[X] My Assistant

You need decent equipment to mage, it's not exactly a state secret.
There's only so much we can do to help people before they have to go buy expensive stuff.

What defines 'decent' as far as mage gear goes? Must be Phase + max MDB/EDB staffs?

@smilejb
What you said sounds like 'power build', which relies on pure power to overrun enemies.
I'm interested to know how many turns you need to spend per round.
Since you don't have many points in WIS, do you have any problem with the usage of mana potions?

Just responding to this from a couple of pages ago. (damn, could of sworn I was just on yesterday.

Anyway, yea I am trying a power build. Using spirit, even on heroic I can still end a round in three turns. But my wisdeom is not so low, its equal (without equipment anyway), to my endurance.

So to answer your questions, it depends honestly. Sometimes I'm just really unlucky and it takes me 20 turns to defeat 6 monsters on heroic. Likewise though, I can get really lucky (helps if spirit is on) and I can defeat the same in 2 turns. As a side note. I know for a fact that haste has nothing to do with accuracy but I miss way less often when haste is not But if you want an average, I'd say its about the number of critters plus one.

mana pots, I try my hardest not to use. I have only trained one level in pack rat. I use about 3-4 godlys on twisted plots on heroic. More if I get super unlucky, but I have plenty to make up for luck.

Once I get a good powerset, I'll really see if being a powerhouse is worth it.

What defines 'decent' as far as mage gear goes? Must be Phase + max MDB/EDB staffs?

I'd have to disagree but then my opinion might be outdated. I started maging at level 70ish and worked my way up with cotton of protection, silk of protection, and 1/2 pieces of gossamer elementalist gear. I don't even remember my staff. No I didn't facemelt anything. I was just patient about it.

Edit: PS. this was all after agitation was added in. (I swapped to mage just after the agitation patch if I remember right)

This post has been edited by dcherry: Jan 21 2012, 22:16

What defines 'decent' as far as mage gear goes? Must be Phase + max MDB/EDB staffs?

For a serious answer: Shitty EDB phases or maybe a good gossamer, and a decent MDB staffs should be a good starting point. Still, even with good gear, pretty much every beginner mage will always have to struggle a bit until there prof are good enough. This won't take long, though.

How's that for an answer from a melee player... Any mage guru wanna grade my answer? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

What defines 'decent' as far as mage gear goes? Must be Phase + max MDB/EDB staffs?

EDB Phase and a decent Destruction staff (or very good EDB staff).
Max values are not necessary but always welcome.

EDB Phase and a decent Destruction staff (or very good EDB staff).
Max values are not necessary but always welcome.

Guess I'm pretty out with Gossamer and 0 proficiencies lol...

That aside, (maybe) stupid question: would it be a good idea, with my current melee build (I'll raise INT a bit in case), to just pick a couple elemental spells and start raising profs in normal crysfest, or will they just obliterate me in 20 rounds?

For a serious answer: Shitty EDB phases or maybe a good gossamer, and a decent MDB staffs should be a good starting point. Still, even with good gear, pretty much every beginner mage will always have to struggle a bit until there prof are good enough. This won't take long, though.

How's that for an answer from a melee player... Any mage guru wanna grade my answer? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Doesn't seem like you missed the mark there :>

This post has been edited by wr4st3r: Jan 21 2012, 22:28

@wr4st3r
Well as far as I know primary stat doesn't matter that much if you keep them fairly balanced.
You may find yourself playing in lower difficulty, but that's normal; the advantage of mage is its clearing speed.

Pick a destruction staff and a set of EDB phases. (even shitty EDB is better than max elementals)
You can pretty much skip that elemental transition phase with your level.
Then pick arcane focus, one tier 3 elemental spell, and one complement tier 1 elemental spell.
If you have anything you want to level up, use your elemental set to play through IW.
It surely makes things less boring, and you'll have a definite target.

If you have enough credits, you can also transit to holy/dark mage, but that's a big credit sink.

@dcherry
I still remember the time when one elemental cloth will cost 100k credits.

Gossamer is not that bad, I do my daily FSM on BT with a crappy underleveled Heaven-sent set and have no problems.
It's just that Phase is better. Higher damage, higher evade, better attribute bonuses, no burden, etc.

As for proficiencies, it doesn't take that long provided you're not powerleveling.
I had ~20 Forbidden prof at level 220, then I started doing all my arenas using Dark magic and by the time I was ~245 it was already maxed out.
Assimilator can speed things up a lot (getting to 5/10 costs only a million).

@dcherry
I still remember the time when one elemental cloth will cost 100k credits.

Yeah gossamer elemental was money back then. All mine were sniped from the bazaar though. At ~10k or so tops

And yeah, the prof will naturally go up very quickly as Tiap mentioned. Nowadays we have the luxury of transitioning to EDB phase so easily and cheaply. I have a very strong suspicion that magic prof grows at a much quicker rate than melee prof

Doesn't seem like you missed the mark there :>

Now that you mentioned it ... I lol

Paul Dirac predicted antimatter using nothing but math, too... So it's not that surprising. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)


BTW... The edb ability were removed in 0.5.3, and edb dmg bug was removed in 0.6.0, that's some 1 and 3 months after the 0.5.2 patch with agitated mobs. (IMG:[bbs2.pramool.com] http://bbs2.pramool.com/webboard/pic/143.gif)

This post has been edited by buktore: Jan 21 2012, 23:02

Oh hey, does anyone find shatterstrike usefull? I like doing it every other round in arenas and it saves on mp, sp, and hp.

Oh hey, does anyone find shatterstrike usefull? I like doing it every other round in arenas and it saves on mp, sp, and hp.

It is usable. Whether it is useful or not depend on various factor, but it works well when the situation calls for.

It's so darn annoying to use though... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)

it sorta needs a quickbar icon to be good as it's preferable to actually using spirit mode

Tiap made a hotkey script for it, which works well, not sure where it is though

This post has been edited by skillchip: Jan 21 2012, 23:14

Shatterstrike is the only worthwhile skill. Skyward Sword is pretty good, but no one in their right mind uses Niten.

@ skillchip

I've seen it. But I just want to play it vanilla, so no thanks.


I tried using SP mode VS Shity Strike ... Results are not exactly clear-cut for me at my usual routine, but skill is certainly more annoying. The need to 'cast' spirit mode before using it to get the full effect is... Meh...

3 GS pot seem to do the trick for TT-BT ... I do occasionally go shitty strike at a later round though.

But it works well with bleed weapons, no argue about that.

but no one in their right mind uses Niten.

This sentence is just sad ... I get a mixed feeling when I realized this after I lol at it. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

This post has been edited by buktore: Jan 21 2012, 23:31

Shatterstrike is the only worthwhile skill. Skyward Sword is pretty good, but no one in their right mind uses Niten.

Yup... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif) Unlike the Iris Strike, for example. It's just sucks, especially if you use DW in RoB, because Iris breaks Silence with its stupid Blind. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

I don't have silence yet but blind did do a lot for me.

I don't mind the hitting spirit before I do the shatterstrike. I use it at the start of rounds to get the full effect anyway. With haste on, I still never get hit before using the skill.

Shatterstrike is the only worthwhile skill. Skyward Sword is pretty good, but no one in their right mind uses Niten.

Don't underestimate the force of will of a crazy newbie.

Signed: a crazy newbie niten user.

Really, Niten Ichiryu is what let me level from level 60 onwards on Hard. Without it and expecially after the latest patch I' wouldn't have progressed at all. Not in a reasonable amount of time...

This post has been edited by Hoheneim: Jan 22 2012, 00:23

I've just switched to mage since I'm fighting 6-9 enemies in the later rounds of the Arena and got access to Smite and Banish, but those Holy spells are costly to use. Prof does go up very quickly though, but have to fight on Normal or Hard to kill enemies in 1 - 2 hits.

Problem is that mana is being drained very quickly and enemies keep hitting me hard. I do have good equipment except for a couple of them. All of my stats are well-balanced. Of course, I keep running into Giants frequently.