24 réponses à ce sujet

[rolltide123]

I have beaten the game several times with rogues and warriors but haven't gotten very far on any of my mage runs.
I'm starting a new one and was wondering if anyone had any advice on stats, talents, gameplay, ect. One of the problems I ran into was I had tons of crowd control but no way to kill them once they were stunned, any tips to have a good  cc and dps balance would be great.

Thanks for any help.

[ArawnNox]

Stat wise, you're going to want to pump Magic almost exclusively, with Willpower a bit less. For talents, well, depends on what you want the mage to do. You want a blend of CC and DPS so, here's my unprofessional opinion: For CC, I had a lot of fun with the Glyph line of spells from the Creation school in my last run, though there are also some good ones in the Spirit school too. Direct damage spells are probably best found in Primal, but Entropy should have a good blend of CC and damage over time spells. Don't discount the mage talents either, the later ones give your staff and spellpower boosts which will help make your spells more powerful and let you deal better damage with the staff when your mana runs out.

For Specialties, that depends. Many will recommend Blood Mage for the extra CC and the ability to use your Hit Points for mana (in which case, you might want to boost Constitution a little bit). Some have had success using Arcane Warrior to let them wear heavier armor and give them something to do if a monster gets too close, or let you wade into the battle if your so inclined, which would mean you'd want to boost dexterity and invest in Combat Training (which you might want to do anyway). Spirit healer is a good Specialty if you want a way to help keep your party alive if you don't have another mage playing the role of dedicated healer.

That's my quick and dirty recommendation. I know its pretty vague, I admit to not having played many mages yet, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm sure others will respond with more insightful advice than me.

[rolltide123]

Thanks for the tips, I think I will try the glyph line.

There are so many options with mages.

Would a pure elemental mage with glyphs and heal be effective?

[soteria]

The glyphs are great. Also, Mind Blast -> Crushing Prison are almost universally useful. For DPS, the fire line is probably the best primal line... fireball does extremely high damage on a short cooldown, and flame blast does the most damage of the cone-shaped attacks. Virulent Walking Bomb is the second most damaging spell, after mana clash--just be careful you don't kill your party with it. To see some of the spells in action, you might follow the link in my signature and check out the "spell combos" video.

[d3c0yBoY]

The whole Glyph line. Best utility and combos bar none. Get Cone of Cold, which is the best Crowd Control. Get yourself the first 2 Hexes and the rest is up to you to decide. Once I've acquired the ones I've mentioned, which are my personal staples, I would go for the great suggestions stated by the posters above.

[rolltide123]

Thanks for the help guys. I'm going to go with the glyph line, frost element line, Mind blast line, some of the Hexes, and then what ever else looks interesting.

[beancounter501]

Like others have said the glyph line is amazing. Especially the combo Paralysis Explosion. It is really powerful if you have two mages since you can get that combo out fast. VWB is deadly too. A good Boss killer. But to make your mage a true killer you have to get the first two hexes. Get a good elemental Staff and Elemental Boosting dmg gear and enjoy 100+ staff attacks.



Also, Blood Wound is just golden. But nothing starts to slaughter monsters like the Shattering Combo. Take Stone Fist and Cone of Cold. Give every member of the party some instant critical talent and watch 3-4 monsters die right off the bat every 20 seconds.

[killermadman]

I am going to go ahead and agree with everyone else the Glyph line of spells rock. I also recommend picking up the following grease and flame blast which can be used along with glyph of repulsion to devastating effect.

If you haven't already try this next time you run into a large group of enemies:

Open by laying grease on/near your enemies then close the gap and lay a glyph of repulsion at your feet along the outer grease line followed up by a flame blast as melee units attempt to engage.

The enflamed melee units will ignite the grease and the glyph will keep repelling the units back into the fire.

If a couple happen to resist the glyph mop 'em with your melee or if you picked it up toss out blood wound and watch them die even faster from spirit and fire damage.

Modifié par killermadman, 08 août 2010 - 10:48 .

[Arthur Cousland]

Yes, don't forget flame blast+fireball, as those are good damage from the primal tree. Fireball is especially nice to use against clustered archers/mages. Winter's Grasp and cone of cold are also can't miss spells. No need for the tier 4 primal spells unless you want to specialize as an offensive mage; only so many talent points to use.



If you want to be the only mage in the group, spirit healer/blood mage is a nice combo.

[Augoeides]

I find that when someone gets in your mage's face a good Sleep + Horror = Waking Nightmare is a good way to ease the pressure off. Sleep in general I find quite useful but maybe that's just me.

[ussnorway]

my general spell picks are;

Creation

the mage with glyphs has an advantage when facing massed enemies because the stun explosion effect is so powerful.

Primal

You want two AOE spells in order to get the best out of the above. I prefer ice over fire but taking both is a waste... remember that you can only put up one weapon buff per mage so look at Tempest.

Entropy

The hex line allows you to support a tank/ DPS character against a tuff boss and is cheap in mana.

Spirit

force field and consider the undead line for the pet.

[Lumikki]

I don't know yet much about mages. Playing my first play trough.

Generally I have only put points in magic and willpower. So, that they are pretty much same numbers most the time. I'm level 10 and they are about 34 or something like that both.

As for Spell I choose to:

Primal: rock armor, stonefist (no other planed, I needed stonefirst to shatter enemies with cold)
Primal: winter's grasp, frost weapon, cone of cold and (blizzard)
Primal: lightning, shock, tempest and (chain lightning)
Creation: heal, (rejuvenate, regenation)
Spirit: Mind blast, Force field, (telekinetic weapon and crushing prison)

Cone of cold is really useful spell so far. Also mind blast can be very helpful. From single attacks spells, winter's grasp is best, first spell I take. Mostly because freezing while also doing damage. I use freezing as controling the enemies. That reduse damage taken by others and still doing damage to enemies.

I have plan to take my character as spirit healer, so I get group healing. How ever as been mage I can make potions, so I have actually healing potions as every characters tactical first line.

Rule 1: Self: Health lower than 50%: use lesser health potion

What means every character tries to keep they health up by them self, expect my own charcater what I play. So, I need to keep eye on my own health alot. Also healer companion use mana potions automaticly. It has make fighting alot easyer. But I ques I adjust stuff when I get more deep in story and learn mroe about game.

As for skills, I don't know, I have many skills, haven't really consenrate to anything.

Modifié par Lumikki, 15 août 2010 - 09:40 .

[Elhanan]

^ For skills, I recommend Coersion (4), Combat Training (4), and Survival (4). If you wish to gain an extra few quests, take Stealing (1) and bring a more proficient friend.

You may wish to try and have 70 Magic score by the landsmeet; nice target for a standard.

Personally, I do not take Chain Lightning as it does not seem to work that well (though it can be used well against you), Crushing Prison (cooldown makes repeated use difficult). and any healing spell other than Heal (leave this for the other healers). I highly recommend Glyphs, as they can be used for many functions.

[ussnorway]

Will = mana size and regen rate… I personally only work on about 1/3 i.e two points of magic for every point of will because most the fights are over very quickly.
Note if you need more mana try using your staff instead.

Magic = damage/ healing and over coming spell resistance (more important on harder levels) and this is where most of your points should go.

Spell picks;
Primal: rock armor, stonefist (no other planed, I needed stonefirst to shatter enemies with cold)
Consider the earth-quake spell as is a good way to keep the target from moving out of your AOE damage spell.

Primal: winter's grasp, frost weapon, cone of cold and (blizzard)
Exhalent picks.

Primal: lightning, shock, tempest and (chain lightning)
You already have tempest & blizzard so chain lightning is unlikely to see much use.

Creation: heal, (rejuvenate, regenation)
The spirit healer spells (group heal Revival and Lifeward) are better value.
Cleansing Aura is somewhat useful to remove injuries on long campaigns like the Deep Roads.

Spirit: Mind blast, Force field, (telekinetic weapon and crushing prison)

crushing prison is an underwhelming spell especially when you consider that telekinetic weapon is a wasted point because you already have frost weapon & you can’t put up both… it’s one buff per mage only.

The biggest problem is you have no crowd control spells;
Glyphs, Grease (my favourite) and earth-quake are all designed to keep the targets trapped inside your target area… without at least one of these you are wasting your time casting the AOE damage spells.
Skills;
I’d take one point in traps but I play on the harder levels… but it's all personal choice.

Modifié par ussnorway, 16 août 2010 - 05:51 .

[Gnoster]

Personally I would recommend getting Drain Life as well, if you get the first of the hexes. The health drained from the target and gained by you increases a lot with a hex on the target.

[DWSmiley]

There are so many good spells that you really can't go wrong. Arawn mentioned the most important tip - pump magic almost exclusively to make your spells more powerful. With potions and boosts from gear you do not need a huge mana pool. One spell to avoid in vanilla DA is chain lightning as it is the only primal spell that does not scale with spellpower. But Qwinn's fixpack fixed it, along with so much else.

[Lumikki]

Okey, I tested some spells with my new mage lvl 9 I think..

Primal: Rock armor, Stonefist and Earthquake
Primal: Winter's Gasp, Frost weapon, Cone of Cold, Blizzard
Creatition: Heal
Spirit: Mind Blast and Force Field
Spirit healer: Group heal

Those I have so far now. I'm little low with damage, but have huge amount of control. I tested also primal fire line, but whit cold line, mm.. do you need both. I mean fireball and inferno was nice, but when you allready have cold line. Earth line seem to be more flexiable as different use. I used earthquake and it's nice when you need to delay some enemies, while deal some others. Force field is also very useful when there is some single hard enemy with many little ones. Puting the strong one in hold while deal the little ones.

I did test little bit the glyph line, but I did not like it that much. I ques I move around too much as I seem to keep the fight in control. Not that they where bad. As for Drain life, I did not test it, I mean it's basicly heal. I seem to have very little use for heal spells so far. Wynne seem to keep everyone healed just fine, while I keep enemies frozen or other ways unable to fight.

Not really sure what spells I should take more, I think I'm gonna need more damage, but I don't know. So, my choises are fire or lightning lines? Flame isn't that good, even if it does good damage with very low cost. Fireball and Inferno how ever seems nice. Lightning and shocks are good, but tempest is somehow disapointhing. Never taken chain lightning yet, so don't know how it works. I did thinking take debuff spells (hex), but I'm not sure is it worth of time.

Also I'm not so sure about raising "magic" and not so much "will". Sure, there is mana potions, but it's gonna cost of lot keep mana up and extra damage isn't really that much. Also it does take time to drink potions, even if that time is short, it's taken from the fight time.

I ques there is alot of choises with spells and it all depense how player likes to play.

Modifié par Lumikki, 22 août 2010 - 05:43 .

[rayzorium]

As others have mentioned before, Fireball is really, really good. It's one of the few spells that's every bit as devastating on the enemy as it is on you. Huge radius, huge damage and more than decent CC - if the rest of your party can follow up, a well-placed Fireball can both start and end a lot of fights. Besides, Flaming Weapons is a lot better than Frost, which is important to consider if your party is lacking on damage in general.

[Elhanan]

What I enjoy about Glyphs is that they are multi-functional.

The 1st Glyph can paralyze a single opponent, or perhaps one standing close to the intended target. It can also be used to trigger the paralysis explosion which even gives a breather from bosses.

The second glyph offers protection from missle; good one when your Warrior is tied up in the front ranks with a few grunts.

The third is golden, as it may be used on self or allies for a sweet layer of defense, on doorways for a temporary barricade, on opponents to knock off their feet even when there is no LOS, and to set up that paralysis combo.

And the last one is anti-magical, so it offers possibilities on opposing casters, or on your non-buffed allies.as a spell shield. This is not as effective as killing a mage outright, and they can simply walk off of it if they think of it, but it can be useful.

I rarely take Morrigan w/o respec her with the first three any longer.

[Arthur Cousland]

Lumikki wrote...

Okey, I tested some spells with my new mage lvl 9 I think..

Primal: Rock armor, Stonefist and Earthquake
Primal: Winter's Gasp, Frost weapon, Cone of Cold, Blizzard
Creatition: Heal
Spirit: Mind Blast and Force Field
Spirit healer: Group heal

Those I have so far now. I'm little low with damage, but have huge amount of control. I tested also primal fire line, but whit cold line, mm.. do you need both. I mean fireball and inferno was nice, but when you allready have cold line. Earth line seem to be more flexiable as different use. I used earthquake and it's nice when you need to delay some enemies, while deal some others. Force field is also very useful when there is some single hard enemy with many little ones. Puting the strong one in hold while deal the little ones.

I did test little bit the glyph line, but I did not like it that much. I ques I move around too much as I seem to keep the fight in control. Not that they where bad. As for Drain life, I did not test it, I mean it's basicly heal. I seem to have very little use for heal spells so far. Wynne seem to keep everyone healed just fine, while I keep enemies frozen or other ways unable to fight.

Not really sure what spells I should take more, I think I'm gonna need more damage, but I don't know. So, my choises are fire or lightning lines? Flame isn't that good, even if it does good damage with very low cost. Fireball and Inferno how ever seems nice. Lightning and shocks are good, but tempest is somehow disapointhing. Never taken chain lightning yet, so don't know how it works. I did thinking take debuff spells (hex), but I'm not sure is it worth of time.

Also I'm not so sure about raising "magic" and not so much "will". Sure, there is mana potions, but it's gonna cost of lot keep mana up and extra damage isn't really that much. Also it does take time to drink potions, even if that time is short, it's taken from the fight time.

I ques there is alot of choises with spells and it all depense how player likes to play.

If you are worried about having mana issues from low willpower, take the blood mage spec and look for gear that boosts mana regen, like Staff of the Magister Lord or Tevinter Mage Robes, and bring Leliana along for Song of Valor.  When mana runs low, activate blood magic until your health is around 50% or your mana has regenerated, then deactivate blood magic.  You should be fine with base willpower and constitution; just focus on magic and equip accessories to boost other stats if you feel the need.

[Parrk]

There exist many fun and useful spells.  I get endless enjoyment from goofing around with the countless ways to immobilize enemies.

It must be said though, that unless you are playing nightmare difficulty, there is little in the game which cannot be resolved with a simple fireball.

[ussnorway]

Lumikki wrote...

Not really sure what spells I should take more, I think I'm gonna need more damage, but I don't know. So, my choises are fire or lightning lines? Flame isn't that good, even if it does good damage with very low cost. Fireball and Inferno how ever seems nice. Lightning and shocks are good, but tempest is somehow disapointhing. Never taken chain lightning yet, so don't know how it works. I did thinking take debuff spells (hex), but I'm not sure is it worth of time.

Also I'm not so sure about raising "magic" and not so much "will". Sure, there is mana potions, but it's gonna cost of lot keep mana up and extra damage isn't really that much. Also it does take time to drink potions, even if that time is short, it's taken from the fight time.

I ques there is alot of choises with spells and it all depense how player likes to play.

First thing is don’t take Fire and ice together because they cancel each other out.

Tempest is what I recommended because it is faster to cast than ice is and will energise your blizzard to create the most powerful spell in the game i.e. Storm of the Century.


Will vs. Magic is a personal thing but your game difficulty plays a huge part in this choice… Easy – Normal = Daddy hold my hand please i.e. your spells will only rarely be resisted so you can safely pump more Will but On hard – insane you need that extra power to ensure your spells will take effect i.e. your tank has gone down and you NEED a force field on the boss now!

Modifié par ussnorway, 24 août 2010 - 05:24 .

[Lumikki]

I did go to lightning line, so have taken now lightning, shock and tempest. Tempest is better with earthquake (fast casting) as it slows enemies movement pass the tempest damage area.

I'm not sure about this Storm of the Century, it would require taking 3 spells from new spell line and how often you can even use it? You would need alot of enemies and big area to make it worth while.

Oh I play normal difficulty as this is my first play. I have also started to improve my magic, because few times stonefist did not shatter. I don't get that, my magic is higher than Wynne's and she doesn't have same problem.

[termokanden]

Storm of the Century is one of the most cheesy spells. Due to its large area of effect, you can cast it on enemies that can't see you. That means they'll die without ever attacking you.



By the way, you can use it almost everywhere. Just be careful not to nuke yourself.



Easiest way to cast it is to use 2 mages. One casts Blizzard, the other activates Spell Might and casts Tempest. Make sure you cast it as far away as you can see.



Even if they do see you and try to attack, most enemies will be dead before they reach you.



I personally got a bit bored with this combo. Very easy to use and too powerful.

[ussnorway]

You will develop your own tactics but as a rule;

Tempest is electrical damage (drains mana and fatigue).

Fire does physical damage… rage demons and dragons will ignore you (great against the undead).

Ice restricts movement… great against rage demons and dragons (undead will ignore it).

Storm of the Century (assuming you take it) will be very useful at the end of the game but don’t add the Tempest until your Blizzard has almost run its course.

Don’t neglect your mage staff… free to cast, won’t miss and allows your mana time to regenerate.