Mage Tree Skill Order?

[royalme]

Hello! I'm making my first playthrough of the game on Normal as a Mage and I'm loving the game. I've tried a few starts between Mage and Paladin, but I found the Paladin skill tree to be a lot less inspiring than the Mage tree and I like using spells.

With that said, I am having a difficult time understanding what I should skill up first and in what order is optimal. Alchemy sounds like a must since I want to play around with a lot of spells, Distortion or Order level 3 sounds powerful, but then so does Higher Magic and Concentration.

I would greatly appreciate some advice from more seasoned players on what skills I should get first or in what conditions I should aim for certain skills first. I've tried to read the forums front to back, and I find some advice on what skills are good to get, but not so much on the order in which to get them (which would really help a new player like me).

[Zechnophobe]

Well, if you want to try a lot of different spells out, then yes Alchemy can be nice, and I'd encourage it on a first run through. However, don't get it until you have started getting level 2 and 3 of different spells.

Higher magic is a really great skill, allowing you to seize control of the battle from the first turn. Concentration is somewhat useful, but probably less efficient for a lot of the early game than a single level in Transmute. If you are trying to 'farm' the spell casting medals, then concentration is better.

Distortion is generally the strongest school of magic, and Order is the weakest.

Don't neglect the other ability trees though. Use your might runes to trick out your dragon a bit, or get the 'cheap' intelligence bonus from the Paladin's scouting skill.

Good luck!

[royalme]

So concentration can wait then, I take it, and so can Order. Unfortunately I already got Alchemy 3x. I thought the earlier my investment, the higher my return would be.

How would you place prioritizing Higher Magic, Distortion and Concentration and to what levels? Should I try to max some skills early on or is an even balanced approach better?

Thank you for the advice. I thought Order was hot stuff, for some reason. I'm glad I only have it to 1x for now.

Edit: Oh..and yes I like medals. I have already farmed the Trapper and Guardian Angel medals, so I'd like to level Fire Mage and Battle Alchemy...but find myself casting traps and slows more often than fire arrow. I think I am not too many battles away from finishing Grand Strategy.

[amberoid]

Try running around with a single stack of black dragons to skill up the "fire" medal. It's also a great way to skill up battle alchemy and the trap medal.

Use Fire Arrow and Poison Skull to do most of the killing for you. On large stacks the burning und poisoning after effects work great.

Just try to get those archers/shaman units down really fast. Against other dragons use traps to decimate them.

[Razorflame]

i think you should first think what sort of mage you want to be?

you got an offensive mage(e.a CHAOS)
these mages require alot of intellect to do the damage for them.

or defensive mage(distortion)
these mages will slow debuff the enemy before they can reach your troops. or soften em up so that your units can kill them in 1 hit

both use very different builds

since the chaos mage will rush for high intel and higher magic

and defensive mage would stall it and get more mana first or a level 2 dist run