33 réponses à ce sujet

[Zelvaun24]

Hi guys, had a question with the mage abilities, as a new mage should I focus on one tree ex: (spirit, lightning, fire, ice) or should I learn skills from each tree.

[Poisd2Strike]

Hi guys, had a question with the mage abilities, as a new mage should I focus on one tree ex: (spirit, lightning, fire, ice) or should I learn skills from each tree.

 

At a very bare minimum, I recommend Barrier (Spirit), Chain Lightning (Lightning), Immolate (Fire) and Fade Step  (Ice) plus their respective upgrades.

[Zelvaun24]

Thanks Poisd, soi just maximize one tree then?

[monicasubzero]

I got Barrier and Revival (Spirit), Chain Lighting and upgrade (Storm), Fire Mine (Inferno, I loved it), Winter's Grasp (Winter). For the others, it depends on the specialization and I heard that also Static Cage is good. I upgraded it for Solas, but I think it's bugged because it doesn't seem to work.

 

P.S. Usually my first run is with a Rogue, but I got the female human mage to romance Cullen (I think it's a nice story, the templar and the mage) and I have to say that I really liked to play as a Mage!

[Zelvaun24]

thanks for the tip monica, I did play as a rogue first (archer) loved it, I've decided to play as a mage now seems like a fun choice!

[Sugram84]

i play with immolate fire mine winter crasp & then got rift mage tree, fire mine upgraded, 2 passives from ice tree, spirit tree barrier & 1 passive that reduces threat. my aggro & i have full rift tree done, lvl 17, & o have no problems, next time i try lightning instead of winter, i make second rift mage in future, female this time, romance solas & drinks from the well, i just think it mite be interesting in DA4 or DAI DLC'S   

[Zelvaun24]

I'm thinking of maximizing the fire tree, and I want to do the knight enchanter specialization but I shall see just started this character lots to think about

[Sugram84]

I'm thinking of maximizing the fire tree, and I want to do the knight enchanter specialization but I shall see just started this character lots to think about

if ur KE, then u need the last upgrade to barrier, the right side of the spirit tree (the better the barrier the better) & immolate fire mine winter crasp are good for KE, well for KE add fade step with upgrade to, this 2 fire spells cause they do a lot of damage with 1 git, burst damage + they leave target burn a bit, its good when ur barrier gets down cause u are knocked down, then its fast way to get barrier up, depends on situation, winter is good for freezing targets, lower damage then other spells from other trees, but it is effective VS rage demon, KE is good with close combat to, with hes fade sword

[VilniusNastavnik]

To be honest, ONLY take barrier if you are going to be the only mage in your party. The only time you would really need it is on nightmare after you get the focus ability when you have those mobs in the tunnel where you cannot actually duck behind something to doge their attacks.. even then it is not needed if you get the ability off fast enough.

I recommend bringing a second mage with you to keep barriers up and focus on DPS yourself. Unless of course you enjoy being the supporter/debuffer/controller for your party.

Here is my advice on a Rift mage.. Build and all..

Spoiler

My advice.. ignore Pull of the abyss entirely. There are very few times when it is actually useful over veilstrike. You do not often get mobbed by a **** load of enemies that you actually need it. 

My build is as follows. 

Fire (5)
Immolate+ Wildfire
Flashpoint
Pyromancer
Cleanburn

Frost (6 - 7)
Fade Step + Frost step
Winter's Grasp + Winter's Chill
Mana Surge (Optional - You really should not have enemies getting to you anyway)
Winter Stillness
Frost Mastery

Storm (8)
Energy Barrage + Energy Bombardment
Chain Lightning + Arcing Surge
StormBringer
Conductive
Gathering Storm
Static Charge

Inquisitor
Mark of the Rift

Rift (8)
Veilstrike + Punching down
Stonefist + Shatterstone
Smothering Veil
Restorative Veil
Encircling Veil
Twisting Veil

8 abilities, 8 ability slots. 4 elements.. fire, frost, lightning and spirit damage. Bring a support mage with you say Dorian or Viv.. I prefer Dorian.
I spec Dorian in complete necro tree, complete barrier tree and throw the rest around the other elements for the passives and immunity mitigation.

Total ability points, 28.. this is easy to obtain at the end of the game.. or sooner if you chose to use the amulet of power exploit in crestwood or cheatengine.. but I do not recommend using cheat engine unless you want to add schematics to bypass the god aweful grind.

For my weapon..

Seer staff, Hilted staff grip, Masterwork Archon staff blade.
Everite for T3 lightning damage, Superb Spirit rune.

Great bear hide in all offense leather slots, dragon webbing in offense cloth slots.. Everite in offense metal slots.

Outcome..
14% attack, 35% crit chance, 42% crit damage. I prefer to add a fade touched item.. in this case.. snoufleur skin for 1% health on hit.

If you want to use a masterwork item.. 
16% attack, 39% crit chance, 47% crit damage.

If you do not care for crit damage as it is only going to boost when you get a crit.. swap dragon webbing for plush fustian velvet or King's willow weave for an attack boost.

Your staff then becomes:
35% attack, 35% crit chance. 

If you want to use a masterwork item.. 
40% attack, 39% crit chance. 

For accessories.. 
Superb amulet of cunning for +5 crit chance bringing your non masterwork staff to 40% crit chance
Superb belt of health.. focus when it gets patched.. more focus.. more focus ability usage.
Superb ring of attack (10%) and superb ring of critical damage (20%).. Have not found a crit chance ring.

Armor, what ever you want. Superior skirmisher helmet with cunning items added will give another what.. 9% crit chance.. If you play with helmets off you won't notice how ridiculous it looks. 

I use Dalish scout armor playing as a female elf.. I like the merrill look.

So.. Dalish scout armor.. T3 236 defence non MW..

Base material: Snoufleur skin
35% Ranged resistance (craggy skin or lurker scales.. I prefer lurker scales for colouring)
12% magic resistance (Evernit wool for the green colouring of merril's armor. 14% is max so meh)
Fade touched everite Heal 25% of damage taken over 10 seconds. though you can pick what you wish. +5 guard on hit silverite is also good.. but if you already have snuefleur skin on your weapon. I'd go with something else.. either a spell proc, defence or utility boost

[Poisd2Strike]

I'm thinking of maximizing the fire tree, and I want to do the knight enchanter specialization but I shall see just started this character lots to think about

 

I play a (currently lvl 21) Female Human Mage Specialized in Knight Enchanter.  If you decide to play KE, you will want to take most of the passive abilities that somehow modify / increase barrier or barrier cooldown and also abilities that increase mana regeneration.

 

 

For Spirit I recommend the following:  Barrier + upgrade, Guardian Spirit (Full Barrier when badly injured), Strength of Spirits (Barrier Bonus +50%) and Rejuvenating Barrier (Mana Regen +35%).  Unfortunately, to get to some of those you have to take other somewhat less useful abilities for KE (mainly Dispel and Mana Blast).  So for Spirit, everything except the Upgrade for Dispel, the Upgrade for Mind Blast and Revival + Upgrade.  This means you would also take the passive Peaceful Aura which is arguably not ideal for KE since it reduces your "aggro".

 

 

For Storm I recommend the following:  Chain Lightning + Upgrade or Energy Barrage + Upgrade.  If you go the Energy Barrage route, you might want to consider the Conducive Current passive (+5% spell dmg for every 10% missing mana, this is for all spells that do dmg not just Storm spells).

 

 

For Inferno I recommend the following:  Immolate + Upgrade, Flashpoint, Pyromancer and Fire Mine + Upgrade.  You should also consider the Chaotic Focus passive and maybe the Clean Burn passive.  If I had to choose between the two, I would say Chaotic Focus since it boosts all Inferno spells damage (at cost of barrier which is one reason to boost barrier).

 

 

For Winter I recommend the following:  Fade Step + Upgrade, Winter's Grasp + Upgrade, Winter Stillness passive, Frost Mastery passive, Ice Mine + Upgrade.

 

 

For Knight Enchanter I recommend the following:  Everything with possible exception of Disruption Field + Upgrade.

 

NOTE:  If you have another Mage in the party that has Fire Mine / Ice Mine, you don't need to take them but Fire Mine works well with Chaotic Focus.

 

 

For crafting, I recommend finding or purchasing the best T3 Heavy Armor Schematic you can.  Take the Short List Perk and farm the Hissing Wastes Mabari Vendor, the Still Ruins and the Cradle of Sulevin (SP?).  The Cradle is a very good spot to farm for T3 Schematics.  To farm any chest for T3 schematics: leave at least 1 item in the chest, fast travel to another area, fast travel back to the dungeon and the chest contents will respawn (as long as you left at least 1 item).  Gather at least 21 Silverite (plentiful in Emprise du Lion) and craft the T3 Heavy Armor with Silverite.  Crafting with Silverite removes the class restriction allowing a Mage (or a Rogue) to wear Heavy Armor.  Also, use either Fade Touched Obsidian or Fade Touched Silverite.  Fade Touched Obsidian grants +3 guard on hit, and Fade Touched Silverite grants +5 guard on hit.  Normally, only a Warrior (with Challenge, War Cry, etc.) is able to generate guard.  Fade Touched Obsidian or Silverite (craft in Armor) will allow a Mage (or a Rogue) to generate Guard on Hit.  That is all the advice I can think of for now...

[sergel02]

I play a (currently lvl 21) Female Human Mage Specialized in Knight Enchanter.  If you decide to play KE, you will want to take most of the passive abilities that somehow modify / increase barrier or barrier cooldown and also abilities that increase mana regeneration.

 

 

For Spirit I recommend the following:  Barrier + upgrade, Guardian Spirit (Full Barrier when badly injured), Strength of Spirits (Barrier Bonus +50%) and Rejuvenating Barrier (Mana Regen +35%).  Unfortunately, to get to some of those you have to take other somewhat less useful abilities for KE (mainly Dispel and Mana Blast).  So for Spirit, everything except the Upgrade for Dispel, the Upgrade for Mind Blast and Revival + Upgrade.  This means you would also take the passive Peaceful Aura which is arguably not ideal for KE since it reduces your "aggro".

 

 

For Storm I recommend the following:  Chain Lightning + Upgrade or Energy Barrage + Upgrade.  If you go the Energy Barrage route, you might want to consider the Conducive Current passive (+5% spell dmg for every 10% missing mana, this is for all spells that do dmg not just Storm spells).

 

 

For Inferno I recommend the following:  Immolate + Upgrade, Flashpoint, Pyromancer and Fire Mine + Upgrade.  You should also consider the Chaotic Focus passive and maybe the Clean Burn passive.  If I had to choose between the two, I would say Chaotic Focus since it boosts all Inferno spells damage (at cost of barrier which is one reason to boost barrier).

 

 

For Winter I recommend the following:  Fade Step + Upgrade, Winter's Grasp + Upgrade, Winter Stillness passive, Frost Mastery passive, Ice Mine + Upgrade.

 

 

For Knight Enchanter I recommend the following:  Everything with possible exception of Disruption Field + Upgrade.

 

NOTE:  If you have another Mage in the party that has Fire Mine / Ice Mine, you don't need to take them but Fire Mine works well with Chaotic Focus.

 

 

For crafting, I recommend finding or purchasing the best T3 Heavy Armor Schematic you can.  Take the Short List Perk and farm the Hissing Wastes Mabari Vendor, the Still Ruins and the Cradle of Sulevin (SP?).  The Cradle is a very good spot to farm for T3 Schematics.  To farm any chest for T3 schematics: leave at least 1 item in the chest, fast travel to another area, fast travel back to the dungeon and the chest contents will respawn (as long as you left at least 1 item).  Gather at least 21 Silverite (plentiful in Emprise du Lion) and craft the T3 Heavy Armor with Silverite.  Crafting with Silverite removes the class restriction allowing a Mage (or a Rogue) to wear Heavy Armor.  Also, use either Fade Touched Obsidian or Fade Touched Silverite.  Fade Touched Obsidian grants +3 guard on hit, and Fade Touched Silverite grants +5 guard on hit.  Normally, only a Warrior (with Challenge, War Cry, etc.) is able to generate guard.  Fade Touched Obsidian or Silverite (craft in Armor) will allow a Mage (or a Rogue) to generate Guard on Hit.  That is all the advice I can think of for now...

Is it even possible to get that many skill points to the point you don't outlevel everything? That seems to be 30+ points.

[Sidney]

My answer is no. You want skills across a couple of spell trees for resistances. Plus, your goal is to get into as many passives as possible when building up so I take skill X because it might open up 2 passives which are in the long run a lot more valuable. I don't think I have ever maxxed out any tree in two playthroughs as a mage.

[HTTP 404]

I made my mage dabble in all the trees to get the passives.  I first focused on getting chain lightning, immolate, barrier, and winter's grasp.  This way I can handle any enemy type right away.  You could trade them in for whatever low level spell you like though.  The important part is that you get access to the passives.

 

Secondly I focused on the passives I would get: Flashpoint (resets cooldown after crit) Clean Burn (reduces casting time) Winter Stillness (restores mana when standing still) Peaceful Aura (less likely to be attacked)

 

thirdly, by this time I would get specialization I would start dumping rest of points as I saw fit.

 

Lastly, pick up any passives still available in your trees.  Remember the Passives grants attribute bonuses to magic and willpower which make them the most valuable skills to get in the game.  It also works out that with 8 attacks to use on the quick bar that Chain Lightning, Immolate, Barrier, and Winter's grasp tally up to 4 of those quick bars.  The last 4 can be made up of 3 of your specialization spells and one for your Focus Ability.

 

I hope that helps.  I really enjoyed playing an jack of all elemental type mage.  I usually bring along another mage companion that has deeper access to their respective element trees, that way I have access to Ice Mine, Fire Mine, and Static Cage.

[sethroskull79]

This is good advise.  I was looking for a good way to build Solas, as he is the only Mage I usually bring.  I find myself tweaking his build at Level 15 (17 points) a lot.  

[Sylvius the Mad]

Dispel makes rifts much easier to close. I like to have two mages that can cast it because it allows us to prevent some of the demons from spawning.

Also, Static Cage is incredibly powerful when combined with other multihit abilities (Energy Barrage, Leaping Shot, etc.)

[Petrikles]

I found out the following combos by playing multiplayer, i.e. being restricted to only four skills (which is also finger control friendly for a no-pause combat approach).

 

Knight Enchanter (Arcane Warrior) is unkillable if you use Fadestep, Fadecloak, Chain Lightning and Spirit Blade, with upgrades for the former two manatory. Then you focus on passives which increase mana regeneration and cooldown times, e.g. Flashpoint (resets cooldown after crit) Clean Burn (reduces casting time) Winter Stillness (restores mana when standing still), etc etc. Once you have this around level 12, you can chain your abilities virtually without pause. Approach enemy, charge your barrier with a Chain Lightning, go into close range, Fadecloak, step into an opponent, use Spirit Blade until the former blows up, fadestep out and repeat. Executed with proper timing and positioning (e.g. fadestep behind cover if too many archers are around), you will never get hit. You can take any other skills along just for fun.

 

Elemental/Rift mage is overkill: Use Winter Grasp, Immolation, Stonefist and Fadestep; they have short cooldowns. Take again all passives which increase mana regeneration and cooldown times. You will be able to fire off your spells without pause. Top up at later levels with all barrier related skills, thereby also increasing sustained high damage output.

 

Take Chain Lightning or any other offensive spell (e.g. fadestep/fadecloak combo can supplement every build) instead of Stonefist and specialise as a Necromancer instead for the passive with life/mana siphoning on enemy death. Did not try this build with a Knight Enchanter, but should be viable, too.

 

Being a specialized barrier mage can be delegated to an automated party member, to protect the other automated party members from their own stupid AI scripting.

[Sugram84]

for the future look this

he has almost same spells that i do, i don't have ice mine i have rift skill there that pushes them to the ground, also i have fire storm in a place of that focus skill

 

maybe u get ideas from this videos after ur done with KE, i finished KE, it was my first char

[UnearthlyCheese]

Is it even possible to get that many skill points to the point you don't outlevel everything? That seems to be 30+ points.

I know right??? Dude has roughly 28 spells/passives listed from the elemental trees, then adds "get everything from the KE tree"...that 35+ points lol.

Is there something I'm missing? I know you can pick up a few extra ability points here and there, but not that many.

And if you do actually level up that high, and have that many abilities and passives....wouldn't everything die simply by blinking at it?

I'm all for making my character as beast as possible, but even to me, this seems like overkill.

Dispel makes rifts much easier to close. I like to have two mages that can cast it because it allows us to prevent some of the demons from spawning.

Also, Static Cage is incredibly powerful when combined with other multihit abilities (Energy Barrage, Leaping Shot, etc.)

Definitely agree about the dispelling of demons when closing rifts. If you have two mages, it's pretty much a joke.

That said, I think I'm going to try passing on dispell on my Inq, and just keep it on Solas. It's handy to have for clearing poisons, and I really like using it on sleeping targets for the combo (extended CC if necessary too). I just respec'd both Solas and my Inq, and am loving the synergy Solas's dispell has with some of my newly acquired skills


I just finished Fallow Mire (Nightmare) last night. Party is currently level 11-12. Before completing the second half, I respec'd Solas as Spirit/Rift (was Spirit/utility with mostly CC and combo primers), and then spec'd my Inq Mage deep into the Storm Tree (upgraded Static Cage).


After a few quick tests, I very quickly figured out that I can melt any mobs I see (at least so far). Even lighting the beacons and closing rifts, I was able to pretty much say "screw CC, I'm just going to destroy everything!"

Pull with the tank (found out the hard way that pulling with a Mage AOE is not the best way to start a fight lol), let mobs start to gather...then Pull of the Abyss from Solas and Static Cage from myself. From here, it's basically game over. I'll use Chain Lighting next, which has the tendency to sleep a lot of enemies inside the cage. That's when Solas dispels them all.

On top of that, I'll have Blackwall in the mix, using Impact detonators on whatever is close. The best is finding a paralyzed mob, as I get even more AOE damage from the Discharge combo. Throw Sera's Explosive Shot with upgraded Poison in the mix, and there's not much left standing (Sera also setting off Dischage combos with Long Shot).

Terror Demons, Revenants, Dispair Demons, the "Boss" of the zone....nothing gave me the slightest bit of grief. I was also able to stay out of Tactical mode most of the time (making only minor adjustments with it, whereas before I was using it more often than not for most combat).

I haven't even picked up a specialization on my Mage Inq yet (am currently working on the KE quest), but I already feel overpowered lol. From what I hear, KE's only going to make things easier...hopefully not too easy.

[Poisd2Strike]

I know right??? Dude has roughly 28 spells/passives listed from the elemental trees, then adds "get everything from the KE tree"...that 35+ points lol.

Is there something I'm missing? I know you can pick up a few extra ability points here and there, but not that many.

And if you do actually level up that high, and have that many abilities and passives....wouldn't everything die simply by blinking at it?

I'm all for making my character as beast as possible, but even to me, this seems like overkill.
 

 

I never said you could take all of them, I just said those are some recommendations to consider.  IIRC, you can get 5 (or 6?) Amulets of Power and also get 1 extra ability point as a human and can acquire 1 ability point via a Perk.  Also, you start off with a few abilities that you might not want to use.  A respec (via the Amulet) will free those points up for you to re-assign.     

[tself55]

I play a (currently lvl 21) Female Human Mage Specialized in Knight Enchanter.  If you decide to play KE, you will want to take most of the passive abilities that somehow modify / increase barrier or barrier cooldown and also abilities that increase mana regeneration.

 

 

For Spirit I recommend the following:  Barrier + upgrade, Guardian Spirit (Full Barrier when badly injured), Strength of Spirits (Barrier Bonus +50%) and Rejuvenating Barrier (Mana Regen +35%).  Unfortunately, to get to some of those you have to take other somewhat less useful abilities for KE (mainly Dispel and Mana Blast).  So for Spirit, everything except the Upgrade for Dispel, the Upgrade for Mind Blast and Revival + Upgrade.  This means you would also take the passive Peaceful Aura which is arguably not ideal for KE since it reduces your "aggro".

 

Strength of Spirits is literally the WORST skill you can take as a Knight Enchanter. Here is why:

 

1. Barrier decay rate is percentage based.

2. Barrier decaying can be thought of as taking damage. (When you have barriers up constantly this is essentially true always)

3. Knight-Enchanter Barrier gain passive does not scale with maximum barrier size, it is always 30% of damage dealt.

 

Some imaginary numbers to show the effects of these:

 

(Mage A ) Max Barrier without Strength of Spirits = 1000

(Mage B ) Max Barrier with SoS = 1500

Time for a full barrier to decay = 5 seconds

Decay damage/second (Mage A ) = 200

Decay damage/second (Mage B ) = 300

 

Therefore to keep up with your decay rate you must do: 200/0.3 = 666.7 damage/second without SoS, and 1000 damage/second with SoS. But SoS itself does not increase your damage. Therefore it is worse to take the passive.

[perylousdemon]

I usually focus on the lightning tree until I gain access to KE (along with upgraded barrier and fade step), then I respec and dump the majority of my current points into KE while keeping the upgraded barrier and fade step. I also take chain lightning and energy barrage while specced in KE, most of the passives in the lightning tree, as well as the entire right side of the spirit tree. Any damaging spell you cast restores your barrier, not just spirit blade; plus, having ranged spells is useful for those pesky despair demons that like to fly out of melee range.

[Jackal19851111]

If you go knight enchanter the passive "clean burn" makes you invincible as every slash reduces ur cool downs by a second

[sinosleep]

Static cage is god like. Not only does it completely neuter teleporters, but if it's upgrade rapid fire abilities (energy barrage, spinning blades, etc) will proc a fairly absurd bit of bonus damage

[perylousdemon]

If you go knight enchanter the passive "clean burn" makes you invincible as every slash reduces ur cool downs by a second

So which fire ability is better to get in order to eventually unlock clean burn: immolate or flashfire?

[Jackal19851111]

Is up to you, both lead to clean burn. I personally prefer flashfire as its CC, and chain lightning is superior as AOE in my opinion. By late game I stopped using fire spells but clean burn is worth the 3 points. On my sig theres a link to a video where halfway through ull see my KE in action. Notice how fade cloak n spirit blade practically eliminates cooldown