79 réponses à ce sujet

[StarFlorge]

Hello everyone,

 

It's StarFlorge,

 

So today i bring a winter rift mage which i am having tons of fun with and i think is really strong at the moment and a great solo class, being able to get out such high cc with moderate damage, allows you to manipulate the battle field in any way you want and destroy multiple enemys with ease, So here it is:

 

[Elhanan]

Thanks for posting this; am using a similar build currently, though it is not as effective as this one. I certainly am not ready to solo yet. However, I do play on Nightmare difficulty, if that means anything.

From what I see here, a PotA and Blizzard would appear to be devastating, esp if one could also get a detonator into that before it expired. One weakness I have noticed in my own experience is that many opponents are resistant or Immune to Cold effects (eg; bears, Despair demons). This is when having Inferno or another elemental spell on the Quickbar could be useful.

Still not a fan of Wall of Ice, though I can see where isolating one or two opponents could be very handy if needed. And I find Dispel is far too useful in the game to ignore, both for use vs Barriers and Rifts. I also utilize Energy Barrage as a detonator, and way of concentrating a stave's elemental attack on a single foe.

FWIW, I find that drinking potions, planting a flag, or simply Quicksave/ Quickload is the easiest way to get out of Stealth using the Ring of Doubt. This is handy when using a party that is having difficulty in following you; simply be cautious of re-spawns at those locations.

Thank you for going to all this work; hope you are enjoying it!

[StarFlorge]

Thanks for posting this; am using a similar build currently, though it is not as effective as this one. I certainly am not ready to solo yet. However, I do play on Nightmare difficulty, if that means anything.

From what I see here, a PotA and Blizzard would appear to be devastating, esp if one could also get a detonator into that before it expired. One weakness I have noticed in my own experience is that many opponents are resistant or Immune to Cold effects (eg; bears, Despair demons). This is when having Inferno or another elemental spell on the Quickbar could be useful.

Still not a fan of Wall of Ice, though I can see where isolating one or two opponents could be very handy if needed. And I find Dispel is far too useful in the game to ignore, both for use vs Barriers and Rifts. I also utilize Energy Barrage as a detonator, and way of concentrating a stave's elemental attack on a single foe.

FWIW, I find that drinking potions, planting a flag, or simply Quicksave/ Quickload is the easiest way to get out of Stealth using the Ring of Doubt. This is handy when using a party that is having difficulty in following you; simply be cautious of re-spawns at those locations.

Thank you for going to all this work; hope you are enjoying it!

The resistance you mention, is something that yes would flip this build upside down taking inferno would help with that and i found that with stealth compaions following is an issue, but when you can go back in stealth and make all the ememys just stack for you, it's really funny Glad you enjoyed this build, and you raise some points i might put into my next build again Thanks, and Happy Adventuring

[MaceWindusLightsaber]

Damn, i got to try this build.

[Zachwalter]

This build is awesome, along with Ice armor I also have armor with "On hit: gain 5 guard" and an Ice weapon with "10% chance to cause five hits of Hidden Blades" so using Energy Barrage fills my guard meter to nearly full, also I have a staff with a high critical chance with the flashpoint skill I almost never have to wait for skills to cooldown. It's pretty amazing, I almost never take damage, the only downside is if I have to fight an Ice based dragon.

[InquisitorPotato]

Wait since when are there new passive abilities? im on ps4 and i don't see any of these

[Elhanan]

Wait since when are there new passive abilities? im on ps4 and i don't see any of these

No new Passives, but Trespasser allows for secondary options for all Active upgrades to Spells and Abilities.

[htisscrimbliv]

Any chance u have a vid of this build vs things like pride demon rifts?

[PapaCharlie9]

I agree that the Cool Rift Mage is looking very fine! I'm running a level capped IQ through Descent with a build like this.

 

Summarizing your build for the sake of comparison: all of Rift except for focus, all of Winter, Barrier (without upgrade) and Guardian Spirit (?)

 

Mine (28 skill points): All of Rift except for focus, Winter down through Ice Armor -- but not Ice Wall nor Frost Mastery (net savings of 5 points), Spirit with upgraded Barrier and the rest of the left side through Rejuv Barrier, Inferno Immolate + Flashpoint + Cleanburn, Mark of the Rift, and since post JoH, Aegis.

 

Actives:

1) Fade Step/Frost Step

2) Veilstrike/Punching Down

3) Stonefist/Shatterstone

4) Immolate/Wildfire

5) Ice Mine/Chilling Array

6) Winter's Grasp/Winter's Ruin

7) Pull of the Abyss/Devouring Veil

8) Barrier/Elegent Defense 

 

Notes:

• This is optimized for Winter's Ruin mega damage and Shatter detonation with Stonefist
• I don't have anything against Frost Mastery, just ran out of points
• I put Immolate on the active skills in case I run into cold resistant enemies, but given Stonefist probably overkill, might swap for Aegis
• Besides, I wanted the Inferno passives
• It's fun to play, particularly in Descent with all those big mobs

[StarFlorge]

 

Actives:

1) Fade Step/Frost Step

2) Veilstrike/Punching Down

3) Stonefist/Shatterstone

4) Immolate/Wildfire

5) Ice Mine/Chilling Array

6) Winter's Grasp/Winter's Ruin

7) Pull of the Abyss/Devouring Veil

8) Barrier/Elegent Defense 

 

Soon i was thinking of doing a build like this, an all round mage kind of think, when i make a winter rift mage, i mainly literally just want that but i will soon get to more builds like yours, as the variation in spell type, is needed in parts of the game i wanted clean burn just ran out of points, even though i have loads, i am doing each video to a high but not stupid high level of 26/27 might ramp that up to 30 and then give a level by level build of what i would get first and then second and so on

[Bigdawg13]

I thought I might mention this. 

 

Enemy types with high resistance to:

 

cold: 17

fire: 7

electricity: 7

 

I love the idea of a winter mage as much as the next guy, but being fixated on a single school can really screw you over IMHO.

 

The following will make a winter-focused mage either A ) dead or B ) bored because most of their attacks do 1 damage:

 

Armored Mabari, August Ram, Bear, Black Wolf, Bronto, Druffalo, Great Bear, Gurn, Hyena, Mabari, Quillback, Despair Demon, Wraith, Red Templar Knight, Arcane Horror, Corpse, Revenant

 

that being said...I loved the video!  It was neat to see the ice wall new toggle.  What happens if you try to ice wall a really large target (that takes up a lot of area).  Obviously if you ice wall a dragon it will just break the ice wall, but for a split second do you get a giant ice wall trying to encase a HUGE dragon????

[Elhanan]

Are these opponents also immune to being Chilled and Frozen? Resistance can be altered somewhat by changing staves, but losing the CC effects could be crucial.

[Bigdawg13]

Are these opponents also immune to being Chilled and Frozen? Resistance can be altered somewhat by changing staves, but losing the CC effects could be crucial.

 

The following are immune to freeze:

 

Bear, Bronto, Druffalo, Giant, Great Bear, Gurn, High Dragon, Quillback, Bruiser, Despair Demon, Fear Demon, Pride Demon, Horror, Red Templar Knight, Shadow, Revenant

 

The following are immune to chill:

 

Despair Demon, Red Templar Knight, Arcane Horror, Corpse, and Revenant

 

 

To illustrate a point:

 

Consider a Great Bear, which has high resistance to cold and immune to freeze, but not chill.  A winter-focused mage will be able to apply chill, which would grant them extra damage for a skill like Winter's Grasp with Winter's Ruin upgrade enabled.  However, it should still only 1 damage because of the resistance.

 

*EDIT*

 

Also, none of my list includes DLC enemies.  I am pulling data from http://dragonage3.wi...ife.com/Enemiesand it does not appear to be updated for ANY DLC.

 

I stripped the data out to a table and have a tiny CSH script to strip out information of interest.  If someone can direct me to enemy resistance table that is more up-to-date I will include the new enemies in the list.  Of critical importance (IMHO) are all the spirit resist enemies.

[PapaCharlie9]

Soon i was thinking of doing a build like this, an all round mage kind of think, when i make a winter rift mage, i mainly literally just want that but i will soon get to more builds like yours, as the variation in spell type, is needed in parts of the game

To be clear, my build is as far from an "all round" mage as one can get. As noted, the build is meant to optimize Winter's Ruin and Shatter combo. Any all-aroundness is just a side-effect of Rift Mage being an all-around good specialization.

 

BTW, maybe this isn't new, but I've accidently stumbled on a great defensive technique: Ice Array + Ice Armor passive means you pretty much have Ice Armor on all the time, even after the battle is over! If all the mines get triggered or you move too far away from them, just recast Ice Array.

 

 

 

I thought I might mention this. 

 

Enemy types with high resistance to:

 

cold: 17

fire: 7

electricity: 7

 

I love the idea of a winter mage as much as the next guy, but being fixated on a single school can really screw you over IMHO.

 

The following will make a winter-focused mage either A ) dead or B ) bored because most of their attacks do 1 damage:

 

Armored Mabari, August Ram, Bear, Black Wolf, Bronto, Druffalo, Great Bear, Gurn, Hyena, Mabari, Quillback, Despair Demon, Wraith, Red Templar Knight, Arcane Horror, Corpse, Revenant

 

Thus my carrying Immolate, though in Descent I haven't run into many resistant enemies yet, so will probably swap for Aegis.

[PapaCharlie9]

I finished Descent yesterday with the RM build described above.
http://forum.bioware.../#entry19740433

The build worked exactly the way I wanted it to. I was able to keep most enemies chilled or frozen, with a combination of frost runes on all warrior and rogue weapons, ice staff, Mana Surge, Frost Step, and of course Ice Array. At any given time I had a target-rich environment for Shatter combos or Winter's Ruin.

The only problem I had was Iron Bull stealing my combos by detonating with Whirlwind or clearing the status effect with Grappling Chain. But there were plenty more targets around.

This sequence worked great for large mobs: Barrier on all, Pull of the Abyss to draw the mob together, with IB and Sera (DW) right on them. If they weren't already chilled from auto-attacks, Barrier expiring would freeze them. Then take your pick for Winter's Ruin. Or, alternatively, Frost Step into the center of PotA, Ice Array, then Shatter the heck out of everything. IB's Whirlwind was best for this. Framerate would rop to single digits with all the Shatter detonations.

[jonmoore86]

 

I agree that the Cool Rift Mage is looking very fine! I'm running a level capped IQ through Descent with a build like this.

 

Summarizing your build for the sake of comparison: all of Rift except for focus, all of Winter, Barrier (without upgrade) and Guardian Spirit (?)

 

Mine (28 skill points): All of Rift except for focus, Winter down through Ice Armor -- but not Ice Wall nor Frost Mastery (net savings of 5 points), Spirit with upgraded Barrier and the rest of the left side through Rejuv Barrier, Inferno Immolate + Flashpoint + Cleanburn, Mark of the Rift, and since post JoH, Aegis.

 

Actives:

1) Fade Step/Frost Step

2) Veilstrike/Punching Down

3) Stonefist/Shatterstone

4) Immolate/Wildfire

5) Ice Mine/Chilling Array

6) Winter's Grasp/Winter's Ruin

7) Pull of the Abyss/Devouring Veil

8) Barrier/Elegent Defense 

 

Notes:

• This is optimized for Winter's Ruin mega damage and Shatter detonation with Stonefist
• I don't have anything against Frost Mastery, just ran out of points
• I put Immolate on the active skills in case I run into cold resistant enemies, but given Stonefist probably overkill, might swap for Aegis
• Besides, I wanted the Inferno passives
• It's fun to play, particularly in Descent with all those big mobs

 

Question about this build. I am about to start something similar on my rift mage, never thought about taking ice mine though for ice armor, if you're using the shatterstone and punching down upgrades, couldnt you just take one or the other and use the other slot for aegis?

[Elhanan]

Question about this build. I am about to start something similar on my rift mage, never thought about taking ice mine though for ice armor, if you're using the shatterstone and punching down upgrades, couldnt you just take one or the other and use the other slot for aegis?

Veil Strike does not include damage; only weakens and places them down for a bit, if I recall correctly.

But seeing as Aegis is very useful in all of the DLC's, I would take it over Immolate or Winter's Grasp. The former is useful when needed, but other typed damage can be granted with Rift Magic or using another staff. And while the latter has almost any distance and LOS is not required, it still is a costly spell.

[Incantrix]

It's  nice thought....but. Almost everything is resistant to cold damage. And bosses can't be frozen so there goes the damage that actually counts.  

[StarFlorge]

It's  nice thought....but. Almost everything is resistant to cold damage. And bosses can't be frozen so there goes the damage that actually counts.  

Winter's grasp 1000% works on chilled targets too, and also like a say alot my build is a concept and idea i wanted to make a rift winter mage, and also the renewal costs so little i just swap builds when i come to cold resistant mobs and then swap back xD

[TheInvoker]

It's  nice thought....but. Almost everything is resistant to cold damage. And bosses can't be frozen so there goes the damage that actually counts.  

Some undead are..not everything

and if they are immune to cold they suffer fire so take a staff that does fire damage

Plus you have Spirit damage from stonefist. Spirit damage is good vs undead

[TheInvoker]

Veil Strike does not include damage; only weakens and places them down for a bit, if I recall correctly.

Yes but Rift mage does extra damage to weakened enemies (on paper,don't know if it's bugged)

[Elhanan]

Yes but Rift mage does extra damage to weakened enemies (on paper,don't know if it's bugged)

That is true, though I prefer to take non-situational spells and Passives if possible.

The problems I have had thus far is building the Rift Mage, as I only have half of it thus far, and am now 21st lvl. Spirit, Fire, and Winter trees and Energy Barrage got me here, and am loathe to lose them for a respec. And I dislike having to rely so much on Barrier than my KE; hope to find some Fade Touched Guard 5 material soon to aid with that part of it.

[PapaCharlie9]

Question about this build. I am about to start something similar on my rift mage, never thought about taking ice mine though for ice armor, if you're using the shatterstone and punching down upgrades, couldnt you just take one or the other and use the other slot for aegis?

Yes, though if you were to drop one, it would have to be Veilstrike. Stonefist is too useful to drop.

What you lose by dropping Veilstrike is CC. I often start battles, particularly ones with one-shot archers or assassins, by Veilstriking that group before they even aggro. That allows some time to either close with them and focus aggro on warriors, who can take the extra damage, or deal with them in other ways.

Aegis helps with those one-shot archers, of course. Doesn't help anyone outside of it, but Veilstrike only keeps them down for a short while, so dealer's choice. Aegis does nothing about one-shot assassins, though.

Personally, if I really needed Aegis or a focus ability or just some other active skill, I'd swap out Fade Step. To me, that's the least essential of the 8.

[Elhanan]

Chose to respec, and now going with:

* Barrier
* Dispel
* Fade Step
* Energy Barrage
* Veil Strike
* Stone Fist
* Pull of the Abyss
* Ice Mine

Now will see if Spirit damage and Weakness combos will be more productive than Winter and Shatter combinations.

[TheInvoker]

Chose to respec, and now going with:

* Barrier
* Dispel
* Fade Step
* Energy Barrage
* Veil Strike
* Stone Fist
* Pull of the Abyss
* Ice Mine

Now will see if Spirit damage and Weakness combos will be more productive than Winter and Shatter combinations.

are you making some test if the bonus damage vs weakened is actually applied?