I've been looking for a comprehensive build guide for Merrill as a blood and Elemental Mage for hard difficulty.
What I cannot find is the list of skills to get and the order to get them in . she's level 15 right now. I read someplace that you should wait to respec her for BM at level 16.
I'd appreciate it if someone could share their BM/elemental skill tree with me to get me started
For tactics I found:
MERRILL (Mode: Ranged. Primary ability trees: Primal, Spirit, dabble in Arcane and upgraded Wrath of the Elvhen from Dalish Pariah)
1. Self: Any ---> Activate: Wrath of the Elvhen
2. Self: Surrounded by at least TWO enemies ---> Mind Blast
3. Self: Mana <25% ---> Activate: Death Syphon
4. Self: Health <25% ---> Activate: Death Syphon
5. Enemy: Target rank is Elite or higher ---> Hex of Torment
6. Enemy: Clustered with at least TWO enemies ---> Tempest
7. Enemy: STAGGERED ---> Chain Lightning
9. Enemy: Attacking Anders ---> Crushing Prison
9. Enemy: Attacking Anders ---> Stonefist
10. Enemy: Target rank is Boss or higher ---> Petrify
11. Enemy: Nearest visible Mage ---> Stonefist
12. Enemy: Nearest visible Mage ---> Crushing Prison
13. Enemy health <50% ---> Walking Bomb
14. Enemy: Attacking Hawke ---> Stonefist
15. Enemy: Clusterd with at least TWO enemies ---> Chain Lightning
16. Enemy: Attacking Merrill ---> Spirit Bolt
17. Enemy Nearest visible ---> Spirit Bolt
18. Enemy: Attacking Merrill ---> Attack
Passives: From Primal: Galvanism
For Attributes - magic / con ratio 2:1
Thanks in advance!
Merrill Blood/Elemental mage build
Erstellt von
iKomrad
, Apr 03 2016 05:28
Nach oben
#2
Geschrieben 06 April 2016 - 08:04
straykat
-
- Members
- 9.196 Beiträge
This isn't comprehensive, but I'll give a few pointers.
Don't bother with Death Syphon. She doesn't need the mana. It's a better skill for Anders though.
I wouldn't bother with the Arcane tree either (Mind Blast and Crushing Prison). Focus on Primal and Entropy the most.
16 is pretty late. You can use her Blood Magic much earlier (although I'd agree she'll come into her own by 16). And you should probably boost her Constitution to 30 by end game. You could get away with less though.
For tactics, just remember to set her to "Deactivate" first and put it at the very top. Like maybe once she's at 25% health, set her BM skill to Deactivate. Then under that, set "Activate" at over 50% health.
Under that, set her to use a Health/Elfroot potion when her health is under 50%
Hopefully, that all works. I haven't played her this way in awhile but I recall that's how I did it.
#3
Geschrieben 07 April 2016 - 01:41
ecgwyn
-
- Members
- 6 Beiträge
Hi! I'm currently in the middle of Act 2 on my first hard play through. I've got Merrill in my favorite build for her, and she's usually the most durable of my party members, so I think it's holding up pretty well on hard difficulty.
I was a little confused as to what you're looking for, since you say you want an elemental blood Mage but you list primal, not elemental, in your list of primary spell trees? I'm going to assume you mean primal, since you don't have any fire or ice in your tactics.
Anyway! I typically run her as a primal blood Mage, actually, but I don't tend to respec her, I just build her as I go, so I probably have a more simplistic approach than you're looking for, but here's my two cents. I'm going to start from the beginning, because you said you were looking for comprehensive, even though you're pretty far along now.
To start with, i only use her attribute points on magic and constitution - I raise willpower marginally (to 15-ish, tops) in the early stages of the game and equip her with mana-equipment (until she starts using blood magic), but otherwise it's a fairly even match between magic and constitution. That's the other thing - I don't make them exactly even, but I'm much closer to it than you are. Her health is huge, so she's durable and she never runs out of spell fuel, and her magic points aren't any lower than my mage hawke's.
For talents, I start with protection (rock armor and/or arcane shield) and the brute force spells she'd be using - her primal tree. I also start slowly accumulating dalish pariah talents when they open up (every other level-up), but I don't tend to USE any of them but wrath of the elvhen until about level 14 or 15.
When I start on her dalish pariah tree, I also grab the things you can use to maximize her health. It sounds like you have the necessary wrath of the elvhen upgrade, so that's good. And because of that, I respectfully disagree with straykat about death syphon - you also need it's upgrade or it's no good to you, but its upgrade allows death syphon to help Merrill health-wise, and as you can't heal her normally when she's using blood magic, you need all the help you can get.
Make sure your equipment is good. My Merrill has a health palooza for a belt, and blood magic enhancements from both her rings (purchased), her amulet (the sarabaas one from the qunari mage), and from her staff, voracity. Voracity isn't ideal for your Merrill (or mine) because it's a fire staff, but I can't find the damn electricity one I want (channeled). Anyway, voracity's a unique staff from the "forbidden knowledge" quest in act 2 (the one where you find all the evil tomes) and it's pretty fancy.
So I bolster her health as much as I can, then lastly, I also tend to make sure I have stone's throw from her dalish pariah tree before I reset her tactics for BM, just so she can get out of trouble if she needs to. (I also don't tend to acquire or use Ensnare until I've got her constitution approaching 30.)
Tactically, I agree that you should start with deactivation, though I set it for health<10%, and then a health potion. Under that, though, I set her to activate blood magic (self:any). Most tactics guides I find say to do that last, but I've found that if I try and make her use her mana up first, reasonable as that sounds, she wont have enough left to cast her BM spell, and I give her so much constitution that it hasn't been an issue.
Then her sustainables (as self:any), then spells for if she's surrounded, then spells for large clusters of enemies, so it will get them before they scatter (chain lightning, tempest), interwoven with targeted spells to hopefully temporarily disable elite or higher enemies, then standard attack talents in decreasing order of mana consumption (stonefist, spirit bolt, etc), with extra lines for cross combos (on that note, it's good you got chain lightning staggered, but you can also use spirit bolt against the disoriented). Id also add that I use the debilitating spells in multiple lines - like, underneath petrify boss, I have petrify elite or higher - if there's s boss present she'll aim it at them, but if not, the spell is still useful towards the next dangerous enemies.
Hm. I don't tend to have her aiming at the attackers of specific party members in tactics, though I do use stone's throw both for her protection and so that she can protect someone else (if her health is strong I'll have her pop over to someone surrounded if their health is low, etc).
Lastly, and these aren't bm specific, but I'd suggest setting walking bomb's target health a little lower, to 25 or even 10, to maximize your chances for the spell to still be active when they die. I'd also say, since your tactics seem pretty concerned with mages, that you give her the disable magic talent, even if anders has it (and if you use him as a healer, he should!), just as a back up for when he's low on mana or he's used it too recently.
I was a little confused as to what you're looking for, since you say you want an elemental blood Mage but you list primal, not elemental, in your list of primary spell trees? I'm going to assume you mean primal, since you don't have any fire or ice in your tactics.
Anyway! I typically run her as a primal blood Mage, actually, but I don't tend to respec her, I just build her as I go, so I probably have a more simplistic approach than you're looking for, but here's my two cents. I'm going to start from the beginning, because you said you were looking for comprehensive, even though you're pretty far along now.
To start with, i only use her attribute points on magic and constitution - I raise willpower marginally (to 15-ish, tops) in the early stages of the game and equip her with mana-equipment (until she starts using blood magic), but otherwise it's a fairly even match between magic and constitution. That's the other thing - I don't make them exactly even, but I'm much closer to it than you are. Her health is huge, so she's durable and she never runs out of spell fuel, and her magic points aren't any lower than my mage hawke's.
For talents, I start with protection (rock armor and/or arcane shield) and the brute force spells she'd be using - her primal tree. I also start slowly accumulating dalish pariah talents when they open up (every other level-up), but I don't tend to USE any of them but wrath of the elvhen until about level 14 or 15.
When I start on her dalish pariah tree, I also grab the things you can use to maximize her health. It sounds like you have the necessary wrath of the elvhen upgrade, so that's good. And because of that, I respectfully disagree with straykat about death syphon - you also need it's upgrade or it's no good to you, but its upgrade allows death syphon to help Merrill health-wise, and as you can't heal her normally when she's using blood magic, you need all the help you can get.
Make sure your equipment is good. My Merrill has a health palooza for a belt, and blood magic enhancements from both her rings (purchased), her amulet (the sarabaas one from the qunari mage), and from her staff, voracity. Voracity isn't ideal for your Merrill (or mine) because it's a fire staff, but I can't find the damn electricity one I want (channeled). Anyway, voracity's a unique staff from the "forbidden knowledge" quest in act 2 (the one where you find all the evil tomes) and it's pretty fancy.
So I bolster her health as much as I can, then lastly, I also tend to make sure I have stone's throw from her dalish pariah tree before I reset her tactics for BM, just so she can get out of trouble if she needs to. (I also don't tend to acquire or use Ensnare until I've got her constitution approaching 30.)
Tactically, I agree that you should start with deactivation, though I set it for health<10%, and then a health potion. Under that, though, I set her to activate blood magic (self:any). Most tactics guides I find say to do that last, but I've found that if I try and make her use her mana up first, reasonable as that sounds, she wont have enough left to cast her BM spell, and I give her so much constitution that it hasn't been an issue.
Then her sustainables (as self:any), then spells for if she's surrounded, then spells for large clusters of enemies, so it will get them before they scatter (chain lightning, tempest), interwoven with targeted spells to hopefully temporarily disable elite or higher enemies, then standard attack talents in decreasing order of mana consumption (stonefist, spirit bolt, etc), with extra lines for cross combos (on that note, it's good you got chain lightning staggered, but you can also use spirit bolt against the disoriented). Id also add that I use the debilitating spells in multiple lines - like, underneath petrify boss, I have petrify elite or higher - if there's s boss present she'll aim it at them, but if not, the spell is still useful towards the next dangerous enemies.
Hm. I don't tend to have her aiming at the attackers of specific party members in tactics, though I do use stone's throw both for her protection and so that she can protect someone else (if her health is strong I'll have her pop over to someone surrounded if their health is low, etc).
Lastly, and these aren't bm specific, but I'd suggest setting walking bomb's target health a little lower, to 25 or even 10, to maximize your chances for the spell to still be active when they die. I'd also say, since your tactics seem pretty concerned with mages, that you give her the disable magic talent, even if anders has it (and if you use him as a healer, he should!), just as a back up for when he's low on mana or he's used it too recently.
- iKomrad gefällt das
#4
Geschrieben 02 Mai 2016 - 04:53
iKomrad
-
- Members
- 35 Beiträge
These aren't bad answers. I'll take these plus my settings and compile a level by level build guide with tactics.
#5
Geschrieben 03 Mai 2016 - 03:23
alchemist42
-
- Members
- 46 Beiträge
On ‘hard’ there’s no friendly fire or enemy immunities, so most of the time you can fire bomb enemies out of existence. Couple that with Tempest and Wounds of the Past and its goodbye to most enemies.
A few points. Using tactics Merrill can cast Wounds of the Past without activating Blood of the First. This saves all this activating /deactivating hassle. Also allows you to build a standard mage, using the best rings and amulets, no worries about healing, far less micromanaging. I rarely see Merrill running out of mana.
Wrath of the Elvin + Ensnare a must
AOE spells – 3 enemies minimum to cast (wasted on just 2)
Always get the upgrade for most spells, you’ve cast the spell, spent the mana, so maximize the damage, right.
Complete the Elemental or Primal tree (7 points) for powerful bonus rather than selecting a few spells from each tree.
Always use most powerful staff to maximize damage from your spells. Your Magic attribute also does this of course.
Protect the other mages, stonefist or petrify are both good.
CCC – Chain lightning + staggered is the best in the game, save it for CCC only, don’t waste it on a few clustered enemies and then find its powered down for the big hit!
If interested here's my nightmare build for Merrill. Note: there's no fire or freeze spells on auto because of friendly fire. List is prioritised for max damage i.e. hit them hard & fast at the start of battle.
enemy staggered - chain lightning (CCC priority top of list)
clustered 3 enemies - wounds of the past
clustered 3 enemies - tempest
surrounded by 3 enemies - ensnare
target elite & higher - hex of torment
enemy any - spirit bolt (fast recharge, use often)
enemy any - winters grasp
enemy > 50% health - stonefist (don't waste on weak enemy)
enemy elite & higher - stonefist (except for elites)
enemy attacking Hawk - petrify (protect mage hawk)
enemy has buff spell - dispel magic
self any - wrath of the elvin
