i thought playing mage was supposed to be easier

[slommi❣]

beat the game with a melee dude, wanted to try out cool builds started with a mage to try out int stuff, and while i am breezing through some parts that gave me trouble with a melee boy, other parts became a huge wall that i have to put so much effort into breaking through, in 20 hours of mage i got frustrated more times than in the entirety of my 140 hour first run. like is playing mage so different than melee that i have to rewire my gamer brain or something, how are you supposed to play mage, i feel like im doing it wrong.

[Señor Brown]

If you first run was done using a melee build, then you can fall back on that experience with a mage by using the melee-based sorceries such as the Carian school of sorceries Carian Slicer, Carian Greatsword, or the Gavel of Haima.

When you need to exploit range, then try out the ranged sorceries.

EDIT: There are some Carian sorceries that aren't melee.

[Sonnenbank]

Well how should we know what you do wrong when you dont give any info other than
" I have problems"

[Xengre]

Mage PvE is easier by default, though there are some broken melee builds that will outscale it later. Overall. mage is very accessible. If you're having issues you are certainly doing something wrong as you had suspicions.

You should share info about what you are doing and where you are seeing issues and people can advise. One thing worth mentioning is being a mage means having the spells which means finding them. Many are in shops but not all of them are. This could be a key point you are missing out on some options as well thus increasing difficulty at least somewhat. It is also true "generally superior" does not equate to 100% always superior in every single situation. Context still matters. Mage may be superior in most cases but you may see cases a melee user might be more approachable with. Still, need more info.

[Fineous🔥]

Originally posted by Sonnenbank:

Well how should we know what you do wrong when you dont give any info other than
" I have problems"

This.....playing a mage RL 667 NG8...well now im just an amorphous thing that can become anything but mainly death magic mage...

Post your RL, sorceries you are using and at least the staff (also the upgrade level).

[MULTIPASS]

The trick to playing mage is realizing that there are a handful of core spells that are very effective and efficient, and the rest ranges from situational to complete crap. Find that core of spells and it all falls into place.

1. Progression of basic ranged spells: pebble, great glintstone shard, glintstone cometshard, comet (very late game or NG+).

2. Melee spells: carian slicer and adula's moonblade

3. physical/poise damage: rock sling

That's pretty much it. You can clear the whole game easily with 3 or 4 spells from that list. Make sure you raise your mind a bit along the way and not just stack int.

Clear Limgrave with pebble and rock sling, then in Liurnia grab great glintstone shard and carian slicer. Do Ranni's quest for moonblade, and come back for cometshard when you have the stats/FP to use it.

[Dr.Abscondus]

Mage is squishy at first then gets overpowered as you acquire the powerful spells and the swords made for mages. At 20 hours you're still pretty squishy.

[slommi❣]

mb, didn't occurr to me to show my stats.

RL 55, carian glintstone staff+8, mind and int at 27,
using Carian slicer, Great glintstone shard, Cannon of haima for groups, Magic glintblade, Ambush shard for shield guys and the occasional npc pvp, and Gavel of haima for fun. dont have rock sling, and if it is good poise damage it might be what im missing.

just done with rennala and im getting crumpled by the entirety of the carian manor, what im trying to do as a mage is to be as far away as i can to enemies when possible using spirit ashes to draw aggro when allowed, it makes intuitive sense to do that, and the issue i have is when that strategy isnt reliably working.
for example the big hands of carian manor, i still have trouble figuring out what their attack animations are, but as a melee i could reliably strafe close to them into their 'blind spots' and punish, with the light staggers giving me a bit of time to breath, but as a mage, i feel like any spirit ash i try doesnt draw aggro enough for the big hands and they go straight for me real fast, and i don't do enough damage to kill them before they get to me. and as i have no armor or health, i'm uncomfortably squishy and in those extended gauntlets of enemy encounters after encounters, i get really tripped up.
i also had issues with the putrid corpses + dogs bits of the academy, which i breezed through as a melee. Like, i feel as a mage i'm not allowed to make as many mistakes, and if i'm not entirely in control of the fight, i get messed up,

[Fineous🔥]

Get rock sling, you need it for the poise damage and to kill Rennala (and the dbag glinstone dragons and Borealis).

Swap the great glinstone shard with the pebble for now.

Everything else more or less checks, maybe too low RL.

[CourtesyFlush09]

It is. Just level your INT and spam Glintstone Pebble. That spell alone will carry you through the entire game.

[Fineous🔥]

Originally posted by CourtesyFlush90:

It is. Just level your INT and spam Glintstone Pebble. That spell alone will carry you through the entire game.

Aaaaand rock sling. I beat the game with it. Also get yourself a wing of Astel asap.

[vamirez]

Just the pebble will give you a harsh time in the mid-levels when one spell won't do a lot of damage, your flasks aren't maxed and your FP runs out.

Mage is perceived as easy when you have the melee part totally down, which means you can just use melee when your spells run out or when enemies just jump in your face. In this case magic is a bonus. However, if you are not that strong or don't want to use that, it's really not as easy as people say.

Another aspect is collecting the spells. Yes, rock sling is great, but think about where you find it. Why would a player in Limgrave even have that spell? Only with prior knowledge.

It's a different playstyle. Some things are easy, some things are not that easy.

[REhorror]

Mages are a late grower thing, but there's the incredibly glintstone spell.

Best early build is samurai (katana + shield + bow for ranged attack).

[MULTIPASS]

My strategy is basically carian slicer 90% of things, throw rocks at things with big squishy heads (dragons) and sometimes cast glintstone shard/cometshard to clear out areas.

Bosses are either a melee fight with slicer, or kiting with cometshard - occasionally rock sling things that resist magic damage,

By the end of the early game, you have the trio of slicer/shard/rocks which basically solves the entire game.

I think a lot of your struggle is coming from the fact that most things in your area happen to resist magic and the hands are super annoying. Go ahead and skip enemies, you really don't need to fight everything in your way.

[Xengre]

You actually don't have to invest heavily in Int. You can go the glass canon route and try to kill stuff before it reaches you but you can also just level Vigor primaraily and get enough Int to support basic costs for casting. For bigger spells that have higher requirements you can pop a flask for +10 Int, use headgear, and even the talisman as necessary to reach desired int. Investing in Int heavily early is kind of weak. You don't get a ton of scaling out of it unlike Vigor. A lot of your magic performance comes from simply upgrading your catalyst, plus as mentioned there are a lot of ways to heavily boost int.

As others mentioned Rock Sling is great for poise damage and you should consider other elements aside from pure magic dmg such as physical, frost, etc. Aside from poise damage you can opt for close range spells that are fast enough or have very high stagger capability like Multipass had mentioned.

For some larger bosses there are some meteor spells that can basically kill them nearly instantly with proper setup. Once you get the infinite FP flask you can even perform Kamehameha.

Mages don't have to be always at long range. You can have magic swordsman, rapid fire casting in med-close range, persistent effects like fog (frost/night) as you lead them around it and pelt them with fast/sword spells, and at times nuke them from a distance.

If you need more MP also consider looking at prayers because they're very flask efficient as a single cerulean flask can heal far more HP via prayers even with lower faith than a crimson flask could ever touch upon, esp if further coupled with efficient hp regen spells as well.

Last, if you do get proper vigor to support your build you can run some actual melee weapons scaling off your int/faith stats for enemies you are struggling with at range that are magic and frost resistant, or just in general, as you mentioned prior with the one enemy strafing.

[Senki]

It is easier, but you have to use the right spells.

Night comet in particular is probably the most important one for mobile bosses and enemies.