PART 1: MAGE BASICS, AN OVERVIEW
What is a Mage?

Mages are the arcane base class. All arcane prestige schools (Sorcerer, Wizard, and Conjuror) must generally start with at least twenty levels of mage. Because it's a base class, there are no prerequisites to join mage. They also gain skill in all five arcane spell lines. This makes the mage class more versatile when compared to its prestige counterparts. Because mages have tremendous offensive capability, they play an important role in group combat. A mage's primary group role is to deal out damage, while at the same time trying not to draw unnecessary (and potentially fatal) aggression from enemies.

What Race is best for Mage?

Generally speaking, the races which start out with high power and focus will make good choices. But in actual practice, the racial differences are almost irrelevant. That being said... Fiends, Dryads, Gnomes, Humans, Elves, Satyrs, and Sslik are probably be the most common choice for a mage, or any spell casting school in general. (Listed in no particular order.)

Why become a Mage?

If you like a character that can do some major damage to enemies in a short amount of time, mage might be your choice. If you want to melee or heal well, mage is not the best choice. Above all, mage provides challenging and entertaining spell casting.

Important Skills and Statistics

Spell casting skills

Skills like flame, ice, and energy are important for three major reasons. First of all, skill marginally adds to your damage with the respective spells. For example, a flame bolt cast with 1300 flame skill will hit a little harder than one with 1000 flame skill. Secondly, it marginally increases your chance to hit with those spells. For example, an ice bolt with 1100 skill behind it will generally hit more often than one with 900. Finally, spell skills dictate when you can use and scribe certain spells, because they are almost always a requirement for use.

Combat statistics

A mage's two most important combat statistics are power and focus. Power greatly increases the damage you do with all of your spells. Focus greatly increases your chance to hit with all spells. Unlike spell skill, small increases in power and focus make a large difference in how much damage you do, and how often you hit... for every single offensive spell your character has.

Other skills

This is not to say that the other skills mage gets are worthless, they just do not have as much influence overall.

Noteworthy Abilities

Burn Armor
Gained at level(s): 3*, 34*, 54, 74, 94
Burn armor is a quick casting debuff that lowers an enemy’s flame resistance. Using burn armor early in a battle can noticeably effect your flame damage overall. Each level increases the debuff amount.

Engulf
Gained at level(s): 4*, 24*, 44*, 64, 84
Engulf is a great damage over time ability. It is great for boosting your overall damage, and it also is good for killing an “almost dead� monster that you are running away from. Each level increases the damage per tick.

Mage's Maddening Trick
Gained at level(s): 6, 26, 46, 66, 86
Maddening trick is one of the best mesmerize abilities in the game. It can be a lifesaver in many situations. Each level of maddening trick increases the mez duration.

Perfect Spell
Gained at level(s): 9*
Perfect spell is arguably one of the most useful level 9 abilities in the game. Once activated, offensive spells (and some abilities) are guaranteed to hit for 30 seconds, so long as the enemy is not immune to the spell.

Burnout
Gained at level(s) 10, 50, 90
When active, this ability makes all your flame spells hit for 25% more damage. It is excellent for gaining an edge against difficult monsters. Each level of burnout increases the duration by 20 seconds.


Multicast
Gained at level(s): 18*, 58, 98
Once activated, your next spell will have a chance to hit for 2, 3, or 4 more additional times, depending on the respective level of the ability. Multicast is great for putting up big damage numbers, fast.

Magic Umbrella
Gained at level(s): 30
Magic Umbrella is a group aura that increases the magic evasion of all party members by 12%.

Fusion Burn
Gained at level(s): 36*
All flame spells cast while fusion burn is active will ignore the target's armor. This ability is devastating when combined with burnout.

Spell Barrier
Gained at level(s): 70
Spell barrier doubles your magic evasion for 30 seconds. You will not become totally invincible to spells, but a large majority spells directed at you will miss.

* indicates that the ability is masterable, and can be used in other active schools. Example: perfect spell can be used in any other school once you hit 18 mage. You need twice the level you attained it to master it. (9 x 2 in the case of perfect spell) For this reason, no abilities above level 50 can be mastered due to the level 100 cap.

For more basic information on mages, see the mage GamersInfo page at: http://horizons.gamersinfo.net/schoo...view=item&id=2