Warrior Mage new player guide

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What is a Warrior Mage?

Warrior Mages are masters of sword and spell, fighters who use their knowledge of the arcane to assist them in direct combat (usually by setting their enemies on fire, striking them with lightning, or giving them other similarly spectacular deaths). Warrior Mages wield Elemental Magic, and there is a strong emphasis on Targeted Magic in the guild's spellbook. The guild spellbook is divided up by the six Elements - Aether, Air, Earth, Electricity, Fire, and Water.

Each of these spellbooks have a complete arsenal of types of spells (with the exception of Aether, which has no damaging magic), making it possible for a mage to focus on a single element if they desire and still be reasonably effective. However, most mages spread their knowledge of the elements around, and learn with practice what spells they want in a given situation. This gives them a deeper toolbox to use to handle varied situations.

The focus on the elements is a strong theme for the guild's lore and backstory, and is often central to the roleplay of characters who join.

Races

Warrior mage abilities make use of all the Attributes. ALL of the stats are important to us to some degree, with Charisma being the LEAST important (but not useless). Physical stats such as Strength, Agility, Reflex and Stamina will support the mage's ability to survive in combat and be more effective with a weapon. Mental stats such as Discipline, Intelligence and Wisdom will determine the power of your offensive spells (specifically those using your Targeted Magic and Debilitation skills. Charisma has an impact on a single spell in our arsenal but it's useful for more subtle things like haggling with merchants, your spirit health which determines how long your corpse will stick around, and certain spells. Additionally, once you gain the ability to call a Fir Familiar, your Charisma can influence its willingness to drag you away from sticky situations in combat from time to time.

Keep this in mind when picturing what kind of mage you want to be - do you want to be a two-handed weapon swinging mage? You will be using a lot of strength and stamina to swing those big weapons without tiring out. Slash and dash fencer? Lots of agility and reflex to be accurate with those quick blades and evading hits. ALL mages will make heavy use of all three mental stats, and stamina is going to be important to you no matter what in combat. Ultimately, the most important choice is picking a race you feel comfortable roleplaying.

At the end of the day, any of the races can be viable Warrior Mages. Since just about all of the stats are important for us, don't let the numbers necessarily be the sole influence for you.

Equipment

Most Warrior Mages tend to favor Chain Armor. It offers good protection and absorption without the huge maneuvering penalties associated with heavier armors. As stealth is not something our guild focuses on regularly, it is uncommon to see Warrior Mages wearing Light Armor but for those that wish to try and pursue stealth, it can be an option - however, you can hide nearly as well in a well-made set of chain as you can in leather and the heaviest leather is more hindering than the lightest chain. Since Stealth is a survival skill, and Warrior Mages are survival tertiary, stealth will not be a strong point if you choose to use it, though the spell Rising Mists will improve your ability to hide. Brigandine and Plate are both much heavier and more protective but as a guild with armor as its Tertiary skillset, it is generally more trouble than it's worth to pick these heavier armors - you will have a hard time avoiding blows in them and the extra protection and absorption is not enough to offset this.

You can contact a Tailor or an Armorsmith to inquire about player-made armor, but be advised that as a new character, you will be unlikely to afford it right away. However, it's good to have goals and you will know how much to save up to get it.

Weapons generally come down to personal preference, and you can make pretty much anything work so just pick something you like stylistically. For a new character, swing roundtime and Fatigue will be at a premium, so you should look up a Weaponsmith and see about getting a nice lightened weapon made. Regardless of the weapon's type (that is, the skill it trains when you use it), a lightened weapon will be easier to swing more quickly, be more balanced and therefore more accurate, and be less tiring. You may not be able to afford a weapon from a crafter right away, but you should talk to one anyhow to learn the prices and to ask questions about what would be good for you, so you know what to save up for.

It is recommended that you train at least one ranged weapon in addition to any melee weapons you pick. While a lot of your damage will be done with spells, it's always good to have options for when spells are not a viable choice. Some creatures may be magic-immune, or there may be other reasons you wish to not use a spell (Some creatures can steal a spell you prepare and use it against you, for example). Additionally, a creature may fly and thus be out of range of a melee weapon. This makes a ranged weapon a good secondary weapon choice. As a Warrior Mage, you will eventually be required to train three weapon skills to continue to Circle - though not until higher levels.

To get a full list of all the weapon skills, you can type >EXP WEAPON 0 in-game.

In addition, Warrior Mages can summon a weapon of their highest melee weapon skill type starting as soon as they join the guild using the Elemental Weapon ability.

Circle Requirements

These are the Warrior Mage circle requirements (Taken from the main article on the guild):

Circle 1st magic 2nd magic 3rd magic 4th magic 5th magic TM Summon 1st weapon 2nd weapon 3rd weapon Parry 1st lore 2nd lore 3rd lore Scholarship armor defend 1st, 2nd surviv 3rd, 4th surviv
1-10 4 4 3 0 0 4 3 3 0 0 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 1
11-30 4 4 3 3 0 4 4 4 3 0 3 2 2 2 1 2 1 1 1
31-70 5 4 4 3 3 4 5 4 3 2 3 3 2 2 2 3 2 2 1
71-100 5 5 4 4 4 5 5 5 4 3 4 3 3 3 2 3 2 2 2
101-150 6 6 5 5 5 6 5 5 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 4 3 3 2
151-200 15 15 13 13 13 15 13 13 10 10 10 10 8 8 8 10 8 8 5

Summoning is a hard requirement (does not count toward Nth magic requirements).
Targeted Magic and Scholarship are soft requirement (can be used toward Nth skill requirements).<br\> Sorcery and Thievery are restricted skills (do not count toward Nth skill requirements).<br\>

To understand what all of this means, remember: The numbers listed are per-circle - so if you fall into the circle 1-10 bracket, and you are wanting to level up, you will need 4 ranks in your 1st (highest skill amount, numerically) per level, 4 in your 2nd, 3 in your third, etc... A skill listed as "1st Lore, 2nd Lore" etc, means you can pick any skill to work on that falls into the Lore skillset and train it at your leisure, and it will count towards leveling up if it is one of your highest 3 lores. If a skill is mentioned by name specifically, most of the time that means you must train that skill no matter what (whether it is a hard or soft requirement is mentioned in the chart - soft requirements like Targeted Magic can also be used as one of your Magic skill requirements to circle.

Circle requirements start off relatively easy and scale up in what they require of you as your circle increases.

Spell Slots

Spell slots are used to learn spells and feats. You will gain a new spell slot every circle up to 50th, then every other circle from 51-100, then every third circle from 101-150. A Warrior Mage will have gained 91 spell slots by Circle 150 - learning every Warrior Mage spell will cost you 93 spell slots. This means that it isn't possible to learn every spell the guild has to offer, even if you choose to forgo learning any Magical Feats.

Spells can cost more than one slot to learn. You can forget spells (and get your slots refunded) in Throne City during the day (the area with the NPC that does this is closed at night).

Feats

There are numerous Magical feats available to spellcasters. Warrior Mages learn a few for free as a guild perk - Faster Targeting and Targeted Mastery. Both of these feats will be automatically learned upon reaching Circle 2, and will not cost you spell slots.

For more information on what these abilities do and when you can learn them, you can view the detailed page here.

Summoning and Aethereal Pathways

Summoning is the Warrior Mage guild-only skill. It represents the mage's skill at sensing and manipulating the elemental planes, and being able to summon that energy for personal use in the form of a Familiar or through the use of Aethereal Pathways.

Elemental Charge

Summoning abilities use Elemental Charge as a resource to power them. To gather Charge, you must first ALIGN yourself to an element. For example, to align myself to fire, I would ALIGN FIRE. You can change your aligned element at will, but it requires you to have no remaining Charge to do so.

To gather Charge, cast spells from the spellbook of your Aligned element. You will gain a small amount of charge for each cast. You will lose the same amount of charge for casts of your opposed element. You can choose your opposed element with enough Summoning skill (Example: Fire is traditionally Opposed to Water. With enough skill, I could Align fire and decide that I wanted to be Opposed to Aether).

Charge can also be gathered by doing SUMMON ADMITTANCE. This will sit you down on the ground and you will meditate with a Roundtime (Generally in the realm of 10-15s). When you finish the meditation you will have gained Charge. You can continue SUMMON ADMITTANCE until you are told you are at maximum charge.

Each of the Aethereal Pathways has an element associated with it. Using a pathway of your aligned element will make it cost less charge to use. Using one from your opposed element will make it cost more.

Familiars

A familiar is a minor aether elemental spirit that is summoned from the plane of Aether and bound to the mage's will. Typically these spirits are bound in the form of various animals through the use of a talisman. A familiar can perform a variety of tasks for the mage, including picking up small items, transferring items over a distance, and acting as messengers (a mage can see and speak through their familiar, and familiars can be told to locate other adventurers).

To summon a familiar, you must have a talisman and enough elemental charge to do so.

Once you have enough elemental charge, hold your talisman in hand and >SUMMON FAMILIAR to call your familiar.

To dismiss your familiar, >TELL FAMILIAR TO LEAVE.

A detailed guide about the various types of familiars, the level requirements to attain them, the classes of talismans, and animals associated with them is available here.

Elemental Weapons

Warrior Mages can use their affinity with Summoning to summon elemental weapons. You learn this ability automatically upon joining the guild, and it will at a base level summon a weapon type of your highest skill melee weapon. The ability is considered Earth aligned for purposes of elemental charge. The base ability will summon weapons of Tier 2 quality - this means they will begin being roughly equivalent to store-bought gear. With metaspells, and investment in the Forging skill, it is possible to create weapons at a Tier 5 level - they will be roughly equivalent to player-forged rare metal weapons.

There are metaspells available that modify the ability - each metaspell requires Elementalism to learn. They have various effects on your ability to summon. As listed on the Elemental Weapon page, the spells are as follows:

  • Knowledge of any metaspell raises the base weapon to tier 3.
  • Shaping to an elemental type will transfer the highest damage type of the weapon into that element.

In addition to giving you access to a weapon right out of the gate, which will improve with you as you continue to train and learn new metaspells, elemental weapons are a great way for new mages to train Summoning.

Training Summoning

Summoning is trained at low-skill by having a familiar out or working with Elemental Weapons, and at high level through the use of Aethereal Pathways. Aethereal Pathways are abilities exclusive to the Warrior Mage guild that reflect their mastery of Targeted Magic. Essentially the mage can modify the way Targeting works in different ways that are useful in a variety of situations.

Summoning Admittance can be used to build multiple charges to the aligned Elemental Plane which can then be released through Summon Impedance to train at lower ranks. Once you have obtained Aethereal Pathways, these charges can instead be used to maintain the pulses of it. Once the Aethereal Pathways have used up all of the charges, the Pathway will fail. Making use of the Summon Admittance command while a Pathway is active will maintain the Pathway and the act of doing so will award experience. Each time the Pathway pulses and consumes a charge, experience will also be awarded. Casting a spell that receives a benefit from a Pathway does not award additional experience, but may be useful in maintaining charges if the spell is of your aligned element.

Elemental Domains

A recent addition to the Warrior Mage toolbox are Elemental Domains. Creating a domain is the process of aligning an area (basically any room) in-game with a particular element. This has a few effects:

- It doubles your charge gain from casting spells when you are aligned to this element.
- It doubles your charge cost from casting spells if you are opposed to this element.
- It negates environmental penalties for a spell (Ex: If I cast Rising Mists in the middle of Summer, in a Desert, with a Water Domain present, it will lose the seasonal and locational penalty associated with it).

To summon a domain, the syntax is >SUMMON <ELEMENT> DOMAIN, where <ELEMENT> is the name of one of the elements. There is at least one easter-egg element available that is not one of the traditional six.

The primary use of an Elemental Domain currently is to have an easier time maintaining your Charge level through casting alone, enabling more freedom with the use of Aethereal Pathways.

Pathways

Focus Damage (Fire) Increases damage from targeted magic.

Focus Quick (Air) Decreases targeting time for spells.

Focus Ease (Water) Reduces the difficulty to cast targeted spells.

Focus Power (Earth) Increases the Potency of spells.

Focus Accuracy (Electricity) Increases the accuracy of targeted magic.

Focus Secrecy (Water) Reduces the chance that your targeting matirx will be spotted.

Focus Precise (Air) Makes it easier to target specific body parts with spells.

Focus Defend (Earth) Makes it harder to direct targeted magic at you.

Focus Conserve (Fire) Decreases minimum mana cost of targeted spells.

Elemental Barrage (Electricity) Simultaneously attack with a melee weapon and a targeted spell.

Perceive Pathway (Aether) Detects aethereal pathways in use nearby.

Training Suggestions for Summoning

Out of Combat

You can easily train Summoning out of combat by practicing magic with Cambrinth. Cast as high as you can without backfiring, until you run out of mana. When you are out, Summon Admittance two times and then turn on a Pathway that is for your Aligned element. Pathways by element can be seen at the page for Aethereal Pathways. Continue magic training and when you are out of mana, simply Summon Admittance once to gather charge. This will keep your Pathway running almost indefinitely and you will mind lock your Summoning skill fairly effortlessly as you train your other magic skills. You can bypass the need for Summon Admittance by ensuring that the spells you are casting are of the element you're aligned to, and it will be even easier to keep your charge up if you summon the proper elemental domain.

In Combat

Summoning can be trained fairly easily in combat as well. Remember that casting spells of your aligned element will restore a bit of Elemental Charge with each cast.

While in combat, repeated casting of Targeted Magic spells is common. Align with the element of your favorite TM spell, and your Elemental Charge will remain high enough to continually power a pathway of your chosen Alignment. Since keeping a Pathway up is the preferred method to train Summoning, this will move the skill for you in combat without you needing to input additional commands, provided you remember to start tapping into the Aethereal Pathways.

Common Misconceptions

Your alignment does not negatively impact your ability to cast spells in any way (ex: You are aligned to Fire, and go to cast a Water spell. That spell will not be "weaker", it will not cost any more mana, or any other differences in any way from if you were Water aligned). The ONLY difference is that if you're casting a Water spell while Fire Aligned, by default, you will lose a small amount of Elemental Charge. You will not be weaker in any way, despite the messaging that the spell diminishes you. That's just the messaging for losing some Elemental Charge from the cast. Charge doesn't make your spells better or worse, it is used to power Pathways and to initially summon your familiar.

Because of this, there is absolutely no mechanical benefit to only learning one type of spell and never the opposite element. It can be a fun roleplaying opportunity, and sometimes you might get something like a Title out of knowing say, all the fire spells and zero water spells, but it will eventually take away from your effectiveness to neglect spellbooks completely. Whether the sacrifice in effectiveness is worth the gain in Roleplay to you is a personal choice with no right or wrong answer.

Spell Choices

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. Each spell will train one of the five magic skills (Augmentation, Debilitation, Targeted Magic, Utility, or Warding) in addition to Elemental Magic and Attunement. You should keep in mind when choosing your spells that you want to eventually have a spell that will train each skill, so that you can practice it, as eventually you will need all your magic skills to Circle.

Detailed descriptions, a rough guide to the pros and cons, and a rating of effectiveness of the spells in our arsenal can be found at Starlear's Warrior Mage Spell Recommendations. Keep in mind when browsing there that it's just the opinion of one mage on the various spells, but it is a good overview.

The Essentials

Being a new adventurer means that you'll be starting from scratch, with very little skill in weapons or magic. The following spells will be helpful to new Warrior Mages as choices after they learn their first spell (which will be a Targeted Magic spell). All of these spells will help you survive better in combat by either improving your defensive skills or by helping you disable an enemy.

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

Targeted Magic is one of the most defining aspects of the Warrior Mage guild. In short, Targeted Magic is your skill at aiming magic at things to make them die. Warrior Mages being wielders of the forces of the elements, typically this takes the form of raining down balls of fire or lightning bolts on our enemies. Your Targeted Magic skill works like any other magic skill as far as determining how much mana you can stick into a spell, but it also acts like a weapon skill in combat, where your ranks go up against the target's defenses to determine if you hit them or not.

When deciding which Targeted Magic spell to use, consider the damage types you wish to deal - what damage types are your opponents weak against or immune to entirely? There's the capability across all the books for Warrior Mages to deal every type of damage in the game, so keep this in mind when deciding what spells you want to learn.

As with other skills, Targeted Magic is trained by the successful use of the skill. If a spell has an Area of Effect component, you will be awarded experience based on the success of those hits on each opponent. If a spell has a pulsing Area of Effect component, you will be awarded experience based on the success of those hits on each opponent on each pulse. If your skill is at the top end of the opponent's teachable range, it will reward less experience per cast.

Debilitation Spells

Debilitation spells are all spells that you cast on another target to affect them negatively in a non-damaging way while using the Debilitation skill. It can be a stun, a reduction in balance, immobilization, a hit to fatigue, taking extra damage from everything else, or removal of defenses. When picking a disabler, you should keep in mind the stats it contests. It is ideal for you to 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.

Of the Debilitation spells available to Warrior Mages, the breakdown is as follows;

Mind - Ward Break and Vertigo
Magic - Frostbite, Thunderclap, Tremor, Anther's Call, Arc Light, Ice Patch, and Tingle
Spirit - Mark of Arhat

More information on stat contests can be found here.

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.


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. They are essentially "buff" spells, helping you to survive or otherwise be better at something.

You can find a list of Warrior Mage Augmentation spells here.

Utility Spells

Utility Spells are spells that are used to provide a variety of differing types of effects that don't easily fall into one of the other categories.

Utility spells can have a variety of effects, all of which are useful, but they are not necessarily related to directly improving the capabilities of someone like Augmentation spells. Additionally, Utility spells are generally cast on an item or in the area, instead of on a person.

Some of the Utility spells in the Warrior Mage arsenal are hybrid spells, which also teach another skill (Like Magnetic Ballista also teaching the Targeted Magic skill).

If you find yourself in a situation such that you have less than 10 utility to cast your first utility spell with which to train the skill, try casting it anyway. If you wait significant delay beyond when the spell is ready, you might be surprised at the results.

You can find a list of Warrior Mage Utility spells here.

Warding Spells

Warding spells in the Warrior Mage spellbook are spells that have the specific effect of protecting their target from magic in some way. They may provide you with a protective barrier to elemental damage, make you completely immune to a single elemental damage type, or reflect an enemy's targeted spell back at them.

You can find a list of Warrior Mage Warding spells here.

Your first five circles

Getting around is the toughest challenge for most new players. A link to the list of maps can be found on the main page of this Wiki, you will either start off on Crossing or Riverhaven, I suggest choosing Crossing. Using the DIR command will allow you to navigate until you learn the lay of the land.

In order to navigate to the Warmage guild simply enter DIR Warmage and follow the on-screen instructions. Once you can identify your location on the website map, navigation goes much faster.

Once you arrive at the Warmage guild, you will see Gauthus, the Crossing Guildmaster. The syntax to join the Warmage guild is simply 'join' you'll be asked to repeat the command to make sure you understand the consequences.

Understand, that once you join a guild and begin accruing experience, you cannot change guilds without wiping that experience out. So make sure you want to join.

Once you join, you will receive a short introduction to the guild from Gauthus himself. Once he's completed talking he will inform you that you're ready to learn a new spell.

The first spell you choose is somewhat of an RP choice...but choose fireshard. You can be a lightning mage later, right now the fire book is the best training book out there.

Now! You got your first spell...what do you do?

There are things that you have to train to get more spells. To leave the Warmage tower, simply 'go arch' then 'go door'. Outside is the main gathering spot for most of the Zoluren Warmages as well as the people that enjoy their company and classes. It will likely be noisy but there is probably a class going on as well.

To find out what classes are being offered, use "assess teach". Then pick the class of your choice.

A class is a passive experience pool gain. There are many things you can do on top of learning a class. One of those is foraging items.

As a new player, you will find it difficult to forage anything of particular value but there is one exception to this rule. Sticks can be sold to the firewood peddler 'Mags' for coin.

To forage a stick use 'forage stick'. A small roundtime ensues and then you got yourself a shiny new stick.

You'll notice that typing this out time after time becomes tedious at best. As such, we're going to make a script for it.

In the upper right hand corner of the Stormfront window is an 'Options' button. Left click it then left click scripts.

Another window will pop up on your screen. Left click 'Create' and another window will pop up.

In the top box is the name of the script. For this script we will call it 'getstick' without the quotations.

The next box is the comment box and is only used if you plan on publishing the script.

The large text area is where we'll write our new script: 

start:
pause
put forage stick
waitfor Roundtime
pause
put put my stick in my backpack
goto start


I'm not a programmer so the terminology I'll be using is layman at best.

start:

This is the title of a command group. It encompasses the entirety of the script in this case but as you script other things, it will only be one of dozens.

put forage stick

This is a command you're giving to the client. You're saying I want you to put 'forage stick'

waitfor Roundtime

This is a command to wait for the specific word 'Roundtime' before moving on to the next action.

pause

This is a generic pause. They are measured in seconds. It's used to help keep scripts from hanging up when the server or your internet is lagging. You can use pause, or pause 300 or pause 10000. It will wait that number of seconds before moving on.

put put my stick in my backpack

Again, this is another command that is telling your client to put 'put my stick in my backpack'. Now, in order to check if you actually have a backpack you can use 'inv container'. If you have a pack, use instead 'put put my stick in my pack'

goto start

Goto is a command used to move between command groups. In this case we're telling our client to go to 'start' which begins the whole script anew.

This is a dangerous script. This script will continue on until there is no more space in the container for sticks. That means it hold the potential for abuse. Dragonrealms is a script heavy game but any time you run a script you have to be responsive as a character. AFK scripting is strictly prohibited.

Now that our script is done, simple left click 'okay' in the lower right of the script window and then 'okay' again in the lower right of the script listing.

In order to start this script, you need only use '.getstick'

While you're listening to a class and foraging for sticks you're receiving experience in the form of a pool.

Use 'exp' to see how much you've learned.

There are several things displayed when you use 'exp' 


         SKILL: Rank/Percent towards next rank/Amount learning/Mindstate fraction
 Targeted Magic:   38 10.85% analyzing     (18/34)

Time Development Points: 178  Favors: 15  Deaths: 5  Departs: 3
Overall state of mind: clear

Targeted magic is the skill that's training, 38 is how many ranks you have in it. 10.85% is the amount of experience you have in that current rank, meaning you need 89.15% more to reach 39th rank. Analyzing is the RP way of saying you have (18/34) experience pool.

Experience pools are what drain and give you experience. Every action you take (if it's difficult enough to train you) adds to that pool. As time progresses, that pool will pulse down and add to your 10.85% until it reaches 100% and you receive a new rank.

When you train, a 34/34 is the most you can pool together at once. Training beyond that is just a waste of time. If something is at 34/34 or even 33/34 pick something else to train. You will learn to maximize your time efficiently.

So, hopefully your outdoorsmanship skill and whatever class you're in is training nicely by now.

The next thing to do is to start picking skills that you would like to train. As Warmages and as mentioned above, we have circle requirements that need to be met but can be met in a variety of different ways.

Your Skills

You need to train 3 magic skills to reach circle 5.

These skills will be Targeted Magic, Attunement and Arcana. Targeted magic will be trained once you start using your spells to kill things. Attunement is trained by 'powerwalking' and is described below. The last, Arcana can be trained both in and out of combat. Typically this is trained by using cambrinth.

The Warmage guild sells cambrinth rings. They're extremely low level stuff. Everyone can use them. They are prohibitively expensive for new players, however (2.5 gold). If you have the money from collecting sticks or even hunting rats/louts purchase one (from Gauthus: go arch, climb stair, east, go wood door, go iron door 'buy camb ring'). There may be a few on the donation shelf inside the guild. (From Gauthus go arch, climb stair, east, go wood door, go marble arch and then look on rack, I try to keep a few in stock for free there). Or, as a last resort you can ask someone in front of the Warmage guild to purchase one for you.

Training Your Magic

The first and easiest one to train is powerwalking. To do this, simply use 'perc' in a room you currently occupy. Once the roundtime is up, move to another room and use 'perc' again. Keep moving to new rooms and using the 'perc' command to train this.

Arcana is the next one. This can be trained both in and out of combat. To train arcana, remove that cambrinth ring you just acquired and prepare a spell (I'll assume you're in combat).

target fs 1

charge camb ring 2

invoke camb ring

Wait for the spell to be fully targeted.

Cast

If we want to do that in script form we would use: 

start:
match start ...wait
match combat [You're
match combat melee
match combat combat
match start Roundtime:
put kick pile
put collect rock
matchwait

combat:
put target fs
put charge my camb ring 2
wait
pause
put invoke my camb ring
waitfor formation of a targeting
goto cast

cast:
match cast ...wait
match arrange Roundtime
put cast
matchwait

arrange:
match arrange ...wait
match arrange Roundtime
match combat what?
match skin arranged as much
match loot cannot be skinned.
pause
put arrange
matchwait

skin:
pause
put skin
wait
pause
put empty left
goto loot

loot:
pause
put loot
put hunt
wait
pause
goto expcheck

expcheck:
match done (34/34)
match done (33/34)
match start EXP HELP
put skill tm
matchwait

done:
echo ***DONE WITH TM!***

Training arcana in conjunction with targeted is a good habit to get into and whatever scripts you write should reflect this. Eventually you'll be able to charge the ring (and later an armband) without holding it in your hand. When you get Ethereal Shield (ES) and you begin training warding, use the ring for those casts as well.

You need to train summoning at all circles.

As a Warmage your guild specific ability is summoning. In order to use this, you must align to an element first. The spell you chose will determine what alignment you want. If you chose fire shards use 'align fire' or 'align electricity' if you chose gar zeng and so on.

This choice is not permanent so you needn't agonize over it. You'll receive a long roundtime and once it's finished you can begin using 'summon admittance' to build your charge. Once maxed you can use 'summon impedance' to reduce it.

Until 4th circle this is the only way to train summoning other than classes.

WEAPONS!

You only need 1 weapon skill to reach 5th circle. However, as you progress through the guild you will start to need 2 weapons and then eventually 3. It is better to train at LEAST three right from the start but I suggest 4 or 5.

Your weapons are a reflection of who your character is. Is he a dagger totting stealthy mage? Or a greataxe throwing juggernaut? Or a mixture of the two? Or neither...it's all up to you.

These are very personal choices but I will make some suggestions. Heavy Thrown is easy to train and pairs nicely with our spells. When we target something, it takes time for it to be fully targeted, all the while throwing hammers at your victim to keep them occupied, stunned or just flat out kill them.

I do not recommend small edge. This is an enticing skill as the low roundtimes make it easy to train but as you grow stronger and get more circles, you'll be grateful that you picked a heavier weapon.

Polearms can be used to train both the polearm skill and the heavy thrown skill. A spear is a piercing weapon but if you use 'lob' instead of 'throw' it will never stick in your target and thus can be used like a throwing hammer.

Heavy edged/2 handed edge are difficult to swing, but the damage behind them makes up for it even just starting out and later you'll be glad you toughed it out.

Ranged weapons (bows, crossbows and slings) if you do choose to take up a ranged weapon I would suggest crossbow but they are of a limited use to us due to the roundtimes involved versus how we could be spending that time preparing other spells.

Brawling is the easiest weapon skill to train and has a variety of tactical with grappling and shoving.

In order to get these weapons you can use 'dir weaponsmith' or try to find a friendly Warmage that wants to help out a new member.

An example of a weapon script: 


start:
match start ...wait
match combat [You're
match combat melee
match combat combat
match start Roundtime:
put kick pile
put collect rock
matchwait

combat:
put feint
wait
pause
put feint
wait
pause
put slice
wait
pause
goto expcheck

expcheck:
match done (34/34)
match done (33/34)
match start EXP HELP
put skill %1
matchwait

done:
echo ***DONE WITH TM!***

The line 'put skill %1' is using a variable '%1'. So if we named this script 'weapon' and we were trying to train a polearm the correct way to start the script would be '.weapon polearm'

If you're interested in writing your own scripts, try to add the arrange and skin command groups from the targeted script above to this one so that it will also skin your kills.


ARMOR

So, you have the weapons you want to train, now it's on to armor.

Armor comes in a few different flavors. Light armor, chain armor, brigandine armor and plate armor. As was mentioned above, most Warmages now choose chain armor or light armor. As an armor tertiary guild (we learn and benefit from armor the least) it's difficult to mix armors without a large penalty. That being said, leather torso protection with chain gloves and helmet is not rare. This allows you to learn two skills at once.

In order to buy new or more armor you can use 'dir armory' (it's right next door to the weaponsmith). While you're in the armory, you need a shield.

A shield is not required to reach 5th circle. However you will be hugely ineffective if you don't train it.

A target shield from the armory is a great option. They can be used while worn (freeing up your hands) and are cheap.

In order to wear the shield properly it needs to be adjusted. Use 'adjust shield' and then 'wear shield'

That takes care of armor and weapon skills.

LORE

Next is your lore skills you need 3 total to advance in the guild.

Scholarship is the first of these and is required. This can be trained at first by listening to classes, and later on by studying compendiums of varying difficulties.

Your other two lores will depend on your play style. Tactics is learned in combat and is very easy to train with brawling. I highly recommend choosing tactics as one of your lore skills. In order to learn tactics simply 'analyze' while facing something in combat. You will find a weakness in the enemies defenses that you can exploit but using a combination of attacks. The attacks must connect and must do a little bit of damage in order to be counted towards the analyze goal.

>analyze You reveal a moderate weakness in a hulking Xala'shar conjurer's defense. Armor reduction can be inflicted upon the enemy by landing a draw and a feint. Roundtime: 1 sec.

I would draw and then feint in order to learn tactics. A slower way of learning tactics is to use the commands 'circle, bob or weave'. It's slow but it's really easy to script compared to analyzing.

Your last lore is up to you. Mechanical lore is going to be undergoing changes in the future. But the skills you gain in mechanical lore can be put towards any crafting skill you want later on. You can train mechanical lore by braiding grass.

Simply 'forage grass' and then 'braid my grass' Periodically it will say you need more material to continue, just forage more grass and keep braiding.

SURVIVAL

On to survivals. You need 4 survivals. One of these will probably be outdoorsmanship. Outdoorsmanship is trained by foraging items. Once you reach 9 - 10 ranks of outdoorsmanship you can begin 'collect rocks' this collects a pile of rocks that you can disperse with 'kick pile' or 'kick rock'.


ALWAYS KICK YOUR PILES. It's considered rude to leave piles unkicked and eventually the room will become too cluttered to forage in anyway.

While doing this you'll also be training perception. That's two down. Evasion will be one, can't be in combat without learning it and athletics should be fourth. You can find a few scripts on this website to help with athletics training.

You just copy/paste into the script window and away you go.

You're going to want to train more survivals than that but those are the four easiest and necessary.

Alright...we know what we want to train. Lets start some combat.

Combat

There are several things you'll want to do before you jump into rats or louts. Right now your stance is all messed up.

Use 'stance' to see.

You are currently using 100% of your evasion skill.

You are currently using 0% of your shield block skill.

You are currently using 80% of your weapon parry skill.

You are attacking with 100% of your offensive skill.

Parry is a required skill, shield is so highly needed that it might as well be. Right now you're using 0% of your shield skill. It will not be trained because you're not using it.

At your current level you can only use 180% and never more than 100% in a single skill. So you have to prioritize.

Evasion is tertiary for us...and trains the whole time you're at melee in combat. It's also the strongest of the three defenses. Better to block than get hit, better to avoid than block.

For a Warmage your stance should look something like this:


You are currently using 80% of your evasion skill.
You are currently using 40% of your shield block skill.
You are currently using 60% of your weapon parry skill.
You are attacking with 100% of your offensive skill.


It's generally better to train parry or shield at once, but this is an easy way to set it and forget about it if you don't want to worry about stance changing.

You change this by using 'stance evasion 80' 'stance parry 60' 'stance shield 40' or using 'stance 80 60 40 100' (stance evasion parry shield attack)

Some important things to remember: If you're stanced to parry at all...you can't parry if you don't have a weapon in your hand unless you're wearing a parry stick. Parry sticks work like worn shields. They allow you to parry attacks while still keeping your hands free. These are relatively cheap and can be purchased at the weaponsmith, use 'DIR weaponsmith' to get there.

Some tips and tricks on stances:

You can save custom stances and revert to them by using 'stance shield' 'stance parry' and so on. Use 'stance help' for a complete list of options.

We have our parry stick, we're stanced the right way. Lets go kill something.

Use 'dir shipyard'.

Once you've reached the shipyard find a room that is unoccupied or find a friendly person to hunt with. Rats will spawn periodically and give you some much needed combat experience.

Depending on the weapons you've chosen, you'll most likely have to be at melee range to hit the critters. When you see a rat you can attack from range or get up close and personal. 'Advance rat' to get in close. Even if you don't do this, the rat likely will.

So, weapons and their combinations are fairly straight forward. If you have a sword it's a slicing weapon for the most part. That means you can use 'feint' to build balance and 'slice' to hit hard. Incredibly balanced is a great time to use 'slice'. If you're using a spear, you can use 'jab' to build balance and 'thrust' to hit hard. You'll figure out your own combinations and preferences for for now, those will work.

Next is your targeted magic. This is the meat and potatoes of being a Warmage. I will assume you got fire shards and use it as the example.

'target fs'

This will begin targeting either what you're facing or if that's dead, it will target the next creature. You will see a bunch of blue blocks in the typing area of your interface. That's counting down the time it takes to properly target the spell.

Once the spell is targeted completely you can 'cast' it. If the pesky rat is still alive, keep at it.

Some of the things you can do while your spell is targeting include 'hide' 'hunt' attack with your weapons, 'perc'. Experiment with what you want to train and you can make a lot of use of this in-between time.

So you killed your first rat. You're going to need money. One way to do this is to learn skinning. You need an edged weapon in your hand (or worn preferably) to 'skin'. Rats are easy to skin though so you may also want to 'arrange' first. This will make the rat harder to skin (making it train more) while also making the skin you get from it more valuable .

Once you have your skin, put it in your backpack...or if someone tipped you off, bundle it with a rope you got from the tannery for free. Simply 'dir tannery' and then 'ask falken for rope'

Once the item is bundled with the rope you can wear the bundle and any future success in skinning will automatically be bundled with it provided there is room.

This can be a little dangerous for new players as bundles tend to get heavy but using 'info' to keep an eye on your encumbrance just takes a little practice.

Now. We're all locked up or we're pooped from hunting. There are some things you want to take note of. Did your fatigue get below 50%? Were you encumbered when you started hunting? Are you annoyed with how hard it is to hide on things?

TDPS

Generally speaking, strength and stamina are your top priorities for your first five circles. Depending on what race you chose this might be easier or harder on you. Never choose a race based on the difficulty or ease of stat building. Every race requires the same amount of TDP's to get all 100's. Pick a race that you WANT to roleplay.

Your short term TDP goals are to get everything except charisma to 15. By 5th circle you want to be moving towards getting everything but charisma to 20. Charisma becomes more valuable later but for right now, ignore it.

Look up the various stats (do not trust what the in game tooltips say about them, look them up on elanthipedia) and see what caters to your needs.

Discipline is a big part of Warmage stats but if you can't swing your weapons fast enough or they're wearing you out, stamina and strength become very important as well.

Remember...all your TDP choices at the beginning of your career might seem to be big decisions but they quickly become less and less of a big deal as you figure out what you need and you gain circles.

Spell Choices Early on

These depend on the original spell you chose. Keep in mind these are suggestions.

Some suggestions:

Fire Book: (EXTREMELY RECOMMENDED, SERIOUSLY JUST DO FIRE BOOK)

Fire Shards (FS) 1st Circle
Ethereal Shield (ES) 2nd Circle (Warding)
Ignite 4th Circle (Utility)
Substratum 5th Circle (Augmentation)
Mark of Arhat (MOA) 6th Circle (Debilitation)

Air Book:

Air Lash (ALA) 1st Circle
Ethereal Shield (ES) 2nd Circle (Warding)
Tailwind (TW) 3rd Circle (Augmentation)
Zephyr 4th Circle (Utility)

Water Book:

Geyser 1st Circle
Ethereal Shield (ES) 2nd Circle (Warding)
Ice Patch (IP) 4th Circle (Debilitation)

Earth Book: (Recommend against using)

Stone Strike (STS) 1st Circle
Anther's Call (Anther) 2nd Circle (Debilitation)
Sure Footing (SUF) 5th Circle (Augmentation)

Electricity Book: (Recommend against using)

The electricity book is mostly targeted magic, offering little variety. You will need to diversify with another spell book to cover all the magic skills.

At no time should you get a second 1st tier spell. That means don't get FS with GZ, ALA, Geyser etc. Pick one book and stick with it. The exception to this being Ethereal Shield (ES) and Substratum as they are independently needed and useful.

At 8th circle you will get a free spell called Elementalism that will remove the requirement for the other books. So instead of needing Air Lash to get Tailwind, you can just get Tailwind because you have Fire Shards and Elementalism.

You don't want to waste a spell slot because you became too impatient to wait for the other books to open up.

Your first Pathway

The first pathway every Warmage gets is Pathway Damage, it has a fire alignment and we quest for it at 4th circle. This pathway makes summoning training much easier. You can train it in combat even.

In order to get the quest from Gauthus just 'ask gauth for quest'. He'll give you a task to complete, likely for a frog skin. You can recruit an elder mage to help you or check the quest notes on Elanthipedia to figure out how to proceed.

Once the quest is completed you'll be able to use your first pathway. In order to use a pathway you have to have a small amount of charge. Again, this can be gained by either using 'summon admittance' or casting spells from the book you're aligned to.

Now, you see where the fireshards come in? If you're casting fire shards over and over, you're gaining elemental charge, which means while you're in combat you can gain enough charge to start and maintain the pathway damage.

Use 'path focus damage' to begin a pathway. You can train summoning now in combat. In the targeting script above add: 

put path foc damage

just above the 

put target fs
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