30 réponses à ce sujet

[Elzarath]

Hey guys, 

Playing as a Blood Mage / Arcane Warrior and wondering are there any decent armor sets out there that don't hugely impact on my fatigue? I've kept my staff as having to sheath weapons in the heat of combat is too costly, however maybe I need a better strategy too as I'm finding this more difficult then when I was equiped with robes and cowl.

Any suggestions? Currently using Wade's Dragonbone Plate for memory.

Cheers.

[Forumtroll]

Search for spellweaver in the wiki. It behaves like a staff so you don't sheath it when you cast a spell.

[Tonya777]

Forumtroll wrote...

Search for spellweaver in the wiki. It behaves like a staff so you don't sheath it when you cast a spell.

WHAT?!

I never noticed that , I'm gonna have to go see if thats true now

[Tonya777]

I just checked and that is not true



My character sheaths the spellweaver to cast spells , w/ or w/o shield even

[Vaylor66]

I used the blood dragon armor, Helm of Honnleath, Cinderfel gauntlets, and warden commander boots for my armors when I did an aw. I actually used a staff for most of the game. I found that I missed way too much with a sword out, and really only turned on my defense buffs and pulled it out on the bosses. Honestly I did more damage with the staff since it always hits than the sword. Not to mention all the spells I had.

[weism]

armor fatigue shouldn't be too much of a concern for arcane warrior, this is the trade off u get for having 60+ armor. only keep the defensive sustained spells on all the time. stuff like miasma, combat magic, don't put it on before combat. run in caste the spells, finish up mana, then switch to combat magic, miasma and hack away.

As for armor, don't go for sets, There is the evon the great armor that you can buy from wade's imporium is great for arcane warrior. warden boot gives more mana

[weism]

Arcane warrior/blood mage has amazing survivability. Get your mage to 300+ Hp and you can go solo high dragon on nightmare no problem. Only thing you need to worry is mobs that can debuff. but there is so few of them in game.

[mian52]

Some spells can be cast without it being sheated. Syphon Life is the only one I can remember offhand. There was a list of what spells can be cast, in a AW guide iirc.



Now to the original poster, for armor the DLC ones are the best. Blood Dragon for stats/health or Warden's Commander. For non-massive armor. Diligence or Wade's Heavy are the best.



The thing about wades is that you'll have maximum resists anyway from talents.

[themaxzero]

When Shimmering Shield is up anyway.

[Elzarath]

Thanks for the responses guys. Yeah I already knew about Spellweaver, but like other swords it gets sheathed to cast most spells.



Blood Dragon armor, might try that out.

[owl208]

After playing an AW for awhile, I've found that using a staff and armoring up for protection is the best method of fighting. The randomness of hitting with a sword, the low damage a sword does, plus the time it takes to sheathe in order to fire off a spell all make fighting melee as a sword wielding AW frustrating. It's much more satisfying to wear armor and get lips to nose with a monster. It also makes those short range spells super and allows you to cast AOE spells without hitting party members because most of them are behind or beside you instead of in front of you. When you add the defensive spells the AW chain gives you, its all good. The other nice thing about short range spells is that they are typically low cost, so you can fire off a bunch of them and totally lock down enemies. The AW is really a very flexible class and great fun to play!

Like some of you have discovered, there isn't really any armor tailor made for an AW, but I find the Blood Dragon Armor to be the best, especially since you are not going to use a shield and the helm is not a required part of that set for bonus purposes. This way your AW can take advantage of the Helm of Honneath while wearing the rest of the Blood Dragon Armor set.

I typically don't have Combat Magic active because of the cost. Let's face it--if you are spellcasting and not using a weapon to strike an ememy, you don't really need either it nor Aura of Might. Fade Shroud is more missed frankly, but again its not worth the cost 99% of the time. The exception is when you are fighting long fights against tough enemy bosses. I do use shimmering shield and I have arcane defense and rock armor up. I find this is sufficient protection without crippling costs, but there are some sacrifices. For one thing, you don't want to be surrounded. That's not a problem though, with good close combat defensive spells like Mind Blast.

Modifié par owl208, 26 décembre 2009 - 09:28 .

[Tonya777]

Sword low dmg? Do you NOT have combat magic on? Do you NOT have the combat magic passive upgrade? Do you NOT have frost/flame/telekinetic weapons on?



Sword dmg owns staff dmg

[owl208]

  Sword dmg owns staff dmg

I was actually comparing sword damage to spell damage.  The staff is amplifying my spell damage and allowing me to cast more because I don't have to sheathe my sword when I cast.   Thus I am doing more damage than I would if my sword is being put away.   My point was that if you want to cast spells as an AW, its better to use a staff than a sword for this reason.   A sword does do damage, but only when it hits.   I was commenting on the frustration with hitting an enemy being rather random in nature as an AW.  Another forum member (sorry, don't remember the name) tested dexterity and showed that there is a large random nature in striking a target as an AW and that more dexterity doesn't improve this noticeably, so it was better to put those attritbute points in magic instead, because the effect on spell damage is noticeable.   So in short, for me using a staff made more sense than missing the target with a sword a percentage of the time.   This doesn't mean you can't use a sword and have success at it.  Only that I didn't care for it.

[Tonya777]

Pfft whatever , unless your casting stuff like entropic death you really will do more dmg just slashing away with a good sword with an elemental dmg buff on and doing a few spells



Stuff like 1 cast of lightning does like 100 dmg tops , thats only 2 sword hits and the sword hits are mana free

[owl208]

Tonya777 wrote...

Sword low dmg? Do you NOT have combat magic on? Do you NOT have the combat magic passive upgrade? Do you NOT have frost/flame/telekinetic weapons on?

I find sword dmg low when compared to spell damage, yes.  Especially when I miss a percentage of the time with a sword.   No, I don't have combat magic on because I don't need an attack bonus and damage when I am casting spells.  I am using Combat Magic's passive ability to allow me to use my magic attribute to wear heavy armor.  Aura of Might isn't needed either for the same reason although the defense would be nice---but again it's not worth the cost.   I don't have weapons buffs turned on because I only use one tank, so again, its not worth the cost.  An exception is a tough boss and then I do turn on telekinetic.  I almost never use flame or frost.  I do, however; have Shimmering shield on.   What I miss the most is Fade shroud, because it does provide a lot of benefits--just not enough to make it worth the cost most of the time.   But I do have the whole AW chain because there is that need when you face a tough boss on Nightmare.   I prefer to fight as an armored mage using a staff, essentially.  I can do this in melee or from the rear ranks. Why melee?  Because I can use short range spells and AOEs without nuking my team.  My armor and defensive magic allows me to do it from melee if I wish or from a distance, hence the flexibility of the AW.

Modifié par owl208, 30 novembre 2009 - 03:39 .

[Tonya777]

Oh and Miasma fixes your accuracy up for the most part

If you want to cast spells and use a staff , then why did you even do arcane warrior? You get the most effective spellcaster staff using mage by doing BM/SH

Edit : I just read your new post and man what the hell? You really are just missing the whole point of Arcane warrior , you should just quit that character and make a new mage and have them NOT be an arcane warrior , not even using combat magic? lol no wonder you can't hit the broad side of a semi truck with your sword you're being ridiculous

Modifié par Tonya777, 30 novembre 2009 - 03:41 .

[Alphakiller]

Go bm/aw and you can just go into bm mode to cast all the spells you want. i've actually found that if you pause, then double tap '/', you can cast spells a lot faster, because the only delay you'll have is taking out your sword again =P

[owl208]

Tonya777 wrote...

Oh and Miasma fixes your accuracy up for the most part

If you want to cast spells and use a staff , then why did you even do arcane warrior? You get the most effective spellcaster staff using mage by doing BM/SH

Edit : I just read your new post and man what the hell? You really are just missing the whole point of Arcane warrior , you should just quit that character and make a new mage and have them NOT be an arcane warrior , not even using combat magic? lol no wonder you can't hit the broad side of a semi truck with your sword you're being ridiculous

I'll grant that Miasma is a nice spell.  You turn it on and it goes to work weakening the enemy.  The problem is that Miasma does not directly increase accuracy.  It indirectly increases accuracy by weakening an enemy's defense and speed.  Which is fine until Miasma is resisted, which does happen in Nightmare, and then it's a problem.   

I like a flexible build and an armored mage is better than an unarmored mage, especially in nightmare where enemies are tougher and tend to swarm.   Yes, a BM/SH is an effective buiild.  It's debatable whether or not its the most effective.

I'm not missing the whole point of the arcane warrior.  I just see it a little differently than you do.   It works for me and it may work for others.  Again, the AW is very flexible.   I don't know if you've played on Nightmare, but even with the entire AW chain and everything active INCLUDING miasma and weapons, you miss rather frequently.  That's not being ridiculous-that's just stating a fact others have noted in this forum as well.  You are must be such a great player that it's not a problem for you.  Wonderful!  I tip my hat to your superiority.   My purpose is to help others who are having challenges.  

Modifié par owl208, 30 novembre 2009 - 04:10 .

[grymstone]

I don't even notice the sheathing unsheathing when i fight anymore. I guess i just got used to it. On the subject of armor am i the only one that thinks reapers vestments are tailor made for arcane warriors.... I know they are robes but the stats are great IMO.

[Tonya777]

I beat the game on nightmare with my other mage



Point is , Arcane warrior = basically invincible on any difficulty and if you miss 1/4th of the time so what , you won't get killed and eventually you will take down the enemy it might just be a slow process



But I see absolutley no reason to pick arcane warrior if you're not even going to use its abilities

[SnowHamster]

Once you get fade shroud, combat magic is worth it. Have spell wisp permanently up and running, once you run low on mana, turn on combat magic which turns on face shroud and switch to blood magic to spam your spells.



Once you run low on HP, blood sacrifice from wynne or some of the summons. Switch back to mana based casting when health runs low and just switch between the two forms as needs be, drink a minor mana pot every now and then since your magic will be so high that even a minor lyrium pot will bring your mana pool back to max.



Make sure wynne or whoever is the healer is not autohealing you so as to not waste mana.



BTW, I wear helm of the deep and blood dragon armor.

[Sonsofbinary]

I've read that the trick is to only have 1 weapon set equipped. Pause the game >switch to off weapon (which is empty) cast spell and then switch back. Removes the Sheath time for weapons. Don't quote me on it though, I haven't played AW/BM yet.

[Vaylor66]

AW misses a lot on nightmare with a sword. Anyone who thinks that using a sword is better than a staff then is misguided. AW hit's plenty hard with a staff and spells. Throwing out fireballs and walking bombs pretty much destroys rooms. The only time to pull out a sword is on those boss fights where you beef up your defense with all the toggles.

[DrekorSilverfang]

I tend to outfit my AW with:



First enchanters cowl

Reapers Vestments

Ancient elven gloves OR blackhand gauntlets

Imperial weavers

Spell ward

lifegiver

key to the city

andruil's blessing



Spellweaver+havard's aegis

or

Staff of the magister lord

[SilverSurfer1777]

here is the link to the Arcane Warrior Casting fix if you want to call it that so you dont sheathe to cast



http://social.bioware.com/project/683/



As for staff vs sword. Sword hands down. Personally for me I ran all my defensive buffs and unloaded all my mana in the very beginning on high cost spells, pop combat magic, miasma, flame weapon buff and see big numbers popping and things dropping. I had some accuracy issues early on the game but after that no problems. With pumped up magic, I was white hitting for 80-90, plus about 20-25 from flame weapon. With haste activated, yeah things die fast.