whats a cool mage build?

[AggroBuLLeT]

i already finished the game as an archer in 2016. right now im playing a entropy mage. i just arrived in ark, im lvl 13 or something, have like 40-50+ learning points and put 50 points into rhetoric.

but since i cant find any entropy spell tomes or skill books, i remembered that i need to invest in a second tree anyway, in order to unlock affinity.

so what do you guys recommend? whats a fun build for a entropy focused mage? i was thinking about mixing entropy with stealth and dagger, but meh. seems kinda useless. im gonna take out everything from range anyway. i will probably never get in melee combat. also mixing entropy with elementarism seems stupid too. im not gonna constantly switch my spells from entropy to shock or flame spells.

so.. whats your opinion? whats a fun build?

edit : https://en.wiki.sureai.net/Enderal:Classes

Black Mage actually sounds powerful. even tho im probably never gonna use much elemental spells. i just like the green colour of entropy :)

but the bonus you get seems strong.

[jean_3600]

My favorite, and what I'm playing right now, is Elementalist/Entropy mage. I'm only level 18 but I can throw Fireballs at everything (or Ice Spikes if the enemy is fire resistant). So far I can basically one hit enemies, though admittedly I haven't ventured too far off the beaten track yet.
I played this style in the original Enderal though and it's very powerful. In the Original game it was called a Black Mage but so far at least in this game it's being called an Elementalist/Sinistropist.

Then I can use Soul Devour from the Entropy tree to recover health and mana. Since soul devour doesn't increase arcane fever I can heal without penalty.

I was able to purchase a few Entropy books from the merchant at Three River Watch and also from the Shrouded Mage in the Undercity Barracks. Occassionally a traveling merchant will have one but so far they have all been higher level books. Otherwise I haven't found any.

[Midnight]

Entropy damage spells are actually significantly worse than Elementalism spells. Entropy doesn't have much scaling in the tree. Ele has two memories that increase damage of all elemental spells by 25% (and that's literally the first memory of the tree so no midgame stuff) and then has additional 30% increase for shock and 15% for ice/fire.

Meanwhile entropy tree increases duration and reduces health cost. In the end the useful parts of entropy are summons and talents imho.

That's not to say that it's impossible to play entropy mage but it's decidedly not stronger than elemental magic for direct damage purposes.

And then there's the fact that through exploration and vendors my current highest level entropy damage spell is level 3 while I have several lvl 5 elementalism spells (and a Mystical one).

[Scottx125]

I'm playing more of a role play character who isn't evil and uses the light and dark schools of magic. He doesn't raise the undead or absorb souls but summons flame spirits etc to fight. I had the same problem as you, I found the elemental school too basic. But I'll tell you the mage is hard to play no matter which school you follow as if you don't have room to kite on the harder difficulties you're dead :<.

[Midnight]

Originally posted by Scottx125:

I'm playing more of a role play character who isn't evil and uses the light and dark schools of magic. He doesn't raise the undead but summons flame spirits etc to fight. I had the same problem as you, I found the elemental school too basic. But I'll tell you the mage is hard to play no matter which school you follow as if you don't have room to kite on the harder difficulties you're dead :<.

That's why you have freeze spell on 4s cooldown, shock nova that briefly staggers enemies and impact perk which has a chance to stagger on dual cast. And frost spells as always slow enemies to a crawl (good for charging Vatyrs, few ice spikes will slow them way down).

Notably though all of these things I listed are a feature of the elementalist tree... once again.

Summons should be useful distraction but I swear their AI is even worse than in Skyrim.

[Scottx125]

Their AI is pretty bad TBH. Major problem I'm having is finding vendors to buy high level spells from for the darker tree.