7 réponses à ce sujet

[Brannon]

I'm about to replay Origins. My first time through the game was playing a duel-wielding warrior/champion. Not ideal, but it was my first time playing the game. After my mage playthrough I plan on going back and playing a much more optimized warrior type.

This time I'm ready to play a mage, and I have my heart set on playing a pure caster type with Blood Mage as my main specialization. I'd like this character to be a straight DPS mage and was wondering if I should consider any other specialization to go along with Blood Mage? Most of the build guides I have only take into account the old level cap and Origins, and not all the added features of the expansions. 

Also, since I'm big on hybrid role-play/power builds, and if it matters, my mage will be somewhat similar to Morrigan with a strong dislike of the Chantry, however he will be "neutral" in DnD terms. Given this, is there anything I should do with skills to reflect this save for maxing out coersion? 

[Gunnaka]

Go with spirit healer as a second specialization.

Make sure you take Heal, and you can use a combination of heal and blood sacrifice for great survivalbility. Blood Mages also need a lot more constitution than willpower, unlike the regular mage.

Keep in mind you'll be just a regular mage for the first several levels, so you'll need some way to survive during that time as well.

Blood Mages are a really cool build.

[actionhero112]

If you plan to spend points in Constitution, take AW as the second spec. The armor is extremely helpful. Also, don't sword and board, use the staff. (Logically, if you want to use your health as a mana pool, you also want to minimize the damage you take) Also micro the heals, you don't want Wynn/Morrigan to blow the heals when you have Blood Magic on then have everything on cool down when you actually need to be healed.

^I find this build to be more dangerous early game when you don't have good armor, but to be better late game when you do. 

Be noted that if you want Spirit Healer as the second Spec, I suggest you go for a normal build, as you will only use Blood magic to use Blood Wound. Essentially you will function like a normal mage except with a reserve mana pool for when your mana runs out. Mages die pretty easily in this game. Blood mage severely decreases that survivability. Which is why you should never keep it on for more than like 20s.


Caster Blood mage requires a lot of micro from other characters, so I hope you're like prepared for it and not planning to just sit behind your warden and just rely on tactics.

Enough Combat training for mana regeneration. Everything else is your perogative. Though Grenades can act like an extra spell when you need it. 

Modifié par actionhero112, 25 juillet 2012 - 02:36 .

[tpp]

This ended up way longer than I expected, but I'm just finishing up my second playthrough after an approach similar to yours, so it's all fresh in my mind. My first playthrough was as a classic good guy Champion, on Normal, with no reference to any online strategy forums or sites. While it was great fun, it was also very ineffiicient - certain fights just destroyed me repeatedly (like the Corrupted Spider Queen for whatever reason) and I was generally pretty slow hacking through mobs.

This time through (on Hard), I wanted to RP a fairly ruthless Mage, study up on proper strategy, and see some of the side quests and special items I missed the first time around. I knew I wanted to go Blood Mage, and after some pondering decided to concentrate on crowd control and support, and then took Spirit Healer for Group Heal and Revive later on. The main lesson I've learned from this playthrough is that crowd control is everything. Every fight I struggled with on Normal was a piece of cake this time - I think I've only reloaded a fight twice so far, and I'm at the Landsmeet. I've never even had to cast Revive. If you have sufficient tools to control the battlefield (Glyph of Paralysis, Blood Wound, Sleep, Force Field, and Crushing Prison being the most generally useful), your attackers - in most situations - will clean up enemies far more quickly (in real time) than you can with AoE spells, which don't really do all that much damage in comparison and cost quite a lot of mana to boot.

Three spots in my party are solid - me, a tank (Alistair or Shale, depending on my mood), and Zevran. The fourth is Sten (2H Champion auto-attacker) or Morrigan (nuker) in the places where I think AoE will really help. As I've played through, I've realized that I really overplayed Morrigan in the past. There are a handful of fights in the game (like clearing out Howe's estate or the blood mages in Denerim) where Morrigan auto-wins by casting Storm of the Century through a closed door (scouted by a stealthed Zev first). But in most areas it's just too much work to make AoE spells other than Blood Wound pay off, and I'm better off having Sten beat on things. The typical fight starts by having tank and Sten charge, Zev flank and maybe poison his weapon, and me cast a couple of CC spells. By the time I squeeze off 2-3 CC spells, the most important threats are immobilized and I take control of Zev for the remainder of the battle while my PC auto-heals. I haven't found it at all worthwhile to use Blood Magic mode beyond casting Blood Wound - in the time it would take to micro-manage Blood Sacrifice and Healing spells, I could be directing Zev to finish off the key threats, and there are plenty of fights where you're simply not secure in risking your health. Were I to build the character again, I wouldn't go beyond 20 CON including Fade bonuses. And even WIL doesn't need to be that high, again maybe 20 or so, because I'm not constantly casting direct damage spells. I really only need enough mana to get my 2-3 key CC spells off, and then I just cast Heal, Arcane Bolt, and attack with my staff. And in bigger/longer fights, switching to BM is probably safe towards the end. All told, I think I've used maybe 15-20 lyriums potions across the game between both Morrigan and myself.

So, given that experience, here's what I'd say...

Stats - no STR, no DEX, no CUN (unless you need a point or two for Coercion, I don't recall), 20 CON, 20 WIL, rest into MAG. Maybe a few more WIL points later on, depending on your equipment and preference.

Blood Magic - up to Blood Wound, maybe Blood Control
Arcane Bolt
Heal - up to Rejuvenate (I've not found Regenerate necessary)
Group Heal - maybe Revive
Glyphs - up to Repulsion
Force - all
Hexes - all
Disorient, Mind Blast, Sleep (I don't care for Waking Nightmare personally)
Spell Shield and Dispel Magic (I like having Dispel, others disagree)
Flame Blast and Flaming Weapons

I think that's pretty much it. The only tool I'd like to add is Mana Clash, which I gave to Morrigan instead since she already wanted Spell Might. But I'm going to let Loghain redeem himself this time and thus won't have access to Mana Clash in the final sequence after Morrigan leaves. I may miss that, and I can see cutting a few talents here and there to get Clash instead. But Force Field and Crushing Prison seem to be able to handle most casters well enough anyway.

So yeah... sorry again for writing a mini-guide, but it's all on my mind. Hope it's helpful. Overall, I've found 95% of the fights on Hard to be cakewalks with this strategy. 

[Dintonta]

I don't know if this info is very common knowledge (through other threads about mage's tactics) but I made my mages much more devastating when I realized that some spells could be cast through the walls.You can such paralyze a whole group of ennemies and destroy them before they actually see you:

Spellmight
==>Glyph of repulsion (on an empty space close to the opponents)
==> Blizzard
==> Glyph of Paralysis crossing the first glyph (Paralysis explosion)
==> The two first hexes on the boss
==> Tempest (Storm of the Century)
Some of them usually escape the trap, but there is not much left of them.
The good thing about paralysis explosion is that it hold long and cannot be resisted.

I love Mana Clash through the walls too (clean wipe out of mages, demons and abominations).
I like Sleep because it gives instant pause to your ennemies and you can micro your group more easily during that time (don't work through the walls, though).
Force field is excellent to stop a boss while you wipe out his sidekicks.

I never use fire spells (fireball is cool but not so useful, IMO), nor healing spells (poultices are made for that and since my mage has a high magic score they are more efficient on her).
I put everything on Magic but a few points in Willpower (at the beginning) and Cunning (coerce and RP options)

EDIT : I always disable tactics while playing and do micro. So I don't know if my way of playing will match what you want.

Modifié par Dintonta, 27 juillet 2012 - 09:24 .

[tpp]

I don't know if this info is very common knowledge (through other threads about mage's tactics) but I made my mages much more devastating when I realized that some spells could be cast through the walls.

Indeed. Areas where this is regularly possible - like Jarvia's Hideout and Howe's Estate - are exactly the areas I found that lovely Morrigan shined. On the other hand, areas like the Deep Roads don't work so well, since they tend to have enemies spread over a wider area with long lines of sight. And most encounters in cities start you right on top of the enemy. Paralyzing the group before a Storm seems clever but unnecessary in my experience - anything that walked through a well-placed Storm was easily one-shotted by my group.

Also, as far as I can tell (at least on PC, maybe consoles differ) you can only target an explored area. So if a door starts closed, you'll need to open it to cast beyond it. Sometimes casting in front of the door is good enough, but I often used a stealthed Zevran to open the door and then close it again, allowing Morrigan to come up and cast beyond it. I guess the guards just though it was the wind.

[Dintonta]

tpp wrote...
On the other hand, areas like the Deep Roads don't work so well, since they tend to have enemies spread over a wider area with long lines of sight.

Sometimes I put a stealthing rogue in the back of an emissary just to do a "dirty fighting" at his first move when my mage come closer to cast her Mana Clash. But most of the time the big areas can be subdivided in smaller parts, it takes longer though...
And the tunnels and stalagmites work perfectly as walls.

...And most encounters in cities start you right on top of the enemy.

True, that's an entirely different matter. That's where sleep may become handy (with tactics disabled so nobody wakes up too soon). Sometimes a good timing with paralyzis explosion is enough...
Hey! I forgot shattering... Very useful during a sleep to reduce the number of sidekicks quickly. (it's so fun to synchronize shatterings...)

Paralyzing the group before a Storm seems clever but unnecessary in my experience - anything that walked through a well-placed Storm was easily one-shotted by my group.

True again... I'm just afraid that some boss could do something nasty if I let him the chance...

Modifié par Dintonta, 27 juillet 2012 - 11:52 .

[tpp]

True again... I'm just afraid that some boss could do something nasty if I let him the chance...

That shouldn't really happen as far I can tell. Only the proper "Bosses" (orange text) are truly dangerous, and I don't believe there are any that you can attack with an AoE before going through some kind of cutscene or event sequence, at which point they're already on top of you. So you're really only dealing with yellow Lieutenants in these situations. At least with Storm of the Century, a yellow mage won't have enough HP to survive (though it could maybe survive just a Blizzard or Inferno). A fighter-type might survive, but a heavily weakened yellow brawler with next to no mob left shouldn't be capable of any threatening surprises at that point. 

But whatever... I can certainly appreciate getting the style points for paralyzing a mob inside a Storm, so long as you don't mind the time setting it up. 

Also, I finished up the Blood Mage playthrough tonight and did finally have a good use for Revival in some of the endgame battles. Those two fights just outside and just inside Fort Drakon are no joke, even with a strong party.