Celtic Heroes

Ok, i'm wondering if it could be good to leave my ice shards for incinerate,
I could also put the points of my lure of ice in incinerate and keep ice shards ...
Share your thoughts please

I like incinerate. If you could reduce your ice lure to 1 and put those points in incinerate and mabye move some shard points it may be better than shards, only because you consolidate to only 1 lure. Incinerate is 3rd string in my build, Firebolt and cloak of fire are much better.

Ok, i'm wondering if it could be good to leave my ice shards for incinerate,
I could also put the points of my lure of ice in incinerate and keep ice shards ...
Share your thoughts please

Incinerate vs Ice Shards is like saying Apples vs Oranges. I do not recommend taking anything out of ice shards or ice lure. I have tried many, many skill and stat builds. I have tried many that have been suggested on the fourms. The best part of the recent update is all possibilites for builds that there are now for mages.

I have decided to go with a "Jack of all Trades" type of build. I do pretty decent damage (definately not the top dps mage out there) and can can contribute well to my clan groups during boss battles. This is what I am using at lvl 118, and works very well. I can solo three stars that are at my level and four stars that are lower (Honestly, I do struggle with four stars that are just a lvl above me) :

Cloak of Fire 20/25
Fire Bolt 20/25
Lure of Fire 12/15
Ice Shards 21/25
Lure of Ice 12/25
Energy Shield 20/25
Sacrifice 8/25
Incinerate 8/25
Lure of Soilders 5/25

I have just started putting points into Incinerate. I am using 5/5/325 (340)/285 for my stats (I have tried numerous stat builds and this works best for ME). So, my Incinerate damage is running at 87 at the max damage. Rememeber, it is going to be impossible to achieve any of the listed max damages, in fire and ice attacks, without decent lures.

I recommend that you just slowly start putting points into Incinerate and not abandon your ice shards or ice lure. I have even tried an all fire build, that ended up in a mess.

A point that you also need to know is this, The Chained King uses any fire damage to heal himself. So, you will need and have to rely on ice magic/non-fire support skills to do any damage to him. I don't know what kind of clan your in or how far away you are from ever doing the Chained King, but it is defiantely a point to consider when thinking about reducing your ice attacks/ support spells.

I hope this has helped you.

Well, ditching Ice Shards may work for some time, but the Lava Lord Pyrus is healed with fire attacks. We took him down last night, and I couldn't get a new clan mage to stop healing his wounds with Fire Bolt, lol.

Tog

I would keep pts in shards, but go to 1 with ice lure. My mage is a noob but I have fire bolt and cloak maxed, 10 pts in fire lure, and 12 in ice shards. This is the way to go to have good dps. And with ice shards slow cooldown you don't use it nearly as much as the 4 fire attack spells. I personally can't wait to get incinerate and have 2 DoT spells! And really, you can take a break and sit out for some of the bosses if you must...
Fire mage is da best

Best I have found is max cloak, max bolt, 10 in fire lure, 20 incinerate, 5 + shards, couple in ice lure, max e-shield.

Hi- can I ask why people are maxing e-shield? I have tried that and recognize that it is an amazing skill, but it seems mostly only useful for soloing (and pvp) to me so far... My Mage is about lvl 80. I don't currently use it because:
- it takes points away from dps, since it is a defensive skill
- it uses a massive amount of energy

If I am working to max damage what is your reasoning for e-shield? Is it because you are making pvp builds? Is it for survival when you draw aggro/adds in a group or boss fight? Is it primarily for soloing?

I think it is one of the best skills in the game really, but so far survivability of my Mage when teamed with a Druid has not been an issue, so even though it is very tempting I do not currently put any points into it at all. I keep Abundance and Bark on the Mage all the time. Abundance effectively doubles the Mages health and lasts a long time.

I do have a few points in Vitality, which I realize also reduces dps. I suppose one argument would be to take points out of Vit, put them into focus and then use eshield for health. I don't remember... How much damage does a maxed e-shield absorb? To really run e-shield at this level I would end up taking points out of an attack. Do you think the focus based dmg increases would make up for that shift of skill points and moving a few points from vit to focus? I currently have just under 300 focus I think.

Thanks in advance for advice.

Hi- can I ask why people are maxing e-shield? I have tried that and recognize that it is an amazing skill, but it seems mostly only useful for soloing (and pvp) to me so far... My Mage is about lvl 80. I don't currently use it because:
- it takes points away from dps, since it is a defensive skill
- it uses a massive amount of energy

If I am working to max damage what is your reasoning for e-shield? Is it because you are making pvp builds? Is it for survival when you draw aggro/adds in a group or boss fight? Is it primarily for soloing?

I think it is one of the best skills in the game really, but so far survivability of my Mage when teamed with a Druid has not been an issue, so even though it is very tempting I do not currently put any points into it at all. I keep Abundance and Bark on the Mage all the time. Abundance effectively doubles the Mages health and lasts a long time.

I do have a few points in Vitality, which I realize also reduces dps. I suppose one argument would be to take points out of Vit, put them into focus and then use eshield for health. I don't remember... How much damage does a maxed e-shield absorb? To really run e-shield at this level I would end up taking points out of an attack. Do you think the focus based dmg increases would make up for that shift of skill points and moving a few points from vit to focus? I currently have just under 300 focus I think.

Thanks in advance for advice.

Well, speaking just for my main Mage, I have maxed Energy Shield since I have very few hp, and I enjoy the tons of extra damage that I receive having a very high Focus. I use it during PvP, solo, and especially in groups (where I spend most of my game time). Many bosses, and some of their adds have an area of effect attack, which can wipe me out if I am near and don't have my Shield up.

Now, not everyone can do what I do. I have the best Lux gear, and the rest Diamond gear. I have tons of Sigils, that some "pure Mages" frown upon. I don't even use Sacrifice, Boost, or Meditate much as they are always too slow, or I don't want to give up my few HP or points of my Energy Shield to heal energy. My build is expensive, but very strong.

Tog

+1 im just like Tog.

But.... Tog, you think we should try dropping 200 focus, putting it into vit, and try adding another damage skill to replace e-shield?

200 focus only add really 50 damage per tick of each spell, a whole new skill probably adds more.

It may work... Eshield takes as much energy to cast as if we had 200 less focus anyway.

Hi- can I ask why people are maxing e-shield? I have tried that and recognize that it is an amazing skill, but it seems mostly only useful for soloing (and pvp) to me so far... My Mage is about lvl 80. I don't currently use it because:
- it takes points away from dps, since it is a defensive skill
- it uses a massive amount of energy

If I am working to max damage what is your reasoning for e-shield? Is it because you are making pvp builds? Is it for survival when you draw aggro/adds in a group or boss fight? Is it primarily for soloing?

I think it is one of the best skills in the game really, but so far survivability of my Mage when teamed with a Druid has not been an issue, so even though it is very tempting I do not currently put any points into it at all. I keep Abundance and Bark on the Mage all the time. Abundance effectively doubles the Mages health and lasts a long time.

I do have a few points in Vitality, which I realize also reduces dps. I suppose one argument would be to take points out of Vit, put them into focus and then use eshield for health. I don't remember... How much damage does a maxed e-shield absorb? To really run e-shield at this level I would end up taking points out of an attack. Do you think the focus based dmg increases would make up for that shift of skill points and moving a few points from vit to focus? I currently have just under 300 focus I think.

Thanks in advance for advice.

The truth is.. I don't know. I have not tried no eshield at my level (106).

And I don't care about pvp, I use it soloing and in groups.

Max eshield at 25 gives just over 1000 health and if you wait after casting before starting the fight, you can cast it twice giving you 2000 extra health. Also when you have e-shield on you cannot be interupted casting any spell. I think it is the way to go but test it out both ways if you want and let us know.