Level 15 Twink Strategy Guide (mostly mages, few bear tips here and there)

[loliamsocool]

For 4th of July, I've decided to release a thread that's been saved on my PC for a long time. It'll only address bears and mages from level 12-15, I'm not really the one to ask for bird rhino or fox. So I hope that it helps someone out there..

sorry it's not pretty, but the substance is there, trust me, i'll add cosmetics later if people atually read it.

this isn't only for 15s however, if you choose to go 13, 17, etc. you can add or remove a few skills here and there that fit your play style.

Um, we'll start with the basics...
For Mage:
MAGE VS MAGE
- Play to your build, for example if you have higher lightning, then stay up close and personal, if you have little or no lightning, stay out of range with fire and ice and wait for a good opportunity to nuke with drain-ice-fire.
- Do not fall into the trap of seeing a one hit nuke with low heal, and converting to their build. 3+ heal is a must if you want to become a better mage.
- Heal off ice, the hot flash combo may not seem deadly but it is.
- Develop the sense on whether to save or use your skills. You want to use ice and fire together in succession for hot flash, and not ice, wait 3 seconds, fire. However, sometimes you may need to release skills faster against people countering your combo, or when you are about to die.
- Watch the other mage's heal numbers, if they are significantly lower than yours, it means they put more points into nuking, so you should kite or throw around some skills to throw off their timing.
- Mage vs. Mage is all about adapting to your opponent. The beauty of mage and mage PvP (before they earn buffs) is that no build is a guaranteed "best build". For example, a recent trend that has been taking over the stage is ice-storm use. Many mages are not smart enough to release than you can easily kite this build with 5+ fire, because the majority of the ice storm mages do not have much fire.
- If you are not terribly low (little under half or lower) then drain after they drain, however if your heal is on cooldown and they are still dps-ing, then release drain to heal yourself.
- Don't quit if your kdr sucks at first. It's all about adapting, it will improve as you spend more time learning about your opponents and your own playstyle.
- HEAL IS VERY IMPORTANT, NOT FOR THE HEALING ASPECT BUT FOR THE ABILITY TO TAKE OFF ICE. If you're kiting them and you run back for combo but your heal has not regenerated, then that gives them a window to hot flash nuke you. Always run back to fight once your heal is prepped and ready to use.

MAGE VS BEAR
- Kite, lol. 5+ fire and 1 ice should do the trick, just hit fire from it's max range (learn your ranges, please.), and just have fire + ice, and repeat.
- If you are one of those lower fire mages, what you want to do is still fire + ice to minimize damage at first, then nuke. However it is *EXTREMELY* hard to beat a forg bow bear with less than 5 fire at mage, so if you want to deal with more PvPers rather be known as a straight up mage vs mage char, then have 5 fire.
- If you do not want people to complain about your kiting, watch Zetris, his technique is more of a mini kite, and staying out of range of the bears stomp, but going in range to lightning and absorbing fbow hits, etc. It's almost the same thing but people tend to complain less.


MAGE BUILDS
Close range nuke (mostly only good vs mages)
5 heal
4 light
2 drain
1 frostbite
1 ice storm
1 fire

tips for this build:
- your heal makes it easy to counter
- stay up close and personal
- drain timing will be essential
- you want to use one of your ice and have the other mage heal it off before using the other ice ability and fire for hot flash
- spam lightning while you're up there
- get the feel for ice storm's range, it is your lowest range skill, and if it doesn't hit, it is likely you're not missing, you're storming out of range.

general combo: (you WILL need to adapt) light, ice, wait for other heal, other ice, fire, drain if you're low at any point during the combo.
You'll be spamming light the whole way through, and healing off op's combo ice whenever you can.

Long range counter (good for bears as well as mages)
4 heal
3 light
5 fire
1 frost
1 drain

tips for this build:
- your heal makes it easy to counter the other's combos
- same as always, heal off ice
- watch the op's heal, because this build gives you the option to kite them if their heal is low (which symbolizes that they are full nuke).
- learn your fire's range, it will be your friend and your most useful skill in your countering/nuking
- drain timing is essential

general combo: light, frost, fire
remember the whole time spam light, figure out when to heal, drain timing will be extremely essential, but not as helpful since sometimes it may only heal 50-60 at 1 drain.



Full Nuke
I honestly do not like this build at all, it has way too many holes in it, you can kite it, you can counter it, this build is only good for surprising your opponent a couple of times before he adapts, or owning stupid mages who won't adapt their combo.

- 1 heal
- 5 fire
- 3 drain
- 1 frost
- 4 light

general combo: drain, frost, fire, light
heal off ice, it won't be good for anything else lol.

tips for this build:
- you want to deal the most damage in the first combo, so if you can't kill in the first or halfway through the second, chances are you'll die.


PROTOTYPE BUILD
I've never tried this one but while i was editing this thread, I came up with a good on paper build that might work.

-5 heal
- 1 frost
- 1 ice storm
- 5 fire
-1 drain
- 1 light


tips:
- same as the icestorm one, but your added 5 fire makes it easier vs bears.
- get up and personal for your combo and GET OUT OF THERE QUICK, your 1 light will be a disadvantage, but your 5 fire will deal more combo damage as well as helping you kite off if you need to heal.

general combo: fire, frost, run, ice, light, wait for opponent heal, other ice ability, fire, frost, RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN!!!!!! repeat
you may or may not have to spam light, drain as you've learned, right after the opponent's drain or if you're terribly low.
and heal off ice when you're kiting them and do NOT RUN BACK UNTIL YOUR HEAL HAS COOLED DOWN.


^^ I might get on to test that.



BEARS
-stomp timing is essential
-some people will kite your stomp, watch for that
-run if you need to, if you're fighting someone with higher armor you want to stomp, get out of there fast, and return to stomp again, because every auto they hit on you will be devastating (example 15 fighting a 17, your autos do about 30, theirs do 50, 10 autos make a difference of 200 damage.)
-learn when to slash first vs stomp first, for example if you're up close, do not save your slashes for stomp cooldown, release them first and then stomp once it has cooled down. however if you're in the beginning stages of the fight, always stomp first.

hhonestly once you learn the stomp range, it's not really that hard and doesn't require much strategy


Builds
-6 rage 6 stomp 2 sms

-Buff, stomp and sms in quick succession, learn stomp range.


6 rage 5 stomps 2 sms 1 vengeful slash


- if you can hit vengeful fast enough, then do stomp, vengeful slash then sms, because venge has no cooldown, however if you can't, save vengeful for the up close and personal part, and go with rage stomp ams.



TL;dr
you will need to adapt for mage and bears are easy
read moar