A few tips for when starting out :)

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A little tip on combat/magic, for bothering to read this thread ------

Because of the way damage averages out over the course of an encounter, with random chance of the mob hitting any particular body part on any hit, I have found the following to work very well, at least through level 20.

Use Heavy armour for your chest and legs and light armour for the rest.

If you use 5 pieces of light, each providing 10% protections, the average damage prevention during a fight is 10% for Zero Malus.

5 Pieces of medium is about 20% protection each and 10 malus each, so the average damage prevention is 20% for 50 malus.

3 pieces of light and 2 pieces of heavy averages out to 26% protection for 30 Malus.

You can still cast magic pretty effectively with 30 malus. If you make sure to keep your HP regeneration stat high ( I usually raise this higher than the HP total itself), you can stand up pretty well to level appropriate mobs.

The problem with leveling magic solo is the casting time is so slow and the damage was not raised enough. Even if you start with you offensive spells from maximum range, it's hard to find mobs that you can kill before reaching you that are even close to your level. It's extremely frustrating when you start the game, because you might get three acid 1 hits in on a suckling yubo before it reaches you, if you are lucky. However, with your default mages staff, it takes six or more acid 1 hits to kill one!

(NOTE: If you just start with one mage kit, you get heal other, not acid 1. To buy acid 1, from the magic or any other trainer now costs 50 SP! So, if you do plan on soloing magic, either start with 2 mage kits, or if you are a crafter, start with one(if you want to be able to heal) or no mage kits and use some extra crafting SP to buy Acid 1).

Complicating matters worse are two factors: Once a mob engages you in melee, your spells get interrupted a LOT! Also, when you are casting, unlike when attacking with melee, you can't dodge incoming attacks. In combination, you see your HP fall quickly as you get about five interrupts for every successful cast. With out some other tactics, the experience for low level mages get's very frustrating, very quickly.

If you like to craft, it's best to craft a couple hours or so in order to make some money and the heavy chest and pants pieces. Until you can get better harvested mats, the store bought light armour is about as good as what you can craft from the materials vendor mats, so just buy the light gloves, boots and sleeves. Also, it's a good idea to craft a 2H weapon. You can change weapon preferences latter on, but if you want to keep magic and fighting balanced to level 20, it's best to use a 2H weapon as your melee choice. Why? That's explained next...

Once you've either crafted or begged the armour as detailed above, a mages staff (if you can get one crafted from harvested mats, it will make a difference) and a good 2H weapon, you are ready to face suckling Yubos with a lot less frustration and establish a good strategy for leveling magic (and fighting) solo.

Start with your mages staff equipped. Make sure to be far enough out from the guards that they don't ruin your kills Start far away from your victim suckling yubo and try casting Acid 1 until you find the farthest range you can cast from. If you are lucky and have a good wand, you might be able to get three acid 1 hits in before the Yubo reaches you. Your max range would be better with all light armour, but you still can't hit the yubo enough times starting out to kill it before it reaches you. Plan on getting to acid 1 casts off, then switch your weapon from mages staff to your 2H weapon. Since you aren't casting when it reaches you, you have a good chance to dodge an attack or two while your 2H wep is being readied.

Remember I said I would explain why a 2H weapon rather than a quiker one? Mobs now have a set amount of XP, which get's adjusted by your level relative to it's level. That XP is split between melee and magic, but it is now divided by number of hits you land with each, rather than damage done with each. Suing a slower, higher damage weapon means that you will be able to get roughly half Fighter XP and half Mage XP from any encounter, with a slight edge towards fighting at first.

If you use quicker, lower damage weapons, or worse for your mages xp, two weapons at once, you will find that 80% or more of your XP per kill is Fighting vs. Mage, which is not what you are shooting for if you want to get mage leveled up well

You can try to just wear light armour and spam the yubos with acid 1 as fast as you can, but during the early levels, you will quickly find how frustrating and slow that approach is. You die a lot as well, which with the new XP debt penalty for dying, really slows down your progress. Even if you plan to be almost entirely a mage later on, this approach is still very efficient early on for leveling up mage, plus you can use your fight XP to get some Strength and Stamina

If you keep your weapons and fight skills up to date, you can easily keep your mage and fight XP balanced with little frustration.

In summary, the key elements of this strategy are:

Heavy Chest Armour
Heavy Leg Armour
Light Boots, Gloves and Sleeves.

Acid 1
Mages Staff (crafted if possible)
A good 2 Handed weapon. (also, crafted, if possible. Note, as well, that with weapons and armour being tied to your stats now, rather than level, you usually will be using a higher QL wep than your level for optimal results).

Start with mage wand equipped.

Acid 1 the Suckling Yubo twice from max range.
As it runs towards you, switch to your two handed weapon.
Attack it with melee

Note, to minimize the number of hits needed from your melee weapon, keep the +damage skill up to date with your weapon level. +accuracy makes combat less frustrating, but +damage is the most important for keeping melee hits balanced with spell hits for XP purposes.

Also, you will likely find that your doing less than half your damage with your spells, sometimes a lot less, remember though, number of hits counts for XP, not damage.

Important: For the armour configuration to yield it most efficient results, with little downtime after combat, keep your regeneration rate stats high, even at the expense of what might seem to be slightly low total pool values (HP, SAP, Stamina, etc...) This allows your regen rate to keep up very well with the rate you are receiving damage at. You and the mobs tend to dodge a lot more than before, which gives your regen a better chance to keep up with incoming damage as well

If you do decide to play mostly mage and let your fight skills slide a bit, once you reach level 10 or so and have Acid 2 and a good player crafted Mage Staff, you can carefully choose your prey and go all light armour and find things you can kill with out melee. These are going to be mobs below your level, but quick kills and having all the XP be mage XP will mean that it will add up quickly. At least by following a strategy similar to the one above, you will have minimized your frustration and maximized your XP leading up to the point where soloing magic becomes more viable.

I have stuck with the balanced approach. QL 20 crafted armour (as above), a QL 20 crafted Long Mace and QL 20 crafted Mages staff, Lvl 17 fighter, lvl 15 mage, I can comfortably solo Lvl 20 predators (Puny Gaori, etc...) with basically no down time, getting better loot and leveling mage at a rate maybe even faster than I could if I tried to solo using magic only. XP slightly favours Fighter, but with mage a couple levels behind (lower XP per level), they tend to level up now at almost the same pace. Can even handle multiples at once if I get ambushed.

Wow, sorry that's so long, I'm overtired and rambled on! hehe

Realität ist etwas für Leute, die mit Drachen nicht umgehen können !