Starting a Mage`

[wreuter1]

How do you play a mage? I just run of of magic and then die soon after. What a horrible way to start a mage character.

[Ironwu]

Well, playing a really powerful mage requires more gear and skill than a new player starts out with. Some melee combat will be required. Here is a great build (3 part guide) to begin learning all about Mage and integrating Melee with casting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQmQUOzGzcM&list=WL&index=2&t=1s

It is a very good starting point to learning this stuff. I am still using this build in NG-2 SotE and it is very strong. :)

[Sirius]

You know how Gandalf wields a sword sometimes?
Have you met Rogier in-game?

Get a sidearm of your choice / stat preferences, plenty of magic-focused options for melee weapons even when your main focus is spell casting.

[vamirez]

I would recommend against doing an item run when starting a mage. But you are correct - it is not easy in the beginning, you will run out of spells and mana flasks, and then have to fight the enemies with a weapon. I would suggest to make use of spirit summons and crafted pots to add to your spell uses. Explore far and wide to discover new spells, staves and talismans. In any case get your Vigor to 20 and keep adding to it throughout the game.

[Despiser]

It's a bit hard out of the gate but once your intelligence is high enough to wield better staves and spells it gives you a pretty viable tarnished. That is until around the second half when AOE and unlimited range on many bosses negate your skills. At that point I reverted back to melee with emphasis on dodge / roll. Some do play as mage right through, but I just kept getting wiped which prompted me to switch that made progression much more manageable. I get the impression FS does most of their playtesting with dodge / roll mechanics.

[Facetable]

Originally posted by wreuter1:

How do you play a mage? I just run of of magic and then die soon after. What a horrible way to start a mage character.

Well there’s a lot of ways to start, but if you’re having issues running out of magic/fp I’d say:

Step 1: pick prophet, astrologer, or prisoner as your starting class

Step 2: Go get the sacrificial axe
https://youtu.be/bhdDypuCHgA?si=6MsiB4gks8g6piqH

Step 3: Equip the axe in one hand while casting with a staff or seal in your other hand. The axe gives you a small amount of magic regeneration for everything that you kill (even if you don’t have the attributes to use the axe, it will still have the same effect as long as it’s equipped and in one of your hands)

[Artek [General]]

You redistribute your flasks so that you had more mana flasks than health flasks (or about equal) and then invest into Mind to have more mana in general.
Then try to use FP-efficient spells, and not just nuke every single mob with 50 FP bomb.
That's about it, really...
I find 20-25 Mind more than sufficient for a casual mage.

[Sabaithal]

Pure mage involves chugging blue juice constantly and then running away from enemies when they get close. If that sounds fun to you, go for it.

I personally do not find it fun. All builds need to have melee capability, which is why all my builds are hybrid builds. Consequently, they are all very fun to use.

[Lava Alien 1000]

Originally posted by wreuter1:

How do you play a mage? I just run of of magic and then die soon after. What a horrible way to start a mage character.

just go prisoner class since it basically melee/mage hybrid

and build up from there imo. if you are still having trouble playing normal mage "class".

keep in mind that "classes" really don't matter outside of start of the game.

[vamirez]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

Pure mage involves chugging blue juice constantly and then running away from enemies when they get close. If that sounds fun to you, go for it.

I personally do not find it fun. All builds need to have melee capability, which is why all my builds are hybrid builds. Consequently, they are all very fun to use.

I didn't do the running away part on my mage, which was my first ER char. I died a lot, which is okay - I mean I played all the other Souls games, so ;) I agree that running and de-aggroing can't be the way to go. I'd suggest to think about when to expend spells and when to use melee or other means.

[dachte]

Reallocate your flask charges to be about 3/4 FP, 1/4 HP. That helps a lot with the FP management issues. Also, you're going to want to have one spell that's cheap and effective to kill small foes, and save the more expensive spells for bigger foes.

If you're doing sorcery, Glintstone Pebble is a good choice for almost the entire game. If you're doing incantations, you'll have a wider range of spells you'll be trading up (Flame Sling, then Lightning Spear). Go get the gravity staff thing as soon as you can.

If you're doing an Int/Wis both-types, you'll be starting down either route but eventually you'll find the discus of light or death sorceries and both can be your workhorse.

If you're doing arcane, that means you're probably doing Dragon breath stuff (with Faith on the side); level your stats pretty evenly and get the Dragon Communion seal as soon as you're strong enough to get through the mid-game difficulty early-game access area it's in.

Good luck!

[Kalamir]

How to play a Mage

-Short Version: painfully

-Long Version: Taking a lot of time before starting. Unlocking more spellslots, getting the Meteoric Staff, grabbing a good Int Weapon. You can spend a good 2 Hours just grabbing stuff before doing any real content. The Flip Side is once that done you'll be strong & only getting stronger.

Getting a Lazuli Glintstone Sword can help tremendusly, it scales terribly but it's base stats are high & a starting Astrologist can use it. Can be farm a low levels but takes a lot of know how (I suggest asking around for someone to gift it to you)

Things of Note
-Rennala is extremely resistant to magic. Beyond her, very few things have any notable magic resistance. No foe is weak to Magic, but magic DMG is easy to boost.

-High Poise Enemies are troublesome for full casters.

-Sabaithal is mostly right, you'll want a good weapon to compliment a Good mage build. Fortunatly, Int Weapons are well represented in the A-S Tier. Moonveil, Wings of Astel, Dark Moon Greatsword, Claymans Harpoon whit the AoW Ice Spear, Glintstone Kris.
That is not even getting into the hybrid power houses... Execpt Ruins Greatsword, it's a STR weapon hiding in the INT weapons.

-Magic Pots have the Highest base DMG of all the pots type & scale well. Still no real reason to use them, but they do something.

-Mages are along whit Faith Casters, the best at killing Bosses. Just don't try Comet of Azure or Meteor Spam unless you know the boss fight in & out.

-Outside of the Meteoric Staff, most spells & Staves have High requirements. Some like the double stat Prince of Death Staff is ultra back ended. Unlike it's Faith counterpart, the Golden Order seal whit scales well at all levels.

[Casul Gamer]

Yeah. Sorc is highly overrated by the souls community. Even in Dark Souls 1, there were disadvantages to a pure caster build.

One thing you can do is have a second staff in your left hand to boost damage. So staff of loss boosts night comet damage a lot, but you can have a better staff to cast the spell in your right hand.

Night comet is also good vs NPCs and smaller bosses that dodge your projectiles since they don't detect it. Magic Glintblade is also good against those since it's harder for them to dodge.

Both spells you can charge to do more damage by holding the cast button. And magic glintblade also has a staff you can use offhand to boost damage. I forget the name, maybe glintblade staff.

Also, make sure to get rock sling for enemies and bosses resistant to magic damage. If meteorite staff isn't your best staff you can wield that in your left hand to boost damage. Meteorite staff will probably be the best primary casting staff until you get access to higher tier upgrades.

There's also some fire sorceries that you can use vs Erdtree avatar and Ulcerated tree spirit which are weak to fire. There's an heirloom talisman that raises faith by 5 so you don't need to level up faith as much. Also great hood which raises faith and int by 2.

Also, most of the multi projectile spells suck early game due to how damage is calculated, but can be very powerful (or at least viable) with an end game build.

[Toasty]

- take meteoric staff in aeonia (caelid) for magic spells
- take moonveil for melee (scales on int)
- ???
- profit
what i did in a nutshell until now

[Sc0rpiTr0n]

Save spells for bosses and tough opponents.
Erase trash mobs with Cold (or Magic if immune to Frost) Affinity weapons.

The End

[Casul Gamer]

Originally posted by Sc0rpiTr0n:

Save spells for bosses and tough opponents.
Erase trash mobs with Cold (or Magic if immune to Frost) Affinity weapons.

The End

I'm so used to running past enemies that I forget this is something good to tell new players. I also forget about durability issues DS2 for the same reason.