[X] My Assistant

For hath points should I go with IA1 or Black/white aura first?

Black Aura.

For hath points should I go with IA1 or Black/white aura first?

Unless you're a melee AND you have 150 haths to get IA1 + 2 at the same time, get black aura first.

Black Aura.

It would depend on how many haths he/she has, no? I would argue that IA1 + 2 is probably better than black aura, honestly.

It would depend on how many haths he/she has, no? I would argue that IA1 + 2 is probably better than black aura, honestly.

I think Joe's idea is generally correct.
Unless you're going to play tons of x25 for leveling, black aura do gives you more benefit, especially on EXP.

It's not a definite answer now though.
A few months ago we really need those auras to get pass lv.250, but now everyone can level up like a rocket.

This post has been edited by varst: Feb 11 2012, 18:40

Hmmm, well I think I'll go with black aura. Going to take a while to get 200 hath haha.

Hmmm, well I think I'll go with black aura. Going to take a while to get 200 hath haha.

hath perks are always nice but the credits you can get from selling the hath for credits is also very good. You can get a lot of levels of AL and AP. Or train so you can find more stuff or hold more pots in battle.

I think Joe's idea is generally correct.
Unless you're going to play tons of x25 for leveling, black aura do gives you more benefit, especially on EXP.

It's not a definite answer now though.
A few months ago we really need those auras to get pass lv.250, but now everyone can level up like a rocket.

I prefer IA actually. Turns not casting supportive spells = turns damaging = less damage taken = less heals!
Although 150 for IA2 is gonna be a bitch to get, especially with 1 hath a day (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Hm....when you get to lv.200 something as a mage, you'll get so many chanelling chance that you don't need mana to keep SV, haste, SP shield, Spark, regen 2 and arcane focus on at the same time.

You may need to cast the first haste/SV/SP shield if you want to play more difficult arenas, but that's it.

And it's fun to try meleeing with IA though (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

This post has been edited by varst: Feb 11 2012, 19:16

I'd personally recommend black if you plan on playing in the long term. I found IA pretty shitty until I got IA3.

Edit:
IA1 - not much advantage IMO. You avoid having to "cast" the spell but you lose out from the mana count restriction (it fades when you may need it most)
IA2 - small advantage but has same restriction. Odds are you'll take advantage of the extra slot so the cost will be higher than IA1 and drain your mana faster.
IA3 - cost is reduced quite a bit. Hence why I consider this the "break even". Enough options to put whatever buffs you want on autocast and the reduced cost is significant. IMO that is enough to balance the mana count restriction.
IA4 - expensive as hell. Sometimes you don't need that may buffs but that -cost is pretty amazing by now.

This post has been edited by dcherry: Feb 11 2012, 21:43

Ok Here is my Character, constructive advice greatly appreciated. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Character on Feb. 10 2012.

• Main: Exquisite rapier of the battlecaster
• Off: Superior buckler of the battlecaster
• Head: Superior gossamer cap of the owl
• Body: Average phase robe of the owl
• Hands: Superior gossamer gloves of the fox
• Legs: Fair phase pants of freyr
• Feet: Superior cotton shoes of the thrice-blessed

(IMG:[i1207.photobucket.com] http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb476/Gman1646/H-Verse/CharaAbilitiesSpells.jpg)

(IMG:[i1207.photobucket.com] http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb476/Gman1646/H-Verse/CharaCharacter.jpg)

(IMG:[i1207.photobucket.com] http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb476/Gman1646/H-Verse/CharaAuras.jpg)

Click to see screenshots of [i1207.photobucket.com] Battle Items, [i1207.photobucket.com] Training, & [i1207.photobucket.com] Monsters



This post has been edited by Goodman2011: Feb 11 2012, 22:05

1. If you want to try battlecasting, at least read through our discussions in the last few pages.

2. It won't work if you have some decent equipments. Try to focus on maging/meleeing if possible.

We can further discuss that if you wanna choose a path.

This post has been edited by varst: Feb 11 2012, 22:11

...
Armory: I am always open for offers for gear better than mine.
Current set
Fine Ethereal Mace of Slaughter
Superior Shade Helmet of Negation
Superior Shade Breastplate of Negation
Fine Shade Gauntlets of the Shadowdancer
Superior Shade Leggings of Negation
Fine Shade Boots of Negation...

You got it, "Made in the Shade." (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

What type of armor should I be wearing as a 2h melee, light or heavy? Right now I'm wearing full heavy. Since the last patch, burden and interference do not seem as problematic.

1. If you want to try battlecasting, at least read through our discussions in the last few pages.

2. It won't work if you have some decent equipments. Try to focus on maging/meleeing if possible.

We can further discuss that if you wanna choose a path.

Thanks I started reading all the posts that searched found the word "battlecasting" in it.
It was so nice to find someone mentioning Gandalf, which is exactly what I'm aiming for.
As that was the first fantasy book I read; The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. [www.tolkien-online.com] Books by Tolkien

I assumed "2. It won't work if you DON'T have some decent equipments."

and "Try to focus on maging/meleeing if possible." By doing what?
I assume building only Strength, Int, Wis Attributes & only First and Last Aura types?

@Goodman you need weaken (max is good), and 1 point in poison; a point or two in bewilder is good too. Dunno how you'd fight bosses w/o them. Seriously, equip a staff (for ET/coalesced mana abuse), get into battle, kill off all but one, and then sit there and cast weaken over and over again to get your deprecating prof up.

Sword & board battlecaster sounds kinda interesting. Cast, melee cleanup instead of mm, and ability to counter. Too bad battlecaster shields are no longer dropping.

If i were you, I'd get rid of a few elemental spells, and use the points in more hp/mp/sp/overcharge. Using melee to cleanup, you'd actually have a use for spirit stance.

@Goodman you need weaken (max is good), and 1 point in poison; a point or two in bewilder is good too. Dunno how you'd fight bosses w/o them. Seriously, equip a staff (for ET/coalesced mana abuse), get into battle, kill off all but one, and then sit there and cast weaken over and over again to get your deprecating prof up.

Sword & board battlecaster sounds kinda interesting. Cast, melee cleanup instead of mm, and ability to counter. Too bad battlecaster shields are no longer dropping.

If i were you, I'd get rid of a few elemental spells, and use the points in more hp/mp/sp/overcharge. Using melee to cleanup, you'd actually have a use for spirit stance.

Thank you for your suggestions, much appreciated. (karma imbueing forthwith)
My third set has a very nice Exquisite redwood staff of the owl Level 174
But I do better with my 1 set; Sword and Shield. I use the [STAT] Monster Database and attack their weaknesses & avoid their resistances with Multi-Target (Area effect) Spells, then when only 1 or 2 are left I whack em with my mighty elfin magic sward. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) As long as I stay stocked with Mana potions, I'm good; except for the Heroic, Nightmare or higher difficulty that gives me a critical hit of death sometimes. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
My 2nd Set has a Superior club of the raccoon Level 265 and along with my trusty Battlecaster shield I still do better than with the staff. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Oh why I have all 4 Elements, because I heavily use their side effects; I cast Wind, which gives Electrical weakness, Elect gives Fire weakness, Fire gives Cold weakness, Cold gives Wind weakness. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

This post has been edited by Goodman2011: Feb 11 2012, 23:41

Thank you for your suggestions, much appreciated. (karma imbueing forthwith)
My third set has a very nice Exquisite redwood staff of the owl Level 174
But I do better with my 1 set; Sword and Shield. I use the [STAT] Monster Database and attack their weaknesses & avoid their resistances with Multi-Target (Area effect) Spells, then when only 1 or 2 are left I whack em with my mighty elfin magic sward. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) As long as I stay stocked with Mana potions, I'm good; except for the Heroic, Nightmare or higher difficulty that gives me a critical hit of death sometimes. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
My 2nd Set has a Superior club of the raccoon Level 265 and along with my trusty Battlecaster shield I still do better than with the staff. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Oh I didn't mean equip the staff for normal battling; I just meant you should equip it when grinding for deprecating prof.

I use to have all tiers of elemental spells too, but with the glut of player created monsters now, found myself almost never using cold, and rarely using wind. Using just lightning and fire (& holy) freed up more ability points for me. Also if lightning procs a status effect, fire can cause the explosion for extra damage, which works well even against resistances. You can go 2/elements 3/elements, etc, just choose them in a way that you can make use of the procs. Also with sword/board, you could probably just shield bash/melee the more resistant ones. I wonder about having tier 2 and tier 1 fire spells. I know the mana cost is a consideration, but it frees up 6 AP if you only max out 1 of the 2 tiers.

Hmm just an afterthought, i like piercing for 1h as well, but if you found a slashing battlecaster 1hander, you'd have all the physical damage types covered (ie slash for regular attack, crush for shield bash, piercing for magic missile)

Because not using a staff means none of the staff bonuses, definitely should get some elementalist gear to strengthen spell damage.

This post has been edited by etothex: Feb 11 2012, 23:59

Damnit, sold my elementalist gear last night. I do still have the staff but I'm currently using it till I get a mjolner/surtr one.

Otherwise I would love helping out to the cause of battlemaging.

Ps. I love the idea of having all 3 different types of physical damage :-D. That can be achieved too through dual weilding. mm for piercing and the other 2 well you know how that works.

You got it, "Made in the Shade." (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Wait, what?

@Goodman2011

I think the reason why you get better with a shield + weapon is because your cloth armor isn't good enough offensively.
A full elementalist armor should give you more benefits.
And you don't need 1H weapon as I've said before, for every 1-2 monsters left you can simply kill them with magic missile.

Another reason why you feel shield + weapon is better is from that shield's block chance.
Yes, those weapons gives you similar magical damage bonus as a focus staff, but you lose much of the accuracy bonus, and gain some unimportant stat.
Not to mention that you can get a destruction staff and kill everything with it and arcane focus.

At your level, mobs may be easier. Once you get pass lv.100, you would want to either evade all attacks (light), sustain all attacks (heavy), or melt everything right away (mage).

P.S. And that staff's not very nice. You'll want a staff of focus with about 50% accuracy bonus and around 20 base MDB, or a destruction with at least 32 base MDB.
Ignore the prefix; try to look at those important stats.

This post has been edited by varst: Feb 12 2012, 08:53