hello everyone! my sister and me want to start a f/p i/l combo. just for the idea and fun. but i was wondering. are they wanted in parties (bossing or mobbing (lhc)? and if not how long do they take to level up otherwise? also they have skill called ice demon and fire demon. do they stack? so the each of us hit harder? and is it usefull at all? im quite new to the server and i hope this is a good place to ask =P. thanks in advance
Unfortunately, most f/p, i/l mages are relegated to leeching. I've seen a few people who have mained them, but they are not as sought after as other classes due to their low damage output. In most bossing circumstances, I/L will be more useful as the most popular bosses have an ice or lightning weakness. As far LHC is concerned, (unless I'm corrected otherwise) mages are not sought after because they will lower the drop rate of totems from mobs. With that being said they still feel good to play overall. They also require a lot less money compared to say bishop, as their books are only 1/10 of the price, typically.
This is very incorrect. The mechanics suggest that this might indeed be the case, but it is simply not the case. 1 Mage is by far the strongest add to your LHC party. I have done many LHC runs on both my mage and DK and my 180-something mage beats out my 200 dk on both exp and totems. I have never tested it out myself but other mage mains have told me you can easily fit 2 mages before noticing any diminished totem gains. An Archmage not only deals by far the most damage to the most amount of mobs at once. They can also group up 3 platforms at once without losing damage output due to telecasting. Preventing the rest of the party to lose out on attacking due to having to rush/push mobs. For the sake of LHC with IL vs FP. The only difference is that for Bearwolves IL mages require to use cheese to hit Damage Cap (199k). Since they are weak to Fire, FP can get by with much cheaper pots (or none at all). Some of the mobs in LHC are weak to and some resist ice. Tho that content is basically never ran. Beside for some people trying to get through the Quest Chain or farming Monster Cards. Small side note. I just returned from a summer break and do notice that almost every LHC run is Golems instead of Bearwolves. I have really not ran Golems enough to consider myself expert by any means. They are weak to holy so I guess all mages hit damage cap, tho Bish might be more desired due to their supportive perks. For your initial question, can mobs be debuffed by both Ice and Fire Demon. As far as I am aware there is no "Debuff Cap" and mobs can be debuffed by any you can put on one. Ice Demon (and I guess the same holds for Fire Demon) is a tool you can use in some niche scenario's. Tho I would not put it high on your priority list. Very few mobs in the game are worth casting this on over just another Mage Ulti (Bliz/Meteor). You might find some use in situational use in New Tokyo or while doing the ToT quest chain. But I would not suggest picking this over Maple Warior, Chain Lightning (idk the FP poison skill) and Ifrit (Summon). I use it when fighting the RG boss to freeze the mobs that walk around on the floor (with the boss). I do not want to use Blizzard since it will kill all the mobs, including the ones on platforms I don't go to anyway. You can easily clear out the floor, forcing the respawns on the platforms instead of the floor. With no mobs running around you're not losing out on damage by targeting mobs over the Boss. Mages are not "that bad" at Zakum. Tho (as an IL mage) you will find yourself having to deal with Ice-Immune and Lightning Resisting Summons at B3. You can use Big Bang to clear out the swarm of mobs you are pulling into the rest of the Ranged Attackers so depending on how much of a Mage main you consider yourself. I'd suggest considering Maxing Big Bang before Ice Demon as well. I have no idea how FP does at Zak. Their "Chain Lightning" Skill, Paralyze functions very different. While Zak B1 and B2 summon less mobs in general, those are then immune to Fire and (resist?) Poison. For the other skills. Mana Reflection is only able to reflect very minor damage versus some specific type of "special attack". Chao's Push Skill is one of those but by no means required to kill him. Infinity sounds nice, no mp-cost of skills for some amount of time but I literally never use it because I cannot be bothered to save 100k on pots once every 10 mins. I have never ran HT, but I did hear some people theorizing that Mages can do well/better than assumed there. Idk. Anyway, Beside this Ted-Talk for End-Game Archmages. Getting there first is a better goal. Play however you want to. By the time it matters what class you are playing. You'll be rich and strong enough to make that other char in a week. In the end, it's your Buddy List and Guild/Alliance that decided what you can and cannot do. Friends just want to spend time together, not care about whatever party setup is more optimal. Welcome and glhf on the grind .
oh wow thanks for the detailed reply! this is very helpfull. tho im not sure what you guys mean by totems XD? ill find that out when we can go there. will also consider the bishop. but to us the idea of fire and ice is rlly awesome! =P
Very best thing to do in this game, is to actually play the game. Despite popular opinion, class balance is the best it has ever been. No character is a waste of time, no character is useless. If you are hyped by playing as FP and IL, do it. These LHC-Totems we're talking about are regarded Event-Items. Event-Items have their drop chance reduced if either a Mage Ulti or DK's Dragon Roar has dealt most of the damage. I keep forgetting the numbers but it's something like: 80% damage dealt by ulti = 50% reduced drop chance for Event-Items. Because of this mechanic people have the believe that in LHC you get less Totems. But since there are like 5 of us Archmage Mains on the server, none of them have actually ran LHC with one. Don't worry about actual Event-Items, even with this targeted nerf, Mages are still the best for farming these by several magnitudes (just like in LHC) People have a lot of misconception regarding Mages. >>IL mage is bad for lhc because Bearwolves resist ice <<They do not >>I asked party and they do <<Sure, then I still hit damage cap to resisting mobs >>No you do not, they resist ice <<Ok 1 hour later... >>R>LHC Bearwolves before reset, 30 mins left 5/6 yeah, lol go fuck yourselfs. There are few of us actually pushing the class and even though I am fairly passionate about proving that they are not "that bad". They will for always be suboptimal for 99% of all end-game/bossing content in the game. Hence, nobody really tries. They need to be suboptimal for that amount of content for it be "balanced" as their farming and Meso generating capabilities are unmatched, it's not even close. How good they are at farming meso is the main reason why they are often suggested as first class to play. The starting-strat: "Play a mage until you're bored -> Use meso to make a new char" is a fairly easy path to take. If it may hype you up a little bit more. There a very few people that really know how to optimize playing a Mage. There is a lot to improve upon. Even after 11 years you can still contribute to exploring ways to drag Mages from "very bad" to "not that bad" on the tierlist. And maybe you find a way for a mage to actually be good for content it was not considered viable before. Also if there arises another pre-nerf LHC, you'll be very rich if you're ready .
