[X] My Assistant

Want to swtich to mage now

it currently take me 15 rounds(40turns/round) to get one level up, will mage leveling up faster?

In my experience, mage does level up a lot faster (considering I've built myself on a mage-oriented way long time ago). I have much more int and wis than str, dex, agi and end. As of my level now, with 100lv adept learner, it only takes me a little more than one Nintendo Crysfest to level up (providing I don't die too soon due to carelessness)

i heard that mage can clear a whole round with only single hit, that sounds fatasy to me

That's what I love about being a mage. It just feels great. For example: one crysfest round in Normal difficulty. With melee, I have to hit at least n times (with n being the number of monsters) to clear the round, even domino strike and back stab and skills won't help much (except if I have shatter strike at the start of the round, then it will be 1-2 turn only, but that rarely happens).
With mage, IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW MANY MONSTERS THERE ARE (in fact, I LOVE to see lots of monster at the same time, since that means more exp). It just take me 1-3 turn spamming elemental AOE (usually thunder->fire->ice) to blast them all. Trust me it feels GREAT.

Let me tell you my experience post patch 0.6.4. as a sub-100 mage.

Hard to manage mana w/ our little pool.

First off, accuracy versus damage is a HUGE problem; much worse for lowbie mages than lowbie melees. For meleers, who are wearing better absorb/mitigation gear, a miss doesn't instantly endanger your life. If i whiff 3 times in a row as a 2hander, I shrug. If i miss 3 times as a mage, i scream in fear. If you are more accurate, but do less damage, unfortunately, the stuff that didn't die in the first aoe, will most likely be agitated. If it's a later round and you clear only 3/9 mobs and have 6 agitated left, you are dead.

Stuff does die fast. Rounds don't last long, it's true. There is no chipping away at individual mobs for 20 turns like w/ 1h and DW. It's actually quite rewarding to blast mobs and see even the ones resistant to your element die in one-shot anyway.

1 turn, consistently, no, but then I don't have a full set of phase +elem or EDB gear. Usually 2-3 turns is enough. Going with a high damage/elemental staff means you will take out more, but miss a lot more than going w/ a +50% focus staff (which will have worse damage).

Hadn't played awhile, but came back a bit before the patch. Wore all cloth, but seemed to be taking too much damage; so I added some light armor for the absorb/mitigation yet still stayed under 20 burden/25 interference.

New interference/burden rules completely destroyed that build. At our levels, you do not have enough HP to rely on evade. Even w/ good evade you will die in a couple hits. You MUST have some good absorb/mitigation pieces. The reason I'm doing melee now is I played the 1st round of an arena --not even the highest level one-- on normal and after casting protect and veil, promptly took 260 damage from 3 mobs. 1st round and I lost 260 of my (then) 800 hp in a turn. ON NORMAL.

Spirit stance sucks for lowbie mages too now, since no bonus spell damage. Not worth bashing the leftovers, when you'll miss a lot.

I still want to play my mage as a mage though; will try again in the 70s-100s to see if regen/spark and more tier2 aoes makes it more viable, but for now gonna get my wpn prof up to 50 for skills.

My experience as a near-100 mage: it gradually feels better. tier2 elemental spells are very good to spam to large group of monsters. Now I can do Heroic/Nightmare without any hassle, even BT with some risk (IWBHT is still rather hard though). I suggest getting a good destruction staff and focus on damage rather than accuracy (this advice is from varst)

This post has been edited by LangTuTaiHoa: Feb 4 2012, 08:14

The difference is minimal @ 19.37 and 21.48 when I am lvl 162.

Now your just talking semantics, don't care for it.

Are you calling the fact that it's easier to gain prof the lower it is semantics?
...because that's pretty much one of two major rules for gaining prof (the other being the level cap). Try doing your experiment with hot keys followed by mouse clicking. You said so yourself that the difference is pretty small, that's because you leveled your prof up only a small amount during your first run.
You can't really make a fair comparison with yourself unless you have two profs at the same level to experiment with.

Alternatively, you could just ask Tenb if you don't believe it.

Difficulty doesn't affect proficiency gain, though I do notice that using the keyboard hotkeys over the mouse clicking gives you less prof for some reason.

Personally I wouldn't rule out this possibility, though you have to state WHY there's such a difference.

As Tiap have said, you'll have to state how the system distinguishes between keyboard hotkeys and mouse clicks.

Was just wondering a couple of things. Like what would the ideal monster level be? I have these critters that are level 50 now and for the first time, half of them didn't get me anything >_>.

But I did get something good still today. awesomeness

I have a Mace though. It does do more damage but I love the void and lack of interference or burden. Tried it out and my value for haste and protection have now switched. (only doing haste when I get the channeling now). The only reason for even thinking about keeping the mace is just for the stun. Especially since everything dies before bleed expires.

As far as the mage vs melee stuff, on normal shatterstrike does kill everything even mini bosses for me. I'm heavy melee but I do it more for the strength bonus than the defense. I do enjoy thinking about maging it out just for the quickness but I'm going to wait till I can afford it.

Basically on my list before I mage is getting enough hath for IA atleast. Then the necessary auras need to be maxed. Plus I need some capital for some decent gear (was going to do that but saving all my trophies instead). Was thinking about doing it earlier but not now that I have a decent ethereal. (my last one was a crappy low level one handed of crap).

This post has been edited by smilejb: Feb 4 2012, 09:04

Let me tell you my experience post patch 0.6.4. as a sub-100 mage.

Hard to manage mana w/ our little pool.

First off, accuracy versus damage is a HUGE problem; much worse for lowbie mages than lowbie melees. For meleers, who are wearing better absorb/mitigation gear, a miss doesn't instantly endanger your life. If i whiff 3 times in a row as a 2hander, I shrug. If i miss 3 times as a mage, i scream in fear. If you are more accurate, but do less damage, unfortunately, the stuff that didn't die in the first aoe, will most likely be agitated. If it's a later round and you clear only 3/9 mobs and have 6 agitated left, you are dead.

Stuff does die fast. Rounds don't last long, it's true. There is no chipping away at individual mobs for 20 turns like w/ 1h and DW. It's actually quite rewarding to blast mobs and see even the ones resistant to your element die in one-shot anyway.

1 turn, consistently, no, but then I don't have a full set of phase +elem or EDB gear. Usually 2-3 turns is enough. Going with a high damage/elemental staff means you will take out more, but miss a lot more than going w/ a +50% focus staff (which will have worse damage).

Hadn't played awhile, but came back a bit before the patch. Wore all cloth, but seemed to be taking too much damage; so I added some light armor for the absorb/mitigation yet still stayed under 20 burden/25 interference.

New interference/burden rules completely destroyed that build. At our levels, you do not have enough HP to rely on evade. Even w/ good evade you will die in a couple hits. You MUST have some good absorb/mitigation pieces. The reason I'm doing melee now is I played the 1st round of an arena --not even the highest level one-- on normal and after casting protect and veil, promptly took 260 damage from 3 mobs. 1st round and I lost 260 of my (then) 800 hp in a turn. ON NORMAL.

Spirit stance sucks for lowbie mages too now, since no bonus spell damage. Not worth bashing the leftovers, when you'll miss a lot.

I still want to play my mage as a mage though; will try again in the 70s-100s to see if regen/spark and more tier2 aoes makes it more viable, but for now gonna get my wpn prof up to 50 for skills.

Assuming you don't have IA, Haste should *always* comes first. Depending on your stats and equips, you'll probably have 1 free turn to cast Shadow Veil, before mobs hit you.

Personally I wouldn't rule out this possibility, though you have to state WHY there's such a difference.

As Tiap have said, you'll have to state how the system distinguishes between keyboard hotkeys and mouse clicks.

The formula could takes into account how long ago (in seconds) you last prof gain was.

best way to verify (without asking T) would be to do 1000 iterations of alternating between hotkey and click =D

but if there's a direct element that affects it due to the difference between clicking/hotkey (time maybe?) then maybe there is a slight difference possibility?

but really, what good will that do?

hence why I said

That's superstition. I wouldn't worry about it =)

Because unless the prof gain is say... DOUBLE(or significantly larger) from a clicker vs a hotkeyer, it's just not worth the effort (unless the clicker can do so very very fast)

As for the mage discussions... I'm doubtful about the whole "clearing entire rounds" thing. Although at lower levels you guys should be hit not as hard as the HP increase, unless you have amazing mage gear I don't think clearing entire rounds in 1 shot is viable. A mage can probably nuke an entire field right now if they spent a shitton of money on upgrading/forging their phase gear/staves. Otherwise I doubt they can. Even when I use Tier 3 with my phase set I get 2+ stragglers almost every round (on normal)

Edit: "should be hit not as hard *by* the HP increase"

This post has been edited by dcherry: Feb 4 2012, 10:51

wow. Just switched to mage to show my g/f that it isn't plausible yet for me... did iwbth for crysfest after lowering strength by 10 and adding it all to intelligence. I only went 4 rounds but I didn't want to use too many pots.

In the end, so worth it. I usually do heroic on melee and got only 20% of the experience I do as mage on iwbth per round. All I'm doing is electric and fire though. (tier 2 elec, tier 1 fire to save mana consumption).

Did dark skys on normal and did end up using 2 mana pots. (normally wouldn't use any as melee) but it was so much quicker. I plan on paper maging it though. Eventually I'll bring end/str/dex all the way down to zero. And I'll have wisdom and agil either one third or fourth of int.

All in all, maging seeming very viable, even with my cruddy equips. But one thing still bothers me. That coalesced mana (sp?). I heard that using magic missle procs the ether theft but I tried and tried and got nothing until I bashed it in the head. So clarity?

Also thinking about giving away some of my weapons in the freebies thread. Probably not the 2 in my previous post incase I want to switch back.

wow. Just switched to mage to show my g/f that it isn't plausible yet for me... did iwbth for crysfest after lowering strength by 10 and adding it all to intelligence. I only went 4 rounds but I didn't want to use too many pots.

In the end, so worth it. I usually do heroic on melee and got only 20% of the experience I do as mage on iwbth per round. All I'm doing is electric and fire though. (tier 2 elec, tier 1 fire to save mana consumption).

Did dark skys on normal and did end up using 2 mana pots. (normally wouldn't use any as melee) but it was so much quicker. I plan on paper maging it though. Eventually I'll bring end/str/dex all the way down to zero. And I'll have wisdom and agil either one third or fourth of int.

All in all, maging seeming very viable, even with my cruddy equips. But one thing still bothers me. That coalesced mana (sp?). I heard that using magic missle procs the ether theft but I tried and tried and got nothing until I bashed it in the head. So clarity?

Also thinking about giving away some of my weapons in the freebies thread. Probably not the 2 in my previous post incase I want to switch back.

I'm pretty sure you have to wack it in order to proc Ether Theft.

Guys, I was wondering. Does proc duration increases with level?

Because I have a really nice staff of destruction from the shrine, but Ether Theft is only 1 turn. If I were to level it up, would it last longer?

Yes proc duration goes up with level. Hard to tell if/when it'll change though. ET durations don't have much of a range (1-3 turns). If you level the staff and find out when it gets a 2nd turn of ET, you *may* be able to find out when it'll get the third turn (not sure if anyone has reliable data on that right now)

AFAIK the staff proc duration MAY change at 60, 160, 260 and (probably) 360.
Nobody had worked out the exact formula, but neither did anybody complained that's incorrect.

I've done enough SEO to know that you can track the mouse and clicks if any without any additional code on a page.

The difference is minimal @ 19.37 and 21.48 when I am lvl 162.

Now your just talking semantics, don't care for it.
If you want to wrap your brain about it not being a fair comparison, the hotkeys record was done after the mouse clicking. The monsters had more health in the hotkey run so I had more whacks of the staff and got less prof. By your understanding, aiwotorimodose, I should have more prof than the mouse run. which I don't.
Be aware that this is what someone low level is going to experience, not someone 100+.

There's a test called chi-squared meant to to analyze how the different results you got are influenced by chance rather than being actually significative.

In layman terms: the test weighs your observed results versus the expected ones and tells you the threshold over which you can safely assume the differences are due just to chance.

[www2.lv.psu.edu] Start with this, build your simple tables in a spreadsheet and let us know the results.

To make things fair, level two proficiencies to about the same value before starting your data collection for the test.

Eventually I'll bring end/str/dex all the way down to zero. And I'll have wisdom and agil either one third or fourth of int.

i've noticed that the general consensus is that DEX has no use for mages, but what about those higher level mages, has anyone brought DEX down really low or even 0 DEX?

I've made a small update on wiki so people can have a brief review on differences among mages, light melees and heavy melees.

i've noticed that the general consensus is that DEX has no use for mages, but what about those higher level mages, has anyone brought DEX down really low or even 0 DEX?

1. Lowering DEX from 80% of your level to 0% won't save you that much EXP for increasing other primary stats.
2. You still get 1 SP per 10 points in DEX, so that will be useful.
3. DEX gives you 1% parry chance per 25 points. That's somewhat decent considering that mages have 0% parry in the first place.
4. With DEX you can also play as a melee. Why limiting yourself to maging?

This post has been edited by varst: Feb 4 2012, 11:54

I've made a small update on wiki so people can have a brief review on differences among mages, light melees and heavy melees.
1. Lowering DEX from 80% of your level to 0% won't save you that much EXP for increasing other primary stats.
2. You still get 1 SP per 10 points in DEX, so that will be useful.
3. DEX gives you 1% parry chance per 25 points. That's somewhat decent considering that mages have 0% parry in the first place.
4. With DEX you can also play as a melee. Why limiting yourself to maging?

Very nice wiki article, solves some of my doubts, thanks.

Eventually I'll bring end/str/dex all the way down to zero.

That's a bad idea if I've ever seen one~

That's a bad idea if I've ever seen one~

We've seen something similar, right?

I'm at 100 now but still don't see the Ascended title. What can be wrong?

I'm at 100 now but still don't see the Ascended title. What can be wrong?

Any titles above ascended has to be manually selected.

You also need to beat one particular arena to unlock that.
(In your case, it will be the arena 'endgame')