Hello
Well played Da2 all classes, mage was my first, and I have always had a soft spot for the class. So making a new game with a mage character and just a few questions.
With all the patches they have come up with how does the mage stack now compared to openning day?
I keep hearing blood mage was strong yet now after a patch it is not worth it but that goes the same for the Force skill on unmoveable/unshakeable. Where does that stand does anyone know?
Mage questions
Débuté par
xavim
, oct. 21 2011 10:13
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#2
Posté 21 octobre 2011 - 10:27
atheelogos
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Blood mage is still good and I would recommend it. It's just not OP like it was before. Level you pc right and you shouldn't have too many problems once you get the hang of it.
#3
Posté 22 octobre 2011 - 02:46
mr_afk
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The patch made things easier by almost completely removing knock-back, reducing enemy boss health, and fixing haste (for nightmare).
As one of the pros of forcemage pre-patch was becoming unshakeable and experiencing little to no knock-back, the patch renders that aspect pretty mundane (and mainly helps out the rogues). However it isn't 'detrimental' to force mages and actually frees up an ability point.
Two specialisations were particularly nerfed in the patch, Bloodmage and Reaver. In the past, haemorrhage was the most powerful damage spell and stagger CCCs were the easiest to do in the game. This was due to all the staggers floating around from claymore (and a working sunder) such that you could turn a whole mob of enemies into bloody 'chunks'.
Additionally, the hp-to-mana conversion ratios meant that you almost had an infinite casting supply and never had to leave blood magic.
Post-patch you'll find staggers are a lot less common such that it becomes beneficial to either branch out or focus on disorient setups as well. The hp-to-mana doesn't mean too much, maybe just that you need to pump a little more con and equip a few more improve blood magic gear.
Although the changes do make blood mages slightly less appealing, they're still pretty powerful. Other alternative builds are available post-patch though (using death syphon).
In fact, if i remember rightly, firestorms were buffed from the patch- and they were insanely overpowered even then. (Although now it's impossible to be 100% immune to elements).
So it depends on what you want to do with your mage/party really. If you focus on dps and have a good party synergy you'll find the post-patch mage a lot easier. Especially if you play on nightmare and get a dual haste running.
In any case, dropping triple firestorms on anything should do the trick pre-patch or post patch
As one of the pros of forcemage pre-patch was becoming unshakeable and experiencing little to no knock-back, the patch renders that aspect pretty mundane (and mainly helps out the rogues). However it isn't 'detrimental' to force mages and actually frees up an ability point.
Two specialisations were particularly nerfed in the patch, Bloodmage and Reaver. In the past, haemorrhage was the most powerful damage spell and stagger CCCs were the easiest to do in the game. This was due to all the staggers floating around from claymore (and a working sunder) such that you could turn a whole mob of enemies into bloody 'chunks'.
Additionally, the hp-to-mana conversion ratios meant that you almost had an infinite casting supply and never had to leave blood magic.
Post-patch you'll find staggers are a lot less common such that it becomes beneficial to either branch out or focus on disorient setups as well. The hp-to-mana doesn't mean too much, maybe just that you need to pump a little more con and equip a few more improve blood magic gear.
Although the changes do make blood mages slightly less appealing, they're still pretty powerful. Other alternative builds are available post-patch though (using death syphon).
In fact, if i remember rightly, firestorms were buffed from the patch- and they were insanely overpowered even then. (Although now it's impossible to be 100% immune to elements).
So it depends on what you want to do with your mage/party really. If you focus on dps and have a good party synergy you'll find the post-patch mage a lot easier. Especially if you play on nightmare and get a dual haste running.
In any case, dropping triple firestorms on anything should do the trick pre-patch or post patch
Modifié par mr_afk, 22 octobre 2011 - 02:51 .
#4
Posté 22 octobre 2011 - 05:48
Relix28
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What mr_afk said.
I recently tried out a Blood Mage build, and I wasn't impressed. Hemmorage is still a fairly powerfull damage and de-buff spell, but IMO it's not worth investing so much points into the BM tree to gain access to it. And the other spell worth mentioning is Blood Slave. I kinda liked this one, but at the end of the day I realized it's better to use Walking Bomb setups for AoE spirit damge and use the Dog for threat managenet, if needed. Super long cast time doesn't really help it either.
Personally, I had way more fun with an offensive non-BM build. Full Elemental, Force Mage (pull, grav ring) and Creation (heroic aura, haste) trees are all you really need to be super effective in every situation in the game. Mana was never really an issue (you get +25 mana from taking Spirit Healer spec and investing around 7 points in willpower shold be more than plenty), mostly because once you fire up Haste (or dual Haste with Anders), you don't really need to cast a whole lot of spells, since everything is usually dead in seconds from auto-attacks alone.
Bottom line, there are better trees to invest points in then BM. Just my opinion.
I recently tried out a Blood Mage build, and I wasn't impressed. Hemmorage is still a fairly powerfull damage and de-buff spell, but IMO it's not worth investing so much points into the BM tree to gain access to it. And the other spell worth mentioning is Blood Slave. I kinda liked this one, but at the end of the day I realized it's better to use Walking Bomb setups for AoE spirit damge and use the Dog for threat managenet, if needed. Super long cast time doesn't really help it either.
Personally, I had way more fun with an offensive non-BM build. Full Elemental, Force Mage (pull, grav ring) and Creation (heroic aura, haste) trees are all you really need to be super effective in every situation in the game. Mana was never really an issue (you get +25 mana from taking Spirit Healer spec and investing around 7 points in willpower shold be more than plenty), mostly because once you fire up Haste (or dual Haste with Anders), you don't really need to cast a whole lot of spells, since everything is usually dead in seconds from auto-attacks alone.
Bottom line, there are better trees to invest points in then BM. Just my opinion.
Modifié par Relix28, 22 octobre 2011 - 10:07 .
