Advanced Mage PVP Templates
This tutorial is for advanced players and a basic knowledge of the topic is assumed.
Player versus Player (PvP) Mage templates have a few skills that are essential and should not be dropped. These essential skils are magery, evaluate intelligence and meditation, you will also need a way to defend yourself from melee attacks as well as resisting spells to prevent other mages from exploiting a very big hole in your template.
I will not recommend statistics in this tutorial due to stat increase from artifacts and armour making it a very personal preference, however a basic setup would be
Strength 90
dexterity 40
Intelligence 120
This is of course assuming a 250 stat char and can be adapted to suit your needs.
The following templates are widely used and can be adapted by a individual to suit his/her needs.
Scribe Mage
The Aim of this template is to deal high damage via mage spells, this is achieved by including Inscription in the template. At Grandmaster this bonus is 10 Spell Damage Increase (SDI) unfortunately the bonus Inscription gives work in segments of 20 skill with a bonus 5 SDI for reaching GM therfore it is very important if you choose to play a scribe mage you take inscription all the way to GM otherwise you will have below par results for your skill points.
This 10 SDI from GM Inscription isn't affected by the SDI PVP cap therfore with the inclusion of 15 SDI from items which is the current cap, 25 SDI can be achieved from these 2 alone.
When combined with the SDI benefits of Evaluate Intelligence and high levels on Intelligence the results can be devastating.
This is achieved by following these equations
Eval. Int. Bonus: ((EvalInt * 3) / 100) + 1
Intelligence Bonus: (INT / 10) (Drop decimals from result) Up to 120.
GM Inscription Bonus: 10% Damage Bonus
Spell Damage Increase: Int. Bonus + Inscr. Bonus + Spell Damage Increase Items*
Total Damage: (Base Damage * Eval. Int. Bonus) * ((Spell Damage Increase / 100) + 1) (Drop decimals from result)
Two common templates are: (Assuming 700 skill points)
120 Magery
120 Evaluate Intelligence
120 Resist Spells
120 Meditation
120 Wrestle/Swords/Fencing/Macing/Archery
100 Inscription
This is a expensive high end template to put together but will maximise your offensive capabilities. Your defensive skill is a personal preference some mages prefer wrestling due to be able to use a book or chug pots whilst some may prefer archery for it's ranged damage ability.
It is possible to free up these 120 Skill points by using a mage weapon -0 skill such as Staff of the Magi and Swords of Prosperity however i would advise against this due to the fact if you are disarmed you will be hit by a dexxer 100% of the time.
A more cost efficient template would be
115 Magery
115 Eval
115 Med
115 Resist
115 Wrestle/Swords/Fencing/Macing/Archery
100 Inscription
The remainding skill points can be put into miscellaneous skills which are at the end of this thread.
Nox Mage
As you've guessed by the title this character uses poisoning on his/her template to deal extra damage to opponents. Poisoning is a expensive and hard skill to train however it can be extremely useful in both 1 vs 1 pvp and group pvp in the field.
This skill is capable of enhancing the level of poison you cast within two tiles of the target, or with poison fields. How high a level of poison you cast is based on how much combined poisoning skill and magery you have on your template ((magery + poisoning)/2; if that's equal or greater than 65, you will cast normal poison instead of the standard lesser poison. If it's greater or equal to 85, you'll cast greater poison, and lastly, if it's greater or equal to 100, you will cast deadly poison without fail).
If you combine it with a weapon skill and the weapon skill + poisoning is 200.0 or more, you will receive a -5 mana reduction on all special moves, as well as being able to inflict poisoning with a weapon that is 1 level higher (poisoning skill = percentage chance of higher level poison), so you can inflict up to level 5 poison for a mere 10 mana.
One thing to be warned about regarding increasing poisoning is that, while the level of poison increases, that doesn't necessarily mean that it becomes better - lesser poison, the one normally cast, is the fastest poison in the game, and as such, it's far better for interrupting enemy mages in PvP than even level 5 poison is.
Yet again i suggest taking Poisoning all the way to GM to make full use of it when using spells and the *Infecting* weapon skill.
GM Poisoning = Deadly Poison Fields (Excellent for group field pvp)
Deadly Poison spell when within 2 tiles of the target
Now we have looked at the spell capabilities of the nox mage we'll move onto the weapons used by such a template and why.
This is calculated differently to the magey spells
The Poisoning skill will give a (Poisoning Skill)% chance to increase the level of poison delivered by 1. The blade must have poison applied to it. The power of the poison depends on the type of poison used and your poisoning skill.
With Poisoning skill 0.0 - 19.9 you can inflict Level 1 (with a chance of level 0)
With Poisoning skill 20.0 - 39.9 you can inflict level 2 (with a chance of level 3)
With Poisoning skill 40.0 - 59.9 you can inflict level 3 (with a chance of level 4)
With Poisoning skill 60.0 - 100.0 you can inflict level 4 (with a chance of level 5)
Therfore at GM Poisoning if you use the *Infecting* special move with a weapon which has Deadly Poison applied to it you have a 100% chance of upping the poison to Lethal Poison. For this very reason i suggest poisoning is taken to 100 and either a fencing /swords weapon is used as these are the only melee classes with the *infecting* special move.
If you choose not to use one of these weapon skills you will not be utilising your nox template to it's full potential and just have magery spells to rely on for your poisoning needs.
Weapons with this move are:
Butcher’s Knife
Dagger
Cleaver
Kryss
Pike
Double Bladed Staff
A common template (assuming 700 skill points)
120 Magery
120 Evaluate Intelligence
120 Resist Spells
120 Meditation
120 Swords/Fencing
100 Poisoning
A more cost efficient template would be
115 Magery
115 Eval
115 Med
115 Resist
115 Swords/Fencing
100 Poisoning
The remainding skill points can be put into miscellaneous skills which are at the end of this thread.
Tactics Mage
The tactics mage is exactly that, a mage which has tactics.
The reason behind this is so the mage can deal damage from his/her weapon as well as magery.
Due to this reason wrestling is never used by a tactics mage and for once those slow but hard hitting macing weapons come into there own.
The reason of taking Tactics in favour of anatomy is that at Grandmaster level Tactics gives a 68.75% bonus whilst anatomy only gives a 55% damage bonus.
I will not go into detail of all the weapons you can choose because there is so many however what i will say is that hard hitting weapons that may be too slow for a dexxer wanting to swing at the swing speed cap really come into there own on a tactics mage. The main special move used by a tactics mage is Armour Ignore which at GM Tactics on a hard hitting weapon such the hammerpick, Longsword can do around 25-35 hp Damage.
Now considering Publish 38 is capping Armour Ignores and Critical Strikes at 35 HP anyway then tactics mages are laughing as they can do the same damage as a dexxer using this move.
A few examples of these weapons are:
HammerPick - Armour Ignore & Mortal
War Axe - Armour Ignore & Bleed
Spear - Armour Ignore & Paralyse
Longsword - Armour Ignore & Concussion
Broadsword - Armour Ignore & Crushing blow
Composite Bow - Armour Ignore & Moving Shot
These are the most popular weapons for a tactics mage, as you can see none are particulary fast however the idea of this template isn't to hit fast it's to do high damage when the weapon does hit, weapons such as the hammerpick and war axe are ideal for this.
A common template (assuming 700 skill points)
120 Magery
120 Evaluate Intelligence
120 Resist Spells
120 Meditation
120 Swords/Fencing/Macing/Archery
100 Tactics
A more cost efficient template would be
115 Magery
115 Eval
115 Med
115 Resist
115 Swords/FencingMacing/Archery
115 Tactics
The remainding skill points can be put into miscellaneous skills which are at the end of this thread.
Parry Mage
This template gives the player extra protection against dexxers in the pvp world. The mage uses a one handed weapon or wrestling and a shield when combined with the Parrying skill and high dexterity levels gives the mage a 30% chance of blocking at GM.
For parrying to be useful the mage MUST use a shield, this then gives them the choice of using a one handed weapon or a spellbook if they have wrestling, however this means archery is not viable for this template
Although at the beginning of this i said i was not going to advise on statistics of any of these templates this is the exception as dexterity is a component modifier of the parry chance.
This is as follows
Blocking with a shield:
% Chance = (Parrying - Bushido) / 4 (If less than 0, the chance is 0)
(Add 5% if Parrying or Bushido skill is 100 or above)
Dexterity Modifier if dex is less than 80: (80 - Dexterity) / 100 (If Dexterity is higher than 80, the modifier is 0)
Final % Chance of blocking = Base Chance * (1 - Dexterity Modifier)
As you can see to get the most out of your Parrying skill points you will need a minimum of 80 dexterity which is EXTREMELY high for a mage template making it one of the tighest stat templates ingame.
The good news is with all the artifacts and rewards ingame these day it's not impossible to reach such levels.
The stat template i use on my parry mage is 70,80,100, i then raise my strength and intelligence through artifacts and reward items.
At GM Parrying you will have a 30% chance of blocking a melee attack with a shield If you cannot reach 80 dexterity on your mage then this 30% will fall considerably therfore if you cannot reach 80 dex then it's probably best not to take on this tight template because you won't be getting the most out of your skill points.
This template combined with high Defence Chance Increase (DCI) will make it extremely hard for a dexxer to hit you often and therfore give you a clear advantage in a fight .
A common template (assuming 700 skill points)
120 Magery
120 Evaluate Intelligence
120 Resist Spells
120 Meditation
120 Swords/Fencing/Macing/Wrestle
100 Parrying
A more cost efficient template would be
115 Magery
115 Eval
115 Med
115 Resist
115 Swords/FencingMacing/Wrestle
115 Parry
The remainding skill points can be put into miscellaneous skills which are at the end of this thread.
Chiv Mage
A Chiv mage is a mage that takes advantage of the current faster casting/faster casting recovery cap of chivlary which is 4/6.
Whilst chivlary spells such as Enemy of One, Consecrate weapon may not be very useul for a mage there and still plenty of spells that are.
Dispel evil, is a life saver when surrounded by monsters at a champion spawn.
Holy Light is a excellent area affect spell which is similar to the necromancers wither.
Cleanse by fire has more of a chance of curing the higher level poisons than the normal cure spell.
Divine fury is excellent for a stamina refresh when low of stamina from getting hit by a dexxer or pushing through champ spawns.
The main reason mages take up chivlary is for the Close Wounds spell.
As i mentioned before the current cap for chivlary is 4/6, this allows a mage to cast close wounds at the same speed as a circle 2 magery spell.
To get the most out of this template you will need high karma due to the chivlary being more affective at high karma levels.
At the highest karma levels close wounds will heal up to 39 HP per spell, therfore if you have 4/6 on that char you can heal 39hp at the same speed of a circle 2 magery spell such as harm.
This makes chiv mages extremely hard to kill when they can heal so fast , the fact that they are casting faster means there's less chance of being disrupted and you getting the heal off.
To make this template work at it's best you will need 4/6 casting (which is easy to get from rewards and artifacts) and high karma levels.
A common template (assuming 700 skill points)
120 Magery
120 Evaluate Intelligence
120 Resist Spells
120 Meditation
120 Swords/Fencing/Macing/Wrestle/Archery
100 Chivlary
A more cost efficient template would be
115 Magery
115 Eval
115 Med
115 Resist
115 Swords/FencingMacing/Wrestle/Archery
105 Chivlary
The remainding skill points can be put into miscellaneous skills which are at the end of this thread.
Necro Mage
This is without a doubt one of the most fun but challenging templates to play. Yep you've guessed it it's a mage with necromancy....... but wait necromancy is no good without Spirit Speak so we'll have to fit that in too.
It's virtually impossible to build a proper scrolled necromancer mage so keep that in mind before walking the path; alternatively, you can use artifacts (staff of the magi and midnight bracers) to make up for some skill points and scroll other skills with.
Adding necromancy and Spirit speak adds another level to your mage - in form of 16 new spells, and a new form of healing (that'll heal through anything, even mortal wound and poison). Strangle is a excellent spell as it'll interrupt your opponent and can be removed with nothing short of remove curse, as well as being a poison based spell that does more damage based on how much stamina your opponent has left.
Pain spike is a great finisher to any arsenal, and seeing as it only costs 5 mana, it's always a great bet, not to mention that it lowers stamina drastically, and as such is great in combination with strangle.
Corpse skin will add damage to your fire based spells (of which necromancy has none) as it lowers fire resist by 15 points, but keep in mind that it raises poison and cold resistances so you will essentially make it harder to use necromancy on a target that has corpse skin on him. Poison strike is another good spell for a mage, as it adds the elemental damage he himself lacks, and wither is just all round good, especially in high spawn areas such as a champ or against a stealther.
Blood oath is an excellent spell as well, as it turns every damage you take from the one you casted it on, into damage he takes as well (This spell is currently getting bushido archers disarming). All round, necromancy is a great addition to a template, even if it does leave you lacking in the scroll department.
Ok now for the template...
A common template (assuming 705 skill points)
105 Necro
110 Magery
110 Eval
100 Resist
115 Wrestle/Mace/Fencing/Swords/Archery
100 Spiritspeak
60 Meditation
As you can see a necromage template isn't as easy or clear cut as any of the others mentioned. And players with a 720 skill point cap will have a clear advantage.
Miscellaneous Skills
When you have points left over on a template you may wonder what to do with them, well a few common ones are.
Focus = 1 Stamina regen per 10 skill & 1 Mana regen per 20 skill
Tracking = Even a small amount of tracking can be affective
Detect Hidden = Again rather affective for passive revealing stealthers even when low skill.
