I find the skill building in DAI to be a bit underwhelming. I've been investing all of my points in the lightning tree, just to see what it would be like. So far though, I only think the Chain Lightning skill is useful. Many of the attacks feel redundant or not as effective compared to chain lightning.
I think part of the problem is that you have to wait so long to use your abilities. You can only use 1 spell and then you have to wait for an eternity just to cast something else. The lack of mana and high cooldowns make the combat a chore to play. I hate auto-attacking, and with so many spells feeling redunant and since you only can cast 1 spell anyway, it feels like all of the abilities in the tree are a complete waste to spec into.
I'm not going to chalk my comments up to bad game design yet, but what is a good build to mess around with as a mage at level 8? Not that I thought specing into pure lightning was going to be really effective, but I just found the tree so underwhelming.
I haven't used this since level 10, but I had a pretty good mage build going before I unlocked Knight Enchanter. I had enough points into ice to unlock the frost glyph, used an upgraded chain lightning, the terrify from fire, and the lightning stun. There's a passive in the ice tree that boosts your mana regen and cooldown speed when you stand still for 3+ seconds; this made it so I basically could always use some ability. If there was a big enemy, I focused on using my various CCs, and if there were a lot of enemies I used barrier and chain lightning.
I agree about the auto attacking, though. There's way too much of it for mages. I'm finding knight enchanter pretty fun, though, which is weird because it's basically transforming yourself into a tanky auto attack machine.
Re: Lightning Skill Tree, I only use 2 - 3 talents there.
1) Energy Barrage [Ability] = This ability is not just lightning. It changes according to what type of staff you use (frost, flame, electricity) so it's super effective.
2) Conductive Current [Passive] = The more magic you shoot out and use, the more your damage increases.
3) Static Charge [Ability] = Great against pesky Melee users, it traps them inside a field and if they try to escape they are paralysed.
I prioritise Energy Barrage. 2 & 3 can come later.
- Early Mage build (up to Lvl 5)... hrmmm... with Cassandra, Varric & Solas: Chain Lightning | Immolate|Energy Barrage | Fade Step | Flashfire(for that crowd control)
- I have Solas go straight for Rejuvenating Barrier asap.
- By Lvl 9 I have put points into Flashpoint, Clean Burn, Pyromancer & Searing Glyph. It's really made me unstoppable. Solas also has Winter's Grasp, Winter Stillness, Brittle Glyph, Mana Surge & Frost Mastery. I'll definitely respec once I gain specialisations but this is really working out well for me. No enemy can go near me at all
The lightening tree is probably my favorite, lots of good stuff there, only skill i don't really care for is lightening bolt. It costs a fortune and dosen't really do much damage for a short stun.
The static field skill is insanely powerful when fully upgraded, especially if you have Iron Bull in your party. What it does is as soon as an enemy in the aoe tries to leave they'll get dagged back to the middle and take 50% of your weapon damage any time they take damage, this might not seem like alot but it really adds up, it also synergises really well with Energy Barrage that will do massive damage to a single target.
This way you can group a bunch of melee enemies together and concentrate your parties aoe at the same spot while making them vulnerable to combos.
Re: Lightning Skill Tree, I only use 2 - 3 talents there.
1) Energy Barrage [Ability] = This ability is not just lightning. It changes according to what type of staff you use (frost, flame, electricity) so it's super effective.
2) Conductive Current [Passive] = The more magic you shoot out and use, the more your damage increases.
3) Static Charge [Ability] = Great against pesky Melee users, it traps them inside a field and if they try to escape they are paralysed.
I prioritise Energy Barrage. 2 & 3 can come later.
- Early Mage build (up to Lvl 5)... hrmmm... with Cassandra, Varric & Solas: Chain Lightning | Immolate|Energy Barrage | Fade Step | Flashfire(for that crowd control)
- I have Solas go straight for Rejuvenating Barrier asap.
- By Lvl 9 I have put points into Flashpoint, Clean Burn, Pyromancer & Searing Glyph. It's really made me unstoppable. Solas also has Winter's Grasp, Winter Stillness, Brittle Glyph, Mana Surge & Frost Mastery. I'll definitely respec once I gain specialisations but this is really working out well for me. No enemy can go near me at all
This looks like a great moveset for early game, thanks.
I have just been putting everything in the fire tree basically.. except 1 point for Barrier.. + chain lighting
Fire glyph is really massive damage and nice dot.. if you can get people to go over it.. sometimes your team mates mess things up though.. i love setting everything to panic..
I notice a lot of people saying Fade step is good.. i might have to try that then
to be fair, friendly fire does kind of make it boring to play a mage.
Come on, chilling your team tank or zapping Varric and Sera when they least expect it is not boring. Plus, you get to see Bull and Cass murder each other.
I think investing all points into a single tree may not be a good idea. I never used blizzard, and barrier+dispel+fade step are too good to not get. So I tend to invest a little in every tree, getting some AOEs and utilities before the specialization.
My problem is that Chain Lightning is unusable with Friendlt Fire on... my teammates die first because of it. I use Spirit & Winter trees mostly, with Inferno on occasions.
The Mage specializations sound really strong, if you go Knight Enchanter you become a god-mode tank and if you go Rift Mage you'll never have to worry about mana or cooldowns again; if you spec both right.
The general idea for Mage seems to be VERY underwhelming early on and VERY powerful later. Stick with it or pick a class that balances your power and experience better.
I find the skill building in DAI to be a bit underwhelming. I've been investing all of my points in the lightning tree, just to see what it would be like. So far though, I only think the Chain Lightning skill is useful. Many of the attacks feel redundant or not as effective compared to chain lightning.
I think part of the problem is that you have to wait so long to use your abilities. You can only use 1 spell and then you have to wait for an eternity just to cast something else. The lack of mana and high cooldowns make the combat a chore to play. I hate auto-attacking, and with so many spells feeling redunant and since you only can cast 1 spell anyway, it feels like all of the abilities in the tree are a complete waste to spec into.
I'm not going to chalk my comments up to bad game design yet, but what is a good build to mess around with as a mage at level 8? Not that I thought specing into pure lightning was going to be really effective, but I just found the tree so underwhelming.
Lightning isn't a particularly good tree. Chain Lightning and upgraded Static Cage are excellent, beyond that there's not much. Stormbringer is marginal, Gathering Storm is broken, Energy Barrage interrupts Winter Stillness making it unattractive, Lightning bolt is single target, Static Charge is something you shouldn't need. Conductive Current is good but necessitates wasting a point on Energy Barrage.
Fights are primarily against groups with the occasional need to target an archer or mage in the back. A Rogue with Long Shot and Full Draw is far better for taking those out. For a mage Chain Lightning, Immolate and Fire Mine are the bread and butter. Winter's Grasp is useful if only to get to Winter Stillness and give you the option to freeze someone when need be.
Winters grasp, Immolate, Chain Lightning, Barrier = One of each to counter various weaknesses worked VERY well for me all throughout the game. Once you have those just focus on your specialization and passives, and of course upgrade your damage spells.
Winters grasp, Immolate, Chain Lightning, Barrier = One of each to counter various weaknesses worked VERY well for me all throughout the game. Once you have those just focus on your specialization and passives, and of course upgrade your damage spells.
Yeah, that's what I'm finding. The way the skill system works means that you simply don't have the points or the slots to try out the more unorthodox spells, having a AoE damage/stun for each element seems to show much more mileage than specialising in one element.
Re: Lightning Skill Tree, I only use 2 - 3 talents there.
1) Energy Barrage [Ability] = This ability is not just lightning. It changes according to what type of staff you use (frost, flame, electricity) so it's super effective.
2) Conductive Current [Passive] = The more magic you shoot out and use, the more your damage increases.
3) Static Charge [Ability] = Great against pesky Melee users, it traps them inside a field and if they try to escape they are paralysed.
I prioritise Energy Barrage. 2 & 3 can come later.
- Early Mage build (up to Lvl 5)... hrmmm... with Cassandra, Varric & Solas: Chain Lightning | Immolate|Energy Barrage | Fade Step | Flashfire(for that crowd control)
- I have Solas go straight for Rejuvenating Barrier asap.
- By Lvl 9 I have put points into Flashpoint, Clean Burn, Pyromancer & Searing Glyph. It's really made me unstoppable. Solas also has Winter's Grasp, Winter Stillness, Brittle Glyph, Mana Surge & Frost Mastery. I'll definitely respec once I gain specialisations but this is really working out well for me. No enemy can go near me at all
^^^^^This. This is very true for a beginning mage. Especially the energy barrier. I have a fire staff, and the barrier shoots fire, for that is the element on the staff I use. Later I re-spec and take it out, depending on what is going on. The other 2 perks are equally as good. Otherwise I just use about 4 from inferno and 4 from winter. I also use barrier from the spirit tree, and the perks down the left side of the tree for they are very helpful.
I have just been putting everything in the fire tree basically.. except 1 point for Barrier.. + chain lighting
Fire glyph is really massive damage and nice dot.. if you can get people to go over it.. sometimes your team mates mess things up though.. i love setting everything to panic..
I notice a lot of people saying Fade step is good.. i might have to try that then
Fade step is very good. It has got me out of a few jams. When one gets crowded, fade step helps get one out of the crowd.
Lightning isn't a great tree, especially early on because it all the spells have high costs and it doesn't have a decent regen passives.
^ That right there. Lightning has nasty mana costs that are difficult to compensate for at low level. All of its abilities have potent secondary effects ( Shock, stun, resistance debuff, etc ) that you're paying for mana cost wise. Which makes it great to weave in with other trees but by itself you'll leak mana like a sieve early in the game if you try to rely entirely on the tree.
For example the point of chain lightning isn't really the damage, its the Shock. Which increase their vulnerability to elemental damage by 20%. So if you throw out chain lightning before casting big pew pew spells from fire or ice you'll get your money's worth. Or rather, your mana's worth.
Also, I do a lot of exploration and did all of the War Table Operations, which means I found quite a few "Amulet of Power" items, which gives the person who the amulet is for +1 Talent Point.
A few more tips based on my post earlier:
Early Mages should avoid reading into Specialisations. Just make a choice. Rift Mage, Necromancer or Knight Enchanter. Don't worry about builds until you reach Skyhold (which for me was about 40 hours into the game after I had explored everything).
Do not make your build based on specialisations. Respec once you reach Skyhold (unlock Specialisation)
I made a mistake in earlier post. Ignore Static Charge and put it into CHAIN LIGHTNING or another talent of your choice.
Solas = Mr. Ice Mage / Barrier Buddy. His Freeze/Stun abilities are amazing early game. Sure, he's useless against some bears / mabari hounds but just keep him at a distance and use him as a support mage.
Avoid "upgrading" talents. The base abilities & passives help you more. If there's one ability I suggest you definitely must upgrade, it would be Searing Glyph (Fire Mine).
You know what, I think it's best I post a comprehensive build guide for early mages. It's not exactly how I build my mage because I was a total noob who was going through baby steps, however I'm confident that if I had done the following I would have made my early game 1000% easier.
I can't recall *exactly* my build during Lvl 10 but it looked something like this. Apologies if I'm a talent point off. I'll put a little * next to abilities which are upgrades, for your ease of reference.
Early Mage Build Guide up to Levels 10 - 12... ish
Please Note: Once I unlocked specialisations for my human mage and companions, I immediately used the respec item. This build is simply to guide you through the first steps through the game until you reach Skyhold and begin the 'real' core of the game. Hinterlands is a great starting area for you to practice. You can change your build however you want. In no way am I saying my guide is the best. It's simply just that. A guide to get you going, not gospel you should worship.
This guide worked wonders for me on Hard Difficulty. I guess it might even be Nightmare viable but I won't know until I try it. Take it with a pinch of salt
Difficulty: HARD
Friendly Fire: OFF
I played with FF on and... nope nope nope.
Human Mage
Inferno:Immolate, Flashfire (CC), Flashpoint, Pyromancer, Fire Mine.
Storm: Energy Barrage, Conductive Current
Winter:Fade Step, Winter Stillness, Winters Grasp
You can throw the next 1 - 2 points where you want, but I'd suggest it be out of the following three: Clean Burn, Searing Glyph* or Mana Surge.
Tactics: Mana Reserve at 30%. Disabled Fire Mine, Flashfire & Fade Step. Preferred Immolate & Fire Mine. Everything else enabled.
Behaviour: Follow Controlled Character
Potions: 2 Potion Reserve, Use Potion at 30% HP.
Notes: You can disable fire mine if needed. I use Flashfire to make a random mob panic and that is up to manual control.
Next 2 points can go into whatever you want, but your choice depends on your ability to control him and move him out of harms way. So pop them into two of these four recommendations: Guardian Spirit, Life Ward*, Brittle Glyph* or Ice Armour. I went with Guardian Spirit & Ice Armour because of his squishyness.
Tactics: Reserve at 50%. Disabled Ice Mine & Fade Step (no Solas, I have control over the AoE!) Preferred = Barrier & Revive. Everything else enabled.
Potions: 2 Potion Reserve, Use at 30% HP.
Behaviour: Follow Controlled Character.
Note: You can disable his use of Fade Step if you want absolute control over where he goes. That's my preference. I like to tell him where to phase off to instead of the A.I. misusing it and putting him too far away from the group. I disabled Ice Mine because I let Cassandra / Blackwall pull two or three enemies towards her and then deploy the freezing AoE.
Cassandra (or Blackwall)
Vanguard:Challenge, War Cry, Trust the Steel, Cutting Words, Untouchable Defence, It'll Cost You
Weapon & Shield: Shield Wall, Bear Mauls the Wolves, Shield Bash, Turn the Blade
Extra 1 - 2 Points can go into:Warrior's Resolve,Call to Arms*, Throw the Gauntlet* or Unbowed. I don't use Charging Bull because the A.I. can't disable the ability so they end up running 1 mile away from the party when they use it. Avoid it!
Tactics: Preferred Challenge & War Cry. Everything else enabled.
Potions: 2 potion reserve, use at 20% HP. 10% if you trust the A.I. and/or are insane.
Behaviour: Follow Controlled Character.
Note: I take control of my tank during fights that require me to grab enemies (bears, mabari, large groups, beserkers etc) but the rest of the time they do a good enough job.
Varric
Archery:Long Shot, First Blood, Explosive Shot, Pin Cushion, Full Draw
Sabotage:Caltrops, Looked Like it Hurt, Cheap Shot
Subterfuge:Stealth, Easy to Miss.
Extra 1 - 2 points can go into: Poisoned Weapons, Evasion, Death From Above or Leaping Shot. I went with Poisoned Weapons & Death From Above because Varric was ALWAYS ON THE HIGH GROUND ANAKIN and I love DoTs. More DPS I guess.
Tactics: Stamina Reserve at 50%. Disabled Caltrops. Preferred Long Shot. Everything else is enabled.
Potions: 2 Potion Reserve, use on 30% Health.
Follow: Cassandra / Blackwall
Note: Why do I have Varric follow my tank? My tank's taunt / challenge weakens enemies. Varric can deal nice damage to clustered groups with a combination of his abilities. Heck, sometimes I even use Varric as a startup to a fight. Sure, he draws aggro but that can be solved with my tank blocking enemies.
Rotation: Stealth > Poisoned Weapons > Full Draw / Explosive Shot (depending on single enemy / group). If my tank is surrounded, I'll have Varric use the Explosive Shot combination rotation for a big load of damage.
POTIONS & GEAR, WHAT ABOUT THEM?!?!
W-What th- [Spits Coffee]
Gear is your choice. You wont have such a huge range of items to choose from but I would prefer you look at the gear yourself. I usually give rings which boost abilities to my companions. Tanks get Enhanced War Cry / Challenge Rings. Solas gets Barrier / Winters Grasp rings. Varric gets stuff which helps his Poisoned Weapons / Archery Skills. Tank gear should be top notch, so focus on boosting them up with decent gear. I would suggest that crafting Armour for Tanks is a priority.
You will find *extremely large* amounts of great Tier 1 / Tier 2 gear for your party in the Hinterlands, provided that you explore and do all the missions. I had no problems when it came to gear and the only thing I ever crafted was Mage Armour, Tank Shields & Armour Upgrades.
Tanks should be given elemental resistances such as Fire & Cold. Also Melee / Ranged Defence. Just boost up their defences. That's all I can say. Improving Armour & Guard via gear is also a nice thing to do for them.
Potions? Varric uses Regeneration Potions. Mages use Lyrium Potions. Tanks use Rock Armour Tonics. Sera uses Regeneration Potions / Pitch Grenades.
What about Iron Bull & Dorian?
I think Qunari is a pretty cool guy. Eh has greatsword and doesnt afraid of nothing. But aside from that, I don't use Iron Bull at all. Oh the HUMANITY! Sure, you can use him as a two-handed DPS monster, but I was happy with Solas, Varric, Sera, Cassandra & Blackwall.
Iron Bull can replace Varric as a DPS if you want but... he's too tanky. I already have a tank. And I have a great crit-dps with Sera & Varric. No thanks.
Dorian at early levels = I want to be Solas AND damage people!. Dorian doesn't have his Necromancer specialisation yet so I didn't use him much. I gave him a similar build to Solas with Barrier but gave him the Storm tree for variance and to see how he performed. You will be forced to use him during a specific story quest and that was when I really got to use his character but, until that point... it's better to have 2 mages, 1 rogue and 1 tank.
What about Sera? Archer or Dual Wielding?
I used Sera as a DW Rogue but her downside is she is SUPER squishy without the right gear and the A.I. is HORRIBLE when it comes to flanking. I used Sera for the Dragon Fight in Hinterlands at around Level 12 and she did well only when I guided her behind the dragon. Once I have her specialisation, I will make her a "Tempest" Archer. I love DW's but having the A.I. control them is... painful to watch.
That Dragon Fight... you uh... didn't follow your guide.
That's because this video was about 20 hours in my 1st Playthrough, when I wasn't as 'experienced' as I am now You'll see me use abilities and have my companions / human mage made slightly differently than the guide above because I didn't know what was good and what wasn't. Right now I am at 113 hours on my 1st Playthrough so I've picked up a lot since then!
Notes: I honestly didn't bother much with Sera and simply upgraded her existing abilities because by the time I got her Tempest Specialisation I gave her a respec. thus turning her into an Archer. This Dual Wield build for Sera is purely so you, as a beginner, can get to grasp with what it's like to see a DW Rogue.
Extra 1 - 2 points can go into Lightning Cage*or Immolate with Flashpoint.
Tactics: Mana Reserve at 30%. Disabled Static Cage. Preferred is Energy Barrage & Chain Lightning. All other abilities enabled.
Potions: 2 Potion Reserve, use at 30% HP.
Behaviour: Follow Controlled Character.
Notes: Oh Dorian. Yes. He can be your Solas 2.0 and not be used, or you can replace your rogue with a 3rd mage. And it can work, but I'm a balanced weirdo. I've made him a Storm Mage for the sake of variety. Two AoE's such as an upgraded Static Cage & a basic Immolate, mixed in with Solas' Ice Mine & your mage's Fire Mine? [DEATH INTENSIFIES]. You have a choice of two AoE's, or 2 base AoE's with the passive Flashpoint. (Whispers) I prefer a buffed up Static Cage & Immolate.
Barrier: 1 point of this on every mage. It's worth it.
Fade Step: 1 point of this on every mage if playing on Hard or Nightmare. Less mandatory on normal.
Chain Lightning: No-one in your party should have this if you play with FF on. It's quite good with FF off.
Energy Barrage: Will break Winter's Stillness. Characters using this extensively should have a different mana-generating passive ability.
Static Cage: Mediocre on its own, but can be VERY good when combined with a party that takes advantage of it. Hint: Upgrade your Focus Abilities.
Passives:
Conductive Current: I believe this is currently bugged and doesn't work. Could be wrong, but
Flashpoint: Combine this with Energy Barrage and +crit gear for a virtually guaranteed free spell to follow-up.
Clean Burn: On a mage with multiple low-cooldown spells, you can get better individual spell cooldown from this passive than you will from some spells' (including barrier) cooldown-improvement upgrades. Notable spells to combo this with are Chain Lightning, Immolate, Stonefist, and Spirit Blade.
Winter's Stillness OR Rejuvenating Barrier: It's a good idea to make sure the benefits of at least one of these are being applied to your mage before you can get your specialization-specific mana-recovery tool. Having both can be nice too - just make sure you've got enough spells to take advantage of all that mana you'll be generating.
I am just a lowly mage, and the only mage in my group of 4.
Spirit Tree
Barrier- a given for any mage.
Peaceful Aura - 50% threat reduction plus willpower gets +3
Dispel - strips beneficial effects from enemies, plus helps keep enemies from spawning at fade rifts
Transmute Magic - 50% to barrier and 25% damage bonus
Guardian Spirit - helpful when health is low plus gives constitution +3
Fortifying Blast - adds 10% to barrier
Mind blast - staggers enemies plus makes them turn from you and go fight someone else
Strength of Spirits - 50% barrier bonus
Inferno Tree
Immolate - does fire damage of 300%
Wild Fire - give a bonus to fire damage of 100%
Flashburn - adds to magic +3
Cleanburn - gives a cooldown and adds to willpower +3
Winter Tree
Winters Grasp - gives 200% in cold damage and sometimes freezes enemy
Winnters Chill - freezes enemy and gives cold damage to surrounding enemies of the frozen one
Winter Stillness - stand still for 3 seconds and your mana regenerates 50% faster and gives willpower +3
Fade Step - great for getting out of a jam and will give magic +3
After getting to Skyhold, these are the perks I take. I am still on my first playthrough, and at level 13, and just arrived at Skyhold. I have my specialization, and a perk point, but I want to get the rest of the above perks before I start putting points into my KE tree.
Some areas have been hard, and some easy, and I play on normal. As stated above by Merchant2006, I try to match the best weapons and accessories with the followers I have, and myself. There is a lot of gear out there, both tier 1 and 2, and lots of times I have found rare stuff for crafting. I do craft or upgrade everyones weapons the best I can with what I have, and try to recruit those agents for the forces (Cullen) so that I can get the mages schematics perk.
One should also be about 10 to 12 before going to Skyhold, and at least level 12 before taking on another area such as Fallow Mire. You can tell if you are in an area where the enemies are way above you, for they will have red skulls over them which means they can one-shot you and your whole team. Found that out the hard way and had to backup to lose at least an hours worth of place.
Save everytime before going into any dungeon or area that you are not familiar with, and before going to the war room. Just save a lot, period. I personally do not mess with the tactics part, for everytime I did in Origins I messed it up, so I leave it be.
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