17 réponses à ce sujet

[duckley]

I am a simpleton when it comes to combat. I just like to zap enemies with powerful spells. I dont do well with figuring out combos and the like.

What spells should I go for? I prefer damaging to healing. Should I load up in one discipline, or diversify? In terms of specializations I hear KE is the most powerful. I just want to keep things as simple as possible.

[Elhanan]

As combos work from detonation spells, those will likely be your best bet to land larger damage, even without planning for them. Some of these are Dispel Magic, Energy Barrage, Immolate, Spirit Blade, and Stone Fist; upgrades are recommended.

[Orian Tabris]

Knight-Enchanter; Barrier; Dispel; Mind Blast; Chain Lightning; Energy Barrage; Lightning Bolt or Static Cage; Revive; Spirit Blade; Fade Cloak; Resurgence; Mark of the Rift; as many passive spells and upgrades as possible, especially from Storm and Knight-Enchanter.

 

A mix of support and offence, instead of pure DPS, because you can't rely on them without running out of mana. Also, Barrier and things that strengthen or make barriers is really good for both the PC and the companions.

[duckley]

Thanks

 

it sounds like diversification is better. How do combos work?

[Elhanan]

Here is a decent article on the topic:

http://www.vrworld.c...ll-combo-guide/

[OrionAnderson]

Winter's Grasp and Chain Lightning are the best damage spells in my opinion. Barrier and Fade Step are pretty much required for survival. Mark of the Inquisitor (you'll get it automatically during the story) is too good to pass up. That's 5 skills. You can pick a specialization and add the 3 spells from there. Or, you can add dispel magic, immolate, or energy barrage. 

[ahlewis32]

I have a question that's been bothering me for a while.

 

I've played through DAI 4x with 3 games as a mage. In every mage play-through I've used the Barrier spell but I cannot see what benefits it has. With or without it, there seems to be no difference in play. I've tried researching online for an explanation of how it works but no joy. This is what it says in the game as a description:

 

You have learned to cast Barrier with a more stable magical pattern. Each time a barrier you have cast expires, the ability's cooldown time is reduced.

A barrer provides an addtional health bar that must be destroyed before the target will take any damage.

 

What really puzzles me is that it doesn't cast on an ally but on an enemy. It makes no sense to cast that spell on an enemy if the explanation of how the spell works it correct. I really don't want my enemies to have any extra protection.

 

This seems like a good place to ask since the people in this thread are seem knowledgeable about mage builds and I'm an ignorant grandmother who's stuck.

 

Can someone help Grandma out? I can send cookies.

[GoodFella146]

I have a question that's been bothering me for a while.

 

I've played through DAI 4x with 3 games as a mage. In every mage play-through I've used the Barrier spell but I cannot see what benefits it has. With or without it, there seems to be no difference in play. I've tried researching online for an explanation of how it works but no joy. This is what it says in the game as a description:

 

You have learned to cast Barrier with a more stable magical pattern. Each time a barrier you have cast expires, the ability's cooldown time is reduced.

A barrer provides an addtional health bar that must be destroyed before the target will take any damage.

 

What really puzzles me is that it doesn't cast on an ally but on an enemy. It makes no sense to cast that spell on an enemy if the explanation of how the spell works it correct. I really don't want my enemies to have any extra protection.

 

This seems like a good place to ask since the people in this thread are seem knowledgeable about mage builds and I'm an ignorant grandmother who's stuck.

 

Can someone help Grandma out? I can send cookies.

 

You cast Barrier on your party members to give them a barrier that prevents or reduces damage taken.  The upgrade will reduce the cooldown on the Barrier spell by 4 seconds if it was placed on the mage who cast it.  The Barrier has to expire on the casting mage for the cooldown to trigger, which is likely a bug because the description is not worded accordingly.

 

Edit: And oh yeah, I like white chocolate chips and Macadamia nuts.  

[ahlewis32]

As a writer, the wording of the description really fooled me. And this is one of those questions that can seem like a stupid question to some people.

 

I'm playing as I write this and experimenting with the Barrier spell to get a better idea of the effects. I see that you don't target an individual but target an area making it an area of effect spell. I swear it was targeting individuals before. I play on PC so maybe this is part of the recent patch? If so, bravo BW!

 

Thanks for your help and for not making me look like an idiot GoodFella146! Your mother should be proud! Cookies are on their way!

[GoodFella146]

As a writer, the wording of the description really fooled me. And this is one of those questions that can seem like a stupid question to some people.

 

I'm playing as I write this and experimenting with the Barrier spell to get a better idea of the effects. I see that you don't target an individual but target an area making it an area of effect spell. I swear it was targeting individuals before. I play on PC so maybe this is part of the recent patch? If so, bravo BW!

 

Thanks for your help and for not making me look like an idiot GoodFella146! Your mother should be proud! Cookies are on their way!

 

Yeah no problem.  There are a lot of skills that I didn't think were good when I read them, only to find out that they do something completely different than what they say.  We're talking like key spells I've come to rely on too lol, doing something totally different than listed.  They really did a poor job with this.  Kind of surprising honestly.

[DarkAmaranth1966]

Well, for a simple mage, You want to specialize in Knight Enchanter. Get barrier and upgrade it. Get Immolate and upgrade that too. Get Energy Barrage and upgrade it as well. You'll like fade cloak and fade step too but those don't have to be upgraded. Then toss in an ice spell, I prefer AoE but that's up to you. Fill that last slot with whatever you like, and then you get Mark of the Rift. There is your 8 spells and, you can pretty much handle anything w/o using tac cam or pausing a lot. Need a little of it on nightmare but, other than that, set all party to 0% mana/stamina reserve. All can follow you except Iron Bull, he needs to defend you. If he follows, he rushes into melee and, until very late game, he's too squishy to be a decent tank.

[JaegerBane]

Winter's Grasp and Chain Lightning are the best damage spells in my opinion.

While I'd agree with Chain Lightning (against more than one, multiple 250% weapon damage hits will really mash up any opponent not immune to lightning), I'm not sure how you'd justify Winter's Grasp. It's actually one of the worst damage spells in the game... 200% weapon damage for 65 mana? Lolwut?

[GoodFella146]

Well, for a simple mage, You want to specialize in Knight Enchanter. Get barrier and upgrade it. Get Immolate and upgrade that too. Get Energy Barrage and upgrade it as well. You'll like fade cloak and fade step too but those don't have to be upgraded. Then toss in an ice spell, I prefer AoE but that's up to you. Fill that last slot with whatever you like, and then you get Mark of the Rift. There is your 8 spells and, you can pretty much handle anything w/o using tac cam or pausing a lot. Need a little of it on nightmare but, other than that, set all party to 0% mana/stamina reserve. All can follow you except Iron Bull, he needs to defend you. If he follows, he rushes into melee and, until very late game, he's too squishy to be a decent tank.

 

Few problems here.

 

You're recommending a lot of damaging spells, and I don't see how you expect to cast them all to make all of them together worth it.  

 

Unless something changed, the Energy Barrage upgrade is a known bugged ability.  It doesn't do anything.

 

The Fade Cloak upgrade is one of the best abilities for the class, and is a huge part of what makes Knight Enchanter so good.

 

While I'd agree with Chain Lightning (against more than one, multiple 250% weapon damage hits will really mash up any opponent not immune to lightning), I'm not sure how you'd justify Winter's Grasp. It's actually one of the worst damage spells in the game... 200% weapon damage for 65 mana? Lolwut?

 

He must mean from shatter combos.  If you combo is does very respectable damage, so then it one of the better spells out there because it's great both offensively AND defensively.

 

Side note: Chain Lightning blows if you have friendly fire on.

[ahlewis32]

Great input from all of you! Thanks!

I ended up as a rift mage for that game. I get lots of use out of Stone Fist since it hurts everything. I've been a Knight Enchanter and found the sword a big help in close-up dragon fighting. Going for Necromancy next time so I can get the full effect.

[DarkAmaranth1966]

I said for simple, you don't cast every spell every fight, you use what you need. inferno spells do no good against rage demons or, fire proof dragons, for example.

 

Yes upgrading FS and FC are great but, not required for a simple mage - a mage for casual or normal difficulty, not a nightmare mage and, not a solo mage, just an easy, versatile mage.

[GoodFella146]

I said for simple, you don't cast every spell every fight, you use what you need. inferno spells do no good against rage demons or, fire proof dragons, for example.

 

Yes upgrading FS and FC are great but, not required for a simple mage - a mage for casual or normal difficulty, not a nightmare mage and, not a solo mage, just an easy, versatile mage.

 

Wasn't really clear.  Honestly with Nightmare being as easy as it is, I wouldn't be surprised if one could be casual with only auto-attacks lol.  I have no idea though.

[200Down]

I have a question that's been bothering me for a while.

 

I've played through DAI 4x with 3 games as a mage. In every mage play-through I've used the Barrier spell but I cannot see what benefits it has. With or without it, there seems to be no difference in play. I've tried researching online for an explanation of how it works but no joy. This is what it says in the game as a description:

 

You have learned to cast Barrier with a more stable magical pattern. Each time a barrier you have cast expires, the ability's cooldown time is reduced.

A barrer provides an addtional health bar that must be destroyed before the target will take any damage.

 

What really puzzles me is that it doesn't cast on an ally but on an enemy. It makes no sense to cast that spell on an enemy if the explanation of how the spell works it correct. I really don't want my enemies to have any extra protection.

 

This seems like a good place to ask since the people in this thread are seem knowledgeable about mage builds and I'm an ignorant grandmother who's stuck.

 

Can someone help Grandma out? I can send cookies.

Seems to be a few misconceptions about how the barrier upgrade works. Read the discription word for word and take it at face value. Nothing more and nothing less. It does EXACTLY what it says. Well face value is arguable I guess. Here's the short of it: It lowers cooldown by 4 seconds when and ONLY when ANY barrier that you previously cast DEPLETES or EXPIRES on it's own. Therefor you can think of it as a "refund" system of sorts on barriers that wheren't needed or wheren't destroyed by enemies. After reading this... read the upgrade discription again and you'll see it plain as day It's our preconceptions of what what we think skills should do that make things confusing if we miss even ONE word from those discriptions. Making things much much more complicated than they actually are.

 

With that knowlodge we can now see that the upgrade really isn't THAT great unless you're always trying to cast it on your entire party at one time.

Lets put it this way, if you plan to make use of it all the time "strength of spirits and rejuve barrier" are MUCH more affective upgrades.

 

Edit: Just a friendly word of advice to make things easier to understand on those skills. Ignore the skill "names" and only pay attention to the values and actual discriptions. Bioware uses TONS of flavor text in this game and man.... it really can be confusing as heck if you don't ignore those.

[McPartyson]

Warriors: War Cry + Call to Arms upgrade mitigates a lot of damage now that it was patched. It is the GO TO skill for this class.

Mages: Barrier is the most powerful defense in the game (i don't use it because it's too good). The following spells are not mana efficient at all: Lightning Bolt, Blizzard, FlashFire.

Rogues: Stealth + Upgrade is great. Daggers: Flank Attack + Upgrade. Bow: Longshot. AI is not good with Leaping Shot, so take Explosive Shot + upgrade for AI team members.

 

Those are my basic tips, the rest you can figure out with respecs and experimentation... that's part of the fun!