Welcome, and well met.
This document discusses the art of magic used by mages. A mage, by definition, is any four-school magic user. That is, someone with War magic, whether you start with it (ie Battle mage or Classic mage) or get it at a later date (ie Og mage). The reason for this is that fighting with war magic is different from fighting with weapons, as different tactics are used. This document will focus on war magic as a prime offensive weapon.
Before we begin, some personal experience notes with an Og Mage template:
The first 10 levels or so are the toughest, as you get your stamina to a point
where you can actually gain some mana back from casting stamina to mana I.
Then it's a bit of a long road to level 20, a shorter road to 25, and dungeon
of corpses (or something similar) makes the last level a breeze. Now that you
have war magic, you're a full blown mage!
Levels 25-30 you are seeing some real gains, and your mage is really starting to take off. In your early 30's, you can solo Umbris Shadows, the Major Smoldering Stone Vault (I forget it's technical name at the moment), and be an all-around great support mage. You can cast Life/Creature V's unbuffed, and low-fizzle VIs with buffing, and War V's and Item V's..
Into your mid-30's and higher, you are starting to feel like a real, full-blown powerful mage. You still have a ways to go, as your mana conversion is not high enough to compensate for the level of spells you're casting (V's and VI's), and your mana still depletes far to rapidly for your liking. Still, you're having the time of your life, this is why you built up an Og mage! You are starting to build on your mana conversion, which since it isn't specialized, isn't all that high. The gains are slower now, but still noticable. You can also start building on your item enchantment school of magic as well as your war magic, to get to casting VIs.
That being said, onto the guide!
Classic Four-Schooler Mage
Spec: nothing
Train: Life Magic, Creature Enchantment, Item Enchantment, Mana Conversion
Skill Credit Assignment: optional
The classic four schooler is the traditional mage template, and one easily
mastered by anyone. It is ready to go right from level 1, and is highly customizable
as earned skill points can be spent as desired, such as lockpick, healing, etc.
One variation of note with this template, is to specialize mana conversion,
and not train item enchantment at the start. This leaves the template with 2
skill points to spend (spec loyalty?) and train item enchantment at level 9.
The only drawback of this template is that it cannot cast the higher level spells
as fast as the specialized templates below. At some point *all* templates can
cast VIIs, but the specialized templates can cast them sooner, and better (ie
less likely to be resisted etc). Still, this is the recommended template for
any beginner mage to learn the ropes on, and certainly makes a respectable mage
at later levels.
Og Mage
Spec: Life Magic, Creature Enchantment
Train: Item Enchantment, Mana Conversion
Skill Credit Assignment: War Magic at 26
This one is a classic, can be tough at earlier levels, but pays of at level
26 when war magic is attained. Until then, this template spends its time wall-licking/draining
in places like the lugie house near Qualabar, the Golem Burial Grounds near
Lin, the Lugian Citadel, Disaster Maze, and Dungeon of Corpses. Typical fighting
style for an Og maze battle starts with a magic yield (which has a higher chance
of landing due to a high creature enchantment skill), a vuln, and then war magic.
War magic is not specialized, and will not be as high as a battle mages, but
the magic yield makes up for that. One important note: save up all of the unassigned
experience you gain from levels 24-26, so that when you finally train war magic
at level 26 you can raise it up high enough to be useful right away.
Battle Mage
Spec: War Magic, Life Magic
Train: anything worth 2 points (many spec loyalty)
Skill Credit Assignment: Mana Conversion at 7, Item Enchantment at 20, Creature
Enchantment at 50
A very powerful template, the battle mage uses a high war magic skill to
push through an enemies magic resistance. Level VII war spells come earlier
for this template, of course. Typical fighting style for a battle mage starts
with a vuln, and then war magic to pound the opponent. The magic yield is not
needed due to a high war skill (specialized war magic). Lack of creature enchantment
makes this a tougher template than the Og, due to lack of arcane lore as well.
Therefore, the battle mage must rely on natural skill, and not skill augmented
by mastery spells.
Grandpa Mage
Spec: Life Magic, Creature Enchantment, Mana Conversion, Loyalty
Skill Credit Assignment: War Magic at 26, Item Enchantment at 60, Healing at
90
One of the crazier templates, and is only really viable if massively twinked
or, like Grandpa of Solclaim, in a large experience chain.
Attributes
A mage should always always always (that's three always'!) have focus and self
set to 100. The remaining points can be spent as you wish, but focus and self
are important.
The next two important attributes you are going to need are strength and endurance. Strength to hold all those heavy spell components (and trust me, they get heeeeeeaaavvvyvyyy!), and endurance to get your stamina up high (see Your Battery, below). Many mages start with 60 strength and 50 endurance, or the other way around. It depends on what you favor more. If you want to be able to wear armor better than a robe, more strength is preferred. If you want to have a higher stamina to regain mana faster, more endurance is preferred. Some mages go the extreme, and go with 100 strength and 10 endurance. This is quite hard to play at the start, but evens out later.
[Personal Aside: Ultron started with 80 strength and 30 endurance. Tough,
but after the initial tough start things got easier. He wasn't twinked, which
made it hard. If you're twinking, this might be a good way to go, as the only
disadvantage is in the early levels]
Coordination and Quickness are irrelevant to the mage, and serve only as conveniences. You can always raise them later, so setting them to 10 each is advised. Put your starting points into strength and endurance.
The '55' Rule: Spell Levels and When to Cast Them
The well-known mage Topheron came up with the handy '55' rule for spell casting. For every level of spell above I, a 55 skill is required to cast the spell with a low fizzle rate. Therefore, for level II spells, your skill should be 55, for III: 110, for IV: 165, for V: 220, for VI: 275, for VII: 330.
You can cast the spells with a lower magic skill, but you will tend to fizzle more often, which can be deadly in combat. Fizzle that heal self, and you're a splattered mage.
If you just want to cast the spell, try 50 skill per spell level. You'll fizzle,
but you will probably be able to cast them. So for level II spells, your skill
should be 50, for III: 100, for IV: 150, for V: 200, for VI: 250, for VII: 300.
Mana Conversion: A Mages Best Friend
Problem: Spells cost mana to cast. You have limited mana.
Solution: Use Mana Conversion to lower the cost of casting each spell
Sound like magic? It is. There is a lot of information on the workings of mana conversion out there, but here's the gist of it. Every spell has a set cost in mana, usually around 10 man per level of the spell. Mana conversion gives you a chance to lower the cost of the spell. So instead of that heal self III spell costing 30 mana, it might cost 22. Or less. The savings in mana could mean the difference between being able to cast that last heal self, or a dead mage.
When you go to cast a spell, the difficulty of the spell is used in a calculation against your mana conversion skill. See the '55' rule for approximate spell difficulties, and to get an idea on where you mana conversion should be to get good results for a specific spell level. Some spells have higher difficulty (ie vuln spells, yield, summon portal, etc). If your mana conversion is equal to the difficulty of the spell, you have around a 50% chance of reducing the cost of the spell. The odds go up or down according to how close you are to the difficulty.
This can guide your thinking as you're casting spells. If you want to be able to cast a lot of spell, cast spells of a level that your mana conversion can "kick in" at. For example, if your mana conversion skill is 140, and your life magic skill is 170, you can cast anywhere from level I to level IV spells. To get the best results of your mana conversion, you would cast level I or II spells. Sometimes, however, you want to cast the highest level spell you can without fizzle, and just hope for mana conversion to work. Completely up to you!
Below is an excerpt from the Turbine Q&A Page:
When the mana cost is determined for a spell, the character attempts to "convert". When the real cost is being determined, the following happens:
And that's that. Easy, no? =) Additional note: It's oft been bandied about that Mana Conversion "caps" at 250. It doesn't. It might have appeared that way due to most level 6 spells having a power of 250, but with level 7s (level 6 debuffs), a difference can be seen.
A Note on Component Burn
Below is an excerpt from the Turbine Q&A Page:
Here are the factors that directly affect it:
Things that do not affect burn:
Mana regains very slowly. Therefore, it is quite desirable to speed up the process.
Stamina and health are your mana "batteries". Stamina is the traditional battery, but health is also used. You cast a spell that converts part of your health (health to mana) or stamina into mana (stamina to mana). The idea is that health and stamina are easily regained. Health can be regained with the healing skill, by having someone heal you, or drinking a health potion. Stamina can be regained by lying down, casting revitalize self, drinking a stamina potion, or having someone cast revitalize other on you.
The stamina to mana spell removes half of your current stamina, and returns some percentage of that amount to mana. Each level of stamina to mana spell costs more to cast, and returns a higher percentage of the stamina lost to mana. Health to mana works in similar fashion, but draws on health reserves.
Drains: Replenish Yourself at the Expense of Your Opponent
There are three varieties of drain spells, all belonging to the Life Magic school of magic: drain health other, drain stamina other, and drain mana other. They all work in similar fashion: they take away something from your opponent (ie health, stamina, or mana) and give it to you. Their use is invaluable in the life of a mage.
Generally, cast the level of drain that your mana conversion agrees with. So whichever level of drain can be cast for the least mana should be the one used most often. The one exception to this is drain health, where drain health I is almost always the way to go. The reason for this is that drain health I costs very little mana and does a lot of damage. The only benefit of casting a higher level of drain health is to get back more health in return. The damage stays the same.
The Rejuvinate Self Technique
This is an advanced tequnique to regain mana with. When used properly, you can regain full mana without lying down at all.
This tequnique involves two spells: rejuvinate self and stamina to mana. Rejuvinate self restores a certain amount of stamina (the higher the level of rejuvinate self, the more stamina restored). After replenishing your stamina, you cast stamina to mana, as you normally would. So what's the trick?
You need to cast a high level of rejuvinate self, either V or VI in order to get good results with stamina to mana. The problem is that a level V spell costs 50 mana to cast under normal circumstances, and you need to cast two of them (rejuvinate self and stamina to mana). Therefore your returns will tend to be a bit slim. That's where mana converion comes to the rescue.
It would normally take 100 mana to cast the two spells, and your stamina to mana will return somewhere around 100 or more, depending on how much stamina you have. For this to work, your mana conversion needs to kick in (see the Mana Conversion section for more details on mana conversion).
Therefore, you want to cast the highest level of rejuvination self you can (because you want your stamina full for maximum returns), and the highest level of stamina to mana that your mana conversion supports. Continue doing this until your mana is replenished.
Spend your early experience with two prime goals in mind:
133 Stamina: The Magic Number
Since each level of the stamina to mana spell costs more to cast, and returns a higher percentage of the stamina lost to mana, the question arises: when do I cast level II, III, IV, V, VI, (VII?) stamina to mana?
The master statisticians have calculated 133 to be the number at which you gain back more mana from casting stamina to mana II or higher than you did casting it. The actual returns are based on your mana conversion skill, but the point is that once you have 133 stamina, you can start casting higher level stamina to mana spells. Until you have 133 stamina, you should always cast stamina to mana I.
Raise your endurance and stamina equally; that is, add one point of endurance then one point of stamina, and repeat. The rule is raise whichever of the two costs the least to raise. This maximizes the value of your experience, and furthers the goal of increasing your stamina.
Focus and Willpower: Your Favorite Attributes
Raising focus and willpower affects all four of your magic schools, in addition to your mana conversion skill. Thats a heft return for such a small investment. Raising willpower also has the added benefit of raising your maximum mana.
Therefore, you should raise your focus and willpower rather than raising the magic schools directly. At early levels, your magic schools will rise quickly enough on their own, so you should focus (no pun intended) on your focus and willpower attributes. While your magic skills are raising through use, they are also raising indirectly from the experience you put into focus and willpower.
Raise your focus and willpower equally; that is, add one point of focus then one point of willpower, and repeat. The rule is raise whichever of the two costs the least to raise. This maximizes the value of your experience.
I will focus here on combat with war magic. Life mages have their own style of combat, happily referred to as wall-licking by the masses. It isn't terribly exciting.
Methods of Dealing Damage
There are three ways to damage an opponent:
Drain is always a useful spell. It removes 1/4 of a targets remaining health, and gives it to you. This has a two-fold effect: it damages the enemy, and it heals you. With one level I spell that costs very little mana, you can strip away 1/4 of a targets health, and with three of these drains your target is below half health and ripe for being finished off with a war spell. One final note about drain, is that it works through walls or obstacles, and unlike war does not require a direct line of sight to do damage to the target.
Harm is also useful, but less so. It is used primarily by those affectionately known as "wall-lickers", or life mages. This is because, like drain, harm works through walls or obstacles. Harm does a range of damage (which varies by spell level) on the opponent. The damage done is much less than that of a war spell, so it's usefulness is limited. It does have it's uses however.
War spells are the mainstay of a mages arsenal. There is a war spell corresponding to each of the seven damage types (ie bludgeon, slashing, piercing, fire, cold, lightning, and acid) enabling you to target an enemies weakness. The higher the level of spell, the higher the damage range. Bigger is better!
Damage Multipliers
Imperils and vulns are why people like fighting alongside mages so much.
An imperil other spell lowers a targets natural armor. For example, cast imperil other IV on a warrior wearing gsa armor (AL 170), and his AL goes down to 20, or that of leather armor, for the duration of the spell. Cast the same on a lugian, and a warrior will cut him down in just a few strokes of his sword, his damage now doing 5-10 times or more what he could do normally. However, magic ignores armor anyway, so imperil will not help you kill anything. Imperil is only used to help melees and archers kill things.
Vulns increase the damage a creature takes from the given element or attack type. For example, casting fire vulnerability other III on an drudge ravener will cause the drudge to take 33% more damage from either a warrior with a fire sword, an archer with fire arrows, or a mage casting fire bolt at it.
For example, a shock wave V (war magic) spell will kill a gold wasp, as will a shock wave III spell on a gold wasp that has had bludgeon vulnerability other V cast on it.
Minimizing Mana Consumption During Battle
There are a couple of things to think about in combat with a mage. First, you want to minimize the amount of mana you consume to kill a creature. Second, you want to finish the battle with high mana, stamina, and health so that you are ready for the next battle right away.
To minimize your mana usage during a fight, use a vuln where appropriate, and then the lowest level war spell that will kill your opponent. The use of a vuln is twofold: to increase the damage a single war spell does on an opponent, and to make you a bit safer if things get out of control. A vuln'd opponent goes down quicker. Try using a higher level vuln, and lower level war spells, if needed. The reason for this is that if it takes more than one war spell to take down an opponent (ie he resists, or the first one takes him down to a sliver of health), the fact that you're using lower level war spells will result in less mana used for each spell cast due to the effects of mana conversion. For more information on mana conversion, see the section on mana conversion.
To finish the battle with high resources, drain your opponents stamina with drain stamina before you finish it, cast a stamina to mana, and optionally drain it again to bring up your stamina again. Learn which creature types have large stamina reserves so that you know how many stamina drains are effective when fighting them. For more information on draining, see the section on draining.
An example battle with a drudge ravener: cast fire vuln other V on it, drain health three times, cast stamina to mana if your stamina is almost full, then cast drain stamina on the ravener, then fire bolt IV. Your health, stamina, and mana should be nearly full at the end of the battle. An alternative is to cast the fire vuln other V right away, drain health once or twice, then do the stamina to mana and drain stamina, and finally drain health and fire bolt IV. This alternative gives you one more drain health before the drudge goes down, to regain any health you may have lost while draining his stamina. Food for thought.
Drawing from Groups
To draw one creature out of a group, there is a simple, well-known technique. Cast a spell such as fire vuln other or yield other on one of them, and run away. Some or all will give chase, eventually tire, and return to their spawn point. You can now return to the spawn point, cast another vuln or yield on him, or a war spell at him, and only the one will come running.
The alternative is to vuln one of them, and run away. Whichever one chases you the longest, you turn around to fight him. Give him a vuln so he doesn't run away, and pound him into the ground. Return and repeat as necessary.
Vuln-War Combo
Theres another deadly combination move that works great, called the vuln-war combo. Not a snazzy name, but it works. Get an opponent on the edge of your radar. Cast a war V spell at him, then follow up immediately with a vuln IV or V. The vuln will affect him right before the war spell impacts, really ruining his day. If for some reason he's still alive, you can have another war spell on the way to finish him off.
Here's some mage resources of interest.
Links of interest
Crossroad's Essays (a number of essays concerning magic)
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