Primate Murder
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Welcome back!
The very first thing I'd like to note is that FO mages generally max out their main stat before branching into others. Given that the stat cap has been raised to 250, I'd suggest 250 Int and and 60 Dex.
Several subraces have been revamped. Vampire is still the best for FO mages, so go to Darkovia, finish the advanced subrace quest and get an additional no-drop in the form of your subrace transformation, complete with 10 skills including an Int drive, an Evolved Form for high damage and lifesteal and even a quickcast stun!
The modern meta focuses heavily on stun-and-nuke tactics. Check out Commonly Used Strategies (particularly the Purple Rain loop) for more complete information, but the basic idea is to stun-lock the monster, then use powerful elecomped skills to slaughter it. Maximum effect at minimum expenditure.
Finally, before going into equipment... There's currently a token donation contest going on. As long as you log in and win a battle each day, you have a chance to get a donation of anywhere between 25 z-tokens and 5k. This will be most relevant at the end of the month, when the whales will donate ever increasing amounts to secure their spot, but it's probably worth it do so every day until then as well.
Now, without further ado:
Weapons
First of all, I highly suggest getting a Blade of Awe upgrade for your no-drops, switching to to a Staff, then aligning its special to PWD for a 3% chance of intantly killing the monster. As for the element, I'd suggest switching your no-drop element to Wind, as the best wind weapon is premium and nothing else really stacks up.
Bloodblades and Bloodzerker Blades are easily among the best weapons the staff have ever released. They pay a small hp cost to deal bonus damage with both weapon attacks and spells of their respective elements. There are variants for most elements, but I'd suggest grabbing Blazing Bloodzerker and Terra Bloodzerker Blades as well as Dynamancer's Bloodblade (Rare GGBs).
Torrential Pen gives a multiplicative damage boost to your water spells - great synergy with Hydromancer Bloodmage. If you're searching for more utility, the revamped Kindred sword has a chargable autohit.
Arctic Athame gives +18.75% damage bonus to your ice spells, with the bonus doubled against enemies with Int.
Light element also has a Bloodblade, but you might also want to check out the Morningstar Cross. Being 100-proc, it's slightly subpar for regular armor attacks, but its skill has great synergy with Vamp's Evolved Form, allowing you to deal high light damage in darkness armor - not to mention the lifesteal it provides. It also has great synergy with Bloodzerker toggles, giving them a nuke comparable to maxed out Bloodmages.
Voidsplinter Tether or Sunderer give you a harm weapon (as Horo Show is Melee only). If you don't have a spare UR, grab Blackbones for a multiplicative damage boost to your D-Burst.
Armors
Once you complete the advanced subrace quest, you'll get a 9th slot no-drop armor in the form of your Vampire transformation. It should work as both your darkness and your wind armor.
You're unlikely to need it often, but I suggest getting Insightful Armor of Awe as your no-drop - the qc mana shield can come in useful.
The best fire armor for mages would be Pyromancer Bloodmage, but you'll have to wait several months for Caecus to return to the Void to grab it. Until then, you can just use Torontosaurus Rex armor from LTS for a powerful fire skill.
Hydromancer Bloodmage gives +50% damage bonus to all spells for an hp cost, and has a powerful compressed water spell. If you lack a spare UR, just use WHEEL for its water skill.
Ice has a Cryomancer Bloodmage. If lacking UR, grab Horo Show. Being an old standard armor, it gets a literally op elecomp bonus to damage.
Terra Bloodzerker pays a small hp cost for 20% bonus damage and has a toggle to lock you to armor element 2x damage. This gives you a powerful earth nuke, especially when combined with Morningstar Cross' skill. If you don't have a UR, just use the Cthonian Count vampire variant.
Energy has a Dynamancer Bloodmage. If you can't find a spare UR, Taladosian Robes are an old standard armor with a powerful energy skill.
Light has a Lumenomancer Bloodmage. In absence of a spare UR, just use the Blue Blood vampire variant.
For your final slot, keep Generalist Robes or whatever elemental variant of them you may need.
Shields
Ultraguardian Shield heals some sp on block, making it the most interesting of no-drop options.
Shield of Agony's Blood has an interesting effect of giving the monster -10 bth lean, which pairs nicely with its MC of doing a bit of damage every time they miss and healing you for an equivalent amount.
Celtic Wheel series are an unmatched boon for mages with their Int drive.
Pies has a Cha drive to enhance your chances of inflicting Vamp's Mesmerize and boost your damage via Poelala pet/guest.
Golem Guard has a toggle to reduce the damage you take.
Taladosian Shield has a passive chance to reduce the damage you take from any hit by 50%.
Moonfang Omen is pretty much a light clone of the UG shield.
Avenger's Bulwark (darkness if you become an Emoran Knight) stores charges to gain an EleShield if you're in a pinch.
Spells
The vast majority of your nukes are going to be compressed in your armors - there's pretty much no spell that can match their power. The only exceptions are darkness and wind, and for those you can use Warmaster's Burst and Destruction Burst.
There are a few more damage spells potentially worth using:
- Sizzler 'Splosion sacrifices some damage, but autohits. Useful, considering that wind has a lot of high-MRM mobs.
- Runic Binding gives you a source of Harm damage and increases the damage of your attacks against the monster.
- Knife to Meat You is a quickcast (doesn't cost a turn) earth spell. Comes back at Mogloween.
Summon Poelala is one of your first UR priorities. It gives you a guest that does no damage, but boosts the damage of all your magic attacks. If you don't have a spare UR, Essence of Carnage regenerates mp on all your weapon attacks (and weapon-based skill like Morningstar Cross or Torontosaurus Rex) and stores charges to boost your next spell.
Purple Rain is one of the most useful meta spells, to the point where there's an entire strategy build around it (see Purple Rain Loop in Commonly Used Strategies linked above). It acts as a save point - cast it once to save your current sp/mp/hp, then cast all your buffs (like Moonwalker's Grace and SFP) and debuffs (like Mesmerize), then cast Purple Rain again to return your sp/mp/hp back.
Some of the spells that could be cast inside the PR loop:
- Moonwalker's Grace. Qc Dex booster, costs mp.
- Edoc Imanok. Qc MRM boost, enhances your blocking.
- Angry Trobble. Accuracy boost for several turns. Not qc.
- Arms of the Dragonguard. Make your next attack an automatic Lucky Strike (not qc). Not very useful right now, but pretty nice at endgame.
Mana Regeneration. If you run short on mp potions, use this spell with Generalist Robes, Imbue toggled on.
Pets
As an FO mage, your first priority is to get the Poelala pet for a boost to your magic attacks. If you don't have a UR, here are pets with some useful utility:
Underwyrmling is the only pet in the game that can attack monster sp.
Kindred pet can gather charges for your Kindred sword.
Fujin pet inflicts DefLoss, increasing the accuracy of all your attacks.
Frozen Effigy can toggle to Freeze the monster, great synergy with any fire nukes.
When the Void rotation circles back to it in a few weeks, you'll want to pick up WoolZard, a pet that toggles between inflicting Sleep and EleVuln and can increase the infliction chances for an sp cost. Until then, the Morningstar pet toggles to inflict randomly DefLoss or EleVUln, increasing the accuracy or damage of your attacks.
PikaZard has a chance to paralyze the monster.
For light, your final goal would be Lepre-Chan, a booster pet that enhances all your light attacks, but it only comes back on Blarney. Until then just keep using the Fairy Godmother.
Model 294 toggles to inflict EleVuln, increasing the damage of all your darkness attacks.
Miscs
Keep Essence Orb to fuel your sp skills. At level 101 grab Rejuvenating Necklace to healmp based on damage dealt.
Shadowfeeder Pendant and Love Potion are some of the best meta enablers in the game, giving qc celerity and qc control respectively. Unfortunately, one is level 105 and the other only comes back at Snugglefest.
Goggernaut Helm is a cheap accuracy misc that boosts the accuracy of every attack on the fiels without the usual /2 for spells.
Eye of Osiris gives you an Int boost as well as a little accuracy. Alternatively, Power Shard: Dr. Boom also gives you Int and an energy spell.
Taladosian Pendant. Its Mental Potency increases your chances of inflicting Mesmerize.
Bell Shell heals a bit of your hp based on damage dealt. The heal is less than CoRS', but it also doesn't reduce your damage, making it an overall better choice 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 respectively.
Hope the info's useful and don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions!
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