Battle-Mage Advice, Please.

Medic_Droid · March 2014

"You get mad, you fly into battle, things die!" -Oghren

Seriously though, with "cross-classing" going on, I imagine that I can throw out my old-fashioned logic of Caster > Warrior, Warrior > Rogue, and Rogue > Caster.

I'm planning on building a pure caster with a heavy emphasis on PvP. So when I face an angry Nord with axe bigger than I am, or a shower of arrows falls from the trees above me, what can I do?

Would it be more prudent to divide my points equally between Magicka and Melee? I'd hate to be throwing fireballs down every hole I see; and then come across a flame-resistant player who grins, kills me, takes my gold and loots my ear.

Reavan · March 2014

Mage with staff is very effective however you might want to slip alot (or all) points in HP.
You can be pure mage and still be successful.
If you wanted to cover the bases so to say when thinking of resistances you could have a lightning staff in the offhand for example but in many cases fire is going to be useful.
I'm betting alot of people go for vampire at higher level at least to start with and they will always be weak against fire no matter what resistance they get.
Ones that are not geared will be cake for you.

Medic_Droid · March 2014

Thanks Reavan. This is good news, I'll try to keep my Magicka balanced and gather up some vampire dust.

Arkainia · March 2014

in beta the entire time i was in pvp i used mage or "battlemage builds" the best advise i can give you is become a healer and sit in the back and help your brothers out. but if your are aiming to go dps as mage i suggest you do so from a safe distance melee is not a good option for a battle mage in pvp, also from what i experience melee is barly if ever used in pvp the vas manjority of the conflicts i saw almost everyone either used a staff with range or a bow, i rarly saw a melee user unless it was a group of dragon knight chaining people to them or a bunch of rouges or w/e that class is runing around behind enamy lines ambushing small bands of players taveling to warzones
.. also even as a battle mage carry some oil pots and siege equipment the amount of back a fourth that accurred in my pvp time was endless for example the crossing from sej to alesia got dead locked for almost 12+ hours in the last pvp sesh i played in beta.

sweetfingrandir · March 2014

Melee was not used in pvp you say in Beta, I wonder if that might change now with more melee classes in game perhaps.

Berial_00 · March 2014

I doubt it sweetfingrandir. Melee = whole zerg able to hit you and insta-death. People hang back just out of not wanting to do that big run back to the fight.

Zerl · April 2014

You do realise that there is a secondary equip, you can be both melee AND ranged as from level 15 onwards.

Haxer · April 2014

I'm going Melee (dual wield) PvP and I haven't had any problems feeling ineffective so far. I can't shoot from the top of the wall, like others, but most classes have a gap-closer or solution to melee vs. ranged problem.

Whether it's DK scorpion pull (GET OVER HERE!) or the Nightblade blink-strike, I don't think using melee is a problem if you're using "good tactics" like everyone should be. Sticking together with a group, sneaking when possible, catching people out etc.

Obviously come level 15 I can add a ranged secondary, but not there yet, and have no problems with it. SO what I meant by all that, is that I think you should go full mage, and focus on playing up your strengths and minimizing your weakness in that role, rather than try to jack-of-all-trades it to compensate.

Indii · April 2014

My main is also a sorcerer. I made it to level 10 in beta and popped over to PVP and quickly learned that I was vastly ill prepared. Low HP but also low health regeneration caused me to die fast, which kept me out of combat and prevented me from regaining ultimate. Not being used to the FPS style of fighting was also a bit of a downfall (don't stand in one place).

I think bow would be the best weapon apart from staff. When magicka is low, swap to bow, and back again. This keeps you in combat from a safe distance. When the ultimate ability is ready, carefully choose your target (use sneak as much as possible) then BOOM.

Of course the real key I feel is finding a decent group and coordinating your attacks with others. Without that it's just a lot of running and dying, regardless of class. Sorcerers have some pretty valuable crowd control skills in addition to their DPS. Teaming up with another sorcerer is also a great idea because of that variety.

faluciousub17_ESO · April 2014

it doesn't seem to me that the whole cross-class thing is really a big deal because the perks you want to be a better tank or to improve spell power still line up with traditional class molds. i.e. heavy armor perks improve health regen and spell defense, light armor perks improve spell power and magicka regen, etc.

i haven't had an opportunity to try pvp with my sorcerer yet but i imagine the way to go is storm calling, light armor, balanced points in magicka and health, glyphs that improve magicka regen and spell power, and a fire staff for burst damage and knockback.

obviously i haven't put this into practice but i'm very excited to try it out.

FoleyX90 · April 2014

Here's what I'm rolling as a "battle-mage" although I'm more of what I would consider a Paladin:

Cloth Hat: +Health Enchanted
Iron Armor: +Magicka Enchanted
Iron Legs: +Magicka Enchanted
Iron Boots: +Magicka Enchanged
Iron Gauntlets: +Stamina Enchanged
Cloth Belt: +Health Enchanted

(I use cloth Hat and cloth Belt because I look badass #fashionscrolls)

Get some passive skills that increase your Health and Magicka regen based on # of heavy/light pieces of clothing you're wearing

Weapon: 2H Sword that does extra armor-ignoring damage (as an enchant)

Skill 1: Mana Based DPS
Skill 2: Mana Based DPS
Skill 3: Stamina Based DPS
Skill 4: Ally AOE Heal (You can replace this with whatever)
Skill 5: Self & Ally AOE Heal (You can replace this with whatever)

Feel free to use this as a template. I wreck *** in PvE and do quite well in PvP