Archetype Guide: Mage

[skatrzoo]

Table of Contents
1: Basics of a Mage
1.2: The Man of Many Faces
1.3: Weapons of a Mage
1.4: Statistics
2: Talents of a Mage
3: The Mage's Rubies
4: The Mage's Builds

The Magus Lexicon

The mage is one of the most versatile classes playable in Allods. They are able to adapt to many different situations that allow them to tap into the elements that make up this world. Depending on which elements you choose to pursue, you can develop and use different skills with the help of these elements.

Another advantage of mage is their roles in party groups. They cause fear in groups of mobs with their Area of Effect (AoE) spells, make powerful monsters cower with their devastating attacks, help any party out with their crowd control abilities, have an attack increase buff and health/mana increase buff, and are able to nullify multiple hits from even the strongest mobs.

Now that I have caught your eye, let's take a look and breakdown our stats and skills and why they're important to us.

1: Basics of a Mage
A mage is a master of the Earth's elements. The Mage uses buffs available only to them called Forces, in order to cast certain skills. There are three different Entropy elements, Fire, ice, and lightning. In order to gain these forces, you have a buff that is constantly on you called, Magical Entropy. Every 30 seconds Magical Entropy will randomly generate more Forces for you to use, but there are ways to manipulate which forces are generated.


1.2: The Man of Many Faces

As with many professions on Earth, many different races are able to study and perfect specific job. There are 4 races in all. The Empire mages are Arisen; the undead, robotic beings who originally hailed from the mighty Zem civilization, and the Xadaganians; a former desert tribe that was led by Nezeb after he had been banished from Aro lands that would eventually become the Kainians. Nezeb led this tribe against the Kanians to obtain a portion of their land. Ever since this event, the Kanians and the Xadaganians have been waging a bloody fued. The Arisen are referred to as Sorcerers and the Xadaganians are called Sepcialists.


The remaining two reside in the opposing faction call League. The first is Elven; the oldest race in all of Sarnaut.

The Elves were once an enormous family tied together often called the Great Ball of Families, but through a sudden change of events; in which nearly wiped out their race, they were reduced to eight remaining families. The Elves call themselves Archmages.

The last of the mages are called Kanians. The Kanians are essentially a kingdom built upon the Church of Light. Even throughout their bloody feud with their ancient rivals, the Xadaganias, they still remain loyal to their morals within their beliefs and their noble bloodlines. Kanias prefer to be called Magicians.

The only notable difference between the different races are their exceptional looks, and more importantly their racial skills. Each race will get a racial skill after completing an easy quest around level 7. Each skill is different in appearance and effect.


Xadaganian:
The Xadaganian mages obtain a skill entitled Astral Aegis. Astral Aegis is a 2 minute buff on your character that also has a 2 minute cool down. When you receive physical damage from an opponent, the opponent is knocked back 15 yards, knocked down, and is dealt damage that is relative to double that of a Fire Arrow. When an enemy is affected by the effects of this racial, you will lose the buff and will have to wait until the skills is off cool down in order to reuse it.


Arisen:
The Arisen mages acquire a skill called Astral Arrow. Astral Arrow is the only one of the three racial skills that causes direct damage. The devastating damage this skill causes is not the only beneficial factor, though. If the skill successfully lands on your target it causes them to be knocked down and helpless for 2 seconds. It has a 2 minute cooldown and a relatively low mana costs for the effects it insues.


Elves:
Elven mages gain a buff called Arcane Mastery. With the use of this buff it increases their intelligence by 30% for the next spell cast within a 30 second time limit. This can make even the weakest spells cast turn into a nightmare to whomever they call their enemy.

Kanians:
Kanian mages can obtain a skill called Focus Mind. This buff allows the mage to become extremely focused on the spells in which they are casting. This allows them to become imune to spell casting interruptions for 20 seconds, but has a 2 min cooldown timer.

1.3: Weapons of a Mage
A mage has the choice between two different weapons he can use in his or her main hand. The mage can choose between a two handed staff or a dagger with an off hand included. Here I will explain the difference between the two. Aside from your main hands, we also have a wand as our secondary weapon that can increase the amount of damage our spells deal.

Staff:
A staff is the only two handed weapon a mage can use. While it has more physical damage than a dagger; physical damage is useless for a mage. Staves include both offensive and defensive stats on the same weapon. Staves also will have more Faith available on them when compared to a dagger of the same level and grade and is a very important stat to a mage, which I will go into more detail later. Personally, staff should be the only thing a mage is using in his main hand

Dagger and Offhand:
The dagger and offhand combination is the only alternative weapon choice from a staff. Although,the dagger has less physical DPS, it allows more customization of offesive and defensive stats The dagger contains all your main stats (Luck, Intelligence, Perception, and Wisdom) and the offhand you can use contains all the secondary stats. This allows you to find the perfect combination of main and secondary stats. Daggers, however; have less faith than Staves, so you will need to weigh the pros with the cons.

Wands:
Wands are used as our secondary weapon and can be used with our primary weapons. While we can't physically attack with them, they do transfer what is called "Magical Power" into the spells we cast. the Magical Power is different on each wand. The higher level and rank of each wand, the more magical power it gives. Wands also add offensive and defensive stats. There is also no alternative weapons for your secondary weapon, so wand is the only item that you will be using in this slot.


1.4: Statistics

There are four major stats that a mage needs to manage and balance. These stats are Luck, Perception, Wisdom, and Intelligence. Along with these major stats there are also seven minor stats that are not as important, but will help you in the long run. The minor stats include Faith, Agility, Rage, Stamina, Endurance, Conviction, and Willpower.

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Luck:
This stat determines how low your glancing blow rate is and how high your critical chance is. A glancing blow, in a nutshell, is halving the damage of an attack. You will want your glancing blow rate as low as possible. Critical chance is doubling the damage of an attack. Luck is not as important for a mage as it used to be, and I find that it doesn't scale up correctly when you reach end game. I would get this stat up so that your glancing blow rate is down to 5%, without neglecting your other stats. If you can increase your luck higher without consequences, then by all means do so.

Perception:
This stat determines how much of your magical damage dealt to an enemy gets resisted. This stat alone can make or break a mage. All of your other major stats could be stacked up as high as you could possible want them, but without your perception at a decent percentage, all your damage dealt will be resisted and become null. I find that; for me, the minimum you want your perception percentage at is between 20-25%

Intelligence:
This stat increases the amount of damage you can deal with your magical attacks. I would suggest balancing out your other skills first before you focus on this one, because while this is a very important stat, it doesn't hurt you as much to be below par with this as the other Three.

Wisdom:
Wisdom is a counter part of intelligence. Since magical attack have no chance to be dodged, Wisdom was introduced as a balance to this feature. Wisdom determines how much damage is done based on your opponents agility. So if you have a high amount of wisdom, and you opponent has a low amount of agility, you will do more damage to them than if it was vice verse. If your Wisdom is low, then the amount of damage you do will decrease. If it is higher, then the amount of damage you do will increase. Do not neglect this stat. You may think that mobs have low agility, but you will see a significant increase in damage if you raise this stat.


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Faith:
This stat will increase the amount of mana you have in your mana pool. It is only found on main weapons.

Agility:
This stat determines the dodge rate for a mage. This is probably the least important out of all the stats I've mentioned, considering most mages will be hitting and being hit by more than one mob which makes dodging inefficient. This stat will also now allow you to resist more magical damage.

Rage:
This stat increases the amount of wound complexity you spells inflict. This is purely a play versus player (PvP) skill, with the few exceptions of some mobs that are able to heal themselves. Rage also determines critical and glancing heals, much as luck does for damage. This does not apply to mages, as we do not have heals.

Stamina:
This stat increases the amount of health you have. This is semi-important to a mage. As I mentioned before a mage has barriers they can use to nullify damage, but there will be times where you can't always use them. For these moments stamina and the next stat, endurance, become very useful.

Endurance:
This stat decreases the chance you have to be crit by enemies and raises your chance to receive glancing blows. This stat can decrease a lot of damage that can be dealt out to you simply by overcoming your opponent's luck and forcing them to glancing blow you. It would be wise to get as much endurance and stamina as possible without unbalancing your major stats.

Willpower:
This stat decrease your chance to be affect by crowd controll (CC) skills. If your effected by a CC it decreases the effect of the skill. This can be used in both PvP and player versus element (PvE), but mostly considered a PvP stat.

Conviction:
This stat increases the effects of your own CC skills. This is important if your are thinking of becoming a support CC mage. If you have the choice between conviction and willpower on a piece of gear I would almost always go conviction.

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[skatrzoo]

2: Talents of a Mage
A mage uses his talents as a means of disposing his enemies, by harnessing the power of harsh elemental damage or to increase the fighting capabilities of his or her companions.


The first three skills a mage gets, and automatically starts out with, are Fire Arrow, Ice Flow, and Shocking Grasp.


Fire Arrow:
Fire Arrow is the first fire skill a mage is introduced to. This is the most basic and most used fire skill in a mage's arsenal. This skill has a range of 40 yards, a cast time of 1.5 seconds,an instant cooldown time, can be pre-casted ( cast out of combat for an instant cast in combat), and a very low mana cost. This skill will be used for those mages who are speculated into a fire specialized build to be used when no Fire Forces are available to the mage. This is skill is augmented by a function that is able to decrease its cast time and increase its damage later on.

If you are speculated for fire damage, get this to rank one, otherwise leave it at rank one.


Ice Flow:
Ice Flow is the first crowd control and ice skill a mage acquires. This has an instant cast time with a channel that lasts for 6 second, 60 second cool down time, has a range of 40 yards, and the mana cost is a little more than double that of Fire Arrow. The damage is very low, but that is not the power behind this skill. For every second you channel this skill it adds a stack called Ice Flow. For each stack of this debuff it decreases movement speed and physical damage dealt by 15%. This adds up to a 90% decrease for both movement speed and physical damage. Each stack of the Ice Flow affect lasts for 2 seconds and each stack is canceled if the target affected by the debuff is hit by any other attack. If you manage to get all 6 stacks of the Icy Flow debuff on your target, though; he will be affected by a 15 second debuff of constant slowing and 90% damage decrease which will not be removed with attacks. Also if a mob is effected by Ice flow and is hit by a fire skill, then the skill deals extra damage. Although this skill has some amazing effects, the damage is way to low to think about investing in.

I would recommend keeping this skill at rank one.


Shocking Grasp:
Shocking Grasp is the first lightning skill a mage possesses. Shocking Grasp has an instant cast, instant cooldown, deals damage about 1/3rd than Fire Arrow (When unaffected by rubies) and uses about twice as much mana as Fire Arrow. The only other distinguishing factor with this skill, other than it is incredibly easy to spam, is that once your target is at 25% health or below. When you cast shocking grasp on it, and it successfully lands, you deal double damage with that spell. This is a very handy skill when you come into close contact fights and are constantly getting your spell casts interrupted. Be careful when spamming this spell, though. It can quickly drain your mana.

I recommend increasing this to rank 3 if you are interested in electricity as a main element.


You can unlock the next row of your skill tree once you spend one point into any skill on the first row. The next row consists of Meteor, Icy Grave, and Stone Barriers.


Fire Shock:
Fire Shock is the first fire talent and mage can get that consumes fire Forces. In order to cast this skill you must have two fire Forces. Fire Shock has a quick cast time, at 1.5 seconds, and deals direct damage to your target, while also leaving a DoT (Damage over Time) behind to slowly drain your opponent's health every 2 seconds for 6 seconds. In order to accumulate the most possible damage out of this spell, I would not recommend constantly casting it back to back before the DoT ends. You will gain more damage out a 12 second DoT rather than an 8 second DoT.

This skill is a must for mages who are interested in fire.


Frostbolt:
Frostbolt is similar to Fire Arrow in function. Frostbolt is designed to be a skill that is to be casted when you find yourself unable to produce Force in order to use your more powerful attacks. This skill has the same cast time, but deals more raw damage than Fire Arrow does. As with Fire Arrow, Frostbolt can later be augmented to decrease cast time and increase damage.


Stone Barriers:
Stone Barriers have the ability to nullify physical damage that lands on you. Each rank of Stone Barriers increases the number of barriers that you can cast on yourself and the amount you can absorb. Intelligence also increases amount your stone barrier can absorb. Rank 1 casts 5 barriers, rank 2 casts 6 barriers, and rank 3 casts 7 barriers. If you receive any physical damage it automatically cancels one stack of your Stone Barriers. This talent has a cooldown of 45 seconds, but the cool down only starts once your last stone barrier has been removed from your buff list.

Due to the overall usefulness of this talent for mages of all builds, I recommend getting this to at least rank 2 as soon as possible.

Row three becomes available after a total of nine skill points are spent on the previous two rows. This row contains Reflections, Thunderbolt, and Dispel.


Icy Comet:
Icy Comet is the first ice talent that a mage can obtain that consumes frost Forces. Icy Comet requires two frost Forces and one second in order to be casted, and can also be pre-casted. If you pre-cast it though, and your forces rotate to where you are left without at least two frost Forces, you will be unable to cast it. When you are able to cast Icy Comet, it acts like a homing missile. It will follow your opponent wherever he does, even if he is not in your line of sight when the skill is cast. This will also follow your opponent until it hits him.

This is one of the hardest hitting skills a mage can obtain. Since it has a very short cast time, and can be made to consume very little mana, it is highly recommended to increase this talent to rank 3 for mages who are focused on Ice.



Thunderbolt:
Thunderbolt is also very similar to Fire Arrow and Frostbolt. Thunderbolt is a skill that is designed to be a fall back when your Forces are sparse. As with Frostbolt and Fire Arrow, this skill can also be augmented later to decrease its cast time and increase its damage.

This skill is highly recommended for mages who have an interest in electric spells.



Elemental Barriers:
Elemental Shield is the third barrier skill a mage has at his disposal. Unlike this absorbs Fire, Ice, Lightning, Acid, Shadow, Holy, and Astral damage. Elemental Barriers are essentially the opposite of Stone Barriers and as such, can not be used at the same time. If you were to cast Elemental Shield while you have Stone Barriers active, your Stone Barriers would be replaced with their elemental counterpart. Elemental Shield also has the same cooldown and mana cost as Stone Barriers. Each rank put into these barriers increases the amount of stacks added to your character on cast. Rank one adds 3 stacks, rank two adds 4 stacks, and rank three adds 5 stacks. Elemental barriers also cannot be recast until the last barrier has been removed, and the 45 second cooldown after that has expired

I would only recommend getting this if you're PvPing a lot or are using it for a specific boss. I personally get at least rank one in case I would ever need it in any situation.

Row four contains two skills; Meteor and Flash. This row becomes available when you spend 17 points altogether in your tree


Meteor:
Meteor is the mages first AoE fire talent they are able to obtain. Meteor must be pre-casted, cast time being 5 seconds, before it can be used. Once pre-casted, you will be able to place it wherever you choose to (where it will land and what targets are inside of its AoE range, is marked with an intricately designed circle). Every mob within a 10 yard radius of where you place your meteor to land, will take damage from this attack. Meteor has a very long cast time, and a very high mana cast as well. This skill was designed mainly to be pre-casted out of combat for use as a quick burst damaging skill when needed. It is very impractical to cast it in combat.

This skill is very useful for mages that specialize in fire spells. For those of you who fall under this criteria, then rank 3 is recommended due to the massive damage it can deal.

Flash:
Flash instantly teleports your character 20 (rank one), 30(rank two), or 35(rank three) yards depending on your rank of the skill. Each rank also has a cool down of 50/25/20 seconds before it can be cast again.

Flash is a very luxurious spell that allows for quick foot travel, but it is also very handy for quickly escaping from harms way in both PvE and PvP. I recommend at least rank 2 for everyone.


Row five boasts three skills within it. These skills are Fire Wall, Icy Grave, and Reflections. In order to access this row, you will need to have spent 25 talent points in the previous.


Wall of Flames:
Wall of Flames requires the use of at least one fire Force in order to cast. As with Meteor, when you cast it, you will need to hover your cursor over where you would like you place your Fire Wall and click in order for the skill to initiate. Fire Wall is an AoE that constantly damages enemies for 20 seconds, with minimal damage, who are standing within the AoE range of the skill. Those who are damaged by the Fire Wall, will be feared for an amount of time, depending on your conviction against their will power (The average is about 6 seconds against an opponent similar to your level.) However, once the fear fades, They will be immune to the fear affect for 30 seconds. So, if they were to venture into your Fire Wall again, they would only receive damage, not be feared again. Fire Wall also generates 300% aggro on PvE targets with it, so it is not recommended to be cast while raiding or in parties.

Fire Wall is considered more of a PvP skill, as the damage is very minimal, and the 300% aggro generation is not a very positive PvE effect. Get this skill if you are pursuing a fire PvP build

Icy Grave:
Icy Grave is a CC (Crowd Control) skill that allows a mage to stop their enemy dead in its track, in order to prevent themselves, or their party, from taking damage from the enemy encased in ice. Only one mob can be Icy Graved at one time, and if you attempt to Icy Grave two mobs, the first mob you Icy Graved will instantly be released from their Icy Grave the second you successfully cast the second one. On a mob your own level, you can keep a single enemy trapped in Icy Grave indefinitely, as long as you continuously keep casting it on him before the effect runs out. Icy Grave is hard to maintain for extended periods of time, though. It has a rather high mana cost and will drain a mage's mana if he doesn't control himself.

The only benefit increased ranks of Icy Grave give is increasing the amount of time a mob can be trapped within an Icy Grave. Rank 1 traps a mob for 30 seconds, rank 2 lasts for 50 seconds, and rank 3 lasts for 60 seconds.

1 rank in Icy Grave is all that is necessary. 30 seconds ( more or less depending on a mobs willpower against your conviction) is more than enough time to keep an enemy effectively stopped in its tracks. At least one rank is almost a necessity in end game groups, and will be expect of mages.

**Note: When your target is a player, and he has incense on, your Icy Grave effects will be reduced by 80%**


Reflections:
Reflections offer a mage increased defense. Barriers are used similarly to Stone Barriers except they only last for a short period of time, depending on what rank you have Reflections. rank 1 gives you 3 Reflections for 15 seconds, rank 2 gives your 4 Reflections for 15 seconds and gives a, and rank 3 gives you 5 Reflections for 15 seconds. With the use of rubies, you are able to give yourself more Reflection charges and make the effect last longer, which I'll tell more about later.

This skill is a must for any mage. What rank you want is up to the user though. I find rank 3 a must.

Row six of a mage's talent tree requires 33 previously spent talent points. This row includes three skills called Aura of Fortitude, Electric Pulse, and Dispel.


Aura of Fortitude:
Aura of Health is one of a set of two party skill a mage can possess. Only one Aura from a single person can be active at a time. Aura of Health increases; those affected by it, Health and either their mana or energy depending on which they require to use their skills. Each rank increases the amount of Health, mana, and energy gained. Rank one increases each by 10%, rank two increases them by 20% and rank three increases it by 30%.

Acquiring this skill is dependent solely on the player's intentions. I personally have rank 3.


Electric Pulse:
Electric Pulse is the first talent a mage can obtain that consumes electric Forces in order for it to be cast. Electric Pulse is an instant cast (That costs 3 electric Forces), channel spell that deal damage every second of the channel, for five seconds. While the mana cost is somewhat costly, it is easily one of the mage's most powerful spells. Please note, that if you are hit while using Electric Pulse, your channel will be canceled and you will not be able to finish it. To prevent this, I recommend using Reflections when you are casting it at mobs who are attacking you directly.

This is a very nice addition to an electric mage. If you are thinking of speculating into electricity, rank 3 is recommended.



Dispel:
Dispel allows you to remove negative effects on you and friendly targets, and allows you to remove positive effects from enemies. Effects that are available to remove include; heals from enemies, summoner's Blood Aegis, enemy mage barriers, Blinding Light from yourself or friendlies, a mage's Lava Spill, Firestarter, and Wall of Flames (When your not feared). The only difference in ranking up Dispel is the cast time. Rank one's cast time is 3.5 seconds, rank two's cast time is 2.5 seconds, and rank three's cast time is 1.5 seconds. This is mostly useful in PvP

If your thinking about getting this talent, it is a absolutely necessary to get rank 3. Without this talent maxed out, the cast time takes way too long to cast in combat before the affect is done and gone, or being hit.

After Completing the Quintessence of Knowledge quest at level 44 you will be able to gain upgraded skills of Meteor, Electric Pulse, Icy Comet, and Stone Barriers. In order to begin increasing the upgraded skills rank, you will need to up grade the previous lesser skill to at least rank one. You can't rank your upgraded skill past the current rank of your lesser skill; however. For example if you have Meteor rank 2, you can only upgrade Flaming Meteor to rank 2.



Meteoroid:
Flaming Meteor is the upgraded version of Meteor. The only changes in Flaming Meteor from the original is there is a damage increase, it requires 1 fire Force, it has only a one second cast time (Compared to Meteor's 5 second cast time), and its graphics. You will need at least rank two Flaming Meteor for it to surpass the damage of the Original Meteor at rank 3.



Electric Jolt:
Electric Jolt is the upgraded version of Electric Pulse. Unlike Electric Pulse, Electric Jolt is able to hit many enemies at once, during its channel. Jolt consumes 3 electric Force, deals less single target damage than Electric Pulse, and consumes roughly two times more mana, so it should only be used for situations where AoE attacks are needed.

You will want at least one AoE talent in your build. You can either invest into Electric Jolt as an electric AoE, or you can use the next Talent, Icy Asteroid, as your AoE skill. I personally choice Electric Jolt.



Icy Asteroid:
Icy Meteor is the upgraded version of Icy Comet. Icy Asteroid an AoE talent that consumes 3 frost Force. Like Electric Jolt, Icy Asteroid deals less damage than its single target predecessor, and should only be used when considering an AoE attack. The advantage Icy Asteroid has over Electric Jolt is that it is not a channel; therefore, it cannot be canceled.

Again, I highly recommend at least one AoE talent for your build. You can decide between this, or Electric Jolt.



Stone Wall:
Stone Wall is the last upgraded skill you can obtain from the completing the Quintessence of Knowledge quest. Stone Wall increases the amount of damage you can absorb from physical attacks and also gives the user one extra barrier to work with from the original Stone Barriers. Stone Wall and Stone Barrier both share a cooldown so it is impossible to use both of them within a 45 second period.

[skatrzoo]

3: The Mage's Rubies
Once you hit level 10 you will be able to buy extra passive and active skills with objects you can buy once every level you advance called rubies. Many players will have different amount of rubies when they hit maximum level, because you can also acquire rubies through storyline quests and cash shop items.
Let's look at what the ruby grids look like for mage's.

Fire Tree

Ice Tree

Lightning Tree


Before we Talk about the specific skills inside each individual tree, let's touch upon rubies that are found in all three.


Force Controller Rubies
There are two of the three Force Controller rubies found in each ruby tree called Fire and Ice, Icy Lightning, and Fiery Lightning (Obvious right?). Each of these controllers focus on two specific elemental forces and allows you a chance to generate an extra an extra Force of the two that are described within the ruby, but you will not be able to generate the 3rd element that is not mentioned at all. For example, if you obtain Icy Lightning, you will be given a chance to to generate an extra Force every 30 seconds, when Magical Entropy expires, but you won't be able to generate any Fire Forces as long as you have this ruby. Also, do not ever get two different types of the Force Controllers in any build. It will cancel out two Forces and will only allow you to generate one elemental Force type. Each rank of these Force Controllers will increase the chance of generating an extra Force. Rank 1 gives you a 25% chance, rank 2 gives a 50% chance, rank 3 gives a 75% chance, and rank 4 gives a 100% chance

I find that two ranks of any given Force Controller is enough for any build.


Statistics Increasing Rubies:
There are 3 perception, intelligence, luck, and conviction rubies in each tree. The perception ruby is called Cunning Thoughts, intelligence is Sage's Intelligence, luck is called Propitious Magic, the Wisdom is called Adherent's Determination and the conviction ruby is Stoic Soul. Each rank in the same ruby will increase that stat by 3% for a total of 9% at rank 3. If at all possible get the perception, intelligence, and luck rubies as soon as you can. Conviction is only needed if your lacking in this area and your interested in becoming a CC build, and also will also help when casting fire spells by preventing your channeling from being canceled by 33%, 66%, and 100% at rank 3. These will help you balance stats that are lacking very easily.


Elemental Damage Increase Rubies:
The Calefaction (Fire tree), Intense Cold (Ice tree), and Unstable Energy (Lightning tree) rubies are used to directly increase the damage of the element for which is represents. Rank one increases damage by 4%, rank two increases damage by 8%, rank 3 increases damage by 12%, and rank 4 (Only available to Unstable Energy) increases damage by 15%

As with the previous two, you should only get ranks of this ruby that complement the element your build revolves around, but definitely increase it to rank three ( or four in Unstable Energy's case).


Entropy Advantage Rubies:
Entropies play a big part in increasing a mage's total damage with our Advantage Rubies. There are three different Advantage rubies. Fiery Gehenna (Fire), Northern Lights (Ice), and Thundering Advantage (Electric). Each time you use a skill that consumes Forces, the Force that was spend will apply buffs of the corresponding elemental Advantage. For example, if you were to cast Electric Pulse, you would be buffed with two Thundering Advantages. Each buff will augment the spam skill of their corresponding elemental talent previously mentioned in the talent section (Fiery Gehenna will affect Fire Arrow, Northern Lights will affect Frostbolt, and Thundering Advantage will only affect Thunderbolt). Each time you cast a skill that consumes frost Forces, you will gain 3 Northern Lights, each skill that consumes fire Forces, you will gain 3 Fiery Gehennas, and for every skill that consumes electric Forces, you will only gain 2 Thundering Advantages. The Advantages will only stack up to 10, lasting 60 seconds collectively (not each individual stack) and every time you cast the talent that it augments, one stack of the buff will be removed.


Depending on your rank of the ruby (3 available to each element) you will decrease your cast time and increase the damage of the talent it augments. For Fiery Advantage and Northern Lights, rank one will decrease the cast time by 17% and increase the damage by 5%, rank two decreases the cast time by 34% and increases the damage by 20%, and rank three decreases the cast time by 50% and increases the damage by 30%. Thundering Advantage's augmentations are a little different from its counterparts. Rank one decreases its cast time by 17% and increases its damage by 8%, rank two decreases its cast time by 34% and increases its damage by 26%, and rank three decreases its cast time by 50% and increases its damage by 40%

It is a necessity to get all three ranks of the advantage rubies if you plan on investing into that elemental type. No more than two different elemental types though.

Now that we have covered the similar rubies that appear in all three trees, let's get down with the specifics and start with the Fire Arrow tree.


The Fire Arrow tree contains rubies that effect and are effected by fire skills and or Entropies developed by fire. We use the rubies that lay inside this grid for powerful and potent fire attacks, that are devastating in both PvE and PvP



Conflagrate:
Conflagrate is found at the top left of the fire tree. Conflagrate requires at least one fire Force to be cast. When Conflagrate is Successfully applied to the target, it leaves a DoT that does constant fire damage over a 5 second period (give or take a second) and will fear the target, leaving them unable to cast any spells or control their movement.

Conflagrate is very handy for giving you a couple seconds of freedom if an attacker is becoming too much for you to handle. Fearing him off you gives you some breathing room to Flash away, wait for barriers to come off of cool down, or even allow you to deal devastating damage to him without retaliation. It is purely the players decision if they want to get this spell, but if you do, make sure you want your build to revolve around fire.


Fire Trap:
Fire Trap allows you to place a trap below your feet after two seconds of casting. If an enemy enters within the boundaries of the radius of the trap, it will automatically explode, dealing damage relative to that of a Meteor. If a trap remains on the ground for two minutes, it will automatically disappear. Also, only one trap from the same mage can be active at one times. If you attempt to cast a second trap, the first will disappear and the timer will start on the second one. Fire Trap is also only able to be cast outside of combat, making this really ineffective for mass PvP.

Fire Trap isn't a very necessary skill and I only find it is handy for surprising enemies with unexpected damage. Again, I would only get this skill if you plan on using fire skills.


Blazing Speed:
Blazing Speed is a passive ruby that, to me, is more PvP than PvE intensive. For continuous, non-stop running after a period of time, depending on your rank of the ruby, you will earn an instant cast Fire Shock or Fire Arrow. Rank one requires you to run for 10 seconds, rank two requires you to run for 7 seconds, and rank 3 requires you to run for 4 seconds.

This ruby is great for PvP fire builds who like to kite there enemy with Flash and run away, while still being able to cast devastatingly damaging skills. If you decide that you want to acquire this ruby, I would recommend at least rank 2.


Eruption
Eruption is yet another passive ruby that will decrease the mana costs and cast times
of Meteor, Meteoroid, and Fire Arrow based on the respective rank of the skill (maximum of 3 ranks.) Each rank decreases the cast time and mana cost by 6% for a total of 18% at rank 3.

Only get these rubies if you plan on using a fire build with all three of the affected skills present in it. Otherwise, I find this to be a wasted ruby investment as the decrease isn't too significant.


Burnout
Burnout is purely a PvP skill. Burnout applies and debuff on your target that will nullify healing effects applied to your target depending on your level and your rank in the skill. This debuff also stacks, which means that the amount of healing that is reduces is multiplied by how many stacks are present on the target. Since the number changes every time you level, I cannot give you an exact number of how much healing is nullified, but I can tell you that the second rank of this skill is double that of the first rank. There are only two ranks of this ruby.

Again, this is purely a PvP skill that requires fire skills in order for it to be applied. If you do plan on getting it, both ranks are required.


Concrete Mind
Concrete Mind Simply decreases the cool downs of your Stone Barriers and Stone Wall. Each rank decreases the cool downs by 5 seconds for a maximum of a 15 second cool down reduction.

I personally do not go out of my way to get this ruby, unless I am crafting a fire build for myself. The cool down reduction is pretty minimal in my opinion, and if my barriers are down in the first place, then I'd probably be dead a couple seconds later, and if I'm not, then my enemy will be.


Incinerating Strike
Incinerating Strike is a passive fire ruby that gives the user two effects to augment their damage. Incinerating Strike increases the raw, direct damage by Fire Shock and it also decreases your targets movement speed when they are affected by the DoT applied by Fire Shock. Rank 1 increases the damage by 5% and decreases movement speed by 17%, rank 2 increases damage by 10% and decreases your target's movement speed by 34%, and rank 3 increases Fire Shock's damage by 15% and decreases your target's movement speed by 50%.

This ruby includes two very desirable and useful effects augmenting Fire Shock, as such it should only be obtained if you have Fire Shock in your build.


Pyromania
Pyromania works in cooperation with Wall of Flames. When you use Wall of Flames, and it damages enemies, you have a chance to earn instant cast Firebolts and Fire Shocks. This buff can stack up to 3 times, and you will constantly be given chances to earn these stacks as long as your Wall of Flames is dealing damage. There are only two ranks of this skill. Rank 1 gives your Wall of Flames' damage a 5% to generate this buff when it deals damage and rank 2 increases the chance by 10%

Only get this ruby if you have Wall of Flames rank 3 and you use it often.


Endless Flames
Endless Flames is a very simple ruby. Each rank of this ruby increases the period damage of Conflagrate and Fire Shock by 33.33%. So, at rank 3, the damage will be increased by 100%.

If you have Fire Shock, this ruby is strongly recommended at rank 3.


Playing with Fire
Playing with Fire is a very intresting ruby. Each rank of this ruby increases the damage your Meteor and its ungraded version deal. Rank 1 increases the damage by 5%, rank 2 increases the damage by 10%, and rank 3 increases the damage by 15%. There is a drawback to this ruby, though. If you cast a Meteor at a target, and it completely misses the target, then you will receive damage instead. The damage you receive isn't drastic, but it still needs to be played into account.

You have to weigh the pros with the cons when deciding to get this ruby or not. 15% damage increase is a lot, but how often do you use those skills? You will have to ask yourself that question first. Also.......just make sure you don't miss too often.


After the Fire Arrow tree comes the Ice Flow tree.

The Ice Flow tree offers some much needed support during combat along side massive damage. Let's delve into what makes up this tree.


Icy Reflections
Icy Reflections are arguably one of the most important rubies a mage can obtain. After obtaining this ruby, every time you cast Reflections, you will automatically be granted mana back depending on the rank of this ruby. Each rank of this ruby significantly increases the amount of mana generate back. There are 3 ranks in all.

This ruby is a must for any mage of any spec and caliber. This is our only means of mana regeneration inside combat and is a significant of regeneration, especially with Reflections rank 3. You must get this to rank 3.

Snowstorm
Snowstorm is a AoE ice channel spell. When Snowstorm is cast, it damages every enemy within a 7 yard radius of its location will receive mediocre damage every 2 seconds for 6 seconds. Snowstorm consume massive amount of mana every time it is cast, and is almost impossible to spam in long term combat.

Do not get this ruby, you will not get a lot of use out of it, and the moments you will be able to use it productively are rare.

Frosty Advantage
Frosty Advantage provides two benefits to a mage. First, Frosty Advantage increases the non-critical damage of Icy Comet and Icy Asteroid (So basically in increases normal damage and glancing blows). The second effect relates to Icy Grave. When you Icy Grave a target above 90%, and it receives damage, you have a chance for it to remained encased inside your Icy Grave. There are 3 ranks of this ruby in all. Rank 1 increases the non-critical damage by 5% and allows a 33.33% chance to prevent your Icy Grave from breaking, rank 2 increases non-critical damage by 10% and provides a 66.66% chance to keep the target encased in Icy Grave, and rank 3 increases non-critical damage by 15% and also has a 100% chance to keep the target encased in your Icy Grave when it is above 90% health and is attacked.

This is a very useful ruby for a mage, and also opens up pathways to other important rubies. I recommend rank 3.


Ice Tomb
Ice Tomb is a great ruby for a mage who is focused on CC. Ice Tomb allows you the chance to instantly CC a random mob within a 10 yard radius of the first enemy you Icy Graved. Each rank increases the chance of a successful second Icy Grave. Rank 1 gives you a 30% chance, rank 2 gives you a 60% chance, and rank 3 gives you a 100%. Each rank of this skill also increases all of your frost damage dealt by 3%, which isn't very significant at all and shouldn't be the main focus of this ruby.

Only get this ruby if you find that your main role is CCing mobs, and that you often find yourself wanting to Icy Grave more than one.


Sleet
Sleet is a passive ruby that augments the effectiveness of Icy Grave, Ice Flow, and Snowstorm. Each rank of this skill decreases the the mana cost, cast time, and cooldown time of each of these skills. Rank 1 decreases these three factors by 10%, rank 2 decreases it by 20%, and rank 3 decreases it by 30%.

I do not use any of these three skills very often if at all so getting these rubies would have no benefits for me, but if you constantly use these skills, try it out and see if it benefits you.


Hoarfrost
Hoarfrost is another very interesting ruby. When you cast Icy Comet or Icy Asteroid, and it successfully hits your target, you will apply the Hoarfrost debuff on them for 10 seconds. When your target is affected by Hoarfrost, it will decrease its movement speed but it also has another affect. After 10 seconds, when Hoarfrost fades, or if Hoarfrost is dispelled, your target will be dealt damage relative to the rank of your Hoarfrost. Each rank of Hoarfrost increases the damage and also decreases your targets movement speed further. Rank 1 decreases movement speed by 10%, rank 2 decreases movement speed by 30%, and rank 3 decreases movement speed by 50%

I personally am not a fan of this ruby. The damage that is dealt when the Hoarfrost effect is removed is not very significant, and most of my targets do not survive past 10 seconds to be dealt this damage. I do find this skill very useful in PvP though, so consider it if you like PvP.


Icy Avalanche
Icy Avalanche directly decreases the mana cost, and cooldown time of Ice Flow, Icy Comet, and Icy Asteroid. Rank 1 decreases cooldown time by 15% and their mana cost by 10%, rank 2 decreases their cooldown time by 30% and their mana cost by 20%, and rank 3 decreases their cooldown by 50% and their mana cost by 30%.

Quite simply, if you have Icy Comet, get this ruby. Icy Comet is one of your most powerful skills, and decreasing its cooldown time and mana costs will significantly help you. These 3 rubies will also open up the path to the Wisdom increasing rubies.


Arctic Shock
Arctic Shock requires the use of one frost Force in order to be cast. When Arctic Shock is cast, any enemy within a 10 yard radius of you will be rooted to the ground instantly for an average of 10 seconds (the time rooted will vary depending on your Conviction against your opponent's willpower). Arctic Shock consumes a good chunk of mana and it also has a 30 second cool down. As such, It's not smart to rely on this skill multiple times in one battle session as it will leave you drained of mana, even with Icy Reflections. Also, keep in mind that this is simply just a root. Enemies will still be able to attack you if you are within range and are in their line of sight.

I personally do not like this ruby, but I do know many mages who use it a lot. It is simply a personal preference.


That Pretty much sums up the Ice Flow tree. Next and last up is the Shocking Grasp tree.

The Shocking Grasp Tree allows you to tap into the lightning element of the Earth. Using your knowledge of this element you can deal massive single target burst damage, improve your defenses, and even restore forces.


Elemental Wrath
Elemental Wrath is a very important ruby to a mage. Every two minutes, Elemental Wrath allows the mage to randomly generate 2-3 forces of each element you are able to use instantly, without waiting for Magical Entropies.

This skill can improve your damage significantly in boss fights, those moments when you need to kill something quickly but you have just run out of forces for your best skills, and it's also a life saver in PvP. This is a must for every mage.


Aura of Potency
Aura of Potency is the counterpart of Aura of Fortitude. Only one of these two can be active at one time from the same magician. Aura of Potency decreases your healing done (Not received) by 50% (Which is no problem for a mage since we have no heals), but it increases your magical power by 5% at rank 1, 10% at rank 2, and 15% at rank 3. You must cast a spell in order to activate this aura on the whole party when you have the aura on, it will remain for 10 seconds until you cast another spell.

This is another one of those rubies that is based on personal preference. I personally don't have it, but it does have many great uses. Especially while farming.


Prismatic Lightning
Prismatic Lightning is an electric AoE attack ruby at the bottom of the Shocking Grasp grid. after casting Prismatic Lightning, and waiting for a 3 second cast time, you will fire a burst of energy at your target, which will chain to up to 3 separate targets in a 7 yard radius. This ruby doesn't consume Forces, but it does have a high mana cost. This is a decent candidate for AoE attacks when you have no Forces for your more powerful ones, but again this is based on user preference.

I have met mages who do like to use this ruby, but I personally don't. We are more built towards single target attacking and wasting a ruby in something we aren't very proficient in does not bode well with me.


Lightning Conduit
Lightning Conduit augments your Shocking Grasp skill. When your Magical Entropies buff rotates (every 30 seconds) you will be given a buff that is called Conduity. Conduity increases the damage and range of your Shocking Grasp depending on the rank of this ruby. Rank 1 increases the damage by 200% and the range by 50%, rank 2 increases its damage by 400% and its range by 75%, and rank 3 increases Shocking Grasps damage by 600% and its range by 100%. When you use Shocking Grasp, after the 30 seconds has passes and you have received Conduity, you will consume the Conduity buff and will have to wait for your Forces to rotate again to receive it again.

Every mage who have electricity incorporated into their build has rank 3 of this passive ruby. Shocking Grasp does the most damage out of any of my skills when I have this buff and my target is below 25% health as well. Definitely get this ruby rank 3.


Cascade
Cascade is a passive ruby that affects the damage of Electric Pulse and Electric Jolt. Every time you hit a target with a single attack out of the channel with either of these skills, the next attack with deal 5%, 10%, or 15% more damage depending on its rank. So basically, each attack after the last will deal more damage than the last which drastically increases the amount of total damage your Pulse or Jolt will do.

This is an absolute must for mages with Electric Jolt.


Static Charge
There is a lot of Controversy behind Static Charge. People are either in love with this ruby, or hate it entirely. Every time you successfully hit your target with an electric skill, you will place a DoT on your target called Static Charge. You are able to apply up to 10 stacks of the DoT on your target and each increased stack does more periodic damage. There is a catch, though. If your target moves, all the stacks will be dispelled and be reset. With that in mind, this is obviously not a PvP ruby and is more for single target bosses who will remain stationary. This ruby is capable of dealing a lot of damage if your target stays stationary the entire fight.

I personally love this skill and it has significantly increased my DPS with only rank one of this skill, I am planning on getting rank 3 when I acquire more rubies. It's a personal choice though.


Lethal Shock
Lethal Shock is another ruby that augments Shocking Grasp's damage. When your target is below 25% health, your Shocking Grasp's damage will be increased by 10% at rank 1, 20% at rank 2, and 30% at rank 3, than it normally is. For example, if you have rank 3 of this skill, your Shocking Grasp's damage will be increased by 130% when your target is below 25% health (100% increase from the skill itself's damage increase, and 30% from the ruby).

Considering this ruby only activates when the target is below 25% health, and most people only use Shocking Grasp when they have the Conduity buff, this isn't a very desirable ruby to obtain. I only get what ranks I have to of this ruby in order to access other parts of the Shocking Grasp tree.


Positive Feedback
Positive Feedback passively increases your lightning damage and increases use of Elemental Barriers. Each rank of this ruby increases the damage of your lightning critical damage from all skill attuned with electricity and it also decreases the cooldown time of Elemental Barriers. Rank 1 increases the critical damage by 5% and decreases the cooldown of Elemental Barriers by 5 seconds, rank 2 increases the critical damage by 10% and reduces the cooldown of Elemental Barriers by 10 seconds, and rank 3 increases the critical damage by 15% and decreases the cooldown of Elemental Barriers by 15 seconds.

I personally do not have this ruby as I do not land critical strike as often to make this ruby worth it and I hardly ever use Elemental Barriers.


Dynamo
Dynamo decreases the amount of time your Electric Pulse and Electric Jolt takes to channel all of it hits. It still deals as many hits as it did originally, but it deals all of the hits faster than before. Each rank decreases the channel time by 10% for a total of 30% at rank 3.

Most mages, including myself, have this ruby and when combined with Cascade it will significantly increase the DPS of your Electric Pulse and Jolt.


Corona Discharge
Corona Discharge is activated when one of your skills consumes Electric Forces. Each time you use a spell that consumes these forces, you will be granted a buff called Corona Discharge. When you are hit with direct damage (Physical or magical) you will, in turn, instantly inflect damage back to your attacker. You can gain 5 stacks of this buff. Each rank of this skill simply increases the damage dealt.

The damage that is reflected back is really not worth it for the rubies that would be required to spend in it. Do not get it.


Breakdown
After acquiring Breakdown, every time you Flash, you will be granted a reflection to protect yourself, and you will also decrease the amount of total threat you have on every target when you're in combat. There are only two ranks of this skill and the only differences between rank 1 and 2 are rank 2 allows you to generate 2 Reflections rather than 1and it also decreases the amount of threat more than rank 1. Also note, that you will not gain mana back if you gain a reflection from this skill. You only gain mana back when you use the actual skill.

This ruby is purely defensive and is there for those mages who are constantly pull bosses and enemies off the designated tanks in the party. However, I do not get this ruby because it is your job as the DPS to keep your aggro in check and to make your tank's job easier by not out damaging their threat generation. You know your own limits and you should know the limits of the tank, so in the end, there should be no use for this ruby.

[skatrzoo]

4: The Mage's Builds

As I said before a mage is very versatile. A mage can choose many different builds for his or herself depending on his preferred roles in game. The following builds will provide information on the rubies, talents, and statistics you will need to obtain; as well as basic and advanced information that will allow you to become a master magician.


Ice/Lightning PvE Build

http://www.allodsbase.com/calc#a61x1k3u ... 2oi5qis500
This is my highest DPS build for PvE. Using this build I am able to make use of Icy Comet and Electric Pulse as my highest DPS skills. When you use Icy Comet and Electric Jolt they will also generate Advantage buffs that increases the damage and decreases cast times of the bolt of their element. These bolts should be spammed when you have no Forces to cast Jolt or Comet. Also, make use of Elemental Wrath to generate Forces quickly when they are needed. This also includes rank 2 of Static Charge which you can remove if you wish and put into rank 2 of Fire and Ice. *NOTE* The Wisdom and Intelligence rubies are interchangable. Use which ever you need more.

Fire/Ice PvP Build

http://www.allodsbase.com/calc#a61x154u ... os01oaev1y
This build doesn't do as much damage as my Ice/Lightning build does, especially in PvE, but it is far better in PvP then Ice/Lightning. Fire/Ice contains many skills that allow you to keep your opponent effectively locked down. CCs include Arctic Shock, Conflagrate, Icy Grave, Ice Flow, and Wall of Flames. This build is also very helpful against healers as it include Burnout. This build also DoTs, which are devastating in PvP. Do not forget to make use of Ice Flow in this build as well

Fire/Ice PvE Build

http://www.allodsbase.com/calc#a61x154u ... os01oaev1y
This build is more geared towards tapping into the damaging side of fire, rather than its CC abilities. This will not have as many advantages in PvP as the CC build, but it does fare better in PvE and deals more damage. There isn't reall much to describe in this build except that it augments the raw damage and the DoT damage more than the PvP build. Note though, that Lightning/Ice PvE is known to deal more damage than this build.

This concludes my mage guide. I hope this helped all who read it to learn and better themselves. I encourage the continuation of experimentation with my own builds I have post here, and also those that I have not mentioned before. As always, criticism is also encouraged to help shape my guide and make it the best it can possibly be.

Thank you,
Skatrzoo: Nezeb, Empire

[skatrzoo]

Reserved for future content.

[pancaaake]

Thank you so much for this guide. As a new player just joining Allods its very helpful to atleast have SOMETHING to follow. I would hate to be just thrown out there. But your guide is just amazing. I mean its super in-debt and I owe you a bunch. Again thanks.

Sincerely,
SgtButter

[skatrzoo]

Thank you for your compliment, Sgtbutter. I love to help out all mages both new and veteran. If you would every like to discuss something about the mage or comment on the descriptions of my skills, i would be happy to listen.

[flammingice]

Hey Skatrzoo, thanks for the awesome guide it really helped me out. At the moment im a EW mage but im thinkin about going to a fire and ice hybrid build. I made this build with 44 rubies (since at lvl 47 i will get 44 rubies), tell me what you think about this build and what should i change:

http://calc.allodslive.ru/?c=6#CDILRSdi ... r-SZdegkrs

I still dont know if i should take off 'Flash' and the 2 other rubies that follows it in order to get to get Searing Advantage on the fire tree =S

Thanks again for the guide, best one i read so far ^^

- Youmadd.

[skatrzoo]

Thank you, for your kind words Youmadd. As for your question; I myself asked this question a little awhile back also. How useful is flash to you? Do you only find yourself using it when you want to get to a location quicker? Do you use it to generate electric entropies out of combat for Elemental Harmony? Are you looking to prosper in PvP? Ask your self these questions.

As for myself, I decided not to use flash in my build and place the free three rubies elsewhere (Seering advantage as it seems in your case). Fire/ice build has less of a PvP orientation than many of the other builds i use, so using it for PvP purposes was pretty pointless. I also decided that if i need to use elemental harmony i could easily just go into combat and throw some shocking grasps around and easily kill my target. So honestly for me at the moment, flash was just a luxury and expendable. It is your decision based on how you answer those questions if you would like to replace flash with a more fire oriented ruby.

I'll give you what my Fire/Ice build looks like since i don't use it anymore. I will also set it to 44 rubies so it can accommodated your needs.

http://calc.allodslive.ru/?c=6#CDILMRUd ... orsv23-dek

The only thing i would change in your talents is remove electric prism entirely and make icy comet rank three and invest more into reflections.

[leeeeroyyy]

Sorry another question. While i'm leveling up and questing and stuff. What gear stats should i be focusing on. Moreso luck and intel or more like wis,int,perception?