So it would seem that a battlemage is... fairly difficult at this
juncture. With all the spec talents in, we can finally build a
semi-complete list of skills. Anyway, here's my list of potential mage
defensive buffs:
Sustained:Defense:Self:Arcane Shield (+20%, -20% mana)
Heroic Aura (+8%, -20% mana)
Others:Battle Synergy (+15-20%*, warrior's Battlemaster tree)
Damage resist:Self:
Rock Armor** (+25%, -10% mana)
Others:Battle Synergy (+9-12%*, warrior's Battlemaster tree)
*Battle Synergy says 5%/3% per companion to all companions, but it doesn't specify whether the battlemaster himself counts.
**Rock
Armor peculiarly references Armor instead of Damage Resist, and
Galvanism isn't terribly specific on how it buffs Rock Armor either. It
could be an effective total of 31.25% additional armor (seems like the
most likely event), but it's hard to tell at this point. We'll just have
to see it in action.
Activated:Rally (+15% defense, 10s duration, 30s CD, warrior's Battlemaster tree w/ Turn the Blade from Defender tree)
Barrier (+100% DR, 6s duration, 30s CD, mage's arcane tree)
Finally,
it should be noted that Rock Armor is the only mage buff that doesn't
apply to the whole party. That is to say, mages are pretty solidly kept
away from being able to build a melee mage. Rock Armor may give the mage
armor level similar to a rogue or even a warrior's, but he will lack
any defensive abilities beyond that. Compare that to a rogue's ability
to add 40-60% defense with duelist or the monster damage resist and
defense available through the defender and W&S trees. Hexes may give
some momentary benefit by decreasing enemy attack, but it cannot be
kept up all the time: each can only be kept up 1/3rd of the time.
Staggered enemies also get -25% attack, and Rally can be kept up 1/3rd
of the time, but it's all very tentative, and the bonuses affect the
whole party equally (i.e. the mage will still be the easiest to kill,
the opponent will just be less able to kill any of them).
If the
mage adds an undue amount of cunning, he could feasibly achieve over a
50% dodge rate without being utterly gimped in terms of damage (well, at
least I hope), so he may be at least able to stand on his own without
getting his face removed in one second (like the Q&A magehawke), but
I find it pretty unlikely that a mage can ever even survive an attack
from a single elite, let alone a boss. Barring some miraculous bonus
from a character's unique tree, the untouchable Arcane Warrior Anders
from Awakening is now going to be a pathetic punching bag (and an
obnoxious bisexual emo, if reports are true, but that's neither here nor
there).
This depends, of course, on the armor options, but I find
it highly unlikely that you will be able to wear heavier armor at all,
let alone without gimping the hell out of your build. Most items found in the demo seem to be class-specific, so I don't expect
any way to wear a suit of plates.
//EDIT: Wow, what happened to the formatting? Well, whatever.
Modifié par Gamemako, 07 mars 2011 - 11:29 .
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