Full mage party: Valdis done
| Submitted by boromonokli on Sat, 2015-02-21 08:45 | ||
So, after three years of putting this off (actually, four years if we count that I started this playthrough to finally just get to Aman'lu), my mages (PC combat mage, Lothar combat mage, Deru and Taar nature mages) defeated the remaining bosses: Dark Wizard 1, Talon, Talon in the reliquary, the other dark wizards, the Archmage, and finally Valdis himself. Now that mercenary is mostly complete (I need to do the arena and some quests specific to characters I don't use), I think it's time to summarize the ups and downs of my approach. First, the good stuff: 4 summons: 2 combat 2 nature. These are an immense help, a rough equivalent of having a few fighters to soak up the problems that I meet. The combat mage summons are mostly there for damage, to synergize with the curses I use (e.g. thrusks for dehydrate) or be useful with resists against common damage types. Spirit Embrace, Wrath of Magic, Drown/Dehydrate. between buffs, curses and the summons, I can do a solid +20-50% damage (averaged for the party), or barely take any damage. Easy to control. With mirror mode on, and similar casting time spells (Frost Beam, Static bolt, Grave Beam, and Firespray), it becomes easier to avoid boss attacks and do solid DPS at the same time. Which leads to... Easy boss fights. Barely needed potions, barely took damage (One accidental wipe at the ice cave dark wizard, the rest were handled easily). If somebody fell, I kept resurrect in hand's reach, and heal/nurture popped everyone back to full health when needed. Multiple elements to handle resists: Fire, Lightning, Ice, Death and non-elemental. Chance to freeze (20% on 2 characters with fast striking/area attacks), coupled with a reliable root spell. Now looking back... why was I dodging those Ganths again? 2 copies of summon provoke. 2 strong, reliable healers. And for now, the negatives: I die from a stiff breeze. The plagued death mage miniboss wiped my party in windstone fortress once. I need mana steal or I'm chugging mana potions. around 8-10% is enough. Strangely, it's not the bosses, but the minibosses or particularly large groups that had me reach for my power hotkeys. Instant hits (Qatall runecasters, Vai'Kesh Seers, and Plagued Windstone Fortress mages) are my bane as they can't be dodged or soaked up by my minions. AoE attacks (Impale and friends), since I'm often working in mirror mode, AoE hits everyone. in the party. some summing up: I am currently level 43, some of my resists reach 70% (with spirit's embrace), my intelligence reahced close to 200, my single target damage (per character) is around 200-300 without curses (but with wrath of magic and enemy armor factored in). so, yay. blogs: |
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Comments
OK, so I only started on DS2 last summer, to join in the Legendary Pack beta testing, but I had played DS1 a few times before that, and am doing my best to learn the "tricks of the trade". (Only at mercenary level so far.) I like running a party with plenty of stand-off firepower (ranged and magic) and rounding out characters by having them learn secondary abilities.
My ideas for mages (some of them learnt the hard way): what do you reckon to them?
- make mages (one at a time, in easy encounters) learn bows up to ranged 5. Skill Points in Survival help elemental resists hit 80%.
- autocast buffs and heals (but the latter by two mages at most, or you could end up with everybody healing but nobody hitting back).
- do not autocast summons (because if summoned partner dies mid-battle, bang goes mana as mage stands still for several seconds auto-summoning a replacement)
- do not autocast curses: against groups of underlings that can waste a lot of time and mana, better to get straight into killing them
- for a staple spell, choose a medium-low tariff one with good damage-for-mana ratio (I like Static Bolt too, much prefer it to Lightning Blast for example)
- when running low on mana, wade in with staff to finish off the last of the opposition
At the valdis fight I set up heal instead of nourish, (I needed instant get-ups) and microed it, but I don't usually micro heals. I mostly set up two nourishes and let it fly.
I micro summons (not that much of a problem, especially if i use a widescreen resolution) and curses.
I generally set up attack spells to have the same casting time (exception is cold snap).
Favorites are fast cast spells. They let me do a precise strike and move out of the retaliation, and generally have higher DPS than icebolt/firebolt as I casf more of them. They are cold snap, frost beam, ripple (meh), firespray, embers (costly), static bolt/jolt, grave beam, leech life)
Mana isn't a problem once I have high enough damage, as mana steal lets me get back the costs. If I need something, it's NEVER to wade in with staves (unless I'm playing a crazy druid fist of stone party). I generally drink a potion (though I rarely needed them) or pop a power.
As for multiclassing for survival skill, meh, I can do it later. I can also likely multiclass (at some point) for War Cry and Rune of Sacrifice (thanks to the person here (czovak(sic)?) who pointed it out) as (I think) war cry should work with magic (need to test it though).
I cycle my powers (use energy orb and gravity stone to charge up my power orbs)
One note: my mages are "pure" mages (pur nature xor pure combat)