16 réponses à ce sujet

[JiaJM98]

so what does evreryone think? im addicted to pact belts for the dmg. from pure dmg effectiveness perspective, whic tree would be your bread and butter?

basically im asking either:
cage plus discrage combo plus sleep
or
winters ruin plus shatter

[devSin]

It depends how constrained you feel by mana regeneration. Since shocked + weakness removes both and adds sleep, you'll lose out from the mana gains for attacking weakened targets (you have to reapply weakness if you want to leech mana). (It can also be an issue with targets immune to sleep, as a character with shocked and immunity: sleep can't be weakened until shocked goes away.)

I have fun with it, but you should probably test it out for yourself to see which you prefer. Some of the new upgrades from Trespasser also open some new options for how to combine the various spells.

[ottffsse]

Lightning will still have more DPS in the end probably. But pull, ice mine , stone fist is pretty good. Not firemine good mnd you, but two types of damage against enemies who may be resistant to one or other.

[PillarBiter]

Before, I usually ran a rift mage for weak-shock-sleep-immolate and paralyze-stonefist combos.

 

But I think as a matter of effectiveness, winter could probably do better, since you don't lose your weakness.

[Elhanan]

Mix it up is my suggestion. Ice Mine and Ice Armor, Energy Barrage and Static Cage, and Inferno and a couple of Fire passives may make a versatile build.

[actionhero112]

The only really good spell in Storm is EB and you don't even have to go into the tree to get that. 

 

Winter/Inferno,I don't touch CL, LB or SC. (unless I'm taking necromancer)

[JiaJM98]

Mix it up is my suggestion. Ice Mine and Ice Armor, Energy Barrage and Static Cage, and Inferno and a couple of Fire passives may make a versatile build.

Of course mix up is a good idea (if not compulsory). But there is going to be one skill / skill combo that you will going to be using over and over again to make the most use of your pact belt.

For example, in your Necro build you posted yesterday, static cage and wisp of the fallen is your core skill.  For me, when I use KE fire maine spamming at melee range is my core skill.

 

Now, I'm asking for ideas on RM. I have 2 ideas at the moment:

for storm pact, do PotA -> lightning bolt (either mega dmg bonus upgrade or aoe paralyse) -> stone fist -> static cage

assuming you will pull multiple targets with PotA, lightning bolt damage upgrade gives +200% weapon damage per enemy making it really powerful. on the other hand, the aoe paralyse upgrade means you will detonate multiple enemies at the same time with stone fist

 

PotA + bolt + Fist will drain 180 mana, so you might need to do a couple auto attacks before you can cast static cage. But you can definitely cast it before the enemy gets off the floor. Use static cage to further your damage and stop anyone escape. (you will probably run out of mana completely at this point so auto attack/fade step expected)

Sigil of great bear is a must for mana and then use fade step for mana recovery

 

for winter pact, it's obviously going to be step/mine, winters grasp, stone fist

[Bigdawg13]

I really have a HATE HATE relationship with storm for any RM I play.  It starts out all innocent and nice, and then next thing I know storm stole all my mana, packed up, and left while I was distracted.

 

I concur with actionhero112, the only good spell in storm is EB.  Good is relative, but for me good means a bread-n-butter spell that can be used in every fight.  Other storm spells either cause shock (which can cause mana issues, and therefore you may have to regulate their use and negate 50% of your specialization choice) or are superseded by superior alternatives.  I give exception to Static Cage, which is a really great spell when upgraded to Lightning Cage.  But every time I use it, my mana goes to crap.

 

I admit I have yet to really invest time in a RM since Trespassser (i.e. sigil of the bear use) but I hate...HATE, knowing that half my passives are just crap because I'm forced to deal with a Bioware bug just to use this spell.  I hate knowing that all the passive benefits are gone or are diminished.  I fully expect a bunch of RM/storm fans to rebut, but I will say that I have never had a good storm/RM experience...ever.

[Incantrix]

Personally, i think the best combo is fire and ice mixed together. Ice gives you cc and shatter while fire gives you sustained burst.

My set up:

Fade step (upgraded)
Pull of the abyss
Stone fist
Ice storm
Fire mine
Fire wall (with moving wall upgrade)
Barrier
Flex spot usually for focus skill

I rounded out by getting the mana surge ability for more freezes.

This setup gave me max AoE damage and bursty single target. (But varric was the real boss killer)

[PapaCharlie9]

Static Cage is the poor man's Pull of the Abyss, IMO. So I'd not bother with Storm RM. I had a great time running a Winter RM through Descent.

The Shocked + Weakened = Sleep situation is more about making lemonade out of lemons for me. I wouldn't do it on purpose.

[Amne YA]

winter . work better with RM  . more  control . and can do  shalter  combot   with  stone fist .
storm  do not work well with  RM and can  make you loose weakned statut on enemy 

[Elhanan]

Of course mix up is a good idea (if not compulsory). But there is going to be one skill / skill combo that you will going to be using over and over again to make the most use of your pact belt.
For example, in your Necro build you posted yesterday, static cage and wisp of the fallen is your core skill.  For me, when I use KE fire maine spamming at melee range is my core skill.
 
Now, I'm asking for ideas on RM. I have 2 ideas at the moment:
for storm pact, do PotA -> lightning bolt (either mega dmg bonus upgrade or aoe paralyse) -> stone fist -> static cage
assuming you will pull multiple targets with PotA, lightning bolt damage upgrade gives +200% weapon damage per enemy making it really powerful. on the other hand, the aoe paralyse upgrade means you will detonate multiple enemies at the same time with stone fist
 
PotA + bolt + Fist will drain 180 mana, so you might need to do a couple auto attacks before you can cast static cage. But you can definitely cast it before the enemy gets off the floor. Use static cage to further your damage and stop anyone escape. (you will probably run out of mana completely at this point so auto attack/fade step expected)
Sigil of great bear is a must for mana and then use fade step for mana recovery
 
for winter pact, it's obviously going to be step/mine, winters grasp, stone fist

FYI - That was not my build; just post in his (ie; Starflorge) threads a bit. I have yet to play a Necromancer Inq.

As for Static Cage, while I prefer it to PotA myself due to longer duration, to get it upgraded takes 5 selections if I count correctly, and the possible Shock effects in these selections are noted to be bugged.

[SyngeIX]

For those saying winter is a good spec for rift mage - how do you keep your mana up? Assuming you're not using fire, stone fist doesn't regain mana and neither does winter's grasp - or at least not in my game. Fade step gives me back everything but I haven't tried blizzard yet.

[Elhanan]

For those saying winter is a good spec for rift mage - how do you keep your mana up? Assuming you're not using fire, stone fist doesn't regain mana and neither does winter's grasp - or at least not in my game. Fade step gives me back everything but I haven't tried blizzard yet.

As mentioned elsewhere:

I use Rejuvenating Barrier (Spirit), Flashpoint (Fire; plan to add Clean Burn), Winter Stillness, and Restorative Veil. And the Trespasser DLC allows Fade Step to recover Mana as one option; possibly other abilities, too.

[Homer2101]

For those saying winter is a good spec for rift mage - how do you keep your mana up? Assuming you're not using fire, stone fist doesn't regain mana and neither does winter's grasp - or at least not in my game. Fade step gives me back everything but I haven't tried blizzard yet.

 

Bolded for emphasis. Clean Burn seems too powerful to pass up, and you might as well grab Immolate on the way to it. Immolate upgraded for zero cooldown will fully regenerate mana if used against a weakened group of enemies. My standard approach for all of nightmare Trespasser was: (1) Pull of the Abyss, (2) Immolate, (3) Blizzard, (4) Spam Immolate, (5) Repeat once Pull of the Abyss is off cooldown.

 

If you're completely avoiding the fire tree, then upgraded Fade Step will fully regenerate your mana if you pass through four enemies, and has a very short cooldown. Rejuvinating Barrier and Winter Stillness will also compensate somewhat.

 

I used to combo Static Cage/Chain Lightning, Pull of the Abyss/Stone Fist, Immolate for the Nightmare combo. But I found that the damage output wasn't comparable due to increasing number of enemies immune to lightning or sleep and due to mana cost. Also panicked enemies lose their taunted status once the panic wears off, and re-establishing aggro was too much hassle.

[Incantrix]

For those saying winter is a good spec for rift mage - how do you keep your mana up? Assuming you're not using fire, stone fist doesn't regain mana and neither does winter's grasp - or at least not in my game. Fade step gives me back everything but I haven't tried blizzard yet.

 

When I use fire spec with ice, I can keep Blizzard up effortlessly by pull of the abyss -> Fire mine->Blizzard->Stone fist->Moving Firewall

 

The burning ticks keep the mana regen up with weakness. The extra firewall ticks keep the regen going. 

[PapaCharlie9]

For those saying winter is a good spec for rift mage - how do you keep your mana up? Assuming you're not using fire, stone fist doesn't regain mana and neither does winter's grasp - or at least not in my game. Fade step gives me back everything but I haven't tried blizzard yet.

Do you have the Restorative Veil passive?

I dunno what I did, but my Winter RM generally had a full circle of mana all the time. I recall one battle where I tried really hard to get the mana circle down below 80%, it took some doing. It's not a new accessory or Sigil, I know that, because I didn't use any of those. I did have Immolate on active, but rarely used it. I did a lot of auto-attacking, that might have been all that was needed. No Trials.

Mana Surge definitely helped, since was casting Barrier as much for protection as Mana Surge > Chill > Winter's Ruin.

Oh, and no one had electricity attacks. That always helps.