User:Blargel/Magic Guide: From Newbie to Endgame

Overview

This is a guide for beginners on how to build a magic-centric character from scratch. Please note that magic is one of the most AP-heavy skill sets in Mabinogi. It also costs more gold than the average skill set due to MP potions not being sold by NPC shops and magical weapon repairs being expensive. Expect to spend a lot of time and effort if you're going to attempt to follow this guide from beginning to end. The beginning is actually the roughest part of the road to being a master magician so don't get discouraged at the start. Stick with it and you'll start reaping the rewards.

Character Creation

That's right; we're starting at the character creation screen. Why is that? It's because the race of your character actually matters a lot for being a mage. Let's examine the pros and cons of each race.

Humans are, as one might expected, the most balanced choice. They have access to most heavy armors and Heavy Armor Mastery, making them more durable than elves in combat. They also have access to the Dark Knight transformation which at full power can between 120 to 360 intelligence, 12 to 36% critical rate, and 300 to 500 MP. Unfortunately, they have the slowest movement speed in the game.

Elves are very similar to humans, but they get more intelligence and MP while leveling up, have access to the Hide action, and move the fastest out of the three races. Their transformation is the Falcon, which at full power can add 200 intelligence, 18% critical chance, and 700 MP. On the down side, some magic skills cost more AP to rank up than for humans or giants. They also have very limited access to elf specific heavy armors which are rare and expensive to buy from other players.

Giants are probably the worst class to choose as a mage, but they do have some good points worth considering. First of all, they can equip the Vales Shield, which provides insane defensive ability. Most of the beginner level monsters will be unable to do more than 1 damage with it on. They have the Savage Beast transformation, which at full power can add 200 intelligence, 12% critical rate, and 200 MP. On the down side, the Magic Mastery skill provides a lower MP bonus than it does for elves and humans, and the MP cost of almost every magic skill is increased. This makes it much more likely for giants to run out of MP while using magic. Giants also lack the Rock Throwing and Play Dead action that humans and elves have.

Whatever race you decide to choose, your next major step is to choose a talent. Obviously, you're going to be choosing the magic talent. Not only does this give you double training on the skills you're going to be training, you'll also receive a Beginner Ice Wand, which will be your main weapon for a fairly long time, due to the 1 gold repair cost. As a side note, to make the Beginner Ice Wand last as long as possible, you'll want to keep it blessed with Holy Water of Lymilark and ask Weiss at the Shyllien Nature Reserve to do these repairs as she has the highest success rate.

First Set of Priorities

Your first priority as a beginner magician is to get some decent damage while not raising the MP cost of your spells too high. Your second priority is to increase your max MP to sustain your damage output longer. Switch between the two priorities as you see fit, although I would suggest learning at least rank F Meditation so that you can have increased MP regeneration at all times. The boost from having it and not having it is rather substantial.

For priority number one, Icebolt will get you started nicely. Get it up to rank 6, but not any higher than that for now since the MP cost starts going up at rank 5 and later. After that, you should get Magic Weapon Mastery to rank 1 since it essentially makes all your bolt magic two and a half times stronger. The master title for Magic Weapon Mastery is also a pretty good title to use to boost your Magic Attack even more. There is also Ice Mastery and Bolt Mastery which can also be ranked to rank 1 to increase Icebolt's damage without increasing its MP cost. While training your other skills, your Critical Hit skill should also train naturally. Don't forget to check up on it and rank it up as well from time to time.

For priority number two, you should try to rank Magic Mastery as far as you can without too much effort, which is probably up to rank 5. If you have the patience, you can also try to rank Meditation up further than rank F, but it may be a bit early to try to get past rank D. Incidentally, Ice Mastery will also decrease the MP cost of ice magic, including the already low costing Icebolt.

When fighting with Icebolt, it should be noted that each successive charge will cost less MP. The fifth and final charge at rank 6 will cost something silly like 0.4 MP so you should get in the habit of charging all the way up to the fifth charge, then firing and recharging only the fifth charge. This is a great way to cut your MP consumption and also gives you a buffer of four extra bolts to work with if an emergency in battle comes up.