Post by Variaz on Mar 8, 2007 21:34:47 GMT -5
When someone says "Mage", you are probably thinking "Fire Ball". It this game, this translates to the Elemental school of spells. If you play a mage, especially for the first time, the skill you will raise and specialize in will most likely be Elemental, or maybe spellcraft for a generalist. However, how about a little change, and specialize in Alteration instead? Alteration contains many buff/cursing type of spells. Spells to lower AC, hit rate, level, speed, or even raise your own stats are part of Alteration. And in the new 0.2 version, the Life Blast spell is a much better offensive effect that can actually kill!
CLASS
This is a mage/high-mage build. High Mage abilities will be required!
RACE
I chose Human because of their intelligence bonus and their extra skill points. Demon or Gnome would be good choices too, but since the important thing about Alteration is to get the highest skill as possible to ensure maximum success rate, I think Human is the best for this build. The Demon's immunity and bonus to Darkness fits more an Elemental mage, while the Gnome is more for a Spellcraft-based generalist mage.
STATS
The Alterer is a mage, so a high intelligence is mandatory, unless you go for wisdom casting. But since you will need the High Mage abilities to fully benefit from the Alteration school, I recommend you go for Intelligence. At level 18, my current Alteration High-Mage has 45 intelligence, using the High Mage's natural bonus to intelligence, as well as an amulet of Brillance(+2). The second stat you need to focus in is Constitution. Mages have lower hp than melee characters, true, but they still need some. At level 18, I have 19 Constitution. With a 50% life boosting item I got at the black market, and a 10% one I found, I get 1264 hp. This is good, but I will surely raise it again during the next levels. Hp is very important...
SKILLS
Alteration all the way! Since most Alteration can be resisted by monsters with a high mind stat, you will need a high amount of this skill to ensure the success rate of your spells. Also, at 25, 50 and 100 points, you get creation cost reduction to your spells of 25%, 33% and 50%. But it's all about improving your success rate with the spells, so raise it, and keep it high! If you raise your intelligence early, this will allow you to raise it quicker!
ABILITIES
Mana Boost(Mage ability): This ability gives +20 to mana. I currently have 7 points in it. Extra mana is always useful, especially before getting the School Focus abilities, since you cannot get free spells yet.
School Focus: Alteration(High-Mage level 6 ability): This is the most important ability. Raise it, and raise it high!
This will allow you to create free spells, and by creating multi-effect versions of them, you can get very powerful spells for 0 mana cost! Raise it!!!
SPELLS
Elemental Spells: Life Blast will be your main attack effect, but at the beginning of the game, it's quite expensive, and rather weak(33 mana for a 10% life blast that's not even guaranteed to succeed... might as well just cast a fire ball.). So until you get more mana and/or the Spell Focus ability, I recommend you create some Elemental spells to defend yourself. Missile is a good one, as it will hit both physical/magic immunes bosses, and since you're not investing in Elemental/Spellcraft, the lower increase in damages of the Missile type will not be an issue.
Life Blast: Ah, Life Blast! Your main offensive Alteration spell! The first thing you'll notice is that this effect's cost starts low, but increase to extremes! It costs 33 mana to make 10% Life Blast bolt, but 2142 for a 50% one, and 21600 for a 100% one! However, the key to using Life Blast is to invest points in the School Focus: Alteration ability. Once you get around 10 points into it, you will be able to create free 10% Life Blast bolts! Now, create a multi-effect consisting of 5 bolts of 10% Life Blast, and you got yourself a free 50% blast spell! Of course, each bolts will have it's separate resistance test, but it's still better than paying 2142 mana! (and the multi-tests, while you get a lower chance to do max damages, you get a higher chance of doing SOME damages!). If all goes well, most of the time, 2-3 casting of this multi-effect Life Blast spell will kill enemies. When you've got enough points in School-Focus, you can even create a multi-effect 20% or 25% bolts, to get the 100% for free! With a multi-effect, 5 25% bolts of Life Blast, you get a potential 125% Life Blast. This will kill most stuff in 1 or 2 hits if your Alteration skill and Intelligence are high! So in the end, while the Elemental mage will struggle to find a good spell to use against a golem, the Alteration mage will just Life Blast everything to death, and it will be always effective! (well, except against magic-immune or returning bosses...).
Paralyze: A true life saver. In 0.2, Paralyze's power is now the number of turns it will paralyze enemies. Even a Paralyze of let's say 3 turns can be a life saver. As a mage, your AC and possibly your hp will be low, and you might not survive very long in melee. In the regular dungeons, you can always teleport, but not in quests. So what can you do? You can paralyze the bad guys! They will be completely helpless once paralyzed. I recommend you use this effect. Raise your intelligence/alteration skill to raise it's success, and multi-effect it if you can! A 5 multi-effect paralyze spell will almost surely paralyze the enemy! Be aware, however, than some enemies, like undeads, are immune to paralysis.
Haste: Speed is always useful. This effect gives +10 to speed for a duration. Have one with you all the time, it can really save your life. Remember: extra speed is ALWAYS a good thing!
Physical/Magic resistance: Though more expensive(right now, I don't have them), they can allow you to create 100% resistance spells for a short duration at higher levels. Needless to say, it's very useful. You'll never be able to get a free 100% resistance though, and multi-effecting magic or physical resistance is useless because you can only have one magic resistance boost and one physical resistance boost at a time. (You can, however, multi-effect both Magic and Physical resistance!). Once you can get 100% magic/physical immunity, you can then Life Blast your enemy to death without fearing it's magical/physical attacks!
CONCLUSION
As you can see, the Alteration mage is a pretty good character when built and played correctly. It can become quite an interesting alternative to the classical, fire ball throwing Elemental mage!
CLASS
This is a mage/high-mage build. High Mage abilities will be required!
RACE
I chose Human because of their intelligence bonus and their extra skill points. Demon or Gnome would be good choices too, but since the important thing about Alteration is to get the highest skill as possible to ensure maximum success rate, I think Human is the best for this build. The Demon's immunity and bonus to Darkness fits more an Elemental mage, while the Gnome is more for a Spellcraft-based generalist mage.
STATS
The Alterer is a mage, so a high intelligence is mandatory, unless you go for wisdom casting. But since you will need the High Mage abilities to fully benefit from the Alteration school, I recommend you go for Intelligence. At level 18, my current Alteration High-Mage has 45 intelligence, using the High Mage's natural bonus to intelligence, as well as an amulet of Brillance(+2). The second stat you need to focus in is Constitution. Mages have lower hp than melee characters, true, but they still need some. At level 18, I have 19 Constitution. With a 50% life boosting item I got at the black market, and a 10% one I found, I get 1264 hp. This is good, but I will surely raise it again during the next levels. Hp is very important...
SKILLS
Alteration all the way! Since most Alteration can be resisted by monsters with a high mind stat, you will need a high amount of this skill to ensure the success rate of your spells. Also, at 25, 50 and 100 points, you get creation cost reduction to your spells of 25%, 33% and 50%. But it's all about improving your success rate with the spells, so raise it, and keep it high! If you raise your intelligence early, this will allow you to raise it quicker!
ABILITIES
Mana Boost(Mage ability): This ability gives +20 to mana. I currently have 7 points in it. Extra mana is always useful, especially before getting the School Focus abilities, since you cannot get free spells yet.
School Focus: Alteration(High-Mage level 6 ability): This is the most important ability. Raise it, and raise it high!
This will allow you to create free spells, and by creating multi-effect versions of them, you can get very powerful spells for 0 mana cost! Raise it!!!SPELLS
Elemental Spells: Life Blast will be your main attack effect, but at the beginning of the game, it's quite expensive, and rather weak(33 mana for a 10% life blast that's not even guaranteed to succeed... might as well just cast a fire ball.). So until you get more mana and/or the Spell Focus ability, I recommend you create some Elemental spells to defend yourself. Missile is a good one, as it will hit both physical/magic immunes bosses, and since you're not investing in Elemental/Spellcraft, the lower increase in damages of the Missile type will not be an issue.
Life Blast: Ah, Life Blast! Your main offensive Alteration spell!
The first thing you'll notice is that this effect's cost starts low, but increase to extremes! It costs 33 mana to make 10% Life Blast bolt, but 2142 for a 50% one, and 21600 for a 100% one! However, the key to using Life Blast is to invest points in the School Focus: Alteration ability. Once you get around 10 points into it, you will be able to create free 10% Life Blast bolts! Now, create a multi-effect consisting of 5 bolts of 10% Life Blast, and you got yourself a free 50% blast spell! Of course, each bolts will have it's separate resistance test, but it's still better than paying 2142 mana! (and the multi-tests, while you get a lower chance to do max damages, you get a higher chance of doing SOME damages!). If all goes well, most of the time, 2-3 casting of this multi-effect Life Blast spell will kill enemies. When you've got enough points in School-Focus, you can even create a multi-effect 20% or 25% bolts, to get the 100% for free! With a multi-effect, 5 25% bolts of Life Blast, you get a potential 125% Life Blast. This will kill most stuff in 1 or 2 hits if your Alteration skill and Intelligence are high! So in the end, while the Elemental mage will struggle to find a good spell to use against a golem, the Alteration mage will just Life Blast everything to death, and it will be always effective! (well, except against magic-immune or returning bosses...).Paralyze: A true life saver. In 0.2, Paralyze's power is now the number of turns it will paralyze enemies. Even a Paralyze of let's say 3 turns can be a life saver. As a mage, your AC and possibly your hp will be low, and you might not survive very long in melee. In the regular dungeons, you can always teleport, but not in quests. So what can you do? You can paralyze the bad guys!
They will be completely helpless once paralyzed. I recommend you use this effect. Raise your intelligence/alteration skill to raise it's success, and multi-effect it if you can! A 5 multi-effect paralyze spell will almost surely paralyze the enemy! Be aware, however, than some enemies, like undeads, are immune to paralysis.Haste: Speed is always useful. This effect gives +10 to speed for a duration. Have one with you all the time, it can really save your life. Remember: extra speed is ALWAYS a good thing!
Physical/Magic resistance: Though more expensive(right now, I don't have them), they can allow you to create 100% resistance spells for a short duration at higher levels. Needless to say, it's very useful. You'll never be able to get a free 100% resistance though, and multi-effecting magic or physical resistance is useless because you can only have one magic resistance boost and one physical resistance boost at a time. (You can, however, multi-effect both Magic and Physical resistance!). Once you can get 100% magic/physical immunity, you can then Life Blast your enemy to death without fearing it's magical/physical attacks!
CONCLUSION
As you can see, the Alteration mage is a pretty good character when built and played correctly. It can become quite an interesting alternative to the classical, fire ball throwing Elemental mage!
(2500 turns is usually fine for me).