18 réponses à ce sujet

[Alaistar]

Seen alot of posts and such bout how its a fun, overpowered specialization if coupled with Spirit Healer, capable of flinging spells, wear heavy armor and do high melee damage with little fatigue. 

I currently play a Warrior with Templar/Champion spec and is a Tank.  However I would like to try something more versatile.  Is the Arcane Warrior / Spirit Healer really worth to play?  Whats its pros and cons?  Would like the opinions of those whos played the combination or similar at least to 17+

[Zakumilos]

I used shapeshifter and arcane warrior, and the two don't even compare. AW is super practical and powerful, gives you spell boosts, attack boosts, defense boosts, lets you use weapons and armor, all while still slinging your spells. to add spirit healer on top of that would make one heck of an all purpose character.

[ziphnor]

I would also like to hear more about the Arcane Warrior from someone who played it.



As i see it, the Arcane Warrior can take advantage of the upkeep system of many protective spells and auras. What i mean by that is that he can use all his mana for upkeep of buffs and auras, and then focus on beating the crap out of enemies. If a normal mage did that, he could no longer fullfill his primary function (ie casting spells).



Auras like Miasma (which weakens nearby enemies), Death Syphon (gets mana from nearby dead enemies), Death Magic (gets health from nearby enemies) would seem to be useful. There are also caster only buffs such as Rock Armor and Arcane Shield which could help to provide a massive protective boost compared to a Warrior.



Of course this is all speculation on my part

[Samurai Pumpkin]

But you would only have about half of the hitpoints of a dedicated tank... possible ouch there.

[Zakumilos]

Samurai Pumpkin wrote...

But you would only have about half of the hitpoints of a dedicated tank... possible ouch there.

Yes, but after your spellpower gets so high you might as well put points into constitution, thats what i did after my magic hit fiftyish, and the last upgrade for Arcane Warrior gives you some considerable defense as well. Not to say you can main tank or anything but it adds a huge amount of survivability to an otherwise squishy class.

[Merkicus]

Yeah the AW is very overpowered. I guess it doesn't really matter because it's a single player game but there's a lot of balance issues to be honest - mages are insanely strong, rogues pretty much suck, and melee in general is meh.

Still a great game though.

edit:

Modifié par Merkicus, 07 novembre 2009 - 11:07 .

[StingingVelvet]

Merkicus wrote...

rogues pretty much suck

No... my first and only real character so far is a rogue and she kicks ass, much moreso than my tank does.  Once you can almost constantly stun and do back-stab damage all the time when the enemy is stunned you are a freaking killing machine.  Duelist with two blades kicks butt as well.

[dk3dknight]

Yeah with combat magic on and all enhancements of arcane warrior you get plus to mana regeneration + extra dodge as your character is now existing between the fade and the real world, translucent warrior of death. 2/4 of your skill tree is making combat magic better, by enhancing attack, defense, dodge, mana regeneration..



Of course im weary of the shimmering shield skill sounds kinda draining...

[Tyrax Lightning]

For good Arcane Warrior info, go here:

http://social.biowar...20/index/164126

[Athildur]

The Arcane Warrior, when played efficiently, is probably just a melee character that may, on occasion, cast a spell.



Auras and such make the arcane warrior highly durable and effective, and allow him to tank (I kid you not) pretty decently. (Seeing as my AW now has 57 armor, he takes 1-5 damage from most attacks)



The pros are you will beat down most enemies in melee if you get the right stat points and spells.

The cons are it's pretty easy to screw it up. If you make a spellcaster as normal, and then just add AW, it doesn't work half as well as your mage will be going down quickly as it has no defenses, and all the spells you could sling earlier will cost a lot more mana if you have combat magic on and have some armor.

Of course, blood mage pretty much cancels out that main concern of having no mana left when you go all massive on your spell upkeep.



Then again, my experience tells me that I don't really need a lot of spells. I may cast Sleep or Paralysis or something when the battle starts, but after that I rush in and beat the crap out of everyone. And since Shale pretty much gets all the aggro, I can just stand behind foes to get a better attack bonus, making sure I hit most of the time.



Mind you, this is level 14. I had a higher level AW, but he wasn't a blood mage and I didn't do much preparation for being an AW so he was less effective overall. So, make sure you check what spells you want beforehand, and plan it out. (PS: If you're going blood mage, I recommend taking blood mage at 7 and AW at 14, keeping enough spell points to get 2 or 3 AW spells at level 14. The main point of this is that you can start pumping Con instead of Will early on. Just make sure you have enough mana to pay for the upkeep of your sustain spells )

[apoc_reg]

So I'm a level 16 spirit healer and mainly use cleansing aura, cone of cold, death syphon and virulent walking bomb.



If i take the AW specialisation (which i just unlocked) will that screw with using those skills? If so what do you guys reckon my best 2nd spec would be?!

[dk3dknight]

Actually if you take it, and grab combat magic but don't turn on the buff, it gives you the passive ability to wear any armor you desire (strength wise) without having to dump points into strength. Your mana really only starts getting sacked if you turn combat magic on, which gives you a buff to deal spell power damage as melee damage.



Most of the other abilities in that arc make combat magic more affective including higher mana regeneration.

[Lord Dagon]

To the OP on my first play through the campaign I deliberately chose to play a Templar/Tank as my main because I was unsure of the exact benefits of different mage class combinations faced with different dungeons.

Never got into AW on my Elf mage because I didn't choose complementary talents. So I restarted and played a Rogue for a while.

Later on I discovered from the DA:O Strategy vids on Youtube how AW is complemented well with sustains. The trade off for for being able to use heavy armour and weapons is your fatigue % greatly increases and the mana cost is increased as a result. How can you also be an effective Sprit Healer if that is so?

ziphnor wrote...

I would also like to hear more about the Arcane Warrior from someone who played it.

As i see it, the Arcane Warrior can take advantage of the upkeep system of many protective spells and auras. What i mean by that is that he can use all his mana for upkeep of buffs and auras, and then focus on beating the crap out of enemies. If a normal mage did that, he could no longer fullfill his primary function (ie casting spells).

Auras like Miasma (which weakens nearby enemies), Death Syphon (gets mana from nearby dead enemies), Death Magic (gets health from nearby enemies) would seem to be useful. There are also caster only buffs such as Rock Armor and Arcane Shield which could help to provide a massive protective boost compared to a Warrior.

Of course this is all speculation on my part

With a bit more experience with the playing on Hard mode I understand better how to manage Death Siphon to fuel my direct damage spells while keeping up sustains like Rock Armour and Fire Weapons to buff my party. My game plan is to take Animate Dead as suggested in the strategy videos to raise enemy casters and cause havoc to the remaining enemies left. Running Death Magic at the same time as casting Virulent bomb on weaker targets seems like a smart tactic to me. The strategy for an AW here seems to be relying less on direct damage spells and focussing more on abilities that stun/freeze and do mana and life tap.

Modifié par Lord Dagon, 08 décembre 2009 - 11:38 .

[nuculerman]

 the best second specialization for spirit healer is probably blood mage.  Blood magic gives you twice the mana pool, blood control and blood wound are awesome CC/DPS spells and blood sacrifice gives you even more casting potential.

Spirit healer/AW isn't the broken combo.  It's Blood Mage/AW.  Blood Mage/AW is basically played like this:

Activate all sustained spells: Rock Armor, Arcane Shield, Shimmering Shield, Miasma, Blood Magic, Flaming/TK/Cold Weapons.

Run in and attack.

If you get swarmed activate blood magic.  Cast blood wound, and blood control and keep auto attacking.  When Blood Wound is up cast mass paralysis followed by blood sacrifice on one of your allies if you aren't soloing.  When that is over cast blood wound again and drop out of blood magic.  Down a healing pot.  Auto attack your way to victory.

Once you get good armor this tactic isn't even needed.  An AW with all his activated abilities, + something like Juggernaut or Wades Superior Dragonscale simply does not take damage ever.  A tank warrior simply cannot compete at all.  On nightmare, a fully loaded AW can easily survive a crushing prison followed by fireballs and chain lightnings, even if he doesn't have spellward.  A tank warrior can't.  A fully loaded AW can solo boss fights with like 5-6 healing pots total on nightmare.  A tank would need about 20.

All that said, an AW is incredibly boring.  You basically auto attack your way through the whole game once you hit 16 and get fade shroud.  Even before that you don't take a lot of damage.  

[Lord Dagon]

nuculerman that's very interesting what's your spell progression like for BM/AW?

[JHorwath]

I have a level 22 arcane warrior that is a spirit healer. I used the character as an off tank that could cast some spells once and a while. With heal and group heal the character was very versatile.

[nuculerman]

Lord Dagon wrote...

nuculerman that's very interesting what's your spell progression like for BM/AW?

If I could do it over it would be different.  I'd do blood magic first so the first 16-18 levels of the game would be more than "buff,buff,buff,buff, auto attack."

If I did it over I'd probably do:

1. Winter's grasp, Mind Blast
2. Frost weapons
3. Cone of Cold
4. Force field
5. Rock Armor
6. Stone Fist
7. Blood Magic
8. TK weapons
9. Crushing Prison
10. Weakness
11. Paralysis
12. Blood Wound
13. Miasma
14. Combat Magic
15. Glyph of paralysis
16. Improved Combat magic or whatever it is
17. Shimmering Shield
18. Fade Shroud.
19. Second Glyph
20. Glyph of repulsion

I'd use the books to make sure I had mass paralysis at level 13 with Miasma and Blood Control at level 16.  Also my first book would probably be used to get arcane shield.  stats would probably look like:

Str: 15 (no points added)
Dex: 20 (no points added)
Mag: 75 
Cun: 16 
Will: 22 (enough points added to keep up sustained)
Con: 50

At end game.  And I'd be wearing Wade's Superior Heavy armor for the high armor rating and -20% fatigue bonus.  And I'd be wielding spellweaver and redcliffe knight's shield.  I realize that shield isn't optimal but it looks really good with wade's and I'm not really worried about my armor rating at that point, it's already so high.

Modifié par nuculerman, 09 décembre 2009 - 01:09 .

[Zenocrate]

Question for anyone who has dled the latest patch, does the nerf to shimmering shield (deactivates when you are oom) affect AW much? It seemed like it was a pretty huge part of an AW's brokenness.

[DragoonKain3]

Note that people who are vying for AW's brokeness are people in PC.



Console in people in general only feels 'meh' about AW, because they already had their SS deactivating when OOM long before 1.02. Take that as you will, but considering that CON tanks still take a lot of damage, and AWs are just CON tanks with 12 more armor (via rock armor) but much less HP, they most probably ain't as durable as most PC people think they are with the new patch.