Light armor or pure?

Sihrkain - Harshlands

A friend and I are having an argument. His belief is that pure build is the best build for a mage. Seems to me that there's not much of an edge to being pure, just more damage, and of course, we all love to see those huge numbers pop up. I'd like some thoughts on this, please and thank you.

Also, he believes that wizards can one shot ANYTHING at a higher level, which we debated that with buffs, it could be possible, but the amount of preperation is insane (4 buffs and a lot of luck, possibly some prayer) and even then I don't think it's that hard to get around. I'd like some thoughts on this as well. Gracias.

WitchBurner - Sanctuary

Pure is great for PvE, once your past the hard part of being a wiz (Pre Shrink/Will of Pheonix), once you get them and become skilled at using them melee mobs rarely hit you and ranged mobs can be kited(Made to play follow the gush spammer ). At around 60+ nearly every mob is magic so pure helps alot with MDef.

As for 1 shotting mobs, you can do it but it requires, at my level, Advanced Spark Eruption+Magic Atk Buff+Critical Hit+Regular Nuke(Divine Pyro/Sandstorm/Glacial Snare). So ya it's pretty rare.

LA is considered better for PvP as the damage difference is quick small, you get added physical defence and a higher crit rate. Your PvE will suffer, the damage difference is much more noticable here. Mobs will take on average 1-2 spells more to kill, which sucks given our cast times.

Pure/LA still is and always will be disputed. Comes down to personal preferance and what your looking for in the game. Also as a Pure wiz myself it's always a good idea to wear a HP charm to compensate for low HP/DEF. With our HP they are very economical, at my level 1 gold charm lasts me 1 week.

My experience is limited to my build and level, so depending on what your friend meant by higher level it could be true.

Mysticlifex - Heavens Tear

Light is not a build for wizard, that's for archers.

Sihrkain - Harshlands

Witchburner - Sanctuary wrote: »

As for 1 shotting mobs, you can do it but it requires, at my level, Advanced Spark Eruption+Magic Atk Buff+Critical Hit+Regular Nuke(Divine Pyro/Sandstorm/Glacial Snare). So ya it's pretty rare.

That's along the lines of what said combo was, but he didn't mean mobs so much as other players. I don't believe this personally, it seems more than a little off to me. I understand how BM's and the like get **** if not statted correctly, and play the "I'll just put the tip in" game even if they are statted well. But it seems like having to prepare so much is a large disadvantage to me personally, bein a **** and whatnot, along with the fact that I'm on a pvp server as well.

But that aside, I can understand why so many say the same thing above poster says, along with the fact that it also means less damage. So here's my next question, is there really THAT much difference in damage between a LA and pure mage? Once again, pulling the nub card, does the diminishing returns rule apply to damage as well? Maybe that's a different discussion, Idk... More help please?

Sihrkain - Harshlands

Well, I decided to be cool and lurk, found great answers. Thanks for the help!

Pirodar - Sanctuary

Mysticlifex - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Light is not a build for wizard, that's for archers.

Yup, LA wizards are disgusting abominations . But that's a philosophical view, good for creating a new game, not here. It turns out, that those abominations are very practical in this game.

The game mechanics are as they are and so called "wizard's" skills are as they are. For grinding pure works good and lets kill mobs really fast, but in general, one at a time. When You reach 70+ and kill enough mobs to be sick of it, you realise that BM,s Venos, and Clerics can AoE pretty well. It looks cool and seems to be fun, and efficient, and it's not for You. The best pure mag can do is to abuse WotP, which is like playing a violin with your foot - adorable but good for circus, not for hunting grounds. Your practical AoE skill requires you to stand still and watch as the dogs bite your ****. And as You realise this, it becomes practical to put on something they will break their teeth on. LA is nice but HA is even better. Your barrier gives You totally insane p def and You can AoE 10 mobs at a time with just pots.

Welcome to the Perfect World.

Coldflash - Dreamweaver

Sihrkain - Harshlands wrote: »

That's along the lines of what said combo was, but he didn't mean mobs so much as other players. I don't believe this personally, it seems more than a little off to me. I understand how BM's and the like get **** if not statted correctly, and play the "I'll just put the tip in" game even if they are statted well. But it seems like having to prepare so much is a large disadvantage to me personally, bein a **** and whatnot, along with the fact that I'm on a pvp server as well.

But that aside, I can understand why so many say the same thing above poster says, along with the fact that it also means less damage. So here's my next question, is there really THAT much difference in damage between a LA and pure mage? Once again, pulling the nub card, does the diminishing returns rule apply to damage as well? Maybe that's a different discussion, Idk... More help please?

Actually one shotting certain classes is quite possible. At about 70 I 1-shot an archer of my lvl with a sandstorm crit. You will never 1-shot a barb unless their build sucks or they have every debuff on them in the game. You likely won't 1-shot any robe wearer unless you have a fairly leveled blade tempest. BMs, again depends on buffs and build.

As for one shotting mobs, gl with that unless they are weak or sacrifical assault

Amour - Lost City

I still stand by LA is the best cheap build 60-89. 90+ is bad, baaad baaad baaad.
Crits are nice, 11% of the time I oneshot archers


CrossEye takes 8349 damage

Babidi - Heavens Tear

why is it bad baad baaaad?

Haiz - Lost City

Reason why LA is so nice and popular around 60-89 is because of easy to get cheap molders that all give good HP and or physical defense. I myself had good, not so easy to get robes that gave nice HP and physical defense and so I was fine with robes 7x and 8x. It really just depends on how lucky you are in getting gear. Nothing changes at 9x, it's just gear availability with +HP and +Pdef mods.

Babidi - Heavens Tear

true. but seeing how i just managed to hit 4.1k hp with light armor (5.3k with barb buff) and 54% phy red self buffed (64% fully buffed) and 10% crit, im not sure i wld want to go back to pure at 90 (restatted to LA at 78).

Haiz - Lost City

Why?

Because with only stone shield I have 4.4k HP, 54% phys reduction, and 7% crit. Getting more than 8k pdef is worth northing. It won't raise your reduction much beyond 8k due to the scale. Light armor you get what, 10k+ pdef easily? Its a waste and you have no magic defense.

Not to mention I have plenty more magic attack and dishing out that "200-300" extra damage from being pure adds up when PKing.

WitchBurner - Sanctuary

Also a point to add for all LA Haters, in sanctuary LA wizs are up with clerics as the most wanted class. They are constantly shouted for on WC for Rebirth Gamma's due to the lucrative tome business.

Haiz - Lost City

Here's a point to add to LA failures. My guild farms rebirth delta and light armor mages are not wanted. None of the pure int mages die and the only problem is we aren't able to kill the last couple waves fast enough, something a LA would not improve on.

Amour - Lost City

I agree whole heartedly LA past 90 is stupid. I'm tired of getting **** by clerics and mages.

WitchBurner - Sanctuary

Hey, I said Gamma. Obviously with Delta it's a different story, thats for level 90 real mages .

Babidi - Heavens Tear

Haiz - Lost City wrote: »

Why?

Because with only stone shield I have 4.4k HP, 54% phys reduction, and 7% crit. Getting more than 8k pdef is worth northing. It won't raise your reduction much beyond 8k due to the scale. Light armor you get what, 10k+ pdef easily? Its a waste and you have no magic defense.

Not to mention I have plenty more magic attack and dishing out that "200-300" extra damage from being pure adds up when PKing.

Haiz, when did u manage to acheive those numbers? Was it in ur late 90s or somewhere around my level?

Babidi - Heavens Tear

Amour - Lost City wrote: »

I agree whole heartedly LA past 90 is stupid. I'm tired of getting **** by clerics and mages.

and Amour, wont u become tired again of being **** by archers, BMs and nasty plume shots? after u restat that is

Kristoph - Lost City

Babidi - Heavens Tear wrote: »

and Amour, wont u become tired again of being **** by archers, BMs and nasty plume shots? after u restat that is

No, because you can use pdef shards to get your pdmg reduction up to a decent %. It's easy to get over 55% self buffed, which is sufficient. At least in arcane archers won't be able to **** you with metal skills, which crit for over 2k easily. Plume shots? How are those bad compared to Thunder/Tempest?

Babidi - Heavens Tear

Kristoph - Lost City wrote: »

No, because you can use pdef shards to get your pdmg reduction up to a decent %. It's easy to get over 55% self buffed, which is sufficient. At least in arcane archers won't be able to **** you with metal skills, which crit for over 2k easily. Plume shots? How are those bad compared to Thunder/Tempest?

i'd rather get crit for 2k being LA than 3k+ being pure with a phy attack. i have the hp for it.as pure ,i didnt hav the hp for a phy attack crit( i was phy def sharded). as for plume shots, they are bad becoz they cast faster and are more spammable.

Reminissions - Sanctuary

Witchburner - Sanctuary wrote: »

Hey, I said Gamma. Obviously with Delta it's a different story, thats for level 90 real mages .

I proved more than once than Arcane wiz' are as good as LA wiz in RB . If not better : )
Weirdly , all the squad I've done rebirth with ask me to come back ? o.o

//Lelouch\ - Sanctuary5

Mysticlifex - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Light is not a build for wizard, that's for archers.

lol I am a LA built wizard and I am loving every minute of it. Sure i have to cast 1-2 spells extra at time to kill a mob (that is if they can touch me lol).
But as an archer you would know that *your strong as long as they don't touch you*

While teaming up with an archer today (same lv as myself) I notice I excell pass him who was also wearing LA, both in strength and p.def.

And in truth I would rather not have to worry about my p.def when facing any close range mobs.
When the odds are against you it's best to be a step ahead of your enemy.

WitchBurner - Sanctuary

Hang on, your saying you picked LA and brag that mobs don't touch you?

Go pure dammit.

RapiBurrito - Heavens Tear

Reminissions - Sanctuary wrote: »

I proved more than once than Arcane wiz' are as good as LA wiz in RB . If not better : )
Weirdly , all the squad I've done rebirth with ask me to come back ? o.o

o.o

Come back!

Reminissions - Sanctuary

RapiBurrito - Heavens Tear wrote: »

o.o

Come back!

I will and I am >:D

PrettySammy - Sanctuary

why is this argument still going on?

Lite Armor Mage and Pure mage are for 2 different purposes neither is better than the other period.

Lite Armor means you can survive phy dmg mobs more. yes mag def is down but you only need compensate for wood and metal (*cough deflector shields).

Pure mages can whoops stuff faster. So what refine your wep to plus +4 - 7 and so what an LA can do then.

As for wizards in PvP. no comment but since Ayano_chan WarZed and co are in the top PvP ranks on sanctuary we cant be too bad as a class.

Doesn't matter which way you role there is stuff you can't do. I was Pure till 60 got annoyed and went LA and I love it.

Stop trying to prove your roll (pure/la) was best to prove how great you are. It is really pathetic!

As for all those other classes bashing Wizards, get this straight unless you have a 79+ wizard you are not qualified to talk about any wizard build skills or tactics, so shut the hell up. We don't need talk about clerics archers and whatever cos we don't need to. We don't care.

Pure and LA both rock

Wizards rule period!

MGPS

Snakedoctor - Harshlands

I posted this somewhere else but.....oh, i restatted at 79 to LA, will be back robe at 90

Personally i think the debate is complete BS. The difference is not survivability per se, it is really length of a fight. LA will die almost as much just the fight may last 15 seconds instead of 6. The few more wins will be due to taking a couple more shots and the 4% of the time you crit and knock someone out. Robe wiz will die in 6 seconds or kill in 6 seconds. Congratz, LA won 4 more out of every 100 fights then Robe

Now i fight a whole lot more in 1v1 fights then group and the only levels i think LA is better is 8x. This is because of availability of eq. The high 7x molds are great for LA and relatively cheap. Unfortunately for robe there is few 8x normal gear floating around, and the hh/mold gear sucks till 90. 7x and below people are still making good 3 star stuff or the drops are around. Get gear with hp and phys bonuses, usually 2 or even 3, use phys stones and you are fine 1-79 as a robe. You lack the crit advantage and have lower hp but where it takes a LA 3 or 4 to kill normally you can as a robe do it in 2 or 3 with the greater attack power. 78 through 8x though i had a hard time finding gear to keep up with other 8x players, hence the restat, i would go back 9x.

Like Yourmom said, LA really only shines in group PvP when people make sure you are not focused. If you are getting focused you have time to be saved by the people you are PvPing with, where as robe is already dead

Loltank - Harshlands

I've restatted LA for level 50-89, simply so that I don't get one-shotted by random AoE's in TW. While the damage difference isn't much, it's still noticeable. I'm thinking of restatting to pure with 50 vit. Good damage, enough HP(hopefully) to take the AoEs.

Thoughts?


EDIT: I said 5 vit. Meant 50. lol

PrettySammy - Sanctuary

Hurray another sensible person who agree this argument is nonsense

totally agree with your concepts for PvP.
As for PvE which is more my area and 90% of the game, unless you happen to be in Legendary, Nef, Rebirth, Dreaming, NWO, Steel etc etc etc.

If you want good builds ask RedSpeller. Red has arguably one of the best mage build I have ever seen superb balance between mag and phy def which doesn't compromise attack power.

As for the LA brigade I like the balanced view between the phy def and mag def which leaves sockets free for hp shards. More Hp mean i can take more hits. As for the mag attack lost refine a decent weapon like those sweet legendary ones. Im using a +4 Glaive of Divinity.

One final point it is as much about the player as the build

PrettySammy - Sanctuary

Loltank need more info on your stats etc. and why the sudden change of heart?

Loltank - Harshlands

I like LA, but if there's only 4% extra crit, I'd rather have consistent damage.

I'm at a standard LA build right now. At 54, I have 58 str, 58 dex, rest into magic. With shards my HP is 1400. I like the survivability, but I figure if I just stat 50 vit I'll have the HP to tank the hits even in robes, and hit for more damage.