Magic underpowered? Think again! ~+~+OVER-HAULED~+~+

[LatinII]

Is Ahrim's Staff really worthwhile to use if you have a staff of light? If you have a Mage's book, you're losing out on +17 magic attack and +5% damage, and if you're using a shield, that's your defensive bonuses out of the window.

 

I'd say SoL + BS is the best. You don't even need to farcast meleers anymore thanks to the new staff. I've never really tried ahrim's set effect in PvP, all I know is that it has a 25% succes chance to lower your opponents strength level by 5 levels everytime. Pretty deadly. Especially if you combine it with Enfeeble and Leech Strength.

[Obtaurian]

Is Ahrim's Staff really worthwhile to use if you have a staff of light? If you have a Mage's book, you're losing out on +17 magic attack and +5% damage, and if you're using a shield, that's your defensive bonuses out of the window.

 

I'd say SoL + BS is the best. You don't even need to farcast meleers anymore thanks to the new staff. I've never really tried ahrim's set effect in PvP, all I know is that it has a 25% succes chance to lower your opponents strength level by 5 levels everytime. Pretty deadly. Especially if you combine it with Enfeeble and Leech Strength.

 

Speaking from inexperience, maybe you could switch between the SoL and Ahrim's staff as needed?

[LatinII]

Oh and Warrior here are 3 videos demonstrating magic vs. melee without farcasting, with the meleer wearing rune gear and black d'hide, and a video showing magic vs. range in black d'hide and in Karil's.

 

Magic vs Range

 

Magic vs Melee pt 1

 

Magic vs Melee pt 2

[MotherBrainII]

Is Ahrim's Staff really worthwhile to use if you have a staff of light? If you have a Mage's book, you're losing out on +17 magic attack and +5% damage, and if you're using a shield, that's your defensive bonuses out of the window.

 

I'd say SoL + BS is the best. You don't even need to farcast meleers anymore thanks to the new staff. I've never really tried ahrim's set effect in PvP, all I know is that it has a 25% succes chance to lower your opponents strength level by 5 levels everytime. Pretty deadly. Especially if you combine it with Enfeeble and Leech Strength.

 

Speaking from inexperience, maybe you could switch between the SoL and Ahrim's staff as needed?

 

This could work, but you'd have to leave an open slot for the shield every time, which might be a hassle, and the SOL special deactivates when you unequip it.

[warrior5024]

Hm.. for long fights, that isn't actually a bad idea, since Ahrim's staff is cheap lost on death as well. It all depends on what armor you want to utilize and how much management you want to deal with. As great as the Staff of Light is, it might not be the best in some situations. For example, if you go onto 0-item worlds, Zuriel's Staff would be the best option.

On the other hand, Ahrim's is very selective, since it lacks defence bonuses. I find that set to by most useful for food fights against non-hybrids, or when Blood Barraging groups of people.

[muggiwhplar]

Hm.. for long fights, that isn't actually a bad idea, since Ahrim's staff is cheap lost on death as well. It all depends on what armor you want to utilize and how much management you want to deal with. As great as the Staff of Light is, it might not be the best in some situations. For example, if you go onto 0-item worlds, Zuriel's Staff would be the best option.

On the other hand, Ahrim's is very selective, since it lacks defence bonuses. I find that set to by most useful for food fights against non-hybrids, or when Blood Barraging groups of people.

 

I'm pretty sure Ahrims staff protects over all other Ahrim equipment. I sold my staff, I think it's obsolete nowadays since if I'm fighting a meleer, I've already got 50% damage and speed reduction-- don't really need the str reduction anymore. Plus I don't have much defence w/ Ahrims staff-- if a ranger comes I'm boned.

[LatinII]

Alright so I've done some testing on using Ahrim's set effect and a SoL + BSS in PvP. I was using fire surge and entangle. And I have to say that the SoL + BSS wins. I was fighting a maxed out meleer who was using turmoil, soul split, a whip and claws. We did some fights without farcasting first. I won most of them. I lost one time when using full Ahrim's (died by a claw spec, I brewed too late), then the second time when the set effect activated a few times it got a lot easier for me and his strength level was down to 64/99 in less than a minute. I won. Then we did 2 fights with a SoL + BSS. I won both with ease. I just had to pay attention to when he was switching from his whip to his claws so I could turn my special attack on in time. And even if you don't have your special attack from your SoL on it's easy to survive a claw spec if you use the rocktail brew combination (Eat one rocktail. brew 3 times, then drink a super restore potion).

 

Then we did some fights with farcasting. Again I was using full Ahrim's and a SoL + BSS. I lost one time with Ahrim's set effect due to 2 very good claw specials (I let my hp go too low again lol, I was down to 300LP when he clawed me). I won the second one with 3 brews left. Then we did another 2 fights with my SoL + BSS. I won both with so much ease lol. I only had to drink one sip of my brew. That's all lol. I had 9 brews left. It's very easy to farcast meleers if you know when they will be able to move again so you can entangle/barrage them in time without them even hitting you most of the time. In all of these tests he was in black d'hide, fury, dragon boots, abyssal whip, rune defender, dragon claws, a trimmed 99 cape, a berserker ring, a neitiznot helm and barrows gloves. He's maxed out.

[MotherBrainII]

Is it really worth raising your defensive bonuses even with relatively low defense, then? I assumed my 78 defense would be close to useless against maxed players and so focused on my magic offense, which is maxed out, but if you can make good use of it with just 75...

 

EDIT: Regarding helms, I think the guide could use a little more detail. It only covers Ahrim's Hood and Barrows Helms in a small amount of detail (and no longer mentions Dharok's as the best Barrows helm), while making little to no mention of other options such as the Full Slayer Helmet and the Helm of Neitiznot.

[LatinII]

My gear has around +220 slash defence and my defence level is 75. My friend still hit a lot of 0's on me and he has 99 attack, strength and was using turmoil. If you want to Motherbrain, I can show you how powerful magic is against maxed out meleers. I'll just ask my friend to duel me again.

 

And Dharok's was never the best helm :P Use Verac's, Torag's or Guthan's.

[MotherBrainII]

Why is Verac's usually recommended? The only differenece I can see is that you're losing +6 range defense for +3 prayer, the latter of which is useless in PVP as far as I'm aware.

 

EDIT: Which helm were you using in your tests? You say you used full Ahrim's, but I can't see how you could even get close to 220 slash defense without a melee defense helm.

[LatinII]

Why is Verac's usually recommended? The only differenece I can see is that you're losing +6 range defense for +3 prayer, the latter of which is useless in PVP as far as I'm aware.

 

Yeah it's because of the prayer bonus. I personally use Torag's because of the higher range defence.

[warrior5024]

Yeah, full Ahrim's has always been a very tricky set to use, so, especially with new spells, it falls short now-a-days.

I find most Barrow's helms to be the same, unless risk is involved, at which point go for Torag's. The bonuses won't make much noticable different, and, for most cases, they out-weigh the Magic attack for Ahrim's hood.

[Articultural]

With regard to defence, you haven't mentioned the Elysian or Divine shields. While they give no magic attack bonus, their special effects make them amazing for PvP, regardless of what style you use.

[muggiwhplar]

Miasmic max hits:

 

(base magic level +0): 352

(+1): 362 (+10 damage from previous level)

(+2): 373 (+11)

(+3): 383 (+10)

(+4): 394 (+11)

(+5): 404 (+10)

(+6): 415 (+11)

(+7): 425 (+10)

 

With regard to defence, you haven't mentioned the Elysian or Divine shields. While they give no magic attack bonus, their special effects make them amazing for PvP, regardless of what style you use.

 

Probably cuz that's kind of a 'given' as the optimum equipment, though it's too impractical for the average player-- especially if they're using it in PvP where they can lose it.

[Aiel]

Miasmic max hits:

 

(base magic level +0): 352

(+1): 362 (+10 damage from previous level)

(+2): 373 (+11)

(+3): 383 (+10)

(+4): 394 (+11)

(+5): 404 (+10)

(+6): 415 (+11)

(+7): 425 (+10)

 

With regard to defence, you haven't mentioned the Elysian or Divine shields. While they give no magic attack bonus, their special effects make them amazing for PvP, regardless of what style you use.

 

Probably cuz that's kind of a 'given' as the optimum equipment, though it's too impractical for the average player-- especially if they're using it in PvP where they can lose it.

you'll very rarely loose an Elysian/divine in pvp, the only items I know of that protect over them are a onyx ring (i), zaros stat, and sereen stat.

[warrior5024]

0-item worlds are in better favor for a PvP Magician mostly however, making the risk far more real, and impractical for Divine/Elysian usage, despite their amazing capabilities. I didn't include them because they are both very exclusive and the massive 20+ boost of the Arcane is hard to ignore. Seeing as I haven't used Damage reducing shields, I can't fairly weigh the benefits of magic offense to defensive capabilities, so I omitted them.

 

Thanks for posting that Ralph Wiggum (always cracks me up). I'll be sure to update the max hits asap.

[MotherBrainII]

How useful is Soul Split for dueling? I realise its uses in multicombat, but it seems to me as if a Deflect curse such as Deflect Ranged would be better for 1v1 combat, since it doesn't depend on damage dealt and acts as a disincentive for the opponent to use ranged.

[a_bert]

0-item worlds are in better favor for a PvP Magician mostly however, making the risk far more real, and impractical for Divine/Elysian usage, despite their amazing capabilities. I didn't include them because they are both very exclusive and the massive 20+ boost of the Arcane is hard to ignore. Seeing as I haven't used Damage reducing shields, I can't fairly weigh the benefits of magic offense to defensive capabilities, so I omitted them.

 

Thanks for posting that Ralph Wiggum (always cracks me up). I'll be sure to update the max hits asap.

 

I've been reading Muggi's posts a lot recently and I never noticed that. That is hilarious. :P

[warrior5024]

How useful is Soul Split for dueling? I realise its uses in multicombat, but it seems to me as if a Deflect curse such as Deflect Ranged would be better for 1v1 combat, since it doesn't depend on damage dealt and acts as a disincentive for the opponent to use ranged.

 

 

I haven't used Soul Split, but, much like blood barrage, I doubt the healing will be significant in dueling. Without a doubt in single combat, Protection/deflect prayers are far more useful.

[sausagewalls]

Great guide, really interesting as im nearly 99 mage and will be hoping to own some nubs in pvp or cw :D

[Veritas94]

I remember when this guide used to contain spell stacking information. Too bad Jagex eliminated double casting, hugely decreasing the KOing power (what little it had) of the mage. Hopefully, the arcane stream necklace will help. However, I shouldn't have to have 70 dungeoneering to be able to use magic effectively.

 

For hybriding, magic is indeed useful. Alone, it can't KO like the other two points in the CB triangle. Hopefully they fix this issue some day.

[Yutahon]

I remember when this guide used to contain spell stacking information. Too bad Jagex eliminated double casting, hugely decreasing the KOing power (what little it had) of the mage. Hopefully, the arcane stream necklace will help. However, I shouldn't have to have 70 dungeoneering to be able to use magic effectively.

 

For hybriding, magic is indeed useful. Alone, it can't KO like the other two points in the CB triangle. Hopefully they fix this issue some day.

 

Whats double casting? Never heard of hit. Do you mean blitz delay then barrage so it hits at the same? If yes then this is still possible. :blink:

[Aiel]

I remember when this guide used to contain spell stacking information. Too bad Jagex eliminated double casting, hugely decreasing the KOing power (what little it had) of the mage. Hopefully, the arcane stream necklace will help. However, I shouldn't have to have 70 dungeoneering to be able to use magic effectively.

 

For hybriding, magic is indeed useful. Alone, it can't KO like the other two points in the CB triangle. Hopefully they fix this issue some day.

 

Whats double casting? Never heard of hit. Do you mean blitz delay then barrage so it hits at the same? If yes then this is still possible. :blink:

Nope, jagex nerfed it when the nerfed the burst glitch.

[LatinII]

I have the 10% damage necklace :P It's very cool. I hit accurate 400s on somebody wearing rune armor and my max hit was around 428. Once I get the 15% one I can hit around 456. Here's what the meleer I fought had so say about it:

 

"Basically, Latin just got the 10% damage boost necklace. We did multiple fights of me against him, while I was in rune armour, and one while I was in black d'hide.

 

Overall he hit so much it was rather ridiculous. I was using sharks, and while I was being farcasted I ALWAYS had to eat full out just to survive! And there were LOTS of times where, if he had gotten lucky hits, I would have been a goner even though I was stuffing my face with sharks as fast as was possible.

 

I had a really difficult time knowing when I was unfrozen. The only way I really could know was by timing his hits, but I was kept so busy eating that it was very very difficult to do both at once. It happened multiple times where I'd only just realize it was probably time to move, and then I'd see a brand new "You have been frozen." message appear. And I'm no beginner at fighting. It isn't easy if you don't have good magic defence AT ALL. (And the vast majority of meleers do not have good magic defence.)

 

When I was wearing d'hide it was EASIER, but far from EASY. I was able to generally time the hits and know when I was unfrozen, but that is only the first bit. I still had to deal with the running technique... I rarely hit. There was one point where Latin splashed loads of times in a row and I got to hit a ton, but he just activated his SoL and my hits were no good, despite my turmoil and maxed melee stats.

 

Overall for me, as the meleer, it was a complete fiasco. I stood no chance even though I had 31 combat levels higher than him! Even when I had black d'hide and he got a very unlucky, very long, string of splashing I only managed to make him eat a few pieces of food. Even when I was using awesome advantages like soul split and turmoil and claws, I had no chance at all...

 

Also, the necklace was great. He hit lots of 400+ on me. :) It would have been a lot easier and safer for me without that, I'm sure."

[bedman]

I have the 15% necklace and I can confirm it rocks. My max hit is 471 so far (in clan wars), but theoretically, 481 should be possible (30*1.15*1.15*1.21). I was also suprised on how accurate I still was on people in hides/karil. This was nicely illustrated in me 3 hitting a guy with the hits 458 456 + whatever what was needed to finish him off.

Too bad this ammy is impractical to use in pvp (didn't check how it protects, but I don't think it will be valuable).