Archive for the ‘Mage Guide’ Category

I’ve given it much thought and I have to say that I am very disappointed by most of the mage guides and advice I have seen in this forum for mages. It is mostly WRONG. (If you don’t agree with something in this thread and you can prove me wrong, please do so and I will change this page accordingly)

I have looked at the pros and cons of various builds and styles of gameplay, through my experience playing and through calculating figures on various parts of the game and how it works on characters. I will go into detail about what I have found out here.

First, HOW YOU WANT TO PLAY DETERMINES WHAT BUILD YOU SHOULD CHOOSE! Pure INT, INT/SPR, INT/END/SPR, INT/END, or whatever build you choose affects how you should play your character, how you should upgrade your spells, what your strengths and weaknesses are. Depending on your build, you will be better at PVP’ing versus certain types of characters (or not being good at PVP at all!). It might seem complex at first, but it can be boiled down to builds.

First: Every mage should start as pure INT, and then upgrade their other stats as they level. INT/SPR hybrid mages should start upgrading SPR in their 40′s and should expect pure INT mages to outdamage them in their 40′s, 50′s and part of their 60′s.

Let me introduce some of the more common builds of mages.

Pure INT:
-Less effective vs fighters after a mage reaches 600 or more damage per hit on average (which happens in the 60′s)
-More effective for AOE’s, since AOE’s have low spell damage (at level 72, my AOE’s are still doing less than 600 damage per monster)
-Results in more damage overall vs other mages or other targets that have high magic defense.
-Makes the mage better at PVP’ing vs archers, because they will be able to out-damage the archer.
-Makes the mage very dependent on clerics. In a good party they will be the fastest AOE’ers though (assuming they don’t die).

INT/25 SPR:
-More effective vs fighters after a mage reaches 600 or more damage per hit on average (in the 60′s).
-More crits means more of a chance of double or triple crits during combat to win in PVP, but to take advantage of this a mage must kite to stay alive while waiting for these crits.
-Makes the mage worse at PVP’ing vs archers, since archers have higher m.def and a mage cannot kite an archer better than the archer can kite the mage.
-More crits in AOE’s means some monsters die faster than others. The entire mob will die little slower, but a few monsters dead faster results will reduce the damage the mage takes during the middle of the AOE’s.
-Makes the mage dependent on clerics for healing when questing or they will run out of stones quickly. They can still AOE quickly, but not as quickly as pure INT mages.

INT/END:
-Less effective in PVP vs all classes
-Kills mobs slower than pure INT or INT/SPR hybrids in 1v1 situations.
-Takes less damage per hit vs monsters (especially noticeable with monsters that do low damage per hit, such as abyss monsters.) They can handle larger mobs in places like Abyss or have less to fear there.

INT/END/SPR:
-Less effective in PVP vs all classes
-Safer but much slower AOE’ing
-This is the best build for staying alive while solo AOE’ing in abyss, unless the person is super rich and can afford to gulp down hundreds of silver worth of HP potions.
Note: If this build is used alongside +9 armors, the END damage reduction is actually even MORE effective, not less effective, so it results in being able to solo AOE even larger mobs.

PVP differences:

VS Fighters:
In later levels, mages hit fighters for over 600 damage on average, so INT/25SPR is better for damage. Also, there is more to crits than simply total damage. When the mage gets a few crits in, their opponent usually dies. This is an especially potent effect vs fighters because not only are they giving tremendous damage spikes, but they are doing more damage overall.

VS Mages:
A pure INT mage will deal more damage to an INT/SPR mage than what the INT/SPR mage deals them. The cost of this is fewer crits. Because of this, hybrid mages should rely more on their crits to kill their mage opponants. This is done by kiting. When a full INT mage duels another mage, they should try to keep a constant attack going against the other mage to kill them as quickly as possible. A hybrid mage should kite the other mage, sending volleys of spells, running and healing, sending volleys of spells, etc, till they get a few good crits in and the opponent mage dies. In a fight where each mage stands still, the odds are tipped against a hybrid mage.

VS Archers:
Because of an archer’s poisons and diseases, any mage that attemps to "run and heal" will quickly find out that they can’t heal fast enough. Because of this and an archer’s naturally "decent" magic defense, a full INT mage will out-damage an archer by standing and fighting, which a hybrid mage is not good at doing. For END built mages, poisons and diseases ignore their END free stat, so they stand less of a chance at out-damaging an archer.

VS Clerics:
I have not run the numbers here, but a full INT mage can deal more damage and stands a greater chance at killing a cleric while they are feared, however a hybrid mage stands a greater chance at critting a few times and ending the fight. An END built mage stands even less of a chance of winning, but at the same time they stand less of a chance of dying too. Either way, the mage is in for a long, long fight.

Different builds should focus on diffrent types of skill upgrades:

Pure INT:
-Your objective is to keep attacking till your opponant is dead, you can’t afford to wait on cool times. You want to make the most of that free stat INT, so cool times are more important to a PURE INT mage than they are to a hybrid. You can’t spam all your skills at once though, so your goal is to simply continuously attack. This does not mean spamming MM1, you should try to use MM1 the least possible, since it doesn’t do much extra damage by itself. You can continuously attack using all of your skills and without alternating between MM1 and your other skills. Fire bolt is a good skill to max cool time on.
-Since one of your specialties is dealing more damage per AOE than any other mage, you might want max your magic burst cool time.

INT/25 SPR hybrid:
-Your objective is to deal as much damage per hit, keeping distance between you and your enemy, so you can wait on cool times. Damage upgrades are more important to you than a pure INT mage. Damage on fire bolt is mandatory. Fire bolt cool time is also a good idea.
-AOE’ing is still important to you, but because you will want to focus on your individual spell damage more, you might not want to max your Magic Burst cool time. Nova is still mandatory though.

INT/END:
-You are a more cautious player. Your objective is to not scare your clerics while AOE’ing in parties and not dying as much while soloing. If you want to be purely party based, then cool times for AOE’s and even *shudders* damage on your AOE’s might be good to make up for the fewer crits and less free stat INT damage. If you will be using a +9 weapon though, damage upgrades on your AOE’s is usually not significant.
-You can either choose to take a few hits or kite while soloing so either cool times or damage are important to you. Take your pick. You won’t have many points though, since you’ll be spending more of them upgrading the your AOE’s.

INT/END/SPR:
-Your objective is to be a solo AOE’er (and actually not die). Max your AOE cool times and set up your spells to alternate between your AOE and attacking an individual target. You might have to upgrade cool times a little to ensure that you can continuously fire, but try to keep your damage higher, since you cannot always solo AOE.

PVP or not to PVP:

Pure INT:
-You are a glass cannon. Prepare to be shattered. The game is not balanced for your type, but you should be able to kill archers and other mages (if they don’t kite you).

INT/25 SPR:
-You are still a glass cannon, but you’re a cannon on wheels. Too bad your wheels stop when you fire. You stand the best chance at killing fighters though. Archers who know what they are doing will be a challenge for you. And.. whether you like it or not, when you PVP, kiting fighters and other mages is the best way to make use of your higher crit.

The most important item stats to your build:

Pure INT:
-END, INT or DEX, then DEX or SPR. You seriously need to kill that target as quickly as you can, but you are so frail, END is sorely needed. Expect to both wow and horrify your clerics at the speed at which you bring death to both monsters and yourself. A miss is 0 damage taken, so DEX used in conjunction with END, will help you stay alive. All of your hits need to land too, that monster really needs to die before it hits you. Your magic defense is already high, so SPR is less important, however if for some reason PVPing other mages is important to you, SPR will be more useful to you than DEX.

INT/25 SPR:
-INT or END, DEX, then SPR. Since you are relying on critical damage, which relies more on your base damage than your free stat INT, you will want the highest base damage possible. You want massive crits. Your offense is part of your defense while AOE’ing, since some monsters die sooner (and don’t keep damaging you while dead) but you are still a glass cannon. An END/DEX combo will help you stay alive and ensure that your crits hit. Since you already have decent SPR, this stat isn’t as important to you (again, unless for some reason or other you really really want to focus in and kill other mages).

INT/END:
-END, DEX, SPR, INT. Your focus is not on killing fast, but staying alive, so you will want more defensive properties. Slower but surer is your motto.

INT/END/SPR:
-END, DEX, INT, SPR. Your focus is staying alive so that you can solo AOE, but your naturally high SPR defense will suffice, so save yourself some HP stones and put INT before SPR to kill mobs faster (before they kill you).

Note: You can pick and choose from these builds and choose to play differently, but you won’t be maximizing your build. However, if you are able to gather a lot of money, you can mix together different styles of gameplay to create your own unique build. For instance, I spend most of my time vendoring. I am an INT/4 DEX/18 SPR build with +9 END/DEX/SPR armor and a blue +9. I focused some on damage, some on cool times, put 1 point into fear, maxed my nova cool time, and put a few points into inferno cool time. This makes me do decently well vs fighters that don’t have high DEX and also are not pure STR (no mage can win vs a pure STR axe fighter, except by fearing the fighter. While waiting on fear cool time, you will be slaughtered). I can kite other mages somewhat decently, I survive well when AOEing (and solo AOEing, eating through HP pots), and although archers are more of a challenge for me than a pure INT mage, I can use my skill in PVP to overcome.

However, there are a few things that are mandatory:
-Do not upgrade STR, no matter what you do. It does nothing for mages.
-Do not upgrade lightning bolt, ice bolt, dispel, life tap, purge, or mana burn. Your upgrades are much better spent elsewhere.
-Do not upgrade SP consumption on any spell. Mages NEVER have a problem running out of SP stones.

Last, but not least, no matter what your build is, ENJOY IT. I do. 

Credits go to borednl.