83 réponses à ce sujet

[Yank0]

I have really messes with any Mage class since they mucked up AW's spirit blade.
My promotions are 30 constitution 32 willpower and 32 cunning
My gear:
Hakkon's Wisdom, Kingfisher's, Heart of Despair, and many more I've held onto.

I have all the superb elemental pact belts, if they actually useful. My testing was erratic. And, the belt just about everyone of my characters wear is the superb belt of health +200.

I also have just about all The enhanced skill rings :/ many sets of superb rings as well. Currently using superb life drain and superb crit chance

Nothing special in amulets.. All the superb skill ones and I usually wear either cunning or willpower. Got the amulet of Renewel and some others that modify my threat.

What I am wait for is that physical immunity piece !

Well I wrote way more than I planned, but hopefully that will give folks a good idea where I'm at and which way I need to go.



Ps. Any chatter about a ME4 Not even sure if it's being made but would be nice to beta test that

[TheLeakestWink]

Whichever mage you enjoy most and/or are best at playing is the subjective answer. Objectively, I'd say the Saarebas. She doesn't need the Physical Immunity Amulet, and can be useful to the team even if you are playing at a difficulty above your promotes. With those stats, you should be able to run Perilous with her once you get Ring of Asaaranda and Saar Taar Shield. Use the Heart of Pride on her at all levels if you have it.

 

Pact belts are incredibly useful, but a double-edged sword due to the health loss. You're probably not going to find them worthwhile at your stats except on the AW and conditionally on the Saarebas.

[DrakeHasNoFlow]

Top 5 xp generating classes (in no particular order):

1. Arcane warrior

2. Arcane warrior

3. Arcane warrior

4. Arcane warrior

5. Arcane warrior

[TheLeakestWink]

What's the deal with the confusion between "class" and "character?" There are 3 classes: Mage, Rogue, and Warrior. There are 17 characters. The Arcane Warrior is a character in the Mage class.

[DrakeHasNoFlow]

Arcane warrior is a hybrid mage/warrior class, he isn't defined by the limitations of any role of class because he is in a class all into himself. He just so happens to yield the highest amount support xp in the game per difficulty and per zone. Ask the top 5 on xbox one who their most played class is, (scrub plaguis) and than go into a random pug and see how many pugs bring AW into lobbies. From promo scrub to Lord, he is the best class because he doesn't have to be limited to any particular role.

Aw+storm pact belt will beat out a barrier bot or dps saarebas in dps/and support output and with better survivability.

[Gya]

If you have heart of pride, try storm pact seabass. Itwa-adim explosion opener, gaatlok burst flow, barrier finisher for glorious support xp. The passive that increases your health as things die near you is awesome.

[Yank0]

I've been playing around with the seabass, but I save that for when I'm bored.

I'm checking the FAQs right after this post for AW builds. Hopefully they are post spirit blade change..
Also.. If anyone wants tell me what to do as of now while playing AW. Yay

[ThatBruhYouDK]

If high stats (maybe like 125+) then I'd say Virtuoso for the damage and speed runs.
Saarebas/AW if otherwise

[FMP2013]

AW with hakkon wisdom, storm belt and enhanced chain lightning ring.

I take chain lightning, fade Cloak, pull of the abyss and spirit blade(or stone fist).

[LearnedHand]

Low promotes + top notch gear = AW (everyone hates to admit it but there is no question)

 

Your offense literally becomes your defense since barrier strength is tied to your weapon's base damage and the weapon damage multiplier of your skills. You will perform better at a higher difficulty with the AW than other mages, all other things being equal. You can even use the storm belt at low promotes since again, a stronger offense means a stronger defense. Chain lightning, stonefist, fade cloak are all good. Spirit blade isn't bad either, not sure why you don't like it.

[Texasmotiv]

Get the fast casting staff and just barrier spam with the 'baas.

[Zorinho20_CRO]

I would say AW with Hakkon+Storm belt (CL and SF ring are nice too).

HoP is great staff,but only has rune slot,so I have to take one HoK ring.

CL,SF,FC +whatever you like.

[JiaJM98]

Aw+storm pact belt will beat out a barrier bot or dps saarebas in dps/and support output and with better survivability.

Saarebas + winter pact is awesome in dps. From knowledge, power is effectively an extra storm pact belt. Now you can melt things with both starting stance and finishing stance of itwa-adim explosion. (Just imagine how screwed an AW is when all your teammates are down and you are facing a whole zone full of storm mages)

 

From knowledge, strength gives extra health and by about half way through a zone you can start to face rush mobs assuming you haven't died.

Electric glyph = first elusive coin (and you get to keep the elusive even if you switch to fire glyph), static charge = half an elusive, guardian spirit = 1 and a half elusive (don't ask me why it's one and a half) so you basically have 3 elusives on all the time which is equivalent to a fully prepared duelist and you don't need to worry about generating elusives either.

 

And here comes the one single reason why saarebas beats all classes in the game: YOU DON'T HAVE TO ******* WALK EVER AGAIN! RIGHT FROM Lv1! I say this is good enough a reason for everyone to give up AW now.  Disagree with me because AW has fade step too? Why don't you bring your AW and try to race with a saarebas to see who will run faster? 

[Zorinho20_CRO]

-snip-

She has better a$$,I'll give you that.

[Yank0]

Get the fast casting staff and just barrier spam with the 'baas.

Could you be more specific? My Hakkon has "abilities cost less mana". Does that translate to time for the seabass or is there another staff?
That doesn't sound like much fun, but I'm curious about the staff.

[Yank0]

Saarebas + winter pact is awesome in dps. From knowledge, power is effectively an extra storm pact belt. Now you can melt things with both starting stance and finishing stance of itwa-adim explosion. (Just imagine how screwed an AW is when all your teammates are down and you are facing a whole zone full of storm mages)
 
From knowledge, strength gives extra health and by about half way through a zone you can start to face rush mobs assuming you haven't died.
Electric glyph = first elusive coin (and you get to keep the elusive even if you switch to fire glyph), static charge = half an elusive, guardian spirit = 1 and a half elusive (don't ask me why it's one and a half) so you basically have 3 elusives on all the time which is equivalent to a fully prepared duelist and you don't need to worry about generating elusives either.
 
And here comes the one single reason why saarebas beats all classes in the game: YOU DON'T HAVE TO ******* WALK EVER AGAIN! RIGHT FROM Lv1! I say this is good enough a reason for everyone to give up AW now.  Disagree with me because AW has fade step too? Why don't you bring your AW and try to race with a saarebas to see who will run faster? 

Please, no need to prove/force anything. Everyone has their preference. It's aLso hard to follow since I'm unfamiliar with the Saarebas.
I also confused with the storm pact belt because they just seem to do random stuff like drop my health down to nothing

[coldwetn0se]

Please, no need to prove/force anything. Everyone has their preference. It's aLso hard to follow since I'm unfamiliar with the Saarebas.
I also confused with the storm pact belt because they just seem to do random stuff like drop my health down to nothing

The Heart of Pride, is the name of the staff that casts "fast". As for the Pact belts, they are a positive with a negative effect, item. They take away a good portion of your health, but in return, they increase the damage based on the version of belt and the related staff and/or spells you use. For example: if you have the Storm belt on, and you equip an electricity based staff (like the Heart of Pride or the Hakkon), then your basic attacks are now more powerful, than without the belt. If you then use spells that are electricity based (i.e. Chain Lightning, Static Cage, Lightning Bolt...), those too have increased damage. For an AW, this means you can easily keep your barrier filled, due to things like Chain Lighning, and using an electricity based staff as mentioned above.

Hope this helps, and have fun grinding.

PS....I vote for Saarebas as well. More fun, to me. But just my .02.

[lcneed]

I vote for the AW because you could play it the lazy way!     I think he is the agent that requires the least amount of clicking on the mouse and the least amount of tapping on the keyboard.    I can let my son play him in Perilous and probably survive because it requires very little skill or knowledge.. just need to hold both mouse buttons (basic attack and turn) and kill things.. and just hit "1" for chain lightning when it is up.   Sure assassins could kill you but that's what teammates are for   

 

On the other hand.. playing Saarebus is probably toughest on the keyboard.. just saying!   Think of all those 1 2 3 you will pressing non stop with no cooldown....

[Texasmotiv]

Could you be more specific? My Hakkon has "abilities cost less mana". Does that translate to time for the seabass or is there another staff?
That doesn't sound like much fun, but I'm curious about the staff.

I am referring to heart of pride. It makes you cast faster and shock enemies near you. I end up doing the frost step opener, barrier flow that knocks people down then barrier finisher and it pretty much keeps entire groups pacified while you slowly kill them with the frost step or the rest of you team comes in and takes care of it. If people aren't taking massive damage and you are being aware of you positioning so you don't get killed you can easily keep 100% barrier uptime and turn a failing nightmare team into superstars. I'll usually do 1 on threatening or perilous and go right into nightmare at lvl 7-10.

[TheLeakestWink]

I am referring to heart of pride. It makes you cast faster and shock enemies near you. I end up doing the frost step opener, barrier flow that knocks people down then barrier finisher and it pretty much keeps entire groups pacified while you slowly kill them with the frost step or the rest of you team comes in and takes care of it. If people aren't taking massive damage and you are being aware of you positioning so you don't get killed you can easily keep 100% barrier uptime and turn a failing nightmare team into superstars. I'll usually do 1 on threatening or perilous and go right into nightmare at lvl 7-10.

 

You should be using Saar Taar Shield as your Flow spell only in very limited circumstances (surrounded by shield enemies). Otherwise, I recommend Ring of Asaaranda as your Flow - the speed bonus stacks up to three times with Heart of Pride, and will greatly increase your casting speed. If you upgrade it, your allies will also benefit with increased attack speed that will persist after they leave the ring for about 8 seconds. This is also the "poor man's" Heart of Pride for Barrier generation. For increased survivability, you can also cast Ring as your Opener (the classic Ring Ring Barrier sequence that any support-build Saarebas should know).

[Proto]

Wait, the Saarabas has barrier?

 

Just give me a fire glyph, please.

[Texasmotiv]

You should be using Saar Taar Shield as your Flow spell only in very limited circumstances (surrounded by shield enemies). Otherwise, I recommend Ring of Asaaranda as your Flow.

Good tip, thanks!

[TheThirdRace]

As soon as you get to kill most of your targets without the help of your teammates, you'll be better to use the Virtuoso with Power Chord.

 

The reason is simple, if you kill the enemies fast then there's (almost) no support XP. Thus, it's a finite and "fixed" amount of XP for each game. Since we're now generating a "fixed" amount of XP because we kill our target without any help, the next best thing is to do it the fastest way possible.

 

Nothing clears a map faster than a 16m spammable AOE, especially under Fast Beat. Of course, you need to be able to actually kill things in 1 or 2 shot to make it work otherwise you should use something else.

[TheLeakestWink]

As soon as you get to kill most of your targets without the help of your teammates, you'll be better to use the Virtuoso with Power Chord.

 

The reason is simple, if you kill the enemies fast then there's (almost) no support XP. Thus, it's a finite and "fixed" amount of XP for each game. Since we're now generating a "fixed" amount of XP because we kill our target without any help, the next best thing is to do it the fastest way possible.

 

Nothing clears a map faster than a 16m spammable AOE, especially under Fast Beat. Of course, you need to be able to actually kill things in 1 or 2 shot to make it work otherwise you should use something else.

 

There is a Thunderdome thread to the contrary... (Cool Beats > Power Chord). This is doubly true on the XBox, where Encore does not trigger off Power Chord, but does off Cool Beats.

[TheThirdRace]

There is a Thunderdome thread to the contrary... (Cool Beats > Power Chord). This is doubly true on the XBox, where Encore does not trigger off Power Chord, but does off Cool Beats.

The Thunderdome was about clearing solo. They also used spawn blocking which defeats the purpose of getting as much XP as possible.

Under "normal" circumstances (team of 4 players without abusing spawn blocking), Cool Beats can't hold up to Power Chord. In 95% of my games, if the enemy lives for 3 seconds then you've failed because someone else will kill it before you do (I've even been trolled by the Inquisition Captain...). In those circumstances, Power Chord is much faster than Cool Beats.

Cool Beats is still awesome, but there are drawbacks: it can miss, you need tightly packed enemies to make the most out of it, it's not as instant as Power Chord and it doesn't scale well in higher difficulties.