195 réponses à ce sujet

[Irish Porkchopp]

mr_afk wrote...

Glad you like them! This new setup I'm using is making fights the easiest I've ever experienced.The only real issue will be rage demons/shades but I think I'll be able to manage..

What do you think makes it easier?

mr_afk wrote...

As for the walking bomb - I haven't tried out the non-virulent version tbh, but virulent WB is pretty amazing if you throw it into clusters of disoriented enemies. If i'm not wrong, I think that the 'infection' happens instantaneously such that it causes a chain reaction much like a chain lightning (but with smaller jumps and higher damage) due to the way that explosions will trigger another explosion etc.
So I think upgrading it to virulent will increase the overall explosion radius and damage which is useful.

In general I suppose if you're just using it for the initial explosion it won't make much difference. But in several fights (which I unfortunately didn't record) I've managed pull lots of enemies on top of the boss, disorient the group, and virulently explode all of them such that the boss in the middle of the cluster got blown to death by all those smaller explosions. 
If you're skilled, the other way to do it would be to walking bomb the boss and blow it up as it has the highest hp and thus will make the biggest explosion - but I don't have enough spike damage (without CCCs) to pull that off so I prefer my method.

That's interesting, I thought it only had a small chance to re-infect after the initial one exploded.
Okay, so the description of Virulent WB reads:
When a victim of Walking Bomb explodes, it can now infect nearby enemies with the same effect.

Spirit damage: 200% vs. nearby targets upon explosion if victim is DISORIENTED

Physical force: 200% vs. nearby targets upon explosion if victim is DISORIENTED
Walking Bomb infection chance: 20% vs. nearby targets

This implies that it will only reinfect upon explosion.  But I think we all have experience with misleading talent/spell descriptions so I'd like to know how it actually works in-game.  Another interesting thing is the extra damage vs disoriented - it has great synergy with a disorienting setup.  I didn't pay much attention to this on my 1st playthrough because I never was able to get anything disoriented (using Varric).  Now that disorient works, this seems like an awesome CCC!  Corrosive WB also has a 200% spirit damage if victim is disoriented.  I'm guessing this refers to the corrosive damage to the original victim.  Both of these upgrades are much more powerful when using disorient, with spirit mastery-even better.  Now I have to go play my mage!

mr_afk wrote...

And yeah, death syphon is pretty useless for me and my wrist cutting cronies but I still need to get it.
I am tempted to get and upgrade dispel - it's really under-rated by everyone but it does have its uses such as interrupting mages/getting free damage off commanders. Spirit mastery is such a pain to get...

I like death siphon, I haven't messed with blood magic yet, so it's useful.  I've only used dispel on Merrill via tactics.  But I think the 'enemy has a buff' condition is bugged because I've never seen her cast it.  I've only manually cast it against big bosses like Hybris- and it saves a lot of grief in that case.

mr_afk wrote...

Anyway, are there any other fights (besides the gauntlet and xebenkeck) in act 2 whcih you think I should record?
And don't worry, I'll probably record that spider one, just for you 

HA! yeah, I asked for that just to poke at AreleX's arachniphobia- while playing innocent.  So make sure you post that video to his threads

One battle I woul like to see is the Golem one in the Deep Roads for the Fool's Gold quest - if that is unlocked for you.  It depends on your import file if it appears or not.  Otherwise, whatever you'd like to show off is fun to watch for me  Good luck with Xerbenjerk.

[mr_afk]

Unfortunately I do not actually believe spirit mastery/+%spirit dmg or even critical chance will affect the walking bomb damage. To quote IN1:
"Walking Bomb's explosion cannot crit, as far as I can judge. It is considered an independent damage source and, as such, is unaffected by any modifiers except victim's hp."

But yes, it does a lot more dmg with disoriented enemies so clustering them and disorientating the group goes a long way to making them all explode.

As for the infection chance, I took it to mean that one in every five enemies affected by the explosion would be infected - and when the infected enemy blows up (even due to the damage of the original explosion) another one in five enemies would be infected --> causing a nuclear-esque chain reaction type of explosion.
Of course I may be wrong - as it's hard to measure whether the people getting blown up are also blowing other people up if that makes sense. I know that it definitely works though, as I've seen a lucky enemy escape the initial blast but be infected with that lighted fuse thing - then go on to explode (so maybe not so lucky haha).
Either case it's definitely worth upgrading in my books as it will double the explosion damage.

I almost exclusively use bloodmagic as haemorrhage is my only decent spike damage spell on hawke atm. It sorta makes it slightly boring (sit there spamming spirit bolts and staff attacks) but I suppose it works. Haven't really used death syphon before- I just know that it doesn't work with blood magic which means it's pretty useless. I guess I could incorporate it into a minor healing strategy where I run over to dead people and deactivate bloodmagic (and death syphon already activated) - This could allow me to return to the fight mana-wise (regaining part of the 50% taken up by bloodmagic) as well as healing me.
On that note, I've decided against getting dispel and will probably just get and upgrade death syphon on my route to spirit mastery.

Haha anyway I just did that spider fight - definitely not a tough fight. Pretty much just auto-attacked and spirit bolted my way through it without losing any health. Didn't require any special tactics or anything. I'll subtly slip it into my next compilation and post it on the tutorial thread ahaha
Only problem is that Arelex seems to not watch my vids... :/

I actually can't do the fool's gold quest. Get to find Nathaniel instead. Anyway, I'll probably attempt Xebenkeck soonish. Want to hit the next level first so I can upgrade my chain lightning - atm so many staggers are going to waste!

Hmm.. as for what makes things easier.... I'd say it's having Aveline and Merrill on the party instead of Fenris and Anders. Aveline and Merrill are heaps more durable and seem to do less stupid things. Additionally I've been getting pretty good teamwork out of this combination CCC-wise.

I am starting to think that Aveline actually does more damage than Fenris ever did, and Merrill's fully developed primal school is pretty awesome. I'm even starting to appreciate petrify!
Varric is still pretty suicidal but at least with less fragile companions I only need to focus on hauling one person's ass out of trouble. haha
If all goes well I'll have a mage version of the gauntlet up soon.

Modifié par mr_afk, 07 mai 2011 - 09:06 .

[DW2511]

Nice vids, AFK! Nothing like a good shower of gore!

Bit of a relevant question, is Blood Slave's damage the same as WB, full enemy hp?

[mr_afk]

Haha thanks!
Umm I'm not too sure actually. I did a quick google search and didn't come up with anything either. I suppose nobody has tested it yet - I'll go and try it out now.

Btw, I'll add fix up that information about what other gear to get for a tank mage soon. I've edited up most of it so it's nice and shiny with lots of llamas hahaha

Modifié par mr_afk, 07 mai 2011 - 04:43 .

[DW2511]

Cool. BTW, since your guide is so analytical, you might want to add under your GR description that the optimal way to cast it is to select a specific target you want to lockdown and then cast it, since it auto-centers aroung your target. I'm sure the vast majority is aware but you'd be surprised at how many people I've seen just eyeballing it.

Your crit mage guide has also given me the idea to try out a Rogue Armor crit Warrior, semi-glass cannon too... I swear, you're a bad influence, lol!

[mr_afk]

Still haven't tested blood splatter yet
Ran out of random critters to test out things on. But here's a new video for you to watch instead

Haha anyway, I guess I could add that in.. It's not necessarily the best thing to do especially when dealing with moving targets or groups though. I find that sometimes aiming a little bit in front of where they're moving (due to the slight delay in cast time) actually works better - unless they're not moving of course.

Well I would call that a good influence actually.
When you discover the joys of killing enemies really fast with flashy big numbers you'll see what I mean haha. As for a rogue armour crit-Warrior I suppose that could work. I think you'll find the same problem that my rogue-armoured crit-mage found; There's simply not enough good rogue armour available to non-rogue classes. And you already have fenris for a crit-machine..

But yeah, I think that equipping loads of +crit dmg/chance items like what I'm going to do with my mage should also work with a warrior. might be a little tougher to pull off a glass-cannon warrior though (unless you're IN1) as warriors tend to draw lots of threat and get hit a lot haha.

Well goodluck! I'll check out blood slave etc. soonish. Feeling a bit sleep deprived so might go crash for a little bit.

[DW2511]

Yeah, I was talking about knowing the exact epicentre of GR, and going from there.

My definition of glass cannon includes a minimum threshold of 275hp,lol.

[mr_afk]

Ah, fair enough. I would have thought it was quite obvious but sure.
And how is that a glass cannon build?! haha that's more tank than my Aveline!!

Anyway, it seems like my thread has some stars!
Was going to wait till it was complete/a proper guide first but seems like someone jumped the gun haha.

Well here's a new compilation from end of act 2 qunari fights.
Explosions and the Arishok
Not exactly a proper demonstration of my build it's basically a bit of fire-works/mucking around with my video procoessing software and the method I opted to use in the Arishok duel. Don't think I did the song justice but I can't think of anything else I could put to that music.


Anyway, now that I'm in act 3 i'll have some random critters to test out the walking bomb/blood splatter damage. Sorry for the huge delay in testing it, just been so busy wasting time 

Modifié par mr_afk, 10 mai 2011 - 05:16 .

[mr_afk]

Act3 Crit-Mage Compilation
A few fights with my rogue-armoured late-game mage. In this videos I was missing one of the rings I had planned to get as it was only available in act 2 and I couldn't afford it -

But the good news is that I remembered that I had forgotten about act 2 sundermount so reloaded an old save, killed an old loner and his bony friends and managed to scrounge up just enough gold from all those fetch quests to get the puzzle ring of the black fox! Success!

I no longer think that the ~12 sovereigns from accumulating hundreds of potions and injury kits isn't worth the effort.

Anyway, I'll update my stats/build later as well as potentially speed running any act3 fights worth speed running

[Mr_Raider]

How do you itemize your crit mage after Act 2. There just isn't any decent medium armor accessible to non rogues at high levels. Should I just switch to the Malcolm's Bequest or something? Or am I doomed to roll with the Flint COmpany armor for ever.

[mr_afk]

lol, are you following this guide?
Maybe I should finish it up- I might take a look at recording a proper act3 compilation (with full crit-gear and spirit mastery) to demonstrate this build properly.

Anyway, I ended up opting for the stalker's boar hide for pretty much the entire game. While the flint company armour looks nice it isn't quite as good damage-wise. But yeah, if you want crits you'll be stuck in act1 armour for the whole game (and the dlc for hood, gloves and boots) which makes things fun armour-rating wise.

Using malcolm's request is a viable option for middle game (some calcs I did suggest that pure magic performs better dps-wise despite less crits) but if you like seeing crits you'll probably have to stick with the stalker's boar hides - its increase to crit chance and damage is the best of all the non-rogue pieces in the game. Using malcolm's bequest actually significantly reduces the steady hum of a controller (crits) so it really reduces the fun of playing this build.

hmm what can I say, you'll be a true glass-cannon! haha. if you don't get hit much you should be fine..


The main part of the build actually would be the accessories- I've tried making a crit-warrior based on similar principles and it's working (and a lot more effectively at that).
For a mage it's a little trickier, as you don't have as easy access to crit chance/damage-boosting abilities; Also, there's not as much point boosting crit chance via accessories when the crit damage will remain low (if you don't equip stalker's).

Anyway, i'll look into my mage playthrough sometime later and see how the generic rogue armour is act3. I think I may have come across some generic +crit damage items so it might be worth it to get those late game (unless their requirements are too high/don't give enough crit damage)

[Cody]

I hope you finish this guide someday ..

[mr_afk]

lol, I didn't know anyone was really following it.
I'll update it + see about recording a post-patch vid; just for you. My hand is hurting from too much mouse clicking (playing torchlight) so maybe it's a good thing to take a break and play some DA2

[mesmerizedish]

I wouldn't say I'm "following" this per se, but I *am* interested in it. I don't put much effort into min-maxing, but I do try to abide by general guidelines, and an armored blood mage build is certainly something that interests me.

[mr_afk]

Anything for you, ishmaeltheforsaken.

Actually, maybe not. 
Haha I'm not really doing a warrior armoured blood-mage though if that's what you mean-
My late-game build was a rogue-armoured (glass-cannon) crit-mage. All I was doing was compiling some other people's experiences on tank-mages- I like seeing big numbers too much to ever do a late-game armoured mage.

An early-game armoured mage (my original guide) was rendered somewhat redundant by the changes to knock-back, and late-game armoured mages are almost never going to be optimised for damage.

But I think there is only two main guidelines though:
 - Spec into Bloodmage
 - Get the Helm of a Thousand Battles

Bascially, pump enough con and strength (using as much prebuffing as possible) to equip that helmet and you'll have +14% damage resistance and immunity to critical hits. That's the core basis for an armoured mage as that helmet alone provides lots of durability. The con also provides the casting mana pool.

After that, since you already have the prequisites for warrior armour the general idea was to get +health armour to get even more durable. With the changes from the patch it is a lot easier to equip mage gear, but it may be still worth it to get +health gear and have a really powerful One Foot In.

I haven't really tested anything related to late-game armoured mages so I can't really say much on it though, sorry.
I'll probably be updating it for a crit-mage I suppose.

I still haven't worked up the motivation to turn on my xbox but maybe tomorrow..

[thendcomes]

 How do you supplement the mage's attack rating when you're spending points on attributes other than magic?  Especially at early levels.

[mr_afk]

This is a mostly pure magic build. At least until very late game.

I haven't really updated it (still can't be bothered playing DA2) but overall it's basically involves investing lots of money on four accessories:
Etched Ring of the Twins, Puzzle Ring of the Black Fox, Seven Deadly Cinch, Four-Fingered Eddie's Lucky Talisman.

In addition I generally equip the stalker's boar hides (best non-rogue restricted crit armour). Together this provides the critical chance and critical damage that makes this a 'crit-mage'- and there's no need to pump any cunning or dexterity when the +attributes from the accessories keeps you above the low act1 requirements.

So basically we have a pure magic build (with maybe some points into con) and a crit chance around 70-80% and a crit damage around 90-100%. This means that it crits quite often and due to the really high base damage it'll crit pretty hard (crit better than a cunning build anyway).
Thus attack ratings are a non-issue. That said, early game my crit-mage build is a lot more...iffy.

I usually completely ignore crit damage/chance and just head down the more typical high magic mage route, at least until act 2 anyway. As you probably can tell from the guide, I used a blood dragon armoured mage for pre-unshakeable for that run, and my recent attempt at another post-patch mage run ended pretty fast (didn't get past recruiting anders). When I respecced into a crit-mage I only pumped enough dex/cun to fit the requirements for the stalker's boar armour.
This is because early-game all the non-elemental robes suck (e.g. I wasn't using fire) and that crit chance and crit damage helps a lot in getting the occasional crit (so is worth the small investment).

i've never had problems with attack-ratings on any of my play-throughs simply because I play glass cannons and damage-wise it almost always better to pump base-attribute.

Well hopefully this answers your question coherently, randomly woke up in the middle of the night and am typing this while half asleep hahaha

Modifié par mr_afk, 18 juin 2011 - 07:07 .

[thendcomes]

LOL thanks for the mid-night response. I kind of was asking for my solo mage. Since you are completely reliant on staff damage for combat for all of Act 1, attack rating is THE most important stat. I remember from my WoW days that one percentage point of hit chance is much more valuable than crit chance (or crit damage). I realize that spells don't benefit from attack rating, but it's not enough to tip the scales.

Now that my attack rating is 100% in Act 2 without heroic aura, I'm looking at other ways to improve damage. Mage itemization is so terrible in general, that now in Act 2 I was preparing to gear for crit and crit damage.

The reason I asked at first was because I thought I should be pumping points in dex versus magic, but you've confirmed that isn't the case.

[Integrity]

Just verifying, does this require the fast RoF start to get all the required items?

[thendcomes]

There's no reason not to start Act 1 by getting the Rune of Fortune design, but no it shouldn't. The amount of bonus gold you can make in Act 1 is relatively small. Act 2 and Act 3 are where it makes the most difference.

[mr_afk]

Yep, you need RoFs. You'll be hard pressed to make the cut-off for all the tomes and two 80+ items at act2 if you spend too much on maker's sighs etc (what happened with my mage) but in my elemental crit-S&S playthrough I managed to get all the money pretty easily (30+ gold to spare).

Not sure what the deal is with that.. I think it may be linked to the way that certain drops (like xebenkeck) seem to range from 0g to 7+g :/

[Integrity]

- and will I be able to fund my own expedition?

[mr_afk]

Yep, it makes no difference if you fund it or not (as you get back the money)- and most of the money you will spending will be in act2. Act1 the only purchases I made were for tomes etc.

[Integrity]

Alright! Well, then, short of a "at the end of the game you should wear x, have stats of x, have either build x, x, or x, and... why couldn't you play the game without me holding your hand?" your guide looks complete. Thanks for the concept, I've enjoyed reading and researching it, and hope to start trying to play it in the near future.

Do note, the joke after the ellipsis wasn't an indication not to make the aforementioned statements, but rather as a touch of humor to how I can sometimes be to these threads. I don't want to do something common, so I look for interesting ideas like this one, and then seek to mimic them (in part or entirety) and thus diminish their uniqueness. Oh well, its still better than pumping magic, wearing robes, and using Firestorm like is so glaringly obvious. I wish that companies would learn that variety is the spice of life.

Modifié par Integrity, 20 juin 2011 - 07:45 .

[AreleX]

Integrity wrote...

Alright! Well, then, short of a "at the end of the game you should wear x, have stats of x, have either build x, x, or x, and... why couldn't you play the game without me holding your hand?" your guide looks complete. Thanks for the concept, I've enjoyed reading and researching it, and hope to start trying to play it in the near future.

Do note, the joke after the ellipsis as an indication not to make the aforementioned statements, but rather as a touch of humor to how I can sometimes be to these threads. I don't want to do something common, so I look for interesting ideas like this one, and then seek to mimic them (in part or entirety) and thus diminish their uniqueness. Oh well, its still better than pumping magic, wearing robes, and using Firestorm like is so glaringly obvious. I wish that companies would learn that variety is the spice of life.

BAN THIS HERETIC AND THEIR BLASPHEMOUS WORDS AGAINST FIRESTORM

EACH POST IS A SLAP IN THE FACE