Best mods for making magic better?

[Ryu]

I hear some people say magic is not that great when compared to physical damage so i would love to know if there are any mods that make magic a little better?

[Derpy Moa]

odins mods fix magic by expanding playstyles and adding debuffs that counter the retarded resistances that some enemies can get.
they even nerf some of the broken things so you can have alternatives and not feel like you're constantly playing a meme build (ahem hydro/aero ahem)

If you add all inc his summon mini mod then magic will be in line with necro and physical to some extent.
Obviously it won't be perfect but it's milion years ahead of vanilla in how viable some builds become when necro and ranger builds get slightly nerfed.

[Chaoslink]

I mean, magic is king hands down. The physical meta stopped years ago. People still do it, but magic is by far the more powerful damage type. Physical would need a buff to compete.

[Derpy Moa]

https://youtu.be/MmX4T3mIFh8 yeah nice king there
Enemy resistances are retarded later on and king is necro > ranger > knight > everything else.

[Ryu]

Originally posted by Derpy Moa:

odins mods fix magic by expanding playstyles and adding debuffs that counter the retarded resistances that some enemies can get.
they even nerf some of the broken things so you can have alternatives and not feel like you're constantly playing a meme build (ahem hydro/aero ahem)

If you add all inc his summon mini mod then magic will be in line with necro and physical to some extent.
Obviously it won't be perfect but it's milion years ahead of vanilla in how viable some builds become when necro and ranger builds get slightly nerfed.

I have all the elemental class mods since truth be told i want to be a lone wolf elemental mage that mostly uses fire but also has a few other spells if need be.
But do i need any other mods or will that be fine?

[Chaoslink]

Eh, Necro is just a source spam meme. It’s powerful, definitely more than other physical builds, but it doesn’t get there until later game and even then requires other skills to really shine. It’s basically just ultimate spam.

Rangers are crazy powerful, but their strongest build is actually a magic focused one. Elemental ranger builds are very strong and can jump between a physical or magic focus at will.

Beyond that, magic damage is pretty much top dog. People put waaaay too much focus on magical resistances. Each type has its pros and cons and every team should have access to both types of damage to make use of them. Magic is all about area damage and focusing the enemy as a whole. Sure, enemies have 50% or more resistance later on, but if it wasn’t so high there would be no reason to ever use physical. If you’re in a fight against ten enemies, a boss and all the adds, your physical character might be able to deal some massive hits against the boss, but numerically the mages are putting up much bigger numbers by hitting 4-5 of the adds simultaneously, even if 50% of their damage is mitigated by resistance.

Most magic schools also have methods of reducing enemy resistance as well and most enemies aren’t resistant to everything, meaning you can just bypass it by having multiple elements at your disposal. Right now, Pyro is pretty much king for raw damage and Geo holds the single hardest hitting spell in the game. Both Aero and Hydro are unparalleled for CC.

Physical is going to put up higher single-target numbers, but overall magic outdamages it no contest. Even if enemies have 50% resistance, if I’m hitting 5 of them I’m dealing 250% damage.

[Derpy Moa]

Originally posted by Noobmaster:

I have all the elemental class mods since truth be told i want to be a lone wolf elemental mage that mostly uses fire but also has a few other spells if need be.
But do i need any other mods or will that be fine?

Maybe a weight increase mod to keep your sanity.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1647515992 I use this.
Up to you if you think that's cheating or not. My opinion is it adds QoL to mages and stays balanced because can't carry a lot Barrels still.
Balancing carry weight doesn't matter anyways if you add Telekinesis into the mix so even more reason to use this.

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Eh, Necro is just a source spam meme. It’s powerful, definitely more than other physical builds, but it doesn’t get there until later game and even then requires other skills to really shine. It’s basically just ultimate spam.

Rangers are crazy powerful, but their strongest build is actually a magic focused one. Elemental ranger builds are very strong and can jump between a physical or magic focus at will.

Beyond that, magic damage is pretty much top dog. People put waaaay too much focus on magical resistances. Each type has its pros and cons and every team should have access to both types of damage to make use of them. Magic is all about area damage and focusing the enemy as a whole. Sure, enemies have 50% or more resistance later on, but if it wasn’t so high there would be no reason to ever use physical. If you’re in a fight against ten enemies, a boss and all the adds, your physical character might be able to deal some massive hits against the boss, but numerically the mages are putting up much bigger numbers by hitting 4-5 of the adds simultaneously, even if 50% of their damage is mitigated by resistance.

Most magic schools also have methods of reducing enemy resistance as well and most enemies aren’t resistant to everything, meaning you can just bypass it by having multiple elements at your disposal. Right now, Pyro is pretty much king for raw damage and Geo holds the single hardest hitting spell in the game. Both Aero and Hydro are unparalleled for CC.

Physical is going to put up higher single-target numbers, but overall magic outdamages it no contest. Even if enemies have 50% resistance, if I’m hitting 5 of them I’m dealing 250% damage.

What you're saying is very much true but you also listed the issue with the current system.
Vanilla forces you to run a certain comp/meta to bypass things the game throws at you.
If you wanna create some different kind of build just because you want and it's fun to you then you'll most likely feel underpowered.

For example if you wanna solo as a hydro/aero (or play this mix for anything) you will resort to cheese methods a lot which is really not fun based on how much you value an unmodded game.
Same scenario if you can't counter the current enemy resistances by having a diverse group.
Fights can be cheesed into oblivion with death wish precast then stealth + sneak spam.

Vanilla is balanced for a new player but once you get used to how the game works and how easy it is to cheese anything you realize the issue.

So I recommended Odins mods as they let you play specs you never could and they're fun while the broken stuff gets a slight nerf.
It also makes the game bit harder because enemies get lv13+ skills in Fort Joy already.
One of the scariest skills is the new Necro turn skip, Ophidian Glare which enemies get early on.
There's also more DoTs and resistance debuffs enemies can apply to you on top of a 20% damage buff they give to allies.
Makes the game really more interesting tbh.

[MULTIPASS]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Rangers are crazy powerful, but their strongest build is actually a magic focused one. Elemental ranger builds are very strong and can jump between a physical or magic focus at will.

This 100%. I'm playing through with a magic ranger now and it's amazing. You just have to get used to the idea of crafting arrows, which is not as bad as it seems.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Clone Trooper OG-8172:

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Rangers are crazy powerful, but their strongest build is actually a magic focused one. Elemental ranger builds are very strong and can jump between a physical or magic focus at will.

This 100%. I'm playing through with a magic ranger now and it's amazing. You just have to get used to the idea of crafting arrows, which is not as bad as it seems.

I mean, the elemental ranger concept doesn’t really use many crafted arrows. It’s all about buffs.

[MULTIPASS]

I tried the build which involved geomancy buffs. It was very strong sometimes, but really relied heavily on having buffs and enemies not immune to poison. Kind of a 1-trick pony. I found it inconsistent and inefficient.

Using the crafted arrows, though, is a lot stronger than I expected. It's versatile, good at physical or any elemental damage at any time, doesn't rely on a lot of ap spent on buffs. It doesn't rely on combat skills other than the traditional warfare/ranged. I don't need as much memory as the other build, either.

I'm not completely sure exactly which build you're referring to, maybe there's something I haven't tried.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Clone Trooper OG-8172:

I tried the build which involved geomancy buffs. It was very strong sometimes, but really relied heavily on having buffs and enemies not immune to poison. Kind of a 1-trick pony. I found it inconsistent and inefficient.

Using the crafted arrows, though, is a lot stronger than I expected. It's versatile, good at physical or any elemental damage at any time, doesn't rely on a lot of ap spent on buffs. It doesn't rely on combat skills other than the traditional warfare/ranged. I don't need as much memory as the other build, either.

I'm not completely sure exactly which build you're referring to, maybe there's something I haven't tried.

It takes a bit of setup beyond the character itself to really shine. If you enter combat using tactical retreat or simply have someone buff the ranger with haste while also having the elf racial, the AP is there. You just have to have the team working as one for best results. My rogue generally goes first and their first turn is just a few haste buffs and friendly fire with searing daggers. My two mages then open up with half their kit because they have extra AP as well as their AP reduction already active. Sure, the rogue did nothing offensive the first turn, but their AP enables more damage from the mages than the mages could do themselves. Your ranger can’t be fully effective without working with their team.

I never look at just the one character I’m building. I look at my team as a whole. That’s why I’ll ask people for their entire team setup when they’re asking for help with just one character’s build. How you build a character is as important as how their team is built alongside them.

[MULTIPASS]

That's a good point. Do you manage the initiative of each team member to preserve your desired order?

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Clone Trooper OG-8172:

That's a good point. Do you manage the initiative of each team member to preserve your desired order?

Yup, and if there were issues I'd resort to the delay turn function to force it. I do similar things with many of my teams. Sometimes I'd have my top initiator actually stay out of combat or delay to go last so that I'd also get first turn of the second round. Mix that with Fane's time warp and things like executioner and you can get something like 33 consecutive AP on one character. Its pretty nasty what can be done with that.

[Palumtra]

The only problem with magic is that you run out of memory slots fast :P and that you have to specialize in a second school so you don't get shut down if you bumpo into an immune enemy, but later you can also reduce resistances by a lot (Burning/Wet, Flay Skin, Bleed Fire and so on)

[abaoabao2010]

Magic has a higher skill floor, but that's it. In fact, if you consider yourself decent at the game, you should like magic as it's much more powerful at that skill level.

Very unoptimized magic builds are worse than very unoptimized physical builds.
Semi-optimized magic builds are better than semi-optimized physical builds.
Any optimized build trivializes combat.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by abaoabao2010:

Magic has a higher skill floor, but that's it. In fact, if you consider yourself decent at the game, you should like magic as it's much more powerful at that skill level.

Very unoptimized magic builds are worse than very unoptimized physical builds.
Semi-optimized magic builds are better than semi-optimized physical builds.
Any optimized build trivializes combat.

Not the wording I'd have used, but the point is valid all the same. Physical builds are easy to manage and even when you're making mistakes, they still work out. Magic isn't as forgiving. However, once you know the tricks to make it work best there's nothing that competes. When you start bumping enemies to 6, 7 or even 10 levels above your own, there's no room for mistakes or weakness. In that situation, the strongest builds are the only survivors and all those physical builds that everyone gets so excited over, stop being so shiny. Especially Necro... Once you blow that load, they don't have anything to back themselves up. If it can't kill the enemy with its one combo, they're done for.