15 réponses à ce sujet

[dutch206]

I have given up trying to play a mage in this game.  Whenever I cast an AoE spell, my tank goes rushing into the damage zone.  I know fighters are dumb as bricks, but this is outrageous.  If I could make a suggestion, restrict friendly fire to hard and nightmare or make friendly fire a choice in the options menu.

The way it is now, friendly fire makes the DPS mage impossible to play.

[LordKyellan]

Actually, I'm having very little trouble playing a DPS mage. My main character is a damage-centric mage. For me, I'm focusing on tactical positioning before I fire off an AoE spell, or making sure that it goes off first before the others can get there. I've also found disabling tactics briefly on the melee fighters can really help (it makes them stand around like idiots for a minute) and then turning the tactics back on once the spell has gone off.

[dutch206]

LordKyellan wrote...

 I've also found disabling tactics briefly on the melee fighters can really help (it makes them stand around like idiots for a minute) and then turning the tactics back on once the spell has gone off.

As opposed to what fighters usually do?  LOL

[Taleroth]

I'm also having little trouble playing DPS. I only use AoE where I either know they won't rush or am not planning on letting them rush. It's very easy. Holding ground or otherwise holding your meleers back is pretty simple. And even without doing it, you can wait for them to settle in a location before deciding where to drop your attack.

[Serenity84]

Turn off the AI and tell that character to stay put

[krol146]

Its all about positioning. I have only hit my own guys 1 time, and that was on purpose.

[dutch206]

I have had a little success using earthquake at LONG distance. It seems to shut down the train long enough for you to deal with the first wave. I find a close-range mind blast to be much more satisfying. Well, that and Petrify+Stonefist.

[Razcalking1978]

Press H. The characters will stay put until you press it again.

[Grengrad]

I play a DPS mage... with Arcane Warrior Spec, so I can wear full plate and not take much damage, but I don't actually melee.
Here is an example of how I fight a battle against 20 (10 Melee and 10 Archers)
I walk into the room at a distance and throw up a blizzard over top a ranged position of 5 archers.
10 enemy melees charge towards me, and I blast them with a fireball.
My allies rush in to the room, and I retreat to a more tactical position.
I throw up a sleep and or waking nightmare over top my group, since they don't do friendly fire.
My fireball cooldown is up, and I fire a fireball the other group of 5 archers, knocking them down and temporarily taking their damage out of the game. Then, I throw up inferno over that group of arches.
Now, I move into the group dishing out mind blasts, and carefully marking my angles using cone of cold and flame burst to hit 2-3 enemies at a time and help finish them off. Whenever my fireball cooldown clears, I blast it at the archers finishing them off.
I completed the game doing 55% of my parties damage, at earlier stages in the game I was doing above 75%, before the ability to control how the other party members took their spells and skills let me up their damage.

Modifié par Grengrad, 06 novembre 2009 - 05:25 .

[Draghkar Noir]

EDIT: The two posts above me cover the sorts of things I was getting at.

Modifié par Draghkar Noir, 06 novembre 2009 - 05:24 .

[cooldevo]

A lot of this comes back to what Bioware stated pre-release. If you just let your party charge in headlong you will likely pay the price for it.



Smart planning/tactics, strategic AI settings, and holding ground will save a lot of headaches. Especially with the bosses and harder mobs where AoE damage is very helpful. That's also where the pause comes in so you can grab your meleer and pull him out if he gets too close.



Playing as a rogue I use him to pull mobs through a choke point (using cloak and backstab) and then have my party crush them as they come through. Most combat areas have some very nice choke points as part of the environment that setup some beautiful ambushes with minimal damage on my party.

[Grengrad]

2 more things.
I left out that I also dish out mind blasts in the middle of the group to help crowd control.
and
I always pause to AoE spells, to make sure they are properly targeted. Often times I can even cast a fireball near my melee group, but far enough away that the edge of the fireball only hits 3-4 enemies and no friendlies. I does not do as much damage that way, but the knockback on fireball in conjunction with cone of cold, and mind blast gives you a lot of crowd control to make your healers job easier.

Modifié par Grengrad, 06 novembre 2009 - 05:35 .

[Lucky_Rogue]

I have been doing fine with spells in the primal school. Those give a visual indicator of where the damage will occur and I can position my mage and aim the spell such that I avoid friendly fire pretty easily.



One spell that is giving me trouble though is walking bomb. This is an AOE spell that is centered around the enemy it is cast on and goes off when he dies. This makes it a little more difficult to control both the timing and the positioning. I like the idea of this spell so much but, it has been one of the trickiest for me to use so far.



I have been trying to watch the health of the bomb and when he is nearing death I try to use a stun or knockdown with my tank and then run. If timed right, this does help me avoid damge to my own melee guys but, at the same time it pulls the other enemies away from the bomb so that they aren't hit by the AOE, thus defeating its purpose.



One solution I have been using is to use my skeletal minion from animate dead as a sacrifice. I send him in, and since I see him as expendable i just don't worry about moving him. For this to work he needs to have aggro of all the mobs, though. This isn't easy to do either and it is pretty much impossible if you didn't raise a "tank" skeleton.



Anyway, I would love to hear some of you guy's strategies for using walking bomb effectively while avoiding it's friendly fire.

[hazelam]

isn't there an option to turn off friendly fire? pardon the pun.

[Talian Kross]

I haven't played (or even controlled) a mage yet, but from my experience so far, I have one question to all you "just hit H" mage masters: How do you get the enemies to cooperate? Do you, like, throw them a cookie so they stay a safe distance away and not swarm your party?

[Craptrain]

Talian Kross wrote...

I haven't played (or even controlled) a mage yet, but from my experience so far, I have one question to all you "just hit H" mage masters: How do you get the enemies to cooperate? Do you, like, throw them a cookie so they stay a safe distance away and not swarm your party?

There's a few spells that will force the enemies to cooperate.  Paralyze and Mass paralyze for example.  Sleep and Waking Nightmare will also keep enemies stationary until you hit them.  Horror works on single targets, but you better move afterwards.

Honestly, it's not hard to do well with AoE as long as you're smart with your targets and have decent micro over your allies.

Modifié par Craptrain, 06 novembre 2009 - 08:25 .