Dark Magic build

After going thru 6 pages of a search, I never found wut I need. I was on youtube yesterday checking out 1 shot kill challenges. All the vids I saw were dark magic users so I decided to try it.
My questions are; Do certain covens like DW make your magic more powerful? On 2 of the videos they start showing dark ending. Is that better? What weapons are best? I just wanna try it and see if I can 1 shot the bosses. I've never played a hyper dark mage before so it will be a good challenge for me, (offline of course to keep you invaders away lol).

Does covenant matter? I'm assuming DW but not entirely sure how covens work. Weapon can be my choice? And light, med or heavy armour, or a mixture?
The videos I saw they all used CTC and I like it for the 240 ar but, I will try out manus cat.

Magnus is good but very heavy, with the correct stats (say 40-40-18Int), you can use the Demon's Catalyst and that also increases the power of dark sorceries. STR scaling is what makes it more powerful, but you have to have lower INT to really make use of it. I suggest you just stick with the correct 'normal' catalyst (26 and less use Oolacile, 27-40 Sorcerer/Izalith/Beatrice, 41->Logan's), and not spam super powered spells, but use them at the right time and they will work for you.

Dark Fog is not amazing, but I consider it overall better than the pyro mist spells. It does more damage and goes directly where you cast it, instead of flying over there.

Dark Orb is my least favorite, it seems to be a more damaging Heavy Soul Arrow, just use Soul Spear or Cry Soul Spear in my mind.

Pursuers only give 3 casts (1.5, turns into 1 with Tin Crystal and Magnus) for 2 slots, but they really can control the space you set yourself, it also protects you if you want to shoot some arrows. I wear the Ring of Fog to protect myself from it, it doesn't work almost at all if you wear it.

Dark Bead is really good, and probably overall the best, but many people think its too good, when really its easy to dodge and you hold the catalyst so high up, you can miss people who are point blank (and probably killing you).

On my low level magic character, I have 1 Dark Bead, 1 Purserer, and 1 Soul Spear (depends on what INT I want to use, I use Cry Soul Spear, but both are really good).

Brainfarting here Dibs...BSS?
ICEFANG I wouldn't use dark orb or fog anyways cause they seem a little cheesy to me lol. Dark fog to me would be for PvP invaders and I'm playing offline. Dark orb I just don't get lol

I went to ask u in chat but u left lol
Thx guys, gonna try it out soon

Few things you should know:

1.) Use Manus catalyst
2.) Dark Magic used with manus catalyst scales with strength along with intelligence
3.) Dex increases how fast you can cast spells
4.) Bellowing Dragoncrest ring, Crown of dusk/Crown of Dark Sun, Power Within, and Dragon roar all increase spell damage.
5.) Using the ring of Dusk doubles your castings and counters the manus catalyst.
6.) As a mage you want to be <25% weight, and if you can, stealthy.



http://mmdks.com/2haa - Dark magic glass cannon.

i'll try both builds and see which one fits me best. Only with low end, it makes it harder to be a hypered type mage

You can do what I do and use Dragonform, its a great way to add some defensive 'spells' and you won't have any armor to weigh you down.

ICEFANG wrote:You can do what I do and use Dragonform, its a great way to add some defensive 'spells' and you won't have any armor to weigh you down.

True but the main objective for this build was to do a 1 shot boss challenge. I mainly only use spells for bosses and heavy armoured mobs like the BK's.
I'm not a full magic only user yet so for defensive spells, i'm not sure if i'll need them. Also depends on wut defensive spells are. I don't really know the difference.

Keep in mind that the "Dragon body buff" only buffs melee, not magic/castings.

Also, dexterity starts scaling pyros at 35, but most (not all) sorceries do not scale until you reach 45 dex. If you're playing offline, then don't increase dexterity, its not very useful for what you're trying to do.


***edit***

If you decide you want to pvp with a mage,
then check out this thread:For tha Love of Castings

Animaaal wrote:Keep in mind that the "Dragon body buff" only buffs melee, not magic/castings.

Also, dexterity starts scaling pyros at 35, but most (not all) sorceries do not scale until you reach 45 dex. If you're playing offline, then don't increase dexterity, its not very useful for what you're trying to do.


***edit***

If you decide you want to pvp with a mage,
then check out this thread:For tha Love of Castings

Actually high dex would help bro. If I'm doing a hypered dark mage, and dex makes your casts faster, I'm gonna be needing high dex so I don't die soon as I enter boss fog lol.

twigsterxd wrote:

Animaaal wrote:Keep in mind that the "Dragon body buff" only buffs melee, not magic/castings.

Also, dexterity starts scaling pyros at 35, but most (not all) sorceries do not scale until you reach 45 dex. If you're playing offline, then don't increase dexterity, its not very useful for what you're trying to do.


***edit***

If you decide you want to pvp with a mage,
then check out this thread:For tha Love of Castings

Actually high dex would help bro. If I'm doing a hypered dark mage, and dex makes your casts faster, I'm gonna be needing high dex so I don't die soon as I enter boss fog lol.

I'm sorry, but high dexterity would not help you with what you're trying to do.

Your stat allocation would be much better distributed elsewhere. If you check out this thread (link ava in For Tha Love of Castings): Comprehensive survey of dexterity's impact on sorcery casting speed

You'll see that Dark Magics are not heavily effected by casting time manipulation. Dark Bead (most commonly used for 1 shots with Dark Magic) only get a boost of 9-10%. Combine that with a 20% decrease in pyro casting time then you have something...for pvp.

You'll find the casting times are just fine for pve the way they are. Combustions don't need the boost in pvp, and definitely not in pve.

I'm just sayin if you research a little more, you might find dexterity mages are not as effective as you might think...imo...in pve.

Maybe that's why I'm making a new build....lol Think I messed something up. Gonna try the examples you guys gave me over.

Animaaal wrote:
You'll find the casting times are just fine for pve the way they are. Combustions don't need the boost in pvp.

Kick -> GC is only guaranteed at 45 dex.

as for the 1 shot boss challenge (I like Vageta311's version where you have to earn levels by one shotting things) You basically just keep pumping INT until around 44-50 depending on if you want to stop at CSS or WDB. Then level strength. As with the Manus Catalyst strength ups the damage of dark sorcery like dark bead.

As for PvP. If I were to pvp with the Manus Catalyst in mind http://mmdks.com/2jb3

I'd probably do something like that.

Jansports wrote:...Kick -> GC is only guaranteed at 45 dex...

Yep. Jansports was wise to point that out. I think it might also be necessary for kick-->Dark Bead, not sure though.

Just make sure you base your build around a weapon that can kick. No %$#$ Animaaal you say???...well...I've never done that...ever...not even once...I've just heard...that its happened....to someone.....somewhere....

No seriously though . It's just that some of the best dex weapons don't have a kick, ya that's my excuse.

WTF are you talking about? Weapons that kick? Do you mean weapons that allow my toon to kick a player? Never heard of a kicking weapon before

Yes. All weapons have a default "kick" animation. Some weapons however, have their "kick" replaced by something else. The falchion does a flip animation, and the rapier has a stab-step back animation for instance.

However, these are most useful in pvp, not in pve. So it might just be useless ramblings for what you're trying to do.

ok here is my badboy http://mmdks.com/2iln it can own

This was highly informative thank you.

Animaaal wrote:Yes. All weapons have a default "kick" animation. Some weapons however, have their "kick" replaced by something else. The falchion does a flip animation, and the rapier has a stab-step back animation for instance.

However, these are most useful in pvp, not in pve. So it might just be useless ramblings for what you're trying to do.

So you mean the move you make if you try to kick a guys shield but you somersault with Q's fury sword?

^ Yep.

For weapons that kick, Jans was pointing out how the kick-->Great Combustion/Black Flame combo is practically guaranteed at 45 dex, because of the 20-25% decrease in casting time those pyros receive.

I know your build wasn't focused on pvp, but that should clear up why that was all said.