Dear Arcanes:

[MrChipinator]

This is a general awareness message for all those aspiring Arcanes out there. When you are questing with groups, it is imperative that you realize how important your meatshields are for you. You can kill everything within a 120-foot radius in 30 seconds or your money back, but after that you will find your SP Pool depleted rather quickly. Take it from an "experienced" (I use that term lightly) caster that once you pass the level 10 area, you will notice things not dying near as quickly as you'd like. So please, try to carry these buffs no matter where you go or who you are. Blur, displace, stoneskin, haste, and Rage. Buffs are vital when doing Elite _______ at level.

This isn't intended for "experienced" players, but rather a friendly reminder to those starting Arcanes out there who think that fireball will kill everything in Elite _______. It won't. It will make it mad and come looking to hit you in the face.

Look at it this way, when you blur the entire team, imagine giving the Healer +20% of their total mana bar back. When you give the main DPS (barbarians/fighters) Displacement, you add another +50% to their HP bar and give the cleric nearly 200 SP back. If the melee doesn't get hit at all, then they won't need healing. (logic ftw).

Haste and Rage, they are not single spells, but a sentence in and of themselves. Giving Haste not only kills things much quicker, but also makes the quest go faster. Imagine this: You can spend 15 SP to blow up a small group of enemies, or you can cast a minute of haste onto your melees and have them kill 10 groups of enemies. Rage is flavor as well, the barbs will love you for it. But not required like Haste is.

Finally there comes Stoneskin, this is an incredibly expensive spell to cast at-level, but more often than not you can find a Wand of Stoneskin from quest rewards and just floating around. Giving Stoneskin to the DPS saves them 100 HP, and gives the Cleric 100 SP back as well. Giving Stoneskin to an AC/Tank practically turns on God-Mode for the next 10 minutes.

While there will be people who can solo these quests, a majority of the newer population will find themselves having issues getting groups when they are just starting out. Being an asset rather than a liability not only nets you a good name, but often makes friends (and therefore questing buddies). So please, be considerate to your meatshields as they make life so much easier.


***EDIT***

Apparently I wasn't clear enough in my post, I don't expect every single person to have these buffs 24/7, and buffing things that don't get in the fray is pointless. I don't expect you to cast Stoneskin more than twice a quest, just when the boss hits or when the leader asks for it because there is a rough spot ahead. I said Rage is flavor, not always needed and not near as important as Haste. Displace is in line with Rage, toss on the main beaters when things start getting scary. My apologies if I didn't enunciate clearly each word.

[Mubjon]

Maybe at level 20 there is SP available to toss out blur, displacement, rage, and haste, but while leveling not easy to do that.

Unless the melees are willing to carry SP pots to help replenish the mana used. 15 Sp a shot x 5 or 6 makes the 800 or so SP at level 10 ish go pretty fast. Dropping 10% of your damage potential is not a good way to run your character.

haste and rage is a group spell and I will drop those with extend activated at the beginning and after the shrine. But blur, displacement those are single target spells that are expensive to cast in a whole group. I will be happy to do those on occasion, especially if a cleric uses their DV's on me or a melee gives an SP pot or two. Especially displacement that lasts about as long as a Haste.

Better spells would be acid fog, cloudkill, spells that still offer 20% concealment but do damage to the group of mobs around the melee.

[Chette]

This is a general awareness message for all those aspiring Arcanes out there. When you are questing with groups, it is imperative that you realize how important your meatshields are for you. You can kill everything within a 120-foot radius in 30 seconds or your money back, but after that you will find your SP Pool depleted rather quickly. Take it from an "experienced" (I use that term lightly) caster that once you pass the level 10 area, you will notice things not dying near as quickly as you'd like. So please, try to carry these buffs no matter where you go or who you are. Blur, displace, stoneskin, haste, and Rage. Buffs are vital when doing Elite _______ at level.

This isn't intended for "experienced" players, but rather a friendly reminder to those starting Arcanes out there who think that fireball will kill everything in Elite _______. It won't. It will make it mad and come looking to hit you in the face.

Look at it this way, when you blur the entire team, imagine giving the Healer +20% of their total mana bar back. When you give the main DPS (barbarians/fighters) Displacement, you add another +50% to their HP bar and give the cleric nearly 200 SP back. If the melee doesn't get hit at all, then they won't need healing. (logic ftw).

Haste and Rage, they are not single spells, but a sentence in and of themselves. Giving Haste not only kills things much quicker, but also makes the quest go faster. Imagine this: You can spend 15 SP to blow up a small group of enemies, or you can cast a minute of haste onto your melees and have them kill 10 groups of enemies. Rage is flavor as well, the barbs will love you for it.

Finally there comes Stoneskin, this is an incredibly expensive spell to cast at-level, but more often than not you can find a Wand of Stoneskin from quest rewards and just floating around. Giving Stoneskin to the DPS saves them 100 HP, and gives the Cleric 100 SP back as well. Giving Stoneskin to an AC/Tank practically turns on God-Mode for the next 10 minutes.

While there will be people who can solo these quests, a majority of the newer population will find themselves having issues getting groups when they are just starting out. Being an asset rather than a liability not only nets you a good name, but often makes friends (and therefore questing buddies). So please, be considerate to your meatshields as they make life so much easier.

I agree that every arcane should carry haste and range, and pass them out liberally. The rest of it though, not so much.

Blur is a level 2 spell, a very tight slot for many casters, sorcerers in particular. I don't carry it on any of my sorcs, and only occasionally do on my wizards. Resist energy, web and knock are all must haves IMO. Newer casters without clickies will also want invisibility, and scorch is one of the best dps/sp spells at lower level. At higher level many melees have their own perma-blur equipped, via shroud items, dusk hearts, mabar cloaks, and other items. Blur is not worth the spell slot for many characters.

Displace I always carry, but it is primarily for me. If there is a lot of incoming damage, throwing displace on the primary melees may be a good idea, but it's not a must have. Putting displace on 6 party members by a, lets say level 12 caster, costs 180 sp per 1 minute and 12 seconds. Useful at times, but certainly not something any caster should be expected to keep up.

Stoneskin doesn't in any way activate "god mode" and it is indeed expensive. In addition most characters have some sort of DR equipped already from spearblock, invulnerability, or other, and again, this is in a fairly tight spell slot for many characters. Wands are certainly an option, but they cast at a lower caster level and will not last particularly long. They can also be fairly easily used by any UMD character.

My basic opinion is, if you think you need a buff, ask for it politely. Most arcanes, even the newer ones, carry a wide selection of buffs, they just might not know when to use them. But don't expect anything, and always carry your own resources for the times when your arcane does not provide. Resist 20 potions, DR items, haste clickies, etc. Any UMD capable character should have it maxed and also carry appropriate wands and scrolls.

[mystafyi]

Giving Stoneskin to the DPS saves them 100 HP, and gives the Cleric 100 SP back as well. Giving Stoneskin to an AC/Tank practically turns on God-Mode for the next 10 minutes.

*** are you talking about? any cleric that uses 100 sp to heal 100hp's is a total fail. stoneskin only will last so many hits, dependant upon level of caster. not 10 minutes, and 10DR vice 5DR? bleh waste of a spell slot and mana to cast it.

displacement is a waste of mana to cast on a party. many boss mobs have true see and trash is well trash.

[Thrudh]

displacement is a waste of mana to cast on a party. many boss mobs have true see and trash is well trash.

Please be careful to qualify your statements.

The above is definitely NOT true for the majority of the game and the majority of the players (trash is NOT just trash for the majority of the players).

Displacement is a HUGE damage mitigator throughout 90% of this game. Very useful.

If you can't afford to displace everyone, at least displace the melee who's getting all the aggro, and who is taking a lot of cleric healing.

[goodspeed]

Ya 30 sp displace for everyone!! And then the rage, and then the haste, (all these suck unless you took extend as a feat early instead of later) stoneskin all around!!! Even though each cast costs like 500 plat and those first timers are broke....

woo bout 310 sp and that group is ready to go. Good thing they're geared and their to hit is great on elite. Yep I just gotta sit back and cast without meta's while they do the bulk....ding...wha? ding ding, "I NEED A RAISE, WHERES THE CASTER!!!"

Caster: Oh *** why is their 34 things coming around the bend? Caster then joggs away hitting his meta's casts firewall, then fireball to make them all disappear.

Caster is then a lil upset that he lost around 2k xp. Caster then flips the group the bird when asked to expend another 270 sp and 2k plat on buffs. Caster then declares thing's about peoples mamma and states it would be easier to solo. Caster leaves.

Honestly until GH around lv 14, the only thing I give out is blur. Even then most of the smarter ones already have the trinket.

Haste, hell no, the duration ain't worth it, not until 15. I especially find it amusing when a tr asks me for it, considering if they ever took the **** time they should have amassed quite a few GS clickies like my various melee's own.

Rage is give and take. I usually don't slot it and instead use pots. 1.5 minutes gives me an extra 2 con for hp. I take it later on when the duration is higher, about lv 16.

Displace is only used on a real boss fight, (not to many) some fool that's making the clerics play time a living hell (personally I boot them after the first run) or epics. Mainly cause again it requires extend, and even if ur a wiz who takes it early, it's still a mana hog. (Again if you have reached 20 and have tr'd you should have a long duration displace clicky)

So really it's just blur and stoneskin. If any of those people don't have a stack of 100 rage, heroism and haste on that hotbar, id very much like to know why. Cause if it takes more then 30 seconds to kill off a hallway of things, 2 things are happening. 1. Your mage sucks. 2. Your melee's to hit really sucks. Lord knows ive seen both in spades.

[Kmnh]

Go craft haste and displacement clickies, buy stacks of rage potions. Will you always require an arcane around to be effective at quests?

[danotmano1998]

I think better advice would be to cast what you feel comfortable with.

Everybody's play style is different. I will gladly give any buffs specifically asked for, and some regardless of whether they are requested or not.

The above mentioned spells are excellent staples to have, and a lot of what the OP said makes some sense.

Damage mitigation is cheaper in most cases than healing. Do what you can to help your party complete, and reap the benefits.


Some quests are just easier with certain buffs. While each person should be responsible for their own needs, a friend or party member helping out is a much better scenario and will usually be appreciated. So if you have the SP and spells, help out how you can.

[Kriogen]

Low level buffs are available as clickie, potion, scroll, wand.

DPS has something to do with "time". Time used to ask for buffs (and then maybe get it) is wasted DPS.

"So please, be considerate to your meatshields as they make life so much easier."
This is debatable

[Mellifera]

Please be careful to qualify your statements.

The above is definitely NOT true for the majority of the game and the majority of the players (trash is NOT just trash for the majority of the players).

Displacement is a HUGE damage mitigator throughout 90% of this game. Very useful.

If you can't afford to displace everyone, at least displace the melee who's getting all the aggro, and who is taking a lot of cleric healing.

ITA. Not everyone has a rich uncle to pass out plat and the 100 Pot New Adventurer Kit. Yet on the flipside of that, it's not practical to throw out every buff known to man, but you can prioritize. Displacement is usually for me. If things are going pear shaped, I'll drop a blur or displace on the healer and main tank. If you can find or afford a wand of stoneskin off the AH, that's an excellent way to pass out damage mitigation without breaking the bank. Blur comes on wands as well. Just sayin.

As far as Rage and Haste, you should be casting them. Often. If you don't have extend, just wait until you hit a hairy fight or get to the boss, and then target the main tank.


And for the love of all that's holy, if you're grouping with another caster or a bard, speak up. Find out what buffs, if any, they carry and then coordinate who's in charge of keeping what up. And don't be afraid to ask the ranger if he'll take care of resists.

[somenewnoob]

Go craft haste and displacement clickies, buy stacks of rage potions. Will you always require an arcane around to be effective at quests?

Aye.

Be as self sufficient as possible. Don't rely on an arcane nannying you through a quest.

GS haste clicky, other haste clicky, haste potions, rage potions, rage clicky, resist and prot pots for every element, permanent blur item.......any melee should have.

[Muldamai]

Everybody has posted truths, and they apply in different situations. I don't find Blur very useful, and most people do carry their own blurs. Stoneskin is just a nonsensical buffer at higher level, I don't even mem it. Only place I can think of Stoneskin use is a boss that has damage spike and the temp DR can be useful, especially if the tank is undergeared, or healing is slightly down.

As a wizard, I carry Haste, Rage, Displacement, and Greater Heroism as these can be useful in 90%-100% of situations. If there is a bard, I don't mind splitting time buffing with them, depending on the quest, and what is most important to be accomplished in the quest.

Which leads to the most important part: team play. I have no problem sitting back and throwing out some buffs, and doing CC work, but, and you know who you are, when certain melees get over their heads it's good to have the insta-kill to do some work.

Then the fun part. Answer A, "Thanks, that saved my bacon." It's all good move on to victory. Answer B, "Why did you do that? Stupid wizards ruining it for everyone." Can't wait to get done with the quest to distance myself from the vacuum of stupidity.

[pHo3nix]

Please be careful to qualify your statements.

The above is definitely NOT true for the majority of the game and the majority of the players (trash is NOT just trash for the majority of the players).

Displacement is a HUGE damage mitigator throughout 90% of this game. Very useful.

If you can't afford to displace everyone, at least displace the melee who's getting all the aggro, and who is taking a lot of cleric healing.

In this wiz life on nyal (i'm lvl19 now) i used blur and displacement on myself for the 1st time at lvl 19 while running sins elite, cause with red DA it would be quite hard to survive otherwise.

In this game positioning and moving are still the best damage mitigator: let those who can handle the aggro get it and kill mobs that won't hit back, it solves a lot of "problems".

And anyway, blur and displacement are easy to scroll with umd, permablur is pretty common and you can craft displacement and haste clickies from shroud if you haven't umd. Haste and rage pots are a must have for every melee, there are times when there's no caster around or he's busy doing something else, you'd better take care of yourself

[sephiroth1084]

Blur for 6 players - 90 SP
Displacement for 6 players, 2x per shrine - 240 SP
Haste 3x per shrine - 60 SP
Rage 2x per shrine - 40 SP
_____________________
430 SP spent on buffs

Spell points at level 10 for a wizard:
350 base
171 bonus from Int 28
60 Pearl of Power VI
______
601

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Blur for 6 players - 90 SP
Displacement for 6 players, 2x per shrine - 240 SP
Haste 3x per shrine - 60 SP
Rage 2x per shrine - 40 SP
_____________________
430 SP spent on buffs

Spell points at level 10 for a wizard:
350 base
171 bonus from Int 28
60 Pearl of Power VI
______
601

Well, it's not like we're asking you to cast anything else....













(here, hold my cape)

[EarlofPain]

I have to say that the concept of arcane buffs is a bit new. Traditionally when running a PUG group for any quest past Korthos it's a simple "wait here until I finish the quest" comment from the arcane. Why on earth do you need buffs to stand around?

Okay a bit of an exaggeration. However if your success in a quest is dependant on some random guy having what you need I feel for you. I believe 95% of the arcanes did not design thier characters to sit back and let someone else have all the fun. If they spend all thier sp on buffing the melees then they will no longer be able to rule the kill count.

[Postumus]

This isn't intended for "experienced" players, but rather a friendly reminder to those starting Arcanes out there who think that fireball will kill everything in Elite _______. It won't. It will make it mad and come looking to hit you in the face.

If it's all coming to hit ME in the face, then wouldn't it be more SP efficient to cast jump, displace, and haste on MYSELF while the melees flank everything? Why would the melees need blur if they aren't even being attacked...

unless... the melees are used to charging through the traps headlong into swarms of mobs to grab every iota of aggro they can; then flail about frantically for a few seconds with an angry curse bubble over their heads before running off out of range so the healer can't target them and I can't target the mobs chasing them.

Here's some counter advice for melees:

1- haste, rage, heroism, csw, resists, and jump comes in pots. Buy some.

2- haste, rage, heroism, displacement, stoneskin, jump, and various heal spells comes in scrolls. If you have UMD, buy some.

3- haste, rage, displacement, and invisibility comes drops on random items. Instead of selling that necklace with the 3X rage clicky for 40 plat, keep it and use it.

I'm a team player and I'll buff you when and if I think that is best for the party. If you want more than I'm willing to pass out, or you don't agree with my judgement, then get your own buffs. It's not hard to do.

[tinyelvis]

I should buff you why? .... So that after I finger that gnoll you were working on for the last 5 seconds, you can then run faster to the next gnoll where I will do the same all the time laughing maniacally.

[Credinus]

It all really depends on what -type- of arcane you play, and not just wizard/sorcerer/bard/artificer: prestige lines and playstyle come into effect bigtime.

As others have chimed in on already, full party buffing can be very expensive in terms of SP, especially in the low-mid levels. It's unwise to just throw every buff you've got at everyone, because you're going to end up running out of SP after 1-2 fights and be a burden to the group the rest of the way. The exception is shrining: Every caster that has buffs memorized should learn very quickly to wait until after the rest of the party uses a rest shrine, then use their remaining SP to buff everyone with whatever they need before they themselves rest.


As far as specific spells and strategies, here's a good breakdown from my experience:
-Energy resist is great to keep around, though you'll find that most people you are grouping with are ship buffed for it so you likely won't need to use it on many people. When starting a quest where you know certain energy resists are useful, just ask the party who all is going to need it.
-Mass protection from elements is a great little spell; AoE buffing to give energy damage mitigation if resist happens to not be enough is always good, and it's not too expensive if used sparingly (more as an "oh-****" moment life-saver than a "let's try to not take any fire damage at all in this quest!" buff).
-Blur is great to keep around if you've got a spell slot for it. Again, like with energy resist, this is one to find out who in the party needs it.
-Displace is expensive, and until about level 12 doesn't carry much weight with its short duration (and even around level 12 still only really holds up with extend). I keep this one around primarily for boss fights or big overall fights (like the beginning of Tor for instance; heh, instance, good one). Still, it's a great soloing tool for those situations, and a great damage mitigation device for those scenarios on select party members.
-Stoneskin isn't worth the spell slot unless you're loaded with plat. I can't justify 25 plat to stop 120ish damage at that level on myself. If you've got some wands of it or lots of plat, then by all means, do what you want with it. But it's just too costly in most situations for me to justify (since, let's face it; if you really NEED that damage absorption, it's probably only going to last a couple of hits anyway).
-Expeditious retreat... Seriously... I don't know why more wizards don't praise this spell as their lord and savior. Sure, there's some other good spells in that spell slot you could take, but me... I'll take a spell that's cheap and completely eliminates the need for a striding item any day. (Note: this is a self-only buff)
-Shield is another great self-only buff that seems to be underrated. It's a cheap spell, gives you a little extra AC when you don't have a shield in-hand (+4 AC is really a big help in those low levels), and stops those nasty missile spells that, while not all that common, are otherwise mostly unstoppable and can quickly rack up damage on you. The only other arcane option for stopping those missiles is nightshield, and its other benefit is completely outweighed by items (although if nightshield's max bonus ever increased from +3 to +5, it would certainly be the better option).
-Haste, much like displace, is too short to be really spammable in the low-mid levels. In those levels, I mostly reserve it for big fights and boss fights. Plus, let's face it: in those levels my hasting 2-3 melee characters isn't going to do as much damage as dropping a firewall.
-Invisibility is great to keep around. It's fantastic to keep around for yourself, and is only going to be used in special circumstances for party members so use it when it's called for.



And lastly, a big tip: DON'T FORGET TO TURN OFF ENLARGE AND/OR EXTEND WHEN YOU DON'T NEED THEM. This is a mistake I make all the time when I'm solo'ing (I'm usually much more careful when in a group about it at least). Since I rely so much on SLA's, I almost always have enlarge on; that means that when I forget to turn if when it's time to rebuff (which I almost always do forget when I solo), I'm costing myself an unnecessary extra 50-60 SP. I only keep extend around for haste and displace, so it's less of a problem; but remember in the early levels if you use it for generic buffs that there are some buffs where it's cheaper to cast the buff twice than to extend it. Man, I really wish that system I read about the devs thinking about implementing some time back that would allow you to select which spells your meta magics applied to would be put in place.

[DeafeningWhisper]

I play mainly blue bars, buffing is always a guessing game, which is why U should ask who needs what and see if you can afford it.

Other then an extended Haste I don't see any of the others buffs as a most have in all quests, hell always ask a TR if he even wants Blur/Displacement chances are he has it permanent or WANTS to get hit for his Con Op/Torc to proc.

Other buffs are situational or are good enough in pot version at mid lvls.

On the subject of saving the healer sp, as a cleric I can tell you that I'd rather the PM/Artificer/WF arcane/Bard keep his sp to heal himself rather then give short lived buffs around lvl 10-12 and I like seen Sorcs having enough sp to nuke everything to the ground rather then keep throwing un-extended haste every minute or so.