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[ShadowPlay 14]

I know that willpower effects how much mana you have, and that Magic can effect Spellpower ( I think ), so I'm curious, what does Spellpower actually do, and what are the best numbers to leave Magic and Willpower at, if you wanted the best damage dealer mage. ( Not an Arcane Warrior )

[Nerdage]

Spellpower affects healing/damage and effect durations, willpower can be left quite low (20-30ish) and then just pour points into magic. That's what I did anyway, but I didn't use sustained spells until Awakening, and even then it was just one.

Modifié par nerdage, 06 avril 2010 - 11:41 .

[Zilod]

if is your first mage and you dont plan to go bm i suggest something like 2 magic / 1 will per level, it is a bit suboptiomal it permit to put some sustainables and to happy cast,

you loose something in dmg and saving throws but it makes a bit easier mage to play... of course if at some point you see you are ok with mana then stop putting points in will

[DragonShepard138]

What about constitution though. Thats really important, its your health bar. But nerdage and Zilod have a great suggestion of adding to magic and willpower. You just gotta find a good balance between constitution, willpower and magic.

[soteria]

Unfortunately, you really don't need any sort of balance at all. The returns for putting points into willpower and constitution are incredibly low compared to what you get from gear and levelling up normally. Additionally, very few enemies do enough damage that you need to maintain a certain threshold of health.



Your best survivability tool is a really high magic score to avoid having spells resisted. If you want more mana or health, it's not hard to find items to boost both, and you can use lyrium potions or blood magic to completely negate the need for any willpower. The only exception is if you're running so many sustainable spells that literally you don't have enough mana to activate them all, and that really only should apply to an arcane warrior.



If you really just want to have more willpower, you'll certainly be fine doing what the above posters suggested (2 magic/1 willpower). It's not necessary, though.

[Psychoray]

Go 2 Magic/1 Willpower like the others said.



When playing a bloodmage I suggest putting 10 points in con. (Just put 10 less points in Willpower)



This way, I never have to use a potion.

[oyzar]

Just putting everything in magic as the above poster said is probably best. Between tower, gear and blood mage you really don't need any willpower. You might put a few points in willpower somewhere but the returns are really so small that it isn't really necesarry. Though some spell lines really don't benefit that much from spellpower, then you might want more willpower(specifically gylphs).

[Wonderllama4]

I like doing a 2/1 ratio of magic to willpower. You're still pretty strong and you have enough mana to have a little fun. I can also heal if I need to. I use spellpower boosting gear too

[ShadowPlay 14]

Can anyone suggest some good gear to boost willpower? Thanks

[UpiH]

Staff of the Magister Lord gives +6 to Willpower. In addition it gives a total of 13 to spellpower.

Key to the City: +2 to all attributes.

Morrigan's Ring: +2 to Willpower

Par Vollen Willstone (a necklace) and the necklace you can pickpocket from the Orz Shaperate leader: + 2 to Willpower

Andruil's Blessing: + 2 to all stats + bonus to Mana regen, among others.

The Spellward (necklace): +5 to Willpower among other goodies.

Redcliffe Elite Shield: +1 to Willpower might be useful for AW in some situations, overall I don't use it that much.



Then there are those ovepowered DLC items like Helm of Honnleath, Cailan's set etc, but I'm currently playing on "pure" CE without any modifications (I count DLC:s, using of the console/glitches/+3 stats books as such)

[UpiH]

Btw: Can Mana Clash do any more damage to a meanie than the amount of mana you have at your disposal at the time of casting? So, if you're using it, you might need a little more willpower than otherwise.

[UpiH]

Why waste 10+ points to con when there's the Lifegiver/Reaper's Vestment option? You can outdrink Oghren under the table just with Mage equipment + the stats bonuses you get from the Fade.

[jenncgf]

UpiH wrote...

Btw: Can Mana Clash do any more damage to a meanie than the amount of mana you have at your disposal at the time of casting? So, if you're using it, you might need a little more willpower than otherwise.

I don't think so.  The character casting it has always spent the same amount of mana per cast, regardless of when I would cast it.

HOWEVER, it makes sense to immediately target enemy mages with it, since they take damage in direct proportion to *their* remaining mana lost.  So starting with that spell for enemy casters creates a situation where you one-shot them, since they're at full mana.    Fun stuff!

[UpiH]

Yeah, four-digit damage amount if cast on multiple mages/shades/demons. Almost too cheesy, but a lifesaver anyway.

Modifié par UpiH, 07 avril 2010 - 09:24 .

[jenncgf]

Agreed. It almost makes battles too easy, not that I'm complaining.

[Zilod]

UpiH wrote...

Btw: Can Mana Clash do any more damage to a meanie than the amount of mana you have at your disposal at the time of casting? So, if you're using it, you might need a little more willpower than otherwise.

yes it can if you use hexes and equip that boost spiritual dmg

[hexaligned]

Willpower? Whats that? Mages only have one stat.

It depends on how you want to play I guess, but if you are looking for the most effective way to go about it, put 0 points in willpower, it's much better to front load all your damage. Not to mention if you are an herbalist mana is limitless resource.

Modifié par relhart, 08 avril 2010 - 11:53 .

[UpiH]

From a roleplaying perspective, you'll have to invest a couple of points in cunning to get full persuasion, Also, it gives some more dialog options. Who'd like to play a weak-minded maniac gallivanting around killing everything that moves anyway?



Out of curiousity, I once did a cheat run where i put 3 points to all stats starting from 25. Your PC (or your teammates) gets killed even that way if you don't pay attention. Spells in some areas got resisted even with 200 + spellpower without any buffs. So, as relhart said, it depends on your style. 999 is the max, game mechanics wise, but hey, it's not fun that way.

[TBastian]

At some point putting too many points in spellpower can be redundant especially if your main job is not nuking. I get the impression that not too many people play nuke-focused mages, which is why I find the excessive focus on spellpower plain weird. It's not like you need to raise your Willpower to be as high as your Magic, adding around 20 points or so already gives you 100+ mana, and you can leave it at that. And the tradeoff? +8 more healing/regeneration points vs 5 more healing/regeneration castings? Seriously. It's not like your party's survival is in your hands and you need those 8 points to count because 8 points translates to 40+ minimum damage per mob (5 different primal spells) for a nuker. Based on what I've read people are already having trouble selecting at least one nuking spell line (fire vs cold vs lightning threads, etc) and yet they act as if they took all 4.
You will want to keep your spellpower up so your disables always work, but the only ones with really high mental/physical resistance are bosses.
Obviously specific spellpower-reliant builds are exceptions, but those are... specific.

Anyway, spell resistance gives monsters a chance to resist spells regardless of your spellpower. In nightmare every enemy unit has spell resistance.

Modifié par TBastian, 08 avril 2010 - 04:16 .

[soteria]

Spellpower will always give some benefit, even if it's minor. Willpower will only be helpful in situations where you run out of mana. Otherwise, the 100 mana you'll get from 20 points in willpower is completely wasted.



Speaking only from personal experience I can say that mana hasn't been much of an issue for me. Even using Morrigan with maximum magic, no lyrium potions, and no blood magic, I only found myself *really* short on mana in a few fights (Archdemon, High Dragon mainly). More spellpower will always be useful for increased damage and reduced resistances.



I'm really not sure where you're going with "monsters will still have a chance to resist spells." Are you suggesting that it's pointless to try to reduce that chance if you can't eliminate it entirely? I can't agree.



And finally, if you really want to cast more or less non-stop, you either need to use blood magic or to chug potions. Putting 20 points in willpower still won't let you do that--100 mana is only 2-5 spells.

[UpiH]

I've found, the mana regeneration items as such to be quite useless as well since pots will do the trick anyway. Maybe they'll bring a spell or two back to life at the end of a long fight but that's about it.

[TBastian]

There's only so many ways to deplete your mana supply, heh. I don't think you need to be stingy when you can cast 2-5 more spells, which is roughly equal to 1/2 to 1/3 the total spells you can cast before needing to use a mana potion. Activate more sustaineds? Use a few more disables/buffs/healing?
I wouldn't underestimate 100 mana. For an Origins mage that's basically 1/2 your total mana at mid levels and around 1/3 at higher levels.

I'm really not sure where you're going with "monsters will still have a chance to resist spells." Are you suggesting that it's pointless to try to reduce that chance if you can't eliminate it entirely? I can't agree.

It was in answer to the previous post, last part., explaining why 200+ spellpower still seems to get resisted.

Speaking only from personal experience I can say that mana hasn't been much of an issue for me. Even using Morrigan with maximum magic, no lyrium potions, and no blood magic, I only found myself *really* short on mana in a few fights (Archdemon, High Dragon mainly). More spellpower will always be useful for increased damage and reduced resistances.

Morrigan is a disabler/nuker, and a Shapeshifter on top of everything. She needs those (spellpower) points.
In my experience, mages like Wynne (who play a more passive role in combat) really benefit from the higher willpower. A few more enhancement buffs (Heroic Defense, Offense, etc) and a few more heals/regens negates the need to constantly chug mana pots.
The practical effects of the spells she used those extra 100 mana on (improving Leliana's accuracy, increasing Alistair's defense, 100 points reserved for using Haste, two more Glyphs of Warding, etc) should easily be worth more than the minor bonuses you get from 20 spellpower.

If I wanted to cast non-stop, I would indeed be recommending Bloodmage. As it is, my arguement is simply a little more willpower > excessive spellpower, especially when you're not a nuker.
20 points in willpower gives you 2-5 more spells, 20 points in spellpower gives you +8 healing/damage.
You should have no problem overcoming enemy mental/physical resistance as long as you didn't neglect your spellpower. It's not like you need to raise willpower as much as your magic, investing 20 points in willpower is enough in my experience.

Modifié par TBastian, 08 avril 2010 - 06:33 .

[CaveTown]

The fact that I don't even remember what the heck mana is tells me that it's about time to go play Dragon Age again...


http://social.bioware.com/brc/360838 




http://social.bioware.com/brc/123964 

[Zilod]

UpiH wrote...

I've found, the mana regeneration items as such to be quite useless as well since pots will do the trick anyway. Maybe they'll bring a spell or two back to life at the end of a long fight but that's about it.

ehm is quite the opposite, get over +10 to mana regen and you will see the difference, if you have low fatigue you can happy cast even whitout bm or using potions

you can also sustain spells like the sh aura or put up various buffs whitout to have to fear to go oom due to mana drain

[UpiH]

I'm not sure if that would help in my case. I usually have Spellpower & Wisp on, The items I use + Leliana's song won't suffice, I'm afraid. What about Spellbloom? Anyway, the most tedious work is just to keep Alistair out of harm's way.

Modifié par UpiH, 08 avril 2010 - 10:12 .