What is the etiquette for running in a party?

[Leambow]

I'm a war but here is my advice, your job is to be the support of the party help your teammates out while your war (if you have one) tanks damage
Best of luck

[Newcomx]

At this level, you should drop lifegiver for shield, lightning for ice (except if you often run solo, because lightning good for boss, usually rogue do most damage on boss).

[SacredKnight]

One rule for being a mage in a party:

Don't die. Too much.

[Kreasadriii]

One rule for being a mage in a party:

Don't die. Too much.

If die, don't pretend sleeping or parents calling. lmfao

[whizzyrich]

Lol. Trust me, dying is no fun. But working on getting some health and armor. Thx.

[asikum]

Every class has a job. As a mage, this varies depending on the type of party and level you are in. I am assuming you have encountered some uneducated/inexpierenced players which can shake your confidence. The fact you are posting for advice shows alot to your character. I would rather play with someone willing to learn anyday. This is a game. With time you will find your groove and what works for you. Ignore the people screaming. Real mentors will show you better ways and talk to you nicely, give advice on skills/build, gear, pets, etc. Add me if you want ign: asikum

[Killfreeak]

Hey, just a tip about your build and where you have chosen to assign your points. Your stat points should all be assigned to intelligence. It gives you the most damage and is your primary stat point.

Your main skill should be your arcane shield. It means you can survive longer as it stops incoming damage. I suggest putting 5/5 points on this skill. Remember to charge your shield always, to make it stronger, and to give you 2 seconds of invulnerability (where you take absolutely no damage for 2 seconds).
Dont forget about passive points either. You only have 4 slots where you can map skills, so you should only be using 4 skills. As i can see, you already have 5. The 4 skills i suggest you to use (at this level) are: fireball, arcane shield, lifegiver(heal), and timeshift. Use 5/5 on all of the skills EXCEPT for heal. You only require 2 points on heal; for unlocking the skill, and unlock the effect, empower (mana). After that, the rest of the points are quite useless.
Now back to passive points. You should firstly give yourself 5/5 knowledge (intelligence). This is your primary stat and is going to have the most effect. Secondly, you should then get 5/5 might (strength). This skill is going to give you more health and will make your arcane shield stronger.

After that, you can choose to assign your points on pretty much anything except for movement speed/quickness and damage. Both these passives are a waste of points. As you have ethyl (which happiness' bonus gives you damage %), the damage passive would be absolutely useless. The effect of this passive doesn't stack with pet effects, so therefore i would strongly advise not to use this passive. As for movement speed, it also doesnt stack with the happiness bonus of pets which provide movement speed. Also, there is almost no point on using this, as you will barely notice 5% of movement speed if you don't use a pet which boosts your movement speed.

If you aren't happy with my build, there are loads of forum posts which have indepth explanations for beginners and good builds which are designed especially for mage and PvE. This build is purely a basic build which will make levelling a lot easier for you, with a lot less deaths

[Candylicks]

There is a lot of bad advice in this thread.

1. Shield + heal is really bad for a mage trying to level. Don't you want to do some damage and blow through maps? Yeah thought so, don't use shield + heal. In my experience shield is really more for end game ELITE maps. I personally would not put any points in shield until you are lvl 40 running elites.

2. Light > ice for now. Light will proc chain lightning for you! You don't need to worry about icing anyone, again that is more of an end game ELITE map skill. The mages posting here are getting confused between powerful shaman in elite tindirin and the tiddly mobs you are killing. Light will do more damage on mobs hence you complete maps quicker.

3. CLOCK is your most important skill. You want 4/5 (no explode) and always charge and drop it in the middle of the mobs.

As for running w/ a party I used heal to give mana to my group because as new players begin arlor the cost to buy potions is a struggle for some. Yes you can say hey buy pots or you can spec heal for now. With that said, you should remove that out of build before elites. Do as much damage as you can, try to not die. No one cares about who kills what when you are leveling. Have fun! Welcome to Arlor!

[Otahaanak]

Actually Candy, Light and Ice have the same damage. The additional skill points is what takes light up over all other mage skills for damage. It's why many go to light instead of clock for bosses. And the chained lightening is only a 25% chance at best on a kill. Frost always freezes the enemy (with a few exceptions of course) But u know that :-) Then again I'm a huge fan of ice. But that doesn't mean the advice is all bad

Whizzy, like someone else in this thread pointed out, the simple fact that you asked is huge.

Personally, I never ran with shield until I started running higher level elites - Nordr and up, but then again I was lucky to run with good tanks. By the time I got to Nordr I was just dying too often not to spec it. Heal was the same, and I only spec it if I'm going to PVP.

Good luck to ya Whizz, hopefully you'll enjoy your time in Arlor.

[whizzyrich]

Hi guys. Thanks again for all of the terrific advice. Really appreciate the time you take to help me out.

Briefly, this is my experience so far so maybe you can give me a bit more guidance on where I might focus my efforts both on leveling and spec-ing.

1) Lightening seems to do more damage and seems to be a better long range weapon when I am soloing the maps. I also use it as a pull device. It would be great to know specifically where ice is preferred.

2) I am quite squishy do when I do go, I go fast. I am working on gradually improving health and strength. Any advice on gear would be appreciated.

3) The players I party with most often hate me, especially warriors but also rogues, and leave a run because I am taking too many kills. I don't know what I can do until I clear some more higher level maps which is difficult since I am mostly solo by the time I get to the boss.

4) I am using heal for maps, to save pots, and shield when running the tombs. Again, usually solo. Should I spec in more heal to help team when I am in one?

Thanks again for all of the help.

Current config:

[Serancha]

Check out the sorcerer section for tips.

[Candylicks]

Actually Candy, Light and Ice have the same damage. The additional skill points is what takes light up over all other mage skills for damage. It's why many go to light instead of clock for bosses. And the chained lightening is only a 25% chance at best on a kill. Frost always freezes the enemy (with a few exceptions of course) But u know that :-) Then again I'm a huge fan of ice. But that doesn't mean the advice is all bad

Wrong. Light is a Mage highest single target damage spell and does 250% damage on crit which makes it higher dmg than ice. The chain light proc 25% vs. ice wielder 20%. I am not a fan of ice except in elites when yes there is some validity to running ice and slowing some of the hard hitting mobs.

To the OP- the best way to mage is how you prefer and we all have different ways that we create our build. Sera is right the mage forums are wealth of information. Also I have never encountered other people getting mad at me taking kills, but maybe things have changed since I leveled a toon.

[whizzyrich]

Thanks for the ideas everyone.

I frequently go to the sorcerer forum searching for ideas, but this particular question I thought I might pose in the general discussion area hoping to get some input from waits and rogues who may not visit the sorcerer forum. Particularly other players who are at my level and running the same maps. Do they look for mana? Do they get upset when I am getting the kills. More fairly, I believe everyone should get credit of they assist in a kill.

[Serancha]

If people are worried about kills, they should be soloing. End of story.

[whizzyrich]

OK. If I'm behaving according to common etiquette then I'll just keep doing what I am doing. I guess I'll have to figure out how to clear some of the nasty maps solo. ☺

[ilhanna]

When I was leveling my mage the only issue I have with warrior and rogue was that I didn't heal their mana. I had warriors leaving map in a huff when I told them to use pots. This was why when I was leveling I soloed a lot.

As a warrior, when I was leveling, my only issue was with mages who used gale to scatter mobs then flitted away, shielded, then healed, and did no crowd control whatsoever. Kill stealing was never an issue for me. Lack of killing on the part of some of the mages (due to bad build/skills/gear) was.

[whizzyrich]

When I was leveling my mage the only issue I have with warrior and rogue was that I didn't heal their mana. I had warriors leaving map in a huff when I told them to use pots. This was why when I was leveling I soloed a lot.

As a warrior, when I was leveling, my only issue was with mages who used gale to scatter mobs then flitted away, shielded, then healed, and did no crowd control whatsoever. Kill stealing was never an issue for me. Lack of killing on the part of some of the mages (due to bad build/skills/gear) was.

Thanks much. Very helpful. I guess it is up to me whether to heal mana. Thanks again.

[whizzyrich]

I truly believe that Ice is the most important skill (and first to be unlocked) for a new player (at level 2). Although, light has the highest damage output, ice is more for survivability. Ice saves money on potions (which is very needed for new players) and it not only helps keep the mage alive but also other players. I would say the next most important is clock, then fire, then heal. Remember, HP and Mana regen very quickly when players are at low levels.

I would unlock in this order: Ice, then upgrade ice to give dot then extend duration of ice. Next unlock clock, root, dot. Then Fire, knockdown, dot. Then heal, mana upgrade. After that 5/5 clock then, then one can unlock lightning, 15% and 250% then electric discharge. After that, put points in shield (all but knock back). Then points in passives. Once a player is ready for elites, a new build is needed but I think this is a good way to approach leveling a mage for a beginner.

Thanks for sharing your approach. Given my specs above would you recommend that I focus on ice now or upgrading passive health. I briefly used ice and didn't find the stun as useful as obliterating the toons with lightening but maybe I was using it wrong? Also, I just leveled. Should I use the one point I have for mana heal our ice?

I know there are many approaches but at this point just looking at it from the POV of playing on a team. Thx again!

[Newcomx]

Thanks for sharing your approach. Given my specs above would you recommend that I focus on ice now or upgrading passive health. I briefly used ice and didn't find the stun as useful as obliterating the toons with lightening but maybe I was using it wrong? Also, I just leveled. Should I use the one point I have for mana heal our ice?

I know there are many approaches but at this point just looking at it from the POV of playing on a team. Thx again!

Maybe you not using ice correctly... My combo using Sorc skill... charged fire and released to stun, charged ice and go in the middle of mobs, released it in the middle of mobs, then drop charged time shift.. I change ice/time shift to lightning when fight for single boss with no mobs.

[whizzyrich]

Thx guys. Can you share with me the ice upgrades that you use? Appreciate the tips.