Primate Murder
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Welcome back!
First of all, I'd like to mention that the stat cap has been raised to 250. As an FO mage, you're best off with 250 Int/Dex/Luck.
The modern meta focuses on stun-locking the monster, then smashing it with powerful ele-locked skills. I'll provide some of the more easily available ones, and for a more detailed description of all usable item combinations, I suggest checking out Commonly Used Strategies. For that matter, the new AQ Wiki is an incredible source of information, so I advise familiarizing yourself with it.
Now, without further ado:
Weapons
All the best ice items are either melee, rare or GGB, making it the best no-drop element for f2p.
Your strongest fire nuke is the Pyromancer Bloodmage, so you'll want to get the fire Magestave for a little extra damage.
For water, you'll want to get the Blade of Briar, so go to the Void and defeat a Keyote. While it's an ok-ish weapon by itself, it truly shines when you pair it with the subrace Evolve toggle. The damage bonuses stack, making you deal about 3x damage (before adding in CIT, boosters, miscs, etc)and inflicting the monster with Bleed - which not only harms them, but also heals you due to Vamp's Drink passive.
Since your wind nuke is going to be a spell, I suggest either a Magestaff (deals increased damage with your wind spells if your class is mage or wizard) or the Fujin Athame (increased wind spell accuracy).
Mutant King Club compresses an elelocked earth armor with a skill, giving you your earth nuke.
Miraculously, the Frostval quests are still available. Go to Today's Event > Frostval, and upon the quest's completion you get the option to replay the other Frostval quests. If I'm not mistaken, it's the Intro that gives you Thunderlord's Staff, the single best energy weapon we have in the game. It toggles between an autohit mode (with a penalty) and a mode that pays a negligible amount of hp to inflict a 4-turn Burn.
Morningstar Occult Cross is your best option for light. Like the Blade of Briar, you can click on it to get a high-damage skill, and like with the Blade, you can pair it with the Vamp's Evolve toggle for some very nifty shenanigans.
If you plan on using D-Burst as your dark nuke, get Blackbones for a multiplicative boost to darkness spell damage. Otherwise just grab something generic to go with the Angel of Souls, like Greater Dark Blade of Victory.
Armors
Your Vamp no-drop works as your wind armor, with useful things like Int boost and Evolved toggle.
Pyromancer Bloodmage is still your best choice for a fire nuke.
WHEEL is an old standard water armor. What this means is that the skill gains an elecomp bonus to damage, but can still be boosted by CIT for another *1.5 damage. As an added bonus, the armor compresses water/earth, so you don't need a second earth armor.
Horo Show and Taladosian are ice and energy old standard armors, with skills that have an even higher elecomp than WHEEL.
The best light armors are either token or UR GGB, so I suggest just using Blue Blood (vamp elemental variant).
Angel of Souls has a weapon-based darkness skill that costs hp instead of sp or mp. If you want to conserve an extra spot for a utility armor like Generalist's Robes (spell damage-boosting toggle for farming) or Whispering Raiment (initiative bonus), you can use your Vamp no-drop as your darkness armor.
Kindred is worth noting separately. It's not an exceptional armor for casual questing, but it can be charged beforehand to unleash a 6x damage skill that follows the element of your weapon and can be boosted by CIT. This makes it very good for cheesing bosses, so I suggest keeping it in your storage.
Shields
Cerberus Ward toggles between fire/dark, providing compression to fit in CIT (*1.5 damage boost to weapon-based attacks and skills).
Celtic Wheel has an Int drive to increase your damage and accuracy, making it the unmatched option for FO mages.
Fujin shield has a Dex drive for extra accuracy.
The available earth shields are not particularly amazing. I'd probably suggest the Morningstar set shield, as it hurts the monster and heals you a little whenever you block a hit.
Umazen Aspis is the only f2p -26% energy shield.
Scarab Shell has a toggle to lower monster MRM - which increases the accuracy of all your attacks and spells.
Spells
Keep Purple Rain as perfect meta enabler, and Poelala as your chief guest summons.
Destruction Burst remains the strongest f2p spell, so if you need another fire or darkness nuke, might as well keep it.
Warmaster's Burst is the wind equivalent of the D-Burst. Since there are no particularly strong f2p wind armors, this is probably going to be your best nuke for the element.
Since the only magic harm weapon is in UR GGBs, you'd want Archmage Research, the strongest available harm spell.
As for the other elemental spells - you don't need them. The nukes contained in your armors tend to deal at least twice as much damage. Instead, I'd advise filling your remaining slots with utility spells. Here are some worthwhile options:
- Sizzler 'Splosion is an autohit earth spell. It deals less damage than a standard spell, but can come in rather useful against those high-MRM wind monsters. There's also the energy version from Frostval, but I'm not sure if it deserves an active slot, since there are very few dodgy water mobs.
- Moonwalker's Grace. Quickcast dexterity booster for extra accuracy, to be used during the Purple Rain loop.
- Essence of Carnage is a rather interesting guest - in Defiant mode it heals your mp based on damage dealt and stores charges to boost your next spell.
- Burning Question inflicts a burn that also harms monster sp.
- Sisters of Mercy can give you an eleshield against all elements for one turn - useful if faced with monster nuke.
- Catnip Senses gives immobility resistance.
Pets
Poelala's the only one you're really going to need.
I can give a list of other pets that remain somewhat useful at 0 Cha, but frankly all of them are going to fall short of the almighty Poe.
Miscs
Keep Essence Orb for sp regeneration.
Rejuvenating Necklace heals mp based on damage dealt. it can help you keep up the mp needed for your spell nukes.
Shadowfeeder Pendant gives you qc celerity, making it one of the chief meta enablers in the game - especially since it isn't affected by things like Freedom or Boss Boost.
Since Snugglefest is here, you can grab Love Potion for a qc control infliction. Especially nice for vampires, since it stacks with the Vamp's Mesmerize.
Goggernaut Helm is a cheap accuracy booster that doesn't /2 for spells.
Grakma Warhorn can inflict you with Berserk, a status that trades accuracy for more damage. While ill-suited against high-MRM enemies, it's the only misc in the game with a damage bonus that's not /2 for spells. If you want a more reliable damage booster, grab one of the Int-enhancing miscs like Murderator Gauntlet or the Eye of Osiris.
Bell Shell heals a little hp based on the damage you deal. The heal is less than that of CoRS, but Bell Shell doesn't reduce your damage, making it better for FO builds.
Morningstar Helm gives immunity to paralysis. If you want something a little more sp-efficient, Blood Ruby and Liquid Courage give resistances to paralysis and fear respsectively.
Hope the info's useful and don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions!
< Message edited by Primate Murder -- 2/29/2020 7:51:13 >
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