Emeraldwind Chronicle - Development of A War Machine! Part 3

Well, I thought I would do a little run down of my character for the last 4 levels, since I've just recently made level 20 and am finally very powerful and very enthusiastic about things to come. For those who haven't read my previous two reports on this template or for those who might have forgotten, I'll give you a brief and basic run-down.

The template is titled "Warring Mana Mage." You spec War Magic and Mana Conversion, but have your choice of training Item, Creature, or the Arcane and Healing combo (this I was just informed about). There are probably other combinations you can do but specing War Magic and Mana Conversion is what makes this template what it is called. It is a template built around the strengths of a highly trained killing machine. It is also a template built to conserve mana for prolonged battles with a single or multiple opponents. The basic set-up is as follows:

Strength - 60
Endurance - 50
Coordination - 10
Quickness - 10
Focus - 100
Self - 100
Spec: War, Mana C.
Train: Item or Creature or Arcane/Healing
Life @ 16, (other skills based off of my choice of Item as a Trained skill), Arcane @ 26, Creature @ 60

My journey to level 20 was rough in the beginning but now is an immense pleasure. I've written my experiences from level 1 to 16 already, so I'm not going to repeat any of that. This report is about moving from level 16 to 20 and what comes next, as well as the quests I've accomplished.

One thing I want to mention is that I sat down and made a brief "outline" of the basic leveling strategies that I've had or will have until level 26. After level 26, I will probably maintain the same exercise but I won't document in an outlined format as I have done, and as you will soon see. Below is the chart of my strategy:

Levels 1 to 6: Concentration Trial - work on Focus and Self only; Raise them to predefined values (120 was mine)
Levels 6 to 10: Strength and Speed Trial - work on Strength, Quickness, and Run
Levels 10 to 14: Magical Studies - work on War Magic, Mana Conversion, and your other magic school or abilities
Levels 14 to 16: Recuperation - save points to dump into Life magic at level 16
Levels 16: First Maturity Phase - acquire Life magic and dump all of your saved points into it
Levels 16 to 18: Endurance Trial - raise your Endurance and Stamina so that Stamina is 133 or higher (I rose mine to 153)
Levels 18 to 20: Concentration Trial - raise Focus and Self to predefined values (mine were 160, but neither stat made it, both were 1 point below my goal, so I rose them a single point at level 21)
Levels 20 to 22: Magical Studies - raise Mana Conversion, War Magic, and Item Magic
Levels 22 to 24: Blazing Cycle - raise any stats you wish to make your character well rounded (myself, this will involve Quickness and Run to get away faster and Item Magic for summoning and Level 5 buffs)
Levels 24 to 26: Recuperation Period - save all points for these levels to pour into Arcane Lore (this is my personal stage since I chose Item magic as my trained skill and I'm waiting to get Creature at level 60)
Level 26: Second Maturity Phase - acquire Arcane Lore and pour all saved points into it

As you can see, there's quite a number of stages to the development of this mage and I try my hardest to play them by hand. The reason is because I see this template growing in power and never truly stopping, as long as you follow a slightly rigorous formula. For that reason, I was hunting in the Dires at level 14 and haven't looked back yet. This is the plan that I will follow, since it has done me well ever since I implemented it (when I started my character) and has yet to fail me.

Building from level 16 to 18 was hard work. I didn't have a lot of Stamina to draw from until I was finished. I rose my Endurance to 100, which helped also raise my health, allowing me to take more punishment than I could previously. Coupled with a Baron's Amulet of Life Giving, you become an unstoppable (all right, you can still be killed) killing machine. I was alternating working on my Stamina and working on my Endurance, making sure I rose the one that cost the least. My stamina ended up being 153 and I was really happy with the results. Two Stamina to Mana 3s and a Stamina to Mana will either fill up my Mana bar (if Mana Conversion is being really generous) or come to 80%. That's nothing to sneeze at.

I also went on a couple quests while I was at it. One of the major reasons I rolled this character was so that I could do all of the quests I couldn't previously do. I went to get an Explorer Wand of Frost. It gives you War Mastery II and Mana Conversion Mastery II, lasts more than 6 hours in your hand if the mana was at full, and is simply a marvelous little item. I don't see how anyone lives without one.

Another quest I went on was Fenmalain. Now that was a complete riot, as well as a test of my abilities in a dungeon environment. I learned that Zombies like to resist, even if you have higher magic than their magic defense can resist. They just innately do. And liches, somehow, don't resist at all. At least this was my experience in the first half of the quest. My friend (another mage, Mana spec'd, all trained) and I rushed through the quest as fast as we could... but she didn't exactly make it through.. I got my gem, though, and had some high level friends waiting in the second part of the dungeon for me, so I recalled. I'm going to get a key to help my mage friend back through the dungeon to get her orb. She deserves it more than anybody I know. On the second part of the dungeon, my friends killed all the shadows while I just stood around and watched. They did the same to the Fenmalain Crystal and satellites, then let me grab the gem inside. I had Kigaru (my melee) portal me to Uziz and I was set. Got my orb, inscribed it, dedicating it to those who lost their lives (Encanta, my mage friend) or who used one of their gems (Rosa and Bull'z Eye) to help me. Thanks guys!

The last quest I went on was Impious. Actually, I only did the Colier and Mite Maze parts, because I already had teh broken staff on a mule. Mite Maze is consistently confusing... it's the only dungeon I've been in that I haven't memorized. (Actually, it's been a long while since I've been in Incubuala Vault... I don't exactly remember the way through there either) So after dying to the tusker downstairs (I was trapped between a load of mites), I eventually found my way to the places I needed to go and got my Impious Staff made and inscribed it like I do all my quest items with this character. Unlike Kigaru, who's quest items all have something funny related to the fact that she dies about 10 times each hour (no joke... that's the reason I got GSC... so I didn't have to lose that MUCH armor anymore), Emeraldwind's all have something profound or a thank you note on them.

So the template is very powerful and really paying off. Even though I die sometimes (who doesn't) they're usually lag deaths (I've had about 20 of those so far) or simply because my protection buffs died out and I got it in the back by a heavy weight champ (tusker boy). As of level 20, my stats look like the following (I'll start taking pictures of this stuff sometime soon):

Strength - 80
Endurance - 100
Coordination - 10
Quickness - 35
Focus - 159
Self - 160
Health - 72
Stamina - 153
Mana - 184
War Magic - 155
Mana Conversion - 124
Item Magic - 119
Life Magic - 152
Run - 60

As you can see, this template progresses very quickly into a fighting machine. At level 20, I'm now having no trouble whatsoever destroying Raveners and working on lower level golems. With my Explorer wands, I can even play with higher game at times, and I do (another reason I earn some deaths... testing my limits is fun!).

My hunting locations have started to progress much further from Teth. I've been scouting around much more, finding near consistent spawns of drudges. Even though I can hunt some of the bigger game now, the drudges are still the best XP per minute ratio that I see going for me. Every pack yields anywhere from 15k to 25k worth of experience that is easily made without so much as a sweat. Until I hit the Obsidian Plains, there won't be any other monsters (besides maybe Enforcers and Thrashers) that I can fight and get a ratio that decent. The tuskers won't work simply because of the virindi around them and also that you have to have working level 5 buffs to at least take them on in some capacity. So, for now, until about level 26 or 27, when I venture away from Tethana (I plan to go to Ayan around that time) I'll be hunting drudges and lower leveled golems. I'll eventually test my skills on the Obsidians. When I'm able to nuke them efficiently (I think that's a generally good test marker) I'll move on. That should come relatively soon, to be quite honest, as I don't think they that high magic defense (I'll check the Magic Resistance charts floating around CoD and other places to be sure). That will give me a good general gauage at how I'm doing.

I think my next update won't come until I hit level 26. There's not much else to say for the next 6 levels until I get the famed Arcane Lore that will help me until Creature Magic becomes a reality. Until then, happy hunting and happy trails.

~.~EmeraldWind~.~

Warring Mana Mage of LeafCull