Mage for beginner

Sam_D

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So i used to played ek about two years ago using warrior.i think its already at late game,its a shame i didnt save the progress.

Now i make a fresh start using mage,still wandering around varsilia completing quest,lvl 8 now.

When i used warrior its felt easy at early game in varsilia because varsilia its the home of warrior,a lot of equipment there.

So my question is,any tips to play mage in early game? And build or equipment recommendation for now before i reach thuram
 
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Neponde

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I found wand mage with elemental skills to be extremely good early game. There is a thread with screens of my progression in the "ironman saga".

I use the fire wand you purchase from Couk (tower by New Garand) and the wand you get from rescuing the last loremaster. Firedancer robes were my armor for all of early game, i had a couple orbs I swapped as necessary for resistances (cold, fire, death). The rest of my armor was journeyman gear basically.

There are lots of viable mage builds, but it is a class that gets stronger and stronger as the game progresses.

Summoner mage is a commonly played one, and usually fairly dependable, but requires you to get to icemist to get "earth mastery". Its a build that truly shines midgame. Your earth elemental/iron golem gets paired with staff mastery especially, and lighting bolt usually, to dominate most foes and bosses mid game.
 

VDX_360

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Basic Mage Recipe:
Iron Golem + Staff Mastery = Just walk over everything.

For the early game, Lessor Summoner is quite helpful. That little guy will help keep enemies off you, help find secrets, and will do some decent damage.

Some obvious tips, invest heavily into INT and PER. Don't bother with STR.
 

VDX_360

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Mages, as a class, can be frustrating in the very early game as they tend to be quite squishy. As you gain a few levels, and learn to use summons (either skill or spell), you'll find yourself taking less damage. Heck, a solid summon mage can make it through dungeons without every getting hit once, thanks to those side-kicks.

If you go the spell route, you'll need to learn how to kite around enemies and the unique attack pattern of each spell. Blizzard is awkward as heck, but bounce it right and it can hit the same enemies lots of times dealing tons of damage.
 

Apocalypse

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First, get a fully elemental wand or staff! Normal damage sucks loll. Get a fire wand or staff, fire is good against most opponents, and you can buy one easily.

At level 8, you can do the Enclave quests to get into Icemist. Finding Dartos's ring might be hard, but you don't have to fight every monster, potions of speed and invisibility can help you get the ring at your level if you lack the power to fight through. Also, scrolls of Summon Fire Elementals are very powerful, and could help you out.

Once you get into Icemist, learn to summon an Iron Golem (Earth Mastery III), it's the most powerful summon. Add the skill Summoner and your golem will be unstoppable!

In Icemist, there's a very important quest you'll want to complete as soon as you can: Lady of the Night (from the big winged woman statue). But you'll want to side with the evil woman in the statue loll, not the nice guard captain. She'll reward you with the most powerful magical item for mage: the Amulet of Whispers! Once again, you don't have to kill every monster during this quest either. It's possible to steal what you need to complete the quest without killing the boss.

My personal favorite mage strategy is to protect myself with the electrified Mage Barrier (from Inori Enclave). The barrier deals 40 shock damage to enemies when they strike you, so damage stacks up fast, and the mana cost is very low. But it depends on your play style, it's not for everyone. I like having lots of HP and watch my enemies kill themselves on my force field and get beat up by my golem loll. Essentially I'm just lazy lolll
 

Sam_D

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Joined
19/04/2022
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I found wand mage with elemental skills to be extremely good early game. There is a thread with screens of my progression in the "ironman saga".

I use the fire wand you purchase from Couk (tower by New Garand) and the wand you get from rescuing the last loremaster. Firedancer robes were my armor for all of early game, i had a couple orbs I swapped as necessary for resistances (cold, fire, death). The rest of my armor was journeyman gear basically.

There are lots of viable mage builds, but it is a class that gets stronger and stronger as the game progresses.

Summoner mage is a commonly played one, and usually fairly dependable, but requires you to get to icemist to get "earth mastery". Its a build that truly shines midgame. Your earth elemental/iron golem gets paired with staff mastery especially, and lighting bolt usually, to dominate most foes and bosses mid game.
Thanks for answering.
i've read your thread.Its awesome.Such a fast paced playthrough.Are you use wand elemental storm mage first before get earth mastery?

And how you get so much gold at that level


Basic Mage Recipe:
Iron Golem + Staff Mastery = Just walk over everything.

For the early game, Lessor Summoner is quite helpful. That little guy will help keep enemies off you, help find secrets, and will do some decent damage.

Some obvious tips, invest heavily into INT and PER. Don't bother with STR.
Thanks for answering.

Yes i focused my traits on INT and PER,a little END too.

So staff is better for summoner mage.

I am currently using wand now,so i need to reset my skill and focus on staff mastery in the future


First, get a fully elemental wand or staff! Normal damage sucks loll. Get a fire wand or staff, fire is good against most opponents, and you can buy one easily.

At level 8, you can do the Enclave quests to get into Icemist. Finding Dartos's ring might be hard, but you don't have to fight every monster, potions of speed and invisibility can help you get the ring at your level if you lack the power to fight through. Also, scrolls of Summon Fire Elementals are very powerful, and could help you out.

Once you get into Icemist, learn to summon an Iron Golem (Earth Mastery III), it's the most powerful summon. Add the skill Summoner and your golem will be unstoppable!

In Icemist, there's a very important quest you'll want to complete as soon as you can: Lady of the Night (from the big winged woman statue). But you'll want to side with the evil woman in the statue loll, not the nice guard captain. She'll reward you with the most powerful magical item for mage: the Amulet of Whispers! Once again, you don't have to kill every monster during this quest either. It's possible to steal what you need to complete the quest without killing the boss.

My personal favorite mage strategy is to protect myself with the electrified Mage Barrier (from Inori Enclave). The barrier deals 40 shock damage to enemies when they strike you, so damage stacks up fast, and the mana cost is very low. But it depends on your play style, it's not for everyone. I like having lots of HP and watch my enemies kill themselves on my force field and get beat up by my golem loll. Essentially I'm just lazy lolll
Thanks for the answer.
I am currently use fire wand now.So which is better,wand or staff(or 2h staff)?

And just find Dartos's ring and not give it back to him will not finish the quest,is it okay?lol
 
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VDX_360

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You can keep Dartos' ring for your own use. Return it to him after you find other shock resist rings. Sooner or later you'll need to give the ring to him, but it's nice to keep it on hand for those pesky electric demons.

For mages, wands are considered a more defensive option and staves a more offensive option. Using a wand lets you use an off-hand item like a shield or a totem. Both are able to deal decent damage and beat the game.

Some players like using Wand with Summoner as they fill that protects their character the most. I find the pushback with wands problematic with summons. You end up knocking the enemy away from your golem. In contrast, with spell mages, it can be useful to push monsters back so you can hit them with spells. Player choice, but I encourage Staff over Wand.
 

Neponde

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My intention was to switch to earth mastery + staff as soon as possible. Staffs do output better damage. At rank 4, the staff mastery adds 2 damage per int, so if you are 5int or above, damage boost is better (wand max at +8) on top of higher base damage of staff.

Three main reasons I was still wand:

1) i needed about 16k gp to buy needed skills for summoner and resets, which at the time I didn't have.

2) i don't have a good staff yet to replace wands

3) I'm having a ton of fun with elemental mage, and am not ready to swap. As Vdx said, though, it is objectively a harder build to run properly. Maybe I just have thrill issues.

The wand stops pushing back when they are at the edge of your range, which gives me a nice distance cushion if I see Griss about to drop. I've only had to use a speed potion + wolf once so far though, when she got attacked by multiple hill giants at once.

At my level, i am finding the wands are just not quite as powerful now. As Apo said, the pure elemental damage is far superior. At the moment, I only have fire wand. Other elemental wands are high level. Soon, I'll go batrax hunting (slippery buggers.. I'm prepared this time!) And duck into the carrion lair for the staff of seas. Then I'll swap over to summoner for midgame.

As for the gold, some was townhall quests. But I rarely buy items, mostly just go off drops. A dozen or so deepfrost cognacs for going into very hostile territory (trolls, vorators). My gold had been saved for belts, scrolls, teleports, vaults, and now, advance skills. The most recent image also includes about 25k from running orc king. He drops an item worth 500gp every time, and often 1 more (shield worth 300, hammer worth 700).
 
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Apocalypse

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Staff is much, much more powerful than wand at the end of the game, no contest. I always go for a staff. But wands are cheap and easy to find early game, plus they allow for a left hand thingy, so they're ok early game. One advantage with wands is the ability to push back enemies. It's not usually very good, but it is possible for an excellent player to exploit this push to manipulate foes and position them for strategy.

But the true power of staves is simple: pure elemental damage. Most wands do normal damage, plus an elemental bonus. That's bad, since armor absorbs most of it. Some staves work this way too, and they are thrash loll. But many staves deal pure elemental damage, and it bypasses armor completely, instead going through elemental resistance. Which won't be a problem if you have multiple elemental staves. You just need to switch to the best one. And when your opponent has an elemental weakness, your damage will even be increased!

Now, about Dartos's Ring...

Bad boy. Bad.
Go give the ring back. Now!
You really want to get into Icemist. And you need to be nice to wizards to get there ;)
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PS: Need gold to learn skills? How about 20 000 gold coins?

Remember when I said to get accepted into Icemist and get the Amulet of Whispers from the Lady of Night quest? During that quest, you'll find a ruby key. That key unlocks a 20 000 gold treasure. Oh and also the most powerful Death Staff ever. Get into Icemist! ;)
 
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VDX_360

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@Sam_D , I started a new playthrough to be able to compare and contrast notes with you. First check-in is now with a Level 9 Mage.
Start:
Traits: AGL 1, INT 1, AWA 1, PER 1.
Skills: Staff Mastery 1.
Notes: On reflection, Mage Armor would have been a better choice. Mage was a little fragile in the earl game.

Level 2:
Traits: INT 2,
Skills: Lessor Summon

Level 3:
Traits: PER 2
Skills: Staff Mastery II
Notes: Reached Level 3 as completing Seeds of Trust, got Griss as Companion at Level 3. Bought some leather gear from Lannegar. Tried to take out the Fire Goblin but was a little under prepared. Not quite there to do it easily.

Level 4:
Traits: AWA 2
Skills: Lessor Summoner II
Took out Fire Goblin. Much easier. It's amazing what a few potions can do.

Level 5:
Traits: INT 3
Mage Armor 1

Level 6:
Traits: AGL 2
Skills: Mage Armor 2
Note: reached Level 6 as searching body in magister's house, got Hirge right after.

Level 7:
Traits: INT 4
Skills: Staff Mastery 3
Note: On reflection, getting PERS 3 first would have allowed learning Fire Mastery a little sooner. See next entry.

Level 8:
Traits: PERS 3
Skills: Fire Mastery 1, Mana Surge 1
Note: Completed first two wizard tower quests, plus A Fair Deal to get Wizard Guild Rep. Learned Fire Mastery as soon as PERS raised to 3.

Level 9:
Traits: points not in use
Skills: Mana Surge 2
Notes: Reached Level 9 after saving the prisoner from the orcs. Completed Fort Assault right away.
Currently using Caduceus of Scorching and Staff of Force as weapons. Eyeing Staff if Force as a purchase, or something looted.
Fire Golem Summons is a nifty big guy.

Haven't learned of location of tower in-game so that is likely the next thing to do.
 

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