Returning player! Magi combat.

Akhvar

Hello, I've been returning from a long dormancy, and I'm looking to hop back into combat. I'm a Magi, Transcendent Elementalism and mostly Transcendent crystalism. Any tips, tricks, strategies, or even logs would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Alrena

It all comes down to either outdamage, or use retardation. If you can't outdamage it, an unexpected retardation will kill almost anyone if you know what you're doing. Staffstrikes are a great way to prep enemies, and a concussion in retard is nasty, which is what you'll want to go for. Concussed and shivering, then you've pretty much won. Mind the order you put your vibes in, as retardation eats them in a first in, first out manner. Meaning, you put the important ones like tremors, lullaby and plague last!

That's the basics! 

Jovolo

There isn't much point in breaking arm before you drop retardation, and it's usually better to prep with air for crystal forest (I think air was moved from 12% limb damage to standardised 33%, but I can't verify it.) Or earth in conjunction with plague and efreeti.

If you break arm prior, when ret drops, they'd have cured it before retardation even settles, and it doesnt stop them from just leaving.

When in ret, you want to break leg before arm(s). This is because it a) bides time for your vibes to make an impact and b) will prevet them from leaving immediately.

After that, you typically go for their arms to prevent outrifting, touching cloak and tree, and refilling pipe.

- web, broken arms and transfix will stop cloaking after a tumble.

Then you break head for stupidity, and either staffstrike head with water x4 for frozen stiff/concussion/disrupt. Eventually you will want to invest in a weapon and jab head to concussion with aconite whenever they focus (which cures stupidity which is affliicted by aconite) and jab gecko whenever stupidity blocks their command. This will prevent them from curing limb breaks and eventually pipe lock them.

One of the most important things you'll learn at a higher level is that illusions are absolutely amazing as a magi.

- has he embedded ret, or not?

Magi is so, so fun.

Kaden

Air hasn't been changed for the record, so it'd probably be bad to prep with it. I'd use earth for prepping personally.

Akhvar

Won't earth likely obliterate the limbs you're trying to prep?

Tharvis

Akhvar said:

Won't earth likely obliterate the limbs you're trying to prep?

earth obliterates a random limb, has a chance to not even be the one you're targetting, so it's perfect actually, tested it out on @Varele, kept hitting his Right leg with staffstrike earth, ended up randomly breaking his left leg

Akhvar

@Tharvis Nice! Was that just luck though, or..is it set up so it can't randomly break the limb you're targeting? That would be nice!

Jovolo

No, cripple has no impact on limb health. You dont break with earth, just prep with it. Break leg with air, everything else with water.

Tharvis

Akhvar said:

@Tharvis Nice! Was that just luck though, or..is it set up so it can't randomly break the limb you're targeting? That would be nice!

It's literally random, can break the thing you're targetting, but can also break stuff you're -not- targetting!

Terra

Daeir said:

General 1v1 strategy for Magi consists of prepping breaks with water staffstrikes inside a vibeset (oscillate, plague, lullaby and stridulation bare minimum) - usually the head, one arm and a leg - if they're past 5.5k health (or are a dragon), you'll need to airstrike them once to fully prep properly. . Once they're prepped, break the arm first with waterstrike, drop retardation, break the leg with airstrike, then break the head with water. Proceed to staffcast them to death, since they are almost absolutely dead at this point.

Basically, get used to fighting in retardation and you will win nearly every single fight you use it in - EXCEPT SERPENTS (never drop retardation on a serpent unless you've busted his leg first, because he will just evade out and delph snipe you in retardation and you will die every time 100% - prep two legs on serpents or work with your stridulation procs), assuming the opponent is not familiar with it themselves. Aeon is a very scary mechanic that most people are not well versed with - utilize this to your advantage. Purity in Enchantment renders you immune to most affliction based classes (usually) and stoneskin/diamondskin afford you incredible resistance versus physical targets. You also have aerial, which is faster than standard atavian flight (matches closely to the ring of flying's speed afaik) which affords you ridiculous mobility and a valid escape mechanism when outdoors.

In groups, have a full vibe set with you to focus in at all times, cast deepfreeze in melee and transfix single targets where appropriate. Practice lots and you'll have no trouble at all.

Wat? Aerial is really slow. Nowhere near as good as ring of flying. Though, if you can't afford the ring, it's still incredibly useful since it bypasses piety, etc. and because flying is cool.

You don't really deepfreeze unless in retard.

Breaking arm and then dropping retardation is useless. You can do one of two things, really. 1. Try to use the limb breaks to hold them in the room until retardation sets in (which would mean breaking arm then leg then retard, or leg then other leg then retard). The problem with arm/leg is they can shield/run on arm break. The problem with leg/leg is parry/tumble. 2. Just drop retard without breaking anything and break leg immediately upon retard setting in. Then break head.

Or you can just say screw limb breaks like I did, jab aconite and prefarar, and watch them die.

Oh, retardation, how I miss thee.

Iocun

I really don't see how serpents are more dangerous opponents in retard than most others.

Delph snipe? Who cares. You'll have metawake up if you drop retardation and should be shielding as soon as the serpent is gone anyways. Even if you don't manage to shield before the first arrow, the first one will only be stripping insomnia anyways. Or, if you don't want to shield, just dampen. You'll only lose against sniping in retard if you mess up - and anyone will lose in retard if he messes up against anyone.

And even if delph sniping was so incredibly dangerous, serpents aren't the only ones who can shoot arrows.

I'd actually be more wary about monks (tons of hindering they can pull off while hindered) and any class with passive attacks (especially hindering ones). Serpents can qualify as this if they have a hypno chain ready, but that requires them to have set one up and not using it until you retard. If so and they snap, just dampen, again.

Terra

You shouldn't die to just snipe in retardation, but a LOT of people do. Really, just about everyone does at least sometimes, and there is a reason. Snipe does afflictions and fast damage at the same time and from out of the room. In-room attacks are much less dangerous because plague/tremors/lullaby/etc. have a high chance of saving you even if you're not curing at all.

The most annoying thing about serpent is evade, though. Just hard to keep them in the retardation to begin with.

Iocun

All true, but there are tons of things you "shouldn't" die to in retardation but still do. That's mainly just the nature of retardation, which makes all sorts of mistakes much more punishing. Not saying that snipe isn't powerful in retardation, of course, which it certainly is, but it's by no means a guaranteed win and certainly no sufficient reason not to use retardation against serpents at all.

Cooper

I'd say serpents are dangerous more because of the afflictions they can deliver in retardation fast. A smart serpent will have a hypno chain up and a pre-envenomed dirk for the second retardation drops.

Iocun

Depends. You can have a hypno chain ready, sure, but that requires you to hypno specifically for that situation and not actually go on any offence at all until your opponent drops retard. I do that occasionally against magi when I'm sure they will retard eventually, but it still means playing entirely by their terms and not being able to do much until they go for their main offence (which typically means they also have you prepped and stuff). And it's quite frustrating if you do that and the magi simply never goes for retard at all.

A pre-envenomed dirk works if you are wielding your dirk or have balance when they embed or regain it briefly afterwards, but that's not always the case. They also may have rebounding up or you may be hindered at the time retardation sets in, giving them the first attack - which will typically already break your leg or so, so you'll end up having to tumble anyways. If you're off balance at the time they embed, you may not even be wielding the right weapons by the time retard sets in. You might be stuck wielding a whip and thus not having been able to pre-envenom, or you might be stuck only wielding a dirk and not be able to flay.

If I can end up with a pre-envenomed dirk and a whip in the other hand plus possibly hypnosis at the time retard sets in, I'm in a great position which will leave the magi pretty much no chance to go on the offence. The issue however still remains that it's quite easy to tumble out of that, as serpents can't very well disrupt in retard. Hypno disrupt wears off and causing shivering with nechamandra in retardation is a huge pain (flay sileris, secrete nechamandra, bite nechamandra to strip caloric, secrete, bite for shivering).

Xith

If the serpent preps a hypno chain that starts with disrupt and envenoms beforehand then you could be screwed, but prep their leg(s) and just prone/break them when retardation lands and they're no more threatening than anyone. Occultists used to be the bigger threat but I believe ents are completely active now (not passive afflict).

Assuming two combatants of equal skill, the one who hits first has the best chance in retardation, which with full vibes is usually the magi. 

Long story short, spin your less useful vibes (without Heat) then spin your useful vibes (lullaby/oscillate last) then prep a limb or two, then spin plague/retardation, use ring of pestilence if you're feeling cheeky, deepfreeze/etc. then hailstorm and be ready to touch brazier when they tumble.

If you plan on being infamous or anything, you'll want to get good at winning in just retardation or with just a few key vibes because you won't have a long time to get ready.