Mages

Introduction

The mage on Ancient Anguish is vastly underrated and undervalued. They are rarely a sought after member of a party, are vastly ignored by powerplayers and have one of the less pretty looking alcoves within the hall of heroes. The average player views a mage as a hit and runner with a penchant for exploring and treasure hunting, useful for little else.

This is a guide that aims to achieve 3 things:

* Raise the profile and reputation of mages on Ancient Anguish
/me Teach some intermediate and ‘top’ players how to play a very powerful class indeed
/me Raise interest in mages and thus increase Ancient Anguish’s player base perhaps

Now a word of warning… primarily this is a guide for powerplayers and people wanting to powerplay every so often. Although there will be tips and tricks here useful for everybody, it’ll be littered with comments like ‘don’t waste time doing x as it’ll net you no experience, coins or skills’. If that sentence already made you queasy with powerplayer-hate, then you’d best stop reading now. Many of the suggestions in this guide are the completely opposite of chilling.

So here we go… what is a mage on AA? What do you want your mage to be?

At this point I should probably tell you a bit about myself. I’ve been playing AA for almost 8 years now. My second character happened to be a mage, and I’ve got or had a mage in every school, and had a mage of every race apart from dwarf. I’ve got three on the mage alcoves in the Hall of Heroes at the moment, have successfully worked out a tanking routine for a mage, and have had dozens of hours soloing and bashing as one as well. I hope this guide can help at least a few of you out there.

WARNING: This will be a long read.

The Structure

An AA mage fits the roles of soloer, tank, basher and explorer with varying degrees of success. Generally, we do the best soloing or exploring, make slightly above average bashers and a below average tank. Compared to a class like cleric which make excellent tanks, bashers or soloers, one can see why the mage has been largely neglected by most experienced players.

To start we’ll investigate a mage’s abilities (dodge), their skills, and their spells. Each school will be analysed and coontrasted with each other, with race choices for each school discussed, then an exposition of how to do what mages do – tanking, bashing, soloing, exploring, treasure hunting, bounty hunting and unique hunting. There’ll also be notes on equipment choices, useful alias’ and a levelling guide, bugs affecting us, guild choices, and much more.

Abilities - Dodge

Let’s start with the one thing that’s common to all mages : the dodging ability. On AA (to the best of my knowledge) is based solely on 3 things: your opponent’s dex, your own dex, and the amount of weight you’re carrying. There may be some factoring in of the skill level of your opponent as well, but this, if the case, will be largely irrelevant, as I’ll explain later. So how do we maximise dodge’s effectiveness, and to what extent is it ‘worth it’?

First, why is dodge useful?

• It’s free (no need to buy equipment)
• /me Related, you don’t need to go find equipment. Can log in, get a staff and already be ‘equipped’.
• For most races and situations, it is more effective
• /me You can carry more stuff, and with high dexterity, most mages fit straight in

And why does it drive some of the biggest mages around like Thothamon and Dooku to use defend none and wear armour?

• It’s a hassle to keep everything in your deeppockets
• /me The more int boosters, scalping knives etc that you gather, the worse dodge gets
• /me Related, the bigger staves (ie tetsubo) are pretty heavy
• /me A dodge that fails… ie ‘x monster predicts your attempt to dodge!’ hurts a lot
• It’s worse on larger monsters
• /me It’s useless if you’re pure hit and run (whereas armour will reduce the entry damage)

Now let’s see why you’d use defend none while wearing armour

• /me You’re still not at max dex, and you’re fighting scary things that have much more dex than you
• /me You’re a dwarf, and have no boomerangs, darts or frost spells
• /me You’re tanking for a powerparty, and that involves killing things like Razar and Hawkeye where a failed dodge would not be pretty
• /me You’ve got your grubby hands on some top grade armour that’s too good to pass up
• /me You can’t be bothered keeping up the anally retentive steps below

So let’s talk about the easier to deal with defence first…none. To maximise its effectiveness is pretty simple – get the best stuff you can find. You got deeppockets to cover for your carrying capacity…so even a puny elf mage can lug around Armour of Ichor and still carry stuff, provided the strength spell is on.

More interestingly… if you’re going to use dodge, how do we maximise its effectiveness? Let’s look at each of the 3 components that make up dodge:

The opponent’s dex

There’s only so much you can do about this. If you’re indiscriminately massacring the mud, you’re not going to skip a few high dex kills just because you can’t dodge them as well.

The easiest way you can impair the opponent’s dexterity is through the humble oak boomerang. This item is a mage’s best friend for under $300 a pop, and its –1 dex penalty to the opponent quickly adds up as time passes – more detail in the equipment section.

Related is the barbed dart from the dalair weapon seller. I personally don’t bother with the way it breaks all the time, and that the seller is dead half the time, that it’s not as convenient as the boomerang. However, if you’re admirably keen with these things, then –2 dex on an opponent is huge.

Finally, there’s the dex reducing ice spells. There’s 4 in total, 1 in each of the schools (including the basic one) apart from Drowgar. A ~40 spell point spell that reduces dex by 1 for a while, reduces the opponent’s attacks every so often and then also does a bit of damage sounds great doesn’t it? Unfortunately they 1) Do not always trigger the frostbite which reduces the dex 2) work less well the higher level the NPC is and 3) you get a lot more damage out of most other spells with similar cost.

As such, in only limited circumstances (explained in the ‘Alteration soloing’ section) are these ice spells really useful to a powerplayer.

In most circumstances an oak boomerang is all you can do in this field… make sure you have one or more at all times.

Your own dex

This of course is also something that is largely unchangeable. Your race will determine the amount your dexterity will max out at, so your race is probably the largest factor overall in determining whether you use dodge or none.

The only piece of gear practical to a mage to increase his or her own dex is the +1 dex –1 con semi-unique black staff from the Yeti Area. This is useful at 30-50ish skill.

Then there’s the reverse, thinking cap, tcap, tcrap. If you’re going to dodge, this thing is strongly not recommended. The only possible exception is a situation where you’re elf, and have the other 2 int boosters already.

Your own weight

This is the part you have most control of. To dodge reasonably well, you need to absolutely minimise the amount of stuff you carry – ideally a staff, a pipe, and a golden amulet. And that’s all. The only things you should allow in your inventory must be worth their weight, if it will gain you either more experience, money or skills. Otherwise it’d just cause you to take more damage for no good reason, and is thus inefficient.

The essentials are obviously

1. Your real weapon and
2. Your pipe.

If faced with 2 roughly equal weapons, take the lighter one if you’re going to be doing some dodging – ie azakath instead of tetsubo.

Now feel free to add to that any weightless items that are neat or help – of note is the leather sheath or black scabbard – adding to leg protection for no weight addition. Of course, extra stuff like hooded falcons, pet snakes and whatnot are weightless and do nothing, so feel free to get them if you like them.

Next are the items you’d probably get despite the fact that they hamper your dodging. Namely

1. Nightblue Cloak and Spidermedallion
2. Golden Amulet
3. Good Zarkan rings.

The first two are self explanatory – any mage wants extra int. Golden amulet provides some protection to every single part of your body for the cost of 1 weight – ‘Only the best piece of armour in the whole game’ – Lunger, mid 2004. The same sort of argument applies for the Zarkan ring.

Following this are the situational items. These are

1. Black Robe/Magic Surcoat
2. A non unique medallion
3. A runed breastplate
4. Thinking Cap
5. Robe of Turkey feathers
6. Sturdy ring.

1. A black robe or magic surcoat depends on whether or not you’re fighting magic hurling monsters – if you’re even only occasionally taking one on, by all means it’s worth it.
2. A non-unique medallion is very good for anyone casting drowgar spells any more than once a kill. Even the non-unique medallion reduces spell costs, and depending on which spells you use, can quickly stack up to be very significant. Well worth the 1 weight if you’re a drowgar mage deprived of spidermedallion.
3. A runed breastplate, at last checking, weighed one, gave +20 to two resistances, and evaluatedd as ‘good’ for the body. If that is still the case, and you can get your hands on one, then go for it.
4. Thinking cap…bleh. Use it if you really want to, but give it a good thought.
5. The robe of turkey feathers depends entirely on whether you believe that the rumours concerning it. As the robe gives you a blue aura, which some say means the robe actually gives you the spell effect of blur, either higher armour class or dodging. I’m on the side that thinks the rumours unsubstantiated, and as such wouldn’t take the robe. If you do believe the rumours to be true, then by all means take it. Otherwise, it’s not worth the weight for its protection.
6. The sturdy ring is the same idea. If you believe it lets you do more damage, -and- you’re a race that actually deals damage (ie human, orc or dwarf) then go for it. Otherwise, +% damage on an elf’s damage is still going to round down to roughly zero. If you don’t believe the rumours, then ignore this item.

And then there’s everything else. I’m sure I’ve missed a few important items. If it’s going to make you more experience/skills/coins than the experience/skills/coins you’re going to lose by taking more damage by it reducing the effectiveness of your dodging, then take it. Otherwise, chuck it in a trashcan.

Remember, every extra item makes quite an impact in the long run.

EXAMPLE

Now to put it into action. Obviously you’re still going to need smokes, medicinals, heals (maybe some that don’t go in the deeppockets), etc. What you’ll need is to ‘keep’ all your essentials in your inventory (help keep ingame if you don’t know about it). Then you need a ‘put all in deeppockets’ alias. Then a heap of alias’ for getting stuff out of deeppockets, get packet from deeppockets, get medicinals from deeppockets, etc. At the start of a fight, you’d need to use your put all in deeppockets alias, then try to use up the heals that cannot fit in deeppockets first. You get your heals out as you need them (through your efficient alias system) and in general try to keep your inventory as clear as possible at all times. This applies to any hunga-mungas or boomerangs you’re looking to use as well (with boomerangs, perhaps don’t pick them up until the fight finishes).

If you don’t have deeppockets…well then the ground is your pocket! Same alias’, just you got to get stuff from the ground instead.

Any elf or orc mage following these instructions should dodge like a charm on all but the most dextrous of monsters on the mud (illarin, achrya, few others). Humans and half elves should do well enough, and dwarves…well…*cough*.

The Subschools

There’s four schools for a mage to choose from – conjuration, alteration, drowgar and invocation. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Here I’ll go through each school and their major spells, and how to use them effectively.

First we’ll take a look at the interesting basic spells:

Basic School

Flame Dart

The first and cheapest direct damage spell of a mage, this is really quite good. There’s no reason to not pick this spell up and use it to supplement your physical damage in the first handful of levels. It’s even useful later on to cast on frost giants at mid levels or to finish off an almost dead foe.

Rating: 5/5. Excellent for the first 10 levels.

Magic Missile

One of the most asked questions on mage board is ‘should I get magic missile?’

The answer to this question to me had always been no, but recently I’ve been swayed the other way. In reality it’s not that important a question, but choosing the right option can save you a few hours while leveling up.

The situation where you should not get magic missile is where you will be joining invocation upon attaining level 10, as fireball is quite cheap to get upon joining. That, or you’ve hogged glimmer for the early levels so much that you have enough study hours to get acid arrow or venom spit about level 11.

In all other situations, I think magic missile is worth the 400 study hour expenditure. Although it has been criticised for being very unpredictable and barely better than flame dart, the bottom line is that it is actually better. This makes it better to use against harder monsters, as it takes less time for you to exhaust your spell points casting MM than FD, and therefore you can leave the room faster, therefore taking less damage from the harder monster.

The argument against magic missile has commonly been that ‘you shouldn’t waste 400 study hours if you can just save up for acid arrow’. It’s true that you can get acid arrow at the end of level 12 or so without buying magic missile, and it takes until level 13 to get it if you did take magic missile. However, getting to level 13 with magic missile probably takes half as much time as getting to level 12 with flame dart. Overall, if you’re just looking to get through to level 19 as soon as possible, magic missile will get you there faster.

However, once you get your main attack spell (acid arrow or venom spit) this spell becomes pretty much totally useless.

Note that its damage is at least partly fire as well, so it’s good on frost giants.

Rating: 3/5. Not a great spell, but you should still get it if it’s going to help.

Blur

Your first defensive spell, and one that has lately raised some interest. It has been rumoured to help dodging (my testing on it has been inconclusive). What is true is that it obviously is going to provide some benefit of some sort. Therefore you might as well get it while you’re leveling up – a few less points of damage taken never hurts.

This spell has been linked with the turkey feather robe’s blue aura – it’s not true that the robe gives the same description effect as the spell – a blue aura on the robe compared to ‘x is hard to look at’ for blur. I don’t see any necessarily connection for the rumour that turkey robe provides the blur spell to the wearer.

Rating: 3/5

Fear

This new-ish spell is somewhat interesting, but in the end probably causes more annoyance than anything for most people.

It has an interesting use against rooms with 2 monsters – casting it on one would separate them, making the fight much easier for a solo mage or a small party. Possible rooms where this is useful are Optio, orc captain/lieutenant, the cold hand clan, lava men, etc. This results in needing to later on chase down the NPC that fled, which can be rather annoying. The upside is that every time it flees, when you re-enter the room with it, you get a free physical hit on it – it can add up should the NPC keep fleeing.

Rating: 2/5. Someone creative may come up with a great use for this spell, but that person hasn’t been me so far.

The Rest

Light is a must-have, self explanatory.

Rating: 5/5, essential.

Identify is similarly useful.

Rating: 5/5, again essential.

Knock is a useful utility spell for convenience with doors and treasure chests, and getting out of tight spots.

Rating: 5/5 essential.

Rope trick, apart from being a quick way up to pendleton, also provides some added mobility when stuck in certain areas like windmill and underground forest.

Rating: 5/5 Essential.

Cantrip is just irrelevant. But what’s 3 study hours?

Rating: 0/5

Charm seems like it never works, and I can’t really see any practical use for it either.

Rating: 0/5.

Scry is essential for anyone who plans on bounty hunting or gathering information.

Rating: 5/5, you’ll end up using it.

Mark is an essential spell for a lot of other spells (notably the teleporting ones).

Rating: 5/5 Essential.

Know Alignment is completely unrelated to combat or ‘convenience’ as such. It might be useful in exploring to know if certain npc’s are really evil or good.

Rating: 2/5.

Comprehend Languages is useful for exploration for the subhuman races.

Rating: 2/5.

Locate object I haven’t really played around too much with, mainly because I don't see a practical use for it

Rating: 1/5.

Ice flurry is very similar to magic missile, and the same arguments apply to it. Ice flurry is superior to missile in that it provides frostbite sometimes and that it’s something different, the disadvantages that it costs more in study hours and spell points, and that it has no bonuses versus fire giants. Choose the one you prefer.

Rating: 3/5. The comment I’d make for the rest of the ice spells are the same as this one.

Protection from Elements is a decent trade for later on – 55 spell points and a parsnip for 20 fire and cold resists. When tanking, every bit counts, and this spell permed isn’t a bad way of boosting resistances.

Rating: 4/5.