Int Mages at Caverns

Hello!
Is there a way for int mages to play caverns without dying so much? I currently use lustrous wand set and feel like I die so much compared to other chars. Of course there's the possibility that I majorly suck too. Aside from that, I want to stay pure to get the most out of practicing pvp (I'm still learning it) and for the sake of using a wand set. But after dying so much at caverns, I've slowly been increasing my str stats (basically from pure int, to 300 int, to 250 int). And no I don't want to go pally :/

Lol

Know your ranges, keep as much distance as you can and follow a tank. I see so many "Rambo mages" in there dying right and left cuz they wanna do the bears job. (pulling mobs) Max your heal too.

Ok thanks! I try to hide behind tanks lol but sometimes scattering happens :3

While it's always a good idea to double check your play style, the biggest contributor to the problem has nothing to do with you. All the stone creature mobs have a huge armor debuff power that will kill you nearly instantly. They'll hit you with it, but you have no idea you're hit (there's no icon indicator for it). If you happen to look at your stats, though, you'll see your armor has been reduced about 80 or so points and your health and mana regens are negative. Even if you have BSM gear or the new 77 set on, that much lost armor means you're fighting with the equivalent of L60 gear on, and you're also not getting any healing to boot.

This combo combined with no warning that it has happened means you don't know what's going on until you're suddenly losing health in tremendous chunks. You have maybe a second to react before you're dead, so there's pretty much nothing you can do. Even hiding behind tanks doesn't work because you'll still eventually be hit by this debuff, and the tanks will die to it too leaving you exposed. And since tanks can't hold aggro over int mages with their high damage output, the bad guy focus will hit you pretty quickly. The only thing you could do is stay so far back that you're always out of their range, but this means you aren't actually able to help the party at all (aka leeching).

So to answer your question, no, there's nothing you can do to avoid racking up deaths in the caverns with an int mage. I hope STS will tone down the ludicrously powerful debuff, but the longer it goes the less hope I have that the place will ever be playable by int or dex characters.

Wow thank you for putting in the time to write that! Right I definitely don't want to leech haha. I never payed attention to the debuff aspect..I'll definitely check out my stats while playing - when it's safe of course lol

For my staff mage the way to survive in konzite is waiting and moving. Wait for the tank to control mobs, debuff mobs, buff tank, let aggro to him (or her if its a pally). Then nuke the mobs and move away to another side of the mobs, away from the ones still alive and potentially aggro to you. Hopefully they will move slow cause of stuns/roots/ice. Repeat until all dead.
In my experience the most critical part is not the initial mob attack, but the golem/wind killing part. So i mostly try to use mana shield later in the fight.

... this is somehow safe, but maybe not fastest. If enough mages in the party, have a wild tank and don't care to die, you can run the map in below 5 minutes - until your fingers hurt ;)

What I do as pure int is go in and use my max debuffs and walk away. By the time I walk a little away, birds will mostly nearly kill them with their shatter blast combo. If you have a bear in your party, wait for them to beckon the mob to the wall and then debuff them. The bears will usually use stomp after you debuffs and hs for the terror combo as well

Ah I see, I always wondered how staff mages survive with the lower armor. Aw guess I can't have best of both worlds and run fast and not die much. My auto loves to go to wind

Bears help tremendously for me if they bear right x)

What helps is to target or to pay attention to cavern mages. They have yellow sparkles and they often dodge bear's beckon. So they stay a bit behind the pulled mobs and attack mostly mages (as storms attack birds). If there is no bear in your team kill mages first.

If you write down your knowledge about PL in 1000 page book I'll stand in queue for it! Never stop wonder about how much do you know about this stuff behind.

I disagree with Fusion. While it is true what fusion says about the mobs being OP, at the same time i think too many people has kind of forgot what the point of a MMO is, which is playing toghether. In most MMOs you can't solo dungeons simply because team play is needed.

Caverns aren't "hard" at all, they are simply the first map requiring a skilled party. I can assure you that int mages are way better than str ones in caves, as long as you have a tank in party and as long as you know what you're doing. Follow Blatta's advice but also remember that you gotta adopt different play styles depending on your party composition. While with a bear it's easier as you have a pull/stunning tank, without a bear is not that hard as well, as long as the party is decent. Something you can do as a bird or mage in a no tank party for example is going ranged near the golems, "pull" with fire storm, than run away while the rest of party (birds/mages) run in spamming skill. The golems will be still following the "puller" and they wont survive a burst from rest of party (which is safe for few seconds since not being targeted as they are following the puller).

With a tank ofc is easier but anyway when with pro people a konz run lasts about 5 mins.

I really like it anyway, playing soloable maps all the day with everyone walking around and spamming skills randomly is boring.

Inviato dal mio Transformer TF101G con Tapatalk 2

I agree that Caverns is maybe the first map to require true teamwork. In my experience if I recall correctly, previous maps could be done solo (maybe excluding bosses.)

Thank you for all the well thought-out answers. I might go more int again lol...have hope now and need more practice hehe

I always switch between pally and pure int its a strange and wild cycle.

A friend of min taught me about teamwork with a bear. As a pure int mage for the past year and a half, I didn't know of this mechanisms.

In Konzite, when the bears pull, wait for stomp. After he/she stomps, then you go in for the nuke. Don't worry about being hit because all of the enemies that got pull/stomp comboed, will be fixed on the bear.

If there is no bear, then just try to heal whenever you can and spam mana shield lol. The only suggestion that I have.


Good luck as I do feel your pain :)

Omg thank you! I pay attention to a bears stomp now...I actually feel safe without the spam heal/pots aha...I will switch back to pure :D
Need bears though

i am a dagger mage if farming in caverns, you need to study first the team that joins you or who you joins and try to adapt to how they play, telling them what to do usually ends up fighting if they don't listen, the best thing is always stay behind any strength sets players and kite and keep distance, if a bear i usually follow him around and debuff if bear pulls and nuke after he stomps, when you good avoiding death in caverns than you will do well in PVP. PVE is more like in CTF you need team work to win.


If so happens you join me in caverns than You Are Lucky Re-rolled better of my sexyness

Join a team with a pro tank ull figured it out. Mages and birds should know their roles too not just to nuke & aggro.

I die less now by following bear and paying attention to when bears pull and stomp as sheugokin said. Also I noticed the debuff lol...my armor went to 184 while I had my maxed ms on too ;O

Lolol reroll of sexyness, so awesome haha xD

Mages job is to heal..dw I watch out for others health :)

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Originally Posted by blatta

For my staff mage the way to survive in konzite is waiting and moving. Wait for the tank to control mobs, debuff mobs, buff tank, let aggro to him (or her if its a pally). Then nuke the mobs and move away to another side of the mobs, away from the ones still alive and potentially aggro to you. Hopefully they will move slow cause of stuns/roots/ice. Repeat until all dead.
In my experience the most critical part is not the initial mob attack, but the golem/wind killing part. So i mostly try to use mana shield later in the fight.

... this is somehow safe, but maybe not fastest. If enough mages in the party, have a wild tank and don't care to die, you can run the map in below 5 minutes - until your fingers hurt ;)

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Listen to the pro!