Solo Mage vs Semidar (and others)?

[Tuan]

I tried to use my mage to do Semidar last night, and it didn't go well.

I used my VE Paladin to clear the spawn, which went exactly as you might expect, but given that this character is male he's less than useful against the boss herself.

I decided to bring my female mage in there. Granted, this character is far from perfect, and I haven't really played a caster in PvM for ... 15ish years ... so my tactics might be way off.

Even using a demon slayer spellbook my spells were doing only ~70ish damage, and she's so friggen fast that even with maxxed FC I just couldn't really get enough off to be useful. My SDI leaves something to be desired, and I'm not quite 120 mage/120 eval, I think - but even assuming that I was at 120 eval (I am 100 scribe) I would do only a few % more damage - if I boosted my SDI up from the 30 or so I'm at now closer to 100 - even there I think my damage per 6th/7th spell would be maybe 120-140ish.

I tried EVs, but they 1) only hit for 8-10 damage when they do, and 2) died every 5-10 seconds anyway.

This character also has mystic (though only 90). So I thought I'd try RC. They did more damage, but the problem is now I am on foot, and Semidar is about 10% faster than I am on foot. I guess I could try combo's of Sleep + explode + EB... to keep her slowed, and weaken her attacks...

Am I just totally missing something? I feel like I'd have basically the exact same problems against Rikktor and Mephitis too. They move too fast to stay ahead to get spells off... and hit too hard to stay close.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

For Semidar RC and Sleep will work. You could attack with Hail Storm (cold damage) also with a Slayer book but personally I would rather pre cast RC and Sleep.

Rikktor isn't faster than a player on foot, and you can hear when it is going to EQ and move out of range, I'd probably do the same as above.

Meph's web is a counter attack so the safest way to do it is Explode pre cast Invis.

 

[Tuan]

So it will just take much longer with a mage. Even at full FC/FCR a explode/invis combo takes 2 seconds to do, 120ish damage. VS 180 every 1.25s with AIs.

Looks like using corpse skin could raise my damage from the explosion by as much as 20%... that's viable for sure. That's probably a better move than using hail storm.

Also looks like a combo of Sleep/flamestrike might be better than explode/invis.

Is some combo of a RC/sleep/disco mastery viable?

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

Not necessarily. I don't recall the damage I was doing, but I recently used a Necro/Scribe/Mage vs Semidar, unfortunately it was solo and on foot it just wasn't happening. Switched to a Mystic and just did RC/Sleep. Corpse, followed by a FS/Omen combo would be the biggest hit, or Chain Lightning/Omen combo depending on it's weakest. On most things this character out damages dexxers by quite a long way, recently saw a 900+ Chain/Omen on a Hydra in Blackthorns... and that's without piling on SDI. But on Semidar, as you know, she's faster than you on foot, so unless you're a Gargoyle you're on foot with an RC. You could also try Polymorphing into a female and jousting with spells Explode/off screen.

I look at Sleep as something to do after the damage or to keep it focused on the summon, otherwise it's going to be thinking of you when it wears off, and you can't spam it.

You could try that, but again, when that Sleep wears off if the next hit is from your mastery and not the RC it'll go after you.

 

[Tuan]

I look at Sleep as something to do after the damage or to keep it focused on the summon, otherwise it's going to be thinking of you when it wears off, and you can't spam it.

You could try that, but again, when that Sleep wears off if the next hit is from your mastery and not the RC it'll go after you.

Can you explain? Can't spam it = "that target is already asleep" or something similar... or can cast, but doesn't renew the timer - like divine fury?

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

If you cast it while the target is still under the effect you get a message to that effect 'Target can't be immobilised because...' (still takes the mana).

The target also builds up a resistance (similar to being spammed with Poison or using Cure pots, I forget which)... so every now and then you'll get a message that the target resists sleep. It's not permanent, but obviously if it's something like Semidar, you're on foot, and she's just targeted you because you hit her with something at the wrong time it's feasible that she could kill you before you get another off.