26 réponses à ce sujet

[Kantr]

Is Flashfire a skill I should keep? It's the one I least use and always annoys me thats its a starting skill, as Immolate is better.

[Wulfram]

Probably not. It uses too much mana.

[Jestina]

I hate that they give you that skill. I had to go and waste the cheapo respec because of that. It's annoying to me because it causes the enemy to panic and then you have to force your dumb AI companions to attack it. Fear seems about worthless in the this game as all i've seen it do is make the enemies shuffle around and your companions not attack it unless you tell them to.

[DarkAmaranth1966]

Yeah but that's because as long as it's panicked, it won't attack but, it snaps out of it as soon as it takes damage with the flashfire panic. All FF is is crowd control despite being given as a damage spell, it's intent is crowd control.

[PillarBiter]

Fear is meant to 'disable' enemies for a certain duration. 

 

I.e. fear one enemy for 20 seconds -> you can focus on other enemies for 20 seconds. 

 

Also, fearing the enemy makes him run a

 

So it's natural that AI wouldn't go chasing feared enemies as this'd break your line.

[Matth85]

Get rid of it. It's outshined by every other CC, and isn't near the uses of immolate as a 1-point-investment. 

[Kantr]

Respec time it is then

[coldflame]

Get rid of it. If you want a fire-based cc, Wall of Fire is your answer.

[Bayonet Hipshot]

Wall of Fire is a far more superior spell to Flashfire. Don't know what they were thinking with spells like Flashfire and Horror with their limited uses and ridiculous mana costs.

[SharlenaSharlena]

Toss it! It's so ineffective compared to other skill tree abilities. 

[WJC3688]

It's also bugged. The fear supposedly lasts only half of the stated duration.

[SotiCoto]

I'd get rid of it, if I got rid of anything. 

I don't though. 
Infinite Amulets of Power in Crestwood Village = No need to ever respec. 

Last I checked they hadn't patched over that one.  =D
 

[Violetbliss]

It has too many problems I think, while not being outright bad.

 

1. One target

2. High mana cost

3. It uses a hotbar slot

 

It needs to have one of these removed to be worth the point.  

[JaegerBane]

It has too many problems I think, while not being outright bad.
 
1. One target
2. High mana cost
3. It uses a hotbar slot
 
It needs to have one of these removed to be worth the point.

I don't really understand why Bioware made crowd control powers such a high price.... Nor do I understand why single target CCs have the same cost as AoE ones.

[Kage]

That spell is very bad. It should be really cheap. Single target, low damage, worst CC (no combo), most expensive.

Balanced

[Bayonet Hipshot]

That spell is very bad. It should be really cheap. Single target, low damage, worst CC (no combo), most expensive.

Balanced

 

Yep. It is like a more terrible version of Horror and many of us here already think that Horror is not really good. 

[draken-heart]

Honestly, I can't really understand the need for CC. I mean, for early game it is fine, but once you get the good crafting materials and get the right build, even on nightmare your enemies should be crumpled at your feet as a corpse.

[deadkai]

Yep. It is like a more terrible version of Horror and many of us here already think that Horror is not really good. 

Dont now,disabling enemy archers is very good. It also has its uses in Rift fights with two pride demons.

[Bayonet Hipshot]

Honestly, I can't really understand the need for CC. I mean, for early game it is fine, but once you get the good crafting materials and get the right build, even on nightmare your enemies should be crumpled at your feet as a corpse.

 

That is one of the fundamental mechanics in the game. No matter how crappy you build your character you can put a powerful set of gear on them and make then extremely powerful. The MMO-fication of Dragon Age. 

 

I guess when Bioware said they were looking aggressively into Skyrim, they decided to copy one of the most terrible aspect of that game which is the ability to craft godlike gear with a little bit of grinding. If you look at most Skyrim mods, the first thing they do is they remove that from the game make the ability to craft powerful stuff something that cannot be grinded through. 

[rpgplayer1]

I like Flashfire, as starting skill.

You just need to make sure when playing that after you cast it on someone to always switch targets, to maximize its effect. Good thing is that companion AI also understands this and do not interrupt fear, if there are other targets.

 

Now sure, after you get specialization, I would recommend to respec and completely forget this skill. At that point of the game, there are better high cost abilities that need to use skill slots.

 

What I do mind is that Barrier is not starting skill. It just makes so more sense that no mage should ever be without it.

[Digger1967]

I much prefer a combo of winter chill and immolate.  Winter chill is awesome at low level because it gives you what you need most as a mage, time to work.  When some big bad melee fighter is charging down on you, hit him with winter chill and stop him dead in his tracks. 

 

This in combo with immolate rocks.  The thing about immolate is it affects a good size area, which is lovely - but the truly wonderful thing is you don't have to switch in and out of tactical mode to pick a new target.

 

So, I'm fighting a rift, I got a big bad demon bearing down on me but as usual the AI has selected something else as my target.  Rather than having to go into tactical and switch, I hit immolate and the action stops.  I drag my targeting over to the big baddy headed straight at me, and light him up, then I hit winter chill and stop him dead in his tracks because the moment I make him the focus of the immolate, he's now my new target.

 

This buys me time I need for one of my front line fighters comes up to engage or if need be time for me to move out of the way and start hammering away at him again from afar.

 

I've found that even at low levels by alternating between immolate and energy barrage and using winter chill to keep the melee nasty's at bay, well it's incredibly effective - they all recycle pretty quickly and used in combination they really do the job very nicely.

[Digger1967]

I like Flashfire, as starting skill.

You just need to make sure when playing that after you cast it on someone to always switch targets, to maximize its effect. Good thing is that companion AI also understands this and do not interrupt fear, if there are other targets.

 

Now sure, after you get specialization, I would recommend to respec and completely forget this skill. At that point of the game, there are better high cost abilities that need to use skill slots.

 

What I do mind is that Barrier is not starting skill. It just makes so more sense that no mage should ever be without it.

 

I've never had as much luck with Barrier at starting levels, it usually ends up expiring while I'm busy doing something else and I end up paying for it.  Mostly that's my fault of course, but really I generally take Barrier after I have a few extra points to get my "bread and butter" stuff out of the way, and really for me the best part about barrier isn't so much in combat, but out of combat.  The fact that it negates falling damage is just so nice, allows me to get out of those places that I had to climb 614.8 ladders to get to that one stupid elven artifact or landmark and by throwing up a barrier I can just do a real quick superman impression instead of having to climb all the way back down again.

 

For combat protection I prefer fade step - it's really nice once you upgrade it because you do damage to them as your passing through them as well.  Just my two cents worth of course, a lot of folks use barrier from the get go and love it.  I guess my play style just really doesn't work that well with it as a starting spell though.

[JaegerBane]

Winter's Grasp is a very polarised spell. On the one hand it's ridiculously expensive, with poor damage and limited effect on groups. On the other, it's by far the most reliable and most efficient method of applying Freeze, which amongst other things tends to be the most idiot-proof CC and can dramatically increase your damage via combos... Not to mention the chill effect which, on ranged targets in particular, works out at roughly the same effect as an unmodified Weaken debuff.

That being said, regardless of its faults, it walks all over Flashfire. Flashfire is one of those spells that pretty clearly didn't have much time spent on it in testing.

As for Barrier vs Fade Step - my honest opinion is that you personally should never be casting Barrier. It's something your squadmates should be casting. Fade Step is way more effective at both mitigating and doing damage and costs nowt - any mage you play should either be generating it's Barrier via its attacks or keeping its opponents locked down/arm's length enough to not need it in the first place.

[Arvaarad]

Nor do I understand why single target CCs have the same cost as AoE ones.

 

Friendly fire. The answer is friendly fire.

 

When friendly fire is toggled on, Flashfire can be used to cast fear on enemies who are near other party members. Wall of Fire sets everyone on fire, friend or foe, so you can't cast it into melee. That sounds very situational, but in practice you often want to CC melee attackers. And depending on immunities, fear might be the only thing that works.

 

Would I have it on my mages' hotbars once specializations come into play? Nope. But it has some utility early game.

[SpazzticZeal]

That is one of the fundamental mechanics in the game. No matter how crappy you build your character you can put a powerful set of gear on them and make then extremely powerful. The MMO-fication of Dragon Age. 

 

I guess when Bioware said they were looking aggressively into Skyrim, they decided to copy one of the most terrible aspect of that game which is the ability to craft godlike gear with a little bit of grinding. If you look at most Skyrim mods, the first thing they do is they remove that from the game make the ability to craft powerful stuff something that cannot be grinded through. 

 

 

Well there has to be a reason to use crafting in the first place. I agree, you can make some very OP gear, but in SO many other games crafting is useless and hardly used at all. It's a hard balance to strike, but then again with the internet and all the guides out there, most people would not be so inclined to run to location x to get material y and craft said OP gear. 

 

This is why this game is way to easy argument is moot, don;t spoil your first play through by looking everything up first....