Runes of Magic US / AU

The two AoEs function very differently.

Thunderstorm is a targeted area attack - you cast the spell, place the aiming graphic over the ground you want to attack, and click to activate the spell. It hits targets in the attack zone several times and has the chance to add a debuff to them.

Purgatory Fire, on the other hand, is an instant cast AoE centred on the caster, meaning the area it attacks is immediately around the caster. It is instant cast and spammable and does one hit of damage per mob caught in the area per cast.

Since you refer to getting mobbed, and sticky situations, purgatory fire is definitely the way to go. You will also want to use the skill Discharge as it is an AoE stun that can stop mobs from attacking you for at least a few seconds.

If you get caught in a sticky situation and the mobs are surrounding you, then hit discharge to stun them, and then spam purg until they are dead. You can also spam these two skills on the move, as they are both instant cast - meaning that if you are running away from a battle and the mobs are close enough to hit you, you can drop a discharge to clear some distance from them, or hit purg to try to burn down the closest ones.

Thunderstorm would be more useful against ranged attackers, but from my experience it can be interrupted so it's not the best as an "oh crap" button.

Anyway, that's just my suggestion.

One thing add to the whole running discharge, purg and repeat thing:


If memory serves discharge is a frontal aoe. So if ur running AWAY from mobs, ull wanna back pedal away while facing em so u can stun them. If ur just fleeing for ur life and discharge while running away, its not gonna stun anything and ull just wanna hope ur faster than the mobs lol

thunderstorm is great for siege for taking out enemy faces and towers. since it is range. with purg you will get knocked down for good if u fly in to take out a bunch of faces. unless u pop holy aura. thunderstorm is also decent for taking out weaker trash mobs in instances as u run buy or for pulling stronger ones so u get the extra hit or too before they start hitting u and you start spamming purg/discharge

IMO u should level both. mages are the best crowd control in the game, and without those u would be less usefulli dont put tp into discharge since i use it more for its stun then anything

Quoted from "KingCut;479229"

with purg you will get knocked down for good if u fly in to take out a bunch of faces. unless u pop holy aura.

This is incorrect information.


There has since been a patch to treaches in siege that makes it to where once u get knocked down once, u are immune to treach effects for 30 seconds, allowing u to stand in the center of big pile of em and purg away completely treach lock free if u so desired.

Treach locking is no longer possible.

I'm glad my tread has helped you.

As for your questions, as others have already suggested, those 2 AOE have different use. I use purg fire to clean mobs or in Curse of Terror to kill mob and barrier at the same time. Thunderstorm as ranged AOE comes handy if you need fast way to get multiple mobs out. (In my case I use it against Guard Dogs - one hit for both dogs)

It is hard to level them both, but I first leveled Purgatory Fire (being fire mage you should have your Fire Knowledge up). For TS I did level Wind Knowledge up, but now it will be a bit behind because of low TP with last week's XP/TP ratio.

Personally, I use both. Purg is my workhorse when I'm running stuff with my guild, and thunderstorm I use generally when I'm alone and not getting surrounded.

Quoted from "acypcar90;479199"

One thing add to the whole running discharge, purg and repeat thing:


If memory serves discharge is a frontal aoe. So if ur running AWAY from mobs, ull wanna back pedal away while facing em so u can stun them. If ur just fleeing for ur life and discharge while running away, its not gonna stun anything and ull just wanna hope ur faster than the mobs lol

Discharge is whole circle aoe, with range of 55~60.

Purg have a aoe limit of 16 mobs if I remember correctly.

Quoted from "Sadz202;480901"

Discharge is whole circle aoe, with range of 55~60.

Purg have a aoe limit of 16 mobs if I remember correctly.

Actually, Discharge, Purg, and TS have volume aoe. Discharge and Purg are a sphere, and can hit things above, behind, and below. TS seems to be more bullet shaped. To target it, you need a surface, and it will strike things on the opposite side of that surface i.e. In Kalin Shrine, if you TS the Goddess of Art's Disciple, you will also hit the mobs beneath her. I have only done this aiming down and up, I have never tried hitting something through a wall, so I and not sure if has the same effect horizontally and it does vertically.

I'm a m/p as well. I personally enjoy Purg, although I haven't really used TS much to be honest. I can see it's benefits later on, but for now, Purg all the way. The reason I like Purgatory, is that it reminds me of my warlock days in another MMO, which will remain nameless.

As a lvl 50 m/p, with Purg maxed, I can aggro several mobs in an area while I'm mounted. Then I stop at a central point, pop a Regen or 2 (depending on the mobs strength) while the mobs are coming for me. Once they start hitting me, I use my bubble & burn the whole group down in a few seconds. This is a highly effective & efficient method for farming or doing dailies that require X amount of mobs killed. I will warn you though, pay close attention to your MP when using this technique. Purg tends to eat your MP very quickly & having no MP with 10 angry mobs around you is a BAD thing!

From acypcar90:

Quoted

One thing add to the whole running discharge, purg and repeat thing:


If memory serves discharge is a frontal aoe. So if ur running AWAY from mobs, ull wanna back pedal away while facing em so u can stun them. If ur just fleeing for ur life and discharge while running away, its not gonna stun anything and ull just wanna hope ur faster than the mobs lol

Discharge is also a globe aoe. Tested this to make sure in goblin games with a pack of mobs behind me. I faced away and hit it and they went down behind me and to the sides also.

From sadz202:

Quoted

Purg have a aoe limit of 16 mobs if I remember correctly.

Tried to test this in gobs also, and it was incredibly hard to get more than 16 mobs aggroed on me at the same time, but I did manage to get around 18-20. I had mixed results. The most I was able to hit at a time was 15 mobs, but after repeating a few times the number fluctuated between 12-15 mobs killed per purg, so it may be less a hard number and more an issue of purg missing like t-storm does sometimes. Needs more verification.

OP, you will want to level both skills but as a lowbee, purg is more useful, mostly since you'll be using it when you already have a big bunch of mobs aggroed on you. T-storm pulls aggro to you, which is something you may want to avoid until you get more geared and less squishy. You will find it highly useful in pvp to unhide rogues and to destroy enemy traps quickly.

You can also use t-storm to kite with by using a handy macro that turns it into an instant one-step cast that will go off wherever your mouse is already placed.

Here's that macro, try it out. I couldn't live without it.

/script CastSpellByName ("Thunderstorm")
/wait 0.1
/script CastSpellByName ("Thunderstorm")
/script SpellTargetUnit ()

Start a new macro by hitting escape, macros, new macro. Type that in exactly and save it. Add it to your action bar (for highest functionality use one of the ones hotkeyed to a number). Set you mouse where you want T-storm to go off and hit the hotkey. You can spam the button while walking backward and "kite" mobs that way. You can also run forward and spam it to clear mobs that die fast.

I use this macro in siege war when killing traps, I use it in minigames to clear mobs out in seconds, and I also use it in Sardo Castle to dps down high level elites aggroed onto our tank because it lets me kill multiple targets at a safe distance. It is useful from low-level all the way to endgame.

Quoted from "Icdeadpplx2;481999"

I'm a m/p as well. I personally enjoy Purg, although I haven't really used TS much to be honest. I can see it's benefits later on, but for now, Purg all the way. The reason I like Purgatory, is that it reminds me of my warlock days in another MMO, which will remain nameless.

As a lvl 50 m/p, with Purg maxed, I can aggro several mobs in an area while I'm mounted. Then I stop at a central point, pop a Regen or 2 (depending on the mobs strength) while the mobs are coming for me. Once they start hitting me, I use my bubble & burn the whole group down in a few seconds. This is a highly effective & efficient method for farming or doing dailies that require X amount of mobs killed. I will warn you though, pay close attention to your MP when using this technique. Purg tends to eat your MP very quickly & having no MP with 10 angry mobs around you is a BAD thing!

This will get a bit less bothersome when you hit level 55 and start getting geared and statted, for two reasons: a) you'll have a bigger mana pool to start with, and b) you will be able to get the Elemental Flame Item Set Skill called Recover Magic. Recover Magic is arguably a mage's best set skill, as it gives each cast a chance to add mana back to your pool when it is in effect. It lasts for 30 seconds and has a 2 minute cooldown if I recall correctly. So, you pop the skill, purg away like a maniac, and get mana back every couple of purgs or so.

Item Set Skills are what you get after level 50 instead of elite skills. You collect all pieces (usually 4) of a set of gear, go to Tatsy Turnbull in Dalanis and she extracts the skill from the gear into your Item Set Skill menu, which you can see if you hit the little gear on your interface. You can have as many as 3 Item Set Skills equipped at a time.

The Elemental Flame set drops in the instance Hall of the Demon Lord, and it's a very nice set of gear that is well worth statting unless you are one of those people that levels very quickly and you play on a server where Chapeaunoir's gear (level 67) is freely available. My endgame mage is still wearing most of her flame set (I can't get Chapeaunoir yet on Palenque).

I have 3 pieces of Elemental Flame Set (which gives everything except skill) and I was told not to get robe, as maxim's robe (lvl 57) will be better for fire mage. I am still collecting stats to properly state it.

As for MP, wouldn't some wisdom help with MP pool and regeneration rate??

Quoted from "mnkmurphy885;482066"

This will get a bit less bothersome when you hit level 55 and start getting geared and statted, for two reasons: a) you'll have a bigger mana pool to start with, and b) you will be able to get the Elemental Flame Item Set Skill called Recover Magic. Recover Magic is arguably a mage's best set skill, as it gives each cast a chance to add mana back to your pool when it is in effect. It lasts for 30 seconds and has a 2 minute cooldown if I recall correctly. So, you pop the skill, purg away like a maniac, and get mana back every couple of purgs or so.

Item Set Skills are what you get after level 50 instead of elite skills. You collect all pieces (usually 4) of a set of gear, go to Tatsy Turnbull in Dalanis and she extracts the skill from the gear into your Item Set Skill menu, which you can see if you hit the little gear on your interface. You can have as many as 3 Item Set Skills equipped at a time.

The Elemental Flame set drops in the instance Hall of the Demon Lord, and it's a very nice set of gear that is well worth statting unless you are one of those people that levels very quickly and you play on a server where Chapeaunoir's gear (level 67) is freely available. My endgame mage is still wearing most of her flame set (I can't get Chapeaunoir yet on Palenque).

I'm on Palenque as well.

I appreciate the information & advice. I'm obviously fairly new to the game. An MMO vet, just learning the in's & out's of RoM still. Thanks again.

I tend to keep Purg as close to max level as I can, and TS within 5 to 6 levels. The reason I prefer a stronger Purg is that I use TS far more often for the range benefit, however, if something is up in my face, and being as cloth armored as I am, I want that, or those, things going down now!

Beyond that, because I use Flame and Fireball lots, I've kept my Fire Knowledge maxed out too...but not my Wind, so again Purg works better for me.

I should add that my most frequent motto, war cry, etc., is....

BURN BURN BURN!

Top leveling wind at your level should not be that hard, especially since wind is limited to level 50.

At my level (57 atm) it does magic in GG with worms, killing 2-5 worms at the same time...

Just to mention, I am not fully stated yet... actually I am not even half stated yet...

Thunderstorm will allow you to take out enemies from farther away and give them a nice little slow effect at a distance.

HOWEVER

Thunderstorm runs on a Damage while Casting process meaning if you take any damage while you're casting, it will stop. As such, it's generally not a good choice in close combat.

Purgatory Fire is an AOE which damages anything relatively nearby you and tends to be more useful when trying to get out of sticky situations. It is instant cast and has no cooldown so it can be spammed til the sun goes down... or until you run out of mana.


which brings me to my next point:

Using these AOE spells is like driving a tank; it uses a lot of fuel. AOEs will eat away at your mana unlike any other spell.

And one more word of caution: Since AOEs generate lots of damage to multiple targets, they also generate a LOT of aggro, so using them outside of special situations is not necessarily the best idea unless you want a good 20 or so mobs knocking on your braincase.


Hexor

Quoted from "RoMage;484236"

Top leveling wind at your level should not be that hard, especially since wind is limited to level 50.

I do have Wind and Fire Knowledge maxed, and Flame, Fireball, etc. ... I was answering from the point of view of when I was leveling up.

I think my Purg is at 65 right now, and my TS is at 62.