Mage FAQ
(Ryan please make this sticky, that is it will always remain on top of forum)
Yes, I'm the one to get to setup this FAQ!
This FAQ will answer most of the questions concerning the mage (hopefully)...
1. What is a mage and what are the basic skills I need to be a mage? (the basics)
2. Tools of a mage (required equipment of a mage and where to get them)
3. What other skills can I take up and which is the best? (template FAQ)
4. Skill Gain FAQ (how to gm the various mage skills)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 1
1a What is a mage?
A mage is a wizard character that can cast magic.
1b What are the basic skills I need to be a mage?
The basic skills are:
1. Magery - Allows you to cast spells
2. Evaluating Intelligence - Adds damage to your spells
3. Meditation - Increases your mana regeneration rate, (both passive/active)
4. Magic Resistance - reduces damage you take from magical spells (a must if you wish to pvp)
5. Wrestling - reduces your chance of getting hit by melee attacks
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 2
1a What do I need as a mage?
A full spellbook and reagents.
1b Where can I get a full spellbook?
You can either buy them from players (its harder), or buy the spellbook itself for 14gp, and all the different spell scrolls and put them all into the spellbook yourself, the book plus all the 62 scrolls will cost slightly over 5k I think, but this is dependant on where you brought them at, factions towns' npc prices vary, delucia offers cheaper and more reasonable prices. And YES and mage shop npc sells all the spell scrolls of the game.
2. What is a runebook and where can I get one?
A runebook is a blessed book that can hold marked runes that allows you to recall to marked locations at will. This book is also sold by the mage shop npcs for 2500 gp, the basic type that is that can hold only 6 charges.
3. Reagents, where to get them?
At the mage shop npcs ! grr...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 3
Now you must have heard about the different templates of a mage, like the nox/scribe, stun/scribe bla bla bla now here's the FAQ on them.
Now I am not going to list down all the different templates you can take in the game, rather I am going to list down the different complementary skills you can take up besides the basic skills you have chosen.
note: These skills are for PVP and not for economic purposes!
1. Poisoning (nox mage)
The deal about a mage that has gm poisoning is that when he casts poison on somebody, he will infect the victim with Greater Poison, and if he is standing not more than one square away from the target, he will infect the victim with Deadly Poison. The big bonus is that higher levels of poison do more damage, are harder to cure, disrupts the target's spellcasting more AND your poison spell is irresistible!
2. Inscription (scribe mage)
Scribe mages are of defensive nature, their protective spells are 10x more potent than a normal mage's. Gm inscription gives 15 circles of reflect for the magic reflect spell, whereas a normal mage gets only 8 or 9. For a gm scribe, his protection spell will make his spell casting a lot harder to disrupt (not impossible to disrupt, but possibly near impossible), be it by melee/spell attack. Also, his reactive armour can absorb MORE damage before it is nullified. Scribes are said to be untouchable by dexters.....
Note: Any rumour you might have heard that inscription gives bonus to spell damage is false, this change is only bought about in aos, and this shard does not bring in any of those aos crap!
3. Alchemy
Besides being able to make potions himself, a gm alchemist has a bonus in purple potion explosion damage. Gm alchemists DO NOT have bonus when using greater heal potions, they do not heal more, neither do they have bonus at using cure potions.
4. Healing (heal mage)
A mage with gm healing can heal while on the run, his healing is undisruptable by any means and doesn't require mana. Healing gives the mage an additional method of healing which is cheap and reliable, with healing you can also resurrect players. In addition, at gm anatomy and healing, you will never fail to heal deadly poison. Many of the top pvpers and duelers of the shard are heal mages.
5. Anatomy + Wrestling (Stun mage)
If you have gm anatomy and wrestling, you can attempt to stun players using the wrestling stun move, which can be activated at will, then you just need to make a sucessful hit and if you're lucky, your target will be stunned for a few seconds, allowing you to wreck havoc by dumping... Each attempt to stun consumed 15 stamina points.
6. Weapon skills (hybrids)
Some mages may take up weapon skills so they may draw out weapons to continue whacking at their enemies when their mana runs out. Its hard to explain what exactly is the deal about it, just imagine you can whack away without mana, damaging your enemy yet having the capability to heal through mage dumps, and you can finish off enemies by dumping on them when they're damaged enough by your weapons...
7. Anatomy + Evaluating Intelligence (defensive wrestling)
Anatomy and evaluating gives you defensive wrestling, meaning you have the same defense level as a gm wrestler. For example, when someone hits you using a melee attack, you are considered to have the same amount of wrestling as a gm wrestler hence your enemy's chance of hitting you is 50% assuming his weaponskill is at 100. However you do not have the attack level of a wrestler, when you hit someone with your barehands, you are considered to have 0 wrestling, if you do not have wrestling that is. In short, same as a gm wrestler in defending against blows, but without his attack bonuses.
Which of these combination is best? Is nox/scribe better or heal/stun?
This question has been debated over and alot, the answer is none of these combination is better than the other, you can become an uber leet pwnage mage with any of these combination, its just a matter of taste and preference, once you get used to and know how, any of the combination above can be a pwnage temp.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 4
Skill gaining is made fast and easy on this shard, here's my guide incorporating a little from others' for gming skills in this shard. I recommend you to go either papua or delucia to get any reagents resources you need as faction towns' prices are unstable and alot higher.
Magery
You don't need 8x8 for magery, just get regs and start casting like crazy
0-30 - buy from npc / cast magic arrow on tillerman / monsters
30-40 - cast fireball
40-50 - lightning (lightning can bring you over 50 close to 60)
50ish-90 - invisibility (gains are slow once you're at 80, but wasting regs can bring you to 90, alternatively you can start on flame strike once you're at 80)
80/90-100 - flame strike
Evaluating intelligence
Either let it be raised through spell casting or you can simply continuously macro use it on someone afk, or on your second client's character till its gm! It raises every time you use it without fail.
Meditation
Spell casting during the process to gm magery will gm meditation faster than you can imagine...Med seems to raise faster during passive mana regeneration periods.
Inscription
Basically you just need to scribe the spell that uses the least mana and reagents that you don't have a 100% chance of scribing at your level, yet have a reasonable chance of scribing to gm. Can't remember the route I took. Maybe someone can provide a guide for this. My idea location for obtaining scrolls is the delucia mage shop.
Poisoning
No idea. Never gmed it on this shard before, someone please provide info for this. Thx
Wrestling
0-30 - buy from npc, or whack barn animals
30-50 - whack little birds such as lapwing
50-100 - you can gm off eagles, if you don't have tactics/anatomy, it'll be easier cause the eagles won't die so fast, many eagles can be found in the woods and along the road between sakra brae and britain.
Magic Resistance
The magic arrow trick is a bug and the gms have fixed it so it will no longer work now.
An alternative way to gain resist is to go to moonglow docks find a sea serpant and stand back and heal. You can gm from 50 in less than an hour. This is more expensive however. But if you're working healing, this might work well.
Note: Don't be shock when you open up your status window to find all your resist shown there to be 0, this is normal. This shard is pre-aos so we do not have any of that crappy different elements shit so even at gm resist, your elemental resists will be shown at 0 but you will resist magic spells normally.
Anatomy
You can let it raise up while you're training a melee skill, raising healing, or simply keep using it on any player.
Alchemy
No guide available, I haven't made an alchemist on this shard yet too. Someone provide a guide for this, thx.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hereby I end my guide, hope this can help you new players out there. - Wanev
(Ryan please make this sticky, that is it will always remain on top of forum)
Yes, I'm the one to get to setup this FAQ!
This FAQ will answer most of the questions concerning the mage (hopefully)...
1. What is a mage and what are the basic skills I need to be a mage? (the basics)
2. Tools of a mage (required equipment of a mage and where to get them)
3. What other skills can I take up and which is the best? (template FAQ)
4. Skill Gain FAQ (how to gm the various mage skills)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 1
1a What is a mage?
A mage is a wizard character that can cast magic.
1b What are the basic skills I need to be a mage?
The basic skills are:
1. Magery - Allows you to cast spells
2. Evaluating Intelligence - Adds damage to your spells
3. Meditation - Increases your mana regeneration rate, (both passive/active)
4. Magic Resistance - reduces damage you take from magical spells (a must if you wish to pvp)
5. Wrestling - reduces your chance of getting hit by melee attacks
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 2
1a What do I need as a mage?
A full spellbook and reagents.
1b Where can I get a full spellbook?
You can either buy them from players (its harder), or buy the spellbook itself for 14gp, and all the different spell scrolls and put them all into the spellbook yourself, the book plus all the 62 scrolls will cost slightly over 5k I think, but this is dependant on where you brought them at, factions towns' npc prices vary, delucia offers cheaper and more reasonable prices. And YES and mage shop npc sells all the spell scrolls of the game.
2. What is a runebook and where can I get one?
A runebook is a blessed book that can hold marked runes that allows you to recall to marked locations at will. This book is also sold by the mage shop npcs for 2500 gp, the basic type that is that can hold only 6 charges.
3. Reagents, where to get them?
At the mage shop npcs ! grr...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 3
Now you must have heard about the different templates of a mage, like the nox/scribe, stun/scribe bla bla bla now here's the FAQ on them.
Now I am not going to list down all the different templates you can take in the game, rather I am going to list down the different complementary skills you can take up besides the basic skills you have chosen.
note: These skills are for PVP and not for economic purposes!
1. Poisoning (nox mage)
The deal about a mage that has gm poisoning is that when he casts poison on somebody, he will infect the victim with Greater Poison, and if he is standing not more than one square away from the target, he will infect the victim with Deadly Poison. The big bonus is that higher levels of poison do more damage, are harder to cure, disrupts the target's spellcasting more AND your poison spell is irresistible!
2. Inscription (scribe mage)
Scribe mages are of defensive nature, their protective spells are 10x more potent than a normal mage's. Gm inscription gives 15 circles of reflect for the magic reflect spell, whereas a normal mage gets only 8 or 9. For a gm scribe, his protection spell will make his spell casting a lot harder to disrupt (not impossible to disrupt, but possibly near impossible), be it by melee/spell attack. Also, his reactive armour can absorb MORE damage before it is nullified. Scribes are said to be untouchable by dexters.....
Note: Any rumour you might have heard that inscription gives bonus to spell damage is false, this change is only bought about in aos, and this shard does not bring in any of those aos crap!
3. Alchemy
Besides being able to make potions himself, a gm alchemist has a bonus in purple potion explosion damage. Gm alchemists DO NOT have bonus when using greater heal potions, they do not heal more, neither do they have bonus at using cure potions.
4. Healing (heal mage)
A mage with gm healing can heal while on the run, his healing is undisruptable by any means and doesn't require mana. Healing gives the mage an additional method of healing which is cheap and reliable, with healing you can also resurrect players. In addition, at gm anatomy and healing, you will never fail to heal deadly poison. Many of the top pvpers and duelers of the shard are heal mages.
5. Anatomy + Wrestling (Stun mage)
If you have gm anatomy and wrestling, you can attempt to stun players using the wrestling stun move, which can be activated at will, then you just need to make a sucessful hit and if you're lucky, your target will be stunned for a few seconds, allowing you to wreck havoc by dumping... Each attempt to stun consumed 15 stamina points.
6. Weapon skills (hybrids)
Some mages may take up weapon skills so they may draw out weapons to continue whacking at their enemies when their mana runs out. Its hard to explain what exactly is the deal about it, just imagine you can whack away without mana, damaging your enemy yet having the capability to heal through mage dumps, and you can finish off enemies by dumping on them when they're damaged enough by your weapons...
7. Anatomy + Evaluating Intelligence (defensive wrestling)
Anatomy and evaluating gives you defensive wrestling, meaning you have the same defense level as a gm wrestler. For example, when someone hits you using a melee attack, you are considered to have the same amount of wrestling as a gm wrestler hence your enemy's chance of hitting you is 50% assuming his weaponskill is at 100. However you do not have the attack level of a wrestler, when you hit someone with your barehands, you are considered to have 0 wrestling, if you do not have wrestling that is. In short, same as a gm wrestler in defending against blows, but without his attack bonuses.
Which of these combination is best? Is nox/scribe better or heal/stun?
This question has been debated over and alot, the answer is none of these combination is better than the other, you can become an uber leet pwnage mage with any of these combination, its just a matter of taste and preference, once you get used to and know how, any of the combination above can be a pwnage temp.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 4
Skill gaining is made fast and easy on this shard, here's my guide incorporating a little from others' for gming skills in this shard. I recommend you to go either papua or delucia to get any reagents resources you need as faction towns' prices are unstable and alot higher.
Magery
You don't need 8x8 for magery, just get regs and start casting like crazy
0-30 - buy from npc / cast magic arrow on tillerman / monsters
30-40 - cast fireball
40-50 - lightning (lightning can bring you over 50 close to 60)
50ish-90 - invisibility (gains are slow once you're at 80, but wasting regs can bring you to 90, alternatively you can start on flame strike once you're at 80)
80/90-100 - flame strike
Evaluating intelligence
Either let it be raised through spell casting or you can simply continuously macro use it on someone afk, or on your second client's character till its gm! It raises every time you use it without fail.
Meditation
Spell casting during the process to gm magery will gm meditation faster than you can imagine...Med seems to raise faster during passive mana regeneration periods.
Inscription
Basically you just need to scribe the spell that uses the least mana and reagents that you don't have a 100% chance of scribing at your level, yet have a reasonable chance of scribing to gm. Can't remember the route I took. Maybe someone can provide a guide for this. My idea location for obtaining scrolls is the delucia mage shop.
Poisoning
No idea. Never gmed it on this shard before, someone please provide info for this. Thx
Wrestling
0-30 - buy from npc, or whack barn animals
30-50 - whack little birds such as lapwing
50-100 - you can gm off eagles, if you don't have tactics/anatomy, it'll be easier cause the eagles won't die so fast, many eagles can be found in the woods and along the road between sakra brae and britain.
Magic Resistance
The magic arrow trick is a bug and the gms have fixed it so it will no longer work now.
An alternative way to gain resist is to go to moonglow docks find a sea serpant and stand back and heal. You can gm from 50 in less than an hour. This is more expensive however. But if you're working healing, this might work well.
Note: Don't be shock when you open up your status window to find all your resist shown there to be 0, this is normal. This shard is pre-aos so we do not have any of that crappy different elements shit so even at gm resist, your elemental resists will be shown at 0 but you will resist magic spells normally.
Anatomy
You can let it raise up while you're training a melee skill, raising healing, or simply keep using it on any player.
Alchemy
No guide available, I haven't made an alchemist on this shard yet too. Someone provide a guide for this, thx.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hereby I end my guide, hope this can help you new players out there. - Wanev