Runes of Magic US / AU

I'm not overly familiar with m/s but our guild houses one that knows the class inside an out. From what he's told me, the Wind Fire cultivation skill is what makes this class good in both pvp and pve.

The long and short is that if your shot connects, it will hit 3 times (a minuscule amount based on physical damage, then two magic hits for fire/wind). The initial shot must connect for the damage to be done. If it misses or if your target is immune to physical damage, the two follow up hits will not occur.

Still, hitting 3 times per second is really nice. This allows for fairly decent sustained dps while retaining your mobility. I haven't gotten Bone to test it yet, but most bosses are affected by the mage skills "Stormy Chance/Ferret Sickle" which slows an enemy by 65%. Stack an unbridled potion + Escape artist and a M/S could potentially and effortlessly kite any boss without ever getting hit as long as said boss doesn't have any form of ranged attack/aoe. Rotate Stormy and Ferret to keep a constant speed debuff on the boss and pewpewpew it to death. You're running 35% faster and the boss is moving 65% slower.

Pvp.... well that's another story. The elite skill allows you to spam shot and triple tap your target to death which most classes will fall too.
Your only problems will be:
-Rogues due to them having a naturally high dex and access to their evasion skill. You'll see a lot of missed shots.
-Anyone who has the aoth cape that gives +dodge rate.
-A knight/rogue

Allow me to offer up some advice as well. I play m/p and have for 5 years. I've also played the infamous Rogue/Mage. Whenever I encountered a enemy m/s I've noticed a trend. Seeing as the Wind/Fire skill makes killing easy, most people forget about all their other skills and just focus on spamming shot shot shot shot shot. Similar to how the P/S went Ice blade Ice blade Ice blade.

As a r/m I would use evasion & an aoth cape and would dodge every shot thrown at me for 10 seconds. Not once would a m/s realize this and swap to using spells like Fireball or lightning. Nope, they just kept spamming shot to no avail and would instead call me a haxor for avoiding all their shots. Don't fall into this trap of only relying on shot.

As a m/p I don't have the convenience of evasion skills and instead have to rely on my 250k hp and my 206k mdef to live through shots. This usually leaves me with enough tanking capability which allows me to react without having to worry about dying. However, if I am up against a m/s that is OP or has caught me at low hp, I'll using rainbow crystal candy. This blocks the initial physical shot which in turn blocks the double hit. Again, when I do this, the m/s will continue spamming shot and not use any other spells. Seeing the trend here?

You'll find that most people don't necessarily pay attention to your secondary at first. They think "Oh S***, a Mage!," and promptly pop a seren. This is when you want to spam shot. Even though they're immune to magic damage, you still have a way to physically damage them and come out on top. If they are smart enough and realize that they need to use candy to avoid your shots, remember your spells and use them!!!

Also, if you're silenced... you can still shoot.

M/S is pretty versatile on how it deals damage. The only players that can be immune to it are classes with priest in their combination. Remember your versatility!

I know I am not able to answer all of your questions about specific skills, but I think there's some useful info in my words.

you don't need to phy immune to avoid the 2 magic hits from shot, any absorb dmg skills works too... like electrostatic shield or heart of the oak buff... so if you can absorb the minimal dmg based on phy attack of shot, the magic hits won't happen and therefore things like electrostatic shield would stay up longer, if the m/s just use shot.

Get a Rune War Bow, if I'm not mistaken on the name, from ZS/DL. You can make ammunition on the go.



Farm a bow from Warnoken Arena or Savage Lands. Their attack speed is low enough that you can spam Shot with them. Not sure if the WA one needs your pet with maxed attack speed though. I'm sure the Purple Rattan Bow from SL doesn't.

Ferret Sickle's (Lv65 ISS) and Thunderstorm's slows stack, makes enemies crawl towards you. Really fun in Siege War against melees.

I still remember a 3v3 where some M/S spammed shot at my Shield and when he died blamed the class combo... don't be that guy. If they have a shield or physical immune you can pop all your speedcasting buffs to get some really fast Flames off. Basically don't be one of those "I only spam shot" people. Play the class to it's potential not just the basics.




Good luck have fun!

To clarify, Mage/scout elite skill for shot ONLY activates if the initial (low damage, physical portion) deals damage. If this first hit is absorbed, which is really easy to do since m/s will have no physical attack/damage, you don't get any magical attacks. So even small absorbs like warden nature crystal Crystalline Protection can prevent this source of damage. First remove the absorbs with other skills like fireball, t-storm etc. then go into shot spam.

This mechanic does NOT apply to k/m and w/m. They get their magic damage regardless of absorbing the first hit.

Not entirely true as a physical immune will block a w/m's lightning wep burn. For k/m not positive on anything, they're too weak to matter ;D

M/S is a super fun class and also one of the best for tp farming your mage side. As it offers good consistent damage while on the run. For this reason it is also good in SOME pvp situations. A guild full of rogues you will not have too fun of a time as m/s. However if there are many kite-able targets with a low rogue threat m/s would be one of the top damage classes in siege as even with very few cooldowns in full pve gear you can hit pvp geared players for 100-200k per shot.... from a distance... on the run... yea. fun

Quoted from "zrorak"

could someone tell me how good can be scout in burns? is it lower or higher dps than a m/p or m/w, and also what skill rotation do they use?

depends on the class and party makeup, but i'd say m/w and high end scouts are both about equal (s/wdn can hit a bit more dps), with the lower dps scouts equivalent to a m/p.

for scout rotation: just start with highest hitting skills (unless waiting for AD to pop) and go to lowest hitting skills (depends on combo/elites, but i've found it's something like snipe>VA>RS>PA>CS>WA>shot). when something higher dps comes off CD, use that instead. that's about it. if your party is running AD, try and get, at the very least, your snipe to hit while it's up. always use autoshot, and make sure you are in range before popping archer's glory.

M/S is not good in burns, however in a long strat fight can do quite well as it's damage will remain more-less constant through the whole fight (excluding debuffs) IT is better than M/P for burns still though.