Why are the staffs so bad?

[jimpanrooney]

i have tried both firestaff and lightning staff and they f*cking suck when they're kind off hard to get. Please sean buff them up

[s3rvant]

O.o

No, they absolutely do NOT suck.

1. You need to actually have MAG for it to do decent damage.
2. All 3 wands go through walls / platforms.
3. Bolt and Frostshard can hit multiple enemies per cast.
4. Their ammo (mana) replenishes automatically without using up your stone.

I -almost- completed the Gorgon Eye companion unlock the other day playing solo as a mage and the only reason I didn't complete it was a stupid mistake on my part.

[Kaban]

The damage they do is fine. I do think, however, the fire wand should be aimable. As it stands, you can only attack enemies by lining up with their x or y axis, or by getting close with frostshard.

I don't like having to jump down into a tyrano or boar pit just to get some fireballs off, or hop onto a platform with mobs/traps on it to thunderbolt stuff below when I could just get a bow and hit everything from the initial area.

[velvetrose]

Magic is unaimable to balance it's advantage of an infinite ammo source. If fire was aimable there would be no reason to ever use arrows again, also the thunder staff would be useless once fire was obtained.

[karmageddon_2_1b]

Originally posted by velvetrose:

Magic is unaimable to balance it's advantage of an infinite ammo source. If fire was aimable there would be no reason to ever use arrows again, also the thunder staff would be useless once fire was obtained.

Exactly. And also magic passes through terrain objects. Another big advantage

[Geist]

Dont forget that you can buff your magic damage with the magic armor.
With a Ring that boosts mana you can deal some serious damage.

[Kaban]

The combination of wands is awesome, but the stuff needed takes up a MINIMUM of 5 equipment slots, which is 4 more than what archers need. Three wands, shrooms, and one type of mana pot. Add in having both types of mana pots, one type of bug, and a bugnet, and you're talking a total of 8 (of 20) equipment slots just for magical endeavors, while archers have 1 for their bow, and a quiver.

Keeping arrow materials in their raw forms (monster bones, stone, ore, etc.) until you can make them for your quiver keeps the class specific slot to one, since all classes need sticks and refined bits for armor. Sometimes a second slot is needed to pick up arrows you missed, but that's due to a glitch that doesn't automatically put them back into the quiver.

The ammo source may be infinite, but mana regen's a proper ♥♥♥♥♥ if you don't get clairvoyance or get a hat/companion specifically for mana conservation. There's never a need to do this with ranger, however. I usually have ~50 arrows by the fifth district, and approx. 100-150 by the 10th.

I do like how the mage plays, but there's little/no reason to not play archer over it, as you save far more inventory space, and can attack ranged mobs without risking damage from physical types far more often

If mages don't get a decent aim or better equip management, I feel archer needs to be brought down a notch, because aiming at an angle and saving several equip slots is a far greater advantage to going through terrain imo, particularly against the flying mobs that partially clip into terrain, that ALSO have aimable magic attacks that travel through terrain.

Maybe make it so arrows have a drop off point or weight, so you can't just click towards any visible enemies to pre emptively kill them so long a wall's not between you. Possibly have the fire wand be aimable at the cost of not going through terrain? Maybe give mages a "magic" satchel that carries all outright enchanted/magic stuff like their wands and maybe firebrand?

Either way, playing a mage and playing inventory tetris with 5-10 of my 20 slots seems to tedious just to attack through terrain at fixed angles.

[velvetrose]

Mage in no way needs to use magic pots to spam magic infinitely once you have clairvoyance or gorgons eye. Once you have all three types of wands it only takes 3 slots in the inventory to be a Mage. I usually don't even bother keeping ice wand since I never use it, so thats 2 slots. Mage is by far the easiest class to play in this game, once you have thunder and fire you can speed through levels spamming magic on a whim and only stopping to mine for better armor.

Arhcers needs to mine and stockpile ammo usually for the entire duration of a run and take far more inventory slots to use effectively than a mage (mage can ditch bug catching gear as soon as he has the wands). You also always need to make sure you have an empty slot open to pick up dropped arrows since it doesn't restack them into your quiver. When you run out of an arrow stack you have to open the menu to put another set of arrows into the quiver thus possibly placing you in danger and slowing combat as well.

[Kaban]

The thing is, there are quite a few runs where I don't get clairvoyance at all. On my current remnant I've got levitate, warp, and the necromancer summon. My last went necro summon, levitate, and magic weapons. I didn't know what the gorgon eye did, but hearing it has mana regen makes me really want to scope it out now since we still can't pick skills. When I do get clairvoyance, everything's peachy and I love mage, but when I don't, that's 2-3 inventory slots gone.

With archers, I usually only need to ever have one slot for arrow material past the initial stone & bone skim. Heck, I'll sometimes luck out and not need iron for armor and be able to make a 150+ arrow batch in the ~10th district that can last me the rest of the game, depending on minibosses and spells. If you get the wolf spell, you can use it to push several enemies into a corner and use a single arrow to hit them all, which makes the caves a breeze.

Usually picking up arrows isn't much of an issue since they only drop if you miss, and they have no trajectory, so it's hit where you click for the most part. If I got room and run over an arrow, it's neato, but it's pretty silly to go out of your way to get 1-2 arrows when you've a stack of ~50+, let alone put them in your quiver before getting to town or when you're at inventory capacity. I seem to have better luck getting to only need a bow and iron ore sooner than getting mats for a bug net then getting the bugs I want, as well as the clairvoyance skill

I'll definitely check out a gorgon eye run, but I still wish there was a somewhat more reliable way to make the mage early game a little more bearable. I feel that being able to choose skills will remedy this a lot, as I have to rely on mana potions more often than not, and I've a feeling a gorgon eye run's gonna take a few attempts.