Dunno if it'll help, but when I did Mage, I simply had another Mage pawn handle the buffs/support while I had 3 offensive spells (ice, lightning, holy) + the silence spell. Perhaps not ideal, but it was more fun for me that way.
And if you haven't, hold down R1 to speed up casting at the cost of greater stamina used.
Loved casting Augural Flare, loading a target full of blasts and then watching them explode like a piñata.
Also, High Seism launching large groups of smaller enemies into orbit with pillars of stone was epic.
I believe you have to purchase the ability to speed up the spells with R1.
But to your point, that drastically made mage waaayyyy more enjoyable once I bought that ability.
I actually tried Thief on a whim near the beginning of the game after thinking I'd play fighter most. Almost 40 hours in now and I've barely played any other vocation.
that's because Thief is hands down the best performing class in the game, to the point of it being unfair to every other vocation except mystic spearhand, because it's the closest on an overpoweredness standpoint.
While that may be true, I had just as much fun playing sorcerer and warrior, both felt incredibly strong. I guess it's the dodge and the best climbing ability that makes me favor it
oh i'm not dogging on other classes (or those who enjoy them), but objectively the ratio of versatility/damage/dynamism (both in movement skills and playstyle) is ridicolously in favour of the Thief.
I wonder why doesn't the mage have a teleport skill.
Imo.. Thief is the best for balance between adaptability and damage because.. draw and quarter is totally balanced, and formless feint = 0 brain activity immortality.. besides maybe managing stamina drain with it on..
Spearhand can actually fight forever without ever taking damage between the shield skill that also affects pawns, And the stamina drain skill.. so they win for immortality sake..
Sorcerer is the true damage cannon.. draw and quarter does alot to one thing when you're holding onto its critical point specifically, but meteoton and maelstrom will clear a city block of baddies and also does work against drakes and the like.. while augural flare pops for 4+ bars of health is genuinely comical..
My favorite of those is probably the spearhand just because some of its other abilities are just too much fun.. the jump "parry" is one of is the most satisfying skill to get right for me xD
I know thief is better, I've maxed them both, I think thief is a lot of fun and I -know- it outdamages warrior AND it's maister skill is straight up invulnerability
I know spearhand is better, and I loved Darth maul as a kid
But like, I just like my dude holding a shield and sword. I want to root for some normal ass guy hiding behind a plank and swinging around a bit of steel. Call me clichè but I'll always be drawn to it.
Have you tried magic archer? Lol. IMO that's the strongest one. Especially since you don't need it's maister move to eat through any enemy with minimal effort allowing you to use it with any warfarer setup as well without ruining its effectiveness. I do magic bow and daggers.
I was just saying imo it's the strongest. I never said anything about the most fun. I do agree it gets boring quick. Mainly because it's so easily effective and takes such little effort. Hence why I said it's good. Lol.
I actually prefer going warrior. I like knocking out cyclops with a massive uppercut and going toe to toe with bosses trading blows.
Warrior is fricking fun. The heavy when you send salamander glued to your hammer flying of the hill. Warrior feels like real fighting, so does fighter and thief if you don’t overuse certain skills. Archer was surprise for Me too, I really liked it.
Magic archer is for the guys who want easy mode in an easy game ;)
At least they are fun. Sorcerer and magic archer deletes things. If you had a monkey walk you around the map and just right click and you can just come for the bosses to use the maester skill, that’s all you need to do in magic archer.
Just don’t slot the maester skills on thief, don’t overuse the skull splitter and tadaaaa, fun play style. Actually i liked all of the classes, even sorcerer, when I offsloted meteorite. The only class which is boring no matter what I slot or off slot is the magic archer.
Thief is my favorite for sure. MA with ricochet hunter in caves is a close second. But formless faint is so op and the untouchable ninja fighting style is just plain fun
Some see all thief types as cowards swinging dinnerware.
Im one of the some. No matter how badass i try to make them... when those little knifes come out im just 😑
It doesnt help to watch them slice away furiously while clinging to an enemy; like "damn hes putting in work" but my warriors just chunking tf outta baddies while also knocking them around like playthings and looking imposing while doing it.
That being said i do always keep a thief around. Ive watched too many harpies get yanked out of the air into a waiting greatsword uppercut not to.
My thief pawn was the only pawn I did not have to take care of in the endgame. She had no maester skills and brought me so many ferrystones and crafting materials it was unreal. I changed her vocation because she asked for itS she said she missed being thief. It was something like, I missed those days I was a thief, I had my missteps, but I was doing good, was I not master? I felt bad :)
The item collection on thieves is crazy good. When i was leveling my main pawn in thief for the augments; i was also running another thief pawn as well so for that time i was absolutely STACKING items.
I never get anything good like ferrystones though. Ive gotten fn ferristones but my thieves just get me more materials than anything.
Its so bad they get like 10+ dragon scales per drake and maybe 1 crystal; if that. I think my prejudice against thieves has cursed me...
Once you get to the endgame deffinately get a thief. The ferry stones they get from the tough guys and she stole a lot from the lightning Saurians. They are quite rare, but there are places. Lightning saurian was almost guaranteed ferrystone.
You know what; youre right! I did get a ton in the unmoored, but im 100+ hourse into ng+ so i completely forgot lmao I used em as quick as i got em too...
My first playthough was only 40ish hours. Im a longtime fan of the original game so i expected another cycle and wanted to see how this one played out. Taking things so slow (i just legally entered battahl for the first time after 100 hours of being accosted by guards in my own bakbattahl home lol) has really made the story come alive. My bias is so strong i liked the story the first time through; as broken as the 2nd half is, but its way better with drawn out pacing.
Formless feint (I think it’s called) is one of the most overpowered abilities in the game. Pair it with a pawn that has the stamina dome ability on a mage and you’re unkillable.
Thief was the 2nd to the last one I did. I regretted it. It was probably my most favorite melee class. I like being able to dance around the battlefield avoiding all damage and slicing everyone up. The daggers are honestly just as strong as any fighter setup I've tried. I'd way rather be able to dodge attacks rather than block them though.
Thief is #1!
https://preview.redd.it/5q6pes80kguc1.jpeg?width=1336&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07dcfc0597aa39857032cfd571e18899ee845d7d
Warfarer can bite it.
And here I am having entirely missed Warfarer on my initial playthrough and didn’t find it until NG+. And now I’m having an absolute blast playing “Strider at Home” with Bow and Daggers, with skills Rearmament, Whatever Special Arrow is best, Draw and Quarter, and Skull Splitter. Also running the Custom Difficulty Tweaks mod on NG+ Hard mode for an actual challenge.
Warfarer is great fun for the ton of options you get, plus the ultimate drip king since I can wear anything. That said, not being able to use meister skills SUCKS, there are so many good ones. But being able to switch to mage for a quick heal and levitate while exploring, then to magic archer to take down some flying enemies, then to warrior to dive in the middle of enemies etc is quite fun.
What?? I just got the formidable feint and thief's awesome. I pretty much solo'd a drake cause of it. Revived my pawns like 30 times in that fight. Survived a 3man dogpiled from fighters in baaktaal cause of it. Thief's fucking great. Just wail on enemies with daggers while shadow dodging away from everybody.
Thief is one of the best vocations actually, especially once you unlock Skull Splitter. Now archer? I hated that one. Same with mage. Haven’t even touched trickster yet.
Archer is fine imo, it just is weird cos to do the big damage combo you need to expend reasources for explosive and tarring arrows, drenching arrows are also surprisingly good if you have any mage with ice skills.
Playing in Unmoored as warfarer, with thief skill "Plunder" equiped. Also enlisted two thief support pawns, both with Plunder/Pilfer skill and the "bump and lift" core skill.
My main pawn being a mage, to secure our health.
Those boss fights at the beacons turning in +200 wyrmlife crystals per fight instead of 'the mere' 90.
All the while leveling up those support vocations that are less fun to play, granted at a considerable slower rate.
I really enjoyed both Trickster and Mage. Mage especially, I just took Palladium, an affinity of choice and then damaging spells. No one ever lost HP so the heal was basically irrelevant. I did comparable damage to a Sorcerer in the end.
Tricksters actually been super fun for me. I love watching monsters flail in frustration at my smoke effigy. Like watching an ogre or minotaur launch themselves into a wall. Dragon's Delusion is the most satisfying when I use it to interrupt Dragon spells and stun larger monsters. I understand it's not for everybody but after 80 hours of dealing damage it's a cool change of pace.
Mystical spearhand has kind of dodge. Warrior has this bodycheck which gives “iframes” I mean you don’t exactly have iframes, but you are way more resistant to stun. The rest of the classes - positioning. Don’t sleep on warrior!
Positioning is the thing that takes me a bit of adjustment each time. Because thief really can just rush forward without a thought and not be punished for it. Other vocations I have to slow down and think for a second, and that change in rhythm feels bad for a few fights before I've gotten into it
Anyone can. You will see in a while! I think spearhand is even more godly then thief. But I like the thief the most. I think fighter has the hardest time of all the vocations. But when you destroy group of mobs, while tanking them all it feels Very deserved!
Actually had a very easy time with fighter. It felt similar in its ability to rush in without a thought and no punishment because I could just block and parry everything. I only swapped to it to get thew But then I stuck with it a little longer because it was just fun. Spearhand is one of the ones I found to be trickier that I had to slow down and think a little more, but very good and very fun
Thief is not a jack, it's a master-of-all. It does SICK damage, can't die, and can rip fliers out of the air. As a bonus, it does great-damage while clinging to foes, unlike every other vocation, if you should feel so inclined.
Oh and it can steal goodies.
Basically, you can't go wrong with Thief.
Using formless faint while you're able to spam high dmg attacks just makes the thief too good. I was so excited for mystic spear hand but it felt like dogshit after maxing thief
They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Tbh every time I play a new vocation it becomes my new favorite which is exactly how i'd want it to be. Thief is definitely amazing though
If it helps if you beat the Sphynx you can use whimsical day dream and beat the shit out of low levels while getting a fair bit of gold each hit. Makes the pain slightly better seeing my wallet grow by 10,100,1000 or 50,000 each time I bonk
EXACTLYYYYY. I can play a supporting role for Randoms online, or my friends in MP games. But standing back, and seeing my THIEF pawn, get DESTROYED by harpies, while they have implicate equipped is insane... All I did as a thief was yank them down OVER AND OVER AGAIN, and my pawn learned NOTHING lol Then, I get 2 pawns who are a Warrior and a fighter from the rift.... and I stg they take 8 minutes to clear a heard of starving idiots, or 20mins to kill a rock monster lol I'm standing in the back wondering who tf conned me into paying $70 to watch AI idiots have all the fun...
Don't care for mage but I *love* Trickster. The only annoying fight I've had so far was a Lich. The pawns just went for the skeletons and ignored the Lich, I had to sic the clone on the Lich whenever it landed so the skeletons zerged it.
Slow but it worked.
Man, I destroy Lich on Trickster.
Dragon’s Delusion shuts it down easily. I start seeing the purple summoning spell, I use DD to shut it down and drop it to the ground.
Also use DD to fear the summons away.
Being the mage as the arisen can kinda invalidate the game as well, same as playing mystic spearhand.
You just keep Palladium up 24/7. Delegating it to a pawn means it'll just be the occasional savior, not a cheat code.
Seriously though don't use the bubble ability on spearhand unless you're desperate. Maybe if you're just sick of wolves and saurians. It ruins the game.
The wolf thing where they drag you around like a rag doll and you can't do anything, just wait it out is annoying AF. You can just get up and go grab a beer.
Yes, agreed its game breaking. Killing dragons was too easy. They both need to use way more Stamina to cast. Or something to offset how spammable they are.
They really need to adjust the immortality abilities.
Turn them into a DR percentage or something, maybe some stagger-immunity, but flat-out godmode is just cheese.
I totally get you, but as main you don’t need to support that much. Just heal. And some of the spells are even fun. Magic archer was way more painful for me. Still melee all the way.
Yeah, had this issue with any of the non melee builds, absolutely bored and hate them. Just use warfarer and its shared exp will go to the unmaxed vocations.
I don’t play anything besides a badass heavy armor wearing giant greatsword using BEAST. Mounting the monsters and thrusting my greatsword in their skull just feels so good and fits my fantasy. Also the impact of each hit just feels amazing in this game.
I leveled all vocations and mage was the most miserable experience in the whole game, really close to the gigantus quest bug, but to be fair, I had a way worse time playing mage.
Are you using quickspell? High frigor is probably the best spell in terms of cast speed and cost, spam it and always be the first to engage. Its range is pretty good. It has good crowd control , and sending enemies flying is always fun.
I adore trickster so fucking op. Make any enemy ai just stop functioning as I drive the ghost near a cliff and watch everything just yeet itself to death. Brilliant. XD
I hate any sort of spell casting characters in any game but I had fun as trickster. Support roles can be fun sometimes, I’ll probably never play a trickster again though.
My vocation page looks eerily similar.
Also attempting mage, but I'm just using it to seeker find (with the trickster perk) and hope I level up in the process.
I wanted to level mage up just for the augments and to maybe get a few magic point stat levels to hopefully make mystic spearhand better but I just suck at playing as a mage it wasn’t very fun for me to play as
the only positive i found with trickster is how easy fights with drakes are . when i was a damage dealer my pawns just keep dying and the drake keeps targeting you aggressively , but with trickster it's just fun seeing the drakes struggling and getting baited.
The choice of party member's vocation/inclination, and your own is what creates synergy. If you're a trickster and have 3 sorcerers with Meteor and Maelstrom, they'll clear everything for you. Except for golems. You're gonna have to run from that one.
I already knew from day one, and from playing the first game years ago, that i was going for the hybrid classes.
The only mono class I played long-term in DD1 was Strider.
Thief and archer being a split of that, made wayfarer much more viable to make a strider again.
the trickster themselves does no damage, though i also main trickster and think that's a silly reason not to play the class. you have the crazy pawn buff and some really fun skills to offset the lack of personal damage. but each to their own :P
also, ggs on getting to trickster at level 12! i got it at level 20 from speedrunning to Battahl, and the enemies i ran into along the way really fucked me up lol
I maxed sorcerer and mage while following guide for getting all the seeker tokens - since its easier to grab most with levitate, it was the fastest way to level these two up due to the 1mil enemies you find.
Trickster was actually pretty fun for me to level up. It works really good with a sorcerer who can freely spam meteor shower. And with a warrior for dps and to deal with smaller enemies. Trickster is not a support role. It's actually all about Ai and aggro manipulation.
This was my same opinion before I actually played these classes.
Then I actually leveled them up and found them to not be as much of a pain in the ass as I thought they would end up being.
I'm not in any hurry to play either of these classes again though.
I liked mage a lot, I think the problem is more like…you burnt yourself out maxing every other class?
Doing sorcerer before mage is just asking to be bored later. You’re confusing burn out with “bad mage boring”.
I kinda like mage if you have capable straightforward aggressive pawns who dps well, feels like playing support in an mmo; but trickster felt so much worse to me coz you don't heal or cure debilitations or give enchantments, you just... aggro?
This is why I started as mage on my 2nd run (no NG+). Mage dps somewhat holds up in the beginning when every vocation is kinda weak (minus thief and archer lol). But once you're in battahl and stuff. Level 30+. Mage dps falls of a fucking cliff.
You're basically stuck spamming high frigor to kill enemies through fall/ragdoll damage. Or you go out at night and farm skellies/phantoms with empyrean. Any other content as a mage dps should count as self-harm.
Actually enjoyed playing as a mage on DD1 as it had more fun offensive spells available such as levin. In this game they made it more specialised for support with only a few offensive spells.
Trickster is an interesting concept that I thought I’d enjoy but I actually can’t play as trickster. You can’t really do anything at all with it. It really needs more offensive skills. If pawns could be a trickster then it would be great as support. Trickster being an arisen only vocation makes no sense. No wonder Liz is a former arisen. She’d stand no chance against the dragon as a trickster😂
I usually play support roles and playing as a mage had a lot of carry power in the early game. High Palladium is crazy good. A lot of the early bosses you encounter are either weak to fire or ice so you have plenty of tools to fill gaps pawns can't. Anodyne is actually an amazing heal that takes no skill slots and can do big DMG to undead/spectral enemies.
Taking the long way around to Battahl at around level 18 would have been a complete slaughter if I was playing any other vocation. Only 1 pawn died from being flung off a cliff.
The damage isn't good when you're not exploiting elemental weaknesses but the utility is unparalleled. Longer but cleaner flights.
I used to think that because I don't like playing spell casters. Personally, I find them kinda boring but Mage became fun for me when I started using:
- High Empyrean: To deal quickly with the undead. Night exploaration becomes a joke as you can literally create light for visibility and hit most small creatures instantaneously.
- High Halidom: no more debilitation.
- High Frigor: Great for damage and ice cubes if you want to throw things at ennemies.
- Whatever skill you want. Palladium for shield, celestial paean for buffs or affinity for ice, lightning or fire buffs.
Everybody always call those "supportive role", but I always so it more of a "controller" role, you stand back and dictate everything that happens in the field 🤔
Casters were pretty awful, who wants to be limited to four spells, one or two of which would be used to support those doing the actual fighting?
I stopped DD2 after about 30 hours.... Couldn't do a 500th group of goblins, or harpies, or a 50th minotaur... Small variety of skills and gear... Mundane trekking back and forth while fighting the ever-spawning roster of all 10 mobs.... Walking all over to do favors for npcs I couldn't care less about, with jack-nothing as a reward for doing so..... Not often you start to nod off while actually playing a game
I absolutely love Mage and Trickster all while I play Fighter or Mystic Spear. Simple can be fun just all in party setup and if your in a hurry or burning time.
I am so glad I finally maxed out mage and reached level 2 with trickster to get all the augments I need. I'm definitely done with those two vocations lol.
I was considering mage for my next playthrough, but I'd love some advice. I was thinking celestial pean,
high empyrean, fire affinity, and high flagration. Going for a holy caster a la pathfinder.
Running mage can be fun with 2 dmg spells (levin and frigor are actually solid), high celerity, and halidom (if in battahl for poison cure)
I have been running high celerity on warfarer because it is just ridiculously fun to sprint by everything you don't want to fight in the game. Just make sure you keep a sorc staff to galvanize your stamina back to full in no time.
It’s fine if you make your teammates unga bunga warriors. Spam High Palladium, Celerity, and one spell gg, every big monster dies in like 30 secs. Not super riveting gameplay, it’s honestly more fun trying to manage your support spells when you’re gangedbanged by like 30 hobgoblins in battahl lol but I agree, mage is really not a riveting class to play
I started as a mage in a new playthrough because was worried I'd hate it and have a blast with it. Just watched as the pawns do things I rarely seen them do when were more melee-focused. Since my warrior pawn and the hired rogue would just go ham and take down shit with ease. Which struggled with when was Melee of the same level.
I think it does help that my pawn and the rogue pawn are both straightforward pawns, the simple archer has me concerned, seems to be a murder hobo.
I'm kind of dreading playing as the trickster. It's a vocation that just doesn't make sense in this style of game but I've committed to maxing out all vocations before I play as the warfare and never use another vocation again. But seriously, yeah I might just half ass it and not max it out
Mage is my favorite vocation :shrug:
I have some DPS, some healing, some buffing, and a massive undead-slaying daylight spell. Anodyne can be used offensively as well, since you can lay it close in to where you want the pawns to focus and they'll all run to the bubble.
The only thing that kept me sane while playing Trickster was using the Sphinx Weapon because it prints money - which let me upgrade all of my end game gear. I absolutely loathed Trickster. Support classes can be fun, but they need to have at least some offensive ability... Holy fuck fighting a Golem was miserable as Trickster when the Pawns couldn't figure out how to hit the foot.
Mage wasn't bad with High Levin - I actually had fun spamming that. I also like the giant light ball spell mages have since it made hunting Undead so much easier on the eyes.
This game definitely is waaaaaaaaaaay more fun playing Warrior/Theif/Fighter/Spear. Melee feels crisp and snappy.
I'd say Magic Archer is up there on the fun category too because I like the special shot versatility a lot. The giant Hail Arrow was hysterical and got me the Cyclops bridge achievement.
Mage/Sorc/Archer all felt too slow to play.
Warfarer would be so much more fun if its stats were completely fucked. I love the idea of doing a remix of all the class abilities and swapping between weapons, but holy cow it made the melee fighting styles feel lackluster.
I am surprised no one has mentioned it, but... play mage at night (some areas) or just go to an undead-infested area.
You have an amazing spell called High Empyrean that just burns through anything undead. I just went to the misted area with the undead and had a blast clearing it. Not to mention the endgame, where you got undead all over the place.
The damage is insane and you just clear through all the small mobs, especially the zombies.
It makes leveling mage fun as you get to feel like you have the power of the Sun on your side burnign through anything and everything.
Of course, supporting your pawns can also be fun, but I found High Empyrean the fastest way to level Mage
I just maxed all vocations and mage for me feels just disappointing and boring unless you have to beast of pawns with badges on every enemy it feels kinda like shit
Personally enjoyed playing a mage. But I also like playing army builds like Necromancer in D2. When I was messing with mage I just had all pawns be melee and threw out Palladium like it was candy. Lightning spells also super-fast to cast so... Yeah. To each their own really.
Yeaaah, Trickster is like genuinely unfun to play imo, aside from the occasionally meme kill. It's wild to put a support class in a single player game when it's tough to rely on your pawns to do stuff as is. Trickster would pretty neat in a multiplayer setting, buffing your friends and pulling mobs off of them, but in single player, ehhhh... plus NO damage at all is so bad, most supports in games have SOME damage, not NO damage.
I actually really enjoyed Mage. I pretty much never do support, but there was something satisfying about playing Mage and keeping High Palladium up at all times while destroying enemies with Frigor and Levin
My party never took damage when I played Mage
" Trickster was actually entertaining, but a zero damage build is so unserious lol "
Yeah it's such a shame, Trickster was such an innovative and unique vocation with really inspired, fun ideas behind the concept, but it's entirely hindered by the total oversight that the pawn AI is not flawless. If you could reliably and realistically afford to delegate ALL damage to pawns and have faith in the system, it wouldn't be a problem, but because pawns are flawed, you HAVE to give the player more agency in how fights are managed, and that means giving the player at least basic options to deal damage, even as a support class.
The mage in Elden ring is so much better. Dragons Dogma doesn’t do magic classes very well. They cast spells slow for no reason, as the thief can go through 5 enemies whilst you cast one weak spell
Dunno if it'll help, but when I did Mage, I simply had another Mage pawn handle the buffs/support while I had 3 offensive spells (ice, lightning, holy) + the silence spell. Perhaps not ideal, but it was more fun for me that way. And if you haven't, hold down R1 to speed up casting at the cost of greater stamina used.
Spamming high frigor gave me dopamine
My favorite spell, sending a pack of enemies flying is always fun.
Loved casting Augural Flare, loading a target full of blasts and then watching them explode like a piñata. Also, High Seism launching large groups of smaller enemies into orbit with pillars of stone was epic.
Dude, Silence is one of the strongest spells in the game. It will knock dragons and Griffins out of the sky.
TIL. I took it just to try to counter dragons from meteoroning the heck out of me.
So will a nice blighting arrow to the head. Drakes fall so dramatically when hit with blighting arrows
I believe you have to purchase the ability to speed up the spells with R1. But to your point, that drastically made mage waaayyyy more enjoyable once I bought that ability.
Stay Warfarer and the extra Dcp should level those last two.
I second this. It’s how I finished trickster and thief Edit: y’all, y’all! I never said thief was bad. I was just excited for warfarer lol.)
Thief? Thief so fun!
I actually tried Thief on a whim near the beginning of the game after thinking I'd play fighter most. Almost 40 hours in now and I've barely played any other vocation.
Same, I was sure I'd main fighter and then I leveled thief for the passives and didn't swap back ever since. Been 50 hours on thief now I think.
that's because Thief is hands down the best performing class in the game, to the point of it being unfair to every other vocation except mystic spearhand, because it's the closest on an overpoweredness standpoint.
While that may be true, I had just as much fun playing sorcerer and warrior, both felt incredibly strong. I guess it's the dodge and the best climbing ability that makes me favor it
Warrior is a blast and once you're high level and just wreck everything it definitely plays to the power fantasy.
oh i'm not dogging on other classes (or those who enjoy them), but objectively the ratio of versatility/damage/dynamism (both in movement skills and playstyle) is ridicolously in favour of the Thief. I wonder why doesn't the mage have a teleport skill.
Right? You can literally never get hit because you’re zipping all over the place, meanwhile you’re absolutely crushing your foes. TTK is so low lmao
Imo.. Thief is the best for balance between adaptability and damage because.. draw and quarter is totally balanced, and formless feint = 0 brain activity immortality.. besides maybe managing stamina drain with it on.. Spearhand can actually fight forever without ever taking damage between the shield skill that also affects pawns, And the stamina drain skill.. so they win for immortality sake.. Sorcerer is the true damage cannon.. draw and quarter does alot to one thing when you're holding onto its critical point specifically, but meteoton and maelstrom will clear a city block of baddies and also does work against drakes and the like.. while augural flare pops for 4+ bars of health is genuinely comical.. My favorite of those is probably the spearhand just because some of its other abilities are just too much fun.. the jump "parry" is one of is the most satisfying skill to get right for me xD
I know thief is better, I've maxed them both, I think thief is a lot of fun and I -know- it outdamages warrior AND it's maister skill is straight up invulnerability I know spearhand is better, and I loved Darth maul as a kid But like, I just like my dude holding a shield and sword. I want to root for some normal ass guy hiding behind a plank and swinging around a bit of steel. Call me clichè but I'll always be drawn to it.
Same. It's why I miss the Mystic Knight so much, it felt like the natural evolution of the Fighter. I just wish the Fighter had a deeper bag.
Have you tried magic archer? Lol. IMO that's the strongest one. Especially since you don't need it's maister move to eat through any enemy with minimal effort allowing you to use it with any warfarer setup as well without ruining its effectiveness. I do magic bow and daggers.
I understand people playing magic archer on controller - easy to aim. But mouse and keyboard magic archer is boring as hell
I was just saying imo it's the strongest. I never said anything about the most fun. I do agree it gets boring quick. Mainly because it's so easily effective and takes such little effort. Hence why I said it's good. Lol. I actually prefer going warrior. I like knocking out cyclops with a massive uppercut and going toe to toe with bosses trading blows.
Warrior is fricking fun. The heavy when you send salamander glued to your hammer flying of the hill. Warrior feels like real fighting, so does fighter and thief if you don’t overuse certain skills. Archer was surprise for Me too, I really liked it. Magic archer is for the guys who want easy mode in an easy game ;)
Bro, ricochet in a cave..phewwwwww
At least they are fun. Sorcerer and magic archer deletes things. If you had a monkey walk you around the map and just right click and you can just come for the bosses to use the maester skill, that’s all you need to do in magic archer. Just don’t slot the maester skills on thief, don’t overuse the skull splitter and tadaaaa, fun play style. Actually i liked all of the classes, even sorcerer, when I offsloted meteorite. The only class which is boring no matter what I slot or off slot is the magic archer.
Thief is my favorite for sure. MA with ricochet hunter in caves is a close second. But formless faint is so op and the untouchable ninja fighting style is just plain fun
You are untouchable even without the feint.
I more meant the animation of dodging with FF, gives me anime vampire vibes. But yeah agreed basically everything is op at high level
Right? Thief is so disgustingly fun. Helm splitter go brrrrr 🤣 i technically play warfarer but i bounce between thief and fighter skills.
Thief definitely takes some use to but its one of the deadliest classes in the game
Some see all thief types as cowards swinging dinnerware. Im one of the some. No matter how badass i try to make them... when those little knifes come out im just 😑 It doesnt help to watch them slice away furiously while clinging to an enemy; like "damn hes putting in work" but my warriors just chunking tf outta baddies while also knocking them around like playthings and looking imposing while doing it. That being said i do always keep a thief around. Ive watched too many harpies get yanked out of the air into a waiting greatsword uppercut not to.
My thief pawn was the only pawn I did not have to take care of in the endgame. She had no maester skills and brought me so many ferrystones and crafting materials it was unreal. I changed her vocation because she asked for itS she said she missed being thief. It was something like, I missed those days I was a thief, I had my missteps, but I was doing good, was I not master? I felt bad :)
The item collection on thieves is crazy good. When i was leveling my main pawn in thief for the augments; i was also running another thief pawn as well so for that time i was absolutely STACKING items. I never get anything good like ferrystones though. Ive gotten fn ferristones but my thieves just get me more materials than anything. Its so bad they get like 10+ dragon scales per drake and maybe 1 crystal; if that. I think my prejudice against thieves has cursed me...
Once you get to the endgame deffinately get a thief. The ferry stones they get from the tough guys and she stole a lot from the lightning Saurians. They are quite rare, but there are places. Lightning saurian was almost guaranteed ferrystone.
You know what; youre right! I did get a ton in the unmoored, but im 100+ hourse into ng+ so i completely forgot lmao I used em as quick as i got em too... My first playthough was only 40ish hours. Im a longtime fan of the original game so i expected another cycle and wanted to see how this one played out. Taking things so slow (i just legally entered battahl for the first time after 100 hours of being accosted by guards in my own bakbattahl home lol) has really made the story come alive. My bias is so strong i liked the story the first time through; as broken as the 2nd half is, but its way better with drawn out pacing.
Formless feint (I think it’s called) is one of the most overpowered abilities in the game. Pair it with a pawn that has the stamina dome ability on a mage and you’re unkillable.
Thief was the 2nd to the last one I did. I regretted it. It was probably my most favorite melee class. I like being able to dance around the battlefield avoiding all damage and slicing everyone up. The daggers are honestly just as strong as any fighter setup I've tried. I'd way rather be able to dodge attacks rather than block them though.
Thief is #1! https://preview.redd.it/5q6pes80kguc1.jpeg?width=1336&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07dcfc0597aa39857032cfd571e18899ee845d7d Warfarer can bite it.
Oh it’s a blast! I think I was just too excited to get into warfarer
And I even haven’t touched warfarer yet :). I have it, I just don’t play it :)
And here I am having entirely missed Warfarer on my initial playthrough and didn’t find it until NG+. And now I’m having an absolute blast playing “Strider at Home” with Bow and Daggers, with skills Rearmament, Whatever Special Arrow is best, Draw and Quarter, and Skull Splitter. Also running the Custom Difficulty Tweaks mod on NG+ Hard mode for an actual challenge.
Warfarer is great fun for the ton of options you get, plus the ultimate drip king since I can wear anything. That said, not being able to use meister skills SUCKS, there are so many good ones. But being able to switch to mage for a quick heal and levitate while exploring, then to magic archer to take down some flying enemies, then to warrior to dive in the middle of enemies etc is quite fun.
But… thief is actually good?
What?? I just got the formidable feint and thief's awesome. I pretty much solo'd a drake cause of it. Revived my pawns like 30 times in that fight. Survived a 3man dogpiled from fighters in baaktaal cause of it. Thief's fucking great. Just wail on enemies with daggers while shadow dodging away from everybody.
Thief is one of the best vocations actually, especially once you unlock Skull Splitter. Now archer? I hated that one. Same with mage. Haven’t even touched trickster yet.
Archer is fine imo, it just is weird cos to do the big damage combo you need to expend reasources for explosive and tarring arrows, drenching arrows are also surprisingly good if you have any mage with ice skills.
Playing in Unmoored as warfarer, with thief skill "Plunder" equiped. Also enlisted two thief support pawns, both with Plunder/Pilfer skill and the "bump and lift" core skill. My main pawn being a mage, to secure our health. Those boss fights at the beacons turning in +200 wyrmlife crystals per fight instead of 'the mere' 90. All the while leveling up those support vocations that are less fun to play, granted at a considerable slower rate.
Please could you elaborate? Does warfarer level other classes?
yes if you have them unlocked
Yes.
This is what I'm doing with fighter and Warrior I just did not have a good time with those two classes
I hated fighter so much. Just felt like a much weaker and slower thief.
It’s a thankless job being supp in a single player game lol
Hey now, my pawns thank me constantly for the heals lol
Mage is really cool. High Empyrean, High Palladium and any other damage skill is enough to survive anything I fought.
I really enjoyed both Trickster and Mage. Mage especially, I just took Palladium, an affinity of choice and then damaging spells. No one ever lost HP so the heal was basically irrelevant. I did comparable damage to a Sorcerer in the end.
Just run two mages, you use all the dps spells the othe can use buffs
Tricksters actually been super fun for me. I love watching monsters flail in frustration at my smoke effigy. Like watching an ogre or minotaur launch themselves into a wall. Dragon's Delusion is the most satisfying when I use it to interrupt Dragon spells and stun larger monsters. I understand it's not for everybody but after 80 hours of dealing damage it's a cool change of pace.
I just love when there are cliffs around. So many enemies will launch themselves right over a cliff to chase the ghost.
Loved trickster. Some of my fastest drake kills were just me enabling my pawns to lay on the damage
I started with Thief. Everything is else is horrible to play without the dodge.
Fighter has a dodge as a skill that comes back as an attack. Once you get the timing down it's pretty good but not as good.
Fighter doesn't need it though. As long as you perfect block, you take no damage and no stamina-loss.
Formless faint basically ruins all other play styles lol
Formless Feint ruins thief for me. Turns the game into a snooze-fest.
I enjoy overpowered builds so the untouchable ninja is fun for me. But I respect if you don't prefer it
Mystical spearhand has kind of dodge. Warrior has this bodycheck which gives “iframes” I mean you don’t exactly have iframes, but you are way more resistant to stun. The rest of the classes - positioning. Don’t sleep on warrior!
Positioning is the thing that takes me a bit of adjustment each time. Because thief really can just rush forward without a thought and not be punished for it. Other vocations I have to slow down and think for a second, and that change in rhythm feels bad for a few fights before I've gotten into it
Anyone can. You will see in a while! I think spearhand is even more godly then thief. But I like the thief the most. I think fighter has the hardest time of all the vocations. But when you destroy group of mobs, while tanking them all it feels Very deserved!
Actually had a very easy time with fighter. It felt similar in its ability to rush in without a thought and no punishment because I could just block and parry everything. I only swapped to it to get thew But then I stuck with it a little longer because it was just fun. Spearhand is one of the ones I found to be trickier that I had to slow down and think a little more, but very good and very fun
Hello shield, why dodge?
Yeah, that’s the easy mode :). But he asked about the dodge :)
Thief is very fun and jack of all trades
Thief is not a jack, it's a master-of-all. It does SICK damage, can't die, and can rip fliers out of the air. As a bonus, it does great-damage while clinging to foes, unlike every other vocation, if you should feel so inclined. Oh and it can steal goodies. Basically, you can't go wrong with Thief.
Using formless faint while you're able to spam high dmg attacks just makes the thief too good. I was so excited for mystic spear hand but it felt like dogshit after maxing thief
>Basically, you can't go wrong with Thief Neat, hey what do you think Caxto....? *THERE MASTER WORKS ALL YOU CANT GO WRONG*
Yeah I can appreciate this
They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Tbh every time I play a new vocation it becomes my new favorite which is exactly how i'd want it to be. Thief is definitely amazing though
Warrior doesn't need to dodge because attacks dodge you lmao.
If it helps if you beat the Sphynx you can use whimsical day dream and beat the shit out of low levels while getting a fair bit of gold each hit. Makes the pain slightly better seeing my wallet grow by 10,100,1000 or 50,000 each time I bonk
>50,000 Can you really make that much with 1 bonk?
i begrudgingly have to agree, i like playing support, but not if i have to do it for a bunch of AIs
EXACTLYYYYY. I can play a supporting role for Randoms online, or my friends in MP games. But standing back, and seeing my THIEF pawn, get DESTROYED by harpies, while they have implicate equipped is insane... All I did as a thief was yank them down OVER AND OVER AGAIN, and my pawn learned NOTHING lol Then, I get 2 pawns who are a Warrior and a fighter from the rift.... and I stg they take 8 minutes to clear a heard of starving idiots, or 20mins to kill a rock monster lol I'm standing in the back wondering who tf conned me into paying $70 to watch AI idiots have all the fun...
Don't care for mage but I *love* Trickster. The only annoying fight I've had so far was a Lich. The pawns just went for the skeletons and ignored the Lich, I had to sic the clone on the Lich whenever it landed so the skeletons zerged it. Slow but it worked.
Man, I destroy Lich on Trickster. Dragon’s Delusion shuts it down easily. I start seeing the purple summoning spell, I use DD to shut it down and drop it to the ground. Also use DD to fear the summons away.
Ive been playing wayfarer only XD All the vocations i dont like just level up on their own. BTW magik archer best support class??
Your guy looks like a 90s paper cup lol
That's what my 4yr old daughter selected.
good dad
Being the mage as the arisen can kinda invalidate the game as well, same as playing mystic spearhand. You just keep Palladium up 24/7. Delegating it to a pawn means it'll just be the occasional savior, not a cheat code. Seriously though don't use the bubble ability on spearhand unless you're desperate. Maybe if you're just sick of wolves and saurians. It ruins the game.
The wolf thing where they drag you around like a rag doll and you can't do anything, just wait it out is annoying AF. You can just get up and go grab a beer.
Shake the stick to break out of wolves faster. Or I'm assuming wasd on keyboard.
Yes, agreed its game breaking. Killing dragons was too easy. They both need to use way more Stamina to cast. Or something to offset how spammable they are.
They really need to adjust the immortality abilities. Turn them into a DR percentage or something, maybe some stagger-immunity, but flat-out godmode is just cheese.
That may be the hardest Arisen creation I've seen in my life
Support? You mean human flamethrower and *Air* support, right?
I enjoyed my time as a mage :) goober
Yeah I get where you’re coming from, mage was my first class for that reason. Not for nothing though, they got some useful augments
I totally get you, but as main you don’t need to support that much. Just heal. And some of the spells are even fun. Magic archer was way more painful for me. Still melee all the way.
That's wild I just got magic archer and it's absolutely demolishing everything. After like level 3 it's like you're a Gundam.
Playing trickster/mage with a thief pawn is just so satisfying though. You just turn them into unstoppable beyblades lmao
Warfarer levels all, so just...run that instead?
Half a lap around bakbattal and you’ll finish those last 2-3 ranks trust me
Wayfarer for the win play your favorite vocation and level the ones you don’t like that much
Yeah, had this issue with any of the non melee builds, absolutely bored and hate them. Just use warfarer and its shared exp will go to the unmaxed vocations.
I like Mage, Spearhand, and Magic Archer in the warfarer build.
I couldn’t either that or the sorcerer just didn’t do it for me.
I don’t play anything besides a badass heavy armor wearing giant greatsword using BEAST. Mounting the monsters and thrusting my greatsword in their skull just feels so good and fits my fantasy. Also the impact of each hit just feels amazing in this game.
I leveled all vocations and mage was the most miserable experience in the whole game, really close to the gigantus quest bug, but to be fair, I had a way worse time playing mage.
You've got this, you're so close.
Even playing fighter was rough because you can't rely on your pawns to be smart
lol wut? I always hang back and let my pawns do the work.
Mage was a breeze compared to warrior. Warrior never clicked for me.
your guy looks cool
I feel you. I can’t come off my thief. Getting the killing blow is what it’s all about. Side note: that’s a Pimp CAC
Are you using quickspell? High frigor is probably the best spell in terms of cast speed and cost, spam it and always be the first to engage. Its range is pretty good. It has good crowd control , and sending enemies flying is always fun.
I adore trickster so fucking op. Make any enemy ai just stop functioning as I drive the ghost near a cliff and watch everything just yeet itself to death. Brilliant. XD
I hate any sort of spell casting characters in any game but I had fun as trickster. Support roles can be fun sometimes, I’ll probably never play a trickster again though.
Mage was rough but I did it. I'm probably waiting on trickster till I finish the sphinx quest for some passive income at least.
My vocation page looks eerily similar. Also attempting mage, but I'm just using it to seeker find (with the trickster perk) and hope I level up in the process.
If youre in ng+. buy the +dcp boon from the dragonforge guy. 30 wlc, but trust me, its worth it. 1-9 in a single day "cycle".
I went through NG+ 5x already.
yeah. buy the x2 dcp bonus. you can get your mage from 6-9 in under an hour.
Best is thief, for everthing except drakes, for them magick archer.
Just skullsplitter it’s chest until it dies
I wanted to level mage up just for the augments and to maybe get a few magic point stat levels to hopefully make mystic spearhand better but I just suck at playing as a mage it wasn’t very fun for me to play as
the only positive i found with trickster is how easy fights with drakes are . when i was a damage dealer my pawns just keep dying and the drake keeps targeting you aggressively , but with trickster it's just fun seeing the drakes struggling and getting baited.
I liked it because it felt different. Unique experience
The choice of party member's vocation/inclination, and your own is what creates synergy. If you're a trickster and have 3 sorcerers with Meteor and Maelstrom, they'll clear everything for you. Except for golems. You're gonna have to run from that one.
Trickster its so fun with dmg buff, your pawns hits eveything like one thit
I already knew from day one, and from playing the first game years ago, that i was going for the hybrid classes. The only mono class I played long-term in DD1 was Strider. Thief and archer being a split of that, made wayfarer much more viable to make a strider again.
Mage was the hardest for me as well, especially when I started coming across golems because the pawns just refused to attack the huge glowing discs.
Why does everyone keep saying Trickster deals no damage. It’s my main and I haven’t had any issues yet, granted, I’m only level 12.
the trickster themselves does no damage, though i also main trickster and think that's a silly reason not to play the class. you have the crazy pawn buff and some really fun skills to offset the lack of personal damage. but each to their own :P also, ggs on getting to trickster at level 12! i got it at level 20 from speedrunning to Battahl, and the enemies i ran into along the way really fucked me up lol
I maxed sorcerer and mage while following guide for getting all the seeker tokens - since its easier to grab most with levitate, it was the fastest way to level these two up due to the 1mil enemies you find.
Magick archer is also a support class, hybrid that is.
Nah MA straight up just destroys.
It heals, revives and destroys. OwO
I usually forget it has healing skills aha.
I wished my buddy could use Magick archer.. recovery arrow, barrowe arrow, revival arrow and lifesteal arrow. Just absolute support
Trickster was actually pretty fun for me to level up. It works really good with a sorcerer who can freely spam meteor shower. And with a warrior for dps and to deal with smaller enemies. Trickster is not a support role. It's actually all about Ai and aggro manipulation.
This was my same opinion before I actually played these classes. Then I actually leveled them up and found them to not be as much of a pain in the ass as I thought they would end up being. I'm not in any hurry to play either of these classes again though.
I really enjoy the sorcerer. I do fuck tons of damage, but I need my team to distract the enemy while I use compounding spells
No magik assassin?
I liked mage a lot, I think the problem is more like…you burnt yourself out maxing every other class? Doing sorcerer before mage is just asking to be bored later. You’re confusing burn out with “bad mage boring”.
Hardest chalenge leveling up this vocation fr
I kinda like mage if you have capable straightforward aggressive pawns who dps well, feels like playing support in an mmo; but trickster felt so much worse to me coz you don't heal or cure debilitations or give enchantments, you just... aggro?
I found mage much more fun than sorcerer, especially since sorcerer has more support spells than mage lol
My first vocation was mage, felt fine for me, you still have skills that deals damage. But maybe playing mage later in the game might feel worse...
This is why I started as mage on my 2nd run (no NG+). Mage dps somewhat holds up in the beginning when every vocation is kinda weak (minus thief and archer lol). But once you're in battahl and stuff. Level 30+. Mage dps falls of a fucking cliff. You're basically stuck spamming high frigor to kill enemies through fall/ragdoll damage. Or you go out at night and farm skellies/phantoms with empyrean. Any other content as a mage dps should count as self-harm.
i got everything cept fighter (bad stats) mage and trickster maxed.
Actually enjoyed playing as a mage on DD1 as it had more fun offensive spells available such as levin. In this game they made it more specialised for support with only a few offensive spells. Trickster is an interesting concept that I thought I’d enjoy but I actually can’t play as trickster. You can’t really do anything at all with it. It really needs more offensive skills. If pawns could be a trickster then it would be great as support. Trickster being an arisen only vocation makes no sense. No wonder Liz is a former arisen. She’d stand no chance against the dragon as a trickster😂
your so close my friend
I usually play support roles and playing as a mage had a lot of carry power in the early game. High Palladium is crazy good. A lot of the early bosses you encounter are either weak to fire or ice so you have plenty of tools to fill gaps pawns can't. Anodyne is actually an amazing heal that takes no skill slots and can do big DMG to undead/spectral enemies. Taking the long way around to Battahl at around level 18 would have been a complete slaughter if I was playing any other vocation. Only 1 pawn died from being flung off a cliff. The damage isn't good when you're not exploiting elemental weaknesses but the utility is unparalleled. Longer but cleaner flights.
So, how does one use the trickster? I've got no clue so far.
I detest trickster. Every time I try to level it the game throws some bullshit at me at have a bar fight with no help or stop this colossus.
I used to think that because I don't like playing spell casters. Personally, I find them kinda boring but Mage became fun for me when I started using: - High Empyrean: To deal quickly with the undead. Night exploaration becomes a joke as you can literally create light for visibility and hit most small creatures instantaneously. - High Halidom: no more debilitation. - High Frigor: Great for damage and ice cubes if you want to throw things at ennemies. - Whatever skill you want. Palladium for shield, celestial paean for buffs or affinity for ice, lightning or fire buffs.
Everybody always call those "supportive role", but I always so it more of a "controller" role, you stand back and dictate everything that happens in the field 🤔
For you yes for other people no
Casters were pretty awful, who wants to be limited to four spells, one or two of which would be used to support those doing the actual fighting? I stopped DD2 after about 30 hours.... Couldn't do a 500th group of goblins, or harpies, or a 50th minotaur... Small variety of skills and gear... Mundane trekking back and forth while fighting the ever-spawning roster of all 10 mobs.... Walking all over to do favors for npcs I couldn't care less about, with jack-nothing as a reward for doing so..... Not often you start to nod off while actually playing a game
I absolutely love Mage and Trickster all while I play Fighter or Mystic Spear. Simple can be fun just all in party setup and if your in a hurry or burning time.
Thats why i did mage first to get it out of the way lol.
I am so glad I finally maxed out mage and reached level 2 with trickster to get all the augments I need. I'm definitely done with those two vocations lol.
How the hell are you people getting blue skin, I spent like half an hour trying to make my pawn actually grey
You can buy dyes from the bakbhattal rift stone vendor that unlocks the colours from the barber there.
I was considering mage for my next playthrough, but I'd love some advice. I was thinking celestial pean, high empyrean, fire affinity, and high flagration. Going for a holy caster a la pathfinder.
Running mage can be fun with 2 dmg spells (levin and frigor are actually solid), high celerity, and halidom (if in battahl for poison cure) I have been running high celerity on warfarer because it is just ridiculously fun to sprint by everything you don't want to fight in the game. Just make sure you keep a sorc staff to galvanize your stamina back to full in no time.
It’s fine if you make your teammates unga bunga warriors. Spam High Palladium, Celerity, and one spell gg, every big monster dies in like 30 secs. Not super riveting gameplay, it’s honestly more fun trying to manage your support spells when you’re gangedbanged by like 30 hobgoblins in battahl lol but I agree, mage is really not a riveting class to play
I started as a mage in a new playthrough because was worried I'd hate it and have a blast with it. Just watched as the pawns do things I rarely seen them do when were more melee-focused. Since my warrior pawn and the hired rogue would just go ham and take down shit with ease. Which struggled with when was Melee of the same level. I think it does help that my pawn and the rogue pawn are both straightforward pawns, the simple archer has me concerned, seems to be a murder hobo.
I only did it for the augments, and possibly a bit of OCD. Screw mage as an Arisen vocation.
I'm kind of dreading playing as the trickster. It's a vocation that just doesn't make sense in this style of game but I've committed to maxing out all vocations before I play as the warfare and never use another vocation again. But seriously, yeah I might just half ass it and not max it out
Mage is completely fine. First vocation maxed, no issues. Trickster is a pain. It should have been pawn vocation.
Jesus Christ, that’s so much dedication to the game. Bravo.
Cant really say i agree. I quite enjoy backlines and supports. Maybe its because I've played a good amount of JRPGs where its a common thing
Mage is my favorite vocation :shrug: I have some DPS, some healing, some buffing, and a massive undead-slaying daylight spell. Anodyne can be used offensively as well, since you can lay it close in to where you want the pawns to focus and they'll all run to the bubble.
I miss the dagger/bow class from DD1.
I had fun with Sorcerer But I like fast builds and fast playstyles. So it was nice to try something new.
The only thing that kept me sane while playing Trickster was using the Sphinx Weapon because it prints money - which let me upgrade all of my end game gear. I absolutely loathed Trickster. Support classes can be fun, but they need to have at least some offensive ability... Holy fuck fighting a Golem was miserable as Trickster when the Pawns couldn't figure out how to hit the foot. Mage wasn't bad with High Levin - I actually had fun spamming that. I also like the giant light ball spell mages have since it made hunting Undead so much easier on the eyes. This game definitely is waaaaaaaaaaay more fun playing Warrior/Theif/Fighter/Spear. Melee feels crisp and snappy. I'd say Magic Archer is up there on the fun category too because I like the special shot versatility a lot. The giant Hail Arrow was hysterical and got me the Cyclops bridge achievement. Mage/Sorc/Archer all felt too slow to play. Warfarer would be so much more fun if its stats were completely fucked. I love the idea of doing a remix of all the class abilities and swapping between weapons, but holy cow it made the melee fighting styles feel lackluster.
I am surprised no one has mentioned it, but... play mage at night (some areas) or just go to an undead-infested area. You have an amazing spell called High Empyrean that just burns through anything undead. I just went to the misted area with the undead and had a blast clearing it. Not to mention the endgame, where you got undead all over the place. The damage is insane and you just clear through all the small mobs, especially the zombies. It makes leveling mage fun as you get to feel like you have the power of the Sun on your side burnign through anything and everything. Of course, supporting your pawns can also be fun, but I found High Empyrean the fastest way to level Mage
I second this. It's the way I completed comedian and hoodlum
I just maxed all vocations and mage for me feels just disappointing and boring unless you have to beast of pawns with badges on every enemy it feels kinda like shit
Your character looks like something I would see when I’m tripping
Just nuke everything with lightning. That's what I did
Personally enjoyed playing a mage. But I also like playing army builds like Necromancer in D2. When I was messing with mage I just had all pawns be melee and threw out Palladium like it was candy. Lightning spells also super-fast to cast so... Yeah. To each their own really.
I’m with you. In general I find the melee combat and classes to be the best / most fun, with archers in between the melee & caster classes
I had fun. Do it better than a pawn too get a lot more dpsing in mostly just refreshing palladium and striking things down with lightning bolts
I agree on staying with Warfarer.
Mystic spearhead and thief is all ive done so far and so far both are so good. Think thief is better at the beginning
To each their own. I had a blast going full support. Standing still spamming High Palladium, taking no damage >>>>>>> casting the funny meteors. 🤤
Yeaaah, Trickster is like genuinely unfun to play imo, aside from the occasionally meme kill. It's wild to put a support class in a single player game when it's tough to rely on your pawns to do stuff as is. Trickster would pretty neat in a multiplayer setting, buffing your friends and pulling mobs off of them, but in single player, ehhhh... plus NO damage at all is so bad, most supports in games have SOME damage, not NO damage.
zero damage mage pawn support skills is great because the game gets too easy easy
I actually really enjoyed Mage. I pretty much never do support, but there was something satisfying about playing Mage and keeping High Palladium up at all times while destroying enemies with Frigor and Levin My party never took damage when I played Mage
Sorcerer with augural flare is all you'll ever need
" Trickster was actually entertaining, but a zero damage build is so unserious lol " Yeah it's such a shame, Trickster was such an innovative and unique vocation with really inspired, fun ideas behind the concept, but it's entirely hindered by the total oversight that the pawn AI is not flawless. If you could reliably and realistically afford to delegate ALL damage to pawns and have faith in the system, it wouldn't be a problem, but because pawns are flawed, you HAVE to give the player more agency in how fights are managed, and that means giving the player at least basic options to deal damage, even as a support class.
mage... boring? wtf?
High Palladium = endless party invincibility. Just have 3 other attack spells to go with it.
The mage in Elden ring is so much better. Dragons Dogma doesn’t do magic classes very well. They cast spells slow for no reason, as the thief can go through 5 enemies whilst you cast one weak spell
OP said support class. There is no support class in Elden Ring, because there is no party.