On support-type Mage.

I suppose every class will eventually get a topic like this-a rant or complaint concerning their class being off in some way. For me, it’s support-type Mage.

I can’t say how much of it is my equip(35 PVP at 41, jewellery from the Crypts with one random Blue that will be replaced) or gem choices(Mainly HP and MA) or Astrals(Blue PDEF, Blue MA, Aegis, Blue HP, all around Lv 3/4), whatever. I’m actively hoping to get talk, I’ll admit. Mostly because whether I’m refuted or not, at least it’ll be there and discussed.

Support requires a lot of focus. Besides essentials(Heart Elemental, Mana Master, Castinator Rank 1, Healing Empower), we have Damnation, Restoration, Suntoria, Purification, Blessed Light, and Meteoric Destroyer(Pre-requisite). A lot of points, and nearly no offence to go with it-Damnation is good, but with a long cooldown. No points to go for real offence.

Rage issues. Healing can be regarded as expensive for a mage simply because Heart Mastery only applies on damage hits, not healing hits(Not that it’d get you much). Castinator is unreliable. People rightly slam Thunderer and the Delphics as being too expensive for their cost. Similar principle.

Healing and damage. Damage always outpaces healing potential-understandable given even before any boosts, it’s 100% or so of power vs 75%(Top rank Restoration). If it doesn’t, the target(NPC or not) would likely have lost anyway. Repeatedly I’ve ended up in situations where I’ve been thinking ‘If only I hadn’t healed’ because I’ve lost by one attack that was used to heal-be it near the beginning of the battle or the end. It gets worse when the damage is via debuff(As the SP dungeons are throwing out now). At least HP damage you are almost zero-sum if it wasn’t for the Rage. Purification is a free turn for the enemy.

“How can your offence be bad? You HAVE to get Meteoric Destroyer, and that’s a two-hitter with a chance of 3 hits!” Generally you’re hitting 4 targets, 3 in Arena and Battlegrounds. So you’re returning 12-16 Rage(Remember Heart Mastery works per hit, per target) unless luck is with you(And I’m not even sure of whether the third hit of minor damage gives you the rage back). Rain of Fire ‘pays for itself’. Meteor does not. More than this, Rain of Fire(For whatever reason) will not consume the Castinator buff though it is affected by it(Making Rain of Fire entirely free yet still gaining Rage off it). Meteor will.

“Couldn’t you go with the Crafted sets and their far higher Rage gains?” With the current costs of crafting them, they are well out of reach and worse, they are inferior to the PvP set which ignores part of the target’s defences. The +damage mod does not compare. Even then you run into cooldowns(Restoration at 15 seconds, Suntoria at 45, Blessed Light at 60).

Long story short, anyone who chooses the healing path is in for pain and annoyance.

I wouldn’t mind being persuaded otherwise.

Your main attacks a a healing mage should be lightning bolt and rain of fire ( maxed out ), Meteor is a waste of time and rage, and you won’t need purify until level 50+ so going the bottom route is pretty useless until then.

A perfect build as healing mage ( with good damage is )
4/5 lightning bolt and rain of fire,
2/2 heart,
3/3 mana,
3/3 resto,
2/2 healing empowerment,
2/3 suntora ( 3/3 suntora when you hit level 42.

Survivability
1.) Always gem in this order ( Matk, Pdef, Mdef, Hp )

2.) You should really focus on upgrading your astrals to ( Matk, Pdef, Mdef, Goddess Blessing or HP ) and higher then blues, purples arnt that hard to come by if you as doing it right. ( astral guide at bottom )

3:) Guild skills are a MUST!

4:) Focus on enchanting your gear always, even that +1 point could make the difference whether its matk, hp, or more def.

5:) Max out knights as much as possible ( troop pdef, troop mdef, troop hp, troop patk, and troop count ), max out their skills in the academy, along with your own.

Astrals

The best solution to astrals that I have found is this.

Sell all greens back ( you only loose 400g per when you sell back), this way you will also get many more turns trying to capture astrals ( more star points incase you need to buy a pristine one. )

Pick all blues+ and synth for exp.

Your main attacks a a healing mage should be lightning bolt and rain of fire ( maxed out ), Meteor is a waste of time and rage, and you won’t need purify until level 50+ so going the bottom route is pretty useless until then.

Disagreed. The 40+ dungeons are throwing out 1000 HP bleeds along with other debuffs where you have 10,000 or so HP, to say nothing of the boss of The Void. They desperately need cleansing-the game is basically going ‘Hey, clear your debuffs or DIE’(The Void’s bonus boss tells Archers ‘Hey, clear the enemy’s buffs or DIE’.), at about the same time as your troops are likely woefully-under strength thanks to the jumps from Gryphons to Knights/Angels(The game is asking for troops at 36-38. Currently with saving since Gryphons hit 30, my poor Angels are 32). Besides which, Blessed Light 2 has Purification 3 as a prerequisite. Purification 3(For whatever reason) as Meteoric Destroyer 3 as a prerequisite.

As a mage you should be using knights, angels are a waste of time since we can already heal, their heal is not guaranteed, and knights do far better tanking/damage and are guaranteed to hit.

I mistyped that you only need purify for level 45+ not 50+., but until then going that route is useless ( You will eventually have to respec ).
Blessed light IMO is pointless for now ( with experience using it ). It has a extremely long cast, and costs 65 rage to use, also Suntora is more then enough to keep people topped up in any mp before level 50, including NM modes ( you may just require 2 mages for badlands ).

healer mages need to use the decade gear (30,40,50,60). Because the +10 rage is needed.

Originally posted by extelon:

healer mages need to use the decade gear (30,40,50,60). Because the +10 rage is needed.

You will get demolished in any pvp situation though + the -mdef for mage is very needed even in pve, the pve gear in this game is horribly underpowered compared to pve.

Originally posted by JuggaloMole:

Originally posted by extelon:

healer mages need to use the decade gear (30,40,50,60). Because the +10 rage is needed.

You will get demolished in any pvp situation though + the -mdef for mage is very needed even in pve, the pve gear in this game is horribly underpowered compared to pve.

trueth, for now….. later in the game it will switch. the ignore 1500 pdef/mdef is nice when most people only have 2-3k def, but later in the game when people start getting crazy health and 10k+def, they will even out. b/c you will also get to use your higher level skills more often. and the pve gear is pretty good for bosses