Enchanter or Magician

[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.

[Groo]

Enchanter is more challenging, more versatile, and more demanding of your attention. When grouped, others will rely on you more, and expect more out of you. You're going to have a much easier time finding and forming pick-up groups. You will make mistakes, and have some bad luck and get flattened sometimes.

I tend to get bored with soloing, and I like the enchanter's wide range of abilities. People are very selective with who they choose to group with, these days. I haven't played a magician on this server, but when my groups are looking for damage output, they might pick another class before looking for a magician. Also, I can see myself getting bored with the magician's abilities and narrower role in groups. I would go with enchanter as my main, and maybe consider magician as an alternate.

[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.

[Grimmly Fireforge]

Don't be a Dark Elf for Hide, and I'll tell you why.

People vastly exaggerate the hide racial ability's utility. First of all, I have it on my Dark Elf too and it's skill is like 50 and will never level up, meaning it works maybe 30% of the time at best. The other 70% of the time your "Hide" attempt will fail, and you will have to wait 8-10 seconds for the cooldown to try to break the charm again.

Does this sound like a reliable way to break a charm? HELL no. People try to act like it has a 100% success rate when really, it's terrible and you're a million times better off getting a Goblin Ring if you can afford it, because it has a 100% success rate and is instant, with no cooldown.

I will admit is is great for going AFK, though.

[Ephirith]

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

Don't be a Dark Elf for Hide, and I'll tell you why.

People vastly exaggerate the hide racial ability's utility. First of all, I have it on my Dark Elf too and it's skill is like 50 and will never level up, meaning it works maybe 30% of the time at best. The other 70% of the time your "Hide" attempt will fail, and you will have to wait 8-10 seconds for the cooldown to try to break the charm again.

Does this sound like a reliable way to break a charm? HELL no. People try to act like it has a 100% success rate when really, it's terrible and you're a million times better off getting a Goblin Ring if you can afford it, because it has a 100% success rate and is instant, with no cooldown.

I will admit is is great for going AFK, though.

Actually I think 50 skill in hide translates to 50% success rate.

Hide is amazing. As was mentioned above, if it doesn't work use something else like an invis ring. If it does work, you've just saved yourself some mana/trouble.

Incredibly useful for going afk, ducking away from an incoming train or wipe pull, etc.

Even if you make the argument hide is only marginally useful, it's not like other races have their own abilities to compete with it.

I'd recommend enchanter. Incredibly powerful class... versatile, great solo, great grouping, amazing dps, amazing utility.

[Tecmos Deception]

Racial hide is a great thing to have on a mage, and anyone who says otherwise is probably ignoring the fact that there is basically no opportunity cost to having hide and/or not thinking of the different ways it can be used.

It's not like a shaman deciding between troll for regen or ogre for stun immune. In that situation, it is clear that either ability would be nice to have, but unclear which is superior overall. Here we are talking about picking a race with acceptable stats but no hide and a race with acceptable stats AND hide.

Unless someone specifically does not want to be a dark elf, there is no good reason not to be one.


And as to how effective hide really is when you do have it? Hide is a 1 in 3 chance to avoid a train that suddenly is about to run you over. Hide is a few button clicks to give you a 99.9% safe AFK of any length. Hide is an instant 1 in 3 chance of avoiding aggro after logging into an unsafe place after a LD or something so you can consider your options. And did I mention you basically get it for free?

[Grimmly Fireforge]

You keep saying just use Goblin Ring if it fails -- you could just use Goblin Ring as a non-Dark Elf the first time, which would instantly break charm 100% of the time for 0 mana. Having to own a Goblin Ring so you can swap it in defeats the whole purpose. I'll admit that it's not like you have anything to lose by going Dark Elf for it if you're neutral about what race to be, but don't pick Dark Elf just for hide if you like another race better. People exaggerate it's utility and it's not reliable for breaking charm.