How to Use Mage against certain Classes

The text after engineer is impossible to read in dark theme

 

This is actually really good this is exactly what I do too. I've seen you in game using these tactics really well and killing me multiple times lol. I like how you don't have any way to counter the archer and its snipe haha.

 

Ya once you get close to archers they really don't stand a chance. They're only an issue from 30+ blocks away :mad:

 

You can actually mix in the fire spell with the first three damage spells because fire spell's cool down is actually really short. Mage is about keeping your distance and targeting the right people. You also don't have one for soldier but it's mainly shooting at where they are going to land with fire spell and freeze and shooting them in the air with damage spell and using lightning when they try to rest on a surface to recharge wallclimb. Elf doesn't reflect back damage spell so it's a good idea to spam that. It's also good to strafe and hit while shooting so you can land some insane combos even if they are close to you.

 

For engineer you do realise that manual override exists, DaddySloth?

 

My opinions:

Way too regimented. Hit them with damage and strafe backwards. If they get too close, freeze them or lightning them. I you get near a wall, run at the heavy, lightning them, and heal whatever damage you take running through the heavy. It's really about continually landing damage/flame at close range and being patient.

ALWAYS freeze the turret first. Always. Then lighting the engineer away and go to work. It's a very weak class armor wise so damage/flame will do away with them quickly.

TBH Just run around the dwarf. You never see a dwarf outside the context of a flag room that's a serious threat. If you're going for the steal and the dwarf is level 5+, ALWAYS freeze the dwarf then use lighting on the remaining defenders.

FREEZE THE NINJA. Even if they can pearl out, that will take down their health. Use lighting immediately afterwards even if you don't land the freeze spell. Preemptively heal and spam damage spell a few times. Also, RUN.

Damage spell really just takes care of them. If they sue their sugar, then you NEED to lightning them because they will start strafing and try and one hit you. Damage and lighting are the only useful spells really because you need to get rid of them quickly and the recharge on flame is too slow. However, combing flame/damage is not the worst idea.

^ This isn't bad at all.

Let me take care of a few other scenarios:
A medic + another class:
Isolate the threats.
If the other class is weaker: Freeze the medic and lighting the other class away. Try to do as much damage as possible while the medic is frozen. Know how long the ice lasts so you know when the medic will come back. Continue to isolate the medic and keep the away from the other class. Use cliffs/ravines/the edges of the map to your advantage: try to knock the other class off the map. You cannot let the medic heal them or you have to start over.
If the medic is weaker: The reverse. Isolate the medic by freezing the other class. Use flame spell to slow the other class down as well. Break/wear down the medic. The medic can't be healed, so your damage is permanent.

Another mage: Prepare yourself: This will take a while. Mage battles are often prolonged affairs and require maximum focus and skill. You NEED to combo. The best combo is fire/freeze/lighting/fire because it does a lot of damage and buys you significant time running away. Always spam damage spell and make sure you yourself are staring as well. Furthermore, use heal spell sparingly and only when you need it. 1/3 health or less. Always try to land as many damage spells as possible.

Chemist:
Easy class if you know what you're doing. Chemist relies a lot on getting extra damage through strength/critical hits, so keep your distance. The class has a very limited rage for effectiveness. Lightning and freeze come in handy. Treat chemists like weaker, faster heavies.

Pyro: Easy class to iill. Just remember that if you get set on fire, you should IMMEDIATELY freeze the pyro to avoid taking frenzy/general extra damage. You'll need to heal immediately when on fire as well and try and set the pyro on fire once unfrozen. This makes the playing field more level as both of you will now be taking fire damage and will be slowed by that.

In general:
Charging at players is a great strategy when you have region in general because it's unexpected, when used with damage/lightning allows you to keep distance from the class while confusing them, and has you take minimal damage (probably 1 or 2 hits) as you pass through them and regain your safe distance on the other side of the person. It makes combos easier to land and is a great way to finish a person off.

 

Although knowing which spells to use / when to use them for specific class combinations is a very useful and effective skill, something that is often not said is how close mages should pay attention to their surroundings, especially behind them.

Mage is one of the only effective mid range class, meaning your most effective killing range is, well, mid range. Essentially, good mages are able to constantly strafe around their opponents in a 7-15 block radius to maximize their damage output and minimize damage taken.

This alone is very different than normal sword vs. sword pvp which focuses on opponents needing to be closer to and constantly running at each other (whether it be strafing or straightlining) seeing as both players need to be closer to the enemy player to damage them. This drags both players to constantly headbutt and directly confront each other seeing as neither can win by walking backwards.

However, when we are dealing with a mage and a sword user, suddenly the previous situation is thrown out of the window. We're now dealing with a class that can deal a constant damage output up to 15 blocks away, meaning that the mage's radius of constant damage output is approximately 2-3 times larger than a sword user. This gives the mage a rather wide area in which they can constantly damage the other player outside of their sword's range.

Unfortunately, this is why mage is often hated on as a class and can be so overpowered if used correctly. This difference between ranges of constant damage output allow the mage to essentially kill any class lower than mid-range, which comprises of nearly all the CTF classes. Even long range classes like archer are not safe, seeing as their arrows (mid-range, not headshot distance) do not do enough damage to be considered useful against a competent mage.

Engineers, ninjas, and assassins are the three main counters to mage, but as with any class, counters can be dealt with (Elf countering mage is a joke. Elf can't do jack against a mage since its arrows take longer to fire than a mage's damage spell).

However, just because low range classes are not counters to mage, that doesn't mean that we can't use a few strategies of our own to gain the upper hand in an otherwise grim situation.

I'm pretty sure a majority of the people reading this post will have heard of the cliche "back-the-mage-into-a-corner" strategy. Well, you'd be surprised how much that actually works, and what I find more surprising is that no one really brings it up anymore when dealing with mages.

Essentially, mage's main advantage against low-range classes is that it can give out a constant damage output outside of a sword's range. If we come across a mage and they decide that for whatever reason they must kill us, our only chance of surviving is to charge the mage head-on or run away in hopes that it will give up on targeting you. Unfortunately, the latter does not always work, so we are forced to try and shorten the gap between us and the mage in hopes to be able to use our sword to actually damage the damn thing. This forces the low-ranged player into a painful cycle of chasing after the backpedaling mage, allowing them to keep their distance while constantly damaging us eventually resulting in us rage quitting or something similar.

However, although mage keeping its distance is often the final nail in the coffin for most players, we can use this to our advantage to control the mage's movements.

Think about it this way. If I were a mage and the enemy person was running straight towards me, I would move backwards right? If the player was strafing towards my left, I would turn and move backwards to the right and vice versa. Mage relies on keeping that space between the enemy and itself to minimize damage taken, so a mage will try to keep that distance as far away as possible at all costs, seeing as it's the logical thing to do.

However, the easiest way for a mage to maximize their distance from the opposing player is to move in the exact opposite direction the opposing player is moving. This being said, if you can structure your movements towards the mage, you can essentially control how the mage moves. At the same time, this is not a solid strategy since some mages may try and charge towards you / their movements may not be exactly the opposite of your's, but in a general sense, you can guide a mage's movements.

Here is where my rambling takes form.

Mages, my number one advice to all of you would be to pay attention to your surroundings.

You may think that you're being clever by nimbly dancing outside of a player's sword range, but when you back into a corner without noticing it, suddenly that sword is a lot closer than before. An enemy player doesn't even need to back you up into a corner to quickly close the gap. A wall, a block, even the flagpost itself can be used to break your backwards walk and allow the enemy player to close the distance between his sword and your internal organs.

Mage pvp is not like sword pvp where you can see where you are going. You won't always see what's behind you when you're walking backwards, so it's important to have a mental image of the space you're fighting in and the obstacles you need to watch out for to keep the distance between you and the enemy. If you need to, freeze the enemy player and take a second to look around yourself before they become unfrozen.

At the same time, use your environment to your advantage. Try and have enemy players run through narrow block spaces to make aiming your spells easier. It doesn't have to be as extreme as forcing the player into a 2x1 tunnel. Even just having the player turn a corner towards you can give you an advantage.

Another thing that I didn't see mentioned was using your heal accurately. That regen potion is still a potion and can lend it's rather powerful buff to an enemy player, should they have been in the radius of the splash potion. If they back you into a corner, you might be forced to use that heal on yourself, and unfortunately will probably give its effects to the player trying to cut your head off at the same time, so watch out for that.

 

I call this maintaining safe distance. It's very easy to get strafed into a corner. That's why charging is so important: You can create new space by running at and through another player.