Is Mage OP or is this game just that easy?

[meow]

I'm talking primarily about damage output here, not the ability to attack from range. Being able to attack from range is quite nice, but it really just gets fights over with slightly faster more than anything.

Everything telegraphs its attacks for days and it seems like the perfect block window is pretty lenient. I put all 8 of my plumes into attack buff because I don't even need healing until a boss fight, and it's easy enough to get through those from full health if a checkpoint is nearby.

I can't say I've never died, but I've never felt challenged either.

[Zarathinius]

Have you defeated a couple of the simplest bosses and already drawing some conclusions? Or is it just boasting? Let's talk after the heroic bosses of the middle and end of the game.

[meow]

Originally posted by Zarathinius:

Have you defeated a couple of the simplest bosses and already drawing some conclusions? Or is it just boasting? Let's talk after the heroic bosses of the middle and end of the game.

I beat the first two heroic rematches and the third heroic rematch for me at my current level would be a trial of my patience with the amount of health that boss has.

I want more than just a trial of patience though.

[Rage]

It gets considerably more challenging as you go. From mid game on heroics actually require mechanical skills and spatial awareness. The last few Heroics are some of the hardest bosses I've ever fought, and I've been through like every souls-like. Being a mage (from what I've read; I've only played str and dex so far) is actually lower on the dps output endgame.

[Scraps]

Wizard is a little questionable. Using abilities in the middle of the battle as well as what spell is good is the curve, but if you do nothing but use the Spellsword, it'll be easy sailing for the first half of the game. Yes, there's not much complexity to early Heroic bosses, you'll likely change your tune later on.

I'd say as far as being OP goes, they're in the middle of the road. They're not as weak as Acolyte, but nowhere near as oppressive as Soldier. If you have experience with Soulslikes, you should be fine.

Though if you're familiar with Souls, I'm also a curious what you were expecting. Mages are often the easy-mode in the genre.

[Tsuki Zero]

IMO, go Acolyte, get Casting Tome and start Int build (do try to get however at least 30 STR for the delicious Tortoise Shield), buy Essence of Fire and Lightning, pick Soldier as second class, MELT SOME BOSSES. Once you get Magi-Flame and Al Aziph Tomes, you'll be waltzing dropping pain on anything that moves. And if you couple with Skybreaker you can just mindlessly spam either of those to get the Bulwark's ghost to give you some support.

[MundM]

I have a mage currently, but stopped playing it yesterday to start a new run, because I feel mage is way harder than a melee build.
The real damage dealing spells take a long time to be prepared and cast, and you don't always have an easy time to do a melee combo finisher to get the faster cast buff, especially not on heroic bosses.
I feel I'm at a dead end with the mage. I can defeat all normal bosses, but heroic I didn't even manage half of them so far. I barely was able to take down the Gaian in heroic because it takes ages to kill all the mobs and get rid of Ione and then I've spend my best spells already and have no time left to do anything but melee and shots on the knee.

With my character before that, I did a dagger and bow run, and the abilities with the daggers where able to take down 1/3 and sometimes even 1/2 of his health per kneel, not to mention Ione went down in a single attack.
So yeah, I give up on the mage. Mage is really fun against all the standard mobs because you can time your casts easily and even the spell blade takes care of most of them with one loaded swing, but heroic bosses ain't fun for me wi the caster build. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but mage seems like hard mode against heroic bosses besides Ione and Owl King, who aren't meant to be difficult anyway. I mean, you can literally kill owl King with sliding, lol.

[Tsuki Zero]

The strategy for Wizard is to not use abilities except to take down enemies' barrier or to apply Fire DoT on some bosses (like Forgotten Gaian or Cusith), or to rid of some nuisance (causing Ione to instantly retreat to the Forgotten Gaian's shoulder). You can just spam air attack with Magi Flame and Al Aziph or do the basic combo with Tempest and Casting against any other boss while keeping a safe distance.

[Rupika]

Originally posted by MundM:

I have a mage currently, but stopped playing it yesterday to start a new run, because I feel mage is way harder than a melee build.
The real damage dealing spells take a long time to be prepared and cast, and you don't always have an easy time to do a melee combo finisher to get the faster cast buff, especially not on heroic bosses.
I feel I'm at a dead end with the mage. I can defeat all normal bosses, but heroic I didn't even manage half of them so far. I barely was able to take down the Gaian in heroic because it takes ages to kill all the mobs and get rid of Ione and then I've spend my best spells already and have no time left to do anything but melee and shots on the knee.

With my character before that, I did a dagger and bow run, and the abilities with the daggers where able to take down 1/3 and sometimes even 1/2 of his health per kneel, not to mention Ione went down in a single attack.
So yeah, I give up on the mage. Mage is really fun against all the standard mobs because you can time your casts easily and even the spell blade takes care of most of them with one loaded swing, but heroic bosses ain't fun for me wi the caster build. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but mage seems like hard mode against heroic bosses besides Ione and Owl King, who aren't meant to be difficult anyway. I mean, you can literally kill owl King with sliding, lol.

Yep.

Attempted The Perfect Run as a Mage and it was painful. Got to Bysurge with 2:20 on the clock and couldn't get past Eldrich Counsil. Tried again with a Longsword build and shaved an entire hour on my previous attempt.

Mage is ok but there's too much downtime preparing spells to dish out. I can't imagine how hard Thalamust Heroic must be with a Tome build.

[Scraps]

Originally posted by Tony:

Mage is ok but there's too much downtime preparing spells to dish out. I can't imagine how hard Thalamust Heroic must be with a Tome build.

Not as bad as you might think. Still invest in Soldier as your second class, equip Shield of the Grey Wanderer, and slot lightning in your first slot (guarding spawns an orb in the first slot). Retaliate after Thalamus' attacks with lightning strikes (either are fine) rather than manually conjure them. The rest of the ability slots can be made for more conventional skills and fire orb to deal with Bulwark (or fire tome works).