Is it just me...

[typ0]

..or did mage tactics in PK really change since the earlier years? I say this after watching maybe a dozen different PK movies of mostly warrior/rogue and some bp where the enemy mages they face (sometimes whole parties) are just playing really noobishly: throwing nova's or AOE spells all over the place, not really using any focused fire on the problematic people (who made the vids to show off lol), generally thinking that if they throw something somewhere it must hit someone...

What happened to using a lot of DOT spells on a single target to cancel out their hp regen from pots, making every follow up dmg spell much more effective? How about aiming directly at a single enemy instead of throwing nova's on top of a party of maybe 2 or 3 people? Maybe even tp'ing a fellow mage who is getting smacked around by a big GG warrior? I see none of these tactics used by a large percentage of mages in those vids. I know some are definitely nubs, but I am surprised to see a lack of tactics in those large mage parties who come from supposedly GG clans...shouldn't they know better??

I dunno, I feel like mages get a bad rap due to the apparent lack of synchronized skill of mages these days. Am I right or just missing something? I haven't been back long enough (been almost 3 weeks now on EUKO) to tell for myself.

[MyDestiny]

Coz most of the people whos playing as a Mage nowadays are people who saw movies of mage party's and thought "oh that's looking cool ill try it" and don't know that Mage can be more then AOE-run-AOE-run.

[JimX]

typ0! my fav symbolic mage ^^ m8 alot has changed on this game during the years indeed.. and not in the better way.. PK becomes more and more childish and the good teamwork fading more and more..

[typ0]

hey Jim! I saw your post in the OffTopic section, looking for oldies too I see ^^

Tell me about it, it's a lot different than what I remember. Still getting used to so many changes, but there are some nice things to come out of it (new armors, weps, way of making them is pretty balanced).

Indeed, good teamwork is fading. That's bad because I always liked having a gg team at my back to get me out of trouble and save me from the nooby tries of "LEEEEROOOOYYYYY" I would have every now and then xD lol ahaha. Good times we had! I saw this old topic in Media section about Schaf/Rent/etc, brought up lots of old memories.

I just wish we had some vids of those times, even AHM ones xP

[zecabr]

Yea basically, these days, the mage parties are mostly novaing right away, while they could kill a priest or even an enemie mage first, to make it easier. I think they preffer to nova right away, coz its easier to command, since these mage clans recruit any mage arround, and most of them arent really skilled. Also theres alot of these dumb mages in meele parties, that keep throwing novas arround and hittin closest target, while they could be dotting their meele target, and also slowing people, tping.. every class has good and bad people, but for sure, these days mages have the noobest players arround, coz many people watch these nova movies and feel like, "man this seems fun, ima try mage!", theres many exceptions tho, lots of great mages arround still.

[inarco]

Yea basically, these days, the mage parties are mostly novaing right away, while they could kill a priest or even an enemie mage first, to make it easier. I think they preffer to nova right away, coz its easier to command, since these mage clans recruit any mage arround, and most of them arent really skilled. Also theres alot of these dumb mages in meele parties, that keep throwing novas arround and hittin closest target, while they could be dotting their meele target, and also slowing people, tping.. every class has good and bad people, but for sure, these days mages have the noobest players arround, coz many people watch these nova movies and feel like, "man this seems fun, ima try mage!", theres many exceptions tho, lots of great mages arround still.

there are few things to keep in mind.
Do u really think an undied warr with 14k hp would feel that dot? he might without a pri in the long run.
Will a pri be worried about it? dont think so.
Will a rogue..i barely doubt since he can fly away whenever he wants or even cure.
We got the mage left. Will be a mage worried about it? probably, but it would be tped away 4 sure, before falling on the ground or he can cast mana shield/gate if things go hotter.
Premmy hp pots as well as abyss pots (without considreing a time to time casted restore heal or a simply fll heal) make dot not so scary at all.
Moreover considering that a common pt runs with 3 priests, i guess they barely cure a dot. They keep spamming heals /group heals.
Since such a pt is almost immortal, the syncro-novas sessions work more than good,even if u got not crazy geared mages.. 5 mages casting novas at the same time and at the right time, and quite surely right after a mana vamp session on the enemies - do :
1) LAG (if u got not a good pc/line)
2) crazy and quite often unhealable dmg - especially if the priests aren't smarter and geared ( as well as the rest of the pt) + point 1) In top of that, consider the dot dmg from novas and few 80s ending boooms on a redballing target.

The point is: this method looks noobish but it's fking effective; It's just like exping; what's the best/fastest exp pt u can join? the mage aoe one; u dont go after 1 target,u go after all and at the same time.U do not test the resistence of one enemy, u put all on the line at the same time.
if the enemies are still standing up, np, retreat and repeat..u gotta get fked soon or later...and quite surely...not just u.

[zecabr]

there are few things to keep in mind.
Do u really think an undied warr with 14k hp would feel that dot? he might without a pri in the long run.
Will a pri be worried about it? dont think so.
Will a rogue..i barely doubt since he can fly away whenever he wants or even cure.
We got the mage left. Will be a mage worried about it? probably, but it would be tped away 4 sure, before falling on the ground or he can cast mana shield/gate if things go hotter.
Premmy hp pots as well as abyss pots (without considreing a time to time casted restore heal or a simply fll heal) make dot not so scary at all.
Moreover considering that a common pt runs with 3 priests, i guess they barely cure a dot. They keep spamming heals /group heals.
Since such a pt is almost immortal, the syncro-novas sessions work more than good,even if u got not crazy geared mages.. 5 mages casting novas at the same time and at the right time, and quite surely right after a mana vamp session on the enemies - do :
1) LAG (if u got not a good pc/line)
2) crazy and quite often unhealable dmg - especially if the priests aren't smarter and geared ( as well as the rest of the pt) + point 1) In top of that, consider the dot dmg from novas and few 80s ending boooms on a redballing target.

The point is: this method looks noobish but it's fking effective; It's just like exping; what's the best/fastest exp pt u can join? the mage aoe one; u dont go after 1 target,u go after all and at the same time.U do not test the resistence of one enemy, u put all on the line at the same time.
if the enemies are still standing up, np, retreat and repeat..u gotta get fked soon or later...and quite surely...not just u.

My point is, that these days, most of the mages that play in those mage clans, arent skilled, so they can barely nova in time, as in right after the mana drain. And when i talked about killin a target first, before dropping novas, i was talking about the mage party doing 80 skill in a para'd target, such as a strong enemie mage which hits too hard, or even 1 of their priest to kill the whole party easier, obviously if the mages are skilled enough to nova right away, coordinated, its way faster & easier to kill everyone arround, but since its rare to be coordinated, doin a long range skill in a specific target wouldnt be so hard. And just to make it clean, bviously a single mage into a meele party isnt supposed to randomly dot someone, should go with the meeles and dot the party target.

[Ganzah]

Coz most of the people whos playing as a Mage nowadays are people who saw movies of mage party's and thought "oh that's looking cool ill try it" and don't know that Mage can be more then AOE-run-AOE-run.

I agree.. ALSO the lack of communication, and the knowledge HOW to use it. Many ppl just bitching about even using 'Ventrilo', 'TeamSpeak'.. the reason might be simple as they just sound like small whining ginger fucktards.. not sure.

[Ganzah]

hehe the real GG's in the "mage world" has retire, so there's no one to teach those fockerz how it's done

[zecabr]

hehe the real GG's in the "mage world" has retire, so there's no one to teach those fockerz how it's done

Invalid point in my view, coz like any other class you can get better and better by trying, not having to watch anyone else, yea it does help, but isnt the only way.

[typ0]

there are few things to keep in mind.
Do u really think an undied warr with 14k hp would feel that dot? he might without a pri in the long run.
Will a pri be worried about it? dont think so.
Will a rogue..i barely doubt since he can fly away whenever he wants or even cure.
We got the mage left. Will be a mage worried about it? probably, but it would be tped away 4 sure, before falling on the ground or he can cast mana shield/gate if things go hotter.
Premmy hp pots as well as abyss pots (without considreing a time to time casted restore heal or a simply fll heal) make dot not so scary at all.
Moreover considering that a common pt runs with 3 priests, i guess they barely cure a dot. They keep spamming heals /group heals.
Since such a pt is almost immortal, the syncro-novas sessions work more than good,even if u got not crazy geared mages.. 5 mages casting novas at the same time and at the right time, and quite surely right after a mana vamp session on the enemies - do :
1) LAG (if u got not a good pc/line)
2) crazy and quite often unhealable dmg - especially if the priests aren't smarter and geared ( as well as the rest of the pt) + point 1) In top of that, consider the dot dmg from novas and few 80s ending boooms on a redballing target.

The point is: this method looks noobish but it's fking effective; It's just like exping; what's the best/fastest exp pt u can join? the mage aoe one; u dont go after 1 target,u go after all and at the same time.U do not test the resistence of one enemy, u put all on the line at the same time.
if the enemies are still standing up, np, retreat and repeat..u gotta get fked soon or later...and quite surely...not just u.

You make a lot of good points. Some of it just due to how some things in the game have changed (increased level caps, means every char is much more powerful than before, in terms of HP and resists especially). A lot of it is I think as you mentioned: it's easier to just spam novas in a party of mages than it is to combat any single enemy in PVP. Most mages see that 'sexy' part of being a mage and just think that's the only thing there is to it. Funny thing, in your post you seem to advocate that same kind of philosophy :P lol

What I would try to do is more along the lines of being a support mage in a bigger melee party. That includes TP'ing party away from danger, such as huge masses of the opposing nation bearing down on everyone. I think you got the impression that I'm implying mages should start seeking out 1v1's in CZ, going against rogues or warriors single-handed. Not at all. One of the classic things mages can do is entrapment: where they are being chased by multiple enemies who see them as the weakest link, then suddenly they TP their own party on top of the chasers and its like "WTFOMGBBQ" - tables turned . This happened to me in my first time back in CZ (as warrior)...was chasing this mage down, thinking I had an easy time of it, then BAM and I'm seeing a ton of hhhhhhh around me lolol. Rookie mistake >_<

As for the best uses of DOT, as someone mentioned earlier in this thread, in a party of mage + mostly melee, it should be DOT focused on the party target, which is usually their priest. Since mages are the most effective ranged class (sorry archers!), helping the melees kill the priests first should be the priority. Btw, I'm not trying to discount using novas/AOE, just in a way that's more effective/timed, then against only one or 2 people. There is so much more to being mage than /town_nova parties.