Revision as of 02:49, 22 November 2022

Welcome P99er's to my all in one guide!

Within I hope to enclose everything someone might want to know about the Magician class; fresh Green server starts, mature server raiding, leveling paths, tips and tricks, the epic, item upgrade navigation, character creation, and more!

Character Creation

Below is how the developers described the class, I will add my comments throughout in italics.

Magicians are master summoners, able to call elemental pets to do their bidding and to conjure useful items from thin air. Magicians are primarily a magic-using class, with the ability to wear cloth armor and wield blunt weapons and daggers. This is all true, and in general a good way to describe the class. While certainly being a magic-using class, a Magician is more like a melee class than the other casters because the pet is such a big part of how you interact with mobs. It's sort of like playing a warrior, who can also cast and summon things.

Elemental pets are at the heart of a magician's offensive strategy, and typically accompany a magician in all his adventures. This pet provides protection for its master, along with powerful attacks and special abilities. Magicians have a large selection of fire and magic-based damage spells, allowing them to mount a damaging magical assault in support of their elemental pet. The pet is everything while leveling up, I wouldn't say they have a large selection of spells at all, if anything they have the least amount of any pure int or wis caster. Direct damage abilities are limited overall, to fire and magic, and mostly just fire.

Magicians have a wide range of summoning spells, allowing them to conjure such diverse items as food, weapons, armor, and magical jewelry. In battle, the magician can encase his entire group in a shield of fire, damaging any opponent that strikes them. Magicians also have spells that lower a monster's resistance to magic, allowing spells to damage them more easily. Item summoning is fun, and useful at all levels, none of them are game changing, but some are very desirable.

Their signature ability at later levels allow them to summon a group member to their location. A highly sought-after ability in both groups and raids. Call of the Hero (COTH) is a blessing and a curse, incredibly powerful spell that is often just used on COTH bots. If you plan on doing any raiding, this spell is your bread and butter.

Magicians are a very focused class, sacrificing some diversity for power in their area of expertise. Magicians are able to adventure solo, but also provide value in a group situation. The magician is a good choice for players who enjoy managing a powerful pet and using a tightly focused spell selection. Mages are a great solo class to level 55 (beyond is much slower), a great grouping class, a good plat farming class, and a necessary raiding class. Some say that high level raiding is boring as a Mage, but some might say that playing a Rogue or a Cleric is equally boring. While Mage is definitely one of the lowest Action per minute (APM) classes, it's a useful class on almost every raiding encounter, good for raid leaders or anyone who is managing more than themselves on a raid. I often think of Magician as a commander class, you spend more time watching and calculating than actually being in the action, whether it's solo, grouped or raiding. Mages control the action from afar and have time to think through what needs to be done to succeed.

Races

Magician can be chosen by five races, here is the basic information for each race, and I will rank them based on a 10/10 scale for fresh start servers, mature raiding servers. Most of the races are comparable to each other, except for humans who have a large stat disadvantage, and gnomes wall vision. In the end, choose what you like to play and what you think looks cool, as the stats won't matter as much once you reach higher levels. Be aware that humans will always be behind intelligence wise and if you are creating a mage solely to be a coth bot, or you think it will be a coth bot in the future: ALWAYS choose gnome. You don't want to be using shrink pots on bots.

Dark Elf DEF

   Faction Alignment: Evil 
   Racial(s): Hide, Ultravision 
   Starting City: Neriak 
   Playable Classes: Cleric, Enchanter, Magician, Necromancer, Rogue, Shadow Knight, Warrior, Wizard 
   Experience Modifier: None 
   Armor: Medium, Small 

Best natural vision, although with Summon Coldstone any race can see as well as a Dark elf. Built in hide skill of 50, it work's 35-50% of the time, and is useful for AFKing in weird spots, avoiding trains. Hide isn't the most useful on a mage sadly because it will kill your pet. Second highest starting int. Execelant noobie zone and access to Freeport, has a library in Neriak. Fashionquest is real here, and dark elves look fantastic. Fresh start 8/10, Mature Server 7/10.

Erudite ERU

   Faction Alignment: Neutral 
   Racial(s): -5 Disease Resist, +5 Magic Resist 
   Starting City: Erudin, Paineel 
   Playable Classes: Cleric, Enchanter, Magician, Necromancer, Paladin, Shadow Knight, Wizard 
   Experience Modifier: None 
   Armor: Medium 

Highest starting int, and that bonus +5 MR is excellent! They start with 70 agility though, which is a serious handicap. Unless you put 5 points in at character creation you will have an AC penalty and often be running slower while encumbered until you get an item with +AGI on it. The noobie zone is pretty bad over all and most people have to take the boat to Qeynos, Erudin does have a library though. Fresh start 5/10, Mature Server 8/10.

Gnome GNM

   Faction Alignment: Neutral 
   Racial(s): Tinkering, Infravision 
   Starting City: Ak'Anon 
   Playable Classes: Cleric, Enchanter, Magician, Necromancer, Rogue, Warrior, Wizard 
   Experience Modifier: None 
   Armor: Small 

The only small race available for Mage, this is invaluable for using COTH to invite people from the entrance of zones. (We will cover this later). Any race can be shrunk and perform the same trick, but only gnomes can do this at all times with superior wall vision. Decent int, excellent starting zone and access to a library make them a good choice at any point during the timeline. Fresh start 8/10, Mature Server 10/10.

High Elf HIE

   Faction Alignment: Good 
   Racial(s): Infravision 
   Starting City: Felwithe 
   Playable Classes: Cleric, Enchanter, Magician, Paladin, Wizard 
   Experience Modifier: None 
   Armor: Medium, Small 

High elf has decent starting int, the highest charisma, which is actually nice. You will make more money vendoring items throughout the character's lifetime and it adds up. Greater Fay and Crushbone are noob friendly and full of cash making opportunities. Access to the library in Ak'anon as well as the dwarf and gnome starting zones. High elf is never a bad choice, just maybe not the best choice, but style matters and they have it. Fresh start 8/10, Mature Server 7/10.

Human HUM

   Faction Alignment: Neutral 
   Racial(s): None 
   Starting Cities: Freeport, Qeynos 
   Playable Classes: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Enchanter, Magician, Monk, Necromancer, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Shadow Knight, Warrior, Wizard 
   Experience Modifier: None 
   Armor: Medium 

Lowest int, male beard fashionquest, really good starting locations in Qeynos or Freeport, but the libraries are harder to access. No night vision, play a human to be more unique or to enjoy the advantages on an early server, they get a decent fresh start ranking purely because Qeynos, the catacombs, Blackburrow and the karanas are such a good place to play. Fresh Start 7/10, Mature Server 5/10.

Starting Statistics

As a general rule of thumb going 25 int/5 stam is a strong choice for any racial choice or playstyle. It wasn't until deep into Velious gear that I began to regret choosing 25 int at creation on the first Green server. I chose Dark elf, with 25 int and 5 str, and it served me well throughout the entire timeline. It wasn't until I started getting NToV caliber loot that I started going over 255 int, and even then as a raiding mage you will want to be using a Manna Robe anyway which will limit your int. The point is that going 25 int is never wrong, or a bad choice. In fact it is generally the best choice available for most players.

For Erudites on fresh start server I highly recommend going 25 int/5 agi to cover that agility gap. If you don't have 75 agility there is a run speed penalty when encumbered and an armor class penalty. On a mature server you can use items to cover this gap and instead I would recommend str or sta instead.

If you are the neckbeardiest of the neckbeards and know for sure that you will be gearing this toon out at level 60 with NToV quality loot then you absolutely want to go 25 sta / 5 int. The extra hit points will make a different later and if you wanted to cap stamina as well as int, it's much harder without the creation sta. I also recommend 25 sta/5 int for experienced players who don't plan on using the character for coth bot status, and are going to twink it. I'll explain more on later.

Experienced players can also choose 25 int/5 str at creation or a mix of the two stats. Str is very useful on fresh start servers and will pay for itself many times over being able to carry more loot out of a dungeon or exp session. Be wise about this and only choose str if you know what you are doing and understand you will lose out on stats at 60 that you might want at that point.

Deities