Question for any student of the game

[Uriah Heep]

Hate to show my ignorance (again). I used to be such a student of the game, reading and figuring all the time (old style stuffs). Life was so simple

Anyway, back on point, I now have a computer, calculator, abacus, and shoes off, and can't figure out all these danged formulae. So I'll ask.

Background info: Mages used to all carry wrestling, was widely said to help relieve interruption. Later, was sposed to be defensive skill, and offensive with special moves. Then came more math:
Anat+Eval=wrestling, for defense, but no specials can be used with that combo. A few of us put anat on mages, and started running healing to be better guild hunt leaders and medics. Then healing got the stick, severely, with the dex thing, and made it useless for a mage.
I have a mage with anat/eval. I have a mage with wrestling. I have a mage with neither. And to be honest, I cannot tell any difference in the three.

So I ask, does a strictly PvM mage, get any benefit from either setup?

Please discuss...

 

[MoneyMaker]

4 of my chars that have magery, with several combos and none. Other than the skill level, I have never noticed any difference what so ever.
About that math thing.............*tells the kids to put their shoes back on*............ your going to have too wait for someone else.

 

[Viquire]

Mage weaps have made wrestling nearly superfluous for the purely pvm mage. Nothing in the current monster AI is going to disarm the weapon.

PVP is obviously a horse of a different color.

 

[Uriah Heep]

okay
so what is the benefit of a mage weapon?
and what is the benefit of wrestling>
thats what I am trying to get to, because now, I don't see any difference in the chars with and without, as far as survivability.

 

[Green Meanie]

strickly pvm i would go either antomy eval or mage weapon.

mage weapon = weapon skill after ajusted magery so with a weapon like staff of the magi you can run with nothing else

(antomy+eval)/2 +10= weapon skill for defence only

and of lets not forget wrestling=weapon skill

I figure you know this but i will say it anyways the game figures your chance to be hit every time your swung at by compairing your weapon skill to the thing swinging. In strickly pvm if your weapon skill is = to the monster swinging it will only hit you 50% of the time. Stack on dci and monsters will struggle to hit you.

Ok from that stand point we can analiyze each method and its worth.

With a mage weapon you can hit monsters for a small amount of damage and get all the defence needed with no extra skill point investment. And sence monsters dont disarm you will never lose that defence

Anatomy eval formula allows you to make use of healing and its the only reason i would run this. If you can fit the dex healing can save you some wopping amounts of mana as well as heal yourself even if you have none.
down side is you will almost never hit the monster with 0 weapon skill and when you do it will be for 4-0 depending on the monsters resists

Finaly wrestling. You get weapon specs disarm and para blow as well as ability to hit monsters. However very very few monsters can be disarmed. and when you do hit it will be for the the same 4-0. Para blow can be handy put its almost more practical to cast paraliyze instead. Defensivly this skill is the same as the others.

Hope this helps

finaly we

 

[Lady Arwen]

Ok.. not even gunna try on that one..

 

[Damia TMC]

Thank you Green that was a very informative and helpful answer. I have been asking people the same question for a couple of weeks now and everyone seems to have a different answer.

Now anyone want to take on what those 3 things do for you in pvp, and which skill would be the most beneficial?

 

[RichDC]

Thank you Green that was a very informative and helpful answer. I have been asking people the same question for a couple of weeks now and everyone seems to have a different answer.

Now anyone want to take on what those 3 things do for you in pvp, and which skill would be the most beneficial?

A mage weapon in PvP will allow you to chug pots and maintain Defence chance.

Wrestle parry mages are hard as hell to hit and can utilist the HPR shields for an extra boost as well as using the event DCI spellbooks (although one must be dropped for pots).

In a stricltly PvP sense, anatomy/healing is wasted points theres simply put too many other ways to maximise defense and gain a tactical advantage. The heals will be far too slow to be effective in PvP.

Offensively, wrestle disarms/para punches can be used to great effect. SC mage weaps with a delayed hit spell(fireball of magic arrow) can be used to help disrupt other mages with 0 loss of skill points(providing equiptments right).

Forgot to add, Wrestle DCI cant be disarmed. A mage weap can.

 

[RL'S pker]

A mage weapon in PvP will allow you to chug pots and maintain Defence chance.

Wrestle parry mages are hard as hell to hit and can utilist the HPR shields for an extra boost as well as using the event DCI spellbooks (although one must be dropped for pots).

In a stricltly PvP sense, anatomy/healing is wasted points theres simply put too many other ways to maximise defense and gain a tactical advantage. The heals will be far too slow to be effective in PvP.

Offensively, wrestle disarms/para punches can be used to great effect. SC mage weaps with a delayed hit spell(fireball of magic arrow) can be used to help disrupt other mages with 0 loss of skill points(providing equiptments right).

Forgot to add, Wrestle DCI cant be disarmed. A mage weap can.

If someone plays a parry wrestle mage in pvp, they should kill themselves IRL.(unless they have godly spell play)


Also, a wrestle mage can have their book disarmed.

 

[Viquire]

Its good to notice also that using a weap, either an sc/mage weap or possibly an sc/ubw allows for other things as well.

For example, if you go the tank route and put tacts on the temp for special moves you do more damage making mana, stam, or life leeches much more useful.

You can go with area effect or spell effect on hit for increased actual damage without having tacts or anatomy by virtue of your higher mage skill, which increases the damage output on spell effect.

Or if you hunt in groups my favorite is to put a hld, or hla or both and augment a pets or summons chance to consistently connect with the target.

Its also worth noting that in either instance a weapon that has sc/no pen, and either mage wep or ubw is going to leave only two other property slots available for mods. Thus making it very worthwhile to experiment with several different types of mage templates equipped specifically to eek out the advantages particular to their skill set.