Meaty, Citrusy Halo Mage - The Not-so-late Guide

Hi doods! I think it's quite late already for me to make this, but I guess I'll make it for those interested or still in doubt why they played as Halo Mage.

Note: Plenty of details below are ripped straight from my somewhat outdated Halo Mage skills and imprints guide roughly-translated from Korean server found here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aaMrWIW8TqGBDqRLTjrfpzu13IFytfztxSnBv1QE53Y/edit?usp=sharing

So, if you happened to view it in the past, then you may have an idea already on how this will go. I have updated some details though, especially on her Major Imprint Sets.

First...

Why do you play as Halo Mage?

• Because of good utility and amazing range
  
• Because of decent damage capabilities
  
• Because of Twinkle Guardian
  
• You're probably fine with a somewhat-lazy class.
  
• You're probably fine with a boring spammer class.
  
• You're probably into lolis. jk

Now that your doubts in playing the class have been cleared, let's get to her Major Imprint Sets and their good-to-knows.
I apologize if I'll be skipping the skill details, as I assume that by this time you already have a good understanding of what her skills can do from your journey to Lv70. Feel free to leave a comment though, or add/ask me ingame ( Citrus ). I'll answer as soon as I'm available.

Blessing of Holiness (Top Row)

Pros

• Nice burst potential, but can also transition to DPS at will.
  
• Semi-lockdown capabilities especially against bosses that can be affected by it.
  
• Relevant skills are best executed in their Basic States, thereby gaining full advantage of the Damage bonus from Goddess of Glory passive.
  
• You won't need Attack Speed that much, allowing you to focus on other stats that matter.
  
• Shiny Bind and Helios Sphere will virtually have no cooldown if executed right.
  (See sample vid below)

Cons

• The utility and burst it brings come at a high mana price! (not really an issue endgame)
  
• Not that good at sector clearing.
  
• Not that good against constantly moving bosses.
  
• Heavily reliant on a skill rotation that must never miss. If you miss, huge potential dps is lost (and maybe forced to wait for the cooldown)
  
• Does not scale well with Attack Speed (since you have to mind your skill rotation, unless you're going for burst mode).
  
• Will be relegated to support-dps once optimal stats (most esp. Attack Speed) are achieved for Blessing of Splendor to out-dps Holiness. (not really an issue for some who wanna play that role, and you still deliver good dps anyways)

Skill Build

.
Major and High Imprints

• Full Blessing of Holiness
  
• 5x High Shiny Bind (CD Reduction)
  
• 4x High Helios Sphere (CD Reduction)

.
"No Cooldown Shiny Bind & Helios Sphere" Sample Skill Rotation

Blessing of Faith (Bottom Row)

Pros

• Has amazing frontal reach and sector clearing capabilities
  
• Really good for quick farming conquest dungeons for dem quick $$$.
  
• Mana efficient and doesn't rely on a skill rotation.
  
• Noblia learns to perform this cute hop lasers technique
  (Divine Backstep loop during Twinkle Guardian buff. Divine Backstep must be performed in an open field or a corner in order to perform the loop). Really decent DPS, and starts to pick up some more as Attack Speed gets higher.
  
• Really good against bosses that move a lot.
  
• Twinkle lasers somewhat stiffen bosses that are not immune to it. Really good for Arena Tower.

Cons

• Purely DPS. Not something you would burst a boss with (e.g. Doomsday Egg boss).
  
• Sometimes encounters a bug where Divine Backstep registers an enemy hit even if there's no enemy along the way - thereby ending the loop and be forced to wait for it to cool down.
  
• The playstyle involves her hopping quite a lot and may annoy you with her noises.

Skill Build

.
Major and High Imprints

• Full Blessing of Faith
  
• 9x Luminous Barrier (CD Reduction)

Blessing of Splendor (Middle Row)

Pros

• Decent damage increase from Particle Reinforcement.
  
• Angel Cannon's Basic State good for bossing, while its Halo State is good for sector clearing.
  
• DPS potential picks up some more as attack speed gets higher.
  
• The real end-game of Halo Mage.
  
• This somewhat brings her back to her old, basic playstyle, but much much better because of the enhancements.

Cons

• Her old, basic, and something I forgot to mention: boring playstyle.
  
• While Blessing of Faith is great in sector clearing and Blessing of Holiness for bursting down bosses, Splendor is kinda like a balance between the two. In Kritika terms, it means it doesn't stand out much (until you get Myths on her)
  
• Requires a Myth armor set for it to at least be better than Faith and on par with Holiness (ain't much of an issue since Myths get cheaper by the minute)
  
• Requires high attack speed (150%+) to out-dps Holiness' "Shiny Bind-Helios Sphere Loop"

Skill Build
(just the same with Blessing of Faith skill build)

.
Major and High Imprints

• Full Blessing of Splendor
  
• 9x Angel Cannon (CD Reduction)

The best Imprint Set?

With my current gear setup, I find Holiness and Faith to be the best. However, they serve varying purposes.
Edit: I've included Splendor now since I've switched my Liberation gears to Myths and been running with it on some instances.
Since I switch between Imprint sets, Skill Tree expansion is a must have.
Here's a breakdown of the contents and what Imprint set I'm using on them,

Blessing of Holiness:

• ODPA Raid (Normal and Heroic main stages 1, 2.1 and 2.2)
  
• Doomsday Raid (Normal and Heroic)
  
• Any tough end-game instances where momentary soft CC's are viable.

Blessing of Faith:

• Arena Tower (floors below 130)
  
• Illusory Palace
  
• Conquest Stages
  
• Daily Stages
  
• Parallel Labyrinth
  
• All Cogwheel instances

Blessing of Splendor:

• ODPA Raid (Heroic main stages 2.3, 2.4, 3 and final boss)
  
• Dimensional Library Stages
  
• Evergreen Ultimate Stages
  
• Arena Tower (floors 130+)
  
• Any tough end-game instances where sustained DPS becomes viable over burst and CC.

There are some who go for the Hybrid Build, like:
2 Splendor + 1 Holiness
- where Angel Cannon and Nemesis Chain are fully utilized and maximized specifically for bossing.
Or,
2 Faith + 1 Holiness
- where Dazzling Angel Rush (blaster mode) is used for sector clearing and Holiness Nemesis Chain is used for bossing.

But despite all of the points above, the end-game of Halo Mage is Blessing of Splendor.

Gear Setup

This may seem like a lavish approach, but only do it once you're able to. Hence the "as soon as you can" in some of 'em.

Below 1m CP:

• Get 5pc Spiritual Liberation set as soon as you can, starting with the Boots and Weapon then evolve them. The set complements very well with her kit.
  
• For the remaining equipment slot, get 1 Elemental Tuner piece of the element that you use.
  
• Get Legend Grade "Aslakhan" headgear enchant orb as soon as you can and slap it to your headgear. Even if you lose 15% CDmg, your crits become more consistent due to +500 crit rate and don't have to rely much in Halo State Dazzling Angel Rush skill.
  You'll be stuck with this enchant orb for quite a while until your crit rate is high enough that it's safe for you to move on to good CDmg headgear enchant orbs.
  
• Full Unbeatable Fist or Dirty Cleaners Accessory Set
  
• Pierce Artifact
  
• Catalapis (can be any, up to you)

Claw your way with this setup in transitioning to Myth Weapon and Accessories.
After getting them, switch your Elemental Tuner piece into Spiritual Liberation to at least keep the full Liberation Set effects. Use Enchant Transfer if needed.

It's totally up to you if you also want to switch your Spiritual Liberation set into Myth set, especially if you're mainly using Blessing of Splendor imprints. For me, I still use Liberation Set even at 9m CP because of its benefits (and I don't really use Splendor that much) XD

Edit: I finally switched my Liberation gears to Myths (except Boots), and Splendor imprints finally became much more satisfying! (still boring though XD)


The 'Time to Shine some more' Phase:

• Get full Myths on your gears, but leave the boots to Spiritual Liberation (evolved) for Twinkle Guardian reset.
  
• Acquire Rare Costume Set with Rare or Legend wappens socketed.
  
• Acquire Legend Pets that give Boss Hit/CDmg.
  
• Progressively build your Card deck and Pet collection for further bonuses.
  
• Soul Gems all at Level 5 and above (Leave the Primes, focus more on CDmg% and/or Dmg%).
  
• Get full CDmg% rolls on Artifact.
  
• Get Red Crystals that give both Boss Hit and Pierce.
  
• Boss Hit and Boss CDmg rolls on gears. Flat Atk can go.
  
• Stack more non-CP related stuff that matters like Boss Hit/CDmg, Element and Pierce.

Some thoughts...

I do admit that Halo Mage is a really boring class to play, and I find the visuals on her skills as bland or uninspiring. Probably why many people don't use her or abandoned her after this realization.
While I was happy when she got her well-deserved rebalance last February 2018 and improved her damage by quite a lot, I still found her to be boring.

But what made me continue using her even to this day was mainly because of her Major Imprint sets.
Her Major Imprint sets allowed her to diversify her playstyle to compensate for the boring nature of her class, even by a bit.
I hope my thoughts of her will change once (or if ever) her 2nd Awakening comes, and also hope they improve her skill visuals in the future - like what they did to Dimension Controller/Warp Mage and some other classes...

Thank you.
~Axel Zephyr (Citrus)

[Q_GU_TE]

Hi, I'm a new player. Halo mage, what kind of weapons should I use? Staff or wand

[AxelZephyr]

@I'm HardCell
You can change to Myth wep because despite of Nemesis Chain being an amazing DPS skill, later on your main damage will come from Shiny Bind+Helios Sphere (Holiness), Twinkle Lasers (Faith), or Angel Cannon (Splendor), at least in terms of bossing.

But IMO, don't switch to Myth wep right away. Make the most out of the 2x Nemesis Chain until your Myth wep is ready to relegate Nemesis Chain to secondary DPS. On my case, I only switched my +15 Liberation wep after getting the Myth wep to +13.

[残血开局]

How about halo mage weap , stay Spiritual Liberation or can change myth weap , because Spiritual Liberation weap get x2 Nemesis chain

[ALittleHelpHere]

thanks for the guide~