Spell Caster and Gem Guide

[doctor-warlord]

Quick and Dirty Damage Dealing Guide:
1. Buy a staff at the Castille magic shop and equip it
2. Get a skill point in Mind Bending by sacrificing spirit trophies to the altar of dementia inside the church
3. Buy a Krozzixes gem from the Castille magic shop and put it in your FIRST gem slot in your gem pouch. DONE!

Using the above method you will always start with the Krozzixes gem in play which happens to be a gem you can cast multiple times without it being discarded back into your pouch. A greater understanding of the magic system will be necessary for becoming a true caster, however, such as the use of flare-up gems to increase direct damage or using damage over time gems repeatedly because they stack just like everything else in the game except for auras of the same effect.


Older info:
this is a guide to how you can build a fairly good spell caster easily

as a spell caster you should always have a staff equipped as it lowers cost of spells and increases the rate with which you can draw them

you start by getting lvl 1 passive advancement and then use it to lvl the magic types you want to use

as for trophies you should use the combat trophies on protection skills and petmanship under beast mastery and the spirit trophies should be used on wizardry staves and mental conservation since these are required to get spells cost down

now to explain the 3 magic types life magic is primarily heal spells this is green and white gems death magic is primarily damage spells this is red and black gems and psych magic is primarily aura spells this is blue and grey gems

in order to put gems in pouch you need to lvl a skill to the amount of that magic types gems you want to use for life magic its sorcery for death magic its diabolism and for psych magic its mind bending just as an example say you have lvl 3 sorcery then you can equip 3 gems in total that are white or green

also you use spells or gems as they are called in the game by putting them in your gem pouch and then drawing them during combat but always keep 1-3 slots in pouch empty so you can draw escape gems to reduce risk of dying unnessecarily

when starting as new player and being a spell caster the first thing you should do is get green and white magic to lvl 2 and buy the heal spells as they will be usefull untill you get some good damage spells

if i think of anything more ill add it later also if others have anything to add please do

[Archer of Crosis]

another helpful tip is this:

get grey magic to a skill of 5 so you can purchase free escapes(in stronhad), they dont require mana or energy and still give 50% escape, just buy 3 of those instead, that way you can burn all your mana and energy and still get away.

get green magic and white magic both to a skill of 2 so you can purchase the lower end continuous heals (in castille). these help out drastically as you can have 3 of each kind. they only heal 1 (for green) every 5 secs, and 2 (for white) every 10 secs. it's not much, but every little bit helps.

while you're at it get white magic to 8 so you can purchase Thick skin auras (stronhad) , grants party a damage shield reducing all DD and attack dmg taken by 2 every 9 secs.

~Chandra~

because you can replace gems that are already in play,
you can put your first 5 gems into play (should always do this)
and as you pull better gems, replace the ones currently being used with the better ones.

when you replace a gem, do it right after it casts, and you dont have to wait for it to cool down before you play the new gem

[Glitchless]

For damage dealing casters:

Your best friend is Flare Up Aura available at the second town (Stronhad). It adds 5 damage to the maximum damge of all your direct damage gems. If you can get this gem out in a fight it will greatly increase the effect and efficiency or low level damage spells. One strategy is to purposefully not cast - just put them into play - your spells until you have this aura out. It gets risky as your level increases and you get more gem slots, however.

[doctor-warlord]

well as your lvl improves you will also be able to have more of them in pouch as i expect they come in stronger versions later on also like all the other spells so thats a way to deal with the problem later on

also it would be wise for spell casters over lvl 15 to start using mana and energy heal gems as they can be usefull in long fights espicially boss fights

and while talking about spells the most powerfull damage spells are red and black but if you want consistent damage it should be blue damage spells you use

and lastly i got a question about staves if anyone knows the answer please tell me are all staffs 2handed or are there also 1handed staffs if both exist how do you see which your staff is

[doctor-warlord]

due to all the new skills now available to spell casters its much easier to become a powerfull healer or damage dealer with gems or perhaps a combination of both which should be favorable later on as pouch size increases so you always can either heal or deal damage

if your a spell caster you have to have a staff equipped as it gives massive bonuses to magical ablities you get all these bonuses just by equipping a staff 10% magic crit 35% mana cost reduction 25% energy cost reduction first gem in pouch in play from start and 10% to regeneration rate of mana and energy in combat

also now its become a lot easier to get second gem pouch at lvl 10 wizardry second gem pouch is available which means you can fill up the first gem pouch with gems you use in combat and just switch to 2nd pouch if you need escape gems

also note that all staff are 2handed as far as i know so if your a spellcaster then blocking is a waste to lvl as you wont be using shield also note that if you plan on using a spell caster to hunt only equip archery set while hunting as delay is increased when bow and staff are both equipped other then that i dont think i need to add more now

ok just a question i am a white magic caster does mental conservation only affect mana and if so is there a stat that conserves energy?

Yes, that stat is staves. Just read the mouseover available.

Originally Posted by Glitchless

For damage dealing casters:

Your best friend is Flare Up Aura available at the second town (Stronhad). It adds 5 damage to the maximum damge of all your direct damage gems. If you can get this gem out in a fight it will greatly increase the effect and efficiency or low level damage spells. One strategy is to purposefully not cast - just put them into play - your spells until you have this aura out. It gets risky as your level increases and you get more gem slots, however.

I found this gem unreliable - it works on the first DD cast but then only when it chooses to work.

Unreliable? It adds 5 to the maximum damage your gems can do, not always doing 5 extra damage. It helps to have higher int to take advantage of it but even then it won't be 100%.

In that case - it is as unreliable as all DD weapons with a wide range. e.g. my bow will do 1-16 + 0-8 for the arrow.

I have found it much more beneficial to use a combination of:
Fire - everember 10 pts over 10 seconds
Poison - oilvine 14 pts over 25 seconds
Bleeding - splinter 10 pts over 15 seconds
Forsaken - angelic disfavor 15 pts over 30 seconds

As my main weapon is bow this can give me anywhere between 4 and 9 points between each arrow (about 5-6 seconds) and is far more reliable than DD gems.

DD Spells can be frustrating that's the truth. Even with high INT I still find fights were i can cast 6-7 DD's and never do over 10 points of DMG with a 1-21 pt DD with the 10pt Aura Boost running.

So you combine the DD's with a nice selection of DoT's that you just keep piling on the mob so at least with those and your Staff you can do some decent Damage.

I'd like to see perhaps a DD that uses more Mana/Energy but has a Higher Minimal damage.

But Mana Conservation, Sleight of Hand, Destruction and Wizardry are required skills for any caster! Love double casting a heal!

The new cantrips are the best spells for mages/healers now. For 1 mana and 1 energy, you can draw a different gem, effectively cutting you gem slots down by almost 1 (you can draw the cantrip again). Also, if you start combining them with the flare up aura, they start doing a nice machine gun damage too while you are waiting for your big spells/heals to come out. With a rank 2 cantrip and a rank 2 flare up, i can do 4 points of damage per cast, but more importantlly, get a chance to draw a 1-14 damage (+aura) gem. Plus with a staff and other skills, that also reduces the cost of casting to less as well. Almost worth going pure blue for damage.

Your best friend in combat with a staff before level 20 is the skill Two Handed and Critical. With these together you get .6% chance (per levels in each) of dealing double damage. Get Two Handed to your level, and put any excess into Critical and Overcrit for extra damage.

You might find for a time that you will be dealing more damage with your staff later than with your spells....

Okay, so I'm a Warlock. (If you haven't already guessed) I'm level 7 with 11 in staves, 10 in black magic, training red magic to 10'ish, training parry, training 2handed/overcrit/crit, training destruction.

Am I doing alright? I'm also using DD gems because I beleive the Warlock has a percentile increase on DD gems. Is there anything I'm missing/should do?

Originally Posted by shadydingo

Okay, so I'm a Warlock. (If you haven't already guessed) I'm level 7 with 11 in staves, 10 in black magic, training red magic to 10'ish, training parry, training 2handed/overcrit/crit, training destruction.

Am I doing alright? I'm also using DD gems because I beleive the Warlock has a percentile increase on DD gems. Is there anything I'm missing/should do?

Not really much to change. As a spellcaster, you need to make sure you have plenty of Protection skill - you can't equip a shield and your healing capabilities are limited (need gem slots for firepower, not for heals) - so your armor needs to keep you alive. Additionally training parry and impedance will help negate some of the damage you take, which can be critical, but armor is first and foremost on the list of "Stuff that keeps you from being dead".

Of course, I'm not a big fan of being a low-level spellcaster, having started out as one. They're just not very effective.

One fringe note - the percent increase on DD gems is entirely irrelevant at your level. At best, it will occasionally provide +1 damage to your spells. This is really true for most class bonuses - they tend to do very little, especially in the early going.

Originally Posted by Necrox

Your best friend in combat with a staff before level 20 is the skill Two Handed and Critical. With these together you get .6% chance (per levels in each) of dealing double damage. Get Two Handed to your level, and put any excess into Critical and Overcrit for extra damage.

You might find for a time that you will be dealing more damage with your staff later than with your spells....

You deal 50% increased damage when you crit, double damage when your overcrit skill is at 100.

Okay cool. And since I just recently got my laptop taken away (Stupid bedtimes...) And i have some skills set on passive, I'm gonna have some pretty high levels =}

I think its only leveling passive advancement and red magic thoguh =/ oh wellz better than nothing =P

Also, would it be wise to get flareup then? for the extra dagame if there is any? I read some stuff above and it looks like it goes either way... some say it works, others say it doesn't, whats the final verdict?

Flareup definitley works - but only with DD spells.

The disadvantage of flare up is that it takes up a gem slot. I'm still working out if three recastable gems is better than having flare up at the moment.

Though doing 4 points with the blue cantrips are sweet while waiting for the big guns to come out. And do 3 points.

I've just puchased the blue 3 point cantrip, so I'll let you know how that goes with flare up later. Note that flare up can only maximise to the highest damage dealt by the gem. Eg. a 1-1 point cantrip with flare up will now do 1-2 damage.

The main issue is that auras take up a gem slot, and for a free account, that is extremely restrictive.

The setup I currently have is two Recastable damage spells, one flare up and the last slot is used for DD and DoT spells. Cantrips are used (blue DD and blue/green regen cantrips) are used to fill in the spaces. I'm thinking of ditching flare up and running three recastable DD spells instead (or two recastable DD spells and spell reflection aura in blue).

Originally Posted by Crawlygrim

One fringe note - the percent increase on DD gems is entirely irrelevant at your level. At best, it will occasionally provide +1 damage to your spells. This is really true for most class bonuses - they tend to do very little, especially in the early going.

Agreed on that point. Don't worry about the extra damage you get from your class. As a Necromancer, I get a +1 damage for every 20 black damage I do. I only put active into skill enhancement when I don't want to level. Warlocks also will get an extra point every 33 damage they do (from memory) at the start.

When I do get to level 60 - it will be interesting if I go down the weapon wielding path too and just use gems as a backup. At the moment, I kill things faster than a weapon wielding build, but I seem do die a lot more too. Good for levelling, but not good for boss quests.

Does anyone out there use the + resistance to blue aura? I was wondering wether to actually get grey magic up and use these as well?