Mage question

[Vaelan]

Hello,

I decided to give a mage a try. I did the origin yesterday and now that I'm at least a little more familiar with the class, will be starting a new one tonight.

I plan on running a party of:
Alastair - Tank
Leliana - Melee DPS (rebuilt from scratch)
Wynne - Healer/Buffer

Thing is, I'd like to specialize in ONE school of magic. Primal would probably be best, but seems a bit boring to me, and those pesky immunities! (plus I'd like to try and get the achievement). I was looking at Spirit & Entropy but I'm not sure which would be better for damage and/or crowd control.

[fable]

Those ice and earth spells work really well individually, and together. Of course, I prefer someone with a lot more direct power than Leliana in my front lines, who can really make a lot of damage count quickly after an enemy's been frozen, too. So it's a matter of taste in your selected flavor of strategic management.

Oh, and the Shapeshifter? Distinctly unimpressed with the first two levels, at least. Can only administer reasonable damage with the bear if Rage is in effect, while the spider just pecks away at even a webbed opponent. Any reasonable bear or spider would be embarassed.

[Scottg]

Hello,

Thing is, I'd like to specialize in ONE school of magic.

Primal would probably be best, but seems a bit boring to me, and those pesky immunities! (plus I'd like to try and get the achievement). I was looking at Spirit & Entropy but I'm not sure which would be better for damage and/or crowd control.

As far as I know, there is no benefit to doing so.

You could also focus on one type of resistance spells, like say spirit (..which isn't simply a school) - then at least you could focus on collecting just that one type of damage modification equipment.

[mr_sir]

One of the several characters I have on the go at the moment is a mage who specialises in the more necromantic spells - some of the entropy spells combined with a couple of the the spirit spells are very effective - drain life etc. combined with walking bomb make you are force to be reckoned with (especially with the ability that replenishes health from corpses around you) - just hit a cluster of enemies with walking bomb, fire away with drain life etc. and when they explode, they kill or severely injure everything around them, and then their corpses heal you back to full health in no time.

[Crenshinibon]

mr_sir, have you at all invested in the Animate Dead talent? I
I'm curious as to whether or not it's worth it.

How exactly does the Virulent Walking Bomb spell work? Is the target just infected, keep his/her previous AI and attacking you, or does it try to seek out a cluster to explode in?

[nocturn]

As far as my experiece as a mage goes, there is no point in specializing in a single "school" of magic (again, remember that this is not D&D so you get no bonus on DC ).
The best way to build a mage (not a lousy healer, but an actual behind-kicking spellcaster) is to get a bit of everything. That way you will have a solution for every situation: damage-dealing, control, and buff/debuff. You will have a few strong points of course, but try to make your repertoire as diverse as possible, because your mage is the class that controls the battlefield. Try to go for combos if you can too.

About shapeshifters now, I am not impressed. Morrigan's spider-form was good at first but it was soon ineffective. I haven't really tried the other forms, though.
Walking bomb is a good spell for Damage Over Time, so it's useful against bosses too. Unfortunately, I have seen archers fleeing their position to avoid blasting their comrades when they die from it. So use it on sleeping enemies or such.

A small piece of advice. Get the Cone of Cold spell. It is simply invaluable. Cheap, quickly rechargable, and freezes enemies solid (which you can then shatter with a critical hit). Deals little damage, but can save you if you position your fighters right.

[Nightmare]

A small piece of advice. Get the Cone of Cold spell. It is simply invaluable. Cheap, quickly rechargable, and freezes enemies solid (which you can then shatter with a critical hit). Deals little damage, but can save you if you position your fighters right.

Cone of Cold is so overpowered, its one of the best spells in the game. And if combined with Affliction Hex, it deals pretty decent damage.

I personally like CoC and the Horror/Sleep/Walking Nightmare for crowd control. Also, Sleep + Horror deals massive spirit damage to a target, usually almost killing a "white" enemy.

Force Field and Crushing Prison can also make battles quite a bit easier by essentially removing an elite or a boss from the battle for a while. You can also use an AI exploit with FF by using it on one of your own tanks (that is drawing threat from all the baddies) and they don't stop attacking, even though they can't deal damage.

[mr_sir]

mr_sir, have you at all invested in the Animate Dead talent? I
I'm curious as to whether or not it's worth it.

How exactly does the Virulent Walking Bomb spell work? Is the target just infected, keep his/her previous AI and attacking you, or does it try to seek out a cluster to explode in?

Virulent Walking Bomb just does damage over time then infects any enemy that doesn't die when it explodes. From my experience, the target keeps its original AI. Archers flee when you get too close to them in melee, but I've not noticed them actually fleeing due to being about to explode.

My mage is only just up to the battle at Ostagar, so I've not managed to get Animate Dead yet. (I'm concentrating on my level 15 rogue at the moment as I want to finish the game before I continue with my mage and warrior )

[fable]

Cone of Cold is so overpowered, its one of the best spells in the game. And if combined with Affliction Hex, it deals pretty decent damage.

Note that, contrary to the manual, CoC does affect team members even if you're playing on the lowest level of difficulty. Best to keep them out of range regardless. On medium or higher levels, a good dose of fire will really do the trick. Get one party mage (presumably with the one with CoC) who can toss rocks, and another who has a fireball and affliction, and you can really whittle down an enemy group.

[nocturn]

Note that, contrary to the manual, CoC does affect team members even if you're playing on the lowest level of difficulty. Best to keep them out of range regardless. On medium or higher levels, a good dose of fire will really do the trick. Get one party mage (presumably with the one with CoC) who can toss rocks, and another who has a fireball and affliction, and you can really whittle down an enemy group.

I play with two warriors, a rogue and a mage.
My initial manuevers in most battles are the following:
Head-on attack with both fighters helps create a front of melee opponents - at the same time side (left or right) flank with the mage. Once the enemies have gathered around the warriors, they retreat a couple of steps so the mage has a clear line to cast Cone of Cold. She casts the spell and most enemies are frozen solid. Then it's shattering time: Critical Strike, Mighty Blow, Earthquake, Critical Shot, backstab and so on. Even if shattering doesn't work, at least you avoid taking damage for a few rounds.
Repeat untill no melee enemies are left.
Serve cold.

[Nightmare]

If you have two mages with Cone of Cold, most fights become trivially easy, as it will freeze even Revenants and Dragons (though for a much reduced duration). Timed right, you can pretty much keep even large groups of enemies permanently frozen because the cooldown time is pretty quick.

[fable]

If you have two mages with Cone of Cold, most fights become trivially easy, as it will freeze even Revenants and Dragons (though for a much reduced duration). Timed right, you can pretty much keep even large groups of enemies permanently frozen because the cooldown time is pretty quick.

Yes, the real difficulty is dealing with those situations where you're in the open, and attacks are converging from two or more different sides, and possibly one of the them shooting down from significantly above you. These were obviously designed to negate just the situations you and I love. Best then to draw at least the melee types after you back into a smaller room, where you can control matters easier.

[Scottg]

How many types of opponents are immune (or have high resistance) to fire, cold, electrical, mental, spirit?

It seems that Revenants are immune to fire, where the rest of the undead take additional damage from fire (..to the best of my knowledge). Revenants seem to also resist cold damage fairly often (moderate), but electrical damage seems to work most of the time. I've not seen much resisting spirit damage, other than the occasion failure do to spell resistance or a high level opponent.

Looking over cone of cold there is chance for paralysis & chance of shattering, but slowing always happens unless the spell is resisted, and perhaps the best feature is the 10% "cool down" period - meaning you can fire this thing off in fairly rapid succession IF you have the reserves of mana.

In fact, it's that "cool down" period that seems critical during battles. You can always quaff a Lyrium potion or a Heal poultice to raise your mana and health respectively, but the only means to "get around" the cool down period pretty much requires low period spells *plural*, so that you can cycle from one spell to the next each round without taking a "break" EXCEPT for those occasions where you need to quaff a potion.

Arcane Bolt - 6 sec.s (free-bee for your character)
Flame Blast - 10 sec.s (1st level)
Fire Ball - 10 sec.s (3rd level)
Winter's Grasp - 8 sec.s (1st level)
Cone of Cold - 10 sec.s (3rd level)
Lightening - 10 sec.s (1st level)
Drain Life - 10 sec.s (1st level)

With Arcane Bolt and the rest of the 1st level spells listed here, you should be able to continuously damage opponents (excepting the round or two you quaff of potion, and those occasions where your spell is resisted). Combine this grouping of spells with Vulrability Hex and Affliction Hex (for the "cones"), and that should make for a fairly easy gaming experience provided the character's Magic attribute is very high relative to their level.

[fable]

It seems that Revenants are immune to fire, where the rest of the undead take additional damage from fire (..to the best of my knowledge). Revenants seem to also resist cold damage fairly often, but electrical damage seems to work most of the time. I've not seen much resisting spirit damage, other than the occasion failure do to spell resistance or a high level opponent.

I had a Revenant that successfully resisted CoC the first time, froze the second, and was blasted into chunks by a boulder. So earth damage works, as well.

[Scottg]

I had a Revenant that successfully resisted CoC the first time, froze the second, and was blasted into chunks by a boulder. So earth damage works, as well.

Stone Fist is based on "Nature damage" which for the exception of poison-like staff-based attacks, *seems* to be pure physical damage that is reduced with armor. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the "shattering" effect was another calculation altogether.

Cone of Cold lists its paralysis feature as a "Physical Resistance" check, like all the other paralysis spells (..excepting Mind Blast and Crushing Prison). Presumably it goes something like: Spell Resistance?, Cold Resistance?, Physical Resistance?.. or something like that. In my experience Revenants don't have particularly good "Physical Resistance", and only low Spell Resistance and the moderate Cold Resistance mentioned previously.

[nocturn]

In the codex entry for the Revenant it implicitly states that his physical resistance isn't that good. As for his Cold Resistance, it mustn't be high because he freezes like 80%-90% of the time with Cone of Cold. Other cold type spells rarely freeze "yellow" or "orange" opponents (even with a caster's high Magic score) but CoC is a sure bet. If you encounter high resistance, cast Affliction Hex and try again.

I really wish that there was a single target high-damage output spell on level 4. Something that could cost a lot of mana and would be slow to recharge but would obliterate an enemy on the fly. I haven't tried EVERY spell (and especially specialization spells) but I don't think there is something that fits that description.

[Nightmare]

I'm fairly certain Cold Resistance is only dealing with damage; in my experience, Revenants are usually immune to Cone of Cold's damage but are frozen for a good chunk of time, usually only resisting the odd time.

[mr_sir]

I'm fairly certain Cold Resistance is only dealing with damage; in my experience, Revenants are usually immune to Cone of Cold's damage but are frozen for a good chunk of time, usually only resisting the odd time.

That's correct, the resistances just reduce the damage taken by that amount - they do not give a 50% chance,say, of taking no damage.