Solo Missions as a Mage are RIDICULOUS

katierfayepreub18_ESO · April 2014

So far, the solo Harborage missions have seen me as a primarily storm calling mage in light armor barely scraping by alive. My friend and I play this game together and it's incredibly frustrating that we built a strategy off of each other (he's the templar tank who absorbs damage and deals a good deal of damage--I'm the storm caller mage who stays at a distance to deal tons of damage and hope the enemy doesn't come after me) and then are forced to play the game solo for boss battles that are ridiculously hard for me.

I CANNOT progress in the main story line right now because I'm trying to kill Aldimion in the cellar in Daggerfall and keep dying. This is about 8 times now that I've died, and most of those times I was only halfway to killing him because my mana depleted too fast and he was doing too much damage. I used my mana/health potions that have far too long of a cooldown to be helpful, I used my shields strategically (when I had the mana to) to try to minimize damage, I tried eating food that exponentially improved my mana or health. I just cannot beat this boss, and it's entirely because I'm not allowed to get any outside help from ANYBODY. On an MMORPG.

At this point, I don't plan on renewing my subscription based on this. If I can't beat the main story quests and progress, why pay for the frustration?

Vuldan_Ironhand · April 2014

Well, rethink your strategy then. What's wrong I the scenario you have described? If you don't see it, or someone else doesn't point it out, take care and hope you enjoy the next MMO.

Hexi · April 2014

I'm at VR4 on my sorc, never had trouble with anything really. Don't know what you're doing, but you're doing it wrong.

Tabbycat · April 2014

You do realize you don't have to be a stormcaller mage in light armor for every situation, right? You can have alternative builds. You could go heavy armor sword and board with a resto staff offhand. You could also go with medium armor, bow and two pets (hunter sorc ftw).

The combat in the game is built around being able to change your build to fight your foe. Being a stormcaller mage when running around with your friend is great. But you can also create a much more sustainable build for doing solo missions.

felixgamingx1 · April 2014

Specially coz the game is very very ez after lvl 10 I haven't died once. Currently lvl 30

logansandmannnub18_ESO · April 2014

Tabbycat wrote: »

You do realize you don't have to be a stormcaller mage in light armor for every situation, right? You can have alternative builds. You could go heavy armor sword and board with a resto staff offhand. You could also go with medium armor, bow and two pets (hunter sorc ftw).

The combat in the game is built around being able to change your build to fight your foe. Being a stormcaller mage when running around with your friend is great. But you can also create a much more sustainable build for doing solo missions.

You realize what you are saying is to remake the character they are playing and spend the skill points differently. The issue is that you don't need to do this in any other situation then you get dropped in a situation where you are now solo without anyone else like your build is built around and you don't have the means to beat these things. On top of that several of these solo bosses are exceedingly strong even if you ARE overleveled for the area with well made gear.

logansandmannnub18_ESO · April 2014

On top of that you don't run into a enemy this powerful until level 15 at which point you don't want to remake the character and lose that progress.

kcolasaccob14_ESO · April 2014

I play as a sorc too and had absolutely no problems with what you're describing. If I died I was typically able to figure it out and for soloing, it's not a bad idea to wear a little bit of heavy armor, get a pet out, possibly use a healing staff and switch back once you have the heal ticking. Sometimes I had to kite, sometimes I needed to make sure I had enough Ultimate to summon my Storm Atronach but to say they're not beatable is just plain wrong. They've been beaten by many, many sorcerers and if we can do it, then everyone else can as well.

katierfayepreub18_ESO · April 2014

Tabbycat - I tried a heavy armor build against this guy. But it actually worked even worse for me because this boss is a sorcerer and I have spell resistance based on my light armor. Based on how I built my character, I'm screwed for this boss battle, and my only option at this point is to go "welp! I guess I should go make a new character now because this one isn't getting through their solo missions. Bye-bye, progress."

Sorry, but that's never been an option for me in any MMO I've ever played. I've always been able to find a way past every boss even if it meant finding a person willing to help me through it and giving me the extra damage or healing. That's just not an option in this game though since they force you to do it on your own.

kcolasaccob14_ESO · April 2014

Oh, and sometimes you just need to come back in a level or two. But if raging seems like a better strategy, you're just going to need to find an easier game.

Pro Tip: If you think this game is too hard, never play Dark Souls.

Carde · April 2014

Did "ly easy" get cut off the title of this thread?

Branch out from just the Storm Calling tree if you have to. Its futile to stay in one tree in this game, the key to winning is to be a swiss army knife, not a honed blade.

logansandmannnub18_ESO · April 2014

kcolasaccob14_ESO wrote: »

Oh, and sometimes you just need to come back in a level or two. But if raging seems like a better strategy, you're just going to need to find an easier game.

Pro Tip: If you think this game is too hard, never play Dark Souls.

Psh darksouls would be easier in this case. You can actually physically dodge things in that game. The spells in this game are homing, the dodge sucks up most your bar and shields don't block nearly as well as in darksouls*well...with the right shield in darksouls*.

logansandmannnub18_ESO · April 2014

Carde wrote: »

Did "ly easy" get cut off the title of this thread?

Branch out from just the Storm Calling tree if you have to. Its futile to stay in one tree in this game, the key to winning is to be a swiss army knife, not a honed blade.

The issue at this point is the skill points are already spent and you can get through everything up to this point the way this mage is currently built then they throw the curve ball of a very hard boss in solo missions and its the first obstacle you can't get over without more builds meaning everything is built up to that point and since you only JUST got to 15 at this point you normally didn't know you get a whole different skill bar to access at 15 and thus you don't have a separate skill list to put in.

Anoteros · April 2014

use cc.
nuff said.

kcolasaccob14_ESO · April 2014

Well, whatever dude, you're the one that seems to not be able to do something that tons of other people have been able to do. Good luck in your next MMO.

logansandmannnub18_ESO · April 2014

kcolasaccob14_ESO wrote: »

Well, whatever dude, you're the one that seems to not be able to do something that tons of other people have been able to do. Good luck in your next MMO.

I'm fine but I do have trouble on these people and I've noticed others also having trouble. Hell when I looked up the name aldinion on google the only thing I found was someone saying he barely killed him by the skin of his teeth then the boss after him murdered him mercilessly. And the responses to this guy is that the boss after him is only beatable if you are far over leveled and built SPECIFICALLY to beat a boss like him.

mlstevens42_ESO · April 2014

For a quick fix I would suggest something that would put this creep on his butt. Silverbolts is a good one for this or dark shards. This boss is not hard if he can't cast. Him being on his butt means he can't cast. Would like to also say being a one trick pony is going to get you killed.

katierfayepreub18_ESO · April 2014

mlstevens42_ESO wrote: »

For a quick fix I would suggest something that would put this creep on his butt. Silverbolts is a good one for this or dark shards. This boss is not hard if he can't cast. Him being on his butt means he can't cast. Would like to also say being a one trick pony is going to get you killed.

Thank you, finally some actual help.

I will say I did try dark shards and noticed that if I kept pummeling at the right times, he stayed on his butt most of the time, but my mana depleted too quickly to maintain that strategy and kill him. I may try again in the future with a cooler head to focus on using more on my mana on using that ability between casting shields.

BKTHNDR · April 2014

Why not come back after a few levels? I've done that with solo bosses on my light armored Templar healer.

No big deal.

ZiRM · April 2014

Sorcerer here and I can say it's pretty easy mode.

Loxy37 · April 2014

I found mage to be a very easy class to play and haven't had an issue yet with anything. Make sure you use the overload ultimate and upgrade it as its awesome (Learn to use it, can be toggled on and off). Dont over look your passives. use food to buff up your Magicka pool.

Use magicka attacks and then switch to overload while your magicka recharges, switch back (Dont use up all your Overload), rinse and repeat. Also if you have the fighters guild skill line, get silver bolts if you can as it really helps with boss fights as its a very quick firing interrupt that knocks undead on their asses.

Another tip would be to get the 2 summoned pets, the Clannfear and the Twilight matriarch, Clannfear is morphed from the scamp. If you further improve them, you can morth the Matriarch into a healer and the clannfear is a pretty effective tank but theirs a drawback in that you will lose 20% if your magicka pool, 10% for each summon but its worth it, just use food to buff your magicka pool.

Another tip is to use a couple of pieces of either heavy or medium armour because the buff for light armour only accounts for 4 pieces worn and you can of course have 6.

Another. Dont go Overcharged on your Magicka stat (Turns orange, Press C) as it will slow down the levelling of your skills although I wouldn't worry in tough boss fights as too much Magicka is never a bad thing.

Nooblet · April 2014

kcolasaccob14_ESO wrote: »

I play as a sorc too and had absolutely no problems with what you're describing. If I died I was typically able to figure it out and for soloing, it's not a bad idea to wear a little bit of heavy armor, get a pet out, possibly use a healing staff and switch back once you have the heal ticking. Sometimes I had to kite, sometimes I needed to make sure I had enough Ultimate to summon my Storm Atronach but to say they're not beatable is just plain wrong. They've been beaten by many, many sorcerers and if we can do it, then everyone else can as well.

I didn't personally do the rest, but summon Atronach makes everything a cake walk.

traigusb14_ESO2 · April 2014

Some other things to keep in mind. (Some of these I use with my storm mage)

-Mundus stones. (I use the + Armor one myself) more AC without giving up light. armor.

-Armor traits Don't forget you can get + armor trait for your light armor, and + devines for mundus bonuses. Another way to get more AC without giving up lt armor

-Armor sets. dropped and crafted. Warlock set gives you + mana when you get low. another set can bounce badies away when your HP get low (only once every 2 mins). one set with spell cost reduction... a lot of lower level zone sets only require 3 items so you can get several running at once, (dropped and player made).

-glyphs. extra stats, extra damage, extra resists

-food as mentioned above food is great ( I tend to prefer it over drink) get blue food that is + mana and health for an hour... I tend to use + health food for normal stuff and blue food for bosses.

-potions. great for quick healing or mana.

-block. You can block normal staff type spells (non-charge and AOE spells). The normal lightning and fire etc. you can also block arrows (this is true for all chars many don't bother). Blocking a power swing should be a no-brainer. All characters can block normal weapon attacks too! Yeah you'll take more damage than if you had a shield, but less than if you don't block

-stuns. casters often stand off a lot... doesn't really help sometimes. don't forget to bash casters doing a charge up. a lot of caster bosses have nasty charge attacks. If you are no good at hitting both mouse buttons at the same time, bind a different key to it.

-invest in health. I see a lot of sorcs that are all magica. Health is your friend. I also suggest a few stamina points or a few enchant add-ons to armor/jewelry. blocking requires sta.

-mix skills. I'm using the mage guild mage light skill. +19% spell crit (depends on xp level)+ light and a morph.costs a little mana off the top. My friend has a passive that gives him 10 mana if he blocks a spell (think it is from resto staff).

Lots of little things you can do to massively multiply your staying power. It seems like a waste vs. normal solo mobs, but in group dungeons and against story bosses, it makes a huge difference.

Jadeviper1974 · April 2014

katierfayepreub18_ESO wrote: »

Tabbycat - I tried a heavy armor build against this guy. But it actually worked even worse for me because this boss is a sorcerer and I have spell resistance based on my light armor. Based on how I built my character, I'm screwed for this boss battle, and my only option at this point is to go "welp! I guess I should go make a new character now because this one isn't getting through their solo missions. Bye-bye, progress."

Sorry, but that's never been an option for me in any MMO I've ever played. I've always been able to find a way past every boss even if it meant finding a person willing to help me through it and giving me the extra damage or healing. That's just not an option in this game though since they force you to do it on your own.

No, just skip it for a while. Go bang out a couple of levels and then come back to him.

Squishy · April 2014

Remember that after L50, your attributes no longer grow (no skillpoints or character points to spend). Skillpoints gained are only from shards and some quests in VR content, which is actually not that many. As such, it is incredibly hard to be able to have several builds at a higher level (that are worth it). Also, since when you make a new build, you start off with the L1 abilities of that tree, and well, you'll die a LOT before the abilities are actually usefull and levelled up. I was primarly a resto staff mage/dark magic mage until mid level. I'm still not at the max of my destruction staff, and I'm VR3

, playing primarly as destruction now to try to raise the level of that tree. So if you want to be efficient in a new skill tree, you'll also have to grind that tree's level before you are off soloing with it for it to be worthy it seems. As far as I understand how the skill line xp works, it is based on the slotted abilities when gaining xp, regardless of what is actually used in the fight, so if you can sacrifice some slots, you can slot abilities, even if you're not using them, and they'll increase as you gain xp, at least, that is how I understand the skilltree levelling system to work.

I forgot, you can also put enchants on your weapon to restore magicka over every hit. IT's not a LOT, but it helps out if you have magicka regen on your jewels also. It only takes 1 or 2 seconds usually to be able to cast again that way

.

Perseas · April 2014

I am veteran sorc rank 3 (almost 4) and I havent experienced any major difficulty at all... I am a samoner/heal

Putok · April 2014

katierfayepreub18_ESO wrote: »

mlstevens42_ESO wrote: »

For a quick fix I would suggest something that would put this creep on his butt. Silverbolts is a good one for this or dark shards. This boss is not hard if he can't cast. Him being on his butt means he can't cast. Would like to also say being a one trick pony is going to get you killed.

Thank you, finally some actual help. I will say I did try dark shards and noticed that if I kept pummeling at the right times, he stayed on his butt most of the time, but my mana depleted too quickly to maintain that strategy and kill him. I may try again in the future with a cooler head to focus on using more on my mana on using that ability between casting shields.

Every completed heavy attack channel with a resto staff gives you 10% of max mana returned. Sometimes if you find that you're losing a battle of attrition, and you aren't relying on destro staff skills anyways, using a resto staff might be a good idea.

Velocious Curse (morphed deadric curse) is awesome damage/magicka, and good for fighting big things.

Invest in Storm Atronach when you get the chance. It makes soloing just about anything an absolute joke.

Have you been using bash/interrupt? Not only will it stun them on a successful interrupt, it also does quite a lot of damage and has no GCD.

Phantax · April 2014

If you think that was hard, wait till you

Go back to Cold Harbour or fight the boss on the Pirate ship

You really need to think about an alt. spec !

Kililin · April 2014

You can skill how you want, but you can also really gimp your character in this game.

I am also a sorc and some builds just dont work in some situations, you have to adapt or live with the inability to overcome some challenges.
With the right skills it is not hard, and there is not only one set of skills that work but a few. Just not every combination.

Calaban · April 2014

Had trouble with him as well.

I just waited 2 levels then came back. I also used my physical surroundings to help. When he started casting those damn birds I would hide behind something which would cause him to stop casting, at which point I would jump out and CC him and throw some damage his way. Rinse and repeat.

It was a tough fight but it's doable. Hang in there!

notqytrite365ub17_ESO · April 2014

I have actually reskilled thanks to one story mission. It put things in a nice perspective for me. I WAS absolutely too squishy. Probably still am. But if you spend the money to reskill twice like I did then you are pretty much ready for anything.

The first time I reskilled due to being too squishy for a story boss fight(wasn't good with manimarco's multiple enemies from all directions). Put points in new skills for heavy armor and familiars, went back and kicked ass, never broke a sweat. Noticed that all those new skills I went and got skyrocketed to lvl 4 so I could morph them. I spent the skill point to morph them then went back and reskilled back to close to my original build but able to take more punishment.

Since I don't buy anything at all in game(I craft everything for myself), I am able to reserve enough gold to reskill again if need be. Until then I deal loads of damage.