I played a ranger and enjoyed it till the last patch. Then I deleted the ranger and made a fighter since rangers seemed to have been nerfed beyond use. So, I'm thinking about starting a mage on a second account but is it going to be worth it? From what I've read, only fighters have any chance of survival and/or killing at higher levels now.

You can't kill bosses, but if you split end and int 50/50 and use aoe spells then yea mages are worht it. They kill normal mobs much faster than a warrior would.

Just don't bother with the bolt spells, those have about ranger DPS now..

I've toyed with the idea of a "battlemage". In theory it sounds pretty nice. Every lvl put 1 STR, 2 END, 2 INT and get some fast weapons for dual wielding. Use AOE like made, and swap to melee when mana runs low. Anyone tried something like this?

Personally, I would avoid Str and just go Int/End with a good mix of Int/End gear. At level 17 I have over 1900 HP and do just fine.

1) Pull with fireball
2) Gaseous Blast
3) Ring of Fire
4) Shadow Lightning
5) Finish with fireball

I only die if I don't pay attention. Most of the time, I never go below 2/3 health.

Last night, there was a mage (Echolocation) who was used to kiting before the patch. She experimented with a variety of skills and decided that she could still kite (even better th an before) using a combo of Shadow Lightning and Fear of Gosh.

At lvl 33 I have about 100 hp and 400 int and pre-patch my strategy was always to flood a pack of mobs with fireballs. That would mow down lesser mobs and for bosses I would stomp them back and kite them with fireballs and ring of fire.

Needless to say, this strategy is hopeless now. After patch I've tried using over +100 of ice damage gear and using ice bolt in the same way, but it's not effective at all with the 50% damage nerf.

I'm sure there are some tricks I could pull, start pumping end up, start wearing gear with more end instead of spell damage, but the thing is that's not fun for me. In every game I've ever played a mage obliterates mobs at range and when in danger runs away, and that's how it was pre-patch.

I started playing my fighter just to see if that would be more fun for me, but I just realized they nerfed the warrior attacks to all hell. Dude, what on earth happened to Cleave... 30% weapon dmg to enemies now, when it was weapon damage PLUS 35% before? People love to see big numbers and feel strong, and the devs have now made every class feel completely impotent.

I laugh when I think about how badly they have ruined this game. Especially with a game like Silverfall launching this week. Bad move.

As a Mage I can still solo the Game (even HDOl Cindercore or Queen of Shadow) We do less damage but resist and block rate are better. Now you can flood potions so I die a lot less (never?)

Im debating wether its worth playing a mage or not too. My friend is a lower level, and he tanks better than me and dps better than me as well. Warrior items are better and have crazier attributes while Mage items are just mediocre.

I have a mage and it's been a great char. I just started the other day so I don't know how it was before the patch, but so far it seems fine. I'm only like level 14 so I havn't gotten too far. I did go through all 7 levels of Algernon by myself and I finished off Sissirat solo also. It took me a CRAP load of major healing pots but I did it. I think they still have quite a few kinks to work out..but all in all I think this game is awsome so far..and i've enjoyed my mage immensly. I do hear that compaired to the warrior they arn't so hot...but what do you expect they arn't tanks.

Mages do more DPS than other class you just need the good skills and grouped monster.

well like I said in the topic Mage Love. Mages arn't meant to stand toe to toe with a mob. Yet the mages major dealing spells like gaseous blast (which ISN'T even a mage spell) and ring of fire...and even lightning..have to have the mobs right on your butt. You need all your mana so you can keep throwing out these spells. If you notice all the combos people say to use to do well with a mage...Never have just mage skills. In order to do well with a mage you basically HAVE to get either fighter skills, like stomp I think it is?..and fear of Gosh which I havn't tried..or Ranger skills..like gaseous blast. I have no problem using skills from other classes...but just kinda sucks that you pretty much HAVE to get them to survive. I doubt you could make it as straight mage that easily..idk. Is it totally necessary to be a fighter and get ranger and mage skills to survive and do well?

Edited by Sinister (03/26/07 01:51 AM)

Fear of gosh doesn't always work so great because of that sticky molasses thing especially with swarms of mobs. Stuns and knockdowns wasting your cool downs on things like gas/stomp/ring of fire is really annoying too. Also the amount of hit points you gain per level really needs to be addressed it was somewhat of a issue even before the patch nerfing fire bolt, but stressed much much more afterwards it's very apparent they didn't do much testing with pure int builds.

Ive been pumping Endurance and Int as a mage and its working pretty well - yes I am having to stand toe to toe and AOE which seems totally alien to me as Im used to damage dealing at a distance as a mage, but it seems to work.

Ive been farming sisserat since lvl15 and upgrading my kit. When I hit 18 I will move on hopefully with all good purple items and find the progression still works.

If it turns out that by neglecting Int I have gimped my character I will re-roll I guess

Just thought I'd throw in my own experience since I started this thread. I'm now at lvl 19 on my mage. I've put the majority of my points into INT but I've also spread some into the others as well. Probably and average of .5 STR, .5 AGI, 1.5 END, 2.5 INT per level. I'm currently dual-wielding ludicrous speed picks.

At lvl 19 I'm not sure where I'm supposed to be adventuring, but I've been spending a lot of time in Vergrim's Vexation. I feel I'm doing quite well. The AOE spells take out the little guys, then I use Ice Shards and melee to handle the bigger ones. I die when I get careless, but I've been able to solo every boss I've come across so far. (although I haven't tried Vergrim yet) The only beef I have with mages in this game is the lack of good ranged spells. In order to be truly effective, you need to be in melee range, and yes, it seems we're pretty much required to take skills from the other classes. I have Gaseous Blast and Cleave that I use every battle.

I was going for a kind of "battlemage" and I think I've succeeded. I think I need to work on STR and AGI just a little more to get my melee up to where I want it. Anyway, so far I'm very happy with my mage.

I switched out of my INT gear and into my END gear last night for the first time since the patch. Leveling up, I put all my points into INT because I was never hampered by my lack of HP. Now, my damage is pitiful compared to pre-patch, so more HP is needed to keep from dying while my AoE spells are killing the mobs. My strategy amounts to running into a cloud of enemies, releasing a shadow lightning, waiting for any stun attacks to be completed, and then using gaseous blast and ring of fire. I then alternate between shadow lightning and bolt.

Performance wise, I'm having NO difficulty staying alive, but killing bosses is noticeably more difficult. My AoE spells continue to mow down weak mobs, but the greater versions with regen take a while to finish off. For anyone considering mage, here are my stats/dmg at lvl 37. Damage numbers are aggregate for gaseouse blast and ring of fire.

Str: 10 Agi: 5 End: 200 Int: 357 Health: 4342 Mana: 8753 Def: 574 Resists - Fire: 256 Ice: 143 Poison: 92 Shadow: 78 Divine: 165
Damage: Shadow Lightning: 214-1500(5 enemies max) Gaseous Blast: 1215-2255 Ring of Fire: 425-2618 Ice Bolt: 443-1030 Shadow Bolt: 232-312(per bolt, 3 bolts per cast,696-936 total)

I opted for shadow bolt because I don't like the "feel" of ice bolt, and the tracking is kind of nice, if a little quirky.

EDIT: The other big thing I've noticed post-patch is that I drain my mana pool pretty quickly on bosses. Whereas before my mana potions were used very infrequently, I now use them a little more often than health pots (at least while running HDoL).

Edited by Zhalifrin (03/26/07 11:26 AM)

I consider my char a battle mage. Atm, she has 300 int and 90+ str.

Ok, so I'm NOT a purist. Sue me!

I've been likeing my mage, I'm lvl 15 now and I'm going good end armor and an all int build, I feel like a tank, literally. I just run in and unload all my AoE spells and I havn't died yet ever sense the end armor transition.

Feedback from a lvl 22 mage.

Mages do fine against non-bosses. Chain lightning, ring of fire, gaseous cloud will mow through low level mobs very quickly.

Pre-patch we could out DPS a fighter against a single mob.

Post patch our per target DPS is lower than a fighter (if for no other reason than the fact we need to run), but we can still out DPS them against swarms.

There are a few catches however.

We will HAVE TO stand in the midst of battle to be effective (if no one's there to tank). Both ring of fire and gaseous cloud have almost no range. Shadow lightning is also more effective when there are enough enemies around you.

So you'll have to go heavy on end and armor. At 50/50 INT/END I rarely need to drink either potions unless it's against bosses.

However, we suck against bosses. With the range reduction it is very difficult to kill bosses and bodyguards before they respawn/regen. If we were able to keep INT/END closer to 75/25, it wouldnt' be so bad. But since we NEED the end, our damage has dropped quite a bit.

So if you want to solo bosses, don't go with a mage. If you want to mow down the rest of the mobs, mages are still quite fun.

That's a good synopsis, but I actually haven't found bosses to be that bad. I use the same strategy with them as with the hordes of low level mobs, with health pots added. I've switched to mostly fighter armor for the added defense, still using mage amulet/ring and wand, but rest has been swapped for yellow or purple fighter gear. My resists are a little bit lower than in mage gear, but they're all still 100-200.

It's occurred to me that I could switch over to fighter gear. But it's a bit silly for force mages to play as battlemages to beat bosses. That shouldn't be the only way to beat them.

And my boss portion was heavily influenced by how vergrim is currently guarded. His two bodyguards chain knockdowns making it pretty much impossible to fight him.

It's possible the other bosses aren't nearly as bad.

When you get over 30 let me know how you do against Rotgut.

the other bosses aren't any easier just wait till you fight the ember core boss

Im only a lvl 18 mage currently, but I've used Gaseous Cloud, Ring of Fire, Fire Bolt, Ice Ball dealy, and Lighting very effectively. Granted, it takes a healthy amount of health pots at times, but what can you expect..

I deleted my warrior becuz i was sick of all the hack and slashing and i got bored of it so when someone said they were having fun with a mage i decided to try it out and ive got to say im impressed i mean im a shadow/ice mage so wut i do is pull with Ice bolt a few times lightning run back lighning again and if they are still alive ill use circle of fire...but i mean im only like lvl 15 so i havent really gotten to all the good things

the only thing im dissapointed is that i have all purples and some gold and they all look so lame i mean my warrior had some awesome armor and the mage armor looks like he just stitched it up in like 5 minutes so im just kinda hoping that ill find some awesome mage armor late game....but ya im kindaing reading all this and u guys are hating it but u know u always say things are nerfed i mean in WOW everything was nerfed but ya w/e

For highest single DPS you'd want a ranger because AGI increases both accuracy and damage.

I dunno, just started playing the game myself, only lvl 5 so woot hard core up there hehe, but between fire bolt and lighting everything dies before I take 1/4 dmg. I can see mages being very very good to farm an instance, tho im not sure if padding for more mobs works in this game. Going to explore with that option later tongiht maybe

To level: mage
To kill boss: fighter/ranger
re-spec accordingly

To have fun: hybrid or whatever suits your style

i just keep a high end fighter armor for bosses only in my bank whe i am soloing bosses and i have a lv 58 shadow mages.
for me its doing the job

ive been soloing all the bosses thus far no problem, it maybe take 5 or so health pots but u make plenty of gold to make up for it. It seemed much easier to kill stuff with mage than when i re speced to a warrior cuz magic never misses and hits more guys. plus u only need to pump 2 stats ands its easy to find big int or end items.

If you can find stuff with good endurance boosts.

I never could, and thus my mage could destroy all the fodder just in time to get his skull shattered by the boss swinging it over his head.

Respecced... Ranger... don't get killed as much - takes alot longer to get rid of all the little guys.

I miss my mage.

I play as a level 53 INT/END build shadow mage.. Use the same popular Gas/ringoffire/shadow combo and I also found Embercore boss to be pretty difficult. I didn't find Shadow queen that difficult, she just took a lot of pots. Played fighter all the way to level 40, so I don't know how hard Rotgut is now.

I pretty much run endurance and int. It seems to work. I have been able to solo sissirat (at lvl 15) and Algor (at lvl 23) both in normal mode.

Currently 23 shadow mage