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[DarthGizka]

Elven mage Fiona has reached level 14, and finally she's got all her most urgently needed spells:

AW(1)    - Combat Magic (passive)
BM(3)    - Blood Magic, *, Blood Wound
flame(4) - Flame Blast, *, Fireball, Inferno
frost(3) - Winter's Grasp, *, Cone of Cold
force(2) - Mind Blast, Force Field
glyph(4) - Paralysis, Warding, Repulsion, Neutralisation
bomb(3)  - Walking Bomb, Death Syphon, Virulent Walking Bomb

So far she soloed everything on nightmare, with the exception of some bosses and some of the random encounters.

Now it is time to look at the future. She will be able to learn six new spells before the Attack at Nightfall, and around seven more before the big do with Archi, 13 total. That may sound like a lot but it isn't, since most of the remaining good spells cost at least two to three spell points, some up to eight.

To address her most obvious weaknesses she would have to take first two hexes (currently administered by Wynne) and either get the Sleep spell or learn to get by without it. She needs at least one medium-sized hammer - either Blood Control or Crushing Prison, preferrably both. And she has to do something about her lack of peak damage against groups of yellows and fire-resistant foes. Shock would do nicely for that, and a bit of Tempest wouldn't go amiss either.

There are two routes to big damage from here, and both cost eight points: SotC (+ Mana Clash), or Entropic Death. They are the biggest possible guns but they are all very situational; except for Mana Clash they are horribly inefficient. Entropic Death really starts to shine when there are two or more Death Hexes in the party, but each of the 'extras' costs four spell points for a companion.

In both cases the cost of eight points is partially mitigated by filling existing gaps. The shock line has already been mentioned; Blizzard can come in handy on occasion, and the first two or three hexes have to be taken by someone in the party anyway. The advantages of Mana Clash are well-known. It is not needed for SotC but having Spellmight and not spending one further point on Mana Clash would be blasphemous.

I've tried to find a plan that covers the necessities as well as one of the doomsday devices, but there just aren't enough points to go around. Never mind things like Stone Fist, Petrify and Heal which would greatly increase flexibility.

Entropic Death could work just barely, but only without Sleep and Heal unless something else is jettisoned:

1 BM(4)    - Blood Control
2 shock(2) - *, Shock
2 force(4) - *, Crushing Prison
4 hexes(4) - Vulnerability, Affliction, Misdirection, Death
4 death(4) - Drain Life, Death Magic, *, Death Cloud

The SotC route is similarly limited but offers Spellmight and the mighty Clash as bonusses:

1 BM(4)    - Blood Control
1 frost(4) - Blizzard
3 shock(3) - *, Shock, Tempest
2 force(4) - *, Crushing Prison
4 mana(4)  - *, *, Spellmight, Mana Clash
2 hexes(2) - Vulnerability, Affliction

No room at all for things like Petrify, Heal, Spell Shield, Dispel and so on. Also, the doomsday spells would not be ready in time for when they would be useful in the Deep Roads and in Redcliffe, unless more urgent stuff is postponed for half a dozen levels just to be able to use a big gun one or two times.

Leaving out the doomsday stuff would free up 5 spell points:

1 BM(4)    - Blood Control
3 shock(3) - *, Shock, Tempest
2 force(4) - *, Crushing Prison
2 hexes(2) - Vulnerability, Affliction

That would allow Petrify and Heal, or Stonefist and Sleep, or Stonefist and Heal and Dispel, in all cases with Rock Armour as a bonus.

What are your thoughts? I'm particularly interested in your experience with having certain spells available - i.e. their utility in everyday darkspawn detonation - versus having to do without them. I'm also interested in your experience post-Origins, like being able to continue without respeccing and thus saving the tome for Amgarrak or whatever, or spells that lose their luster once Archi is history.

[Mike3207]

Well, first of all i think you're underestimating the number of spells you can get, assuming you're going to level 25. You can have 35 in origins total:

 

25 level ups

3/4 from arcane tomes

3 at character creation, including Arcane Bolt

3 from playthrough

1 from desire Demon?

 

As for respeccing in Awakening- i always do it. You'll want to reassign those skill points at least once and put them into Clarity at minimum.

 

Spells in Awakening-I find I still use Fireball, and the combo with Grease can especially work well in CC. I tend to think both Crushing Prison and Mana Clash are essential-I can't imagine not getting them for a mage. I'm not convinced the price for Storm is worth it-I'm always out of mana after I finish it.I might take Lightning to Tempest if you have the spell points though.

 

One suggestion-get Arcane Shield. Fade Shield really upgrades it in Awakening. Entropic Death-I didn't get it until late in Awakening. You just have higher priorities in my opinion.

[Mike3207]

BTW-I'm guessing you can only update your characters on PC now?I imagine console users like me are out of luck.

[DarthGizka]

Thanks, Mike. That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

Regarding skills: I'm banking on leaving the skill points hanging once Fiona has Combat Training II and Coercion IV, and on carrying over all three skill tomes. Respeccing would feel almost like cheating; Fiona had to choose - and will have to choose - her spells carefully in order to be able to function (to solo actually) at every point between the Harrowing and the toasting of the arch lizard. Respeccing allows to distribute spell points in a manner that would never have been viable for a character in Origins.

The point about Grease is a good one; I've added it to my list of candidates because Fireball is one of Fiona's favourite spells, right alongside Cone of Cold in importance. In fact, you could call her adventure "A Song of Ice and Fire", if it weren't for the bomb thingy.

What about the Sleep spell? Fiona has got into many a quandary because she has neither Sleep nor Horror, and very soon she will have to beat Zathrian without it somehow. Blood Wound is an amazing spell but it works only against blooded creatures, and its long casting time makes it unusable in all situations where you would normally need the Sleep spell. The first second of these encounters is usually crucial for the outcome, and the game will invariably have turned off Blood Magic (meaning that Blood Wound takes two seconds to cast).

Speaking of first seconds: I tried the 'pause at the start of combat' option but it didn't work. It paused one second after the begin of combat, which means that you are invariably dead if you rely on that b0rked thing. I'm back to trying to hit the Pause button as quickly as possible.

In some cases it is possible to buy the time for casting Blood Wound or Paralysis Explosion with the aid of a well-placed fireball, but not always since the projectile spends some time in flight and the enemy are not always positioned in a suitable manner.

Sometimes it is possible to pre-cast a glyph, making PE a one-second cast.

Sometimes it is possible to park the enemy mage in a Force Field or Crushing Prison (instantaneous effect, rather than delayed by the flight of a projectile), followed by Mind Blast against melees and then Blood Wound. But that is only possible if there are no archers with Scattershot in the picture.

On the whole, none of the workarounds can fully replace Sleep in such encounters.

When Fiona toasted Uldred she had Morrigan cast Sleep a couple of times, and all of the enemies resisted all of the time. However, that result is probably due to Morrigan's low spellpower, which was exactly half that of Fiona at that time.

Should Sleep become less effective - or even useless - in Awakening then I would drop it from my list of candidates, since I am confident that Fiona will be able to get through the rest of Origins without it if necessary. However, should Sleep retain its usefulness in Awakening then it would shoot up to the top of my wish list.

What about Rock Armour? In Origins it is sort of meh, since it stops improving somewhere between Ostagar and Lothering, and for some unfathomable reason it can only be cast on self (like Arcane Shield and a few other spells).

In all other fantasy games I've played there was much greater flexibility. Apart from being able to cast any spell on others as well as oneself, you could usually get spells as scrolls and some as potions (including in Bioware's own NWN), so that even a warrior could carry an emergency dispel or teleport in the form of a consumable item. Not to mention the Elder Scrolls games, where you could enchant a piece of paper to make a spell scroll, cast spells from rechargeable enchanted items, and even design your own spells. Origins continues to mock me with empty, unenchanted spell scrolls but here these are nothing but the least valuable form of loot (sale value one copper or so).

Anyway, Rock Armour is capped at 12 armour which puts it in the same category as Shimmering Shield with its fixed 15 armour. Sort of nice to have if it costs nothing but hardly worth getting on its own. Stone Fist would have been handy on occasion and Petrify as well, but I'm still in two minds about these spells because of their high cost (2 points for Stone Fist, 2 points more for Petrify).

I've taken your advice regarding Arcane Shield to heart and put it back on the candidate list. That puts Staff Focus within reach, and after looking back at the battles of the past couple of levels it looks quite attractive as well. Being able to mop up stragglers with the staff leaves more mana for grand-scale nukage and other important things, and good staff damage is quite helpful in a lot of other situations. Like speeding up the demise of a ticking bomb, prepping yellows, or significantly augmenting the damage done by (Virulent) Walking Bomb to a boss or revenant.

Not to mention that Staff Focus makes Arcane Mastery affordable, and even a small permanent increase in spellpower seems worth more in the long run than a meh spell.

On the whole it looks like the best way is not to go after strategic nukes like SotC or Entropic Death, but rather to concentrate on tactical spells like Crushing Prison and Sleep, perhaps Wisp/Grease and Petrify, plus some shock spells for much-needed extra DPS.

 

As regards Mana Clash: at the moment I am enjoying the challenge of making do without it, and the solutions tend to differ a lot from encounter to encounter. However, my victory over the four maleficar is more due to luck than to skill or ability (the mages who resisted Mind Blast only hit me with Winter's Grasp instead of Crushing Prison or Paralysis), and the yellow Arcane Horror in the Circle Tower was a tough nut to crack. Not to mention that yellow shades and ashwraiths are always a challenge if they come in twos or mores. Hence my apprehension that this 'hobby' of clash-less mage fighting might not be viable in Awakening.

 

BTW-I'm guessing you can only update your characters on PC now?I imagine console users like me are out of luck.

 

Character update stopped working at the end of last month, just when I was doing research on minimum and maximum XP values for all origins. Hence almost all my characters are now frozen at level 2 or 3... I really hope that the feature will eventuelly start working again, since it is such a big part of what makes DA:O so attractive.

[DarthGizka]

Good point, and I had to think about it quite a bit before coming to a decision.

 

Mass Paralysis takes at least as long to cast as Paralysis Explosion, wears off faster, gets resisted more often, and it doesn't paralyse kill-stealing allies. If I didn't have all the glyphs then it would be a solid choice but since I do, Mass Paralysis is not very attractive in relation to its cost of 4 spell points. It shares one drawback with Paralysis Explosion, which is the smaller AoE radius of 7.5 m compared to the 10 m of Sleep and Blood Wound. It seems that many ambush encounters are designed so that you can just barely solve them with Sleep but not with Mass Paralysis or Paralysis Explosion.

 

Miasma is perfect for kiting bosses but in this playthrough I simply hit bosses with the whole team if they make trouble, rather than trying to solo them at all cost. Melee combat is not on the menu either; Combat Magic was taken only for its passive bonusses.

 

Weakness and Paralyse are excellent spells, but Glyph of Paralysis can substitute for the latter and the former isn't needed in this campaign. There will be no melee fighting, and kiting will be infrequent enough to be done on the strength of Cone of Cold and similar spells.

 

For this playthrough and considering that all glyphs are already available, the paralysis line isn't quite as attractive as usual. It doesn't offer fundamentally new types of tactical possibilities, only to do some things more often (although that can be quite useful in its own right).

 

Afterthought: post scriptum since my answer fails to give due weight to the advantages of having Paralysis and Mass Paralysis, even in addition to the glyphs. The selectivity of Mass Paralysis can sometimes be a serious advantage over Paralysis Explosion; if you only have the latter then you can often cover only part of the enemy force because the game plunked you down right in their midst. Having both allows you to cover pretty much any enemy deployment regardless of shape or size. Plus, if the paralysis glyph has been spent in an explosion then the only emergency parking of ranked enemies is via Force Field, unless they are conveniently within coning distance. But if they are force-fielded then they cannot appreciate the warmth of your regard in the form of a Fireball or Inferno, and they cannot be inoculated against overly long life expectancy by way of (Virulent) Walking Bomb. Having a separate Paralysis spell avoids that problem, as well as allowing you to park one more ranked enemy until you have time for them.

[Mike3207]

I'll admit-half the time I got to melee with the enemy I would shapeshift to spider form or swarm form. I haven't used the forms as much in Awakening, but it has been golden when you come up against the foes like the Children who can easily swarm and overwhelm you once they get in melee range. If you are going Arcane Warrior, getting the whole line will be as useful as going for Sleep. Sleep will work, and Sleep+Horror can do a lot of damage-but it will also be resisted. Combat Magic fully upgraded is also very strong.One spec I've found very useful in Awakenings-Keeper. One with Nature is very good at keeping foes away. and Thornblades can do a lot of damage.

 

If you're not going with Mana Clash, you will need Spell Shield. I'm not sure about the other spells in the line however-just because I did go with Clash. There have been times I didn't have it up and I would get hit with a Crushing Prison. Even with good spell resistance, a mage will get hit with a spell without it.

 

One other thing-1 point in poisons will help out for when you are swarmed. Grenades will do a lot for keeping foes off.

[Ribosome]

Several months ago I made a thread that detailed the kind of damage/cc mage that fit my playstyle. I didn't want to use arcane warrior so I could try things differently. The combination of grease + fireball dealt with crowds nicely in the large, open maps. Had to rely on the cone and paralysis glyph for tight-knit encounters. One spell line I had never tried prior to this run was the spell wisp line, and I'm glad I took the time to play around with it. Found all the spells useful between the SP boost, aoe control that synergized with fire, mana regen boost, and the swarm for another nuke. I was never really a big fan of the storm spell combo but different strokes.

 

I feel like a lot of spells became redundant once blood wound became an option though, so I did respec out of them when awakening started and dropped the spirit healer specialization in favor of battlemage and keeper. The non-ff crowd control and damage options were a massive upgrade to my spell arsenal (I also think most of the awakening spells are far more fun in general). Had to throw away the last several levels' talent points on any passives I did not take, however, because my quickbar ran out of room.

[DarthGizka]

Thanks, interesting read. It made me go back and look at Grease + Swarm more closely.

Stinging Swarm is amazing and I'd rate it five stars out of five. Besides offering some badly needed extra DPS, it is the perfect detonation accelerator because it automatically starts mopping up any survivors.

Grease: the knockdown is nice but the fire AoE seems smaller than Fireball's and the damage absolutely pitiful. The wiki says it does 30 damage over 20 s (!), compared to 220 over 5 s for Fireball at SP 100. I might use it occasionally if available but I'd never buy it on its own, especially as it doesn't seem to stack with Inferno.

Spell Wisp and Spell Bloom are sort of nice but they don't solve any real problems. For my mage the combined utility of Wisp, Grease and Bloom can justify at most one spell point out of the four needed for Swarm, and at the cost of three points even that spell looks rather meh.

Meanwhile my mage has gone through the Nature of the Beast and A Paragon of Her Kind, except for the anvil area. The lack of Sleep made itself felt on many occasions; sometimes it was possible to buy the time needed for casting Blood Wound with a Mind Blast or a well-placed Fireball, but on the whole it was not possible to use Blood Wound as a substitute for Sleep. The main reason is the long casting time because the game ensures that Blood Magic is always turned off when you might need it.

Having a tank as aggro magnet works to some extent, but only when playing at lower difficulties where additional threat from armour and melee weapons can draw attention away from the Warden, or when all relevant enemies happen to be within taunting range.

On the other hand, Blood Wound has been amazingly useful in ways that Sleep never could. In quite a few kill-stealing situations it enabled my mage to bag all the kills herself without losing a single ally; normally it would already be a struggle to get all the kills on the team without losing anyone. Like Mana Clash, Blood Wound can also trivialise some otherwise tricky situations.

Crushing Prison was the first new spell after level 14, and it has been a great help. Except that yellow enemies seem to take a lot less damage than they should (250 to 300 total, or close to 400 with the 30% damage bonus); in fact, none of the squishy yellows should be able to survive it but they do, even with Virulent Walking Bomb, Fireball and staff blasts piled on top.

If the implementation fails to adjust the damage rate for the gratuitously shortened stun durations of ranked enemies then this would certainly explain this odd behaviour. At 100 spellpower this would mean 180 damage for yellows, 105 for bosses and 60 for elite bosses, instead of the expected 300. That would make the fuel efficiency of Crushing Prison against yellows as bad as that of Lightning, although it would still be a good spell overall just like the mighty Cone.

The remaining four spell points from the roaming phase of the campaign will be used to buy the stone line. For my mage, Stone Fist rates four stars and Petrify five, and Rock Armour can take the sting out of some ambush encounters (where enemy melees immediately start whacking the Warden because of proximity, before Mind Blast, Glyph or Taunt can have an effect). Earthquake doesn't rate a star but at least it is not a total waste like Disorient.

Stone Fist can interrupt spell casting, grabs, overwhelms and single scattershotters; it can knock down the one mook who always escapes a stun, cone, or fireball knockdown, and it can push a walking bomb back to the correct side of a glyph if it managed to cross the line on a lucky roll of the dice. Its most important use is in shattering: either for getting rid of enemies before they thaw (shrieks/weres), for precision detonation of bombs, and for remote shattering/detonation without having to use Crushing Prison as a rather expensive detonator. Since Stone Fist cools down just as fast as Cone of Cold this means at least one shattered grunt for every cone that catches one. Unless all bombs are on cooldown it also means instant major carnage.

Petrify is the only full-duration immobiliser (20 seconds) apart from Paralysis Explosion; all other stuns/immobilisers have shorter duration. It can hold a yellow for 12 seconds, a boss for 7 and an elite boss for 4. That alone makes it worth its weight in gold, especially as it is a one-second cast. Following up with Crushing Prison to keep a yellow still for an additional 3 to 4 seconds has a chance of shattering, which is always welcome. Apart from that the main tactical use of Petrify is precision placement of shatterable bombs or to pin down a tough nut next to a bomb. Remote shattering is useful in its own right, even when there are no bombs involved; however, Petrify's long cooldown of 40 s is a limiting factor.

In retrospect I'd go for Sleep instead of Blood Wound in order to have complete coverage of tactical necessities, and maybe take Blood Wound later as soon as there a spare spell points to be spent on fun and carnage.

With Petrify the build will be reasonably well-rounded at level 20, in time for the Attack at Nightfall. Not enough time to get Tempest for the occasion, but between Fireball, Inferno, bombs and Blood Wound there is more than enough destructive potential for acing the job. Not to mention two sets of glyphs and Wynne's AoE hex.

Of the remaining seven to eight spell points, two are ear-marked for the first two hexes but five to six are still up for grabs. It'll be a while until the Desire Demon in Redcliffe gets to live for the first time ever, and so there is ample time to plan the rest of the campaign.

It would still be viable to go for Entropic Death, in a fork where Morrigan doesn't talk a walk.

However, it is probably too late already to try for nice big numbers against Archi, since only Wynne can do that with her augmented Vessel of the Spirit (+66 spellpower at level 23). It would require getting her as early as possible and to give her Wisp, Mastery and Might in addition to the two Entropic Death lines. That's 15 spells, plus an almost mandatory 16th spell point for the mighty Clash. Wynne will be at least level 8 when you get her unless you are willing to let huge chunks of XP go to waste (since you can't leave Lothering for later when you go to get Wynne). That doesn't leave a lot of room for anything else.

P.S.: Sorry for taking so long to reply. The last couple of days were the red-hot phase of the monthly billing and there was little time for sleep and play...

 

[Mike3207]

FWIW-I have seen Earthquake shatter frozen enemies. It's not as reliable as Stonefist, but it will do it occasionally. I would have mentioned Petrify earlier except I thought you had previously said you felt the earth line did pitiful damage.

 

One other thing-the Archdemon is weakest against nature damage, so take that into account.75% resistance for most, 25% for nature. You might use the nature gloves and a nature staff to reach the cap, but Stinging Swarm is the only spell that does nature damage. Something to consider.

 

One last thought-Paralyze seemed really effective at the Tower of Ishal. I'd definitely think it'd be worth the 2 points to get it, even if I missed it with my last mage.

[DarthGizka]

FWIW-I have seen Earthquake shatter frozen enemies. It's not as reliable as Stonefist, but it will do it occasionally.

 

Interesting. Never seen it happen, but I'll keep my eyes peeled. It seems that shattering is only possible with coned enemies but not with those frozen by Winter's Grasp or Blizzard; this means that quakings of shatterable enemies will be a somewhat rare occurrence.

One possible scenario is putting an Earthquake under a cluster of coned enemies if both bombs are cooling down at that moment. This would slow them down some and reduce their ability to do mischief until a bomb is ready and a proper cone bombing can be arranged.
 

I would have mentioned Petrify earlier except I thought you had previously said you felt the earth line did pitiful damage.

 

Taken on its own - like in the case of Wynne - the damage of that line is indeed pitiful. Stone Fist does the same damage as Arcane Bolt at double the fuel cost, and shattering works only against grunts.

However, an exploding Virulent Walking Bomb does 200 to 300 AoE damage (for normal ranges of spellpower and without hexes/amplifiers), and Stone Fist and Petrify are amazingly useful in facilitating precision detonation.

Cone/shatter bombing is the biggest hammer available to mage right after Entropic Death. Unlike the latter it has an AoE, is available more often than once a minute, and it is extremely fuel-effective. That makes it immensely useful for everyday adventuring, and it is basically the only way of dispatching hordes of enemies quickly and without fuss.

 

Cone, bomb, fist. "Next!" (my toon actually says that).

Also, the only way of killing ranked enemies in a hurry is to detonate some whites in their faces. Even Inferno takes quite a while, and you have to arrange for the enemy to stay in there somehow. Not to mention that dragon kin and Ash Wraiths tend to be singularly unimpressed by fiery treatments.

Kiting a bunch of enemies into place so that you can blow them all up in one go is a bit of an art but well worth the trouble, especially if you have the fist.

My mage just had to do Branka without Stone Fist (hit level 17 during the fight but levelling isn't possible during combat), and I can tell you that arranging for a white golem to detonate next a yellow one takes some doing if you cannot set if off with a shatter. Especially if bloody Oghren cannot get his wife to focus on him (no Taunt) and she is off chasing squishies while he is tottering after her.

Crushing Prison had been used to detonate the first golem pair and it wasn't available again until the show was basically over: Leliana and Wynne had slurped all lyrium veins, two fully-healed friendly golems were hitting on Branka, and Oghren had been sent into a corner in order to ponder his failures. With Force Field reducing wear and tear on the friendly golems, Wynne could keep them healed from her natural mana regen. Without Taunt it wasn't safe to nuke Branka, but between golems and ranged attacks she went down really fast.

Next time I'll have Leliana tank the ******, though, not the useless drunkard. Leliana has 20 to 30 defence on Oghren even if you max him with all +defence/+dexterity gear including Vartag's shield, and even with the +25 phys resist helmet and Rat Red he spends most of the time on his ass. With the +30 bonus from Defensive Fire, Leliana has almost as much defence unbuffed as Oghren with Glyph of Warding and Heroic Defence. Add one buff and she becomes unhittable, while Oghren takes quite a bit of damage  even fully buffed and shoe-horned into massive armour with Rock Salve on top.
 

One other thing-the Archdemon is weakest against nature damage, so take that into account.75% resistance for most, 25% for nature. You might use the nature gloves and a nature staff to reach the cap, but Stinging Swarm is the only spell that does nature damage. Something to consider.

 

Yes, I had pegged 'good for pestering Archi' as one of the many excellencies of Stinging Swarm. However, resistances can be eliminated with hexes, and that changes the picture dramatically.

When meeting Archi at level 23, Wynne will have at least 75 spellpower cold and my toon 115. That means Wynne's hexes are more than enough to eliminate Archi's resistances, and with augmented Vessel of the Spirit even a 75% resistance becomes a 30% weakness (40% for fire, 100% for nature). Hence you can bring your entire arsenal of nukes to bear on Archi.

To simplify, let's assume non-nature damage will be normal instead of slightly amplified, and that nature damage will be capped at 100% weakness. That means 860 nature damage per minute (2 x 2 x 215) for the swarm. The two bombs plus one Fireball do 770 = 215 + 323 + 237 versus resistance 0 at roughly the same mana cost, which is in the same ballpark. But for Wynne's base spellpower and Archi's resistances they will be amplified to 899 and with Vessel to 1030.

And that's before you drop things like Inferno, Tempest and whatnot into the mix. At 115 SP Inferno does 688 vs. resistance 0, Tempest does 323, SotC only as much as both together but 10% less than Inferno + Tempest boosted by Spell Might as well. SotC still wins, though, if you have the time to let the first component run for a while before casting the second. Ditto if the bigger AoE prolongs exposure or catches more enemies.

Damage enhancing kit changes the absolute numbers but the relative picture remains the same. Except that it would be inconvenient to switch to +nature damage kit for sending a swarm Archi's way and then to switch back to fire and spirit damage boosters for fighting his minions.

BTW, full-time coverage requires two Affliction Hexes because its cooldown is twice its duration, which basically means two mages each casting two hexes every 40 seconds with turns staggered by 20 seconds.

I really like Stinging Swarm and it would be a great addition to any arsenal, but at the moment I find it unaffordably expensive.

 

And for some strange reason it keeps reminding me of Sacrifice somehow...
 

One last thought-Paralyze seemed really effective at the Tower of Ishal. I'd definitely think it'd be worth the 2 points to get it, even if I missed it with my last mage.

 

Glyph of Paralysis costs only one point, and it can be used in the same way as the spell if desired. Its duration is 33% shorter but the picture is reversed for their big AoE brothers. Paralysis Explosion lasts 20 seconds vs. 15 seconds for Mass Paralysis, is less often resisted, can be cast in two parts instead of in one interruptible long cast, has shorter cooldown and costs less fuel. And it is the only one that will freeze kill stealers. If the paralysis glyph sticks when you drop it on the ogre then you can take a step back and upgrade to an explosion, which will hold him for at least four seconds (one Flame Blast longer than Paralyse). With grunts and yellows you can defer the upgrade to explosion for a few seconds but with bosses the timing is too tight for such games.

My mage went straight for the glyphs because they give much more bang for less buck, and for one buck more the fourth glyph gives you cheap mage neutralisation and emergency dispel, very early. Glyph of Warding sees a lot of use as well, and it is pretty much the only game in town until you get Wynne and levelled her at least once for Heroic Defence.

Without the glyphs it wouldn't have been possible to cram the fighting ability of a whole squad into one squishy mage.

 

P.S.: linkified the first mentions of spells and other things for convenience, in case some wants to look up some stuff.

[Cobra's_back]

Darth,

 

"My mage went straight for the glyphs because they give much more bang for less buck, and for one buck more the fourth glyph gives you cheap mage neutralisation and emergency dispel, very early. Glyph of Warding sees a lot of use as well, and it is pretty much the only game in town until you get Wynne and levelled her at least once for Heroic Defence."

 

So true. I love the Glyph line. Stinging swarm is great for archer and the archdemons. The archdemons has the lowest resistance to nature. There are enemies that are immune to nature or have high resistance but that is true of any of the elements. The archdemon is not spell resistance but has high physical and mental resistance so wiki said. I wonder what damage you can do to it with vulnerability hex and then stinging swarm when he is sitting on that platform.

 

During the final onslaught, in the Elven Alienage, The Hurlock General has Glyph of repulsion under his feet. I drop the Glyph of paralysis to overlap it. It takes him out and the ogre. I quickly set up storm of the century and run like hell, or drop death hex then death cloud another favorite. 

[DarthGizka]

Wynne with Vessel of the Spirit and Aneirin's Token can turn Archi's 75% resistances into almost 100% weaknesses, depending on what else you have invested in her spellpower and whether Shale is playing spell wisp. That makes it possible to use all the big, efficient nukes like Fireball, Inferno, Virulent Walking Bomb and so on, and at that point they will be much more efficient than Stinging Swarm and hit much harder.

 

Another route is to use additional overlapping Affliction Hexes, by casting them on enemies near Archi. Naturally, that is only possible during some phases of the battle.

 

By and large, any competent mage should be able to eliminate Archi's resistances and even turn them into weaknesses to some degree.

 

I'd love to get Stinging Swarm but I cannot afford it.

Meanwhile, Fiona has tied up all lose ends and now she is ready to hand Chantry robes to Alistair and Morrigan. She just recently reached level 23 - exactly one level ahead of my warrior Alayna at that point - and she has finally finished her spellbook. I'll post it as soon as I can figure out how to attach a picture...
 

[DarthGizka]

After lots of research and testing in battle, here is a finely tuned spellbook for the discerning CC/nuker mage.
 

Properly field-tested and certified for nightmare solo, but even more enjoyable in a team with the most amazing rogue of all Thedas (especially cute with the Thane helmet), Wynne with a second helping of glyphs, hexes and Force Field, and last but not least, the portable spell wisp from Honnleath who is just as good at drawing aggro away from a mage as she is fond of squishing avians.

 

 

The rating for Earthquake has gone up to three stars - it would be worth getting even if it cost two points. It is much better than Grease because it has a bigger AoE and it retains its primary effect in an Inferno whereas Grease starts to burn.

After more than 20 levels of making do without Sleep I had completely forgotten how ridiculously awesome that spell is. It certainly spelt doom for Cauthrien and her minions (nightmare solo) but it is incredibly useful in any kind of cutscene/travel ambush. With Horror to justify part of the cost, this spell is excellent value for money.

[Mike3207]

What spec are you going to pick in Awakening? Elemental Mastery/Battlemage adds 15% to the elemental spells damage, and One with Nature/Keeper gives you a nice CC shield to hide behind.You can't really go wrong with either spec, and it's great if you can pick up both.

 

I think the Shapeshifter spec would have added a lot to this build. Poison Spit, Web, Slam, Rage, a stun with Divide the Swarm, 40% Dodge with Swarm, and most of all Overwhelm. There is a price, but I think it's worth it.

[DarthGizka]

All the Awakening stuff will be completely new to me, apart from a brief encounter during Witch Hunt. It'll take me a while until I figured out what's what. That is why I wanted a build that can stand on its own as is, without having to depend on anything or anyone for support. I know that it is possible to respec at the beginning of Awakening, but that would be a pure lottery at this point. As they say in softwerking, build one to throw away...

 

It took me 23 levels to get there, which means that I wouldn't have been able to afford Shapeshifter. There is nothing left to spend except for the Landsmeet spell which I left hanging so far. Hit level 24 when I felled the ogre alpha in front of Redcliffe Castle, so I'm probably still on track for level 25 at Archi's do. That's three extra spells but the quickbar is already filled up. How could one possibly play up to level 35 when even level 23 is too much already for the spellbook? All the spells on the quickbar get used all the time, except for Bloody Grasp and Rock Armour which aren't used very often (but Bloody Grasp will feature more prominently from now on, seeing that all enemies will be darkspawn).

 

Both the Arcane Warrior passive and the Blood Magic line up to Blood Wound have saved my bacon numerous times. Moreover, I wouldn't have been able to get a perfect score for all kill-stealing situations so far without Blood Wound. The ones I had to handle without it took some doing, like letting things stew for a bit while evening things out with staff blasts, healing up the friendlies, paralysis-exploding everyone and then hitting the whole shebang with a fireball that leaves only the greens standing. Difficult precision work. Blood Wound makes stuff like that a lot easier, and it recharges quickly. Even better would be a spell that makes the greens simply disappear, because all they ever manage to do is obstructing the work of the A team.

 

The workhorses of this build are Fireball and the bombs, plus the odd Inferno here and there. If they cannot be used because the battlefield is littered with friendlies then things get difficult... Swarm has advantages there, but at four spell points I find it too expensive.

[Annayd]

DarthGizka, you have a brilliant layout here. I'm currently in my first playthrough as a human Mage, and I didn't really have direction for my character, Daylen, but your layout has given me great ideas. Even knowing of glyphs, I've never strongly considered using them until now, among other talents, such as the sleep spells. I was most likely just going to play as a Primal specialist, which I can still become one, but now I'm going in with a more tactical mind, no matter the difficulty setting. Thanks!

[Mike3207]

Not sure if you've tried it, but Grease+Fireball for the grease fire, and then Blizzard after it for the Flame Quencher combo is a nice dual combo.

[DarthGizka]

My newest mage - Ajira - just reached level 14, and now she's in the same quandary as Fiona at that time. It is time to cross some bridges and burn others...

Her basic spellbook has been reasonably complete since level 13, covering every necessity of a nightmare solo. I'm posting it because it may be of interest to whoever wants to play a solo mage that hits harder and faster than an average team.

There are some similarities to Fiona's spellbook and progression. The difference is that Ajira could steamroller the oppostion and nuke whole groups at a time, using crowd shaping and aggressive in-your-face tactics. The sole exceptions were the fireproof rage demon in the Fade during the origin, the Ishal ogre which took almost five minutes to take down (bloody bugger resisted all four spells of the initial barrage), and Slothy who took almost half an hour because I was too exhausted to try fancy moves. That's it, though. Even the RtO ogre went down meekly without getting into melee distance.

Here is the spell progression so far:

L01 Flame Blast, Mind Blast        // character creation
L02 *Flaming Weapons               // Fade
L03 Fireball                       // spider caves
L04 Walking Bomb                   // Ostagar
L05 Glyph of Paralysis             // Wilds/Ostagar
--- Glyph of Warding               // Joining bonus
L06 Glyph of Repulsion             // Ishal (ground floor)
L07 Winter's Grasp                 // arrival in Lothering
--- *Frost Weapons                 // Bodahn's 1st tome
--- Cone of Cold                   // Bodahn's 2nd tome
--- Vulnerability Hex              // Denerim tome
--- Affliction Hex                 // Circle tome
L08 Inferno                        // Circle (ground floor)
L09 Glyph of Neutralisation        // Fade
L10 Force Field                    // encounter en route to the Keep
L11 *Distraction                   // Honnleath
L12 Horror                         // RtO
L13 Sleep                          // Ashes, right before Kolgrim
L14 ?                              // elven ruins, lower level

With hindsight I'd lose the neutralisation glyph. Force Field can give you enough breathing space for organising an enemy mage's demise, it doesn't make enemies activate blood magic¹, and it is much more useful all around. Especially against bosses like Sloth². That way, the level of completeness that allows you to go anywhere you want could be attained by level 12 already.

Having Sleep makes it possible to work without Blood Wound, and it turns Horror into a nice big hammer. Same damage as Blood Control and half as much as Entropic Death. It helped a lot against Kolgrim and the dragon in the elven ruins, and it would have made the encounter with the three drakes much easier.

With the exception of the neutralisation glyph, every spell in that list was and is necessary to make the build viable. Take away any of the spells and you will get slowed down; you might even have to revert to pulling only a few enemies instead of the nuking the whole lot in one go.

Here's a short summary of the basic level 12 spellbook (sans GoN), easier to take in at a glance:

flame(4) - Flame Blast, *, Fireball, Inferno
frost(3) - Winter's Grasp, *, Cone of Cold
glyph(3) - Paralysis, Warding, Repulsion
bombs(1) - Walking Bomb
force(2) - Mind Blast, Force Field
hexes(2) - Vulnerability, Affliction
sleep(3) - *, Horror, Sleep

Hotkeys can put up to ten spells at your fingertips, for quick and easy access without having to move eyes and mouse cursor away from the fighting. That reduces the need for pausing dramatically.

I use Q, E and R for Winter's Grasp, Cone of Cold and Mind Blast respectively, and the first four quickslots (number keys 1 through 4) for Arcane Bolt, Flame Blast, Fireball and Walking Bomb. Number 5 will be Virulent Walking Bomb but I don't have that yet.

Keys T and F would be two further possibilities. Good candidates are the first two hexes, Drain Life, Stonefist and Shock, depending on the preferred fighting style.

*) filler spells, needed as stepping stones
¹) think Blood Wound, e.g. Mad Hatter and Zathrian
²) it allows you to refresh hexes in peace and get some distance

[Mike3207]

I've found the Lightning line very useful, especially since you can cast Tempest through walls.One problem I always had with Inferno+Glyph of Repulsion is that I always would be stunned by Templars when I got close to the door in the Circle Tower.That didn't happen when I used Tempest.I also like the 30 second duration.

Modifié par Mike3207, 14 juin 2014 - 12:30 .

[DarthGizka]

Electrical damage drains the curvy one's mana because she isn't tagged as a mage for some strange reason (CORE_CLASS_WIZARD). AI vagaries may cause her to stop using Horror even earlier, before her mana drops below the spell's cost. Inferno isn't as effective as usual because Desire Demons have 50% fire resistance, which means Inferno takes almost as long as Tempest here.

 

The picture changes if you add a hex to the mix. Even level 8 Morrigan's weak hex reduces the fire resistance to 12.5%, which makes the Desire Demon die faster from Inferno than Tempest can drain her mana below the cost of Horror.

 

I did some more checks. The Arcane Horror gets drained as well but it will die long before mana gets lowish (181 HP vs. 300 mana at level 8). With 25% weakness to fire it would die from a single Fireball plus a few staff blasts or an Arcane Bolt, but with 40% spell resistance the odds are low. Inferno is the fastest option by far because the beast must resist each series of three to four ticks separately. Cast it so that you can get past without having to wait for it to run out.

 

Emissaries are tagged properly; like human mages, they take damage but don't get drained. And they don't act totally weird when you hire them - they keep their spells and all. Desire demons and Arcane Horrors are just like the puzzle wraiths you can hire during the Ashes quest, they lose all abilities. Desire Demons have nice portraits, though, as if someone expected them to become party members.

 

Back to the Horror problem. The spell requires line of sight and it has the same short range as Cone of Cold. As long as the Desire Demon can't see you, everything is fine and you can bombard the room to your heart's desire. Once she has seen you, the game changes and you must keep your distance. Since she can cast Winter's Grasp without line of sight if she has seen you already, the best is really to proceed to the next phase and paralyse the whole bunch by exploding the glyph. Otherwise it can happen that you're disabled when she crosses the glyph, meaning you can't stop her in time. The best way of taking her down quickly with a low-level spellbook is to explode a templar next to her.

 

If you're the patient sort then you can use Inferno or Tempest. Cast the glyph, open the door without getting seen, and retreat a couple of steps. Cast Inferno/Tempest so that it generously overlaps the glyph on the corridor side, in case you're slow in stopping resisters. If someone makes it onto the glyph, knock them back into the room with Stonefist or Fireball. If that doesn't work and the Desire Demon manages to cross onto the glyph (or too many templars), explode the glyph to paralyse everyone and get to work on the Desire Demon. She'll wake up after twelve seconds, so hit her hard.

 

If you're in the mood for more devious stuff, glyph and open the door, then run through another doorway. Double portals mean the AI forgets you even exist. Then do as you please. That can also be used for selective pulling. Just wait at the second doorway until the desired number of enemies have crossed into the corridor, then step through.

 

That bug can be a major annoyance at times, since not all portals look like doorways. For example, on the third floor of the Tower of Ishal there is a portal between Mabari Hall and the adjoining corridor. If you cross from the corridor back into the hall before all enemies have come out of their rooms then they won't join the festivities, you'll have to go and invite them again. Also, companions like to ignore enemies on the other side of the invisible line and just stare at them without shooting (but that may be due to bad clipping volumes for irregular geometry, not the portal thingy). You have to jump through a few hoops to get all enemies interested, but it's still a lot faster than going to each room to kill stragglers.

 

The bug can be most readily observed in the Arl of Denerim's mansion, because there you have quite a few rooms on opposite sides of a corridor with at least one room containing enemies. As soon as you step into a room, the enemies in the opposite room disappear.