Here's a potential draft for the first post... Well, that escalated quickly.
Corrections and improvements are welcome.
< Here's a pile of stones >
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===== ===== Draft start
I'd like to request starting/poor/expert mage players to share their experience, confirm/deny information, provide other tips, tricks and shenanigans.
You can also help by donating Exquisite equipment for testing purposes. 2019.05.01: now accepting Radiants!
I may be wrong on some accounts. Please help to make it more accurate and better.
I'd like if someone would be kind to correct grammar and punctuation...
I thank everyone who provided critique, additions/corrections and support. Thank you (IMG:[
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NotesNote. WIP marks = Work in progress. Requires additional testing/verification.
Note. Some information was tried and survived. Some is a general knowledge and wasn't tested by me to provide actual data (how much it affects you), and provided as is.
Written in 2019 [HentaiVerse 0.86].
"Current" prices/rates - as of 2019.04.
===== "Melee's guide to maging 101 and winning"
It's a wall of text, but there's just a lot of general information...
Next advices are for the players who want to start or try maging, but not sure how to start.
Mostly for the poor and low-level (310+) or beginners. If you're are a high-level/kind of rich player your experience and results will be better.
Try to understand information and apply it to your situation or playstyle. With time some priorities may shift in different direction.
There is a lot of possibilities. Know your tools and try to use what's best for you or your situation. If you're lacking in one area then compensate in another.
Written for Arenas at challenge level PFUDOR. For lower difficulties you'll need less.
I'm a melee player that started using slapped together unforged different mages around level 400 to clear Arenas.
I have some Hath perks, but due to a monster scaling experience should be similar for a level 310+ player.
Contents- Mental preparation
- Introduction to a mage playstyles
- Choosing damage element
- Choosing equipment
- Staff
- Cloth armour
- Exquisite quality items - Item world
- Forging
- Primary attributes
- Abilities
- Spike Shield augment - Hath perks
- Training
- Game mechanics
- Using consumable items
- Gameplay
Mental preparationThere's a general mindset that mage should do X in N turns/minutes (for example, 2 times faster than melee), and for that you need tens of millions. True, to be faster you need resources, it applies to every playstyle.
But it doesn't mean that you
can't play it otherwise.
All depends on your goal. In the end you can play whatever style you want. What pleases you and makes you happy.
It's hard to start as a mage at low-level. No money, low selection of equipment, low proficiency, low number of ability points, locked abilities. Also even playable equipment (low stats or not Legendary quality) usually gets salvaged to receive High-Grade Wood (currently costs ~4-4.5k) or High-Grade Cloth materials (currently costs ~13-14k).
At first your problem may be the ability to survive. You may need to use debuff Weaken in some rounds. You may constantly get hit, heal often. All that interrupting your gameplay flow.
In the beginning it may take the same time as 1-Handed Heavy Power armour player to clear Arenas, or even more in some cases. You won't be able to complete GrindFest or Legendary+ Item World at PFUDOR difficulty (or at least faster than melee).
But it's enough to play Arenas and it'll get much easier and faster as you grow stronger.
Gradually you'll move from defense to offense just blasting things to smithereens, as you understand gameplay better, forge your items, unlock stronger abilities, raise your proficiencies, increase your stats, etc.
I won't provide formulas and math because I believe that low-level/poor players just don't have resources for the end-game gear and end-game math. And that they shouldn't care about +0.1% or 1 second gain if they use X instead of Y.
You'll gradually come to it, as you understand the gameplay better, and you'd want to maximize your performance.
Otherwise please check
Wiki or use
Ask the Experts! thread.
You may encounter term "Proficiency factor". Roughly it is a ratio of your Elemental (Divine/Forbidden) proficiency to your level. It was calculated and reaching it allows to reduce monster's mitigation to 0 when using debuff Imperil. But higher ratio still benefit you due to a lower number of resisted damage spells. All bonuses from proficiency are capped at 1 factor value (or reaching 2 * <your level> proficiency [1000 proficiency at level 500] - more proficiency than that gives you nothing).
Don't bother yourself with the factor for now.
For more info:
Wiki: HentaiVerse Advice Advanced,
Wiki: Proficiencies - Magic Proficiencies ,
Ask the Experts!Introduction to a mage playstylesAs a mage you'll be using area-of-effect damage spells and/or debuffs.
Your available damage spell elements are Fire, Cold, Elec, Wind, Dark or Holy.
Each element has 3 damage spells (tier 1-3, or T1-T3).
There are 2 playstyles: using skill Imperil and not using it ("non-Imperil").
Non-Imperil style is for the rich and
usually played with Dark or Holy.
Imperil is a debuff that decreases monster's physical, magical and elements' mitigations. You cast it first to increase your damage and then start using damage spells. It's
usually played with one of the other four elements ( Fire, Cold, Elec or Wind ).
At level 310 you gain access to the last level of Faster Imperil ability that removes skill's cooldown, allowing you to cast it one after another.
Mage is played with a staff and a cloth armour for the fastest result.
It can be played with 1-Handed weapon and a shield instead of a staff. It's slower than staff and usually faster than melee but requires less resources to start doing harder challenges (complete PFUDOR GrindFest and/or Item World).
It may be better/easier/cheaper to start as an Imperil Fire, Cold, Elec or Wind ("Elemental") mage.
In addition to damaging monsters each element debuffs them that may provide additional benefits. Effects are:
Wiki: Spells - Status EffectsYou may also try to start as an Imperil Dark or Holy Mage, but they are mana consumption machines and even less desired equipment may be costly. Expect to drink much more Mana Potions compared to an Elemental mage.
It may be harder and require more resources to start playing that way.
I'll talk mostly about Elemental mage.
Choosing damage elementYou may select any element: Fire, Cold, Elec or Wind. Some provide better performance in the end (due to items not created equal, different playstyles, monsters's stats, etc.), but that's not our case yet.
Any will do for now. For the best result you should select 1 element and only use damage spells of that element.
As you grow stronger and richer you may move to another element (including Dark or Holy) for different gameplay and/or faster results.
Fire, Cold, Elec or Wind ("Elemental") mage uses Elemental proficiency to increase your damage via less resisted spells and lower monster's mitigation.
Holy uses Divine proficiency. Dark uses Forbidden proficiency.
Therefore, switching from Elemental mage to Holy/Dark will require you to grind your new selected proficiency.
PFUDOR Arenas don't require much. It's possible to clear it without any forging, good Legendary items, almost no potencies on items.
You may need to use Weaken debuff sometimes thus slowing you a little.
Harder challenges (PFUDOR Legendary+ Item World, GrindFest) will require forging, special/good items (like Charged/Radiant cloth armour), right potencies on items for comfortable and faster completion compared to a melee player.
There are roughly 3 stages to any mage compared to a melee in Arenas:
- 0-5 level forging on staff and Cotton cloth armour.
Similar performance in every element. Some are slightly faster, comfortable or less mana intensive.
Faster than melee of similar items and similar (and higher) forging.
- Low-medium forging on a staff, low-medium forging on Cotton cloth armour, 0-5 forging on Phase cloth armour.
Some elements are getting ahead.
Now at least 1.5-2 times faster than melee in all Arenas.
- Full forging on everything. It'll take a minute...
Some elements are just more powerful and faster than others.
Melee? What melee?
Current price distribution (for desired armour's prefixes such as Charged or Radiant) and element's debuffs:
- Fire decreases monster's damage. Cheap Charged/Radiant.
- Cold makes monsters slower. It may be easier to start due to slower monsters (cheap Fire/Cold choice). Kind of cheap Charged/Radiant.
- Elec decreases monster's resist and evade chance thus potentially increasing your damage. Pricey Charged/Radiant.
- Wind makes monsters miss more. Pricey Charged/Radiant.
With Imperil style monsters die fast and element's debuff is not really relevant. Main difference comes from staffs (different bonuses to elements).
Choosing equipmentWiki: Equipment Prefixes and QualityWiki: Equipment SuffixesWiki: Equipment RangesWiki: Forge - SoulfuseEach equipment has stats that fall into some ranges. Stats usually vary from item to item (unless Peerless - maximum stat rolls).
To get some idea about an item's stats, you may use script
Live Percentile Ranges.
Auction and shops usually provide some information. For example: <name> (Elec EDB 43%, Evd 55%) - shows Elec spells damage bonus and Evade. It's usually provided in the highest (Legendary) range. But some may provide information in the item's quality range, be careful.
Also, depending on a used script values may wary (actual stats may be higher or lower - depends on how up-to-date the script's values are).
Equipment's quality ranges that are next to each other may overlap. It's nice to get a Legendary, but Magnificent may have some Legendary-level stats.
Be careful as some Magnificent items may not have all attributes.
For example, Magnificent cloth armour may have all 3 attributes (Agility, Intelligence, Wisdom) or a combination of any 2.
Try to find items around your level. But if it's a decent item, then +100 level is fine (but it requires 1500 Soul Fragments to Soulfuse [if Legendary or Magnificent] and bind it to your level).
Low stats are fine to start. But if it's +100 levels, try for better stats, but don't sink everything into it. Currently your resources may be better spent on forging or buying additional/better items to gain more benefit.
You may also try your luck opening a thread in
WTB forum.
To search
WTS and
WTB forums you may use script
SmartSearchYou may also check past auctions to find items that weren't salvaged and try contacting seller/current owner to buy it.
Items have a prefix and a suffix.
On your mage equipment you need matching prefix and/or suffix for your selected element.
StaffFor the best performance you want matching combination for your element on a staff.
You need your selected Element's [Fire, Cold, Elec and Wind] prefix and matching element's suffix or a generic suffix.
Currently possible Elemental prefixes and suffixes (Elemental prefix, Elemental suffix):
- Fiery, of Surtr (bonus to Fire damage).
- Arctic, of Niflheim (bonus to Cold damage).
- Shocking, of Mjolnir (bonus to Elec damage).
- Tempestuous, of Freyr (bonus to Wind damage).
Generic suffixes (non-elemental damage):
- Of Destruction (bonus to magic base damage).
- Of Focus (bonus to critical chance, bonus to hit chance, lower mana consumption).
- Of the Elementalist (bonus to Elemental proficiency).
For example, if your element if Fire:
- Legendary Fiery Redwood Staff of Destruction (bonus to fire and magic damage) is right choice for your element.
- Legendary Fiery Redwood Staff of Niflheim (bonus to fire and cold damage) is a bad choice for your element.
You may still use it but your performance will be worse compared to any matching staff.
For Fire, Cold, Elec or Wind Element you may select staff from 3 types: Redwood, Willow or Oak. There is also Katalox staff but you don't benefit from it using these elements.
Not every staff's type provides bonus to all elements.
Staffs have basic bonus damage to some elements, different proficiencies and may have additional counter-resist. Prefix increases bonus damage of 1 element or adds it, if such element is not present on a staff as a basic one.
Redwood staff:
- No basic counter-resist.
- Basic bonus damage to Fire, Cold, Elec and Wind.
- Proficiencies: Elemental, Supportive, Deprecating.
Highest Elemental proficiency compared to Willow and Oak.
Higher basic bonus damage compared to Willow and Oak.
Willow staff:
- Has basic counter-resist.
- Basic bonus damage to Elec and Wind.
- Proficiencies: Elemental, Forbidden, Deprecating.
Highest Deprecating proficiency compared to Redwood and Oak.
Oak staff:
- Has basic counter-resist.
- Basic bonus damage to Fire and Cold.
- Proficiencies: Elemental, Divine, Supportive.
Slightly higher Elemental proficiency compared to Willow.
Highest Supportive proficiency compared to Redwood and Willow.
Counter-resist decreases monster's resist chance to damage spells and debuffs.
Elemental proficiency decreases monster's resist chance to damage spells and monster's mitigation.
Deprecating proficiency decreases debuff's resist chance.
Supportive proficiency increases buff's duration and Cure's healing power.
More information on proficiencies -
Wiki: ProficienciesBased on the above, you choices for your selected Element (Fire, Cold, Elec or Wind) are:
-
<Element> Redwood of Destruction.
-
<Element> Willow of Destruction.
Lower Fire/Cold damage compared to Redwood or Oak.
-
<Element> Redwood of <Element>.
-
<Element> Redwood of the Elementalist.
Allows to play with 5 Phase Cloth armour. Has enough proficiency to reach needed proficiency factor and then some more (less resisted spells, increased damage).
-
<Element> Redwood of Focus.
-
<Element> Oak of Focus. Primary for Fire/Cold.
Lower Elec/Wind damage compared to Redwood or Willow.
-
<Element> Willow of Focus. Primary for Elec/Wind.
Lower Fire/Cold damage compared to Redwood or Oak.
Staffs in order of least resisted debuffs (first - lowest number of resisted) [unforged state]: Willow, Oak, Redwood.
Willow has base counter-resist and highest Deprecating proficiency.
Oak has no Deprecating proficiency, but has base counter-resist, and in unforged state its bonus is a little higher than some Deprecating on a Redwood. The difference is not very large and will decrease with forging Deprecating proficiency on a Redwood staff.
Staffs of Focus have some increased damage via increased critical chance, higher hit chance (allows to reach 200% without items/forging to remove monster's evasion), decreased mana cost (less potions used in battle). But as you grow stronger, hit chance and mana consumption will be of no/less concern.
Staffs of Focus also can't get Economizer potency (lowers mana consumption; usually undesired), so it may require less resources to get needed potencies on a staff.
Note. Don't pay attention to Supportive proficiency when making a decision. It's nice, but provided just for the information.
You will see first 1-2 staffs (of Destruction) mentioned a lot.
Others will work, but may be hard to find.
Staffs of Focus may be a good asset to a poor or a low-level player (no or low forging on items). Or if you want to grind Arenas very cheap (lowest mana consumption - very few potions needed).
Don't be picky for now, if you don't have the resources to at least low-medium forge the staff. Otherwise go for more damaging staffs (i.e. non-Focus ones).
Staff benchmarksHere's a rough comparison of different 0-5 forged staffs for the Cold Element. Please mind the difference in quality, levels, forging. Not all are of Legendary quality, forged to 5 or Soulbound.
!! WIP. Check forging potential. Some staffs may be slower at first compared to others, but may have more forging potential (become faster with more forging)?
Cloth armourTry to find items around your level, that you can use to get a taste/feeling.
For example, you may collect some cheap build (even Magnificent quality) to see if it's fine. Or ask for an advice, if something is uncomfortable.
Cloth armour can be Cotton or Phase.
- Phase increases your damage.
- Cotton gives you proficiency, that lowers monster's mitigation and resistance to your damage spells.
It's nice to have high damage, but what's the point if it's constantly get reduced by 50-90%?
On a Phase you need matching damage suffix:
- Of Surtr (bonus to Fire damage).
- Of Niflheim (bonus to Cold damage).
- Of Mjolnir (bonus to Elec damage).
- Of Freyr (bonus to Wind damage).
Phase prefixes can be:
- Charged (cast speed). Desired. Can be pricey.
- Radiant (magic base damage). Desired. Can be pricey.
- Mystic (critical damage).
- Frugal (mana consumption).
- <Increases your resistance>.
Cotton prefixes can be:
- Charged (cast speed). Desired. Can be pricey.
- Frugal (mana consumption).
- <Increases your resistance>.
For the best result you need to balance Phase (damage) and Cotton (proficiency) armour.
In the beginning you shouldn't really bother with or overpaying for high damage or proficiency. Or trying to reach ideal proficiency factor.
Proficiency around
<your level> * 1.5 is enough to start. For example, 465+ proficiency at level 310 (can be reached with a Staff and 1 Cotton armour piece). It may be lower. Higher is better.
With that proficiency you'll get around 25-30% resisted spells (damage reduced mostly by 50%, some 75%, rare 90%). As your proficiency increases that number will drop to 20% and lower (damage reduced mostly by 50%, rare 75%, very rare 90%).
Note. Numbers are rough and provided with a staff that has base counter-resist (in additiona to Penetrator potency).
You may start with 3 Phase + 2 Cotton instead of 4 Phase + 1 Cotton.
With 3+2 you trade damage for less resisted damage.
If you have equipment, try both variants. Find what currently works best for you.
With low proficiency you may benefit more with 3+2, but as your grow stronger 4+1 when using Imperil style should become faster (as your proficiency and damage increase).
With a Redwood Staff of Elementalist (for Elemental mage) you can play with 5 Phases.
Cotton armourThere are slots for maximizing your performance.
But you don't need to bother with the Cotton slot for now, you will change it later, as you fine-tune your build.
Try to find plain Legendary with average or high proficiency, it should be cheap.
Phase armourTry to find Legendary average-high EDB Phase (more damage and for the future).
Or some Charged/Radiant Magnificent with Agility, Intelligence, Wisdom attributes (to increase your cast speed/damage) as a temporary solution. Any other Magnificent is fine too if it's around your level (to save on Soul Fragments and to check things out).
You just need to get started.
You can play PFUDOR Arenas without any Charged/Radiant armour or Spellweaver potency on a staff, but it'll help and create a base for harder challenges.
Exquisite quality itemsYou can help by donating Exquisite equipment for testing.
Wiki: The Forge - Salvage, ReforgeBecause some items can be reforged cheaply via a trick. And in case of a bad first potencies you can keep going higher (levels 5-6) to try your luck.
Works good for a staff and cotton cloth armour. Phase has higher price.
To remove potencies from an equipment you need to use Amnesia Shards (currently costs ~13-15k).
You use 1 shard for each 1 level. With the Hath perk Dark Descent (costs 2000 Hath) you can use 1 shard for each 2 levels.
For example, to reset item with 5 levels you'll need to use 5 shards (or 3 with the Hath perk).
But here's a trick, if you can IW your items yourself (survive 35-40 IW rounds at PFUDOR or IWBTH difficulty; you may lower difficulty more, it'll just take longer):
- First, don't forge Exquisite items until you get your IW potencies right (you'll lose some materials otherwise).
- To reset potencies salvage your item and then buyback it from Bazaar instead of using Amnesia Shards. It'll reset potencies on it. Item will also become Untradeable (you won't be able to send it to others).
Note: Soulfused items will stay soulfused.
StaffExquisite staff's buyback price is around ~20-25k (same as 2 Amnesia Shards).
Exquisite staff works (slower, no surprise). Examples:
Dark mage,
Cold mage.
Cheap forging to level 5. Not worth forging past level 5 (it's better to sink money in a Legendary one).
Good for testing, to find your wand.
Collect (self-drops, check Bazaar, try opening a WTB thread), cheap IW, test, decide.
Item World potenciesWiki: Item WorldItem World allows to get potencies on your equipment.
You want it for faster and more comfortable gameplay.
You may do it yourself (if you're strong and/or have a lot of time), or you may use IW services in
WTS forum.
StaffIf item is decent and matching (that you will potentially use a long time) try to get an currently "ideal" potencies: Penetrator 5 (lowers monster's resistance to damage spells and debuffs) and Spellweaver 4 (increases cast speed). Or you may go for at least Penetrator 5 or Penetrator 5 and some Spellweaver. Penetrator is a must, other is a choice.
Spellweaver may get your play more comfortable in harder challenges, but Penetrator 5 and Spellweaver 4 may cost a lot.
If staff is around your level and you got only Penetrator 5 or Penetrator 5 + some Spellweaver, try it in Arenas. If it's fine you may Forge it and Soulfuse.
But if you have resources you may try for the "ideal". After Soulfusing it may be very hard to re-IW. And if you plan on using it later in GrindFest and Item World.
Note. To save some credits you may order only level 9 IW service. At level 10 staff gets Hollowforged (converts melee damage to Void type) and allows you to re-name it.
Cloth armourYou can play Arenas without any Juggernaut (increases your maximum health), but it's nice to have a bigger pool. It leads to more comfortable gameplay (less interruptions to heal).
If item is good (long-term usage) try to get some Juggernaut 3-5 (increases your maximum health) potency on it.
You don't need to IW every cloth.
Note. If you're very poor, you may stop IW service at Juggernaut 3-5 (don't order IW to level 10).
ForgingWiki: The ForgeStaff and Cotton cloth armour are cheap to forge to at least level 5. It's better to do so.
Phase cloth armour at each level requires rare material - Crystallized Phazon (currently costs ~200k). For 5 levels in each stat you'll need 5 Phazons for each your Phase item.
Past level 5 each stat will start to require a different Binding and High-Grade materials.
The higher you forge, higher the cost, the less you get in return.
Salvaging item returns 90% of resources (except catalysts; catalysts are lost).
In the beginning it's better to mostly forge your staff - magic damage, your element's damage, your proficiencies. Others if you have resources.
Don't forget about your other low-forged items. Low forge levels provide more return for your credits. It's better to spend ~250k on each Phase armour level (levels 1-5) to increase all stats than 100k on a new magic damage level on a staff.
With more resources (or when price on a staff will start to ramp up) you may return to forging your Cotton armour to levels 10-15 (at least proficiency).
If you have some good Phase items (or at least long-term usage ones) you may forge it to at least level 5.
If item is Soulfused you will get some materials back when Salvaging it.
Don't forge stats that you don't need (for example, hit chance if you already have over 200%, other element's damages or proficiencies).
But you may do it to gain Forge experience... At first your problem probably will be resources, not the Forge level.
Try to forge items yourself to increase your Forge level. There are Forge level 50 services in the
WTS forum if your Forge level is not high enough and item is not Soulfused.
There are shops in
WTS forum that can buy you catalysts with a 10% discount ("Coupon Clipper" services).
To save credits you may open a
WTB thread with lower prices.
To find better price you may also use script
SmartSearch to search
WTS and
WTB forums.
Primary attributesWiki: Character Stats - Primary AttributesAttributes that increase your damage are Intelligence and Wisdom.
But you'll get hit. Don't neglect your Agility, Endurance and Dexterity. It'll increase your defense.
Intelligence or Wisdom won't give you very noticeable boost in damage. Main boost will come from forging your equipment.
You don't have Endurance and Dexterity on your items (at least new ones; old ones have). Other attributes you can increase by forging.
If you have low number of bonus attributes you may improve it by shrining Precursor Artifacts and exchanging Energy Drinks for Artifacts until you get at least 20-25 bonus attributes. Check WTS or WTB forums or create your own topic. Current rate is 44-45 Artifacts for 10 Energy Drinks [as of 2019.04].
Or you may sell your artifacts and invest into better items/forging.
Low levels of forging (5-10+ on a staff, at least 5 on a Cotton cloth) may be more beneficial compared to a bonus attributes.
As for defense you can also use Weaken debuff and other tricks.
As you grow stronger and your defense is good you may start to increase your Intelligence and Wisdom for more damage.
You can later change points allocation.
And remember that cost of a new point increases. It may be more beneficial to increase other attribute by 10 than one attribute by 1.
AbilitiesWiki: abilities general adviceAbilities!! WIP. Would appreciate if someone re-checks numbers.
At level 310 you'll need 461 ability points to have abilities:
- HP, MP, SP tanks.
- HP, MP, SP potions.
- Staff.
- Cloth.
- Deprecating 1 (Faster, Better Imperil and Faster, Better Weaken).
- Supportive 1 (everything except Absorb and Heartseeker).
- Supportive 2 (Spark, Protection, 1 level of any Spike Shield).
- Elemental (your element and general ones).
You need 28 Mastery points to unlock slots for abilities.
- To unlock Major Ability slots: 20.
- To unlock Supportive Ability slots: 7.
- To unlock Protection Augment slots: 1.
You'll have enough Mastery points, but training additional ability points will cost ~2m credits.
In addition to first
Wiki article:
- You don't need Staff Damage ability (it increases melee damage). Shouldn't hit monsters with you staff...
- You need all levels of Faster Imperil (last level unlocks at level 310) to remove skill's cooldown and Better Imperil (last level unlocks at level 330) to increase your damage.
- It'll will help to survive to have Faster Weaken (removes cooldown). If you have points - also Better Weaken (higher damage reduction).
- Increase and slot general Elemental abilities and your selected Element's one.
Spike Shield augmentOn page "Character - Abilities - Supportive 2" you can select a Spike Shield (augments your "Protection" skill).
Each shield may debuff attacking monster when you get hit, evade or parry attack and will lower resistance to some element.
Wiki: Spells - Status EffectsYou may use spike shield that lowers resistance to your element for an additional small damage (debuff will be removed and monster will receive additional damage).
Battle log example of such damage [Spike Shield - Fire, main damage - Cold]:
CODE
Monster gains the effect Searing Skin.
Fimbulvetr hits Monster for 65572 cold damage
Searing Skin explodes for 4593 fire damage
Or you may select one that provides you with better defense:
- Wind (increases miss chance).
- Cold (makes monster slower).
There is also Elec shield (-10% resistance chance, -10% evade).
There is no Dark or Holy shield.
First ability level is enough. More levels just increase your resistance to selected element.
Only 1 Spike Shield can be active at a time. You may increase it later when ability points will start pilling up.
You may try different shields and find what suits you best now (damage or defense).
Warning. Don't use the same Spike Shield as your main damage (for example, Fire Spike when playing as Fire mage). It doesn't really benefit you (just gives some resistance to 1 element).
Note. Currently there is no Spike Shield if you use Scrolls to get Protection buff.
Hath perksWiki: Hath PerksGood to have:
-
Innate Arcana 1, 2 (costs 50, 100 Hath).
Wiki articleAllows to cast some buffs automatically at the start of a battle and re-new it automatically (if you have enough Mana left).
Good options to slot at low level (Innate Arcana Hath perks; Character - Settings) is Spark of Life and Protection/Spirit Shield (to decrease received damage and be able to survive bad case of randomness).
-
Vigorous Vitality (costs 250 Hath). Increases base health by 10%.
When you have spare credits/Hath:
-
Enigma Energizer (costs 200 Hath).
Doubles damage bonus from randomly appearing RiddleMaster (pony picture puzzle) and increases duration to 50 turns.
With mage's high action speed actual bonus will stretch to 100 and more actions. It'll provide nice damage boost from time to time.
The stronger you are the more benefit you get from that perk.
When you're rich and/or comfortable with your build:
- Daemon Duality I (costs 2000 Hath). Increases any damage by 10%.
- Eminent Elementalist (costs 1000 Hath). Increases base (without items) Elemental proficiency by 10%.
More proficiency, less resist, more damage.
Note. Holy and Dark have own similar perks.
- Evil Enchantress (costs 1000 Hath). Increases base (without items) Deprecating proficiency by 10%.
Quality of life upgrade. Slightly less resisted debuffs.
Tip. Perks take some time to activate. Sometimes it helps to change equipment set to speed up perk activation.
Go to the Character - Equipment, click on another set number, click on you previous set. Check if perk was activated. If not - just wait.
TrainingWiki: TrainingIt's better to train some Pack Rat and slot all Elixirs (Health, Mana, Spirit, Last).
At some point it may save you.
You may also train some Scholar of War and slot some Scrolls.
Game mechanicsWiki: DamageYou have next proficiencies:
- Staff. Increases magic damage, accuracy. With learned and slotted ability.
- Cloth Armour. Increases accuracy, critical chance, cast speed, maximum mana. With learned and slotted ability.
- Elemental (Forbidden or Divine - if Dark or Holy). Decreases chance that your damage spells will be resisted and monster's mitigation to that element.
- Deprecating. Decreases chance that your debuffs will be resisted.
Debuffs and damage spells can be evaded or resisted by a monster (full negation), you can also miss.
In case of resisted damage spell (yours or monster's), spell's damage will be reduced by 50, 75 or 90%.
Miss happens if you have < 100% hit chance.
Evade happens if you have < 200% hit chance.
Debuff's resist chance can be lowered by increasing your Deprecating proficiency and counter-resist on you staff ( innate [Oak/Willow Staff] and/or Penetrator potency on a staff ).
Damage spell's resist chance can be lowered by increasing your Elemental proficiency [ Forbidden or Divine if you're using Dark or Holy ] and counter-resist on you staff ( innate [Oak/Willow Staff] and/or Penetrator potency on a staff ).
You want to reach 200% hit chance to remove monster's evasion.
With time and forging it'll be possible, but in the beginning (hit chance ~160-170%) you may need to use Aether Shard (Forge - Enchant; 60 min) or a Staff of Focus.
A little lower than 200% is fine. For example, with 195% you almost don't get any evaded spells or debuffs.
Try with and without Shard to see if it gives you a very noticable boost. To use it or not.
Using consumable itemsWiki: ItemsWiki: Items - ScrollsWiki: EnchantingOutside of battleOutside of battle your main items are:
- Aether Shard. You may use it to reach 200+% magic hit chance (increases it by 50%) and to lower mana consumption (decreases by 10%).
Note. If you have Economizer potency on a staff or Frugal armour, bonus to mana consumption will be lower.
- Featherweight Shard. You may use it on your staff to decrease/remove Burden to increase your Evade chance.
Almost free defense.
In battleUsing items (or Gems) in battle doesn't progress battle (monsters don't take action).
Slot next items using page Character - Item Inventory and use it in battle.
In battle you may use Infusion of <your element> that will increase your damage for 50 turns.
For example, Infusion of Flames if your damage element is Fire.
In battle you may also use Scrolls.
Scrolls provide better (stronger) buffs than skills. And some scrolls also provide several buffs or buffs with an extended duration.
Scrolls may help you in tough situations (to receive stronger buffs and to buff yourself up without monsters taking action).
As poor player try not to use scrolls constantly if you don't need them to survive (for example, buff yourself in Random Encounter with 10 monsters or in Ring of Blood: Triple Trio and the Tree).
Note. Due to your higher action speed buffs will last longer.
Gameplay- Oh, you're still here...
First, if you still don't use, try script
Monsterbation.
It increases your clear speed by allowing to click less, bind additional keys, stop battle on some conditions, track damage, loot and more.
As an Imperil mage your killing part consists primary of 2 stages:
1) Imperil monsters.
That stage takes roughly the same number of turns regardless of chosen element.
Depending on a staff (higher Deprecating proficiency - less resisted debuffs) some may require slightly less turns.
2) Kill monsters.
Monsters have different elements' mitigation, so some elements have higher damage compared to the others.
And some elements have debuff that further increases your damage (for example, Holy).
Sadly, we don't have the resources to care about it for now.
Wiki: Monster ClassesWiki: Status EffectsFirst roundFirst round may provide some challenge because you usually use it to get your buffs up.
- It helps to have some auto-casted buffs (Innate Arcana Hath perks).
- Another alternative (in tough situation - many monsters in the first round) is to use Scrolls for some buffs. Using items doesn't progress battle. Using scrolls every battle is costly, try not to use it constantly - just when needed.
- Yet another alternative is to cast Weaken as one of the first actions to reduce received damage while you get your buffs up.
So, when you've entered battle:
- First you may drink Health and Mana Draughts. It doesn't progress battle (make monsters take action). If battle is easy/low number of rounds you may not need it (or only Health one).
- Then you may caste Haste buff to increase your action speed (make more actions compared to monsters).
- Then you may cast Shadow Veil (evasion), Protection or Spirit Shield (defense), Regen (heal-over-time), Arcane Focus (critical chance and critical damage).
If monsters are hitting you hard:
- Without casting every buff first you may opt to cast Imperil and try to reduce number of monsters. But it may kill everything and progress you to the next round.
- Another alternative is to use Weaken as one of the first actions after Draughts to decrease received damage. Then get all your buffs up and start winning.
Next rounds and last Arena roundFirst rounds with low number of monsters shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Imperil - Kill - Next round. Heal when needed.
If some Imperil was resisted you may recast it until everything is Imperiled or you can just blast things and see if anyone is left standing.
Some monsters have low defense and may die without being Imperiled.
If all Imperiled monsters are dead, but there are some monsters left and they have average-high amount of health, it's better to Imperil them and kill. Otherwise (if still alive monsters have low health) you may just "brute-force" monsters without Imperil.
Things may get tricky with 6-7+ monsters and in the last Arena round (usually has highest number of monsters).
If you're not strong enough to cast 2-3 Imperils and blast monsters:
- You may opt to Imperil only 1-2 groups of monsters, kill Imperiled monsters, Imperil and kill the rest (or "brute-force" if they're all near death).
- If you have troubles even with the above option (constantly healing and starting gulping down Elixirs) you may try to cast 1-3 Weaken first, then 1-3 Imperil, then kill everything.
That should make battle more manageable, give you a breathing room, and allow you to start reducing number of monsters.
Also, remember that you spells have a range (number of monsters [5-10 with maximum abilities] that each spell can potentially hit).
It's nice to keep mouse in the middle, but it may leave alive groups of monsters near the top and/or bottom. It may be more beneficial to start near the top or bottom and move up/down.
Healing rotationIf you Sparked/stopped at very low Health threshold (
Monsterbation script feature ) try to use Health Potion first, then Cure or Full-Cure skill.
Health potion don't progress battle (you won't get hit again), and it costs cheaper than Mana.
At some point you wouldn't know what to do with all Health potions.
SpiritKeep an eye on your spirit. It may drop very fast.
You may drink Spirit Draught at 75-80% of maximum or even earlier.
At 50% it's better to drink a Spirit Potion just in case.
With time you'll understand your thresholds and situations better.
Channeling buffWiki: ChannelingAt some point when casting you may receive Channeling buff, or get it by using a Mystic Gem.
If you're using script
Monsterbation and blasting things, it'll probably be instantly consumed by a damage spell.
In other cases you can make a choice:
- You may use it get a free buff with extended duration.
- Or you may use on your T3 spell (strongest) and blast things with increased damage.
Depends on your situation, what you need or want.
Strongest (T3) spell micromanagingIf you're using script
Monsterbation it's probably set to T3-T2-T1 spell rotation (use strongest available).
In that case you don't control when the strongest spell will be used. But for maximum damage you usually want it to be used as the first damage spell after round start (or after monsters are Imperiled).
Note. If you use Imperil and your level is 450+ it will usually be first or second anyway...
In Arenas it's fine. It's usually faster to just blast things than micromanage, or just quickly throw 1-2 Weaken.
But in tough challenges (like late PFUDOR GrindFest or Legendary+ Item World rounds) you may want to manually control it.
When you have enough damage for your T3 spell to kill some/most monsters at full health, it may be more beneficial to trigger it manually to reduce incoming damage (i.e number of monsters) as your first action instead of using Weaken.
It may be faster for you than casting Weaken.
Good luck!===== ===== Draft end
We need TL;DR version -__-;
Edit:
- 2019.06.16
Rewritten "Primary attributes" part.
Small edites everwhere.
Added staffs benchmarks.
- 2019.06.02. Rewritten "Choosing damage element" part.
- 2019.05.10. Corrected staff's effect on debuff resist chance.
- Clarification/More info (nothing worth mentioning).
- Typos.
This post has been edited by tox01: Jun 16 2019, 20:04
[Guide]『Letters To Help New Mages』, A small guide for newbies
Apr 28 2019, 06:34
