I was wondering what the advantages and dissadvantages are over using a shield was for casters. -8 evasion doesnt sound like much, especially when they dont evade much anyway.
What would i gain just having a 2h staff? They both have the same M. attack, so why pick one over the other? I would of thought that shield would be the number 1 choice, but why have staves at all?
Staffs is for orcs not for mages, why? Becose tey got skills like stun attack.
You should get an dagger or 1 handed mage sword so you can use shield, a shield is an 100% must if your fighting an archer.
A shield got an 20% chans to block damage, and it adds the P.def on the shield over your P.def when that hapens, for archers you have an even higher block rate.
How about dagger user fighting an archer? Could shield actually have more pros than cons?
Depends on what level the dagger is. If you archer is at a much higher level than a dagger, then the dagger might benefit more from having the shield than not. If they're around the same level, the -4 acc a bow gives and the evasion bonus daggers get should be more than enough for a dagger to avoid quite a few shots from the archer.
The answer to the dilema 1h+shield vs 2hand is not simple. It depends on weapon grade. There are 2 main categories of mage weapons: swords and blunts (daggers can also be a choise only up to b grade). Staffs have more magical attack than 1h mage swords (or 1h blunts). Only exception is A-grade where Sword of miracles has equal Matk with Staff of evil spirirts. On S-grade the choice can be only blunts since no mage swords or daggers exist. Having these in mind, the question is: Does the added (although small amount) of Matk makes up for the extra protection? I believe that shield's biggest contribution is against archers type mobs or humans. Since nothing else really bothers a mage, I would recomend it.
Staffs have more magical attack than 1h mage swords (or 1h blunts)
Wrong, and never been true. Every weapon of equal crystal value has one of two MAtks, an arcane MAtk or a physical MAtk, depending on whether you're meant to wave it around a bit or whack things with it.
There are no two different values for swords and staves of the same value.
The problem is that until C5 (it's fixed now) there were often no top grade magic swords available.
The Staff of Evil Spirit is B Grade and is equivalent in MAtk to a wizard's tear. I'm not sure what the top C one is, but it exists - fiddle around with the Mammon to find it (I'm not sure if it has acumen though).
How about dagger user fighting an archer? Could shield actually have more pros than cons?
I don't think this would work in PVP. Every hit of a high level archer will do a lot of damage, so I guess the dagger user would not survive hiding behind a shield.
Flaming Dragon Skull (1H top A mage blunt): 152 MATK
Branch of the Mother Tree (2H top A mage blunt): 152 MATK
Sword of Miracles (1H top A mage sword): 152 MATK
Spiritual Eye (1H low A mage blunt): 143 MATK
Dasparion's Staff (2H low A mage blunt): 143 MATK
Elemental Sword (1H low A mage sword): 143 MATK
On lower grades:
Staff of Life (1H top D mage blunt): 72 MATK
Ghost Staff/Atuba Hammer/Atuba Mace (2H top D mage blunt): 72 MATK
Demon Staff/Ghoul Staff/Deadman staff (2H top C mage blunt): 111 MATK
Ecliptic Sword (1H top C mage sword): 111 MATK
Kaim Vanul's Bones (1H top B mage blunt): 132 MATK
Staff of Evil Spirits (2H top B mage blunt): 132 MATK
Wizard's Tear (1H top B mage sword): 132 MATK
Staffs are cheaper than swords...at least on my server...thats an advantage. You can save upwards of 20-30 mil by buying a BoMT compaired to a SoM.
And yes...if you are an orc staffs are better, cause of teh stun. But now they have an A grade magical blunt that looks like a dragon head...so no need really.
Oh yes, and staffs are good if you wanna be all wizzardy and don't want a sword or something...your style preference maybe? I myself like swords, always have preferred them...so I was happy when they made magic swords.
Shield...yea...it will come in handy against archers if you are facing them, so it is pretty good for 1v1 pvp then...I guess you could say. Plus it defines "battle mage" yo!
Staffs have more magical attack than 1h mage swords (or 1h blunts)
Wrong, and never been true.
I am very sure it was exactly as I write up to C4. Check for yourself. Maybe the new weapons that Arigato mentions changed that, but I have not seen their data. They are not yet on the Library section.
Following Maitreya's comment, i would like to stress a very important difference in stuffs vs swords: Style!
Sometimes a bit of role playing is fun, and a stuff (1h or 2h) makes a big difference, especially when no shield is equiped. Gives a certain look, especially to female characters..
You are comparing different value weapons Andreas - what you were saying is akin to stating that daggers have more PAtk than swords because a dark screamer has more PAtk than a sword of watershadow.
Same crystal value. One of two MAtks - since prelude.
Those swords that existed have always had the same MAtk as related staves.
Maline, I understand your comment on crystal count. But since there are no mage swords/1-hand blunts/daggers of equal crystal value to the top staffs, my comment does apply. In absolute numbers (attributes) and for the same grade, staffs have always higher or equal Matk value compared to any other weapon.
PS. I repeat that all my comments are based on C4 since I have not seen the data of the new C5 weapons.