Is it just me or does magic suck to play as in dd

[CodeTiger]

It is the worst vocation/s in the game. It is slow, weak and you have no melee, so tuff ♥♥♥♥ if you cannot kill something without a melee hit (purple golem). And the stupid warrior pawn seem to have forgotten it can hit. I have fun with all the other vocations, but getting 20 lvl in magic is an endurance effort.

[Old Goat]

You could play in another vocation just level up as a sorc.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by CodeTiger:

It is the worst vocation/s in the game.

If you mean Mage, then yes. If you mean Sorcerer, then no - Warrior is worse for instance.

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

Not really. Casters are just the hardest classes to figure out, but they're the "expert mode" of ddda.
What it mean is that before you figure out how to play them, you will suck with them and need to use cheese technics only to survive.
But once you understand how to play them you will roll over everything (even metal golems).
Kind of a high risk high reward system....
Caster are squishy so every mistake can cost a game over, they require the use of well though pre emptive tactics, you need to have the initiative on ennemies, kinda like playing chess against them.
Another thing that make caster even harder, is it require to perfecly know all ennemies pattern and weaknesses.
But once you assimilate all of this (it will take a lot of time), they are so good that it become boring to play them...

Or you can just learn holy affinity and focus bolt....

[Chrysalis]

I personally main as a Ranger, but I think that being a Sorcerer is pretty fun, too.

I can see why someone would describe being a Mage as quite boring and annoying, but I can't understand why someone would dislike being a Sorcerer.

You can have all these cinematic Spells that cast meteors from the sky and create big vortexes that destroy everything in their path.
It's also really awesome how your character moves while casting, because it's so elegant and fitting imo.

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

Something that a lot of player overlooks, is that spellscreen works the same way as magick rebalancer, you can stack it up to 4 times like periapts, but pawns never do this. On the other hand, if you're mage, you can stack it to boost the physical defense of the all party by 80% all the time.... almost impervious to physical damages party of pawns anyone ? :o

True that mage arent designed to be damage dealers, but levin (forget brontide it's garbage), comestion and frigor are able to deal some pretty decent damage when used against the appropriate ennemy (basic form of comestion is the best spell to farm cursed dragons, who are weak to fire, and by a large marging).
Then again.... for casters the cheat mode is holy focused bolt, only difference with a sorcerer is that staves are slightly weaker than archistaves, and mages dont have an equivalent of the caged furry.

[Eru]

I highly recommend trying out a spellsync party. Gather 2 or 3 Sorcerer pawns with lvl 1, 2 and 3 of the big spells and, once you get the first one out, it will be a constant barrage of wide area, high damage and crowd controlling attacks until there's nothing left to hit. Holy Focused Bolt is also incredibly powerful as a single target spell, and it's available to Mages as well.

[CodeTiger]

Thanks to everyone that responded. I did learn that I needed to change my party to add some direct physical damage, that was not a fighter. So I was able to kill the purple golem. But I still find compared to the bow classes the magic classes aren't fun. All the foot planting and waiting for a spell to charge is boring, there is no real evasion. Even if I could one hit everything I still don't like way the magic plays. Only 3 lvl to go and then back to a bow build (MA). Bows rule in this game for damage and gameplay fun factor.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by CodeTiger:

All the foot planting and waiting for a spell to charge is boring, there is no real evasion. Even if I could one hit everything I still don't like way the magic plays. Only 3 lvl to go and then back to a bow build (MA). Bows rule in this game for damage and gameplay fun factor.

Well, that's the literal definition of caster ;) And MA is a caster too, just with a curved wand - just more agile and cheesy.

BTW 3 lvl to go? Are you minmaxing?

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

Yeah most casters dont have a very dynamic gameplay.

Though Magick archer is a nice caster, all the advantage of a sorcerer without the inconvenients... only drawback, metal golems will be your arch nemesis... you got absolutely no way to deal physical damage at range (except great sacrifice, but it require pawns as ammunitions), while mystic knight can spam bolts that are both magical and physical...

For bow class, yeah absolutely agree... best class is strider, get a pair of holy enchanted daggers and nothing can oppose you in the entire game.

[Fallaner, the Writer Eternal]

Originally posted by Sakamoto:

Yeah most casters dont have a very dynamic gameplay.

Though Magick archer is a nice caster, all the advantage of a sorcerer without the inconvenients... only drawback, metal golems will be your arch nemesis... you got absolutely no way to deal physical damage at range (except great sacrifice, but it require pawns as ammunitions), while mystic knight can spam bolts that are both magical and physical...

For bow class, yeah absolutely agree... best class is strider, get a pair of holy enchanted daggers and nothing can oppose you in the entire game.

Both MA and MK have a melee weapon that can be used against magic-immune enemies... Though against golems, MK is better since MKs get maces, which are good against the golem's weak spot.

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

yeah, but it doesnt work against metal golem, because the medals arent on the golem itself, they're dispatched in the area. And one of those medals is always perched on an unreachable spot... pawns are too stupid to aim at it and MA have no simple way to damage it.

For mystic knight, just cast a great canon and the perched medal is done....

[Fallaner, the Writer Eternal]

Originally posted by Sakamoto:

yeah, but it doesnt work against metal golem, because the medals arent on the golem itself, they're dispatched in the area. And one of those medals is always perched on a unreachable spot... pawns are too stupid to aim at it and MA have no simple way to damage it.

Ah. Well then. That'd be a problem. I didn't remember metal golems... A throwblast could do the trick if you could throw it that far, but i've never bothered to USE a throwblast, so I wouldn't know if it can travel far enough.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by Fallaner:

Originally posted by Sakamoto:

yeah, but it doesnt work against metal golem, because the medals arent on the golem itself, they're dispatched in the area. And one of those medals is always perched on a unreachable spot... pawns are too stupid to aim at it and MA have no simple way to damage it.

Ah. Well then. That'd be a problem. I didn't remember metal golems...

There's stil Sacrificial Bolt AKA Di*k shot. For a price it will wipe out all medals from a wide area.

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

Problem isnt how far it is, it's how high it is, and there's no way to hit it with a throwblast (maybe with a godess cameo or a salomet grimoire, never tried that...).
There's one behind selene house and his unreachable medal is on top of a high tree.... only way to handle it as a solo magick archer is to lure the golem below the tree, climb it and jump from it in hope to score a few hit on the medal.... it takes quite some time to complete.

[CodeTiger]

Originally posted by zadymek:

Originally posted by CodeTiger:

All the foot planting and waiting for a spell to charge is boring, there is no real evasion. Even if I could one hit everything I still don't like way the magic plays. Only 3 lvl to go and then back to a bow build (MA). Bows rule in this game for damage and gameplay fun factor.

Well, that's the literal definition of caster ;) And MA is a caster too, just with a curved wand - just more agile and cheesy.

BTW 3 lvl to go? Are you minmaxing?

No. I am trying to increase my magic damage to boost the MA damage and unlock the caster vocation alignments and core. There is no way I can play most of the game as caster. I would end up hating the game, but I really enjoy playing as an archer. But magic weapons are very good so it seems a nature place to increase damage. I did think about starting a new game and try min/maxing but the caster is not enjoyable to play. It would of been better if I did the 20 lvl (vocation) earlier in the game as I would of benefited more. I might start again and do that start as a caster until I have unlocked all vocations skills, core and alignments and then go to bow builds, ending with the MA.