Success of pure casters?

[Chud]

How difficult do you think it is to run a pure caster (High-Elf Mage, in my current case) as such, with essentially no reliance on melee at all?

Right now my current Mage is cl24, dl25, with avg damage/rnd of 20 vs trolls, 7 vs others. :-) Needless to day, melee is probably a bit less than a last resort. (A ring of the mouse contributes to that.)

In principle I rather like the idea of a mage as physically frail, hit them lightly and they fall over, but with fearsome magic power up until then... but I'm not entirely convinced how practical this is.

[Derakon]

It works decently well. The bolt spells will carry you far; then you hit a slump until you find Raal's, at which point Rift will start killing things pretty effectively (and Meteor Swarm for groups). The blast mage's main problem is that his mana is limited, and when it runs out he can't kill things any more; you can mitigate that by using archery.

Also, it may be my imagination, but in the nightlies potions of Restore Mana seem to be notably more common; not enough to guzzle them freely, but enough that you can spend the occasional one on a tricky unique. I make a habit of collecting them for the endgame; my last (rogue) winner had something like 25 when facing Morgoth, of which he used...2. Then again, his kill was with melee.

[Timo Pietilä]

It works decently well. The bolt spells will carry you far; then you hit a slump until you find Raal's, at which point Rift will start killing things pretty effectively (and Meteor Swarm for groups). The blast mage's main problem is that his mana is limited, and when it runs out he can't kill things any more; you can mitigate that by using archery.

I use spells things that stun a lot when I play mages. Even uniques can be stunned (though many recover immediately), and stunned monsters can't act at all. It was pretty funny to kill something like Lokkak with stunning & arrows at a point where one turn against it in melee could have been fatal.

Ice storm stuns, even that description doesn't mention this and that can be used to kill some of the tougher opponents making fight a bit one-sided. Shockwave can be used to soften up groups of monsters.

[Scraper]

I use spells things that stun a lot when I play mages. Even uniques can be stunned (though many recover immediately), and stunned monsters can't act at all. It was pretty funny to kill something like Lokkak with stunning & arrows at a point where one turn against it in melee could have been fatal.

Ice storm stuns, even that description doesn't mention this and that can be used to kill some of the tougher opponents making fight a bit one-sided. Shockwave can be used to soften up groups of monsters.

The problem I have found with those spells is that they can really damage the loot dropped by previous monsters. Both Ice storm and Shockwave can smash potions I believe, which makes their use less than optimal when fighting a group of monsters.

As an aside, Orb of draining doesn't seems to affect loot at all. Perhaps there should be a small chance of draining charges from wands/ staffs that happen to be withing the area of effect of an OoD spell. I personally don't want to see that change (considering how much priests rely on that spell midgame) but it seems like a viable side affect considering mage ball spells have significant side affects.

[Londorth]

It's definitely possible - my hobbit mage (Dronwe) never carried any ammo, and only used melee against feeble opponents when I didn't want to waste mana. Magic missile, then firebolts (or alternatives as appropriate), rift and of course mana storm when you get Kelek's. And I feel the same way - it's just the right way to play a mage.

Once you have Keleks, 0% fail, 5 resistances, 20 speed and 700+ HP you can really romp through anything.

And yes - you need to be intelligent about what's been dropped when you're choosing your spell of choice. Part of the fun!

[Zikke]

I just finished a High-Elf Mage with a lot of success. The mage only feels frail until you get your own reliable and cheap TO, and then you can basically clear vaults at will and collect whatever you want.

link to my Mage

When you get to end-game level and gear, you will be able to melee if you want to. Personally, I kept my mana for casting Glyph and melee'd for damage when I was prepping for Morgoth (and during Morgoth's fight actually). Don't fight heavy breathers until the end, and save as many rods of Healing as you find.

[PowerDiver]

And yes - you need to be intelligent about what's been dropped when you're choosing your spell of choice. Part of the fun!

One major annoyance is how meteor swarm works. The meteor that kills produces the loot, but the next meteor destroys the loot. However, that only happens if you target the monster. If you aim in a direction or at a square behind it, the loot doesn't get trashed when the meteor explodes out of range.

IMO meteors should be changed to travel like a bolts before they explode. Allow me to target normally without automatically destroying my loot unless the foe is at the extreme of the spell range.

[Zikke]

IMO meteors should be changed to travel like a bolts before they explode. Allow me to target normally without automatically destroying my loot unless the foe is at the extreme of the spell range.

I agree with this. I never used Meteor for the same reason

[d_m]

IMO meteors should be changed to travel like a bolts before they explode. Allow me to target normally without automatically destroying my loot unless the foe is at the extreme of the spell range.

I think that makes sense.

Would you be willing to open a ticket?

[PowerDiver]

I think that makes sense.

Would you be willing to open a ticket?

Done.

#1390: change meteors to travel like bolts

[will_asher]

Why not change GF_METEOR to not destroy objects? The meteor swarm spell is the only time GF_METEOR is ever used (at least in 3.0.9 and it doesn't seem like something that has likely changed).

[Derakon]

Because meteors hitting things should tear the dungeon up?

[ulrichvonbek]

Because meteors hitting things should tear the dungeon up?

Maybe unexploded meteors hitting a wall should have a chance to tunnel through?

[Zikke]

Because meteors hitting things should tear the dungeon up?

Let's not bring realism into this. :P There's no reason any meteors should exist 4500' under ground.

[Derakon]

Let's not bring realism into this. :P There's no reason any meteors should exist 4500' under ground.

It's maaaaaaagic!