PDA

View Full Version : Critical Sorcerer build + PvP balancing suggestions



Xezbeth
02-25-2013, 09:07 AM
Hello community,-

I have joined Arcane Legends recently. I have 1 year experience in Dark Legends PvP, and it helped me adapt to AL PvP fairly quickly.
I also have 3 years experience in LoL (League of Legends). How is this relevant to anything you ask? Well it isn't really, BUT, since LoL is so balance focused, and stat-math is the key, experience with calculating stats helps in other stat based games, for example AL.

I am currently enjoying PVP, while running a lvl 26 maxed out Critical focused Sorcerer.
Most of you probably already thought "Critical Sorcerer? OMFG noob" and are about to close the thread.
Before you do that please bare with me and I will explain everything in detail.

My stats

2229 - health
340 - int
201 - damage
21% - critical

My skill build

Active

5/5 - Fireball
4/5 - Lightning (Excluding discharge on kills)
4/5 - Shield (Excluding knock-back when charged)
2/5 - Heal (point in skill + mana)

Passive

5/5 - INT
5/5 - damage %

Now already you might say. Ok, so you are critical based? So why damage % instead of critical 5%?
The reasoning for this is simple, while 5% extra critical will add to your luck, but benefit will not be as tremendous as compared to 5% extra damage, which will make you PEW PEW more consistent.

PET

Ribbit - for that sweet critical passive bonus, and 40% critical on activation.

How it works

Being a critical based mage, makes you very opportunistic, and to be good at it, a lot more factors are in have to be considered compared to being pure INT.

Since you now rely on critical bursts more than consistent damage, using Ribbit efficiently will be key to your success.

Note:

this is best executed if you play on a PC with a keyboard, and even then it will take time to getting use to and not messing up the combo order.

What you wanna do:

Charge your fireball, find your victim, before launching it activate Ribbits ability, and launch the fireball, right after that charge your lightning and fire away.
If executed well, this gives you just enough time to critical with both fireball (800dmg crit) / lightning (1600dmg) resulting in a massive 2400dmg nuke.

If you didn't crit with either one of the skills, do not despair, your a sorcerer! Pew Pew while running a way like the coward that you are and wait for your cooldowns to comeback if you haven't finished murdering your enemy yet.

This is the basics of how it works, now let me go into more detail of how to handle specific classes in PvP.

Strategy

As a mage, your biggest strength is your massive range and ability to hit and run. Never forget that, be smart about it. Good mage knows how to place himself in team fights.
Stand behind those beefy warriors, unleash h*ll.

Fighting against:

Rogues - fairly simple, you should never run around the field with charged fireball in the first place. Always charge your shield first. When you meet a rogue who is after your soul, remember, timed Shield will save you from 1 hit kill of that pesky arrow that they have. Once you blocked it with your shield, unleash your stun CRIT combo mentioned above, you will have enough damage to instagib them, if not, pew pew finish with your rifle.

Sorcerers - So you are walking around with your shield and encounter another shielded mage, what do you do? Assuming there is nothing left to do here, you simply walk away in the opposite direction completely ignoring each other. Face it, if you start lasering each other you will achieve nothing more than blow away your cooldowns and get cleaned up by passing rogues / warriors. If you find thinking of yourself as superior being and decide the arena is simply not big enough for the both of you, I would suggest kitting around for 3 seconds until invulnerability of the shield wears off, fire away and hope for cookies. Remember you are a crit-mage, you will out-damage him any day.

Warriors - you have 3 options when you encounter a warrior:

1. Run away for dear life
2. Assume cosmos has conspired against you and the only remaining option is to lay down on the floor while covering your sensitive areas
3. Hope that you are reincarnation of Bruce Lee, take a stand and fight

If for some unearthly reason you chose option 3 - consult your doctor or pharmacist.
If he/she is unable to help your mental condition, than this is what you should know:

Warriors have low mana pool.

Activate your shield early, use your stun crit combo, and run away while pushing him away with procs from your push gun (you have a pushgun right? if no, rage quit at that moment)
Like a true warrior most of them will chase you, and this is where the beauty of being a sorcerer comes into play.
Keep comboing him if he catches up you will soak up most of his damage with your bubble shield. If you activated it early, keep yourself alive with heal, remember not to use it to soon unless you have to, or he will wear you down. Hope your bubble comes back.

This is really 75% / 25% success scenarios, you can kill warriors 1v1 fairly easy if you know what you are doing and the universe is on your side.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suggestions on PvP and class balancing.

Rogues - they are DPS monsters. Fairly balanced, apart from one thing. The arrow kills other rogues and sorcerers in 1 hit.
To achieve true balance in PvP related games, there should never be a skill that K.O's opponents in 1 hit, unless they are heavily underleveled, or running around naked.
My suggestion:

1) Lower the critical % for the arrow to reduce damage (against players and not monsters, to not destroy their leveling and farming phase).
2) Apply slowing effect on the target you just shot.

Since rogues have a gap closer, what this will do, is make their enemies take critical crippling damage, and give the satisfaction into rushing in and dealing a killing blow.
Apart from that, the slowing arrow will now give them more options in team fights, to slow a beefy warrior charging at them, or help secure kills when you have a fleeing enemy.
Also will give rogue on rogue action more dynamics, instead of just hit-first-to-win.

Sorcerers - Really cool skill pool, big advantage of having massive range and hit & run tactics.
The only issue I have with sorcerers, just as no class should have a 1 hit kill ability, no class should have a skill that makes them immortal for 3 seconds.
My suggestion: Instead of total damage immunity on activation, the skill should now reduce 75% damage instead. To not make this look as a nerf, the prolonged cooldown should be reduced by a few seconds. What this will do is make mages more tactical based and more consistent if played smart, as you will have to worry about positioning more, and will give players who use rogues more chance against their early stun burst. Also mage on mage action will have more depth and dynamics, because more factors will have to be taken into consideration.

Warriors - Highly beefy, highly resistant, highly mobile, high damage burst machines. Which doesn't sound quite right if you think about it, does it?

Don't they remind you of anyone? ----> youtube /watch?v=7Pz3MPBs9BY

To understand what changes need to be applied to warriors, we have to break them down to basics.

What is a warrior and what is his role?

The role of warrior should be to initiate team fights, soak up most of the damage and burst from mages / rogues, let their team safely pew pew from behind, peal away them pesky rogues off your precious fireball spewing moogles.

Right?

My suggestion would be:

1. Lower the base damage dealt to opponents (not PVE just PVP).
2. Increase the cooldowns significantly
3. I believe, healing should be removed from this class in general.

Another way to tackling this issue would be reworking their weapons a bit:

1. Shields + Swords should have quite little damage, but provide good defense and Health boosts to fit a tank role.
2. Two-Handers like axes and large swords should have the berserker status, which means - they should have good damage, but reduce other stats like hp, armor etc, when wearing them.


This should make warriors fall back into their original rolls, and still be super effective. But now they would have to be more strategic and smart about which skill and when to use it,
position better, stick with the team for those precious heals and mana replenishments, and not roam around face-rolling everyone and everything in their paths.
Also they could choose what to be: beef tanks for their team who last long in team fights and protect their teammates while soaking damage, OR berserker damage dealers who do tons of damage, but go down quickly if focused.


Please note: This is just my 2cents of my experience in this game, and my suggestions on how it could be improved. By no means am I trying to enforce this on the community, just putting it out there just in case someone will find this read informative and interesting.
If you think the above wall-o-text is complete rubbish, please do not hesitate to point out my stupidity.

Also I do understand that the game is fairly new, and everything will be improved in the long run.

Apart from that, constructive feedback is welcome.

Cheers everyone!
-Xezbeth

Cero
02-25-2013, 09:15 AM
sup bro, i like your guide and this will also help bring more sorc in pvp. thanks


add:

you can Skip arcane cooldown by dismissing and summoning pet in pvp. that will also help dealing with more critical shots:D

Xezbeth
02-25-2013, 09:20 AM
Hi Cero,

Thank you for the feedback.

I have given thoughts to this, but Ribbits cooldown seems really quick.
I haven't yet found myself out of position, it's usually ready before entering next fight after i'm done with first one. And I don't think there's a way to do this efficiently in the middle of battle, lol.

jlinder2003
02-25-2013, 10:34 AM
What is a push gun? Are you talking about a Charring gun?

Do you use equipment with a lot of dex for added crit?

Xezbeth
02-25-2013, 10:43 AM
Push gun is a rifle that procts the effect "Push".
E.G - Crystal Oracle of Force, look it up on the auction, this is what I use.

This will help you knock away warriors of your back like nothing else.
I do not use dex equipment. My armor and helmet is str + int mostly, (also do not suggest using it because you don't really need defense, it doesn't work well with your base stats and you have the bubble for def) my ring and pendant adds int, str, and critical. Everything together gives not that much critical, but remember ribbit will give you extra 7% i think (im at work atm ill look it up once i get back).

Also Ribbits active will give you extra 40% critical for 3 seconds, if used correctly that;s enough to kill a person. With Ribbits active i come to 62% critical chance if i remember correctly. Which gives you a fair 2/3 chance to critical.

My biggest hit was on a warrior, 800 dmg crit fireball followed up by 2000 dmg critical lightning, +200 dmg critical rifle shot. I'm not quite sure still why did it hit so much but it was awesome, pretty much instagibbed him.
Hope this helps

Cero
02-25-2013, 11:31 AM
Hi Cero,

Thank you for the feedback.

I have given thoughts to this, but Ribbits cooldown seems really quick.
I haven't yet found myself out of position, it's usually ready before entering next fight after i'm done with first one. And I don't think there's a way to do this efficiently in the middle of battle, lol.


hehe me either i only use it when healing using my loki.
i dont have lifegiver on my build. it is just a trivia:)

Xezbeth
02-25-2013, 11:40 AM
@Cero which class is your character?

Genuinous
02-25-2013, 12:42 PM
I feel like you are giving up a bit too much in damage to achieve the extra crit percentage... Let me put it into numbers :)

My mage right now is lvl 25 (yeah yeah I've been lazy with lvling) and it has 202 dmg as well with Clyde equipped. The gear is top lvl 21 gear except for an Oracle's Crystal of Fatality lvl 25 (not even the best either). And I have 1831 hp.

So at lvl 25 with lower lvl gear I can match your stats and have 10.5% crit as well. So to me it seems you are giving up a lot in order to achieve that extra 10% base crit. Again I don't know how good my gear will be at lvl 26, but I feel like I can rock up a lot higher dmg than your build, contributing to a lot higher dmg output.


At lvl 21 I was running a dmg/int maxed out mage with ribbit equipped as a pet and it was really hitting it. With ribbits arcane ability I was able to get up to 50% crit rate, while not losing out large sums on dmg. Just a comment, I'll see how things work out once I max my gear :)

Xezbeth
02-25-2013, 01:18 PM
I feel like you are giving up a bit too much in damage to achieve the extra crit percentage... Let me put it into numbers :)

My mage right now is lvl 25 (yeah yeah I've been lazy with lvling) and it has 202 dmg as well with Clyde equipped. The gear is top lvl 21 gear except for an Oracle's Crystal of Fatality lvl 25 (not even the best either). And I have 1831 hp.

So at lvl 25 with lower lvl gear I can match your stats and have 10.5% crit as well. So to me it seems you are giving up a lot in order to achieve that extra 10% base crit. Again I don't know how good my gear will be at lvl 26, but I feel like I can rock up a lot higher dmg than your build, contributing to a lot higher dmg output.


At lvl 21 I was running a dmg/int maxed out mage with ribbit equipped as a pet and it was really hitting it. With ribbits arcane ability I was able to get up to 50% crit rate, while not losing out large sums on dmg. Just a comment, I'll see how things work out once I max my gear :)

I have to agree, and disagree on same level. 50% critical chance is ... well, 50 50, 62% will get you over the barrier, meaning - you will crit 2 times out of 3, when with 50% you will lean more to 1 out of 3

Matutd
02-25-2013, 01:37 PM
Best guide of 2013 so far. Definitely should be stickied. Loved the humour too. Simply incredible mate.

collecor
02-25-2013, 01:54 PM
How to fight one on one?

Xezbeth
02-25-2013, 01:56 PM
@Collecor you mean versus another mage? I think i got it covered up there, but to be more specific its best way to stun with fireball and wait for shield to go away then unleash

Xezbeth
02-25-2013, 01:57 PM
Best guide of 2013 so far. Definitely should be stickied. Loved the humour too. Simply incredible mate.

lol, thanks for possitivity. Hope it gets stickied and increases the chance of actual balancing!
-Xezbeth

Ladydice
02-25-2013, 02:19 PM
Very intelligent dude.... if only I played pvp.. just came to show yah some RoM love lol!!!

Xezbeth
02-25-2013, 03:03 PM
Thanx Lady, its a privilege to be in Rage of Mages

TheStoic
02-25-2013, 08:13 PM
A must-read guide for mages like me. Very extensive.

Xezbeth
02-25-2013, 08:31 PM
@TheStoic glad you like it! I hope this information is helpful for other class users as well
-Xezbeth

Jed
02-25-2013, 09:13 PM
Looks interesting, may have to try this after I reach 26 and get bored of Elite farming.

Heiki
02-25-2013, 11:57 PM
Hello community,-

This should make warriors fall back into their original rolls, and still be super effective. But now they would have to be more strategic and smart about which skill and when to use it,
position better, stick with the team for those precious heals and mana replenishments, and not roam around face-rolling everyone and everything in their paths.
Also they could choose what to be: beef tanks for their team who last long in team fights and protect their teammates while soaking damage, OR berserker damage dealers who do tons of damage, but go down quickly if focused.

-Xezbeth

I'm all up for this but done smartly. At the moment I feel like I need to play my war offensively for it to have any sort of impact. I could run around with Juggernaut, Rally cry and heal and never die myself but i'm not sure I would be a better asset to my team compared to a classic Sky/WM/Veng/Heal.

I'm all for having options between being beefy but low damage or squishy but high damage. Right now I feel like i'm squishy vs. rogues and some mages while my damage is not really "berserker" levels.

uzidredar
02-26-2013, 12:03 AM
Awesome guide man, thanks! :thumbup:
Ribbit has been growing on me lately. I think such high crit will beat any +int benefit that other pets may have.
I'm just lvl 23 but I am starting to enjoy pvp more (maybe bcs beating the crap out of lowbies gives me a false sense of awesomeness :rolleyes:).
And I read guide like yours I know there's hope for us poor underappreciated mages.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Thaze
02-26-2013, 12:15 AM
Im thinking about making a mage. Maybe this is the setup i should try first

Cero
02-26-2013, 01:14 AM
i find a problem with ribbit.
seems they change the crit buff recieved to the nearest player instead of the caster.

colton all the way:)

Destructible
02-26-2013, 01:29 AM
Terrific guide! Great job! :) Found it extremely entertaining and informative.

TheStoic
02-26-2013, 01:58 AM
@TheStoic glad you like it! I hope this information is helpful for other class users as well
-Xezbeth

Yes, it will be useful for other classes, they will know when are we most vulnerable. Lol. Thanks again.

Xezbeth
02-26-2013, 02:49 AM
i find a problem with ribbit.
seems they change the crit buff recieved to the nearest player instead of the caster.

colton all the way:)

Can anyone confirm this? I thought Ribbit is a self buff and doesn't buff your teammates like Colton does?



Yes, it will be useful for other classes, they will know when are we most vulnerable. Lol. Thanks again.


Hehe well I believe there shouldn't be any secrets with any class out there. Once the players understand their own class PROS/CONS, and other class's PROS/CONS, not only they will be better assets to your own team, but will also make the entire gameplay more competitive. Sometimes it's not about sheer stats, good teamplay and good positioning can do wonders.

Infrico
02-26-2013, 03:19 AM
Really smart idea, I see you thought outside the box. Hat's off to you sir!

Deadroth
02-26-2013, 10:05 AM
Thats one of the biggest and the most useful posts i have ever seen... so congratz! :triumphant:

That guide is... just amazing

Hats off!
And on head now :D

Booyah!
Deadroth

Jed
02-26-2013, 05:16 PM
i find a problem with ribbit.
seems they change the crit buff recieved to the nearest player instead of the caster.

colton all the way:)
Oh, that could be why I wasn't critspamming with Ribbit in WT4.
dangit

Xezbeth
02-27-2013, 05:31 AM
Oh, that could be why I wasn't critspamming with Ribbit in WT4.
dangit

I wonder if this is intended or is it a glitch? I thought ribbit was suppose to buff it's summoner and no one else?

Cero
02-27-2013, 06:45 AM
it was intended to give crit buff to its user but devs prolly changed it.

prolly becuase of the warriors dishing out 1.5-2k crit dmg.

uzidredar
02-27-2013, 04:27 PM
it was intended to give crit buff to its user but devs prolly changed it.

prolly becuase of the warriors dishing out 1.5-2k crit dmg.

If that is the case then this entire build doesn't work. Xezbeth, any feedback on this?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Cero
02-27-2013, 05:05 PM
this build still isnt useless but you gotta make sure youre the one whos getting the crit buff.

Heiki
02-28-2013, 04:41 AM
it was intended to give crit buff to its user but devs prolly changed it.

prolly becuase of the warriors dishing out 1.5-2k crit dmg.

I'm not sure this bug is linked to Ribbit and its crit buff.

And Cero you can stay on your mage, warriors aren't THAT fun to play in this update unless you feel happy downing a small fortune in potions each run.

Cero
02-28-2013, 05:32 AM
i ha ent work on my warrior and i stopped playing warrior in pvp weeks after pvp released.

Uicheusa
02-28-2013, 07:04 AM
Man! I always carried a sword to a gunfight..

Xezbeth
03-01-2013, 03:54 AM
If that is the case then this entire build doesn't work. Xezbeth, any feedback on this?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

It still works, you might need to considering standing on your froggy to get buffed, but it isn't to hard to do sincey ou have to position yourself behind your team mates and dish out ranged nukes, also I'm sure this is a glitch soon to be fixed, as the description is quite clear, unless they will keep the current status, change the description and make ribbit utterly useless, BUT, for the time being until it gets patched, you can still get away using provided build. It's incredible fun to critical warrior without Juggernaut active for 2k dmg :D

Infrico
03-01-2013, 04:56 AM
We need lasers. I like lasers.

Lasers.

Energizeric
03-01-2013, 10:16 PM
How are you getting the extra 10% crit? I assume mostly from gear? If that is the case, then your armor stat is probably quite low. A lvl26 mage with the right gear can reach 700 armor. I can tell you that I don't have shield and I will blast you to death if we ever went 1-on-1.

For whatever the reason, most sorcerers assume that damage is by far the only important factor for them. That's great that you can hit hard, but if you can't survive then you won't have a chance to hit for very long. So to compensate for lack of health/armor, you all have shield. But then you sacrifice heal or a third offensive skill. Either way, it's not a very good build.

Xezbeth
03-02-2013, 07:12 AM
How are you getting the extra 10% crit? I assume mostly from gear? If that is the case, then your armor stat is probably quite low. A lvl26 mage with the right gear can reach 700 armor. I can tell you that I don't have shield and I will blast you to death if we ever went 1-on-1.

For whatever the reason, most sorcerers assume that damage is by far the only important factor for them. That's great that you can hit hard, but if you can't survive then you won't have a chance to hit for very long. So to compensate for lack of health/armor, you all have shield. But then you sacrifice heal or a third offensive skill. Either way, it's not a very good build.

Thank you for constructive feedback.

But consider the following:

Without shield you can't kill rogues 1v1, they will instagib you or finish the job with dash, with shield you have enough time to kill them before they kill you.

P.S. my armor is 671

Energizeric
03-02-2013, 11:07 PM
Thank you for constructive feedback.

But consider the following:

Without shield you can't kill rogues 1v1, they will instagib you or finish the job with dash, with shield you have enough time to kill them before they kill you.

P.S. my armor is 671

I usually kill rogues 1-on-1 without shield. Very rarely can they one-hit me because I have higher health and good armor. And when they can't finish me with the first hit, I then am able to stun them and before they come out of that stun they are dead since I can unload on them.

slimshady0401
04-01-2013, 01:48 PM
Hey Bro, i love your guide since i am pvp addict....non of my friends like sorc, wanna teach them a lesson....i just wanna know how to distribute stat points 5int:1dex? or what? pls reply im about to respec my character. thanx :)

slimshady0401
04-01-2013, 01:49 PM
So whats the stats distribution ? in is to ? dex?

Jig
04-01-2013, 10:16 PM
SO what points do you put in lightning you didnt say all you said was 4/45 what isnt suppose to be unlocked? Same goes with The Shield The knock back skill + the skill what are the two others..? explain .. :/
and should i go pure int

Fairwind
04-06-2013, 05:42 AM
Aha! You had the same idea as me, but a month sooner. I'd never seen your thread before, but, I did the same-ish thing on my 12 mage. Initially, I used curse for +25%, lb crits, shield and heals. Then I swapped from curse, to TS. Basically I charge TS, Ribbit during drop delay, charge lb, and let loose from there. Typically (or ideally...) Everything crits. Making it par to an aimed shot rogue. With the beloved addition of heals on demand, and a bubble to cower behind. Also, I don't use invincibility!

Great minds think alike, eh? :P

Fairwind
04-06-2013, 05:48 AM
I have a disdain for fireball on reason that it misses, and bugs something awful. The slowdown on TS makes up for frost. Combined with a push wep, its quite snazzy.