Build a mage from scratch

I don't put in a lot of time anymore but I figured that I would make a SW for the times I do. I'm truly bored of being asked to tank all the time so others can have all the fun killing.

So I started a brand new SW. Luckily I was able to jump into the PW at level 10, (currently at 20) so it is a little bit easier than being forced to play regular maps. Not sure how long I'll be able to do nothing but PW maps as at some point I'll need to wait for wisdom points.

I do have some basic questions for pve builds since all the changes that have happened since I last played a SW.

Should I even bother with trying to build a 1h?

I'm guessing that a 2H should be sort of built with as high dmg/crit/crit dmg as possible with little focus on hp/armor.

Something in the neighborhood of 8000HP and 45/50% armor.

I would think that dmg in the 3500-5000 range, 30% crit, 195% crit chance should be a target range for begin end game and boss crafting options.

 

If you need a little fun to kill and not tank you should start a dwarf.... but however. Here are some tips:
1h build is an ultimate build for pvp so now do not bother thinking about it
2h is the way to start (and maybe end) your adventure as a sw and look always for highest %damage on weapon. First of all grow up till 55 even if your wisdom is low but you have to spare more time possible to start crafting and looking for good leg and uniques useful "in itinere". In order to optimize the crafting earn as much gold as possible (if you do not know the value of items simply sell everything but leg and uniques). While you are awaiting for your crafting results buy pw uniques: they are an easy way to start balancing the char. While you farm for the uniques look for these kind of items: helmet with highest % chritic hit value; shoulder with highest % total armor; torso with highest % damage; gloves with highest % speed and same for boots; adornment with highest % chritic hit value on this item; rings with highest chrit damage (look for chritic hit value in the base stats); belt with highest % damage; necklace with highest % life. Cloack of karabossa if you can or however look for chrit value and chrit damage.

 

You are right. 1H builds are a thing in the past. The difference of damage that you can have with a 2H compared to a 1H is significant and thus negates any reason whatsoever to have a 1H build for a SW.

For an initial level 55 SW build you are right on most things, except HP. Even without a single equipment on you, you will have 7200 HP at level 55.
So you are looking for about 20K HP, 5k Armor, 4k damage, 20% crit, 2.5x crit damage. But that is just for a fresh newbie SW.

Within a month you should be looking for 25k HP, 7k Armor, 6k damage, 30% crit, 2.75x crit damage.

 

Thanks cdeepal. That is exactly what I was looking for.

I hit level 31 today and have done no quests outside of Q1. I'm not sure if something has changed when it comes to low level gear or not but I've not had a single gold enchantment on any drop so far. I'm thinking it is more random bad luck than anything else, but with DSO you never know. I do get plenty gold baseline stats though which helps for now.

I had to switch to one hand today simply based on drops, but hope to get back to a 2H if something decent will ever drop.

At least with doing nothing but Q1, map 1, there are plenty of gops to use/save up for later. If I manage to get some luck I'll see if I can't handle finishing Q1 and move on to Q2, but I need much better gear before I waste the time/effort.

*Edit for update on day 7*

After running Q1 over and over again, taking a break only to do the cape quests here is my new mage after 7 days. Still have not seen a single gold enchantment line.

 

Gold enchantments are rare.
In my experience the chances for you to see a gold enchantment on regular maps is about 1 in 300. I may be slightly off here, but give or take it is about that. So for example, if you want to see a gold enchantment in a glove, you would have to either open around 300 green gloves, 150 blues or 100 pinks. There is a higher chance for you to see a gold line on a legendary though.

Painful mode has a higher chance than the regular maps, but in my experience it is not that much.

Weaker players can hunt in regular maps to get golden lines because you can kill creatures fast and thus increasing your chances much higher than if you would hunt in parallel worlds.

The other option is to use your PVP fame points to purchase green items from the PvP merchant.

However, having said that, my advice is not to think too much about golden lines for now.
Until you reach level 55, you may not need to worry about golden lines.
But try to save every useful golden line you may find on random green equipment. They are rare and still would be useful to craft better items when you are at 55.

I would ask you to do the full moon event and seek the Bloodrune set. The full Bloodrune set will give you a real nice boost to all your stats and is much easier to find than a good set of equipment with golden lines. This set is a great starter set and would stay with you for some time.

 

Hi Rhysingstar, during the last Dragan event my DK lvl 27 got many items with gold lines (around 100 +or-)...but after the R194 still during the Dragan event i got zero until i reached lvl 40 and even at lvl 40 the gold lines are very rare (perhaps every 500 or so) only got 1 item with gold lines during to whole Full-Moon event at lvl 40.

My guess is that the dev team removed all gold stats below lvl 40 (I'm 100% sure, but without prove...well you know how it goes)and perhaps it will only increase as you lvl up.

Hope this helps.

 

Other than the cape quests, I don't run regular maps, just Q1. I hit level 40 today and saw my first gold enchantment line. Loads of base gold lines which I have been equipping. I hit 15 in wisdom today which gave me a nice dmg boost, but killed my speed. I got a 2% from full moon, but got bored and went back to Q1.

I have used your example of using greens and upgrading them as high as possible. I am also melting everything.

The gold base lines are really heavy in armor/hp, but for now that is not the worst problem to have. A few more runs and I'll upgrade my staff and hit 2300 dmg.

I am using only one leg torso and one exo staff, the rest is green gear.




Edit again:

I've hit level 41 and 16 in wisdom.

Still wish that I could gain wisdom faster as that would make a huge difference in my stats.

Got some new gear during full moon and dwarf event that made a good bit of difference.

However, here is my current progress



My wand is mostly dmg % with a small amount of dmg on item.

I've found two really high dmg on item green wands, but without gems to put in it I lose a ton of dmg overall.

Edit again:

Today Monday Aug 7th, I got wisdom up to 17 and upgraded a few more items.

Although I wish that I could slow down in leveling a bit, my little mage is coming along quite nicely. I may have to go and do some regular maps instead of focusing so much on the parallel worlds.



Well today (Aug 25th) I hit level 52 and and 23 in wisdom but took a serious beating on crit and resist, drop 7% in resist from lvl 50 to 52 and lost 5% crit in the process. The rest is looking good despite my lack of gaining wisdom points.

Should hit 55 in the next few days and can start on crafting good gear.



Today (Aug 26th) I got a somewhat tolerable leg weapon drop and that made a pretty good difference. Also leveled up my shoulders to add a touch more hp and armor, along with amulet for a smidge more crit.



Latest update Aug 31st

I'm about half way through level 53 and making steady progress. I know that I'm lacking hp still, but once I get wisdom that will jump very fast.

If all goes well, I should be around 6300 to 6500 max dmg by the time I hit 55.




I finally hit level 55. It took 40 days from 1 to 55 and I skipped the vast majority of quests.

I still lack 20 wisdom points, so my hp will grow quite a bit once I get more.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find anything that would boost my crit or resist while leveling up, but as a fresh 55, I'm quite happy overall with this mage.

I've got plenty of ingredients to begin crafting.