Share your CW build (mage)

[Mitashki]

Ok guys as title says, i dont force anyone but if you want to share or help the younger mages => show us your (unbuffed but with wheel) stats.

Also if you show astrals / skills / runes would be nice.

I dont think there is much of a secret since ppl usually change around just the 5th skill.

[zirc00]

The real fun question is if anyone has ever considered going without Lightning Bolt.

I do this in BG now. With BL, rof, meteor, resto and sunto. It helps a LOT against archers as the randomness of their attacks makes it really difficult to target yourself for healing with resto. I do use a rage rune next to my brut rune, but auto-attack gives you 14 rage with the pve set so you give up a little damage and 4 rage on lb attack for an extra skill, well worth it IMO.

Did it also for CW, went quite well but forgot to pot (doh) so only ended up with 10 wins. Used puri instead of LB (with resto, sunto, rof meteor)

[Mitashki]

Thats why i said that if i was cashing enough.

My idea for cashing is as you said around 25k M atk and i think 4.5+k crit would do the job.

Fully buffed for CW i had 24k M atk but my crit sucks (converted all my crit gems for M def )

But since my determination and focus are not too high having crit for this CW was unthinkable...

If you are not around 90-100k BR you simply have to risk in CW or getting into finals becomes extremely hard.

[FrostieTheSnowman]

If i had enough cash i would definetly go for crit build which is simply owning anyone with heal strat. Having level 10 brutality and rof meteor thund gives you no time to deal dmg but only heal and heal which in the long end is not enough.

It's true that crit can work very well in CW. However, it will work only if you have:

1) High enough MATK
2) Enough crit

It's no using having plenty of crit when you only have 20k MATK (for example) while I beat you out with 25k. Also, you had best ensure that you have enough crit to see those red numbers at least once every other hit. Remember - while EWD works for every single shot while equipped, your shiny L10 Determination isn't going to do anything for you if you just don't crit.

[Mitashki]

So after trying to ditch out as much information as possible from you guys before the CW i ended up on +20 points compared to last month

No big success i have to admit.

What was biggest issue for me this month was definetly super high level templars (76+) where i was only with rof and i didnt kill them even after 3 AOE's. Suntoria healing them for 5+k Health made them impossible to kill before the 50% dmg boost. Than i had delayed blood rune which caused even more trouble to use the blood again before the 100% timer.

Therefore i swapped mine ilusion astral for last few matches with level 6 red charm and i can definetly say that its a major pain in the *** for the opponent.

Since i had BL in my skills i would use it before the 50% boost making them last another 1-2 aoe's.

So if i have to make toplist of biggest 5 trouble's was:

- strong troops
- puri on enemy mage
- crit mages (i knew i should have leveled up my guardian)
- purge rune
- lag (i know its not general but my lag really screwed up 2 matches)

If i had enough cash i would definetly go for crit build which is simply owning anyone with heal strat. Having level 10 brutality and rof meteor thund gives you no time to deal dmg but only heal and heal which in the long end is not enough.

[d07.RiV]

Ofc not because the majority don't have purge, otherwise it would be very widely used to the point that people would start dropping sunto.

[FrostieTheSnowman]

I'm surprised there's not many player's running Purge. I love it personally, however, I've yet to encounter anyone use it against me.

Not now perhaps, but don't be surprised to find it more in use in future CWs. Mages learn fast from each other after all, and I can see some potentially interesting use of it.

During the first CW, it was mostly about 'I have no idea how this works, so let's see what I can do'. Bleed Rune was used to great effect in CW 2 by a small minority of Mages who realised it's potential. It led to the majority of Mages carrying it (and Puri) for CW 3 and 4.

For this 5th CW, I'm hearing from others of an increase in the use of Chaos and Amnesia Runes. Granted it's not available to the majority of the population (or at least not easily accessible), I'm willing to bet that it will replace Heal/Brute as an option for the top Mages (the other being Bleed obviously) in the next couple of CWs to come.

[capkop]

I agree if you can use purge to kill a fresh suntoria it is very good and I've seen it used by quite some mages, but once you know your enemy has purge/blood it can be countered pretty easily. Also, you take a chance at using the rune since you might not come accross an enemy that has suntoria (I've seen mages ditch sunt for BL to counter the possibility of fighting a purge rune mage).

[Zorich]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]59682[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]59684[/ATTACH] since for a mage its all about the last heal i would suggest bolt rof sun heal bl rage rune if lvl high or blood and heal runes what u want to accomplish is not defeat since a good mage fight lasts but u want to heal right b4 match end to win

I find the Rage Rune is unnecessary in CW. I'm always sitting at 50+ Rage throughout and I'd much rather run Purge. A good Sunto heals a Mage for 30k - 40k HP, not to mention makes troops a nusiance when one only runs a single AoE. When you can dispel that, you put a _huge_ dent in their healing, especially when they only run Sunto & Resto for heals. Blood is a must since it, at the worst, forces your opponent to waste a turn casting a fairly slow Puri, or at best does tens of thousands of damage .

I'm surprised there's not many player's running Purge. I love it personally, however, I've yet to encounter anyone use it against me.

Although, I did run into one person who led off with Rage & Delphic Hell Thunder 1st Turn and did RoF the next. That was fairly impressive - clearing my L78 troops in 2 shots. It even stunned me a turn. But they didn't run Puri and my Blood / Purge combo took em out since they didn't have a Sunto to counteract the Bleed.

[RedAriesValorgirl]

since for a mage its all about the last heal i would suggest bolt rof sun heal bl rage rune if lvl high or blood and heal runes what u want to accomplish is not defeat since a good mage fight lasts but u want to heal right b4 match end to win

[FarrelBrown]

So my CW Update...

I finished 8-2, Ranked 5th Overall (East Coast). I'm incredibly pleased with the result.

The two losses I had BOTH did the same thing to me. Used Chaos Runes just before my final Resto and hi-jacked it leaving me a few thousand HP short of full while topping themselves off with a 30K Resto.

Like being kicked in the nuts... Twice .

Gratz on the great ranking. I took 23rd overall but wasn't paying incredibly close attention to the W-L total so I was either 5-5 or 6-4. Bad timing on my part contributed to one of the losses but I definitely call ** on a match where my opponents' Resto went off at 29 seconds left in the 100% timer and it counted as a victory for them (probably just system lag but it makes me feel better to imagine I was robbed and not just beaten lol).

As for the build/strategy portion of this thread I use a fairly straight forward build. Resto/Bolt/RoF/Thunderer/Meteor is my board, I have 5 ranks in Survival, Barrier and Momentum and am using a full blown crit Mage build with bas 27.5k Matk and 4.8k crit. Runes are level 10 Brut and a level 5 Blood although I may swap out Brut for Heal next month if I can level it enough between now and then (it's only level 3 right now). I rapid fire AoE to clear troops then build rage for a bit with Bolt so I can Thunderer/resto as necessary. Blood rune at each of the damage timers and Resto last second so pretty basic strategy. I had a LOT of luck with crit heals today in Finals as I hit 3 of them with 1 being the definite difference maker in the fight. I'll be the first to admit I'm not great at the PvP aspect of this game but I am gradually getting better.

[Zorich]

So my CW Update...

I finished 8-2, Ranked 5th Overall (East Coast). I'm incredibly pleased with the result.

The two losses I had BOTH did the same thing to me. Used Chaos Runes just before my final Resto and hi-jacked it leaving me a few thousand HP short of full while topping themselves off with a 30K Resto.

Like being kicked in the nuts... Twice .

[Zorich]

Yeah but if I know you use purge I could save sunto for when you use bleed, and try to time my runes to use up the bleed turns asap before your purge comes off cd.
Anyway rare runes kinda break the whole strategy anyway, chaos/amnesia can easily destroy much higher opponents as well if you're lucky..

I hear what you're saying. Chaos is especially nasty. I ran into 2 diff Mages that were using it. However, in both cases they used it as a lead-in, and only one had it high enough level to use twice, and again used it when it came off CD. If I had Chaos or Amnesia, I'd time that for the right moment. A Chaos Rune thrown right before I use my last Resto would be a big-time game-changer. It would prevent me from going max HP and likely top-off my opponent for free.

While I wouldn't call Purge a rare Rune necessarily, it isn't common - that I'll admit. Everyone had a chance to get the uncommon Runes a few months ago w/ a shard event. That's how most people got them. Purge, for a Mage or Knight, is invaluable. Being able to kill Sunto + 15% DR Buff is huge. Being able to drop Apollo & Bubble for a knight is similarly huge.

One thing people also fail to realize is that combat turns are not hard-timed. If my enemy and I just keep casting lightning bolts after the troops fall off, you can do a combat turn in about 3 seconds. If troops are out there, 5 seconds. If I want to drag things out to minimize actions between rune uses, say for the express purpose of someone casting a Sunto after I Bleed them, I'll cast a RoF late (like right before I'd start my default attack - it causes a about 3 second delay on a round compared to casting normally) followed by a default attack (about another 2 second delay). If troops are still up, those turns take about 7-8 seconds each. Now I can early-cast LB and follow it w/ a quick-cast Purge and you've only benefitted 3 / 7 turns from your Sunto, unless - as you said - you also used Runes to speed it up. But then again, if you've Sunto'd after I Bled you, and you've not used Puri, it's all a wash anyway.

[d07.RiV]

Unless the Mage, such as myself, has a L4 Purge Rune and can kill your Sunto. Which I do. I even got called a cheater last night by a L78 Mage for Purging Sunto.

Yeah but if I know you use purge I could save sunto for when you use bleed, and try to time my runes to use up the bleed turns asap before your purge comes off cd.
Anyway rare runes kinda break the whole strategy anyway, chaos/amnesia can easily destroy much higher opponents as well if you're lucky..

[Zorich]

You can still outheal blood with sunt+resto+bl, and topping yourself off at 2:30 is much easier with 2 big heals.

Unless the Mage, such as myself, has a L4 Purge Rune and can kill your Sunto. Which I do. I even got called a cheater last night by a L78 Mage for Purging Sunto.

I won't bother discussing before the 100% mark, since @ 100% both Mages should be fully healed or real close. But if I'm coming off a Resto just before 100% and drop Blood as a quick action after the Resto, it's doing as much as 10,000 Damage per tick, and there's time for 5 powers to go off before the combat ends on time. That's 50,000 Damage. Yeah, a good Resto (25K) and BL (30K) will negate that, and you'll need a Sunto down as well to help mitigate incoming damage - which they'll do after I Blood Rune because my Purge is on CD. But that means 2 things are happening. 1. My opponent isn't attacking 3 times in the last 30 sec to use powers that net-loss rage of 40, 25 and 20. Most likely they're filling the gaps between powers with low-damage LBs because they'll need rage. 2. After the Blood, I drop RoF, LB, LB, RoF, Resto - and have already cast my last Sunto before the Resto/Blood combo.

Only against the likes of Jeffhawk, Sinner and Keldof (East Coast) do I not go into the 100% mark at full HP, and only two or three others will be able to make me finish at less than full HP. So what it comes down to is this: Do my 2 RoFs and LB + Blood Rune do enough to out-damage the Healing about to take place. If it does, I win. If not, chances are we're both ending full HP and it goes to a tiebreaker.

I was 13-2 in yesterday's prelims (Ranked #7). I lost to Serendipity because I had unfortunate lag and didn't get my last Resto off before time expired finishing below max HP by about 4,000. I also lost to Trip (1-1 actually, met him twice), a very tough L80 Mage, where we both ended full HP and he had a higher Max. I was running at about 93,000 HP.

Here's my setup:
Skills: LB, RoF, Puri, Sunto, Resto
Runes: L8 Blood (6%, Max 5000, 7 Turns), L4 Purge (Dispels 2 Buffs from 2 Targets)

Astrals: L7 Holy MAtk, L7 Holy MDef, L7 Holy Enshieldment, L8 Enhanced Will Destroyer, L8 Refined Goddess Blessing, L8 Enhanced Illusion, L6 Holy Brilliance.

I also swap all my PDef Gems for Block Gems, putting my Block at about 3500.