28 réponses à ce sujet

[USArmyParatrooper]

Just some observations

- Wearing armor you miss out on powerful buffs from the top robes - that are specific to mages. Many of those robes also add big bonuses to armor.

- A good robe coupled with rock armor and/or shimmering shield and strong Magic stats you can already build a very durable mage.

- Melee' attacks from an archane warrior isn't nearly as effective as a high level warrior or rogue.

This is what I observed after dabling in the subclass, but I've seen others say Arcane Warrior is (over) strength. So is there something I'm missing? 

[Eber]

Shimmering shield can be used with robes to make that very durable mage even more durable in hard times. If it's a solo playtrough, where your mage won't have others tanking for him, it's worth three skill points imo. When you're up against elite bosses that don't care much about your spells swapping into a sweet set of massive armor to boost your armor to 60-70 aint so bad either. I wouldn't change my staff with 100 % hit rate to a sword I can barely use though. I think that just reduces the dps.

[Elhanan]

* Wearing some armors offer both greater protections and Stamina & Mana regeneration. Cailan's arms & armor can make a great arcane armored mage, as well as Evon's and Wade's Superior heavy mail.

* Decent robes and some lighter armors work well, too. The Battledress DLC is quite sweet for casters.

* Melee attacks are much weaker in speed, attack, and occasionally dmg than the melee classes, but for myself, this is Plan B, C, etc.

[riversedge]

personal experience the arcane warrior is the way to go. your melee attacks do usually do more than an at lvl warrior (sword+shield). also you can find gear specific for arcane warrior such as the tier 6 long sword spellweaver

[termokanden]

Arcane Warrior tanks can be extremely hard to kill. I don't think they are the least bit interesting to play though.

You can also just use it to make an armored caster. That to me is a lot more fun and just makes pretty much all gear available to you. Ultimately the other gear isn't really better than the standard mage gear for pure casters, but it can be fun to use.

Modifié par termokanden, 07 janvier 2011 - 01:43 .

[ussnorway]

The advantage of armour over robes is that the enemy goes for the guy in armour first, that's good if you are tanking as a mage but bad if you are just a mage who happens to be in heavy armour... you decide.



For my money shapeshifter is the better tank because the bear is immune to the 'GRAB' attack of dragons (as well as spells like 'EARTHQUAKE') but arcane warrior can just pump magic like a normal mage without having to invest in str like the shapeshifter... play the one you enjoy!

[Arthur Cousland]

If anything, the arcane warrior spec is handy for shimmering shield. Nice armor bonus+elemental resistances makes a mage much harder to kill. That can also be cast along with arcane shield+rock armor.



Getting grabbed by dragons and ogres isn't a problem if someone in the party can stun or otherwise immobilize the dragon. Force field, scattershot, etc. are nice to have on hand for dragon fights.

[Last Darkness]

Keep in mind defense and armor are two seperate stats.



Arcane Warrior/Blood Mages are pretty much considred unkillable in the game right now.

[Aynslie]

My Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage ended up being the most powerful character I had made. I kept wondering why I even had a team with me. And this was on Hard, not normal or easy. A VERY deadly combination, just talking about it makes me want to play again...

[USArmyParatrooper]

Edit: Dupe

Modifié par USArmyParatrooper, 07 janvier 2011 - 07:42 .

[USArmyParatrooper]

What is it that makes Blood Mage so powerful?

When active it powers spells using your own health, which I have found to be a negative. Pop off a bunch of spells and you're flirting with death rather quickly, on top of the damage you're already receiving from a tough fight. This is especially problematic for mages since most people don't spend a lot of points on Constitution.

Blood: Literally sucks the life out of an ally to heal yourself. I've never used this because it doesn't seem productive to 'rob peter to give to paul', so to speak. Is this actually useful?

Blood Wound: *This* is actually a great spell and it's one of my favorites. If I have a blood mage in my party I usually turn on Blood Magic, pop off this spell, and then immediately turn it back off so save my health.

Blood Control: Loads of fun turning an enemy into an ally just for the cool factor. But while the enemy is an ally you can't attack him so you're going to have to deal with him eventually anyway. I consider this spell fun and useful, but not epic.

Am I just playing blood mages wrong, or just looking at them in the wrong way? I'm not being argumentative, but rather I'm interested in exploring other ideas to mix things up. 

[atheelogos]

dude Arcane Warrior is the way to go.

[Last Darkness]

USArmyParatrooper wrote...


What is it that makes Blood Mage so powerful?

When active it powers spells using your own health, which I have found to be a negative. Pop off a bunch of spells and you're flirting with death rather quickly, on top of the damage you're already receiving from a tough fight. This is especially problematic for mages since most people don't spend a lot of points on Constitution.

Blood: Literally sucks the life out of an ally to heal yourself. I've never used this because it doesn't seem productive to 'rob peter to give to paul', so to speak. Is this actually useful?

Blood Wound: *This* is actually a great spell and it's one of my favorites. If I have a blood mage in my party I usually turn on Blood Magic, pop off this spell, and then immediately turn it back off so save my health.

Blood Control: Loads of fun turning an enemy into an ally just for the cool factor. But while the enemy is an ally you can't attack him so you're going to have to deal with him eventually anyway. I consider this spell fun and useful, but not epic.

Am I just playing blood mages wrong, or just looking at them in the wrong way? I'm not being argumentative, but rather I'm interested in exploring other ideas to mix things up. 

Its because when in blood magic mode all your sustained spells, like Arcane Shield, Stone Armor, Miasma, Haste Etc are still taking from your mana pool instead of health so you can run as many sustained abilities as your total mana will allow. With Arcane Warrior this means you can max all your defenses to the point where your either taking no damage ever, or so small amounts of damage its not even worth noting. You can then cast spells with your health as needed.  Keep in mind all spells while in blood mode cost 40% less to cast and blood sacrifice will generaly restore 100+ health a use to you. Not to mention blood wound is the strongest spell in the entire game.

[Arthur Cousland]

You can use blood magic as a backup mana supply and then de-activate when mana is back to full. Generally, it's not a good idea to keep blood magic active all of the time, unless you are doing it for rp purposes.



Blood magic can let your mage go through the entire game (once unlocked and acquired), without using lyrium potions. It's quite a handy spec, even if used for the sole purpose of a secondary mana source.

[DragonOfWhiteThunder]

This, is of course, empirical data, so I may be Doing Things Wrong™ and all of it is invalid, but these are my observations after playing Arcane Warriors.



- Wearing +stamina regen armors is well worth the tradeoffs of not having the mage-specific gear. I can wear Cailan's arms and armor and actually recover mana while Shimmering Shield is active. So if I want, I can walk around with 57 armor and over 100 defense all day, and never have Shimmering Shield deactivate.



- My Arcane Warrior's melee damage exceeds anything the rest of my party dishes out. Granted, Alistair is a S&S Warrior, and Wynne a healer mage, but Leliana's critical arrows don't get nearly as high in damage as my AW's standard melee attack. This is Marjolaine's Recurve vs. Marric's Sword, if you're wondering. Leliana does hit a lot more often though.



- I find it fun to play a mage who isn't afraid to wade into melee.

[rwilli80]

The one thing I don't like about the Arcane Warrior is the fact the mage has to put its weapon away to cast a spell.. I mean why not channel the spell through the weapon like they do a staff.. or at the very least need to enchant the weapon to do that. It takes up time putting the weapon away, casting spell, then pulling it back out when you want to hack at something.

[Elhanan]

rwilli80 wrote...

The one thing I don't like about the Arcane Warrior is the fact the mage has to put its weapon away to cast a spell.. I mean why not channel the spell through the weapon like they do a staff.. or at the very least need to enchant the weapon to do that. It takes up time putting the weapon away, casting spell, then pulling it back out when you want to hack at something.

Or the mage can continue to wield a staff, and pull a sword and/or shield when they are relly desired.

[abaris]

rwilli80 wrote...

The one thing I don't like about the Arcane Warrior is the fact the mage has to put its weapon away to cast a spell.. I mean why not channel the spell through the weapon like they do a staff.. or at the very least need to enchant the weapon to do that. It takes up time putting the weapon away, casting spell, then pulling it back out when you want to hack at something.

Right, that's more than just a bit annoying. Makes me feel as if I had the worst of both worlds. A warrior, not very competent with the blade and a mage taking ages to unleash a needed spell.

[termokanden]

And indeed that is exactly what an arcane warrior is. But don't forget that at the same time they are nearly invulnerable.



I think they could make Arcane Warriors more fun instead of just cheesy. These are my suggestions:



1. Nerf the defenses of Arcane Warriors a bit.

2. Include proper attack rate scaling from Magic.

3. Include one or two special attacks that are part physical, part magical just to make Arcane Warriors a bit less about autoattack.

[13Dannyboy13]

rwilli80 wrote...

The one thing I don't like about the Arcane Warrior is the fact the mage has to put its weapon away to cast a spell.. I mean why not channel the spell through the weapon like they do a staff.. or at the very least need to enchant the weapon to do that. It takes up time putting the weapon away, casting spell, then pulling it back out when you want to hack at something.

I ran across an interesting page a long time ago when I first made an AW, it lists all the spells and which are usable without having to sheathe your weapon.dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Arcane_Warrior_Spellcasting I also hated having to put away a weapon to cast, which is unavoidable if you want to use some of the more powerful spells. I loved my AW/BM, I will admit though auto-attack gets a bit boring, but overall AW can be quite fun to play.

[ussnorway]

termokanden wrote...

And indeed that is exactly what an arcane warrior is. But don't forget that at the same time they are nearly invulnerable.

I think they could make Arcane Warriors more fun instead of just cheesy. These are my suggestions:

1. Nerf the defenses of Arcane Warriors a bit.
2. Include proper attack rate scaling from Magic.
3. Include one or two special attacks that are part physical, part magical just to make Arcane Warriors a bit less about autoattack.

If you do number 1 & 3 then you will end up with a shapeshifter.

[White_Buffalo94]

I've always found that Arcane Warriors are weak until about level 15ish. In every Arcane Warrior I have played it has been that way, but they become massive powerhouses and are easily capable of soloing a nightmare run.

[nikki191]

the arcane warrior specialisation did raise an interesting question for me.. As an elven created group of mage/warriors how many tevinters did they take out before they were finally overcome.

[Elhanan]

nikki191 wrote...

the arcane warrior specialisation did raise an interesting question for me.. As an elven created group of mage/warriors how many tevinters did they take out before they were finally overcome.

Few? Tevinters have Mana Clash?

[Last Darkness]

Elhanan wrote...

nikki191 wrote...

the arcane warrior specialisation did raise an interesting question for me.. As an elven created group of mage/warriors how many tevinters did they take out before they were finally overcome.

Few? Tevinters have Mana Clash?

Thats funny


I hope they include enemies like this in DA2, it would have been intrsting to run into a hardcore Arcane Warrior in DA instead of the weak one.