New to being a Mage

[Melissa27]

i just made a mage character about 15 minutes ago. is there any advice you can give me???? like for build, or anything really ^_^

[Triumph]

Pure INT or x INT:25 SPR.

Some empower Magic Missile cooldown with 5 points. There are enough spells later on to get by without empowering. Same goes for Fire Bolt.

Magic Blast + Fire Ball: 5 points for power.
Fear: Duration, optional cooldown.
Inferno: Cooldown.

Optional:

Chain Casting cooldown.
Stifle duration, optional cooldown.

Oh, and use level 1 spells. The damage bonus from higher level spells isn't really worth the SP consumption. If you want to use higher level spells, then feel free to. Magic Missile and Fire Bolt should remain at level 1 regardless, due to increased cooldown at higher levels.

Most of your empowerments may not occur until your 50s. My suggestion is to save your points, for there are unreleased skills right now. All empowerments should be empowered with 5 points for maximum effect.

[malthizor]

when you get your mage to lvl 5 do the kingdom quest tog et youir lvls higher faster. if u do quests it might take longer then KQ's.

[Hraesvelg]

Please do learn your class. Zooming through levels with only KQs tends to make poor players. Its good you're asking for advice, though. I don't really play a mage, so, yeah. Listen to Triumph.

[Lexaeus]

Everything Triumph said except use lvl 1 spells except the ones that are higher lvl yet have the same cooldown that way you can continually cast without having to wait for a cooldown (well at least lightning bolt for me) being the only high lvled spell I used and everything else was lvl 1. Don't always do kqs. Get used to your class and know its specialties and limitations. Kqing may seem like a quick way to lvl and it is in the beginning but knowing your class is more important in the later lvls. Buildwise I would recommend the 25 spr rest in int but that is just me. I like big flashy numbers

[Melissa27]

thanks everyone! i like to level up (who doesn't), but i also want to get to know how to use the mage character and be good at it

[Loveless]

Best way to learn how to use your class is to party and go through quests. Being able to solo as well as party will help you play in different situations. As mentioned above using KQs as your only leveling device will make it harder at later levels in terms of playing the class to it's best capabilities.

[Enraya]

Don't underestimate grinding, LOL. Those endless hours of flashing spells at monsters help you figure out a nice damage pattern where you can play at the order of skills to cast.

[Melissa27]

so do SPR +25 first, then throw all the rest into INT..............

........right?

[Icy]

I will elaborate on Triumph's first line.

+INT from freestat gives you, in PvM situations, 1 extra damage per point placed. The initial 25 of +SPR from freestat gives you, in total, 5% additional critical rate.

As you can infer from it, which build you pick depends on the trade off between higher consistent damage, and unpredictable but probable critical damages (criticals do double the damage).

Calculations based on average damage shows that if your damage is significantly less than 600 on average, then you should stick to pure INT build for higher damage output. If your damage is between 600 ~1200 (approximate~), then the difference between the two builds is small, and the hybrid is advantageous for its critical rate bonus (which is useful in PvP). Last but not least, if your average damage exceeds 1300, then the pure SPR build will have greater damage output.

Now, from my experience with combat situations with monsters of the same level as my mage, damage seems to flatten out in the lv 7x. Now it seems I'm hitting monsters for less than before. 600 is rather far away.

I recommend full INT. (The M. Def. from 25 SPR won't help you by a lot in PvP either)

If you have to, then INT before SPR.

Also, 1 point into cooldown for Magic Missle gets rid of the delay when you sandwich it.