Mage advice

[malcontent]

Other considerations...

Mana bolts impose un-resistible damage. I don't think the same can be said for your arrows.

You cannot mana channel your arrows and shoot them faster.

You cannot recharge your arrows as easily as your mana (potions and the "tap magical energy" spell).

Arrows use up extra slots and weight

You may decide at some point that your launcher is simply a stat stick that gives you a convenient way to carry ESP, exptra speed (Cubragol), extra DEX, etc...

[VeritasAequitas]

all good ideas.
im currently racing towards 45 as soon as i can, and keeping an eye out for a better shield. i for sure will be picking up a better bow if i can use one as a stat stick.

the feeling im getting from the comments is that having a ton of arrows/using the bow is/should be uncommon for a lategame mage? maybe im doing it wrong
i find it handy for finishing off the high hp enemies without recharging mana. can manaburn, use up your mana pool and switch to arrows to finish them off.
also interestingly ive never ever used the tap magical energy spell. what is the primary use of it for you guys?

[jevansau]

For any fight of significance, you should have mana channeling on as it doubles your spell damage per round.
Tap magical energy lets you refill your mana from a (stack of) wands or staves. With the high level ones, you get a lot of mana. Well worth having a couple of stacks instead of the arrows, for effectively 2 free restore mana's per fight.

In between fights, recharge your stacks. Best is to drop one per square and recharge each one once for the minimum number of failures.

[VeritasAequitas]

alright, up to level 47 or so, got some severe damage now, got some consumables.
also, found my very first ever ring of power across any game ive played; Nenya!

now i have a kit problem. if i lose my =con, i drop too much hp. if i swap out my =speed, i drop below 20 base speed.
What should i do? is there any case to be made for going into battle _without_ nenya??

after ive sorted this kit out im tempted to take a punt at sauron...

[Sphara]

Does your mana drop that much if you'd switch to Dor-Lomin and <+16> ring of speed instead of Holhenneth/<+6> CON ring combo?

You'd only lose rConf and +2 INT for massive speed increase and no HP drop at all. You have 100% saving throw but you should keep away from meleeing titans or Thuringwethil. Saving throw does nothing against confusion-branded melee attacks. I cannot imagine why you would melee the given monsters anyway.

EDIT: ..says a guy whose character died just 2 hours ago in an unimaginably dumb way

[Adam]

You don't need base speed 20 against Sauron so you are good there.
Anárion is nice but as a mage i wouldn't prioritize sustains, you shouldn't melee anyway dangerous monsters. So shields of Thorin/Elros/Haradrim would make it possible to swap out the CON ring if i'm right (you would need 2 points of CON).
Other option is to wear Caspanion or Soulkeeper against Morgoth (you lose 3 or 4 high resists so do this only if you know the monsters well enough).
I would also go for 18/220 INT if possible, just check the fail rate of your highest spells with 18/200 vs 18/220, it should make a difference. Caspanion itself would also solve that, Soulkeeper would make it possible to wear the Cloak of the Magi easily.

[Pete Mack]

@Sphara--he can't afford to lose INT. At 18/180 , his base fail rate is 1% and mana storm fail rate is crazy high. Mana Storm + mana channel means he doesn't actually need a lot of speed to kill Sauron (or even Morgoth, if he's very careful. )

[VeritasAequitas]

Sauron dowwwwwn! (He dropped boots "Stormwalker").

This weekend im gonna take a run up to morgoth with a mage for the first time ever.

loading up on all my potions, leaving all the things with charges at home.

Final tips before i do something silly?

Plan of attack is probs wands of Annihilation/Magic storm continually reloading with mana potions. Keep speed up, gtfo if things get hairy.
Im a little bit worried though, about the scenario where morgoth summons more than one nasty with LOS, and morgoth isnt in front to teleport away. Whats the plan? just teleport myself?

[DavidMedley]

loading up on all my potions, leaving all the things with charges at home.

Are you planning on letting him touch you?

[jevansau]

Don't forget about Dimension Door. It is a very safe repositioning tool.

As a mage, you should never be in melee with Morgoth (unless you are planning the fight as a weak warrior). If you are short on potions staves of Heal are worth using, as as staves of the Magi. The potions are better because they are 0 fail, so if you need to use a staff, get out of line of sight first.

It is worth keeping Morgoth stunned - use the wand or Sound Balls to keep him that way. This gives you more free turns.

[Adam]

Im a little bit worried though, about the scenario where morgoth summons more than one nasty with LOS, and morgoth isnt in front to teleport away. Whats the plan? just teleport myself?

Most important: don't panic
One more useful spell: Create Doors. You should keep some distance anyway from Morgoth so those doors break LoS of each of his summons. Depending on situation you may have a chance of opening 1 door and TO-ing the summons one by one. Or banish them if they are not unique.
Create doors is also good for having time to heal yourself.

[Pete Mack]

Don't bother with annihilation unless you're desperately short of !rMana. Mana storm + mana channel does way more damage.
And yes, dimension door + create door is totally unfair.

[VeritasAequitas]

Thanks for all the useful advice. create doors, dimension door, and using stunning liberally really helped out.
my first mage win!

[jtwadsworth]

How do you use Dimension Door, I mean technically? I cast it and then try to click on a square to pop there and nothing happens.

[bughunter]

Once you select the destination by either clicking or using the directional keys, press '.' like you're targeting a spell or wand.