What am I missing about using magic?

[Zanaki]

It seems... absolutely awful? The damage of int spells at the very least seem trash, using glint pebble, rock sling with meteorite staff etc and I need to use 6+ flasks to get basic bosses to half health.

Not to mention you can't even actually use rock sling without getting hit...

Is the only way to use magic is summon phantoms and run away while cheesing?

[juicy]

you do realize other spells exist?

[Bloxz]

Are you locking on targets while you cast? Seems like you're missing all your attacks if you use that many flasks for half health. Pebble doesn't do much dmg and rock sling does take a long time to cast. Dex increases casting speed and there are other faster spells but they consume more FP.

Bosses can still aggro you when you use spirit summons. Magic has always been about long range combat and avoiding hits. Spirit summoning is the cheese mechanic since they tank and draw aggro away. As long as you're having fun, who cares if you use spirits or not. I only feel like you're cheesing if you get things stuck for free kills and magic allows you to cheese a lot of open world bosses : )

[Syn]

heavily dependent on your casting catalyst ie: staff or seal. l i prefer miracles myself. cast speed is also determined by dex and in general there is a heavier stat requirement for casting as you usually need some sort of combination of int faith and arcane as well as dex for speed and vit /stam. tldr: casting is much better at lv 100+

[Mewsha]

INT builds are harder early on and get easier later into the game. It can be harder in general because you're squishy, so you need to learn how to time your dodges and enemy attack patterns so you know when to cast.

You shouldn't be having too much trouble with the Meteorite Staff and Rock Sling though.

Rock Sling is always going to be in your rotation, so you should get used to understanding the cast time if you want to continue with a pure INT build.

Glintstone Pebble is an early game spell to use in the open world against basic enemies. You shouldn't be using that against bosses. I actually think Magic Glintblade is better, and you can even beat bosses with that.

Some enemies are agile and won't give you space, so you want to use Carian Slicer, Carian Greatsword, and eventually Adula's Moonblade. So like for a Black Knife Assassin they're not going to let you get off Rock Sling.

Eventually you want to dual wield staves. Ideally for regular encounters use Staff of Loss in your off hand for its passive with Night Comet. It does more damage, goes through enemies, and makes it difficult for them to dodge it.

You can actually break the game in NG+ when you get another Staff of Loss. It's important to note that only the staff in your primary hand needs to be upgraded.

For bosses you pop your flask of wondrous physick with Cerulean Hidden Tear and hit them with Comet Azur. That's the easy part of being a mage. You can easily defeat Malenia, but then die to a dog if you're not careful.

Obviously Spirit Ashes in general make the game easier, but especially for mages who may need space to cast a spell. I recommend Black Knife Tiche because she's hyper aggressive, which is what you need for pulling aggro, but Dung Eater and Mimic Tear work too.

As for the best staff. Meteorite is good for early to mid game, but you want to work towards either upgrading Carian Regal Scepter or Azur's Glintstone staff. A lot of people think Lusat's Glintstone Staff is the best, but the FP cost is just not worth the damage increase you get. You end up doing more damage with the other two options because you're able to cast more spells.

Technically the Prince of Death Staff is the best staff in the game, as 80 INT and 80 Faith does more damage, but pure casters don't usually spec into Faith, preferring Dexterity as their other stat outside of Vigor and Mind because higher Dex means faster casting. You're also not going to reach those stats until late game, possibly NG+.

If your still struggling with FP and spell casting then you could always use the Cerulean Amber Medallion, Radagon Icon, and Green Turtle Talisman. You're always going to be squishy as well, so you may as well embrace it with Marika's Sorseal, Ritual Sword Talisman, and Primal Glintstone Blade.

[Jinshushei]

magic is hardly awful and rock sling is so freakin good for that stance break

[Sparhawk 59]

Also getting the talismans to boost the correct spells help along with the spells that boost you as well like flame grant me strength and golden vow

[Legiondorf]

Magic is ridiculously good you just bring a crossbow for OOM.

[cybercybercybercyber4]

first of all: do NOT equip the meteorite staff, if you do that you are completely overpowered and are as a result not playing the game properly.

second: stay on light weight <30%, the fast roll will win you the fights.

[juicy]

Messaggio originale di cybercybercybercyber4:

first of all: do NOT equip the meteorite staff, if you do that you are completely overpowered and are as a result not playing the game properly.

second: stay on light weight <30%, the fast roll will win you the fights.

bullocks.

the meteorite staff is a good early game staff until you can upgrade a staff that outscales it.

[cybercybercybercyber4]

it only gets overshadowed once you reach the sewers in lyndell. thats far too deep into the game to not be called gamechanging and its super powerful compared to anything else you could get until that point.

Its obviously just my opinion but if you use the meteorite staff early you never really played the game as a caster. Of course if you actually collect it during endgame like after reaching the mountaintops, its at that point not broken anymore.

having the meteortie staff also snowballs into even more power because if you use it all those little dungeons on the sideways become ridic easy to complete, so you can just collect all those talismans, which would otherwise be somewhat of a headache to get as casters would normally struggle with FP householding when using other staffs, which especially shows in those little dungeons, like crypts.

[Godamnzilla]

like everyone has said, you get way stronger later and there are plenty of really good spells later too. I'm playing a mage and it's been hard AF, buy I just tried to farm as much as I could, and learn the mechanics better, then allocated my runes repeatedly to find my style,
I like to play a closer up battle mage but that wasn't achievable till like mid-game. Also what made that somewhat possible is using another weapon for close combat just to get you through some grinding. There are plenty of ways to adapt it just takes time. I don't even like this game, but buying and not adapting would've been a waste of money.

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

Magic is basically easy mode for the vast majority of bosses, especially those that don't dodge away from spells.

You can get comet really early, without even have to fight a single boss. Meteorite Staff + Rock Sling + Arrow Reach Talisman let's you shoot from a far distance.

[ariba]

OP baiting? Magic has and will always be broken in Souls-like games, Elden Ring being no different. It's the wuss-mode for wussies.

[Chan]

Magic starts out weak and then you get a few things and you walk into late game bosses and kill them in 8s. :)

[vamirez]

As has been discussed elsewhere, the "magic is eazy mode" assumption of some folks is too simple. It's not automatic win mode. Some suggest you should shoot enemies at range with a spell and then pull back, which I guess works, but doesn't this take ages to progress through an area then and isn't fun? My experience with a caster (first playthrough) was that some enemies can be killed fine with 2-3 quick glintstone spells (or glintstone arc can be very useful against multiple targets) before they have a chance to hit you, but in many cases you do need to be able to dodge and find time to cast. Also you need to manage your FP flasks - will you be able to reach the next SoG in a legacy dungeon with what you got? And yes, some bosses and big mobs can later be burned down easily. But only after playing for a long time and finding the needed spells. And some other bosses will not really let you do that. And yes, I think summoning spirits is probably mandatory for pure casters.

Anyway, most important for INT casters is imo to explore far and wide to get a decent range of spells, as well as good staves and the talismans that improve casting speed etc.