Hi I haven't played DAI in a long time but someone brought me the dlcs for my birthday and I owe it to them to play again.
When I reach that point I'll probably stick to the usual KE/Storm mage combo (unless something else works better with the changes they've made to KE) but I'm not sure about my build in the meantime and could use some advice.
With the trespasser DLC, one of the new features are the belts of storm/inferno/winter pact. These belts massively increase the damage of that type of element, including staff basic attacks for that element. The enhanced belt of storm pact will double the damage of lightning-based attacks, at the cost of reducing your max health by 50%. These belts are great on KE, because loss of health isn't an issue when your barrier is your real HP bar, and increased offense means faster barrier generation.
For pact-belt builds, please note that the winter version of the enhanced belt can only be obtained by sending Cullen (and not any other advisor) in one of the operations.
1. Immolate and Barrier
2. Flashpoint
3. Pyromancer
4. Fire Mine
5. Flaming Array
6. Fade Step
7. Frost Step
8. Winter's Grasp
9. Mana Surge
10. Winter's Ruin/Specialization Respec.
In general I find Static Cage pretty mediocre as a spell for the mage that casts it. In order to match Fire Mine's Damage on one target, you would have to hit a unit inside the cage 32 times. Achievable? Yes. Practical and Realistic? No. Fire Mine with Flaming Array has several mines, and each one can hit several people. Fire has pretty much always worked better for the KE, due to the synergy with Chaotic Focus and the aforementioned sheer power of Fire Mine but you can stick to storm if you want.
I think Static Cage benefits the warriors and rogues in your party more, especially artificers. And I think the spell is pretty good on fire dragons. I just don't think it's worth keeping it because it's good for your mage's damage in general. Because it isn't.
I went for Frost Step after it because it synergies pretty well with Winter's Ruin, giving you an easy way to chill enemies for the 1000% weapon damage nuke, as well as gives you mobility to use Flaming Array to it's fullest potential. Mana Surge has always been pretty good, but since they fixed it so it's an AoE freeze when the barrier runs out on any unit you cast it on, it became godly.
1. Immolate and Barrier
2. Flashpoint
3. Pyromancer
4. Fire Mine
5. Flaming Array
6. Fade Step
7. Frost Step
8. Winter's Grasp
9. Mana Surge
10. Winter's Ruin/Specialization Respec.
In general I find Static Cage pretty mediocre as a spell for the mage that casts it. In order to match Fire Mine's Damage on one target, you would have to hit a unit inside the cage 32 times. Achievable? Yes. Practical and Realistic? No. Fire Mine with Flaming Array has several mines, and each one can hit several people. Fire has pretty much always worked better for the KE, due to the synergy with Chaotic Focus and the aforementioned sheer power of Fire Mine but you can stick to storm if you want.
I think Static Cage benefits the warriors and rogues in your party more, especially artificers. And I think the spell is pretty good on fire dragons. I just don't think it's worth keeping it because it's good for your mage's damage in general. Because it isn't.
I went for Frost Step after it because it synergies pretty well with Winter's Ruin, giving you an easy way to chill enemies for the 1000% weapon damage nuke, as well as gives you mobility to use Flaming Array to it's fullest potential. Mana Surge has always been pretty good, but since they fixed it so it's an AoE freeze when the barrier runs out on any unit you cast it on, it became godly.
^This, and if you don't care what race your PC is, be a Qunari Vashoth.
As a skill point by point spend, I would tweak the above to be:
1. Barrier
2. Immolate
3. Flashpoint (and start working on buffing crit chance)
4. Pyromancer
5. Fire Mine
6. Flaming Array (you now have a massive damage skill)
7. Winter's Grasp (you can set up combos)
8. Fade Step
9. Frost Step
10. Winter's Ruin (you now have a second massive damage skill)
11. Mana Surge
You can go for any specialization from this point. KE if you want, or RM or Necro. I personally played an RM with a Winter's Ruin/Ice Array build and it was awesome, highly recommended.
Thanks for the tips guys! I'm going to miss my electric spells, Chain Lightning yanking people back is fun to watch, but I'll give fire a go.
I'm not going to lie: I'm level 18, and I have no idea what my build should be. My current setup is as follows:
1. Chain Lightning
2. Immolate
3. Winter's Grasp
4. Spirit Blade
5. Energy Barrage
6. Mark of the Rift
I also have Barrier and Dispel on my bar, but that's because I picked them up getting Regenerating Barrier, which I may be getting rid of once I get Andraste's Sacrifice; I pretty much never use them. I'm probably going to respec and get Fade Step. I'm also tempted to get Fire Mine, but in base form, it's got that 3 second charge time, and apparently Flaming Array causes it to do 1 damage if used too close to enemies, so it's not looking good at the moment.
Also, does anyone actually use Fade Cloak defensively, or is it all about the Decloaking Blast upgrade? I'm not big on it from a defensive perspective (I'm generally locked into an animation when I would need to use it, so I always get hit regardless), but if it's all about the Decloaking Blast, then I'll give it another shot.
I'm also not hugely impressed with Disruption Field, but was wondering if there was something I was missing. I'm also interested in commentary about how the upgrades work. Does the speed reduction include attack speed, or is it just movement? Charged Disruption seems kind of useless thanks to Energy Barrage, but I figured I'd ask.
The fact is, I'm probably around halfway through the game, but I have no idea what to go for. I've already got a solid (though not particularly powerful) build, so I'm not sure where to go from here.
Wow. Level 18 and no Fire Mine? Are you playing Nightmare?
Dispel you don't need much in the main game, it's true. You'll need it eventually for DLC though, trust me. Unless you have Cass in your party, then maybe not so much.
I used Fade Cloak defensively a lot, but only against boss enemies with knockback or knockdown, where there was an obvious visual cue that they were about to smack you. Like High Dragons. Or go defense+offense, for example, find one of the Brute types, like a Hurlock Alpha in the Western Approach and when they go into their AoE maul routine, Fade Cloak, stand right in them, and Decloaking Blast them. Such fun!
I never took Disruption Field, in multiple PTs. That was all before Patch 10/Trespasser, though. The upgrade that recharges SB, IF targets take damage, might be worth it, but only if you have skill points that aren't better used elsewhere.
Here's a build you could use, but by Level 18 it kind of doesn't matter. You'd have to try really hard to have a bad build.
Active Skills:
1. Spirit Blade (no upgrade, unless you like Amplified Wave, depends on whether you want to use SB like a sword or a one-shot spell)
2. Fade Cloak/Decloaking Blast
3. Fade Step/Frost Step (or if you are frequently short of mana, toggle to Energizing Step)
4. Fire Mine/Searing Glyph (unless you are not going to be doing much close combat, but in that case, drop SB)
5. Energy Barrage (no upgrade)
6. Immolate/Consuming Fire (see Energizing Step)
7. Winter's Grasp/Winter's Ruin
8. Mark o' da Rift
(If you do the JoH DLC, drop Immolate for Aegis)
Build, point by point (I'll assume you've got 20 skill points, you probably have a couple more)
1. Spirit Blade
2. Fade Cloak
3. Decloaking Blast
4. Veiled Riposte
5. Combat Clarity
6. Fade Shield
7. Immolate
8. Consuming Fire
9. Flashpoint
10. Pyromancer
11. Fire Mine
12. Searing Glyph
13. Clean Burn
14. Chaotic Focus <-- Must have for a KE, IMHO
15. Fade Step
16. Frost Step (or toggle to Energizing)
17. Winter's Grasp
18. Winter's Ruin
19. Energy Barrage
20. Conductive Current
If you have a couple more, you can upgrade Energy Barrage or pick up a couple more passives, like Mana Surge or Frost Mastery. Or start putting points into Spirit to get Dispel if you are heading for a DLC.
BTW, not sure how to use Fire Mine? Worried about the 3 second delay? Don't be, just use it to your advantage. Try this: have Solas in your party and have him equip Pull of the Abyss/Shaken as an active, but leave it disabled so the AI doesn't waste it. When you see a mob, have Solas cast Pull of the Abyss on the mob, then switch to your KE and cast the Fire Mine right in the center point of the Pull of The Abyss. Watch the entire mob launch into the air, on fire, for a gazillion points of damage! What's not the like about that?
Immolate/Consuming Fire is one of the best ways to recharge Spirit Blade. That's why I included it in the build.Blizzard sucks except on rift mage where mana is not an issue. Really. In 10s you should do more than just 750% weapon damage with aggressive fade cloak and flame array. I know it's a bit generic but firemine with either upgrade is best on ke but you have to be a melee mage. Or if you want distance non melee ke go storm for chain lightning eb and static cage. Use Appropriate pact belts.
Immolate and blizzard are both great on rift mage though.
Retour en haut