Mage Comparison

[Hento]

I was wondering how other people developed their mage, mine is level 18 with following characteristics:
-33 intellect, the highest damage spell is ice snake with 4300 damage.
-level 3 chaos and order, level 2 distortion, level 2 higher magic and level 3 destroyer
-25% experience
-1 level onslaught

I pretty much destroy all armies(fatal and stronger) in 2-3 turns without any losses so I think I couldn't have developed it any better. The only problem is that I always lack mana despite having 125 already.
Also I was wondering how much damage would a warrior class do if it has 33 attack instead of intellect, because with this mage I do more than 10 000 damage per turn just with spells.

[TemjinGold]

I usually go for Distortion 3 and Concentration 2/3 before Order 3.

[Gatts]

On impossible I try to hit +10%XP (mostly I abandon this unless I get many mind runes from srhines/lying around), then I do not invest in Mind at all

In Might - I try to level up to max "undead commander" but it is hard to get there first 10~15 levels... otherwise I do not take from might anything else (again, If I have some spare runes, I would go for more rage and rage XP bonuses... )

For Magic:
I try to get Chaos ASAP (meaning I can have it mostly till level 4 -> when I search the three lands and all dungeons, avoiding most battles)
Then as next is "HIGHER MAGIC" (which I keep on first level for very very long time)
After 1 level of higher magic I hit 3rd level of CHAOS magic (if I am lazy to wait for the right combination of runes for chaos level up - I buy order or distortion... or if I have better spells... like phantom...)

I always take INT, MANA, RAGE (in this order if I have to chose, sadly I have very often INT / MANA, then ATT/DEF ... pf)
I absolutely do not value att/def/leadership (leadership I start value above level 20)

I always go for fastest units -> undead with Rina and undead commander 2+ are the best (from early in the game you can hold the initiative till the bitter end)... of course Anga's Ring + fearies/dryads are better, but they can't suck blood, can they? (of course most players like them more... let them all be my guests)

I always cry like a baby when I realize I can't have more weapons (Rina goes first for me... so bye bye Xeona), but still I stuck all my artefacts towards INT... so I usually have more INT on level 18 than 33... (but nearly never more than 40 INT... 35~38 is the average on level 15~20) Later in the game are less end less shrines/ due less lands to explore, so you rely only on level ups.. and INT can come max each by-level... if you are lucky

I do not care about Leadership till the bitter end of game, not that I would not miss it... but I could use my INT much better than more units

[Danny]

Dear Gamers of KB,

My mage is lvl 19 with 28 intell, 8 attack, 10 def with equipment. Though i should spread it out in case i meet those magic immune dragons which may kick my ass later (i am only in Taron Mines wondering if i should go to Demonis to get my Demoness wife, i have the frog princess as wife now).

Any ideas?

Happy gaming to all this holiday season!!

Danny

[Gatts]

Spreading is not bad idea, but let me tell why I focused so much for INT instead anything else as a mage:

If I played UDNEAD:
phantom % increases by your INT... so if you can have INT 50+ ... your phantomed unit can pretty deliver nice damage and last full 2 rounds and still be able to kill a lot with last attack!

If I played living fuss army;
GOD ARMOR % increases by INT - you can make one of your TANK units quite invulnerable up to 70% resistance... place it so far away that the dragons attacking this suicide unit won't have any chance of "touching" your flank/rare units - archers... than you can resurrect/buff your tank suiciders as long you can use your spells/skills wiseley (Lina's charges, magic spring etc.)

Each of these tactics works perfectly against units with huge resistance or immunity to damage units (and there are plenty more... plenty more tactics where your ATT/DEF is not important at all)

[bsctgod]

Wow, all these high INT mages. I had a 14 INT when I beat the game at level 27.

Mine was more of a warrior mage I guess. I had a pretty high ATT/DEF and high Leadership at the end. I stopped using direct damage spells after around level 20 and concentrated mostly on mass buff/debuffs.

[YENKO]

Lvl 19 mage
Att 10 def 14 int 25
ldr 10000 rage 50 mana 120, gold 2M
higher magic 3, destroyer 3, distortion 3, the rest 2, bowman commander, reserve lvl 2 etc. I could boost my stats more with the right combination of the artifacts I have, but I prefer it this way: my 'she' warriors are boosted by Anga ring, my archers are boosted by the dwarven ranger set (telescope+barrel) and some fire defence. I like it this way. I am halfway through ElvenLand and having tons of fun. And almost zero losses

BSCTGOD:"Mine was more of a warrior mage I guess. I had a pretty high ATT/DEF and high Leadership at the end. I stopped using direct damage spells after around level 20 and concentrated mostly on mass buff/debuffs."
That's my plan too, so I pump up my LDR. I like to go close&personal sometimes.

[Hento]

Originally Posted by Danny

Though i should spread it out in case i meet those magic immune dragons which may kick my ass later

You have spells that increase damage specifically to demons and dragons and mass effect at level 3 spell. Also I think ghost blade can get through, although I just got it so I haven't tried it yet.

Onslaught along with a unit with 6 initiative is crucial for all classes, and combined with mage it gives you a great advantage because in first turn just with spells you can destroy more than half of the enemy's army, and you don't have to vast any mana on resurrection because the enemy attacked you first.
Initiative is extremely important, I don't have any units with initiative less than 5.

I got level 3 Order before Distortion because of resurrection spell, I think I lost only less than 5 single units so far.

Anyway it looks like my mage has the highest intellect so far...you should really advance this attribute as far as you can do to massive damage and effects.

gold 2M

no matter how much gold you have you will spend it all on Bocaccio(or like that) castle converter.

[taltamir]

level 19 mage.
Started out going for combat damage, but later on switched to much more powerful battlefield control.
I got chaos3, order3, distortion3, destroyer1, higher magic2, nighttime operations 3. alchemy3. and well, a bunch of prerequisits...

Int is only 16, no wife, equipped items: +5 int archmage staff, +2def +1 attack boots, +10% experience tome, +2def lvl1-3 +5def lvl4-5 shield, anga's ruby (replaced my snake kings ring when i got dryads). some other items.

I abandoned my high damage ideals for leadership and % based spells, phantom, magic spring, mass bless, mass weaken, etc etc. And of course, the lovely resurrect, bringing everyone back to life. I was stuck with fireball from the begining of the game, I only got geyser recently and i didn't bother upgrading it (saved, upgraded, saw damage output, loaded and left it at level1), never saw lightening, ice snakes, armaggedon, or whatever. With nothing but fireball, at around level 10 it was simply not enough.
The battle mage dependancy on finding new more powerful spells, and then using enough crystal to level them to lvl3, and sinking a bunch of runes into low return skills... are hugely problematic. I can already defeat anything with 0 losses (provided that they are not many levels above me), any new distortion/order spell is just gravy. If I could do it all over again, I would skip chaos magic.

Here is an example tactic:
have int15+
have dryads/mother plant/whatever create summon stacks for you. Send them towards the enemy, the enemy is now engaging them. make sure they are low initiative summons. Wait with a unit. When the waiting unit is up again, use its turn to cast a level 3 magic spring (5 mana, 6 actions duration due to +1 from int) on one of the summoned. skip move on that unit, since it waited, its immidiately a new turn, use level 3 magic spring on the other summon, cast acid rain on both of them and the nearby enemies. Before the turn is over each magic spring should produce 5 mana 6 times, so 60 mana return on your 10 mana investment. The enemies are also not attacking you, since the are all surrounding the summons and hitting them. This gives you some time to use that 60 mana to resurrect as needed, or create some phantoms to hit the enemy with.

My biggest problem with attack magic... when it is the end of battle, you need to spend many turns farming mana to resurrect your units, when you finish doing that, you will just pop off the last enemy units with an archer and end battle, no need for chaos magic.
When it is the begining of battle and you have a bunch of mana. YOU COULD use an attack spell, but the enemy has stacks of 1000 pixies / 500 spiders / 100 griffins / whatever... And they often have LOTS of move action. And they have so much HP that your fireball spell is nothing to them, and the enemy has 5-10 stacks, AND the enemy has archers who will decimate your forces.. the first priority in battle then is to waste most of your mana on phantoms/summons/control to put something over in the enemy camp that holds the attention of ALL enemy stacks, all 5-10 of them, and then whittle them down with archers as you do so.
When it is the middle of battle, you have to balance farming mana with phantom/summon to continue holding enemy attention.

I cant wait to get the demon wife. 2 weapon slots will take my second archmage staff +5 int and my archdruid staff +4 int, as well as my ring of +3 int. that will put me very close to the magic 30 int needed for spells to last 1 turn longer.

[YENKO]

Originally Posted by taltamir

level 19 mage.
Started out going......<SNIP>....that will put me very close to....

Very nice read! Thank you for posting this!
Consider yourself copied, pasted & printed! And ring-binded too!
y.