It would be cool to have some of the most complex spells require you to draw different symbols at the same time with both hands. Some other way of getting the off hand involved could work too, perhaps casting two spells at one time would help mages with soloing mobs? Something that would give you an option other than holding your spellbook could be a way to reward advanced players while still making the class very accessible for new players who haven’t memorized the movements. I want to feel a bit like a conductor while I’m casting a spells instead of having one arm dangle uselessly to the side. =D
I think dual casting would be realy cool. I would love to be able to cast two spells at once. And if you were really good you could cast two different spells at the same time
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I would love to have something like this, as somebody who always plays mages in MMO’s I am interested in this.
I agree, but I think it’d be cool to take that a step further.
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But what about all the people who can’t pat their heads and rub their bellies at the same time? 
I don’t think we would ever do the “two spells at once” thing. Or “two wands in two hands.” However, I do have some ideas for advanced casting mechanics, and using your hand while you also cast the spell with the wand is one of them. Similar to how a conductor of an orchestra uses both the baton and their hand to conduct the music, you would need to make motions with your hand while you draw the spell to get it to be extra-powerful.
In addition to that, another idea is to have not only the shape of the spell matter, but also the timing of the spell. So for example as you draw the spell, the line would fade from purple to blue to yellow or something like that, over the course of 2 seconds. So if you draw the spell the same “speed” every time, then the parts of the spell rune that are purple and the parts that are blue would always be the same parts. So we would match up not only how accurately you drew the shape of the spell, but also how accurately you did the timing of the spell.
I don’t know if these would necessarily be different spells, though…more likely this would be a mechanism where you get bonus effects onto the existing spells. So if you just execute the Fireball spell normally that’s fine. But if you execute it with good timing it does +20% damage or something. It’s just another way that we could raise the skill ceiling on the Runemage class.
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Yeah, I can understand that balancing or designing around a class that cast 2 spells at once would be nearly impossible, also I think as a mage it would get sort of hectic and would pretty much only result in people casting two of the same spell at once (easier to mirror). However, I really like your ideas of how to get the other hand involved. Having them mostly be variations you apply to spell by shaping symbols in your offhand (the +20% damage example) seems like it fits very well with what people would expect from a typical MMO. Though it would be neat to make a few big name or out of combat spells require you to cast two different symbols with both hands. Examples would Teleport or (sort of?)Res as an out-of-combat spell or hybrid spells (like Da_Mage’s suggestion) and high-level nukes as big name spells. It should be very manageable as a player as long it’s limited to a few spells with some of of them being out of combat
I’m concerned about how the timed spells would feel in game. I was imagining casting being based on speed and accuracy. The faster you could draw a symbol that the game recognized the “better” a mage you are and you’d be fighting the trade-off of faster spells vs. misfiring. Mainly I’m just having horror flashbacks to Final Fantasy, etc., where you had to enter a mini game (timed input, hitting the buttons at the right order and so on) every time you wanted to use that ability. Having a rhythm game (feature?) in a non rhythm focused game was jarringly unpleasant to play and usually made me swap away from that ability. (on a side note, a rhythm based combat game sounds pretty cool in the Vive, anybody know of something like that?)
Some ideas for mechanics I had been brainstorming earlier:
-Instead of casting a spell what if you could prepare a spell in your off hand, hold it and “swap” it when you’re ready to cast. It would allow mages to focus more on having the right spell at the right time. Say you’re running through your optimal spell chain with one hand, but you know the boss is about to cast something that will require you to shield someone. You can continue your optimal chain, while still preparing the shield spell to have it ready to cast. Swapping it to your main hand would be just like casting a spell and would break your chain, but you’d be able to prepare the shield spell ahead of time if you had the awareness/skill. It would also force you to choose between augmenting a spell in the way you described or holding a spell in preparation.
-My other idea was more or less a primitive version of the shaping spells using your offhand that you discussed.
-Somewhat bland, but having the ability to equip a staff in your off hand for soloing mobs would be a nice option to have. Mages don’t need to be excellent solo clearers or anything, but a little protection in the form of a staff that you can lightly block/hit with in exchange for giving up any spellcasting capabilities with your offhand could do a lot for the level up grind or when you need to go solo for herbs, etc.
That’s all for now, but if I think of anything else I’ll make sure to add them.
Lol @Gaetano_B I think you’ll probably be stuck learning a new skill with the rest of us who can’t do it. xD
But on a more serious note, I think if it was implemented well using your offhand would rarely be a necessity. With what I was suggesting as an example only two spells would really require you to be capable of doing it in combat: 1 high level spell (damage, or a complex crowd control maybe) and Res (which can also be used out of combat). Everything else your off hand does merely enhances the spells cast out of your main hand.
This way people who are first starting can slowly learn to use both hands at once, and those who just want to play Runemage with one hand can still do so. They just might be a bit less effective then the Runemages who have been playing for a while and can cast all of these things using their offhand and without needing to look through their spellbook. Hopefully this would give the class a fairly low skill floor and a comparatively high skill ceiling, this way everyone who wants to be a Runemage will have an option that suits their playstyle.