[Magus] How to make it work?

[flatfoot1987]

The title says it all. Asking for help as I don't feel like playing more popular rdps classes but so far I find magus being pretty terrible.

I used to play Engi and SH on retail servers (when T3 was capped at 39 and gear up to invader was available) and it didn't feel half as bad.

Basic stats:
850 int
16% magic crit
613 wounds
300 toughness
2200 armor with a pot and self buff.

Here's the setup. It says rr40 because I had to reflect that extra point from Ruin set bonus. RoR.builders - Magus

Obviously it's mediocre at best but I'm working on improving it. Its a typical fresh t4 character with ruin set and rr31.

I usually open with Glean Magic and havoc tree dots (Baleful Transmogrification, Withered Soul, occasionally Pandemonium). Then if I feel like I have time to land a Bolt of Change I cast it. If not - I go straight to Perils of the Warp followed by Surge of Insanity. If the target is at 30-40% hp, then it's Indigo Fire of Change and/or Surging Violet Fire.

Now the problem is that I rarely get to kill anything as the burst is damn low even if it lands and crits. I really like to roam orvr lakes but whenever I run into pretty much anything then I'm usually dead by the time I slapped dots on the target.

I track stacks of Unholy Empowerment with buffhead and I try to keep it up most of the time.

[ToXoS]

About your build, don't take peril of the warp, and take Daemonic reach instead of chaotic attunment. If you want to do nice ST burst, you will need it. Your rotation should be in the best case:

Begin with the dots and disrupt debuff: Baleful transmogrification, withered soul.
After that, use Bolt of change + surge of insanity + Surging violet fire + indigo fire of change.
By the time BoC lands, SoI and SvF will hit at the same time for a nice burst. If all your spells lands correctly, you will kill a squishy with IFOC and the remaining dots.

Take Peril of the warp when you hit RR 40.
Another humble advice: don't go solo in the lakes. You're not a SH, you don't have all the tools to deal with almost any situation, and magus is not a "ready to battle" class, you need to build up your class mechanic (which is tricky in solo play).

In a WB, if you still struggle to kill things, then assist a Sorc or another dps. You will always be useful that way. Try to target ST engies, the magus is their only counter (and vice versa).

Try to get full merc and dwarf influence staff too.

Good luck.

[flatfoot1987]

About your build, don't take peril of the warp, and take Daemonic reach instead of chaotic attunment. If you want to do nice ST burst, you will need it. Your rotation should be in the best case:

Begin with the dots and disrupt debuff: Baleful transmogrification, withered soul.
After that, use Bolt of change + surge of insanity + Surging violet fire + indigo fire of change.
By the time BoC lands, SoI and SvF will hit at the same time for a nice burst. If all your spells lands correctly, you will kill a squishy with IFOC and the remaining dots.

Take Peril of the warp when you hit RR 40.
Another humble advice: don't go solo in the lakes. You're not a SH, you don't have all the tools to deal with almost any situation, and magus is not a "ready to battle" class, you need to build up your class mechanic (which is tricky in solo play).

In a WB, if you still struggle to kill things, then assist a Sorc or another dps. You will always be useful that way. Try to target ST engies, the magus is their only counter (and vice versa).

Try to get full merc and dwarf influence staff too.

Good luck.

Hey Toxos, forgot to answer, sorry.

Anyway, I've tried your tips and it worked slightly better than my setup as I was able to slap some Path of Changing stuff on my targets from distance. That made things a little better but still left a lot of room for improvement.

But it doesn't seem to work for roaming so I ended up using this all-out defense setup. RoR.builders - Magus

Stats with self-buffs.
720 int
12% magic crit
636 toughness
605 wounds
2,4k armor with a pot

And it's still bad. I wanted to be able to fight off melee classes but it solved the problem only partially - It helps me mitigate about 50-60% of physical damage but I'm the first to die anyway. In better cases my targets die of DOT effects later on but that's pretty rare. Typical rotation in that case consists of dots and Rend Winds spam that is almost instant with Close Quarters.

I love the class concept but I feel like I'm wasting my time, can't make it work the way I want it to. Probably gonna focus on something else.

[th3gatekeeper]

Wait, they still let you make a Magus? I thought when you clicked on that class at character creation it had a pop up "Oh, you mean a Sorc?"

Jokes aside...
I dont have anything of contribution to add, only that I think Magus is probably in one of the worst spots as far as "class balance" is concerned. They dont really have a nice "role" they can play either in SCs or RVR. Most of the DEV Team thinks that overall class balance is in a good spot, so this (to me) seems to suggest they are working on other stuff for us than how to rework a few classes. All that meaning, I wouldnt hold my breath for changes although I do think its needed for this class (IMO).

If you want to play Magus, think of it like a hobby. You can have fun at your hobby but you arent going to make a lot of money doing it. Play it for fun with no real "goal" and youll enjoy the class. If you have a "goal" of being on par with a Sorc or BW or something... You wont, so just dont expect the world from your Magus. They are not "worthless" by any means... they are an RDPS that doesnt have the DPS to single handedly kill someone... So assist off a Sorc and youll do fine. Or assist off a MDPS in a melee train and youll do fine too.

[peterthepan3]

About your build, don't take peril of the warp, and take Daemonic reach instead of chaotic attunment. If you want to do nice ST burst, you will need it. Your rotation should be in the best case:

Begin with the dots and disrupt debuff: Baleful transmogrification, withered soul.
After that, use Bolt of change + surge of insanity + Surging violet fire + indigo fire of change.
By the time BoC lands, SoI and SvF will hit at the same time for a nice burst. If all your spells lands correctly, you will kill a squishy with IFOC and the remaining dots.

Take Peril of the warp when you hit RR 40.
Another humble advice: don't go solo in the lakes. You're not a SH, you don't have all the tools to deal with almost any situation, and magus is not a "ready to battle" class, you need to build up your class mechanic (which is tricky in solo play).

In a WB, if you still struggle to kill things, then assist a Sorc or another dps. You will always be useful that way. Try to target ST engies, the magus is their only counter (and vice versa).

Try to get full merc and dwarf influence staff too.

Good luck.

Hey Toxos, forgot to answer, sorry.

Anyway, I've tried your tips and it worked slightly better than my setup as I was able to slap some Path of Changing stuff on my targets from distance. That made things a little better but still left a lot of room for improvement.

But it doesn't seem to work for roaming so I ended up using this all-out defense setup. RoR.builders - Magus

Stats with self-buffs.
720 int
12% magic crit
636 toughness
605 wounds
2,4k armor with a pot

And it's still bad. I wanted to be able to fight off melee classes but it solved the problem only partially - It helps me mitigate about 50-60% of physical damage but I'm the first to die anyway. In better cases my targets die of DOT effects later on but that's pretty rare. Typical rotation in that case consists of dots and Rend Winds spam that is almost instant with Close Quarters.

I love the class concept but I feel like I'm wasting my time, can't make it work the way I want it to. Probably gonna focus on something else.

Honestly not sure what you must be doing wrong. Get a bit more toughness, and you should be dandy vs most classes in a 1v1 environment (are you talking from a solo pov?)

Don't use CQ, complete waste of a tactic slot.

What is it exactly that you are hoping to do? Solo? DPS? etc. and I can help once I know.

[flatfoot1987]

Wait, they still let you make a Magus? I thought when you clicked on that class at character creation it had a pop up "Oh, you mean a Sorc?"

Jokes aside...
I dont have anything of contribution to add, only that I think Magus is probably in one of the worst spots as far as "class balance" is concerned. They dont really have a nice "role" they can play either in SCs or RVR. Most of the DEV Team thinks that overall class balance is in a good spot, so this (to me) seems to suggest they are working on other stuff for us than how to rework a few classes. All that meaning, I wouldnt hold my breath for changes although I do think its needed for this class (IMO).

If you want to play Magus, think of it like a hobby. You can have fun at your hobby but you arent going to make a lot of money doing it. Play it for fun with no real "goal" and youll enjoy the class. If you have a "goal" of being on par with a Sorc or BW or something... You wont, so just dont expect the world from your Magus. They are not "worthless" by any means... they are an RDPS that doesnt have the DPS to single handedly kill someone... So assist off a Sorc and youll do fine. Or assist off a MDPS in a melee train and youll do fine too.

Well, I don't think it's completely hopeless, obviously you won't be as good at killing as a sorc/bw. Trying to find a niche where you can do some damage and stay alive at the same time. I feel that going all out on single target offense makes you so squishy that your dps won't beat another people dps fast enough.

About your build, don't take peril of the warp, and take Daemonic reach instead of chaotic attunment. If you want to do nice ST burst, you will need it. Your rotation should be in the best case:

Begin with the dots and disrupt debuff: Baleful transmogrification, withered soul.
After that, use Bolt of change + surge of insanity + Surging violet fire + indigo fire of change.
By the time BoC lands, SoI and SvF will hit at the same time for a nice burst. If all your spells lands correctly, you will kill a squishy with IFOC and the remaining dots.

Take Peril of the warp when you hit RR 40.
Another humble advice: don't go solo in the lakes. You're not a SH, you don't have all the tools to deal with almost any situation, and magus is not a "ready to battle" class, you need to build up your class mechanic (which is tricky in solo play).

In a WB, if you still struggle to kill things, then assist a Sorc or another dps. You will always be useful that way. Try to target ST engies, the magus is their only counter (and vice versa).

Try to get full merc and dwarf influence staff too.

Good luck.

Hey Toxos, forgot to answer, sorry.

Anyway, I've tried your tips and it worked slightly better than my setup as I was able to slap some Path of Changing stuff on my targets from distance. That made things a little better but still left a lot of room for improvement.

But it doesn't seem to work for roaming so I ended up using this all-out defense setup. RoR.builders - Magus

Stats with self-buffs.
720 int
12% magic crit
636 toughness
605 wounds
2,4k armor with a pot

And it's still bad. I wanted to be able to fight off melee classes but it solved the problem only partially - It helps me mitigate about 50-60% of physical damage but I'm the first to die anyway. In better cases my targets die of DOT effects later on but that's pretty rare. Typical rotation in that case consists of dots and Rend Winds spam that is almost instant with Close Quarters.

I love the class concept but I feel like I'm wasting my time, can't make it work the way I want it to. Probably gonna focus on something else.

Honestly not sure what you must be doing wrong. Get a bit more toughness, and you should be dandy vs most classes in a 1v1 environment (are you talking from a solo pov?)

Don't use CQ, complete waste of a tactic slot.

What is it exactly that you are hoping to do? Solo? DPS? etc. and I can help once I know.

It's mostly solo roaming and pug scenarios. I've always thought of CQ as a way push some damage quick once a melee comes out of nowhere. It also works as 'half-instant demons' tool.

The magus is not weak, I think it suffers from not being as thematic or interesting as the engineer and that the crack of a rifle while pew pewing is a lot more grounded in feel than the whooshing of magus spells.

I recently started running this and its quite hilarious, it chews through guarded targets rapidly and I get around 2k crits with FRF and 1.5k with SVF landing in the same timestamp and can rotate it over and over.

RoR.builders - Magus

Can you imagine the state of the forums if engineers had undefendable gun blast and firebomb? That some attacks did 50% extra critical damage?

Nah, dwarfs are probably my fav army from lore perspective, got some minatures, books etc (even considering tattooing a slayer). But Tzeentch sorcerors are pretty badass from style perspective imo, it's like a caster chosen if we're talking WAR design part.

That's mostly similar to the build I've been using earlier and I didn't feel like it applies enough pressure on the target. Might try it with a defensive gear setup and see how it works. Not giving up, still want to play it

[Daknallbomb]

Single target specs from magus and engi are rly good atm. Def skill sup is good too for wbs. But changing spec is nearly not effektiv playable