Skills:
I hope to post up a more complete list up later, for now, there’s a skill list in the general forum.
Skill Recommendations:
These recommendations are mainly for normal mode. In difficult/ultimate mode, you have more sp, so this becomes less significant. Skill names are off, since I translated skills from Chinese. Please correct me on the skill names =) When I say meh, you can pass or get 1 level to try it out, and again, it matters less in later modes.
Passives: Dagger power up - (useless, unless you plan on using daggers)
Mana training - adds mp, max
Relax body - improves hp/mp/sp recovery rate (lvl 2, or max if u have the sp)
Backpack - adds inventory space (get lvl 1, maybe lvl 2, depends on need)
Interpretation - allows you to understand language of other side (useless)
Basic: Magic ball - max (good finishing skill)
Self protection - max
Fireball - lvl 1
Sonic pole- lvl 2 or 3
Ensnare Roots - if you like to pk, max this
Magic Drain - useless
Attack: Fire thorn - rec-mages, max this skill. Int-mages, stay away!
Fire wall - useless, rec-mages - lvl it if u have sp
Storm - max
Falling Stone - lvl 2
HP drain - meh, 75% success rate btw
Revenge (ultimate mode) - good pk skill, only 85% success rate though, if you get it, then max it, no point in getting only lvl 1 or 2
Corruption - meh, low dmg over time
Meteor Strike - lvl 2 or max (some ppl love the dmg, while others hate the cast time)
Earthquake - lvl 1 or 2
Lightning Strike - max
Fire song, Wind song, Earth song (difficult mode) - these 3 skills all do high dmg, but they have 4 sec cast time and 300 sec refresh time before you can cast them again. So they’re only good for 1 hitting things, or pking. Most people max 1, and get lvl 1 of another one.
Special: Hidden power - max
Energy conversion - converts sp to mp, lvl 2
Lifesaver - lvl 1, or max if you pk
Hellfire - free choice, a decent AoE
Earth Split - free choice, decent AoE
Tornado - max
Death Announcement - useless, 1800 sec delay way too long, and it doesn’t work on a lot of things
Disease - meh
Natural Curse - removes elem. resis, some ppl love it, some ppl find it utter waste of sp, when maxed, 80% chance of success
Curse - lvl 2
Soul Collection (difficult mode) - good final pk hit
Secret Technique (difficult mode) - turns everyone in your party except your self invisible, bad skill lol, the mage should not become a target XD
Carmani’s Fury (ultimate mode) - meh
Items:
A mage can equip either a staff or daggers.
Normal mode — staff for sure
Later modes — staff w/ wisdom lapis, or dagger w/ int lapis
A dagger hits lower dmg, but it’s faster and misses less.
The better the gear, the more slots it has for you to seal in lapis. mages should focus on wis, rec, and dex lapis. tailor needs to individual builds - accentuate your strength, hide your weakness.
Mobs:
White - 6 or more levels -, no exp
Light Blue - 4 or 5 levels -, low exp
Blue - 2 or 3 levels -, some exp
Green - your level +/- 1, decent exp
Yellow - 2 or 3 levels +, good exp
Orange - 4 or 5 levels +, better exp
Red - 6 or 7 levels +, great exp
Pink - 8 or 9 levels +, amazing exp
Grey - 10 or more levels +, suicide!
Most mobs except for the undead have elemental resistance.
fire >> wind >> earth >> water >> fire
PvP Strategies
In my opinion, mages are more of a PvE class that is also amazingly effective in group PvP. Stay behind everyone else, unleash crazy AoE’s, and be aware of assassins and hunters. The mage, unfortunately, does not do well in individual PvP.
Vs. Priest/Oracle - not much strategy, just hit them with your highest hitting spells, and try to root them. They will throw spells back at you. Priests/oracles have tons of wisdom, so you do low dmg on them, takes very long time to bash their hp. How much wis and hp each party has determines how long the fight will last. Sad thing to say, but you will probably lose. In fact, you can even try switching to daggers and stab them instead because some of them have so much wisdom that your spells just doesn’t do much.
Vs. Ranger/Assassin - ouchie. Ranger/Assassins are probably the best classes for PvP. They interrupt your skills, can make you faint (status effect), kick you, and be invisible and stalk you. You can only run… and they even have a skill that boosts speed. boohoo. Just don’t let them get close to you, root them, etc. It all depends on how well you use your PvP skills. You do have some chance against them.
Vs. Archers/Hunters - pretty bad as well =( they have this skill that drains your mana. And then you’re kinda screwed. However, if they don’t drain your mana, then you have a chance! (because some of them save their skill points, and don’t bother to lvl that skill =P) Run close to them! Because ranged dmg gets reduced to almost half when you’re standing right next to them. Then root, and bash them like crazy.
Vs. Fighter/Warrior - the second their name appears, runaway! then root, hellfire, all 3 wind spells (instant cast ones), while you run some more to give yourself possible another chance to repeat aforementioned spells. It all depends on keyboard control ^^