17 réponses à ce sujet

[Colma]

This guy is pretty much the polar opposite of my last build post, spanked nightmare with it so I thought I would share it since there seem to be a lot of mage posts/questions.

Mage->Blood Mage->Spirit Healer
Spirit healer was mostly for the +2 magic and health regen.

Skills: (level 20 with 4 arcane skill books)
Mage
Arcane Bolt
Arcane Shield
Staff Focus
Arcane Mastery

Spirit Healer
Group Heal

Blood Mage
Blood Magic
Blood Sacrifice
Blood Wound

Power of Blood (Wardens Keep DLC)
Dark Sustenance
Bloody Grasp

Primal
Flame Blast
Flame Weapons
Fireball
Rock Armor
Winters Grasp
Frost Weapons
Cone of Cold

Creation
Spell Wisp

Spirit
Spell Shield
Mana Drain
Mana Clense
Spell Might
Mind Blast

Entropy
Disoreint
Horror
Sleep


The buffs I kept on all the time were spell wisp, spell might and rock armor which gave my mage armor in the high 20's and spell power 100+ endgame.

Gear (I don't know if this is the best setup or not, its just what I used)
Staff of the Magister Lord
Robes of Avernus (Wardens Keep DLC)
Andruil's Blessing
The Spellward
Lifegiver
Ring of Ages
-various gloves/boots/hats


With this gear the mana regen penalty of spell might is offset, and most battles don't last long enough for it to matter before you get all this good gear anyway.

Basic strategy was to throw a fireball, hit the enemies with blood wound, then mop up with winter's grasp and cone of cold. If the mobs where immune to blood magic or resistant to cold damage then they would get sleep, horror and bloody grasp (which does very decent damage for about 20 hp) from my character and morrigan who I turned into a spirit healer.
I ignored the mass paralysis line because of its cast time, and with morrigan in my party all the time I had the use of 2 sleep spells per fight (since she starts with points in that tree), which was more  than enough crowd control ability,

One thing to note is I would only turn blood magic on to cast blood wound, then turn it off (It does not need to be acitvated to use bloody grasp). So I threw about 12 points into constitution and put the rest into magic and willpower. Reason for this is on my AW/BM build it had the huge armor value to make the constant blood magic use survivable. This guy is squishy by comparison so for nightmare difficulty I thought this would be my best bet on staying alive, and got me through the game with 3 injuries for my main character.

Morrigan was a great ally which I spec'd with the hex line, curse of mortality line, crushing prison line and all the healing spells after making her a spirit healer. I changed out my other party members a bit, they were just meat shields anyway.

And this is a nightmare build so I ignored most of the direct damage AoE spells.

[Takrandro]

very nice! just why did u get mana cleanse? that much dispelling u needed to do?

[Colma]

You have to get it to access spell might if I remember right, I don't think I ever used it.



68% of my party's damage when I finished the game with this one haha.

[Tyrax Lightning]

How interesting was party interaction having a 'divine' & a 'villainous' Specialization at the same time? I've pondered on doin somethin like this, but dunno if I would be compatible with it. I'm far more compatible with carnage then ally support for my role.

Though, i've considered similar to others on this forum of a SH/AW to simulate a Paladinish character. It could be a spiffy combo, because the weapon power from AW would give the character damage that SH's lack.

[Takrandro]

as said before, specializations don't matter to your companions, but personally i'd would have loved the idea of a 4th base class like a priest or something, since being a mage and able to spell massive healing spells beside mass elemental destruction just does't feel right somehow, a little heal, ok, but this much? na.

i personally would love to see a 2nd mage origin, like beginning as an apostate, just to see how that would be(and couse i hate the sterile mage towers..)

[Colma]

Yeah your companions never say anything about what classes you are, or what classes you make them. Turn Wynne into a blood mage or Alistair into a reaver and the story doesn't change.

[Tyrax Lightning]

Takrandro wrote...

as said before, specializations don't matter to your companions, but personally i'd would have loved the idea of a 4th base class like a priest or something, since being a mage and able to spell massive healing spells beside mass elemental destruction just does't feel right somehow, a little heal, ok, but this much? na.
i personally would love to see a 2nd mage origin, like beginning as an apostate, just to see how that would be(and couse i hate the sterile mage towers..)

I would definitely be willing to try out an apostate storyline, especially if all npc templars are as stupid as the 3 Stooges wannabes from the Penny Arcade Comic.

[Colma]

that would have been a nice addition, be randomly attacked by templar in towns and whatnot.

[Takrandro]

or u blowing up a Circle tower somewhere, couse u are Evil...

[Tyrax Lightning]

I've only recently found out that CC duration gets shorter for the player the higher the difficulty. I also dunno if that's the same for the enemy. On Nightmare, is CC still viable, or has it gotten weak to the point of no longer bein worth it, compared to raw damage or buffs?

[Takrandro]

i have't played it on nightmare yet, but i think the interuption alone is always worth the trouble, gives u time to cast a fireball or other killer spell, like blizzard.

[Tyrax Lightning]

But if your seeking to interrupt the enemy cast, wouldn't it be more practical to interrupt them with damage, then to interrupt them with a CC that'll be over before ya finish lowering the staff from the CC cast?

[Takrandro]

depends on the spell u choose to use really, the nightmare/sleep chain might last shorter then on normal, but if u take crushing prison i think it will still be just as effective, same goes for the cold spells, u just need to react a second faster i guess.



Besides, unless u are fighting enemies who have a standard high mental res, its better to use damage and hope its eneugh to interupt them, since most single-target spells won't do anymore, so knockback effects are best i think, witch mainly comes back on fireball or stone fist(if u are lucky)

[Tyrax Lightning]

Sounds good. I'm no stranger to games where CC is useful for the enemy, but not the player.

[dkjestrup]

The CC is extremely important on Nightmare.



The reduced duration doesn't feel too short. Rather, Casual mode duration feels overpowered.



Only against bosses will they be too short (Ogre in the Tower of Ishal, being frozen for like 2 seconds from CoC).



Mass Paralyze/Paralysis Explosion is the best form of CC imo, on quality, although Mass Paralyze takes ages to cast.

[Tyrax Lightning]

Cool! Good to know. So a small amount of CC might be of use, but still might not be worth loading up on it... Perhaps 1 aoe CC to break up mob team efforts?

[Takrandro]

U should always open the fight with either fireball or CoC, since they give u all the team disruption u need, altrough it might be hard sometimes to get in range to hit those pesky archers in the back





But as Dkjestrup says, go for the glyph combo if u need mass hold effects(just make sure your melee chars are't near it.)

[Tyrax Lightning]

Ahh, i'm considering tryin Tayo as a pure (aka non AW) caster, & Fireball was already part of the plan. (Fire, Lightning, & Spirit.) Undecided if i'm gonna play her on Hard, or Nightmare. Nightmare more likely, for she's gonna be my top Mage character.