Addramelech wrote:
Congratulations, you just spouted some grade A bullshit. First off, illusionary rod is fail. Instead, get a hypnotic blade with a rod of molten fire in your offhand. More spell damage, nice int, etc.
Next, you should focus on getting an inventors focal sword at 48. Throw a high int, spellpower or sunfire enchant over it. Put a celestial orb in offhand. At 60, you can get a sageclaw or a field marshals mageblade. After that, it's outland, and if by then you don't know how to find good gear, give your account away and hang yourself.
Please, stop educating new mages to be a pile of shit that get outdamaged by hunters and rogues, which is all the more common these days.
You're quite an ***. You're telling him to go buy or find a blue world drop, which is expensive or damn near impossible. Furthermore, you don't even know if he's a fire mage or not.
That attitude of yours is both uncalled for and unneeded. I don't why you're so vehement on mages using a one-hander plus off-hand. Does it bother you that mages would use staves, which are traditional of mages to use since the beginning of RPGs?
At those levels, no one cares anything about spell damage. Ooo, nine spell damage. Means little in comparison to stats at that level. Intellect is a boon to increase a player's mana pool, which is the problem that leveling mages have. Not that they can't kill stuff fast enough. Intellect also has the double bonus of giving spell crit with that intellect. Rod of Molten Fire gives you fire resist with the fire spell damage. How handy for Desolace, Thousand Needles, Alterac.
The Illusionary Rod is not fail. 15 intellect, 10 spirit, 7 stamina. Compare that to 8 intellect, 3 spirit, 9 spell damage, 13 fire damage, and 6 fire resist. The latter combo is fail, 22 fire damage is good for a fire mage but not as handy as 7 intellect, spirit, and stamina at the level. Furthermore, staves are twohanders. They can hold better enchantments than onehanders.
There is nothing wrong with getting Illusionary Rod nor Zum'rah's Vexing Cane either. Is a person a moron for trying for a piece of equipment which may be a few points less handy but easier to get?
I don't see how a mage is a pile of sh
it for using Zum'rah's Vexing Cane. You sound incredibly narrow-minded.
Now, as far as melee mages go :P , I've conked a low-health enemy as a finisher in battle every now and then. I find staves better for that than swords because the damage on staves are pretty nice, actually. But in all seriousness, mages + melee = no. :D