Wondering how NERFED witch is now? Below is a guide written by top dodging witch (catch me if you can!) Tharion, to analyze why people are crying about witches on wheelchairs now.
Black Desert Mobile – In depth Archmage (Witch Ascension) Guide
Hi, I’m Tharion, a 4600+ Witch in Legend on Mediah. I’m going to share some first impression thoughts on PVP Witch Succession/Ascension for BDM to help you make your own informed decisions. Thanks to Findalye for helping to edit the guide and Puzzlebox for testing the Witch Succession abilities with me.
Comparing skills with KR, there was a significant damage nerf on all Succession Witch skills. IceXgame released a video on youtube that shows these changes and we can see that there are not too many choices when min/maxing PvP loadouts.
After looking at the numbers, there are significant combos for Archmage that will put you above others. These combos have been practiced and tested in friendly arenas with fellow guild members.This the most important and useful info of this guide.
Finally I’ll give my take on the state of the game for all classes and what could be done to balance and promote a healthier PVP environment.
Spell Damage, Use, and Effects:
Before we begin, here are some KEY terms that are important to know.
SA = Super armor
KD = Bound/Knock-up/Knock-down
KB = Knockback
Long Range Semi-Auto Target
Fireball
Aal/Serrett
Stagger
Long Range Poke/Initiate – ranged
9/10. Required Skill. Very useful to use defensively for the melee opponent’s gap close, as well as a combo out of freeze, or to stack additional burn damage when opponent is knocked down.
Long Range Skill Shot
Frost Pillars
Ahib/Labreve
SA (Non Arena)
Freeze
10/10 Required. New spell addition without a pre-ascension version. A very strong nuke with a quick animation. Unique ability to not share CC-immunity with Frigid Fog. Can consecutively freeze an opponent.
Medium Long Range Semi-Auto Target
Arcane Bolts
4/10 Not Very Good, Filler
Medium Long Range Click to Cast
Meteor
Aal/Ahib
SA non Arena
KD
8/10. Required in PvP, don’t run it in PvE.
Medium Long Range Aimed (can move 5-10 degrees during skill) Movement
Firestorm
Labreve/Serrett
SA + Grab Immunity
KB on hit while moving, KD at end of skill
7/10 Required. This is your bread and butter movement skill. It will help you initiate or cover yourself with higher SA uptime.
Medium Range Auto Target Movement
Ignite
I-frame into SA
KD
10/10 Required. Compared to previous pre-ascension version, can control the directionality of the animation. Can be used as a pseudo-initiate as a gap closer.
Close Medium Range aimed
Tornado
KD
Ahib, Serrett
6/10. Is the better of the two KD options compared to Arcane Burst. Useful outside of Freeze.
Close Range on self
Frigid Fog
Aal/Labreve
SA
Freeze
10/10 Required. Good damage, SA, and Freeze.
Close Range aimed
Arcane Burst
KD
4/10 Not very good. Filler spell. It is decent in PvE but functions as a worse Tornado. Enhancements to the skill as you level gives interesting buffs to consider testing.
Close Range on self
Healing Aura
Healing Aura
Not unlocked until level 70
Will give a nice heal for allies and self, as well as a heal over time, 2 second cd on blink, and DP buff, and crit damage buff. Significant CD compared to pre-ascension version.
Build:
Here are the core builds you will see.
Bold skills have SA, underlined skills have SA outside of Arena but not inside arena. I will use this notation going forward in the PvP combos section as well.
#1: Try to always cast Meteor after Ignite to fast-cast.
This will animation cancel the meteor and the combo will do a burst of damage that will catch your opponents off-guard.
Disclaimer: There is currently a visual bug on Meteor, but it shouldn’t affect the damage of the skill. When you click it and it lands in front of you, don’t worry about the visual being off and just click where you want it to land. I have submitted a bug report for it, so hopefully they are looking into it.
#2: Make sure to max all branches (1. Aal/Labreve, 2. Ahib, 3. Serett)
At this point in the game, you should be able to get at least two max branches at 40% and one branch at 20%. I currently have max aal/ahib and around 20% labreve.
#3: The use of frigid fog and ignite define witch gameplay.
Using these skills either offensively or defensively will have the most impact on the fight.
Figure A: Skill combo tree for Ascension Witch/Archmage
Main Combos:
3-5-7
1-2-3-5-7
4-6-7
4-5-7
2-5-7
In Figure A, these are the main skills of Archmage that you will be using at all times. You can start anywhere you want to, but as long as you go down and to the right in this chain, you should be able to keep the opponent CC’d if all your skills land.
One other thing, I noticed is that you can freeze your opponent with frigid fog and freeze again with a timed frost pillars immediately after his initial dodge and then go into your full combo from the top left. You can also weave a fireball after Frigid Fog and before ignite.
If one of your CC misses or is super armored, just start at another place in the chain. (i.e. KD misses in melee range, you would use a safe combo such as frigid into tornado/ ignite into meteor.
After ascension was released, the cooldown that players are immune to specific types of CC is much lower and works differently than pre-succession patch. This means that you can chain some skills and CC types you couldn’t previously chain together.
One of the main combos used in Arena is 3 – 5 – 7. By initiating with firestorm, you have a super armor that lets you knock down the opponent and deal a significant amount of damage. Then, you are able to protect yourself with invulnerability on ignite and chain with a high burst of meteor.
My personal favorite aggressive play is Combo # 2. It’s very useful later in the fight or best if you know the opponent isn’t going to be in super armor when you cast Frost Pillars.
Class Balance:
At the moment, ranger is way overturned in terms of damage compared to other classes.
Ranger- 10/10
No easily exploitable weaknesses with amazing damage and long-range. A lot of protection and good cc with heal on a ranged skill. VERY OVERTUNED
Valk-9/10
Great damage, mobility, and CC. The sustain heal-on-attack is an initiation skill that is used often in 1v1. Slightly overtuned
Sorc- 8/10
Good damage, CC, range, and amzing mobility. Good sustain on healing skill and good super armor. Balanced
Giant- 5/10
Below-average damage and good mobility. Slightly undertuned
Witch- 4/10
Low damage, average mobility and range, average CC, average sustain on heal over time, but good super armors. Undertuned
Warrior- 4/10
Good Protected, average damage, and average mobility. Undertuned
Pre-Succession 1v1:
Warrior- 8/10
Valk- 7/10
Sorc- 6/10
Ranger- 5/10
Witch- 5/10
Giant- 2/10
With initial damage testing, it leans towards some balance and damage scaling issues, especially with witch (and possibly giant) in PvP. The damage seems very low compared to other classes (PVP only). Hopefully, witch gets a solid 15-30% damage buff in PvP, so it becomes more viable. It’s still a fun class to play despite being nerfed through the ground. Giant and warrior need some buffs, but ranger needs a significant nerf to have a healthy balanced pvp environment.
Despite all this, Witch succession is a fun class to play and has a nice selection of skillshots and ranged abilities to combo in PVP. If you have any other questions feel free to reach out to me on Twitch or Discord.
