Ask a Magician Thread.

Hmm i've got a question.

I'm just wondering if its smart to skip medi for an f/p? I don't mind spending mesos on pots if it means maxing all the other skills.
Im just looking for opinions. If the meso loss is large and noticeable then i'll probably skimp on the brace and max medi. But then
again... It would be nice having both attack skills maxed

ugh decisions, decisions

EDIT: k so being the idiot that i am i completely ignored cyanne's guide, its not brace vs. medi its brace vs. MPeater. Silly me
guess im ditching mpeater and getting my pbrace to 28.

ic ur edit, but i figure i can still comment. you do not need medi for 3rd job really, BUT what about 4th job? u do need it! <3

really? i thought that many 4th job mages resorted to pots rather than medi? i can't really say much since i've never had experience with a 4th job mage. How does medi factor in 4th job?

really? i thought that many 4th job mages resorted to pots rather than medi? i can't really say much since i've never had experience with a 4th job mage. How does medi factor in 4th job?

the best pot that is able to be purchased in a shop is in nlc. it is 20 mattk. same as meditation. bishops love a a/m with medi. raises their dmg w/o using a pot only buyable in nlc.

yea thats true. Back when i had my i/l i was casting medi non stop, but it sucked that i had to cast it so often. Maybe i'll resort to it when i run out elixirs, or find myself running out of mesos. Its still a dmg boost, even if it is for 200 secs. Maybe i just have to stop being so nit picky heh, if i played without NLC pots back then whats to stop me from playing without em now.

yea thats true. Back when i had my i/l i was casting medi non stop, but it sucked that i had to cast it so often. Maybe i'll resort to it when i run out elixirs, or find myself running out of mesos. Its still a dmg boost, even if it is for 200 secs. Maybe i just have to stop being so nit picky heh, if i played without NLC pots back then whats to stop me from playing without em now.

I just have it in a macro with booster. Booster is a must for 3rd job. I actually have my booster maxed, but thats a different conversation. (It lasts the same amount of time as medi 200seconds)

bishops love a a/m with medi. raises their dmg w/o using a pot only buyable in nlc.

Seconded. Now if I could find an AM to medi me at skeles

Can anyone who can 1-hit newties but not nest golems 100% of the time post how much exp gotten in one hour soloing newties?

Seconded. Now if I could find an AM to medi me at skeles

*medi's fumni* <3

Can anyone who can 1-hit newties but not nest golems 100% of the time post how much exp gotten in one hour soloing newties?

I could try, if you don't mind if it is with a level 135 bishop leeching?
I'm doing like 71k to 88k damge. I just never really bother looking at the exp.

Tymen.

Can anyone who can 1-hit newties but not nest golems 100% of the time post how much exp gotten in one hour soloing newties?

I'd say its about 2xmil exp w/ a 2x card. but idk cuz i 1 hit all of them. and i can get up to 3xmil w/ hser.

I could try, if you don't mind if it is with a level 135 bishop leeching?
I'm doing like 71k to 88k damge. I just never really bother looking at the exp.

Tymen.

I did 30 minutes and got 5.1m exp.

I also I trained with a level 161 MM doing bottom and my level 135 bishop leeching, with who I got about the same exp. I kept track of my mesos gain and pot expenses for 2 hours; I used 735 mana bulls and about 300 unagies, I npced the etc(not the ores) and the mana elixirs and gained 1.9m mesos looting and npcing etc and pots. In total without drops worth selling in fm and dueying the loot mesos from my Bishop I just about broke even.

Tymen.

This is a rather noob question next to all the 4th job discussion, but I'm new to mages. I'm making an I/L and wondering what skills are most important to max. Right now I'm in the process of maxing Lightning; that's a given. I'm also going to max Teleport for sure. But I don't know which of these skills to drop:

Cold Beam
MP Eater
Slow
Meditation

I was thinking Cold Beam, since there are enough places in 2nd job where I can just spam Lightning to level up, but then I did some research and couldn't find any builds that supported that. Does Cold Beam ever become completely replaced? My next choice would probably be Meditation, but for some reason Slow was the skill that was most frequently dropped. Slow works on bosses, correct? It seems pretty useful to me.

This is a rather noob question next to all the 4th job discussion, but I'm new to mages. I'm making an I/L and wondering what skills are most important to max. Right now I'm in the process of maxing Lightning; that's a given. I'm also going to max Teleport for sure. But I don't know which of these skills to drop:

Cold Beam
MP Eater
Slow
Meditation

I was thinking Cold Beam, since there are enough places in 2nd job where I can just spam Lightning to level up, but then I did some research and couldn't find any builds that supported that. Does Cold Beam ever become completely replaced? My next choice would probably be Meditation, but for some reason Slow was the skill that was most frequently dropped. Slow works on bosses, correct? It seems pretty useful to me.

Eater's nice. <3
Slow isn't used much, since I/L have freezing attacks. Meditation increases your damage, although the amount's just sad as you level. Might be OK at 50, but it'll suck by 70. Cold Beam's replaced in 3rd job. :/
Out of those, I would drop med and slow, personally, because CB would have some uses in 2nd job, while the other two wouldn't be used in 2nd or 3rd.

This is a rather noob question next to all the 4th job discussion, but I'm new to mages. I'm making an I/L and wondering what skills are most important to max. Right now I'm in the process of maxing Lightning; that's a given. I'm also going to max Teleport for sure. But I don't know which of these skills to drop:

Cold Beam
MP Eater
Slow
Meditation

I was thinking Cold Beam, since there are enough places in 2nd job where I can just spam Lightning to level up, but then I did some research and couldn't find any builds that supported that. Does Cold Beam ever become completely replaced? My next choice would probably be Meditation, but for some reason Slow was the skill that was most frequently dropped. Slow works on bosses, correct? It seems pretty useful to me.

MP eater would be good if monsters didn't have such low MP. I wouldn't bother maxing it; it's more useful for clerics.
As for Cold Beam, I used it well into 3rd because of it's range, and I still use Medi. (It stacks with maple warrior.) As for slow, I did not max it because I/Ls aready have good mob control, but I kinda wish I did. Some bosses (Pap, Giest) can be slowed, along with other monsters that cannot freeze. But why would you train on those anyway?

MP eater would be good if monsters didn't have such low MP. I wouldn't bother maxing it; it's more useful for clerics.
As for Cold Beam, I used it well into 3rd because of it's range, and I still use Medi. (It stacks with maple warrior.) As for slow, I did not max it because I/Ls aready have good mob control, but I kinda wish I did. Some bosses (Pap, Giest) can be slowed, along with other monsters that cannot freeze. But why would you train on those anyway?

Does Cold Beam have more range than Composition or Thunder Spear? I'm narrowing it down to Eater and Cold Beam, I think, unless a low level Slow is useful at bosses.

This is a rather noob question next to all the 4th job discussion, but I'm new to mages. I'm making an I/L and wondering what skills are most important to max. Right now I'm in the process of maxing Lightning; that's a given. I'm also going to max Teleport for sure. But I don't know which of these skills to drop:

Cold Beam
MP Eater
Slow
Meditation

I was thinking Cold Beam, since there are enough places in 2nd job where I can just spam Lightning to level up, but then I did some research and couldn't find any builds that supported that. Does Cold Beam ever become completely replaced? My next choice would probably be Meditation, but for some reason Slow was the skill that was most frequently dropped. Slow works on bosses, correct? It seems pretty useful to me.

If you have an ice wand/staff: Drop slow, then max it in 3rd job with the points you get from dropping comp and thunderspear. You don't need either attack because cold beam will outdamage both, si you might as well get cold beam in 2nd job while slow is still useless, then add to slow when you start fighting mobile bosses at the end of 3rd, when it starts getting useful.

If you don't have an ice wand/staff but want cold beam: If you're planning on dropping both partial resistance and one of the two single-target attacks in 3rd job, drop slow, then max slow at the end of 3rd job. If you want partial resistance, drop mp eater (you won't be able to max mp eater until like level 200 if you go this way).

If you don't have an ice wand/staff and don't care about cold beam: Drop cold beam, but if you happen to get an ice wand/staff later on, drop both 3rd job single-target attacks and use 3rd job points to max cold beam.

Edit: Cold beam has the same range, but comp can't go through walls.

If you have an ice wand/staff: Drop slow, then max it in 3rd job with the points you get from dropping comp and thunderspear. You don't need either attack because cold beam will outdamage both, si you might as well get cold beam in 2nd job while slow is still useless, then add to slow when you start fighting mobile bosses at the end of 3rd, when it starts getting useful.

If you don't have an ice wand/staff but want cold beam: If you're planning on dropping both partial resistance and one of the two single-target attacks in 3rd job, drop slow, then max slow at the end of 3rd job. If you want partial resistance, drop mp eater (you won't be able to max mp eater until like level 200 if you go this way).

If you don't have an ice wand/staff and don't care about cold beam: Drop cold beam, but if you happen to get an ice wand/staff later on, drop both 3rd job single-target attacks and use 3rd job points to max cold beam.

Edit: Cold beam has the same range, but comp can't go through walls.

I was going to get a Lightning Wand...are both Comp and TS useless?

I'm a lvl 118 I/L mage. Going to hit 4th job soon, and I'm planning not to raise Blizzard any higher than lvl 1 for the first 10-15 levels. How should my skill build look during those levels? CL first or ID+Ifrit first?

You'd probably want to max chain lightning with several points of ifrit thrown in there, depending on how much SP you need for a decent timer for ifrit. Ifrit increases your bossing damage a lot once you're able to summon it, but after level 1, it's mostly just for the timer rather than damage increase until you get it to the upper levels, so only put enough SP for a decent timer for ifrit so that you can leave the rest for chain lightning.

I was going to get a Lightning Wand...are both Comp and TS useless?

If you're getting only a lightning wand and not an ice wand, then thunderspear becomes your most powerful pre-4th job single-target attack, so max that over comp (and cold beam if you happened to decide to drop it in 2nd job). If you did max cold beam, you'll have to decide between partial resistance and whatever skill you dropped in 2nd job. Or you could drop both thunderspear and comp if you don't think you'll ever need a good single-target attack until you get a decent level of chain lightning.

I was going to get a Lightning Wand...are both Comp and TS useless?

Well, yes and no.
Back when 4th job wasn't even a pipe dream it was useful, but now that 4th has a skill that replaces it you really won't miss out if you don't max it.