Is the Vanguard Invasion only for Tanks & Tamers?

[Pax]

From what I've been able to tell so far, mages are pretty much useless for anything other than healing players who are physical fighters. Went to Cove with my 3x120 mage and she did barely any damage to any of the Vanguard, EBs that usually take down a brigand in one shot, barely phase the Vanguard ones, and my earthies did no damage to the shadow eles.

Is that how it's going to be for mages no matter where the Vanguard stikes? When I was reg gathering, did see there were VCs in Papua, but had my bug, so high-tailed it, didn't want to lose him.

If this is strictly a physical fighters' battle, so be it, I have some Paladins too... but I love to play my mage, and hate to miss out on the fun using my preferred template.

Maybe I'm just doing something wrong... again. Anyone know if mages are totally useless for all the Vanguard Invasion so far? (For anything other than supporting tanks with healing/buffing/etc. that is.)

Be well - Pax

 

[Ancient Sosarian]

Partner up your Mage with 2-3 other folks and share the gold, items, and trade-ins.

UO was NEVER meant to be a single-player (solo) experience. Fine if some loners want that challenge. But introduce yourself to others, make friends, and Play On!

An SoS

 

[silent]

It's not for tanks either.... I went once got targeted by everything on the screen and died. Not worth the effort.

 

[Pax]

Partner up your Mage with 2-3 other folks and share the gold, items, and trade-ins.

UO was NEVER meant to be a single-player (solo) experience. Fine if some loners want that challenge. But introduce yourself to others, make friends, and Play On!

An SoS

<grin> I've done that of course, but I wanna kill sumpin' up close with my own li'l EVs.

Oh, as an added note: I often play at very strange hours, like 2am, and many times wind up soloing the spawn in Cove with my still-training Paladin. I die a lot, but sure have a lot of fun doing it... and lately, I'm not dying nearly as much.

That said, tanking's a whole different game from fighting using mage skills, each template has its own special nuances and satisfies different "game-play" needs for me. When on my mage, my goal is to keep the good guys alive *while* I kill the bad guys. If you don't understand the unique thrill of that challenge, then guess you must not play a mage that much.

Be well - Pax

 

[NBG]

It's not for tanks either.... I went once got targeted by everything on the screen and died. Not worth the effort.

I only do vanguard spawns with dexxer, here are some tips

1-- Invis potion is your friend

2-- Positioning of the vanguard is very important

3-- Don't kill the stuff that vanguard spawns... they go away in less than 2 minutes and when they do, that's your window for killing him.

4-- Vanguard does love to teleport back to its starting point, but it won't if you don't move it too far. Do some testing to get the hang of the distance and you can move vanguard away from spawns using tip #1

hope this helps

 

[Saris]

Tanks? I dont know though I can take them its a big big pain in the arse cuase them vangaurd be cheating, and I got no love from deamon berserkers as my tank dont have one of those special weps.

I can though take them easy if one of the 2 things happen, one another dexer cross heals me, or a mage class spams heals and bufs on me while helping with dps to kill it quicker.

Once again though, if I cant do it with my mage, I try my dexer, if that dont work I got 4 more slots of killing classes and 2 mule.


Why worry about your mage in an event if you dexer works better?

or just make a tamer.

 

[Lord Drakelord]

I did better on my Prov then I did on my tamer, at least on the Prov I was able to prov all the spawn on to the VG. On the tamer I found it was taking forever to kill just the VG with a super, of course if three or four supers were on it, it went quicker.

Still it is something to dismount the VG and prov that dread horse on it, dang does that put a hurt on the VG.

 

[Hunter Moon]

From what I've been able to tell so far, mages are pretty much useless for anything other than healing players who are physical fighters. Went to Cove with my 3x120 mage and she did barely any damage to any of the Vanguard, EBs that usually take down a brigand in one shot, barely phase the Vanguard ones, and my earthies did no damage to the shadow eles.

Is that how it's going to be for mages no matter where the Vanguard stikes? When I was reg gathering, did see there were VCs in Papua, but had my bug, so high-tailed it, didn't want to lose him.

If this is strictly a physical fighters' battle, so be it, I have some Paladins too... but I love to play my mage, and hate to miss out on the fun using my preferred template.

Maybe I'm just doing something wrong... again. Anyone know if mages are totally useless for all the Vanguard Invasion so far? (For anything other than supporting tanks with healing/buffing/etc. that is.)

Be well - Pax

Try mind blast or harm if your very close up and spam both as fast as you can and as much as your mana will let you. They do the most bang for the buck and will take a vanguard down pretty fast. Of course if your alone, they will wack the hell outta ya. Need someone or something to take the damage for you.

Hunter Moon [HOT] Atlantic

 

[Pax]

Try mind blast or harm if your very close up and spam both as fast as you can and as much as your mana will let you. They do the most bang for the buck and will take a vanguard down pretty fast. Of course if your alone, they will wack the hell outta ya. Need someone or something to take the damage for you.

Hunter Moon [HOT] Atlantic

Thanks! I hadn't tried those... guess I was disheartened that my EBs sucked so largely, my FSes weren't much on even the little stuff and my earthies did absolutely *no* damage, that I gave up trying a bit too quickly.

Be well - Pax

 

[Saris]

mind blast works, mages that have other schools of spells to choose from have the advantage and when they get close to redline nothing messes up there spawning crap like good old WOD.

 

[Lord Drakelord]

mind blast works, mages that have other schools of spells to choose from have the advantage and when they get close to redline nothing messes up there spawning crap like good old WOD.

Ya mind blast seems to do more damage then EBs.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

Ya mind blast seems to do more damage then EBs.

OKAY OKAY OKAY OKAY.

2 Words for all you mages.

MAGE BOW.

Argh.

Step 1. Get a spell channeling mage bow.
Step 2. Use it.
Step 3. Cast mind blast
Step 4. Cast your other spells.
Step 5. MAGES CAN CAST INVIS IF it gets hot. (Benefit mage)
Step 6. Collect kill on Vangaurd

It works.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

*sighs*

First of all let me say that I agree mages are unnecessarily nerfed in this event by the lack of summons.

However, despite this, mages can and have done well at this event.

The Controllers are vulnerable to cold damage.

So yeah....Mages can do well you just have to change your tactics.

I do hope, though, that the other events in the cycle will be more mage friendly, allowing summons for example. Those could come in really handy.

-Galen's player

 

[Pax]

*sighs*

First of all let me say that I agree mages are unnecessarily nerfed in this event by the lack of summons.

However, despite this, mages can and have done well at this event.

The Controllers are vulnerable to cold damage.

So yeah....Mages can do well you just have to change your tactics.

I do hope, though, that the other events in the cycle will be more mage friendly, allowing summons for example. Those could come in really handy.

-Galen's player

Amen there! Summons are to a mage what pets are to a tamer. We have the other spells available but, unlike a tamer/mage (spellcaster), we don't have a pet to take the heat for us and do the tanking while we cast. We usually have pretty average to lousy resists on our 100%LRC suits and must rely on a high Resisting Spells skill for a chance to survive against other casters.

Add to that the fact I don't know a mage who concentrates solely on fighting and ignores the health of the fighters around him, even if he doesn't know anyone there, which means mages often forget to watch their own backs because they're busy keeping other people alive.

When you put all that together and add the fact mage spells seem to be doing little to no damage in this invasion (which means mages can't defend themselves), you have a scenario where the ground is littered with mage bodies... because tanks, as a rule, usually ignore the health of those who are busy healing them.

Be well - Pax

 

[SAVATAGE]

I kill em with my mage all the time.......

 

[Pax]

I kill em with my mage all the time.......

Good for you.

My mage is 120 Magery/Eval Int/Med, with 113 Res Spells (scrolled to 120, decided to max it), 110 Parry, 60 Inscript and 50 Chiv; Scrolled to 255 stat-cap, with 106 Str/44 Dex/148 Int; 7 MR, FCR 5/FC 3; and 49/70/51/45/70 resists... (as well as other stuff I didn't list).

She can stand toe-to-toe with some pretty mean stuff (like daemons, balrons, etc.) and survive but, so far, the Vanguard spawn have her whipped.

Be well - Pax

 

[Thrand Graywolf]

tanks, as a rule, usually ignore the health of those who are busy healing them

No...but if you are more than 2 tiles away there's nothing people who rely on chivalry and bandages can do to help.


This invasion is just not as hard as people make it out to be. Four of us have wiped out the waves on Cove in minutes...an archer, a warrior, a mage and a tamer. I've seen two mages working together drop a controller, mostly with mind blast.

If you folks are really having that much trouble, it might be time to re-think tactics.

 

[Pax]

No...but if you are more than 2 tiles away there's nothing people who rely on chivalry and bandages can do to help.

Really? Ever think about standing by your mage and keeping him alive while he returns the favor, instead of abandoning your mage and wading deep into the fray while you rely on the mage to keep up with you and keep you in the thick of it?

This invasion is just not as hard as people make it out to be. Four of us have wiped out the waves on Cove in minutes...an archer, a warrior, a mage and a tamer. I've seen two mages working together drop a controller, mostly with mind blast.

If you folks are really having that much trouble, it might be time to re-think tactics.

As I've said, I take my Paladin-in-training to Cove at odd hours (like 2am) and solo the horde, so I never said it was too hard. But it *is* very hard for mages, no matter when they go. The more players, the more intense the spawn.

Be well - Pax