24 réponses à ce sujet

[transinfinity0]

Don't ignore glyphs if you want to have an extremely effective mage.

1) Glyph of Paralysis (GOP) -  GOP paralyzes the first enemy that steps upon it.  It can be used as an effective defense by placing it directly on top of the mage who casts it so that it is triggered by the first enemy to approach, but it is far more effective when used at range to neutralize any particular enemy on the battlefield who is posing a specific and immediate threat.  If an enemy archer or mage is harrasing you or a melee enemy is charging you,  zap them with this glyph and then tear them up with damaging spells, let your warriors or archers have fun with them, or give your rogue an easy backstab.

2) Glyph of Warding (GOW) - GOW gives bonuses - general defense, mental resistance, and missle defense - to the caster or any ally if they are in its area of effect.  Like GOP, GOW can be placed directly on top of the caster to provide defense, but it is more effective when your party members are fighting close together.  Every ally within the area of effect gets the defensive bonuses.

3) Glyph of Repulsion (GOR) - This has quickly become my favorite spell.  When playing a mage, GOR should be one of the first spells you cast in combat, casting it on yourself, of course.  Melee enemies that attempt to approach the mage will be violently thrown back. (Four-legged enemies, e.g. beasts, re-act differently.  They fall, but then get up to attack you, so watch out .)  There are, however, other fun ways to use this glyph.  Place it in a doorway and enemies can't leave the room.  You can also have the entire party switch to missle weapons and stand inside the glyph and melee enemies won't be able to touch them.  Your can also drop a GOR on a group of enemies at range, like archers, and watch them all get knocked down.  In narrow corridors, a GOR cast between you and the enemy means your mages and archers are immune to melee attack.  With GOR. your mage can usually safely lead your party of adventures, able to hide behind this unusually effective defense.

4.) Glyph of Neutralization (GON) - This one is a mage killer.  GON dispels all magical effects, drains all spellcasters' mana, prevents mana regeneration, and prevents any spellcasting within its area of effect.  Drop a GON on one of those pesky hurlock emmissaries and they are done casting spells unless they move to recover their mana.  (Surprisingly, I have found that most enemy spellcasters don't move - they just use arcane bolts from their staff, which is not neutralized.)  If you place a GON on a enemy spellcaster, they become sitting ducks for your warriors and rogues, but one side effect is they will be immune to any spell effects, so mages will have to resort to their staves to damage an enemy standing on a GON.  Another use is to drop a GON on an ally being damaged by spells - they become immune to spells and are not adversely effected as long as they don't use mana, although any benefical spell effects are neutralized and they will have to use poltices to heal.  A word of warning though, don't accidently step on your own GON or all your mana will be immediately drained, which can be problematic in combat.

***WARNING - THIS NEXT PART MAY BE A BIT OF A SPOILER***

5) Paralysis Explosion (PE) - What happens when a GOR overlaps a GOP?  You get a PE!  Everyone in a large area, both friend and foe, get paralyzed.  If the caster is in the area of effect, they get paralyzed, too.  So why do it?  First, in my experience, the caster and his allies tend to recover first, giving them a chance to attack their paralyzed enemies for a short duration.  The danger here is having enemies from outside of the area of effect attack while you are paralyzed.  Secondly, since gylphs can be used at range, you can drop a GOR at a distance and then drop a GOP on top of it and neutalize an entire section of the battlefield.  Allies can then move in and mop up enemies.  If nothing else, PE can provide some breathing room if a combat has gone out of control.

One last thing about glyphs, if an enemy is moving, you have to place the glyph and time its casting so that the enemy does not run past it before the glyph activates.  A glyph behind an enemy is usually not that useful.

That it.  That my rant about glyphs.  I hope you find it helpful.  Thanks for reading. 

[Jack-Nader]

I used to think glyphs were the bomb till I experimented with a mage on solo. I found that rock fist, fireball, cone of cold and then blood wound negate the need for the entire gyph line. I still choose the glyph line but it's a line I pick up last.

[Alodar]

The Glyph line is my favourite line of spells.

I can't create a mage without it.

Casting glyph of repulsion in a doorway followed by inferno and fireball is a lot of fun.

My standard tactic for decimating large outdoor groups is fireball, glyph of paralysis glyph of repulsion combo and then inferno and sit back and watch them die.

And honestly nothing is more fun then casting glyph of repulsion on your mage and watching fighters bounce away.

The glyphs, the fire tree, waking nightmare and mana clash make soloing with your mage on nightmare a lot of fun.


Alodar

[Thiefy]

I love using glyphes too



current playthrough i have mori and wynne with them both just so i can double up on some of them simultaneously in battle

[JosieJ]

Good summation.  I found that line invaluable for Wynne on my last playthrough, and it's a big part of my strategy for my new mage PC as well.

[Mr_Raider]

Jack-Nader wrote...

I used to think glyphs were the bomb till I experimented with a mage on solo. I found that rock fist, fireball, cone of cold and then blood wound negate the need for the entire gyph line. I still choose the glyph line but it's a line I pick up last.

And what do you do until level 14 when you get blood wound?

At any rate, every mage needs some crowd control, whether it's cold spells, the sleep line, glyphs or blood wound. The glyphs are excellent in tight spaces like dungeons and houses. Drop a glyph of repulsion at the door and you can chew up the enemies one at a time.
Where glyphs start failing is in wide area spaces, like when you get mobbed by 50 wolves!

[Thiefy]

Mr_Raider wrote...

Jack-Nader wrote...

I used to think glyphs were the bomb till I experimented with a mage on solo. I found that rock fist, fireball, cone of cold and then blood wound negate the need for the entire gyph line. I still choose the glyph line but it's a line I pick up last.

And what do you do until level 14 when you get blood wound?

At any rate, every mage needs some crowd control, whether it's cold spells, the sleep line, glyphs or blood wound. The glyphs are excellent in tight spaces like dungeons and houses. Drop a glyph of repulsion at the door and you can chew up the enemies one at a time.
Where glyphs start failing is in wide area spaces, like when you get mobbed by 50 wolves!

not necessarily. if you drop one on yourself, you bounce all but one or two enemies which can easily be taken down.

[Jack-Nader]

@Mr_Raider

Yes every mage needs crowd control BUT all the spells I listed are damage + crowd control.
Fireball is crowd control and does hefty damage. Rockfist is crowd control and does good damage. Cone of cold is crowd control and can be combined with WB and shatter to detonate mobs of enemies.

There is one form of crowd control that most people overlook. Your character has the ability to move! When you open with fireball every hostile unit tends to run at you. You can step left/ right to group them all into a single cone of cold, run aroundthem in a wide circle or you can simply retreat back and wait for another fireball to reload.

An example of this is the wolf random encounter. Drop fireball which disables all the wolves for 3 - 4 seconds. Run north east to avoid the traps. All the wolves heard together and chase you. You cast cone of cold and then WB or another fireball to finish of the wolves.

Another example is the quinari encounter.  I charge them with my mage and then run around the entire pack in a large circle.  This groups all of them together.  When I am satisfied with how they are grouped together I cone of cold them + vwb + shatter which is enough to kill all the quinari except for the captains.  I then close with fireball or flame burst.

Glyphs are not necessary. They are great if you can't be assed moving and simply want to drop a glyph and then start bombarding. I play very aggressive. My offense is always my defense and so I choose spells that are offensive + crowd control. Blood wound is merely icing on the cake.

Modifié par Jack-Nader, 18 janvier 2010 - 03:15 .

[Adaram]

My first playthrough, with a mage, I let Wynne be my "Glyph" mage. This next playthrough, I am soloing on Nightmare (trying, anyway), and Glyphs are a really important part of my strategy.

[soteria]

Glyphs are not necessary. They are great if you can't be assed moving and simply want to drop a glyph and then start bombarding. I play very aggressive. My offense is always my defense and so I choose spells that are offensive + crowd control. Blood wound is merely icing on the cake.

Neither are fireball, blood wound, and stonefist. No one is saying they're necessary, just that they're great, and you don't have to pick up garbage to get them. As awesome as fireball is, you have to pick up two spells that may or may not be valuable to you to get it. Same with blood wound.



Take paralysis explosion. It's unresistable, so you know every white will be done for 20 seconds, yellows for 10, and oranges for 5. It also works on everything, unlike blood wound. Another plus is glyphs are just fun. I giggle like a little kid every time I watch darkspawn go bouncing repeatedly off.

[Jack-Nader]

....



Seriously why do people pick single words out of my posts and take them completely out of context?



Raider asked what do I do until level 14 if I do not use glyphs as a method of crowd control. I stated that I use rock fist, fireball etc as my method of crowd control because glyphs have no damage component. They are not necessary in the way that I play the game :S

[soteria]

The same reason you reply to a thread about the usefulness of glyphs, saying, "They're not necessary."

[TheRealIncarnal]

The glyphs are without a doubt to best line in the Creation school to me. There's just so much utility for those spells.

[Jack-Nader]

Oh, I apologize. Here I was thinking that this was an open discussion on glyphs where all opinions both for and against are valid. I guess I was mistaken.

[Sarevok Anchev]

Good compilation! This are really good spells, besides the typical Dps spells.

Some additions:

-GOP:  Its not that useful on Nightmare. Enemys resist much easier and wont be paralyzed very long.

-GOW: Cheesy: Make a 3 AW party, who fights in Melee and cast this spell 3 times on them!

-GOR: Cast it on a enemy, who is near a wall. He will be knocked down against the wall, stand up and knocked down again etc. etc.

Also: On doorways let some enemys pass and THEN cast GOR at the passage; this way you fight enemy masses in smaller chunks.

Cheesy: Again, 3 AW's, but this time as Archers: Build a line with 3 of this spells, or make a triangle. Now you have plenty of time to shoot the enemys; before the Wards end, cast GOP on them !

-GON: Needs clarification: Does it also stop sustainable Talents and Talent/Poison-effects?


Paralyze Explosion: Emissarys tend to cast GOP on themselfs.... soooo why dont you give 'em a GOR as a little present?

Modifié par Sarevok Anchev, 18 janvier 2010 - 04:44 .

[dcross05]

Going off of Jack-Nadar's methodology and the fact that I haven't bothered with glyphs either I find that using earthquake with Wynne then my main casting Inferno is very effective for disabling and killing a large group. Any stragglers can be round up with other damaging primal spells and archers.

[Sarevok Anchev]

@dcross05 Thats true, but only possible with strategic planning and distance to the enemy.

The Glyphs are for Close-Combat situations and higher difficulties, where damage alone wont always save youre day.

[dcross05]

I have been playing on Hard and I have to say this tactic has been extremly useful, but now that I have read about these glyphs I can really see how certian battles would have been much easier. None the less that is the beauty of this game for there are so many ways to play it.

[Jack-Nader]

Glyphs are quite useful. In the past I used them extensively. The most notable point in the game where they came in handy is the redcliffe undead battle. I would use glyph of repulsion to block the hill choke point to prevent the undead from running down the hill. This way I would not lose XP to those rascally knights

Actually, now that I think of it, I tended to use it mostly for that very purpose. Cast paralysis explosion on both friend and foe to mitigate loss of XP.  Nowadays I just bomb everything with fireball, COC and VWU.  I end up killing all the allies but.. meh.  It's not as if extra XP/gold is awarded for protecting them, the exception being redcliffe 

Modifié par Jack-Nader, 18 janvier 2010 - 08:37 .

[Sylvius the Mad]

The Glyph of Repulsion is the thing that makes the Survival skill actually useful.

In a dungeon or castle setting, where you see (on the map) enemies in the next room (but around the corner so they can't see you), drop a Glyph of Repulsion at the door and cast a big spell like Blizzard or Inferno in the room. The spell hits everyone, and they all coming running at you, only to hit the Glyph and get thrown back into the AoE damage.

Modifié par Sylvius the Mad, 18 janvier 2010 - 09:20 .

[x-president]

They are definitely good spells.  Are they an absolute must, probably not but no spell is.

Wynne can be quite dangerous if setup to use glyphs.  She can constantly paralyize the entire team.    It's no fun taking arrows to the head for 10 seconds or however long that lasts.

[transinfinity0]

I personally don't mind people expressing their opinions or disagreeing with me. It all a matter of approach and what works for you. Glyphs do tend to be most effectively used in tight spaces where the enemy can't go around them, but I still think Glyph of Repulsion is a great defensive spell since mages can get tore up in melee combat and a Glyph of Repulsion cast directly on the mage usually makes them immune to melee attack, and while there are other spells for neutralizing enemy mages, Glyph of Neutralization works well as long your fighters back you up and kill the mage in melee combat.



I think glyphs are best if you intend to keep tight control of your mage and not go the tactical command route. As x-president pointed out, accidental Paralysis Explosion can get characters killed. Likewise, having all of your mana drained accidently by a friendly Glyph of Neutralization isn't fun.



Killing groups of opponents at long rage is most effectively done with spells like Inferno, Blizzard, Tempest, etc, but if you stick them in place with a Paralysis Explosion, they can't flee and it makes those spells more effective.



No glyphs aren't necessary. You can trust your melee defense to Rock Armor and Arcane Shield or become an Arcane Warrior and just wear regular armor. Glyph of Neutralization isn't necessary if you want to go the Spell Shield/Dispel Magic/Anti-Magic Ward/Anti-Magic Burst route or if you have a well trained templar in the party.



In the end, to each his own, we all have our preferences, I like trying all different things, and the important thing is to have fun. If what I wrote sounded like glyphs were the end all, be all, where spells are concerned, then I overstated the case, but I have alot of fun with glyphs.

[Sarevok Anchev]

Paralysis Explosion is for me -besides Cone of Cheese- the only spell i use for stunning/freezing/paralyzing enemys on Nightmare.

On that difficulty the Stuns are cut very short in Duration; Knockback seems to stay the same, so Fireballs are always good. But nothing is comparable to the paralyze-time of the P.-Explosion!

[stillnotking]

Glyph of Neutralization is weird. Some enemy casters (notably Darkspawn Emissaries) will almost always stand in it and shoot staff bolts. Some will run out and shoot staff bolts. Still others will run out and immediately cast expensive spells, defying the glyph's usual mana drain effect.

It has defensive value as well. GoN makes tanks, who tend not to move much, effectively spell immune. Beware that you will not be able to heal them, although health poultices still work.

[Haplose]

stillnotking wrote...

Glyph of Neutralization is weird. Some enemy casters (notably Darkspawn Emissaries) will almost always stand in it and shoot staff bolts. Some will run out and shoot staff bolts. Still others will run out and immediately cast expensive spells, defying the glyph's usual mana drain effect.

Blood Mages activating Blood Magic?