BMG tips

The same argument could be made in reverse...a fully-prepared BMG is the bane of an invoker. Across all of my BMGs, I only lost to one invoker...that was as my undead bmg vs. a Stalker gnome invoker and I was on the way back from cabal item retrieval.

There's only ONE spell in an invoker's arsenal that hurts a BMG and that spell can only be cast in certain conditions and certain locations. It's really not hard to get around.

In my experience, the most difficult fight for a BMG is an evil cleric.

I agree that an invoker isn't the bane to a bmg that is prepared for him. But the invoker should still have the edge with a higher damage output.

Foxx, Mma is correct in saying that telling someone that there is an item that allows you to cast two sears in a round is misleading - it makes it sound like there is an item that will allow you to cast two sears in a round whenever you want. Also, considering that the item in question is not bmg-only, I don't see how it has any relevance to giving advice regarding how to play bmgs specifically. I do have to agree with him that, as a rule, when giving a newb advice that advice should be stuff that applies mostly across the board, not advice that only is useful in very specific situations (unless, of course, you are asked about what to do in such a situation). Tricks regarding the use of specific rare/unique items at certain times of day aren't the kind of tips newbs are looking for - they're looking for general strategies and help staying alive.

That being said, both of you need to learn to cool down when discussing things with each other.

And I have never seen an invoker lose to a bmg. I don't think an invoker of mine has ever even been forced to flee by a bmg.

Also' date=' considering that the item in question is not bmg-only, I don't see how it has any relevance to giving advice regarding how to play bmgs specifically.[/quote']

That is good point.

I take your remark.

There's only ONE spell in an invoker's arsenal that hurts a BMG and that spell can only be cast in certain conditions and certain locations. It's really not hard to get around.

You means Call Lightning? Cause if you skip Armor/Shield/StoneSkin/AirShield you are in the the same AC range as any other class. Not good enough? Remove Chest,Leg,Arm armor.

This thread is fun, it appears that None of you has the faintest idea that Auto Casting Sear is the least important thing about the Item.

But what do I know ...

Also, if you are fighting a BMG at noon you are either about to kill him, or not very smart.

I will give you a small advice here. There was a time in which I hated Mya real bad. I wanted to burst on her and prove her wrong every time she posts. That of course wouldn't have looked good neither for me' date=' nor for her, because as we know, proving Mya wrong is not a hard thing to do. Instead of that though, I decided to try a different approach and pretend that I like her. And it works (most of the time at least ). I would advice you to try it. I will start pretending that I like you too, from now on [/quote']

F0xx, You should correct that to "thinking that you proved Mya Wrong, while not grasping certain unusual concepts in the matter".

And great strategy!!! As it is said, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Shh, I was hoping she would miss that paragraph

Foxx your original advice about the shield is not true under any circumstances if you want to get technical.

Invoker vs Bmg is such a painful fight in most cases. I can't remember who played Nemis but I killed her once when I had my bmage before Cerihk. Think I had 80hp left, mainly due to being caught unprepared...but, that's what PK is all about.

Battlemages are designed to be functional melee killers. People will tell you that heavily decked melee's are your bane. I would argue that a heavily decked warrior with the right weapon choice is anyone's bane…so pay that no mind.

The trick to playing a successful battlemage and playing one that is just so-so relies on a few things. Keep in mind that battlemages are like many other casters that do not have a reliable lag skill, so you need to be able to chase efficiently.

I play my battlemages with a melee mindset, not because they are LIKE a melee class as Foxx will tell you, but because they are a very offensive class. You need to always be putting the pressure on your opponent with spells and with chasing.

Dispel is your biggest friend vs melee. Most melee's are going to be equipped with pure hit/dam so a dispel is really gonna rock their world if you are dancing the right weapon and are fighting a race susceptible to sharpmetal. If they are magic resistant races, sharpmetal/meteor can really push some nice damage.

Sear is your "mega" spell. But knowing when to use it is key. My battlemages will almost always try to initiate a fight around 8am. That gives me a couple hours to soften up my opponent without showing my trump card. Even if it is a close battle and they have you on the run…let them chase you, and let them stay close. Once 11am rolls around, a nice dispel/sear or even just a blinding sear will turn the table.

Obviously Ogres make great targets with a magical dancing blade, their magic vuln(read dispel magnet) and Sear will pull unspeaks on them. I have three-hit killed Ogres before with just Sear alone.

Mana upkeep is the one thing all battlemage advice givers will have in common on their list. Some will tell you that cancellation is the way to go, some will tell you that having slow up 100% of the time is the way to do it. Don't feel as though you need to listen to any of them.

Battlemage is a very versatile class and being such allows you to play them in a variety of different ways. How do I deal with the mana upkeep? I either use a client that supports a tick timer or recently as I have been playing on a Mac client without one, I've just learned to keep a count going in my head while fighting. Sleeping at the right time will allow you to counter the mana drain effectively. And it isn't really THAT bad if you go 5 hours without slow or sleeping. What is bad is if you run around for 20 hours looking for someone or whatever and you haven't used slow or the sleeping technique. Also, always keep milk on hand and try to always be full. You want to maximize your mana regen with simple tools, not with a tool that is going to have drawbacks if you can help it.

Keeping slow up 100% of the time in my opinion is not a good idea and generally I wouldn't advise it. It will make you eat extra damage in fights vs melee. Against a caster/communer I would probably have it up at the start, but don't feel as though it is one of your "must-haves" It does help your mana regen but it also has several drawbacks.

My biggest piece of advice to anyone trying to play a battlemage is to just remember that you are NOT that complex of a class and you really do not need to overthink things. I read that someone said cancellation is a big help…I never even use the spell except when preparing to fight the Wight and I need to remove fly. I run around when fighting and when not fighting and I always have the ability to keep all my spells up. I never need to duck away in a hidden place to cancel everything and re-prep. When chasing someone that you have on the run….don't stop to put blur back up. Don't stop to put air shield back up. Chase with either sharpmetal if they can counter and murder if they cannot. Having one or two spells down will not be the end of you. Obviously if you are chasing them and sharpmetal/murder only to find out they pulled a quick one on you with nymph hearts/red staff/etc then you need to get away and put those couple spells back up or get away altogether.

Battlemages really rely on some of the most basic PK skills. Knowing when to stay in the fight, knowing when to get away from the fight. Like I said, I try to start my fights around 8am…by 11am I have a general idea of where the fight is headed. If dispel/sear hasn't put it into my advantage by then…I'm gone.

Just to reiterate…don't take my word as gold here, don't take anyone elses either. Battlemage is a class you really just need to find your comfort zone with when dealing with the mana issue and spell utility. And don't feel like you need to only fight around noon…I've won plenty of battles without sear as well. Keep in mind that you have one of the best disarm abilities in the game…use it wisely.

You do not eat more damage from being slowed in meele fights. The drop on DEX disrupts your AC and your Parrying ability. But most BMG will have a belt of +4 Dex that completely counters this effect. Now Field Dressing DEX penalty is a Pain, especially since it fails so much.

I personally favor Slow all the time, but I try to counter the penalties by being Flying,Mounted, and catching most tics. You do lose lost of moves just moving somewhere, but you can also regen 200 moves per sleep.

A small trick I use, if I have to chase is to put Haste up, since I cannot cancel Slow, and then Cancel Haste when I want to Rest. This is interesting, but add another complexity factor to a class that is already complex just from doing nothing.

This is why I love BMG. You can do anything with them, if you master of the BMG particularities. But with so much option comes also the openings for great mistakes and failures.

Invockers are not half of what BMG are. For example, when I was refreshing my Vocker from Autodelete (NO RARES), you managed to strike at him in the 5 min space I cannot log out. And managed to Sear me blind on first strike, at which I fleed, and used my 2 Gyvels not curing blindness.

Sensing death 10 rooms from my pit, (I knew how good you are), I decided to go with a bang and blow some of your gear .

So I put up Firestorm up, and waited. You came, and I just spamed HellStream with my fully charged staff for === Desintegrate ===/round. 3 hellstreams latter, I am bellow 200 hp of 750 and you just fleed. Could not see your HP because of Blindness.

This is why I do not play much Invockers. They are to easy once you know how to fully charge your staff.

PS: If you have the log of your fight vs the Halfling Ranger Warmaster, post it. I am quite curious of how you did it.

Just to add, IMNHO, Battlemages have no counter class. And are not the counter to any class, because they are so versatile.

But some classes have some key skill/spells that hinder them greatly.

DK - Silence/Energy Drain -> Easy counter-able with Saves.

Berserker - Haymaker -> Run, Just run and recast.

I don't remember fighting your invoker...what was the name? The invoker i killed was Nemis and the fight was way different than what you described.

Just because there are ways of defending against a classes abilities does not mean that there are not classes who's skillsets are designed to compete against what your class is built on.

i.e bmage is built around physical damage mitigation/defense. invokers are built on magic damage. shamans disable/cripple you and drain your mana.

slow DOES cause u to take more damage. unless, like other things, you find a way to defend against it. and even then, without reading the code, i wouldn't be surprised if there was something else in there that u can't defend against

my point was that i would rather not have to deal with the mana issue by using a spell that deteriorates me and causes me to trade one evil for another. i'd rather not have to invest in +dex eq if I can swap in +hp eq for it.

i submitted the editted jaspurr log, they just never posted it. It was not his best fight, however it was not mine either. I was dancing a blade he was resistant to. He was using physical arrows, but I had recited missile immune anyway. He did not flee/herb soon enough or at all actually. I believe at the end one of his triggers caused him to attack me and he died.

And before you go all "oh well duh that totally discredits you killing him" there were plenty of times i sent him packing. and plenty of times he sent me packing. that's how great pk matchups work. one of you just waiting to capatilize on the mistake of another. what it means to be able to consistently go head-to-head with someone of high caliber like a decked halfling WM elder repeatedly is that you have a decent grasp on the class and can perform time in and time out with him.

Does Not!!!

Nemis was me. My first invoker. I found I do like invokers, but didn't know enough consumables survive very well. Thought I did pretty well against you considering....

You did very well capitalizing on my mistakes, caught me completely off guard and without sanc.

I think we caught a couple times and you always did well. Invokers, bane or no bane, are tough for a battlemage. High magic dmg is exactly what an battlemage does not want to face.