Level 9 goodies

[Savin]

But even if we include those mages can get +50 spellpower and dawnbreak from their clothing, which massively outstrips what martials can get from theirs.

Martial and Magic characters have entirely different mechanisms of scaling: magician characters' base damage is drawn from their powers, and modified heavily by their gear; martial characters' base damage is drawn from their gear and heavily modified by their powers. There's not meant to be parity in stat numbers there.

 

[Lostname475]

That was said in response to the claim that mages didn't have as many equipment options for damage scaling as martials, I wasn't saying there was a problem with it

 

[HedgeWizard]

That was said in response to the claim that mages didn't have as many equipment options for damage scaling as martials, I wasn't saying there was a problem with it

i just find it odd that there is like 5 unique staff in the game(that i know of) 4 of wich you can get really early in game

 

[Lostname475]

Yeah, the mage gear is quite frontloaded, with a few exceptions

 

[HedgeWizard]

Probably you missed the last part of the Perk - "Wardbreaker-add half your willpower to spell pen and your pen can reduce enemies ward below 0 for damage calculation"

I know what the perk does but compared to other classes both of the perks for bm seem underwhelming and boring when you consider that charmer got the same perk (diferent stat but same effect).

I just expected something more unique like the other classes, like lowering cooldown when using different powers, using the same power twice with weaker modifier, or every time you crit gain a buff or an extra attack

 

[Euthanize]

Black Mage is still miles behind thief in terms of spell dps, and unless level 10 spells don't have DoTs on them (which bypass ward completely and which Eye for Weakness doubles) that's going to remain true regardless of gear.

 

[HedgeWizard]

Black Mage is still miles behind thief in terms of spell dps, and unless level 10 spells don't have DoTs on them (which bypass ward completely and which Eye for Weakness doubles) that's going to remain true regardless of gear.

well that is just depressing at this point
Is thief that good?

 

[Euthanize]

well that is just depressing at this point
Is thief that good?

I mean the rest of thief is basically on par with the rest. Thief just happens to have the one specific perk that doubles DoT damage in a game where the most damaging spells have their damage significantly backloaded into DoTs. You could imagine a suite of powers that would make Eye for Weakness not numerically dumpster every alternative, but it would be very different from what's in the game right now.

 

[HedgeWizard]

I didn't know that Eye for Weakness applied to spells
that makes the level 7 and new perk for bm even less appealing

 

[ctenken]

I think the new Black Mage perk is awesome. You can do a lot of damage if you focus on Spell Penetration and get the Distracting perk. Make sure that you have at least 99 more spell penetration than an enemies warding stat and you'll do 100x as much damage. You can use the powers Withering Bolt, Entropic Fortune from Kiyoko's Kitsune-Bi set, and Enamoring from Cait's sun dancer silks set to lower the enemies' warding stat.

More than 10k damage every attack is appealing to me.

 

[HedgeWizard]

I think the new Black Mage perk is awesome. You can do a lot of damage if you focus on Spell Penetration and get the Distracting perk. Make sure that you have at least 99 more spell penetration than an enemies warding stat and you'll do 100x as much damage. You can use the powers Withering Bolt, Entropic Fortune from Kiyoko's Kitsune-Bi set, and Enamoring from Cait's sun dancer silks set to lower the enemies' warding stat.

More than 10k damage every attack is appealing to me.

the hightest spell pen(of the gear i know) is 88 with gear + perk and natural pen so I don't know how you reach 99

using one of the companion debuffs with Withering Bolt can make enemys have 0 ward but I don't know how the damage calculation is for the perk but I doubt it is going to be one to one

even then that is a lot of setup to make the perk shine compared to just using thief doubling the duration of all debuff and gaining two free buff without wasting a turn

 

[Lostname475]

Black Mage is still miles behind thief in terms of spell dps, and unless level 10 spells don't have DoTs on them (which bypass ward completely and which Eye for Weakness doubles) that's going to remain true regardless of gear.

Honestly, most fights don't last long enough for the extra debuff duration to make that much of a difference imo

 

[Euthanize]

Honestly, most fights don't last long enough for the extra debuff duration to make that much of a difference imo

Exactly. Most fights in the game are so trivialized by level 9 PC that the enemies just explode into paste regardless of what you're doing. The few fights that aren't are generally characterized by a boss that gets 3+ actions for every one of yours. This means you get full advantage of your DoTs, which tick on their action, not yours. Likewise, these are the same fights that actually have the potential to punish a strategy that revolves around spending multiple actions setting up with debuffs and non-stance at-wills.

Ironically enough, the best enablers for "charging my laser" nuke strategies are a 6-action Abjure or Unbreakable depending on the fight, of which Black Mage has access to neither.