How to make a Mage character?

I'm very new to CoH (having come here from CO). Is there a powerset for mages, with circles and such? Or should I just go with something like Ice and Darkness, etc?

CoH does not work quite like CO. Could you be more specific about the 'job' you want to do and the powers your want to do it with? Either that, or just cast all of your expectations to the wind, pick an Archetype and powerset at random, and go bash thugs. You'll figure out what you want to do soon enough.

Be Well!
Fireheart

There are a *lot* of options for somebody who wants to make a mage-type character. Play with the character creator for good costume ideas, and play with the colors for the powers to see what you can make that you like.

There's no specific "mage" powerset, though, so you'll need to pick a themed powerset of some kind, and go from there.

A few sets to check out, to get you started playing around with things in the character creator

Blaster primaries: fire, ice, electric blast (elemental damage), psy blast (damage others with your mind)
Controller primaries: earth, ice, fire, (elemental), illusion, mind (illusionist, enchanter), plant (nature)
Defender primaries: cold domination, storm summoning, trick arrow (magically imbued arrows), dark (if you'd like a dark, deathly theme, or if you'd like to recolor the set to make it brighter).
Mastermind primaries: necromancy

... and this is just off the top of my head. There are quite a few more options for making a mage-style character.

Nothing as such. I assume you mean the sort of special effects used in games like Neverwinter Nights, or World of Warcraft. (Where a mystic-looking circle or sigil appears as part of the attack.) None of the powersets in this game are quite that specific. How your character got their powers, and exactly how they work, are all basically just role-playing details in this game. With that said, there are lots of powers that would fit various magical themes - Ice and Fire for elemental mages, Darkness for the gothy types, and Gravity Control and the various psychic-themed sets for more traditional "magic missile" wizards.

There are a few Temp Powers that fit the theme - powers that use a rod/staff/wand to cast through, for example. And, above all, the Rune of Warding - that looks like a magic attack!

As for power sets that can easily be interpreted as 'magical'

-Blast Sets: Electrical; Energy; Fire; Ice; Psychic; Dark
-Manipulation Sets: Any but Devices
-Control Sets: Yeah, all of them work. Yes, even Gravity.
-Buff/Debuff sets: Only Trick Arrow and Traps really feel off, here... but Sonic Resonance may also be a bit hard to swallow for a "Magic" set.
-Assault Sets: Thorns is a bit iffy, personally. Otherwise, their all good.
-Pet Summoning Sets: Necromancy. Demon Summoning will work too, post GR.

If you're going for a "Mage" feel, I doubt you want to use melee sets, so I won't bother there.

Of course, all of this is open to interpretation. I've seen a Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster that was Magic in origin. Character story was that she used 'Numerology" to design all her equipment...

He is specifically looking at circles, which, if I recall, in CO Buff your team and/or Debuff your enemy

That being said, it sounds like he wants a Controller, Defender, or Corrupter.

So, your buff sets that will most fit into the "circle" thing are

Sonic Resonance
Storm Summoning
Dark Miasma
Thermal Radiation
Force Field
Cold Domination

Mixed with really any controller primary or the following blast sets for Defenders or Corrupters

Dark Blast
Electric Blast
Energy Blast
Fire Blast - Corrupter only
Ice Blast
Psychic Blast - Defender Only
Radiation Blast

you seem to be thinking of sorcery, no powers like it here, though dominators can get some of the functions, but nothing like the semi broken goodness of circle of the primal storm.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

I have a magical themed scrapper. Serenity Dark. She uses Dark magics to both protect herself and defeat the bad guys. Her sister, on the other hand, uses Dark magics to raise the dead and defeat the good guys.

Both are "Mages" to a degree, but their styles of combat are vastly different.

Experiment a bit and you should be able to make a working concept. As stated, Controllers, Defenders, Corruptors, and Dominators will all be good picks. I think recolored version of Dark Miasma or Radiation Emission may work best but in the end it will be your choice.

Be sure to check out www.paragonwiki.com to get an idea on how some powers work.

Pretty much any class can work as a mage if you use the right powers. But in my opinion, a mage is a squishy type person who uses abilities from far away (or can but doesn't always) and has a variety of spells to use. So I'd recommend:

1) Dominator - Doms do pretty high damage; some of the best in the game actually. But they're really squishy and easy to kill if they don't handle their control. Their sets are control/assault, which means their primary is devoted to mezzes and control while their secondary is a mix of melee and ranged attacks. They're redside (villains) and almost always have pets.

2) Controller - Controllers do very little damage until high levels, but they do have all sorts of neat abilities. You can play Controller as a sort of support mage who exists to help out friends rather than directly destroy things. Controllers are blueside (heroes) and have control/buff, meaning their primary job is to control enemies by locking them down and preventing them from attacking, and their secondary role is to buff and debuff to support a team and themselves. Controllers almost always have pets.

3) Defender/Corruptor - These two are a lot alike. Defenders are blueside, Corruptors redside. Both have ranged attacks and buffs/debuffs, just Defenders are more buff/debuff oriented and Corruptors are more damage oriented. You get blast attacks with some secondary debuff effects built in as well as a set of buffs and debuffs to support your friends and teammates.

4) Blaster - Blueside toon. Blasters are pure damage. They have ranged and melee attacks, as well as some self-buff powers. Blasters are pretty much the best flat-out damage dealers in the game and tend to get a variety of different attack types. Blasters will often also have debuffs and other secondary effects in their powers, and some even have other special abilities like Sonic's mass sleep or Ice's ice patch. As a mage, Blasters are much more straight-forward and mostly focused on dealing damage with less emphasis on the side-stuff that the others listed above have.

Hopefully some of that helps. And welcome to the game!

Quote:

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

I think something like Storm Summoning/Dark Blast Defender or Corruptor would work particularly well for a magic type character.

I'm not familiar with CO (I didn't stay long enough to try Sorcery) so I won't try to cover that as others have done so better.

However, I would suggest that with the ability to colour powers, you don't have to stick to the 'theme' of that powerset. I recently made a demon character who is a Fire/Radiation Controller but by recolouring Radiation from bright green to dark red, I was able to make it a 'demonic aura' type power.

The powersets are just that, powersets. What you call them or use them as is entirely up to you. Feel free to add whatever RP elements you wish. I hope you enjoy the game and feel welcome here. Enjoy your stay.


P.S. My own Mage type characters are a Dark/Dark Defender and a Mind/Ice Dominator, both characters that are good at controlling the enemy - perfect for dark sorcerers. Hope that helps.

Lots of nice suggestions here.
The origin is up to you to decide and play. I know of one player that used guns. Well magic origin, due to her trying a special costume and somehow the costume stayed. A nice side effect though, infinite pocket space (how else are you going to run around with lots of big guns?)

Myself, i got a fire/fire blaster sorceress. She has now focused on fire spells, but through game terms well she can cast teleportation spells etc. Now the spells she casts are instinctive, so i do not mumble words of power to throw fire at or around people. That would be more when I rp with rituals etc.

I got say a dark/dark defender (low lvl for now) who say... is an ol' man using Voodoo and be speak'ing with a jamaican accent (well in my head anyway).

The only power I know of so far that remotly gives any "magic" in them is a temp power given around 20-25 in Croatoa. Glyph of Warding. That does extra damage to fay creatures. (sooo want that power as a vet reward)
But as said by posters before me, there is no primary/secondary powersets that are "magical" with graphics like in co.

In short: Decide about powersets, customize your look and powersets. Make your char look as magical as possible (magic pack do give some magic looking costume pieces), write the bio.
Oh and welcome to the game. May your stay here be a long and happy one.

I've got a sorceress character that went from Storm/Elec defender to Sonic/Storm corr to Fire/Storm corr. Not only can she create powerful weather effects, she can augment them using fire magic! That's how she can create freezing rain AND rain of fire.

I also created a robot sorcerer character modeled after Tin Mage (I call him Iron Mage) that's a dom that basically control metal magically. I used earth control and earth assault and colored them to look more 'metal' colored. It works quite good, actually but not as fun as my earth/psi dom.

Other than that, you can make a mage character out of anything if you're semi-creative. It's pretty easy, actually. But I'd probably go the 'big flashy effects' route on a corruptor, defender, blaster or dominator (I guess controller too) and color your powers to fit your theme.

Well, I'm running a Defender with Storm and Ice Blast. Thanks everyone!

Well, my Dr. Strange homage is a Grav/Rad Controller, and he fits the bill pretty well.

The other route I've considered is a Rad/Dark Defender (or Dark/Dark). With the ability to alter the colour of powers now, it can be a pretty good mix, and really quite effective.

I tried to include rad in my mage's powers because a lot of the magical foes seem to use radiation in their effects (not in combat, but in capturing npcs and such). Plus, rad is very effective.

I can't believe no one mentioned the good ol Necr/Dark/Soul Master Mind. If having a cadre of undead zombies and specters is your thing.

Hero side, the good ol 3-d Defender Dark/Dark/Dark is suitable for magic. Mind/Kin controllers aren't bad either for a magical theme. And of course all the combos mentioned here..would be good choices. Illusion control works well for magic based toons too.