Anybody have a decent Mage guide?

[A Regular Italian Plumber]

Ive played every game in the souls[and borne] series, most dozens of times, but I can honestly say I never once put real effort into making a magic based build.

Anybody know of any decent mage guides? All I can find on youtube is let's players rambeling for hours about nothing in their "Magic Guide".

Ive worked out that I should rush into blighttown using the master key to get the red set and the spear/catalyst, but im not sure how/when to use what spells. Everytime I ever made an attempt at a magic run I just ran out of spell casts and was totally screwed come time for the boss.

[Groen90]

Well I guess you already know you need int and attunement most of all.
Start as sorcerer and as soon as you get to Firelink go down to Rickert to get another copy of soul spear, that should be enough to start. Standard catalyst is more than enough for the start as well. You might want to upgrade dex at some point since it slightly increases cast speed, and with that you could upgrade some backup weapon in case you run out of spells or find yourself in need of melee attacks.

[WickedRequiem]

I think a lots of mage (or, rather, int build) go for Moonlight Butterfly spear (for early game) and Moonlight Greatsword (for latter game) to help with the rather limited spell slots.

[Χlex]

Battlemage go 16 attunement 36 int 40 dex, pure mage go 19 attunement 50 int 16 dex and str

[clkwrks]

The Tin Banishment Catalyst and Crimson set aren't that great. Only reason I'd run to Blighttown early game would be to get the 3 soul items in the swamp and maybe kill a few slugs hoping for green titanite drop. Instead of Tin Banishment I'd run to Dark Root Basin early, kill Hydra and Gold Golem for Oolacile Catalist *. Use it until your int is over 27.

* and Dusk's Crown

[K12machinima (Solid Chaz)]

Here's my strategy for making a caster in DS1. Start as Sorcerer, obviously, and with Master Key. Go down to New Londo and grab the first free soul near the elevator, and head around to Valley of Drakes to get some free souls: one near the shortcut's gate, and in the hand of the undead dragon, facing where the drakes are. Carefully make your way through there, get the Grass Crest Shield, and work your way up to Parish: grab the Basement key, and head back down to Firelink Shrine: you can grab the optional Firekeeper Soul while you're here, too.

Go back down to New Londo, buy the extra Soul Arrows from the smith, and attune them. You'll only need roughly 6 slots, so, you don't need a lot of points into Attunement, but it's all preference. Now, carefully finish off the Atari 2600 Demon in Undead Burg, and kill or buy the Residence Key from the merchant, and unlock Lower Burg: free Pessimistic Pete from his "prison", and then go back to Firelink.

You should start by buying all his offensive spells, and have at least three spell slots. Any spare levels should start being put straight into Intelligence, or, you can save up your 20,000 souls to buy the Bellowing Ring. Either way, kill Gargoyles, preferably with Heavy Soul Arrow. After they're done, do Moonlight Butterfly, Pinwheel, and man up to face Queelag. You can fight Capra Demon for some extra souls, but it's not generally worth your time. You should look up how to safe kill Ceaseless Discharge, then activate Frampt and FEED Queelag and Butterfly's souls to him, as you get a higher number.

At this point, you'll want to kill the Hydra in Basin, and wear Dusk's Crown, and head up to Sen's to activate Logan's quest. You should have no trouble with Anor Londo, but spend your souls from O&S on spells from Logan until you clear his inventory. Do the Lord Souls in any order you want to, but be sure to do Duke's Archive with either a Ring of Sacrifice, or as few souls as you want to lose. When you do Archive, free Logan, and get the Crystal spells... Trust me... Crystal Soul Spear and Crystal Homing Soulmass deal so much damage, it's unbelievable.

That's the basic skeleton of a DS1 Sorcerer, all from my head, without looking at specific numbers. You'll end up basically being killed in one or two hits, but you should really be saving casts for bosses, not trash enemies, unless you're exploring. The biggest roadblocks you are going to get are Queelag and Seath, due to their resistances, but it just takes time and dodging.

When it comes to casting speed through Dexterity, that's all a matter of preference, and I choose not to, simply because I know the timing of bosses rather well, but you should put spare points into either Vitality or Endurance; you won't rely on scaling so much as a melee character, and casting doesn't take up stamina, so you're rather safe in terms of stats.

As far as armor, caster doesn't matter, as long as you've got Bellowing ring, and Dusk's crown. As far as the best catalyst, it doesn't matter too much, but for higher damage, learn how to activate Logan's final stage in his quest for his staff.

You'll start out your "tier" like this:

1: Soul Arrow and Heavy Soul Arrow (start).

2: Greater Soul Arrow and Heavy Greater Soul Arrow (Burg to Anor Londo).

3: Soul Spear and Homing Soulmass (After Anor Londo and start of Lord Souls).

4: Crystal Soul Spear, Soul Spear, Crystal Homing Soulmass, Homing Soulmass (end).

Always be sure to attune the greater tiers of damage to prevent yourself from being too weak, and use the slower casting spells when you have the best chance to deal damage.

I hope this at least helps. :)

[solari71]

I say eff the sorcerer and start as pyro or wanderer. You still need to melee early-game (parish and lower-burg specifically) and sorc sucks at it because squishy. Also, starting as any other class nets you 2-4 free Res.

[A Regular Italian Plumber]

Originally posted by K12machinima:

Here's my strategy for making a caster in DS1. Start as Sorcerer, obviously, and with Master Key. Go down to New Londo and grab the first free soul near the elevator, and head around to Valley of Drakes to get some free souls: one near the shortcut's gate, and in the hand of the undead dragon, facing where the drakes are. Carefully make your way through there, get the Grass Crest Shield, and work your way up to Parish: grab the Basement key, and head back down to Firelink Shrine: you can grab the optional Firekeeper Soul while you're here, too.

Go back down to New Londo, buy the extra Soul Arrows from the smith, and attune them. You'll only need roughly 6 slots, so, you don't need a lot of points into Attunement, but it's all preference. Now, carefully finish off the Atari 2600 Demon in Undead Burg, and kill or buy the Residence Key from the merchant, and unlock Lower Burg: free Pessimistic Pete from his "prison", and then go back to Firelink.

You should start by buying all his offensive spells, and have at least three spell slots. Any spare levels should start being put straight into Intelligence, or, you can save up your 20,000 souls to buy the Bellowing Ring. Either way, kill Gargoyles, preferably with Heavy Soul Arrow. After they're done, do Moonlight Butterfly, Pinwheel, and man up to face Queelag. You can fight Capra Demon for some extra souls, but it's not generally worth your time. You should look up how to safe kill Ceaseless Discharge, then activate Frampt and FEED Queelag and Butterfly's souls to him, as you get a higher number.

At this point, you'll want to kill the Hydra in Basin, and wear Dusk's Crown, and head up to Sen's to activate Logan's quest. You should have no trouble with Anor Londo, but spend your souls from O&S on spells from Logan until you clear his inventory. Do the Lord Souls in any order you want to, but be sure to do Duke's Archive with either a Ring of Sacrifice, or as few souls as you want to lose. When you do Archive, free Logan, and get the Crystal spells... Trust me... Crystal Soul Spear and Crystal Homing Soulmass deal so much damage, it's unbelievable.

That's the basic skeleton of a DS1 Sorcerer, all from my head, without looking at specific numbers. You'll end up basically being killed in one or two hits, but you should really be saving casts for bosses, not trash enemies, unless you're exploring. The biggest roadblocks you are going to get are Queelag and Seath, due to their resistances, but it just takes time and dodging.

When it comes to casting speed through Dexterity, that's all a matter of preference, and I choose not to, simply because I know the timing of bosses rather well, but you should put spare points into either Vitality or Endurance; you won't rely on scaling so much as a melee character, and casting doesn't take up stamina, so you're rather safe in terms of stats.

As far as armor, caster doesn't matter, as long as you've got Bellowing ring, and Dusk's crown. As far as the best catalyst, it doesn't matter too much, but for higher damage, learn how to activate Logan's final stage in his quest for his staff.

You'll start out your "tier" like this:

1: Soul Arrow and Heavy Soul Arrow (start).

2: Greater Soul Arrow and Heavy Greater Soul Arrow (Burg to Anor Londo).

3: Soul Spear and Homing Soulmass (After Anor Londo and start of Lord Souls).

4: Crystal Soul Spear, Soul Spear, Crystal Homing Soulmass, Homing Soulmass (end).

Always be sure to attune the greater tiers of damage to prevent yourself from being too weak, and use the slower casting spells when you have the best chance to deal damage.

I hope this at least helps. :) :estusempty:

Quite alot. Thank you for the impromptu guide.

[K12machinima (Solid Chaz)]

Originally posted by HeWhosKnownAsIAm:

Quite alot. Thank you for the impromptu guide.

You're welcome, ha, did that in about ten minutes, from just remembering, as I don't play caster very often. :)

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Originally posted by solari71:

I say eff the sorcerer and start as pyro or wanderer. You still need to melee early-game (parish and lower-burg specifically) and sorc sucks at it because squishy. Also, starting as any other class nets you 2-4 free Res.

A sorc with 60 soul arrow castings doesn't need to melee very often early on.

And even then, an uchigatana or estoc will do the job just fine until you get a weapon that scales off of int, like the moonlight butterfly spear, moonlight greatsword, or a magic/enchanted weapon of your choice.