Blackguard Arcmages in the Barracks.

Grab two topaz rings to max lightning resist before entering ebony barracks, and the "Lighting shield" is lightning thorns and works a lot like ele reflect take care when dmging those mobs while shield is up.

Your build or you gameplay probably sucks. Can't say anythign else to QQers like you because that's the truth. Might be hard to take but that's it.

Hey, all of your replies are smth. like " fuck you noobs, learn to play and shut the fuck up". Do you believe you are really that good?

"

Budget_player_cadet wrote:

The arcmages are a very clear "gear check" - if you don't have the correct gear, with enough lightning resist and life, you're not going to get past that area. How much life and lightning resist do you have? And what's your build? Leap Slam, Flicker Strike, and a few other attacks are great at clearing ground.

I can also recommend Bear Traps. Always take out the Mages first if possible, the guards alone are not the problem, it's the combination of Arc Mages and Soldier groups.
I wouldn't call it "gear check", beginners could use lightning resist flasks to went through the area, decoy totems also help. So or so I recommend to be slow and careful there, Barracks/Battle Grounds are not the easiest Areas in PoE.

Again thanks for the feedback. Investing in a specific anti-lightning build is probably worthwhile. :P

Of all of the advice, what I am most interested in is that for Emphasy the Arcmage isn't an off screen cast; just this would make a tremendous difference. I am unsure how I might change this as I have a widescreen LCD and play at 1920x1080 already? Any ideas?

My current build is a heavy life and mana leech tied into a high dps Dual Strike, Multistrike, Melee Splash, with Wrath, Searing Bond Totem, further augmented with cold and fire support gems, which even at Cruel almost immediately disintegrates mob and keeps my health and mana full, EXCEPT of course when I am getting hit off screen as the damage-health/mana circuit is broken.

I must admit that having spec'd into claws I do miss my Leap Slam the most!

I just picked up Spectral Throw, which with my build also allows me to stand back at medium range and run the same damage-health/mana circuit until switching to the even higher dps short-range Dual Strike melee attacks.

So you guys are correct that it is a relatively glass-cannon build, but it is exciting to play as it has a Wolverine feel to it running into a mob of mob and in a second be left standing on a large pile of corpses; I usually run in a circle to aggro as many mob as possible as a farming technique, and rarely have to use a health flask.

So the more I talk to you guys, the more I realize that the problem is with this build is not being able to see the Arcmages before they hit me.

So perhaps there is some technical graphics set up solution that would extend my field of vision other than setting up at 1920x1080?

Thanks for the constructive feedback from everyone.

As for Xantaria, people come onto Feedback sections to get constructive feedback. Maybe you are a better player than the rest of us (though I have a feeling this is more of a personal socialization issue), in which case feel free to do what everyone else did and suggest some solid game play advice. Searching the forums for people who are asking for advice in order to ridicule them says far more about your own real life insecurities than the potential virtual realty inadequacies of the people you criticize. ;)

"

Gankatron wrote:

Again thanks for the feedback. Investing in a specific anti-lightning build is probably worthwhile. :P

Not really. Very few people create "anti-lightning" or "anti-anything" builds. It's usually not needed.

"

So the more I talk to you guys, the more I realize that the problem is with this build is not being able to see the Arcmages before they hit me.

Not really. The most important part is to have Lightning Resistance at 75% or greater. The Topaz Flask helps, as do Topaz Rings, which was mentioned earlier. In addition, you can try to roll lightning resistance on gear, using Orbs of Transmutation, Alteration, Alchemy, and Chaos Orbs, though in Cruel difficulty it's best recommended to save up Chaos Orbs and use only Transmutation and Alteration, and only Alchemy if you are relatively rich.

Investing in larger screens is unlikely to help, as the developers have stated that the camera range is a balance issue, and have deliberately restricted camera range in order to keep ranges balanced.

"

As for Xantaria, people come onto Feedback sections to get constructive feedback.

I agree with your sentiment in this part of your post, but unfortunately I have to disagree with the sentence I just quoted. I think this is because of a language barrier. The Feedback forum is for players to give their feedback to the game developers. The Gameplay Help and Class Discussion forums are the places were players post to get constructive "feedback" on their builds or strategies from other players.

Screen resolution will not help you kill mages faster.
On topic : you have to encounter them with at least 75% light. resist in merci, it's a must, to avoid shock stacks. So resists are the first to work on.
There are two ways to handle mages
- to lure the guards, to separate them from casters, call them one by one or in small groups, slaughter them and then engage the unprotected mages; this will not work with the rare mage in barracks, guards' AI makes them stick to the boss, lol
-dive in to kill mages first, they are very weak, run away to rest a bit, then fight guards; this tactic work fine with any other annoying glass cannons, such as incinerators, ones that deal chaos DOT, etc.
Use WB or leap, depending on what kind of weapons do you use.

@Fusion_Power

"decoy totems also help"

I have been using Searing Totem to great effect in most areas, which are actually fairly good aggro devices when cast ahead of me, and it does help flush out off-screen mob while damaging them as I run into the fray or spectral cast into them.

The problem with this approach with the Arcmage is they by definition arc and so when they invariably target my totem they also hit me via an arc even if technically I am out of range.

Do you not have the same problem with the decoy totems?

"

Gankatron wrote:

@Fusion_Power

"decoy totems also help"

I have been using Searing Totem to great effect in most areas, which are actually fairly good aggro devices when cast ahead of me, and it does help flush out off-screen mob while damaging them as I run into the fray or spectral cast into them.

The problem with this approach with the Arcmage is they by definition arc and so when they invariably target my totem they also hit me via an arc even if technically I am out of range.

Do you not have the same problem with the decoy totems?

Exspecially against Arc-Mages totems unfortunatly aren't that helpful and spectral throw is highly dangerous.

Spectral Throws uncontrollable nature makes you vulnerable against lightning thorns. And yes Arc Mages normally don't have a high enough range to attack you off screen, but once they started casting you can't escape the skill anymore, regardless of distance. So you propably see them back away and still get hit, because they already started attacking you.

Since your build seems to use a bit of spell-damage you really might want to consider a long-range spell like fireball or ice-spear to kill them. And having rings to switch out for certain areas is always good. Prepare to switch them back to fire for the general :P

What also helps even if it is just a low-level item is Fairgraves Tricorne. I don't expect it to be that expensive, since it seems to drop fairly often and getting a 4L one shouldn't be that hard. It is great in that situation and also in the merciless piety fight (the one in the cemetary and the next barracks... not to mention caliga^^).

Also if you use Mana you might try to get a Purity Aura going for such Areas. It only reserves 40% of your mana and is often useable next to clarity. When leveled a bit it not only increases all resistances but even your max resistances and even though 2% don't look like much it is a further 8% damage-reduction if you already capped your resistances.

"Screen resolution will not help you kill mages faster."

"Investing in larger screens is unlikely to help"

Please realize that I am not suggesting to buy bigger monitors to play PoE, but to maximize my existing field of vision for my widescreen monitor. ;)

Getting shot often by multiple Arcmages off screen is exactly the problem, the solution seemingly will either come down to being able to see them to be able to quickly engage them, and/or having a quick closer like Leap Slam (which won't work with a dual claw build (I'll likely drop dps for survivability and equip a sword/axe/mace as a main hand), and/or increasing my survivability until I can close the ground.

My assumption was that I would have to change the latter two factors until Emphasy stated that he actually sees the Arcmages prior to them casting, which would make all of the difference for me.

In case I am not articulating my problem sufficiently, I will get zapped multiple times prior to me being able to even see the Arcmages, which gives them a multiple first shot ambush death from above effect.

I only know where they are on the map by running into the direction of where the bolt came from, by which time my tactics are severely limited by my low health status and stacked shocked debuffs.

When I played long ranged toons I could arch off the screen to tell if mob were hiding there, but Spectral Throw while very effective at killing still is only medium range.

So if there was a way to increase my field of vision so I could see them as Emphasy states he can, I would prefer to go that route, as I like the build.

Sometimes a problem exists that is unique to one's computer/graphical settings and I am wondering if this is the case as getting ambushed instakilled by multiple off-screen mob would seem to not be working as intended.

So if you guys actually get to see the Arcmages prior to them setting to cast then we are living in very different virtual worlds! :P

If not I will just have to alter my build, which I will be taking all of your guys advice into consideration.