test of time than what it is now. If we buffed Mages across the board in one patch - and then in the next patch implemented dual-wielding (e.g. for wands) and Catalysts (off-hands) in the next patch, we would likely need to perform another balancing pass on Mages to compensate for them having access to more optimal equipment. Our latest content patch was less than a month ago; our next is less than a week away. Including comprehensive balance changes in each one simply isn’t feasible.