Mage for beginner

Apocalypse

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05/05/2021
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Welcome back @Sam_D!
I just checked back your last post. Your build seems excellent! My only recommandation is to switch for Staff Mastery instead of Wand. Both can be good, but staves deal much more damage.

Here are my 2 favorite mid-game staves:
1) Caldeus of Scorching (fire). Buy one in New Garand.
2) Staff of the Seas (cold). Find one in the Imperial Fortress of the Steel Coast, it's on the ground in the middle of the second room with lots of deadly Carrion Eaters!


The most powerful staves are a bit harder to get.

By killing Dragons, you can find a Magma Staff, the best Fire staff. By killing Liches, you can find Last Winter, the best Cold staff. (Check taverns for rumors to find dragons and liches. What you get is random, so you need luck and patience!)

The most powerful pure elemental staff is Staff of the Dead Kings, it deals Death damage and it's in the Mercian Royal Crypt near Freetown. To get it you need the Ruby Key Number 5. That key is found in the Desecrated Ruins in Thuram. And to get there you need to talk to Captain Torden in Icemist...

Good Hunting :)
 

VDX_360

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You mention you like mage spells, and that's a totally valid thing to like.

But if you go the Staff + Summon route, you'll free up all those skill points to maximize your staff damage, and have a small army of summons ready at anytime.

By mid-to-late game, you'll have a decent amount of skill points to spend so don't feel pressured into given up your favorite spells.

A good Spell Mage might be the trickiest mage build to use. It requires learning the kinks of each spell, and you might have to give up some defensive skills to max out all your attack spells.

Plenty of people really like the spell mage, but it can have drawbacks in some areas.

The Staff + Summon tends to have a consistent them. Summon an Iron Golem, and safety deal devastating damage from afar.

While I'm a big fan of the Iron Giant, don't forget the situational benefits of Ice and Fire Golems. I beat a named Fire Dragon at a ridicously low level simple because my fire golem was lucky enough to stand on a fire in the fight. The fire healed the golem, the fire dragon's attack healed the fire golem. I just nibbled away at the dragon's health with a pea shooter, too afraid to move and cause the dragon to switch targets.

Also, I have a perverse joy in watching a tiny little shock imp take on two full battle droids.
 

Sam_D

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19/04/2022
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I already reset my sp and now it looked like this,i am still not sure to take staff mastery,with staff i cant use my orbs but it deals more damage right?.Fire golem have been my company for a long time but do i still need it since now i already had iron golem?,and spells too iam not sure to take them or not.
 

VDX_360

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Wand + Orb is considered more defensive. You get the defense from the Orb, and the push-back from Wand Mastery.

Staff is considered more offensive. You get some serious extra damage from Staff Mastery (INT gives damage).

So, player choice.

Sometimes the wand's pushback will interfere with your summon's fight. So a lot of summon mages go with staff.

In general, the Iron Golem is a better all-round summons. Hence the extra skill points and magic cost to summon the big guy.

BUT, Fire and Ice Golems can be situationally better. They heal from their own element, making them great front line fighters in those areas. They are also much cheaper to summon.

There are also benefits to having more than one summons. Even having one level in fire, or ice, will give you a back-up summons in case your Iron Golem gets killed or expires. There's a fight in the arena in which having a fire golem summon will be very helpful.

You can carry around a stack of summon scrolls, too. By mid-game, they're pretty cheap.

Again, player choice.
 

Apocalypse

Loreseeker
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The Iron Golem is the best in most situations.
But you can buy a few scrolls in Icemist to summon Fire and Ice Elementals when needed.

If you want to make your Iron Golem even more powerful, learn the skill "Summoner" in Icemist. It adds 1, 2 or 3 levels to all your summons. With this, your Iron Golem can get to level 18! It makes a big difference.
 

VDX_360

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Also, you can learn Fire Golem and Ice Golem WAY earlier in the game. So for a new player, grabbing the Fire Golem will serve you very well in the early to mid-game.

Experienced players using out-of-game knowledge might be tempted to skip a lot of stuff so they can get the Iron Golem as soon as possible. But using out-of-game knowledge can be used to take a lot of shortcuts for grabbing powerful stuff early.
 

Sam_D

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19/04/2022
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I have spend all my skill points on staff mastery,mana surge,and summoner.Using cadeus of scorching and staff of the sea in switch as my main equipment.Still dont have better staff and i don't know where to find them yet.

I feel like i deal much more damage now than my previous messy build,but still feel unsusual not able to spamming my spell skills lol.

I have tried using adaon with bow and it worked very well with my iron golem.With iron Golem as a tank,Adaon and i can deal ranged damage from behind.Maybe i'll try to do more experiment.

Currently i have a little problem with storage,should i sell my wands and orbs now? Since i use staff mastery they Will be not used very often,but some of them were not easy to get.
 

Atomos

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If you're looking for staff that doesn't use mana, consider this:
Here's complete list:
If you're determined to get those really strong staves, your best bet right now would be to farm dragons and liches, just like other users mentioned. The Corruptor and Staff of Wonders are pretty good too 👍
 

Kakost

Active Member
Joined
06/12/2022
Messages
375
So my question is,any tips to play mage in early game? And build or equipment recommendation for now before i reach thuram
The first tip of Mage Club is ALWAYS hide behind your companion

Second tip of the Mage Club is ALWAYS hide behind your companion
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First, get a fully elemental wand or staff! Normal damage sucks loll.
Fully elemental staves arent as easily avaiable at the early game, but yes, those are a massive power up exclusive to mages.

I dont recomend getting Earth Mastery 3 (Iron Golem) before lvl 14, because those big guys drink some insane Mana. Better stick to EM 2 up until lvl 13 at least - you wont really need more than that at that lvl.
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@VDX_360
Still lvl 9,today i havent play yet.

For equipment i use scorch wand and batrax wand sometimes.Journeyman set and a couple robes and orbs in switch.

I already finished all the quests you mention.But i dont have Hirge yet,guess i will find her later,i almost forgot about her.

I have never finished this game yet,and this still my second run since my first run 2 years ago.So i think i will play without rushing too much while enjoy the storyline
So, let me give you a small imput of my own experience with Mage.

First, Staff is way better. Yeah yeah, early game not so much, but early game doesnt really matter lol. And the reason being that you can dispatch hordes of enemies with a single Fireball or Zap at the early game (seriously, early game Mage is SUPER EASY, particularly if you play Elementalist).

My main point however is on your attributes. With staff, Int becomes your main source of extra damage, sure, but it aint the only one. Remember, Agi and even Awa also increase your damage.

For instance, you have Int 4 and Agi 1. To gain 1 extra Int, you'll need therefore 5 points. And in exchange, you get +2 damage (and other benefits).

Each 1 Agi grants you +1 damage. You have Agi 1, and to gain +2 damage from Agi, you would need to go up to Agi 3, which would cost the same 5 points.

Each 2 points of Awa also grants you +1 damage

Therefore, you would do well to get Agi 2, followed by Awa 2, followed by Int 5, followed by Agi 3.

Also, both Awa and Int are good to your Perception. Therefore, right after getting Int 5, follow with Int 6 (for damage, mana and perception).

Learn how to hide behind your companion, and you wont ever need to push End past 2
 
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