10 réponses à ce sujet

[Laroy Darksword]

Hi!
First of all... my english is bad, i mean.. really bad, sorry about that.

Well... i appreciate some tips about a new mage i want to build. Basically this mage is going to focus on nature damage and support allies with some healing spells, spellbloom, grease, etc...

I want some roleplaying character so i going to specialize in shapeshifter (yes, i love this specialization), and i dont want to have a second specialization (i haven´t got awakening yet so i can not have the keeper specialization).

Offensive spells:

• Stone Fist: first question... Does physical or nature damage on v 1.04? It does decent damage to a single target or i could use this spell only to shatter a petrify enemy?

• Stinging swarm: I use this spell sometimes as a complementary spell, but never as a primary. It does enought damage to use as a primary spell? I want to have the most number of items that upgrade my nature damage so i wonder if even with thats items this spell worth it. The problem of curse is that is a single target spell but it jump (how many times?) to the next target if the last one die.

• Poison Spit (Spider Shape): My question is... Does nature damage +% gear affect to the shapeshifter forms?

• Flying Swarm (Swarm Shape): I love that shape form so i going to use to as my Nature Damage AoE (tiny AoE i know) and the question is exactly the same of poison spit.

Sustained Spells:

• Rock Armor: Situacional at least so i don´t use it a lot.

• Spell Wisp: I love have a colour spirit above my head it`s like a chrismas tree! but.... this spell really worth it?

Crow Control Spells:

• Earthquake: A huge AoE spell that knock down allies and enemys but... it affect elites, bosses, ogres etc? and most important Flying Swarm (Shape Form) its affect by earthquake?

• Petrify:  Well in theory i love this spell, but every time that i try to shatter a elite enemy i can´t the question is.. Is posible to shatter a elite enemy (have a small chance) or is totally impossible?
  

• [/u]
• Grease: Is grease a lower version of earthquake?, it seems to do the same thing (with the exception of grase fire), if i gonna take earthquake, is there any situation when grease is better than earthquake?

• web (spider Shape): I like this spell for stop thats wolf's overwhelm and mages...

• Divide the Swarm (Swarm Shape): Same as web or to kill the last enemy easily.

Healings Spells:

• Spellbloom: I suposse that spellbloom and mass regeneration stack, but... Spellbloom worth for itself?

I know that many enemies are inmune to nature, so i think to get some electrical spell.

I have to say that i playing on xbox360 and in Nightmare. I know (i really know...) that shapeshifter suck but i really enjoy play as a flying swarm and a spider (i hate bear), i try 1 time a strengh base shapeshifter and i don´t like so much, so this time a play a nature damage and shapeshifter so i focus on magic and willpower (did magic affect the flying swarm damage?), that mean that my bear and spider physical damage going to be low, but i don't care much.

Anyway thanks a lot for those who answer some of my questions or even read this large post.

Thanks again and sorry my really bad english.




[u]

Modifié par Laroy Darksword, 02 août 2010 - 11:21 .

[balmung03]

Considering you say your english is bad, I found it quite easy to understand what you were saying.

Stonefist: This spell does physical damage, though the game says it does nature damage. The damage isn't amazing, but it's a good spell to have; it has a knockback effect, which is a great anti-mage ammunition, since all the time they're on their back, they can't cast (also great to get ogres to drop allies they've grabbed). Although it does have a potential shatter effect, it doesn't work all of the time, so don't try to rely on it. (Oh, and shattering works on both petrified and frozen enemies; you mentioned petrified but I just thought I'd add frozen in there in case you didn't know)

Stinging Swarm: I usually don't use it since I usually stop that tree after either Spell Wisp or Grease, but it's a pretty good spell. According to the DA wiki, it's the only spell in Origins that deals nature damage (besides the shapeshifter forms). As far as jumping is concerned, the maximum number of times it'll jump is equal to your spellpower/10 (spellpower = magic - 10), though with the somewhat short duration of the spell, you won't have to worry much about running out of jumps.

As for whether gear that augments damage is effective while shapeshifted, I'm uncertain, as I never used the specialization past testing it with Morrigan. I think it should, but as I'm playing on 360 I don't have access to the toolset. Hopefully someone else can address that.

Spell Wisp: The bonus to spellpower is equal to (100 + spellpower) * 0.05. For example, if your magic stat is 50, then your spellpower is 40, and Spell Wisp will add (100+40)*0.05=7 to your spellpower. That might not seem like much, but to get 7 extra spellpower through the magic stat, you'd need over 2 level-ups (3 pts per level, 7 pts needed).

As an added mention, Spell Might adds (100 + spellpower) * 0.1 to your spellpower. In the example above (50 magic stat), Spell Might would add 14 to your spellpower (worth close to 5 level-ups). Due to the way the game calculates things though, having Spell Wisp on first and then activating Spell Might will run a calculation based on your spellpower counting the wisp addition (so [100 + 47] * 0.1 = 14.7 extra spellpower). Once that's been calculated, you can deactivate Spell Wisp, and reactivate it again to have another calculation run, using the extra spellpower from Spell Might to raise your spellpower even more. Using this tactic, you can definitely pump out some extra damage.

Earthquake: The wiki says that only lieutenant rank enemies and above are affected by the physical resistance check, but it seems to me that the initial casting affects everything, so it might only be the subsequent checks that factor that in. In my experience of Wynne casting it, my companions seem to fail every time, though that's probably due to me never pumping constitution, which determines physical resistance.

Petrify/shattering: To answer your question, the shattering effect doesn't work on lieutenant rank and above creatures (in the original game it did, but that was fixed via a patch, due to making fights designed to be hard amazingly simple). Since I usually have Winter's Grasp and Cone of Cold on my mages, I tend to avoid Petrify, but it's a personal choice.

Grease: I never thought of it as a lesser form of Earthquake, but that's actually a pretty good analysis. Earthquake reduces movement speed by 40%, while Grease reduces it by 50%. However, once a target slips in the grease, they don't slip again unless they leave the area and re-enter it. Add to that how some creatures like wolves and shrieks don't have a slip animation and so are immune to slipping (though they still suffer decreased movement speed), and really the only good use for Grease is temporary stalling of an enemy to set up the Grease Fire spell combo. One of the things I love doing is putting a Glyph of Warding up near a choke point, setting up a Grease slick just past it, and draw the enemies close. Run past the glyph, watch them get thrown back over and over, and cast Inferno on the grease slick. Then sit back and laugh like an evil villain.

Spellbloom: As you supposed, Mass Rejuvenation will stack with this (as they're two separate buffs), but personally I don't use Spellbloom. It's useful for those times when you're able to pop it right where you're standing and have your other characters pull all of the aggro, but for fights where you're moving around, it's not that great. Plus, enemies in the radius also get the buff, and hell if I want that. All in all, just like most spells, it's useful in certain situations, and not that useful in others.

As for enemies immune to nature damage, the wiki reports those as abominations, arcane horrors, golem-type enemies, revenants, skeletons, and undead (quite a list). Looks to me like you might want to add your additional damage type fairly early, as the Broken Circle quest will be a big annoyance in that respect.

I'm not 100% sure that magic affects the damage for Flying Swarm, but I would assume it does, either directly or indirectly through spellpower. Again, I hope someone else able to look at the toolset could shed some light on this.

Looks like your shapeshifter playthrough will be fairly difficult, but quite fun. I wish you luck.

Modifié par balmung03, 02 août 2010 - 04:04 .

[balmung03]

Dang, my bad.  Hit quote instead of edit.

Modifié par balmung03, 02 août 2010 - 04:03 .

[swk3000]

Balmung, Physical Resistance isn't determined only by Constitution; Strength and Dexterity also factor in, as well. The exact formula is:



((Strength + Dexterity + Constitution)-30)/2

[balmung03]

That's really weird. I really have no need to ever pump constitution then, since dexterity makes me get hit less anyway. I just checked mental resistance too, and that factors in will, magic, and cunning in the same fashion. I really have no explanation for why my companions always fail checks for earthquake then, unless they get some extra multiplier to make it harder.

[beancounter501]

I like Stinging Swarm - one of my favorite spells. Not many people realize it, but the duration is completely reset every time it jumps. I have had a Swarm hang around doing damage until the cooloff timer ran out - a full 30 seconds. The key is to cast it on monsters that have already taken damage, or that are targets of another character. If the monster does not die within the duration then the swarm expires, otherwise it jumps to another target. Like having another party member!



On Grease and Earthquake - certain party members are immune to the knockdown effect - Shale, Dog(I think) and any Two hand Warrior. So cast those spells right on top of them. With Earthquake, move your character every couple of seconds so the monsters move too and get hit with a knockdown. With Grease you can run in and out of the grease effect and watch monsters slip chasing you. Or you can cast it every 20 seconds for free knockdowns. Good fun.

[Last Darkness]

I get the image of a Earth bender from Last Airbender from reading this lol



Also beancounter, Stinging Swarm+Virulent Walking bomb = lots of fun and possible party wipe lol

[Laroy Darksword]

Thank you to all the people who answered my questions specially for balmung03.

After i read all of your advices i finally create my elf nature mage yesterday.

in the end of the game i suppose that you get around 27-30 spells therefore i do a complete build of my mage and i will glad (even if it no longer necessary because you clarified the great majority of my doubts) if anyone help my with my build and some of my new questions.

Well.. this is gonna be my build

Arcane

• Arcane Bolt:  Every mage start with this spell, so... why don't use it?. The damage is moderate, but is cheap and only 3s coldown. This spell do spirit (Purple) damage, so my question is... Is there any enemy that is vulnerable to spirit damage ?

• Arcane Shield: Situacional, so i don't think to use it a lot.

• Staff Focus:  The good thing of doing a roleplay based mage, is that you always have enought spells to try and prove new and greats spell that i never use. This time i try to inflict great damage with the staff auto-atack. I wish to get some good nature magic staff (come to my mind the brecilian forest tree give you one nature staff), i suposse that +% nature damage gear affect the staff damage so i try to reach some good damage.

• Arcane Mastery: +5 spellpower (2 levels (5 magic) like balmung03 said) passive bonus.

Earth

• Rock Armor: Situacional, what a pity that shapeshifter forms don't benefit of sustained spells.

• Stonefist: Thanks balmung03 for those tips. I will use this spell to knockdown mages, or to release grabbed (by ogres) alies or overwhelm by wolfs. Of curse i will shatter some guys, but i have a new question about that. I Know that enemies frozen by cone of cold can be shatter, but enemies frozen by winter's grasp can be shatter?, always i try to shatter a winter's grasp frozen enemy i fail.

• Earthquake: I will use a companion inmune to knockdows (maybe sten) like beancounter501 said. I loaded a old character save, and try fly with flying swarm above a earthquake and sadly the spell reduces movement speed (seriusly bioware? i'm FLYING and is a EARTHquake), the same with grase. Anycase a great spell so i use it constantly.

• Petrify: I love this spell, is like a force shield but you can damage enemies, it does fight quite easily.

Electrical

• Lightning: A single target spell, not bad, not good.... but. i have a couple of questions.  First; who are the enemies with resistance and vulnerability to electrical damage?, and second and must important, why wiki says that the damage formula of lightning and arcane bolt is the same, and i always do more damage with lightning than with arcane bolt (i don't think that all enemies had spirit resistance) ?

• Shock: Good damage to smalls groups, and drains stamina (like other electrical spells)

• Tempest: Huge AoE, i suposse that grease + Tempest, or better Earthquake + Tempest will be a great combo, maybe better if i chose affliction curse.

• Chain lightning: I never try this spell by myself, so i appreciate if anyone that use this spell tell me how it is.

* I know this is no nature damage, so i try tu use this spell the less i could, but there is some place like the brecilian forest (with thats undead) or the circle of mage (thanks a lot again to balmung03 for say to me the enemies that are inmune to nature damage) that maybe the 90% of my damage spells are useless there.
* I will chose electrical over ice or fire for roleplaying purpuse, ice and fire sound more destructive to nature than electrical (that is nature at least).


Healing

• Heal: Good spell, nothing to say.

• Rejuvenate: I have a question. I don't know if this spell is plan to work the way it works or it's a xbox360 bug but Why i can't use this spell myself?

• Regeneration: I love this spell, nothing more to say.

• Mass rejuvenation: I stack this spell with spellbloom on large fights for a great mana regeneration or when i go in flying swarm form (when enemies hurt you you lose mana instead live)

Summoning

• Spell Wisp: Thanks for all your tips i see that this is a good (and pretty) spell, so i will have always on (i don't going to get spell might, but thanks for that awesome tip).

• Grease: Thanks to balmung03 and beancounter501 for your advices. I have another question. Is the -50% movement speed (ms) and the -40% ms of earthquake stack?, i suposse no because it will overpower, but... is there a ms limit? maybe a -75% or is 50%?

• Spellbloom: Situational like balmung said, but i will use always the situation let me do it.

• Stinging Swarm: Thanks for everyone tips of this spell, i try to get this spell the sooner i can.

Hexes

• Vulnerability Hex: Useful without doubt. Nice on elite or boses for extra damage.

• Affliction Hex: Great spell when there are a group of enemies.

Shapeshifter

• Spider Shape: When i run out of mana i love shape in a spider because have a great single-target control (web) and a nature DoT (i hope that those +% nature damage gear rise the damage of poison spit and the flying swarm, when i test it i will post the conclusions)

• Bear Shape: not bad for tank sometimes but i don't like this shape, so i only use it for overwhelm some mages.

• Flying Swarm: I will use it always i can, i simple love it.

That it's all, sorry for all my english mistakes (there's many of those i know... sorry) and if anyone have some advice (like new spell i should to add, etc) i will be glad of read it.

Thanks a lot.

[balmung03]

As for your question about whether any enemies are vulnerable to spirit damage, the only vulnerabilities for elemental damage I could find were vulnerabilities to fire damage (darkspawn, undead, sylvans, spiders (and spider shape), and flying swarm shape.



For your question about shattering, Winter's Grasp does have the potential to lead to shattering. The duration for the freezing effect is just shorter, so it's hard to time a shattering blow if the character using the freezing spell is the same one who is trying to shatter. (A tactic I use is setting up an archer to use the Critical Shot talent on an enemy either right before or right as I'm casting Cone of Cold; it takes about 2s for the archer talent to fire, so it hits about the time they're frozen, and critical hits cause shattering too) The normal durations for freezing are 5s w/ Winter's Grasp, 10s with Cone of Cold, and 20s with Blizzard; however, there is a hidden modifier that shortens this duration on lieutenant-rank enemies and above, which gets progressively larger on higher ranks (so don't expect to freeze an elite-boss for 20s).



For electricity resistance, abominations have a 25% resistance, steel golems have 50% resistance, and the archdemon has a 75% resistance. As for why Arcane Bolt was doing less damage than Lightning, my only guess is that you were casting on a creature with spirit resistance; however, there are only a limited number of these (hurlocks 5%, ogres 15%, demons 5%, archdemon 75%). If that wasn't the case, then I don't know why it was doing less damage.



I may not be seeing the true usefulness of Chain Lightning, but I never cared too much for it. For one, the wiki says it only does 20 damage to the initial target, then 10 damage to up to 10 others, then 6.67 to 4 others, and finally 5 to 4 others. I'm not sure if the same enemy can be targeted by the second or third splits, but even then the max damage to a single enemy is 27 or so; at the point in the game where I can get that spell, my damage output is greater than that. The draining stamina/mana is good, but Lightning, Shock, and Tempest are good enough; there's no need to pick up Chain Lightning.



Rejuvenate is meant to not be cast on yourself. My guess is that, since it stacks with Mass Rejuvenation, a mage giving himself +16 mana regen is pretty overpowered. With two mages in your party, you could have them buff each other though.



I can't find anything about a limit to debuffing movement speed, but I guess with both Grease and Earthquake active, it's probably one of two things: 1) the highest penalty to movement speed stays, or 2) the most recent spell's speed debuff stays. Again, perhaps people with access to the toolkit can give a better answer.



As an added suggestion for a spell, I'd recommend Walking Bomb/Virulent Walking Bomb. It may be from the spirit school, but I consider from a roleplaying perspective that injecting someone with magical poison sounds like a force of nature. The damage potential from exploding enemies is also high, so watch out for any party members that are near a ticking bomb. A good combo to use with it would be casting Virulent Walking Bomb on an enemy, then having the tank use Taunt, and when the bomb gets close to death, protect the tank via Force Field. Since I think you said before you were playing on Nightmare difficulty, the bomb spells have a high potential to wipe your whole party if you stay too close, so use caution if you decide to add it to your repertoire.

[Laroy Darksword]

Thank for your time answering my question Balmung03.

As safe (google traductor, i hope "as safe" have any meaning) i will choose virulent walking bomb (VWB) so i'll have two DoT (Damage over time) spells, and that's great !!!. I tried VWB in one of my lasts characters (A Blood Mage) and (ignore sometime i blow up my whole party) is a really god spell, thanks for the advice. Sometimes i tried Force Field but when i use it on a tank that has used taunt before, i felt like cheating. So now i only use Force Field to stop a enemy or use it to do the shockwave combo (Force Field + Crushing Prison), i know that is better use for both (force field and crushing prison) but well... i love use those spells diferently.

yesterday i did Denerim and Redcliffe, Denerim was to easy ( no one can resist my nature's spell) and i supposed that redcliffe would be more difficult (with those freaking inmune to nature damage corpses) but with the electrical spells and the bear shape (at least this shape served me something) i had no trouble. Funny thing is that the first part of the assault, when the corpses past through a pile of fire, i cast a grease and all corpse died burned, i have not had to fight.

Well i only want to add that this "build" is funny and more effective than it looks.

Thanks to everyone who answered my questions.

* If you see any serius misspelling, i will glad to read it (i love english language, so anything that help me to improve my english i will be thankful)

[balmung03]

Laroy Darksword wrote...

Funny thing is that the first part of the assault, when the corpses past through a pile of fire, i cast a grease and all corpse died burned, i have not had to fight.

I never thought about casting a grease slick on top of the burning oil in that part of the battle.  I'll have to try that after I finish my "chaotic evil" dwarf commoner.  For whatever reason, I haven't rolled a mage since playing one purely for unlocking blood mage and reaver.