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Solo Mage Options
ZeroByteDNA
Member Posts: 58
Having reached level 17 on my Mage, I have found myself in a quandary of sorts in regard to being able to pursue an avenue of solo play. Up until around 14-15, I could pretty much go with almost any grouping of Souls and muddle through what I was trying to do. At 13, I went ahead and completed the quests to pick up the additional 5 Souls (I have not participated in PvP with this particular toon, so I do not have the PvP Soul).
Yet here I am at 17, and unless I go with a Chlor 16 - Warlock 6 - Dom 0; I find that I am getting rollled. Well, that is not quite true. The 6 points in Warlock are mainly for the Sacrifice Life: Mana. This massively cuts down on downtime and saves me from having to buy water. I have tried going with less than 16 points in Chlor, but I do not find that I can do enough healing while doing damage for the two or more mobs that I will often find myself fighting at this point (this is the reason for Dom 0, using Transmogrify so I can squirrel those additional mobs that show up). The additional 15% from Phytogenesis really helps Radiant Spores. The 10 sec cooldown on Bloom feels like days at times without being able to throw out a Flourish as well.
To an extent, it reminds me of issues with melee classes over the years that lack any form of self-healing. Just imagine that instead of plate and a massive healthpool, that you are a scrawny guy in a dress.
In a group doing rifts or fighting off invasions, I can pretty much ignore Chlor. I have much more freedom there outside of mana regen issues - but there are abilities that can be picked up from some of the Souls if I do not want to put 6 points in Warlock. I will mix up some Storm/Dom, Pyro/Archon, Necro, Elementalist, etc, etc, etc. Can really play around with the Souls.
Solo though? I find that I either outright die or I spend forever trying to recuperate between combat before I can move on. If a rift or an invasion spawns on me, there is no running away - just a case of a going for a smoke.
Has anybody found any suitable solo mage options for around this level - 17?
This is a link to the build over at ZAM's role builder: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zvRs.bco.Vdcuo
Comments
I solo fine with pyro/ele. Also works incredibly well for PvP from my experience.
Does eat up mana though and of course with that build I have no heals. Haven't really needed any though either. Unless I'm not careful and aggro a ton of mobs at once. Then again not sure any spec would matter when I do that.
Currently my mage is level 29.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
16 points into the Necromancer soul is the skill 'Soul Purge'. It does 288 damage and heals the caster and pet for 655 damage while it consumes your 'charge'. Once I had this skill, I could pretty much drain tank anything you'd run into solo questing. I couldn't solo multiple rift elite mobs, but one of them at a time didn't seem to give me too much trouble.
* edit *
For the non-elite mobs, I wasn't having any trouble with them 3 at a time unless I ran out of mana which actually never happened. There are skills to return mana with your damage based abilities, and those attacks also build up your charge, so you could effectively just go on forever.
The mage seems to be pretty a pretty tough calling. :-)
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I tried a 5 Pyro/12 Elemental/5 Archon build, but I could not even fight level 16 Aelfwar without all but dying or dying.
Rift really isn't designed to be solo'd. Rift encourages grouping throughout the game. For soloists, you will have very slow going and will die a lot.
I will give the 16 Necro/6 Warlock/0 Dom a shot. Thanks.
Can't say that was my experience. Besides the game being a bit more unforgiving than most when it came to adds and a few areas where the resapwn mob rate apperared to be jacked seemed fairly easy to solo to me. Least through the first thirty levels.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I was using this lock/necro/dom build during last patch.
Basically you let your pet tank, with the option to CC one add if it gets too hectic. I used Necrosis, followed with Deadly Plague. Life Leech/Dark Touch are optional DoTs if your mob is going to last long enough. Once Deathly Calling is stacked up, start using Soul Purge to heal yourself and your pet. This way you are always 100% HP should you need to Sacrifice Life: Mana. Exhume gives you an instant pet every minute should it die. Summon: Skeletal Stalwart has a single target taunt, which is simply awesome.
Oh and use Reclaim Power as soon as you are OOC to get your mana back up in no time.
Edit: hah Lizardbones beat me to it.
There is a guide over at riftjunkies.com that I agree with, and that is Necromancer, with 0point souls Chloromancer+Dominator
Gives you CC, pet that can do a good amount of tanking, you can heal self+pet, and you have very little downtime, oh and also you do a nice amount of damage with all your DOTs
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zvws.x.xxcdbz
this is what Im using right now, only times I really have trouble is when I drop an AOE in a bit too big group.
Use one of the pet builds (ie Elementalist or Necromancer). I find them the easiest to solo with.
The 16 in Necro is taking a little to get used to compared to the 16 in Chlor, but it is definitely an alternative to what I have been running and what I was looking for - thank you.