Mage Guild Guide

 

Guild Location:

• Continent: Laenor
• World Location: Arelium City (The Main Batmud City)
• The main guild is the large circular building in the northwest of Arelium
• Go up the tower and to the north to join and train the base guild
• This will allow you to advance and train the first 10 levels of the guild.
• There are sub-guilds scattered around batmud to train specific elemental damage types and defensive spells.

Guild Map:

Guild Requirements:

• Magical Background

My Overview of the Guild:

The Mage guild (Official name: Brotherhood of Sorcery) is the main blasting guild of Batmud. Containing some of the biggest damage spells as well as a number of strong defensive enchantments, this is a popular guild for magical background characters. The guild itself consists of a core 10 level base guild (Mage) that once completed allows joining seven elemental damage sub-guilds (fire, ice, air, electricity, magic, acid, and poison), and one protection focused sub-guild (The Inner Circle). The protection sub-guild can't be joined until you've maxed out a magical damage guild though, (either an elemental damage sub-guild, or one of the other major magical background guilds).

The biggest downside of the Mage guild is its unforgiving nature for new players. This goes beyond the inherent challenges of playing a low hit-point magical background character. The first 10 levels of the Mage guild can be rough as you can only train basic damage spells. As a player advances in levels and starts to join Mage sub-guilds their problems shift. The sub-guilds require significant more experience for spells and skills than other backgrounds/guilds, and this is compounded by most players training up at least two elemental spell types alongside putting levels in the defensive sub-guild. If that wasn't tough enough, the top level damage spells of the Mage guild all require single-use reagents to cast which is a constant drain on a young Mage's bank account.

One way to mitigate many of these problems is to join the Riftwalker guild [guide link] first. No, that won't make the first 10 Mage levels any more meaningful, or reduce the cost of your major blasting spells, but it gives you a solid base for damage spells, a number of support abilities, and a nice big rift entity to tank for you when you are soloing. Basically the Riftwalker guild will help carry you over the hump until the strengths of the Mage guild start to shine. If this is all sounding intimidating, another approach is to join the Channellers guild instead [bat.org link]. That's another popular option and tends to be more engaging to new players.

So, if it's so difficult, why join the Mage guild? Mages have some of the consistently hardest hitting damage spells. Their ability to study multiple spell types also gives them significant flexibility when encountering end-boss monsters with high resistances. It's a rough road to travel, but the rewards are significant if you tough it out. Mages also get a number of other bonuses and fun guild events such as Mage specific quests and the ability to craft and improve your own magic staff/wand. Being able to one-shot many monsters and have a rift entity tank for you also make Mages one of the best solo classes as well for high level players. In parties their strong defensive spells and backrow status also helps their survivability, while their insane damage output keeps them in high demand.

Pros:

• Top tier damage spells with reasonable mana costs
• Evil priests can do more damage, but not as consistently and their top tier spell is really only effective for the first hit.
• If you are looking for sustained DPS, mages are hard to beat
• Mages also have some of the best area effect spells which are great for clearing out a room.
• Top tier defensive spells
• Every high level EQ party tends to have at least one mage
• Multiple damage types to get around monster resistances
• Yes it is costly to train multiple damage types, but this gives Mage players a lot of flexibility to tailor their attacks to a specific target
• Mages can train teleport spells and the Identify spell
• These are great quality of life improvements.
• While the Riftwalker guild can train teleport with error, being able to train "safer" teleport spells makes a huge difference for Mages who didn't pick the duck race (and can fly down from accidental teleports).
• It's amazing how much better the Identify spell made my life. I was always wondering what different pieces of equipment did, and the Identify spell helps with that.

Cons:

• Top level spells require single-use reagents
• This is a constant expense you'll need to support.
• Also reagents in general are a pain since you'll need to carry them around and remember to buy more of them. Yes you can get specialty reagent pouches, but that's an additional expense for the guild
• You're going to need to dump a lot of experience into this guild
• Most guilds only need to train one set of mastery skills. Mages need to train one for each sub-guild they join.
• I've also been told that each elemental guild costs 33% more than the previous one. So the experience costs only go up.

Disclaimer:

• Advisory: This is a work of progress as I'm just getting started in this guild. I'll update this guide as I learn more
• I'm only level 4 in my first elemental damage sub-guild I really don't know what I'm talking about. But I have read a number of other guides and have heard many other people talk about this guild.
• Basically like all my guides, this is going to start out based mostly on rumor and hearsay, but since I'm writing this as I'm playing it will hopefully improve over time.

Guild Help

• Batwiki's Guide to Mages: [Link]
• Provides a high level overview of the guide
• Batwiki's Info on Mage Staffs: [Link]
• Highlights how your Mage staff improves over thousands of spell casts
• Batwiki's Article on Mage Gems: [Link]
• Megami's Mage Guild: [Link]
• Has more details about the guild and creating Mage staffs

Mage Quick Start Guide:

1. (Strongly Suggested): Max out the Riftwalkers guild first
• If you are an experienced player, feel free to ignore this advice, but you also probably don't need to be reading a quick-start guide! For everyone else, the Riftwalker guide is only 15 levels and provides an entity to tank for you and a good set of basic damage spells.
• You also get some support skills like Quick Chant trainable to a higher level than what you would get from the base Mage guild
• Most of the advice in this guide is going to assume you have already completed the Riftwalker guild.
2. Join the starting Mage guild in Arelium
• It is north-east of the Church of All Gods
• Go up two levels of the Mage tower and then go to the north to the guild's training room
3. Advance through the first four levels of the guild as quickly as you can
• Don't worry about training skills/spells too much here.
• The spells for these levels aren't that great and you want to make it to the 4th level so you can start to make your Mage staff.
4. Complete the "Newbie Staff" Mage guild quest.
• It's super easy, and once you complete it you'll get a free +3 int mage staff.
• A walkthrough for this quest can be found in the quests section below.
• You can do this quest immediately after joining the guild if you want.
5. Once you are at level 4, train "create staff" to 40% and craft your first personal Mage staff
• To create your staff, you need to have an existing wand or staff and use the skill on it. Your new Mage staff will have the stat bonuses of the initial gear but otherwise be a new piece of equipment
• You can always change out your staff with a better one later, so feel free to start off using the Newbie staff you obtained from the Mage quest.
6. Advance to level 10 as quickly as possible
• While there certainly are things you can spend experience on in the first 10 levels, what you really want to do is get access to your first sub-guild and the higher tier damage spells it provides.
7. Complete the newbie pouch Mage quest, (or just spend 60k gold for a bigger Mage pouch) to have something to store all your spell reagents.
8. Pick your first elemental damage sub-guild to join
• Elemental damage sub-guild benefits:
• Each sub guild allows studying some of the best single target and area damage nukes in the game. The elemental damages also have some unique bonuses they can provide, such as shocking or freezing enemies.
• Each sub guild also has a protection spell for that elemental type.
• Fire and cold are two of the most common monster damage types
• Finally each sub-guild has one unique spell that can help out in random situations
• For example, the acid sub-guild has a spell to open (dissolve) locks.
• The two most recommended/common elemental damage sub-guild to start are Magic and Acid
• Both magic and acid have good starting spells from your magical background which gives a bit of jump-start when training them up
• Also "most" creatures you'll be fighting tend to be vulnerable to magic and acid
• I'd recommend avoiding cold or poison as your starting sub-guild
• Both these damage types are of limited effectiveness against undead monsters
• Poison in particular is usually resisted at 100% by undead monsters
• You will already have cold damage spells thanks to your time in the Riftwalker guild.
9. Congratulations! You now can pick your own path for how to continue on in the guild!

Elemental Damage Sub-Guild:

There are six different sub-guilds that each focus on one damage type. These guilds exist all over the outerworld and while you can travel to them directly, you can also portal to them from the Mage guild. To do that go to the portal room (1 South and 1 East from the main Mage guild training room) and ask the mage about the elemental type you'd like to portal to. Aka "ask mage about acid". The mage will then open up a portal to the sub-guild for you. When you leave the elemental guild you'll end back up in the Mage tower. So no using these portals to hop around the outerworld unfortunately.

Inner Circle Sub-Guild:

This is the primary protection focused sub-guild for Mages. It also has a number of other nifty Mage spells such as Zapping (spell charges in wands), and Identify. To join it you need to max out one other Mage elemental damage sub-guild or the Conjurer or the Psionicist guild.

• Entering the Guild:
• The sub-guild is located in distant island off the continent of Desolathya. Basically go to the NW of the continent and then start going west across the sea. It's about as far from the ferry location as you can get.
• The entrance to the guild is blocked with a password. To enter "state Mellon" which is friend in Elvish. This is a Lord of the Rings reference
• You can also be teleported to the Inner Circle guild if you have a free level by going to the room with BayPrixces Condito in the Mage guild and typing "enter portal"

Mage Staff:

• You need to wear your staff. DO NOT wield it
• This was something very counterintuitive to me, and it took a while for me to figure what was going wrong.
• When you successfully wear the staff you'll get a special status message.
• You can have multiple staffs if you want, but I'd recommend starting out with just one that provides +INT that you will use in combat.
• When you want to upgrade your staff with a better piece of equipment, make sure you use the upgrade syntax:
• use create staff at [CURRENT_STAFF] from [NEW_PIECE_OF_EQUIPMENT]
• The Mage staff is required to cast Prismatic Burst
• This isn't that important when you start out, but becomes more important after you max out two or more elemental sub-guilds.
• More importantly, your Mage staff will improve over time as you cast more mage spells.
• The biggest plus is your staff will get lighter. This is a big deal since Mages usually can't carry much, and you'll ideally have two sets of equipment. One set with +INT and another focused on +SPR. So a lighter staff means you have more room for carrying other stuff.
• You mage staff will also get certain bonuses as it levels up.

Mage Quests:

There are a number of quests to help you get started in the Mage guild. You can obtain quests from the Southwestern hall of the Mage Guild library.

• Newbie staff:
• Difficulty/Time: Easy, no combat, and only took me 10 minutes or so to complete
• Reward: +3 Int staff. Probably the best item you can get to make your mage staff out of without spending 500k gold.
• Walkthrough:
• Upon taking the quest you will be handed a map. "read map" to reveal a location on Laenor where you need to search to obtain a gem.
• I would strongly recommend copying a "unique looking" string from the map, and then doing a search on Pupunen BatMUD Maps website for the outerworld location. [Link]
• Travel to the location (there hopefully is a navigator tree location nearby), and go to the location that is marked as a "*" on the map. Then type "search". You should find a gem.
• Bring the gem back to the Mage guild and give it to the Mage BayPrixces.
• Text from completing the quest:
• You give a glimmering black gem to Bayprixces.
• Oh, thanks for helping me. Now let me give you a small reward.
• BayPrixces Condito gives you a wooden staff.
• Congratulations!              
• You finished the quest: Newbie staff.
• Newbie pouch:
• Difficulty/Time: Easy, no combat, and takes around 10 minutes or so to complete
• Reward: A small pouch for storing spell reagents. If you have the money it's worth spending 60k gold at the Mage store for a bigger pouch, but this one can get you through the early parts of being a mage.
• Walkthrough:
• Once you start the quest you will be given a paper with some instructions.
• You need to collect the following items:
• Needle: You can buy this in the Adventurer's outfitter store (West of Arelium by all the other armour stores) for 24 gold
• Piece of cloth and a piece of leather
• Go to the material exchange in Arelium (Near the Adventurer's outfitter)
• Find out if cloth/leather are for sail by "list leather" and "list cloth"
• Buy one cloth and lether with the following command (get the cheapest option):
• buy any 1 divine refined cloth for 1800
• Buckle: This gets a bit complicated, but go to the mage shop and "ask wootie about buckle"
• He will automatically charge you and then give you a buckle. Doesn't even ask. I didn't catch the price but I think it was around 500 gold.
• *IMPORTANT* Cast identify on the buckle. It will show that Wootie tried to cheat you and gave you the wrong buckle
• Give the buckle back to Wootie, they will give you a new buckle.
• I'd cast identify on the new buckle just to be sure, but for me the second one was the correct one.
• Now with all the items go to the staff gem crafting workshop room (to the south in the tower), and "ask ebas about newbie pouch"
• It'll take around 30 seconds but ebas will create you a pouch.
• Finally, take everything down to BayPrixces and "ask BayPrixces about enchant"
• He'll enchant your pouch and complete the quest
• Text from completing the quest:
• BayPrixces Condito exclaims 'Oh, yes!' 
• BayPrixces takes the pouch and the buckle from you.
• BayPrixces rises his staff high in the air.
• ... Air crackles around the staff and the pouch in his other hand starts glowing
• with dull red light. 
• Congratulations!              
• You finished the quest: Newbie pouch.

Spell and Skill Overview:

Note: I'll be lumping some skills/spells together to make things a bit more readable

Offensive Spells:

• (Spell) Prismatic Burst
• Description: A damage over time spell that takes a long time to cast (7 rounds!) and can only be successfully cast one time per target. You must be holding your Mage staff for it to successfully be cast. Does not seem to do any damage when you first cast it, but can "tick" damage over the next four rounds. This will do more damage the more Mage elemental sub-guilds you are a member of. I've been told it roughly breaks even with your top elemental damage spell when you have two sub-guilds maxed, and after that it starts to become more useful.
• More details:
• The periodic damage tick message I get with no elemental sub-guilds trained is "A shimmering white beam of magic hits Bloody soldier."
• With no elemental sub-guilds trained, the damage tick seems to do the same as a magic missile cast (maybe a bit less)
• This spell does not appear to tick every round for me. I've yet to see it tick more than twice.
• Training Priority: (Skip, though you are probably going to train it anyways because you're curious)
• Once you get three elemental sub-guilds maxed I can see this spell getting good, but before that you are pretty much better off casting other spells.
• Still, this is the capstone spell of the Mage guild, so it seems weird not to study it.
• One advantage it has over your main blasting spells is that it doesn't take any reagents to cast which is nice.
• (Spell) Basic 1 round single-target damage spells
• Spells by Elemental Type:
• Acid: Disruption
• Asphyxiation: Vacumbolt
• Cold: Chill Touch
• Electricity: Shocking Grasp
• Fire: Flame Arrow
• Magical: Magic Missile
• Poison: Thorn Spray
• Description: These are the most basic damage spells available to a Mage. They do the equivalent of a "kick" from a melee guild. Generally you'll want to be casting more advanced spells, but this is all you'll have available to study in the first 10 levels of the Mage guild. After that, these spells still have some use for certain circumstances, but you'll find yourself casting them less and less.
• Training Priority: (Pick one. High to 60%. Low to racial max)
• You need to train the basic elemental spell to 60% to join the corresponding damage sub-guild. So this is a top priority item to train
• These 1 round damage spells are useful on their own. You can kill small monsters with them or use them to finish off the last 5% of a monster's health very quickly. Also in extreme cases you can use these to pop into a room, fire them off, and then run away when whittling down a dangerous monster.
• For my duck (with 1 boon to increase spell max), it took 500k EXP to max out studying one of these spells to 100%.
• (Spell) Basic 2 round single-target damage spells
• Spells by Elemental Type:
• Acid: Acid Wind
• Asphyxiation: Suffocation
• Cold: Flaming Ice
• Electricity: Lightning bolt
• Fire: Firebolt
• Magical: Summon lesser spores
• Poison: Poison blast
• Description: These are your standard, I need to finish a monster off spell. They can benefit a bit from quick chant so they often take the same amount of time to cast as the 1-round spells but they do a lot more damage.
• Training Priority: (Pick one. High to 52%. Low to racial max)
• You need to train these spells to 52% to advance in the guild, so that is a basic requirement
• Beyond that, these spells are nice so training them higher can be good, but you'll be wanting to cast you higher damage spells more. So long story short, don't go crazy spending EXP on these spells until you have a lot of extra EXP to spend.
• (Spell) Basic 3 round single-target damage spells (Mana Efficient Version)
• Spells by Elemental Type:
• Acid: Acid Arrow
• Asphyxiation: Chaos Bolt
• Cold: Darkfire
• Electricity: Blast Lightning
• Fire: Fireblast
• Magical: Levin Bolt
• Poison: Venom Strike
• Description: The Mage elemental sub-guilds have two 3-round attack spells. The first ones you can learn are the mana efficient versions that cost half as much mana as the more advanced 3-round spells.
• Training Priority: (Pick one. High to 49%. Very low afterward)
• These are mostly bridge spells to use as you are leveling up and haven't been able to train the more advanced version.
• You need to study these spells to 49% in the guild, but after that don't put EXP in them unless you know you won't be advancing your levels for a while (for example are doing level quests).
• Basically once you can cast the higher damage spells reliably, the mana savings generally isn't worth it to cast this weaker version. Save your EXP and don't put it into these spells.
• (Spell) Advanced 3 round single-target damage spells (High Damage Version)
• Spells by Elemental Type:
• Acid: Acid Ray
• Asphyxiation: Strangulation
• Cold: Icebolt
• Electricity: Forked Lightning
• Fire: Meteor Blast
• Magical: Summon Greater Spores
• Poison: Power Blast
• Description: If you don't want to use a reagent, these are the highest damages single target spells available in the Mage elemental sub-guilds. They require about twice as many spell points to cast as the mana efficient versions,  but do a lot more damage
• Training Priority: (Pick one. High to 39%. Medium to High afterwards)
• The training priority really depends on how much money you want to spend on reagents. If you have the cast, these spells can largely be skipped (expect for the 39% you need studied to advance in the guild). If you don't want to spend money on reagents these will be your main go-to spells.
• That being said, there are a lot of additional benefits of casting the next tier of reagent requiring spells besides the additional damage. The more advanced spells increase you mage standing (and your Mage staff progression) faster. Also if you are using exceptional quality reagents they can be more mana efficient for killing monsters.
• (Spell) Top-Tier 4 single-target round damage spells (Reagent Required)
• Spells by Elemental Type:
• Acid: Acid Blast
• Asphyxiation: Blast Vacuum
• Cold: Cold Ray
• Electricity: Electrocution
• Fire: Lava Blast
• Magical: Golden arrow
• Poison: Summon Carnal Spores
• Description: These are the top tier Mage guild spells to cast. If you want something dead and you want it dead quickly these are the spells to cast. They do require reagents to cast, so that can be tricky for new players, but the damage is worth it. Casting these spells is also the fastest way to rank up you Mage guild reputation, and improve your Mage staff.
• Training Priority: (Pick one. High to racial max)
• These spells are the reason why you joined the Mage guild. You are going to want to train them as high as you can.

Elemental Sub-Guild Specific Spells:

Acid Guild:

• (Spell) Lock Biter
• Description: A non-offensive spell that will open certain locks. This does NOT seem to open locked chests dropped by monsters.
• Details/Notes:
• I've been told that the % you have this trained determines what locks it works on.
• Your INT statistics, and associated other Acid spell improving skills also play a role in the effectiveness of this spell.
• I've been told that in most cases you need to have this spell at 100% and/or use ceremony before casting it for it to have any chance of working.
• List of Locks it Works with:
• None that I've found so far
• Failure Messages: These imply that you can not use this spell on the lock
• The acid runs harmlessly out of the lock.

Notable Skills:

• (Skill) Analysis of Magic Lore:
• Description: When you cast an attack spell, you will sometimes get a specific message saying how vulnerable the monster was to the elemental type of the spell. This is more effective when cast with higher damage spells (to prevent players from spamming magic missile to get it to activate).
• Damage Messages (Thanks to the Megami Guide):
• Monstername screams in pain. –> About 0% resistant.
• Monstername writhes in agony. –> About 20% resistant.
• Monstername shudders from the force of the attack. –> About 40% resistant.
• Monstername grunts from the pain. –> About 60% resistant.
• Monstername winces a little from the pain. –> About 80% resistant.
• Monstername shrugs off the attack –> About 100% resistant.
• Training Priority: (As a newbie, you can skip it, but after joining your second elemental guild, train it as high as possible)
• To put it bluntly, it doesn't matter knowing a monster is resistant to your damage if you don't have a lot of other options. It's better to focus on advancing your other skills/spells and levels first before putting EXP into this skill
• As you advance and have more damage options though, this skill becomes critical to know what spells to cast.
• Notes:
• This is a passive skill. It'll always be active.
• I'd recommend making a trigger in your Mud client to highlight the messages when they occur so you know when a monster is resistant to your spells.
• (Skill) Attack and Short Blades:
• Description: Key skills for doing melee damage. You are a mage. If you are doing melee damage something went horribly wrong
• Training Priority: Skip
• I'm a hypocrite here. I always max these out. They don't cost a lot of EXP since you can't train them up very high and it makes me feel more secure.
• But really, if you are min/maxing your character and trying to level up as quickly as possible, skip these skills. You probably don't even have a short blade equipped since you'll have you Mage staff.
• (Skill) Cast Acid/Asphyxiation/Cold/Electricity/Fire/Magical/Poison
• Description: These skills dramatically help you cast spells of their respective type.
• Training Priority: (Pick one. High to 60%. Medium to Racial Max)
• You need to train one of these to 60% to join the respective elemental damage sub-guild
• Besides that, these will help your main damage spells be more reliable and do more damage. So these are core skills you need to train for being a Mage.
• (Skill) Cast Control/Heal/Information/Teleportation
• Description: These skills dramatically help you cast spells of their respective type.
• Training Priority: (Medium to 50%. Feel free to dump extra EXP in them afterwards or skip)
• Being able to reliably cast these spells can be a nice quality of life improvement, but none of them should really make or break an encounter with a monster.
• Basically investing a 100k EXP in each of these skills can be nice, but you don't need to go crazy pumping these skills up.
• (Skill) Cast Protection
• Description: Helps you cast protection spells, and it may make those protection spells more effective
• Training Priority: (High to 50%. Medium to racial max)
• After spending 100k  to 200k on this skill you should switch and focus on advancing damage spells and your levels. But eventually you'll want to come back and max out this skill as protection spells are so important.
• (Skill) Ceremony:
• Description: Increases the success chance of your next spell
• Training Priority: (Low, but useful to dump extra EXP into)
• Mages don't have many (or any) spells where the cast time is long and the impact of fumbles is dire. Therefore I only use this skill when I'm bored and have some downtime.
• Other guilds do get a lot of use out of this skill though. So as your character advances in levels and branches out it will become useful then. So experience training this skill is not wasted.
• Notes:
• This might make your protection spells last longer and be more effective. So if you use this skill, those are the spells you probably want to buff.
• (Skill) Create Staff:
• Description: Allows you to create your mage staff or upgrade it with a different piece of equipment (Staff or Wand)
• Training Priority: (High to 40%. Hold off training it more until you get a really expensive item to create a staff from)
• You need to be able to use this skill to create your first staff, but after that it may be months before you use it again.
• 40% cost me around 100k EXP. You can totally train it less if you want but that seems like a nice round number for your first couple of staffs.
• I've heard some conflicting reports on if when you fail this skill what happens to the base item you were using. So the general consensus is to train it up high before using it on top tier equipment.
• (Skill) Essence Eye:
• Description: Lets you see how much longer it will be until your spell is cast
• Training Priority: (High to 50%, Low after that)
• This is a huge quality of life skill, and it will integrate into the Batmud client to highlight how long your spells will take to cast.
• The only reason I don't recommend training it higher is that you will get "free" skill-ups of this skill the more you use it. Since this skill is active whenever you are casting a spell, that's most of the time. So you'll get a lot of the high level points in this for free.
• Notes:
• The skill check for this skill determines if the status of your spell updates or not. So if you have it at a low level your Batmud client might not update your spell status. This isn't a bug with the client, but just a reflection of this skill not successfully firing.
• (Skill) Mana Control:
• Description: Refunds some of the mana you would have spent on a spell if you fail at casting it.
• Training Priority: (High to 60%, Low after that)
• You need to train it to 60% to advance through the guild
• It's a good skill to throw extra EXP into when you can't train any of the spells/skills you really want to learn
• It's not that it's a bad skill. You'll certainly get some use out of it. But its a better investment to spend EXP on other skill/spells that reduce the chance of failing your spells.
• You'll also occasionally get some free training percentages of this when the skill activates. So you'll naturally get better at this over time after you train it up enough to advance in the guild.
• (Skill) Quick Chant:
• Description: Lets you cast your spells faster
• Training Priority: (Very High to Racial Max)
• This has a direct impact on how powerful your character is. Faster spells means more spells and less downtime.
• You can only train it to 25% initially, but you can then train it to 80% once you finish one of the elemental sub-guilds.
• Notes:
• Every spell takes at least two rounds to cast (the first round to cast it, and the second round it fires), so longer spells get more benefit from quick chant.
• That is to say that quick chant won't help much for your starting 1 round spells, but it dramatically increases your damage output for your top spells.