Which augments for a solo mage / sorcerer / maybe magic archer and why?

[>{°,.¿.,°}<]

Now that my warrior / fighter char is fairly optimized (thx to alot of you guys here giving me advice) and on the best way solo'ing the whole game I want to rebuild the first char I first played DD with.
It was a mage/sorcerer with stats and augments all over the board.
In short: It was bad...

Now my question: Which augments do I need for a solo mage/sorcerer and why?

Any recommanded spell setup?

Would love to hear your suggestions, advice and own experience.

Cheers, Mergo!

[Lego Yoda (goth)]

Ferocity and just spam Focused Bolt with holy weapon, it's really really good. I like having Emphasis cause staggers and knockdowns. Maelstrom is fun to use when enemies aren't aggroed yet.

[Proconsul]

Here are some of the augs I like in that department, and since you asked I will add my thoughts on why I like 'em. So again, one wall of text coming up!

Articulacy - being able to cast faster is very nice, especially with spells that have long cast times. This aug is applied as a percentage reduction, so the longer the cast times of spells you like to use, the bigger the time savings from this one. This stacks with the effect of having a Wyrmking Ring in your inventory, so the potential time savings can be a game changer.

Acuity - 20% increase to your magic attack is not to be sneezed at, and again it's a percentage, so it scales the size of the reward to the size of your investment in the MA stat.

Attunement - another 10% increase to MA stat from the mage tree, and it stacks with the 20% from Acuity (and other sources up to a total max bonus of +80%). But being only 10%, and being a rank 8 aug, I might just use the slot for something else, especially if I don't intend to rank up mage anyway to get....

Inflection - BIG CAVEAT ON THIS ONE - this one cuts the damage you take while casting in half....when it is working. The catch: it is bugged in the standard Dark Arisen release and doubles your damage instead of halving it. Capcom knew about it practically from day one as I understand it, but never bothered to fix it. There is a very simple mod available on Nexus that fixes this for PC. Secondary caveat: if you put this aug on a pawn, and a player who hires your pawn doesn't have the mod, they are going to get your pawn killed a lot and probably give you a bad rating over it. But for your Arisen to use it, no problem as long as you have the mod. All that longwinded crap being said, it is a level 9 aug, so you might still choose to leave it. Heck, people have been getting along without it since DA came out, since it never worked right on console, either.

Bastion - its a rank 1 warrior aug that reduces physical damage by 50 pts per attack on normal difficulty, 225 on hard, and 112 while on Bitterblack Isle. Face it, yer gonna get hit, and yer never gonna have a lot of physical damage mitigation from armor. So an aug that passively duplicates the absorption effect is handy for dealing with those pesky archers, dragon tail sweeps, enraged and flailing ogre limbs, etc. And since it's rank 1, you don't even need to play as a warrior for even 5 seconds to get it. Just switch to warrior, buy the aug, switch back. You could even double down on the effect if you really want to by getting....

Fortitude - a rank 1 Mystic Knight aug that does the same thing as Bastion only not quite as strong. It only reduces physical damage by 30/135/67, so only 60% as powerful. On the plus side, it stacks with Bastion; on the downside, the reduction may not be enough to justify the aug slot, unless of course you are seriously into spells with long cast times and thus are taking higher than average incidental physical damage while immobilized by casting. Better tactics can compensate, but in narrow spaces, like much of BBI, there isn't a lot you can do sometimes besides just take the hits or forego spellcasting and roll with staff attacks.

Emphasis - this thing seems to be like knockdown steroids for your magic attacks that have any knockdown component to them, which it seems is most if not all of the good offensive ones anyway. This one's biggest plus, to my thinking, is the amount of time it spares you from exposure to boss attacks. The more that ogre/dragon/griffin/whatever spends writhing on the ground after knockdowns, the less damage your entire party is gonna take and the quicker the fight is going to end, since knocked down bosses take extra damage.

Conservation - this is basically a blanket discount of 15% off the stamina costs of all spellcasting. If you are going to min/max in pursuit of an obscenely high MA stat, then this is probably a good idea since your stamina pool is likely to be your weak link. If you plan to spend some time leveling as a Ranger or Strider, however, you might forego this aug and rely on your somewhat deeper stamina pool.

Whew! One of wall of text, delivered as ordered.

[>{°,.¿.,°}<]

Originally posted by Otterside:

Ferocity and just spam Focused Bolt with holy weapon, it's really really good. I like having Emphasis cause staggers and knockdowns. Maelstrom is fun to use when enemies aren't aggroed yet.

Thx for the advice!
Will put the bolts to good use and test said augments. :)
Also yeh, once cast Maelstrom just annihilates anything that isnt resistent to dark or heavily armored it seams... :o

Originally posted by Proconsul:

Here are some of the augs I like in that department, and since you asked I will add my thoughts on why I like 'em. So again, one wall of text coming up!

Articulacy - being able to cast faster is very nice, especially with spells that have long cast times. This aug is applied as a percentage reduction, so the longer the cast times of spells you like to use, the bigger the time savings from this one. This stacks with the effect of having a Wyrmking Ring in your inventory, so the potential time savings can be a game changer.

Acuity - 20% increase to your magic attack is not to be sneezed at, and again it's a percentage, so it scales the size of the reward to the size of your investment in the MA stat.

Attunement - another 10% increase to MA stat from the mage tree, and it stacks with the 20% from Acuity (and other sources up to a total max bonus of +80%). But being only 10%, and being a rank 8 aug, I might just use the slot for something else, especially if I don't intend to rank up mage anyway to get....

Inflection - BIG CAVEAT ON THIS ONE - this one cuts the damage you take while casting in half....when it is working. The catch: it is bugged in the standard Dark Arisen release and doubles your damage instead of halving it. Capcom knew about it practically from day one as I understand it, but never bothered to fix it. There is a very simple mod available on Nexus that fixes this for PC. Secondary caveat: if you put this aug on a pawn, and a player who hires your pawn doesn't have the mod, they are going to get your pawn killed a lot and probably give you a bad rating over it. But for your Arisen to use it, no problem as long as you have the mod. All that longwinded crap being said, it is a level 9 aug, so you might still choose to leave it. Heck, people have been getting along without it since DA came out, since it never worked right on console, either.

Bastion - its a rank 1 warrior aug that reduces physical damage by 50 pts per attack on normal difficulty, 225 on hard, and 112 while on Bitterblack Isle. Face it, yer gonna get hit, and yer never gonna have a lot of physical damage mitigation from armor. So an aug that passively duplicates the absorption effect is handy for dealing with those pesky archers, dragon tail sweeps, enraged and flailing ogre limbs, etc. And since it's rank 1, you don't even need to play as a warrior for even 5 seconds to get it. Just switch to warrior, buy the aug, switch back. You could even double down on the effect if you really want to by getting....

Fortitude - a rank 1 Mystic Knight aug that does the same thing as Bastion only not quite as strong. It only reduces physical damage by 30/135/67, so only 60% as powerful. On the plus side, it stacks with Bastion; on the downside, the reduction may not be enough to justify the aug slot, unless of course you are seriously into spells with long cast times and thus are taking higher than average incidental physical damage while immobilized by casting. Better tactics can compensate, but in narrow spaces, like much of BBI, there isn't a lot you can do sometimes besides just take the hits or forego spellcasting and roll with staff attacks.

Emphasis - this thing seems to be like knockdown steroids for your magic attacks that have any knockdown component to them, which it seems is most if not all of the good offensive ones anyway. This one's biggest plus, to my thinking, is the amount of time it spares you from exposure to boss attacks. The more that ogre/dragon/griffin/whatever spends writhing on the ground after knockdowns, the less damage your entire party is gonna take and the quicker the fight is going to end, since knocked down bosses take extra damage.

Conservation - this is basically a blanket discount of 15% off the stamina costs of all spellcasting. If you are going to min/max in pursuit of an obscenely high MA stat, then this is probably a good idea since your stamina pool is likely to be your weak link. If you plan to spend some time leveling as a Ranger or Strider, however, you might forego this aug and rely on your somewhat deeper stamina pool.

Whew! One of wall of text, delivered as ordered.

Oh you again. :P
Ur really into this game, arent you? :)
...and yes indeed, thats one wall of text... but one I much appreciate!
So thanks for that!

Looked at the augs you recommad it makes at sense why you picked them as well.
Boost magic up for dmg, defense so you dont get 1 shot should you get hit a few times and stagger / down so ♥♥♥♥ doesnt get near you.

Not sure what to think about Conservation tho since I usually carry 50 grass and 50 shrooms with me since I play solo.

And Inflection is bugged? Now thats a damn shame they havent fixed it yet... kinda lazy if u ask me... cant be too hard fixing some numbers.
Also there's a community fix to it? Mind linking it here? Would love to use it since I hate getting 1 shot be charging, rampaging Ogres -.-" ... really hate these guys.

Btw, Autonomy from assassine also boosts magic, no?
If yes, wouldnt it be a good idea to also use this?
Maybe drop Attunement for it then.... mhmm...

Also, how do I deal with Golems? D:
They seam to take no dmg. at all from magic...

Cheers, Mergo!

[insolent1]

the inflection augment is bugged on some platforms

http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Inflection

basically you want to up your damage as much as possible aswell as reducing spellcasting time using articulacy and the wyrmking ring

bastion from warrior is a good one for most of the game

if you go magic archery, get the strider level 3 damping augment as it reduces recoil and is easy to get early
ranger also has 1 or 2 augments that can help a magic archer, trajectory and precision are the main 2 to consider

golems are probably best dealt with using another vocation or hire a pawn when you know you will face them

http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Golem

check the bottom of the page for fighting golems as a mage/sorc/MA

[>{°,.¿.,°}<]

Originally posted by Brew:

the inflection augment is bugged on some platforms

http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Inflection

basically you want to up your damage as much as possible aswell as reducing spellcasting time using articulacy and the wyrmking ring

bastion from warrior is a good one for most of the game

if you go magic archery, get the strider level 3 damping augment as it reduces recoil and is easy to get early
ranger also has 1 or 2 augments that can help a magic archer, trajectory and precision are the main 2 to consider

golems are probably best dealt with using another vocation or hire a pawn when you know you will face them

http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Golem

check the bottom of the page for fighting golems as a mage/sorc/MA

So, judging by what you said I should then pick things like: Acuity, Attunement, Autonomy & Bloodlust (checked the wiki and it says these also boost magic for some reason even tho the discription says otherwise = it is missleading as ♥♥♥♥...thx game!)

Also thx for the magic archery advice!

Also nah, not changing my vocation or hiring pawns.
As said I like to keep it solo.
Guess I have to swallow the bitter pill then and heavy jump golems to death or bare fist them...

Cheers, Mergo!

[Lv 20 Bolting Bot]

For Mage/Sorc, this setup dominates anything in the entire game that you can hurt with magic.

Acuity
Attunement
Perpetuation (for keeping up holy/dark through longer fights without having to re-cast)
Autonomy
Ferocity (for Focused Bolt spamming, much stronger than any spells)
[Insert Defensive Augment] My suggestion: Tenacity

"Strategy": Focused Bolt

• Use Dark enchantment against the Dark Bishop and the Dragon.
  
• Use Holy enchantment against literally everything else.
  
• Spam Focused Bolt. When charging it, jump as your char is about to shoot to skip the normal light attack animation and jump (heh) straight to charging.
  
• If you want to optimize, all spells aside from these two enchantments are a waste of time. Focused Bolt is way more efficient than any of the main spells.

It breaks any and all encounters that you would ever want to deal with:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=818519294

[Proconsul]

Originally posted by Mergos Wet Nurse:

Not sure what to think about Conservation tho since I usually carry 50 grass and 50 shrooms with me since I play solo.

If you are accustomed to carrying lots of stamina curatives, kick Conservation to the curb, sure. Some folks like to accent appearance, and thus they take smaller toons with less carrying capacity who can't readily carry a good load of curatives. So for them it's an enabler for their cosmetic preferences. (I admit to being one of them from time to time.)

Originally posted by Mergos Wet Nurse:

And Inflection is bugged? Now thats a damn shame they havent fixed it yet... kinda lazy if u ask me... cant be too hard fixing some numbers.
Also there's a community fix to it? Mind linking it here?

Here: Inflection Fix Mod[www.nexusmods.com]

Originally posted by Mergos Wet Nurse:

Btw, Autonomy from assassine also boosts magic, no?
If yes, wouldnt it be a good idea to also use this?
Maybe drop Attunement for it then.... mhmm...

If you always travel alone, then Autonomy is a definite must-have. Regardless of active vocation. End of line. :-P

Originally posted by Mergos Wet Nurse:

Also, how do I deal with Golems? D:
They seam to take no dmg. at all from magic...

Nothing any Arisen spellcaster can do except always have one or two physical oriented pawns in the group. And if you must have only one, make sure it has a ranged attack, since metal golems always have one medallion up high on something that cannot be climbed. Also try to hire pawns that have bestiary knowledge of golems, of course, though even without it they still tend to attack the medallions anyway. When facing a metal golem you can run to a medallion, call the pawns to you, and stay there til they break it, then move to the next, call them again....etc, just to keep them all focused on one at a time.

Edit: re: Golems: you can always switch vocations prior to embarking on a quest you know will require facing golems, then switch back when it's done. This is particularly viable if you intend to build your toon by playing as a physical vocation during the early phase in order to access augments and/or non-magic-related stat growth. Presumably this will grant at least a few ranks in some viable physical vocation that you can briefly fall back to on those couple of occasions that quests require it of you.

[Lv 20 Bolting Bot]

Originally posted by Mergos Wet Nurse:

Also, how do I deal with Golems? D:
They seam to take no dmg. at all from magic...

You run, simple as that. Keep in mind that almost every fight in the game can be ignored and easy enemies can be grinded forever (hobgoblins for quick XP early).

Golem materials are useless for dragonforged endgame gear any way, and since you don't need them for improvements, there's not really ever any need to fight them. Only 1 very optional side quest requires you to kill one.

[Lv 20 Bolting Bot]

Originally posted by Le Désir de Vivre:

The heavy attack from a Sorcerer (puts a hand up and sends forth a blast) can injure a Golems' weakpoints. Running away from every fight just promotes laziness.

Well the game promotes running away from fights by not rewarding you properly.

[>{°,.¿.,°}<]

Wow... didnt expect to see so many answers here when I check.
Sweet!

Originally posted by Proconsul:

Originally posted by Mergos Wet Nurse:

Not sure what to think about Conservation tho since I usually carry 50 grass and 50 shrooms with me since I play solo.

If you are accustomed to carrying lots of stamina curatives, kick Conservation to the curb, sure. Some folks like to accent appearance, and thus they take smaller toons with less carrying capacity who can't readily carry a good load of curatives. So for them it's an enabler for their cosmetic preferences. (I admit to being one of them from time to time.)

Originally posted by Mergos Wet Nurse:

And Inflection is bugged? Now thats a damn shame they havent fixed it yet... kinda lazy if u ask me... cant be too hard fixing some numbers.
Also there's a community fix to it? Mind linking it here?

Here: Inflection Fix Mod[www.nexusmods.com]

Originally posted by Mergos Wet Nurse:

Btw, Autonomy from assassine also boosts magic, no?
If yes, wouldnt it be a good idea to also use this?
Maybe drop Attunement for it then.... mhmm...

If you always travel alone, then Autonomy is a definite must-have. Regardless of active vocation. End of line. :-P

Originally posted by Mergos Wet Nurse:

Also, how do I deal with Golems? D:
They seam to take no dmg. at all from magic...

Nothing any Arisen spellcaster can do except always have one or two physical oriented pawns in the group. And if you must have only one, make sure it has a ranged attack, since metal golems always have one medallion up high on something that cannot be climbed. Also try to hire pawns that have bestiary knowledge of golems, of course, though even without it they still tend to attack the medallions anyway. When facing a metal golem you can run to a medallion, call the pawns to you, and stay there til they break it, then move to the next, call them again....etc, just to keep them all focused on one at a time.

Edit: re: Golems: you can always switch vocations prior to embarking on a quest you know will require facing golems, then switch back when it's done. This is particularly viable if you intend to build your toon by playing as a physical vocation during the early phase in order to access augments and/or non-magic-related stat growth. Presumably this will grant at least a few ranks in some viable physical vocation that you can briefly fall back to on those couple of occasions that quests require it of you.

Well, my char is a huge sorcerer guy with edgy scar, one eye and eyetattoo... can post a screenshot later.

So yeh, wouldnt like to play a character that looks like trash tbh.... :D

Also thx for the mod-link! Installed! :)

And yeh, grinded assassine to 9 so I can use Autonomy.
Was a nice magic boost!

Nah... wanna keep it sorcerer, I like some challange. (must be the dark souls player taking over... )
Learnt that bare fists and staff heavy can dmg golems... took a good while but managed to kill one this way... took 15 mins LOL! D:
Might wanna consider getting that jumping augment from straider I guess just for golems...

Thx for ur help!

Originally posted by Aesheon:

For Mage/Sorc, this setup dominates anything in the entire game that you can hurt with magic.

Acuity
Attunement
Perpetuation (for keeping up holy/dark through longer fights without having to re-cast)
Autonomy
Ferocity (for Focused Bolt spamming, much stronger than any spells)
[Insert Defensive Augment] My suggestion: Tenacity

"Strategy": Focused Bolt

• Use Dark enchantment against the Dark Bishop and the Dragon.
  
• Use Holy enchantment against literally everything else.
  
• Spam Focused Bolt. When charging it, jump as your char is about to shoot to skip the normal light attack animation and jump (heh) straight to charging.
  
• If you want to optimize, all spells aside from these two enchantments are a waste of time. Focused Bolt is way more efficient than any of the main spells.

It breaks any and all encounters that you would ever want to deal with:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=818519294

Have tested the setup and yes.... ♥♥♥♥ is INSANE!
Even tho I dont have the secret augment you've suggested.
Will use Bastion until then I guess.
Also thx for showing me!
Helped alot!

Originally posted by Aesheon:

Originally posted by Mergos Wet Nurse:

Also, how do I deal with Golems? D:
They seam to take no dmg. at all from magic...

You run, simple as that. Keep in mind that almost every fight in the game can be ignored and easy enemies can be grinded forever (hobgoblins for quick XP early).

Golem materials are useless for dragonforged endgame gear any way, and since you don't need them for improvements, there's not really ever any need to fight them. Only 1 very optional side quest requires you to kill one.

Nah, running isnt an option for me :P
As said above, I like some challenge and killing golems as mage/sorcerer isnt an exception!
About the mats: yeh, havent really found anything yet aside from this ice greatsword I used on my other char early on.

Originally posted by Le Désir de Vivre:

The heavy attack from a Sorcerer (puts a hand up and sends forth a blast) can injure a Golems' weakpoints. Running away from every fight just promotes laziness.

Yeh, learned that by now but thanks!
Might add the jumping attack bonus augment just for golems to my sorcerer.

Cheers, Mergo!