How does one go about making a Mage build now?

"Air" is the only real answer to the OP tho if you want to be serious.

 

@Rofo Never ignore the Time Lord, His speak is deep sometimes, you have to read between the lines. As far as mage builds I have been polearms, light armor and this go around two new schools of magic. I use to do fire and death, now I do air and water. But no matter what schools I do I will always be polearms and light armor.I just hope now you dont get stuck in time. I will talk to Time Lord on your behalf.

 

~Get Closer... It's a Scratch and Sniff~


I'm a PvP Tournament Fight Fan !'
I can't wait till our PvP tournaments begin after final wipe is here
I love watching them, I love knowing the great fighters, "but I especially love betting on them" !'
I actually believe that I'll be either making, or loosing, quite allot of gold on all the fights around here

Most all I ever learned about becoming a SOTA hybrid, I learned from our early SOTA Prize Fighters...
But these were no normal fighters who were winning these early fights... they were really smart types of chaps!

Now that our combat is more flashed out and with everyone showing back up after 24/7 launch, "I'm looking very much forward in learning allot more
Yet with such large amounts of gold on our future fights, I'm thinking that I need to find a safe bookie to hold all the gold within the bets and pay them 10%, 5% from each opposing gambler

24/7 Soon! and Our Fights Begin !'
~Time Lord~

 

Archery air fire death light armor is working great for me. I added in swords and fire once lvl 30

 

didn't you find there was a ton of overlap with archery and magic?
In fact, I dropped Magic and did pure archer after playing around a bit with it.

However archery, ruined my carrying capacity as a miner, So I dropped it again, it won't be included in my spec post final wipe.

I think my foray into mage builds are over, Didn't find a way to make it work with my playstyle.
Seems to me what is uber right now, is anything, + best tamed pet money can buy without any taming skills, + fair amount of life healing.

 

So sad....but so true. But but........summoning oh so powerful elemental creatures to help you!! Totally worth it!! You know, cause it's the best there is!!

 

*puts on his wizard hat and robe*

Unfortunately I am not accepting any new apprentices at this time.

 

To be honest I don't know because I wonder what it will be like without 2x the xp gain. Will I be able to maintain all these skills and beyond or not.

However as a pure mage I've enjoyed getting several schools of magic. I've stayed more towards the sun but have air and water, amd earth. However I'm picking back up a bit more fire too since I see I have the XP available.

I wonder if the 2x XP bonus means we will only be able to maintain half of what we can today, or is it only half as fast but same limits???

I am still selective as to what skills I get and how high I raise them. We cant have all skills at 100. Also there are a few skills that I dont need but want for occasion like night sight which I keep at 20 which seems to stay at that skill level and it is just enough to be able use it for those times it is more useful than the light spell.

so I think it depends on wjat you want. Do you want to be an all around combat mage, do you want to be a healer and a stealther? Do you want to use archery too? OH and using a staff has the benifit of the bludgeon skill tree. If I didn't go the electicity route perhaps gaining the knockdown and knock back bludgeon skills are a useful alternative for a player who doesn't use much stuns. This could he for those who want to raise some skills to 100 and focus on water and earth and healing.

Now that ai think of it there is no right or wrong build (once lightning bolt is fixed).

 

I set up my archer deck so I can draw combos often. There is no ranged spell that stacks up to aimed shot in hp.

 

also, carry capacity can be raised really quickly. This is so necessary for both mages and archers (as I tend to carry between 50 and 100 of each reagent and 700 arrows).

 

I was carrying 2-3,000 arrows per trip, for grinding. (increasing as I gained more capacity)
Lotting all then destroying heaviest items first, until I was nearly out of arrows.

For mining, 500 arrows was just enough to clear non-boss portions of etceter crag mines 1 time, skipping all enemies in Etceter crag foot hills.
I'd be leaving with 50-100 arrows.

 

I really enjoy playing as an Archer/Air/Water build. I'd prefer to go pure mage, but couldn't find an acceptable combination for my gaming style.

Water (Ice) to slow them down. Archery/Air to mow them down. And a summons, usually water for healing, for that extra survivability when they get too close.

But, like others, I have to carry a ton of arrows and reagents.

 

I find advancement to be a "journey not the destination" process as opposed to UO and other mmorpgs where there are set builds and it just about grinding until maxed out. I want to be a pure Mage for my main after final wipe, however in testing, over multiple wipes, I am learning that it will be near impossible to start as a pure Mage. I plan on choosing at least starting melee skill and phasing it out once I have enough magic skills to stay alive and deal out a decent hps.

 

I was considering this as well.

I do have a question with regards to the above.. if you choose LOVE (archer) or COURAGE (sword), and then add you mage skills in later, how does that impact you Avatar's story? I enjoy the archer/mage combo (for the 'melee' part). But I'm not a fan of the LOVE storyline for my character's persona. But TRUTH doesn't have air/water, only fire starting skills. I would benefit far more from the LOVE/archer storyline in the beginning simply due to the skills awarded. If I commit acts that go against the love virtue, will that impact the story line as well?

Likely I'll just choose truth, as that rings true with my character, and deal with the extra time and expense of switching out skills as I progress.

 

lightning, chain lightning, death ray, chaotic feedback, bow, chain armor should put you in a good direction

 

I traded in my sword (my blade skill was 61) for a staff that has some bonuses, but I miss the melee power.

Just now in Greymark Forest I find that without a pet, I am just barely able to handle 2-3 elves, but only two if one of them is an archer. Even then I often end up fleeing to recover health. I am almost afraid to use Chain Lightning, because it pulls in more mobs than I can handle. When I train an innate skill my exp pool depletes by leaps and bounds. I just spent around 50,000 exp points in 5 minutes. My pool depletes unless I turn everything off except maybe one skill (not an innate). I am fairly discouraged.

My skill stats:

Focus Tree:
Heightened Awareness (Focus): 69
Intelligence: 66

Air Tree:
Gust: 31
Discharge: 79
Lightning: 83
Chain Lightning: 66
Air's Embrace: 37
Rapid discharge: 60
Dash: 21

Fire Tree:
Flame Fist: 33
Fire Arrow: 60
Fireball: 47
Immolation: 24

Life Tree:
Healing Touch: 67
Purify: 10

Sun Tree:
Searing Ray: 36

Tactics Tree:
Healthy: 70
Train Strength: 34
Heavy Lifter: 32

 

Train up the sprint skills. I havent' tested the one in light armor but the Air magic spell is really useful. It sometimes helps escape. Possibly using the teleport spell might also be used to escape even better. Perhapse locking those two glyphs could ensure a quick escape even if an archer slows you. (I haven't tested that though) I have been killed by archers slowing me even while I used the quicken spell. Although If I added teleport to my deck it might still get me out of there faster. However I have played around with teleport that helps me move quicker while sprinting by teleporting ahead while the effects of the sprint spell is active. So an air mage/rogue has the potential to move really darn fast.

ALso there is the water magic shield spells and douse spells which I've found very useful for fire casters that have a dot etc. In fact I was able to take out 4 Skelleton mages and an archer in Deap Ravenswood because of the Ice Shield and douse. It considerably lowers the damge done. Also the air shield helps quite a bit but it drains focus really fast. So there are alternatives that will allow a mage to escape.

One thing is ceratin is that a mage has some strengths and weaknesses. One of the weaknesses is that they get the crap kicked out of them really fast especailly if an archer shows up. Knowing how to escape and when to escape might be something us mages need to figure out. The light armor skill i think is a combat only skill, but I find the air magic one useful since I can use it to speed through a town too. Air seems to be a good tree for rogues and for escape for a mage.


It also makes me think a player could create a ninja picking up these sprint and teleport skills to simulate the old school ninja jumps and quick movement. Ninja's are mystical anyway. In any case I would really like to see how a mystical air/assassin would look like using blades and assassination skill. using the kneeling down emote looks good for a player that likes stealth. They've done a great job with all these skills.