Magery and archery?

[Ruthless]

I'm really excited about this game and have been looking for something like this for quite some time. I use to play Ultima Online and absolutely loved it. This is clearly very similar but makes melee fighting skill oriented, which is fantastic!

As I've been playing it seems that melee fighters are the go to and the rest are more support roles. I rolled a melee type buy armor and life is easy. I roll a mage or archer type and it's very different. It costs reagents to cast and those can fizzle. Archers need to buy arrows but melee can farm with ease. The grind seems a bit unbalanced but perhaps I'm missing something?


Also, I'm very curious how balanced each of those types are in high level/skill PVP? I'm referring to 1v1 type duels mostly.

 

[Sanguine]

It's suppose to be viable to farm as a mage but not sure if they added the double damage to magic on mobs yet. Doesn't feel like it. Farming as a foot fighter is always going to be easier imo because you can parry. For mage and archers you have to kite and keep distance.

 

[Ruthless]

It's suppose to be viable to farm as a mage but not sure if they added the double damage to magic on mobs yet. Doesn't feel like it. Farming as a foot fighter is always going to be easier imo because you can parry. For mage and archers you have to kite and keep distance.

Yeah, more damage on mobs would make the most sense. Currently, I'm just not seeing benefits of rolling anything but a melee type.

 

[BongRips]

Roll hybrid melee/mage. They have a learning curve but are really survivalists. You can heal yourself or friends, cast spells on mobs to pull them etc. If you build them right you can also outrun full melee guys if you need to.

 

[Avenoma]

Roll hybrid melee/mage.

yea, thats the way to go(spear). Im going to try mage/archer and probably fail.

 

[Illuana]

Keep in mind, the magic that is out now, won't be all there is. Star Vault doesn't want Magic to feel OP when they release magic like Elementalism, Necromancy, or any other. The magic we have now is a generic kind of apprentice style magic.

 

[Cobblecat]

Magic is useful for the Heals, at least to me. Having to lug spell components around (some spells need just 1 some need 3, and they are different for each spell) means giving up inventory slots, so if you want to fling 4 or 5 spells around you could lose a chunk of your inventory.

I have 2H weapons and a Bow and would rather use those than spells that cause damage, tbh.

 

[Turbizzler]

Mixed melee & magic builds are really nice. You have your Hybrids(50/50 melee & magic) and Paladins(75/25 Melee & magic). They can take a while to get used to, but have great utility and survivability.

Being able to mix in heals, corrupts and offensive magic(like TLs) during your melee is noice. Having the additional speed and manueverability is really nice too.

 

[Ruthless]

Magic is useful for the Heals, at least to me. Having to lug spell components around (some spells need just 1 some need 3, and they are different for each spell) means giving up inventory slots, so if you want to fling 4 or 5 spells around you could lose a chunk of your inventory.

I have 2H weapons and a Bow and would rather use those than spells that cause damage, tbh.

Exactly, it just seems a waste to do magery. Perhaps, a hybrid but more likely just go 2H and bow for dismounting etc.

Hopefully, they're working on the obvious balancing issues. It'd be boring to only have one legitimate option.

 

[Kelzyr]

For farming specific fauna you basically have to be a mounted archer (springbok and wisents) because they flee at too high of speeds. Most aggressive animals don't give a shit about parries. All humanoid NPCs are best if farmed with a melee weapon for parries.

I have tested magic and it does do double (ish) dmg to fauna at least, tbh haven't tried bandits/risars, but it's still not enough to farm aggressive npcs as a mage without being mounted or taming an aggressive pet.

Advice to all magic aspiring new players. Lower your psyche enough to get 50-70 strength (depending on weapon of choice) if you want to farm on your own, otherwise find a group of friends that will appreciate your heals while they farm.

Anyone wanting to be an archer/mage, your best option is to go alvarin as you can utilize bows 20str over your current strength (max ~110str depending on your race/age) due to clade gifts

 

[Ruthless]

So... farming with magic is not worth it at all. That sucks given inventory space loss, lack of carry weight, cost to cast and overall difficulty.

How about mage PVP? Is it balanced or is it just support? If I duel a melee type of equal skill would it be a 50/50 chance of winning?

 

[Illuana]

nope. PVP mages are all support and barely any offence. Against a player 1v1 you're gonna have to kite them from Tindrem to JC. and manage your stamina better than him to knock him down with a few well placed thunderlashes... but he'll bandage that shit before you get a 2nd off, and its run run run some more cause he's on yo ass and he hits 2x as hard as you do. couple that with the lack of armor you're wearing and we're talking maybe 1 shot to the head 2-3 body shots and your dead so run run run

 

[Jackdstripper]

Yes for pvp heavy melee worriers are the strongest one foot, followed by hybrids, then archers, then mages.

mages make a group really strong with corrupts, reflects, heals and the odd well placed thunder lash. However by themselves they are very weak. Can’t 1vs1 anyone except other mages.

in pve mounted archers are absolute best, then MC orwarrior, then hybrids and archers...and yup that’s it. Mages don’t even qualify lol

 

[Ruthless]

Yes for pvp heavy melee worriers are the strongest one foot, followed by hybrids, then archers, then mages.

mages make a group really strong with corrupts, reflects, heals and the odd well placed thunder lash. However by themselves they are very weak. Can’t 1vs1 anyone except other mages.

in pve mounted archers are absolute best, then MC orwarrior, then hybrids and archers...and yup that’s it. Mages don’t even qualify lol

That's odd. Have they mentioned anything in regards to fixing this or seriously improving overall Mage game play, more specifically 1v1 type PVP?

It doesn't make sense given the obvious disadvantages a mage has you'd assume they'd have a proper trade off. Having one class type with such a clear advantage in both pve and pvp is ridiculous. What incentive is there to waste your 1 char slot on anything else?

 

[Kelzyr]

That's odd. Have they mentioned anything in regards to fixing this or seriously improving overall Mage game play, more specifically 1v1 type PVP?

It doesn't make sense given the obvious disadvantages a mage has you'd assume they'd have a proper trade off. Having one class type with such a clear advantage in both pve and pvp is ridiculous. What incentive is there to waste your 1 char slot on anything else?

Some people like to fill the support role (like myself) but there is nothing stopping you from tweaking your attributes to temporarily use a melee weapon if you need it to farm solo (I will in the beginning of the game)

If you concern yourself with 1v1 scenarios then your best not being a full mage, maybe consider a hybrid or paladin build.

 

[Jackdstripper]

The other issue of course is gear. A mage pretty much only needs a few silver worth of regs. If you die you lost nothing. A fighter needs armor and weapons which can cost quite a bit for good stuff. The top tier armors can cost more than a house.

if mages could solo warriors, than nobody would go through the trouble of gearing and playing a warrior.

as a mage you risk very little and because of that you are very weak.

 

[Ruthless]

The other issue of course is gear. A mage pretty much only needs a few silver worth of regs. If you die you lost nothing. A fighter needs armor and weapons which can cost quite a bit for good stuff. The top tier armors can cost more than a house.

if mages could solo warriors, than nobody would go through the trouble of gearing and playing a warrior.

as a mage you risk very little and because of that you are very weak.

That's an interesting take. Btw I'm not saying switch roles with warrior types so mages are the new king of pvp and pve. I'm simply curious as to why it's not balanced. I'd like to roll a warrior, mage or archer and feel I can win 1v1. It's the only aspect of this game that is seriously flawed imo.

Mages only need reagents? No need for armor, odd.

Top tier armor for mages cost very little? Why is that? Do you think if the classes were balanced this would still be the case? Mages currently stand still to cast, spell length, 1-2 hits and dead, inventory space, fizzling, need reagents etc, etc. They have so many disadvantages and no incentive. It's completely absurd.

Asking for balance is completely reasonable.

 

[Kelzyr]

When more magic schools release the power of mages rises exponentially...especially if they keep some of the schools as powerful as they were in the first game.

Unfortunately ecumenical spells is a very basic set of spells so they can be somewhat underwhelming.

I think the main problem with wanting mages able to 1v1 a warrior is that the changes to make this possible would more than likely make mages OP in group fight scenarios.

I haven't thought about this too hard, but if you have a sound solution and it gets seen then it could come to pass. But just simply asking for a change without a solution doesn't help much

 

[Ruthless]

When more magic schools release the power of mages rises exponentially...especially if they keep some of the schools as powerful as they were in the first game.

Unfortunately ecumenical spells is a very basic set of spells so they can be somewhat underwhelming.

I think the main problem with wanting mages able to 1v1 a warrior is that the changes to make this possible would more than likely make mages OP in group fight scenarios.

I haven't thought about this too hard, but if you have a sound solution and it gets seen then it could come to pass. But just simply asking for a change without a solution doesn't help much

I assume they do extensive internal testing regarding balancing due to it's importance in a skill based PvP game but from my limited time spent in the stress test I'd say some combination of damage increases and decrease of casting time.
Also, some combination of decreased mana consumption and cast time to help with PvE. Perhaps, look into separate inventory space for reagents as well.

Keep mages squishy, slow, spells fizzles and reliant on reagents in exchange for high damage. I don't want to rely on waiting for a new school of magic to survive a 1v1 type senerio.

 

[Jackdstripper]

The biggest problem with buffing mages is that their damage in not blockable. Yes I know about reflect but it’s a mage ability amd even mages can’t keep putting it on forever cause it’s mana intensive.

a mage is able to block, or at least reduce, melee damage with even a torch. A warrior just has to take the damage.

so now you go and buff mages and warriors have no way to mitigate or block incoming damage. Would be way too easy for a couple of mages to focus fire and insta kill even the most geared warrior. And nobody likes insta kill scenarios.

something to help mages pve would be cool, but making mages too strong in pvp will make everyone roll a mage. Keep in mind that mages do not stimulate economy because they don’t really buy expensive weapons and armor. They can even fight totally naked.