Avrenka

Mathematician Avrenka
Status
Race	Human
Gender	Male
Guild	Moon Mage
Instance	Prime

A Human who values knowledge above all else, Avrenka seeks the truth and its meaning behind everything. Skeptical to a fault, he takes no one at their word -- but equally, he will not dismiss anyone's words without careful consideration. To him, social constructs hold no value -- only truth and knowledge have merit.

Background

Avrenka, whose name means "Moon Tree" in Gamgweth, was born under an oak tree at a night when all three moons shone brightly.

Raised on the outskirts of Dirge by his father, an apothecarist, Avrenka was no stranger to delivering medicines to miners injured from accidents, trolls, volcanic eruptions, to name a few. And while his two older brothers demonstrated talent and skill in the healing arts, Avrenka found he had none.

Instead, he excelled at school, particularly in Mathematics and Astrology. So when he became of age, with his father's reluctant approval, Avrenka moved to Crossing to become a Moon Mage to pursue greater knowledge on how the universe works.

Nowadays, Avrenka spends his time conducting magical research experiments, and maintains his adolescent practice of rescuing fallen adventurers.

Avrenka's Crappy Guide to Moonmage PvP

"You have Unleash to put up other buffs to Batman your way to victory. You can get away with anything." -Rakkor

MM Strengths:

1 - versatile kit means you can have an answer for almost any situation, given the right prep

2 - extremely f2p friendly, Unleash obviates any need for wands or tattoos

3 - high potential damage

MM Weaknesses:

1 - requires the most prep time

2 - high skill ceiling, must understand every matchup

3 - lowest defense

Stage 1 - Mental Prep: Strategize

"What I learned at Tournament Camp this fall ... Have a plan. Have a backup plan. Have a backup plan to the backup plan." -Valynn

1 - Group fight - two ways to fight: aggressive and defensive

• default defensive, since MM is so paper thin
• stay hidden & invis, be last to act, keep your eye on enemy primary damage dealer
• let them come to you: setup AVA + Tremor, as these pulses do not reveal you
• if you're being focused, MOVE! Put up Shear and prep either Sorrow or a debil, so you can immediately cast when you jump back in (don't forget to rejoin group leader)
• if you can afford to go full offense, do so. I.e. you're not primary target or you have a paladin/empath covering you

2 - 1v1s

• vs Stealthers (Ranger, Thief, Necro) -- use AVA to reveal, try to inflict nerve damage with MB, use WATCH if allowed. Spam Sorrow, the bolts pull them out of hiding.
• vs Weapons (Paladin, Barb, Thief) -- be very conscious of your MAF going down, MAF is literally your lifeline. WD and Shove are also essential, unless you like eating 30% impales. Be ready to curse HT if you know they will spam hurl.
• vs Magic -- LW + Shear is essential. Re-up Shear as much as possible.
• vs Anti-Magic (Forsaken, Trader, WM) -- you need to use weapons. Put up RW, TW, RESO, RUE, along with LW + Shear. Your combo is debil, rush, impale, palm, then Hurl spam until 90 sec you can do it over again. Clerics and MM can also fit in this category.

3 - Specific matchups:

• vs Ranger -- Rend RITS, RITS kiting is a pain. Don't move rooms, or you reset Ranger SK cooldown
• vs Forsaken -- use mindshout or Tremor to disable critters, use rush to land your debil and then use weapon attacks. 99% they will have WORM setup to block magic from ranged, not melee.
• vs Paladin -- cast Sorrow first, wait for first bolt to get blocked by paladin's SP, then you can debil. If you're against someone with max armor (aka Warb), you have to use either PD or Bonegrinder
• vs Barbarian -- cast Sorrow first to trigger Swan, then debil. Or use a bubble wand.
• vs Empath -- use Moonblade + Dazzle/Rend combo to strip off IC, otherwise you're never gonna take them down

Stage 2 - Buffing

"ABB: Always Be Buffing" -Illiya

1 - Prediction pools - predict buff your sorcery, TM and tactics at the minimum. You'll also want the option available to curse enemy HT, shield and evasion. RTR is critical.

2 - Native spells - BC + DC for predicts. AUS + Shadowling for mana. IOTS (Int/Disc), SEER, TKSH, MAF, PSY, CV, Shadows, RF, WD. SCO if using Bonegrinder (and maybe PD).

3 - Runestones - Axinite (GG) for wisdom and Lay Ward.

4 - Scrolled - IP is must have. Pick between AVA, Tremor and Awaken for #2. Careful with Tremor, it has a good chance of giving you bad sorcery backlash.

5 - Unleash - SAP (Augmentation), RAGE, AS/Awaken, AD, SUF/Centering, SR, EY are critical. Note: SAP, AS, SUF and EY are castable on others. (AS is only 5 min if casted on other). For stats: SW/SoTT, GoL, and Finesse are important. For debils: REPR, Courage, NON, Tranquility.

6 - Teammate buffs - For stats: Ask for MEF/TURI, Vigor, SoTT/SW, and DIG/WotP. For skills: ask for Instinct/SW, and EM. As you can see, this is a lot of buffs. It takes me anywhere 10-15min to finish buffing. It's rough.

As you can see, this is a lot of buffs. It takes me anywhere 10-15min to finish buffing. It's rough.

Be aware that certain spells only last 10min, like WD, AS, Awaken, and LW. Save these spells for right before the fight starts.

Yes, always use AD for your cyclic. Unless you like being Ice Patched for 25 seconds. Everyone and their mom has IP, IP wands, IP tattoos. It's literally the best CC spell in the game. Which makes AD obligatory.

Stage 3 - Defense

"Oops I forgot to put on my armor" -everyone

1 - Armor - I personally believe stealth is too important for moonmages, so I always recommend going Leather. Shadowleaf, Punka and Corrugated are best. Do not clownsuit. Make sure armor is repaired. Make sure you're wearing it.

2 - Stance - if you have SR up, you can stance 100% evasion, 2% parry, 100% shield. Don't forget to adjust your stance!

3 - Shield - tertiary armor means we have to wear small shields. Diamondhide/shadowleaf, octagonal shield are best. Triangular agonite sipar, demonscale blasted plains are good too. If possible, keep your shield held in your left hand, as wearing the shield reduces its defense by 20%.

4 - Balance - if you're wondering why you can't hit anybody and everyone's hitting you, it's probably cuz of your balance. When you're stunned/proned, your balance gets tanked to very badly, and likely you'll see "Opponent is overwhelming you". This is why landing debils is crucial, and why balance healing spells like AD, SUF and Centering are also crucial. This is why winning the debil contest usually means winning the match.

5 - Wounds - head and eye wounds prevent searching. Head wounds also prevent using wands. Leg, arm and nerve damage penalize stealth. Nerve damage also penalizes defense and magic skill. Use herbs, they help.

Stage 4 - Offense

"I think you got 50% vitality on a Sorrow cast that first fight" -Malkien

1 - TM Focus - get an Accuracy one. Make sure you invoke it in your right hand, it's a 16-20 sec RT. The TM focus bonus goes away if you swap hands, stow it, drop it, or lower it. If you do any physical attack like punch, maneuver rush, it also goes away. But Tactics are okay to use, like grapple, sweep or shove.

2 - RAGE - have it up, or Sorrow won't hit.

3 - Mana - always put max mana into all your spells, or you'll hit like a wet noodle. (i.e. prep Sorrow 100)

4 - TM skill - make sure you buffed it by predict or SUB (or both!)

5 - Prep times - Sorrow gets no benefit from full prep, so cast it at the half-way point. Debils also get no benefit from full prep, but how quickly you can cast it depends on the spell difficulty. Burn is so accurate that you can also cast it at the half-way point, it doesn't need the full prep accuracy bonus. But don't use Burn, it sucks.

6 - Toggle AOE - set it to nongroup, or engaged if you want to be extra careful for your teammates sake. If you go AOE Engaged, be aware that WD auto disengages you, and make sure you have an "advance all enemies" script ready.

7 - Be mentally ready to abandon TM and use weapons against anti-magic matchups. Nothing worse than freezing in the middle of a fight cuz you can't mentally switch gears.

Stage 5 - MM Battle Spells & Tactics

"I always get thrown off by Shear" -Warbrolus

1 - Sorrow - since it's a non-target TM, you can full prep it before the fight starts and immediately cast it on sight. It is an extremely low accuracy spell, so make sure you have TM accuracy, RAGE, and TM skill buffs up. Also make sure you have balance advantage. Read the wiki on the spell, learn how it works, it's got a lot of weird things about it. This is our bread and butter spell, use it by default.

2 - PD - this underappreciated spell has 2 things going for it: it's body-part targetable, and it's armor piercing. Always target the head (i.e. prep pd 50, then target warbrolus head). Use it on your favorite paladin. Combo it with Sorrow and watch heads explode since they both do Internal Wound damage, and you're targeting the head with both these spells. You will likely need to full prep PD or it won't hit.

3 - Bonegrinder - I have mixed feelings about this spell. On the one hand, with SCO, you have roughly a 1 in 8 chance of killing anybody in 5 seconds. On the other hand, you have a 1 in 6 chance of getting a t2 backlash (blowing off arms, nerve damage, or magic skill debuff). I stay away from this spell because it seems unfun to win with it. Use at your own risk. Be aware that having SCO up prevents you from predicting.

4 - Shear - always use with LW. Most effective when used in the middle of the fight. I guarantee you if you leave a room and the opponent chases you, they will be tunnel visioning on casting Deadfall/Ice Patch on you, and the last thing they're expecting is a Shear waiting for them. Surprise!

5 - Moonblade - this spell right here is what gives MM the advantage over other spell casters, albeit only briefly. Having the ability to cast Sorrow and then immediately follow up with an instant Mindshout or Ice Patch is huge. It also allows you to perform a Dazzle Rend combo, stripping their wards. Do not neglect this spell, make sure all 3 nodes are locked and loaded before the fight. Warning: this spell will require scripts or macros to work effectively. (Imagine typing prep rend 100, cast balistrade in less than 1 second?)

That's all folks. Thanks for reading my crappy guide.

Disclaimer: this is how I pvp right now. I'm constantly experimenting and learning new things every week. This is just what I learned. Feel free to ignore and do your own thing!

Disclaimer #2: There's a lot to understand about how debilitation spells work. Sorry but it's way too much to get into, and it's not MM specific.