Runes of Magic US / AU

m/wd is more of a pvp mage, with two elite instants (m/s is the only other mage that has two and one is a dot), one of which being the hardest hitting instant cast of all mages. That's pretty much it's only redeeming characteristic, as most of the other elites are useless >_> and general skills from warden are zero help to a caster. In pve (mainly due to recent gcd changes), it's going to perform similar to other mages, but lack the speed boosts that m/w or m/s have, or the extra hits m/p has.

I play m/wd and love the elite skills, but I do agree that the warden skills are useless to mages. Is there any one else out there that is playing m/wd end game?

The main benefit of M/Wd is that their elite skill [Earth Groaning Wind Blade] double-dips mDam. Since it's two hits in one, it gains double the benefit for an instant-cast spell. This is similar to the M/D skill [Magma Blade] and P/M's [Icewind Blade], but M/Wd gets the benefit of an elemental mastery ability for both elements while the other two can only boost the damage of one of the two hits.

For M/S, the main benefit is Fire Arrows which tacks Fire damage onto your Shot. You won't be using Shot for its own damage but rather for the added fire damage which flows faster the higher your attack speed.

I think, all things considered, you might do better with M/S. It's pretty straightforward and Mage is already awesome as a starting class so you really waste the early-game leverage that Warden would give you while Scout has it a bit tougher in the early game but really shines later. You can easily swap to S/M for late-game purposes if you need more focused damage and a slew of support abilities.

^ What they said.

The thing is, with the three class system, you can have your cake and eat it too. If you are looking for a third class, you need to look long and hard. If you're looking for a second class, you can pretty much pick whatever appeals.

About the only bad mage combo is m/r, and that's just because the costs outweigh the benefits- it isn't a complete write-off by any means. M/Wd and M/S are both great for something- m/wd is potentially the highest performing PvP mage. M/S is a very well rounded PvE mage at endgame.

If you don't yet have a second class, my advice is to go healer just to make your life easier. Leveling is much more fun when you can heal yourself. If you did pick a healer, then you can choose a tertiary to complement the healer you picked. For example, if you picked m/d (a fabulous PvP mage) you could do m/w or m/s for PvE. If you went m/p (a great PvE mage) you could pick m/wd or m/k for PvP (or you could do like I did and pick m/s and use p/s for PvP ). Or, you could throw that all out the window and pick basically any random classes, because mage/anything is good for something.

M/P- good at everything. Perfect solo class. Good in PvP, good in PvE.
M/K- great in PvP, useful in some very specific PvE circumstances.
M/D- great in PvP, easy to level, substandard in PvE.
M/S- so-so in PvP, fabulous at PvE.
M/W- next to useless in PvP, terrific at PvE.
M/Wd- terrific at PvP, substandard in PvE.
M/R- OK at PvP, OK at PvE- ruined by bad dual wielding weapon options.

Pick two that appeal, and you'll be good to go. Don't be afraid to give m/wd a try, or m/s for that matter. I love love love my m/s, and a friend of mine rocks the m/wd in PvP; they are both good combos and fun as hell to play.

I find M/R much better combo then M/K (only 2 I played) and IMHO it's a bit overlooked.

With my limited experience, M/R is better in PvP then M/K simply because you get another skill with instant cast, the same as fireball, but without CD and with DOT. I am still leveling my elite skills, and I have Fireball maxed, but I prefer using CF, as I can spam it, and it does not even use MP.

M/K does give me a bit more HP and defense, but I prefer to have more power.

I wonder if I should forget Knight and get Priest instead be able to solo a bit more.

Quoted from "RoMage;508417"

I find M/R much better combo then M/K (only 2 I played) and IMHO it's a bit overlooked.

With my limited experience, M/R is better in PvP then M/K simply because you get another skill with instant cast, the same as fireball, but without CD and with DOT. I am still leveling my elite skills, and I have Fireball maxed, but I prefer using CF, as I can spam it, and it does not even use MP.

M/K does give me a bit more HP and defense, but I prefer to have more power.

I wonder if I should forget Knight and get Priest instead be able to solo a bit more.

M/K also gets a boost to crit damage from 50 elite, along with another instant cast and a channeled attack that can be used as an instant.

In PvP, M/Wd > M/S.

M/Wd is the most unique of all the mage classes in that it gets an earth damage self buff that applies to the mage set skills. The first you get is the Stone Scale Blade skill which is a 2 second cast at 250 range, for 1500 earth damage. The second off the top of my head is "Earth Collapse" which summons 5-6 pillars on the ground and if something walks over a pillar it does damage to that mob/person. While inside the circle you have resistances to damage. Other mages don't have the earth damage self buff and so the damage they do with those two skills is less than half.

Earth Groaning Wind Blade is a monster of a skill. 250 range, 6 second CD, and it can crit twice but this isn't the only reason M/Wd is good. It has two brothers that come right after.

Fireball is the second spell in your rotation. At 225 range, and a 5 second CD (with the M/Wd elite) with a boosted crit rate (from the M/Wd elite), if this doesn't put them down after EGWB, you have one more instant to fire out.

Earth Surge is the third spell in your rotation. At 200 range and a 3(?) second cooldown, the tooltip says it does over 2000 earth damage but for some reason the modifer doesn't work right so it hits for less than fireball and EGWB. Still, if something is still standing after all three of these spells, your cooldowns are starting to reset and its time to use EGWB again and restart the rotation.

That is the triple hitter combo of M/Wd in PvP. One bonus of M/Wd is that you can level your Warden side to 50 and leave it there. Forever. It has no general skills that benefit your main class really, so you don't have to worry about leveling and gearing two classes. I personally feel these skills should be modified to benefit M/Wd:

[Savage Power] Currently only boosts Physical Attack Power. This should be modified to boost Magical Attack Power as well.

[Enhanced Accuracy] Currently only boosts Physical Accuracy. This should be modified to boost Magical Accuracy as welll.

[Briar Shield] Currently reflects damage based on your weapon's Pattack and is modifed by the Physical Attack formula. It is useless for mages even if your staff has 8k pdam or whatever. Do something with this.

Anyways, just my two cents.

M/R is a bit higher than M/K and M/Wd in PVP, but only after you have put the money in to tier both weapons unfortunately. I wish they had made it like a R/s where statting the offhand would be ideal, but no such luck. As it is, if you do decide to tier up both weapons and max the correct skills for M/R (Dark damage mastery, Cursed Fangs, Kiss of the Vampire) and get all of your elites (especially the one where Demoralize reduces mdef by 10%-handy for those stubborn Priests), you'll have an amazing PVP class, one that can tear through most anyone with ease. The reason is that one of your elites makes Cursed Fang not only a DOT, but fixed damage as well; this skill has no C/d, and uses energy to boot; you can spam about 4 of them in about ~2.5-3 secs, but unless it's a P/k or something with really high Mdef, you won't need to; you can down anyone with ~100k hp in about 1 second. The best part is that since there is no C/d, you can turn your attention to the next person, rather than waiting for your cd's to come back up. If it is a P/k, then you can get them with Silence, Demoralize (for 10% mdef reduction), Kiss of the Vampire (DOT+makes your next 2 attacks stronger) then Flame/Cursed Fangs/Fireball till they're dead.

All that being said, however...they are NOT a PVE Mage at all. It's a pretty specialized class, so you're going to be falling behind in PVE boss burns, so I would pick up a M/s or M/w side. M/s is really fun but lacks in the PVP department, since most Rogues/melee classes can just dodge your main insta skill, Fire shot. M/w is a beast in PVE as well, but doesn't have as many instants as M/s, M/Wd, M/d, or M/R. It really is all going to boil down to what type of Mage YOU would like to play, and which style suits you.

Oh, and I have been M/k, M/p, M/w, M/s, M/wd, M/d, and M/r. The last 5 within the last month, all with ~55k hp and ~50k matk (I'd have more hp, but I'm waiting for x runes....which will never come back out). Current staff is the Puppet Queen t9 +16, but M/r has Fear Dev and PTK (temporary dagger) both +16 and t9, damage is ~8,400 on M/W vs. ~10,200 on M/r.

Hope it helped

Quoted from "CharlieBananas;508429"

M/K also gets a boost to crit damage from 50 elite, along with another instant cast and a channeled attack that can be used as an instant.

I might level my knight to get rest of elites then. Stopped playing knight once Cursed Fangs did some nice damage.

Thank you for info

Quoted from "RoMage;508517"

I might level my knight to get rest of elites then. Stopped playing knight once Cursed Fangs did some nice damage.

Thank you for info

Yeah M/R is nice. Our main M/R in our guild has made comments about opposing mages and their Magma Blade (M/D) and Earth Groaning Wind Blade (M/Wd) when going against them. Those 250 ranged insta-cast mac trucks M/D and M/Wd can throw out at other casters can be a real pain. In the world of 10k+ Mdam and 60k+ Mattack, cloth isn't enough to even be a speed bump against that.

Still, M/R rapes PhysDef people with the quickness if they can get close enough for their 200 ranged cursed fangs to get spammed. Even Mdef people too at times.