Enchanter or Magician

[ManticSquee]

Originally Posted by formallydickman [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Oh how I wish I'd have done so.

I will be starting on the server in a few days and rolling a mage. It looks like at least a few people would prefer putting starting points into strength instead of intelligence. I would assume because there isn't a lot of caster gear that raises strength later on?

[Slave]

Originally Posted by ManticSquee [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I will be starting on the server in a few days and rolling a mage. It looks like at least a few people would prefer putting starting points into strength instead of intelligence. I would assume because there isn't a lot of caster gear that raises strength later on?

It's just that maximum mana doesn't do very much at all for you as a Magician. And Strength at least lets you carry around more treasure without having to summon the DEVIL BAGS OF DEATH. NEVER SUMMON THEM!!!

Still, Intelligence will be better for the majority of people who don't min/max, I'd say.

[Zallar]

As an enchanter, you are 100% engaged during game play. Peel your eyes away for a moment and that's when Charm will break and wipe the group, or when that short mez will break and wipe the group, or you miss the stun on that runner and wipe the group, etc. You get the idea.

Enchanters are super powerful but require focus. If you're going to play a lazy enchanter and require the root classes to CC, keep your animation up, and consider yourself a buff bot, then you're aren't going to appreciate the nuances of the class.

If you're willing to pay attention and push yourself, you can really accomplish some awesome things. Enchanters make good pullers as well as crowd control.

[Vladesch]

Dark elves aren't as good as high elves for charming because of the lower charisma.
(Hide is nice though i admit)
Charm solo you really need jboots.

Necro is worth considering. Much easier to solo.

[webrunner5]

When you get really high up on a Mage it is easy mode to just send your Earth pet in on loot camps and go get a beer or smoke a Cig and come back and the whole camp is dead. Pretty sweet.

[Tecmos Deception]

Originally Posted by Dezik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My only concern is 1) raid effectiveness and 2) Never played an enchanter and don't want to make stupid, group wiping mistakes. I love the idea of the magician, however my concern here is 1) pet taking exp making gimick moves like pet kiting a necessity and 2) not exactly group or raid friendly end game.

You shouldn't be concerned with "raid effectiveness" of enchanters. The raiding that most people on p99 are part of are planes raids, and those tend to have plenty of chances for an enchanter to CC, charm, land spells, etc. Killing gods/dragons means an enchanter is doing more buffing and less of everything else, but everyone still wants a couple enchanters around for these fights.

And regarding wiping your group by making mistakes? Eh. It's part of the class. If you're in a situation where a mistake by you wipes your group, then your group already was doing something wrong... like pulling too much or too fast or something. Think of it more as a chance to save your group from a wipe, not a chance to cause your group TO wipe.


I don't really understand what you're asking about magicians. Pet kiting? A sentence that makes no sense? I'm confused.

Mages can get full xp for kills, while solo, without a lot of extra work. Just relcaim pet when the monster (preferably one that will flee at low live) is low, finish him with an appropriately-strong nuke, and repeat. And mages are a just-fine addition to groups. They are underrated for them, imo, because people see the damage a pet is doing but don't see how much damage a mage contributes via damage shields and nukes and proccing summoned weapons. A good mage also can contribute in other ways... mod rods, call of the hero, stuff like that at the right time makes a big difference.

[Splorf22]

I played a Mage on live and always thought I was a bit overpowered. Mages can do a lot of damage in groups. Lets add it up:

Burnt Wood Staff: 25 dps forever (cinder bolt clicky. It's mindboggling to me that wizards don't get a clicky until VP)
Backstabbing Water Pet: 30-40 dps (especially if the tank is smart enough to position the pet, usually not)
Damage shield 33/round = 5-10 dps or so while fighting unslowed noncasting mobs

So thats 65-70 dps . . . nothing to be ashamed of even compared to an epic rogue, and we haven't even considered the mage actually casting nukes. On top of that mages bring some nice utility (summoned shuriken/bandages/food/water/levitation rings/mod rods, call of the hero, malo on tough mobs/enchanter charmed pets).

All in all I think mages are a pretty strong class, they are just kind of blunt. You won't be doing much other than /assist, /pet attack, and /cast nuke 1 in groups. No root especially really hurts the class.

[Slave]

Originally Posted by Splorf22 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Burnt Wood Staff: 25 dps forever (cinder bolt clicky. It's mindboggling to me that

Still broken. The bolts travel at a crawl, and you cannot initiate another bolt until the first one has hit, or it will disappear. I'd say it's less than half its listed dps over any kind of normal use.

[Slave]

Originally Posted by Vladesch [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

High elves aren't as good as dark elves for anything because of the lack of Hide.
(Hide is REALLY REALLY REALLY nice i admit)

All fixed up. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Dezik]

Thanks for the replies guys! Exactly what I was looking for.

So the consensus seems to be that "don't worry about raid effectiveness" as it is the journey not the end, and both mages and enc's have their place in raids anyways. Also, is it as easy as one poster said for mages to get full exp on kills without pets taking half? Seems like an awful lot of mana to keep conjuring new pets after every kill as well as a lot of regeants is it not?

Thank you for the suggestion of Necro as well. I had considered that, and still might, I just didn't like the idea that there are so many of them around it seems and also I have never seen them as very "group" friendly, although I also understand they CAN bring a lot to the table.