Phoenix315
Anyone have a good mage build? sweatdrop What kind of mage? (Wizard, Magnetic Earth sage, battle sage, or MVP sage?)
In general, a decent wizard build is:
Starting stats: 9 int, 9 dex, 9 agi. Alternately, you can go with 2 agi and 8 luck for the perfect dodge bonus, but I prefer the 9 agi build because it makes novicehood go a bit faster, and perfect dodge can be easily bought.
Final stats:
At least 105 total int before buffs is strongly recommended. (This can be hit at 90 base with an arc wand, 91 base with a staff (and 3s staffs are good--best balance of int bonus and slots), or 93 base if you like 4s rods. 4s rods have the most slots.) If you like PvM play and MVPing, I
highly recommend 99 int. If you prefer PvP and WoE, I'd suggest just leaving int at 105, and if you want to go hardcore WoE, as low as 80-83 int (so you hit 105 with bless), but that's really pushing it. From novicehood until at least 90's int, push int only.
99 base dex is pretty much mandatory. After int, dex is your next priority, and don't stop until it's maxed. Dex reduces cast time by 1/150th per point of dex. (150 dex, therefore, is instant cast time.) As you become a wizard, you find that your huge spells have long cast times. All of your gear, therefore, should be dex-oriented in party (zerom-carded accessories (preferably gloves at high dex), drops-carded wand, Apple of Archer).
Unfortunately, there is no way to reduce your after-use delay unless a bard plays Poem of Bragi/Magic Strings.
If you have any spare points remaining, put them in vit. 99 int wizards will have no vit, low 90's int wizards will have mid 20's to low 30's vit, and if you're hardcore WoE, you may have as much as 50 vit. Putting the points into agility is fairly pointless--you need large amounts of flee to dodge effectively, as most high-leveled monsters require ~210-230 flee for 95%.
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Before I start, I will make a note of elemental weaknesses.
Earth: does weak damage to fire and undead, strong damage to wind, 100% to water.
Fire: does strong damage to earth and undead, weak damage to water, 100% to wind.
Water: does strong damage to fire and a few undead, weak damage to wind, 100% to earth and the rest of the undead.
Wind: does strong damage to water, weak damage to earth, 100% to fire and undead.
These are your major skills. You do have sense element attacks, but they're not worth learning unless you want to learn Safety Wall. (I'm not sure of SW wiz builds, though.)
Typical mage skills:
10 Fire Bolt
5 Fire Ball
1 Sight
10 Fire Wall
Fire Wall should be the first thing you get maxed. The first spell you get should be Fire Bolt 4, then Fire Ball 5, then Sight, then Fire Wall 10.
5 Cold Bolt
10 Frost Diver for PvM/MVP, 1 for PvP/WoE <--Frost Diver can be really useful in leveling against monsters that freeze easily. (Its chance and duration are reduced by armor mdef, I believe, and increased by caster's int.) Freeze renders the target water element, which is weak to wind-element attacks. Since you have Jupitel Thunder as a wizard, this is really good. (Again, note my sig.)
In PvP, many people have marc armor, so they're immune to freeze status. However, you still need this as a prerequisite to Storm Gust and I believe Ice Wall.
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Thunderstorm, at least <--Thunderstorm 1 is a prerequisite to Lord of Vermillion and Meteor Storm, the wind and fire element AoE spells. It actually does better damage than LoV at high dex; though their cast times are similar, Thunderstorm has a 2s after-use delay, while LoV has a 5s after-use. And LoV's higher damage mod (4 hits of 280% MATK versus 10 hits of 80% MATK) does not compensate for this. So some wizards get Thunderstorm 10 as their second major AoE spell.
1 Napalm Beat
1 Stone Curse for PvM, 10 for PvP <--Stone Curse petrifies the enemy, thus making him earth element. Its chance is reduced by target's luck, I think, and I believe its duration is reduced by vit.
In PvM, it is far inferior to Frost Diver--it consumes a red gemstone upon use (though it doesn't consume one on failure at levels 6-10 in recent episodes), and it only has a range of 2 cells (Frost Diver has 7). In PvP/WoE, however, no one will have full immunity to Stone Curse unless they are wearing a medusa shield. As a result, it wins out against Frost Diver.
1 point left over for job 50. You could change at job 43, with Fire Bolt 4, but I highly recommend going to job 50. Makes wiz test a bit easier.
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Typical wizard skills:
3 Earth Spike
5 Heaven's Drive
Quagmire <--Open-ended; I hear that in recent episodes of RO, most wizards get only Quag 1 for debuffing. Older wizards often have Quag maxed, or near max. I have 3, and it works fine. So, I'll assume you have 3 quag.
The earth spells are the first spells I like to get, because of their utility in solo play.5 Waterball
10 Storm Gust <--Your all-purpose spell. It has an insanely good damage mod, and it's water element. (It deals 10 hits of (100 + 40 * level)% MATK over 5 seconds on a 4-cell radius from the target cell.) And it inflicts freeze status after 3 hits if the target can freeze; if not, they take all 10 hits to the face. Because of this, a lot of people think this is the only spell you need.
It has quite a few drawbacks, though. First, it doesn't freeze as long as Frost Diver (I believe half the duration). Next, it has a fairly hideous cast time and cast delay (5 + level seconds cast time, 5 second after-use delay). Finally, it pushes the enemy around in random directions, meaning it's not that practical for solo mob control.
However, it does the best damage of any spell overall. Level 5 is enough for general leveling, while level 10 is somewhat better for MVP and WoE.
10 Jupitel Thunder <--Even if you got Stone Curse instead of FD, JT is insanely useful if only for the simple fact that it has no after-use delay whatsoever and a pushback effect. (Just like Arrow Repel, only more painful.)
After that, your options are fairly open between Meteor Storm and Lord of Vermillion. To go the Meteor Storm route (which my wiz is):
2 Sightrasher <--prerequisite to Meteor Storm. Not much of a use I can see, except for its really fast cast time and (as of now) I believe it damages through walls.
10 Meteor Storm <--From what I hear, Meteor Storm is sometimes preferred in War of Emperium, because it can stack (i.e., you can get hit with multiple meteor storms). Further, it's fire element; I'd venture to say that the most common WoE armors by far are dokaebi and marc-carded armors. Dok makes the user wind element. Since Heaven's Drive's damage mod is weak (5 hits of 100% MATK), Meteor Storm works better. The fact that it stuns in your version of RO is also a nice bonus.
1 point left over. Sense, Icewall, or more Quag are your best bets.
If you go the LoV route:
Lord of Vermillion 10 <--I noted before that LoV fairly sucked at damage; it's the third weakest of the wizard AoEs, and the only spell weaker than it (Heaven's Drive) has only a 2s after cast delay.
Where LoV wins, though, is that it covers a huge area; its radius is 6 cells from the center, or two larger than Storm Gust or Meteor Storm. And it deals a humongous flurry of hits--there are four waves of hits, and each wave is divided into 10 hits. So the target is pretty much immobilized for the duration of the LoV.
It stacks on top of Storm Gust, so two wizards can be painful if one has LoV.
3 points left over. Ice Wall is your best bet.
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