spoiler Playing a Mage

[Astrolopolis]

I like playing a mage and have throughout the NWN & BG franchise. It wasn't my favorite (Ranger was) but it was next to it. The thing with the Mage that made it second to the Ranger, for me, was how weak the mage was at the start and how hard it was to get to be a powerful mage. For some that would make the mage first, but I game for fun, not to frustrate myself to the point where boredom threatens.

 

Not so in DA. It's very easy (Normal) to win any battle as a mage, it's possible to win it well, even with elan and with wild powerful rifs of loud, colorful magic. That's refreshing. It's a roaring good time (literally!)!

 

To counter the ease at which my mage conquers all, I'm taking the long path toward a dual class: warrior mage, or spellsword.

 

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else who's playing a mage and enjoying it, in spite of how notoriously easy it is to do.

 

Astro

[AlienSlof]

Mages are totally where it's at for me, and I play mage-type characters most of the time if the game allows for it. Maybe it's partly my weakness for fancy pyrotechnics, but I also like to play at difficult settings with them which forces me to have to use strategy to avoid becoming a new wall and floor covering, 'hint of brain'. Robes don't do much for armouring you up, after all!

 

Playing a Drow mage at the moment (my first play through) and enjoying him enormously. :)

[Monk832]

I like playing a mage and have throughout the NWN & BG franchise. It wasn't my favorite (Ranger was) but it was next to it. The thing with the Mage that made it second to the Ranger, for me, was how weak the mage was at the start and how hard it was to get to be a powerful mage. For some that would make the mage first, but I game for fun, not to frustrate myself to the point where boredom threatens.

 

Not so in DA. It's very easy (Normal) to win any battle as a mage, it's possible to win it well, even with elan and with wild powerful rifs of loud, colorful magic. That's refreshing. It's a roaring good time (literally!)!

 

To counter the ease at which my mage conquers all, I'm taking the long path toward a dual class: warrior mage, or spellsword.

 

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else who's playing a mage and enjoying it, in spite of how notoriously easy it is to do.

 

Astro

 

With the right spells you can unleash hell and dominate the battlefield, but with a bad stoke of luck there is always a chance that you can get yourself killed quite fast - for example if your mana runs out, or you get stunned/paralized/thrown onto ground or pulled to the bad guys. :)

 

The reason why it's easy to play the mage is possible because they don't simply zerg the lowerst armor - even without the one wearing it doing anything against them - but mostly prefer your tank. So you got a little time to control the battlefield, and with the right spells at hand, you can win most battles much easier then relying on your companions somewhat pre defined spellbook. Still, it's not the first time I "accidently" cooked the enemy and my fellow companions at the same time... of course to ensure victory... Alistair and the others sometimes give a fitting remark for my handywork :biggrin:

[JimboUK]

I played through with an Arcane Warrior/Spirit Healer and had great fun. I could cast area effect spells and cause a lot of damage before rushing in and bashing them over the head, I always saved some mana for party healing which came in handy.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Multiple mages with both Winter's Grasp and Stonefist make instagibbing mooks disturbingly easy... moreso with Cone of Cold, because then everyone can get in on the smashing. Hell, any type of mage who has the frost line of spells can lock down entire armies at a time while the rest of the gang goes to town for teatime.

 

I went for a DPS build, but later specced as a spirit healer. Result? I breezed right through fights that really gave me a run for my money when I played through as a rogue (though that was also my first playthrough and I was still learning...) and I've discovered that my maniacal laughter needs work. Here's my build so far:

 

Mage (elf female):

 

Primary role- Elemental DPS

Secondary specialization- Spirit Healer

 

Spells:

 

Arcane- Bolt, Shield, Staff Focus, Mastery

 

Spirit Healer- Group Heal, Revival

 

Primal-

Flame Blast, Flaming Weapons, Fireball, Inferno

Rock Armor, Stonefist

Winter's Grasp, Frost Weapons, Cone of Cold, Blizzard

 

Creation-

Heal

Spellwisp

 

Spirit-

Spell Shield, Dispel Magic

Mana Drain, Mana Cleanse, Spell Might, Mana Clash

Mind Blast

 

 

So, basically, I can CC the mooks, obliterate enemy mages and their spell effects, heal the party, revive fallen buddies, deal damage in a variety of interesting and painful flavors, buff party DPS with frost or fire, and generally cause as much havoc as inhumanly possible. The mage origin isn't my favorite, but mages definitely get the most options for how to go about fighting. And that's without having picked a second specialization yet. I was going to make my next character a warrior, but not after playing rogues and mages. I've found the warrior skill tree to be somewhat bland in comparison- taunt or disengage as necessary and the rest is picking the right target; most of that can be handled by the tactics queue. Mages in particular make the game easier, but they're so much more interesting to manage during battles. :)

[Curious002]

Though its a bit frustrating how extremely different your experience can be, depending upon your spell selection.

 

The ice line is completely IMBA, for example.

 

While the way Morrigan is build when you get her ... this is a joke, right ? Anyone ?! Pretty please ??

 

Morrigan was so frustratingly useless that I got me the respec mod. Now she's the extreme opposite - I gave her Cone of Cold, Shock, Heal, Mind Blast and she just rules the battlefield now.

[Cyvanhoe]

While the way Morrigan is build when you get her ... this is a joke, right ? Anyone ?! Pretty please ??

 

Morrigan was so frustratingly useless that I got me the respec mod. Now she's the extreme opposite - I gave her Cone of Cold, Shock, Heal, Mind Blast and she just rules the battlefield now.

 

What did you expect ? Flemeth teaching her daughter Fireballs big enough to fry her own old hide ? Nah. ;)

[WrathOfDeadguy]

A lot of why Morrigan starts off weak is because the Shapeshifter spec is so disturbingly underpowered. For all the hoopla about it being something rare and "powerful," actually using the talents even when upgraded turns you into a glorified Ranger pet and deprives the party of the shifted mage's more useful abilities. I gave Morrigan the full four points once, but never again unless the spec gets balanced.

 

If, however, you give her a proper setup, the only thing she's never good at is playing party healer because it takes too long to get the second spec... though it never hurts in the end; another group heal is another group heal. DPS buffs and debuffs IMHO are her best areas because she starts out with some of the prerequisites already. Combining the hexes with frost weapons (and fire as well, if you have another mage in the party) is a particularly good use of Morrigan's skills; lots of indirect damage without pulling any aggro at all.

 

I miss being able to level up new characters myself like in... oh, every other Bioware game. It's rather unfortunate that a character can be rendered useless before they see any screen time because they leveled before you met them. In that way, at least, Morrigan is a lot better off than others because she joins so early in the game. Fine if they start out with some abilities that suit their character, but supporting party members are supposed to be shaped around the PC's needs... not the other way around. Which is all the more reason to have the PC be the primary mage, because that's the only way you can ever really optimize the class for your needs (even though Wynne has a decent default setup, she winds up with an awful lot of wasted points if you get her late). There are enough warrior types to pick from that at least one always fits the situation, and both of the starting rogue specs are actually useful so there's no real loss with them.

 

But... yeah. Shapeshifting would be a whole lot nicer if it didn't fail quite so hard. Fine in mookfights, divide-by-zero bad against anything that can actually hurt you.

[kailieann]

I miss being able to level up new characters myself like in... oh, every other Bioware game.

 

Then you should consider investing in the No Auto-Level mod. I've found it to be quite handy.

 

As far as Shapeshifting goes, BioWare has (or so I've heard) admitted that it's useless, and plans to address this in a future patch.

In the meantime, I've found the Instant Shapeshifting mod makes it a lot more usable, but needless to say, it's still not as useful as the other mage specs.

[JonyJC]

Anyone tried the arcane warrior/blood mage setup? It's ridiculously powerful if you start putting points in constitution, you just won't die with an heavy armor and the arcane buffs, and you'll still be able to launch a spell or two while you're ripping your enemies apart. Fun.