Home
New Adventurer? Start Here!
Guilds Barbarian Bard Cleric Empath Moon Mage Necromancer Paladin Ranger Thief Trader Warrior Mage Aethereal Pathways Beginner's Guide Cantrips Circle Calculator Circle Requirements Familiars Manipulative Resolve Pattern Hues Familiar Performs Spells Titles Races Hunting Weapons Armor Magic Maps Skills and Trades Herbs and Alchemy Miscellaneous
Donate
Warrior Mage Training Guide

Boot Camp (i.e. circles 1 through 10)

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:

The Tertiary Skills
Armor

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.

Survivals

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.

The Secondary Skills
Lores

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.

Weapons

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.

Primary Skills
Magic!

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