27 réponses à ce sujet

[Oak Tree Leaf]

I figured I'd get a mage character started and making it a male and such to romance morrigan (plan on using her in my group as well, 2 mages woo!).

My only question is, what build have you guys used on your mages ( perferably no arcane warriors!)?

I've never really tried one my self unless you want to count morrigan and wynne, I imagine It might be better to get one offensive tree, like fire damage spells with gear that increases fire damage? Or maybe it would be better to hop around?

On morrigan and wynne on my play throughs I've never really did much for planning their abilities, just heals and buffs and such.

and no Idea how to manage a blood mage without killing myself, I imagine this one of the good specs for an offensive mage (have night mares trying to use that with jowan in the fade!)?

It just seems like you can go a great many ways with a mage, and I was hoping to simplify it a bit, and since I wanted to use morrigan I figured I could have split the burden and share different jobs (cc/damage/buffs etc.).

Er, and I was wondering if there was a way to look at other peoples completed characters on this site, I notice I have a profile that shoes my characters and there skill trees, is there a way I Can see yours?

Seems I'm rambling in my post! Sorries!

[DWSmiley]

Vulnerability hex and drain life are a great starting combo - damage and self-healing. Then Winter's Grasp for damage and a bit of crowd control. After that, you can go a lot of ways. The glyphs have the most utiliity, imo - defense, crowd control, handy against bosses. Fire spells for pure damage. Cold for damage and crowd control. Forcefield is great against an elite or boss with a mob (neutralize the big bad while dealing with the mob) and can be a life-saver defensively. Hexes are very good vs. elites and bosses, particularly if you have another mage in your group.



Morrigan starts only one away from cone of cold, sleep and forcefield - my first 3 choices for her - while I tend to take Wynne straight to mana clash. Keep in mind that Wynne gets more spellpower than any pc mage if you complete her personal quest.

[x-president]

Imo early game it's more important to get CC spells with a few tier 1 offensive spells.

Winter's Grasp and Arcane Bolt is good enough alone to last the first 7 to 10 levels if you go for some CC spells.  I'd go for glyph line or telekinesis line.  Morrigan can get the sleep line for you.


Who do you plan on using as a healer?  If you plan to be the healer I'd get 1 good cc spell like glyph of paralysis then go for the healing spells right away.  If you plan on using Morrigan as a healer, then I'd go for the sleep line for your character.

I'm not sure what difficulty you are playing at, but FF is a major concern for me.  That's why I prefer CC over AoE spells. 

Modifié par x-president, 23 février 2010 - 06:59 .

[hexaligned]

I agree with the CC spells, the Glyph line is a lot of fun, and not overly uber powerful as some of the others.

[Lantern]

x-president wrote...

Imo early game it's more important to get CC spells with a few tier 1 offensive spells.

Winter's Breath and Arcane Bolt is good enough alone to last the first 7 to 10 levels if you go for some CC spells.  I'd go for glyph line or telekinesis line.  Morrigan can get the sleep line for you.


Who do you plan on using as a healer?  If you plan to be the healer I'd get 1 good cc spell like glyph of paralysis then go for the healing spells right away.  If you plan on using Morrigan as a healer, then I'd go for the sleep line for your character.

I'm not sure what difficulty you are playing at, but FF is a major concern for me.  That's why I prefer CC over AoE spells. 

This.

Then when you have rounded out your CC and heals, spec 4/4 fire for area damage. Fireball + Inferno are awesome against hordes of whites commanded by the odd yellow. Fireball has the added bonus of knockdown. Cold is only worth going 3/4 in my opinion for cone of cold. I was wholly unimpressed with blizzard - very low damage and it doesn't slow them long enough to make up for this. 

EDIT: I'll add that the cold 1st spell is the best single target DD in the game. "Winter's Grasp". High damage with chance to freeze.

Modifié par Lantern, 23 février 2010 - 05:56 .

[krsboss]

Some people like playing with Blood Mage for some of the higher tiered specialization abilities, however personally I don't! However shapeshifter specialization is pretty bad, and you (OP) doesn't want Arcane Warrior, so you will probably have to go with Spirit Healer / Bloodmage anyway...not that it means you have to take any talents in them anyway!



Statistics wise, depending on what you are going to be doing, you want to either increase only your Magic, or Magic & Willpower at a 2:1 ratio respectively. If you are going to be doing a lot of healing / using lots of sustainables, a 2:1 ratio is probably better as you will chew up mana, however with a more damage focussed talent selection, you can rely more on Lyrium potions.



The most essential spells to get IMO are:



heal, winter's grasp, vunerability hex, drain life, haste*, glyph of repulsion & force field



allowing for the spells that lead up to the higher tiered spells above, this is a total of 13 spells that I consider 'must haves'. This leaves a lot of freedom with your remaining choices!

*I consider Haste a must have in the party at least, I can't stand running around slowly...if you have Morrigan you could get haste on her, but it's much of a muchness!



For other spells, Cone of Cold is excellent as firstly you already have Winter's Grasp, but secondly it can produce Shattering from critical hits with your melee warriors...also with some good targeting (whilst paused) you can avoid party damage!



Fireball is a great spell to use from range as it has a knockback effect and continues to burn, however IMO the previous 2 spells are not really worth it.



You will also need to consider something to use against enemy Mages. Many people would scream Mana Clash, however taking 3 additional spells to get it may not be perfect. Drain mana can be a useful spell however, but Glyph of Neutralization also does a good job vs. enemy mages and you HAVE to take Glyph of Repulsion for the Paralysis explosion combo!



Small spells like spell-wisp can be good to boost up your spellpower. All numerical values on your spells are derived from your spellpower, so any boost to spellpower is good! ...also Paralyze is a pretty useful spell. If it was possible to make a PvP oriented mage I would certainly take stonefist but...



...anyways some food for thought!

[nuculerman]

DSerpa wrote...

Lantern wrote...

This.

Then when you have rounded out your CC and heals, spec 4/4 fire for area damage. Fireball + Inferno are awesome against hordes of whites commanded by the odd yellow. Fireball has the added bonus of knockdown. Cold is only worth going 3/4 in my opinion for cone of cold. I was wholly unimpressed with blizzard - very low damage and it doesn't slow them long enough to make up for this. 

EDIT: I'll add that the cold 1st spell is the best single target DD in the game. "Winter's Grasp". High damage with chance to freeze.

You're forgetting about Storm of the Century. If you use Glyph of Repulsion at a choke point, or Mass Paralysis/Paralysis Explosion in an open area and combine it with Storm of the Century it's a hell of a lot more powerful than Inferno.

It's not really that much more powerful than inferno and it's the definition of complete overkill.  If you use paralysis explosion followed by Inferno followed by fireball (which you need to have to get inferno anyway) everything dies on nightmare.  If you want to be a DPS/CC mage who can solo nightmare at high levels, getting all the spells to unlock storm of the century is just a complete waste.  You'd be much better off getting the Hex Line (death and misdirection hex are the ****) and Mana Clash (one shot kill for like 30% of the baddies in the game).

IMO the lightning line is a waste in general.  There are a bunch of other spells that do similar DPS AND CC at the same time.

[krsboss]

DSerpa wrote...

1 tome from Bodahn (right after Lothering)

...how on earth do you have 22 soveriegns by leaving Lothering the first time....I am very gold savvy and the closest you can reasonably achieve is 17 or so and that's including 7 from selling the Blood Dragon armor!

[beancounter501]

krsboss wrote...

Fireball is a great spell to use from range as it has a knockback effect and continues to burn, however IMO the previous 2 spells are not really worth it.

I really like flame blast.  It is supercheap with a fast cooldown.  I just love hitting 3 or 4 targets with a Cone of Cold for the freeze.  Then immedately follow up with a flame blast to the frozen targets.  Flame blast actually does more damage then CoC.
 

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

krsboss wrote...

DSerpa wrote...

1 tome from Bodahn (right after Lothering)

...how on earth do you have 22 soveriegns by leaving Lothering the first time....I am very gold savvy and the closest you can reasonably achieve is 17 or so and that's including 7 from selling the Blood Dragon armor!

Dwarf Noble can easily have 25+ before Ostigar.

Others would have to do something like abuse the Trap build quest I assume.

[x-president]

krsboss wrote...

DSerpa wrote...

1 tome from Bodahn (right after Lothering)

...how on earth do you have 22 soveriegns by leaving Lothering the first time....I am very gold savvy and the closest you can reasonably achieve is 17 or so and that's including 7 from selling the Blood Dragon armor!

Actually it's easy to do.  I've did it twice now without having to sell the blood dragon armor and wihtout using cheats or mods.

I also get the 2 backpacks at Ostagar.

Modifié par x-president, 24 février 2010 - 05:16 .

[krsboss]

DSerpa wrote...

It's not hard. Do all of the sidequests, be thorough in your Origins, don't buy anything and sell the vendortrash. I've taken a City Elf, Human Noble, and Mage past Lothering and I've never had to sell Blood Dragon plate to pay for the tome. Don't forget to get the two backpacks in Ostagar as well, I think those are missable.

...well in your original post you said that you bought the Tome of Arcane Technique with your mage...so I don't see how doing it with city elf & human noble (both of which could be Rogues able to pick all the chests up to Ostagar)...but that's besides the point  

...I usually have 10 or so Sovereigns when I leave Lothering the first time...and that's with picking as many pockets as possible, selling everything that isn't of any future use, sidequests etc...maybe rate of gold drop is different for playing on nightmare!

...as for Dwarf Noble..I only played this origin once, but I was stripped of all my gear at the end....same as losing the 40 sovereigns in City Elf origin....

[Mr_Raider]

I really like eathquake + inferno combo, or walking nightmare +inferno combo. I agree storm of century is more of party trick than anything else. I've gotten better results with Vwb and well placed glyphs.



That being said, blizzard isn't half bad. It will wreak havoc on mages and archers, and give you the time to avoid scattershots while you lay down more damage on them. By end game, archers area HUGE pain. I kill them ASAPm since bosses can barely faze my Aw.

[mousestalker]

krsboss wrote...

DSerpa wrote...

It's not hard. Do all of the sidequests, be thorough in your Origins, don't buy anything and sell the vendortrash. I've taken a City Elf, Human Noble, and Mage past Lothering and I've never had to sell Blood Dragon plate to pay for the tome. Don't forget to get the two backpacks in Ostagar as well, I think those are missable.

...well in your original post you said that you bought the Tome of Arcane Technique with your mage...so I don't see how doing it with city elf & human noble (both of which could be Rogues able to pick all the chests up to Ostagar)...but that's besides the point  

...I usually have 10 or so Sovereigns when I leave Lothering the first time...and that's with picking as many pockets as possible, selling everything that isn't of any future use, sidequests etc...maybe rate of gold drop is different for playing on nightmare!

...as for Dwarf Noble..I only played this origin once, but I was stripped of all my gear at the end....same as losing the 40 sovereigns in City Elf origin....

With Dwarf Noble, you lose your gear, but not your cash. So the trick to it is to sell anything you have that you really will not need in your first mission. That includes Lord Dace's promissory note. If you're really greedy you could do the whole thaig crawl in your undies.

[mosspit]

@OP: There are many spells but if you compare DAO mage spells with BG sorceror and wizard spells, you will be underwhelmed by DAO's spell selection.

Modifié par mosspit, 24 février 2010 - 03:09 .

[Oak Tree Leaf]

mosspit wrote...

@OP: There are many spells but if you compare DAO mage spells with BG sorceror and wizard spells, you will be underwhelmed by DAO's spell selection.

I've never even heard of BG (baldur's gate i imagine?) till I got ot these forums, How old is that game now? I've never looked it up!



*edit* oh and also, I was planning on making my character more of a healing one/utility and such(so the posts helped a bunch, as well as how to start morrigan out!), Thanks for the adivce in this thread.


I've also been wondering if I should just do pure magic stats(oops never mind saw the first post mention this! xD)?  I've always felt a bit more comfortible with my warriors having extra fatigue and such, so would a few points in willpower help at all, or can I just get that through gear(I've never really tried mages all that much, and have completed play throughs without doing much work for wynn and morrigan since they already are kind of power houses)?


*double edit*

Also, besides the mass paralyze and improved drain(which I discovered by accident, lol) I've never really tried spell combos! Guess I should get to experimenting!

Modifié par Oak Tree Leaf, 24 février 2010 - 04:06 .

[mosspit]

Lol I have no idea. I cant even recall the circumstance of playing BG1 other than the fact I have played it >.< But truly, my wizard in Icewind Dale 2 needed to scroll thru 4 pages of spells before getting to highest tier spells.

[mosspit]

@OP: Well both pure mag and 2mag 1will is fine. 2mag 1will gives a easier early game by providing more juice. But will scales very poorly with game progress.Pure mag can make up the difference by lyrium pots and enjoy better lategame spell effectiveness. If you plan to be BM, con might be more useful than will.

Modifié par mosspit, 24 février 2010 - 06:50 .

[Atranes]

If you want to avoid arcane warrior, go with spirit healer/blood mage. Shapeshifter is just that bad (there are some posts on the forums trying to redeem it, but don't try unless you're already good at the game and looking for a challenge).



Cone of Cold is one of the most important spells for any mage build because it freezes people in place.



I would actually recommend referring to Valamir's Guide to Spells and Magic Tricks thread. It hasn't been updated to patch 1.02, but the analysis is pretty good. http://social.biowar...66/index/234008

[DrekorSilverfang]

Paralyze, mindblast and winter's grasp are great to begin with. You want to get blood wound ASAP as it wins. It alone will nearly kill every white monster in a huge area and has no friendly fire. Follow with a fireball and they're all dead. and your group can move in and mop up... use death hex on elites/bosses along with 3x DW'ers for your party to nearly insta kill them too!

[DKJaigen]

mosspit wrote...

Lol I have no idea. I cant even recall the circumstance of playing BG1 other than the fact I have played it >.< But truly, my wizard in Icewind Dale 2 needed to scroll thru 4 pages of spells before getting to highest tier spells.

if memory serves you need to scroll through nine pages (did use 2.0 or 3.5 edition btw?) but spells in d&d is a bit copy paste from previous spells. if you have fireball at tier 3 you get the more powerful horid wilting at tier 8 which was similiar to firebal only bigger and better and  damage differance . furthermore mages in d&d are rediculously op especially with eldritch knight and dragon desciple subclasses