PVP Mage
Greetings, adventurer! Welcome to our Ashes of Creation PVP guide for the Mage archetype.
A few points to note down:
- If you are new to the archetype, check out our beginner guide, where skills are explained.
- The build and the equipment are set for the current end game experience. In other words – what you can aim for.
- The build is designed around group play(party/raid).
Skills
Mages can approach a fight in 3 ways:
- Start up with lighting ability (Ball Lightning, Chain Lightning), which will boost their Burning effect thanks to Fuse. Follow up with Firebolt/Magma Field and Combust. This will leave the Frost abilities for the next target(s) or to be used as defensive measures.
- Start up with Firebolt/Magma Field and Combust. Follow up with Frostbolt/Hoarfrost and Cone of Cold. Thanks to Thermal Equilibrium you will refresh the Conflagrating. This will leave your lighting abilities to assist on the next target(s).
- Start up with Frostbolt/Hoarfrost and Cone of Cold. Follow up with Lightning Strike/Chain Lightning to trigger the Shatter. If that was not enough to secure kill(s), Firebolt and Combust will be available.
The 3rd way is the most popular and rightfully so. The burst damage on helpless Frozen target(s) is hard to resist. However, there is a dimishing return in that scenario – once Shatter happens on target, it will not be possible for another in the next 4 seconds.
Meaning – if in your group there are more mages besides you(which is highly possible), would be wise to communicate before the fight starts who does what. Well excecuted plan can trigger Shatter quicker, benefit from Fuse and Thermal Equilibrium and be ready for next target(s) with the same combination, without worrying of cooldowns.
Arcane Circle and Prismatic Beam are amazing abilities. Unfortunately, they can make you easily approached by the enemy. Use them as trump card to win a skirmish or when you know that you have a party member ready to assist if “all goes wrong".
Ball Lightning travels far and can accumulate a lot of damage along its path. Eventually, everyone will know that so your enemy might wanna stay away from it. You can use this ability to keep your enemies at bay or burn their stamina if they decide to roll away from the ball.
As Mage, your main defence is Shell.
Blink can be used as both attack and defence ability. Accelerative Blink can make Frostbolt instant cast, which will chill your target, which can prevent them from fleeing or catching up to you.
Unyielding Blink is your only way to break CC.
Slumber is your last line of defence. Once Tanks, Fighters, Rogues are in your face, this ability has a slim chance of saving you. Or friendly, if you are close enough.
Stamina
Utilize the stamina in order to avoid getting caught by Tank’s Grapple or Ranger’s Vine Field.
Melee Weapon
Ideally, you should not have, ever, a melee weapon out in a PVP fight. If that happens, you might consider a more defensive approach.
Important nodes from Melee Weapon tree:
- Bleed and Wounded for deadly finishers. (Snare and Chill share the same immunity CD)
- Weapon Training: Critical Hit Avoidance.
- Ward.
- Rhythmic Swings for more frequent deadly finishers or Crushing Blows for more damage from all finishers.
Ranged Weapon
The longbow weapon tree provides a good amount of nodes, which can boost up the damage from your magical abilities. For example:
- Weapon Training: Penetration
- Bullseye
- Heartseeker
- The deadly finishers can provide Staggered for your Aftershock.
- Have Rhythmic swings to increase the chances for deadly finishers.
If you are in for raw power and would prefer book or wand as ranged weapon you should check these:
Books – Blood Cursed Spellbook (highest damage); Cheaper options – Steel Spellbook or Rividium Spellbook.
Wands – Wand of Briarhome (highest damage), Pinion Pen, Crystalized Blood Wand, Ancient Dunzen Wand.
Offhands – Cremator, Blood Cursed Focus, Ancient Dunzen Focus.
If your aim is to decrease your casting speed for the sake of less magical power, you can check on Steel Short Spellbow. The combination of Ancient Dunzen Wand/Wand of Briarhome and Blood Cursed Focus can match the same magical casting speed rating on +6 enchanting.
Equipment
Important: The gearing process is slow! All the displayed items can drop, but to get them to legendary quality you will need the crafting recipe. It will require considerable dedication or help in order to achieve those crafts. Even if the materials are available, a town with journeyman stations will be required.
Cognoscente is a set, tailor-made for the mages. It can be farmed in Tower of Carphin.
The goal of this build is straightforward – to get as much as possible magical power rating. The follow up stats are accuracy, penetration and critical chance or critical power.
Gearing tips
Tip 1: Do not immediately jump on level 20 items. Some level 10 rare items are worth enchanting and could still provide more than common or uncommon level 20. Especially if there is no Journeyman Scriber available. Head to our starting guide to check for the items, which are worth keeping/grinding for in order to boost up your character, until the meantioned items in this build are available for you.
Tip 2: General rule for weapons would be to always equip the combination, which will provide the highest power rating. Naturally, level 20 weapons will give more than those from level 10:
Forsaken Blades Sword vs Monitor Blade
Tip 3: Be mindful that some weapons (or gear), even in same level range can have very different power rating stats:
Iron Sword is slightly weaker than Steel Sword.
