I've tried a few of those guys recently and I never managed to complete more than two or three dungeons. The reason... blowing my ass off systematically at one point with attack spells. And even with very low Paradox...
What's the key with this class? I've seen winners and except being insanely lucky, I don't see how you can deal with the chance of being instantly slain by your own attacks. Do you max Willpower before Magic? Paradox Mastery? Play without the three sustains and keep Paradox at 0? It seems that the number next to Paradox doesn't represent the chance of your spells backfiring, but only the chance of them failing. I've got chars slain by backfiring spells with this number at 0%...
How do you survive with a Paradox Mage?
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phantomglider
- Archmage
- Posts: 372
- Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:13 am
Re: How do you survive with a Paradox Mage?
Backfires shouldn't be possible until your Paradox gets above 400. That said, failures and anomalies are also dangerous, if less so, so I kept my paradox as low as possible at all times. I only used one sustain for most of the game.
<Ferret> The Spellblaze was like a nuclear disaster apparently: ammo became the "real" currency.
Re: How do you survive with a Paradox Mage?
You probably don't want to keep all of the sustains on. I suspect edge balanced the paradox costs of those abilities around that intent. For early levels I try to keep at or below 300 paradox. Gravity spells are cheap and do decent AoE damage. With a Gravity-heavy build I saw only occasional anomalies and few if any backfires.
Sorry about all the parentheses (sometimes I like to clarify things).
Re: How do you survive with a Paradox Mage?
I completed every dungeon in the game with two characters without a single backfire. The first time I used all three sustains, the second time (after Static History was nerfed) I left out Carbon Spikes. They both maxed Paradox Mastery fairly early, but didn't max Willpower until Magic had been maxed. If you're getting backfires then you're letting your Paradox get too high.
Re: How do you survive with a Paradox Mage?
Of note, try reduxing static history to double up on lowering paradox goodness.
Re: How do you survive with a Paradox Mage?
I resumed my last Paradox Mage with one sustain at any time (75 or 100 min paradox) and keeping paradox below 400. Didn't get a single backfire anymore... So I guess 400 is indeed the magic number. Deactivating the paradox lowering skill said at 400: chance of failing = 3%, chance of anomaly = 2%, chance of backfiring = 0%. I still don't see how you deal with groups (my character is currently level 20 so basically every enemy dies with time stop + quantum spike) since the main AOE spells do low damage, but we"ll see...
Re: How do you survive with a Paradox Mage?
Yeah 400 - Willpower (with modifiers from paradox mastery).
The thresholds for Fail and Anomalies are the same, just 200 and 300.
The thresholds for Fail and Anomalies are the same, just 200 and 300.
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phantomglider
- Archmage
- Posts: 372
- Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:13 am
Re: How do you survive with a Paradox Mage?
Paradox Mages deal with groups by dropping a Gravity Well on them, maybe doubling it with Redux and/or adding a Slow, and then just walking away. The damage per turn may not sound like a lot, but when it lasts for as long in as huge an area as Gravity Well does and keeps the enemy from leaving, it ends up being very deadly. I had a lot more trouble with single powerful enemies than any large group of minions could ever have given me.
<Ferret> The Spellblaze was like a nuclear disaster apparently: ammo became the "real" currency.
Re: How do you survive with a Paradox Mage?
As someone that went about this the opposite way, I have a bit of a different take.
My PM went mail armor(which raises backfire rates, but not costs) and used all the sustains at once, and equipped Titanic on top of that(with Telos Top in the other hand). Seriously.
The trick to doing it like this is, as mentioned, using a lot of damage over time, but also knowing your backfires. If a teleport backfires, it's pretty awful(If I was to do it over, I would have probably invested lower in teleports and used a Teleport Rune instead, especially now that the teleports have been nerfed, since b37). But most of the time, you'll just eat the spell you were casting, or a debuff, etc. Maxed Paradox Mastery strongly weakens backfiring, say, Turn Back The Clock on yourself.
Knowing when you can and can't risk a backfire, and that Anomalies are usually not spectacularly dangerous, along with heavily focusing on tanking skills, is key to doing things like this. Use Static History constantly(with Redux, optimally), to keep your Paradox as low as possible, and enjoy the fact that, as far as constant defenses go(as opposed to skill based defenses like barriers), you are the tankiest thing ever to have Archmage level HP.
The way I played, I did die twice. Both were to teleport backfires at the wrong time, though. >_> I won't say it's optimal, but you can definitely play and survive if you constantly are backfiring. Just know your backfires, know when you can risk one, remember item casts(Eelskin is really good if your paradox is starting to rack up, for almost the entire first half of the game!), and play careful.
My PM went mail armor(which raises backfire rates, but not costs) and used all the sustains at once, and equipped Titanic on top of that(with Telos Top in the other hand). Seriously.
The trick to doing it like this is, as mentioned, using a lot of damage over time, but also knowing your backfires. If a teleport backfires, it's pretty awful(If I was to do it over, I would have probably invested lower in teleports and used a Teleport Rune instead, especially now that the teleports have been nerfed, since b37). But most of the time, you'll just eat the spell you were casting, or a debuff, etc. Maxed Paradox Mastery strongly weakens backfiring, say, Turn Back The Clock on yourself.
Knowing when you can and can't risk a backfire, and that Anomalies are usually not spectacularly dangerous, along with heavily focusing on tanking skills, is key to doing things like this. Use Static History constantly(with Redux, optimally), to keep your Paradox as low as possible, and enjoy the fact that, as far as constant defenses go(as opposed to skill based defenses like barriers), you are the tankiest thing ever to have Archmage level HP.
The way I played, I did die twice. Both were to teleport backfires at the wrong time, though. >_> I won't say it's optimal, but you can definitely play and survive if you constantly are backfiring. Just know your backfires, know when you can risk one, remember item casts(Eelskin is really good if your paradox is starting to rack up, for almost the entire first half of the game!), and play careful.