8 réponses à ce sujet

[Lazarillo]

Okay, maybe not bad, just not to my taste.  For whatever reason, I've never been a big fan of fire spells in most RPGs.  With that in mind, and tips for playing a Mage but eschewing the Inferno tree?  It seems to come highly recommended (and for good reason, admittedly), but if Storm is more my bag, anything that will synergize particularly well?

[berelinde]

Lightning is really limited, and not worth the skill point you'd spend on it.

 

Energy barrage is arguably one of the most useful spells in the game. I take it for all my mages whether I intend to focus on Storm or not. I'm also fond of upgraded Static Cage. It has fallen out of favor lately, but I like it. It's a pity you don't like fire spells. That, together with the Fire Mine upgrade that lets you choose where you put it, and it's almost too easy. Get your enemies inside a static cage, put a big fat fire mine in the middle, and wait for those 50K damage rolls to rack up.

 

That said, after Chain Lightning, I don't use the left hand side of the tree much. Maybe somebody else can give you a better idea how to get the most out of that. A lot of folks scoff at Chain Lighting, but when you're third level and you croak every time a bandit/red templar/sellsword/wolf breathes on you, anything that gets the other guy to stop hitting you for a second or two is a good thing. Plus, it interrupts enemy attacks with long activation times, so if an enemy is sighting you in for a Long Shot, you can break his concentration. At low levels, that might be the difference between surviving and dying horribly. My advice would be to hang on to the spell until you get a chance to specialize, then buy a respec amulet and spend the point on something more useful.

 

Some spells, like the static cage/fire mine combination above, are pretty standard, dependable nukers. Others rely on particular circumstances, playing styles, and strategies. I'm willing to believe that there is no such thing as a truly useless spell... but if you want to get the most out of some of the lesser lights, you'd best ask an expert. That wouldn't be me.

[Lazarillo]

I appreciate the advice so far.  Chain Lightning and Static Cage are the spells I like most, though I'm admittedly pretty ambivalent on Lightning Bolt.  I know Energy Barrage is extremely useful having played a Mage before, if not very stylish (at least to me).  However, just kind of thinking out loud here, I know it takes on the element/secondary effect of your staff, but I'm assuming all other lightning spells will inflict Shock status, making the tree not really work for Rift Mages.  I also don't like Necro very much for lore reasons as much as anything, so I am assuming that if I follow this path, Knight-Enchanter is going to be my best bet as far as Specializations go?

 

I also want to mix in some Spirit for Barrier and Dispel, so that, plus Storm, plus a Specialization seems like about all I'd have room for, but I suppose, given that Mages get a wide variety of options, it might also be possible to just mostly ignore the Specializations, too, and do a Storm/Winter/Spirit sort of build?  Not sure if there's anything too interesting to do with that or not.

[draken-heart]

If you plan to go storm, maybe look at Knight Enchanter. After all, Knight enchanter is melee mage, and storm has a couple of passives that are best used in melee.

[Dabrikishaw]

If you're going to ignore both the Inferno tree and a proper Specialization, then you can be a Support + Combo Mage using the Storm/Winter/Spirit trees. It's a build based on supporting the party and setting up combo detonations. The bolded skills are the ones you want on your quickbar the most, but it's pretty flexible and you can do what you want.

 

Spirit Tree: Barrier / Elegant Defense / Guardian Spirit / Mind Blast / Revival / Desperation / Strength of Spirits / Peaceful Aura / Dispel / Rejuvenating Barrier

 

Winter Tree: Winter’s Grasp / Fade Step / Energizing Step / Winter Stillness / Ice Mine / Chilling Array

 

Storm Tree: Chain Lightning / Lightning Bolt / Static Charge / Static Cage

[HannahRose]

Everybody else has given you pretty good advice, but I'd like to throw it out there that you might not want to avoid the Inferno tree *entirely*. You don't have to use any of the attacks, but it would be worth investing 3 points into it just to get Flashpoint and Clean Burn.

 

I know that probably went without saying, but I'm saying it anyway because those particular buffs are just too good not to get on any and every mage.

[PapaCharlie9]

Even though it says "Low Level", you can still use this Winter build as the core of a no-Inferno mage:

 

http://forum.bioware...ter-mage-build/

 

You give up peak damage output if you don't take active abilities from Inferno. That said, Winter's Ruin is pretty decent for damage.

 

I'm currently running a level 13 Vivienne as a Winter/KE/Spirit. The Spirit stuff is purely for Dispel vs. Walk Softly Trial. Otherwise I wouldn't put any points into Spirit for a KE. She has a fire staff and Antivan Fire for cold resistant enemies.

[Lazarillo]

Even though it says "Low Level", you can still use this Winter build as the core of a no-Inferno mage:

 

http://forum.bioware...ter-mage-build/

 

You give up peak damage output if you don't take active abilities from Inferno. That said, Winter's Ruin is pretty decent for damage.

 

Much appreciated!  I'd actually seen a similar set up from the same source for a Rift/Winter control build that looked pretty awesome.  I'm sort of waffling between that idea and a Storm/KE at this point.  Both give me a little of what I want, but not quite everything.

[RiverHillBlue1]

I second that low level Winter Mage build.  It's my go to Solas build pre Sky Hold.  Defense, and CC with enemies constantly getting frozen.  Ice Array with Ice Armor is amazing, at any stage of the game actually.  Winter's Ruin is a heavy hitter, and the 65 mana is negligible as a Rift Mage.  

 

I just killed Corypheus with a Winter Rift Mage Inquisitor.  I dabbled in Fire to get Flash Point and Clean Burn.  They're too good not to get, even if you have no desire to cast fire spells.