I've asked various people in ventillo, but I'm still on the fence about which school i'm going to take.

First, a little intro.

Magekiller sucks. There's no use for it over aquatic shot and, even with aquatic/jump shot, there's still no reason to take it. 20% to staff users is not bad; but in order to do that you have to sacrifice stone skin, Underwater breathing, agility buff, fire magic, elemental protection buffs and a slew of other spells that give you an advantage in pvp - all for 20% more damage.

and, with a Rank 40 Bow that does let say ~30 points of damage, that's only +6 more damage! This sounds good but what it doesn't tell you that you can shoot magic for MORE damage (50 Pts) which has an AOE attached to it.

I have good aim, and in small battles or when i'm not rushed, i do well. However I can't kite cause I don't have jump shot, and in long range distance I just plain suck (arrow travels too slow)

I'm an FPS player at heart, but I hate losing more so as much as I hate to do it. I'm going magic.

So, this leads to my question ...

Question

So my question is this. If you choose anything over Fire for your damage, are you gimping yourself?

I noticed that on the armorcrafted spreadsheet, Chain through Plate has a decreased resistance to AIR magic. Also, i'm going air magic anyway for the archery buffs + aoes.

The problem is, at least from first blush, is that the AIR magic balls seem to have a smaller radius than Fireball. Am I right about this? Also, it seems that it has reduced damage but has a significantly increased stam damage cost associated with each hit.

So ... I was thinking that this might be a good mix with fireball users - in that I can drain heavy armors and do decent damage due to reduced protections on the metal based armors (chain through plate).

I would, however, be gimping myself verus bone armor and magic users, because they don't use stam for shit.

The spells that look used the most in AIR is

Ball Lightining (Max damage 50 - Damage Other)
Lightning Bolt (Max damage 120 - Damage Line)
Lightning Strike (Max damage 32 - Damage AREA)

compared to

Fireball (Max damage 50 - Damage AREA)
Firebolt (Max damage 50 - damage Other)
Dragon's Breath (Max damage 34 - Damage Line)

How about the other schools? Someone mentioned Earth? Yes, I do know you should get the buffs from all schools, but what i'm asking here is about damage spells.

I'm beginning to think anything other than Fire is gimping yourself, but I could be wrong.

Any opinions?

Well before the patch max damage on fireball is 90 to the back 65 to the front if its surging. Don't know if it has changed. I can confirm this if you want me to hit you with it.

I am also considering air magic myself. Seems like alot of the good players coming in Andruk are using it. It does nice hp damage and alot more stam drain. Since the last patch stam drain is alot more important since it doesn't seem to regenerate as quickly. I'm currently using arrow shield to level it and plan on getting lighting strike for my damage spell.

You know, with the increase in the effectivenes of the new pots. My fear is that all they have to do is chug pots.

You know, I'm wondering why no one uses Lightning Bolt? It looks like a direct hit spell (as in no AOE), so maybe it's hard to use. Also, i'm guessing it has a long cooldown. Maybe it's just a matter of lack of skill that making people not want to use it? If that's the case, I'm wondering if it's worth looking into, and I can compensate the non-AOE factor by practicing with it more.

There's also other schools with minor spells, but the spreadsheet i'm using is kind of vague for the other schools. Someone said Earth was viable. Not sure.

What are the thoughts on arcane and necro? I think several of us need to dedicate a few hours to testing damage vs protections and all that!
Also haveing multiple schools is nice but to have 2 at fifty vs 1 with intisify up and all the big aoes would be bettter imo.

I heard Arcane can do upwards to 50 damage like fireball - however Arcane Resist rings are easy to obtain because they are the mainresistance you can get versus guard towers. (I believe)

Never heard of anyone talk about necro before.

I think the only reason people go fireball is that it's the only 50 damage spell that is an aoe. Could be wrong.

Also haveing multiple schools is nice but to have 2 at fifty vs 1 with intisify up and all the big aoes would be bettter imo. [/quote]

I think having 1 at 100 is more important with intensify. That way you get your rank 90 nuke and a 100 aoe. Tip though if your going for 100 fire I think leveling wall of fire is a waste of resources since it is on the same timer as volcano and does allot less damage. I leveled my wall of fire to 75 and would give anything to have those regs back to finish taking my volcano to 75.

Arcane school does not do Arcane damage. FYI.

For damage : fire.
For AoE and only if you can be dedicated enough for it : 100 necro and their invisible AoE lvl 100 spell.
For utility spells : everything.

What's the cooldown on Fireball?

2s, the time needed to cast another r50 spell.

It can't be much cause I have been raped by it to much...and btw..it has not made one bit of difference what armor I have been wearing..worn out, used up and put away wet has been the order of the day.

I think plate, if I remember correctly, can reduce a 50 dmg hit into a ~30 hit - but that sacrifices everything else.

It looks, more and more, that magic hasn't change and is king.

So a week and a half of me telling you this and giving examples and you finally accept that reality.

I tried to tell you, aquatic shot, witchcraft, fire, and mix the rest for flavor. I personally like mana shield, stoneskin, prot. vs. arrows in scale chest + bone armor.

hey it's Syloc, did you expect anything less =)

I hate magefall...2 accounts for sale...















JOKE...

But now, wizard won't do as much damages on geared people. And you are able to go through some old Apautan carpet bombing with infernal / dragon armor.

I think plate users are valid, i've been slaughtered by them enough to know that's it's valid.

So this is not totally magefall. Plus, it's not overpowered to the point where AOEs are killing you, just people manually aimming fireball spells.

I think, the reality, is that there are only two specs that I have seen that is effective.

The Tank

and

The Mage.

I always think having all mages might be a weakness, especially with destroyer giving 40% to staff users.