My mage is now currently up to the hidden zone. It is remarkably easier than a melee run so far. When I got to the ice area, the first ruins which were a very in the face difficulty spike as a melee as the regular mobs there hit harder than any boss in the entirety of the game before that part. At the time I got to them I had done Rannis quest and had the darkmoon greatsword and a +9 carian staff. Used Rannis moon and two spells later they were dead. Cleared the entire area without using a health pot. That place was death central for me for a while as a melee, and ended up just rushing the loot cellar.
I am going full power cheese. Using a +9 darkmoon greatsword +9 carian staff, 80 int, and going ice. Also spamming equip load and have the Ranni hat, but the goat armor so I have close to 80 poise as a mage at medium load. Have the comet, and the flask for long cast + damage. And have the perfume that gives a free hit equipped. Mimic also uses all those things and often uses the free hit flask (which also hits me) and uses comet and loves to spam Rannis moon spell for some reason. For instance I struggled a lot with the 2nd commander as melee, but 4 swings of the ice sword spell that drops from the dragon killed the adds (that spell is so ridiculously powerful), then once mimic got aggro, the comet oneshot the commander. It's so cheese it's fun. Mimic is also FAR better as a mage than melee. My equipment has the poise and health as my melee, but the DPS from the mimic is far greater than when using the starforge swords at +10.
Not sure if I've died to a major boss yet, but not up to the halig tree, nor done fire giant.
Don't think I've ever done a pure mage build for any souls game. This makes me want to go back and revisit them. Are mages this powerful in all of them?
