how to rank as a mage?

[Ozaru]

Ok so I hardly ever play a mage always rangers or ninjas and I am starting to get bored with that so I tried to make a few different mages. One thing they all have in common is you cannot rank alone! Healer shaman necro invoker forget about it, didn't try an illusionist but I am sure it is the same. After rank 20 a cleric can probably tank since you have shield block parry cures, and acess to potions. But from level 7 + with a mage or a cleric it is just brutal, you need someone else. I was killing elves as a drow necro gettng 100xp because I can't kill farmers this totally blows. Dirt kick is key for low ranks and the mobs are totally geared this way. I would suggest that ranking from 1 to maybe 15 the xp should be doubled if you are solo ranking. I don't think there is anything worse being stuck in the mud where you just can't do anything because you can't kill anything

[Vevier]

Did you try hiring a mercenary? Remember, ranking isn't always about getting the highest exp. If you can kill eight elves in five minutes for 100exp a piece, its better than killing two farmers in 5 minutes for 350 a piece. Don't bum on low exp if the fights are easy too. [/i]

[tayyah]

Dirt isnt all its cracked up to be either, i solo leveled my shaman for alot of the lower levels and because of that blind was my first mastered spell followed by cure serious. just keep plugging away, remember, good things come to those who wait

[Ozaru]

Fast and low ranking is nothing new to me, but when you start to dip below 100 xp and your debt as a drow necro is 4k it gets really frustrating especially when you can't hit anything for damage. Now it is my understanding that mercenaries are useless because we all used drow mercenaries before the change that did double decimates and you could have them tank for a good majority of the fights. Not to be rude but please don't suggest something if it isn't actually true.... Have a pet the same rank as you isn't all that hot a low level pet definitly doesn't hit as much when the target isn't blinded. I have raged and started enough new chars to see that treand. Honestly what would be great would be to bring back the old mercs maybe making them available to mages and clerics only that can dirt kick to speed up the ranking in off surge times. Of course if I could conform my schedule around AR I wouldn't complain but if I have a free hour and I see 5 people no one I can rank with, it makes me want to play less.

[Ergorion]

Dude. Chill out. Soloing is not that bad. Mages and clerics are not the easiest classes to solo, obviously. They have neither the defenses nor the offensive ranking firepower that the warrior classes have. You're not going to be able to tank those ofcol cityguards at rank 10 with your necro.

Any soloing takes patience. And with mages and clerics, you know what you're getting into. You're just going to have to deal with it. Slow progress is better than no progress even if it is frustrating.

If you're complaining about the drow xp penalty, then don't pick a drow necro/invoker/shaman, pick a human with no penalty. It's that simple.

There are two things that I've found help make ranking mages/clerics easier.
1) Don't get overambitious with the mobs you fight. You are going to have to fight those mobs that give you 100xp or even 80xp a pop because you're going to be able to kill all 14 of them for a total of 1400xp per round rather than those ones that give 250 each (but you can only kill two before you have to rest, so it amounts to 500xp per round). Sometimes you have to think outside the box a little and find mobs that no one normally ranks on (the citizens in Ofcol are great evil lowbie ranking mobs).

2) Go with hp equipment at low ranks and let your pet's/merc's damage carry you. If you get a full set of padded leather armor at low ranks, you increase your health considerably (percentage-wise).


A pet is definitely the way to go because of how cost-effective it is. It stays with you through quits, it can take damage for you (which mercs can't) and it can rescue you.


I have soloed plenty of mages and clerics both at the lower ranks and the higher ranks (even at rank 49) and the key to getting them ranked was sticking with it. You don't rank up by sitting at the north square wishing a fire giant berserker in your range would log on, you rank up by 50xp increments if you have to.

[Ozaru]

maybe I gave off the wrong impresson, but I am not trying to incite anything. All I am saying is the over all game play of ranking a mage solo has a lot of draw backs. At least with a figther class you get the opportunity to train your skills, mages do not have that luxuary. If we are for balance then this should be something that is looked into. I would guess this is a direct reason as to why you see very few mages because people don't have the time or don't want to wait around to have someone help them rank. If we really want to promote people playing and staying especially those who want to play mages, but just don't have hours on end to solo or wait for someone to rank with maybe getting a mage pet would be a decent route to go.

[Ozaru]

let me add this mage pet thing would only be for early ranks, once you can buy potions or pretty close to it you should have enough skills/spells to get you through the solo part.

[Ergorion]

Newbies are advised to avoid the mage classes.

[Esivole]

Get a lucky group (yeah right) or have ooc friends. Either or.

[Dogran]

I have played plenty of mages. Its a pain in the ass to solo sure. It can be done. They arent going to change it just because YOU dont like it. You can actually get mercenaries to wear weapons and in some cases, armor. Picking up a claymore and getting a merc to help you will go a long ways. Same thing, if you dont like that, pick a pet thats not special in any way. It will be the mosrt helpful damage wise, as the more the pet can do the less overall damage it does. If you stick it out your not ALWAYS going to be alone. You just have to be willing to log in for more then five minutes hoping for a group. If something was broken or needed you might see a change here. But they arent just going to give you an 'easymode' for your ranking because then everyone would do it.

[Ozaru]

3 cheers for Nadrin not being a total douche on one of my posts hip hip who am I kidding your still a douche lol.

Anywhoo it isn't for me I am making this suggestion for, its for everyone clearly since I am not the only one who has access to making a mage.

How many of you said nah I don't want to take the time to play an invoker or learn to even play one because ranking is so brutal early. Now keep in mind if I am a tank, I would take a necro or ill anyday over a fighter class good god their damage is sick at upper levels. Invokers still suck for group mates no matter what.

My point is if you make it a bit easier to rank a mage in the early going you might see more people playing them instead of 348 to 168 fighters vs non, I actually put the healers and shamans and bards in the 168 so it wouldn't look as bad even though healers and shamans and bards can tank.

I believe if it was easier to rank a mage in the early stages we would have a better chance of seeing more of them around. And bring back the mystic tag, such a cool tag to have.

[Ozaru]

btw your picture nadrin is that the red dragon and some lowbie running from it, if it is thats pretty neat. I never actually looked at it up close before

[Ergorion]

I don't make invokers because I think it's a travesty that they are the only class that gets the hellstream spell, while thieves are just left out in the cold.

[Dogran]

Lol at thiefy hellstream. Yeah thats why I pickes that pic, thought, it was funny.

[Ceridwel]

One of my characters is a little illusionist right now. I've had to solo the whole way and I'm only at 13th. So I feel your pain. But I think the real problem isn't it being too hard for mages to solo, but rather it is the abyssmally low player base these days. More players would mean more tanks. Its the endless circle that has been plaguing AR for a couple years now.

How about a Canada Day/Independance Day long-weekend Surge Bonanza, Imms?! hint hint

[Ergorion]

[Ceridwel]

I like where your head's at Ergorion!

[raginggnome]

I think a review needs to be written on topmudsites or mudconnecter and have a large surge/event (like when Zaikkra was invading Thera with fell and abyssals or something). If there was something to draw them in they might actually stay and endure getting raped by all the long time players lol. If alot of players and imms got involved it would make the game more exciting for everyone really.

[Davairus]

I will be glad to cut into this thread.


First of all I will talk about clerics. Nobody should have a huge issue with ranking as a cleric. This is for a simple reason.... free healing spells. What makes a cleric rank super easily, is the fact that he can heal a tank (a better suited class for taking hits from mobs.. i.e. more defences), and that group is more effective. Even a cleric that CANNOT HEAL WELL OR SANC yet is still dragged through levels because he will be able to do it later. That is because of how much money you save in the long run, and the seamless nature of it. In principle, 3 warriors with infinite gold and monster potions in mass amounts can level far faster than that group with 2 waarriors + a cleric, and I've seen groups ranking without clerics that way, but I have seen players grabbing clerics whenever they are available. Its worth waiting for them to regen mana and its worth being able to save all the gold. Cleric healing is efficient enough for them to even tank for the group.


Now for mages. The mages are, in my opinion, put into a difficult situation because they lack the damage of warriors (I've measured damage output... warriors are higher than invokers by miles, at least as far as sustained damage output goes. I havent examined hellstream spammed non-stop to see how that compares to be fair.) They dont just lack the damage of warriors, they lack the defences as well. So the situation is, a warrior can rank without a cleric, but prefers having one. A mage cannot rank without a tank. There is no magic potion that will make a mage viable. They are deadweight.

So how to fix that. Well it is the same kind of argument as the cleric, you bring a cleric along because he brings heals. You would bring a berserker or a ninja for a slightly different, damage dealing kind of role. Personally, I think mages are supposed to fall into a damage dealing role. Probably even be the best at that.

Like the cleric, the mage starts out gimpy and is levelled perhaps on the potential he can bring to the group later. However, here's the problem - THAT POTENTIAL IS NOT THERE! In my opinion every group wants a dirt kicker, and a second damage dealer is going to be drafted to doing hobble. Why? Because those skills increase the tankiness of the tank, and increase the overall damage output of the entire party. Those are things which are a mages domain. Armor spell. Shield spell. Big damage spells. The haste spell. (Haste got nerfed really hard, but an illusionist throwing griffons and dragon illusions is still a shit ton of damage anyway, so I find illusionists to be more than ok. )

Burzuk made some ground improving this situation with hob spark and whatever invokers do now, (I don't remember), I think that it is fair to say though at this point... aside of illusionists, mage groupmates are not worth the time they waste sleeping for mana. You take one because there is nobody else. And they definitelly can't solo. To that end, I tried to implement a necro spell that restores mana on mobs. I had fucked it up, my bad. Go try that spell again. I think that should be useful to groups, especially groups with clerics because it will allow him to cast a few more healing spells.

Damage output of mages is something that is like a sore that won't go away, you can't really expect to be better than the fighters at low levels, because all mages are 0 xp for a start, and because of how horrible the pk would be (remember level 15 lightning bolts), what should be the case though is that these guys become unrivalled in the damage output later. Of course, it doesn't because of the crazy scaling on mob hp. They just go OOM in 2-3 mobs and go back to deadweight. I think we will have to do something about that situation eventually. Right now, the advice seems to be get a suit of damroll stuff and augment that with your spells. (Which won't land, because that would make mobs too easy. Go figure...)

I think what I would go for is probably more of the mana regen. Something to sustain mages through group levelling that they get from some other class (paladin crusade, dkn unholy rites, maybe things like that?) so that, like any other damage dealing class, they become a class that likes buffs and brings some small utility but mostly big damage if you make sure they're fed well. I would like to keep around the difficult levelling early but make sure that they're in demand during the shit levels that nobody finds easy on their own (22-30 and onward) so that groupmates have a reason to "carry" one... but first you will have to explain to me why nobody rolls illusionists, which actually have everything I thought a mage needed to be useful and successful.

[Ergorion]

To some of Dav's points.

I've only played illusionists and necros, so I can only talk theoretically about invokers. But from my experience, illus and necros are as viable solo classes as warriors, once they gain all the requisite spells. Dav forgot to mention the most useful spell that necros/illus have for solo ranking. For necros: animate corpse (or flesh golem/stone golem). For illusionists: duplicate.

These spells allow those classes to get warrior-type damage behind them. There are drawbacks to using charmies. Namely that the experience is lower, but I will take lower experience for the ability to kill three or four mobs per round any day.

The problem with invokers is that they don't get any support. They have slightly better defenses than the other two mage classes, but that amounts to peanuts in the long run. The one potential solo option I see for invokers is: finding mobs that do magical damage and using mana shield.