In depth casting guide

Table of Content

1. Disclaimer
2. Tier List / quick guide
--> Tier Rating classes for solo/whistle/explore with abilities
3. Basics
--> requirements
--> Damage formula for charms
--> intelligence charms and when to use
--> considering the market (prices/availability)
--> considerations for abilities (red/blue/dark red)
--> stats to look out for
--> when to use an ability
--> glyphs and fish
--> tips for a better solo experience
4. Classes
--> Feeder (Rogue/Mage)
--> Samurai / Paladin / Monk / Ninja / Headhunter
--> Warlock
--> Alchemist
5. Healing


1. Disclaimer

This guide will only cover the casting aspect and not the healing. For healing please see the general healing advice at the end of the guide.
Casting is not easy and not to be done with any equipment. Please see the requirements section and read it carefully.

2. Tier List / Quick guide



Guardian, Fighter and Barbarian are only listed to have a complete list. All three should never be casted as there are better options for feeder with Magician and Rogue.
The list should be read as a tier rating. S is highest tier while Z is lowest.

3. Basics

--> requirements

Casting is not cheap and has some requirements when it comes to gear and your ability to use the casting abilities correctly.
You want to have every casting charm up to level 50/55 with at least 130-150ee and the MQ charm itself should be 170ee or higher. If you cannot meet this, don't expect to be a good addition to group play.
Also you want high intelligence gear - at least 90 stats total for MQ level and you should be able to hit at least 3200-3500 actions in a regular whistle climb from 1 to 81. Everything below that, you'd be better of playing melee and tank for the group.
These words are harsh and may shatter some dreams, but casting every class you will slow down groups early on and you need to make up for it in the later levels.
Keep that in mind when planning to cast everything.

If you are casting on the "standard" classes like Magician, Warlock and Alchemist and you feel like you lack in casting, you can always do the healing for the group and help in that way. But even a healer is expected to attack!

--> Damage formula for charms


keep in mind that EE is capped at: item tier * 20 + 20
This also applies to the (ee + prof + mastery) part

--> intelligence charms and when to use

Example 1:


Example 2:



Conclusion: Intelligence Charms in main slot are always worse overall when it comes to damage, but can be worth it at lower levels due to the 25% less mana cost.
Recommendation: Use intelligence charms max to level 40 on Offcast classes. Main casters like Warlock, Alchemist and Mage are never in need of it.

--> considering the market (prices/availability)



High cost items are always under heavy demand or are very rare to get by. Staffs have the highest demand as they are needed for Warlock for every Player. Axes and robes are also very high priced as they have a very low supply and high demand.
Charm type does only matter if every class should be casted as lights are needed for headhunter. Other than that the charm type does not matter as all charms have the same average damage.

--> stats to look out for

Please note that the following is only true for Rogue / Samurai / Paladin / Monk / Ninja / Headhunter

In general you want max mana over intelligence at early levels and slowly balance it out the higher you get until you use only intelligence.
For level up to level 30 an intelligence charm and casting from the acc. slot is advised as it makes the casting much easier.
Even if you want max mana on your low level items you also want some intelligence as you are lacking this stat and therefor suffer in damage.
The levels people struggle the most are usually level 15 to 35. In these you still need around 400-700 extra mana from your gear. If you use an intelligence charm it is slightly less, but you still need a mana pool to make the 25% saving worthwhile!
For the most groups you don't need any max mana from level 40 up to MQ, but if the group is lacking in kill speed it can differ.

Summary:
Level 1 to 35: Max Mana + Intelligence (+ intelligence Charm)
Level 40 to MQ: Intelligence

--> considerations for abilities (red/blue/dark red)
When it comes to abilities, there are very rare cases where you want to use 3 as a caster. For the regular whistle climbs and solo it is way more efficient to only use two.
To mix and match them you should never use two dark red abilities. You will lose a lot of charge percentage if you do so. You can consider going 3 abilities if you have access to at least 2 blue casting abilities.

For charge rates you should aim to get your main ability to 50% charge rate as soon as possible. Then you can consider going for your second.
Please consider these thresholds as major advice and please see the individual class sections for exceptions:



--> when to use an ability

For solo there is no good or general advice when you want to cast an ability. That being said you can safely use doublecast at lower percentages as it has a high damage scaling.
In group climbs you always want to use multicast between 37% (level 1 to 60) and 75% (level 75 and higher). Try to always use it on mob wave from 5 to 9 mobs. Chaos can be used much lower as the scaling and mob amount seem to be quite random. It can safely be used at 25% to 75%
If you explore and chose to run powercast as second or third ability you don't want to use it on regular mobs. Keep it up for EP wave to quickly damage or kill one of the EPs. For that reason powercast is better used as a third ability with a lower charge rate as you won't use it much.

--> glyphs and fish

Using low level fish (tier 1-3) with mana can be a cheap option to save some fg on max mana gear early on. Same can be said for tier 3 glyphs with 200-300 mana.
The items are easy to find and a lot of people can glyph them for you. That being said, you will still need a mana pool and cannot just go with fish and glyphs as you'll need to use more than 1 fish per level which will cost you actions and therefor more damage.
But they can make a welcome addition to your casting experience

--> tips for a better solo experience

A good tip for all the solo casters is to use maps in solo play. Maps will contain a set amount of different mob types which can be very helpful for casting as you can avoid any immune mobs.
Please see this guide for the list of maps and mobs: Maps & What Monsters Are In Them
If you still struggle you can turn the easy mode on to only spawn two monster at once up to level 71. After level 71 it will spawn up to three monsters, but still max one EP

4. Classes

--> Feeder (Rogue/Mage)


For group climbing you may want to chose mage over rogue, unless you are in need of a trapdoor detector. When it comes to solo, I'd value the rogue higher than the mage.
Reason is that both classes don't have good access for solo abilities. Mage is a bit better as the powercast belongs to him, but he lacks the trapdoor detection, which may come in handy for climb.
The access for resources mana/life is limited for both classes. Having higher mana through more base intelligence may be more forgiving for the lack of max mana on gear on the mage, on the other hand it is a stat you'd should be aiming for anyway.
In general the rogue is only lacking 20 points in total stats behind the mage (vita+int). The rogue however makes it up by having a better access to armors and weapons.
In the end it is a matter of preference.

Whistle (Group)
You want 35 vitality as soon as possible. As a mage you have put points into it until you reach 35, for the rogue you don't need to bother as it starts with 35.
For the remaining climb you want all other points into intelligence. The only exceptions to this is, if there is any event which makes mobs harder. Depending on the level target for the group and the event difficulty you want to go up to 50 vitality, but only after hitting level 55 or higher.
When it comes to abilities for the mage there are two path you can take. The first is to simply go with pillarcast and piercecast and put the points evenly.
The one I recommend is to get piercecast or pillarcast first and put it up to level 15 (4 points, 58% rate). All remaining points should go into multicast up to 49% (level 70, 11 points). Then you may decide to put the remaining points into either piercecast/pillarcast or multicast.
For the rogue you should consider putting all your points into multicast up to level 50 (49% rate) and the rest of the points into pillarcast or piercecast.

Explore (Group)
It is the same like a whistle group climb, but you can decide to replace piercecast/pillarcast with powercast if needed.

Solo
I tested around a lot with this and I personally prefer to play a rogue on solo.
Reasons are that I can use more of my offcast gear (armor/weapon access), both mage and rogue have bad solo ability access and I don't like to fall down trapdoors.
As ability I lately, I started choosing only doublecast as it felt to be the best way to play safe and quick. But you may also chose to go with powercast and salvation for healing yourself more efficient.

--> Samurai / Paladin / Monk / Ninja / Headhunter

The four classes are grouped together as they play exactly the same when it comes to casting.
Only difference between them is the access of gear.

Whistle (Group)
All these classes have plenty starting vitality, that's why you want to put in any point into intelligence. With bad events you may consider going up to 50 vitality, but only from level 65 or higher.
As abilities you should start with multicast and bring it up to 49% charge rate (level 50, 11 points). The remaining points should go into either pillarcast or piercecast.
For headhunter the charge rates are a bit different as multicast is a red and not a dark red ability for him.

Explore (Group)
It is the same like a whistle group climb, but you can decide to replace piercecast/pillarcast with powercast if needed.

Solo
For solo doublecast is the best option in any case. You can chose to also put some points into powercast at higher levels, but it is not needed. If you lack healing strength you can also use salvation, but you will only need it for higher levels.
You most likely will find sneaky, aim for around 60-80 vitality with sneaky at level 55 or higher. Please note that intelligence is a must have early on. Do not put any points into vitality below level 30 as the mana pool is more important.

--> Warlock

Warlock is hands down the best class for anything casting related in the game.
Depending on the event you may choose to start with 5-10 points into vitality, but especially for the group part it is not needed early on.

Whistle (Group)
With bad events you may choose to go up to 45-50 vitality from level 60 or higher.
The currently strongest combination is to go for multicast early on and bring it to 72% (level 25, 6 points). Then you want to bring up chaos to 49% (level 80, 11 points).

Explore (Group)
Depending on the objective of the climb and the group strength you may want to switch chaos for doublecast and powercast. In that case bring multicast and doublecast to 72% charge rate and powercast to around 40%. All remaining points can be evenly distributed between the three abilities

Solo
You want always to have doublecast as your first ability and the second one depends on your playstyle. It can be multicast, salvation or powercast. All are valid choices. The combination of doublecast and multicast is probably the strongest, but salvation is the safest.

--> Alchemist
Whistle (Group)
You want to put points into vitality until you reach 35. With bad events you may choose to go up to 45-50 vitality from level 60 or higher.
For abilities you want to use multicast first and bring it to 51% charge rate (level 30, 7 points), then chaos to chaos to 72% charge rate (level 65, 13 points) and finally all remaining points into multicast again.

Explore (Group)
It is the same like a whistle group climb, but you can decide to use a third ability with doublecast or powercast.

Solo
You want always to have doublecast as your first ability and the second one depends on your playstyle. It can be chaos or salvation . All are valid choices. The combination of doublecast and chaos is probably the strongest, but salvation is the safest.

5. Healing

I chose this not to be a big part of the guide, so to make it short:
For whistle or explore climbs struggling with healing you should chose multiheal as your second ability and use it as main source of your heals. You will only need one person to do this though.
If you solo you can always use salvation on higher levels to boost your healing a lot.

A general thought on healing is, that the HP of the tank is a resource for the healer as it reflects the time the healer has to heal the group. Therefor if you have a low heal charm, ask the tank to go for more vitality to help you heal the group.



This post was edited by Meridius on Jun 4 2020 12:44pm

TL:DR Version made short: 35 Vita & Rest into Int! Multicast on all classes


fakeedit to add one more line: nice guide!

good guide, even for expierenced caster player

It’s quite unfortunate that I’m not smart enough to understand this guide

I’ll pretend I do and say nice guide cuz everyone else is

You can always ask and I can try to explain better in an answer

Nice guide!

Thanks for the tldr version.


Thanks Matthias

Great guide.

Just a simple question, should a caster just go Melee from 1-15 before casting either solo or group for speed at low levels?

mage isn't using multicast. Otherwise this is correct.



This should be highlighted:

I've attempted a samurai caster in the past and it's pure garbage with mediocre gear.
Topic: https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=80032628&f=74

This basically summed it up:


Given a 200ee charm is likely to cost you 10k+ and the 122ee+ level 55 dagger about 1.5-2k you are better off going for buying a EE dagger set, even if you have a casting dagger/armor/charm set.
So to be clear for newer players, I highly recommend against casting on samurai thru ninja unless you happen to own a 200+ ee damage charm.
For players with 200+ee damage charms, here's a lovely guide if you fancy offcast
There's 2 reasons to do this.
1. Temporary offcasting until you get enough warlocks in your guild. It's not uncommon to see a group of mostly paladin/monks/ninjas within the first month of a reset. If you have the gear this can solve the ability to heal for when your group hits level 60 and heals become necessary.
2. Permanent casting The main point of doing this is you can highly specialize your proficiency as you will only need 2: lightning and wild heal (specifically so you can cast on HH). Can use other charms and have a cheap HH set, there's usually a few warlocks by now that a tank's usually helpful anyway.
Once your proficiency hits 25+, this starts being acceptable to cast on your offcaster classes. Until then you can still be expected to be outdamaged by players with worse gear than you. Eventually it may be possible to outdamage them due to casting mechanics.





This will be dependent on your gear. This guide is specifically for players whom have excellent gear (or for mages/warlocks/alchemists whom are unsure of abilities). If you have both a t3 250+ mana 13+ int weapon and armor as well as t3 250+ mana 50+ee charm then i dont think you're going to struggle.
If you don't have that and you find it faster to melee then go melee. There isn't going to be a specified level as it's entirely gear dependent.
In terms of my own testing, it took me until level 30 for solo for my caster samurai set to outdamage my melee set when going full intelligence. My caster set never outdamaged with int never outdamaged a very cheap melee set using daggers + dex.



Last point, Vitality:
Mages can get away with 20-25 vita until level 30. Especially for those with cheaper gear such as +int without +mana. As you are likely to run out of mana if you don't start statting int at levels 0-10. However you should pack their own heal charms to heal yourself should the need arise rather than expecting another member of the group to heal you until you reach the recommended 35 vit.

I would also recommend hitting 40 vitality at level 70-75 for warlocks/mages if climbing to 81. If climbing to 83-85, then consider going to 45 as even without a monster difficulty event, mobs have hit for 3k to players in the back rank within 1 second, this isn't common but if you do 200+ runs, it does show up from time to time. This also helps safeguard you if you get pulled to the front row.


Great to see a new guide though!

Good points, but are you just going off of Softcore ethics? The vitality at the start for a Mage in Hardcore is actually paramount, or you use + Max Life items from level 1-10. The guide is great, and good to see a new one, but I don't see it covering Hardcore where some minor differences would make a difference, and if a new player read this and started Hardcore, they may have some issues, especially for Solo and when Events increase Monster Difficulty by 50+ or more %

EDIT: just realised my comments only relate to your reply and MAY not mean the guide.

This post was edited by izParagonzi on Jun 6 2020 08:43pm