Returning mage, where do I go from here?

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Poshwosh wrote on 2015-05-18 13:08

Greetings, having nothing to do and seeing how mages are getting some interesting changes soon, then I saw all the amazing changes such as the premium pack and free weekly rebirths, I couldn't hold back, I'm back.

But the thing is, there are so many skills now compared to when I played in 2010!

I ranked magic weapon mastery, and a bit of fire mastery and bolt mastery, but that's it.

I'm scared of the rest because I don't know how efficient are they, as in, what fits which situation.

Then there's those secondary titles, and so many different staves and wands, I have noooo idea what to choose. I wish there was a dictionary, not too detailed, just a warning like how Windmill is better off done at low levels.

So to start off, here are my magic skills:

[SIZE="1"]Magic Mastery 1
Magic Weapon Mastery 1
Bolt Mastery 6
Fusion Bolt F
Meditation 9
Enchant D
Mana Shield F

Blaze D
Healing 2
Party Healing 2

Ice Mastery F
Fire Mastery 6
Lightning Mastery F

Ice Shield F
Fire Shield F
Lightning Shield F
Natural Shield F

Icebolt 1
Firebolt 1
Lightningbolt 1

Ice Spear F
Fireball 7
Thunder F

No Hail Storm
No Meteor Strike

Composing 9
Musical Knowledge 9[/SIZE]

The rest is F, I have some other skills such as blacksmithing and cooking for INT boosts and some basic combat skills, but that's it. Just a pure mage spamming chaincast firebolts, and I mostly quit because how boring that was and how lazy I was to grind AP for Blaze+Thunder.

Where do I go from here? I want to get involved in those martial tournaments to make some gold (and maybe raids? I hear they're good too), it currently seems impossible without a group, and even then I feel useless.
I have some spare AP and will probably have 500 next week, I know it won't be enough to do the martial tournament, but knowing what I need to rank to get to it would be appreciated!

And I keep hearing thunder is a bad skill now, is it true? Does the upcoming update fix that? And does the upcoming update contain anything I should keep my eye on? Because magic weapon mastery is ridiculously powerful compared to other skills...
Kelvas wrote on 2015-05-18 14:38

You should rank all of the skills that give int. Some skills such as magic weapon mastery and basic bolt magic have priority though. Everything else should also be ranked if you focus on magic. Also keep an eye out for a soon to come skill known as lightning rod.

CP skills aren't too bad now, so you can rank windmill whenever you want, though it might come in handy if you do early.

Thunder is alright as a skill, but I personally find fusion bolt ice/lightning to be a lot better.
alwmiioktm wrote on 2015-05-18 18:07

Quote from Kelvas;1275443:
You should rank all of the skills that give int. Some skills such as magic weapon mastery and basic bolt magic have priority though. Everything else should also be ranked if you focus on magic. Also keep an eye out for a soon to come skill known as lightning rod.

CP skills aren't too bad now, so you can rank windmill whenever you want, though it might come in handy if you do early.

Thunder is alright as a skill, but I personally find fusion bolt ice/lightning to be a lot better.

ego cc firewand and lightningrod is the new meta for magic
Poshwosh wrote on 2015-05-18 23:07

I have been ranking INT skills very very carefully before I quit, my base INT is 600, anything I rank consumes too much AP/INT, which I guess is understandable in terms of right now because how easy AP is to get now, but I currently don't have that much AP left and need to use it wisely to get more AP.

As in, I know thunder was really good for rafting back then and would make its AP back eventually due to easier exploration EXP, but now it's nerfed apparently? I don't know, I heard it from a friend.

And now I know that most people level up/farm gold through the martial tournament and raids, firebolt spam doesn't cut out there, so I want to work toward beating it.

I tried Fusion Bolt, it takes too long to fully charge, seems only good if I'm waiting for a mob, and even then, am I not better off just charging a fireball? Unless I'm doing it wrong, as in, are you chain casting it or something?

Which firewand should I ego? And is there a good video demonstrating Lightning Rod in a fight? I checked a few and the only thing that stands out is a big ass cooldown.
Kelvas wrote on 2015-05-18 23:45

Yeah, rafting is efficient at all anymore. Ride by the arc lich when it spawns and sketch it under a exploration quest (Darkness Hoarding Lich), wing out, and then cc to another channel and repeat, for exploration levels.

At the moment blaze is one of the best ways to clear MA rounds (but you need decent matk and gloves, or a few blazers) with a crisis slave, but I would wait for lightning rod instead as it is soon to be released. I believe that LR will replace blaze for MA considering how powerful it is.
Like what n02 said, the current meta for magic is CC firebolt and lightning rod (soon to be released). So staff in main and wand (fire wand ego, tribolt, or savage fire) in aux if you plan on doing pure magic. Lighting Rod's cooldown is only 20 seconds at r1, which isn't bad at all.

Fusion bolt is pretty underrated, but the reason I prefer it over thunder (which isn't all too great) is because it takes less time, less mana, no standby time, and roughly the same damage for me. I definitely wouldn't use it in raids and MA (because it's a bit weak, and use 420blazeit/LR instead), but its works wonders for me in hm dailies.

For fire ego, go for the normal fire wand. The phoenix one doesn't provide CC.
Poshwosh wrote on 2015-05-19 03:41

I'll try out the exploration trick when it spawns next time. I found a video of it and it seems very simple and efficient, thank you for the tip!

I saw Lightning Rod on Kingofrunes' stream earlier, it looks really narrow, I guess it would be really great if you have a Crisis partner (which I now know more about thanks to your guide in your signature), but if you don't have one (and I don't), would it still be good compared to Blaze? I guess it's just something I use when it's off cooldown similar to Snap Cast, right?

The wand selection is interesting, from what I understood the tri-bolt is weaker but allows you to chain cast all bolts, leading to shorter Snap Cast cooldown because of Icebolt? Savage fire wand is great for +4 firebolt and blazing, right? Which will lose a bit of its value if Lightning Rod is the new meta. Then there's the ego which leads to the strongest firebolt but weaker blazing and a lot of gold spent, am I getting this right?

Which staff would you recommend me to get, Hermit's? The upcoming druid one? Or should I wait a few weeks for price reductions?

Thanks again, things are more clear now.
callback wrote on 2015-05-19 14:02

Quote from Poshwosh;1275554:
I'll try out the exploration trick when it spawns next time. I found a video of it and it seems very simple and efficient, thank you for the tip!

I saw Lightning Rod on Kingofrunes' stream earlier, it looks really narrow, I guess it would be really great if you have a Crisis partner (which I now know more about thanks to your guide in your signature), but if you don't have one (and I don't), would it still be good compared to Blaze? I guess it's just something I use when it's off cooldown similar to Snap Cast, right?

The wand selection is interesting, from what I understood the tri-bolt is weaker but allows you to chain cast all bolts, leading to shorter Snap Cast cooldown because of Icebolt? Savage fire wand is great for +4 firebolt and blazing, right? Which will lose a bit of its value if Lightning Rod is the new meta. Then there's the ego which leads to the strongest firebolt but weaker blazing and a lot of gold spent, am I getting this right?

Which staff would you recommend me to get, Hermit's? The upcoming druid one? Or should I wait a few weeks for price reductions?

Thanks again, things are more clear now.

Careful with the video if it uses clouds. They made him immune fairly recently. What I do is ride up, despawn pet, start sketching, and summon 3 attack pets to kinda stun him a bit while I finish, then crisis escape, cancel that for the aggro grace period, and GTFO.

I thought I saw LR's cooldown as only 15 seconds? Did I read wrong?

Does anyone know if tri-bolt can CC-fusion bolts?
Osayidan wrote on 2015-05-19 14:57

Quote from callback;1275602:
Careful with the video if it uses clouds. They made him immune fairly recently. What I do is ride up, despawn pet, start sketching, and summon 3 attack pets to kinda stun him a bit while I finish, then crisis escape, cancel that for the aggro grace period, and GTFO.

None of that is really necesary. If you run up to him with a fast pet (such as a cloud or whatever you like), and instantly sketch, you will finish your sketch by the time lich and his mobs start to aggro, and the aggro will normally be on your pet. At that point you use the ancient hidden art of run like a bitch (use a wing, be sure to not be in a party to avoid the confirmation pop-up).

[video=youtube;QhJbFdjPzLc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhJbFdjPzLc[/video]
Kelvas wrote on 2015-05-19 19:27

Quote from Poshwosh;1275554:
I'll try out the exploration trick when it spawns next time. I found a video of it and it seems very simple and efficient, thank you for the tip!

I saw Lightning Rod on Kingofrunes' stream earlier, it looks really narrow, I guess it would be really great if you have a Crisis partner (which I now know more about thanks to your guide in your signature), but if you don't have one (and I don't), would it still be good compared to Blaze? I guess it's just something I use when it's off cooldown similar to Snap Cast, right?

The wand selection is interesting, from what I understood the tri-bolt is weaker but allows you to chain cast all bolts, leading to shorter Snap Cast cooldown because of Icebolt? Savage fire wand is great for +4 firebolt and blazing, right? Which will lose a bit of its value if Lightning Rod is the new meta. Then there's the ego which leads to the strongest firebolt but weaker blazing and a lot of gold spent, am I getting this right?

Which staff would you recommend me to get, Hermit's? The upcoming druid one? Or should I wait a few weeks for price reductions?

Thanks again, things are more clear now.

Yeah, LR is comparable to blaze. It's a bit weaker, but hey, it's easier to use without a puppet partner. Plus, you can just have a few mages clearing MA without any kind of setup. It is kind of like blaze, but with a linear AoE, a longer cooldown, doesn't require knock back, and is uses with a staff.

Prior to LR, savage fire wands were a pretty good option because of the reason you said. CC4 firebolt and blaze, but since LR is coming out, the value of savage fires have diminished a bit. You're exactly right on that.

There are some r1 +6 MATK hermits floating around, but if you can afford to craft the new staff, I would make that instead. When the new two staves come out, I'm fairly certain that the price of hermits will decrease, so you may want to consider that.

Most versatile mage setup would probably revolve around the tribolt wand and one of the new staves. Since they're likely to be in demand, the price of the items would be higher than it will be in a few months.
Poshwosh wrote on 2015-05-20 02:17

Thank you all for the exploration tips, that method is amazing, I'm surprised how haven't nerfed it.

I found a few hermit's staffs (r1's), I can afford them but then I'd be out of gold. I searched a bit and found out the druid staff has a huge mana reduction and cheaper repair fee, so the druid staff looks more appealing to me, unless... the prices are will be huge.

I know the warrior renovation weapon materials come from advanced hard mode dungeons and elite shadow missions, and I'm in no position of clearing them. I suppose I could buy the staff materials (when they come out) and magic craft them, I just found about that skill, I got it to E and it'll definitely take me a week or two to get to 9, and even then the success rate will probably be low, haha. But I think I might take that route, I need to rank it anyway.

I have enough AP to get Lightning Rod to 1 now, and I ranked my Fireball to 5. What else should I work on now? Meteor Strike? Hail Storm?

My current playstyle is pre-load Fireball, then spam Firebolts until Snap Cast+Fireball is available, and I'm looking forward to add Lightning Rod in between, are there any other skills I could combine between?
Rydian wrote on 2015-05-20 05:22

Your elemental masteries (they give -MP usage at certain ranks) and int magics will likely do you better (giving you constant bonuses and attacks) than Meteor Strike (one attack every X amount of time).
Poshwosh wrote on 2015-05-20 05:52

Alright scratch Meteor Strike, I feel as though I'm lacking constant attacks other than Firebolt spam, especially during multi-aggro situation to a point where I have to save my snap cast fireball for those situations, as opposed to using it on cooldown to clear shadow missions faster.

I guess it'll get better soon with the +4 lightning bolt from the tri-bolt wand and Lightning Rod, but there's got to be other useful spells? Ice spear, Thunder, Hail Storm, Blaze, I never actually used them properly as they're too low ranked, I don't know if they'll be useful.

Or, like you implied, hoarding more INT might just be better?
Rydian wrote on 2015-05-20 12:52

Well I meant the int spells and masteries themselves being helpful for more damage, more usability, and -MP on the masteries.

Ice Spear will get more party-friendly after today's patch, people will be able to attack the enemies that are frozen. Fireball will be faster to cast so you can charge it up before a wave or something too so you might enjoy that more.