Making spell damage depend on weapon damage messes up the itemization - you'd go for +weapon damage items despite playing a caster build. However, weapon damage should go into skills that are clearly weapon based - Snipe, Hammer Smash, etc.

There are -cooldown and +mana (regen and base) items, which are specifically geared for casters. Gearing with these items makes using spells useful even in the endgame.

Stuns aren't that prevalent, and they all have reduced effectiveness against demigods. Not to mention they all have very large mana costs compared to the actual damage they deal - stun locking one demigod takes several demigods working together, which leaves the rest of the other team to roam free.

I disagree with those that think the -cooldown items are sufficient. They're not. You're still doing crappy damage in the super late game, even if it is on a 24% better cooldown - which is negligible considering I can get +200% weapon damage as a melee hero. And mana cost is an even bigger joke, as it's ridiculously easy to pump your regen to the point where you practically have infinite mana. Or simply upgrade your storage so you can cast each of your spells 10 times before needing to recharge.

+Spell Damage items that are better than +weapon damage would be helpful and alleviate this.

Most of that is true, but I still think melee heroes scale far better than the casters do at this point.

I can go from 300 damage to 600 as a melee hero, and also go from 19% attack speed to over 100%. Add those together and you've got a 200% increase in damage for a melee hero. Now factor in armor and mirror effects - I can get 100 damage reflected onto anything attacking me, and have 75% armor mitigation WITH 25% damage resistance and/or 25% evade.

However for casters, I can't even upgrade my spell damage. Yes, you can do all of that I mentioned above here too, but I shouldn't be stat whoring with every character I play. I should be forced to adapt my strategy and upgrade my spells. Otherwise replayability will suck as everyone goes for +weapon damage and +attack speed late game. It basically turns all the heroes into clones of eachother once you hit 25.

Just my 2 cents.

Yup. I just want to make sure the devs understand that casters vs. melee is in no way balanced at the moment.

I'd be curious to see what balance changes they made in a more updated version.

Yeah you do.

Put the 30% attack speed and circle of fire in your potion slot.

Put the 25% dodge and 40% move speed in another potion slot.

Put 3 pieces of armor and 2 weapons in the other slots.

You now have 80% + attack speed, 25% dodge, 75% mitigation and 60+ damage mirror effects. Oh, and 500ish damage that you can double to 1,000 by putting the unmaker or w/e in the final potion slot.

And all of these items DEFINITELY have the feel that they were designed for melee. When was the last time that you put damage reflection, +weapon damage or armor on a mage?

Edit: The above item references aren't exact, but you see my point

No, I'm just assuming I'll kick the ass of my opposing Demigods to get gold or make it to the late game. One of the two always happens. Play me sometime with my "imaginary" armor set. It'll be kicking you back to your spawn point and laughing at you at the same time. I've played 3 games today alone with the exact armor setup I just mentioned - not so "imaginary" to me.

And forgive me, I meant 70% armor mitigation, which is an excercise in simplicity to get for any Demigod. I've had a Torchbearer at 69%, no problemo.