Re: Red (PvP) Mage - Tank, Alchy/Stun or Scribe/Stun
Two years later, this thread is up again lol. Well I have to say, I've learned a couple of new tricks since then, and I continued to get my swords tank far beyond the point of no return as murder counts go.
First off, most people don't carry as many cure pots as you might think. It's easy enough to run them out by keeping them poisoned with the spell... then when it's obvious they don't have any cure pots left, hit them with that DP katana and disrupt their cure attempts for a few seconds, and you'll have the kill.
Secondly, I've started using Razor to acquire my targets, then attack last target. By doing this, I can run around with a spell precast and my hally drawn, and use Razor to initiate combat without casting the spell. Thus I can begin with a big hally hit, and totally surprise the target with the precast spell afterward. Even if I don't get a good hit, sometimes the target will treat me as though fighting a dexer, leaving himself totally unprotected against the mana dump to follow. For PKing near town lines, I can often take off a good chunk of health with the hally, then release a precast paralyze, leaving them frozen outside the guard zone with little enough health that I can finish them in a single combo before they have a chance to move again.
I've taken to carrying 3 weapons:
The halberd is obviously the weapon this character is known for. The concussion blows are nice and the damage can be huge, especially in situations involving a lot of movement, where you rarely get a chance to swing. In those cases, it's best to go with the most powerful weapon - the swing speed is irrelevant since you never get to swing at optimal speed do to the target being out of range most of the time.
The katana is the polar opposite - not particularly damaging, but so fast it can disrupt fourth circle spells. Still, while this weapon was every bit as important as the hally in the old days, nowadays it's rare to fight an unarmored target. Against the most heavily armored targets, the katana's damage is negligible. Therefore, I've started DPing it, and using it sparingly.
The broadsword has become the happy medium which I use for general combat - from taking out a random monster that's bothering me while I loot, to hounding my opponent while we both try to regain some mana in duels. I probably spend more time armed with a broadsword than the hally and kat combined now that I've discovered how good they are here, particularly since I found a nice vanq one a couple of weeks ago and haven't died to lose it since.
I've also found that concussion blows stack with feeblemind, allowing you to take someone with 100 int as low as 39! They'll very quickly exhaust their mana just trying to keep themselves healed, and then you can off them at your leisure.
In mage duels, there's usually a flow to the combat, almost a right-of-way. Player A dumps while player B heals... A realized he doesn't have enough mana to finish the job and disengages, saving some mana to heal himself while B counters with a mana dump of his own. If neither player successfully kills the other in that first dump, they're both left with almost no mana. Most mages try to back off and meditate at this point. However, the tank can switch over to pure melee and keep his opponent busy. The tank will passively regain mana while his opponent must spend what little mana he gets back just healing the melee damage. This eventually gives the tank the right of way infinitely. His opponent should never get another chance to dump unless he's also a tank or a healer, or if the fight takes place in the field and he just continually runs to avoid the melee damage.
As stats go, 100 int is a necessity for any mage. Intelligence is actually more important than Meditation for mana regeneration. That is, 100 int and 90 meditation will give you faster mana regen than 90 int and GM meditation.
The strength bonus to weapon damage is only up to 10%, with 2% given for every 20 points of strength. That's 8% at 80, 8% at 99, 10% at 100.
HP = Str/2+50. Therefore, 80 Str will give you 90 HP; 90 Str will give you 95 HP. This formula rounds down - 95 Str will give you the same HP as 94.
I've chosen to go with 80 Strength, 90 HP. When I die, I tend to die hard. I either get ganked or hit incredibly hard while stunned. In either case, 5 HP wouldn't have made a difference. Besides, thanks to strength potions, in the field you should never find yourself below 88 HP (+20 from a potion, -11 from weaken, -11 from a second weaken). Once you're below your base, you can't be weakened again. If you're getting synched on, you should have a healer. With a healer, 88 HP should be plenty to keep yourself alive... or your healer should be keeping your strength up, as well. If you don't have a healer and you're getting synched on, then congratulations - you're being ganked, by people who at least know how to synch - and you're problably not going to survive. At least, 5 HP won't be the deciding factor.
The remaining 45 points go into Dex. That amount of dex will put you on par with any other tank out there, if not a little faster. With agility potions, you can get up to 65 - enough to kill with melee alone, given the right weapon.
These stats are also balanced enough that you won't be susceptible to mindblast.
Hope that helps anyone still having this debate. I may add more later - I've kind of lost my train of thought.
the drawbacks are 1v1 fights against alchy/stun or alchy/scribe, as well as certain dexxers (fencers mostly) that get the jump on you. any dexxer with a load of AR can be troublesome, you'll want to stick to purely casting. 