BSOL mage

From Townstons
Blue Screen of Life is an important, but confusing, mage skill.

When you read the description of Blue Screen of Life (usually called BSOL) the first reaction is to reject it entirely. It just does not seem to make sense:

X% of all Health Damage received is transfered to Mana for 180 seconds.
Damage applied to mana is inflated by an additional 50%.

At the first level it is available, Level 25, X is only 30%. So you are still taking 70% damage, and the part that is transfered to mana costs you an extra 50%. The novice mage does the math and asks himself, "What am I gaining??" One poster characterized it as "Trading your life for Mana." Why would a mage choose to do that?

The answer depends on the subtle difference between Mana and Intellect points. Of course, one of the main uses for Intellect points is to increase your Mana. A beginning mage needs to balance the distribution of points between END and INT to balance Endurance and Mana.

BUT -- what is less commonly considered is that INT points also directly apply to the damage done by your spells! THERE is the advantage gained from BSOL. By putting more points into INT, you increase the damage for each and every spell each and every time it is used. An extra 100 points in INT can translate to an additional 200 to 400 points damage to every single Fire Bolt! So using BSOL to pile points into INT instead of putting them in END makes a mage a potent destroyer.

Frankly, at low levels, it still is not a very good trade off. Most BSOL mages that I have encountered have been at much higher level. One approach is to build a more balanced mage through the lower levels, and then re-spec at high level. At Level 55 you begin to get respectable protection from BSOL, and at Level 70 it becomes a really valuable skill! Of course, it is going to cost major gold. At Level 70, paying to respec and buying the skill to full upgrade will cost about 3 million gold. Collecting all equipment that is high INT bonus will cost more.

The result, however, is impressive. Here is the way I set up my BSOL mage at Level 70:

Contents

Attributes

Re-spec almost all your points into INT. Of course you probably have little AGI or STR anyhow. Leave about 10% of your points for a base END, and put 90% into INT. From here on out, it is 100% of your leveling up points to INT.

Equipment

Look for equipment that is almost pure + INT. For a mage, this most often means either

Image:Body- Ghost3 Tatters 64px.jpg Image:Boots-_Ghost3 Boots_64px.jpg
Image:Gloves- Ghost3 Gloves_64px.jpg 		Image:Helm-_Ghost3 Mask_64px.jpg
Image:Shoulders-_Ghost3 Spaulders_64px.jpg 		Unique Revenant Armor
Image:Body- Ghost4 Habit 64px.jpg Image:Boots-_Ghost4 Boots_64px.jpg
Image:Gloves- Ghost4 Gloves_64px.jpg 		Image:Helm-_Ghost4 Miter_64px.jpg
Image:Shoulders-_Ghost4 Spaulders_64px.jpg 		Unique Eidolon Armor

Then you also use jewelry that is high INT bonus, but if you wish you can also get a bit of END from your jewelry. Remember that the point of a BSOL mage is to build high INT to do high DAMAGE!

Skills

Here is a very effective skill tray for a Obsidian BSOL mage that I use with great effect. Note the one little additional trick by the addition of Monster Bait.

Image:Fire-bolt.jpg Fire Bolt goes on the left button for the main attack. (Crispy Critters works well here too.)
image:Ring-of-fire.jpg Ring of Fire goes on hot key 1 for frequent use.
Image:Monster-bait.jpg Monster Bait is a very effective addition. It goes on Hotkey 2 and I activate 2-3-4 in rapid succession
Image:Blue Screen of Life.jpg Blue Screen of Life is the key skill which you MUST be sure is always active. I put it on Hotkey 3.
Image:Pyromania.jpg Pyromania is my choice for Hotkey 4. Any skill buff or resistance could go here.
Image:Improved-shadow-lightning.jpg Improved Shadow Lightning begins the passives.
Image:Mental-prowess.jpg Mental Prowess is one of the basic mage passives.
Image:Bookworm.jpg Bookworm is the other basic mage passive.
Image:Bling-gnome.jpg And I always allot passive space to my Bling Gnome. You may have another favorite passive to put here.
Image:Shadow-lightning.jpg Shadow Lightning goes on the right hotkey and is the main AoE attack.

Strategy and Usage

Now you are prepared for devastating damage, either running solo or in a group.

Here is the way I play it. As soon as monsters are sighted, I hit Hotkeys 2-3-4 in rapid succession. This means throwing out Monster Bait, activating your BSOL, and using the buff to your main attack. At this point, you will see that you can be doing as much as 4000 to 5000 damage with one SINGLE Fire Bolt, and that Ring of Fire will deal out 2000 damage or more to every mob in its radius. When you hit Shadow Lighting, mobs all around you will be taking 1000, 2000 or even more damage with each bolt. The BSOL mage can do major carnage with these skills.

Staying back and blasting is the main approach (see Two Button Mage), but if you do find yourself surrounded you still have devastating AoE skills to bring into use. Running solo at Normal it only takes seconds to destroy a whole group of mobs.

You have to be absolutely positive that your BSOL is powered up and ready to go! It lasts 180 seconds so once activated it usually will last the entire battle unless you are in a really tough Boss fight. However, if you run out of mana your BSOL crashes too, so you do have to watch your pots.

Advantages

  • As noted, the main object of using BSOL is to kick up your INT, and there by kick up your damage.
  • Effectively it simplifies the choice of equipment. +INT, +INT, +INT is all you have to look for!

Disadvantages

  • At lower levels the advantage of BSOL is minimum.
  • Losing BSOL means that a quick death is in the works.
Categories: Builds | Mage PvE Builds | PvE Builds
Restored from thetownstons.com on the Wayback Machine. Dungeon Runners fansite wiki, originally MediaWiki.