Celtic Heroes

I would also like to point out that the radiant earthstone gear absolutely sucks for soloing , i don't care what class you are. The helm 500mp 500hp is great for all classes, and the only earthstone item I wear when soloing without bolas .

You go ahead and pass that Radiant Earthstone my way then. Tis exactly what Dr. mdImarco ordered!

Guppy is out to lunch.

Agreed Arcana. I have no problem helping my group or clan.

My idea of Support is helping blast the target as fast as possible. Not reading a book while everyone else does the heavy lifting.

Maybe people like Guppy must think we have an unlimited number of skill points.
You do realize if I put my points on Lures I will basically have nothing left to attack with.

End.

How true. I wonder if people like him have even tried to rock a Mage in this game or if they're talking out of their backsides?

My Mage is approaching 110. He is what people call support, though he actually causes more damage than anyone else in the group, depending on the length of the fight. Not only that even though he is low level he is extremely useful fighting things like 140 wyverns. Furthermore, I find that he is constantly busy and having to do things... Rather than reading a book for instance. He often has no direct damage spells specced. They would be wasted on a 140 Wyvern. For same level mobs and leveling he specs Firestorm currently, though I have specced Shard, Bolt, etc. at different times. He is useful in much higher level boss fights in the same way, though unless there are a lot of ads, he does have some contemplative moments. I switch him to h2h for interrupts during that. Heresy, I know.

This is an actual case from last night. The tank pulls two wyverns. All dps is on the tanks target. The tank is cloaked. Both wyverns are lured and aggro'd on the tank. Main target fire, assassin, ice (for the tanks weps- I don't have soldiers yet )... The second Wyvern is lured fire only. By the time the first Wyvern is dead from a mostly dps tank and two rangers, the second Wyvern is 60-75% dead, just from the cloak. Cloak/Lures are not level limited.

Energy... I ran this on lava with no regen... And since it is lava, no sigils to speak of. I used an Eshield battery, decent health and sacrifice and never came close to running out of energy. I also kept the rogues energy up during assassinate and occasionally threw energy to the Druid when called for. The Eshield also meant that I could pull and then turn the pull over to the whoever was tanking.

Yes, I want better energy management and things that truly go BOOM! I want more AoE, and more places to use AoE. However, it seems many of the complaints about mages are also based on 'not having rocked' the various builds possible and seeing what those can really do.

I do not think Guffy is out to lunch. Hate his sig though.

Earthstone: I have tried several earthstone setups on all classes- dps Druid, Mage, warrior, rogue... Oh not my ranger, which is where i think it is best. I do not think it sucks for soloing. It works great on the casters. The dps druid in particular can self buff in combination with the Earthstone. Personally i think i like this the best since earthstone d,g is not from str. I actually think it is worst on tanks trying to solo level since you lose what str you are getting from gear.

My Mage is approaching 110. He is what people call support, though he actually causes more damage than anyone else in the group, depending on the length of the fight. Not only that even though he is low level he is extremely useful fighting things like 140 wyverns. Furthermore, I find that he is constantly busy and having to do things... Rather than reading a book for instance. He often has no direct damage spells specced. They would be wasted on a 140 Wyvern. For same level mobs and leveling he specs Firestorm currently, though I have specced Shard, Bolt, etc. at different times. He is useful in much higher level boss fights in the same way, though unless there are a lot of ads, he does have some contemplative moments. I switch him to h2h for interrupts during that. Heresy, I know.

This is an actual case from last night. The tank pulls two wyverns. All dps is on the tanks target. The tank is cloaked. Both wyverns are lured and aggro'd on the tank. Main target fire, assassin, ice (for the tanks weps- I don't have soldiers yet )... The second Wyvern is lured fire only. By the time the first Wyvern is dead from a mostly dps tank and two rangers, the second Wyvern is 60-75% dead, just from the cloak. Cloak/Lures are not level limited.

Energy... I ran this on lava with no regen... And since it is lava, no sigils to speak of. I used an Eshield battery, decent health and sacrifice and never came close to running out of energy. I also kept the rogues energy up during assassinate and occasionally threw energy to the Druid when called for. The Eshield also meant that I could pull and then turn the pull over to the whoever was tanking.

Yes, I want better energy management and things that truly go BOOM! I want more AoE, and more places to use AoE. However, it seems many of the complaints about mages are also based on 'not having rocked' the various builds possible and seeing what those can really do.

I do not think Guffy is out to lunch. Hate his sig though.

Earthstone: I have tried several earthstone setups on all classes- dps Druid, Mage, warrior, rogue... Oh not my ranger, which is where i think it is best. I do not think it sucks for soloing. It works great on the casters. The dps druid in particular can self buff in combination with the Earthstone. Personally i think i like this the best since earthstone d,g is not from str. I actually think it is worst on tanks trying to solo level since you lose what str you are getting from gear.

I haven't tried it yet as I have no Earthstone, but mdimarco seems to like it for the added heat damage. I am thinking about doing a melee/support hybrid following his melee build in the following way:
Max
Lure of fire. Cloak of fire. Incinerate. Energy shield.
These are mainly so I can rock the heat damage with h2h and blade of fire offhand.
Support comes in with my maxing other lures as I level and gain them.
Your thoughts? I already dove down the rabbit hole and bought about 400 energy sigils so regenis no problem for me. It seems that this build will allow me to solo or group with success.

Mages must work differently on your server than on ours. I have like a 102 mage but nothing amazing. However, on our server mages get the chances at the radiant armor whether in group or out of group.

Also, as I said the dynamics of the game changed. OTM decided mages play more of a support role, every class has had it's tweaks and you have to roll with the punches. Perhaps some can't comprehend if the damage isn't credited to their character they feel like they are doing less. As far as lures go you only really need the pierce one to help a tremendous amount. I am not anti mages getting a boost, but I am pointing out they have amazing indirect dps that seems to be overlooked.

...The idea of putting lures on all group members, on the other hand, could be quite handy for leveling. Boss fights not so much of course.
A good proposition would be to tweak the lures to work on the player's whole group (I think wards work like that already, so just like that, see what i mean ?)...

I may be completely in left field here (seeing as I haven't really explored the mage role), but would a spell tome like lure of fire that puts a lure on all individuals inside the mages group be beneficial? I only skimmed most of the posts since the thread is so lenghty. ...
...Yes, the big deal with luring a leveling group is targeting. The mob Zerg in a good leveling group collapses down to a single footprint in many cases, making it impossible to target, and so impossible to lure. An AoE lure would be amazing, but I worry they would nerf the damage so much it would not be worth the points. I would like the lures to function as they are, but AoE. This would be amazing, but mot make the mage OP as a stand alone toon. Making it so we can cycle through hostile targets and even target another players target is essential to the development of the game in my opinion.

There seems to be some confusion here. Lures (Mage spells) are cast on enemies, not on players. When pierce lure is cast on a mob, the effect is multiplied by the number of ALL pierce attackers on the mob (not just in the group). Thus making it extremely effective.

Wards (Druid spells), on the other hand are cast on individual players (unless I am mistaken -- I only recently started building my druid and have not really worked with wards yet). If not already, wards could definitely be improved by adding AoE versions of the spells.

...The idea of putting lures on all group members, on the other hand, could be quite handy for leveling. Boss fights not so much of course.
A good proposition would be to tweak the lures to work on the player's whole group (I think wards work like that already, so just like that, see what i mean ?)...

I may be completely in left field here (seeing as I haven't really explored the mage role), but would a spell tome like lure of fire that puts a lure on all individuals inside the mages group be beneficial? I only skimmed most of the posts since the thread is so lenghty. ...
...Yes, the big deal with luring a leveling group is targeting. The mob Zerg in a good leveling group collapses down to a single footprint in many cases, making it impossible to target, and so impossible to lure. An AoE lure would be amazing, but I worry they would nerf the damage so much it would not be worth the points. I would like the lures to function as they are, but AoE. This would be amazing, but mot make the mage OP as a stand alone toon. Making it so we can cycle through hostile targets and even target another players target is essential to the development of the game in my opinion.

There seems to be some confusion here. Lures (Mage spells) are cast on enemies, not on players. When pierce lure is cast on a mob, the effect is multiplied by the number of ALL pierce attackers on the mob (not just in the group). Thus making it extremely effective.

Wards (Druid spells), on the other hand are cast on individual players (unless I am mistaken -- I only recently started building my druid and have not really worked with wards yet). If not already, wards could definitely be improved by adding AoE versions of the spells.

Whoops! I was reffering to Cloak of Fire, not Lure. I meant would it beneficial to have a cloak that could be cast on the entire group much like natures breath heals the entire group. Compile that spell with adding the damage the cloak deals to the enemy to the Mages total damage instead of each individual player it is cast on. Like I said I don't really play mage so I may be in left field here

Np, Solarus. I figured it was just a simple matter or mixed up verbiage. Yes, group cloak would be great too, esp for places like blackstones by bridge where they come in swarms.

It would be nice to see mages (or any other class for that matter) with more group buffs/spells. Druid seems to be the only one with that sort of ability atm.

Np, Solarus. I figured it was just a simple matter or mixed up verbiage. Yes, group cloak would be great too, esp for places like blackstones by bridge where they come in swarms.

It would be nice to see mages (or any other class for that matter) with more group buffs/spells. Druid seems to be the only one with that sort of ability atm.

I don't think an AoE cloak would work too well. When your fighting AoE style you want a single damage sink to heal. Same with bosses. This is in great part due to cast times on heals. If Druids have to switch around a lot people are dying. An AoE cloak might make this a bit difficult.

Np, Solarus. I figured it was just a simple matter or mixed up verbiage. Yes, group cloak would be great too, esp for places like blackstones by bridge where they come in swarms.

It would be nice to see mages (or any other class for that matter) with more group buffs/spells. Druid seems to be the only one with that sort of ability atm.

I don't think an AoE cloak would work too well. When your fighting AoE style you want a single damage sink to heal. Same with bosses. This is in great part due to cast times on heals. If Druids have to switch around a lot people are dying. An AoE cloak might make this a bit difficult.

I had a similar thought. A single tank would probably be preferable in most groups. It would still be nice to see some sort of group/AoE spells/skills for other classes.

My favorite idea from this thread so far is definitely reduced casting time gloves, if/when the engine can support it in a future release.