Best Mage Route to Solo

I want to try mage but not sure if I should go the Sage or Wizard route. As someone with some but still limited funds, which is most likely to solo with all the way to its 4th job?

And I understand if the answer is neither. I do play other classes and totally get some are more expensive than others. I'm just really having a hard time deciding between the two and the game has limited character space.

To try and give you the simplest answer without sounding totally obnoxious pick the class you think resonates best with you. A long time ago when you started the game and finished the "training grounds" you were asked a series of questions by a Kafra this Kafra would decide what class you fit best with depending on your answers. I personally thought this little mechanic in game was so charming but kind of true because you really need to ask yourself "what do I truly want" "How do I see myself playing this class" "What fits best with my style of gaming" do your research, learn and make a choice. Good luck. 

Edited by freddym, Yesterday, 08:41 PM.

To try and give you the simplest answer without sounding totally obnoxious pick the class you think resonates best with you. A long time ago when you started the game and finished the "training grounds" you were asked a series of questions by a Kafra this Kafra would decide what class you fit best with depending on your answers. I personally thought this little mechanic in game was so charming but kind of true because you really need to ask yourself "what do I truly want" "How do I see myself playing this class" "What fits best with my style of gaming" do your research, learn and make choice. Good luck. 

Very true. I think that is what I was stuck with as I'm back and forth on what I want.

Originally I had an idea of what it was and picked a lot of hybrid support style classes. But as I realize I spend more time on my own, I have to think about what works best in that play style. I got a little overwhelmed by comments I read from others being really back and forth on the subject.

I'll do a little more study and just trying to get an idea. It feels like Sage would be easier to solo, but I kept getting told every which way that its not true. But I haven't really played either Wizard or Sage to really understand.

If I had more character space, I would just try both and find out. lol

But yes. The most important question is just figuring out how I want to play and go from there. Thank you

You know there's recent discussion about EM (sorcerer) being the most OP class in the game if you invest your zeny on the character. But obviously, it isn't for newbie and doesn't make sense if you burn your wallets onto Warpportal lol.


From my experience of playing both classes:

===== Wizard - Warlock - Archmage path =======

Early stage
- As AoE master, they are quite good in mobbing.
- For starter as soon as you reached wizard job, get sight + Sightrasher and then mob in outside orc dungeon, hodes
- Alternatively, you can also get Frost Nova and then do Jupiter thunder/Lord of vermillion on the mobs.
- Later on during level 83, if you have enough zeny to buy a phen or bloody butterfly card, you can take advantage of the interruptable cast to hit Storm Gust on Dark Priest in GH churchyard. You also have quaq mire to take advantage slowing them down
- Do the same steps above when you rebirth. But the difference for becoming high wizard is the skill napalm Vulcan that comes handy dealing Ghost Property magic especially it has fast cast and it's AoE but only has limited 3x3 coverage
- Just to warn you that warlock job quest is annoying as hell when collecting the magic stone from Naga/brad golem

Intermediate stage
- Once you turned into warlock, i would personally choose fast casting skill such as Soul Expansion than other warlock skills. In fact, Ghost property is now very useful since they recently revamp it as it doesn't get much reduction against shadow and neutral 1 + 2. Ghost property attack is also useful especially when you are leveling at Illusion of Moonlight and Vampire
- Intensification does increase the Soul Expansion damage but only for a limited 1 minute and you have 4 minutes left to re-use it. Phantom ears (80 sec) & 2 Soul expansion rings (75 secs x 2 = 150 sec) can reduce 3 minutes 50 seconds which you can use intensification unlimited (well actually you just need to wait for 10 sec). noblesse oblige + grace frost robe will be alternative accessory that reduces 75 sec cooldown if you can't afford 2 soul expansion rings
- Warlock has the most advantage to get free heal from life drain. You heal yourself by stealing HP from other monsters in huge amount

End game stage
- Even though, ghost property soul expansion might look useful but later on, levelling up to 200+ might seems tricky since some maps have neutral 3+4 which makes soul expansion less appealing. Therefore, you'll need to strengthen your build in improving Comet skill which there are alot of equipments that boost it

 ===== Sage - Sorcerer - Elemental master path =========

Early stage
- Sage's unique skill is the autocast bolts. They can also auto cast AoE such as Thunder Storms (Wind) and Heavens Drive (Earth)
- The downside is having them to melee monsters which have chance of them getting more damages from mobs and have to rely more on heal skills or even flat HP amount steal such as CVB
- For leveling sage, you can level at Overlook Water Dungeon (using vip or 3 magical stones), use Thunder Storms autocast to level up until 80
- Starting from level 80 up to level 99, i would personally have them to level at roweens at the east of Rachel town using Heavens Drive autocast.
- Steps are similar for rebirth. But as a scholar, you gain useful skill such as Indulge that can get you unlimited SP gain but using HP as a sacrifice (but there are many kinds of recovery items that can heal your HP)

Intermediate stage
- Once you turned into sorcerer, here's what i recommend

1. Spell Fist
- Personally for me, those who lack zeny should go for Spell fist build in the early level 100s since PW casting is slow as turtle especially when your DEX and INT is still low.
- Spell fist can also combine with the autocast bolts for more damage. But the biggest advantage for having spell fist is that it acts as a physical damage. Which means that you can Life Steal using Hunter Fly Cards or use equipments that can gain HP by dealing % of the physical damage. Spell fist also WORKS with double attack effect. With the recent OCP added, Book of Thoth is the most useful weapon with the +3 attack range and also Lv 10 Double attack effect. You can also combine with +11 forbidden grimore II shield. With the 15% chance doing Lex aterna for every single melee atk, it simply multiply your bolt damage!
- Having spell fist to life steal especially if you have +10 evil druid armor, you can gain HP + SP unlimited without even using your HP/SP potions when leveling
- However, the huge downside of spell fist build is you CAN'T MOB. You can't even survive when you are being surrounded by more than 5 monsters attacking you at the same time.

End game
Once you have enough zeny and able to buy the equipment, than you can reset stats(or skills) to make it to PW build.

2. Psychic Wave
- By default, PW level 5 has 0.6 fct + 12 sec Var. When your INT+DEX is high and with the spirit control level 2 ventus, casting PW is very fast that it doesn't require uninterruptable feature from phen/+12 mad bunny, etc.
- you can even change PW element depending on which elemental spirits you are summoning for a level 2 elemental spirit control. The most common elemental spirit is Call Ventus which reduces 1 sec FCT for your PW. However, if you have equipments that reduces 0.6 fct, you don't need ventus.
- There are alot of equipments that can boost PW damages, cooldown and cast time. But when you reached end game level, your total INT and DEX should be able to reduce Var cast time
- However, PW being magic type attack unlike spell fist physical's attack type brings a meaning that it doesn't able to life steal. So therefore, you rely heals on either recovery items (concentrated red or yellow potions) or from the cards. Diligent vitata being the best that has ability to learn Heal Level 5. I hate to say this but if you receive alot of damage and you need to heal up quickly, even with heal level 5 doesn't make you to recover HP quickly unless you use up recovery items.

- Obviously, to prevent mobs attacking you, you need to make sure your PW does alot of damage as you need to KO the mobs first before they can even lay hands on you. Building PW build means you need to make sure that you prioritize on offense than defense

P/S:
- I have EM and it's not PW build. It uses spell fist build since i shared life leeching physical dmg equipments with my main classes that are physical damage type. And i tell you, it's fun to use Spell fist even as EM especially with this recent add of book of thoth + forbidden grimore II into the game. You can't mob i know but it's just satisfying to hit about 3 seconds to kill every mob you find. Besides, fire/cold/wind bolts deal 100% damage to holy and shadow property after the recent elemental property revamp

Edited by EdwardEG, Today, 03:10 AM.