Casters feel not worth it

[Traltwin]

So I started with the Radiant Class ... thinking I'd try one of those (Since I'm usually Sorcery in Elden Ring and Dark Souls II & III) ... but you do way more damage with melee weapons than you do any sort of Magic starting out ... I've seen people have gameplay of mid-late game and it looks fine 'then', but starting out, there's really no point to trying to do pure Radiant because it's so far felt awful.

Anyone have any suggestions for a better casting tool or tips?

[MasterZalm]

Oh, Radiant is one of the best overall playstyles you can have in the game.

Pure Radiance, with some Str for a shield, or ignore Str for a Dual wield, the first boss has a weapon you get shortly after accessing them which is one of the best weapons in the gae. The lightsaber people always have is literally from the first major boss of the game, Pieta, and it wrecks

Its fast, has good combos, and has longer than some long swords reach. Its a PURE radiant weapon, no other stats scales very well with Rad stat, and triggers smite procs often

Also, Rad spells and holy damage is the best damage in the game, SO much is weak to it, and the few that are resistant to it, arent resistant enough. Rad spells also offer healing and defence, as well as weapon buffs early on, and the overall style is the Meta for the entire game, PvP and PvE

[Grad]

Yeah my first character was Radiance build, but I gave up on being pure caster for Pieta's Sword. That def buff spell is OP though...it trivialized bosses and elite enemies and lasts until mana runs out, which is like 5 mins due to Radiance stat increasing max mana as well.

The Pieta spell that summons the angel helpers is strong, but i feel like Radiance feels better as a supplement to a strong Radiance weapon like Bloody Glory or Pietas.

[MasterZalm]

My suggestion is to pace yourself with magic, mix in some ranged, and be prepared to farm a little in the beginning to have some mana stones. But once you start pushing into mid game, a mana regen ring and mana regen rune for shields become available, and they really help offset the costs.

[dustin1280]

Originally posted by Traltwin:

So I started with the Radiant Class ... thinking I'd try one of those (Since I'm usually Sorcery in Elden Ring and Dark Souls II & III) ... but you do way more damage with melee weapons than you do any sort of Magic starting out ... I've seen people have gameplay of mid-late game and it looks fine 'then', but starting out, there's really no point to trying to do pure Radiant because it's so far felt awful.

Anyone have any suggestions for a better casting tool or tips?

Pure caster is really tough till you get the mana regen options...

You want a mana regen ring, a shield socketed with mana regen runes, and then I think there is jeweler that reduces casting cost (don't remember if it's a ring or pendant)

[MasterZalm]

Originally posted by dustin1280:

Originally posted by Traltwin:

So I started with the Radiant Class ... thinking I'd try one of those (Since I'm usually Sorcery in Elden Ring and Dark Souls II & III) ... but you do way more damage with melee weapons than you do any sort of Magic starting out ... I've seen people have gameplay of mid-late game and it looks fine 'then', but starting out, there's really no point to trying to do pure Radiant because it's so far felt awful.

Anyone have any suggestions for a better casting tool or tips?

Pure caster is really tough till you get the mana regen options...

You want a mana regen ring, a shield socketed with regen runes, and then I think there is jeweler that reduces casting cost (don't remember if it's a ring or pendant)

Yeah, Pure caster is alot harder, for sure, since early on, mana is limited, casts are costly, and restore options are sparse. But honestly, once you get the mana regen on a shield, things 100% turn around, which honestly, is not hard to get to if you know how to maneuver and where to go.

[Yian Yan]

Pure radiant starting out is about finding a radiant weapon that fits your style and just beat sticking things with it. Casting isn't useless early on but is more of a niche tool for like dealing with snipers, cleansing debuffs, or healing up between fights. Later on, when you have some of the really disgusting options available, you can just waggle your giant radiant ♥♥♥♥ beam at something and melt it.

I, personally, went with the bell stick the radiant casters use (pretty easy to grab). It's decent.

[Traltwin]

Originally posted by MasterZalm:

Oh, Radiant is one of the best overall playstyles you can have in the game.

Pure Radiance, with some Str for a shield, or ignore Str for a Dual wield, the first boss has a weapon you get shortly after accessing them which is one of the best weapons in the gae. The lightsaber people always have is literally from the first major boss of the game, Pieta, and it wrecks

Its fast, has good combos, and has longer than some long swords reach. Its a PURE radiant weapon, no other stats scales very well with Rad stat, and triggers smite procs often

Also, Rad spells and holy damage is the best damage in the game, SO much is weak to it, and the few that are resistant to it, arent resistant enough. Rad spells also offer healing and defence, as well as weapon buffs early on, and the overall style is the Meta for the entire game, PvP and PvE

I actually bought her sword almost immediately after that. :-)

[Traltwin]

Originally posted by dustin1280:

Originally posted by Traltwin:

So I started with the Radiant Class ... thinking I'd try one of those (Since I'm usually Sorcery in Elden Ring and Dark Souls II & III) ... but you do way more damage with melee weapons than you do any sort of Magic starting out ... I've seen people have gameplay of mid-late game and it looks fine 'then', but starting out, there's really no point to trying to do pure Radiant because it's so far felt awful.

Anyone have any suggestions for a better casting tool or tips?

Pure caster is really tough till you get the mana regen options...

You want a mana regen ring, a shield socketed with mana regen runes, and then I think there is jeweler that reduces casting cost (don't remember if it's a ring or pendant)

Interesting ... I guess it's like in D&D where Magic 'sucks' early on, but mid-late levels you can walk into a room and "EVERYTHING BURNS!" :-)

Thanks for the tips.

[MasterZalm]

Originally posted by Traltwin:

Originally posted by MasterZalm:

Oh, Radiant is one of the best overall playstyles you can have in the game.

Pure Radiance, with some Str for a shield, or ignore Str for a Dual wield, the first boss has a weapon you get shortly after accessing them which is one of the best weapons in the gae. The lightsaber people always have is literally from the first major boss of the game, Pieta, and it wrecks

Its fast, has good combos, and has longer than some long swords reach. Its a PURE radiant weapon, no other stats scales very well with Rad stat, and triggers smite procs often

Also, Rad spells and holy damage is the best damage in the game, SO much is weak to it, and the few that are resistant to it, arent resistant enough. Rad spells also offer healing and defence, as well as weapon buffs early on, and the overall style is the Meta for the entire game, PvP and PvE

I actually bought her sword almost immediately after that. :-)

Pieta's sword is basically meta for the whole game. And I dont know if its a bug, but after a while, the shop vendor restocks. I think its tied to progression, not time, so keep pushing, and you can even dual wield them. Very common technique.

Second for spells, dont spam ranged attacks until you start getting mana regen, or plenty of manastones. Make sure to buff your weapon when you can if you arent in ranged, and self heal with your spells between fights, save the "estus"(Sanguinarix) for emergencies. Eventually, you'll get a placeable heal spell, Sanctify, which heals for alot over time, and allows you to tank some meatier hits. Lastly, when you get enough mana regen(ring+rune) you can hold an aura permanently, I would suggest the Tenacity, as it seems to reduce all damage by a %, and REALLY helps you survive fights. Its toggleable, so you can swap it to a heal aura while exploring to top of with no real mana cost.

[Necromancin]

Originally posted by Traltwin:

So I started with the Radiant Class ... thinking I'd try one of those (Since I'm usually Sorcery in Elden Ring and Dark Souls II & III) ... but you do way more damage with melee weapons than you do any sort of Magic starting out ... I've seen people have gameplay of mid-late game and it looks fine 'then', but starting out, there's really no point to trying to do pure Radiant because it's so far felt awful.

Anyone have any suggestions for a better casting tool or tips?

Radiant is busted as fk, I one shot people through walls bro

[Traltwin]

Originally posted by MasterZalm:

Originally posted by Traltwin:

I actually bought her sword almost immediately after that. :-)

Pieta's sword is basically meta for the whole game. And I dont know if its a bug, but after a while, the shop vendor restocks. I think its tied to progression, not time, so keep pushing, and you can even dual wield them. Very common technique.

Second for spells, dont spam ranged attacks until you start getting mana regen, or plenty of manastones. Make sure to buff your weapon when you can if you arent in ranged, and self heal with your spells between fights, save the "estus"(Sanguinarix) for emergencies. Eventually, you'll get a placeable heal spell, Sanctify, which heals for alot over time, and allows you to tank some meatier hits. Lastly, when you get enough mana regen(ring+rune) you can hold an aura permanently, I would suggest the Tenacity, as it seems to reduce all damage by a %, and REALLY helps you survive fights. Its toggleable, so you can swap it to a heal aura while exploring to top of with no real mana cost.

Yeah I've been seeing that ... I just beat some chick who used a flamethrower spell on me .... but she was weak to Radiant so she kind of melted.

[MasterZalm]

Originally posted by Traltwin:

Originally posted by MasterZalm:

Pieta's sword is basically meta for the whole game. And I dont know if its a bug, but after a while, the shop vendor restocks. I think its tied to progression, not time, so keep pushing, and you can even dual wield them. Very common technique.

Second for spells, dont spam ranged attacks until you start getting mana regen, or plenty of manastones. Make sure to buff your weapon when you can if you arent in ranged, and self heal with your spells between fights, save the "estus"(Sanguinarix) for emergencies. Eventually, you'll get a placeable heal spell, Sanctify, which heals for alot over time, and allows you to tank some meatier hits. Lastly, when you get enough mana regen(ring+rune) you can hold an aura permanently, I would suggest the Tenacity, as it seems to reduce all damage by a %, and REALLY helps you survive fights. Its toggleable, so you can swap it to a heal aura while exploring to top of with no real mana cost.

Yeah I've been seeing that ... I just beat some chick who used a flamethrower spell on me .... but she was weak to Radiant so she kind of melted.

Get used to it. There arent a whole lot of enemies that are resistance to Radiant damage, so you will end up destroying a good portion. You might find a little difficulty on like 7 bosses, and only of them is REALLY hard with a Rad build. The rest of the 30 some odd bosses are easy as pie with a standard Rad build.

[Livy]

Casters are quite bad early one, especially infernal who doesn't get their stuff until halfway into the game.

However they get really strong afterwards.

Also the large mana consumables can be farmed from the moth ladies.

[D. Flame]

Stick to radiance and use the light saber. It scales purely with radiance, so you have an insanely strong melee option too.

[Traltwin]

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Stick to radiance and use the light saber. It scales purely with radiance, so you have an insanely strong melee option too.

I just had a Derp invade me (my first invasion, freaked me out) ... I let him kill me into Umbral ... cause he was spamming the Pieta spell ... realized he couldn't cast anymore and just rushed'em ... killed him instantly... he was dual wielding the darn Pieta Swords... I may just try to figure out how to play Offline so I'm not harassed by Meta people XD