This is a guide for people who want to make an all element mage. Updated 9/10/07

Why play a mage:
-You get to play a female role
-High and consistent damage output
-Lots of AOE skills
-Very high defense at HIGH levels
-Spells have fancy visuals
-Always welcomed in parties
Why not to play a mage:
-You get to play a female role
-You can throw pretty punches at your enemies all you want and all they will do is point and laugh at you
-Relatively low defense and weak at LOW levels
Why play a 3 element mage:
-Have all the high level spells for maximized carnage
-Less effected by mobs with elemental resistance
-Better PvP
-More choices for making your attack combos
-All the mages will be going 3 elements at high levels anyway
Why not to play a 3 element mage:
-There is no reason not to IMO
-Maybe except you will be slightly weaker from lvl 21 to 35, you probably won’t even notice it


The following skill tree development is oriented toward PvE until Lvl92, if you are more interested in making a PvP build from the start then read the PvP section and make you modifications accordingly.

Lvl 1-20

These are the newbie levels, you should be able level very fast no matter what build you have. Always having the 3 top spells will make the process go even faster. You will only need one point in each of the lvl 7 and lvl 16 spells, and you should start upping 2 of the 3 elemental masteries. I recommend fire and lightning for their early level AOE spells. For passive skills, just put left over points into energy mastery, and some points in mana force is mandatory. Seize Nimbis is a nice and cool looking buff spell, but energy mastery will net you more defense bonus in the long run. The elemental resistance is rarely needed unless you are pvping against other mages. Besides having to recast the buff over and over again is rather annoying, you will probably forget half of the time anyway.

There had been some changes to the magic power buff so you should get this passive. Max it before you max your lightning mastery.



Lvl 21-33

These will be relatively tedious levels. Try to level with parties, it’s still very doable. At level 27 you will get 3 new shiny spells, level27 ice is crap, it takes forever to cast and only freezes a target for 2 second and doesn’t even work half the time. Level27 lightning is a descent AOE spell with nice damage. And don’t look down on level27 fire just because it’s a close range. It is perhaps IMO the best lvl27 spell, it can be casted almost instantly and has very high damage output for early levels. It makes a great finishing move or the skill to use in a pinch. You should learn to use it, love it, but only put one point in it.
Also lvl 16,27 fire and light spells make an excellent AOE combo at early levels. You will be able to kill mobs very fast if you can master them.
If you really can’t get through these levels without using more points in spells(Unlikely IMO), you can always do a reskill at lvl36.

Lvl 34-35

The reason I put these 2 levels separately is because you will be able to go in Nunvice dungeon at 34, in there you will be able to get to lvl 36 super fast regardless of what build you have.

Lvl 36

The power of the mage is finally unleashed, you will now be able to get back at all those that looked down upon you before and stomped them to the ground. Go back to Heiharp and teach the noobs there why mages rock :P
From now on you should focus on maxing out lvl36 fire and light, lvl36 ice will be your backup AOE spell. Note that the cooldown times allow the 3 spells to be casted one after another.



Lvl 51
Don’t get the the lvl 51 skills if you don’t pvp a lot, they are not good for your general pve. Even if you like to pvp or just adore the fancy visuals, 1 point in each will be enough.


Lvl 81
Lvl 81 ice, good. Lvl 81 light, good. Lvl 81 fire, hmm the fire tree is going downhill.


Lvl 92
If you made it this far then grats, you are now an Uber mage. Use your ultimate spells to nuke everything you see unfit. This is also a good time to reskill since all the skills are out. If you reskilled already, then consider the cash shop, after all a game that made you waste hundreds of hours of your life is probably worth a couple bucks on, neh? :P
Following the reskill below you will have 20 points left to pump up you favorite lvl 81, 51, 36 (lvl 7!?) spells. At this point you should also have a good knowledge of how each spell works and able to make your own skill selections.


Statswise

Anything in between the 1-4 and 2-3 heal/spirit ratio is good. Mage stats are simple, there is really no need to go too deep. Just up spr if you feel uncomfortable with another mage doing more damage than you and up heal if you find your self dying too fast.

Equipment
If you are going for a 3 element mage then the wand is your obvious choice of weapon. Since mage armors have low def compared to other classes, I highly recommend getting 4 socket armor and helmets to put +def medials in them. For accessories, wear only +def rings necklaces. The reason is because every point you put in heal only gives you ~1.5 def while every point spr gets you ~3 magic damage. So the +def accessory will give more bonus in this respect. Socket your wand with pyramids since they will help increase attack power for all of your spells.

Where to Grind
1-20 Loa/Braiken Castle -> North Morte/Are -> Denebe
Pretty straightforward, you can do some newbie dungeon runs too.
21-33 Heiharp
Heiharp will give you the most exp for the bang if you can find a good party. The first time you get to Heiharp, go all the way to Parka Shrine and set your return point there so you don’t have to walk all the way back if you die/restock.
34-50(54) Nunvice Dungeon in Requies
Nothing beats 500exp for an easy to kill spidey. If you make it all the way through you will also get a whopping 50k exp. Killing the last boss is optional, the reward you get is not good for mages. If you are still not sick of running the dungeon yet after lvl50 then feel free to hardcore your way through to lvl55.
51-54 Norak Cave 2
If you feel you’ve graduated from the dungeon then this is the place to be. Peccare and frailers in the middle of the cave will be the best target for mages.
55-65 Crespo
This place is a heaven for mages if you can learn to avoid those minibosses. High mob limit(4) and lack of ranged mobs will make grinding less of a pain. Feel free to do some lvl60 dungeon runs.
65+ Draco Desert
Prepare for a potfest, the exp will be worth it though.

PvP
First of all, do not even try to PvP when you are below lvl36, you will just not do well. However, mages gets good at PvP once they obtain their lvl36 spells.
If you are going for a PvP build, you should opt for a maxed Seize Nimbus at the loss of a couple elemental mastery levels. Also you should do a max heal stat build, meaning reach the spirit and strength requirement for your weapon and put rest of the points into heal.
At lvl92+, the obvious skills to use for PvP are the high end ones. The lightning series works best due to their stackable attack damage bonus.
But at mid and low lvls, there are some controversy as to whether the lvl36 or lvl51 spells works better in PvP. IMO, you need to know how to use both in order to be good at PvP.
Lvl36 spells should be your primary attack skills, they do have a long initial casting time, but it will be well worth the time once you get the chain of skill spam started. The reason is because as soon as the first lvl 36 spell start taking effect you will be able to cast your second lvl36 spell, so the 2nd spell will start taking effect as soon as the first one ends and so on, the casting time will not matter once the chain starts. Some people argue that the 36 spells can be easily dodged, this may be true, but when a mage is spamming endless 36 spells, can you expect to keep on dodging them forever?
Lvl51 spells makes good support to the 36s, they have higher overall damage output(but lower damage per second rate) when maxed compared to the 36s and high knockback chance, this is useful against melee opponent at a distance, a continous 51s spam will help keep them at a distance. You should NOT use it however against opponents with ranged skills and also melee based opponents at close range, Because if at anytime your spell failed to knockback your opponent, they will be able to strike back and interrupt your whole spell sequence and that will be costly to you.
So the moral here is to use a combination of 36s and 51s against bagis, knights and segs. Use only 36s against hunters and other mages. Do whatever you want with the summoners.
As for skills points, max your 36s but put only 1 point into each of the 51s just to get their knockback effect.

That’s it, thank you for reading the guide. Questions/comments?
This post has been modified on Sep 10 , 2007 03:16:50 PM by warshot.

Wow... this is fantastic. I am seriously considering making a mage right now.

Very very good work.

Is it confirmed that the cash shop will sell resets? Any idea how much? I'm toying with the idea of resetting now, I did a 3 element build as well and now I want to take back points from my lower lvl spells so I can up my masteries/aoes/etc.

this is a really nice guide for making a 3 element mage. its really well laid out.

Guide updated with more info.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vicwac


It is not comfirmed yet but most sources say it will be available. We can always be hopeful right?

thats almost an exact replica of my simulation after the advice u gave me last time. u just cleared up a few doubts i had. concerning stats i'm a 1/4 mage, some might argue against it but thats just me. i load my armour wit +def items and i move on from there. i'm currently lvl32 still on the grind. i love pvp battles. so my last question... do i HAVE to reconfigure my stats to 2/3 to be a real effective pvper or can i maintain my 1/4?

pvp 3/2 pve 1/4 o midli 2/3(good to pvp and pve but no so strong)
i up 2/3
This post has been modified on Aug 20 , 2007 03:05:15 AM by nickIL.

thanks. btw love ur Dark Magician Girl

Spirirt requirement on wands will NOT allow you to go 3-2. 2-3 is close to the max you can go. But yeah the general guideline is the more heal you have the better you will be at PvP.

great guide there
is it only mage?
look good...

Quote:
Originally Posted by abysomur


You mean, MY dark magician girl. Mine.

hello.. this si a nice guide..
im jus wondering where i should put my stat points?
thnx^^

Quote:
Originally Posted by sturddaturd


Well, one method is to start with a 1-4 heal/spirit distribution, and then switch to 2-3 once you hit level 34.

thnx for da reply. but how about the equips?

This post has been modified on Aug 21 , 2007 09:11:41 AM by sturddaturd.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sturddaturd


That is a really broad question, is there anything specific you want to know about equipments that i didn't mention in my guide?

I have a tri element guide too, check it out:
http://phpbb.acclaim.com/2moons/viewtopic.php?t=22694
nice job btw, but you should max nimbus as soon as you can, and you dont need to max the elemental masteries until lvl 81/92 spells. The reason is is that the most you can get (lvl 10 mastery) out of spells before 81 is only about 250-300 extra damage. Not much. It still took me 2 lvl 36 aoes and a fireball or ice wave to kill a mob at my lvl with or without maxed out mastery for that element.
But at lvl 81 and 92 spells raising the element masteries to 10 will add over 1.3k damage! thats godly!
energy hammer is good by the way you should try it. Also from lvl 51-81 you don't get any new spells, so might as well try energy hammer. Other than that you where right to max out energy mastery so soon and mana force, and going tri element is how a mage is supposed to be. Master of all the elements. Not 1 or 2 elements, ALL the elements

This post has been modified on Aug 22 , 2007 09:33:32 PM by punksushi.

Thanks..I should go with the 2/3 stats.

Quote:
Originally Posted by punksushi


Actually you are right that nimbus is more effective than elemental masteries at lower levels, but once you get to lvl60+, elemental masteries will start to overtake nimbus in effectiveness, and that's the time when you really need the boost in attack power.
I haven't tried energy hammer personally, but according to most of the veteran players' opinion, it's not worth spending points on, and I will stick with that

the only thing im having troubles with is hot keying all these spells. i mean wen we get to high lvls. are we only gonna use aoes? because dats the only thin dat can fit in one set. and i dnot think u hav da time to click for the second set of hotkeys in the middle of a fight
This post has been modified on Aug 24 , 2007 12:05:06 AM by sturddaturd.

Yeah pretty much all you will be using are AOEs, you might want to keep 1 or 2 fast casting single target spells just in case.