Help! I play caster, and need advice!

[GFN]

*whistles whilst casting Eldritch Spear at everything*

Advice? Well you could always come to the dark side...

[breteas]

Its difficult in the sense that it is unforgiving. If you make a mistake you normally end up in the fugue when you play a magician like caster. Its frustration prone. Calling it easy depends on whether the person playing a character knows all the tricks and places to go. Ofcourse its easy then. But that's also true for any other class and combination.

Most of us don't know those things though. So its not easy. I play a caster sometimes and I need advice all the time. I usually escape by the skin of my teeth when I go somewhere I ought not to. Or I go the fugue with a curse on my lips.

Its more forgiving to play a warrior or divine character in my experience. Your escapes are more comfortable and you get frustrated less. Its different gameplay styles. Part of playing a magician like caster is that knowing things becomes very valuable. Not just spells but enemies, weaknesses and laws of nature (server mechanics).

It is good that you are giving advice, very useful

I agree Ras, the advice given to level fast on a caster whether it be in a few hours or 5 or more to gain levels fast, is obviously not aimed at anyone new to BG. It definitely only applies to those that are well versed in the casting classes. Nevertheless, I stand by my opinion that leveling casters is hard to do.

Surely, there can be debate as to how many levels can be attained in a few hours, but many of the posts I see are related to gaining the same amount of levels and having trouble with it, over days, sometimes weeks. Now I understand that casters do have a learning curve. While very powerful, a single mistake can ruin your day.

But that doesn't make them hard to level. It makes them tricky to get used to, and I would easily say far from as tricky as say, levelling some of the pure non caster classes.

lvl8 in 2 hours... highly unlikely in my opinion

even if you somehow manage to do all the quests thats like 8000XP

so you want to grind 20000 XP in the remaining time????

It is highly unlikely. But I do believe it's possible. At worst, you gain it 1-2 hours later. The whole point of my post was to save all quest Xp as long as you can, and try to get the most out of low level spawns. Difficult? Yes. Hard to not die as well? Yes. Impossible? I really don't think so. But as I said, if I can manage it in but a few hours, I'll let know.

Because, you know, I'm not getting to lvl 2 in the graveyard. I'm getting to lvl 2 where I know spawns will give ridiculous Xp. And If I can manage, I'll get to lvl 3 in Batiri mines lvl 4. For 70+ xp/kill. And yes, I think I can survive there. Obviously, a single stroke of bad luck might ruin the whole trip. And make me fail. But with a little luck on gold/loot drops, spawns, and kowing where to get insane Xp, I do think it's possible.


So deliver all those fancy quests as late as possible, when you notice Xp dropping. Because at early levels, grinding is really easy for casters. Easier for some than other classes, but you get my drift.

[dzidek1983]

personally i dont leave the graveyard till im lvl 5...

why?

25 gp per bone
on lvl 4 i still get 10-20 xP per kill sepending on the spawned opponent

its easy, even with a wizard, once you get lvl 2 spells its super easy

after about 3 hours you are lvl 5 and have ca 20 gp
just enough to buy some nice gear like anagrys slave collar and a stack of usuables

after that its quests that net you a whole level

and you are lvl 6 in about 4 hours

[Karond]

I leave the graveyard after level 2 everytime. If possible, I even try to get to cloakwood at level 1, where I join the 3-5 players running around. I won't fight much, I'll just hang around and collect the xp until I'm level 4-5.

[dzidek1983]

i did this before... but currently the cloakwood seems less populated...

[breteas]

personally i dont leave the graveyard till im lvl 5...

why?

25 gp per bone
on lvl 4 i still get 10-20 xP per kill sepending on the spawned opponent

its easy, even with a wizard, once you get lvl 2 spells its super easy

after about 3 hours you are lvl 5 and have ca 20 gp
just enough to buy some nice gear like anagrys slave collar and a stack of usuables

after that its quests that net you a whole level

and you are lvl 6 in about 4 hours

\

But that's the easy way. Easy money, safe levelling, and a good chance at some nice loot to sell at Maltz. You might even get lucky and get a really nice item valuable enough for auction.

Then again, an argument could be made for gaining access to much higher levels, sooner, with the opportunitty to loot more areas. Which is better? Staying safe with little gains, or taking a chance and going risky? I don't know. I just know chances of dying on any casting class diminshes after lvl 6-8 or so.

A simple mage at lvl 4 can go places no lvl 4 can go. Because he can go invisible.

Edit: the "Risky part" is far from easy though. I know That much.

Edit III: Btw, Dzidek, you can ask away. I wouldn't be so up front with my posts if I wasn't (and I am) as referred to by a former Dm: "one hell of a caster player"

So shoot. I'll anwser.

And as you so nicely put, you say what I claim is impossible. Well, good news, guess why I'm annoyed at most complaining posts? Anwser: because I prove wrong. That's why.

You should offer me a stealth question, or how hard it is to gain gold. How hard it is to gain riches, or Xp, or any of that. Really. Go for it.

That's the whole reason I don't try anymore. I could elaborate, but seriously, BG combat/lvling/looting has about tetris difficulty. And you know it.

Edfit II: Any caster complaiing how hard it is to level, should talk to those brave players trying Rogue, pure sneaks, and a whole lot of other on casting classes, and then, speak up.

Casters should be ashamed, at complaining how hard lvl-ing is.

->> Period.

[Deathgrowl]

I have a request to the really good caster players:

Give some specific suggestions on how to deal with various dungeons on the server, solo and in party. Particularly epic level dungeons.

For instance: How do you, breteas, take a wizard through the Vault of the Dead - solo and party? What spells do you prepare? How do you use them?

These suggestions need to be viable for any alignment. And preferably not necessarily a min-maxed super power build.

Can it be done? In another thread, perhaps?

[odyssey]

In my time on bg, I noticed it's rather hard to level casters. Am I the only one? I'm sure there are others? How can this be fixed?

FYI, to all the good hearted people who posted: this individual is one of the best casters on the PW.

Amazing thread Bre <3.

Your rating of the best magicians?

[Aelcar]

I have a request to the really good caster players:

Give some specific suggestions on how to deal with various dungeons on the server, solo and in party. Particularly epic level dungeons.

For instance: How do you, breteas, take a wizard through the Vault of the Dead - solo and party? What spells do you prepare? How do you use them?

These suggestions need to be viable for any alignment. And preferably not necessarily a min-maxed super power build.

Can it be done? In another thread, perhaps?

Caster you mean...arcanes? Pure casters, melee casters or hybrid casters?

Bringing a caster through an epic dungeon in a party is very easy of course, and the spell choice and usage depends on whom you roll with.

When you solo an epic dungeon with an arcanist, the spells you pick, how you use them and how strong you will be depend on your build. For instance, a 10 Shadow Adept kind of build will be incredibly strong in the Frost Keep but will see his or her options limited in the Vault of the Dead (Enchantment and Illusion are pretty much useless schools in there save for defenses, and Necromancy's options are limited). Usually a very strong Evoker (say, an Archmage with ESF evocation and CL 32+) has an easy time in the Vault, is decent in the Keep (lots of HP on enemies make your spells go away very quickly, so you'll want to use control spells a lot and let a summon and cloud spells do the job) and good enough against bosses (but solo they are riskier than other mages), however he has big problems with high reflex saves combined with evasion/imp. evasion.

If you want to know how to solo epic dungeons on an arcanist, you need to specify which build he/she has and which dungeon(s) you are interested in.

@ Odyssey: rate mages? Suuuure! You're the best mate, hands down . Also, brilliant Thread Necromancer to boot! So...the bestEST!!

[Deathgrowl]

K. Standard wizard20/asoc10. Or sorcerer equivalent. Nothing fancy.

[Aelcar]

K. Standard wizard20/asoc10. Or sorcerer equivalent. Nothing fancy.

Better to prepare a new thread for this.

The Wiz20/ASoC10 is much weaker than Sorc20/ASoC10 in certain areas, whereas if it's DC focused in the right schools can dominate others. I'll give you my opinion in the new thread though, because this one is kind of a troll to begin with .

[Deathgrowl]

I just think it would be useful to have a "How to play mage/caster" thread with some genuine, specific advice.

[AC81]

Do we really need a 'play-through' guide for any characters, especially the most powerful class in the game? Seems like it might kinda ruin some content and surprises for people. But if any were going to write it, I'd vote for Aelcar, Breteas or ohboy007.

How about a thread for a boring, non-UMD fighter? You know, someone that can't buff themselves to the status of a demi-god ...

[Aelcar]

Do we really need a 'play-through' guide for any characters, especially the most powerful class in the game? Seems like it might kinda ruin some content and surprises for people. But if any were going to write it, I'd vote for Aelcar, Breteas or ohboy007.

How about a thread for a boring, non-UMD fighter? You know, someone that can't buff themselves to the status of a demi-god ...

Thanks for the vote of confidence man .

For non-UMD fighters, I have been thinking about it a lot, but I never really found a good answer to the various problems it would have. I'll think about it...

Meanwhile, a quasi-non-UMD fighter that can solo the Balor and pretty much everything else is the dwarf of Karond, Grimm Oathbreaker...pretty impressive!

For zero UMD play, I defer to your wisdom. I read of your bruiser 40 STR idea, pretty nice . By my side, I think that the biggest problem of zero UMD play is defense. HiPS, Evasion and other forms of defense (DR, regen...) are very important without magic back-up, I think, most of all because every enemy rolls way too many 20s . That's why off the top of my head the most effective non-UMD, non-magic users tend to be Monks.

[Rasael]

Writing guides per class would probably help a lot. Not only players but also to gauge where the pain spots are for particular classes.