Tips on playing a magic user?

[Stay_Frosty75]

With the current update, how can I play as the mage? I get wrecked on the first set of bandits I come across. Any pointers?

[taitomagatsu]

Depends on the kind of magic you are using. Geomancy, Pyromancy or Electromancy?

[Heindal]

You have to use the seals provided in magic mastery. This is like a "stance" for magic spells.
Start casting the seal, after that cast the spell. Depending on the seal this can have different attacks. At the beginning I recomment to take a melee weapon skill and a ranged spell. I decided for the staff tripple attack, which can alone deal with most of the enemies and as Joana starts with staves, this is a good option.

[funkmonster7]

Pyromancy = pure mage. Use some Geomancy for CC, Runic Boulder -> Stone Spikes is a really good combo. You do reduce some Pyromantic Power if you learn those 2 spells, but you have some CC so it is nice.

Geomancy = pure/hybrid mage. At the start you will struggle, so you will play as a hybrid of sorts, but without melee skills if you don't plan to hybridize. Just switch to a 2H axe or something when you get into melee. I usually try to hybridize with Pyromancy, namely Fire Barrage because flaming tile + boulder block is a sick combo in dungeon corridors.

Electromancy = hybrid mage. I haven't played much Electromancy yet. It's just that in terms of pure damage it is weaker than Pyromancy, yet in CC it is weaker than Geomancy (more randomized). Many of its debuffs revolve around reducing enemy control resistance and move resistance, so electromancy + staff is a very good combo. My Electromancer right now is one such hybrid. I only have the first 2 starting spells in Electromancy, Hailing Rush from Staff skill tree, and Seal of Power from Magic Mastery. Wearing default gear and rarely ever get beaten. The only time I got beaten was noticing two bandits in the forest but my character just kept auto-running forward until she's 3-4 tiles away from them, with a tree separating between them and me. And me clicking anywhere on the map didn't stop me in my tracks. (This needs to be fixed, auto-move should stop even if I click on impassable terrain.)

[jotwebe]

Pure Electromancy rundown: At the start, don't go robes and staff. Get a weapon with decent damage, preferable mace or 2h hammer, Impulse them, then melee until Impulse pushes them away, then keep your distance while Jolting them to keep the DoT up. I stayed in wizard gear, but in hindsight it's probably better to go for light armor (padded doublet, riding boots, padded coif, tied gauntlets). Keep a shovel or staff in your alternate weapon set for cheaper casting.

In dungeons position yourself diagonally from doorways whenever you can - knockback into walls will daze and stun and do extra damage.

Make sure you get your beauty sleep, that Vigor buff is essential early on. Kill all the birds you come across, they're pretty good XP/energy expended at this point and you can eat buntings, thrushes and obviously ducks.

From Magic Mastery you want the two Seals:
Seal of Finesse for the Backfire and Cooldown reduction, Seal of Mastery for the massive boost in Magic/Electromancy power. Use the fully charged SoF to reduce SoM's long cooldown. Or don't and have to wait between fights.

Taking boulder and stone spikes from Geomancy might not be a bad idea, for additional CC options and instant walls for knocking fools into. I didn't though, and it would come with the tradeoff of taking skillpoints out of MM and reducing your electromantic power.

When you get to the tier 2 spells (either through Willpower or finding/buying the book - the printer in Brynn has it for a bit over 2k gold) Static Field is your gamechanger and turns you into a real wizard. Now your playstyle switches to Jolting your enemies at max distance, then casting Static Field and kiting them to death. Feel free to dress in robes and wield a staff. The passive that gives energy from Static Field victims is bonkers good.

Short Charge (the spell that is especially good with two adjacent resonating targets, not sure about the name) is nice when you have enemies in the right position, but I found they seldom obliged. But that was before Jolt got knockback added to it, might work better know.

Anyway, once you get to Ball Lightning you'll probably won't find yourself using whatever that was called, it is very good. Just... don't hit yourself with it. Early on it'll hurt, later on it'll be a death sentence without Dash.

Which reminds me: at some point getting Dash is probably a good idea. I didn't, because I wanted the higher tier Electromancy goods earlier, but getting Dash would be the smart play. I did get Make a Halt instead, which is also nice, mainly for the Vigor buff from campfires and bedrolls. But swigging Elven Mud by the gallon would probably be fine as well, it's not like you have anything else to spend your money on, unless you get lucky with skill books.

In the top tier, I liked the one that spreads Resonance, because the becomes your power bottleneck. Tempest is decent, but it becomes better the more Resonance is in play, and it removes Resonance. So the play here is to balance between loosing your Resonance when you could be getting oodles of energy from Static Field immobilized batteries, and overkill.

Oh yes and there is also Chain Lightning at tier 3, not bad, but with my Willpower build and Sigil of Finesse cooldowns weren't a huge issue at the point I got it.

Speaking of which, in Magic Mastery I skipped Sigil of Insight for the duration extension passive and beelining the top tier passive. At the time I didn't want to have to remain stationary, but that was before Jolt got knockback... now it looks more feasible to pick your spot and hold your ground.

Sigil of Reflection is nice against spellcasting bandits and undead. Sigil of Binding I haven't taken yet, looks situational but very nice in the right situation (ranged elites/bosses).

In general, after the midgame you're not restricted by money, but by reputation. The specialised wizard gear needs Amity with Brynn, and that takes a lot of missions. Haven't gotten there yet, at level 21.

[Lujo]

Pro tip, get a dagger and a shield to start out, dont hesitate to get your hands dirty. Also, damage reduction on the armor v important early game.

[BiggieD]

I can concur with jotwebe on his take of an Electromancy build and the power of Static Field. I took the first two Electomancy spells, then the Seal of Mastery. My next choice was the Triple staff attack and then the Pyro ranged lvl 1 spell. I had to wait one more level before getting static filed, so I took the Staff passive that restored a percentage of energy on a critical staff hit. I was able to clear dungeons, but it was very iffy, and I lost to each boss at least once before killing them. Static Field made the build pop, I have good close defense, good ranged spells, and good crowd control now.

Electromancy is slow to develop so its tougher early game, but I think quite a bit more powerful at his point, especially with the daze and knock back effect.

[Haniel]

My last character before this patch was a high lvl pyromancer and I loved it! Doing electro now but its difficult not to constantly think about how much easier it was as Pyro (even without Magic Mastery).

Electro is pretty frustrating early; it definitely gets stronger later, with a minor bump a tier 2 and a big one at 3.. but doesn't compare to Pyro. If this is your first Jonna playthrough, go Pyro!