37 réponses à ce sujet

[Bayonet Hipshot]

Look, I thought of how to sum this up. If you take blizzard, you get one of these 3 scenarios.

1. Lightning staff barrage so you can hit enemies weak to lightning without bolt (blizzard in place of bolt)= You're cancelling your own weakness due to shock

2. Blizzard replaces fade step= no maneuverability

3. Cancel 1's flaw by not having lightning staff so no shock, but no bolt because you kept blizzard= no ability to exploit lightning weakness



All 3 are critical flaws. Blizzard simply can't fit without critical flaw popping up. Which is unfortunate, because rift mages are arguably the only mage type that can actually use blizzard without it sucking. But they can't without these 3 issues happening.

 

To be fair, once you get Fade touched materials that add guard per hit to your staff, maneuverability ceases to be a big issue. What's more, I tend to run a 1 warrior, 1 mage, 1 rogue, 1 anything else party setup so the warrior will be pulling aggro for the most part.

 

Fade Step is useful pre Skyhold though. I mean, you have to get either Fade Step or Winter's Grasp to get Blizzard so you will have it in your list of spells.

[andy6915]

To be fair, once you get Fade touched materials that add guard per hit to your staff, maneuverability ceases to be a big issue. What's more, I tend to run a 1 warrior, 1 mage, 1 rogue, 1 anything else party setup so the warrior will be pulling aggro for the most part.

Fade Step is useful pre Skyhold though. I mean, you have to get either Fade Step or Winter's Grasp to get Blizzard so you will have it in your list of spells.

It's not just about dodging. Sometimes you want to reposition for reasons besides dodging, and mages combat speed is slower than a snail's. Besides... I'm too used to rolling our evading or fade stepping everywhere. I mean CONSTANTLY. I literally tap the button when I'm traveling, I can't not have that speed boost.

[Bigdawg13]

Look, I thought of how to sum this up. If you take blizzard, you get one of these 3 scenarios.

1. Lightning staff barrage so you can hit enemies weak to lightning without bolt (blizzard in place of bolt)= You're cancelling your own weakness due to shock

2. Blizzard replaces fade step= no maneuverability

3. Cancel 1's flaw by not having lightning staff so no shock, but no bolt because you kept blizzard= no ability to exploit lightning weakness



All 3 are critical flaws. Blizzard simply can't fit without critical flaw popping up. Which is unfortunate, because rift mages are arguably the only mage type that can actually use blizzard without it sucking. But they can't without these 3 issues happening.

 

1.  I have no idea what you are talking about.  Somehow you tried to convey a message that includes energy barrage, lightning bolt, and blizzard.  What?

 

2.  Blizzard means you don't need maneuverability.  Frost armor means you can stand in one spot.  When you use frost step to move away from enemies, you do no damage to them.  If you move through them, you are likely still too close and will take damage.  With blizzard you just pop it up and laugh in the face of danger.  Furthermore, if your enemy does move into melee range they are going to take blizzard damage and get frozen.

 

3.  With energy barrage you always have every element at hand as long as you can refrain from selling your top 3 staves.  The only time I can imagine lightning bolt having a place is if you are fighting multiple fire resist enemies.  But that's what stonefist spam is for.   Also you can put blizzard on top of them. 

 

The ONLY downside to blizzard, is by the time you can invest heavily in rift and winter tree, along with a dabbling in fire, spirit, and electricity, you will be level 20+ and by then the game is a joke.  At that point, the information in these posts becomes completely useless.

 

So I will concede, that until late levels, frost step is a great option for frost damage.  I'd still rather take a frost stave with energy barrage though.

[andy6915]

There were times I wanted to avoid damage. Fade step would alleviate this problem. But so does blizzard. Drop blizzard on your head and ice armor takes care of the problem.

Hardly. If a high dragon is about to blast fire right where you're standing and you don't have a strong barrier, you're going to take a lot of damage in short order. A single fade step would have saved you from said damage.

Or what about a bruiser chasing you and went let up? You better FS out of there. Or a terror demon is about to come up under you. Or a despair demon is about to do it's ice beam thing. Or a dozen other scenarios where some rapid movement could help you.

[Bigdawg13]

Hardly. If a high dragon is about to blast fire right where you're standing and you don't have a strong barrier, you're going to take a lot of damage in short order. A single fade step would have saved you from said damage.

Or what about a bruiser chasing you and went let up? You better FS out of there. Or a terror demon is about to come up under you. Or a despair demon is about to do it's ice beam thing. Or a dozen other scenarios where some rapid movement could help you.

 

ice armor, ice armor, ice armor...

 

I was surprised at how effective it was.  I didn't think ice armor would be that great.  Ice armor literally let me survive anything in the regular game.  I haven't tried Jaws of Hakkon yet.

[midnight tea]

ice armor, ice armor, ice armor...

 

I was surprised at how effective it was.  I didn't think ice armor would be that great.  Ice armor literally let me survive anything in the regular game.  I haven't tried Jaws of Hakkon yet.

 

I think it's more a matter of how people like to play. Personally, I prefer mobility over protection, hence my Rift Mages (well, most mages) always have Fade Step on their bar.

[andy6915]

ice armor, ice armor, ice armor...

I was surprised at how effective it was. I didn't think ice armor would be that great. Ice armor literally let me survive anything in the regular game. I haven't tried Jaws of Hakkon yet.

Fyi, about your tempest... Flask if ice is basically an ice armor that you can activate at will, and it can freeze enemies too. It's like a short range blizzard with the ice armor passive built in. Just pointing out another way tempest was more awesome than you thought, though you thankfully seem to have realized that.

I think it's more a matter of how people like to play. Personally, I prefer mobility over protection, hence my Rift Mages (well, most mages) always have Fade Step on their bar.

I guess. I too like being maneuverable, and some of my most awesome moments as my last mage was thanks to fade step. I remember double fade stepping through about 10 enemies and killing just about all if them. I love double fade step, possible thanks to the fire passive that makes a skill have no cooldiwn if you get a critical hit.

[Bigdawg13]

Fyi, about your tempest... Flask if ice is basically an ice armor that you can activate at will, and it can freeze enemies too. It's like a short range blizzard with the ice armor passive built in. Just pointing out another way tempest was more awesome than you thought, though you thankfully seem to have realized that.

 

No I totally agree.  I am loving the DW Tempest.  It has been one hell of a fun play so far.  I am happy to admit how wrong I was on the DW tempest.  I could totally be wrong on the rift mage too. 

[andy6915]

No I totally agree. I am loving the DW Tempest. It has been one hell of a fun play so far. I am happy to admit how wrong I was on the DW tempest. I could totally be wrong on the rift mage too.

I did an edit, by the way. I agreed with the other person about playstyle, and how I love having high maneuverability. And how awesome fade stepping twice in a row is. I don't know how to quote two people in one post on my phone, so I had to do so with an edit. Oh well.

[Thibax]

Static Cage + Blizzard + Firestorm + Pull of the Abyss

 

Elemental Rage!

 

 

No spirit and nature damage  

[draken-heart]

I honestly try to not combine rift mage and storm trees on general principle. Mostly because I need to have at least barrier on my mages, and thus have no room for anything else.

[Incantrix]

I played a more fire and ice centric rift mage

-Fade step
-Blizzard
-Barrier
-Fire trap
-Stone fist
-Pull of the abyss
-Firestorm
-Icy grasp

Oodles of cc, AoE burst with minor single target. (But then that's why we have rogues!).

[midnight tea]

I guess. I too like being maneuverable, and some of my most awesome moments as my last mage was thanks to fade step. I remember double fade stepping through about 10 enemies and killing just about all if them. I love double fade step, possible thanks to the fire passive that makes a skill have no cooldiwn if you get a critical hit.

 

Yo, can you imagine taking 4 mages party (2 Rift mages in it), position a bunch of enemies via Pull Of The Abyss/Static Cage and then have all 4 mages just zip through them all with Fade Step for insane damage?

 

.... Because I've done that and it's quite glorious xD

 

(and yes, crit build FTW)