Starlear's Warrior Mage spell recommendations

This is a guide for new mages, as well as those returning from a long absence. A lot has changed and a lot of the things you remember may be different. Don't be ashamed if you don't know something.

This page will focus entirely on reviewing the various Warrior Mage spells. It is my personal experience practicing and using each spell that shapes how I look at them and my reviews are based off of my own experience. If you disagree, that's fine! Everyone's going to feel differently about stuff. This page exists primarily as a baseline for mages who aren't sure what spells to take, and want someone else's opinion on whether a spell is awesome or a dud.

See Warrior Mage Spells for full listing of spells.

Warrior Mages have a variety of spells available to them, and all of them have their niches that they are useful in. I'll give a brief summary of a spell, and give it a rating (which you should remember is my personal opinion and you may disagree with, so don't write something off just because I don't like it) of * to ***** and explain why I feel that way.

The Essentials

These spells should be on the "MUST LEARN" list for new mages in my opinion. They increase your effectiveness in combat to a huge degree, and they will cover letting you train all of the magic skills.

Swirling Winds (SW) - Augmentation Spell
Prerequisites: Zephyr or Tailwind. - Increases your Reflex and Evasion skill. This will help keep you alive in combat.

Tailwind (TW) - Augmentation Spell
Prerequisites: Air Lash or Elementalism. - Increases your chance to hit with ranged attacks. Fantastic for when you're training a ranged weapon (You ARE training a ranged weapon, right?). Follows the caster room to room.
Sure Footing (SUF) - Augmentation Spell
Prerequisite: Stone Strike or Elementalism. - Increases balance and parry skill. This will help keep you alive in combat if you are using a weapon capable of parrying or a parry stick.

Ethereal Shield (ES) - Warding Spell
Prerequisite: Any Intro TM spell. - Reduces elemental damage taken, easy to train Warding with. Use when fighting other mages or creatures that use spells, and it will help significantly.

Ice Patch (IP) - Debilitation Spell
Prerequisite: Geyser or Elementalism. - Basic disabler spell. Will knock down and stun the target when successful. Very good for getting hits in on things you have a hard time hitting, due to the knockdown inherent in its success, but be aware that it doesn't work on four-legged creatures.

Ignite (IGNITE) - Utility Spell
Prerequisite: Fire Shards or Elementalism. - This spell ignites your weapon, causing it to deal additional fire damage. The amount may seem insignificant, but it is a lot of extra damage due to the way the spell works - this damage is applied to every attack.

Targeted Spells

Air Lash (ALA) Prerequisite: None.
A whip of air that damages the target.

Pro: Cool messaging. Easy to cast. Fairly accurate.
Con: Damage is purely physical (Puncture and Slice). Shield-blockable. Single-strike.

Rating: *** - Basic single-strike spell for physical damage. Decent accuracy and damage.

Gar Zeng (GZ) Prerequisite: None.
Blasts of electricity that damage the target. Think taser-hands.

Pro: Deals Electric, Fire, and Puncture damage. Easy to cast. Hard to miss with. Multi-strike.
Con: Damage and messaging are not particularly impressive, making the spell "feel" less cool. Shield-blockable.

Rating: **** - The multiple strikes make this a solid TM trainer, even though each individual strike will be less damaging than a comparable single-strike spell.

Geyser (GEYSER) Prerequisite: None.
A jet of scalding water erupts from the ground, and you direct it with your will at a target.

Pro: Deals Impact and Fire damage. Fairly Accurate. Cool Messaging.
Con: Shield-blockable. Single-strike.

Rating: *** - Single-strike spell with pretty solid damage and supercool messaging. Stylish and functional.

Stone Strike (STS) Prerequisite: None.
Shoot a boulder at your target, which explodes into rock-shrapnel and showers into them. Think stone-shotgun.

Pro: Deals Impact and Puncture damage. Lodges lots of little stone shards in the target, which pulse additional damage periodically and increase wound severity until they are tended out using First Aid. Multi-strike.
Con: Purely physical damage. Messaging unimpressive. Shield-blockable.

Rating: **** - The lodged shards really make this a good choice for damage-per-mana, and the multi-strikes make it a solid TM trainer.

Fire Shards (FS) Prerequisite: None.
Shoot multiple shards of flame at your target.

Pro: Deals Fire, Impact, and Puncture damage. Multi-strike. Solid damage.
Con: Shield-blockable. Harder than other spells to get the multiple-strike effect.

Rating: **** - Excellent damage with some cool messaging.

Fire Ball (FB) Prerequisite: Fire Shards or Elementalism.
Launches a large ball of flame at the target. It can explode, causing collateral damage (Which essentially amounts to launching Fire Shards at everything else at the same engagement range from you).

Pro: Deals Fire and Impact damage. Hits many targets multiple times.
Con: Shield-blockable. The area effect of the spell is entirely uncontrollable.

Rating: ***** - A must-have in my opinion. The number of targets this spell hits makes it fantastic for training TM (I would argue that it's better than Chain Lightning or Shockwave for the job).

Paeldryth's Wrath (PW) Prerequisite: Air Lash or Elementalism.
A blast of air launches naphtha in your hands (either one or both) towards your target. Additionally it modifies the engagement range of your target - normal casting will push the target away from you to missile range, while CAST PULL will yank someone from missile range into melee with you. Deals no damage.

Pro: Awesome way to get some distance between you and a foe without having to retreat and penalize your offense. Launch naphtha with TM instead of thrown. Trains Debilitation.
Con: Deals no damage itself. Naphtha applied this way still needs to be ignited. Since you need to target this spell, lots of times, you're better off just casting something that will do damage.

Rating: ** - The decent utility of applying naphtha and changing engagement range are negated by the need to target this spell. It can be handy in a pinch, and it is pretty good if you can find good (IE: Not Storebought) naphtha, but it is a lot of work for relatively minor benefits (Naphtha that's not that strong, a foe that can instantly retreat if pulled to you or readvance if you pushed them away). If the engagement overhaul goes through and instant retreating is removed from the game, this spell will be a lot more useful.

Lightning Bolt (LB) Prerequisites: Arc Light or Tingle.
A lightning bolt shoots out of the sky and into your target. That might....come as a shock....given the name of the spell.

Pro: Ignores shield as a defense. Deals electric and fire damage.
Con: Less accurate than other spells due to the shield ignoring bit (Making it easier to dodge). Can not be cast indoors.

Rating: *** - Middle of the road. The spell ignores shield, but the accuracy penalty means it's not really any easier to hit a target with than a normal spell (and depending on the target's skills, you may have an easier time just casting right through their shield). The damage is good when it connects.

Dragon's Breath (DB) Prerequisites: Fire Ball or Ignite.
Stores a blast of fire that can be fired at a target via SPIT or EXHALE. Single shot only, works similar to thrown weapons.

Pro: On-demand damage that you can unleash at an opportune moment (like when you stun something). Hits hard. Deals Fire and Puncture damage.
Con: Single shot, then you need to recast. Relatively short duration - easy to run the buff out before you get a chance to use it. Unable to target. Shield-blockable.

Rating: ** - Solid extra damage that is best used to supplement a disabler or a stun from another spell. However, the one-shot nature of it makes learning it questionable. It's not a BAD spell, but you'll get more damage per mana spent elsewhere.

Magnetic Ballista (MaB} Prerequisites: Anther's Call and Lightning Bolt.
Will the earth into a ballista of dirt and stone which will launch boulders at a target it is POINTed at. The first shot will be more accurate and can launch two boulders with enough potency. The mage can LOAD the ballista to reload it. Each shot will cause the ballista to emit a strong magnetic pulse which will unbalance or knock over targets, having a greater effect on targets with a lot of metal armor or items. The mage can RUB the ballista to cause it to only affect the target it is firing at with enough skill.

Pro: Does a lot of stuff (Damage, Disabling). Persists, so you can fire other spells while periodically reloading for supplemental damage. You can rub it to make it only yank/knock over its target. Probably the best thing about this spell is that you can use it to hit things with TM while you have Aether Cloak on yourself. It still won't hit another mage who has Aether Cloak on, but as the ballista casts the spell rather than the mage, it gives you an outgoing magical damage source. You can point it at yourself. Go on. Try it. It's awesome.
Con: Needs constant maintenance to keep firing. Can knock yourself over with it if say, you wear plate and don't rub it, making it easy for critters to hit you. Purely physical damage. You can point it at yourself. Go on. Try it. It hurts. Shield-blockable.

Rating: **** - Good amount of damage and utility in this spell. You do need to maintain it with reloading for it to deal consistent damage, but it's slot-expensive to learn, requiring you commit to the Electricity and Earth trees to a pretty deep level.

Ring of Spears (RoS) Prerequisites: Circle 30, Tremor or Magnetic Ballista.
Summons a Ring of Spears around the caster, which periodically deals damage to targets in their range. Can be CAST or CAST POLE. CAST POLE places the ring at Pole Weapon range which will damage targets passing through that distance. The spears do not follow you when you move, and they take a bit to reform if you advance or retreat. You can't be grouped with others while this spell is active.

Pro: Hits really hard. Large number of hits per pulse. The variable range is situationally useful but nice. Usable indoors.
Con: Physical damage only. Finicky about movement. Shield-blockable.

Rating: **** - Good damage, but if you advance/retreat a lot you might find it underwhelming while it reforms. Works best when you let things come to you. Of note is that the old version of this spell used to prevent engagement to you through the spears, but the spell no longer does this - it ONLY does damage, there is no knockback/advance stopping as in the past.

Blufmor Garaen (BG) Prerequisites: Circle 40 and Y'ntrel Sechra.
Stores swirling winds around your forearms that you can unleash at a target very rapidly. POINT deals puncture + cold, WAVE deals slice + cold, SLAP deals impact + cold. Multiple charges, with a small RT to fire each.

Pro: A lot of damage that is unleashed in a very short period of time. It's like re-usable Dragon's Breath. Variable damage type. No need to target. You look like this in my head when using it.
Con: Short buff duration, meaning you need to use the spell up before it wears off. Need to recast to use it again. Shield-blockable. Forgetting you have it on and then waving hello at someone.

Rating: *** - A decent backup spell to have on yourself to give you additional damage capability without the need to prepare or target. It's lacking as a primary source of damage, but augments other spells decently well when used in conjunction with them.

Shockwave (SHOCKWAVE) Prerequisites: Thunderclap.
Explodes a shockwave of air and razorlike shards of ice out from you, dealing damage and potentially knocking back targets. Can learn the Flame Shockwave metaspell to change the damage types.

Pro: Deals Slice, and Cold damage. Flame Shockwave deals Fire and Impact damage. Can knock a target off its feet or out of the room. Area Effect spell, which can be selectively cast (CAST AREA, CAST CREATURES, etc).
Con: Can knock a target out of the room. Only hits each struck target one time. Shield-blockable.

Rating: *** - Decent damage, and a nice assortment of damage types, but hitting everything ONLY one time is a bit underwhelming, and knocking targets out of the room sucks if you're hunting.

Chain Lightning (CL) Prerequisites: Circle 40, Lightning Bolt.
Lightning strikes every target in the area one time.

Pro: Usable indoors. Area Effect spell, which can be selectively cast. Deals Fire, Electric, and Impact damage.
Con: Only hits each target one time. Shield-blockable.

Rating: ** - Feels underwhelming. Shockwave is basically the same, with variable damage types and the added utility of knockback. It's by no means terrible if you are looking for something to deal damage to the entire room and don't want to go into the Air book, but if you are already investing in the Air book (and you likely will be due to the significance of the buff and debuff spells there), Shockwave is the better choice IMO.

Rimefang (RIM) Prerequisites: Ice Patch, Circle 30.
Summons an icy mist around the caster which forms blades of frost which quickly strike targets at melee range.

Pro: Pulses quickly. Deals Cold, Puncture, and Slice damage. Follows you room to room.
Con: Shield-blockable. Lower damage than some other spells to offset the low maintenance level of keeping it up. Melee range only. Blades take a few moments to form, giving the spell a bit of a ramp-up time.

Rating: **** - Solid source of extra damage at close range, but has a ramp up time while blades form. Recent bugfixes to the spell mean the blades reform much more regularly (the game was getting tricked into a negative blade count at times, making blades take twice as long to reform). Solid cyclic damage at melee range.

Fire Rain (FR) Prerequisites: Mantle of Flame or Dragon's Breath, Circle 40.
Summons an ash cloud which rains fire on the entire area.

Pro: Deals Fire and Impact damage. Area Effect spell, which can be selectively cast. Consistently will damage targets at any range. Will hit targets in stealth regardless of if you can see them.
Con: Shield-blockable. Cannot be cast indoors. Ramp-up time before it begins damaging, and long duration between pulses.

Rating: *** - Good damage at any range, provided you are stationary.

Debilitation

I was going to call this section "Disablers", but decided Debilitation Spells was a better title. These spells are all spells that you cast on another target to affect them in a non-damaging way. It can be a stun, a reduction in balance, immobilization, a hit to fatigue, taking extra damage from everything else, or removal of defenses. I will be including the various stat contests for each spell as well. When picking a disabler, you should keep in mind the stats it contests. It is ideal for you to use spells that favor the stats your race can train cheaply (and thus has higher values for) and to also consider spells that contest stats you know your opponent is weak against. The different contests involved mean that even though two spells do the same thing, one of them may be better for you personally in the situation you're in. That's one of the greatest strengths of Warrior Mages - our toolbox has the right tool for just about any job, you just need to know them and use them properly.

Debilitation Contests

Succeeding at disabling a target is determined by a stat contest. Different spells use different types of contests to determine success, and this has an effect on what stats the caster (Attacker) and target (Defender) use to determine the spell's success level. There are numerous types of contests.

Offensive Contest Types Relevant to Warrior Mages

Mind - Uses caster's Intelligence, Discipline, Wisdom (in that order of weighting) to determine success
Magic - Uses caster's Wisdom, Intelligence, Discipline (in that order) to determine success - Most Warrior Mage Spells are in this category.
Spirit - Uses caster's Wisdom, Charisma, Intelligence (in that order) to determine success

- You always use all 3 stats in any contest.

Defensive Contest Types

Reflexes - Uses defender's Reflex, Agility, and Intelligence (in that order of weighting) to determine success. Additional factors in the contest include whether or not target is prone, webbed, or otherwise incapacitated.
Fortitude - Uses defender's Stamina, Discipline, and Strength (in that order) to determine success. Additional factors include vitality level, spirit level, and fatigue. It's easier to succeed on injured or tired targets, basically.
Willpower - Uses defender's Discipline, Wisdom, and Intelligence (in that order) to determine success. Additional factors include nerve damage, stuns/unconsciousness.

So when a spell is said to be Magic vs. Fortitude, for example - The caster uses Wisdom, Int, Discipline, and the defender uses Stamina, Discipline, Strength.

What you should take away from this: IF YOU WANT TO LAND DEBILITATION SPELLS MORE RELIABLY, TRAIN YOUR MENTALS. IF YOU WANT TO STOP GETTING DEBILITATED BY A SPECIFIC SPELL OR ABILITY, TRAIN THE APPROPRIATE STATS TO DEFEND AGAINST IT.

Debilitation Spells

Frostbite (FROSTBITE) Prerequsites: Geyser or Elementalism.
Rapidly drops the area's temperature, causing a cold shock to the system which damages the target's fatigue (causing knockdown if they are made exhausted enough), and debuffs their Stamina stat for a short time.

Save Type: Magic vs. Fortitude

Pro: Can be variably cast (CAST CREATURE, CAST AREA, etc). Makes other fortitude spells easier to land as a followup. Hits all enemies in the room. Tired enemies have a much harder time hitting you, so it's good when you're fighting things a bit hard for you. Knocks targets over with enough success.
Con: Expensive (4 spell slots). Area nature makes it hard to snap cast successfully. Some creatures are immune to the effect entirely (typically undead, but also sometimes cold-themed creatures or things that otherwise wouldn't care about being cold).

Rating: ***** - There are a lot of types of debilitating, but this one does numerous things. The fatigue hit makes combat easier for you, the knockdown makes combat easier for you, and the Stamina hit makes followup spells easier for you. It is a lot of bang for the buck, and in my opinion is an essential spell to have.

Ice Patch (IP) Prerequisites: Geyser or Elementalism.
Creates a slippery sheet of ice under a target, which can cause them to slip and fall, landing them prone and stunned.

Save Type: Magic vs. Reflexes

Pro: Can be snap cast relatively easily. Success is always a knockdown AND a stun, meaning that it's even easier to hit something you used Ice Patch on than it is a stun alone.
Con: Finicky about working on some creatures, particularly things with more than two legs (it will outright fail and no mana increase or skill increase will allow you to overcome it).

Rating: **** While a stun is a stun, this is a stun with added knockdown and makes it better than average for followup attacks.

Anther's Call (ANC) Prerequisites: Stone Strike or Elementalism.
Hands of earth and stone form from the ground and grasp a single target, holding it in place.

Save Type: Magic vs. Fortitude

Pro: Can be snap cast relatively quickly. Things that are immune to stuns can still be immobilized most of the time.
Con: Finicky about where it's cast. Anywhere but natural areas and it will fail. It's not always apparent from a room description whether this spell will work, and it sucks when you cast it and then spent the mana on it but it does nothing because of the room. This can not be overcome with mana or skill.

Rating: ** - It's a good spell when it works, but we have other spells that give you a similar return on investment that don't require you to jump through environmental hoops to cast.

Arc Light (AL) Prerequisites: Gar Zeng or Elementalism.
A bright flash of light bursts from the caster's hands, causing minor damage and stunning the target. This spell will ignite naphtha on the head

Save Type: Magic vs. Fortitude

Pro: Relatively fast to snap cast. The head damage may seem like an afterthought, but in 3.0/3.1, the almost guaranteed chance to stun when you even lightly touch a location that has minor wounds makes it pretty sweet for setting up follow up hits that pack a wallop. The wounds from this spell tend to show up without regard for the wound prevention/damage reduction of having full vitality. Lights Naphtha.
Con: It takes a bit to fully wear off before you can re-cast it (There is seemingly a separate re-cast timer from the stun-duration timer, but I haven't had it be a problem except in very rare instances where you're just chain-casting it). Anything immune to being stunned will not be bothered by it.

Rating: ***** - Arc Light went from being just about the worst spell ever in 2.0 to being one of our strongest. It's extremely underrated - a lot of people don't bother with it because they prefer Ice Patch for single-target stuns due to the knockback, but Arc Light will work on things Ice Patch doesn't, and the very minor head wound should not be discounted.

Tingle (TI) Prerequisites: Gar Zeng or Elementalism.
A subtle jolt of electricity to the muscles of the hands disrupts fine motor control, causing the target to drop what it's holding, and additionally damaging their Reflexes and Agility for a time.

Save Type: Magic vs. Fortitude

Pro: Relatively fast to snap cast. Makes things drop their weapons and held shields (Not arm-worn shields). Gives a moderate roundtime to the target. The reflex and agility penalties make your target have a harder time hitting you and make it easier for you to hit them. Additionally, it sets them up nicely for a debilitation spell that is Magic vs. Reflexes, since their relevant save stats will be negatively impacted.
Con: Target can still fight, and aside from the stat decrease, they have no penalty to defending themselves (No raw skill penalty like there is for being stunned/etc).

Rating: *** - Decent utility, especially when you're using it just to disarm a creature to stop parrying. It should be noted that players will pick up their items again automatically once the roundtime has completed, and that doing anything to prevent players from picking up their items again is considered mechanics abuse.

Ward Break (WB) Prerequisites: Ethereal Shield and Elementalism.
Attempts to dispel all barrier-type spells on a target. It can have partial success and simply weaken them. It will not remove non-barrier spells.

Save Type: Mind vs. Willpower (Intelligence, Discipline, Wisdom vs. Discipline, Wisdom, Intelligence)

Pro: Removes a bunch of stuff all at once if successful, which will often do a great job softening up a target.
Con: No other effects if successful, and no effect at all if not fully successful (it reduces the duration of any spells it messages as having weakened, but they remain intact). Won't strip off non-magic barriers.

Rating: ** - This is a very good, powerful spell in PvP situations but it's extremely situational, hence the low rating for general use (There is literally no reason ever to cast it while hunting for example). If you PvP regularly and want to strip off a bunch of useful buffs from your opponent with one cast, though, I recommend it heartily.

Vertigo (VERTIGO) Prerequisites: Paeldryth's Wrath.
Finely manipulates the air currents around a target's head to mess with their inner ear functions, severely impacting their balance. With enough success the target can fall over prone, or even go unconscious.

Save Type: Mind vs. Willpower

Pro: Vertigo has a durational effect, which means you cast it and it continues to effect your target over time. This can very handily swing a fight in your favor due to destroying the target's balance - it makes them easier to hit, makes it harder for them to hit you, and they may pass out from it or fall over. Because of the durational nature, it's possible to use another type of disabler in conjunction with Vertigo to further negatively impact the target.
Con: No stun/guaranteed disable. Target can still fight back, even though they'll be less effective due to the effects. Vertigo doesn't work on undead or anything else that doesn't need to breathe air.

Rating: **** - Vertigo's effects are extremely powerful and are great at weakening an opponent just on the edge of your skills enough that you gain the upper hand.

Thunderclap (TC) Prerequisites: Paeldryth's Wrath.
Creates a booming clap of thunder which stuns targets in an area.

Save Type: Magic vs. Fortitude

Pro: Stuns all targets in an area, and selectively castable (CAST CREATURE, CAST AREA, etc).
Con: Does nothing else, just a stun. Slot-expensive. Does nothing on creatures immune to stuns. Hard to snap cast because it's an area spell.

Rating: *** - Thunderclap may "just" be a stun, but stuns are pretty good, and this lets you stun multiple things at once. It's a great followup to a spell like Frostbite, which will weaken the Stamina of an entire area's creatures and let you get better success on the Magic vs. Fortitude contest, thus giving you longer stuns on your targets.

Tremor (TREM) Prerequisites: Anther's Call or Sure Footing.
Causes the earth to shake violently, knocking over, knocking back, or unbalancing targets.

Save Type: Magic vs. Reflex

Pro: The effect of this spell pulses over a duration, so targets are periodically unbalanced, knocked over, whatever, every few seconds for a reasonably long time. You can cast it on a single target as well as selectively casting it on an entire area. The single-target effect works indoors.
Con: You cannot cast the area versions (CAST CREATURES, CAST AREA) indoors. There is no stun or other guaranteed disabling effect. You cannot control what the effects are, so you may have a target knocked back away from you at an inopportune moment (it's never happened to me, but hey, it's possible).

Rating: **** - Tremor's durational effects and flexibility with casting rules (and thus flexibility with environmental restrictions) make it a fantastic spell in my opinion. The duration is long enough that it's almost like having a mini-cyclic running.

Mark of Arhat (MOA) Prerequisites: Substratum and any one of Fire Shards Fire Ball or Ignite.
A spectral creature appears and slashes the target, branding them with burning claw marks if successful. The claw marks react to any elemental damage done to the target (ANY ELEMENTAL DAMAGE, NOT JUST FIRE DAMAGE) and then flare and deal some extra fire damage to the target. It's a reactive extra pulse of damage.

Save Type: Spirit vs. Willpower (Caster's Wisdom, Charisma, and Intelligence vs Defender's Discipline, Wisdom, Intelligence).

Pro: Gives you a passive source of bonus damage whenever you deal elemental damage. Great for whittling through barriers due to the fact that you get a second hit of elemental damage whenever you deal elemental damage. ACTIVATES ON ALL TYPES OF ELEMENTAL DAMAGE, NOT JUST FIRE DAMAGE (I tested this with the base version of Shockwave, which deals Cold damage - It caused the marks to flare and do some fire damage after the cold damage hit). Activates on weapon strikes if you cast Ignite on your weapon, adding even more damage.
Con: No disabling effect whatsoever, just extra damage. The offensive Stat contest uses Charisma, and this is literally the only spell we have that this is the case for, so it will tend to be harder for people to succeed with since not a lot of Warrior Mages spend lots of points on Charisma. Will NOT activate on non-elemental spells (IE, Warrior Mage spells that deal only physical damage types such as all spells in the Earth Book will not activate it).

Rating: ** - Mark of Arhat is a good spell for extra damage on a very durable target. The extra damage adds up more the longer the target is alive. It works best in my opinion when coupled with Ignite, as you can then prepare and target other spells, and swing your weapon, basically giving every source of damage you do a little bonus. It's great for "boss" type creatures in invasions and the like, but in PvP situations, generally mana and prep times are better spent on more traditional disabling spells. It's situational, but it's very good in the appropriate situations.

Augmentation Spells

Augmentation Spells are spells that are used to improve your capabilities in some way. They might make you more capable of dodging blows, stronger, faster, more skilled with magic, etc. Warrior Mages have a very diverse set of Augmentation Spells, many of which can be cast to assist others as well as used on yourself.