need mage tactics advice

[Enduser]

I can get my mage's magery up to 95 with rings/bracelets, my evalint is around 90 and I use a basic lrc suit. I can usually kill most melee mobs by kiting, but whenever I go up against a caster they seem to instantly lock me down with poison, often times casting 3-4 spells in the time it takes me to cast an energy bolt. I then have to run and cure, then precast a spell and basically hit and run till it's dead. I really suck at combat as a mage, does anyone have any ideas of what i'm doing wrong?

 

[Jakylpops]

I'm just getting back into playing again, so I'm kind of rusty at mage fighting.
For practice lately I've been "dueling" against dragons, once you get their health down a bit, the breath weapon becomes a non factor and you can just practice mage dueling with them, they tend to cast alot of poison, magic arrow, harm, with the occaisional flamestrike/e-bolt mixed in just like your average pvp mage.

You must have 2/6 casting, and an LRC suit with at least 70 fire resist, everything else is kind of optional.

After that it's just a matter of getting your timing down.

learn to use lower level faster casting spells, explosion/flamestrike/e-bolt will get interrupted too often

Learn to love Heal...not Greater Heal, Heal rarely gets interrupted and you can spam it when needed.

Always be ready to cure yourself, monsters love to cast it, and so do pvp mages.

and finally...if you're not using "target self" and "last target" macros to target your spells yet, then you've REALLY got alot of practice ahead of you.

 

[imported_Farsight]

I must admit, against mobs, I do cast protection. It's a habit I need to stop, since it's hurting (meaning so far it has killed entirely) my chances at defending myself against players, but against monsters fast cast doesn't much matter.

I also find myself using only lightning, fireball and mind blast, depending on my enemy. I do a lot more damage per time with lightning than with energy bolt, and the comparison between fireball and flame strike isn't even close.

But the saving grace for a mage is summons. Since you're only in the 90's, I would suggest having a pair of earth elementals around you before the fight starts, then during the fight heal the elementals when you can. As you get into the low to mid 100's, lead every battle with an energy vortex.

I don't like being forced into those tactics, but they work.

Against the Magincia high level mobs, I send in the vortex or elementals then pelt the mob with low level spells. So far, it's been working very well indeed, so long as I pay attention to the demons that spawn on top of me.

 

[imported_GFY]

Never underestimate the power of a slayer spellbook. I match up the proper slayer with the monster I'm hunting and there dead with 1-2 explosion flamestrike combos. My favorite monster to farm is Ice Fiends. I cast 1 combo and start collecting the gold. I also hunt White Wyrms for gold and hides. They are a bit tuffer though they take 2 combos.

Another thing to consider is your armor. If your resist are below 60 you'll take alot of damage from monsters. You may want to carry regs if thats what it takes to have higher resists against monsters, until you can afford or craft a 100 LRC suit with good resist of 60 or more in each. (FYI my mage still carries regs with his suit.)You can make arcane clothing so that if you die you can cast spells until you get back to recover your regs.

 

[Guest]

train wrestling skill, and then you can drink Cure potion

 

[Guest]

As the mage forum description says "running is totally acceptable" hehe. I can remember several instances in Ice while farming ogre lords that I would get overwhelmed with all the trash that spawns around there or mis target a BS and have to beat feet. hehe. The old collection of invis rings I had would really come in handy then.

If you really want to increase your damage output however, I would first focus on raising your mage/eval int skill. I don't know what your template is like, but atleast GM'ing those would help if not going over 100. Also, alot of people may disagree with me on this, but if you may want to forgo the LRC suit for some spell damage increasing items. And as stated previously, a slayer spellbook is a godsend.

Oh, and you could try Paralyze on casters to prevent them from getting the jump on you if thats a problem. Para, Exposion, Ebolt/FS combo. try that. Make sure you precast it before you are in range!