how do you kill stuff, as a mage?

[Sky]

i've started my first mage (Dunadain, for the extra HP), and i'm struggling. Lots of resting to recover SP ..
So i wizarded myself a CL50 wizard, all the best artis, and teleported down to DL71 .. and i got wrecked.

Serious, HOW do you kill stuff with a mage? Or are you supposed to banish everything you meet?
I've tried meteor swarm (takes 3 castings to kill one bone golem), Rend Soul (everything is immune), Acid Ball (against a mob that "does not resist acid") does nothing as well.

So ... how? 10 million xp worth of jackals? How are you even supposed to kill uniques?

oh and btw, how does the armor / gloves SP reduction work? is it worth it?

[Pete Mack]

Magic devices, acid/fire/frost bolt, meteor swarm, chaos strike, nether bolt, and mana storm. archery works too. In the late game, a big Gondolin weapon really helps too. Earlier, use "Regen or a defender weapon for better mana recovery.

[Sky]

ok, i will try ... i've had some rotten luck with hp, +2, +4, +3, +8 (WOHOO), +2 ...

[Derakon]

No matter what race your mage is, they're going to crumple like a sheet of tinfoil in the early game, so I suggest playing a race that a) has good INT, and b) has a small EXP penalty. Gnome is good for this. The EXP penalty is helpful because young mages need lots of levels -- levels give them more mana and access to better spells, and both are crucial in the early game.

Since you don't have good HP, you need to learn to avoid combat. Phase Door is good for this -- carry scrolls instead of casting the spell, to conserve your SP. Likewise, Wands of Magic Missile and Stinking Cloud can be surprisingly helpful for killing things before you have much mana. Just because you're a mage doesn't mean you rely on consumables any less than the other classes.

Jumping to clvl 50 won't really give you an accurate picture of mage play, either, simply because you don't have the experience of playing mages earlier on to help you figure things out. But yes, mages do need to play carefully; fortunately they have the toolkit to do so (in the form of 0% failure Teleport Other, Word of Destruction, Banishment, and Mass Banishment). When they do need to kill things, they use Meteor Storm, Rift, Rend Soul, Chaos Strike (uniques only), and Mana Storm. But they also lean heavily on magic devices; they have the best magic device skill in the game, and thus get substantial bonuses to their magic device damage. A Wand of Annihilation's average damage per round is only slightly bested by Mana Storm when used by a level-50 mage.

[Sky]

is there a guide, anywhere, which *details* what each spell does? I assume, for example, that chaos strike does chaos damage the same way of a chaos hound's breath, but it would be nice to know.

[Derakon]

is there a guide, anywhere, which *details* what each spell does? I assume, for example, that chaos strike does chaos damage the same way of a chaos hound's breath, but it would be nice to know.

There's no explicit guide to what each element does, so far as I'm aware, but if you browse a spellbook, you should be able to select a spell and get a short, but reasonably complete, description of its effects. All instances of a given element are the same, so if chaos strike deals chaos damage (and it does), then that's the same effects that would occur from a chaos hound's breath attack.

[Will]

I've tried meteor swarm (takes 3 castings to kill one bone golem)

That doesn't seem too bad considering it takes a warrior or paladin a lot of hits to kill one of those.

I don't like mages so I'm not an expert but from my early trials what I've found is that as a mage:
- you have the toolkit to pick your fights
- AoE can be very efficient
- magic missile is unresistable

[Sky]

does magic missile increase in damage per level like it does in D&D ?

[Derakon]

does magic missile increase in damage per level like it does in D&D ?

Yes, but slowly. I think that a level-50 mage gets something like 12d4 damage from it? It is not a useful spell outside of the early game.

[Estie]

Yes, but slowly. I think that a level-50 mage gets something like 12d4 damage from it? It is not a useful spell outside of the early game.

I used to kill Mim with mm back in the days, but thats about the end of the bar.

[Sky]

i managed to find narthanc so i can actually kill bats now; i had never realized before how tough the white wolves were, or how useful it is to carry a stack of CLW.

oh by the way, how does the armor thing work? what can i wear? surely it's not just robes.

[Pete Mack]

You need to dive MUCH faster, then take on high value target and try to avoid most everything else. You can get away with only a couple hundred kills total by cl 20. GET TO DL 30. Nothing is more important in the early game--including kills. Stealth is extremely important.
Finally, the claims about HE are overblown. It's pretty easy to level up as a high elf until you reach cl ~40, after which things start bogging down.

[Monkey Face]

Try to kill things at a distance, especially monsters with no distance attack. Letting a unique orc walk towards you while you are pelting it with fire or cold and then ?phase door as soon as it is next to you is a very effective strategy.

[Derakon]

oh by the way, how does the armor thing work? what can i wear? surely it's not just robes.

You take an SP penalty of (total weight of all your armor - 20) points. It might be 30. I forget. Your SP is also cut to 1/3rd if you wear gloves that don't have a DEX bonus or FA.

[PowerWyrm]

Serious, HOW do you kill stuff with a mage?

Like with any other class... just find an absurd shooter (Buckland +2, Lothlorien x5...) and shoot them to death. For the early game, Magic Missile and then Acid Bolt + Phase Door is the way to go.