Strider start or Mage start for Magick Archer build?

[B.U.R.T]

I know when leveling up, the stats you earn is based on your current class,
would starting as a mage be an overall better start for MA?

or does MA lean more towards Strider/Ranger stats in terms of primary attack damage?

[Tahl]

First run? Doesnt really matter. Mage might be better though. Depends on what you wnana do. I find that STR melee from Magic Archer is better at early levels. Then with the better abilities that come with lvling and time magic becomes a serious option for MArcher.

So honestly... whatever floats your boat.

[Ticklestache]

MA is all about magic damage for its primary, 1-10 mage and then 10-200 as sorc is the best way to get the most damage. although for me playing 10-200 as just a sorc was boring as hell, the first 10 levels dont really matter, i would say either fighter for the extra defense or mage for the magic damage.
http://stackoverflow.github.io/dragons-dogma-stat-planner/ < heres a stat planner, you can play around yourself and see what you want, but if this is your first time playing the game, dont worry about stats, you can play every class in the game and still be op af with just average base stats, its weapons and augments that make the biggest diference

[Bonejangles]

Originally posted by Mr. Giggles:

MA is all about magic damage for its primary, 1-10 mage and then 10-200 as sorc is the best way to get the most damage. although for me playing 10-200 as just a sorc was boring as hell, the first 10 levels dont really matter, i would say either fighter for the extra defense or mage for the magic damage.
http://stackoverflow.github.io/dragons-dogma-stat-planner/ < heres a stat planner, you can play around yourself and see what you want, but if this is your first time playing the game, dont worry about stats, you can play every class in the game and still be op af with just average base stats, its weapons and augments that make the biggest diference

If you can be OP with average stats all around, why do people bother planning builds far in advance? Genuinely curious. I want to play a Magick Archer as well, and with most games I'm a super OCD min-maxer, and I'm well aware that if I wanted to min-max Magick Archer I would have to play through the ENTIRE GAME as NOT a Magick Archer, which to me seems stupid.
If I can have balanced stats and still be really strong I'd like that a lot, because I do actually want to min-max (or rather my OCD brain wants to force me to min-max) but I also actually wanna play through the game as the vocation I want to play as.

[ThatHomestar]

I'd say Strider just for the extra Stamina. It's up to you though. Fighter is good too for some good Physical Defense early on, which you'll miss out on when you level up Sorcerer and MA.

[Ryan Fenton]

I really like 1-10 Mage, 11-90 Ranger, then the rest as Sorcerer.

Level 100
HP 2448 ST 3270
Attack 418 Magick 406
Defense 257 Magick Defense 317

Level 200
HP 3448 ST 4270
Attack 418 Magick 706
Defense 257 Magick Defense 417

You basically get almost all the advantage of pure sorc, but much greater stamina/survivability.

It's also makes your time when you DO switch to sorcerer much less boring - since you'll likely be used to ranged tactics, and already have a very good magic value. That, plus having AMAZING stamina and likely a special non-equippable magic ring to speed casting will make your magic career a LOT more fun!

The neat thing of being a ranger, I find is being nicely capable of of soloing much of the game once you're established a bit. That means double experience - basically, run, shoot, run, shoot. You'll do much the same as a sorc. You can spend a while as an assassin too without much harm to stats to get the solo augment if you're so inclined.

Essentially, you're playing a bit as a mage, take a break to play an archer for basically the first half of the game, Then, once you're a stamina machine, you go back to college, finish your graduate studies, and finally graduate as a rather durable hyper-powered magic archer.

Of course, there's nothing really important about following any of these instructions at all - even a pure warrior can become a game-destroying sorcerer or whatever given the equipment. Just if you like to focus on 'optimal' builds. Optimal for my tastes is sustained damage and playability. I'm the kind of guy who plays 4 monks in Final Fantasy 1... because of the crazy end game results.

[Wanderer]

My first time playing Dragon's Dogma I went Strider->Magick Archer. Actually I constantly swapped between the two.

Strider is good for stamina gain on level up, plus it gets augments you can transfer over to magick archer. You will want some of the mage and sorcery augments too for a magick archer, so at some point... play and rank up all of them!

Also, MA benefits from both strength and magic. It depends on the skill being used as to what is more important. Weapons have significant impact on stats. More so than level up. The best daggers in the game are strength based, the best magick bow is magic based. So it's really up to you.

[Ticklestache]

Originally posted by Pumpkin Paizuri:

If you can be OP with average stats all around, why do people bother planning builds far in advance? Genuinely curious. I want to play a Magick Archer as well, and with most games I'm a super OCD min-maxer, and I'm well aware that if I wanted to min-max Magick Archer I would have to play through the ENTIRE GAME as NOT a Magick Archer, which to me seems stupid.
If I can have balanced stats and still be really strong I'd like that a lot, because I do actually want to min-max (or rather my OCD brain wants to force me to min-max) but I also actually wanna play through the game as the vocation I want to play as.

it just comes down to how fast you can kill things, near the end of the game you'll be wanting to kill things even faster. when i first started i just played whatever i wanted, found out what i liked once i hit like 160ish and then i just started a new save file and made a pure build of that, it was just as fun, and i already knew i loved that class and i hardly noticed a big difference in damage, its just that ocd thing haha. the thing about magic archer is, to me, it has the worse stat gains out of all the classes (it has low offenses, but gives more defense), but like i said, its all viable at end game.

[Tahl]

Originally posted by Pumpkin Paizuri:

and I'm well aware that if I wanted to min-max Magick Archer I would have to play through the ENTIRE GAME as NOT a Magick Archer, which to me seems stupid.
If I can have balanced stats and still be really strong I'd like that a lot, because I do actually want to min-max (or rather my OCD brain wants to force me to min-max) but I also actually wanna play through the game as the vocation I want to play as.

Well it does make sense though... MArcher is a hybrid class. Boasting both melee and Magic effectiveness. So.... its the exact oposite of a min/max vocation.

Out of the three tiers the second(War,Rang,Sorc) is the specialisation set. They are your min/max builds.
The last three are hybrids. So... yeah.

But anyway you can become really badass/OPAF with hybrids. The game does allow you to overlevel. At level 200 the final zones in bitterblack isl are the only things with even a remote chance of killing you.

Enemies dont scale which is both awesome and suckish depending on personal pref. But at level 1 you have... oh man.. been to long. Idk like 500-900 health ish. Maybe not even that much. Wiki could tel yeah I bet.
But high levels get around 4-6K. Plus the armor you have at that point. ...and you can account for skill/abilities then too. Your godlike naked, punching DireWolves.

[Steker]

all these people saying 1-10 mage 10-200 sorc. thats a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sorc build, why bother changing to MA at 200? you already hit max level and did everything the game had to offer, and you did it as a sorc.

[Tahl]

Originally posted by Sweer Potato:

all these people saying 1-10 mage 10-200 sorc. thats a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sorc build, why bother changing to MA at 200? you already hit max level and did everything the game had to offer, and you did it as a sorc.

A: NG+
B: Thats how min/maxing for performance works.

Not seeing your point/issue.

[Severian]

Originally posted by Sweer Potato:

all these people saying 1-10 mage 10-200 sorc. thats a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sorc build, why bother changing to MA at 200? you already hit max level and did everything the game had to offer, and you did it as a sorc.

All these people are simply taking note of the fact that MA gets more points in defense than in offense per level up. It is the worst class to level up as. Not people's fault, but Capcom's.

[♪～くまモン～♪]

Originally posted by Sweer Potato:

all these people saying 1-10 mage 10-200 sorc. thats a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sorc build, why bother changing to MA at 200? you already hit max level and did everything the game had to offer, and you did it as a sorc.

Can't really criticize the min-max build. People have different playstyles. Magic archer is all about magic attack. Magick archer absolutely needs 0 physical attack. All you need are a pair of magical dagger and a magical bow which has 0 patk on it. The extra stamina from strider is nice, but not essentail. You don't even need to spend time to climb everything.

[P0L1T1C4L]

http://stackoverflow.github.io/dragons-dogma-stat-planner/#am000000000004005600000000000063000100

[Revolucas]

Originally posted by P0L1T1C4L:

http://stackoverflow.github.io/dragons-dogma-stat-planner/#am000000000004005600000000000063000100

Yep, the best is to have ATK/MATK even.

[Cristo]

There's a mod to change MA stat growths to basically be Sorcerer with some of its magic def put into stamina instead, if you want to actually play the class prior to 200.

http://www.nexusmods.com/dragonsdogma/mods/46/?