Lowbie Mage PVP

[Booniehat]

What're the specs you guys would recommended for a mage in her level 20s (and also 30s and 40s)?

I've been lurking around Rift forums (saw Tarien and a few others posts there) and I've seen and tried Seraph's Pyrolock (38Lock/28Pyro); Meduza's Pyrodom, and even PyroChon. (On a side note, what happened to the Necro/Chloro-locks that were so popular the last time I played? Did they get broken with some patch?)

Sadly I think all the above specs simply don't work well till you have the points in all trees e.g. have enough for instant squirrel and a decent amount in Pyro. I tried them but just didn't work at low levels with insufficient talent points.

Can someone recommend a lowbie mage PVP spec? I've actually found Trion's preset Pyro/Stormcaller/0elementallist the best so far. At least there're some instants and 1.5 second cast Thunderbolts I can cast and run off before a rogue kicks my teeth in. But the damage is... sad.

Any ideas ? Preferably broken down for 20s, 30s, and maybe 40s.

[Tarien]

Okay, here we go, Pyrodom through the ages:

Level 21: Build

You are the motherfucking squirrel master. You should be aiming to Transmogrify someone, ANYONE, every six seconds or so. Then you will just nuke with Fireball until they fall over. Keep up Glyphs of Power and Fire Armor as your buffs. Use Deny to remove all those nasty debuffs when you get focussed. Use Incompetence then Degeneration to strip Clerics of their HoTs and laugh maniacally as they desperate spam heals on themselves but end up healing your team. Void Shroud to reduce a targets incoming heals by 50% use it on healers or targets that are being pocket healed.

Level 29: Build

Same as above, the only difference is open on a target with the macro below to get Flame Bolt, Countdown and Searing Vitality on a target. Then Transmogrify, Cinder Burst, Storm Shackle, Fireball spam til dead, squirreling them a second time if needed (or someone else if they are immune, then switch back). Keep Burning Shield up. Use Flicker to get away from people or out of any sort of CC.

Level 39: Build

Use Pyromancers Armor instead of Fire Armor, and cast Cinder Burst when you get procs (icon on screen tells you when). Use Inferno as soon as you can (target is below 30%) as it hits like a truck. Put Burn on your action bar to disarm rogues and warriors (that you aren't targetting, otherwise you may not be able to squirrel them due to diminished returns on CC). Use Internalize Charge whenever your charge bar is above 60%.

Level 49: No Build

Don't PvP, run IAs from 45 til 50 and then get the L50 version of PyroDom (well documented online) or PyroDom Lite.

Macro for opening DoTs:

#show Flame Bolt
suppressmacrofailures
cast Flame Bolt
cast Countdown
cast Searing Vitality

There are some situational abilities I didn't cover that you can use if you feel comfortable with the already large volume of abilities you have, but honestly, squirrel and nuke, squirrel and nuke, and you'll be fine. Keep shields up, Flicker away from enemies, always stay max range.

[Queu]

When I was leveling up my mage around 30-40 I was a Warlock/Necro/Chloro and it was very fun to dot people/hit them with a pet/and heal.

Now that I am 50/rank 40 I play Squirrel master with the Dom/Pyro pvp build. Its all out damage with with very little survivability but it will kill the fastest if you can get with a group.

[Booniehat]

Thanks a lot. Very helpful . So I'm basically rushing my points into 21 Dom first, then building Pyro after that.

[Tarien]

Thanks a lot. Very helpful . So I'm basically rushing my points into 21 Dom first, then building Pyro after that.

Pretty much. You get 5 seconds of double cast speed in exchange for 1.5s (1s later once you get the Spark talent) of CC, it's win win.

From there you pop a couple extra points into Dom to prevent Transmogrify breaking from your DoTs or AoE splash damage, and a couple points into Storm Shackle because it's hilarious watching people explode as they run killing themselves and everyone around them. Then everything goes into Pyro to increase your damage done.

[Deleted]

What're the specs you guys would recommended for a mage in her level 20s (and also 30s and 40s)?

I've been lurking around Rift forums (saw Tarien and a few others posts there) and I've seen and tried Seraph's Pyrolock (38Lock/28Pyro); Meduza's Pyrodom, and even PyroChon. (On a side note, what happened to the Necro/Chloro-locks that were so popular the last time I played? Did they get broken with some patch?)

Sadly I think all the above specs simply don't work well till you have the points in all trees e.g. have enough for instant squirrel and a decent amount in Pyro. I tried them but just didn't work at low levels with insufficient talent points.

Can someone recommend a lowbie mage PVP spec? I've actually found Trion's preset Pyro/Stormcaller/0elementallist the best so far. At least there're some instants and 1.5 second cast Thunderbolts I can cast and run off before a rogue kicks my teeth in. But the damage is... sad.

Any ideas ? Preferably broken down for 20s, 30s, and maybe 40s.

Either go pyrodom, pure pyro or my personal favourite: dom chloro. To me, pyro is kind of faceroll and you see people play it everywhere. Dom chloro is very viable and you can drain healers to the ground, and split personality is just the spell of awesomeness. You wouldn't regret it. But if you want to see numbers and damage and don't care about difficulty pyro is the way to go, pretty straight forward and faceroll soul

[Tarien]

Either go pyrodom, pure pyro or my personal favourite: dom chloro. To me, pyro is kind of faceroll and you see people play it everywhere. Dom chloro is very viable and you can drain healers to the ground, and split personality is just the spell of awesomeness. You wouldn't regret it. But if you want to see numbers and damage and don't care about difficulty pyro is the way to go, pretty straight forward and faceroll soul

Dom Chloro isn't really viable until the late 30's, and at 50 it's more of a 1v1 or duelling spec, it sucks in warfronts. Chloro overall is in desperate need of some PvP love.

PyroDom is one of those easy to play, difficult to master specs. It has so many situational abilities, literally an option for every conceivable eventuality. You have heal debuffs, mana drains, slows, transmogrify, nuking power, roots, AoE, escape tools, shields and reflects, silences, and much more. Every time I play I learn something new, I'm pretty good with it now but still a long way from mastering it.

[gonterf]

I haven't PvP'd since leaving the 40s bracket, but I will say that in the 20s and 30s, full chloro was hilariously fun. At that point your dot still does pretty solid damage and healing, and between that, ruin, and spores, I was topping both damage and healing, while still being able to take a few hits due to self healing. Admittedly, I rarely got killing blows, but I'm sure I prevented a fair number of them on my team :P

[Booniehat]

Dom Chloro isn't really viable until the late 30's, and at 50 it's more of a 1v1 or duelling spec, it sucks in warfronts. Chloro overall is in desperate need of some PvP love.

PyroDom is one of those easy to play, difficult to master specs. It has so many situational abilities, literally an option for every conceivable eventuality. You have heal debuffs, mana drains, slows, transmogrify, nuking power, roots, AoE, escape tools, shields and reflects, silences, and much more. Every time I play I learn something new, I'm pretty good with it now but still a long way from mastering it.

I've been playing the spec for about 5 levels now, just hit 24. It really shines after you can invest 21 points in dominator (you NEED that speed cast buff). And it will only get better after I get that 0.5 GCD reduction talent.

You are absolutely right in that the versatility of the soul is AMAZING. Aside from Squirrel-Fireballing and casting my instants, I've been using Reflective Command to kill other casters with reflects, using accelerated decay to slow spellcasting and melee, using Storm shackle to pop them upon moving, using Incompetence on clueless clerics to steal their heals. I've been trying to also work Grasping Void, the AOE snare, out. Void Shroud on a Fang/Rune carrier is usually death for them as their clerics can't keep up with our incoming damage once that debuff is on.

Friggin' fun! Only time I've met frustration is with twinks They really need to get them out of warfronts. We're all about 1500-2000 hp, but I just had a warfront with a 4000 hp rogue 2 shotting our entire team. Also had a cleric who, even with my healing debuffs and 3 of us focusing him, still jumped around taunting for us to please kill him. Here's hoping they fix the twinks into their own bracket. Sigh.

[Tarien]

Friggin' fun! Only time I've met frustration is with twinks They really need to get them out of warfronts. We're all about 1500-2000 hp, but I just had a warfront with a 4000 hp rogue 2 shotting our entire team. Also had a cleric who, even with my healing debuffs and 3 of us focusing him, still jumped around taunting for us to please kill him. Here's hoping they fix the twinks into their own bracket. Sigh.

Yeah twinks are an issue. Trion keep adding little things that reduce their effectiveness, but really they should just be shoved into their own bracket. That said if you can pick up some nice gear the 35->39 levels your mage will really shine with that spec