Some mages dealing no damage whatsoever

[dayofmone]

I have some mages that don't deal any damage, they are utterly worthless and I can't figure out what to do about it.
Power adds to damage, but there is no guide how to increase it.
My level 6 air mage deals 7 damage, that is terrible.
How do you fix that?

[IxianMace]

Different races emphasize growth in different stats. If you have a human air mage, they lack power, and since the air skill Multistrike has low base damage, the mage's damage will also be low since there's little to no power to add to the skill's damage.

You could try equipping relics that boost power, but I'd just train a wind mage that's from a different race.

[dayofmone]

Originally posted by IxianMace:

Different races emphasize growth in different stats. If you have a human air mage, they lack power, and since the air skill Multistrike has low base damage, the mage's damage will also be low since there's little to no power to add to the skill's damage.

You could try equipping relics that boost power, but I'd just train a wind mage that's from a different race.

That is extremely helpful, thank you.
I was unaware that race affects which type of magic is effective.

[glitzerpaillette]

Originally posted by dayofmone:

I was unaware that race affects which type of magic is effective.

Not precisely. Race affects the possible ranks (S through to F) of HP, mana, speed and power of a mage and can give a bonus to said power.
"Effectiveness" as in "deals damage in fights" is mostly dependant on power, except for lightning damage, which also benefits from speed. Which is why people build wolfkin lightning mages

[ulzgoroth]

Note that human air mages are not good at their attack (and human mages are generally poor at main attack spells), they're very good at casting haste and air shield spells, which are quite powerful and very mana-hungry.

Also, nature mages have a power buff spell. While it's still much better to have more base power, dropping +20 power turns 2x7 or 3x7 multiattack damage into something significant.

[Manxome]

To provide a bit more detail:

Each mage has a "stat grade" for each stat, ranging from F to S, which says how much that stat goes up when they gain a level. You can see stat grades on the mage's character sheet, top right. Power grade is influenced by the mage's race, but it's also partly random when the mage is first summoned; students of the same race can have different stat grades.

Each race ALSO has a different base value for each stat, which determines how high it is at level 1. For instance, humans start with 100 HP before taking their level and stat grade into account, but vivified start with 175 HP, and shattered start with only 30 HP.

If you get a mage's conviction up to 85+ they gain the "dauntless" status effect, which improves all of their stat grades--for example, if they're normally "B", then it changes to "B+", which seems to be halfway between B and A. This applies retroactively to all their previous levels, which means it matters more for high-level mages. If their conviction falls below 85, they lose the status effect and go back to their old stats.

All stats can also be modified by attuning certain relics. (Relics that boost HP are especially good for shattered.)

There are also certain potions and buff spells that can modify stats temporarily. For instance, there's a nature spell that raises power.

Air attack spells have a low base damage but hit multiple times, and the mage's power is added to EACH hit, which means power is especially important for air mages. (It hits twice with 1 air skill, or 3 times with 5+ air skill, and their ultimate hits 5 times.) Air magic has the best single-target attacks in the game, but only if the mage has high power. So you may want to summon a lot of air students and keep only the ones with good power.

Conversely, the lightning attack spell adds only half your power to damage, but also adds half your speed to damage, so for lightning mages power is somewhat less important, and speed is more important than usual. (Lightning also has low damage overall, but can attack the enemy back row.)

Here's the base power and stat grades I've seen so far for each race:

Raven Cultists: 20 base power, A or S growth (S is rare though)
Shattered: 15 base power, B or A growth
Wolfkin: 10 base power, C-A growth
Vivified: 5 base power, D-B growth
Human: 0 base power, F or D growth

S rank: +3.8 power/level
A rank: +3 power/level
B rank: +2 power/level
C rank: +1.5 power/level
D rank: +0.8 power/level
F rank: +0.3 power/level

In addition to having the highest power, raven cultists also have good stats overall, so they're just kind of awesome at combat. Their disadvantage is that they start with an unknown scar effect instead of an unknown quirk, which means managing their conviction is a bit harder.