LF some advice before final culti decision

PlayMyWand - Sanctuary

So, I'm getting close to the culti-choice point. Personally, I'm most tempted to go demon. I mainly like the faster channeling part, and a few extra/higher chances for stuns also sound nice. However, pretty much all wizards seem to be sage.

After going through a bunch of the threads here and asking some ingame, it seems most go sage because the chi side makes it preferable for tw to drop more ulties and rank 8/9 kinda more match the "sage ultie dropper" build most go for these days.

Since I would like to go for a -channel demon wizard, I'd like to hear some opinions on a few points first. I have a friend that gives me a hand with gear, but obviously he won't hand me +10 rank 9 on a plate. I don't exclude playing a big role in tw someday, but with all the rank 9 on sanctuary, I'm under the impression that part is more about gear then about culti. For now, I plan on going for a -channel build that I like but got a few questions :

1) Would I end up regretting the culti choice in a long future if I ever get to rank 9 (or whatever there will be then) ? Is a demon wizard with comparable gear be really a lot less effective in tw ?

2) Most -channel necklaces and belts are elemental. Is going with elemental ornamenets only really suicidal with +/- +5 armor and garnets ? Ofc, I will keep physical ones on shortcut for some situations, but I wonder if elemental ornaments would even make me die in a regular bh or caster nirvana.

3) Is -channeling capped ? I heard/read that once you hit -100% or more, it will get set back to -90%.

My friend just tells me to go for it since most follow 1 archtype build and proclaim it as "best", but that doesn't mean every other option is going to be "fail". However, he doesn't know much about wizards specifically b:laugh I know wizards shine most in tw, but I don't want to be a tw-only wizard.

Hurrdurr - Lothranis

PlayMyWand - Sanctuary wrote: »

1) Would I end up regretting the culti choice in a long future if I ever get to rank 9 (or whatever there will be then) ? Is a demon wizard with comparable gear be really a lot less effective in tw ?

No. Demon wizard with cloud eruption/chi siphon genie do not drop that many ultis less than its sage counter part. However, sage ultis are better than demon ones with the exception of maybe demon MS which has 35m casting range. With R9 +12 your ultis should be killing a lot of people even without a crit demon or sage so I don't see how demon is that much worse than a sage wizard in TW. No doubt that sage wizards are better, I don't think a demon wizard with the right genie is that far behind.

PlayMyWand - Sanctuary wrote: »

2) Most -channel necklaces and belts are elemental. Is going with elemental ornamenets only really suicidal with +/- +5 armor and garnets ? Ofc, I will keep physical ones on shortcut for some situations, but I wonder if elemental ornaments would even make me die in a regular bh or caster nirvana.

m.def orns will do find in PvE, however in PK or TW it will make you very vulnerable to R9 archers and sins. I would recommend having at least 8k p.def self buffed if you're looking for top tier TW before switching to -chan ornaments. Even then I probably would not consider it unless it was a -12% belt.

PlayMyWand - Sanctuary wrote: »

3) Is -channeling capped ? I heard/read that once you hit -100% or more, it will get set back to -90%.

99% I believe. if you hit 100% or higher it goes back down to 100%. It's second hand information though and I've heard from various sources. However, anything with that high channel is sacrificing a lot of defence and attack levels which is not recommended these days.

PlayMyWand - Sanctuary

Ty for input. Just to clarify : I plan on first getting decent gear for pve, after that go for gear for pk and tw. For the first part, I'll will be rather dependant on friends. But I figure that at lvl100 with decent gear I could work on better gear pk orientated. After looking on calculator a bit, I could get to -40s channeling before spark and have fcc phys def ornaments to swap. My main worry would be elemental ornaments being realistic. I don't want to get squished 1 hit by any mob just to increase the -channel figure.

Scorched_Sky - Sanctuary

PlayMyWand - Sanctuary wrote: »

So, I'm getting close to the culti-choice point. Personally, I'm most tempted to go demon. I mainly like the faster channeling part, and a few extra/higher chances for stuns also sound nice. However, pretty much all wizards seem to be sage.

After going through a bunch of the threads here and asking some ingame, it seems most go sage because the chi side makes it preferable for tw to drop more ulties and rank 8/9 kinda more match the "sage ultie dropper" build most go for these days.

Since I would like to go for a -channel demon wizard, I'd like to hear some opinions on a few points first. I have a friend that gives me a hand with gear, but obviously he won't hand me +10 rank 9 on a plate. I don't exclude playing a big role in tw someday, but with all the rank 9 on sanctuary, I'm under the impression that part is more about gear then about culti. For now, I plan on going for a -channel build that I like but got a few questions :

1) Would I end up regretting the culti choice in a long future if I ever get to rank 9 (or whatever there will be then) ? Is a demon wizard with comparable gear be really a lot less effective in tw ?

2) Most -channel necklaces and belts are elemental. Is going with elemental ornamenets only really suicidal with +/- +5 armor and garnets ? Ofc, I will keep physical ones on shortcut for some situations, but I wonder if elemental ornaments would even make me die in a regular bh or caster nirvana.

3) Is -channeling capped ? I heard/read that once you hit -100% or more, it will get set back to -90%.

My friend just tells me to go for it since most follow 1 archtype build and proclaim it as "best", but that doesn't mean every other option is going to be "fail". However, he doesn't know much about wizards specifically b:laugh I know wizards shine most in tw, but I don't want to be a tw-only wizard.

I'll be pretty quick in this answer...
Sage = tw oriented, sage bids/sage masteries/chi skill really shine here
Demon = pk oriented, due to greater control skills, lower chan skills. One perk thats good about demon in general is demon stone barrier.
PvE = both will do fine

This doesn't mean sage cant pk and that demon cant tw, but go with whichever field ur most likely going to be most active in.

VoItaire - Harshlands

I'm kinda interested in seeing how the new skills will effect the comparisons once people start learning all the neat ways to use them and they are in more abundance.

Alex_Gantz - Dreamweaver

One point I would like to remind you, for wizards is not all about -chann, you need to look for balance, yeah hit more is fine, but always remember that for a good geared wizzy a crit ends a fight or provides a charm tick by itself... in pve (caster nirvana, no other pve options for a wizzy b:laugh ) you also need to have a good defense to be able to stay alive specially on 3rd boss mobs and 4th boss, is at some time you are able to solo caster or duo or even trio that will be a great way to make coins (unless of course you do what all the wizzys do.. roll a smelly fish or a BM)

ICasTBiDS - Raging Tide

in tw I prefer sage wizards but for anything else i would much prefer demon wiz due to the control skills.

PheosNyx - Sanctuary

Yeah, the thing about sage wiz is that it lacks a considerable amount of control. You have to nuke it and hope it dies fast or you can get screwed over really quickly. I sometimes regret being sage in 1 on 1 situations because after I use my sleep n FoW I'm out for 15 seconds at least, and sleep isn't spammable. -channel orns are okay in pve, but honestly i don't really see that much of a difference (says the anti-channel mage). I personally went with high int and crit over any -channeling available to me, thus making it less likely that people will survive my initial nuke (undine -> FoW -> essential sutra -> glacial snare -> mountain seize).

Tsuyoginos - Heavens Tear

It's up to you really. I went demon for control. You can still be good in TW either way, you just have different advantages. Sure, Sage chi building helps for dropping Sage BIDS, but you aren't always going to have to be an ulti-dropper. Sometimes you can end up in a squad where you're doing small group, or individual-pvp where some demon skills might be handier. I can say that demon hailstorm, despite only having a 50% proc rate has saved my sorry behind so many times, and has helped slow down some of the enemy faction so my squad could go in for the kill.

As great as the chi build-up and BIDS are in Sage, they should not be your only deciding factors (great as they are).

thumbs

PvE wize; wiz's strong point is RB and Warsong. My wiz is sage w/ pretty damned good equips but still struggles with the dmg in RB, and partly because of Sage DB (stun causing increased aggro). If you're not CS'ing and playing to win; Demon might be the ticket. When I went sage; I figured equips could make up for the lower pdef (stone barrier), but didn't realize how much I'd have to put into equips (some +10 second stage Nirvana).

Shoyahz - Heavens Tear

I remember saying to myself that I was going demon for demon stone barrier. This stemmed from dying thoughout my wizzie career and my great desire for pdef. (Also made me go garnets instead of the popular dot build.) Right now, 10k pdef self buffed and 13k fully buffed. I like pissing bms and archers and sins off

However, being a demon wiz in a large TW faction, I've come to appreciate the cc it has as well. Being able to hold off bms with sleeps, stuns and seals with the addition of the new Blinding Blaze skill makes me just as useful in a support role as in an ult-dropper.

I've never regretted my choice in demon but I have envied the chi gaining skill that sages get. Ultimately, it's up to your playstyle, like I tell anyone asking about the choice between sage and demon.

Adroit - Lost City

I hate it when people say sage for TW and demon for pk, as this is absolutely not the case. It's just two different play styles, and honestly the differences between sage and demon aren't as massive as some would suggest. I mean, when I hear people talking about some mage showing up to pk, it is xxx a r9+11 mage, the culti isn't even mentioned because it just isn't a significant factor in determining how useful a character is.

So an example of how the cultivations differ in pk can be easily demonstrated in a 1v1 against a bm. A sage mage would be more biased towards pyrogram and blink to kite, where a demon mage would be more biased towards pitfall/hailstorm/stone rain to keep the bm from reaching it. Both classes will likely overlap with the skills they use (I'm sage and use hailstorm/pitfall all the time), but one will use those skills slightly more often than the other. Similarly, in TW sage mages benefit in having slightly more chi to drop ults (probably more biased towards BIDS/BT), where a demon mage would likely to use MS (with the extra range), and could possibly get slightly more into the fray with the slight edge in pdef and blink range that demon offers.

Both are great for world pk, and both are great in TW. It's a matter of personal preference, there is no superior cultivation.

FaceRolI - Sanctuary

what a well written and thoughtfully crafted post...

I would just like to add,

DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNN!!! b:laugh