Mage Guide

Τα Credits ανήκουν στον Elmo The Red Monster του οποίου το guide προέρχεται από

http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=219854&highlight=mage+armour

Σημείωση:το παραδίδω αυτούσιο προς σεβασμό για τον κόπο του.

1.0 Introduction:

Hello to all new Archlord players. My online alias is Elmo The Red Monster and my in-game name is Tosca member of the Sanguin Guard in the Gaiahon server. I started playing this game and chose to play mage on the 17th of September 2007.

I am writing this guide so that it may benefit many of the new players that have chosen mage as a long-term class and to consolidate all the current information that’s scattered in various posts in the mage section of the forums.

This is my first guide for Archlord and my policy is the same as my previous guides that I have written for various games such as WoW, Infantry Zone and Storm Riders; and that is, to basically give a general understanding of the class I deal with. I do not wish that this guide be taken as the be all and end all solution. The reason for this is because there are different ways and skill allocations that might be better than others at different stages of the game.

It is my personal belief that one should choose the build/game play, which is most suitable for them as opposed to mimicking builds. This guide is simply a suggestion of play. Therefore, realise that a build/strategy that may work for me may not work for others.

So, without further ado; on with the guide.



2.0 Why play Mage?

Spell caster classes are probably the most fun to play in the sense that they have the most area of effect and damage over time spells. They do not use ammo, but instead use your MP to execute normal ranged attacks. This is a good thing in the sense that it does not clog up your inventory unlike Archer, which requires a lot of arrows. Being a ranged class means that you can employ hit & run tactics against your enemies as well allowing long mob trains to be pulled.

Mage is probably the hardest class to play in comparison to the other classes. The reasoning for this is attributed to the mage’s low defence rating, which means that it cannot take too many hits and it takes relatively longer to level. If I had to compare Mage and Sorcerer in terms of leveling, Sorcerer is still better because it has skills that allow it to take more damage, thus it’s slightly easier to level.

Mage can only be female, whilst a sorcerer is a male Orc. Some may dislike the idea of playing a female class.

Sorcerer and Mage both have nearly the same offensive spells so the difference between the two classes may seem minimal at first, but this is far from the truth.

Having said the negatives of this class; why bother playing Mage if Sorcerer is clearly better?

As I said before even though the main offensive capabilities maybe similar, there is a major difference between game play. First of all, even though Sorcerer levels faster, if we compared both classes at higher levels Mage is clearly a lot better. Mage at higher level is a PvP power house capable of taking massive chunks out of the enemies hit points with spells thanks to the passive skill Mana effect. Furthermore, with crippling abilities that decrease enemy’s stats, strong defensive spells later on and the fact that it is a ranged offensive class, all these factors make Mage a class not to be taken lightly when 1 vs 1.

Thus, it is my recommendation that if you are just trying out a spell casting class for fun go Sorcerer, but if you are taking a spell casting class as a main I suggest going Mage because Mage needs a great deal of time invested in it for it to be a decent class.




3.0 Before Starting

3.1 Skill Point Allocation

Archlord is basically a skill based MMORPG. This means that if you misallocate your skill points you may find it very difficult to level or finish particular quests.

Realise that you can reset all your skill point allocations once in-game. However, it is recommended you reset your character at higher levels if you do not wish to purchase Chantra and buy return orbs. My personal recommended reset level is 40 for Mage.

I suggest going to: http://mmodata.org/archlord/db/?s=build

This website will give a skill builder, which allows you to plan your skill distribution. Furthermore, it gives stats of items and what available items there is in-game.


3.2 Control Customisation

You can change your shortcut keys to suit your playing style. Since, Mage requires the use of spells in the short cut bar, it is best to have a comfortable setup that also allows you to execute spell combos.


3.3 Auto Potion

At the MP and HP bar there is a gold arrow to the left side of the bars. You can move the arrows to specify at what level of HP/MP will it auto use potions. The potions that are used are dependent upon what potions you put into the potion shortcut. The potion shortcut is default as buttons 1 and 2 or the two separate boxes to the left bottom side of your screen.

Example of where the slider arrow is:

V========HP=600=======

Experiment with the level, of when to use auto pots. If you go to the right too much it wastes pots. Even the slightest damage it will use a pot. If you it’s too much to the left, then the buffering effect for damage when health gradually increases no longer works when attacked by high damage monster or big mod trains.


3.4 Should I buy Chantra

Whether you want to buy Chantra or not depends on you. If you have already put points into skills that are not useful yet or misallocated skill points, then I suggest buying Chantra and purchasing return orbs, which reset 1 skill. You can also buy Chantra items from players in-game that have purchased Chantra credits. DO NOT USE YOUR MASS RESET.

There are a number of really helpful items and buffs in the shop, which will give you the edge over players, greater XP rate/gold rate/drop rate and even faster spells.

The exchange rate is 1 Chantra credit = 1500 gold


3.5 Changing in game resolution

Please refer to this post for more information:

http://community.codemasters.com/fo...ad.php?t=152159



4.0 How to Build a Mage:

In this section I will deal with builds of the first 30 levels for a Mage. The reason for this is because many new players misallocate points and find it very difficult to level to 30. I personally believe the first 30 levels will determine whether you will stay with a mage or not as a main character and also the speed at which you level depends on how you allocate the 30 skill points.

The objective to a build is to maximise leveling speed and to minimise or even do not use any return orbs. The Talisman of awakening is a good item if you have Chantra credits for those that want to level faster. Some may want a more early PvP build so I have included that as well, but its not entirely efficient.

PvP starts at level 15

Remember that the weapon you should be using from levels 1-22 (22 being the first time you get Mass snare and Hell typhoon) is the wand. This is because the wand is fast attack meaning you will do more damage than the staff. The other reason is that at the levels before 22, Mage does not have that many spells and is not spell intensive in battle yet.

We will now look at some builds to level 30


Scarfac’s Mage Build

http://community.codemasters.com/fo...ad.php?t=215958

Blaze Wall: 2/5
Hell Typhoon: 3/5
Mass Snare: 3/5
Power Staff: 2/5
Wind Quake: 1/5
Stunner: 2/5
Reflection: 1/5
Endurance: 5/5
Intellect: 5/5
Mana Effect: 2/5
Physical Gain: 2/5

(according to the database Wind Quake cannot be added to level 2 until level 32. Thus I have corrected it accordingly for level 30)

Advantages
-Very good build. Basically grind up to level 22. Get Blaze wall at level 10 and pull mob trains.
-Very efficient. no return orb used.
-Physical gain gives a good HP increase allowing Mage to tank more at later levels.

Disadvantage
-May get boring pulling mob trains all the time in the beginning.
-Some early quests at early levels hard to complete due to lack of damage from spells. This gets better after level 22 of course
-no early PvP capabilities

Therefore it is a better strategy to go grinding as opposed to trying to complete all quests.


Mage Build 1 (Early PvP/Quest build)

Flame Core: 3/5
Magic Bolt: 3/5
Water Spout: 2/5
Hell Typhoon: 2/5
Mass Snare: 2/5
Wind Quake: 1/5
Stunner: 3/5
Reflection: 1/5
Endurance: 5/5
Intellect: 5/5
Mana Effect: 3/5

Advantages
-Good offensive and early PvP capabilities.
-More damage than Scarfac’s and my build.
-decent PvP at level 15 to 21
-Capable of completing most quests where there are unique monsters.
-more points into Stunner (increased blocking) and Mana effect (increased elemental damage)

Disadvantage
-Due to no physical gain cannot tank as much as Scarfac’s build.
-Grind is slow. Therefore quests become important
-less damage at later levels due to less points into Mass Snare and Hell Typhoon
-may suffer when grinding in later levels
-will need a return orb to reset flame core and magic bolt

Elmo’s Mage Build

Blaze Wall: 2/5
Hell Typhoon: 3/5
Mass Snare: 3/5
Power Staff: 3/5
Wind Quake: 1/5
Stunner: 3/5
Reflection: 1/5
Endurance: 5/5
Intellect: 5/5
Mana Effect: 3/5

Advantages
-Efficient Build. No return orbs will be needed
-extra point to spare as this build only uses 29 skill points. May put into Power staff at level 30 if need so that you’ll have 4 points in power staff.
-More damage and blocking rate, due to mana effect, power staff and stunner at 3

Disadvantage
-Cannot tank as much due to no Physical Gain
-Cannot complete some early quests at lower levels due to lack of damage. This gets better after level 22 of course
-Cannot PvP well at level 15 in comparison to Build 1
-May get boring grinding all the time

Therefore it is a better strategy to go grinding as opposed to trying to complete all quests.

The combo for AoE spells at level 22 is as follows and will be for quite some time:

Mass Snare ---> Hell Typhoon

This is because Mass snare reduces attack rate so you take less damage and slows down enemy movement speed so you can run out of the monsters hit range. This however does not work with ranged enemy attacks so it’s suggested you pick monsters that are not range types as your usual grinding choice of monsters. Eg wolves, boars, torges etc.

By the time you get Wind Quake the combo changes to:

Mass Snare ---> Wind Quake ---> Hell Typhoon

This will allow you to run from the enemy faster and do more damage if you need it. Furthermore Wind Quake and Hell typhoon are spells with a low cool down time thus allowing you to do more damage then spells such as Earthquake.

Spells like Mana Effect, Power Staff and Intellect will increase your damage. Endurance while increasing your HP will allow you to take more hits allowing greater survival.

Stunner and Reflection are crucial in the survival of a Mage. If your ability wears out during combat make sure you run away from the enemy. Do not attempt to engage them because most of the time unless you are higher level then they are, you will die.

For further details about increasing block rate for Stunner go to the Elmo’s Strategies and read the sub section named armour of this guide.


5.0 Elmo’s Strategies:

This section deals with how I got to level 30 using my Mage build. Bear in mind that some of these strategies I picked up from in-game players and some from reading the forums. If it were not for the in-game players I probably would not have been able to write this guide.

Not all of the strategies will work depending on what build you are using. Some may work less effective than others.

I actually levelled to 36 with level 15 unique armour. This sort of demonstrates that unique armour is sometimes worth the investment. But having said this you need good friends in-game. Take for instance someone gave me a platinum key that allowed me to get a level 3 Defence stone. This of course caused my Hail Rock Garb level 15 unique to get to defence 31 after 6+ reinforcement potions put on it and couple of level 2 defence stones.

5.1 How to Grind & Gain Experience

This section will deal with methods of grinding, because when I first started I did not know how to pull trains or any efficient/effective techniques of gaining experience.
There are a few ways to level and I will list them as follows:

Grind one at a time:
-safest and slowest means of getting exp

Completing Quests:
-Exp varies from quest to quest. However you sometimes get good items

Cluster Pull:
-Go into an area with monsters close together and kill them with your Area of Effect (AoE) spell eg Blaze wall, mass snare, hell typhoon etc.
-Safe way of killing enemies in a cluster.
-How many enemies, you can take on depends on your level, skills, damage, and armour.

The cluster pull approach is a safe way to grind a number of mobs for a Mage. I generally prefer pulling trains, but when you have monsters higher than you in level and damage, this becomes a good approach. There is something, which I call transition region, which I will discuss later on, which demonstrates why cluster grinding, even though slightly slower leveling, is better than pulling trains.

In the event that you are taking too much damage when against 5 monsters start using a hit and run approach to defeat the monsters that follow. This technique may end up as a small train.

Pulling trains:
-Requires a increased movement potion
-hit one monster with a normal attack then another then another until the monsters chase after you. It will look like the monsters are forming a train behind you.
-Then use an AoE attack to finish off the enemies.
-most exp gained from this technique of grinding

In theory AoE attacks are infinite as Scarfac’s had written in his guide. However, your HP is not. You potentially take more damage if you pull trains as there are more monsters. Thus it is important that you out run the enemy and is exactly what the movement potion allows. Remember do not try to take on too many mobs, since Mage has a low defence. Only pull trains that are manageable or you’ll die and lose 3% exp.

Dungeons:

Dungeons give double the XP, but the monsters are harder to kill. Remember to have alot of potions. The other tip I can give is since I do not use physical gain I subsitute it with a +HP% Stone so that gives a similar effect to physical gain while maximising damage.

Remember to frequently check the number of potions you have for HP/MP


5.2 What is a Transition Region?

A transition region is what I term the level region where you experience difficulty moving from low to high level. Because the Mage is rather weak in terms of defence you will feel the effects of the transition stage the most. The transition stage for Mage can be because your potions are not high level enough, your armour is not up to scratch, or weak spells.

If you have misallocated your skills you’ll probably be in this region for quite sometime and thus leveling becomes a slower process.

Usually I grind up to this point before I upgrade/buy armour, weapons, potions and spells.

When this phase is felt for potions, use the cluster pull method to gain potions of the next level or buy them from NPC or item trader. The first transition stage you will feel is around level 17-20. This is a rather hard area because you need the next level pots to kill higher level monsters and to gain experience faster.

Start off by killing Goblin Thief near the Warrior Plains get as much medium potions as you can to support you in the higher levels. Do this with every transition region as pots are important if you are to maintain or have a certain leveling speed.

The next region is about 28-31 when you begin to get large potions. You may choose to sell your old pots or use a mix of both new and old pots until you have enough high level ones.


5.3 How to Get Fast Money

You will pick up things known as chests while you grind. These can only be opened by keys purchased from the Chantra store or you can get them for a price from other players. If you have no Chantra keys, the chests are useless to you at this level, which is why it is better to sell them now.

Even if you have Chantra and opened the boxes, do not use the level 3 stones on your armour yet. It would be a complete waste to use the level 3 stones on low level armour.

The selling price of the chests fluctuates, so I dare not give a definite price per chest. It is better to check out the market price yourself in-game by reading the trade chat and have a go learning to trade yourself.

Chests are more useful at level 30, start keeping them then.

There are 3 types of Chests.
1. Platinum
2. Gold
3. Silver.

5.4 How to Build Weapon, Armour & Accessories

Weapons:

First off for the lower levels do not use any reinforcement pots or buy any armour. It is better to use the reinf potions at around level 22 for better armour etc. I personally did not use any of these potions until level 26. By the time I reached level 38 I had about 68 reinf potions. Of course this number varies depending on your luck with item drops.

You will use the wand from levels 1-22 because the mage is not skill intensive yet and will require the use of normal attack. Wand gives more hits which means more normal attack damage.

Since you are using only Blaze Wall for quite some time, you will need to put all the fire elemental stones into your wand to maximise spell damage. Do not put any other stone type in your wand because doing so splits up the damage to other elements and you cannot maximise the damage which is specific to your fire spell.

Therefore the general idea is to use elemental stones, which are the same elemental damage type as your strongest spell. eg at level 22 use level two Dust Elemental in your staff to maximise Mass Snare damage. Hell typhoon becomes a finisher spell.

By the time you get Wind Quake it is best that you have a weapon which is filled with air elemental type spells because Hell Typhoon and Wind Quake are both air spells. Their damage together will be greater than the effect of dust stones on mass snare.

Following traits to look out for in a weapon:

1. All elemental damage +X

-Helps to maximise elemental damage because it stacks together with elemental stones.
-I suggest this is trait, which most players look for in a good staff or low level wand.

2. Slots of about 5 or more

-The more slots the better because more elemental stones can be put into your wand and later level staff.

Other types of stones or attributes for weapons such as physical attack, and accuracy increases are useful, but for the slots it is better just to have elemental stones. If those abilities came with the weapon then it is still good.

I suggest using your best stones with rare weapons as opposed to normal ones because rare weapons are better and use the best stones if it is a unique item.

Armour:

From levels 1-22 the only thing you’ll need to look out for is armour which gives a decent rate of defence. So armour that gives like +X physical defence is good armour.
In terms of boots I suggest any type of boot that gives increased movement speed will help you grind greatly. Bracelets that increase accuracy and attack rate either one is pretty good for now.

At level 22 you can do what I did and purchase some unique Hail Rock armour from the item trader, make sure they have around 3-4 slots or more. Put defence stones in the chest armour, and block skill stones in the dress.

Traits to look out for armour in general:

1. Increased Block Skill

-definitely a must since Mage has bad defence. It will allow the mage to block damage.
-when you get the ability known as Stunner, with this ability in your armour, you will be able to block at a higher rate.
-Very important trait

2. Increased Movement Speed

-will allow you to run faster when you use hit and run strategies against enemies.
-very good for pulling mob trains

3. +X% MP/HP Max

-HP max I consider to be more important than MP because you can tank.
-Since I do not have physical gain in my build having a %increase in my HP is good.
-MP not as important because of the high regen for mage.

4. +X% Attack Rate or Attack Accuracy

-Attack accuracy is probably more important because you want the spells to hit.
-Spells are not affected by attack rate because they have a cool down time. Thus spell casting speed affected by time rather than actual attack rate.

5. +X% Physical resistance

-Very useful to have. Causes enemy damage to = 0
-Combines well with Stunner and Reflective Skill and in the distant future nimbleness
-If you have a level 2 stone use it on your armour.

6. Slots of about 3 or more

-More slots more stones thats about it. For main armour means more defense points

Accessories:

I generally look for rings that give a high level of Knowledge combined with intellect increases because it will increase the damage of your spells.

In regards to a necklace I suggest any neck lace that gives a high level of +stats. Head gear which can be worn at level 30 I think if it can give you +stat then use it.

Traits to look out for Accessories:

+ Stat

-increases all stats by X, very important

+ Intellect and/or Knowledge

-Will increase the damage of your spells

+X% Elemental or Magic resistance

-Very important against other classes or monsters that have elemental damage.
-this is usually for a necklace, but however as long as the benefit is good enough I’d use it.

5.5 How to PvP

PvP does not last very long in Arclord generally the mage is not ready for PvP at this level. You can early PvP using the Build 1 I had, it tends to be lacking at later levels until you get Death Mark.

The general strategies for my build is buff up and throw your strongest spells and while they are cooling down throw the available spells at them. Running is not really an option during PvP.


Concluding Remarks:

I will do revisions to this guide as through time the community will debate what the best way to play mage is. Remember that this is the way I play Mage and it varies from player to player. I hope that anyone that has played this class or is new to this class will enjoy it as much as I do.

If you see me online just say hi to me in the Gaiahon server. I should be around level 40 by the time this guide is finished. If you have any questions in-game just PM me when I am online. I do not mind people asking me questions about mage.

I have intentionally left the guide at level 30 because I am not at the level to comment further. I will probably continue writing this after I reached level 60. Thus it is a work in progress.

Just a little advert Sanguin Guard is recruiting any mature players with level 10+.



read this post for further details

http://community.codemasters.com/fo...ad.php?t=219426

I hope any new mage players will enjoy this guide and what Mage can offer in-game. Its a great class and hope you have fun with it!

Thank you for your time guys & girls =)




Credits

I like to thank the people that have helped me with this guide and the people that gave information in the mage section of the forums. I like to especially thank the people below:

Scarfac
Swondorf
Sorrows
Megas
Mleczko
Sober
My previous guild members from DeathDealers
My current guild Sanguin Guard

And also others which I may have not mentioned. Its hard to remember everyone online without having access to my friends list =\

Without you guys I would probably not enjoy this game at all =)

ty guys

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