Interview
with : Interview
with :
Grandpa
Name, level, server, message board name :
Used to play: Grandpa (Spec:Life/Creat/Mana C/Loy), 95, Solclaim, Grandpa_SC
Now play: Evil Grandpa (Spec:Creature/War), 50, Solclaim, Great_Grandpa
(recently returned to AC)
Favorite message board : AC Vault – Solclaim board
How long have you been playing AC? 2 years
How much do/did you play every week? When I was actively playing Grandpa
I played 4-5 hours a day during the week and 10+ hours a day on weekends. Now, I
play just a few hours a day.
What template of mage do you currently Play? I am leveling up an Opal
mage with 100 endurance for pk on a carebear server … I have a lot of critics
with my choice, but I’ll show em!
Here are my thoughts on it:
Why 100 End Opal Mage (Spec: Creature/War) is the best template for pk … (on a
carebear server)
Primary Goal for a PK Mage:
- Kill your opponent with magics
Secondary Goal for a PK Mage:
- Don’t get killed by your opponent via any form of attack
- Kill your opponent with melee
If killing your opponent with magics is the primary goal for a pk mage, then it
can come from either life magic and/or war magic in the form of drain health,
harm, and war spells.
If you tactics are to drain and harm as a killing method, then life magic is
king … and to enhance your capability, using creature magic to weaken your
opponents resisting capability can prove beneficial. From an offensive strategy,
one would benefit by yielding, baffling and feebleminding your foe before the
drain-fest and harm go underway. Debuffing is valuable here, because of the
multiple drains that must succeed followed by a harm or two. From this
perspective, an Og or Grandpa Mage would do nicely by being specialized in
creature and life. Now, using this tactic will not make you a popular pk for
sure, but to each his own.
However, if your tactics are to vuln and war your opponent to death, life and
war would be obvious choices to specialize in … so a battlemage template may
do nicely. This tactic would also benefit from a high creature skill to weaken
your opponent’s magic resistance. However, battlemages are not specialized in
creature, so their ability to yield isn’t at par with spec creature templates
like Ogs or Grandpa Mages. Even without the yield, one may argue they can still
land a yield, bafflement, and feeblemind at higher levels … but the
effectiveness is in question.
Why is the yield/baffle/feeblemind important? Assuming no spell economy, the
trio would reduce your opponent’s magic resistance by 60 points. That 60
points is a very substantial benefit for your ability to land additional spells
on your opponent. The typical difference between a trained offensive skill and
specialized one is about 20-30 points … so the yield trio actually increases
your capabilities more than the difference between a specialized and trained
skill (2 or 3 times more). This of course assumes you can land your spells at
your current buffed level vs. your opponent’s magic defense.
Now, without getting too far off track … a battlemage that quickly vulns and
fires wars (sometimes finishing with a harm) at an opponent can dispatch them
quicker than any other mage … ASSUMING they can land their spells.
Here is where the bulk of my argument comes into play …
From my experience, the most difficult spell to land in pk is one’s war …
you could have your opponent vulned … and fire away till till your blue in the
face (or out of mana), and never hit your opponent. The fact is, war are hard to
land … hard hard hard … the better the pk opponent, the better they are at
evading your wars …
Now, with a vuln VII and War VII … your dream scenario is to one-shot your
enemy … this ability increases if the opponent started at 10 endurance … I
remember being one-spanked a few times with 230 health at 95th level … I think
the chances go down quite a bit when you can buff to 250 or more.
SO, if you want to kill with war, IMHO … you must specialize in war … b/c if
you don’t and your war does happen to hit your foe and he resists … shame
shame … you might have lost your chance … your gotta land that war … if it
is resisted … even just once or twice … that can make the difference in a
battle … I know it did for me a number of times. The best chance that your war
will land and not be resisted is if your opponent is yielded and your war is
specialized …
Opal mage … specialized Creature/War … give you the best chance to land your
yield trio (as well as any other debuffs) and your war. You only need to land 1
vuln … following your yield trio, you should be able to do it in a few tries.
Finishing off your foe … assuming you land your yield trio and vuln … and
you nail em with a war VII … if they are still alive … they will try to
quickly heal or stam to health, etc. to recover … you must act quickly, by
following with a harm or war volley or fast streak … do harm if they run for
cover … but wars are more honorable ;p
So that takes care of my argument for Primary Goal for a PK Mage:
- Kill your opponent with magics
Now, to the Secondary Goal for a PK Mage:
- Don’t get killed by your opponent via any form of attack
- Kill your opponent with melee
Don’t get killed by your opponent … let’s deal with death by magics to
start …
Your magic defense obviously comes into play here … the higher the better …
so mages with spec Magic D can defend like no others … by not too many of them
around … their templates are some of the hardest to level. But, their killing
power is weakend b/c of it … most will just train war … and many variations
can’t take healing till very high levels 100+ (also a nice defensive skill).
So, if your goal is never to die in a pk fight … spec magic d will help you
out … but will hurt your ability to kill at the same time … but you will
surely frustrate your foes and prove to be a nice challenge b/c of it.
To survive a melee attack … buffed high AL armor is necessary … the
Pre-Patch GSA will be king … an imp and a few banes, and not to many melees
will take you down (there are a few out there that will spank you … you know
who you are) … I never found battles with melees that stressful (especially if
you have healing) … unless my buffs were about to drop or they were
particularly good …
Mages with trained melee skills … well … tried it with a 350 staff skill,
and never killed one pk with melee … now if it was UA … maybe you’d get
someone off-guard … and the ol’ mage to melee change-up can get you some
good results … now if you are an OG UA … the rules change b/c you are more
effective, but in regards to a trained skill … I’d view it as a novelty if
you opponent runs around in a robe … bust out your hollow and teach em a
lesson. But you’d be better off spending the exp necessary to get a trained
melee high enough on your magics.
Now, to my last argument … 100 end … I was a 100 str mage … it is the best
for PvM for sure … had a nice 350 staff skill … could wear heavy armor and 2
dozen mastery robes … but for PvP … I think strength only needs to be high
enough to wear GSA, sols, helm, gaunts, comps, and gems or mana stones as death
items … this can easily be handled even at mid levels … your pk set-up
shouldn’t be like a PvM set-up anyway. So, assuming you can carry ONLY what
you need for pk and you are only using items coverable by gems or mana stones,
you do NOT need much strength … plus I argued earlier that a trained weapon is
really just a novelty for pk … yeah, some may use it wisely, but you
definitely don’t need it. To reiterate, I was never killed by a trained weapon
character, nor did I kill anyone with my trained weapon …
SO, what will save your life in pk, is your health … much much more important
in pk than in PvM … you need 250+ to start feeling comfortable in my opinion
… even if you do survive a vuln VII, war VII, every lill bit of extra health
is critical!!! It effects your ability to heal yourself (healing skill does have
to rise to compensate for higher health … usually want it to be 1.5 times your
health) … and ability to survive a following attack, like a harm or volley …
even another war VII … you might have enough time to cast a stam to health 1,
and a mana to health 1 or heal to get back to near 220+ … I wasn’t the best
pk for sure … but the majority of times I died was due to a follow-up war b/c
I wasn’t able to get ENOUGH health back to protect against it quickly enough.
Plus at higher levels, w/ 100 starting end and Baron’s (or ring) … the
chance you will get one-shotted will be very low.
Now, I know there are some great pks out there with different tactics and
suggestions … this is just based on my experience and my thought process.
Remember, I am just arguing for a pk mage template not an all-around one …
Is AC your first MMORPG? if not what others have you played and did you play
a mage?
Yes, AC was my first MMORPG.
What was your first mage character? Do you still play it?
Grandpa was my 1st Mage (spec:life/creat/mana c … trained:war at 26th, item at
60th, and Healing at 90th)
I do not currently play Grandpa anymore. Grandpa changed hands while I took a
few months off of AC shortly after DM was released.
How do you play AC? Are you in it to power-level, Dungeon Dwelling, adventuring,
friends, etc.
With Grandpa, I was 100% into power-leveling until I got to 60th and took item
… I used a mule to buff my clothing and spent my life in the Ayan BSD for 3
months (ugg). After 60th, I spent a lot of time questing and having fun. I did
manage an experience chain at that point, and that helped considerably getting
to 90th so I could take healing and then I went pk.
With Evil Grandpa, I will level up to 60th or so and start to pk!
What gear do you normally hunt in?
With Grandpa I wore a full black 250+ AL platemail suit. Each piece was under
22k so I could cover the suit with mastery robes. For pk I used PP Olthoi Helm
and GSA with mana stones as death items. Both setups I used a baron’s amulet
as the only piece of jewelry and a focus stone.
What do you feel was the best thing to happen to mages in the game?
Level VII spells.
What do you think is the worst thing that affects mages?
Not much, they are pretty powerful.
Are mages overpowered?
Not as much with the recent melee love.
What are your thoughts on Drain Health I?
Love it!
What template do you advocate for a starting mages?
Starter Mages: Og/All-trained
Medium Mages: Opal/Battlemage
Hardest Mages: Grandpa/Grief
What do you feel turbine needs to do with mages, if anything?
I think they are pretty well set.
After the primary skills have been obtained what skill do you think a mage
should take? Arcane, Healing, Lockpicking, or MeleeD?
Healing for melee and pk and lockpick if they are heavy questers or love sing
keys.
Care to reminisce? What has been the best patch or moment or epiphany that
you have had in AC.
I’d have to say getting to 60th way back when with Grandpa and finally getting
item, and having all my supporters (and many skeptics) congratulate me. It was
all gravy after that point.
Comments?
I’d still like to promote the Grandpa template for all-around mage template
… just b/c I play an Opal now, doesn’t mean I have given up on my respect
for the template … I just want to have more fun at pk this time around.
Shot outs?
Some of my favorite folks in the game past and present are:
Uncas (my one and only true patron)
Selar and Ima (good folk)
Podmunker (funniest slob I know)
The ol’ Ogmatic (now Lagmatic)
Ihuma II (for teaching me how to pk)
Senor Smackdown (b/c he’s my bro)
Dead Beat (b/c he’s my pal)
Goken Ru (long-time friend)
Triena (my newest game bud)
Mercie the Saint (nicest guy)
Nights who say Ni! Guild/POA Guild/Old House Valiant
And everyone that puts up with all my crazy posts!
Have fun everyone!!
Great Grandpa
Thank you for taking the time to do this.
Dizzarian