I made me a mage here this week. It's taking some time to get use, but so far, I'm loving it.

Royality
120

VIT 30
INT 40
END 22
STR 9
DEX 12
MAG 40
FTH 40
LCK 7

Monks Head Wrapping (I hate how I can't see with this thing lol)
Rouge Armor Chest piece (Added magic deffence)
Rouge Armor Gloves
Hard Leather Boots

LH1: ToB
RH1: Kriss Blade 5
LH2: Large Sword of Moonlight 5
RH2: Storm Ruler

Rings:
Body - Magical Sharpness and Clever Rats
Spirit - Cling and Friend/Foe

Spells:
Soul Ray
Homing Soul Arrow
Firestorm
God's Wrath
2nd Chance

I love using HSA to make a player spaz out and go into a dodge frenzy. It's usually during this time that I cast a firestorm to catch them off guard. Usually it's a 1 hitter.
Decided to use Gods Wrath, too. It's large AOE and ability to go thru solid objects is great, plus it can be used to trick a player.
They think I'm casting 2nd chance then boom, Gods Wrath to the face.

I didn't go with Morion Blade due to such low Vitality. So I put Storm Ruler in RH2 instead.
and I put the LSOM in LH2 to deal with DSS. Plus the LSOM blocks 80% of magic, which makes my mage do quite well in mage vs mage fights.

Still doing more playtesting as I am new to pure mage builds….. They are so fragile lol. but dang do they pack a punch!

Granted, it won't do jack for damage, since you won't be meeting the STR requirement, but it's knockdown and knock back effects could prove handy as they are rather quick.

Storm ruler is prolly the better choice overall, but god hand would still be great… if anything for S&Gs.

This is one more reason why I won't want to fight mages.

They be tricksy xD

R1: iCat
R2: ToB

L1: Morion Blade or +5 Kris Blade
L2: Stormruler or +5 Kris Blade

Reasons:

With the stat spread that Nick has given, the ToB will be cracked and thus it's attack power will be diminished.

Now because the attack power is diminished, you can start your battle and convince your opponent that your magic attack power is not very good and think your a noob. They might get careless about eating enough grass to maintain their hp, which will spell doom for them when you pull out your iCat.

Best part of using the ToB and then the iCat is that you can use half of your MP with the ToB to convince the enemy that your a noob and then when you switch over to the iCat, you will have "full" MP. All those spells you cast did not cost you any MP you would have access to when you have the iCat equipped so why not?

Additionally, if people start using this technique more frequently, all characters will start being more wary of hypermode ToB users. Are they really a hypermode ToB or are they really a hypermode iCat just messing with me, waiting for me to get careless with maintaining my HP?

I personally think its a win win situation for all iCat users.

Tricksy? Yes. Devilish? I think so. Panic inspiring? Ooh ya. xD

NOTE: I tried this out in low lvl pvp (lvl 60ish) and the guy I was fighting backed WAAY off because I didn't kill him off enough before I switched to the iCat. Twas a shame I didn't kill him, but he wasn't as aggressive after that which led to a win for me. (yay!)

That sort of puts a huge gaping hole through my idea. Thanks for the insight. I wouldn't have wanted to try and sneak up on someone when they could see me LOL

on a side note, i've noticed people who time there roll to be able to soul ray and get closer to you at the same time

To be honest, interrupting heals is mostly a pipe-dream. Even when you KNOW it's coming, you're still usually too late to stop it, and the best you can hope for after that is a backstab to make up for the health regained.

I usually carry Ignite with my Spellsword, but since a Pure Mage has more spell slots, I might switch it out for Firestorm ^_^

I think if you were to run Fire Spray on a hyper-mode mage, carry throwing daggers or kunai to toss at the enemy as soon as you see the grass munching animation. Depending upon how fast you are this may stop the healing.

If you are really good at stopping someone from healing with throwing items, you might want to also carry ignite or firestorm just in case your enemy decides to rush you. The moment he/she rushes you, switch over to your melee range spell and BOOM chickens done. xD

Edit: What i meant was, iCat in right hand for casting, Silver Cat in left hand for 20% more MP & Silver Coronet on head for another 20% MP…. So with that set up, you only lose 10% MP …. sounds interesting … then u could use friends/foes ring plus ring of magical sharpness. !!

I don't know about you but I do find it quite a useful spell to safety kill those who whore hyper mode.
If only it can do a stagger effect then it will even be greater :)

Does the Silver Coronet add 20% MP and then the iCat takes away 50% or does the iCat only take away 30%? (whether the iCat takes away or the Silver Coronet adds first does not matter as:
100*.5*1.2 = 60
and
100*1.2*.5 = 60
BUT
100*.7=70 )

Vit: 50
Int: 40
End: 20
Str: ** (9)
Dex: **(12)
Magic: 50
Faith: 16
Luck: **(7)

as far as equips go

weapons:
Left:
1. Morion Blade
2. Stormruler or +5 Kris blade

right:
1. iCat
2. talisman of God

Spells: (everyone has their preferences)
TBD

Miracles:
Second Chance

EDIT:

Armor: (armor is something that everyone has a different preference for)
Headgear: Monk head collar or Silver Coronet

Male:
Ancient King's (strongest light armor

Female:
Binded Cross (strongest "light" armor)
Rogue (high magic res)

Armor:
Black leather
Monk's head

Rings:
Body form:
1. Ring of Magical Sharpness
2. (not sure yet but a ring without an aura) (could be thief's ring)

Soul Form:
1. Ring of Magical Sharpness
2. Foe's Ring or Friend's Ring (depends on if black or blue)

Weapons:
Left:
1. iCat or ToB
2. Talisman of God if not using ToB

Right
1. Morion Blade or +5 Kris Knife
2. Stormruler

My thoughts:
Using cloak and/or thief's ring, sneak up behind unsuspecting foe. If you want to do hypermode, don't have morion blade equiped until just before you want to cast so there is no aura. If use a kris knife then there will not ever be an aura but still damn good damage.

If someone could sneak up and "backstab" your opponent with ignite you will deal lots of damage, catch them off guard, and might have enough time to cast soul ray to finish them off before they figure out where you are.

If you don't want to get that close, you could cast soul ray from a distance and they might not even know where you were until after they were dead.

Even more devious, you could cast HSA as you are sneaking up on your opponent and then hit them with another spell if the HSA didn't kill them.

Sort of scatterbrained at the moment so my apologies for the ramblings.

Vitality definitely should be the focus of a hyper ICat mage. It may be tempting to buff up STR, DEX, and END to wield weapons but that is the realm of a spellsword, not a pure mage. Endurance should get some points however, enough to make you more maneuverable and making it easier to use Stormruler.

I still like the idea of a ToB version having hyper mode on hand, rather than creating a build around it. Even with less vitality, it's pretty easy to switch to Morion when the health is low. Nevertheless, i think a vitality boosted hyper mage could be a good idea, though using the ICat means you sacrifice a slot for Stormruler/Kris Blade to have a talisman for Second Chance.

Anyone want to post a possible build for an ICat Mage? It doesn't have to be perfect as we can change it later—a rough draft if you will.

I noticed at the beginning of the thread you are starting as a Royal class but then suggest Old King Doran's Armor Set as an option. I spent ages killing the old buffer with a view to use his armor (that was before I read this thread) and when I went to select it - I could not? I since found out that this set is for Males only and I thought Royals were Females - am I wrong here because I would really like to use this set
Cheers

I'm not sure what you mean about ICat vs. ToB. I guess that if you were following a Hyper Mode Mage, things would be different. The focus could be ICat, as you said, and the extra points put into Vitality and a little Endurance (for dodging). That's still a Pure Mage, but it's a different variation…we will probably end up with two different builds at the end of this. Which is fine ^_^

i was in 4-1 (same old same old), and i ran into someone else with a very similar build, with hypermode
it demolished me, one hit broken 2nd chance, next bam i was staring at the YOU DIED screen
point is nuking can be very powerful, but i don't know its full extent (seeing as i died)
the spell he used was soul ray so it proves its power

also i have just thought of something, the pushed ToB should be used for those who like rage of god or any high MP costing spell
an IC should be used for people who try to kill quick and use hypermode (1-hit soul arrow or quick fire spell)
this may be more of an opinion than a fact, but i've been testing these ideas out and so far i think they are pretty solid

Great job yet again Nick, you seem to be quite knowledge-able when it comes to magic in this game

I DO appreciate the comment, by the way ^_^

ToastBacon's build looks pretty good to me. I would go ahead and fill in 7 for Luck, or just not mention Luck at all. We won't be doing anything with it.

As for the Ring of Magical Nature…the extra spell slot is nice to have, but the main trouble I always had with it was going back and re-memorizing spells after I unequipped it. For those of us who Invade or place an RSS a lot, you can understand how annoying it would be to return to the Nexus every time. I am also a fan of the Clever Rat's Ring, especially when combined with the Morion Blade. This introduces the concept known as "Nuking":

- Pure Mage + (All spellcasting equipment) + Hyper Mode
- Dragon Bone Smasher + Cursed Weapon + Hyper Mode
- Blueblood Sword + Light Weapon + Hyper Mode
- Hiltless + Cursed Weapon + Hyper Mode

Nuking can be achieved without Hyper Mode, but obviously it will be much more dangerous with than without.

No parrying. None. Blind parries are reserved for either incredibly skilled (and damn lucky) players or Vitality-gouge builds. Trying to parry as a helpless, squishy Mage would be suicide. At least…it always has been for me. If anybody has different experience, feel free to share, but I've never seen it work.

NintendoOblivion's points about Soul Ray are good ones. I also support ToastBacon's post about finding time for heals. I have seen other good posts, but don't havbe time to reference them all. Just trying to answer whatever questions I can while I have the time.

Damn, I'll have to finish this later. Out of time. Just so you guys know, if there are any pressing questions or concerns, feel free to PM me. I have limited time right now to be on, and finding the threads that need answers is just as hard as answering them. PM'ing me about where the action is would be a big help.

Hope this post helped, made sense, and all that good stuff.

melee players use instinct and experience to battle, magic uses the mind and you have to think through your strat, and you know the saying:
"Mind over Matter"
so each battle requires you to think differently, mag has no set strat

Cheers

I am the aggresive player that goes for the quick kill, so spices tend to be a problem a problem for me, most players that battle a mage build tend to go for the quick kill, or draw out the battle, making them waste MP as they get frustrated
I, for one, hate knockdown blades, its for the lazy man, and require you to get a hit

So i had more personal complaints and ideas, i was just posting ideas

I believe your posted stats places you at SL 123. So add in a couple more stat points =)

I like the equips since parrying wont work well for a mage though I might switch firestorm for ignite and add a cloud spell

What sort of rings were you planning on using?

Vit: 40
Wil: 40
End: 17
Str: **
Dex: **
Mag: 40
Faith: 40
Luck: **

Rh1: Kris Blade + 5
Rh2: Morion Blade
Lh1: ToB
Lh2: Stormruler

Spells:

Preference dictates this, but mine is Soul Ray, Homing Soul Arrow, and Firestorm.

Rings:

Body: Clever Rat's Ring + Ring of Magical Sharpness, Soul: Cling + Foe's Ring

I may have made a mistake so correct me if i did. Anyway, thoughts?

That said, thanks for commenting anyway ^_^

VIT-> 30-35
INT-> 40
END-> 20-25
STR-> 9 Leave at base unless raised for a weapon
Dex-> 12 See Above
MAG-> 40
FTH-> 40
LUCK-> 7 Base, DO NOT RAISE.

SL would end up like 117-127 with what I listed.

Reasoning for END being low is that you are a mage, your main damage will be coming from spells and most of your stam will be going into dodging.
Vit is up as close to 40 without sacrificing MAG/FTH/INT points.
I think Stormruler needs 10 STR to wield properly, so, if you want to use that, you got to figure thats 1 points from somewhere else.
Most likely, you will need to raise STR to use a decent weapon anyways.
SL 117 is the stat set with 30 VIT and 20 END. SL 127 is with 35 VIT and 25 END.
With the higher stat set, you need to be aware of getting too far ahead of the prodominately 110-130 range where most builds tend to fall into. Be mindful of not putting too many points in STR and DEX.

The Ring of Magical Nature seems like a good idea, but you sacrifice a lot of power (lose out on Foe's, Clever Rat's, Magical Sharpness). It might be a good technique to surprise people when hosting but personally i'd rather go for a Magical Sharpness + Clever Rat combination.

It can be tough to get those spices in, but mages do have a few resources to facilitate munching:

1. Homing Soul Arrow: Can be easily dodged from afar or circumvented but can spook opponents from getting too close, giving you that needed split second of hesitation.
2. Stormruler: Not only does the knockdown buy you time, but people who suspect Firestorm will generally become more cautious of your melee ability.
3. Ignite: Maybe not this so much, but its something for enemies to fear if they rush you.

Note: 2/3 of these require a bit of MP left to cast so mages should NEVER completely exhaust their MP. Even with these, however, proper timing is essential.

Nick's away for a bit, but i'm sure he'll appreciate the comment when he sees it ^_^

Edit: I'm planning on posting a couple of options for spell usage/equipment since there's more than one way to play a mage. Still looking for people's experience with vitality and endurance.

I have a habit when battling mages, i count out all the used spell slots, here is the typical scenario:
Ok he used soul ray that means he has up to 5 more possible slots
He just used fire ball that leaves 3
He just used poison cloud so he is down to 2 so he doesn't have firestorm
Then he pulls (damn AMF lag) a backstab firestorm combo and kills me, the ring of magical nature may be useful for this build
could easily trick even the best of players into thinking you are out of spell slots then cast a firestorm and kill him

Also as with your spellsword build a pushed ToB means blessed weapons
you may want to recommend armor-less because it will make you look a lot better when you anhilate them

The flaw with any Pure mage is that he/she will need a large supply of spices with them and any good PvPer can easily prevent any healing at all

Personally I would use the Stormruler in my main hand because I like to hold the ToB in my off-hand so as to allow panic spamming when necessary. Yes, you could attack with an off-hand Stormruler and quickly switch back to your ToB but that seems like it would waste a teeny bit of time, which could end up being crucial (probably a bit of an exaggeration). I also like to have a weapon in the main hand that can do damage in melee effectively when absolutely necessary.

I appreciate your comment of course, but i think that the ToB is just too good (see benefits listed above) to pass up for another catalyst. A Pure Mage, in my opinion, is going to want as much power as they can get out of their spells, even if it means leveling up double the stat points usually needed. They have to match melee builds in terms of killing ability and if they cant make an opponent fear their spells because they raised vitality/endurance in favor of pushing a ToB then they have an unbalanced fight. More damage and MP is a good thing—stick with the ToB.

That said, you can use any catalyst if you really want to ^_^, but other aspects of the "Pure Mage" Development are still up for debate. Vitality/Endurance levels are still a bit undecided, and i'd like to hear what people think about using Stormruler in the offhand or mainhand. Keep in mind that Moon/Crescent weapons will be pretty ineffective with low endurance—but i wouldn't increase endurance to use weapons anyway (thats more of a Spellsword path). The optimum stamina bar for being able to roll and swing Stormruler is a good topic.

Don't worry about the ICat being neglected. Light Weapon builds will always find a use for its extra power, even up to SL 712 on Meat Cleavers and Bluebloods. But thanks for offering your thoughts ^_^ , an intriguing argument.

Nick has already covered most of the points, but the link contains a few more suggestions about what equipment to use. Of course, that stuff is mainly personal taste. Also, I personally have not had any low-endurance-related problems, but I accept that 8 endurance will often be too low for others and I do want to try out play with a higher level in the stat, to see what it's like.

Now, as much as I love the Pushed ToB, I feel we're neglecting the iCat side of things. Seeing as you don't have to level faith, you can pump maybe ten more points into magic, though the difference between 50 and 40 magic is not that great. Another option is to gouge vitality ridiculously and go for a hyper mode type of caster (with the Morion Blade and the Rat's Ring etc.) This provides far greater damage than the ToB build could hope for, though you will have pretty low health. In effect, you're sacrificing versatility and survivability for awesome spell power (surely the point of the True Mage) - most people will not be able to reach you through a barrage of fireballs without being reduced to a cinder, so there's one iCat option I suppose. ^_^

Knockdown is supremely useful for a mage period, but it is especially useful for FSTRM users, which is what i meant by, "while it benefits from knockdown", because it is not as necessary for HSA as it is for FSTRM.

HSA, on the other hand, while it benefits from knockdown,

What do you mean by that? Are you saying that if my opponent is knocked down (either from a backstab, riposte, or a knockdown weapon such as Stormruler), and I cast HSA, the homing arrows will hit him while he's down (or getting back up)? I thought there was a small invincibility frame in that period, but I admit I never tried casting HSA after backstabbing an opponent (I usually cast Firestorm).

A Cracked Tob is when you dont meet the requirements. A Pushed ToB is when you level both Faith and Magic to equally high levels to make use of the ToB's stat scalings for faith as well as magic. This "pushes" its power beyond just leveled magic and outdamages the ICat in all but Light Weapon. Cracked ToB's are used for Dex/Strength builds that want to decrease the hp drain on Curse Weapon while mages use the Pushed version. Cracked is NOT the same as Pushed.

I hope you got this gertman, i'd hate to see you running a pure mage with a Cracked ToB! Lol, seriously though, thats a bad idea ^_^

PS: Look at Nick1Nintendo's posts on any of the Pure Mage builds on the Character build pages, he explains the "Pushed" concept fully.

For a pushed tailsman of beasts see toasTBacon's post below!

There are really three close range spells for a pure mage: Firestorm, Ignite, and Homing Soul Arrow. I agree that it would be somewhat impractical to use two of these but i feel that ignite stands apart and should be on every Pure Mage for the most part.

Both HSA and FSTRM, at least for me, need different tactics to be used effectively. Unless you panic cast while being jumped or get a backstab/knockdown i would stay away from FSTRM since it needs these conditions for you to rationally argue that you are not a noob (lol) since otherwise you leave way too much to chance. In this respect, to have Firestorm in your spell slots you need to bust out the Stormruler much more often, thereby changing your technique.

HSA, on the other hand, while it benefits from knockdown, works especially well if you cast with good distance and timing (lol, i sound like my fencing coach!) when someone least expects it. Using FSTRM may turn you into something like a Stormruler melee build but HSA is a most elegant melee style spell in its own right. Also, a connection kill from all of the arrows as result of them rushing to attack unaware you where luring them in is quite satisfying ^_^.

Ignite on the other hand seems to be a good choice overall. It needs no special change in playing style to use and it does the best consistent one-hit damage out of all the spells. Every mage should be learned in its usage since it will pretty much be the basic close-range weapon that Pure Mages lack. Still, using FSTRM and Ignite may not be efficient since Stormruler would be out at close range anyway.

That said, if you're comfortable enough using either of the two tactics for FSTRM or HSA than arguably you could ignore Ignite for more options. 6 spell slots is not as extensive as it seems.

20 Endurance sounds good. I'll edit that in.

Stormruler, forgot about that! And I agree with all the points you made. Also, if using it in the offhand, you could have Stormruler and the ToB in offhand and the Kris and Morion Blade in the right. Then you could panic swing with the Kris if you ever needed to.

30 Vitality sounds a bit low…what if you get teamed on? And no matter how well you dodge, you will always get hit eventually. I would say about 40. That will also let you use Hyper Mode and maybe let you survive one hit without cracking SC.

When using my Spellsword, I win 75% of my battles with either HSA or Ignite. For HSA…well, they all slip up eventually. And they can't rush me without getting an Ignite in the face ^_^

I think one thing we need to decide about is Firestorm vs. Ignite. They're both great in their own rights, but we're talking about a Pure Mage build here, so it wouldn't be practical to carry two close-range spells. Especially when together they take up 5 slots, leaving only 1 left to work with (would probably go to Soul Ray).

I presonally would prefer Ignite. Firestorm, of course, does higher damage, but it's too predictable and unreliable. Most serious PvP'ers will see it coming a mile away, meaning you won't pull off a hit unless they are knocked down, and even then. But with Ignite, it's very fast-casting, fast enough to interrupt most weapon combos. Also, opponents don't expect it, so you're more likely to get a hit.

Well, it looks like we're already discussing ^_^ I'll edit in some of this soon.