Q's Guide to being a Mage in Dereth

Introduction

First off, let me clearly state that what is contained in this document reflects my opinions only. If you think that I am wrong about something, then I probably am for you. Read this to help you think about the issues, not to make your decisions for you.

What this document intends to do is help you create the character that is right for you! In my opinion, too many people just go out and create an Og mage because they heard it's powerful, and never stop to think about why it is and how to take advantage of that. You can end up hating your character if you do that. In this respect, what I write is pertinent to the creation of any character, so just read part one if you want to be a melee or an archer.

Although I have played archers to levels 39 and 48, I am writing about being a mage for two reasons. One is obviously because Quetozin is a level 63 mage and I know the most about mages. The second is because I think that the mage is the most versatile character to play in Dereth, and therefore the most interesting to me.

Anyway, let's get to the guide. I would appreciate any questions or comments, feel free to post them to the message board.

Preparing for Character Creation

A lot of people don't seem to give this a lot of thought. I believe that if you do this, then you will absolutely have the most fun you can with what you end up with. If you are playing Asheron's Call for the combat only and just want to be über, then skip this article or go to the final analysis. Otherwise, recognize that AC is a role-playing game and take these steps.

1. Read Dereth, A Brief History for Travelers and some of the Player Chronicles for inspiration.
2. Think about what your life was like on Ispar. In other words, write or at least imagine a backstory for yourself. It may sound a little silly, but trust me on this. Knowing what you are like will help you make a character that really reflects the one you want to play. In doing this, define in your mind your character's personality. Is s/he a crude barbarian, a scholar, an athlete, a hunter? What does s/he like and dislike? Come up with a rudimentary personality. If you are stuck here, you can read this article or maybe the one I wrote for Q.
3. Decide on your race and then name your character! If you are stuck for ideas, try the Everchanging Book of Names. A wonderful article on this can be found at AsheronsLore.
4. Now that you have a name, sit back and think about it. Do you like this person? If there was a TV show about them, would you watch it? If the answer is no, then go back to step 1 and try again.
5. Prepare to actually role-play. Don't just play your character as a tiny virtual you wandering around killing stuff. Otherwise you will lose the point of this. This can be as simple as saying 'aye' or 'Hail!' instead of 'yeah' or 'Hello.'
6. Be active in your allegiance. Go on as many quests as you can. Help the new folks. Hunt with your peers. 'nuff said...

Creating your character

Ok, you know who you are, now it's your job to use the game mechanics to reflect that. Given that this guide is for mages, the slant begins here. If you intend to build a mage, you should have a clear idea of how that mage should function in Dereth. A lot of people reflexively try to make an über-mage without taking into account their style of play. As a mage, you can play a support role, a drainer, a war machine, a twinker, or any combination of those. You may be über in skills, but if they don't fit your play style how much fun is it going to be? Face it, you can't be an expert in all schools, with melee defense, healing, and a mana conversion high enough to cast a dozen level VI spells before recharging.

So, start with the attributes. Nearly all mages will want to max out their focus and self. In some cases you may want to start them at 80, but those cases are usually reserved for those who are creating a mage with a weapon type of character. This article is not for you, I assume that you intend to finish your attacks with war magic, not a bow or sword. So trust me, and start with 100 focus and self.

The other four attributes are kind of variable, they really depend on what other things you intend to do. For instance, if you decide you want melee defense and are Aluvian, you may want to spend some credits on quickness and coordination. You will never be as good as a pure dagger character at either, but it adds a little versatility. Perhaps you want to be a tank, wearing tons of armor and brandishing your peerless atlan staff (for Gharu) at critters with an obscene magic defense. Or you want to regain gobs of mana with a single spell, and have enough hit points that you just don't care how hard you are hit.

Going back to part one, think about your character and distribute your remaining 90 attribute points along these four attributes. Make sure you take into account the secondary skills that you will be taking (in other words, you may want to read the next part and come back to this):

Strength

Comps are heavy, and you have to carry a lot of them. If you are burdened you will slowly lose stamina in combat, and you will also run slow and rarely evade. If you have a low strength, you will almost have to wear a robe at higher levels, which means extra buffing.

Endurance

Mana management is the hardest thing for a mage to get down-pat. The two most common ways to recover mana are the stamina to mana spell and the health to mana spell. Both stamina and health are directly derived from endurance. It sounds simple, but let me emphasize that you will want a LOT of stamina (at least 2/3 of your mana) and since you are generally tanking, you want a lot of health as well.

Coordination

This goes to lockpick, weapon skills, melee defense, and healing. A lot of mages don't use any of these, so a lot of mages start with 10 coordination.

Quickness

This goes to run and melee defense (and dagger for aluvian mages). Ok, mages are slow, and if they are burdened they are slower still. The main reason people start with over 10 quickness is for a shoot and scoot style. If you are a real dungeon crawler, you may not care too much about this attribute.

Bear in mind that it costs about 3.3 million exp to raise a primary attribute by 100, and 2.2 million to raise a secondary attribute by that many. While this may seem like a lot, by the time you are level 50 you have earned about 66 million exp points.

Schools and Skills

OK, here is a quick overview of the skills a mage may be interested in. Start with the big five.

Life Magic

Recognized by many as the most powerful skill in the game. The reason for this lies in the ability to cast Armor and Protects, and to Imperil and Vuln creatures. Most mages use the Drain Health spell as their primary attack, as it drains 100 hit points from the target or 25% of it's health, whichever is lower. It also returns a percentage of those points to the caster, allowing you to pretty much ignore damage from anything attacking you. Life also has the healing and revitalization spells, and most important, the spells that convert health and stamina to mana. Frankly, this is a must-have for any mage almost from the very beginning. One more nifty thing about Life magic--it works through walls, allowing you to attack from relative safety (although that can get boring after a while)

War Magic

This is what most people think of when the visualize a mage--the wizard raining a path of destruction on his enemies through pure offensive spells. Well, this school of magic pretty much does exactly that. You have to be in line-of-sight for it to work, but the spells do a lot of damage and don't take a lot of mana to cast.

Creature Enchantment

In a nutshell, Creature magic allows you to increase and decrease the skills and attributes of a target. This means you can make a friend better at using a sword or you can make a monster less resistant to magic. Probably the school that is most convenient to have, but is the least essential of the four.

Item Enchantment

Item magic allows you to change the properties of armor and weapons. You can take an ordinary robe and use high level item magic to make it into an incredibly effective lightweight piece of armor. This school is widely considered must have by every person in Dereth, but not for the item buffs. Item enchantment comes with portal and recall spells, which really cuts down on the amount of time you are running from place to place.

Mana Conversion

Please don't think about creating a mage without mana conversion. Although it's kind of benign, this skill will mean the difference between victory and death over and over for you. What it does is reduces the amount of mana it takes to cast a spell. When you cast, a skill check is made for the level of spell versus your mana conversion. If your mana conversion is high enough, you can get a level VI spell off for as low as 10 mana, which means you can cast a lot longer with it than without it. Without a good mana c, you will waste half your buff cycle during the buffing itself.

The other skills that a mage may want are as follows:

Arcane Lore

This skill helps to read scrolls and to use magic items. Because of the high starting focus, it is naturally high for a mage. If you have creature magic, you really don't need it, but it's a nice convenience, and cheap to train. Based on Focus.

Appraisal Skills

Even if you never train these they will grow along with your Focus on a 1 for 1 basis. These help determine what items to sell, and which ones you should hold on to for a vassal or yourself. Based on Focus.

Assessment Skills

Like the appraisal skills, these will be naturally high for a mage. However, if you like support or pvp you may want a higher assess person than normal. Based on Focus and Self.

Healing

You may wonder why someone with life magic would want this. The reason lies in the fact that a high healing skill allows you to quickly replenish mana with a health to mana spell along with a healing kit. This can be a nice luxury at the middle levels, but once you are comfortably casting life VI spells you will probably shift to a Revitalize VI, Stam to Mana VI combination to get your mana back. The only other strong point here is when you you are out of mana and getting pounded on... Based on Focus and Coordination.

Melee Defense

OK, this is a somewhat controversial one. It's good to have, but really not very effective until the higher levels. It's not too likely that the mage with Melee D will ever evade a mob of tuskers, but that same mage isn't going to get caught wearing a bathrobe by the mattekars in Osteth either. I have heard it is a good thing to have in pvp, but I would still count it as a nice convenience but a nonessential skill. Based on Quickness and Coordination.

Leadership

Hey, Mages make good patrons, so why not? With leadership, you can go from about 10% of your vassals' earnings to over 25%. If you are popular and have lots of vassals, this will easily mean a few more levels for you in the long run. Based on Self.

Lockpick

Not the most popular choice, but if you are the type who likes to explore every nook and cranny of every dungeon then you will be glad to have it. Not the best skill to take in the beginning though, consider it after you have filled out. Based on Focus and Coordination.

Loyalty

Like leadership in concept. Only costs two points to spec, so a lot of people use this as a throwaway skill to be more attractive to their Patrons. Based on Self.

Run

Well, you get this anyway. The reason it's listed is because it's cheap to specialize. If you intend to spend your time in a shoot and scoot style and have 4 skill credits left over you may want to spec this (especially if you start with 10 quickness). Based on Quickness.

In summary, if you want to be a good mage, then concentrate on your primary skills. Those would be the big five listed above. Raise the attributes that support them until they become too expensive, and then begin adding directly to your skills.

Assigning your skill points

OK, by now you should know who you are and what you want to be like. The good news is that you should be excited about creation. The bad news is the music that you are facing regarding what to specialize. Magic schools are expensive, and very expensive to specialize. A Sho UA or Gharu Staff can specialize their weapon for only a few skill credits, while the war-spec mage will find himself down 28 points immediately.

Here is the breakdown of the skills listed above:

So, the minimum that you know you are going to spend over time is 50, not counting specialization. But, you don't have to train all of your skills in the beginning. You start with 50 skill points. However, you can only specialize a skill at character creation. You gain additional skill points along the following progression.

With this in mind, you can add up how many you will be using at creation (use all 50, you can't carry them into the game with you) and then at what level you will finally gain the last skill. Naturally, your goal should be to end up with all of the critical skills, while having as much as possible specialized without sacrificing the other skills you would like to have.

The benefits of specialization are NOT necessarily that you can raise the skill higher than normal. Instead, they should be looked at as the savings of experience that can be applied to other schools once you reach a goal. Consider a mage with 190 focus and self who is trained in all 4 schools. If that mage focused on life magic until it was 250 base then s/he would spend 33,063,990 experience on it. The same mage with specialized life magic would only spend 8,982,416 experience points. That means that at the same level and same goal the second mage would have on it 24,081,574 experience points invested in other skills, actually making them a little more developed at the same level than the first. Now, this is a rather extreme example, but it demonstrates the value of specialization at higher levels nicely.

Another factor in the decision to specialize lies in the basis for the skill calculation. For example, Mana Conversion’s formula is (Focus + Self)/6. Because it's lower than a magic school, which is (Focus + Self)/4, it will be raised directly more often. If the above example used Mana Conversion instead of life magic, the savings would be 290,150,478 experience points! Granted, you aren't too likely to raise mana conversion to that level, but it does point out the difference the skill's initial calculation makes in deciding on specialization. The same example with Assess Person only saves 55,225, as it is (Focus + Self)/2.

The more skills you specialize, the more you take advantage of this system. In addition, the more skills you specialize the fewer skills you will have overall, making them all a little stronger, while limiting your character's overall capabilities. So, when deciding on specialization, you want to balance strength with versatility.

One thing that will really help you decide on specialization is the setting of a realistic goal for your character. If the highest you have ever gotten is level 20 then don't start a character with the idea that you are going to hit 70 with it. Set your finishing goal at a reasonable level; by somewhere within 10-15 levels of what you have played you should plan to have all the skills that you really want.

Potential Templates

OK, by now you may be a little unsure and confused (especially after reading the previous section). This is where I am going to try and clear things up for you. The following is a group of templates compared side by side, and then a little blurb about the play-ability on each one. This section will wrap up with a more detailed analysis of the first four in terms of experience. Note that the templates assume primary skills only, then Arcane Lore, and then whatever you want.

As you can see, the more extreme templates take a lot longer to finish, and specialize skills at increasing cost. Here are the descriptions for the samples as listed above.

No Specialization

Naturally, this is the one that finishes out your basic mage skills first, as you start with all the critical ones covered. Being the least specialized, this one is also the most versatile. Consider that you have 16 points to play with at level 40--you could have melee defense and healing by then. Or, you could take leadership and make an experience farm. The possibilities are wide here, no two mages like this have to look alike.

Four-School

Some people call the No-spec a Four-school, but I choose to differentiate it here by specializing Mana Conversion. You may choose to take lore and specialize it, and maybe spec loyalty or take an appraisal with the two wasted credits. The point is that you still finish fairly early at level 16, and by 40 you will have 10 points to play around with.

Life Spec

This is actually a very strong template for the beginning mage who already has experience with Asheron's Call. It still finishes early at 16, but you will be a lot stronger at later levels than the 4-school as the coming analysis will point out. Other than that, it's about the same.

War Spec

This is very similar to the Life Spec, but you take a little longer to get everything. At level 26 you are a complete mage, and will still be able to take additional skills without waiting forever.

Life/Mana C

Not too many people do this one, as it has to get to 40 to finish and they elect to play the Og template instead. But, specialized Mana C can pay big dividends at the higher levels.

Og Mage/War Cleric

Og is a player on Darktide who made the old-fashioned War Cleric template famous enough to have it renamed in his honor. This template is probably the most popular one for new mages in Dereth today. You don't finish until 40, but by that time many Ogs are so accustomed to self-buffing (and have the creature skill to do it!) that they decide to forget about Arcane Lore and pick up another skill at 50 or 60.

Battlemage

This is without a doubt the most difficult template to play. You don't get Arcane until 70, by which time you could probably care less about it. By level 50 you are pretty much finished with this character, but will always have to rely on self buffs.

At the early levels, diversified templates are more fun to play and surprisingly efficient. Specialized templates gain in effectiveness as time goes by, clearly surpassing the diversified ones. Asheron's Call is a skill-based game. Therefore the only effective analysis of the different templates can be done with a comparison of skill levels. This can be done by looking at progressively higher casting skills. As Arcane Lore does not add to the Mage's capability (it's an almost necessary convenience, especially early in life, but still a convenience nonetheless), only the top 5 magic skills will be taken into account. Mana Conversion is almost a wild card here, so the requirement for it will be roughly 2/3 of the top magic school requirement until 200 (an acknowledged effectiveness cap with buffs). 2/3 is based on the ratio of the magic school skill formulas versus the Mana Conversion skill formula. Finally, if Creature Enchantment is trained, then 20% of the requirement is removed from the requirement for a self-buffing allowance but the result is added to Creature in calculating the total experience required.

Finally, all of these assume a combination war/life attack. I know that will annoy the Og fans out there, but you didn't design your template to actually have a ton of fun in the lower levels anyway. The requirements are based on personal experience with what will likely overcome your target's magic resistance, and can be a little subjective. You are just going to have to forgive me there. At the lower levels especially, the creature bonus I assign may seem a little low, but to be realistic, you can't cast a yield, a vuln, and a few war spells on the mana you are going to have at those levels anyway. Finally (and this may REALLY annoy the Og fans), I have capped the creature requirement at 240, because at that level you are going to be able to yield anything in the game off self buffs, even if it does take you a couple of tries to do it

How does this translate to levels? Well, we can try to assign numbers to these by doing the following. Our first assumption is that about 30% of your experience points go directly to your attributes over time. This will be a lot higher in the beginning and a lot lower toward the end, but we will apply it across the board just for simplicity's sake here. This number is already captured above though, but will impact the amount assigned to other schools.

You have to take Item Magic into account, which should add an additional 20% to the base experience requirement (over time you stop adding to this, but that's way too subjective for this analysis, so the number is flat). For the mages that finish early, you can assume that an additional 40% will be added to attributes and skills outside their magic expertise, while the more extreme templates will add only about 32.5% for the one-school spec and 25% for the two-school specs, as they will have fewer outside skills to add to. So, for the Life-Spec mage at 200 attack skills, we would modify the numbers as follows:

1.51M * 1.2 = 1.81M (add in Item Magic cost)
1.81M/ * 1.325 = 2.4M (assume 35% of exp has been added elsewhere)
2.4M exp = Level 24

Without throwing all the calculations at you (if you have a calculator you can do this at home), you end up with this level matrix:

Looking at it graphically, you can see the combat ability progression quite nicely.

Granted, this is a rudimentary analysis, but it does point out the differences the extreme templates offer. The Og Mage doesn't even come into play until level 26, but once it does it quickly establishes superiority over the others. The Battlemage starts out strong, then falls apart throughout the middle levels, not establishing any superiority at all until you are playing around with buffed skills of 350, when it proceeds to dominate everything. Basically, a level 63 Battlemage will be able to go head to head for kills with a level 75 Og, or a level 84 4-school.

There is one more point that needs to be made. The higher the skill at which you are casting, the faster you can gain experience. While this may seem obvious, you need to consider it because of the impact at the middle levels when the Battlemage is hurting and the Og is rolling through Dereth like a freight train. As the Og's curve goes flat and dips below the others, it is producing experience at a much faster rate than the others. It may not look like a big difference, but consider that at times your your favorite target will be worth 3K exp and the same level Og's is worth 13K. Among mages, the Og is perhaps the ultimate powerleveler, while the Battlemage is the premier über mage once it's finished. So, although the Life/Mana C Spec mage is likely to be every bit as effective as the Og at level 75, the Og will probably get there much quicker.

Leaving the extreme templates aside, let's look at the first 5. Note that in the early levels, there are only basic differences between the No-Spec, the Four-School, and the Life Spec. They are in fact superior until around level 26, when the War Spec and Life/Mana C Spec mages fill out. From that point forward, in terms of pure magic skill only, the No-Spec and Four-School are left behind.

So, which one do you choose from these? Well, the first thing you want to do is determine how far you want to go. If you never intend to hunt the plains and just want to fool around with magic, then you should really take a template that fills out quickly. There isn't a real penalty to do so, so your choice should probably be determined by how many skills you want to take versus the general personality of your character.

If you are looking to get to your mid 30s, and maybe a little beyond, then by all means take a primary school and specialize it! With any of them you are sure to be casting level VIs in something by 35 (with buffs of course!), and your decision should lie not so much in how far you think you may want to go, but in the play style you prefer. Support mages will love specialized Life and Mana Conversion, while those who are more generalized may like just specialized Life with the extra 4 skill points that that template offers. Then there are those who just want to blast away. If you stay with any of these characters you will enjoy relative advantages and disadvantages, but again the differences are marginal.

Regarding the Og Mage. The glaring difference in the Og and the one-school specialized mages lies in the level ranges where you are casting with buffed skill of about 250 to 325. True, creature is going to be higher, but as I said before it kind of caps in effectiveness at about 240, as you can get that buffed to the 300 range and hence pretty much yield anything in the game (yes, I know it may take a couple of tries). Basically, as an Og you sacrifice a skill (and your first 26 levels) in order to make your 30s, 40s, and 50s a lot easier to get through. Is it worthwhile? Well, most Ogs seem to think so, and the numbers suggest that it is.

Finally, the Battlemage. If you create this then you really have to have one of two goals in mind. You either want to just fool around in the lower levels or you are dedicated to reaching level 50. When your Og friends are hunting the BSD at level 30 you are still having to settle for drudges and tusker drains from safe locations. You can't buff your robe effectively until at least level 35, as you cannot rely on creature buffs to raise your item high enough for level Vs--the absolute minimum required for survival against apes. If you are willing to put forth the effort, at level 50 when you finally get creature you will be the strongest pure mage in Dereth. Pure mage is right--you aren't going to have any other skills and won't get them until 70.

So what does all this mean? Well, if you are interested in getting your mage to level 20 or so, then either go all out and choose a Battlemage or choose one of the first three. With the No-Spec or 4-School you will actually be casting Item IV near 18, so you can wear a robe at those levels. Also, you can continue past 20 on lower level quests with a nice, well-rounded character. With a plan like this, you may want to add a little more to quickness than you would normally.

If your target level is 40, then you may jump to the Og template reflexively. Before doing that, consider that your in-game time will probably be without War Magic for half of your career. Unless you are planning on being a real slow leveler from 26 to 40, then you may want to consider specializing in a major school. You will have a lot more fun in the earlier levels than the Og, but be prepared to be surpassed in capability pretty soundly in your mid to late 30s if you're the competitive type. If you are in Dereth to have fun, however, and could care less about Aerlinthe, then this will probably be the better choice for you.

If you want to hunt the Island and get to the really high levels, then you have a lot of choices. Just decide where you want the pain to be and go from there. If you are sick of early levels anyway (and I bet that if you are you still haven't done half of what is available for you there) and want to just zoom through then be an Og and go to the Walled Portals and drain, drain, drain. Get to 26, take War, and start rolling.

If you prefer the more traditional path and want a lot of diversification, then spec Life or War and take your other skills along the way. Note that with more skills you will not be as capable as the Og for a Looooooong time, as your experience will be spread out more, but once you get to around 55-60 the difference in skills will probably be more than made up for with the diversification that you have chosen. If you want to be a pure mage, then this may not count for much though, so think about that at creation.

If you are experienced already, or have a good friend to hit you with critter buffs as you grow older, then you may want to try the Battlemage. Now, during your first 20 levels you are going to think I am nuts for suggesting anything else but this template, because you will be way beyond all your other mage buddies in terms of base offensive ability, and they are still going to have mana management problems with self-buffing.

Well, keep your euphoria in check, because they have many more resources than you. Your experience is concentrated in three areas here (besides your attributes) while theirs is spread a little thinner, and its in the 20s that the spread starts to make an impact. So they catch up, who really cares, right? Well, catching up is fine, but in your 30s they will pretty much pass you in terms of combat ability and are going to dust you bad in the 40s. Problem here is that it will be real tempting to hunt by yourself. This isn't bad by itself, but it can lead to a selfish play style. Maybe you're fine with that. Just make sure it is you before you choose.

So what do you do with all the options? Well, you should pretty much ignore any perceived recommendations you read here and look at the way you think the types of mages listed will be playing at certain points in their careers. Then go back to your initial personality and ask yourself, is this how I will probably grow up in Dereth? Let your imagination make the decision for you, you will be a lot happier in the long run if you do. As far as comparing yourself to other mages, I have yet to meet the person who understands their progression and feels like they are actually "someone in Dereth" who is worried about comparisons with others around them. If you put this much thought into creation, you are going to have fun and be happy.

Outfitting your Mage

OK, no more intense analysis (Phew!). This section is short and to the point. Outfitting your mage refers to what armor and equipment you intend to use. In doing so, you need to consider what burden does and how much you can take. Each point of strength you have gives you the ability to carry 150BU worth of stuff.

Mages have to carry spell components, and lots of them. I think that there is an employee at Turbine whose sole job is to make sure that comps are burning fast enough. When you are casting level Is and IIs, this isn't a big deal, but the average level VI spell burns about 3 components per cast. In a normal buff cycle, you are casting up to 16 of them (all the masteries, focus, will, item buffs and protects). Killing a critter usually uses two or three high level spells combined with a few low level drains. Figure on a good day that you will get 20 kills per buff cycle, and at 5 cycles per hour you are looking at burning 840 components per hour. Big number when you actually think about it, huh?

A high level mage usually carries in the neighborhood of 10 scarabs, 15 talismans, 30 potions, 30 herbs, 30 powders, and 50 tapers for spells that are not frequently cast, and about 30 scarabs, 25 talismans, 50 potions, 50-100 herbs, 100-200 powders, and 100-200 tapers for spells that are used a lot. So, let's generalize and say you have the following quantities: 80 Scarabs, 800 Tapers, 800 Herbs, 650 Powders, 650 Potions, and 250 Talismans. That's about 13,000 BU, requiring about 90 strength just to carry them, your wand, and packs to hold them all. BTW, I have left peas out of this, but you will be carrying them as well probably, and your individual style will determine how many and whether the aforementioned numbers will decrease as a result.

If you want to play in welfare mode all the time (hooded faran, cheap leather gaunts, a wand, and comps) then you really never need more than 100 strength. But you probably want to use that armor VI ring you got off that Umbris or the Life Mastery V staff your patron hooked you up with. Use those and you are going to want death items (i.e. items that drop when you die so you don't lose the stuff you hunt with). That requires more strength, and the higher your level the more you will need to carry to avoid losing the things you actually use in combat.

If you are a young mage, then maybe you are only carrying 4000BU worth of comps. But, you don't have the item skill to buff a robe, so you need to wear armor. Well, by now you should realize that burden means something to you, and therefore don't go looking for that really nice looking amuli or plate if it means you will constantly be at 150% burden. Some folks don't care about this (Q has been a fat mage for most of his career), but it is something to think about, especially if you like the shoot and scoot attack.

Bottom line is that you should recognize that these are prosperous times in Dereth, and you shouldn't have a problem getting a nice, dull looking Mattekar Coat with high AL leather leggings. The nice thing about these is that even with level IV item buffs, you still have a lot of protection against anything you are likely to face. Failing that, get an armordillo hide coat (AL 70, nice protects) and reedshark hide leggings, or a basic leather outfit until you find some higher AL equipment. I see a lot of mages in Yoroi leggings, but they offer very little elemental protection and have a higher BU than leathers so although they look nice, they generally are not as effective as quality leathers for the discerning mage.

If you like a robe, and if you don't mind long buff cycles, get a basic shirt and pants and buff those as well. Turbine has stated that Impen is stackable, so if you get 200AL on your robe and 200AL on the shirt underneath it then your upper body has an effective AL of 400. Baning your robe can add up to 200% to it's effectiveness, so don't forget that as well.

Places to Hunt

OK, you have created your baby mage, and have a whopping 100 mana and a magic skill of about 60. You know the flame bolt spell and little else. The first thing you do is get your tail to the archmage and blow your 100p on some basic comps to learn all the war I spells (and the enterprising archmage will learn his/her level I life vulns as well). Maybe you already have all your equipment, or maybe you intend to role-play a self-sufficient mage, only using what you find. It really doesn't matter. Your first few levels will go by quickly from learning spells and blasting the low level drudges and shreths on the outskirts of town.

Then you get brave and wander a little deeper into the woods. You see a lone orange dot on your radar, and assess. "A Reedshark Pup," you think, "level five can't be too difficult, I am level six now, bet I can take it." You get it on the edge of your radar, fire a force bolt and then masterfully hit it with a piercing vulnerability right before it lands. Booyah! Got it down to half health on the first hit! OK, the orange dot starts moving toward you and you take aim and kill it with your second or third shot. Trouble is, that dot keeps coming an you realize that there were others with it. Oops... OK, the pup wasn't so bad, what was with it. Adult Reedshark? Level 10, huh? Well, you should probably be able to take that before it kills you...

Adult Reedshark resists your spell
Adult Reedshark nips you for 14 points of piercing damage
Adult Reedshark resists your spell
Adult Reedshark nips you for 8 points of piercing damage
You impale Adult Reedshark for 8 points with Force Bolt I
Adult Reedshark giggles as it sends you hurling towards the lifestone, and decides to sit on your corpse for a while for spite.

Oops. Well, maybe you need to start being a little more careful. You repeat the process, this time firing and then turning to run. Dang, it's faster than me. Ouch! Sheesh! How long is this thing going to chase me? Ouch! Hello, Lifestone, you're looking bigger than the last time we met. Hmm... 10% vitae...

Well, after a while the pesky reedshark goes away and you get your corpse back, or maybe you brought in your retired level 50 archer to dispatch it handily. Point is, that reedshark pup didn't give you too much experience, and neither do the drudges any more. What do you do to get higher in level? Where is a good place for you? Well, you need to know two things before you decide, how experience works and what Magic Defense means.

Creatures give experience based on two values. The first is the basic experience award that is assigned for them, and the second is the result of a modifier based on your comparative levels. The formula works like this:

If (Creature Level +3) > Player Level then
Exp = (Creature Exp Award) x ((Creature Level +3)/(Player Level)) else
Exp = (Creature Exp Award) x ((Creature Level -3)/(Player Level))

Note that this may not be entirely accurate, as it's all hearsay. I could not find confirmation from Turbine on this when I wrote the article, but it seems pretty accurate in my experience. Also, the first time you land a spell in combat you will get the creatures magic defense directly added to your war skill upon a successful cast. So, even though you were used by the reedshark earlier, you still got 23 points assigned to your war skill for a successful hit.

"You mean the Adult Reedshark's magic defense is only 23?!?!?! My skill is 70, I should have OWNED it!" you may say. Well, it happens. Magic defense is one of those broken skills that seems to work the opposite way you want it to when you need it most. You're actually probably going to hit it more often than that, but if you go after level 6 Mossies be warned that their base Magic D is 59 and they will probably embarrass you. Their melee defense and attacks, however, are also in the mid 60s, making them good melee fodder. The lesson in this is that you need to know what is best for you to hunt, and act accordingly.

So, with that in mind, what's good experience for your level? Well, it depends on your level I guess... At the baby levels anything that yields 200 to 500 exp is good, while when you get to 10 you want about 1000 exp per kill. This is a very subjective question to answer, as different people have different play styles, and different expectations based on their level of patience and desire for exploration. To borrow an example from the Melee, a level 40 may choose the OHN, where you only get 6K per kill but there are LOTS of kills to be had, or the Nexus, where you get 10K per kill but will have fewer kills and more downtime from running and healing.

The same holds true for a mage. If you go to the DM on any given night, you will see a level 20-25 mage waiting on the tusker spawn at the bottom. Easy kill, takes a while maybe, and the spawn is 15 minutes apart. That mage will maybe make 75-100K per hour, less if other people are in there. A different mage at the same level will be hunting Granites at the Crater Caves. If it isn't too camped they will take out about 10 of them per buff cycle, or up to 40 per hour. This can yield around 100K as well; the Granites aren't worth near as much as the Tusker but there are more of them.

So the answer to the age-old question, "Where should I hunt?" should be addressed by instead saying "What should I hunt?" Once you decide on that, then you can ask, "Where are there a bunch of uncamped <fill in your favorite monster here>?" The answer to what you can hunt will be determined by your magic skills. To effectively hunt a creature, your magic skill should be at least 10% higher than it's Magic Defense for consistency, and don't forget the value of a good magic yield if you have creature.

Here are some popular types of creatures for Mages, their magic resistance, and where you might find them. Also included are recommended levels. I mainly included both creatures that I see mages go after a lot and those with a high level to magic defense ratio. For instance, although Mosswarts have a wonderful Missile Defense for the Junior Archer League, their magic defense makes them rarely worth the effort for the exp, but Bandies...

Ready, Aim, Fire

OK, so you got your mage made, you paid your dues by learning all your spells, and are ready to take on some of the harder critters out there. Well, it won't be too long before you say to yourself, "there's got to be a better way..." I am talking, of course, about your spell tabs. As you have learned spells, you probably just stuck them on a tab arranged maybe by level, maybe by type. The odds are that by now your tabs are starting to look a little cluttered. If not, then skip the next couple of paragraphs.

Arranging spell tabs is a matter of personal preference. Those who use the mouse a lot may not care much how they are done, while the keyboard users will be much more sensitive to an organized arrangement. In arranging them, you should consider not just the spells you have now, but what you will be using down the road. It's better to leave all of them looking a little empty but with room for growth than have all your spells crammed on a single tab.

How you arrange them is your choice. So long as it makes sense to you, and it's organized, it should serve you well. Q's spell tabs are arranged as follows:

Tab One

The first nine slots are in a constant state of change. The first slot is always heal self, and four and five are stam to mana spells, but the rest are directly related to what I am hunting. I may have yields, war spells, drains, etc on these at any given time. Sometimes I need a few more immediately after the nine, but I try and set it up for easy single-tab hunting. After these spells are my recall spells, then my item buffs, and finally my dispells. The reason for these lies in the frequency of use. When I am buffing, I can just go to a section of this spell tab without having to get there fast, so this is just a convenient spot for them.

Tab Two

The first nine slots are heal self followed by protects, and the rest of the spell tab is filled out with creature self-buffs. Sometimes I find myself in a situation I didn't plan for, and need a quick protect without thinking about where it is located (ack! Altered Drudges! [pgdn] 9 [pgup]. You cast Lightning Protection VI on yourself). It's that simple.

Tab Three

I play a lot of support, and this tab is dedicated to that. It's also the one that has the most spells on it, which is why if I am buffing you there is sometimes a slight delay between spells. The first nine slots are heal self, then heal others and revitalizes, and an infuse mana spell. After those come the life protects, then the creature buffs.

Tab Four

Four and Five are my combat tabs for general mayhem purposes. Tab Four has all the life vulns, followed by creature vulns. The life vulns occupy slots one through nine, and appear in the same order as the war spells do on Tab Five. This allows me to hunt with keystrokes like this: 5 [pgdn] 5 [pgup] 5 5. Your Lightning coruscates over Banderling Mauler's mortal remains!

Tab Five

This tab has all my war spells on it. I have my current casting level, followed by my vitae casting level, followed by the ring spells, followed by the level VIIs.

OK, those are my tabs. Other ways you might do it are putting the vulns and war spells next to each other, or putting your self and other buffs on the same tab according to their type. Early on I had three different combat tabs, depending on what I was hunting (the drain tab, the war tab, and the drudge tab) and all the others spread out over the other two tabs. This was fine when I wasn't doing a lot of support, but kind of fell apart as my spellbook filled out. The point here is to give your arrangement some thought from the beginning.

So, you actually learned all your spells, artfully arranged your tabs, and made your starter town safe from the threat of invasion from carrion shreths. Now you want to really get down to hunting. Lets cover a couple of basic strategies.

The first is the combination Life/War attack. This is really simple actually. Life spells hit their target immediately while War spells have to travel to reach their target. The way you take advantage of this is as follows. First, you position the targets so that they are on the edge of your radar.

Too Close!	Just Right

Then select your victim

Then fire the appropriate war spell. As soon as you fire, cast the appropriate vulnerability.

You cast Bludgeoning Vulnerability Other I on Blue Phyntos Wasp
You knock Blue Phyntos Wasp into next MorningThaw!

The best thing about this type of attack is that a variety of creatures will not run to you unless one of their pack does, and if you can one-hit it then you don't need to worry about all of them at once. If they do decide to run after you, you have given yourself a nice head start. The vulnerability spells also make your war spells a lot more effective, to the point where they effectively double your damage in one hit.

When you fire into a mob, it will generally give chase. Just turn and run, and when it gives up you can fire into it again and have only the affected creature come after you (guess Derethian monsters are particularly sensitive to the Banderling that cried Wolf concept). Now, the P key is your friend. Get to know it, love it, send it flowers and gifts. P is the default keyboard mapping for previously selected, and this is why it's important. Say you manage to land the vuln but your war spell is resisted. The mob targets you and begins to give chase. You manage to get away, but in the process lose the targeting on the creature you vulned.

Well, fear not, you haven't wasted your vuln. Just hit your handy-dandy P key and you will select the item you had last selected, even if it is no longer on your radar! Then proceed until it is, and blast away. Best thing about this method is that the mob won't give chase any more, and you can begin picking them off at your leisure. I have survived entire packs of shadows before (yah, I got lucky), but I still use this technique on them.

Another thing to keep in mind. You have a personal spell economy, which dicates the effectiveness of each spell you cast. On the bottom of the spell tab is a scale that goes to 100%. If you start getting resisted on your level II Flame Bolt a lot, check this out, it's probably sitting at 75%. Throw a Flame Bolt I into the mix to give the level II a chance to recover.

Draining is another common mage attack. The Drain Health spell removes 100 points or 25% of the target's health (whichever is lower) and returns a percentage of that to the caster, based on the spell level. It also costs 10 mana per level to cast, so it's not a cheap spell for the beginning mage. Harm Other takes five mana per level, as do the war spells. The reason I am pointing this out is to pave the way for another point--most mages drain too much! Not too often, just too much. Drain is a seductive attack for the feeling of security it provides, but consider this. Against a creature with 200 hit points, you do damage on this progression: 50, 37, 28, 21, 16, 12, 9, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, etc...

Now, if you have a healthy mana conversion, say that it cuts the mana requirement to 40% on average. Also, we will look at the higher end of the damage for the war/harm spells to make up for what we are lacking in terms of natural creature vulnerabilities. Take a look at the following progression of damage per mana point, based on spell levels (level VII war are not included here):

Want to guess what happens here? Well, three drains are great when you are casting level I spells, but the beginning mage soon gets a feel that draining uses too much mana to make it worthwhile. Also, they aren't hunting creatures with 200 hit points, so it's even more worthless to them (what do those high level mages know anyway?). Yah, I know you were told that draining rules, but it just doesn't seem right. Then you progress to level IIIs, and start taking on Lugians or other high hit point creatures. You soon realize that you are doing scads of damage with your first strike, and draining makes more sense. You get caught up in casting 4 or 5 drains in each attack, which is fairly reasonable in your low/mid to middle levels. Then you start popping off your first War Vs. You face down the tuskers, and start draining until you are getting 12 points back each time (about 6), and finish off with aplomb, deftly burning the ape to a crisp.

Well, you do this a few times and suddenly your personal economy goes in the toilet and you are using all 10 points on each drain, and you get resisted, and your stamina is too low for a stamina to mana, and blah blah blah. You run back to the BSD and curse as you try and rebuff your armor. With a creature that has a lot of hit points like a tusker, two drains will get it down to the point where the chart above begins (with others start counting as soon as you are getting less than 100 points per cast). Then you can see that with level V war, two more will get it to the point where you want to switch. Note that I am not trying to suggest that you will finish off the creature on your first cast, but that you will be using mana more efficiently if you do switch.

But, you say, I need to use the drain to regain my health! The wind-up for three level IV war spells will kill me. Well, there are two things you want to consider. First, if you have a mob banging on you there's nothing wrong with a quick switch to another critter, and grabbing some health in between your war spells. Using a vuln will further decrease the amount of war you need to spend, and you can cast it in between drains. Also, you need to consider the implications as they pertain to harm spells as well, if you are hunting through walls.

Finally, another thing to consider is that when you are casting level VIs, often you do tons more damage when the drain caps with a combo war/life attack. My level VIs on properly vulned creatures regularly do more than 200 points of damage, while the drain does only 100. So, against a Banderling Mangler 4 spells is enough to finish it this way, at an average cost of 64 mana (vuln VI and three war VI = 160 mana, * 40%). I can do that easy and recharge a lot faster than draining 7 times and finishing with two war spells (at a total cost of 52 mana). Also, with the life/war attack I can usually finish it before it hits me more than once, often before it hits me at all.

So, although every mage in Dereth probably thinks that the Bandit weapons are overpowered (and they are!!!), if you spend all your time whining that you aren't getting any kills in the BSD because there is a melee in there maybe you should look at your casting progression. There's no reason why you shouldn't get a vuln and a war off before he closes, enganges, and gets his second swing in, and if he doesn't crit you will get the kill that way at least half the time.

Mana Management is the bane of the young mage's existence. I guarantee that there will come a time when you are trying to kill a critter through a wall and end up having to lie down when it only has 20 health left. Pretty frustrating, huh? Well, you can always use health to mana, but with 40-60 health that's not gonna do a lot. You can drain stamina and do a stam to mana, but the net result of that operation early on is probably going to be only around 20. Remember, your mana conversion is still pretty low at this point.

Well, that leads into this point well. Get some mana renewal and mana conversion items. Even if you don't have lore you can still take advantage of the explorer society wands (save those Lucky Gold Letters!), and you may actually want to add to mana conversion directly until it's around 100. You can also try carrying around mana potions, but they're expensive. If you can get your stamina to 130 though, you can use stamina elixirs and stam to mana II to get your mana back a little cheaper and more efficiently. Yes, they're heavy, but who cares? You're a mage! Many's the time I have formed a mental picture of this skinny dude lugging a steamer trunk full of spell components into the dungeon, but such is life in Dereth. Until you have Melee Defense, you don't really have to be concerned with burden.

One more thing... Getting resisted is extremely frustrating. It's going to happen, and it will likely happen a lot for a long time. Just play through it and be patient, once you get over the hump you will be able to go anywhere and pretty much do anything you want. It just takes time and experience. If you are an Og especially, don't reflexively jump back on your perch or behind your wall after you get war and discover that it doesn't let you roam the plains with alacrity. Instead, learn what you can do and how to stay alive when you have no mana an buffs are going and things are on your tail big-time. You will learn a lot more that way, and will have more fun later on in life.

Welcome to the big-time

Well, it's going to happen eventually. You will reach all your goals, or will get to a point where you can hunt anywhere in Dereth. Congratulations, first of all. Now you get to decide how you will play. Before you restart, consider that Mages make wonderful patrons. You can also change your style of play to shake things up. At various times in his career, Q has played the drain mage, the pure war style, a support role, or in a fellow as the designated vulner/imperiler for melees (this is the most challenging to me). Get away from the apes and hit Bandys and Shadows for a while.

Anyway, what you decide to do is your own, but if you remember who you started out as and who you wanted to be, then you will probably have a lot of fun at it. I can't think of the quest in Dereth where a high level mage is not welcome!

I hope that this article has helped answer a lot of questions you may have about making and playing a mage. I am sure it didn't cover everything, and I may have raised some new and more difficult ones for you. In any case, here are some good resources that you can use to learn more:

The Road To Gimpsville: Mages and Specialization
Elohim's Guide to "Og" Mages
Stamina to Mana and You
Alle's AC Tips
The Obsidian Guard Mage Compendium

Thanks for reading this far, and I look forward to meeting you in your travels through Dereth!