Maxing damage on a PVM mage

[sean_lo]

(updated again on march 13 2008)
This template is focused on dealing damage, whilst having acceptable survival.

Most Current Template
----------------------------
120 spellweaving
100 magery
120 Evaluate int
80 spirit speak
100 meditation
100 resist
100 inscription



Alternate Template(If you're not so sure about your mage)
-------------------------------------
120 spellweaving
100 magery
120 Evaluate int
100 spirit speak
100 meditation
100 resist

80 points leftover in wrestling. Some defense if you're not familiar with playing the mage.


Equipment
-------------
Artifacts:
Kasa = 12%SDI
Spell woven britches = 10% SDI, 10% LMC
Stitcher's mittens = 30% LRC
Ornament of the magician = 2 FC, 3 FCR, 20% LRC, 10% LMC
Vesper chaos Shield - 1 FC, 2 FCR
Totem of void = 10% LMC
Crystalline ring = +20 magery, +20 focus, +20% SDI, +5 MR

Barbed kit armor :
16+% LRC, 60+ resist tunic.
16+% LRC, 60+ resist gorget.
16+% LRC, 60+ resist sleeves


Total LRC = 100%
Total SDI = 42% SDI (+25% more if you use a scrapper)
Total LMC = 30%
Total resist = Pretty much 70's all.
FC4, FCR6 (with scrappers)
FC3, FCR5 without scrappers.

 

[imported_Farsight]

What I have now:
Magery 110
EI 110
Spellweaving 110
Resist 120
Meditation 115
Inscription 100

I think the rest is in focus. But in PvM, you really don't need wrestling. Even if you PvP, you can do pretty well with a decent mage weapon, but that isn't the focus of your question. I do have a staff of pyros on my pure mage, and swords of prosperity on my bard, but I usually use scrappers for the spell damage increase. It isn't considered good form for a mage to get within punching distance of your enemy anyhow.

So my plans are to raise five of those six skills to 120. I just have to afford it first.

 

[sean_lo]

I'm taking up wrestling because i'm using slayer spellbooks. I do not want to have 0 wrestling when i'm doing peerless.

 

[Trukx]

you really dont need wrestling if you are doing peerless or doom. Tanks and pets will tie it up, you just sit back and wail away.

 

[sean_lo]

Well just an update on my equipment.

Went through 45 k scrolls, got almost all the super slayer books save 1. (repond)

Bought some equipment:

1) Kasa +12 spell dmg
2) Pendant of the magi +5 spell dmg
3) Midnight sleeves +10 spell dmg
4) +7 spell dmg bracelet 1fc, 3 fcr, +10 dci, +6dex
5) Rings.. just a crappy +3 spell dmg 1 fc, 3fcr (haven't seen any crystalline rings on my server for sale)

Anything i missed out? (spell dmg wise that is)
Resists are pretty much maxed out at 70 each.
Doing about 130 dmg per ebolt(avg) on most creatures with my slayer book.

 

[simonovsk]

You're missing a crystaline ring (+20 sdi), and I think some player crafted leggings which name I forget. [Edit : spell wooven britches?]

At least

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

What I have now:
Magery 110
EI 110
Spellweaving 110
Resist 120
Meditation 115
Inscription 100

I think the rest is in focus. But in PvM, you really don't need wrestling. Even if you PvP, you can do pretty well with a decent mage weapon, but that isn't the focus of your question. I do have a staff of pyros on my pure mage, and swords of prosperity on my bard, but I usually use scrappers for the spell damage increase. It isn't considered good form for a mage to get within punching distance of your enemy anyhow.

So my plans are to raise five of those six skills to 120. I just have to afford it first.

[/ QUOTE ]

Drop Spellweaving or Magery to 100 and max your Eval out at 120. You're losing damage.

 

[Guest]

Yes u definitly want to go to 120 in EI for damage, if u have a few skill points left you might also want to look at adding in some necro to get evil omen - boosts damage of next attack spell, or corpse skin - increases damage fire spells can do

 

[sean_lo]

I disagree. 110 spellweaving and magery lets you have 75% success rate for casting earthquake and word of death. It is far more important than
resist, meditation or wrestling.

Anyways, EI 120 is pretty darn expensive and rare.. not like you can just buy it because you want it.

 

[sean_lo]

Welp just an update on my pvm mage.

I dropped meditation and picked up spiritspeak.

Wraith form(0 necro) + 100 spirit speak + slayer spellbook + high SDI

Anytime i get 100 damage ebolts, i tap back 20 mana. (My ebolts are 120 on average)

So i can pretty much lose mana regen, LMC, mana increase stats on my suit and focus solely on SDI. So far it's worked really well. I can ebolt most monsters nonstop.

I think this template deserves a name.. how about.. meditationless mage? ;p

 

[imported_Ill Saint]

Well, I think you may find that you'll struggle quite a bit with no med, especially if you're also neglecting LMC and MR, regardless of Wraith form... but if you say otherwise, more power to you!

Would be interested to hear how you go when taking on some strong mobs and higher-end monsters.

 

[sean_lo]

So far so good with my mage, the only thing right now is to acquire more LRC parts.

It's a suprisingly economical suit to build since i'm only focused on LRC and SDI.

Head - Kasa 12% SDI
Legs - Spell woven britches 10% SDI 10% LMC
Bloodwood spirit +10 spirit speak (more mana leech goodness!)
Arms - Midnight bracers - 10% SDI
Stitcher's mittens - 30% LRC

Barbed kit armor:
Chest, gorget- 52 resists +18 LRC

Ring, bracelet:
SDI + 18 LRC (Any FCRs is a bonus)

I have: Protection (omg! i'm a noobie), wraith form, magic reflect + RA on.
Protection because i hate hate hate interruptions. If you don't use it, you'll have to readjust the suit accordingly for FC and FCR.

 

[sean_lo]

Ok! Just came out of doom. Here's my summary of the night:

Vs everything but darkfather : Not good. Leeched very little mana back if any at all. Resorted to fireballing for most creatures. Those that were resistant to fire, i switched between summoning and ebolts. Stopped a lot here and there to regenerate mana. =(
(Note: The solution here might be to switch to lich form instead but that would mean a bit of skill changes on my template. Will consider this in the future.)
My opinion: Grade D.

Vs Darkfather : Excellent. Did 150-180 damage consistently. Did word of death for 500+ dmg consistently. Never stopped even for one second.

My opinion: Grade A++.

So pretty much, anything that has low fire/energy resists this template would be the choice. Everything with high resists = nuh uh. Bad idea.

Gonna try peerless spawn with this build in a few days before i decide if i want meditation.

It's interesting and fun though.

 

[imported_xStrikerx]

<blockquote><hr>

Vs Darkfather : Excellent. Did 150-180 damage consistently. Did word of death for 500+ dmg consistently. Never stopped even for one second.

[/ QUOTE ]

What spells were you using in the 150-180 damage range? Flamestrike? Also, was there a necro mage there who cast corpse skin on the the DF?

 

[sean_lo]

I didn't use flamestrike, but i will next time. I should be able to leech enough mana back to reuse it constantly.

I used energy bolt (150) and explosion (190-197). I had arcane empowerment on. Without, my ebolts did 120. (Daemon slayer book)

I had about 50 SDI.

Pretty sure there weren't any corpse skin going off. (There was some fights with very few peps, and i didn't see any corpse skins.)

 

[imported_GFY]

This might be a dumb question

but...

How do you leech mana with your template?

 

[imported_xStrikerx]

Necro wraith form

<blockquote><hr>

Wraith Form (transformation)
Caster receives ability to walk through people in Felucca without losing stamina/being revealed.
Caster receives the ability to truely (unlike weapons with "Hit Mana Leech") leech mana from a target.
Caster receives immunity to bleed attacks due to being undead.
Caster receives the ability to cast the magery spell "Recall" 100% of the time if he has reagents.
Caster receives +15 physical resist.
Caster receives +25% damage from "Undead Slayers".
Caster receives -5 fire resist.
Caster receives -5 energy resist.
Duration is permanent until death or a transformation spell is cast.
Mana Required: 17
Minimum Skill Required: 20.0
Reagents Required: Nox Crystal and Pig Iron

[/ QUOTE ]

This leech works for spells, unlike the weapon property.

 

[imported_GFY]

THX XStrikerX.

I guess it's obvious I don't play my necro much!

 

[sean_lo]

Just an update, did a champ spawn yesterday. Pretty much ran out of mana consistently. The resists on most monsters were too high to tap back enough mana from ebolts/explos.

I definitely need to tweak the template.. either completely dump spirit speak for meditation, or take up about 10 necromancy to cast lich form. (with +65 equipment)

I'll probably take up necromancy because i want to do something different. ;p

 

[imported_GFY]

A decent necro mage wit a Repond slayer spellbook can solo Baracoon with out too much trouble. (Unless he gets raided of course!)

 

[sean_lo]

Went to doom to try again. (This time with lich form)

Lich form didn't regenerate enough mana at all. In fact, i was getting more mana back fireballing in wraith form.

This time for the darkfather, i tried flamestriking. It was absolutely insane, as there was a necromancer casting corpse skin.

I was hitting for 200 damage (without corpse skin), and 240-250 with. There was the odd 300 damage with evil omen thrown in. I even had a 675 damage word of death with evil omen. Keep in mind that i am chaining FS non-stop, and having enough mana to throw in ev's and heal myself and being able to chain word of death at the end non-stop again.

For pretty much everything else, i stuck with fireballs. It did pretty decent damage, and it leeched enough mana back for one word of death for each mob.

Next doom trip, i'll be using 100 meditation and LMC instead to see how it matches up.

 

[Kith Kanan]

only problem with the wraith suit , is if the mob does not have mana you cant leech any or very little , atleast I think so , as its a REAL leech not like the weapon leech which is more of a mana proc realy

 

[sean_lo]

Ok final update inserted.

 

[Guest]

I dont know how things has changed for the time i was away, but my pure mage always had huge damage in pvm and especily if i could use a slayer book.
Lets see if i remember my SDI items
kasa 12
pendant 5
ring 11
braclet 10
midnight bracers 10
spellwoven britches 10
int 12
scribe 10
scrapper 25
Library totem wich i cant remember what it gave. I think it gave 5
That is a total of 110 SDI .
Im not sure, but i think i had a blod elli scraper wich was nice to have.

My only problem was the mana consuption.

 

[sean_lo]

yeah but your setup requires reagents. ;p

 

[imported_xStrikerx]

Not really, chest and gloves are still free and there could be LRC on the jewels. With the pendant, only 70 more LRC is needed.

 

[sean_lo]

Break down the numbers for me please if you've done it. I've found it to be near impossible. =(

To get full LRC, the SDI you mentioned, and near perfect resists.

 

[imported_xStrikerx]

Near perfect resists isnt going to happen in the suit just above. But with 15 LRC on gloves and armor of fortune, there would only need to be 15 more LRC, easily done between 2 jewels. The above suit could easily reach 100 LRC.

I made a suit with some armor I had. It has Kasa, AoF, Pendant, Midnight Bracers, Crystalline Ring, Vesper Chaos shield, Totem of the Void, Bracelet (12 SDI, 22 resist, 1/3 casting), and crafted legs (21/7/16/8/10 17 LRC) and hands (5/20/5/26/20 17 LRC)

That gives 2/5 casting (3/6 w/scrappers), 100 LRC, 20 LMC (30 LMC w/scrappers), 59 SDI (84 SDI w/scrappers, 81/106 SDI including GM scribe and max INT), 6 MR, 7 HPR, and has 64/62/49/56/66 for resists (add 5 to elemental resists if GM scribe). The crafted pieces could be even better with more resists or LMC. So it certainly is possible to make a good SDI suit, it just wont be cheap.

 

[sean_lo]

ya... that's the thing though. If you are willing to compromise LRC or resists for SDI, sure, you can max it out to 105.

TBH, i'll rather compromise LRC than to compromise resists. (For doom anyways)