The Magus: a spellcaster's guide
Oct 24, 2016 11:04:01 GMT -8
Amairgen, Benjamin, and 5 more like this
Post by appolon on Oct 24, 2016 11:04:01 GMT -8
Greetings all,
I have been getting a lot of questions about the mage class and since there is no general guide here
I've decided to write one that aspiring mages might find useful.
Keep in mind I hadn't played UO for over 9 years, so a lot of things had changed and I had to
relearn everything, including the specific quests and additions in the UO traditions shard.
You can do a lot of things going straight mage (magery, eval int), but to be able to handle
almost everything you need to learn pretty much any possible spellcasting style available,
e.g., magery, necromancy and spellweaving.
If you are an Elf make sure you do the Elven incantations quest. Some of these spells are so important that can make you survive battles
you would have no chance without them, in particular, fighting Dracula (Vampire hunter) or Vepula (The Medeis Incantatrix). Also note that Davy Jones drops a race change bubble to become an Elf if you're not (rare drop I think, I only got 3 in over 20 times killing him). This race change token can be dropped by a "cu de sac" type creature in Heartwood woods (looks like a jaguar, Heartwood entrance is north of Papua).
We will discuss the pure magus, not hybrids (e.g., no mage-warrior, mage-thief, etc).
General Tips:
1) Learn how to macro, it will save your life and remove frustration. Razor can be used to create some
awesome macros that can be called upon depending on the situation you're in. See below specifics on
important macros you should create. Also make sure you hotkey "stop current macro".
2) You are not a melee fighter, but a proud spellcaster. Have summons intercept your attackers in
melee combat while you rip them apart with your devastating spells. Macro the phrases
"all guard me" and "all kill" and target the nearest gray.
3) The spell "protection" is a must. It will allow you to cast without being interrupted. Of course it comes with a price;
it lowers your spell resistance, which means that while you're moving across the battlefield your foe can paralyze you;
and you know you can't handle melee, ergo you are in for certain death.
I therefore highly recommend maxing spell resistance, a magus needs to be able to move as he chooses.
4) There are many great quests for spellcasters in the shard. Make sure you do them all. See the details below on magus quests.
5) Although not required, it is useful learning both inscription and alchemy (so you can also spellcraft). In particular, you can
make manas with alchemy, whereas, inscription can be used to create slayer type spellbooks (extremely important, they make double
or triple damage, to a racial group or specific monster type).
6) Make most damaging spells automatically targeting the nearest unfriendly (gray npcs).
7) Buy a suit of leather armor (so you can meditate) with lower reagent cost (LRC), lower mana cost (LMC) and mana increase/regen.
Those should cost 150K. Your jewelry should include spell damage increase (SDI).
Many stats are capped, see below for details. Luck is also a must in all your items.
8) Finally, don't panic; panic is the mother of all skrew ups, e.g., press the wrong keyboard keys, summon instead of healing yourself etc.
Skills of the Magus
Magery, Evaluate Intelligence, Necromancy, Spirit Speak, Spellweaving, Meditation and Focus for mana regeneration even if you don't use the
meditation skill (the latter two always help regenerate mana). That's 7 skills. 3 more and you are at the skill cap (1200 pts). I've chosen Inscription,
Alchemy and Resist Spells, but you could try different builds that work for you.
Stats of the Magus
All stats cannot exceed 150, even with items that add to stats. 130 is the maximum base for an individual stat. Set your INT to 130 (use a skill ball if you have one). For the others I took 75 DEX and the rest dump on STR so you can carry more and have more life.
Starting up and making coin
-The coach next to the bank can be used to take you almost everywhere, and any places you cannot reach can be found via the moongate north of the gypsy camp (south-eastern part of town) or the boatman at the docks (eg. moonglow and magincia).
-Get yourself to Umbra and buy a necro spellbook and basic spells. Start training magery (eval int is trained automatically, e.g., cast on yourself mass cure, reveal, invisibility and polymorth) all the way to 100. As you run out of mana meditation and focus are trained also. Now max necromancy using the various forms (wraith, horrific beast, litch, vampiric etc) and spirit speak (train your necro to 32, if you didnt start with it, at the Umbra necro shop).
-Find a spot where you can test your macros or other stuff. I used britain cemetery for testing.
-Despise is a good dungeon to start with (mind the trolls outside). A lot of slow moving critters in here and lizardmen even if fast are easy kills.
-Since you probably won't be able to handle destard (trammel) when you start, making scrolls is a great way to make coin and stay in town where there's safety until you're ready. Near the gypsy camp is a merchant selling blank scrolls. The mage south of the mayor's house sells blank scrolls. Also note that south of the mayors room (where you start in the shard) there are two scribes as well. I missed those the first time. If you go to the second floor there are runebooks with all sorts of places.
-Once you're ready hit destard and get coin and gems to sell. Easy money to get you going until you can buy better gear and power scrolls.
Macros
I usually do 3 of each spell in a row, or do one spell and check the loop box in razor to run the
same macro again and again. Different foes have different resistances so you need to attack
them with the right spells for maximum effect.
Important macros include:
1) fireball, lightning, mind blast, energy bolt, poison strike and flamestrike. Observe the type of damage done by these spells.
Word of death from spellweaving does chaos damage.
2) summon imp (summon fiend from spellweaving), summon earth and fire elemental should always be handy. After you get the medeis incantatrix
use the new summon spell. All these are blue summons, meaning you can cast spells and they wont be targeted. Gray summons
that are important are energy vortex and nature's fury. Vengence from necromancy is another useful spell. Casting spells with
automatic targeting of nearest unfriendly will hurt your own grey summons. Therefore, make sure you have a macro for last spell/last
target so you can hit your foe even if they are surrounded by the own summons and yours.
3) healing spells, including mass cure are a must. Unless you use vampiric embrace you will need to cure yourself a lot, so make sure
you have macros for those, as well as, a macro to heal the nearest friendly, vis a vis, your blue summons.
4) area spells for crowd control or even bosses are great, including poison field, mass lightning and meteor.
5) make sure you macro invisibility; it can save your life when you run out of mana and you have an angry mob coming after you.
Property caps
SDI is capped at 100%. LRC can be 100%, so no regs required. LMC is capped at 40%.
Items to obtain and use
1) If you have inscription keep making spellbooks until you get all types of slayer spellbooks. Then you can macro switching
your spellbook in your right hand even in the middle of the battle. Remember you need only one of your spellbooks to be full
with all spells, the others can be empty.
2) SDI can be spellcrafted only in jewelry, so make sure you have it there and possibly all should add to 100%. There are arties
like the arcane set that can give SDI as a property further helping you to reach the cap. The same holds for LRC and LMC, but
you can spellcraft those in armor pieces even.
3) I like to use a shield for the properties it adds on (obviously) not for parrying. There are some shields (like guardian) that come with SDI.
4) Obtain the necromancy book and basic spells from the necro shop in Umbra (eastern building up the stairs). Most demon
types (demons, imps, gargoyles) can drop necro scrolls.
5) Obtaining the spellweaving book requires doing a quest (I think it was an elf near the coach). All these quest npcs that were in Hearwood
can be found in Papua. Get the quest for the imp spells asap (summon fiend). Obtaining all the spellweaving spells can
be a pain. Twisted Weald and Prism of light are your best choices. Scrolls drop there a lot, unfortunately,
some are rare.
6) Do the shard quests as soon as you can handle them. The "Quests of high sorcery" give decent items (albeit its random).
The jewelry in particular are extremely useful once spellcrafted.
7) Certain unique spellbooks, like scrappers compendium and conjurer's grimoire are very useful to have in your arsenal.
Advice on specific foes
These tips should help you even in Tartarus when you're ready.
1) Dragons: most of them are slow and spellbooks can take the dragon slayer property. Energy spells work well, energy bolt and lightning.
Use some summons to distract them so that their fireballs hit the summons not you...Especially against ancient and shadow wyrms summons are a must
to attract their spells and heavy melee damage.
2) Undead: the slayer property is possible on spellbooks. Use fire spells, fireball and flamestrike. For ancient liches use flamestrikes and have them
butcher your summons instead of you (their flamestrikes are deadly, especially if you're not at 120 eval int).
3) Demons: it never rolled for me but it is possible to get demon slayer property on a spellbook (very rare). There is also a gargoyle slayer (for triple damage). Energy spells work well, summons are a must for Balrons (they hit hard and can kill you easily if you're not careful).
4) Vile Bassilisks: as the name suggests, these necromancy casting, deadly melee critters are pretty bad and can kill easily anyone if not careful.
Simply their blood oath lasts so long and is cast so fast on you that by the time you realize it you've casted that energy bolt for over 200 damage and
are dead... Vengeance works well on them. If you got max followers you can cast 2 of them and then zap the vile creature with energy bolts. Watch out
that you don't kill your summons. They can keep them busy pretty well.
5) Gargoyles: some gargoyles are really nasty (especially if tradian). Make sure you have a gargoyle slayer spellbook handy and zap them with bolts
(lightning or energy).
6) Poisson striking foes: certain creatures (like Saligia) have that nasty poison attack. Best course of action is energy vortexes (immune to poison), cast and forget. Keep 2 screens away from them otherwise the poison attack will lower your health fast. Did her recently; what also work well was having ethereal wind (ancient necro incantations) up and energy bolt her, along with feeding her imps. Gift of renewal cannot be cast if poisoned.
Advice on specific dungeons
In Tartarus, there are rest areas or teleporters to other dungeons or areas in many dungeons. Learn where they are and use them for quick exits or to regroup.
Usually in the second levels of the dungeons (and lower). At lower levels in tartarus critters got tons of hit points and can kill you fast. Always keep summons handy. I have explored most of these (not all levels though) in tartarus so here's a small list of what to be aware if you venture there.
1) Deceit: undead slayer spellbook, and maybe repond slayer for some evil mages (tartarus version). The third level has a couple of vile bassilisks
and some nasty tormented liches, look out. An ever watchful tradian skeletal dragon guards entry to the 3rd level. I haven't seen the tormented liches come as tradian which is a shame (there's lots of them and they have a lot of hit points, good battles). Level 4 seems to be a group affair, tons of critters near the entrance. Lots of tormentor litches including their master, and even shadow fiends going deeper. Too bad not a lot of tradians in here just a few ancient litches by the entrance.
UPDATE: I can now confirm that one tormentor tradian actually spawned, so it is indeed possible to get them in tradian mode. They appear to spawn very rarely that way though.
2) Shame: beware; your spells are reflected on higher level elementals. Have your elemental slayer spellbook handy to clear the low level
elementals and use summons for the rest. The 3nd level has a lot of tradians that can be zapped without fear (blood, air, fire, poison elementals), however, the odd tradian elemental might be among them so look out you don't kill yourself with your own spells. Energy vortex is your best choice in that case. Before going to the small room connecting levels 3 and 4, there are a lot of gazer type creatures (gauger, beholder etc), that are not that hard but there's a lot of them. Ditto in the small room so look out. They have numbers so you need numbers, appeal to your summon fiend spell and use "all kill" commands. The next level has shadow fiends (oh mama!) as far as I explored.
3) Hytloth: slayer spellbooks a must here. Some rooms are packed with critters and your prey, vile bassilisks. They will target you
the minute you open the door and come after you with that blood oath of theirs asap, so have summons go in first and then use vengeance.
Lower levels (especially in Tartarus) can get nasty pretty fast. There is no point in killing the balrons and succubi unless they are tradian. Use banish undead (ancient necro incantations) to remove unwanted demons.
4) Covetous: those stone ettins, ogres and trolls have an insane amount of hit points (2nd level and on). And the spellcaster version are formitable
foes. Take it slow and don't lure more than a few or you'll
run out of mana and die fast. For some reason repond slayer doesn't work on any of them.
5) Destard: the spawn here is crazy, so look out not to lure too many (its an open area so they can see you from far away).
If you see a blackrock infested dragon (tradian or no) get ready for a real fight. Vile bassilisks on
the back of the first level are a good prey. You will run out of mana fast here, especially if you run into some exalted versions of dragons. 2nd level is really crazy and can get overwhelming very fast. I try to clear the minute I go in and don't lure the rest of them a bit deeper in the level (yup shadow fiends here also).
3rd level is a group affair (note: the actual 3rd level of destard in tart is accessed via covetous past the second mountain top).
6) Wrong: first level is great to farm arcane gems from those Juka lords. Second level is pretty hard with all those shadow fiends in there (massive amount of hit
points each one).
7) Ice: the white walkers can hit hard with melee and spells so have summons and fireball ready to ease their passing (rather slowly).
The second level has so much spawn in it that it is undoable solo, unless you make it to a back room and then start picking them one by one. If you take the exit to the ice lands there are some ice wyrms that can spawn as tradian as well as a couple of pendragons (one of those dropped the pixie swatter for me). A lot of hit points but doable. Do not step into the sparkles in eastern part of the ice lands unless you're ready to fight a horde of ice wyrms and other ice creatures. Nice for a group adventure this area.
8) Despise: very doable solo as far as I can tell. Use fireball and flamestrike. Unfortunately, repond slayer doesn't work on some of the ratmen, so some fights can be long. Look out in the top level for those new lizardmen; there's tons of them and you can get overwhelmed easily. Use area spells to plow the road.
9) Warren: a lot of tradians and a lot of decos, jewlery and weapons drop here. Need to be able to handle skeleton dragons to explore the rest of the dungeon (yes 3 of them at the same time...).
10) Atlantis: I have now explored this dungeon well; There are two entrances (one in marble isle the other west of the
trinsic moongate under the waterfall). The spawn is so high here that it almost demands this to be a group affair. This is a very high level dungeon with a lot of new critters having tons of hit points. I can confirm that tradians can spawn here, but anything can give you an artie when killed in here. What you're looking fo rare the dark fathers; great loot, skillballs, statballs, wall safe, variable carpet addons, arties, etc etc you name it can drop on these guys. If you go south from the main entrance you'll find a 9red) dark father (looks like the original dark fathers from doom dungeons). This one has great loot and can kill you in 2 hits. If you ever manage to go deep within the dungeon, you might encounter the most vile creature of all, Beelzebub himself. This one can kill in half a hit...and pulls you to him as well, so say goodnight. He seems like a group affair to me.
Quests
Having done all quests (except for some skill specific like bard/chivalry and crafter) I can now offer you some hints and a rating on difficulty depending on the magi level you have achieved. Lets list all the quests related to the Magus along with some minor comments for each one. I've decided to give hints and not a walkthrough as not to ruin the experience for you.
Magus classification levels: 1) Apprentice (a few GMs or none), 2) Accomplished (a few GMs, no 120s), 3) Master Magus (a lot of GMs ,a few 120s), 4) Elite Magus (all magus skills at 120).
Evil Witch area in Arrete- for the starting magus this is a must quest to run a few times. Some decent newbie/midlevel items can drop that you can use until you're ready for the harder quests and better gear.
Level>=1
Elven Incantations-if you're not an Elf, detest Elves, rather side with dwarfs and all that, the spells in this spellbook will make you love being an Elf and more. Must have spells for changing your level from great mage to awesome mage. Some are very hard to get since the 4 Elves dish out their scrolls randomly. When you hit the water pool in the Ophidian temple get at least 120 bottles or you'll be back later for more.
Level>=3.
The Paroxysmus dungeon area with the Elf scroll giver is infested with succubi and balrons. Be ready to clear those before you spawn the spiders.
The Heartwood area is infested with drow elves and gold and black dragons (they drop the evo eggs, they never did for me in over 10 tries), so you better get ready for a fight when you collect the berries.
The dark wool can be collected by black sheep. There are a few pens around the world where these rare creatures spawn.
The cave before the entrance to the twisted weald is where you get the items for the Tree Elf.
Just for the Enchanted Grove spell this quest is one of the most important for a magus. This spell replenishes your mana/health supply but it takes a long time to cast so you have to time it properly so that you can use it in the heat of battle to your advantage.
Four Sisters-rewards can be awesome, unfortunately very rare, and by the time you can do all four of them you don't need to run this quest, you're already 120 in all magus skills though different means. I'm not doing this quest anymore unless I get really really bored...
Level>=2 (don't bother trying it when you start, you're in for a lot of grief)
Summons should be used when fighting all of the bosses. Some are easier than others. Only one can pull you to her (the one with the sheep) and the tower magus can teleport to you, the other two bosses are ok if you can handle their spells. Just walk around them and zap them with fireballs. Don't let any of these melee you, you'll die instantly.
Merlin's rescue-great items for starting characters but wait until you have a few GMs to attempt it, some fights might get rough.
Levels>=1
Mini-Bosses-required for upgrading the Medeis. Get the quest from Empath Abbey in Yew and begin a long journey through all dungeons of Trammel. A great quest, unfortunately results are not guaranteed and you might have to kill the dungeon boss 7-8 times for the part to drop (that means waiting a few days potentially to get all 7 parts). Fighting Saligia is a boon in this quest chain. This fight is one of the best to test your abilities as a mage as well as your reaction times.
She has that nasty poison attack and if you're not careful you can die fast here. Easier way to get her is Energy Vortex (immune to poison) from a safe distance (2 screens away to avoid her constant poisoning).
The toughest minibosses to get are the ones in Wrong and Hytloth (small rooms so no room for mistakes). In Hytloth target the boss only and once he's down, call on nature's fury to keep his pet minotaurs at bay while you check to see if the part has dropped. For most of the other bosses zap them either with fireballs or lightning/energy bolts and feed them imps. They'll fall eventually. In shame one of the groups before the boss reflects magic so use energy vortex.
Levels>=3 (at level 2 you're in for a lot of grief and frustration)
Necromancy-Ancient Incantations-such important spells (guaranteed rewards) and the randomness in the foe chosen makes this one of the best quests (replayable). Make sure your book is in your backpack to receive a new spell, randomly selected at the time you speak to the necromancer. Look out for the wisps guarding the entrance to the second level. A lot of them can be deadly.
Levels>=2 (start hitting this quest asap)
Necromancy-Armageddon Spell- rare drop, requires blackrock to cast and I'm not sure casting it is survivable. The book dropped for me while the guy was paragon and never before, over 5 times at least through this quest. Beware that near the Chaos shrine there at least 4 balrons, including a paragon one that can easily kill you if you're not ready for it. Bring some summons up and get ready to use "banish undead" on them if you have it from ancient incantations.
Necromancy-Book of the Dead-rare drop, a book to summon undead, hasn't dropped for me in over 5 tries. The quest takes you again to different places, which helps you to learn your way around.
Necromancy-Mercenary-it dropped for me after 5-6 times. Unfortunately, human and undead mercs have been an issue of controversy from what I've read in another post. I don't know what has occurred so I won't comment on it; what I do know is that it might not be worth the time and energy required to evolve the merc to useable levels if they cannot handle even a single Balron (nevermind tradian). So it's up to you if you want to pursue this venture, I hear that they're not as good as they used to be.
Necromancy-Ossian Grimoire-semi tedious quest and the ancient litches at the end are worst than tradian ancient litches, so look out. This hasn't dropped for me in over 10 times through...Some items drop on the last boss that might be useful, but if you can handle this quest chain you probably don't really need these items. Finding the hug can be a pain. Get 200 of each necro reagent before going to see G'nomi.
Saint Elmo the Monastic-upgrade the medeis into an engine of destruction...He's in the Prism of Light dungeon (Njulem), southern exit in the seekers area. He asks for the plasma dropped by Saligia. Note: first talk to him then do Saligia.
Tests of High Sorcery-great midlevel items, some extremely useful, do this one every day once you're ready. If you get Molpe you're in for a lot of pain, especially if you don't have the Medeis yet. The rest of the bosses/quest lines are ok. A lot of random paths and great rewards in this quest. I do this quest every day and it doesn't get you bored so a must do whatever level you reach.
To give you an idea, if you get Blackbeard and the key to his chest then you get a chance to get the resource box to send resources to your bank box (a Unique item, extremely rare).
Levels>=2 (start hitting this quest asap)
The Medeis Incantatrix-not many quests are as hard nor as rewarding as this one. Doing this quest will change your magus status again from great to awesome. Vepula is one of the toughest critters in any of the shard quests (worst than Molpe). I don't want to give away any tactics on her because I'd cast a shadow on your great victory if you get her. You need to do more damage on her than she heals (and boy she heals nonstop, constantly). The only way to survive her constant flamestrikes is to have her hit something else, so summon constantly.
Also bringing 3-4 mana potions with you is not a bad idea. When she's low you might want to hit her with flamestrikes. Make sure you have her attack you first and say "all guard me" as you summon. Get ready for a surprise when she's dead.
Definately my favorite fight along with the one with Dracula (the vampire Hunter quest) and the reward is great for both quests.
Levels>=3 (at level 3 you're in for a lot of pain without the right tactics)
More details on soloing more quests, peerless and champion spawns to come in future edits of this post.
Safe travels for now,
Appolon
Guildmaster
Circle of Magi
I have been getting a lot of questions about the mage class and since there is no general guide here
I've decided to write one that aspiring mages might find useful.
Keep in mind I hadn't played UO for over 9 years, so a lot of things had changed and I had to
relearn everything, including the specific quests and additions in the UO traditions shard.
You can do a lot of things going straight mage (magery, eval int), but to be able to handle
almost everything you need to learn pretty much any possible spellcasting style available,
e.g., magery, necromancy and spellweaving.
If you are an Elf make sure you do the Elven incantations quest. Some of these spells are so important that can make you survive battles
you would have no chance without them, in particular, fighting Dracula (Vampire hunter) or Vepula (The Medeis Incantatrix). Also note that Davy Jones drops a race change bubble to become an Elf if you're not (rare drop I think, I only got 3 in over 20 times killing him). This race change token can be dropped by a "cu de sac" type creature in Heartwood woods (looks like a jaguar, Heartwood entrance is north of Papua).
We will discuss the pure magus, not hybrids (e.g., no mage-warrior, mage-thief, etc).
General Tips:
1) Learn how to macro, it will save your life and remove frustration. Razor can be used to create some
awesome macros that can be called upon depending on the situation you're in. See below specifics on
important macros you should create. Also make sure you hotkey "stop current macro".
2) You are not a melee fighter, but a proud spellcaster. Have summons intercept your attackers in
melee combat while you rip them apart with your devastating spells. Macro the phrases
"all guard me" and "all kill" and target the nearest gray.
3) The spell "protection" is a must. It will allow you to cast without being interrupted. Of course it comes with a price;
it lowers your spell resistance, which means that while you're moving across the battlefield your foe can paralyze you;
and you know you can't handle melee, ergo you are in for certain death.
I therefore highly recommend maxing spell resistance, a magus needs to be able to move as he chooses.
4) There are many great quests for spellcasters in the shard. Make sure you do them all. See the details below on magus quests.
5) Although not required, it is useful learning both inscription and alchemy (so you can also spellcraft). In particular, you can
make manas with alchemy, whereas, inscription can be used to create slayer type spellbooks (extremely important, they make double
or triple damage, to a racial group or specific monster type).
6) Make most damaging spells automatically targeting the nearest unfriendly (gray npcs).
7) Buy a suit of leather armor (so you can meditate) with lower reagent cost (LRC), lower mana cost (LMC) and mana increase/regen.
Those should cost 150K. Your jewelry should include spell damage increase (SDI).
Many stats are capped, see below for details. Luck is also a must in all your items.
8) Finally, don't panic; panic is the mother of all skrew ups, e.g., press the wrong keyboard keys, summon instead of healing yourself etc.
Skills of the Magus
Magery, Evaluate Intelligence, Necromancy, Spirit Speak, Spellweaving, Meditation and Focus for mana regeneration even if you don't use the
meditation skill (the latter two always help regenerate mana). That's 7 skills. 3 more and you are at the skill cap (1200 pts). I've chosen Inscription,
Alchemy and Resist Spells, but you could try different builds that work for you.
Stats of the Magus
All stats cannot exceed 150, even with items that add to stats. 130 is the maximum base for an individual stat. Set your INT to 130 (use a skill ball if you have one). For the others I took 75 DEX and the rest dump on STR so you can carry more and have more life.
Starting up and making coin
-The coach next to the bank can be used to take you almost everywhere, and any places you cannot reach can be found via the moongate north of the gypsy camp (south-eastern part of town) or the boatman at the docks (eg. moonglow and magincia).
-Get yourself to Umbra and buy a necro spellbook and basic spells. Start training magery (eval int is trained automatically, e.g., cast on yourself mass cure, reveal, invisibility and polymorth) all the way to 100. As you run out of mana meditation and focus are trained also. Now max necromancy using the various forms (wraith, horrific beast, litch, vampiric etc) and spirit speak (train your necro to 32, if you didnt start with it, at the Umbra necro shop).
-Find a spot where you can test your macros or other stuff. I used britain cemetery for testing.
-Despise is a good dungeon to start with (mind the trolls outside). A lot of slow moving critters in here and lizardmen even if fast are easy kills.
-Since you probably won't be able to handle destard (trammel) when you start, making scrolls is a great way to make coin and stay in town where there's safety until you're ready. Near the gypsy camp is a merchant selling blank scrolls. The mage south of the mayor's house sells blank scrolls. Also note that south of the mayors room (where you start in the shard) there are two scribes as well. I missed those the first time. If you go to the second floor there are runebooks with all sorts of places.
-Once you're ready hit destard and get coin and gems to sell. Easy money to get you going until you can buy better gear and power scrolls.
Macros
I usually do 3 of each spell in a row, or do one spell and check the loop box in razor to run the
same macro again and again. Different foes have different resistances so you need to attack
them with the right spells for maximum effect.
Important macros include:
1) fireball, lightning, mind blast, energy bolt, poison strike and flamestrike. Observe the type of damage done by these spells.
Word of death from spellweaving does chaos damage.
2) summon imp (summon fiend from spellweaving), summon earth and fire elemental should always be handy. After you get the medeis incantatrix
use the new summon spell. All these are blue summons, meaning you can cast spells and they wont be targeted. Gray summons
that are important are energy vortex and nature's fury. Vengence from necromancy is another useful spell. Casting spells with
automatic targeting of nearest unfriendly will hurt your own grey summons. Therefore, make sure you have a macro for last spell/last
target so you can hit your foe even if they are surrounded by the own summons and yours.
3) healing spells, including mass cure are a must. Unless you use vampiric embrace you will need to cure yourself a lot, so make sure
you have macros for those, as well as, a macro to heal the nearest friendly, vis a vis, your blue summons.
4) area spells for crowd control or even bosses are great, including poison field, mass lightning and meteor.
5) make sure you macro invisibility; it can save your life when you run out of mana and you have an angry mob coming after you.
Property caps
SDI is capped at 100%. LRC can be 100%, so no regs required. LMC is capped at 40%.
Items to obtain and use
1) If you have inscription keep making spellbooks until you get all types of slayer spellbooks. Then you can macro switching
your spellbook in your right hand even in the middle of the battle. Remember you need only one of your spellbooks to be full
with all spells, the others can be empty.
2) SDI can be spellcrafted only in jewelry, so make sure you have it there and possibly all should add to 100%. There are arties
like the arcane set that can give SDI as a property further helping you to reach the cap. The same holds for LRC and LMC, but
you can spellcraft those in armor pieces even.
3) I like to use a shield for the properties it adds on (obviously) not for parrying. There are some shields (like guardian) that come with SDI.
4) Obtain the necromancy book and basic spells from the necro shop in Umbra (eastern building up the stairs). Most demon
types (demons, imps, gargoyles) can drop necro scrolls.
5) Obtaining the spellweaving book requires doing a quest (I think it was an elf near the coach). All these quest npcs that were in Hearwood
can be found in Papua. Get the quest for the imp spells asap (summon fiend). Obtaining all the spellweaving spells can
be a pain. Twisted Weald and Prism of light are your best choices. Scrolls drop there a lot, unfortunately,
some are rare.
6) Do the shard quests as soon as you can handle them. The "Quests of high sorcery" give decent items (albeit its random).
The jewelry in particular are extremely useful once spellcrafted.
7) Certain unique spellbooks, like scrappers compendium and conjurer's grimoire are very useful to have in your arsenal.
Advice on specific foes
These tips should help you even in Tartarus when you're ready.
1) Dragons: most of them are slow and spellbooks can take the dragon slayer property. Energy spells work well, energy bolt and lightning.
Use some summons to distract them so that their fireballs hit the summons not you...Especially against ancient and shadow wyrms summons are a must
to attract their spells and heavy melee damage.
2) Undead: the slayer property is possible on spellbooks. Use fire spells, fireball and flamestrike. For ancient liches use flamestrikes and have them
butcher your summons instead of you (their flamestrikes are deadly, especially if you're not at 120 eval int).
3) Demons: it never rolled for me but it is possible to get demon slayer property on a spellbook (very rare). There is also a gargoyle slayer (for triple damage). Energy spells work well, summons are a must for Balrons (they hit hard and can kill you easily if you're not careful).
4) Vile Bassilisks: as the name suggests, these necromancy casting, deadly melee critters are pretty bad and can kill easily anyone if not careful.
Simply their blood oath lasts so long and is cast so fast on you that by the time you realize it you've casted that energy bolt for over 200 damage and
are dead... Vengeance works well on them. If you got max followers you can cast 2 of them and then zap the vile creature with energy bolts. Watch out
that you don't kill your summons. They can keep them busy pretty well.
5) Gargoyles: some gargoyles are really nasty (especially if tradian). Make sure you have a gargoyle slayer spellbook handy and zap them with bolts
(lightning or energy).
6) Poisson striking foes: certain creatures (like Saligia) have that nasty poison attack. Best course of action is energy vortexes (immune to poison), cast and forget. Keep 2 screens away from them otherwise the poison attack will lower your health fast. Did her recently; what also work well was having ethereal wind (ancient necro incantations) up and energy bolt her, along with feeding her imps. Gift of renewal cannot be cast if poisoned.
Advice on specific dungeons
In Tartarus, there are rest areas or teleporters to other dungeons or areas in many dungeons. Learn where they are and use them for quick exits or to regroup.
Usually in the second levels of the dungeons (and lower). At lower levels in tartarus critters got tons of hit points and can kill you fast. Always keep summons handy. I have explored most of these (not all levels though) in tartarus so here's a small list of what to be aware if you venture there.
1) Deceit: undead slayer spellbook, and maybe repond slayer for some evil mages (tartarus version). The third level has a couple of vile bassilisks
and some nasty tormented liches, look out. An ever watchful tradian skeletal dragon guards entry to the 3rd level. I haven't seen the tormented liches come as tradian which is a shame (there's lots of them and they have a lot of hit points, good battles). Level 4 seems to be a group affair, tons of critters near the entrance. Lots of tormentor litches including their master, and even shadow fiends going deeper. Too bad not a lot of tradians in here just a few ancient litches by the entrance.
UPDATE: I can now confirm that one tormentor tradian actually spawned, so it is indeed possible to get them in tradian mode. They appear to spawn very rarely that way though.
2) Shame: beware; your spells are reflected on higher level elementals. Have your elemental slayer spellbook handy to clear the low level
elementals and use summons for the rest. The 3nd level has a lot of tradians that can be zapped without fear (blood, air, fire, poison elementals), however, the odd tradian elemental might be among them so look out you don't kill yourself with your own spells. Energy vortex is your best choice in that case. Before going to the small room connecting levels 3 and 4, there are a lot of gazer type creatures (gauger, beholder etc), that are not that hard but there's a lot of them. Ditto in the small room so look out. They have numbers so you need numbers, appeal to your summon fiend spell and use "all kill" commands. The next level has shadow fiends (oh mama!) as far as I explored.
3) Hytloth: slayer spellbooks a must here. Some rooms are packed with critters and your prey, vile bassilisks. They will target you
the minute you open the door and come after you with that blood oath of theirs asap, so have summons go in first and then use vengeance.
Lower levels (especially in Tartarus) can get nasty pretty fast. There is no point in killing the balrons and succubi unless they are tradian. Use banish undead (ancient necro incantations) to remove unwanted demons.
4) Covetous: those stone ettins, ogres and trolls have an insane amount of hit points (2nd level and on). And the spellcaster version are formitable
foes. Take it slow and don't lure more than a few or you'll
run out of mana and die fast. For some reason repond slayer doesn't work on any of them.
5) Destard: the spawn here is crazy, so look out not to lure too many (its an open area so they can see you from far away).
If you see a blackrock infested dragon (tradian or no) get ready for a real fight. Vile bassilisks on
the back of the first level are a good prey. You will run out of mana fast here, especially if you run into some exalted versions of dragons. 2nd level is really crazy and can get overwhelming very fast. I try to clear the minute I go in and don't lure the rest of them a bit deeper in the level (yup shadow fiends here also).
3rd level is a group affair (note: the actual 3rd level of destard in tart is accessed via covetous past the second mountain top).
6) Wrong: first level is great to farm arcane gems from those Juka lords. Second level is pretty hard with all those shadow fiends in there (massive amount of hit
points each one).
7) Ice: the white walkers can hit hard with melee and spells so have summons and fireball ready to ease their passing (rather slowly).
The second level has so much spawn in it that it is undoable solo, unless you make it to a back room and then start picking them one by one. If you take the exit to the ice lands there are some ice wyrms that can spawn as tradian as well as a couple of pendragons (one of those dropped the pixie swatter for me). A lot of hit points but doable. Do not step into the sparkles in eastern part of the ice lands unless you're ready to fight a horde of ice wyrms and other ice creatures. Nice for a group adventure this area.
8) Despise: very doable solo as far as I can tell. Use fireball and flamestrike. Unfortunately, repond slayer doesn't work on some of the ratmen, so some fights can be long. Look out in the top level for those new lizardmen; there's tons of them and you can get overwhelmed easily. Use area spells to plow the road.
9) Warren: a lot of tradians and a lot of decos, jewlery and weapons drop here. Need to be able to handle skeleton dragons to explore the rest of the dungeon (yes 3 of them at the same time...).
10) Atlantis: I have now explored this dungeon well; There are two entrances (one in marble isle the other west of the
trinsic moongate under the waterfall). The spawn is so high here that it almost demands this to be a group affair. This is a very high level dungeon with a lot of new critters having tons of hit points. I can confirm that tradians can spawn here, but anything can give you an artie when killed in here. What you're looking fo rare the dark fathers; great loot, skillballs, statballs, wall safe, variable carpet addons, arties, etc etc you name it can drop on these guys. If you go south from the main entrance you'll find a 9red) dark father (looks like the original dark fathers from doom dungeons). This one has great loot and can kill you in 2 hits. If you ever manage to go deep within the dungeon, you might encounter the most vile creature of all, Beelzebub himself. This one can kill in half a hit...and pulls you to him as well, so say goodnight. He seems like a group affair to me.
Quests
Having done all quests (except for some skill specific like bard/chivalry and crafter) I can now offer you some hints and a rating on difficulty depending on the magi level you have achieved. Lets list all the quests related to the Magus along with some minor comments for each one. I've decided to give hints and not a walkthrough as not to ruin the experience for you.
Magus classification levels: 1) Apprentice (a few GMs or none), 2) Accomplished (a few GMs, no 120s), 3) Master Magus (a lot of GMs ,a few 120s), 4) Elite Magus (all magus skills at 120).
Evil Witch area in Arrete- for the starting magus this is a must quest to run a few times. Some decent newbie/midlevel items can drop that you can use until you're ready for the harder quests and better gear.
Level>=1
Elven Incantations-if you're not an Elf, detest Elves, rather side with dwarfs and all that, the spells in this spellbook will make you love being an Elf and more. Must have spells for changing your level from great mage to awesome mage. Some are very hard to get since the 4 Elves dish out their scrolls randomly. When you hit the water pool in the Ophidian temple get at least 120 bottles or you'll be back later for more.
Level>=3.
The Paroxysmus dungeon area with the Elf scroll giver is infested with succubi and balrons. Be ready to clear those before you spawn the spiders.
The Heartwood area is infested with drow elves and gold and black dragons (they drop the evo eggs, they never did for me in over 10 tries), so you better get ready for a fight when you collect the berries.
The dark wool can be collected by black sheep. There are a few pens around the world where these rare creatures spawn.
The cave before the entrance to the twisted weald is where you get the items for the Tree Elf.
Just for the Enchanted Grove spell this quest is one of the most important for a magus. This spell replenishes your mana/health supply but it takes a long time to cast so you have to time it properly so that you can use it in the heat of battle to your advantage.
Four Sisters-rewards can be awesome, unfortunately very rare, and by the time you can do all four of them you don't need to run this quest, you're already 120 in all magus skills though different means. I'm not doing this quest anymore unless I get really really bored...
Level>=2 (don't bother trying it when you start, you're in for a lot of grief)
Summons should be used when fighting all of the bosses. Some are easier than others. Only one can pull you to her (the one with the sheep) and the tower magus can teleport to you, the other two bosses are ok if you can handle their spells. Just walk around them and zap them with fireballs. Don't let any of these melee you, you'll die instantly.
Merlin's rescue-great items for starting characters but wait until you have a few GMs to attempt it, some fights might get rough.
Levels>=1
Mini-Bosses-required for upgrading the Medeis. Get the quest from Empath Abbey in Yew and begin a long journey through all dungeons of Trammel. A great quest, unfortunately results are not guaranteed and you might have to kill the dungeon boss 7-8 times for the part to drop (that means waiting a few days potentially to get all 7 parts). Fighting Saligia is a boon in this quest chain. This fight is one of the best to test your abilities as a mage as well as your reaction times.
She has that nasty poison attack and if you're not careful you can die fast here. Easier way to get her is Energy Vortex (immune to poison) from a safe distance (2 screens away to avoid her constant poisoning).
The toughest minibosses to get are the ones in Wrong and Hytloth (small rooms so no room for mistakes). In Hytloth target the boss only and once he's down, call on nature's fury to keep his pet minotaurs at bay while you check to see if the part has dropped. For most of the other bosses zap them either with fireballs or lightning/energy bolts and feed them imps. They'll fall eventually. In shame one of the groups before the boss reflects magic so use energy vortex.
Levels>=3 (at level 2 you're in for a lot of grief and frustration)
Necromancy-Ancient Incantations-such important spells (guaranteed rewards) and the randomness in the foe chosen makes this one of the best quests (replayable). Make sure your book is in your backpack to receive a new spell, randomly selected at the time you speak to the necromancer. Look out for the wisps guarding the entrance to the second level. A lot of them can be deadly.
Levels>=2 (start hitting this quest asap)
Necromancy-Armageddon Spell- rare drop, requires blackrock to cast and I'm not sure casting it is survivable. The book dropped for me while the guy was paragon and never before, over 5 times at least through this quest. Beware that near the Chaos shrine there at least 4 balrons, including a paragon one that can easily kill you if you're not ready for it. Bring some summons up and get ready to use "banish undead" on them if you have it from ancient incantations.
Necromancy-Book of the Dead-rare drop, a book to summon undead, hasn't dropped for me in over 5 tries. The quest takes you again to different places, which helps you to learn your way around.
Necromancy-Mercenary-it dropped for me after 5-6 times. Unfortunately, human and undead mercs have been an issue of controversy from what I've read in another post. I don't know what has occurred so I won't comment on it; what I do know is that it might not be worth the time and energy required to evolve the merc to useable levels if they cannot handle even a single Balron (nevermind tradian). So it's up to you if you want to pursue this venture, I hear that they're not as good as they used to be.
Necromancy-Ossian Grimoire-semi tedious quest and the ancient litches at the end are worst than tradian ancient litches, so look out. This hasn't dropped for me in over 10 times through...Some items drop on the last boss that might be useful, but if you can handle this quest chain you probably don't really need these items. Finding the hug can be a pain. Get 200 of each necro reagent before going to see G'nomi.
Saint Elmo the Monastic-upgrade the medeis into an engine of destruction...He's in the Prism of Light dungeon (Njulem), southern exit in the seekers area. He asks for the plasma dropped by Saligia. Note: first talk to him then do Saligia.
Tests of High Sorcery-great midlevel items, some extremely useful, do this one every day once you're ready. If you get Molpe you're in for a lot of pain, especially if you don't have the Medeis yet. The rest of the bosses/quest lines are ok. A lot of random paths and great rewards in this quest. I do this quest every day and it doesn't get you bored so a must do whatever level you reach.
To give you an idea, if you get Blackbeard and the key to his chest then you get a chance to get the resource box to send resources to your bank box (a Unique item, extremely rare).
Levels>=2 (start hitting this quest asap)
The Medeis Incantatrix-not many quests are as hard nor as rewarding as this one. Doing this quest will change your magus status again from great to awesome. Vepula is one of the toughest critters in any of the shard quests (worst than Molpe). I don't want to give away any tactics on her because I'd cast a shadow on your great victory if you get her. You need to do more damage on her than she heals (and boy she heals nonstop, constantly). The only way to survive her constant flamestrikes is to have her hit something else, so summon constantly.
Also bringing 3-4 mana potions with you is not a bad idea. When she's low you might want to hit her with flamestrikes. Make sure you have her attack you first and say "all guard me" as you summon. Get ready for a surprise when she's dead.
Definately my favorite fight along with the one with Dracula (the vampire Hunter quest) and the reward is great for both quests.
Levels>=3 (at level 3 you're in for a lot of pain without the right tactics)
More details on soloing more quests, peerless and champion spawns to come in future edits of this post.
Safe travels for now,
Appolon
Guildmaster
Circle of Magi
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