From the beginning, you need to train six different survivals, general
magic, targeted magic, four lores, one weapon, parry, multi opponent,
one armor, and shield.
After you hit tenth...
For those of you who hate shield, you're in luck. It drops out after
only ten ranks, barely enough time for you to recall the torture of
training that tertiary skill. Your fourth lore requirement ceases to
exist until circle 30. However, you pick up a second weapon
requirement. You should count your blessings though as the third
weapon requirement doesnt show up until 70th.
While I admit the tertiary armor and evasion can become a bit of a
pain, you could always forego evasion... assuming you don't mind
constantly disengaging as you struggle to fireball an opponent who
could snap you in two at melee. I don't recommend letting your armor,
weapons, and defenses lag too far behind your targeted magic.
Note: There is a list of suggested spells for young mages at the
bottom.
Now onto the skill sets:
It does seem a little counter-intuitive that, as a warrior mage, you
would have armor tertiary. But unless the Gods decide otherwise,
that's how it is.
So that leaves you with a few choices. You have leather, light
chain, heavy chain, light plate, and heavy plate.
Leather is really only my
recommendation for those of you who intend to spend a lot of time in
hiding. But if you're hiding for the purpose of picking up some
extra coin, you might be better off going with a different type of
armor and just vaulting it while you go on your "urban ranger" spree.
As you do not belong to a guild that can train leather down to
unhindering, you may wish to forego this type.
Chain armor is my preference. I wear
light chain, but Olwydd repeatedly tells me only dorks use that
instead of heavy chain. Either way, it protects better than leather
armor and often has less hinderance. Chain armor that is forged to
be lighter than store bought also seems to be cheaper than many
ranger tanned leathers. No names mentioned.
Plate armor. If you're a Gor'tog or
secretly yearn to be a paladin, this may work out well for you.
Other than that, it will likely be too heavy for you to move in
comfortably. There is the future possibility that you will choose
the Y'ntrel Sechra spell to support your armor. In that case, this
will probably protect you best.
Shield can be a bit of a nuisance,
but it does protect well. If you truly dislike it, you can drop it
after the first ten ranks. The easiest way to get a shield is to
get a target shield from field goblins near Crossing. If you are
too young to hunt them, try asking an older character for help.
You have thirteen survivals to choose from. Before you get all
excited about being a ranger with better magic, remember this is
tertiary. You will probably never have perception like a ranger or
a thief unless you work extraordinarily hard at it.
So the survivals you can choose from are: Climbing, Disarm Traps,
Escaping, Evasion, First Aid, Foraging, Hiding, Lockpicking,
Perception, Skinning, Stalking, Stealing, and Swimming.
Let's face it. Some of these you need and others you can just dally
in out of necessity because you only need one rank per circle in them until
70th. That in mind, I cannot recommend First Aid and Evasion
enough.
Climbing is pretty useful and easy
enough to train. You could try the ladder in shipyard rats and/or
the tree near the swimming hole in Arthe Dale. To find the ladder
in shipyard rats, go through the office, then the work yard, then to
slipway two where you'll see a ladder that's pretty easy to climb.
Disarm Traps and Lockpicking go
together, so I'll keep them that way here. I don't train them
myself because I find it difficult to keep these skills even with
how I hunt, but they're a nice way of getting extra loot.
Unfortunately, for the most part, it's probably either these two
skills or Skinning. While there are creatures that you can both
skin and get boxes from, those aren't as common as one might wish.
Remove your armor unless you're an extravagant type who likes to
have a new set of armor every week. Start by typing disarm
<box> identify and then, if the box is not above your
ability (and you'll know when it is!), disarm mark
<box> or simply go onto disarm <box>. When
typing the final part of disarm <box>, you have the
choice of disarming it quickly, normally, or carefully. Once you've
managed all that, you then pick the box with a lockpick. You can
even learn a tiny bit of mechanical lore early on by typing
dismantle <box>. As a warrior mage, you also have
the option of showing off your guild's pyromania by typing
dismantle <box> fire.
Escaping is also a possibility but in
a guild where survivals are not all that necessary, I would
recommend skipping this as an extra hassle you don't need. For
those of you who crave TDPs though, having this can never hurt.
Evasion. Do you really want to risk
going without? You have hunting requirements and if you can manage
to feel safe in combat without training this, you're either braver
than I am or a lot more foolhardy. Casting Swirling Winds will help
you in this and in Parry although I've heard it really boosts reflex
and agility rather than the skills.
First Aid is just a nice skill.
While you are unlikely to have ranks similar to that of a survival
primary guild or an Empath, it might be nice to know that you have
the option of not bleeding to death from a bleeder.
Foraging is a fairly easy skill to
lock now, but for reasons of my own, I curse it daily. You only
need one rank per circle though, and you may eventually find this
useful, especially if you want grass and/or vines as a low cost way
of raising mechanical lore.
Hiding may be a skill you find you
want to train, but keeping it steady with your hunting will be a
challenge. For those of you who are interested in it, there will in
the future be an Aethereal Pathway to aid this skill.
Perception is always a handy skill.
Even if you ultimately decide this isn't one of your six, you may
want to train it at least somewhat. You can train this by standing
in front of the Crossing bank or buying jugglies with a weight
appropriate to your skill level. (1 stone early on.)
Skinning is nice as scraping your
pelts, hides, and skins will train both this skill and Mechanical
Lore. It's sometimes a little frustrating ruining pelts, etc, as
you try to skin creatures, but I find this skill is worth the
effort.
Stalking goes with hiding. If you
train hiding, you may well want this skill. You can train it either
by stalking creatures or by engaging them while in hiding.
Stealing. I don't believe this can
count towards one of your six survivals, but if I'm wrong, then
Escaping is most likely the one that cannot. This of course may not
discourage those of you who yearn to visit the less perceptive
guilds and jail cells. Just keep in mind that you're a member of
one of the less perceptive guilds.
Swimming is pretty easy to lock in
various places. You should start out with the swimming hole in
Arthe Dale or the brook in field goblins out Crossing's west gate.
If you one day decide to swim across a river or participate in some
other, equally bizarre event, you'll be glad you trained this.
Unless you're particularly musically inclined, you may as well stick
to the standard four. Appraisal, Mechanical Lore, Scholarship, and
Teaching.
Appraisal may not be the most
fascinating skill to train, but it can come in handy any number of
ways. It can tell you how difficult a creature may be for you to
hunt and how much an item is worth. The easiest ways to lock this
are appraising creatures, full bundles, and gem pouches. Items that
appraise high are also useful.
Mechanical Lore is quite necessary
unless you decide to forego having a familiar. You require 10 ranks
for a small familiar, 20 for a large familiar, 50 for a dark
familiar, and 100 for a fir familiar. To train this skill, you can
scrape skins, dismantle boxes, braid grass/vines, fold origami, etc.
You can also clean your dirty instruments if you have decided to
train those skills after all.
Musical Lores: You can practice
singing for Vocals, playing wind instruments, percussion
instruments, and string instruments. Not all of the Tavern Troupe
members are Bards.
Scholarship is a little difficult to
train if you aren't in classes a lot, but you can raise it by
folding origami, reading library books, studying embroidery patterns
or, if you're lucky, studying a spellbook.
Teaching may be difficult to get
early on, but by the time you hit 30th circle, you should have
little trouble getting people to listen to your classes. You learn
this skill best by teaching a full class. 25 ranks will allow you to
teach 2 people. At 50 ranks, you can teach 3, 100 teaches 4, 200
will teach 5, etc.
During the span of your life as a warrior mage, you will be required
to learn three weapon skills, in addition to Parry and Multi
Opponent.
Multi Opponent helps you to defend
yourself better against multiple foes and, you may have guessed
this, is learned by fighting multiple foes. Be careful not to get
in over your head. Facing three or four opponents at your hunting
level may very well lead to them overpowering you.
Parry is quite possibly your best
defense. Like Evasion, it is aided by the spell Swirling Winds, but
it is easier to learn than Evasion.
Primary Weapon: I recommend an edged
weapon. My personal favorite is medium edged, but light edged and
heavy edged could also work out well. Two handed edged would likely
wear you out early on (as would blunt weapons) due to lack of
strength and stamina.
Secondary Weapon: You have several
choices here. You could choose another edged weapon, a ranged
weapon such as a bow or a crossbow, a thrown weapon, a blunt weapon,
etc. I recommend either a second edged weapon or a ranged weapon.
Edged weapons tend to wear young players out less. Regarding ranged
weapons, the spell Tailwind can help you by increasing your
accuracy.
Tertiary Weapon: This requirement
doesn't hit until 70th. At that point, I should hope you will be
well able to choose which weapon you feel will suit your hunting
style and needs best.
And, finally, onto your primary skill set.
There are five types of magic and in order to continue to meet your
circle requirements for General Magic, you'll need to train them all.
Harness: You can train this skill by
just casting spells, but harnessing mana and charging cambrinth
(which automatically harnesses mana into the cambrinth) will raise
it even more.
Magical Devices: Once you've bought
some cambrinth to aid you in casting spells, this skill shouldn't be
hard to learn. You can buy cambrinth orbs and rings as well as
other types of cambrinth in stores throughout Elanthia. Prep a
spell at its minimum, which you can do by simply prepping the spell
without entering an amount, and charge your cambrinth any amount you
think appropriate. When you're done charging the cambrinth, focus on
it and then cast when ready. Keep in mind that charging your
cambrinth beyond what you can normally cast at can also make a spell
backfire, potentially frying your nerves. Ethereal Shield, Swirling
Winds, Sure Footing, and Zephyr are some examples of good spells to
use in order to practice this skill.
Power Perception: The best way to
learn this is by wandering around and typing power or perceive in
every room. Do not do this anywhere that you may be in danger, such
as hunting areas because this has a roundtime. You will find that
this skill locks more easily as you gain more ranks in it, making it
unlike just about every other skill.
Primary Magic: You train this skill
simply by casting spells, but snap casting (casting a spell before
it is fully prepped) trains it best. It is best to wait a few
seconds, after prepping a spell, to cast because otherwise it may
completely fail.
Targeted Magic is what makes you a
Warrior Mage. Other guilds may learn this skill, but, to the best
of my knowledge, no others are specifically required to learn it.
You learn this skill by casting targeted spells at creatures. A
good example of this type of spell is Aether Lance, which is pretty
effective at its fairly low minimum prep.
This section seems like a decent enough place to suggest some spells
to choose early on. I have pointed out the benefits of various
spells throughout and this is just an additional list of
suggestions.
Beginning with Air spells, Zephyr, Swirling Winds, Tailwind, and
Y'ntrel Sechra may all be useful. Zephyr produces a breeze that
helps reduce fatigue. Swirling Winds aids Evasion and Parry.
Tailwind, should you choose to use ranged weapons, improves
accuracy. Y'ntrel Sechra, if you use a heavy armor, will support
that armor and make it easier for you to move in it (for example,
dodging more). These have the advantage of being able to be cast
out of combat.
Fire Spells: Fire Shard and Fire Ball are both nice spells fairly
early on. They're a little more mana-heavy than something like
Aether Lance, but fun to use in combat. You should not cast these
out of combat.
For Water spells, I recommend only Frost Scythe early on. It is a
combat spell with a fairly low minimum prep. A bit later, you may
desire Frostbite and Ice Patch, but those are a little hard for very
young mages. With frostbite, remember to have either Ethereal
Shield or Mantle of Flame up in order to avoid exhaustion and/or
skin rashes.
The best Earth spell to get early on is Sure Footing. It will help
you in climbing and increase balance during combat.
Among the Aether Spells, you will want Ethereal Shield and Aether
Lance as early as possible. Ethereal Shield protects you against
magical damage (especially an Ethereal Shield that has had Static
Discharge cast upon it). Aether Lance requires very little mana in
order to be effective and is great for learning Targeted Magic.
Electricity Spells: I recommend Arc Light and Gar Zeng. Arc Light
is not lethal, but be wary of naphtha which can be set off by this
spell. Gar Zeng can be a bit inconvenient because you need to be
either at pole weapon range or melee range and you must have one
hand free in order to cast it.
Sinah