Runes of Magic US / AU

Well m/s used to be #3 for mage burn dps behind m/w and m/p. M/W no longer has aggro issues with newish aggro reduction on its rage skill and is now the #2 burner behind the 5 seconds of glory that the new m/wd elite provides.

As far as mage/scout itself though, it got two really good up grades with its 60 and 70 elites. It's most likely the best sustained mage dps now with Shot's double hit and is a very solid burn'er as well. Might even be better than what I say here, but I haven't had opportunity to test it out myself.

Got a couple M/S mains in guild. They do ok on boss fights, and good on short burn. M/W of similar gear is only slightly ahead sometimes. However, the physical DPS is WAYYYYY ahead on the longer boss fights - like double and more.

Bottom line: I think M/S is fine compared to other mages. Just mages in general aren't where they should be compared to other DPS classes.

There probably were more m/s, but maybe they ended up playing fotm classes by themselves after reading some "how to be the best op mage" -guide or rolled under the pressures from their guildmates or just rerolled to p/s to spam ice blade or maybe r/s was their thing or maybe they fell into depressiong after not being first every time or who knows, got bored to the game?... but hey isn't it kinda cool if you are the only one of your kind left? I don't see anything wrong at being m/s.

Though it was already pretty much common knowledge that most mages during the burn/burst were less or more balanced. That is mostly because 1) Every mage combo spams pretty much one and same skill, flame only 2) Every mage (except one now) were limited to same casting speed cap, so they ended up having close to similar amount of same spell cast and so similar damage done with some crit luck added on top. Main difference during burst comes from other class specific damage buffs. More reason for different class combos would be the additional benefits outside burns or how one prefers to play his character...

I once heard many years ago someone saying; "win does not feel like a real win, unless you can see your opponent lose". Many of the minor differences between classes never usually were that big, until people start to make them a bigger deal than they were and start to shove it on your face always as their victory ceremony.

Quoted from "gander;594357"

why do so few people play this combo?

I feel like the last one on grimdal.

I know m/w is currently considered op, but it has agro control problems from what i hear. m/p is supposedly good because of multi-hit flames, but on my character this happens 1 in seven hits.

I am a max lvl m/s/p with all elites, yet people still wonder why i play as a m/s. What am i missing?

Are there any others out there in the band of staff and bow?

I play a M/S and absolutely love playing it. Did I even consider FOTM (W/M), hell NO! I don't do huge damage on short Boss fights but do decently on long Boss FIghts. AND trash Mobs are my specialty . The thing I like about M/S is that we have a bunch of skills to use, unlike other mages that have a couple. It is a very fun class to play and I have no intention on changing that! I am now playing it in SW as well since they nerfed my P/S and I am actually surprising myself. No, I don't get as many kills , but I am thoroughly enjoying it and I know I will improve once I get my groove on .... Mages really need to get new staves tho to be more inline with other DPS classes and once we get those, our M/S will shine.......

Pyper
M77/S74/P77
MidnightAssassins, Palenque

When I played back at launch I went M/S and never looked back. Everyone else was M/P and proud of it, but I knew M/S would come out on top. At 50/50 (and 55/55) it was glorious and I outshined many, many better geared mages in damage in the instances.

Now I'm back and I hear Fire Rose isn't even worth the damage at level cap now? That you should just use Shot with the new elite skill? Where's the fun in that?

I play mage/scout combo, love it, but as for DPS, well like everything depends on your gearing and statting like always. The Shot skill with the 70 elite just makes the class combo very useful, finaly a skill you can use while on the move, its a good thing cause you can tank much waiting for a 3 second flame to fire off. The server I play on there are a few m/s and those people like that combination too. M/w M/p M/wd will still out DPS it on a burn, but in long fights a M/s will hold its ground with total damage/DPS.

For M/S is it best to use a tiered bow or a statted one? And Xbow versus Bow?

I'd say statted bow since they shoot quicker, meaning more elemental damage since you do the same amount of magic damage regardless of how powerful your bow is, so the quicker the bow the better, and you aren't going to get any physical damage unless you stat for it and even then you couldn't do any physical dps, so tiering the bow would be more expensive and less beneficial.

get a 1.8 or 2.0 speed bow and stat it...

my gf has a m/s/p and I have a m/w/p both well geared, so I have a lot of time on those. Just recently we leveled a m/w/wd as well, so I got to try out the m/wd elite which blew my mind on a good connection/computer. So here is my breakdown

m/wd- Ridiculous with two burns, and the 5 seconds of glory (which I like the name and am stealing it :p) has a cool down of 3 min, so you can 3 min burn, full burn, then 3 min burn in a longer boss fight... Plus another instant and a buff that does increase stam/int. Probably best DPS, and my second favorite

m/w- Buff to magic dmg, buff to crit dmg, buff to crit rate, reduce agro skill, buff to magical attack.... Lots of buffs to make your dmg through the roof on a burn. Now after the burn you are kinda tapped out, however there is the 50/50 elite that every 30 seconds, if you are spamming flame you get a 40% faster cast for I think it is 10-15 seconds? giving you mini burns often to keep up the DPS. Would it outdps the 5 seconds of glory over all, maybe not, but for me I don't like waiting for doing decent dps :p Which I say decent cause mages need some love.

m/p- This used to by my favorite and I still use it for some applications. 5 second immune may help in some boss fights (only one I can think off the top of my head is 4th in CoB instead of having to pop seren), healing yourself is pretty pointless in instances. Double hit on flames more, buff magic attack and short buff to int using magic drain. Good for a burn but then fizzles out. I still like the combo for hunting/questing, and of course siege. Which is where I think it shines the most.... mostly due to the immune, instants, and healing.

m/s- buff to crit rate, extra slot to stat, lots of spells, the "bubba" as we call him for a nice boost in speed, and after extra dmg. That works great and could be used to have a second "burn" phase, like the m/wd. Can use the bubba, with minimal buffs, to do decent dmg, then when speed boost is gone, buff to do full burn, and kick It when dmg buff sets in (since you really don't need that speed up to hit .5 second flames, instead use it for the dmg buff after getting a mini burn). Then yes the extra dmg to make it better sustained. Also with a bow, you can put in an extra crit rune, dont know if recon works as well, which would help aggro in burn phase. I would also put it at number 3 for dps, and for instances my personal #3, but that is just cause of my playstyle..



All 3, m/w, m/wd, and m/s, are good for endgame instances, and while one may shine a little more here and another there... I think all 3 are good combos



Edit to add: this is all to set to analyze beyond the normal mage burn which all mages get. If you are just burning then most of them are the same with the exception of m/p who with double crits will jump back to near the top of the list. I just figured an overall analysis and long term fights. Cause lets face it, if you group is successfully burning bosses quickly, your worry wont be on long fights. Short fights it is pretty fairly balanced for mages, and the difference in damage wont make or break you... Unless you are just competitive

M/S long range sustained dps combo , not better then w/m obviously .. but if your looking for an alternative play.
it is fun to play =D

played m/p since forever , switched to m/s .. and i enjoy it. (don't have to wait for cd's) <3