AoC casters

[eksdee]

so i just bought the game and the mage classes seem the most appealing to me. with the game being fairly new i'm finding it relatively difficult to find much information on them (that, or my google skills suck). what i'd like to know is, for anyone playing a mage class class - how do you find them? PvE is an obvious concern at first, but my real focus will be high end PvP in the long-term.

having mostly played tank classes in DAoC, i'd like to start afresh with a pure caster class in AoC. game looks awesome, looking forward to getting home and playing!

 

[Tilda]

There are really 4 mage classes the priests tempest of set, and priest of mitra (Tos and PoM)
and the mages, necro and daemonologist (nec and dm).

I have a lvl 10 nec, lvl 22 dm, lvl 14 tos and a lvl 21 pom.

I first started with nec, but found it did weak damage and struggled when I had more than one monster, I simply didn't do enough damage to take two before they took me. Tos was next and if I wasnt loving my pom I'd be playing this, its great fun, nice damage and good heals too. dm was going to be my next main, and up to 22 it was good fun, nice damage, good buffs but fragile like a caster should be but reading on the forum, over lvl 30 both dm and necro damage doesn't scale so well with mobs.
Which brought me to pom, nice heals, really fun aoes and cc and decent damage too.
I have complete faith that both necro and dm will recieve some loving that will make them the classes that they should be, but right now, they do similar if not less damage than the priests, and have no heals.

 

[old.Tohtori]

I first started with nec, but found it did weak damage and struggled when I had more than one monster, I simply didn't do enough damage to take two before they took me.

Noticed we're the only Necros in the guild(according to roster) so had to come in and say that i think this is playstyle dependant.

I found it fun that i COULD take on 4-5 mobs at the same time, heck, first fight i took 3 guys and whacked them on the head.

I'm REALLY at home with necro class though, guess it needs that gene

 

[eksdee]

hmmmm, how are the pets with demo and necro? i was kinda dissappointed that there was no pure casting class as they all seem to do the pet thing or the melee thing, which isn't that appealing to me. maybe a demo build that focuses purely on casting rather than pets? or will i have to submit and run with a pet?

thanks for the info dudes!

 

[old.Tohtori]

hmmmm, how are the pets with demo and necro? i was kinda dissappointed that there was no pure casting class as they all seem to do the pet thing or the melee thing, which isn't that appealing to me. maybe a demo build that focuses purely on casting rather than pets? or will i have to submit and run with a pet?

thanks for the info dudes!

If you don't like the pets, they're not really needed. Just set on on "defend" or "assist" and let 'em hang about

They do work "as said on tin", so they do your bidding and that's it.

 

[eksdee]

haha, fair do's. goddamn. 4.5 hours to go at work! *itch itch*

 

[Vasconcelos]

Noticed we're the only Necros in the guild(according to roster) so had to come in and say that i think this is playstyle dependant.

I found it fun that i COULD take on 4-5 mobs at the same time, heck, first fight i took 3 guys and whacked them on the head.

I'm REALLY at home with necro class though, guess it needs that gene

Save this post for your own amusement once you hit lvl 47-50 with the necro.
Beleive me, your opinion will be totally different.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Save this post for your own amusement once you hit lvl 47-50 with the necro.
Beleive me, your opinion will be totally different.

Oh i will.

And ofcourse i'm not expecting to "pwn" mobs the same way later on, but also, i'm expecting to learn more and thus, pwn more

 

[Basic_X]

What bothered me with the necro is that if i send in my pet on a mob, i get instant aggro. qq aggro the pet some would ya? (im lvl 8, so far the pets are below useless )

 

[WiZe^]

From what am been reading on the main aoc board is that caster are a broken class whit non or little scaling dmg wise(yes another bug), had a urge to make a necro but i will wait until they fix t caster.

 

[old.Tohtori]

What bothered me with the necro is that if i send in my pet on a mob, i get instant aggro. qq aggro the pet some would ya? (im lvl 8, so far the pets are below useless )

They are "rather" useless at first. But, when you get to know how things work, they are a lifesaver.

Especially the aggro/fear "spells".

 

[WiZe^]

They are "rather" useless at first. But, when you get to know how things work, they are a lifesaver.

Especially the aggro/fear "spells".

Almost every class is useless in the beginning, mostly the start to "shine" around 20

 

[Vasconcelos]

They are "rather" useless at first. But, when you get to know how things work, they are a lifesaver.

Especially the aggro/fear "spells".

Well, i think that pretty much summarizes it: ocasional lifesavers

- frenzy: the reuse time is so long that it makes a very good get out of the jail card.
- fear: consumes one pet. A 3 secs fear with cooldown is another ocasional lifesaver ability.

Like with demos, atm all pets are basically a walking DoT (well, demo pets at least gifv a funky buff)

Atm the worst issue by far, which is crippling the 2 mages to near useless is the bug with the scaling of magic dmg.
At lvl 57 I'm still using rank 3 main nukes, cuz rank 4 just add 8 more dmg (min-max dmg) but consume 50% more mana. Go figure.

Followed closely by the dmg variance of the spells. You can nuke same lvl target by e.g 500dmg and the next nuke can perfectly be 225 (or even worse, nuking 8 times for 225dmg )

 

[old.Tohtori]

Aye, but occasional lifesaving is good

The frenzy is handy in keeping one guy off you while you fight two, then down one, fear other, kill the one frenzied, get second pet back and finalise the feared.

Also dots on feared peeps is just nice

It's hard, really hard at times, but it's fun.

 

[Basic_X]

It's hard, really hard at times, but it's fun.

Easier with Demonologist or Conqueror. either just blast em, or wack em. more my style

 

[Ctuchik]

If you don't like the pets, they're not really needed. Just set on on "defend" or "assist" and let 'em hang about

oh they are VERY much needed, atleast the necro pets. as they are pretty much unresistable dots. and used correctly you CAN have them tank for aslong as you want. i frequently use my pets to take on +2 lvl bosses without much trouble.

and even -2 lvl elites can be done if you use the +1 pet feat. at 33 with HP buffs i can have a total of 7 melee pets up at once.

and at 33 i can take on 3 or 4 +2 normal mobs at the time with my pets only.

how? spec hide, hide, send in pets. and as long as yoy STAY hidden the pets tank just fine. just dont move around to much while hidden as that drains your stamina and will eventually unhide you.

and it seems that once a mob gets into combat they cant detect you even if you walk right up to them. the only thing that can make you unhide is if they "accidentaly" hit you if they use a 2 hander or AE spells and ur close to the pets.

so, hide, hide, hide FTW

 

[old.Tohtori]

I know Ctuchik, just wanted to point out that if you don't want to use pets

I love my mutilators(early still) and i know it's only gonna get better.

Never thought of the hide thing, seems a bit "iffy" as a tactic though. Probably gonna get nerfed.

 

[Vasconcelos]

Oh! the joys of stealth nerfs after patch.

If demos were not bugged enuff, they just stealth added a 4secs cooldown on AoE nukes.... and increased the cooldown of several other abilities. Go Funcom!

Sorry chaps, no more AoE grinding groups in Thunder River for your friendly demo.
All petitions for AoE's support have been redirected to ToS

 

[eksdee]

i found you can still ae grind if you rotate through the three aoe spells (the two gt ones and wave of flames) but not sure how well that would go later on (i'm 23). but yeah, that was a pointless and annoying addition.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Oh! the joys of stealth nerfs after patch.

If demos were not bugged enuff, they just stealth added a 4secs cooldown on AoE nukes.... and increased the cooldown of several other abilities. Go Funcom!

Sorry chaps, no more AoE grinding groups in Thunder River for your friendly demo.
All petitions for AoE's support have been redirected to ToS

Well...to all who complain about them...that's MMO for ya

Nerfs are a bad word, balancing, changing, molding game into what it SHOULD be. That's what it's about.

Learn, adapt, kill some more

 

[Ctuchik]

I know Ctuchik, just wanted to point out that if you don't want to use pets

then you might aswell use anything BUT a pet class?

 

[dee777]

All petitions for AoE's support have been redirected to ToS

AoE root got the 30 sec kooldown re-implemented as well. Also the mass-idol-farm was fixed.

Not an AoEgod anymore...

 

[Ctuchik]

Oh! the joys of stealth nerfs after patch.

If demos were not bugged enuff, they just stealth added a 4secs cooldown on AoE nukes.... and increased the cooldown of several other abilities. Go Funcom!

Sorry chaps, no more AoE grinding groups in Thunder River for your friendly demo.
All petitions for AoE's support have been redirected to ToS

i cant see why demos needed no cooldown tbh. necros have had CD's on their PBAE since late open beta.

its like OMG i have to press more then ONE button! >.<

 

[Ctuchik]

AoE root got the 30 sec kooldown re-implemented as well. Also the mass-idol-farm was fixed.

Not an AoEgod anymore...

atleast demo spells scale better then necro spells. the damage increase from flesh to worms spell did a massive ONE axtra damage in the tooltip. and pretty much that in actual numbers last i tested it. the only thing rank 2 does for certain is costing twice the mana then rank 1 did. same for most of the other necro spells

never had those problems on my demonologist.

 

[Vasconcelos]

AoE root got the 30 sec kooldown re-implemented as well. Also the mass-idol-farm was fixed.

Not an AoEgod anymore...

At least your main nukes dont have cooldowns...

Its not the nerf tho, its like if Mythic did nerf lets say Thanes back in the old days when they were poor souls

 

[old.Tohtori]

then you might aswell use anything BUT a pet class?

Yeah i know!

Just telling the guy asking(page one) about the pets and if "they are necessary".

 

[Succi]

AoE root got the 30 sec kooldown re-implemented as well. Also the mass-idol-farm was fixed.

Not an AoEgod anymore...

Bullshit, we're still overpowered

 

[pez]

So who are the big aoe/pbaoe dpsers then?

I have heard demos/ToS and 2 handers. Only aoe i have tried is on the PoM which kind of works with Lance of Mitra/Repulse.

 

[dee777]

At least your main nukes dont have cooldowns...

Seems I wasnt clear, I was talking about being a ToS and yes, our two main nukes both have cooldowns.

However please take note, that I am not complaining. I think the ToS still is a very solid class and the changes were necessary.

 

[deez]

What bothered me with the necro is that if i send in my pet on a mob, i get instant aggro. qq aggro the pet some would ya? (im lvl 8, so far the pets are below useless )

I dont have the game for a few days but i did read some about it - they made the AI so they dont agro your alot but rather going for the source as the are smarter ;P