Getting Archy

[paboperfecto]

I do not use probability travel. Fun, but very expensive and generally useless when you are facing a really tough opponent. Phase door is safer and can work even if you are not close to a wall.

Phase door is nice but the cooldown can get you into trouble on occasion. PT is REALLY nice once you hit the Spider Caves and beyond. One wrong step or a phase door that is one square wrong can doom a mage without the armor to resist multiple very strong distance attacks of varying types of damage. Being able to pop in exactly where you need to be without walking through other groups' LOS cast your spells and then immediately get back to safety is incredibly invaluable.

[Gwai]

Of course, phase door at level 4+ also lets you pop wherever you want.

[paboperfecto]

Yes, but then you can't pop out again immediately...it has a cooldown. Also, I'm not sure since I've never gone above level 5 but I believe that you have a one square radius at level 5 so it's not exact...although I could be remembering it at level 4.

[paboperfecto]

Anyway, I guess the point I was trying to make (and did so poorly) is that in the late game if I want to skip through a level I will use sense and phase door. If I want to be master of destruction and kill everything I use sense/probability travel/inferno with lightning/manathrust on those that resist fire. There is no cooldown for PT since it's sustained while PD does have a cooldown. If I'm dancing around a room with a late game boss I do not want him to catch me with PD still in cooldown if that's what I'm relying on. There are times when I actually use both like if I'm feeling suicidal and wanting the artifacts in the dragon's lair in the armory. I'll open the door from an angle..blast some spell in there, PD close a wall, leave an area spell and PT through the wall. I'll then PT through another wall and blast a spell through a door and get the dragons chasing me all around through infernos. I might be able to do that with PD alone but then I only have transportation one way and if I wander into a LOS while walking back to the enemy I'm toast.

[Grey]

Sounds like fun! I can see the advantages of PT, sure, but does it really justify the crazy mana cost? I'm certainly in no position to be able to sustain it at present.

Oh, and PD does allow exact targetting when maxed, as far as I can tell.

[Hedrachi]

For archmages at least, pd 4/5 results in a radius 1 targetable area. With 5/5, only the middle column is kept from that radius 1 targetable area. Not entirely useful.

[ghostbuster]

I think that for PD 5/5 the radius of the target area is 0. That is you can can choose exactly the target tile, even if the display is a size 3 column. So no miss in PD. Very useful IMO.

[paboperfecto]

but does it really justify the crazy mana cost? I'm certainly in no position to be able to sustain it at present.

It's not completely useful until the Spider Caves in my opinion and by then you should have enough mana. At that point I usually have Sone Skin, Feather, PT and on other that I'm not remembering at the moment...I haven't played mages for a little while. The dungeons before that with their small twisty tunnels are fine to handle with PD alone.

[Grey]

Well, after finishing with my 4-day roguelike I finally got some time to play with my Archmage more. I explored some more of Tol Falas until I finally met the famed 'The Master'...

http://www.viddler.com/explore/darrenjo ... videos/33/

Apologies for the low video quality, and for any unnecessary cursing :D

[darkgod]

Ahah well done

[yufra]

That was fun, thanks Grey.

[ghostbuster]

Good fight. Thanks Grey.

[edge2054]

Best, video, ever. Well done Grey.

And you crack me up.

[Grey]

Thanks all. Some of the tips here helped in the fight - I made sure to put points in regen and mana flow, and both came in handy. I'll happily do more videos when I come across other interesting encounters.

Any harm in using this fellow's funky staff? I guess with it and the choker I'm the new Master now ;-)

[Grey]

GYAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

So, I beat the Master and managed to destroy time with his staff (see the Bugs thread). After the intervention of the darkest of gods I merrily strolled out of the Tower, careful not to channel my precious new staff again.

But, well, there was a surprise waiting for me outside. Quite a few surprises actually, all clad in armour and pointing pointy things at me. The head of them was some gigantic brute of an orc with over 2000 HP. YIKES!

Well, negotion it turns out isn't my strong point - my first line of dialogue leads into attack, and the band of level 48 orcs let rip. Oh shit...

First action was Flasmeshock to disable those nearest, and then I phase doored over to the opposite side so I could start manathrusting their asses. However the archers were giving me extreme difficulty - after a couple of Heals and potions I realised they would soon turn me into the most magical pincushion in middle-earth. Hmm, must use my head for thinking, not just magical slaughter... Aha - invisibility potions! I had a couple of giant ones for just this sort of situation. I quaffed one down and started really letting rip with my spells.

One archer down, two archer down, ten orcs down, Ukruk down, flameshocked the rest and finished them off with ease. Bwahahahaha! Scum like these ain't getting *my* staff! Don't they know I'M the Master now?!

Hmm, only disappointing thing was I only got 1 level out of the deal. I kill over a score of level 48 orcs and a big bad muthafudger boss and get a single level? Pah...

Wish I'd videod it - was tense as hell, and you would have heard a lot of cursing initially.