Runes of Magic US / AU

Hullo


I currently use a M/K/P setup which I came to find is highly underrated in the player community.

I find the Knight basic skills such as Resilience and Devotion tend to bolster my Mage's more... squishy... attributes and that is something I value, as more often than not, I get pulped by some melee mob.

Along with the basics such as Enhanced Armor, Devotion, and Resilience, I recommend the elite skills gained very much.

Holy Light Strike on its own is essentially a light-based Flame with a shorter cast time and when you start stockpiling more elite skills such as Enhanced Holy Light Strike and Messenger of the Light, you get a nice little stun added to it and even more damage % increase than Fire Knowledge.

In short:

Holy Light Strike (HLS) = Flame
Enhanced Holy Light Strike = Flame + stun
Messenger of the Light = light-based Fire Knowledge
Light of Day = Gives successive HLS more power
Concentrated Attention = Makes Messenger of the Light boost magic accuracy along with light damage.

As you can see, all of the elites support each other (except stars of light, stupid skill).

All in all, the M/K setup allows for a very durable and high damage mage that most people tend to not even realize. I think it's a good set up and I'm sticking too it, especially since the M/P combo is a mana guzzler.


Hexor

In term of facing none boss mobs, Holy Light strike (HLS) isn't bad - little stun here and there, however, the stun is rather unreliable compare to light charge, lightning and discharge. And in boss fights, Holy Light strike will never equal to flame - .5 sec flame does greater dmg than .5 sec HLS, and add in flame burst, flame will do 3x the dmg of HLS. So most of time, HLS is ignored.

m/k gain no real offensive skill from knight skills (disarm on rabbits in grafu is useful thou lol). The passives from knights, like op stated, is great.

As for m/k elites, focus on star of light (instant a channel spell), light charge (instant cast that doesn't trigger gcd), and any passive skill. With proper gear, any none boss mobs will die before full 5 tick of star of light.

Whatever you hit with Fireball is about the same you'll hit with Light Charge and Stars of Light (you'll hit that per tick). Your bread and butter comes with the knight general buffs and the 50 elite skill, which gives a beautiful crit bonus.

As a m/p/k myself, I was also wondering the same thing, but looking at the above posts makes me more confused. Some are saying stick with flame. Some are saying go with Holy Light Strike. Here's my opinion:

Looking at the skills by themselves HLS has a +.4 INT on it, So I'd say to spam HLS instead of flame. When your using Elemental Catalysis (+50% spell casting speed and +20% mdmg) and Ancient Spirit water (+30% spell casting speed), it makes flame = to about 1.05 seconds per cast while using Elemental Catalysis and Ancient spirit water with Holy Light Strike = about .7 seconds each cast. It only makes sense to spam HLS...I dont see how many people argue which one to use.

On another note, as a m/k Definitely level up Light Charge, but do not level up stars of light IMHO. yes stars of light is a instant cast but as a mage, you really shouldn't be using stars of light like skills like meteor shower since you have to stand still. I'd rather just cast all my other instances like Light Charge, Lightning, Fireball, and then keep spamming Electric Bolt (DoT) instead, but thats just my opinion.

Hope I made things a little more clear for you...

Quoted from "SuperiorFlash;484754"

As a m/p/k myself, I was also wondering the same thing, but looking at the above posts makes me more confused. Some are saying stick with flame. Some are saying go with Holy Light Strike. Here's my opinion:

Looking at the skills by themselves HLS has a +.4 INT on it, So I'd say to spam HLS instead of flame. When your using Elemental Catalysis (+50% spell casting speed and +20% mdmg) and Ancient Spirit water (+30% spell casting speed), it makes flame = to about 1.05 seconds per cast while using Elemental Catalysis and Ancient spirit water with Holy Light Strike = about .7 seconds each cast. It only makes sense to spam HLS...I dont see how many people argue which one to use.

On another note, as a m/k Definitely level up Light Charge, but do not level up stars of light IMHO. yes stars of light is a instant cast but as a mage, you really shouldn't be using stars of light like skills like meteor shower since you have to stand still. I'd rather just cast all my other instances like Light Charge, Lightning, Fireball, and then keep spamming Electric Bolt (DoT) instead, but thats just my opinion.

Hope I made things a little more clear for you...

1) Problem with x INT bonus is a slack on at the end: where everything is calculated, then the INT bonus gets add in. i.e., you got 15k int, the int bonus is .4 or something for HLS, it is whatever the HLS does + 6k damage flat.

2) When a mage is fully buffed with reduce spell time buffs (if you like to know the name of all the buffs available, do some digging around), all spells with casting bar (excluding channel spells) get reduce down to .5 secs. So anyone with the right mind will choose .5 sec flame (3 second cast that does 3x dmg of fireball none burst) over .5 sec holy light strike (2 second cast that does 2x dmg of fireball - same as plasma arrow).

3) After the above burn is over (little less than 20 secs), that is when m/k's star of light start to look good - since by this time, only pet buff and staff rune are the only ones available.
Pros:
-Casting time can't be increase
-Instant cast: where every second does a fireball equivalent dmg.
-Does about 1.2x more dmg than flame none burst in per second dmg wise.
-200 range, goes well with flame
-A buff that works like wind/fire knowledge to support it: thats the mean difference between meteor and Star of Light.
-It is actually a 4 sec cast, but it takes whole 5 seconds for 5 strike to be dealt.

Cons:
-Casting time can't be reduced - my Christmas wish lol or the future really don't look pretty...
-Interruptable: since it takes a second delay to get a tick hit, this is really...
-Have to kept light buff on - it is a 15 min buff, unlike fire/wind knowledge
-semi-stationary- you could just move whenever you feel like it, but have to deal with the 2 sec cooldown.

"I'd rather just cast all my other instances like Light Charge, Lightning, Fireball, and then keep spamming Electric Bolt (DoT) instead, but thats just my opinion."

Light charge - 8 second cd
Lightning - 20 second cd
Fireball - 6 second cd with a stupid .5~7 sec gcd
Electic bolt - no cd but 1 sec cast and does close to 1x dmg fireball dmg

So after lightning, light charge and fireball on cd, and electric bolt casted. You got 4~5 sec gap...if you spam EB, you are gimping your own dps as m/k (not sure what's other combo's fill in). SoL is pretty much like EB with a little more dmg w/o dot effect.

After everything is on cd (including SoL), I either go for flame (for possible extra burst if I feel lucky) or go for Plasma arrow, for 5 sec little extra crit that can be charge up for my next set of SoL (PA+SoL is popular combo in the early days where PA's crit is actually alot rather than 1% these days).

Anyway, my conclusion: Holy Light Strike is a joke like Electric Explosion. I'll give up the 30% stun and +.4 int for 100% interruption like lightning (w/o root effect) and no int bonus, no stun on any day.

I hear it takes a rather long time and a rather lot to do to level up and proceed through the game. But, it's your character, not mine.

Quoted from "Sadz202;484305"

In term of facing none boss mobs, Holy Light strike (HLS) isn't bad - little stun here and there, however, the stun is rather unreliable compare to light charge, lightning and discharge. And in boss fights, Holy Light strike will never equal to flame - .5 sec flame does greater dmg than .5 sec HLS, and add in flame burst, flame will do 3x the dmg of HLS. So most of time, HLS is ignored.

m/k gain no real offensive skill from knight skills (disarm on rabbits in grafu is useful thou lol). The passives from knights, like op stated, is great.

As for m/k elites, focus on star of light (instant a channel spell), light charge (instant cast that doesn't trigger gcd), and any passive skill. With proper gear, any none boss mobs will die before full 5 tick of star of light.

the key of all damage is how much -> DPS <- the spell can do not how much damage one hit does. If i can hit 9k with flame thats 3k dps but with the same gear if i hit 7k thats 3.5k dps not counting any cast reduction you need to be able to track the dps and there is no dps meters out there there is only a total damage meter

Quoted from "captnnemo;485226"

the key of all damage is how much -> DPS <- the spell can do not how much damage one hit does. If i can hit 9k with flame thats 3k dps but with the same gear if i hit 7k thats 3.5k dps not counting any cast reduction you need to be able to track the dps and there is no dps meters out there there is only a total damage meter

lol, from that statement you clearly have not play a high level mage.
Here is a hint, get to level 65 (edit), thats when elemental catalysts change to 50% casting reduction. Pick up some ancient spirit water, get a guitar and last codex pot which personally I don't use very often. Go from guitar -> spirit water -> codex pot -> elemental catalysts. Test out Flame vs Holy Light Strike.

Yes, that is only 20 seconds. But you'll do hell lot more dps in that 20 sec than in the next 60 secoonds, assuming the boss still alive after that 20 seconds when your rogue finish with it.

About dps meter, I know there is one add on out there, forgot the name.

Quoted from "Sadz202;485438"

Here is a hint, get to level 50, thats when elemental catalysts change to 50% casting reduction.

Unless it changed since the beginning of Ch.4, it is at level 65 that this happens.


And flame triumphs over anything.

Quoted from "CharlieBananas;485452"

Unless it changed since the beginning of Ch.4, it is at level 65 that this happens.


And flame triumphs over anything.

Ah, thanks for correcting that, I though it was level 50 when the change happened.

Ancient spirit water is a alchemy craft product.

Another thing that sux bout Mage/Knight is that they cant equip a shield and a staff If that were 2 change it would be awesome! Wear the shield on ur back and use a 2 handed staff! Mage/scouts can have a bow and 2 hander y not M/K right?

Quoted from "anything13;530201"

Another thing that sux bout Mage/Knight is that they cant equip a shield and a staff If that were 2 change it would be awesome! Wear the shield on ur back and use a 2 handed staff! Mage/scouts can have a bow and 2 hander y not M/K right?

No. /k already gets huge survivability bonuses, allowing them more would unbalance that class pretty severely.

EK, part of the reason you and maybe the other m/k in thread are struggling with the HLS vs. Flame thing is because of Elemental Catalysis. EC changes at 65, and it pretty much turns the world upside down (in a good way) for mages.

For a mage, dps is based on cast time. EC cuts that cast time in half, and we can reduce it further with guitar (get those crafting levels up now EK and make one and try it in DoD, just guitar makes a huuuge difference in dps), ASW and arcane pots.

Mage can be really frustrating for people (especially people used to playing melee) because our dps is based on a wonky flat damage calculation, and the only ways we can increase dps are by increasing our base damage or decreasing our cast time. Unlike a melee class, which sees percent damage increase as attack speed increases, we are stuck with our flat numbers.

What this means to you EK is that for now, with EC still being a fail skill, you very well may get more benefit from spamming HLS than Flame. Maybe. You'll have to test it and see. However, as soon as you get the non-fail EC at level 65, you'll see that change.

At endgame (well, after level 65) you'll be using a buff rotation that will decrease the casting time of cast-bar skills to about .5 seconds. This means that Flame will take the same time to cast as HLS, and since Flame has a cast-time modifier of 3, and HLS has a cast-time modifier of 2, Flame will be better. Flame is always best because of that. If you can do 3x damage in the same amount of time as 2x, 3x will always be better.

This is actually why m/k is considered to be unoptimal for PvE. Because so many of the elite skills are damage skills and not additional cast-time modifiers (like m/w and m/s), or damage increasing buffs (like m/p), you lose in a boss fight. Any mage class can hit .5 sec flames without too much trouble, but m/w can do it longer, and m/s can do it without using Arcane, which allows them to substitute another potion (like mattack or crit). M/P gets more Outbursts and a mattack buff. M/K gets... damage spells that don't end up doing much for you in a boss fight, with the exception of allowing you to sustain dps post-burn a bit better than average, but the average is crappy, and the increase is from crappy to slightly-less-crappy which is still... crappy.

Now, it does get the increase in survivability, which is quite nice, and that may make it the ideal mid-level mage. It seems like it would really shine until level 65 when you get whacked with a game-changer. Even after level 65 it still has good use in niche fights like Annelia (tank a bear) or Jenny Giant (light a torch); both situations when EA is going to make an appreciable difference.

But M/K's real shining moment used to be PvP. All those damage skills (especially Stars of Light) used to give m/k a massive advantage in PvP- before the GCD. Pazuzzu was a genius at using SoL as a true instant by interrupting the channel and recasting it instantly- but those days are gone, since all interrupting SoL or Tstorm (or any channeled skill) does these days is force a 1 sec GCD. Despite the GCD, M/K is still a good PvP mage, simply due to how well SoL works- it gives the m/k the ability to chain 5 fireball-like hits at a target and that's a lot of damage. Throw in the boost to survivability that EA gives you, and you get a win.

The bad news is, while it can indeed work in some situations, there's pretty much nothing it can do that m/p can't do better- as far as boss dps goes. M/W is gonna blow it (and m/p in most cases) right out of the water. Cast-time > all.

Oh, and the dps meter in RoM is called Scrutinizer, and it is still available for download on CurseForge last time I checked. It's definitely a must-have for testing dps.

Sorry EK. In the world of RoM, they were too lazy to fix mage damage individually. So they added a 1 shot fix that ruined individuality and use of most mage classes by making them all use the same formula, or fail. All mages are stuck doing Flame spam with Elemental Catalyst, because again, the devs were too damn lazy to take the time to fix things properly.

So, your use as a light based mage with higher pdef is restricted to trash and sometimes tanking lesser bosses. Don't feel bad, other mages' unique magic capabilities have been stomped on as well. We're all Flame+EC now.

Quoted from "Abaishtona;530239"

Sorry EK. In the world of RoM, they were too lazy to fix mage damage individually. So they added a 1 shot fix that ruined individuality and use of most mage classes by making them all use the same formula, or fail. All mages are stuck doing Flame spam with Elemental Catalyst, because again, the devs were too damn lazy to take the time to fix things properly.

So, your use as a light based mage with higher pdef is restricted to trash and sometimes tanking lesser bosses. Don't feel bad, other mages' unique magic capabilities have been stomped on as well. We're all Flame+EC now.

^ This.

Flame + EC (plus the same buffs we all use) = mage. And it sucks, for the reason Abaishtona said. We've lost our individuality. There's zero difference in burn rotation between mage class combos. Buff rotation, yeah we do it differently. Post-burn rotation, maybe. The part where we do 95% of our total damage is exactly the same though- the only thing changing the damage output is our class buffs.

It's a shame too, because the only difference between an OK mage and an epically skilled mage is little stuff like "can I get my buffs to go off faster" and "maybe if I tweak this one mod" and anything to do with trash. About the only place we can show off real skill is on trash. Frogster somehow cast us in the role of trash man. The saddest thing about that is that really, warriors do it better anyway. But all of our dps comes from our buff rotation. Not from a skill rotation.

Now, I dunno if it was always like this- I missed OP magedom in chap 1 and 2 (I was there, I was just a babymage). Maybe the mages of old had a boss rotation. In chapter 3 we were as useless as the proverbial tits on a bull. Chapter 4 and EC at least made us somewhat useful again. So, as much as I WTB a rotation, I prefer this vanilla flamespammitude to the utter despair of Chap 3.

wow, mnkmurphy dickens made a booboo. you mistyped..m/w can can get to cap easier and use a crit pot and m/s can sustain cap longer. /clarity

m/k does do better than most in spam stage just due to the crit dmg boosting elite always being on, but yea it cant compete with the ridunculous m/w enhanced intensification and mdef matching ease of berserk. long fights i think i do more on m/k in the end...idk, have to test it and see if it avg's that way.

funny thing of our "new fixed and balanced" mage is it's just something from beta slightly nerfed, ala insta flame spam with catalysis back then. w/e at least we arent a danger to have in the party like ch3 by taking a useful/better dps class' spot...i think a druid could outdps us in ch3. Oo

idk about genius..i cant count how many times i heard something along "why's that irritating mage jumping like a moron all the time?" now i cant fricken stop since its so ingrained into muscle memory and i just add more cd time and die. /QQ errr /ostrich

i did enjoy tanking things like up to rt silver and kt quite a bit. since we were so useless and it looked so bizarre, was entertaining as all hell when ppl saw a mage tanking and immediately left party.