7 réponses à ce sujet

[LeBurns]

I played through the game once with a mage.  About the only spells I picked were the Primal Spells and a few healing spells.  Why, well because they were real easy to understand.  Fireball, Cone of Cold, Stone Skin, pretty easy to figure out.

I saw the achievements for learning some of the other spell groups, and I'm really bored so I figured why not try them out.

Well those other spell groups seem really difficult to understand and to find a practical use for.  Sure I loved Morrigan's spell where she stuns the whole crowd of enemies, but many of the others just seem way to specialzed to a very specific combat situation.  When you are just getting swarmed by Darkspawn most of those are not very useful.  I recall two battles I was in where Morrigan was the only one left standing.  She had a terrible time just trying to kill a few darkspawn.  In one of those times she was battling a Desire Demon that was immune to the staff blast, so she had to cast lightning (a primal spell), wait for it to cool down, cast it again, repeat, as it was the only thing she had that could hurt the thing.  I just don't want my mage to get stuck in situations like that.

Other than the Primals and a few healing spells what group (if I'm to learn the whole group) would be easiest to use and has the most useful spells (and what are they).  Also what specializations would work well with those spells?

Thanks!

[Absarka]

Entropy has quite a good mix between individual targets and crowd control. You can weaken enemies, lower their resistances to spells/elements, cause them to take continual damage and paralyze them. Though I prefer Paralysis Explosion (Glyph of Repulsion + Glyph of Paralysis from the Creation tree) to Mass Paralysis because those two spells don't take as long to cast.

As far as I remember Sleep + Horror or Waking Nightmare are quite decent for when you encounter groups of darkspawn.

Other than Primal (and Entropy for Morrigan, so no achievement for that) I've only gone for specific spells within the other groups so maybe someone else will elaborate on them

Modifié par Absarka, 20 juillet 2011 - 11:54 .

[IceStorm]

It depends on your play style which spell you should use. I build my mage where he could fight one on one (Arcane Warrior) and support (Spirit Healer). I guessing you know the shatter ability b/c you use cone of cold. Some good spells that I like are, Death Magic, Spell Might, Drain Life, Tempest, Blizzard, Walking Bomb, Crushing Prison… I like them all . Try Using Tempest+ Blizzard+ Spell Might at once. There are a lot of combinations you can do.

[TBastian]

Primal is easiest to use, followed by Creation and Entropy (these two are very similar, except you cast Creation spells on your allies and Entropy spells on your enemies). Spirit spells are the hardest to use but a lot of them have great tactical value. The last group, Arcane, is great for Arcane Shield and rounds off any mage quite nicely.
Primal -> Fireball, Flame Blast, Shock, Cone of Cold, Rock Armor. Honorable mentions: Petrify and the AoE persistent spells (eg. Inferno, Blizzard)
Creation -> Heal (the first spell) and the Glyphs
Entropy -> Mass Paralyze, Sleep, the Hexes
Spirit -> Force Field, Mana Clash, Spirit Shield (a one point wonder that offers protection against the likes of Crushing Prison)

Some people pick their spells based on their specializations, while some pick their specializations based on the spells they've picked. If you mean the latter, then Primal ->Shapeshifter, Entropy ->Bloodmage, Creation -> Spirit Healer, Spirit -> Arcane Warrior.

BTW, each staff in the game comes with a default elemental/non elemental attack type. Knowing what this is might help you gauge the resistances or determine what immunities your target has (just check the item description).

[LeBurns]

Another thing I'm noting that seems to make the Primal spells so easy is all the items that buff their damage. There are plenty of items that buff fire damge, cold damage, etc. I can't find any item that increases the duration of Horror. You get the right belt, staff, boots, rings and you can nearly increase your fire or cold damage by 50%. That's huge.

But I want to try the challenge of using another school of spells. Just finding the right one with enough real offence and defence would be nice.

[mosesofwar]

I like offensive nukers. Storm of the Century = Owned. If you have a full ranged party (Morrigan, Wynne and Shale are awesome for pure Damage), have your NPCs CC while you SoC the group and give the puny monsters a GG sign.

Blood Magic and Spirit Healer are my personal faves, as Allistair owns as a standard W & S tank and Blood Magic is just oh so fun. Arcane Warrior can dominate as a tank, but I just hate the added casting time - Put Weapon Away, cast, take weapon back out. But then again, I like pure offense; I figure the quicker you can kill whatever is in front of you, the less you have to deal with being hit.

I like the Primal Tree, minus Stone (Use NPCs for Petrify/Shatter)
Creation: Heal, Wisp
Spirit Tree: Mana Line all the way through Mana Clash and Animate Dead
Entropy: Hexes through Death Hex

All Blood Mage
Group Heal in Spirit Healer

Add anything else you think you might like to use, Glyphs are nice

Modifié par mosesofwar, 21 juillet 2011 - 04:48 .

[TBastian]

There are lots of items that boost Spirit damage, which is the type of damage that almost every other non-Primal nuke does. No items boost the effectiveness of disables like Horror. The reason might be because a disabled opponent is, for all intents and purposes, a sitting duck. These spells were never meant to do anything besides keep a monster incapacitated while your 200+ damage-per -swing two-handed weapons warrior does his job. Certain spells like the Hexes and Haste also improve your DPS significantly, just not directly.
Note that most disables are spellpower-dependent though, and you'll need high spellpower to overcome a monster's physical/mental resistance. With luck the spell will also go through the target's spell resistance in nightmare mode.

Modifié par TBastian, 21 juillet 2011 - 07:47 .

[Absarka]

No, you can't increase the duration of the spells, but Curse of Mortality, Horror (when used in conjunction with Sleep) and Death Cloud inflict spirit damage, and as TBastian said, you can raise the output of that damage, much like you did with the Primal spells (the exception being that there's no spell to add spirit damage to weapons). Vulnerability/Affliction Hexes can also help to cut through an enemy's resistance.

Offhand, items that increase spirit damage are Black Hand Gauntlets (+20% spirit damage) and Dreamsever (+10% spirit damage), though there are others, I believe, that give lower bonuses. There's also Staff of the Magister Lord which gives a bonus to spellpower and spirit damage.

It's true you probably won't be able to take out groups with the spells alone, but the more you increase your damage output from them the easier it will be for your warriors/rogues to take the enemies on.