Question for someone that has created a knight enchanter - does spirit blade count as a regular attack or as a spell. Just wondering whether clean burn (inferno) or gathering storm (storm) is more synergistic.
I would also like to know the answer to this.
I'm using Rift Mage as my main tree and buffing it with Inferno/Storm spells, I use no Barrier and the only Winter spell I'm using is Fade Step (upgraded). So far, so good.
I went straight for Revive, but it looks wasted if I choose Knight Enchanter. Now I'm going down the fire tree to Fire Mines. It seems like having a variety of damage types is important due to resistances and immunities? I wish there was a key to quickly switch staves in combat.
Revive IS awful even without knight enchanter however the life ward upgrade makes it incredibly amazing.
I can confirm spirit blade works with Clean Burn and thus counts as a spellcast, since my build relies on it heavily.
Right now i'm using:
Fade Step , Fade Cloak, Energy Barrage, Spirit Blade, Immolate, Fire Mine, Static Cage, Resurgance
Essentially, even in a dragon fight, i can Fade Step in, plop down an upgraded static cage + fire mine and start whacking with my spirit blade, dealing tons of damage and giving me a lot of barrier. If my barrier runs out i have fade cloak, and by the time that runs out clean burn makes sure i can fade step out again, at which point i can do some ranged damage still with barrage/immolate.
So what have you all found to be a good choice? Winter/Storm? Fire/Winter? Fire/Spirit? Right now I have at least 1 point in Fire, Winter and Storm. I got Winter's Grasp and the ability where you regen mana faster after 3 seconds of standing still (which is easy to do as a mage). In fire I have the AoE and Flashfire. For Storm, I have chain lightning and the homing magic spell.
So far I have one of my mages as Spirit, but is it worth to upgrade spirit for my PC to get mind blast or one of the better abilities there? What skill trees are a good combo to focus on? I really like the concept of Fade Step in Winter tree, but there is a lot to like about Fire and Storm as well.
Here are my mage builds. I like my mages to be versatile and to be in character. Note that all of them are Level 30 builds. + represents upgrades
Knight Enchanter Build
Knight Enchanter – 9 (Spirit Blade+, Fade Cloak+, Resurgence, Combat Clarity, Fade Shield, Veiled Riposte, Knight Protector)
Inferno – 5 (Immolate+, Flashpoint, Clean Burn, Chaotic Focus)
Winter – 5 (Winter's Grasp+, Fade Step, Mana Surge, Winter Stillness)
Storm – 6 (Chain Lightning+, Lightning Bolt, Gathering Storm, Static Charge, Conductive Current)
Spirit – 5 (Barrier, Mind Blast, Peaceful Aura, Guardian Spirit, Strength of Spirits)
Skills – Spirit Blade, Fade Cloak, Fade Step, Immolate, Chain Lightning, Winter's Grasp, Barrier, Resurgence
The idea behind this build is to create a flexible Knight Enchanter who can function from range and up close and personal.
Having Immolate, Chain Lightning & Winter's Grasp, I have Fire, Ice & Lightning AOEs which means I never have to worry about enemy resistances or enemy immunities.
As for passives, the important ones are Clean Burn, Gathering Storm, Conductive Current and Peaceful Aura. Clean Burn reduces spell cooldown per spell cast, Gathering Storm reduces spell cooldown per every basic attack, Conductive Current increases spell damage for every mana lost and Peaceful Aura halves the threat generation.
Note that I decided to go down the right side of the Spirit skill tree. This is because I wanted to pick up Strength of Spirits which gives me 50% barrier bonus. Combine this with Chaotic Focus which can drain up to 50% barrier to boost fire spell damage and you basically get really powerful Immolate without having to worry too much about Barrier drain. Yes I know that Knight Enchanters can regenerate barrier with each hit but this gives them even more survivability.
Necromancer Build
Necromancer – 10 (Horror+, Spirit Mark+, Walking Bomb+, Death Siphon, Blinding Terror, Simulacrum, Power of the Dead)
Inferno – 4 (Immolate+, Flashpoint, Clean Burn)
Winter – 4 (Winter's Grasp+, Mana Surge, Winter Stillness)
Storm – 6 (Chain Lightning+, Lightning Bolt, Gathering Storm, Static Charge, Conductive Current)
Spirit – 6 (Barrier, Dispel+, Revival+, Peaceful Aura)
Skills – Horror, Spirit Mark, Walking Bomb, Immolate, Winter's Grasp, Chain Lightning, Barrier, Dispel / Revival
The idea behind this build is to create a necromancer-elementalist hybrid. Immolate, Winter's Grasp and Chain Lightning, combined with Walking Bomb gives this necromancer all the elemental area of effect spells. Yeah there is Blizzard in the Winter tree which is far more powerful than Winter's Grasp but it requires too much skill points investment.
Note that I decided to not take Haste for this build. The reasons for this is quite simple and that is Haste, in my opinion, does not fit the necromancer theme. Personally, I prefer to have Revival instead which is why an upgraded revival is part of this build. It makes sense for Dorian to have it as his Focus since his recruitment quest involves time shifting. Also, Haste is good if you are running a rogue-focused party. If not, meh.
Additionally, notice I did not take passive such as Frost Mastery and Pyromancer. Why ? For the simple reason they do not do damage. Pryomancer increase Fear & Burning duration. In Necromancy we already have spells with panic abilities and damage over time effects. Frost Mastery only increases the chill and freeze duration. Winter's Grasp grants us by default 4 seconds of freeze and 8 seconds of chill which is plenty to me.
Chain Lightning is here for an area of effect stunlock and the Storm tree has passives that give us more damage for every mana lost and cooldown reduction for every basic attack.
Dispel is useful. Strike that, Dispel is one of the best spell in the game, period. I did not include it for my Knight Enchanter because Spirit Blade affects Barrier and they have Fade Cloak which makes them invulnerable. Firstly, Dispel can be used to remove enemy debuffs from you and your party. Secondly, if you Dispel at the right time during a Fade Rift, you can banish demons back into the Rfit. Yes, you heard me right. If you use Dispel on the ground where the enemy demons will spawn out of, you will banish them back right away and gain full experience points. Which means with Dispel, you need not worry about annoying Terror Demons, a.k.a Theodosian Banshees.
Rift Mage Build
Rift Mage – 11 (Veilstrike+, Stonefist+, Pull of the Abyss+, Firestorm, Restorative Veil, Encircling Veil, Smothering Veil, Twisting Veil)
Inferno – 4 (Immolate+, Flashpoint, Clean Burn)
Winter – 4 (Winter's Grasp+, Mana Surge, Winter Stillness)
Storm – 7 ((Energy Barrage, Chain Lightning+, Stormbringer, Gathering Storm, Static Charge, Conductive Current)
Spirit – 4 (Barrier+, Peaceful Aura, Guardian Spirit)
Skills – Veilstrike, Stonefist, Pull of the Abyss, Immolate, Winter's Grasp, Chain Lightning, Barrier, Firestorm
This build is to cause as much damage as you can in the shortest time possible. Nuff' said. I mean, that is the essence of Rift Mage if you look at their passives. Their passives all involve cooldown reduction, cost reduction and weakening.
Once again, the trio of Immolate, Winter's Grasp and Chain Lightning make their way here. Those are the most cost effective AOE spells of their respective trees. Blizzard is too far down the tree and Fade Step's upgrade does not do area of effect damage. Fire Mine takes time to prime & is down the tree and Flashfire is not really a damaging spell, more of a crowd control spell. Static Cage is unnecessary here because we have Pull of the Abyss. Lightning Bolt with its upgrade works really well on one target provided you have a group of target.
As for why I decided to give Barrier its upgrade, well, if you combine it with all the cooldown reduction passive, you can pretty much spam barrier, provided you have the mana for it. Which means, you can reserve the other mages in your team for things like Dispel and Revival. With Rift Mage, mana should not be an issue at all since almost all their abilities can have low cooldowns and low mana cost.
Lastly, Firestorm. Get those Inquisition perks to get your Focus up to level 3 as quickly as possible. You will want to pull a group of enemy with Pull of the Abyss and drop 55 freaking meteors on them for absolute destructive hilarity.
Have fun & enjoy ! I know my builds are different from most people's builds but that is because I really loathe the idea of being a mage who is only good in one particular school. I hate being a one-trick pony, its shite. A powerful mage should be capable of casting spells from every school.
Here are my mage builds. I like my mages to be versatile and to be in character. Note that all of them are Level 30 builds. + represents upgrades
I know this is a question about Mages, but that last build for the Rift Walker, you said it was designed to do the most damage. How does that compare to a Rogue Dual Dagger's damage, an Archer's damage, or a 2H Warrior's damage? I am playing mage and have gotten pretty far into Hinterlands, but I'm wondering about the other classes.
My no spirit knight enchanter in-your-face fire build.
Spirit Blade,
Fade Cloak + Decloaking Blast
Veiled Riposte
Resurgence
Fade Shield
Knight Protector
Fade Step - for teleport, has synergy with decloaking blast and fade shield.
Immolate
Clean Burn
Chaotic Focus
Pyromancer
Fire Mine.
The fire passives allows us to spam damaging spells with the help of spirit blade (which does a huge amount of damage). 50% of barrier is added to damage, we get some of that barrier back thanks to fade shield. Fire mine does a lot of damage and is relatively cheap, we can use it often thanks to the clean burn passive.
Can run around solo and never take damage.
I know this is a question about Mages, but that last build for the Rift Walker, you said it was designed to do the most damage. How does that compare to a Rogue Dual Dagger's damage, an Archer's damage, or a 2H Warrior's damage? I am playing mage and have gotten pretty far into Hinterlands, but I'm wondering about the other classes.
Apologies for being pedantic but it is Rift Mage, not Rift Walker.
The Rift Mage is focused on crowd control debuff and high magical damage. I suppose I should have explained that before.
The Rift Mage specialization allows the player to deal really high and consistent magical damage. All their abilities when upgraded are very powerful, have low cooldown and debuff enemies.
Here is a link for those who wish to look at the Mage abilities and specializations :- http://imgur.com/a/HV4lX
In the early stages of the game, that is, prior to gaining a specialization, mages are very much stuck in a support role. We can unlock specializations once we reach SkyHold and reach Level 11 if I am not mistaken.
However, before that, mages are very much stuck with doing just decent, but not outstanding area of effect spells like Immolate or Chain Lightning.
If you wish to compare a mages' damage to warriors or rogues, rogues have the highest damage per second in the game, bar none.
An archer rogue needs to be as far or as elevated as possible from a target to do the highest damage. A dual weapon rogue ( I refuse to call them daggers) does the most damage when they are flanking, that is to say, in a backstabbing position, very much like Rogues of DAO and the Spies of TF2.
Mages on the other hand do high burst damage like a grenadier. A rogue does high damage per second with careful positioning, like a spy.
With the right positioning, a rogue will do far more damage than a mage.
I have not played much with Two Handed warriors or warriors in general since DA2. The last time I played as a warrior in a DA game was in DAO as a dual wielding warrior with a crossbow for range. Ah, good times. Alas, that means I cannot tell you much about how warriors do damage in this game.
Which is the best specialization for a player that uses Tactical view almost all the time?
I'd imagine either Rift Mage or Necromancer would be what you'd want to go for. Knight Enchanter Will have you more doing CQC.
So what have you all found to be a good choice? Winter/Storm? Fire/Winter? Fire/Spirit? Right now I have at least 1 point in Fire, Winter and Storm. I got Winter's Grasp and the ability where you regen mana faster after 3 seconds of standing still (which is easy to do as a mage). In fire I have the AoE and Flashfire. For Storm, I have chain lightning and the homing magic spell.
So far I have one of my mages as Spirit, but is it worth to upgrade spirit for my PC to get mind blast or one of the better abilities there? What skill trees are a good combo to focus on? I really like the concept of Fade Step in Winter tree, but there is a lot to like about Fire and Storm as well.
What type of mage are you trying to play? That's the most important thing to establish when specing out, that and what type of party layout you want?
I'd say starting out, investing in Barrier, Frost Step, and Winter Stillness can be pretty essential. Peaceful Aura is also useful if you plan to only fight from a distance.
Edit: This is pre-specializations - because I havent unlocked them yet
All I can say is OMFG - Trust me when I tell you to upg your storm tree and grab static cage AND its upgrade - its very important to get the static cage upgrade and here is why: Many enemies are always near at least 1 or 2 others, so naturally you stick a static cage on them to prevent movement. Well the upgrade to static cage comes into play because EVERY ability used by any character on an enemy in the cage, also shocks them for more damage (based on the attackers weapon damage) So my fav combo is to
1. tactics view
2. cast the cage
3. Step time forward 1 second (enough for the initial static cage cast
4. Use as many AOE/Multihit abilities by the rest of my chars inside the cage
You wouldnt believe how easily Elite 2 handers drop with a combo like this. You can also add a fire mine in the mix as well. At level 10 with my willpower level, I can cast the cage, and have enough time to attack a few times and throw a chain lightning (which hits all targets causing the cage to hit them all again)
Youll know if you had a really good combo if all you can hear is the BZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT the entire time - And ps. get the ring that increases staticcage duration asap - it makes such a big difference - can get off 2 total spells (without mana pot) before cage disappears
Edit2: Thanks to viperidae vvvv - > I forgot about Energy barrage - Each individual projectile causes static cage to strike them with lightning and if you have Energy Barrage's upgrade and your staff damage is lightning, then each energy projectile that hits the enemy causes an increasing weakness to lightning, which static cage does even more damage now
oh god, i had that static cage upgrade earlier and the sound in combination with energy barrage really is something else
Here are my non-specialized mage builds. I have always enjoyed playing as a mage with no specialization since DAO. It gives you a lot of flexibility. As usual, this is Level 30 build so take note of that.
Wizard
Inferno – 7 (Immolate+, Fire Mine+, Flashpoint, Clean Burn, Pyromancer)
Winter – 7 (Winter's Grasp+, Fade Step+, Mana Surge, Winter Stillness, Frost Mastery)
Storm – 8 (Energy Barrage+, Chain Lightning+, Stormbringer, Gathering Storm, Static Charge, Conductive Current)
Spirit – 8 (Barrier, Dispel+, Mind Blast, Peaceful Aura, Guardian Spirit, Rejuvenating Barrier, Strength of Spirits)
Skills – Fire Mine, Immolate, Fade Step, Winter’s Grasp, Energy Barrage, Chain Lightning, Dispel, Barrier
On first glance, this build which I dub as the Wizard, is not very special or anything. However, take a closer look and you will see that this build is powerful.
Here's why:-
1) You have spells to deal with anything and everything and I do mean that. Enemy resistances and immunities ? Pshaw, you laugh in the faces of such things. In trouble ? Fade Step away, you even do some damage along the way. Need to banish demons before the fully spawn ? Need to remove effects ? Dispel. Need to lay traps ? Fire Mine.
2) All the abilities here are not very mana intensive and they have relatively low cooldown. Which means they can be spammed without taking into consideration of passives.
3) I have almost all the passives in the mage tree with the exception of Ice Armor. So let us do some calculation shall we ?
Sorcerer
Inferno – 7 (Immolate+, Fire Mine+, Flashpoint, Clean Burn, Pyromancer)
Winter – 9 (Winter's Grasp, Fade Step, Wall of Ice, Blizzard+, Mana Surge, Winter Stillness, Frost Mastery, Ice Armor)
Storm – 8 (Energy Barrage, Chain Lightning+, Static Cage+, Stormbringer, Gathering Storm, Conductive Current)
Spirit – 6 (Barrier, Dispel+, Peaceful Aura, Guardian Spirit, Rejuvenating Barrier)
Skills – Fire Mine, Immolate, Winter’s Grasp, Blizzard, Chain Lightning, Static Cage, Dispel, Barrier
I just call this the Sorcerer for the sake of convenience. This is a build that focuses on locking down, stunlocking and destroying enemies.
The trick here is to deploy Static Cage first. An upgraded Static Cage can trap enemies in a large radius and damage the enemy every single time you use an ability on them. Static Cage = Ultimate Mage Torture Device. Or spell, I suppose.
So now you can imagine the insanity of doing something like this :- Static Cage + Fire Mine+ Blizzard or Static Cage + Chain Lightning + Blizzard.
Ishten, I'm loving the thought process behind both sets of your builds here. Those sound like they'll be a great deal of fun. Can't wait to experiment on my Mage playthrough.
ishten: maybe i understood it wrong, but i understood the static cage upgrade as doing damage everytime they try to cross the barrier and NOT every time they're attacked.
Right now I'm feeling mighty weak in the early stages. I decided to go heavy into FIre tree, and that may have been an error. I seem to just lightly splash enemies with fire, doesn't seem to do much damage to them at all. I'm level 9.
Lots of interesting builds.
Can anyone confirm whether or not Mana Surge works with barriers generated by KE's Fade Shield passive? I always assumed it doesn't but I haven't even unlocked KE yet to test it.
Here are my non-specialized mage builds. I have always enjoyed playing as a mage with no specialization since DAO. It gives you a lot of flexibility. As usual, this is Level 30 build so take note of that.
I really like Vivi, but want my PC to be a Knight Enchanter, so I was bummed contemplating leaving her behind once I unlock specializations, but you have inspired me to try something like your non-spec builds! 
I really like Vivi, but want my PC to be a Knight Enchanter, so I was bummed contemplating leaving her behind once I unlock specializations, but you have inspired me to try something like your non-spec builds!
I will leave this line that I found from Star Wars. It is an exchange between Obi Wan and Mace Windu.
"That is so like you, Master Kenobi. I am called a great swordsman because I invented a lethal style; but who is greater, the creator of a killing form—or the master of the classic form?" ―Mace Windu to Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Similarly, a non specialized mage is the master of classical forms of magic, the master of basics, the master of fundamentals. They have the potential of actually picking up every passive in the game and being able to play in various ways.
ishten: maybe i understood it wrong, but i understood the static cage upgrade as doing damage everytime they try to cross the barrier and NOT every time they're attacked.
Yeah, I don't know why it says that, but it actually does damage when you hit them.
Is 30 points points a realistic number to build towards? I've been shooting for 25 points when making builds because I wasn't sure the number, and I want to create builds that i would actually be using against the tough fights, not the build that I will have when I have literally wiped out every enemy save some spare bandit camps I have missed.
At the very least, I find it better to distinguish parts of builds that are 'core' and 'fluff'. 20 core points that really define your build, and another 10+ that simply amplify it.
Bolded are core
Italics are fluff
-U designates Upgrade
Underlined is active ability on Bar
KE
Spirit Blade - U
Fade Cloak - U
Combat Clarity
Fade Shield
Resurgence
Veiled Riposte
Knight Protector
Winter
Winters Grasp
Fade Step - U
Mana Surge
Winter's Stillness
Ice Mine - U
Blizzard - U
Inferno
Immolate - U
Flashpoint
Clean Burn
Pyromancer
Fire Mine - U
Chaotic Focus
Storm
Energy Barrage
Conductive Current
Spirit
Barrier
Guardian Spirit
Core - 20points
Fluff - 10 points
Active skills:
Immolate -U, Fire Mine -U, Fade Step -U, Fade Cloak -U, Ice Mine - U, Spirit Blades - U, Resurgance, [flexible]
Still have not decided how to fill my last slot - i want to try out blizzard to see how much I like that. Certainly seems like it would synergize with Ice armor and Conductive Current. But Dropping barrier means i will likely need another mage in the group. Lastly, Winters grasp offers great immediate CC, albeit at high costs, which doesn't fit well with this build.
This is similar to many KE builds I have seen. Low cost spells, solid regen, spirit blade and clean burn mean that you can spam a TON.
Fade Shield, Chaotic Focus, Decloaking Blast, and Fire Mine allow nuking and tanking at the same time. Add in Mana surge for further mana and survivability.
The fluff increases both as well, adding damage to fade step, mitigation around your mines or frozen foes, and most importantly, conductive current upping your damage. Between spirit blade and potentially blizzard. It will be easy to remain in the 'red zone' of mana, doing continual damage at maxiumum potential.
here's some fun combo:
firemine + shock cage (co-centered) reminds me gragas combo from league of legends this combines both cc and high dmg output, but requres some timing and aim
Spirit Blade with the passive (each spell cast reduces cds by 1 second in the fire tree) is so op. As soon as I saw that in the fire tree at like level 4 I realized wow if that works on Spirit Blade this will be broken, and well it does and it is. You can just dodge every ability with Fade Cloak and Spirit Blade 2 or 3 times and have it back, and if you critical hit it comes back instantly lol.
Also in the fire tree you can take 50% of your barrier and add it to your next fire spell's damage. But if you have the Knight Enchanter passive (30% of your damage is returned to your barrier) you actually will have a net gain in barrier with Fire Rune more often than not.
Knight Enchanter (the passive on spirit blade is meh) > Fire passives > Spirit right side of tree (avoid passives on barrier and mindblast) > Ice for fade/frost step it is like a ghetto Vanguard from ME2) you can get the ice armor passive if you want to be a Sentinel from ME2 lol. The aoe freeze happens everytime your barrier dies so if your spirit blade nets you 1 barrier and it breaks you will aoe freeze everything, and can just keep doing it till everything dies lol it reminded me of the Tech Armor stunlock things you could do.
I'm going to try Rift Mage next I think. Although Reaver warrior sounds fun just looking at the skills. I think someone with a lot of time, could beat the game solo on Nightmare with Knight Enchanter tho. The first 10 or so levels would blow. But you could probably cheese it with potions until you got the specialization. I died quite a few times pre level 9 on Nightmare, but after I got Knight Enchanter I died maybe two times the rest of the game.
to the guy above:
25 to 30 is a lot of points. I had 22 when I beat the game (was level 20). I think 25 is doable if you do everything / are human / get the inquisition perk. But for the core of the game your going to be level 12-18 probably.
I dunno the earliest you can get Knight Enchanter I got mine around level 10-11 iirc.
At level 10 you can have 12 ability points, maybe 13 if you get one from the story (I can't remember honestly if you do or not by then).
With 13 points you could have;
(6) Knight Enchanter
Spirit Blade
Fade Cloak+passive
Combat Clarity
Fade Shield
Veiled Riposte
(4) Spirit
Barrier
Guardian Spriit
Mind Blast (I never use this but w/e)
50% more Barrier (can't recall name)
(3) Fire
Immolate
Flash point
Clean Burn
Next two level ups you could get Fade step and its passive. After that I'd just continue down the fire tree for Fire Rune and its passive, or if you only want to spam spirit blade, go get the +magic and willpower passives in all the trees.
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