Recomendations for a Mage

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jgamer wrote on 2013-11-27 20:55

First of all, my skill ranks:

Rank 1 Icebolt
Rank 1 Firebolt
Rank 4 Lightningbolt
Rank E Fusion Bolt
Rank 5 Magic Mastery
Rank 8 Bolt Mastery
Rank 6 Magic Weapon Mastery
Rank F Mana Shield
Rank F Meditate
Rank F Elemental Masteries
Rank F Elemental and Natural Shields
Rank F Snap Cast
Pretty much Rank F in anything outside of magic

As you can see, I pretty much a pure mage right now. Right now my goal is to get Lightningbolt to Rank 1, but I'm debating where to go from there. So far I'm considering:
-Finishing up Magic Weapon Mastery and Bolt Mastery
-Getting Composing and Music Knowledge
-Grabbing one of the Advanced Magics
-Ranking Meditate
-Branching out to melee (for Windmill in particular)

Also, so far I've been using a chaincast Fire Wand and Shylien Mana Knuckles. I plan to get a Hermit Staff latter, but does anyone have any recomendations for other weapons to get before then.

Thanks in advance.
Cide wrote on 2013-11-27 21:00

don't just grab one of the advanced magics, you need all 3 >:L
Azareel wrote on 2013-11-27 21:35

Quote from jgamer;1173719:
I plan to get a Hermit Staff latter, but does anyone have any recomendations for other weapons to get before then.

>Hermit Staff
>getting anything before it

Magic weapons are pretty easy to make, especially if you're not really worried about getting a lolomghax roll. If you're on Alexina, I can craft the staff/wands for you if you get (most of) the materials. I'd mostly just need the shyllien and poison herbs.
ewire123 wrote on 2013-11-27 21:47

Rank thunder to 1 , that will be your multi purpose int spell.
Justified wrote on 2013-11-27 21:56

Magic Weapon Mastery has priority over all other Mastery skills.
Ignore Bolt Mastery and Fusion Bolt, they'll be the last things you rank.

Alongside Magic Weapon, any of the three Intermediate Magics and the corresponding Elemental Mastery comes next. Magic Mastery and Snap Cast follow, and Meditation and Mana Shield trail. From there branch into the other Intermediates along with Spell Walk.
Slayerj wrote on 2013-11-27 23:05

Eh, can't really say much other than rank fusion dead last, but before meteor/while doing meteor over a long period of time. You'll find that you never use fusion bolt much once you get a cc+4 savage firewand just for the hell of it/great dmg. (It's boring to spam firebolt over and over again but if that's all you can really do to dish out a lot of dmg at the time, do it.)
Justified wrote on 2013-11-27 23:40

Fusion Bolt is incredibly strong now. Ice+Lightning can crit for upwards of 3k in 1 second, without sticking you with a wand that is only good at one spell.

The problem is that the Mastery does almost nothing. It increases your damage by a whopping 5% for 279 AP.
jgamer wrote on 2013-11-28 03:59

Quote from Cide;1173720:
don't just grab one of the advanced magics, you need all 3 >:L

Quote from ewire123;1173731:
Rank thunder to 1 , that will be your multi purpose int spell.

I do plan on getting all three eventually. However, Thunder does seem to be the one I most definitely want to get first (that and the easiest).

Quote from Azareel;1173730:
>Hermit Staff
>getting anything before it

Magic weapons are pretty easy to make, especially if you're not really worried about getting a lolomghax roll. If you're on Alexina, I can craft the staff/wands for you if you get (most of) the materials. I'd mostly just need the shyllien and poison herbs.

I can grab the Shyllien and the Herb Powder myself with adventurer seals next Monday. I'd craft one myself, but that would involve having to rank Magic Craft (something that I have neither the time nor the patience for by the looks of the training requirements). As for whether it's hax, I don't mind for now.

Quote from Slayerj;1173755:
Eh, can't really say much other than rank fusion dead last, but before meteor/while doing meteor over a long period of time. You'll find that you never use fusion bolt much once you get a cc+4 savage firewand just for the hell of it/great dmg. (It's boring to spam firebolt over and over again but if that's all you can really do to dish out a lot of dmg at the time, do it.)

Quote from Justified;1173760:
Fusion Bolt is incredibly strong now. Ice+Lightning can crit for upwards of 3k in 1 second, without sticking you with a wand that is only good at one spell.

The problem is that the Mastery does almost nothing. It increases your damage by a whopping 5% for 279 AP.

I have fusion bolt to thank for my current success. Chaincasted Firebolt is great, but it eats up too much of my mana at the moment. Plus, it doesn't have the AOE power Lightning-based fusion bolts give me, and Fire-Ice is epic against bosses (it's how I got my golem slayer with a single blow title after all).

But yeah, the rank in Fusion bolt was a misclick. I still have beginner benefits, so I'll reset it after I finish ranking lightning bolt and get that next rank in Magic Weapon Mastery.

Quote from Justified;1173733:
Magic Weapon Mastery has priority over all other Mastery skills.
Ignore Bolt Mastery and Fusion Bolt, they'll be the last things you rank.

Alongside Magic Weapon, any of the three Intermediate Magics and the corresponding Elemental Mastery comes next. Magic Mastery and Snap Cast follow, and Meditation and Mana Shield trail. From there branch into the other Intermediates along with Spell Walk.

I've been pretty much ranking my masteries alongside my bolt skills so far. The above is pretty much how I've been planning on going about so far. I'll consider not reranking bolt mastery after my next reset though (I was thinking about how it synergized with fusion bolt, but I need the AP for Magic Weapon). A few questions though:
1. Where would the Advanced Magics (Hailstorm and Meteor) and Blaze fit into this?
2. Eventually, I will run into enemies that Mana Deflector 3 (like zombies). Any recomendations for them (in other words, would I be fine with just rank F combat skills)?
Justified wrote on 2013-11-28 04:15

Quote from jgamer;1173796:
1. Where would the Advanced Magics (Hailstorm and Meteor) and Blaze fit into this?
2. Eventually, I will run into enemies that Mana Deflector 3 (like zombies). Any recomendations for them (in other words, would I be fine with just rank F combat skills)?

Hailstorm and Meteor are very strong but also very situational, so they should be ranked near the end.

Blaze is a special case. It is best used with Ice Spear (at Rank 1 for increased area of effect), and Puppet Crisis (either your own or a party member's). It takes a lot of practice to use Blaze well, and uses large amounts of MP and SP while being unforgiving if you're even a couple steps off of where you need to be, but it's also one of the more challenging, active, and potent magic playstyles. You can rank it as early as you want, but as said it can be hard to use.

For Zombies, there's no getting around them without ranking an alternative skillset. Fighter is a good option which synergizes well with any other skillset, and the Shyllien Knuckles allow you to continue Bolt Fusing.
Kyouria wrote on 2013-11-28 04:26

Post has been deleted.
Azareel wrote on 2013-11-28 05:00

Quote from Justified;1173760:
The problem is that the Mastery does almost nothing. It increases your damage by a whopping 5% for 279 AP.

Pretty sure that's 15%, sirrah.

It's still pretty bad, though.
Justified wrote on 2013-11-28 05:15

Quote from Azareel;1173813:
Pretty sure that's 15%, sirrah.

It's still pretty bad, though.

Not with diminishing returns from an additive formula, nope.
jgamer wrote on 2013-11-28 20:15

Alright, one rebirth and skill reset later and I now have all my bolts and magic weapon at rank 1 and magic mastery still at rank 5. Everything else is still at f rank, including bolt fusion and bolt mastery. However, I probably have only one rebirth left before I lose my beginner benefits. I'm probably gonna either grab Thunder or rank up windmill or chain mastery to deal with Zombies and other things with MD 3.

Also, what's your character's name Azareel. Mine is Zelzic.
Blassreiter wrote on 2013-11-28 20:56

I don't know about everyone else but with Rank 1 Magic Weapon Mastery, Fire+Lightning 5 Charge Fusion Bolt out damages my Rank 1 Fireball and it costs less MP. Highest I've seen My Fusion Bolt do was like 15k whereas my Fireball was around 11k. Either that or I misread/different enemies.

The only thing is that it hits a maximum of 5 Enemies and the range is relatively small if the enemies aren't clumped together, but on the bright side it doesn't aggro the splashed ones.

[Image: http://puu.sh/5w8gI.jpg]

946 Int 193 Mattack