how do mage fight when in pvm??

[spartan335]

hi!

im wondering how do mages fight in pvm (player vs monster). Atm i got lvl 22mage and sofar i only use him for stone production. But since im sometimes getting bored of playing my cleric im looking towards my alt (my mage).

So exactly what is the fighting style? With mages is it like:
-cast-cast-cast-cast-run-cast-cast-cast-run??
or is it just:
-cast-cast-cast-cast-pause-cast-cast-cast-etc??

[DeathPyres]

Well, some people prefer to kite, while others don't mind burning a few extra stones standing there. Anyways, with the proper skill empowerment you can basically spam skills on a *close* ranged mob without ever really stopping, starting at lv 20.

[otterfactory]

The absolute best way to fight as a mage is to get a friend or two, one of them being a cleric (maybe a fighter). Then run around while being healed and aggro as many monsters as you can survive. Then you use Magic Burst over and over again and rack up XP much faster than any other way possible (CD + DMG on MBurst if you like to party often).

If you are soloing just hit most yellow monsters at maximum distance with an Ice Blast and they will go down without hitting you more than once or twice. You don't need to kite much unless you are fighting red enemies typically.

[keleios]

I agree with otter, although, I really screwed up my skills. Oh well, it's good to reduce cooldowns on skills that deal the most damage, and especially magic missle 1. I don't know about magic burst, because, I used my extra ones on the cooldowns for Nova and Inferno.

[Nephron]

I think otterfactory's advice sounds pretty solid. :)

My mage is only 46, but in my experience, mage kiting is kind of a lousy tactic. Maybe I'm just a lousy mage, but from my own personal observations, this is what I've concluded:

1) It's too time-consuming, especially if you're working in a particular area. If you do some serious kiting, you may spend a while trudging back to where you want to be. This is inconvenient, and eats into the time on any buffs/scrolls you've got.

2) The only spell that can be cast while running is Lightning Bolt (unlike archers, who can fire their DoTs while on the move). This means you have to stop to cast any of the other spells, giving the target plenty of time to catch up and start hitting you.

3) And speaking of spells, Magic Burst is useless if the target isn't right next to you. MB may not be the most powerful spell in your arsenal, but it helps.

4) You run the risk of aggroing other monsters if you go running around, or maybe ending up at a spawn point.

Just my two cents. Like I said, maybe I'm just not a very good mage. Comments welcome. ;)