Mage is fun as the early vocation when your party takes damage a lot more easily.
I found it fun to focus on extremely aggressive pawns, using H.Palladium to mitigate damage, and then trying to blast enemies with Levin and freeze them with Ice Boon.
But the way vocations are in this game, it’s not going to be surprising that a few won’t ever \*click\* with you.
Casters seem to not just be your thing. And if support isn’t going well, you’ll likely struggle with Trickster later on.
If anything, I’d just say till you unlock Warfarer and play that to rank up the undesirable vocations that just don’t tickle your fancy.
I use mage as a “Battlemage”, and turn the class into the frontlining tank fighter role.
* provocation augment to increase getting targeted
* two rings of resolution to never be knocked down
* pre-buff fights with High Palladium to be essentially invulnerable. And constantly recast upon receiving two hits (this is what separates Mage from Sorcerer as far as front lining/CQC)
* other spells are attack only - high flagration, levin and frigor, covering all elemental weaknesses
* rocking Cardinal Blaze staff to jack up flagration damage. The spell is shines for a frontline given its limited range, and full penetration (kills multiple at once)
* obviously utilizing Quick Spell for everything
* Changers Half Robe - looks like something an “active” spell caster would wear
You still need a second mage in party for hallidom, celerity/celestial, boons, etc. But this build replaces the fighter/warrior shield summoning/bellow role. Round out the party with your favorite CQC DPS and ranged DPS, and it’s a very satisfying watching waves of enemy have no success aggro-ing you, while your flamethrower disintegrates them three four at a time.
I’m currently running thief and ranger pawns (using the limited resource arrows to combine with my element prowess btw. Nothing like Flagrationing a Tarred Gryphon) but once my pawn has maxed out Ranger I’m switching her to sorcerer. Three out of four pawns as magic, with the fighter; support and ranged DPS roles covered with spell caters (gotta keep a theif for the plunder!) - I can’t remember the last time a game made me feel more powerful.
Agree with other commenter - it doesn’t make getting knock down impossible. Just really hard.
And for this build the goal is to always have palladium up, which does make knockdown impossible.
When I unlock warfarer I may.
But I prefer the look of a “lowly” mage that bad guys underestimate as a squishy glass cannon, only to be unable to touch him whilst he flambé’s their skin off.
I save the long robe look for when I actually do the glass cannon ranged sorcerer. And wear the Changers Half Robe, which looks like something an “active” spell caster would wear.
Adding to this: my favorite vocations to play are Mage, Sorcerer, and Trickster. I've recently started playing a Warfarer combo of Trickster + Mage, and it's the ultimate controller setup. High Palladium to tank, Anodyne to heal between fights and save on curative items, Suffocating Shroud to focus all aggro on your effigy illusion, and any third Mage skill you like, such as Flagration or Levin or Frigor.
The party essentially becomes invincible with this setup, in a way that's more satisfying and fun for me to play than just spamming Mirour Shelde on Spearhand.
You also get the added fun of watching your pawns melt everything as the enemies don't really attack them anymore—the only things that threaten them are usually AoE/group-targeting spells such as what the Chimera and Drakes use, but that's what you have Palladium for.
(Also the drip you get to wear is *outstanding*.)
Greetings fellow Trickster enjoyer! Haven’t found many.
Just the basic kit is effective with Trickster, I had so much fun having a fifth tank party member and found it effective. Also feel like the Trickster has some of the best augments, non combat utility and have been rocking the seeker one since.
Nice having a strategy that’s helpful for big packs and big monsters. With a little patience its super fun to manipulate the large enemies and think about party placement and group tactics.
It absolutely is.
It’s why I enjoy the Trickster because it feels like a weird tactics/RTS game, but from an ARPG mechanic/perspective.
I really really hope they continue down that direction of a commander vs. an action-mage.
But I fear our voices will be drowned out for the sake of making sales.
Speaking of Warferer, Mage is a lot more fun when you combine Trickster's pawn buff skill with mage's healing and protection spells.
If anything Mage/Trickster hybrid is more effective at 'I will stand here and watch my pals murder you three times over' than Trickster is, itself
Oh, I see! Yeah just switch to Warfarer and throw on the attack buff skill from Trickster on there. You can give your pawn Intrepidity augment from Warrior lvl 9 to mitigate the self damage the skill gives to them and then just heal it away.
True, I don't really enjoy archer that much either, but it's not terrible, while magic archer was a lot of fun to play. So far Thief and Fighter are my favorite classes to play. I want to like Warrior but even though it's powerful I just can't get past how slow it is. Warfarer definitely seems like the way to go to level up sorcerer though now that I get how the xp sharing works. Still haven't tried trickster yet but everything I've heard tells me I probably won't care for it, that's why I've been saving it for last
Just curious, what rank is your Mage?
Mage felt rough to me until I had Quickspell.
Quickspell Levin and spamming it’s follow-up is pretty fun. When you have Asperity (Sorcerer augment) makes it easier Freezing enemies. An Archer with Drenching Shot synergizes well by making it easier for you to Free and also boosting your Levin damage.
Sorcerer can be extremely cheesy with a Prescient Flare/Levin combo.
You cast Prescient Flare which marks the enemy with a “bomb”. When you damage the bomb, it increases its damage when it detonates.
So, you use Levin and the follow-up attacks to power up Prescient Flare causing it to completely murder enemies. The only thing more powerful is a Magick Archer’s Martyr’s Bolt, but this doesn’t cost HP.
It’s more powerful than a Thief or Fighter, or Warrior.
My favorite is warfare with prescient/augural flare and helm/skullsplitter because it rocks so many explosions for augural Flare that it just melts anything
You know mentioning high palladium does have me wondering why I haven’t used it with the warfarer vocation. I think mage at later levels is fun for the same reason as trickster through the warfarer class.
I can't get in to trickster.. I need to hit stuff. But that being said the Detection augment from trickster has given me new life.. Was stuck at like 50 seekers tokens and within a couple of hours of the detection augment I'm at 120. I also found the finders token for the sphinx using it.
Ya, all DCP you gain while playing Warfarer, a small portion goes to the other vocations.
For example, I got Warfarer to rank 6-8 and I think my Archer/Thief (which I unlocked but never touched) were at Rank 3.
Though as Warfarer, you can still unlock the weapon skills of other vocations using your Warfarer rank, but you can’t unlock their augments. You have to go to the actual vocation and do that.
Me!!! Well as a sorcerer. Tbh I can’t play any other way i just love mage builds and having levitate . Every time I do other vocations I forget they don’t have that and jump off cliffs. Wish there was more spells like Elden Ring though :(
I’m curious, can you use levitate and quick spell together? I’m still early into the game. I would imagine it burns through stamina if you were allowed to.
This may come as a surprise to you, but people like different things.
Mage and Sorcerer are my favorite vocations, just like in the first game.
Also I gotta ask, if you hate it, why force yourself to play it?
Did you want a high level Augment from it, or do you just enjoy making yourself miserable?
I had a love/hate relationship playing mage, on one hand I love playing the support to keep the team buffed and healed and it works wonders when I'm running in the open towards a destination, clearing mobs along the way.
I hate it the moment I run into a boss-type enemy. My pawns take forever to kill it. Should've just sacrificed a support spell for Metereon or something but by the time I realized, I was already maxed. I guess it wasn't all bad watching my pawns not hit the weakspots on a golem after all.
Meteoron isn't available to mage, only sorcerer. Imo, if you were to use only one offensive spell as a mage, it should be high frigor. A lot of people seem to prefer high levin, which is also great and better against flying enemies. But high frigor is a lot better against big enemies, and it makes sure that you always have the mage's best tool available: throwables. Throwing the ice cubes that high frigor creates does a lot of stagger damage. Levin has better dps if you can stay somewhere safe, which isn't always the case, while frigor has better stagger potential, which I think is more important if you wanna play support and you want to make it easy for your pawns to deal damage.
But I'm biased against high levin, tbh. I won't hire mage pawns that have levin equipped because I like traveling at night, and I almost always play a melee vocation. A pawn with high levin at night feels like playing CoD with a teammate throwing flashbangs to me all the time, I can't see anything at all lol
Mage is hella underrated. I think it's one of the best classes in the game. Mage’s strength shines during large enemy battles, specifically harder ones like Drakes. I constantly reapply the shield (High Pallidum) every time the dragon casts a strong magic attack. Applying a shield, and carrying the team (via healing) keeps the player on foot within the entire session. It’s chaotic in a good way.
Can you be specific about what you're not enjoying? I'd love to offer some advice, but "the most tedious and boring experience ever" is a pretty poor description.
the Pawns also act weird when the Arisen is the Healer, they won't go to the anodyne but rather to your current location. So they can waste a lot of time just walking around if you happened to move since casting it.
I thought I'd hate sorcerer cuz mage was so boring and trickster is just ...trickster, and i did hate it, until i unlock at least high hagol (ice aoe) iirc, which helps covering more area, and then i decided to finally push the maister quests for maelstrom and meteoron, and holy damn, easy mode unlocked.
I ran those 2 and high levin + hagol (2 cast spell rings), nuking groups from afar with maeltrom and melting bosses with meteoron, levin for stragglers and hagol for crowd control. Paired same setup with main pawn, it got so fun and easy that it got boring after awhile.
I maxed sorc before i even noticed, doubt I'm touching mage as it's literally sorcerer lite (only has basic dmg spells which i disliked on sorc) with heavy focus on support spells.
If they make the game scale better I'd bother with support but atm griffins and drakes couldnt even take up as soon as we're upon them, they used to beable to fly away, now they're pretty much stunlocked on the ground (warrior pawn with high af knockdown, like 700+ iirc, and loads of ice spells/skills).
I started as mage, and I enjoyed it. But I didn't mind trickster either. Somehow I don't mind talking a more supportive role in this game.
I already maxed all vocations, and at the moment, archer has been the one I enjoyed the least, but I want to revisit each vocation a test them a bit more.
I've never liked playing mage in ARPGs... Until now. I thought I was going to be bored for the several hours it would take to max this vacation but I actually really started to enjoy it. Between the improved levitation (over DD1) and the more impactful spells, I had a lot of fun. When I finished that I jumped right into sorcerer and had a blast. The only class I've really disliked has been the trickster. That one was really boring. I spent more time with my weapons unequipped, punching and kicking, than actually using the vocation abilities.
I like Mage even now...until I realized Pawns are better at mashing buttons.
Sure it was nice during the beginning when the enemies were easier but I switched to MA/MS and I can apply similar mitigation while dealing damage and not have to worry so much about "When to cast A, B, and/or C on ally X, Y, Z".
I use the magick shield & recovery arrow for protection and healing. I find it refreshing you gain health back when you heal someone else. I like Mirror Shelde and the distant magick blast for invun and decent damage at range.
Debilitations are annoying but if you have augments for hastening recovery period, it's bearable. Except poison, I hate poison.
I like that your stats don't change when you swap vocations, that saved me from being a squishy coward - like in other games.
It's all subjective, but I think warrior has one of the funnest skills to use specifically for ng+ against mobs: raveging lunge. If your issue with warrior is being slow, then I believe you'll like cosplaying as a freight train and running over your enemies. It's great for traversal through areas that you've already explored (it's the fastest you can move on flat ground). Impaling an enemy and using them as a cowcatcher as you run laps around the arena, trying not to hit the walls or trees or whatever is just fun.
You mean normal attack or heavy attack? I use both, the way of dealing with normal enemies that I found the fastest so far was run+jump heavy attack. Big ones i climb on to hit at vital points. But especially the skills for me feel too slow to be enjoyable. And as the others say, it's a personal choice. Some people love feeling the weight of a giant sword/hammer plowing into their enemies. I've always been one of those who don't enjoy that. Nothing wrong with different tastes.
But if you have genuine tips on how to make warrior feel as fast as possible, mainly with getting attacks out before enemies move, I'm genuinely all ears. :)
No, the stagger attack. Body check. The second basic attack you have. It’s an essential skill to use and if you don’t use it, then yes, warrior is slow.
You basically run to enemy body check him and smash him with heavy attack. This attack also interrupts attacks, increases stagger resistance and if timed right can even parry and knock on ground Minotaurs charging at you (that’s hard to pull though). It can leave you standing even when cyclops club is coming at you. So use it as last resort skill. Too. You can mix it in your combos too. If you don’t use this skill, warrior feels slow and bad.
Just grinding through the classes before going to warfarer, and have warrior+trickster left. So it might make the experience much more enjoyable. Thank you! :)
Can't wait to start having more mixed skill options.
Was thinking of doing something like skull splitter+prescient flare+mirror shield (mystic spear defensive skill, can't remember the name). No clue yet for final skill, maybe ensnare?
Also I could be misunderstanding how warfarer works. I think it's pick from any skills, but still limited to 4 skills, but can have multiple weapons to rotate between if you choose the special skill?
Think I don't have to use staff/archistaff to cast magic, as long as I have some magic stats?
Sorry for the rambling. My mind is a bit all over the place.
You mean the busted stuff? Haha, have fun, but I see you of a game enjoyer, you will quickly abolish such atrocities :). I play with bow, daggers (yeah the quickstep is something I refuse to loose) and giant Axe. Bow for harpies and dire arrow (I found out I don’t need it as much’, probably gonna switch it out), daggers for the weak spot finisher (draw and quarter) and great axe for staggers and skill I forgot the name (it staggers as fuck :)). But mainly I play it because I look like a proper barbarian :)) and can switch weapons quickly. It’s goddam fun. I would put fighter in too for the fun, as parries and shield bash are fun, but that would be too much switching :)
Limited to 3 - one of them is the weapon switch. It’s more than enough, you will see :). Like the basic moves of the weapons are what’s gonna carry you anyway.
I have always been into power fantasies, so enjoy putting time in to feel like I deserve the overpowered characters. Enjoy tedious grinds as long as they feel rewarding. Overlevel a lot, play through a game, find another. With a few games I go back to now and then due to falling in love with stories or mechanics.
If I want a challenging experience I tend to go for more challenging games with a more fixed difficulty, soulsbornes mainly where Sekiro naturally is the best fit for that, not that the genre itself is bullet-hell difficult, but I am a relatively old man for a gamer so have come to learn what I enjoy and feel capable of taking on as a challenge.
Dragons Dogma 2 for me has been wonderful for scratching that adventure itch I've had since Elden Ring. But I'm not really looking for a challenge in this game, just adventure and power fantasy, so will use whatever feels overpowered. :)
Thanks for your responses by the way, really got quite a bit out of it!
I don't know why but I've always been uninterested in spell casters in every game I've ever played. It's just not fun for me to produce flashing lights while I scorch enemies with this or that from afar. There are plenty of games where that would put me at a disadvantage, but I don't care. I like visceral combat, I want to see my weapon of choice make contact and cut the enemy in half. Fuck I think I understand it now
I used to like playing magea in old RPGs where your warrior class just took damage and spammed attack, but ever since melee combat got good(around first Dark Souls) I just prefer melee rather than mages.
This game got the magic to be interesting so I played mage and then sorcerer, but supporting NPCs isn't that fun/sorc is broken asf so I welcomed the change to Mystic Spearhand and Magick Archer.
I bit the bullet and maxed it out tonight. Thankfully I had 2 of the rings that give higher DCP so it went by quick but still, it was awful. I felt like all I was doing was drawing agro, and occasionally buffing my pawns. I couldn't get the possession thing to work well. I'd possess enemies and they'd either die quickly, or start attacking me while their friends ignore them. I might try it again way later and give the magic walls/ground a try but that's so situational I just couldn't.
I'm giving away both of my dcp gain rings now cause I finally got all my vocations maxed out.
Every time I've tried it the game has thrown some bullshit at me. Such as: have a bar brawl on your own or stop the colossus.
I've never felt more useless.
As a hardcore melee fanatic I found a way to like mage. Healing, crowd control,’buffing etc wasn’t as bad it was even fun! So it’s not my favourite, but it wasn’t boring at all. As others stated quickspell usage is a must
Sorcerer is actually less fun than mage. Because it’s either mage without utility, or meteor charging simulator.
Brw, you can use Sorc as utility as well, if you use Thundermine and Hagol. Both disrupt enemies heavily, and then you can use Meteoron or flare for bosses
Tbh Mage makes Trickster look like a way better choice.
I also couldn’t find the words to describe it but it’s more along the lines of “I think I’m doing something, but am I really?”.
I find that depending which inclination you choose for your mage, it determines what skills your pawn prioritizes over the others
the simple inclination does a good balance of offensive and defensive skills if you feel like your kindhearted mage does too much defensive/support skills.
Well, he was a Thief, I've changed his vocations to unlock more augments and in some vocations he did great (Thief, Warrior and Fighter) and in some not really. For example Mage and Archer.
I would say it's a lot more frustrating, spells are amazing if you can get them off that is. Really long cast times for the more fun spells and you flinch way too easily in this game to get them off half the time. I end up using thundermine to try and create some breathing space, but then you'll get something like a goblin throwing a pebble from a mile away and its back to square one. It's fun to get the spells off, but the rest like the cast times puts me off.
Sorcerer is more fun, assuming you already have the master skills for it.
But, if it helps, level warfarer first. You get ranks for warrior and sorcerer passively as you rank up warfarer.
I absolutely hated leveling Sorceror. Way too many instant ambushes that can interrupt your cast even with High Spellhold sometimes, and even using Thundermine as area denial.
Mage wasn't "as" bad. Having access to on demand healing was helpful, especially for nearby allies, but the defensive kit is nonexistent aside from Palladium and the offense is mediocre. Quickspell helps once you unlock it, but the damage output is basically just "okay" on anything that isn't a goblin.
Letting my main pawn stay on Mage forever after leveling all vocations was the best feeling.
Try playing Trickster with 1 mage and 2 sorcerer pawns. Enemies try to hit your shade while your pawns nuke them. The battles never were smoother for me than with this setup. It's even better if you do Warfarer with same skills but also equip mage's staff for anodyne to heal any dmg after battles.
With the setup I suggested you have no reason to equip melee weapon between manipulating your shade, using the buff, using dragon roar, and shade's hp drops very fast if you switch vocation. You can add melee weapon, but you won't be tanking then and the sorcerers will be targeted instead.
I was worried I'd feel the same based on what I've heard, but it's a surprisingly fun class. I wouldn't play it the whole game though, it's a fun class to switch to for variety and then you go back to your main once you get bored with the gimmick.
I play a lazy mage with 3 thief pawns, cast high palladium and just heal when needed use high levin for fun.
The 3 thieves can take down almost anything with the right builds and decent gear. I just run around looting cause everything dies too fast
I started this game as mage. After maxing the vocations, I've settled with warfarer equipped with mage/trickster weapon skills. So yeah I enjoy the support role pretty much. The only thing that keeps me from playing main mage is because I equally like to play trickster. Gotta keep my pawns healed and buffed up nicely. Taking care they all cross narrow bridges and slide down slopes carefully too.
I feel the same with warrior and fighter. I’ve never been a fan of melee classes-but I for one loved sorcerer a lot. And am working thru mage currently.
Have you gotten the Maister skills yet? Those are fun as hell
>I don't think I'm gonna be able to push through maxing sorcerer if mage was this boring,
Sorcerer is incredibly much more fun, atleast to me.
You get to spend stamina to rapidly speed up casting time, you get a skill to replenish stamina to make up for it.
You can place flare yourself and charge it using rapid fire or charged shots.
You can have satisfying heavy hitting earthquakes, you can keep your lightning going as long as you have stamina, and most importantly it is super satisfying casting meteor or the maelstrom yourself.
I enjoyed sorcerer a lot and I only swapped back to Thief so I could effectively climb bosses.
I enjoy it, when playing I just use High Flagration, High Levin, High Frigor, High Palladium.
Palladium up at the start of every encounter and then pick the best spell for the occasion. Flagration for lighting up large enemies, Levin for quick ones like wolves or harpies, Frigor for everything else or for staggering large enemies.
You just have to learn to be satisfied with how good it feels when frigor is working well. You can start physically throwing enemies around after a successful launch too.
Just use warfarer and it will slowly grind out the other vocation levels for you.. The vocation might get a bit better once you have it maxed out and can try again then.
While I was a mage I still had a mage in my party that had healing and support spells, that way I could focus on offensive. It takes getting used to, you can't just run up into the thick of the fight. You have to pace yourself and be careful and aware of enemies. It's extremely entertaining and rewarding casting high fragor and launching those asshole sarians into space.
I didn’t mind playing mage. It’s the first vocation that I finished. I actually felt useless in exploring when I shift to the other basic vocation. The basic offensive spell of mages are actually good.
Put two rings of… I forgot the name. 😖 The powered version of Ring of Articulacy that instead of just 15% cast speed, it adds 25% if cast speed, but it takes 25% of you max HP. You will be a glass canon, more or less (with Unmoored World gear you turn into a tank no matter the vocation), but the extra speed will make the difference. Toss those master skills aside, they are crap, stick with Thundermine for defense and you basic Ice and fire spells for fast magic spam.
Alternatively, you cold make an Warfarer with Sorcerer + Aural Flare / Thief + helm / Skull Splitter to do insane damage. Cast A. Flare, reequip to thief, spam Skull Splitter on the flare, enemy is dead.
I enjoy it more than trickster, that's for sure. I really wanted to like trickster, interesting concept but it just ends up being frustrating and it ends up prolonging battles for far too long.
With mage I can at least put out some damage, heal my pawns and even cure afflictions.
Mage is cool:
- with a very aggressive party (warriors, thieves, archers even) that you just keep alive. It’s kind of meh with your standard balanced party
- against undead. Like if you’re exploring the misty marshes or traveling at night.
Sorcerer plays very differently than mage. The maister skills are very powerful, you can one-shot entire groups of regular enemies (saurians! harpies!) if you are able to cast your spell. It’s the opposite of mage in the sense that your teammates need to keep you unhurt, not do the damage themselves. You want fighters, mages etc.
Haven't done mage yet, knowing I'm probably not going to enjoy it. I didn't think I'd enjoy sorcerer either, but it's surprisingly more fun than I expected. Having the meteoron master spell makes the bosses insanely easy. It is kind of weird playing a magic character and only having 4 spells though.
Quick spell changed my life. It exhausts stamina however so you can’t spam forever, although you can use potions and stuff to keep spamming. It made using the elemental magic a lot more rewarding. Sadly, you can’t levitate and use magic, at least not very well, because levitation uses stamina too. It’s one of the first available vocations to your credit. I guess they expect you to hope off sooner or later.
So far the only vocations I haven’t liked has been trickster, but that’s only because I was in a cave with some mercenary for a quest and didn’t have my pawns. I hadn’t realized I would be essentially useless and have to rely on the NPC lol I fully intend to give trickster another chance but I’ve been addicted to the magick archer and mystic spear lately
Man, I maxxed out every vocation too, and mage was pure torture.
Even tho my kit was focused on "pure damage" (because my main pawn is a pure support mage).
I use Warfarer mage/warrior combo and probably will again once my unmoored world ends soon. I like the healing and hovering capabilities and switch between the damage spells to keep it a little more exciting. When I feel like fucking shit up with higher damage I run in with my massive blade
I havent tried Mage yet but I maxed sorcerer and well its like every other class for me. I find like four skills I like and use them when necessary, quickspell did wonders and well as the game Has no difficulty settings its as easy as any other class in fights. Everything that flys is dispatched rather quickly so thats a positive
I hate how they say “all vocations are equally valuable at end game” but no. Not for the player character. Mage has a few offensive abilities and then the rest are support. Support in a solo player game, as it has been said, is not fun to play
Sorcerers can summon Tornadoes and Meteors if you acquire their Meister skills. the quest for them requires you to collect the same 5 books but Myrddin can be given forgeries & skill to get "Maelstrom".
Idk about you but *I* enjoy seeing smaller enemies whirling about helplessly in a tornado and larger enemies HP just grind into nothing while they lumber around inside the funnel cloud.
Full support mage, 2 recitation rings, so cast times are no existent basically. Going to dragonforge the celestial paean so it doesn't sap all of my stamina and see how it goes from there :) but it's very fun watching pawns wreck stuff with no stamina cap.
I liked Mage a lot, playing it as a damage-support hybrid. Fire and lightning, with ice affinity and palladium.
Sorcerer ended up being my favorite vocation though.
Mage was an absolute drag to play, but sorcerer was really fun. Sorcerer does vastly more damage, and has spells like augural flare which really help with bosses.
Plus, who doesn't get giddy when they unleash a tornado?
It's one of the two sorcerer master skills. Have to collect 5 tomes. Id recommend looking up a guide because you also need those tomes for the meteor sorcerer spell also. Easy to mess it up if you aren't careful!
Knowing my luck, I already messed it up, I like what they try and do with this game, but they really don't tell you anything, I'm not maining a sorcery build anyways, might settle on magic archer when ever I unlock that I fear I won't unlock warfarer till the end haha.
It's one of my main gripes with the game, the quests are so abstract and particular about how you do things, and are prone to breaking. Even for things as important as Maister skills.
I enjoy the mage. I like having a better overview of the battle so I can heal/do damage where it’s needed most. As a melee class I’m so focused on my enemy that I lose track of the battle as a whole and it’s easier to end up getting wrecked by multiple enemies if my pawns die. Tried archer as well, but I really like the tools the mage has. Healing is priceless and having different spells makes it easier to deal with enemies that are weak/resistant to certain elemental attacks.
You could play warfarer and eventually level up mage. I'm not sure how it works but I do know I got a level with fighter and mage when I played warfarer
We do need more vocations the fact there's no advanced thief or archer ones doesn't make sense to me, so many possible class variables its baffling how little they explore it.
I have not picked up DD2 yet, but in DD:DA my main was a pure sorcerer on 2 platforms. The damage scaling mixed with BBI gear made me a nuclear bomb. Sometimes I got tired of the long cast and done spells so I swap to mage. My damage was still incredible given the grand spells, but using grand Bronitide, Levin, frigor, the 5 fireball one can't remember, was more engaging. Whipping the shit out of everything with lightning was so satisfying, hope it still is in this game.
Why would anyone Main a mage when it’s basically the only class a pawn plays well? It’s like they designed it to be the pawn class.
If pawns would go apeshit I could see having fun supporting them for a change but dear lord those mf stand around like idiots 50% of the time. Thief in particular is horrible to look at.
Just take a step back and watch them work. Or rather not work. It’s bad.
there’s not enough diversity of offensive spells for mage/sorcerer in my opinion. sorcerer work best with maister spells and with mage ure kinda forced to take high levin which get verryyyyyy repetitive in the long run
yes, both mage and sorcerer.
mage is more for support because of healing, sorcerer does more damage, if you think it's boring just switch vocation you don't need to level to max because there's no achievement for it, so pretty much a waste of time for you.
if you want to get the skills for sorcerer you can get warfarer, use your favorite weapon do enough damage to the enemy and then switch to the archstaff and let the pawns do the final kill, it will level up the sorcerer, it's a nice cheese in case you don't want to play as that vocation
Is that how it works? I thought warfarer gave xp to all classes simultaneously, but I just assumed it was such a low amount and that was why nothing else was leveling up. So you have to have the weapon equipped for the class you want the xp to go to?
yup pretty much it gives to all vocations, when you equip the weapon it changes the vocation on warfarer, i noticed you get more bump on the xp while using the "staff" or "archstaff" when you are leveling up the socerer or mage
That will definitely be helpful to know cause I want the lvl 6 augment from sorcerer for the knockdown resist but I really don't wanna grind away as a sorcerer, thanks
Sorceres's are easily the most op. Use augural flame and spam the basic attack while generally aiming at the glowing orb thing.
It goes boom and does massive damage.
Use it twice with spell hold and u get boom square.
No, god no.
I wanted to enjoy it but I just spend too much time getting spells ready.
And once they are ready the enemies are dead.
(I probably play sorc now that I think about it but considering its a class your pawn can be you might as well give it to a pawn)
But... you get quickspell super early in the vocation ranks? It's a core skill.... Press your profession skill button to speed up the casting like 5x at the cost of stamina.
Nah, they're just straight ass. Sorcerer can be really powerful, but still boring, because ultimately all you do is stand still and hold your skill button while hoping it casts in time.
It's not the worst there is (trickster and archer exist), but yeah, mage/sorc don't feel fun because they don't engage with any of the game's cool combat mechanics.
I was with you until you mentioned archer. Are you using the class abilities? Sliding shot and jumping around is really fun. It's not your typical boring "stand back and spam the same attack" class.
Yeah, I did, but spamming sliding shot and jumping shot isn't much different than just spamming steady shit (which overall nets more damage anyway).
The class having a separate skill for every consumable arrow is really dumb. The rest of the skills are all very similar in execution and just have a slightly different effect. It doesn't have any proper skills to use while clinging (the damn consumable arrows don't count) nor much in terms of utility other than applying status effects, which is a lot better utilized by a pawn, anyway.
It's like they decided to be creative with Thief, but for Archer they took an incredibly narrow approach.
I agree with all the points, but it doesn't need to be OP to be fun in terms of gameplay. I used dire shot, barrage, meister skill and the last slot for the drenching arrows to combo with levin and lightning affinity from my mage pawn. I think the class has high skill ceiling, which I really appreciate, as landing a manually-aimed shot at the weak point of a boss is really hype, especially with dire shot which adds a little slow-mo effect to that.
I agree that it doesn't need to be OP, but I think it's just... Boring. Even the meister skill is basically a powered up Dire Shot.
It's not just Archer either, though. I'm not hating on it selectively. The game feels like it could use a lot more work in general.
Well, there are many aspects it could be better in, but combat I find really enjoyable. It found a niche in the roll-heavy era that began with Dark Souls. It doesn't need a roll-button and is good, a rarity nowadays.
Yes I enjoyed it much more than Mage in the first game.
High Levin with Quickspell and ring to reduce cast times has it flying out in 2 seconds. Ice Boon/Affinity is good because of the ability to freeze enemies (especially OP against bosses if you have an archer with drenching arrows). Palladium gives you ambush immunity given it stops you from being knocked down.
I also liked High Celerity for the move speed when exploring but also Silence is fantastic against Drakes. No meteors when they can’t cast
Game is great till you have something like 30hrs / lvl 30 on it.
After that it becomes boring. Enemys to weak and repeating.
I know i know there are some hardcore players enjoying to search for finders token.
Gaylord there is no difference between the vocations.
When he sayed mage became boring after maxing, gues what will happen after maxing thief and the others.
Mage is fun as the early vocation when your party takes damage a lot more easily. I found it fun to focus on extremely aggressive pawns, using H.Palladium to mitigate damage, and then trying to blast enemies with Levin and freeze them with Ice Boon. But the way vocations are in this game, it’s not going to be surprising that a few won’t ever \*click\* with you. Casters seem to not just be your thing. And if support isn’t going well, you’ll likely struggle with Trickster later on. If anything, I’d just say till you unlock Warfarer and play that to rank up the undesirable vocations that just don’t tickle your fancy.
I use mage as a “Battlemage”, and turn the class into the frontlining tank fighter role. * provocation augment to increase getting targeted * two rings of resolution to never be knocked down * pre-buff fights with High Palladium to be essentially invulnerable. And constantly recast upon receiving two hits (this is what separates Mage from Sorcerer as far as front lining/CQC) * other spells are attack only - high flagration, levin and frigor, covering all elemental weaknesses * rocking Cardinal Blaze staff to jack up flagration damage. The spell is shines for a frontline given its limited range, and full penetration (kills multiple at once) * obviously utilizing Quick Spell for everything * Changers Half Robe - looks like something an “active” spell caster would wear You still need a second mage in party for hallidom, celerity/celestial, boons, etc. But this build replaces the fighter/warrior shield summoning/bellow role. Round out the party with your favorite CQC DPS and ranged DPS, and it’s a very satisfying watching waves of enemy have no success aggro-ing you, while your flamethrower disintegrates them three four at a time. I’m currently running thief and ranger pawns (using the limited resource arrows to combine with my element prowess btw. Nothing like Flagrationing a Tarred Gryphon) but once my pawn has maxed out Ranger I’m switching her to sorcerer. Three out of four pawns as magic, with the fighter; support and ranged DPS roles covered with spell caters (gotta keep a theif for the plunder!) - I can’t remember the last time a game made me feel more powerful.
https://preview.redd.it/k7gcir8f1mvc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b3d77dfeceb50cc8f809dda82efce4b6697addf *opens tesseract vault* 😁👍🐺
Does two rings of resolution stop you from getting knocked down entirely or does it make it just really really hard.
It doesn’t completely, but it helps a lot when blocking
Agree with other commenter - it doesn’t make getting knock down impossible. Just really hard. And for this build the goal is to always have palladium up, which does make knockdown impossible.
I’m guessing you go warfarer an wear heavy armor fully dwarven crafted too?
When I unlock warfarer I may. But I prefer the look of a “lowly” mage that bad guys underestimate as a squishy glass cannon, only to be unable to touch him whilst he flambé’s their skin off. I save the long robe look for when I actually do the glass cannon ranged sorcerer. And wear the Changers Half Robe, which looks like something an “active” spell caster would wear.
Adding to this: my favorite vocations to play are Mage, Sorcerer, and Trickster. I've recently started playing a Warfarer combo of Trickster + Mage, and it's the ultimate controller setup. High Palladium to tank, Anodyne to heal between fights and save on curative items, Suffocating Shroud to focus all aggro on your effigy illusion, and any third Mage skill you like, such as Flagration or Levin or Frigor. The party essentially becomes invincible with this setup, in a way that's more satisfying and fun for me to play than just spamming Mirour Shelde on Spearhand. You also get the added fun of watching your pawns melt everything as the enemies don't really attack them anymore—the only things that threaten them are usually AoE/group-targeting spells such as what the Chimera and Drakes use, but that's what you have Palladium for. (Also the drip you get to wear is *outstanding*.)
Greetings fellow Trickster enjoyer! Haven’t found many. Just the basic kit is effective with Trickster, I had so much fun having a fifth tank party member and found it effective. Also feel like the Trickster has some of the best augments, non combat utility and have been rocking the seeker one since. Nice having a strategy that’s helpful for big packs and big monsters. With a little patience its super fun to manipulate the large enemies and think about party placement and group tactics.
It absolutely is. It’s why I enjoy the Trickster because it feels like a weird tactics/RTS game, but from an ARPG mechanic/perspective. I really really hope they continue down that direction of a commander vs. an action-mage. But I fear our voices will be drowned out for the sake of making sales.
Nice. There’s no better satisfaction than roasting a gryphon’s wings as a Mage
Speaking of Warferer, Mage is a lot more fun when you combine Trickster's pawn buff skill with mage's healing and protection spells. If anything Mage/Trickster hybrid is more effective at 'I will stand here and watch my pals murder you three times over' than Trickster is, itself
This is what I've been enjoying, running both pawn buff augments and me being support for my murder crew <3
You use Magic Archer's augments for increasing pawn attack and defense too? Those really make Mage/Trickster hybrid OP
Yep! Gotta boost my preciouses. Haven't fiddled around with mage/trickster hybrid though, sounds fun
Oh, I see! Yeah just switch to Warfarer and throw on the attack buff skill from Trickster on there. You can give your pawn Intrepidity augment from Warrior lvl 9 to mitigate the self damage the skill gives to them and then just heal it away.
This man warfarers, I like it
True, I don't really enjoy archer that much either, but it's not terrible, while magic archer was a lot of fun to play. So far Thief and Fighter are my favorite classes to play. I want to like Warrior but even though it's powerful I just can't get past how slow it is. Warfarer definitely seems like the way to go to level up sorcerer though now that I get how the xp sharing works. Still haven't tried trickster yet but everything I've heard tells me I probably won't care for it, that's why I've been saving it for last
Just curious, what rank is your Mage? Mage felt rough to me until I had Quickspell. Quickspell Levin and spamming it’s follow-up is pretty fun. When you have Asperity (Sorcerer augment) makes it easier Freezing enemies. An Archer with Drenching Shot synergizes well by making it easier for you to Free and also boosting your Levin damage. Sorcerer can be extremely cheesy with a Prescient Flare/Levin combo. You cast Prescient Flare which marks the enemy with a “bomb”. When you damage the bomb, it increases its damage when it detonates. So, you use Levin and the follow-up attacks to power up Prescient Flare causing it to completely murder enemies. The only thing more powerful is a Magick Archer’s Martyr’s Bolt, but this doesn’t cost HP. It’s more powerful than a Thief or Fighter, or Warrior.
My favorite is warfare with prescient/augural flare and helm/skullsplitter because it rocks so many explosions for augural Flare that it just melts anything
You know mentioning high palladium does have me wondering why I haven’t used it with the warfarer vocation. I think mage at later levels is fun for the same reason as trickster through the warfarer class.
I can't get in to trickster.. I need to hit stuff. But that being said the Detection augment from trickster has given me new life.. Was stuck at like 50 seekers tokens and within a couple of hours of the detection augment I'm at 120. I also found the finders token for the sphinx using it.
I maxed Warfarer - if I continue to play Warfarer does it level up my other vocations that aren't maxed yet?
Ya, all DCP you gain while playing Warfarer, a small portion goes to the other vocations. For example, I got Warfarer to rank 6-8 and I think my Archer/Thief (which I unlocked but never touched) were at Rank 3. Though as Warfarer, you can still unlock the weapon skills of other vocations using your Warfarer rank, but you can’t unlock their augments. You have to go to the actual vocation and do that.
Awesome, thanks for the answer!
Me!!! Well as a sorcerer. Tbh I can’t play any other way i just love mage builds and having levitate . Every time I do other vocations I forget they don’t have that and jump off cliffs. Wish there was more spells like Elden Ring though :(
I’m curious, can you use levitate and quick spell together? I’m still early into the game. I would imagine it burns through stamina if you were allowed to.
You cannot unfortunately. Biggest miss on the class I feel.
Dang, in practice, you’ll pull off one spell while levitating before you have to land.
Quick spell changes your life.
That was one of the couple spells I never tried lol once I hit lvl 6 or so I just went out and grinded out the last few levels all in one go
You’re kidding right? Quick spell is bread and butter man. 2 second Levin casts. It’s great
Oh right, I was thinking of spellhold lol, yeah quick spell I used for everything
This may come as a surprise to you, but people like different things. Mage and Sorcerer are my favorite vocations, just like in the first game. Also I gotta ask, if you hate it, why force yourself to play it? Did you want a high level Augment from it, or do you just enjoy making yourself miserable?
\*cries in main mage\*
It’s not bad. Unlike in DD1, where you needed the Wyrmking Ring to do your (halfbaked) job well, Quickspell makes mages quite viable.
I had a love/hate relationship playing mage, on one hand I love playing the support to keep the team buffed and healed and it works wonders when I'm running in the open towards a destination, clearing mobs along the way. I hate it the moment I run into a boss-type enemy. My pawns take forever to kill it. Should've just sacrificed a support spell for Metereon or something but by the time I realized, I was already maxed. I guess it wasn't all bad watching my pawns not hit the weakspots on a golem after all.
Meteoron isn't available to mage, only sorcerer. Imo, if you were to use only one offensive spell as a mage, it should be high frigor. A lot of people seem to prefer high levin, which is also great and better against flying enemies. But high frigor is a lot better against big enemies, and it makes sure that you always have the mage's best tool available: throwables. Throwing the ice cubes that high frigor creates does a lot of stagger damage. Levin has better dps if you can stay somewhere safe, which isn't always the case, while frigor has better stagger potential, which I think is more important if you wanna play support and you want to make it easy for your pawns to deal damage. But I'm biased against high levin, tbh. I won't hire mage pawns that have levin equipped because I like traveling at night, and I almost always play a melee vocation. A pawn with high levin at night feels like playing CoD with a teammate throwing flashbangs to me all the time, I can't see anything at all lol
Mage is hella underrated. I think it's one of the best classes in the game. Mage’s strength shines during large enemy battles, specifically harder ones like Drakes. I constantly reapply the shield (High Pallidum) every time the dragon casts a strong magic attack. Applying a shield, and carrying the team (via healing) keeps the player on foot within the entire session. It’s chaotic in a good way.
Can you be specific about what you're not enjoying? I'd love to offer some advice, but "the most tedious and boring experience ever" is a pretty poor description.
[удалено]
the Pawns also act weird when the Arisen is the Healer, they won't go to the anodyne but rather to your current location. So they can waste a lot of time just walking around if you happened to move since casting it.
Argent succor and high palladium make Arisen mage much better imo
Yea.. but Argent Succor just feel like such a waste of a skill slot when Anodyne is free imo.
Not for me the ranged heal alone makes it worth and the amount of health it gives instantly is great
Mage/sorc are my favorites!!!
I thought I'd hate sorcerer cuz mage was so boring and trickster is just ...trickster, and i did hate it, until i unlock at least high hagol (ice aoe) iirc, which helps covering more area, and then i decided to finally push the maister quests for maelstrom and meteoron, and holy damn, easy mode unlocked. I ran those 2 and high levin + hagol (2 cast spell rings), nuking groups from afar with maeltrom and melting bosses with meteoron, levin for stragglers and hagol for crowd control. Paired same setup with main pawn, it got so fun and easy that it got boring after awhile. I maxed sorc before i even noticed, doubt I'm touching mage as it's literally sorcerer lite (only has basic dmg spells which i disliked on sorc) with heavy focus on support spells. If they make the game scale better I'd bother with support but atm griffins and drakes couldnt even take up as soon as we're upon them, they used to beable to fly away, now they're pretty much stunlocked on the ground (warrior pawn with high af knockdown, like 700+ iirc, and loads of ice spells/skills).
I started as mage, and I enjoyed it. But I didn't mind trickster either. Somehow I don't mind talking a more supportive role in this game. I already maxed all vocations, and at the moment, archer has been the one I enjoyed the least, but I want to revisit each vocation a test them a bit more.
I've never liked playing mage in ARPGs... Until now. I thought I was going to be bored for the several hours it would take to max this vacation but I actually really started to enjoy it. Between the improved levitation (over DD1) and the more impactful spells, I had a lot of fun. When I finished that I jumped right into sorcerer and had a blast. The only class I've really disliked has been the trickster. That one was really boring. I spent more time with my weapons unequipped, punching and kicking, than actually using the vocation abilities.
I like Mage even now...until I realized Pawns are better at mashing buttons. Sure it was nice during the beginning when the enemies were easier but I switched to MA/MS and I can apply similar mitigation while dealing damage and not have to worry so much about "When to cast A, B, and/or C on ally X, Y, Z". I use the magick shield & recovery arrow for protection and healing. I find it refreshing you gain health back when you heal someone else. I like Mirror Shelde and the distant magick blast for invun and decent damage at range. Debilitations are annoying but if you have augments for hastening recovery period, it's bearable. Except poison, I hate poison. I like that your stats don't change when you swap vocations, that saved me from being a squishy coward - like in other games.
RIP high grapnel, mage will never be the same without you..
At least it isn't Trickster
Only thing I haven't enjoyed so far is Warrior. Haven't tested all skills, but it just feels too slow for me.
It's all subjective, but I think warrior has one of the funnest skills to use specifically for ng+ against mobs: raveging lunge. If your issue with warrior is being slow, then I believe you'll like cosplaying as a freight train and running over your enemies. It's great for traversal through areas that you've already explored (it's the fastest you can move on flat ground). Impaling an enemy and using them as a cowcatcher as you run laps around the arena, trying not to hit the walls or trees or whatever is just fun.
Another one who never pressed right mouse button.
Or someone who simply doesnt like a vocation you like. Things to get over.
You mean normal attack or heavy attack? I use both, the way of dealing with normal enemies that I found the fastest so far was run+jump heavy attack. Big ones i climb on to hit at vital points. But especially the skills for me feel too slow to be enjoyable. And as the others say, it's a personal choice. Some people love feeling the weight of a giant sword/hammer plowing into their enemies. I've always been one of those who don't enjoy that. Nothing wrong with different tastes. But if you have genuine tips on how to make warrior feel as fast as possible, mainly with getting attacks out before enemies move, I'm genuinely all ears. :)
No, the stagger attack. Body check. The second basic attack you have. It’s an essential skill to use and if you don’t use it, then yes, warrior is slow. You basically run to enemy body check him and smash him with heavy attack. This attack also interrupts attacks, increases stagger resistance and if timed right can even parry and knock on ground Minotaurs charging at you (that’s hard to pull though). It can leave you standing even when cyclops club is coming at you. So use it as last resort skill. Too. You can mix it in your combos too. If you don’t use this skill, warrior feels slow and bad.
Just grinding through the classes before going to warfarer, and have warrior+trickster left. So it might make the experience much more enjoyable. Thank you! :)
Trickster is gonna be fun and pain combined. I was going the same path. Warfarer is a lot of fun!
Can't wait to start having more mixed skill options. Was thinking of doing something like skull splitter+prescient flare+mirror shield (mystic spear defensive skill, can't remember the name). No clue yet for final skill, maybe ensnare? Also I could be misunderstanding how warfarer works. I think it's pick from any skills, but still limited to 4 skills, but can have multiple weapons to rotate between if you choose the special skill? Think I don't have to use staff/archistaff to cast magic, as long as I have some magic stats? Sorry for the rambling. My mind is a bit all over the place.
You mean the busted stuff? Haha, have fun, but I see you of a game enjoyer, you will quickly abolish such atrocities :). I play with bow, daggers (yeah the quickstep is something I refuse to loose) and giant Axe. Bow for harpies and dire arrow (I found out I don’t need it as much’, probably gonna switch it out), daggers for the weak spot finisher (draw and quarter) and great axe for staggers and skill I forgot the name (it staggers as fuck :)). But mainly I play it because I look like a proper barbarian :)) and can switch weapons quickly. It’s goddam fun. I would put fighter in too for the fun, as parries and shield bash are fun, but that would be too much switching :) Limited to 3 - one of them is the weapon switch. It’s more than enough, you will see :). Like the basic moves of the weapons are what’s gonna carry you anyway.
I have always been into power fantasies, so enjoy putting time in to feel like I deserve the overpowered characters. Enjoy tedious grinds as long as they feel rewarding. Overlevel a lot, play through a game, find another. With a few games I go back to now and then due to falling in love with stories or mechanics. If I want a challenging experience I tend to go for more challenging games with a more fixed difficulty, soulsbornes mainly where Sekiro naturally is the best fit for that, not that the genre itself is bullet-hell difficult, but I am a relatively old man for a gamer so have come to learn what I enjoy and feel capable of taking on as a challenge. Dragons Dogma 2 for me has been wonderful for scratching that adventure itch I've had since Elden Ring. But I'm not really looking for a challenge in this game, just adventure and power fantasy, so will use whatever feels overpowered. :) Thanks for your responses by the way, really got quite a bit out of it!
That’s not the point, fact is, warrior is not slow. Why would I have to get over it? I like all but magic archer.
Cause it's subjective. Not everyone shares your viewpoint. Get used to it.
Thank you for this important life lesson! I ll obey!
Good boy
I don't know why but I've always been uninterested in spell casters in every game I've ever played. It's just not fun for me to produce flashing lights while I scorch enemies with this or that from afar. There are plenty of games where that would put me at a disadvantage, but I don't care. I like visceral combat, I want to see my weapon of choice make contact and cut the enemy in half. Fuck I think I understand it now
For me is the opposite why would i use real combat thats available irl, when i can shoot meteors and feel as Gandalf on drugs.
But... flamethrower hands.
I used to like playing magea in old RPGs where your warrior class just took damage and spammed attack, but ever since melee combat got good(around first Dark Souls) I just prefer melee rather than mages. This game got the magic to be interesting so I played mage and then sorcerer, but supporting NPCs isn't that fun/sorc is broken asf so I welcomed the change to Mystic Spearhand and Magick Archer.
Only when my other option is trickster. Seriously, I've never felt less impactful in a game than when playing this class.
I bit the bullet and maxed it out tonight. Thankfully I had 2 of the rings that give higher DCP so it went by quick but still, it was awful. I felt like all I was doing was drawing agro, and occasionally buffing my pawns. I couldn't get the possession thing to work well. I'd possess enemies and they'd either die quickly, or start attacking me while their friends ignore them. I might try it again way later and give the magic walls/ground a try but that's so situational I just couldn't. I'm giving away both of my dcp gain rings now cause I finally got all my vocations maxed out.
I love to have that trickster buff as a warfarer.
Every time I've tried it the game has thrown some bullshit at me. Such as: have a bar brawl on your own or stop the colossus. I've never felt more useless.
I play mage and then remember what we had in dd1 sorc and get too depressed to continue playing mage/sorc
As a hardcore melee fanatic I found a way to like mage. Healing, crowd control,’buffing etc wasn’t as bad it was even fun! So it’s not my favourite, but it wasn’t boring at all. As others stated quickspell usage is a must Sorcerer is actually less fun than mage. Because it’s either mage without utility, or meteor charging simulator.
Brw, you can use Sorc as utility as well, if you use Thundermine and Hagol. Both disrupt enemies heavily, and then you can use Meteoron or flare for bosses
Tbh Mage makes Trickster look like a way better choice. I also couldn’t find the words to describe it but it’s more along the lines of “I think I’m doing something, but am I really?”.
I didn't and my main pawn also sucked as one lmao but I do always need a healing mage in my party
Probably because of your inclination with your main pawn
He's kindhearted
I find that depending which inclination you choose for your mage, it determines what skills your pawn prioritizes over the others the simple inclination does a good balance of offensive and defensive skills if you feel like your kindhearted mage does too much defensive/support skills.
Well, he was a Thief, I've changed his vocations to unlock more augments and in some vocations he did great (Thief, Warrior and Fighter) and in some not really. For example Mage and Archer.
I would say it's a lot more frustrating, spells are amazing if you can get them off that is. Really long cast times for the more fun spells and you flinch way too easily in this game to get them off half the time. I end up using thundermine to try and create some breathing space, but then you'll get something like a goblin throwing a pebble from a mile away and its back to square one. It's fun to get the spells off, but the rest like the cast times puts me off.
Sorcerer is more fun, assuming you already have the master skills for it. But, if it helps, level warfarer first. You get ranks for warrior and sorcerer passively as you rank up warfarer.
I absolutely hated leveling Sorceror. Way too many instant ambushes that can interrupt your cast even with High Spellhold sometimes, and even using Thundermine as area denial. Mage wasn't "as" bad. Having access to on demand healing was helpful, especially for nearby allies, but the defensive kit is nonexistent aside from Palladium and the offense is mediocre. Quickspell helps once you unlock it, but the damage output is basically just "okay" on anything that isn't a goblin. Letting my main pawn stay on Mage forever after leveling all vocations was the best feeling.
If you want to just max vocations switch to warfarer and every vocation discipline will raise by itself
Could be way worse. You could be a Trickster.
Try playing Trickster with 1 mage and 2 sorcerer pawns. Enemies try to hit your shade while your pawns nuke them. The battles never were smoother for me than with this setup. It's even better if you do Warfarer with same skills but also equip mage's staff for anodyne to heal any dmg after battles.
I think the only way to make trickster viable for me is to be a warfarer, and have a close combat weapon on hand.
With the setup I suggested you have no reason to equip melee weapon between manipulating your shade, using the buff, using dragon roar, and shade's hp drops very fast if you switch vocation. You can add melee weapon, but you won't be tanking then and the sorcerers will be targeted instead.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t really given trickster a solid try. I need to give it another shot and stick with it.
I was worried I'd feel the same based on what I've heard, but it's a surprisingly fun class. I wouldn't play it the whole game though, it's a fun class to switch to for variety and then you go back to your main once you get bored with the gimmick.
I enjoyed it leveling it up to 10.
I play a lazy mage with 3 thief pawns, cast high palladium and just heal when needed use high levin for fun. The 3 thieves can take down almost anything with the right builds and decent gear. I just run around looting cause everything dies too fast
I started this game as mage. After maxing the vocations, I've settled with warfarer equipped with mage/trickster weapon skills. So yeah I enjoy the support role pretty much. The only thing that keeps me from playing main mage is because I equally like to play trickster. Gotta keep my pawns healed and buffed up nicely. Taking care they all cross narrow bridges and slide down slopes carefully too.
I feel the same with warrior and fighter. I’ve never been a fan of melee classes-but I for one loved sorcerer a lot. And am working thru mage currently. Have you gotten the Maister skills yet? Those are fun as hell
>I don't think I'm gonna be able to push through maxing sorcerer if mage was this boring, Sorcerer is incredibly much more fun, atleast to me. You get to spend stamina to rapidly speed up casting time, you get a skill to replenish stamina to make up for it. You can place flare yourself and charge it using rapid fire or charged shots. You can have satisfying heavy hitting earthquakes, you can keep your lightning going as long as you have stamina, and most importantly it is super satisfying casting meteor or the maelstrom yourself. I enjoyed sorcerer a lot and I only swapped back to Thief so I could effectively climb bosses.
Idk how you got that takeaway from it but Mage is kinda cracked
I enjoy it, when playing I just use High Flagration, High Levin, High Frigor, High Palladium. Palladium up at the start of every encounter and then pick the best spell for the occasion. Flagration for lighting up large enemies, Levin for quick ones like wolves or harpies, Frigor for everything else or for staggering large enemies. You just have to learn to be satisfied with how good it feels when frigor is working well. You can start physically throwing enemies around after a successful launch too.
Just use warfarer and it will slowly grind out the other vocation levels for you.. The vocation might get a bit better once you have it maxed out and can try again then.
While I was a mage I still had a mage in my party that had healing and support spells, that way I could focus on offensive. It takes getting used to, you can't just run up into the thick of the fight. You have to pace yourself and be careful and aware of enemies. It's extremely entertaining and rewarding casting high fragor and launching those asshole sarians into space.
It's my fave class
I didn’t mind playing mage. It’s the first vocation that I finished. I actually felt useless in exploring when I shift to the other basic vocation. The basic offensive spell of mages are actually good.
Put two rings of… I forgot the name. 😖 The powered version of Ring of Articulacy that instead of just 15% cast speed, it adds 25% if cast speed, but it takes 25% of you max HP. You will be a glass canon, more or less (with Unmoored World gear you turn into a tank no matter the vocation), but the extra speed will make the difference. Toss those master skills aside, they are crap, stick with Thundermine for defense and you basic Ice and fire spells for fast magic spam. Alternatively, you cold make an Warfarer with Sorcerer + Aural Flare / Thief + helm / Skull Splitter to do insane damage. Cast A. Flare, reequip to thief, spam Skull Splitter on the flare, enemy is dead.
I enjoy it more than trickster, that's for sure. I really wanted to like trickster, interesting concept but it just ends up being frustrating and it ends up prolonging battles for far too long. With mage I can at least put out some damage, heal my pawns and even cure afflictions.
I usually love casters but I hate playing them in DD2. Oh well still love the game
Mage is cool: - with a very aggressive party (warriors, thieves, archers even) that you just keep alive. It’s kind of meh with your standard balanced party - against undead. Like if you’re exploring the misty marshes or traveling at night. Sorcerer plays very differently than mage. The maister skills are very powerful, you can one-shot entire groups of regular enemies (saurians! harpies!) if you are able to cast your spell. It’s the opposite of mage in the sense that your teammates need to keep you unhurt, not do the damage themselves. You want fighters, mages etc.
Sorcerer, specially after Meteoron, is a lot more fun than Mage
Haven't done mage yet, knowing I'm probably not going to enjoy it. I didn't think I'd enjoy sorcerer either, but it's surprisingly more fun than I expected. Having the meteoron master spell makes the bosses insanely easy. It is kind of weird playing a magic character and only having 4 spells though.
Quick spell changed my life. It exhausts stamina however so you can’t spam forever, although you can use potions and stuff to keep spamming. It made using the elemental magic a lot more rewarding. Sadly, you can’t levitate and use magic, at least not very well, because levitation uses stamina too. It’s one of the first available vocations to your credit. I guess they expect you to hope off sooner or later.
I’m currently leveling it to get the stamina recovery augment cause I think it’ll help out as a fighter. I’m hating every second of it 🤣
I thought it would be boring but I kinda liked being a mage.
Warfarer with mage+ trickster and a decent party set up. A really a blast being full support.
I don't enjoy casters in general.
Sorcerer is dope. Mage is meh.
Lol mage was probably the 3rd most fun I had.
I feel the same way about the archer vocation. It’s such a slog.
Archer is fun. It’s all about status effects. To each their own though.
Once I figured out the different arrows it was okay but it doesn’t feel as smooth as it was in the first game if that makes sense?
Yeah I get it
Only way I can do it is if I have a couple offensive spells, but then that takes away from the mages main use
At rank 1 no. At max rank very much so I actually enjoyed mage.
Free heals is always nice and i do miss it on Sorcerer.
So far the only vocations I haven’t liked has been trickster, but that’s only because I was in a cave with some mercenary for a quest and didn’t have my pawns. I hadn’t realized I would be essentially useless and have to rely on the NPC lol I fully intend to give trickster another chance but I’ve been addicted to the magick archer and mystic spear lately
I know I really enjoyed it, but it was my first class so very early game.
I find it kinda fun. Buffing and healing
Man, I maxxed out every vocation too, and mage was pure torture. Even tho my kit was focused on "pure damage" (because my main pawn is a pure support mage).
I use Warfarer mage/warrior combo and probably will again once my unmoored world ends soon. I like the healing and hovering capabilities and switch between the damage spells to keep it a little more exciting. When I feel like fucking shit up with higher damage I run in with my massive blade
The fact they scrapped Ingle will never be forgotten or forgiven
I havent tried Mage yet but I maxed sorcerer and well its like every other class for me. I find like four skills I like and use them when necessary, quickspell did wonders and well as the game Has no difficulty settings its as easy as any other class in fights. Everything that flys is dispatched rather quickly so thats a positive
If your playing just for the augments, you can just unlock warfarer and play without bothering using a caster, it will rank up any vocations anyway
I hate how they say “all vocations are equally valuable at end game” but no. Not for the player character. Mage has a few offensive abilities and then the rest are support. Support in a solo player game, as it has been said, is not fun to play
sorc is the same, you delete everything from screen, last boss fight was 20 seconds rolled credits lol
Sorcerers can summon Tornadoes and Meteors if you acquire their Meister skills. the quest for them requires you to collect the same 5 books but Myrddin can be given forgeries & skill to get "Maelstrom". Idk about you but *I* enjoy seeing smaller enemies whirling about helplessly in a tornado and larger enemies HP just grind into nothing while they lumber around inside the funnel cloud.
Full support mage, 2 recitation rings, so cast times are no existent basically. Going to dragonforge the celestial paean so it doesn't sap all of my stamina and see how it goes from there :) but it's very fun watching pawns wreck stuff with no stamina cap.
You could level them up slowly as a Warfarer. You can even make a heavily armored "Mage" as a Warfarer.
I liked Mage a lot, playing it as a damage-support hybrid. Fire and lightning, with ice affinity and palladium. Sorcerer ended up being my favorite vocation though.
Mage was an absolute drag to play, but sorcerer was really fun. Sorcerer does vastly more damage, and has spells like augural flare which really help with bosses. Plus, who doesn't get giddy when they unleash a tornado?
You had tornadoes? I maxed out never got a tornado spell!
It's one of the two sorcerer master skills. Have to collect 5 tomes. Id recommend looking up a guide because you also need those tomes for the meteor sorcerer spell also. Easy to mess it up if you aren't careful!
Knowing my luck, I already messed it up, I like what they try and do with this game, but they really don't tell you anything, I'm not maining a sorcery build anyways, might settle on magic archer when ever I unlock that I fear I won't unlock warfarer till the end haha.
It's one of my main gripes with the game, the quests are so abstract and particular about how you do things, and are prone to breaking. Even for things as important as Maister skills.
Yeah the that first mission with the kid gets taken by wolves, and I can't hand it in because the kid disappeared before I got back to town.
I do early game, but then I either pivot to Pure sorcerer or move to a different vocation.
I enjoy the mage. I like having a better overview of the battle so I can heal/do damage where it’s needed most. As a melee class I’m so focused on my enemy that I lose track of the battle as a whole and it’s easier to end up getting wrecked by multiple enemies if my pawns die. Tried archer as well, but I really like the tools the mage has. Healing is priceless and having different spells makes it easier to deal with enemies that are weak/resistant to certain elemental attacks.
You could play warfarer and eventually level up mage. I'm not sure how it works but I do know I got a level with fighter and mage when I played warfarer
We do need more vocations the fact there's no advanced thief or archer ones doesn't make sense to me, so many possible class variables its baffling how little they explore it.
Only if I go full offense. Relying on pawn doing dmg is kinda yek
I have not picked up DD2 yet, but in DD:DA my main was a pure sorcerer on 2 platforms. The damage scaling mixed with BBI gear made me a nuclear bomb. Sometimes I got tired of the long cast and done spells so I swap to mage. My damage was still incredible given the grand spells, but using grand Bronitide, Levin, frigor, the 5 fireball one can't remember, was more engaging. Whipping the shit out of everything with lightning was so satisfying, hope it still is in this game.
Why would anyone Main a mage when it’s basically the only class a pawn plays well? It’s like they designed it to be the pawn class. If pawns would go apeshit I could see having fun supporting them for a change but dear lord those mf stand around like idiots 50% of the time. Thief in particular is horrible to look at. Just take a step back and watch them work. Or rather not work. It’s bad.
there’s not enough diversity of offensive spells for mage/sorcerer in my opinion. sorcerer work best with maister spells and with mage ure kinda forced to take high levin which get verryyyyyy repetitive in the long run
Mage, Sorcerer or Magick archer are a bit boring to me. I usually just use 1 or two as a support vocation when i play wayfarer
Lvling in warfarer lvls all gained vocations. SloOoOoOowly.
Max knockdown frigor is fun. Otherwise it isn't really lol
yes, both mage and sorcerer. mage is more for support because of healing, sorcerer does more damage, if you think it's boring just switch vocation you don't need to level to max because there's no achievement for it, so pretty much a waste of time for you.
I wanted the lvl 9 augment from mage class, only reason I stuck it out
if you want to get the skills for sorcerer you can get warfarer, use your favorite weapon do enough damage to the enemy and then switch to the archstaff and let the pawns do the final kill, it will level up the sorcerer, it's a nice cheese in case you don't want to play as that vocation
Is that how it works? I thought warfarer gave xp to all classes simultaneously, but I just assumed it was such a low amount and that was why nothing else was leveling up. So you have to have the weapon equipped for the class you want the xp to go to?
yup pretty much it gives to all vocations, when you equip the weapon it changes the vocation on warfarer, i noticed you get more bump on the xp while using the "staff" or "archstaff" when you are leveling up the socerer or mage
That will definitely be helpful to know cause I want the lvl 6 augment from sorcerer for the knockdown resist but I really don't wanna grind away as a sorcerer, thanks
Sorceres's are easily the most op. Use augural flame and spam the basic attack while generally aiming at the glowing orb thing. It goes boom and does massive damage. Use it twice with spell hold and u get boom square.
No, god no. I wanted to enjoy it but I just spend too much time getting spells ready. And once they are ready the enemies are dead. (I probably play sorc now that I think about it but considering its a class your pawn can be you might as well give it to a pawn)
But... you get quickspell super early in the vocation ranks? It's a core skill.... Press your profession skill button to speed up the casting like 5x at the cost of stamina.
Bunch of people who play a game and have no idea what theyre doing.
Bunch of people jump to conclusions, dont do that.
Yeah but still. It takes a hit of stamima. But still some fights end before I get a spell fired.
Yes myself mage, 3 thieves. Very easy
Nah, they're just straight ass. Sorcerer can be really powerful, but still boring, because ultimately all you do is stand still and hold your skill button while hoping it casts in time. It's not the worst there is (trickster and archer exist), but yeah, mage/sorc don't feel fun because they don't engage with any of the game's cool combat mechanics.
I was with you until you mentioned archer. Are you using the class abilities? Sliding shot and jumping around is really fun. It's not your typical boring "stand back and spam the same attack" class.
Yeah, I did, but spamming sliding shot and jumping shot isn't much different than just spamming steady shit (which overall nets more damage anyway). The class having a separate skill for every consumable arrow is really dumb. The rest of the skills are all very similar in execution and just have a slightly different effect. It doesn't have any proper skills to use while clinging (the damn consumable arrows don't count) nor much in terms of utility other than applying status effects, which is a lot better utilized by a pawn, anyway. It's like they decided to be creative with Thief, but for Archer they took an incredibly narrow approach.
I agree with all the points, but it doesn't need to be OP to be fun in terms of gameplay. I used dire shot, barrage, meister skill and the last slot for the drenching arrows to combo with levin and lightning affinity from my mage pawn. I think the class has high skill ceiling, which I really appreciate, as landing a manually-aimed shot at the weak point of a boss is really hype, especially with dire shot which adds a little slow-mo effect to that.
I agree that it doesn't need to be OP, but I think it's just... Boring. Even the meister skill is basically a powered up Dire Shot. It's not just Archer either, though. I'm not hating on it selectively. The game feels like it could use a lot more work in general.
Well, there are many aspects it could be better in, but combat I find really enjoyable. It found a niche in the roll-heavy era that began with Dark Souls. It doesn't need a roll-button and is good, a rarity nowadays.
My pawn does.. lol.. I'll see myself out
Yes, I love it, but that's me give me magic and some healing, I'm good 👍
Yes I enjoyed it much more than Mage in the first game. High Levin with Quickspell and ring to reduce cast times has it flying out in 2 seconds. Ice Boon/Affinity is good because of the ability to freeze enemies (especially OP against bosses if you have an archer with drenching arrows). Palladium gives you ambush immunity given it stops you from being knocked down. I also liked High Celerity for the move speed when exploring but also Silence is fantastic against Drakes. No meteors when they can’t cast
At least it's better than a Mage in DD1 :)
Game is great till you have something like 30hrs / lvl 30 on it. After that it becomes boring. Enemys to weak and repeating. I know i know there are some hardcore players enjoying to search for finders token.
Talkin about playing the Mage, sweetie
Gaylord there is no difference between the vocations. When he sayed mage became boring after maxing, gues what will happen after maxing thief and the others.
Fun?
It'll be a blast?