Celtic Heroes

Since the beginning of the game Mages have undergone quite a few changes.
This topic is to discuss what you like and dislike about Mages as well as what your suggestions are for stat builds, skill preferences, strategies, equipment and so on.

What do you guys think of adding a skill such as Dispel Magic? Or even a freezing skill to slow/stop mobs? (EDIT: credit to Kyller for suggesting these ideas)
Does anyone use Energy Shield anymore? In my opinion it's useless when you consider that the higher level mobs all use skills which can't be blocked by the shield.
Do you prefer to play a supportive role in groups (emphasis on energy boost, etc.) or do you prefer a more aggressive role?

Personally I prefer a "battle mage." This means that I've maxed skills such as Firebolt, Shards of Ice, Cloak of Fire, Lure of Fire, and Lure of Ice. With the addition of energy bonuses from the new Lore Mantle armor and the Golden Orb of Power it's also nice to be able to pull stat points out of focus and apply them to vitality and dexterity. This setup gives 336 energy with just 5 points in Focus. Energy Well easily doubles that amount after it is leveled above 10.

How do YOU play the Mage class?

My latest ang greatest setup is 100 focus 275 vit it gives large enough mana pool to kill anything in game and leaves you with enough hp to solo everything except stonevale bosses I have maxed the lures and cloak and shards and fireball with 6 points on heal I use mana regen neccy do nolonger need meditate leaves only six skills on screen and you don't need to swap any as these r only ones you need the perfect Mage setup in my opinion

Likes- Large health amounts
Disliskes- Supposed to be most damaging class, and a warrior 10 lvls below you can hit greater than or equal to you.

Stats, 5/5/70/330

- cya in game Vapor

Great post vapor I hope other mages take this up for a mage bag out. I'm sorry devs but you guys either dont like mages or you trying to please the masses that complain once you fix them. Why don't you make mages, mages? Sounds simple but it's like we keep doing circles with classes. Maybe this time don't listen to players here and do research of your own on games that have stood te time? Great mmo's. Maybe check it out. Sorry guys off topic but I'm sure you will understand. See u all in game

Disliskes- Supposed to be most damaging class, and a warrior 10 lvls below you can hit greater than or equal to you.

The other classes do seem to have more versatility with their build choices. I think a lot of this comes down to the Strength stat. Other classes can pour points into strength to increase their damage and use gear that has damage bonuses (40 piercing damage, etc.). Mages on the other hand have damage capped by fire/ice ability levels and the magic damage of their wand.

It's been mentioned before but it doesn't hurt to bring it up again: should Focus have a modifier for Magic damage?
At the very least I think it would add more variety to Mage builds. It would give Mages a justifiable reason to make builds that aren't Mage Tanks.

For my mage- ive been using only the 3 skill slots available from the beginning (trying to see how balanced they are) and it is very, very limited...

back on topic- My mage is mostly focus- followed by vitality, and lately i've been pouring all points into dex. Currently have about 300 hp, 450 mana.
I still find very few occasions for ice shards so i tend to use a pure fire set up- cloak/lure/bolt. I also have meditate at about rank 10 since I enjoy casting so very much. Since the devs re-fixed the mages, they have been much better, but still have a ways to go. As mentioned in many other posts, energy shield is more hurtful than helpful and so it currently a poor choice (in my opinion).

Dispel magic would be a nice addition, but I personally would rather see a change in how energy shield works-aka absorbs dmg based on a one time cost for casting it. A slow would enable us to kite, which would be nice but could potentially put us on the over powered range.

I agree completely that focus should have a secondary effect similar to what str does for melee attacks... Vapor said it perfectly that we can be capped in essence just by level (since ability cap is determined by lvl) and so it means our dmg is based entirely on level. I'm sorry, but with the exception of druid, no other classes are limited in this way. This needs to be fixed.

I also couldn't help but get the feeling that the devs either didn't like the idea of mages or weren't entirely sure how to build them, every patch so far has been....interesting... in terms of changes to mages, most had to be fought to be changed back.

I have no problem with mages being as fragile as they are- as long as we have the dmg to compensate. So please either adjust our survivability or our dmg output, but either way, please stop nerfing us (and having 6 slots to begin with is almost necessary for mage/druid).

I usually play mages in every RPG that I play. I like the idea of (usually) being able to devastate a beastie back to Hades or die miserably in the process. Mages should be frail and unable to survive many of their attacks. But Celtic Heroes is quite different than the other RPG MMO’s I have played. I find myself dumping tons of points into Vitality (beefing up). The notion of being an Arnold Schwarzenegger looking Mage who can take a beating just seems very very silly to me.
I’m not sure why the Admin’s never seem to comment on these class discussions, as I believe that there is a serious problem here. I wish the Developers would simply break the chains that are holding Mages back from doing what they should be doing. Dealing out the damage! Make the nukes nuke. I find it very upsetting reviewing the Online Rankings in game for the toons with the heaviest skill damage hit and seeing Mages way down the list. The list is currently dominated by Rogues and Warriors, who also have superior armor and DPS to rely on. We need more damage. If need be, make our nukes take up more energy, that way we will have to pour more points into Focus instead of Vitality. I am very frustrated with all of this.

Tog

I agree something needs to be done with the Mage class, but I am not certain that increasing our spell damage is the best answer. There are just too many things that don’t seem to line up with this class.

Why do I have a Wand skill? The skill only increases when I melee. I am a caster, not a melee fighter. Since my top end DPS is limited by spell skill level and spell refresh rate, there should be some way to through a variable into the mix.

You know I saw a wand the other day that has +2 fire damage. That would be cool if it worked with my spells, but it is only for melee, and I rarely poke things with a stick.

Maybe a better weapon or armor attribute for mages would be a stackable decrease in casting time or spell refresh time.

Just a thought.

mage is still a fantastic class, that's all i have to say.

i wouldn't mind more spells and abilities though.

Has anyone suggested "critical hits", where we have a random chance to get a multiplier added to our hit - This would cause up to 2-3 (and anything in between) times normal damage in a single hit? This could be the balancing change we need.