The Players Corner Archive

My Wizard Guide!

Unofficial Guide to Wizardry V. 1.0

By: Kranar Drogin, Human Archwizard

Introduction
------------

So you've decided you want to be the one responsible for creating 10x armor, or perhaps have the ability to charge a ruby amulet to 40, be the profession capable of summoning pets, duplicating magical items, spelling yourself up with every spell you have in under a minute or two for 4 hours or just downright hacking a critter to death with Haste II, well welcome to wizardry, the profession in Elanthia with the most abilities, utilities, and skills. All these wonderful abilities available to wizards do come at a cost and do require committment, but eventually, with the right training path you will find that being a wizard can bring you the best experience Elanthia can offer.


After being asked the question "What race makes the best wizard? What rolls are the most important? What skills should I train in? What spell training order should I go with?", the time has come to write an indepth guide to wizardry. A guide that will answer the many questions I have been asked over the years being a wizard. This guide will not dictate how one should train. It will provide recommendations, but most of all this guide will focus on the mechanics of wizardry, that way you can decide what kind of wizard suits you best. I do not personally believe any one mage is better then any other mage so long as the mage has followed a regular training plan and doesn't avoid training in their main skills. So let's get down to it...

The Race
--------

Many might argue that haflings make the best wizards, and others might say that sylvankind make the best. Unlike other professions (most notably the sorcerer), no race makes the absolute best wizard, this is more so for wizards then any other profession, the reason for this being that wizards are one of the most diverse profession. We have the ability to swing a sword, cast a bolt, use a maneuver attack or use a CS attack, we can use a combination of these attacks or focus on using only one type of attack. The race you choose should reflect what kind of character you want to play (grumpy dwarf, big brute giantman, mysterious darkelf) and the type of attack or attacks you want to focus the most attention too. So let's take a look at the different types of wizards commonly seen in the lands.

The Brands
----------

- The Generic Wizard.

This is basically as raw as you can get. It is the basic wizard independant of race or stat placement or preference. Just the primary skills that as a wizard shouldn't avoid without atleast a lot of thinking. Here is the training plan:

1x shield use (for life) You need all the DS you can get and shield use is a very cheap and essential skill to have to add to your defense.

1x blunt or edged (for life) Even if you don't plan on swinging or touching a critter with your sword, edged or blunt weapon is essential to your parry defense, and when the time comes when you need to go into a defensive stance to help guard yourself, you will be glad you trained in this skill

2x spell research (for life) Obvious reason is that as a wizard, spell research is a primary skill, doing it twice allows you to learn two spells per training as well as increase your CS. Even if you have no spells left to learn, 2x is essential to keep your CS up to date against critters of your same training.

1x Magic Item Use (for life) Magic item use is a very cheap skill for wizards and being a skill that we can triple in, it is essential that we atleast single in it if not double every
training. The reason for this is that if ever a new system is implemented for wizards, it may very well require magic item use so do not neglect this and make sure to get 1x per train.

1x Scroll Reading (for life) Same reason as magic item use, it's a cheap skill for wizards and magic related, do not neglect this skill. Scrolls are also very useful to give yourself defense from outside circles without leeching off of a cleric or empath.

1x Mana Sharing (40 ranks or beyond) Mana share plays an important role in enchanting and will probably be used further for future skills and requirements, you can not go wrong with training in it once per, it is very expensive for a wizard to train in it for reasons I still do not understand but do not neglect this skill.

2x Spell Aiming (for life) Once again, this is a primary wizard skill and should never once be avoided, spell aiming increases bolt strength.

.5x Physical Training (until max HP) Training in this by saving up a few points per training is the best way to go about it, depending on what race you are, you might prefer doing 1 physical train every 3 trainings.

- The Bolt Casting Wizard.

These wizards are most fond of using major shock, cone of lightning, and or minor fire. Bolt attacks are physical attacks using the different elements (fire, water, earth, air). They use the AS/DS system and have an advantage over swinging in that bolt attacks do not take into account the targets parry defenses (the DS a target gets with it's weapon). This means that a bolt casting wizard has no problem taking out all those stubborn critters that like to walk around in guarded or defensive stance, he can simply bolt them into the next dimension. Bolt AS is determined using the following formula:

BoltAS = DE Bonus + (Spell Aiming x Stance) + Spell Bonus

So dexterity plays a role in casting a strong bolt indicating that haflings have the potential of casting the strongest bolts followed by dark elves. Next comes spell aiming which is a trained skill and also a primary wizard skill meaning it should never be avoided and always trained in twice per. Stance indicates that in offensive stance you will get your full spell aiming bonus whereas in a different stance, you would only get a percentage of your spell aiming bonus (in defensive stance you get no spell aiming bonus).
Bolt casting wizards are sometimes haflings but most of them tend to be dark elves (haflings have very weak strength which is a big inconvinience). The bolt casting wizard doesn't have any different of a training plan then the generic wizard so the main issue with the bolt casting wizard is the race. Personally I'd be a hafling over a dark elf due to the fact that darkelves have a very bad TD (they get a -5 TD modifier, and as a wizard you need all the TD you can get, haflings get +50 modifier to their TD), they also do not have the impressive reflexes which halflings have and very poor spirit regeneration, haflings have the fastest spirit regen. Another personal point is I see way too many dark elves in the lands as it is, let's get the hafling population back on track.

- The Casting Mage

Although the bolt casting wizard is still a casting mage, they make use of physical attacks as their prime form of attack. The casting mage does not use physical attacks yet prefers to use spells like Elemental Blast/Strike, Weapon Fire, Mana Leech, Immolation, Hand of Tonis, Sleep, and a few others. These attacks all use the CS/TD combat system, the advantage is that as a Casting Mage you never have to hunt in any other stance then guarded to use your spells giving you an almost untouchable defensive strength. This combat system is a lot less variable however, you have a fixed CS, and usually deal with a fixed TD. They are all calculated the following way:

MiE. CS = (3 x Level) + Aura Bonus + # of MiE. Spells + .5(# other spells)
MaE. CS = (3 x Level) + Aura Bonus + # of MaE. Spells + .5(# other spells)
Wiz. CS = (3 x Level) + Aura Bonus + # of Wiz. Spells + .5(# other spells)
Universal TD = (3 x Level) + (Aura Bonus) OR (Wisdom Bonus) OR ((Wisdom + Aura) / 2) + Spell Bonus + Racial Modifier

The advantage to this combat method is never having to stance dance or force the opponent to fall and if done excessively, this method of hunting can prove to be more effective then using bolts in most hunting areas. The disadvantage of it is that as the calculations show, MiE. CS will most likely be different from MaE. CS which will be different from your Wiz. CS, this means you have to make a choice as to what spell circle you want to excel in and this is not as easy as it seems. Do you prefer to steal all of a critters mana as quick as possible, be able to stun it or sleep it? Or would you rather attack it with a powerful crit usually resulting in instant death? Or do you like the idea of turning a critters weapon against it? All three spell circles offer great benefits (equal benefits in my opinion) and these questions are ones you should ask yourself. If this is the path you wish to take, then you will concider spending your training points triple training in spells every time you have enough. Being that Aura is the key stat for determining CS, you may decide to choose dark elf as your race, however it may be best to choose a race with a good Aura stat and fast spirit regeneration. This is because CS spells are mana costly and will require that you wrack often to fry your mind.

- The War-Mage

Wizards are given several spells to increase physical attack such as strength and elemental targetting, these spells in combination with Haste and Haste II make a deadly combination. As a war-mage you will concider training in combat maneuvers to increase your sword AS and DS and after a certain point you will want to train for brigandine armor (35 ranks of armor to train off spell hinderance). Brigandine armor is effective against maneuver attacks and reduces stuns extremely well compared to double leather. By having 35 ranks of armor, you can save spending upwards of 12 million silver to purchase 4x heavily crit padded double leathers and spend 200k on 4x brigandine armor which will offer more protection then the 4x heavily crit padded double (better AvD, lower CvA, same critical protection), or decide to spend 5 million silver on forest green brigandine armor which will give you chain hauberk critical protection. As a war-mage you will not be negleting your primary wizard skills so when you are old and decide it's time to hunt in the rift, you will have all of your physical abilities to help you defensively and can still make use of your magical abilities. The following is the formula for both physical AS and DS:

Physical AS = Stance x (Strength Bonus + Weapon Use Skill + Weapon Enchantment
+ Combat Maneuver Ranks / 2) + Spell bonus

Parry DS = Weapon DS = Stance x (Strength Bonus + Weapon Use Skill + Weapon Enchantment)

Shield DS = 20 + Shield Enchantment +
(20 + Shield Enchantment) * (Shield Use Skill / 100) * (.25 + (Stance) * (.75))

Base DS = Armor Enchantment + Reflext Bonus +
(Stance * Combat Maneuver Ranks / 2) + Spell Bonus

Total DS = Base DS + Shield DS + Parry DS + Spell Bonus

Quite a long thing to calculate but the key skill to train in is Combat Maneuvers ontop of your generic skills and then to grab armor training when possible until brigandine armor, or if you're really serious about this route, go for the hauberk class armor (Much later in life). The race to choose for this brand of wizards would most commonly be giantman and dwarven as these two races are very durable, have excellent offensive abilities (high strength bonus), and are loaded with blood.

The Mangler
-----------

Decided what brand of wizard works best for you and now rolling that 650? Seeing how we now have pretty fast and well made autorollers I think working towards a 650 or atleast a 640 is an modest goal. But where does one place those stats? A generic stat placement would be the following:

DI, ST, AU, RE, IN, DE, LO, WI, CH, CO

If you have that stat placement after the +10 bonus to LO and AU then you won't have much to worry about. If you're way too worried about your bolt AS you can swap DE with RE however since DE grows at a moderate speed I placed it as such. Some key things to think about when placing stats are your training points. Make sure that your stat placement is good for the character you're making but optimized so that you have enough mental training points and physical training points to train in all the primary wizard skills I mentioned above and have some left over for misc. purposes. The following is how one calculates his training points:

Mental Training Points = (DI + AU + IN + LO + WI + CH) / 10
Physical Training Points = (DI + AU + ST + RE + DE + CO) / 10

Those formulas should demonstrate the importance of DI and AU as they are used to calculate both PTPs and MTPs. To further optimize training points you can place your stats in as much of a reverse growth order as possible, my generic stat placement attempts to do just that.

Hunting
-------

Here is my life from the farm to the rift... To me it's been a piece of cake the entire time except for when I had to leave warfarers to hunt coyotes and wolverines.

1-8 rats (extremely easy and quick fry)
8-14 manticors and boars (little challenging but quick fry)
15-20 fire cats/rats (easy as hell)
20-26 warfarers (cake walk using death cloud)
30-45 glacei (minor fire tore em apart nicely)
45-55 Varunar (easiest hunting of my life)
55-60 Seekers (these guys suck against 903)
60-70 Illokes (had tons of fun, challenging hunting area but full of action)
70-73 Pyrothags (call wind major shock instadeath)
73-80 lava golems (rapid fire major cold, or haste and metal wands)
80-95 sprites and fire mage (easy 2 minute fries, if it swarms though I die)

Further comments/questions
--------------------------

Any problems with your wizard and feel free to post at The Gemstone III Player's Corner which can be found at http://www.whee.org/~buckwheet/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi. I'm sure plenty of people there will be able to help you out with any problem your wizard is experiencing.
reg

Ok I get to complain about my wizard.

I made this wizard back when AOL was 2.95 an hour to play. Currently the wizard is 33, and I hunt rotting corpses, however the Roa'ters there chew me up pretty good, and I am getting to the point where corpses are getting a little young.

Following Kranar's guide I ran up to Glacei to give them a shot. I lost 7 deeds in 10 hunting trips due to their maneuver attack.

This is what I was wearing/carrying.

You are wearing a crystal amulet, some elegant black casting leathers, a veniom-worked black silk gem pouch, an ancient gleaming black warshield and a gold ring.

No coins.

I am looking for a change in about 2 levels as rotting corpses will be getting a little young.

Here is my information.

Constitution (CO): 45 .... -2
Dexterity (DE): 100 .... 30
Discipline (DI): 99 .... 19
Logic (LO): 75 .... 12
Intelligence (IN): 85 .... 17
Strength (ST): 53 .... 1
Reflexes (RE): 85 .... 27
Charisma (CH): 50 .... 5
Wisdom (WI): 55 .... 2
Aura (AU): 100 .... 25

Armor Use : 25 [5]
Shield Use : 128 [34]
Combat Maneuvers : 10 [2]
Edged Weapons : 111 [27]
Climbing : 58 [12]
Swimming : 35 [7]
Perception : 93 [21]
Scroll Reading : 120 [30]
Magic Item Use : 120 [30]
Mana Sharing : 105 [25]
Spell Aiming : 168 [68]
Physical Training : 105 [25]
First Aid : 10 [2]
Physical Training Points : 7
Mental Training Points : 5

Your spell lists:
Major Elemental...18
Minor Elemental...32
Wizard Circle.....20

I cast around 282 with signs/spells.

8x armor 8x shield 6x weapon if I use one.

So the question is, do I wait a little bit to hit Glacei and just prepare to die a lot or is there something a little easier I can do?

Buckwheet
Who prefers rogues, because they can uphunt 1-30 trains. reg

quote:
Originally posted by Buckwheet:
So the question is, do I wait a little bit to hit Glacei and just prepare to die a lot or is there something a little easier I can do?

You can get mobilities and resist elements and wear some decently or heavily crit padded double leather protection. Apart from that it looks like your strength is killing you. Strength is an important factor the older you get.

Gold wands and haste are also great for killing glacei before they kill you. Hunting minor glacei instead of major glacei will also help you survive.

- Lord Kranar, human Archwizard reg

Long term, would training in armor and moving to padded brig or hauberk be viable? You'll need more training or the spell hindrance would be atrocious. With 23 ranks of armor training, brig's hindrance jumps from 7% to 14%. You need 40 ranks to get it back down to 7%.

I have a wizard VERY similar to this one. Not as bad in the strength stat, but overall very similar. reg

quote:
Originally posted by Tsoran:
Long term, would training in armor and moving to padded brig or hauberk be viable? You'll need more training or the spell hindrance would be atrocious. With 23 ranks of armor training, brig's hindrance jumps from 7% to 14%. You need 40 ranks to get it back down to 7%.

Brig's elemental hinderance is 8 percent, not 7 percent, that is for spiritual hinderance. Brigandine armor requires 35 ranks of armor use to train off the hinderance to 8 percent for a wizard, and you know what? It's really worth it.

Currently Kranar has 21 ranks of armor use and 24 percent hinderance in it. He never dies from crits, only from health loss. Heavily crit padded brig armor gives you more TD (indirectly due to CvA), and it's so much better against any and all crit type attacks. Even with 24 percent hinderance it's much easier to hunt in the Eye because I can take hits and not have to worry about them critting me to death or stunning me for eternity.

Before you decide to wear brig armor, have a look at your race and determine if it's viable for your stat placement. Encumberance plays a big role in maneuvering attacks and if your stats aren't placed accordingly (High bonus in STR, REF, DEX, in that order of importance) then it may not be a good option to wear brig armor until you have all 35 ranks of armor use. Otherwise if your stats look good you can wear brig armor at 15 ranks of armor use and just get along with the 32 percent spell hinderance. You get used to it after awhile.

- Lord Kranar, human Archwizard

[This message has been edited by LordKranar (edited 01-31-2001).] reg

Just to give an idea of what brig armor is like...

My encumberance was at the following before the hunt:

The weight you are carrying is giving you a backache. Perhaps you should unload some things soon before you actually have to move fast.
Roundtime: 5 sec.

I would think in full leather or double leather with that encumberance a typical wizard would endure a lot of damage from a boil earth... however first boil of the hunt:

A fire mage leaves a trail of fire in the air while gesturing at you!
The ground beneath your feet begins to boil violently!
Fiery debris explodes from the ground!
... 10 points of damage!
Light strike to your chest.
... 10 points of damage!
Burst of flames to right leg burns skin bright red.
... 1 point of damage!
Flames tickle right leg. Feels warm.
You fall to the ground.
... 1 point of damage!
Burst of flames to chest. Didn't hurt much.
The ground then quickly cools.

Not too bad... got knocked down but immediatly killed the mage while still on the ground. Keep in mind that the mage is also 8 trainings older then I am. Second boil is...

A fire mage leaves a trail of fire in the air while gesturing at you!
The ground beneath your feet begins to boil violently!
Fiery debris explodes from the ground!
... 15 points of damage!
Nasty blow to your back!
You are stunned for 1 round!
... 10 points of damage!
Burst of flames to right leg burns skin bright red.
... 10 points of damage!
Burst of flames to right leg burns skin bright red.
The ground then quickly cools.

That's the typical boil earth that I have to endure when hunting. A 1 round stun which is 6 seconds, 6 seconds is acceptable because unless there is a swarm you can recover from the stun and retaliate before the critter has a chance to attack you again.

Two boxes later and a mage decides to boil before I return hunting... this is the worst boil you should encounter in brig armor:

A fire mage leaves a trail of fire in the air while gesturing at you!
The ground beneath your feet begins to boil violently!
Fiery debris explodes from the ground!
... 20 points of damage!
Good blow to your abdomen!
You are stunned for 3 rounds!
... 10 points of damage!
Burst of flames to right leg burns skin bright red.
You fall to the ground.
... 10 points of damage!
Burst of flames to chest toasts skin nicely.
... 1 point of damage!
Blast of flames to back. More bother than pain.
The ground then quickly cools.

3 round stun but little health loss... this is when having a lot of blood helps because since I'm stunned already, the mage can't make my stun anyworse. That means my character better have enough blood to last me 2-3 additional attacks that the fire mage will throw at me. Immediatly after recovering from something like this the best option is to use sign of healing or your voln symbol to regen your blood, or if you feel lucky you can give yourself unpain to replenish 50 HP.

Any other questions on hunting strategies just respond in here and I'll try to give the best advice I can.

- Lord Kranar, human Archwizard reg

As far as my training path goes. I will be fully trained for brig at 70th train and might/will go further in armor.

Which brings me to my next question.

Most of you know or have heard of Scintillion. He has this "plan" for the perfect rogue.

So now the question is...what is the perfect wizard?

Lets keep 250 trainings in mind.

I would think:

Place stats for optimum growth.

.5x physical training till max HP
1x armor for life
1x shield for life
1x edged for life
1x MIU for life
1x mana share for life
1x perception for life
2x spell aim for life
2x spells for life

Keep in mind I am planning on being able to hunt till 250. I am counting on the release of the Elven Nations to get that high.

The other thought I had was, what will happen to mages after the "Diablo" affect takes place?

For those of you who don't know what I am talking about when I say Diablo affect this is what I am talking about.

Basically when you played the first Diablo there were classes. But lets focus on warriors and mages. The warrior was massively powerful early on and through 90% of the game. It was only when you started to play multiplayer and get into the upper levels(30-50) he started to become worse then the spellcaster.

The problem was that you could train your mage in strength and eventually after you trained enough times your mage could wear most of the best armor in the game.

So lets compare GS to Diablo for a moment. You take a wizard and train them 250 times in armor. I believe that they could now wear chain class armor without much hinderances. While the warriors are still capped at plate..sure they have redux, but mages have lots and lots of spells.

Can anyone shed some light on this? What would the rift be like if all the casters were in chain hauberk with almost no hinderence? It may affect my training path.

Buckwheet reg

No scroll reading, swimming, or climbing?

I think the lack of any of those will come back and bite you at some point. And if not now as the game is currently designed, then at some point during your first 250 levels. reg

quote:
Originally posted by Buckwheet:
Can anyone shed some light on this? What would the rift be like if all the casters were in chain hauberk with almost no hinderence? It may affect my training path.

Before the hindrance change, it was very much like that. Spellcasters wore heavy armor, and simply had so much mana that loosing up to 1 in 3 spells could be ignored.

With the new changes, the penalties are more severe, so everyone is training in armor again. Missing 3 out of 3 spells kinda puts a crimp in your hunting style.

For now, that took the heavy armor out of the spellcasters. But once the newer characters, created since the hindrance change, grow up to rift age, you'll have the same problem again. The spellcasters will be wearing heavy armor once again, only this time they'll be trained in it. Won't be wearing plate, since off the top of my head I don't think they'll be able to reduce the hindrance to a manageable level singling by rift age, but I would guess Hauberk would be possible.
reg

quote:
Originally posted by Tsoran:
For now, that took the heavy armor out of the spellcasters. But once the newer characters, created since the hindrance change, grow up to rift age, you'll have the same problem again. The spellcasters will be wearing heavy armor once again, only this time they'll be trained in it. Won't be wearing plate, since off the top of my head I don't think they'll be able to reduce the hindrance to a manageable level singling by rift age, but I would guess Hauberk would be possible.

I think training for hauberk is a major waste of training points. The difference between double leather and brig armor is 27 ranks, the difference between brig armor and hauberk is 95 ranks. Huge difference when those points can be used towards miscellaneous skills such as first aid, picking boxes, climbing/swimming, perception and non hunting related skills.

There comes a point when there will be nothing left to hunt, and it's that point you should ultimately prepare yourself for. Be the character who has the most unique abilities and still manages to be an impressive hunter. As a wizard it's possible.

- Lord Kranar, human Archwizard reg

Curious on your thoughts about 1x mana share for life... why?


Mike

Zan reg

For every many professions mana share is becoming more and more important. When the new enchant system is released I can almost assure you mana share will play a major role in it. Basically I recommend it so older wizards don't get shafted like older sorcerers did. Best to be prepared for whatever system can be implemented in the future and if you train in all the primary skills at least 1x, then you won't need to panic when the GMs announce a change to one of our spells.

- Lord Kranar, human Archwizard reg

How do I hunt fire cats and rats? I'm level 16 with 48 mana and 199 AS. What spells? I'm over there right now trying each of them out and the ice/water spells aren't working too well. Major shock kinda works.. ok, it's amazing! but it's 10 mana! That's a lot for me and it doesn't always kill.

I was hunting fire guardians before pretty easily, but they got boring and are over hunted. I moved to steel golems, but had the same major shock 10 mana problem. Kind of hard to get fried lately.

Dekrid
"Hideously bright electrical bolt sends left leg into another universe." - I love that! reg

That hunting strategy is meant to be followed only if you follow my recommended training path. If you did follow it you could hunt them with Haste I and a sword. You could even get yourself a sword with ice crits to make the hunt much easier. They also have some nice pelts.

- Lord Kranar, human Archwizard reg

There is no perfect wizard. Just not. To diverse. I went the balanced way...

I didn't know what a roller was back then either, so I like a 600 roll. But I have no problems hunting anything.

Name: Edgeleaf Drastlore Race: Dark Elf Profession: Wizard (shown as: Hedgewizard)
Gender: Male Age: 133 Expr: 4548828 Level: 100
Currently Stat Bonus
Constitution (CO): 54 .... -3
Dexterity (DE): 100 .... 35
Discipline (DI): 100 .... 15
Logic (LO): 100 .... 25
Intelligence (IN): 100 .... 30
Strength (ST): 65 .... 7
Reflexes (RE): 90 .... 25
Charisma (CH): 57 .... -2
Wisdom (WI): 99 .... 29
Aura (AU): 100 .... 35
Mana: 285 Silver: 0

Edgeleaf (at level 100), your skill bonuses and ranks are:
Skill Bonus Rank
-------------------------------------------------------------
Armor Use : 124 [32]
Shield Use : 201 [101]
Combat Maneuvers : 158 [58]
Edged Weapons : 5 [1]
Blunt Weapons : 201 [101]
Climbing : 124 [32]
Swimming : 102 [24]
Pick Locks : 35 [7]
Perception : 183 [83]
Scroll Reading : 102 [24]
Magic Item Use : 93 [21]
Mana Sharing : 102 [24]
Spell Aiming : 302 [202]
Physical Training : 105 [25]
First Aid : 161 [61]
Picking Pockets : 40 [8]
Physical Training Points : 21


Your spell lists:
Major Elemental...50
Minor Elemental...109
Wizard Circle.....50
Use SPELL ALL to view detailed list of spells.

edge

Go ahead and tell me how much he sucks! reg

What races get spirit point recover the best/worst? i know dark elfs are the worst at it but who's the best. Do wizards depend on wracking alot up to a certain age? let's say well trained level 30 wizard... will that wizard have mana trouble if he doesn't wrack alot?
any advice would be much appreciated

~the player of many a horribly rolled(and rerolled) characters reg

It's good to see you thinking like that Staind. I, like Malok and a many others, believe there are certain things that should affect race choices from a mechanical POV.

These are things that cannot be trained off. Such things include, racial warding bonuses, ability to carry loads/encumbrance and spirit recovery. These things cannot be trained off.

These things are what make Dwarves great for ANY proffesion. They have the joint fastest spirit recovery rate(with halflings), decent strength and con bonuses to help with encumbrance, plus an extra 5% encumbrance on top of that for being such a sturdy race. Then there is the +40 for elemental and +20 for sorceror spell racial warding bonuses. Compared to the elven races -5, this gives you a bonus to TD of 45 and 25 respectively.

All these Dark Elven wizards and Sorcerors may look good with their huge CS's and AS's but, especially with Wizards, the ROI on your bolt spells will diminish to 2 per level after a while, and the penalties from this for picking a dwarf are negligable.

The difference between a 500 CS and a 510CS is barely nothing, and this CAN be trained off!

I believe Giants have it pretty good too, but as a mainly Dwarven player, I cannot say I have much knowledge on their racial bonuses, although their spirit regen is pretty good and they can carry tons of stuff.

-=Insomniac=-
Grunts, grinning. reg

quote:
Originally posted by Staind:
Do wizards depend on wracking alot up to a certain age? let's say well trained level 30 wizard... will that wizard have mana trouble if he doesn't wrack alot?

It really depends on what race you choose. If you are a halfling or dwarf, you will probably use wracking a lot. Wracking is also very useful for spelling up when you are younger. As you get older, wracking gets less useful.

No. The wizard won't have mana problems when they get older. There are a lot of creatures that are leechable and in some areas, there are times when you hardly ever run out of mana.

--Chaiden reg

I use wrackign all the time in the cavern before I enter the rift. send the mana to a friend, wrack and have them send it back..go hunt with 600 so mana.

Mike

Zan reg

does anyone know how encumbrance works... i mean the formula? strength of coarse, then what reflexes maybe dexterity?
heh i wish i had spent more time learning game mechanics before i started my first character... geez he'd probably be pretty old if i hadn't rerolled him twice and now i think i want to be a wizard. Oh well still had fun reg
I have the formula for the perfect wizard. When I get mine to like 120 I'll post it for everyone else. (Although, some of you probably will get it from people who I already told!?)

Nietslaf reg

Hey, i was wondering if it was feasable for a halfling to where forest brig by like 70-90ish afore rift being that with the encumbrance id get hit more most likely, im fairly new to encumbrance and all this stuff, do you think id be ok with brig? my strength and co are kinda low.... reg
Sure, get 30 ranks of armor by then and you'll be trained for it.

Nietslaf reg

Hey kranar
Im bout 37 trainins now and i be gettin alot of extra Tps and dont know what i should start putting um ie trippling combat maneuvers or picking and disarming..(ive ruled out armor training for now and ill pick it up again later in life..)

Rusval (at level 37), your skill bonuses and ranks are:
Skill Bonus Rank
-------------------------------------------------------------
Armor Use : 54 [11]
Shield Use : 136 [38]
Edged Weapons : 136 [38]
Climbing : 70 [15]
Swimming : 35 [7]
Disarm Traps : 10 [2]
Perception : 99 [23]
Scroll Reading : 120 [30]
Magic Item Use : 120 [30]
Mana Sharing : 102 [24]
Spell Aiming : 175 [75]
Physical Training : 105 [25]
First Aid : 20 [4]
Physical Training Points : 25

Any input would be great reg

Well, continue to single in perception, mana sharing, magic item use and scroll reading.

If however you still have spare training points I'd suggest dumping em on either first aid or picking boxes and disarming. I choose this personally because I like being able to have a boatload of skills at my disposal. If you're a hardcore hunter you may concider instead using those points for combat maneuvers or multiopps.

- Lord Kranar, human Archwizard reg