10 réponses à ce sujet

[Monis_Dog]

Tried searching the forum but it always returns nothing...

Anyone got any tips for a human mage DPS build. Skills, attribute points, ect. I just finished the Magi Origins story and am ready to crush the darkspawn.

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[Zenon]

What kind of DPS? Direct or indirect? Spells do a lot of damage, but you better keep your lyrium potion supplies well stocked. If you like, you can turn your mage into a monster slicing sword swinging plate mail wearing killer machine after you unlocked arcane warrior. Don't worry about increasing your Strength for that though. Stick to Magic and Willpower.



Probably the most damage a mage does though when combining deadly spells with area effect...

[FRZN]

skill choice isn't very important for a mage. magic will make your spells more powerful and is your most important stat, willpower increases the size of your mana bar and merits moderate investment (i stopped after it got to 25). some spells that i really like are mana clash (kills enemy mages in 1 shot), walking bomb (kills white enemies in 1 shot).

fav spells: http://social.biowar.../9/index/224011

mage spell damage: http://social.biowar...47/index/100312

[Hammersmithblues]

Freezing opponents and then shattering them is off the charts in terms of DPS. Cone of Cold for the freeze and then Stone Fist or Crushing Prison for the follow-up. Blizzard can also freeze opponents.



Also worthy of mentioning is that Overpower, Mighty Blow, and a number of other melee talents can perform the shatter.

[Rainen89]

Highest damage would be fire/lightning but cold/mana are really important. Improved drain still does the highest single target burst assuming the target isn't a mage.

[GravityParade]

Mage skills are going to be a point of creativity within the community. I expect all kinds of new and interesting mage builds to be suggested every day.

[Monis_Dog]

Awesome thanks for the tips and links to other threads.



As for what type of Mage I am going to be... I am not sure. From reading, Blood Mage sounds pretty Bad Ass all though i may have wasted points on willpower that would be better suited in Constitution. What are other cool specializations? Already seen a lot of nods for Arcane Warrior though I feel that an actual Warrior can handle that.

[Mavkiel]

Arcane warrior is very powerful. Imo so powerful that it could ruin your game. Its why I never pick that class.



My current mage build feels very powerful to me on hard difficulty.

Blood mage and shapeshifter (All trees filled)



Spells:

All fire spells (Yes some creatures are immune)

Mana clash (Suprising how many creatures have mana.)

Repulse glyph (I dont get the last talent in the tree, seems kind of pointless with clash.)



I choose fire because the graphics look really nice, it is also fairly easy to equip all your characters with fire resist gear. I never worry about area effect damage on hard difficulty. I have even dropped inferno on my melee characters for fun.



Going for mana clash is for a really aggressive mage build. Idea being that if you see a mage or creature with mana, your going to kill it before it kills you. A more defensive build would get the last glyph (negation,downside is that you cannot heal in it) or spell shield. Mana clash is neat, I have gotten over 500 damage on some creatures.



How to spend points..(assuming you go blood mage)

Spend almost nothing into willpower

Dump most of your points into magic

Put a few points into constitution. (I normally go for 2 points in magic, 1 in con.)



With that sort of build, you will not be able to have prolonged fights using your normal mana, but it shines when you switch to blood magic. You can have all your sustained spells up to pump up your defense, and use sacrifice to heal. I know shapeshifting is not a popular choice, but used properally it can be fun. Not overpowered, but simply fun. Turning into a bear and jumping on a dwarf is really satisfying when it resists my spells. (Dwarfs having 10% chance at resisting can be annoying). Also, since your pumping up constitution, the forms are a little beefier. I actually went in melee range of a revenent without reenacting a scene from Deer hunter.

[Are el]

Monis_Dog wrote...

Blood Mage sounds pretty Bad Ass all though i may have wasted points on willpower that would be better suited in Constitution.

Not necessarily.  You don't have to turn Blood Magic on until you run out of mana.  So if you have a lot of mana from Willpower, then it doesn't matter you haven't been pumping constitution.  You'll be able to cast spells either way.

The ability to drain an ally to heal yourself, works really well with a Rogue Ranger.  Use their pet spiders or bears like batteries.

And yes, the other two spell are badass.

[konfeta]

There are no specializations that improve your damage output via spells. Bloodmage is great for extending it, and Spirithealer/Bloodmage give a tiny boost to spellpower for choosing them, but that's it.

The highest "DPS" Mage build is basically focus on maximizing your Spellpower (ignore all stats other than Magic, yes, it works on Nightmare) and getting multiple sources of mana regeneration such as Bard Song, Spellbloom and Rejuvination (try to get these from another caster), Combat Training, Equipment, Dark Sustenance, etc. I believe I managed around 170 by the end of the game with the buffs/equipment.

If you are looking for pure nuking, well, get pure nuking spells. Your main limitation damage output will be friendly fire (need to aim carefully, unless you want to cheese Taunt + Force Field, which you don't, because then you are a smelly poo poo head) and spell cooldowns.

*Quick Equipment Note - the best robes for a nuke mage are one of the Tevinter ones, I believe you find in Denerim - it adds 5 spellpower and 1 mana regeneration per second. This is generally what you want your equipment to have. Magic/Spellpower are interchanchable, just choose whatever adds up to highest Spellpower. Willpower stuff doesn't make much of a difference, but it's slightly nice to have. +% element damage equipment is awesome, but remember that it caps at +30% per element. Defensive overpriced equipment like Reaper's Vestiments is bad. That robe is a trap, don't buy it. The best 2 staffs in the game are Final Reason if you have Collector's Edition (can buy it super early for usper cheap) and Staff of the Magister Lord (slightly less spellpower for benefit of mana regeneration).

Your bread and butter spells:

Single Target
Lightning Bolt, Stone Fist, Arcane Bolt, Life Drain, Winter's Grasp are you straightforward nukes that do tremendous damage on a single target if you chain them, amazing for killing one target in a hurry. Have your mana regen up.

Common Use AoE
Fireball and the three Cone nukes will be your standard way of killing groups that ambush/surround you. They are fast, reliable, do great damage, and can be quickly stacked to kill a enemies that your group is in melee with because they are easy to aim. Fireball and Cone of Cold are easily the best ones, combining awesome damage and awesome crowd control, while Flame Burst and Shock are something to cast while the enemy are on their asses. Shattering combo has been mentioned, and it is indeed ridiculously awesome. Use it all the time.

Also, note, that when you are fighting a relatively contained target or group of targets, these can also happily join in your single target ravage routine. Cone of Cold is especially awesome because its duration scales with Spellpower.

Specialty AoE
Earthquake, Tempest, Inferno, Blizzard. These are the nukes you use to kill large groups that don't ambush/surround you. Awesome for Archers. Earthquake is great because it's instant cast, often the best spell to cast first to stop melee charges. Blizzard is a great second spell, even more disabling to stack on top of Earthquake. Inferno, on its own, kills the fastest and is a very efficient way to deal with archers. Tempest blows, but its a component to "Storm of the Century." Speaking of which, SotC kills everything. No exceptions. Often your group as well if you don't put them on hold. It is your atomic bomb, that you only use when you can set it up properly, casual use generally wastes a ton of mana for what Inferno could have done anyway.

Miscellaneous
Petrify and Chain Lightning. Redudant and utterly horrible, respectively. If you are going for a full Elementalist, you will use Petrify, though, it is actually fairly useful when you feel too lazy to muck about with Cone of Cold. Chain Lightning, is a joke. Pathetic damage (every other AoE spell outdamages it for mana cost and DPS, even Flame Burst and Shock) , high mana cost, bounce is unreliable, and worst of all, casting time. The time you spent casting Chain Lightning to "avoid hurting your group" is the time you could have spent casting 3-4 other awesome spells or an actually useful casting time spell.

Stone Armor you will never turn on, weapon buff usage depends on your party composition. On a single 2 hander or sword and board character that swing slow and rely on specials in combat it is obviously nothing to write home about. In a group of characters or if you have a fast attacking melee dude with 2 weapons, it becomes cost effective. For a nuke mage, it's a situational spell, not something you want to leave on.

Overall, if you want a straightforward face melting damage mage, going pure elementalist works, assuming you pick out the correct spells from other schools. If you want more diversity for your Mage (i.e. more points to spend in other cool spells, less straightforward nuking), you only care for Cone of Cold and Fireball for your bread and butter AoE, and Storm of the Century for your super AoE, the rest can be skipped.

Other Schools
Spirit - The key goodies here are Mana Clash, Spell Might.
1. Mana Clash. One shots white/yellow named Mages, Demons, Wraiths. Varies in whenever Orange names in one shot, but it generally takes off between 25% to 90% HP. Stupidly powerful.
2. Spell Might. Awesome spellpower boost for an actually noticeable cost. Early levels you won't be able to get much use of it, but later on you can keep it up all the time.

You might also be interested in Virulent Bomb line. Death Syphon is a decent way to restore mana, but I did not need it with base Willpower, other methods suffice. However, if you don't have access to the other mana regen methods, this can be pretty useful. So depends on your party composition. Walking Bomb spells are hilarious powerful, but are best used with disables. Generally, they are most useful to a non-nuke mage who wants a good bit of damage, but hey, if overkill is your name with all the elementalist AoE you are already sporting, go to town and nab this. Just be careful, this is even easier to blow up your party members than with Storm of the Century, use of AoE disables here is a must.

There is also there Crushing Prison line. It's the most horrifically overpowered mage line, regardless of what your Mage aims to do. Mindblast and Telikinetic Weapons are very useful spells for obvious reasons, but Force Field and Crushing Prison are gamebreakingly powerful - in span of seconds either take out 2 dangerous opponents out of the fight, or save an ally from sure death, or abuse Taunt/FF combo (don't, seriously, it's basically godmode), or another shatter combo.

Creation - You just want Spellwisp and probably Heal.
Cheap spellpower boost. You can dabble in other spells here like Greese (made redundant by Earthquake and/or Blizzard) and the Heal/Rejuvination/Spellbloom spells, but you leave that to a second caster if you are a full elementalist. A point in Heal is always recommended.

Repulsion Ward is actually very useful here, too. Plop down on a chockpoint like a Doorway, and start casting big nukes while laughing manically as your opponets keep bouncing off the Ward. Combine with Paralysis Rune for quick and easy AoE Paralyse. I kept it on my second mage, though, just like the mana restoring spells.

Entropy - Life Drain for another nuke to add to your machinegun of spells cycle, and Vulneraiblity/Affliction hexes for boosting your damage on bosses. The hexes can be handled by another mage, or you if you skimp on some elementalist spells.

Modifié par konfeta, 24 novembre 2009 - 09:35 .

[BlackVader]

DPS? As a Mage? Storm of the Century! The damge is ridiculous and the area is so large that all non-boss enemies will be dead before they have a chance to leave. Oh, and your party will die, too. Just keep Force Field ready to save at least your mage.