8 réponses à ce sujet

[corey_russell]

While I have played an Arcane Warrior many times, there were never very impressive for me, despite the many accolades from people here on the forum.

 

However, via careful reading of the spells, I chose these sustainables: Combat Magic, Shimmering Shield, Armor, Spell Shield, and Arcane Shield.

 

Once I did that, he did much, much better. He did so much better in fact, I decided to attempt the almost unwinnable fight you get after killing Howe. E.g., if you go upstairs via the stairway right by Howe's room, you immediately get in a huge fight - I almost always lose this up to now. However, this time around, my Arcane Warrior's party died (except himself), but he managed to kill all 20 so of these mobs by himself, without even having to cast a spell! Just using lyirum and heal potions. His AC (45) was much higher even than my warriors, which is kind of ironic.

 

I tried Cauthrien next - she killed him, but my Arcane Warrior did live for a long time.

 

While I agree with some posters a Arcane Warrior is kind of boring, at last I can experience their strength for my own games. He actually rarely cast a spell during the endgame battles, except group healing when needed.

[luna1124]

Boring?? AW's are never boring!!!! They are awesome mages with an awesome ancient specialization!! And they can wear what ever they want!!!

[corey_russell]

I agree with everything you said except the boring part - maybe you build your AW differently, but my AW, despite huge will power, still could at most could only cast 1-2 spells before out of mana. But being out of mana is an issue for spell shield which will go off if I do that. He was most successful just auto-attacking once his defense buffs were up for me. I was using the medium dragon armor with the mana regen.

 

But really, in all RPGs if generally find mages boring anyways, I always prefer a melee type of some kind, so I admit it could be my mage bias. My AW was an entropy spell school specialist (to get the achievement for that school), and there's very little damage in this spell line.

[Icy Magebane]

You've only scratched the surface OP.  Once you learn to combine spellcasting with near invincibility, you will understand the true power of magic.    Tbh, I can understand how some might see the AW as a boring class, but that's only if you rely too heavily on melee...  although spellcasting his hampered by the need to sheathe weapons, an AW without spells is not that much fun.  If you build them like a normal caster mage who is close to a high dragon in terms of durability, that's when things get interesting... well, in my experience, at least.

 

edit

But really, in all RPGs if generally find mages boring anyways, I always prefer a melee type of some kind, so I admit it could be my mage bias.

Uh... or maybe not.    If you don't like paralyzing or freezing enemies, or tossing fireballs, then I guess a caster AW isn't going to do it for you...

[luna1124]

cheaper combat magic

unsheathed weapons spell casting

dual weapon abilities or

two handed weapon abilities

 

These mods are not cheating, they only enhance the game play

[corey_russell]

You've only scratched the surface OP.  Once you learn to combine spellcasting with near invincibility, you will understand the true power of magic.    Tbh, I can understand how some might see the AW as a boring class, but that's only if you rely too heavily on melee...  although spellcasting his hampered by the need to sheathe weapons, an AW without spells is not that much fun.  If you build them like a normal caster mage who is close to a high dragon in terms of durability, that's when things get interesting... well, in my experience, at least.

 

edit

Uh... or maybe not.    If you don't like paralyzing or freezing enemies, or tossing fireballs, then I guess a caster AW isn't going to do it for you...

I do like paralyzing, freezing and fireballing, but my AW in this case was entropy, so he couldn't freeze or fry. He did do mass paralysis many times, though, which was indeed fun. However, entropy only damage AE is death cloud, which is very slow damage over time - most enemies were able to escape without dying. Interestingly enough, near the end I had so many sustainables and combat magic running penalty, that I couldn't even cast mass paralysis even ONCE - not enough remaining mana, despite huge will power.

 

I see no point in being AW if I'm not going to use good armor, but if I do that, combat magic and sustainables, not much left for actual casting. I could have used my entropy spells without combat magic, but not much damage - he used combat magic to boost his damage output. Yeah, and elementalist AW doesn't have this problem.... : )

[rayzorium]

That's my biggest issue with AWs. The more you take utilize your specialization's abilities, the less actual casting you do.

 

I recently did some toying around with the fight you're talking about. I wanted to do it on Nightmare, without kiting out of the room or using any potions. A pure blood mage was able to handle it with ease - but I don't think a melee AW would be cut out for it at all. 

 

[Icy Magebane]

I do like paralyzing, freezing and fireballing, but my AW in this case was entropy, so he couldn't freeze or fry. He did do mass paralysis many times, though, which was indeed fun. However, entropy only damage AE is death cloud, which is very slow damage over time - most enemies were able to escape without dying. Interestingly enough, near the end I had so many sustainables and combat magic running penalty, that I couldn't even cast mass paralysis even ONCE - not enough remaining mana, despite huge will power.

 

I see no point in being AW if I'm not going to use good armor, but if I do that, combat magic and sustainables, not much left for actual casting. I could have used my entropy spells without combat magic, but not much damage - he used combat magic to boost his damage output. Yeah, and elementalist AW doesn't have this problem.... : )

Have you tried combining this with blood magic?  You can stack a ton of sustained abilities and then use health to cast spells... depending on how often you cast, what you cast, and whether you have an item with "Improves Blood Magic," this may or may not work well for you.  While I do not recommend heavy armor as a rule, there are some pieces that you may wish to consider if you want to avoid blood magic for some reason (or if you just like having options): the Executioner's Helm, Varathorn's Armor, and Eamon's Shield give you +25 stamina/mana each.  If you are willing to use a 2 hander and have the "Return to Ostagaar" DLC, then the Nug Crusher is also a good choice... that one gives +100 Stamina/Mana.  Beyond that... any armor, accessory, or armor set with "abilities cost less to activate" or a willpower bonus can be very useful for increasing mana... there are many options to consider.

 

And yeah, Entropy is a bit lacking in damage... it's mainly good for debuffs, although if you stack items that boost spirit damage, you can squeeze a bit more out of those spells...

[corey_russell]

I am sure you are making excellent points. However, from a role-playing point of view, I never use BM on my main character. My first choice in character for RPG games is always a Holy Warrior of some kind, thus in D&D I would choose a paladin. BM definitely is not "paladin-ish" per the in-game lore.

 

I chose the dragon medium armor for it's negative fatigue as well as its built in mana regen. The AC boost was helpful as well...The only DLC I have is Stone Prisoner.