28 réponses à ce sujet

[Valentyna]

There's not much more to say really,  I am tryign to decide on a build for my mage (she's itty bitty right now, at 2nd level with just that initial spell blast thing, and the first 3 levels of the Glyph tree).  I am trying to decide whether to attempt to go the fire route, or the elec/ice route, but I can't seem to find reliable numbers on which combination deals more actual DPS.  At the moment Im leaning towards fire simply because it takes less spower slots to execute. but on the other hand, I suppose it would be nice to ahve the tier 1s from both Lightning and Ice to round off a single-target attack chain.

Testing is hard, so in the spirit of lazy people everywhere, I've decided to ask if anyone else has maybe done some testing on this before me (or has other, less numberic, insights to offer)? 

[Elhanan]

I oft go for all Primal (3) spells, plus Blizzard for Storm. I am uncertain of numbers, but the rapid cooldown time makes Firball a winner for frequent use, with Storm being utilized for specific large area (eg; rooms in Howe's estate).

[Bozorgmehr]

Perfect Storm has the largest AoE and the best damage output though it requires 10 points (Spell Might, Blizzard and Tempest). It's cool to use it a couple of times, but very boring afterward. You can in fact clear most of DA using Perfect Storm alone.



If you're looking for some cool, more risky, but equally devastating AoE; go the Walking Bomb route. You'll need Cone of Cold, Rock Fist and Walking Bomb (6 points) for the basics. Freeze a couple of enemies; put Walking Bomb on the guy in the middle (back away); and shatter using Stone fist. Very cool to see enemies explode and extremely effective as well. You can expand this combo with other spells: My favorite strategy is to get in the middle of a fry; use Force Field on myself; this will get all the enemies around me; Mind Blast the moment the Force Field wears off; move out of the centre; Freeze the lot; Walking Bomb; Shatter. You can add Hexes to further increase damage and you can use Crushing Prison as a backup if Stone Fist is somehow resisted.



I play solo btw; this strategy can be used with a team but you'll have to Force Field your tank instead of yourself to make it work. Be careful though; very high friendly fire risk.

[Valentyna]

Friendly fire tends to be a problem with any AoE n this game. Would it really have been THAT hard to design an AI that won't charge headlong into a blizzard, I wonder? Thats always been sort of my one concern about BioWare's RPGs, really. With the sole exception fo ME2 (where and squad commands are so simple and easy to sue you can easily control your party manually from your own hotbar without having to pause if you're skilled), I am required to be pausing the game every 3 seconds or so (more or less literally) in order to micromanage my allies positions, and targets, and ability use, or else I might as well not bring them along at all (which is obviously one option, I guess, as you say). If I wanted that sort of stop-and-go nonsense, I'd go play something turn based. Is there some trick, I wonder, to getting the Hold command to actually work?



Anyhoo, taking ever elemental skill up to 3 sounds like a major investment of points for the early game. It might come to that eventually, I suppose, but for now I'm mostly wanting to focus on one particular offensive tactic so I can get it set up as quickly as possible and focus on picking up some healing and CC afterwards.



Sounds like you're recommending PS, Bozorgmehr. I do think the shatter/WB idea sounds like lots of fun, but thats closer than I generally want to be to the sharp pointy things. I'm old-fashioned and silly. I like range.

[Liliandra Nadiar]

Only problem with the shatter/WB is that later game (at least until the final onslaught) things start to resist it. And the Aoe will almost certainly catch at least someone who runs by. >.<

[Bozorgmehr]

Valentyna wrote...

Sounds like you're recommending PS, Bozorgmehr. I do think the shatter/WB idea sounds like lots of fun, but thats closer than I generally want to be to the sharp pointy things. I'm old-fashioned and silly. I like range.

You don't have to be close; there are numerious ways to use the WB tactics. You can use traps (grease, claw, etc and my personal favorite: sleeping gas traps - you can setup the Sleep/Horror combo like this; usable to instakill low level enemies to trigger the WB effect). Spells can work equally well; the Glyph combo is great for this, but Mass Paralysis can do (almost the same); Earthquake will help etc etc.

All that's needed are a couple of closely packed enemies (don't forget archers, WBs are awesome against those goons) and something to disable them long enough to use WB and finish the target; how you do that is up to you.

Liliandra Nadiar wrote...

Only problem with the shatter/WB is that later game (at least until the final onslaught) things start to resist it. And the Aoe will almost certainly catch at least someone who runs by. >.<

The AoE is problematic; that's why I prefer doing this without companions, they just get in the way. Either by drawing enemies away or getting to close.

I never had trouble shattering enemies. Even my hybrid caster-AW mage (spellpower around 70, late-game, level 20-25) could easily shatter normal enemies. They resist it now and then, but there's always backup. Hexes are very effective, just put an Affliction Hex on someone nearby and spells are less likely resisted (and the explosion does more damage). Plus you can use VWB and Crushing Prison whenever WB and/or SF are resisted. Chances are slim one enemy will resist everything; that is of course, when used on the least powerful enemy around; you want that anyway coz it's the explosion you're looking for.

It's also a very cooldown friendly combo, both SF and CoC (I use them most of the time) are on very short cooldowns so even if things don't work the way you want, you can try again within 10 s or so. The CoC + double Hexes + SF combo works against Ogres too; the white ones are relatively easy victims, the yellow ones are much harder to shatter, but it works now and then, I never shattered an orange enemy though.

Modifié par Bozorgmehr, 13 novembre 2010 - 03:23 .

[Valentyna]

I meant that the combo your sugested with Cone of Cold wuld ahve required getting close. There are other things too, though, of course, that one could use, you're right.

[Elhanan]

I recently noticed that enemy mages are often encircled by their guards. So when I can find this set-up, I can cast WB/VWB + Mana Clash = *KA-BOOM*

[Mccoyn]

I personally use Grease Fireball and then Stinging Swarm, No real need for inferno, If anything Morrigan will cast chain lightning if you lucky

[Valentyna]

Mccoyn wrote...

I personally use Grease Fireball and then Stinging Swarm, No real need for inferno, If anything Morrigan will cast chain lightning if you lucky

And you find that works for you on Insanity?

[Mccoyn]

Most of the time yes, Stinging swarm seems to finish off what the grease fire started, course on Insane I use ranged Characters only

[Valentyna]

Hmm. I might give it a try jsut to be different, I suppose. Do you use Spellpower as well when alpha-striking?

[Mccoyn]

yeah, Trying it, It works and thing I like about the Swarm I jumps after it kills a enemy, Also if your a Range Caster I use Spellbloom as that keep my mana steady While casting

[Mccoyn]

Not sure how you are with setting tactics, but I let Morrigan cast chain lightning on 4 or more enemies,



Here's something really crazy that worked for me get morrigan up to 40 magic and then put everything else into Willpower, Then do the Flying Swarm Shapeshift and use her to engage as many enemies as you want

[Valentyna]

I kind of want Morrigan to be my designated support, actualy - healing and debuffing. She's too perfect a foil for my character not to have around, and it doens't seem like good sense to go with fully 3 magi in the party. Maybe if I decide to go the Arcane Warrior route I can afford to have Wyne too.

[ussnorway]

If you only have one caster then Perfect storm is the ace of aoe, no question!

Relying on Fire or Ice only will cause problems for you against some types of monsters with immunities. A lot of people like fire for the casting speed but my favourite element is lighting because nothing is immune to it and it drains mana.

[Liliandra Nadiar]

Shame it doesn't have a weapon enchantment like fire and ice.

[Valentyna]

Ultimately I've decided to do both, essentially. My character uses perfect storm. Morrigan has the fire tree (the rest of her spell picks are CC, debuffing, and spirit healing at the moment). As a rule I like the Ice/Lightning combination better, but Fireball is just incredibly useful when getting ambushed. At some point at the end of the build I'll probably pick it up on my main character too.



I'm expecting the blood mage AoE (the 14th levela bility, I think it is) to be pretty good too, though. No experience yet, but if I'm going to be all selling my soul to dark powers I had better get something fun to play with. XD

[Bozorgmehr]

Valentyna wrote...

I'm expecting the blood mage AoE (the 14th levela bility, I think it is) to be pretty good too, though. No experience yet, but if I'm going to be all selling my soul to dark powers I had better get something fun to play with. XD

Blood Wound is what you’re looking for. This is the most powerful crowd controlling spell in DAO. Very hard to resist, targets cannot move and take continues spirit damage. The problem with this spell is that you can only use it with Blood Magic activated (no more potion drinking) and the moment you turn it off, the effects of Blood Wound are immediately released.

[Liliandra Nadiar]

It's also line of sight, may or may not be an issue depending on play style, but I rather liked being able to cast around corners so to speak.

[termokanden]

That's why I consider Storm of the Century cheesy almost to the point of being a cheat. You need to cast it far away from yourself to avoid getting hit. But if you do, you can actually kill things out of your line of sight, enemies that can't actually see you or attack you. So you can clear many areas without even fighting.



It was also somewhat hilarious when I first faced the Archdemon with a mage. I cast Storm of the Century in phase 2 and then suddenly it was phase 3. I was playing on Normal at the time, but still!

[Valentyna]

Bozorgmehr wrote...

Valentyna wrote...

I'm expecting the blood mage AoE (the 14th levela bility, I think it is) to be pretty good too, though. No experience yet, but if I'm going to be all selling my soul to dark powers I had better get something fun to play with. XD

Blood Wound is what you’re looking for. This is the most powerful crowd controlling spell in DAO. Very hard to resist, targets cannot move and take continues spirit damage. The problem with this spell is that you can only use it with Blood Magic activated (no more potion drinking) and the moment you turn it off, the effects of Blood Wound are immediately released.

I knew there had to be a catch.  

Do you find its markedly better, though, than Waking Nightmare and its assorted predecessors as CC?  It would ahve to be awfully impressive to make up for a drawback like that.

[Valentyna]

termokanden wrote...

That's why I consider Storm of the Century cheesy almost to the point of being a cheat. You need to cast it far away from yourself to avoid getting hit. But if you do, you can actually kill things out of your line of sight, enemies that can't actually see you or attack you. So you can clear many areas without even fighting.

It was also somewhat hilarious when I first faced the Archdemon with a mage. I cast Storm of the Century in phase 2 and then suddenly it was phase 3. I was playing on Normal at the time, but still!

Inferno and Earthquake also do that.  I believe its an intended feature - that all of the elemental schools are /supposed/ to have an AoE that can shoot through walls (as both SotC and the two spells that make it up can).


EDIT: Also worth noting - can you really cheat at a single-player game?

Modifié par Valentyna, 18 novembre 2010 - 12:35 .

[Liliandra Nadiar]

Make/download some blatantly overpowered gear and you can. Of course the only one you're cheating is yourself.

[Valentyna]

Mmm, but thats my point - to be cheating, don't you have to be hurting someone else? ANyhoo, enough philosophy.



I'm kinda curious if Blood Wound is really all that. As far as I can tell its the whole point of going down the Blood Mage tree, but being forced to cast spells out of my health points doesn't sound like a very good idea unless it more or less wins every battle in the game single-handed. Now I'm trying to decide whether to stick with it, or just pick up some normal CC instead.