Mage pvp build

Skyblade

Hi folks,

I just came back to the game after many years and surprisingly still have my old chars. I was hoping to get some suggestions on the best/ideal skills to build a pvp mage character. So far I have GM mediation, GM eval, 106 mage, 90ish resist, GM tactics / wrestling. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! 

Reiko

There is a variety of mage templates out there right now. I won't go into super detail, but here is a rough summary:

Mystic Mage:
120 MR
120 Mage
120 Eval
120 Myst
120 Focus
(100/120) SpellWeaving/Anat/Wrestle/Etc

Parry Mystic Mage:
120 MR
120 Mage
120 Eval
120 Myst
120 Focus
120 Parry
120 Wrestle or 100 Anat

Bokuto Mage:
120 MR
120 Mage
120 Eval
120 Bush
120 Parry
120 Swords
90 Tactics

Necro Mage:
120 MR
120 Mage
120 Eval
105 Necro (105 gives enough to 100% cast Strangle, anything above is not necessary as other higher level spells aren't used as frequently. This is opinion based)
120 SS
100 Poison
100 (Spellweaving/Anat/Wrestle/Etc or remaining points into something else)

"Tank" Mage:
120 MR
120 Mage
120 Eval
120 Weapon Skill
120 Tactics
100 Poisoning/100 Inscription/etc

There are a bunch of other varieties, the above builds factor in +skill jewelry to overcap.
 In short: Most people will be running high-end suits with equipment that provides +skill to overcap their skills. Running meditation is not common as with enough MR, LMC, or overcapped LMC from studded/non-med suits you won't have as much mana problems outside of prolonged fights. 

You can run around Fel Yew, mainly on Atlantic shard, and see what people are running for a general idea of suit builds.

gay

If you really want to get back into pvp as a mage, you should just start with the basic mage. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is the following:

• Magery 110 (Costs like 200k on atl)
• Evaluating Intelligence 120 (4-5m atl)
• Resisting Spells 110-115 (300k-1m Atl)
• Anatomy 100 (This paired with 120 Eval Int provides the same defense as 120 Wrestling)
  
• Meditation 100

That's it. It's not as fancy or as glamorous as what you'll see everyone else playing, but as a returned player the point of working on getting into pvp isn't to spend a dumb amount of money on some flavor of the month template, it's to develop your core understanding of the game. Will you get farmed by dexers and splinter mages with this template? Yup. But if you don't know what youre doing to begin with, spending money on a luxury setup isn't going the change that outcome. And I think that constantly being at a disadvantage better helps develop a mindset of proactively analyzing situations at hand and what you need to do in THAT moment to succeed.

Next get yourself into a guild, that way you're not the only thing around to be targeted by the other guilds. I'm not sure what server you're on, but if you're on Atlantic then there are plenty of guilds to choose from.

Most importantly, take every chance you find to pvp. Fight everyone. It's the only way you're going to know what you need to work on and get better at, and after a couple weeks start branching out into different setups that might interest you. If you're outright just sick of being dexed down, pickup parry. If you want to make a few more macros and expand your casting toolkit, look into Necro, Mystic, or Spellweaving. Maybe you feel comfortable an anat mage and you want to pick up healing, do it.

At the end of the day no matter what form of mage you decide to go, you'll be better off with a strong mechanical understanding of being a basic mage than not. Anyone can pre-cast a curse and nerve strike someone 6 times in a row for 45+ dmg each nerve, doing 250+ dmg in 8 seconds.

And if you find that you don't have anyone to fight, go find an arctic ogre lord in ice dungeon, box it in and practice spell timing. Run around yew gate and practice grabbing health bars on the run, familiarize yourself with different terrain and learn where you can teleport and where you cannot.

Or just join GK on atlantic, spend a few plat on a suit, download their third party client "macros" from their discord and hit play.

McDougle

I think macro management and timing is 99.9% of pvp if i had a leet suit and @gay was in a sorcerers suit they would still win . Toss in possible illegal programs and the learning curve is very very steep...

gay

tbh positioning and awareness are the most important things in pvp to learn, which you can only learn from experience. Spell timing and and macros are second to that, but can be practiced any time.

Fun fact: I use a sorc suit to pvp on pacific, not that there is much pvp there anymore.

Yoshi

“I would not choose a template without parrying. It’s very difficult to play, you’ll find it very disheartening when you can’t cast a single spell and get hit by dexxers every swing
because everyone hits with hit lower defense nowadays

mystic parry mage is good but you really need good (expensive) + skill jewels.

Bok mage is cheaper

120 MR
110 Mage
120 Eval
120 Bush
120 Parry
120 Swords
60 Tactics
“

gay

The cost associated with something like a nerve strike mage is probably outside that of a returning player, unless they've got piles of gold stashed. 120 Parry alone is 70m (Even though 120 parry is absolutely not required) then paired with the cost of jewels needing FC, FCR, HCI, EP, Damage increase.

He could absolutely run the old bokmage route of only 20 skill increase overall (pre all the hci on everything days), and put that 70m into a 120 resisting spells with something like

Swords    100+20 (Capt john's hat)
Tact    60
Parry    100
Bush    120
Mage    100
Eval    120
Resist    120

But having a build that's easily countered with one disarm by these multitudes of dexers you mention may make for an even more un-fun experience, especially if he ends up dishing out money for a decent suit.

Progression requires steps, even baby steps.

Arnold7

Hate to ask but what is 120 MR?  By the way like the Atlantic prices alot better than the prices on my shard.

McDougle

Arnold7 said:

Hate to ask but what is 120 MR?  By the way like the Atlantic prices alot better than the prices on my shard.

Magic resistance aka resisting spells 

Arnold7

Thanks been really wondering about that.

SilentDeath

I just came back to game.  Getting a Parry Scroll is not the problem its bringing up my dex to 80?  Then even higher because of getting cursed?   I keep getting told by everyone I have to have Parry.   

So I came up with this below:
-----------------------------------------------

Magery

Eval

Resist

parry

Med

wrestle for stun/disarm

------------------------------------------------

I think I am just going to do what I enjoy in PvP and if I suck I suck its fine I had my day and those who know and remember who I am can attest to that.

Maybe later I will play with the new stuff but I think 

1. Magery 
2. Eval
3. Resist
4. Med
5. Wrestle for stun and disarm 

Option skill: 
6. Hiding/poison/inscription  (these new soul stones seem cool I can throw skills on them pull off when I want). 

I am guessing I am no longer going to be able to fight 5-30 players solo anymore and get kills off.  Hell I will be lucky not to die few hundred times just trying to find buttons and hot keys and learn the game again but I cannot imagine that I wont be able to play strong even with a non flavor of the month build (granted my builds are over 20 years old with no stats and gm armor)

I wanted to play with the parry until I read about the dex requirement.

It makes me a bit ill to think that SilentDeath would be holding a weapon if I am a bit honest, the ideal is just offensive to me. 

I can make other chars and dexers for that like Gumby, or Timmy and bring them back. 

Now I change with knowledge and I keep an open air to not do so is blasphemous to the pursuit of knowledge and learning and self improvement. 

However at this time that is how I feel.  So I will just go with basic stuff focus more on hot keys, pulling bars learning how to prep bags and potions and slowly add in the spells that I find I need and use the most as well as positioning which has if I am honest always been the easiest thing for me as it comes naturally. 

its the game mechanics that can be a struggle for me and I have to put in a lot of repetition to get right.  

So wish me luck and its good to be back in the game again.

Hi to all that know me and my friends and opponents from the game I hope your all doing good.

Respectfully,

SD 

Currently active on:

Legends and Atlantic 

Urge

SilentDeath said:

I just came back to game.  Getting a Parry Scroll is not the problem its bringing up my dex to 80?  Then even higher because of getting cursed?   I keep getting told by everyone I have to have Parry.   

I wanted to play with the parry until I read about the dex requirement.

https://forum.uo.com/discussion/6669/how-much-dex-for-parry  ;

You can use EP and dex pots to get curse proof if you have trouble fitting it in your stats. I haven't pvped in a few years. It's nowhere near as fun as it used to be. 

Yoshi

“I have a necro without parrying for doing spawns, has 12 casting focus, 30 kinetic eater, i still can’t stay alive vs players even vs a sampire. Parrying is a must.
to make the build easier I recommend using spirit of the totem, it has 15 hit chance increase and 20 strength! “

Urge

Yoshi said:

“I have a necro without parrying for doing spawns, has 12 casting focus, 30 kinetic eater, i still can’t stay alive vs players even vs a sampire. Parrying is a must.“

I made a wrestle parry mystic and got hit almost every single time. So i logged into a gimp and couldn't hit anyone. That RNG is a strange thing. 

SilentDeath

I cannot remember exactly how I use to kill them 20+ years is a long time but staying away being faster was key lol...

however, use of para, till they out of pop bags and then wasting their bandages on poisons then just very strong 3 spell combos that can get off before they can take a few steps was helpful but the wrestling in the past was decent enough not to get butchered and give you time to setup.   

Still had occasional crappy luck withy RNG on para from spears that was lighting fast and could take big chunks of life but most times the top mages almost always came out on top. 

I have recreated a Dex almost all 120 with Bushido and Chiv and since I have two accounts I will just use my mage as dummy check out some of the damage.

Also does nobody like hiding anymore?  I loved hiding in the field especially when fighting alot more people and no city roof tops to hit up (hell I cannot even remember all the teleport spots (especially in factions where you could fight in town) anymore I use to know them all without thinking and could get into spots most nobody else could except for other pros and very experienced pvpers could)

I refuse to spend all my time fighting around gates and houses there is a time for that if you griefing someone because they royally made you annoyed but for regular pvp that stuff is silly and not what I call real pvp.