the best magic skill tree?

[heime2003]

fire, lightning?

[Hotklou]

I got friendly fire on and my mages keep frying my poor Cassandra lol.

[Migromul]

Originally posted by Hotklou:

I got friendly fire on and my mages keep frying my poor Cassandra lol.

you can deactivate friendly fire in the options.

topic: my favorite is lightning. But every (damage)-Tree has its advantages: fire has a spell wi/o cd. (with according mod) ice has a blink-skill and advanced mana-reg if standing still Lightning has the barrage-skill with flexible element depending on the staff used. All those skills are T1 or T2 (in case of the mana-reg), so easy to get.

But I think lightning is the element where the enemies have the least reisstance to. Fire, although spectacular, seems to have the most opponents with restance (dragons, deamons of wrath.) Spirit (or "ghost"? I don't know the english term, since I play in German) only has indirect damage, which needs requirements like banning a magic effect. But to be able to cast a barrier at will (or automatically, if skilled deeper) is also not bad.

for the spcialications, I think might is best. Necromancy is too dot for my taste and Vivians speicalication is melee. If I want to melee, I play a warrior or rogue... Although perhaps I'll try it out with my kunari-mage.

[Hotklou]

Originally posted by Migromul:

Originally posted by Hotklou:

I got friendly fire on and my mages keep frying my poor Cassandra lol.

you can deactivate friendly fire in the options.

Meh, I kinda like it lol.

[barzai]

Originally posted by Migromul:

But I think lightning is the element where the enemies have the least reisstance to. Fire, although spectacular, seems to have the most opponents with restance (dragons, deamons of wrath.) Spirit (or "ghost"? I don't know the english term, since I play in German) only has indirect damage, which needs requirements like banning a magic effect. But to be able to cast a barrier at will (or automatically, if skilled deeper) is also not bad.

Lightning is super-powerful in the early to middle part of the game. The Lightning Cage--the power at the bottom of the Lightning tree--is readily accessible, you only need five skill points total, really four if you go down the left side of the tree where you already have Chain Lightning at the start. You add the damage-dealing improvement, and then it's like having a Lightning Rune on every weapon your party uses, even in Haven! So it's not only good for crowd control, it's a major force-multiplier.

Honestly I consider it a bit OP, and in my current game I'm building out Solas as a Cold mage and Dorian as a Fire mage (makes a good fit with his Necromancer specialization).

The problem with Lightning comes in once you start encountering Pride (i.e. Lightning) Demons, which starts happening during your journey through the Warden fortress and the Fade. Pride Demons are tough, and of course they have Lightning Resistance--though, thankfully, not complete immunity. So at some point you may want to respec with the Fire tree which I agree is very powerful as well, especially since you start encountering more and more of those pesky Despair (i.e. Cold) Demons. The advanced version of those can slice through your party with their Cold Ray from halfway across the map and there's almost nothing to be done against it!

[UrMomisCool]

So I'm running a Rift Ice Breaker Mage build, Ironically it's half spec'd into ice and fire and its pretty OP so far. though ive been going out of my way to farm crafting mats to keep my parties armor and weapons up. Im level 17 right now. You need a good tank for this build to work but im having a blast. you can find the build easy enough on google by simply searching rift ice breaker build. i tweaked mine a bit for me but again its a blast.

as for which tree of the three is good, all of them for different reasons. DAI did a fairly decent job at balancing that but Barzai is correct in that lightning early to low mid is fairly OP, It all really depends on what you want your mage to actually spec into being Rift, Necro and Knight enchanter.

[Migromul]

I wonder, why a lot of enemies seem immune to the barrage-skill. Especially a lightning one. And no, I don't speek of shielded templars. but of ventaory mages... They're REALY annoying, the venatory bound-mages. They activate nearly non-descructable barrier, if they're nearly defeated.

If you don't have the banning skill, then it's faster to reload most of the time...

BTW: Where / how do you get the venatory foliants needed for the rift-mage-misson?

[barzai]

Originally posted by Migromul:

I wonder, why a lot of enemies seem immune to the barrage-skill. Especially a lightning one. And no, I don't speek of shielded templars. but of ventaory mages... They're REALY annoying, the venatory bound-mages. They activate nearly non-descructable barrier, if they're nearly defeated.

If you don't have the banning skill, then it's faster to reload most of the time...

BTW: Where / how do you get the venatory foliants needed for the rift-mage-misson?

Are you playing with the Trial "Tread Lightly"? Because that is the only circumstance in which I've encountered enemy mages (Venatori mostly) who have what I refer to as "Perma-Barrier." Normally you can just grind them down.

As to the Venatori Tomes, dead Venatori randomly drop them. Just keep at it and eventually you will get them, and--failing that--the Griffon Wing Keep Merchant randomly carries them after you acquire "The Short List" perk.

[Migromul]

Originally posted by barzai:

Originally posted by Migromul:

I wonder, why a lot of enemies seem immune to the barrage-skill. Especially a lightning one. And no, I don't speek of shielded templars. but of ventaory mages... They're REALY annoying, the venatory bound-mages. They activate nearly non-descructable barrier, if they're nearly defeated.

If you don't have the banning skill, then it's faster to reload most of the time...

BTW: Where / how do you get the venatory foliants needed for the rift-mage-misson?

Are you playing with the Trial "Tread Lightly"? Because that is the only circumstance in which I've encountered enemy mages (Venatori mostly) who have what I refer to as "Perma-Barrier." Normally you can just grind them down.

As to the Venatori Tomes, dead Venatori randomly drop them. Just keep at it and eventually you will get them, and--failing that--the Griffon Wing Keep Merchant randomly carries them after you acquire "The Short List" perk.

if "treat leightly" (I play in German) is the trial, where enemies have at least your level, then yes, I play with that.

And meantwhile I've found the tomes. But thanks for the infos anyway. I googled it, and there are Venatory rift mages in the exaletet plains, which have 100% drop chance of the tomes. (maybe the 3 groups there are even quest-related?)

Meanwhile, the barriers aren't a problem enymore. Especially not with Cassandra in the group. (The templar-abilities are realy good!.)

[barzai]

Originally posted by Migromul:

if "treat leightly" (I play in German) is the trial, where enemies have at least your level, then yes, I play with that.

And meantwhile I've found the tomes. But thanks for the infos anyway. I googled it, and there are Venatory rift mages in the exaletet plains, which have 100% drop chance of the tomes. (maybe the 3 groups there are even quest-related?)

Meanwhile, the barriers aren't a problem enymore. Especially not with Cassandra in the group. (The templar-abilities are realy good!.)

Hah! :-) Well, glad to hear you've found solutions to the issues you were asking about.

"Tread Lightly" is the second Trial, right after "Even Ground" which is the one you describe. "Tread Lightly" is described as giving enemies extra, unusual powers, though the only one I've ever really noticed is the perma-barrier, which is especially vexing early on, before Cass gets her Seeker/Templar abilities. Notably, the mage in the second wave of attackers at the Crossroads, and the mages in the mage cave--both early encounters in the Hinterlands--are very difficult to defeat if they have the perma-barrier.

[Migromul]

Originally posted by barzai:

Originally posted by Migromul:

if "treat leightly" (I play in German) is the trial, where enemies have at least your level, then yes, I play with that.

And meantwhile I've found the tomes. But thanks for the infos anyway. I googled it, and there are Venatory rift mages in the exaletet plains, which have 100% drop chance of the tomes. (maybe the 3 groups there are even quest-related?)

Meanwhile, the barriers aren't a problem enymore. Especially not with Cassandra in the group. (The templar-abilities are realy good!.)

Hah! :-) Well, glad to hear you've found solutions to the issues you were asking about.

"Tread Lightly" is the second Trial, right after "Even Ground" which is the one you describe. "Tread Lightly" is described as giving enemies extra, unusual powers, though the only one I've ever really noticed is the perma-barrier, which is especially vexing early on, before Cass gets her Seeker/Templar abilities. Notably, the mage in the second wave of attackers at the Crossroads, and the mages in the mage cave--both early encounters in the Hinterlands--are very difficult to defeat if they have the perma-barrier.

ok.. yes, I have that enabled, too. Good to know, what this affects. Thanks.

[Frances River]

To answer the original question, they all have pros and cons and you do need your mages (at least collectively), to have all three. This is both because of the doors that only open because of a certain kind of magic, and because some creatures are immune to certain damage (like each of the dragons are strong or weak against some kind of magic). I find it best to make sure all of my mages can cast at least a couple different types of magic at once, and then each of the three also specialize in one. Lightning is fun, fire is powerful but more things have resistance to it, cold takes further down the tree to be good but then is also great, and spirit can be a lifesaver with its Revival spell. I also quite enjoy unique Dorian's purple magic tree.

[Migromul]

Originally posted by Frances River:

To answer the original question, they all have pros and cons and you do need your mages (at least collectively), to have all three. This is both because of the doors that only open because of a certain kind of magic, and because some creatures are immune to certain damage (like each of the dragons are strong or weak against some kind of magic). I find it best to make sure all of my mages can cast at least a couple different types of magic at once, and then each of the three also specialize in one. Lightning is fun, fire is powerful but more things have resistance to it, cold takes further down the tree to be good but then is also great, and spirit can be a lifesaver with its Revival spell. I also quite enjoy unique Dorian's purple magic tree.

You should enable the barrage-skill of the lightning-tree with every mage, even with vivian. The intruder-DLC might give you a plan for a spcital mage-Sword, which does elemental-damage. This is listed as a staff, but is effectivly a great-sword. However, you can use every spell, none the less, including the barrage. Since it isn't realy a staff, this weapon even accepts non-spirit elemental runes, So you you can have 2 elementals at once with it.) Yopu can't attack the magic forces with standard-attack with this weapon, however.
This skill uses the element of the staff you're wielding, not nessecarily lightning.