The Mage is the only class capable of killing a boss in a single turn & dying to a rat at the same time.

If you have 0 mana, you can't attack with your staff or use spells. (except from items)
Most spells will only use around 8 mana at first however, as you increase the spells level so do you increase the cost of said spell.

The mage can be an absolute god if used right, but also a total weakling if mismanaged or in certain circumstances.

Human: Starting Spell - Fire Flare
The Human is your #1 choice for a Mage. Not only do they get +2 to all the stats you need & then some. The additional ability every 5 levels can really increase your growth, especially for a Mage. You can use the extra abilities to learn spells faster, letting you get further into the game. Or you can use them to hold off on learning spells until you really need so you can learn them at the most optimal time.
The Human also has no penalties, making it even more of a good choice.


Vinscian: Starting Spell - Lightning Shock
The Vinscian make for extremely fast & perceptive Mages. Normally you wont be able to increase your speed much except for selling items. The Vinscian however starts with a natural speed boost of 12%. This means that while normal speed might be 1000 the Vinscian would have 1120. If you also include being light weighted, the Vinscian gets a massive speed boost. The additional stats are also not to be overlooked as they compliment the speed this race gets to further enhance it. This race also has no penalties, only making it even stronger.


Elf: Starting Spells - Water Splash, Astral Connection
In a test of raw power nothing can beat an Elf.
The Elf enhances everything that defines the Mage, both strengths & weaknesses. Having a % increase to intelligence means that it will always be easier to learn spells & you will always have more mana than other races. Having the increased LOS means you can actually see & kill your target before it gets a chance to do anything.
The major downside here is that you are so frail in your early levels that 1 bad roll or a big crit from an enemy and your dead.
There is no race with a harder early game than this.


Otwok: Starting Spell - Water Splash
The Otwok is a tacticians dream.
As an Otwok you never need to worry about poison, ranged attacks hardly bother you & food is never an issue.
You do need to be mindful of your weakness to fire. Mostly only an issue in the early game, provided you keep your shields up.
The Otwok gets a large increase to constitution, spellpower & intelligence. It may come at the cost of agility, but that shouldn't bother you at the start. The Otwok's potential is best seen on harder difficulties where food and face checking barrels really matters.

Troll: Starting Spell - Water Splash
If your looking something off meta, try this.
The only real negative of a troll mage is the -2 for Intelligence & perception.
The massive bonus to strength & constitution however really help to keep the Mage alive in the early levels & for carrying extra wands.
on top of this the troll gets a 50% bonus to health regeneration, so you spend a lot less time healing.


Dwarf: Starting Spell - Lightning Shock
Another off meta that is actually really good.
The Dwarf doesn't gets less than half the starting stats as the troll but it doesn't lose any.
The dwarf also gains a nice natural immunity to damage over time, this enhances the mages water shield to further reduce damage.



Naga: Starting Spell - Fire Flare
If you like Crits you like Naga.
Since the addition of the Fish Mage the Naga Mage has the 2nd hardest early game.
If you can survive long enough to make to mid-late game however you will be able to crit ever turn with very little fate & not needing to use the ability "Focus".

Certain Stats are more important than others depending on the class your playing.
The Main individual stat for a Mage is by far intelligence. Followed by Spell Power, Fate, Perception & Speed.


Inteligence: (needed for learning spells, mana/ regen & base spell damage)
inteligence affects mana per level, mana regen, magic resistance, spell learning & discovering secrets/ traps
The main reason that this is so important for mages is due to the spell learning. A mages damage output is mostly thru spells & a spells base damage is only increased by upgrading your spells. So you need a very high intelligence otherwise the effects from failing to learn spells will probably kill you.
The other stuff intelligence offers are great too, but really its all about spells.


Fate: (needed for spell crit & helps a lot with everything else)
Fate has a small effect on everything in the game.
Take the time to glance over your stats and read just how many things fate actually effects. You may be surprised by how powerful this stat actually is & that is only the things you can see it does.
Fate also influences the rarity of stats you get on a level up. It increases the item quality & drop rate. Shops have better quality items to sell more often. Needless to say, this is the most powerful stat in the game.


Spell Power: (needed for mana & spell amplification)
Spell power effects mana per level & the power of spell effects
Don't think that rushing this will get you insane returns on your spells. The main use for this is to increase your mana.
Spell power will increase your spells damage output & effects, however as there are abilities that amplify these effects you need A LOT of spell power to have the desired effect. Combine spell power with high level spells & amplification & you get some serious high dmg.


Perception: (can't kill what you can't see)
If you hate the Fish Mage or the Elf Archer well they have one major thing in common, good line of sight.
Perception effects your line of sight, crit damage, crit chance & evasion.
As your spells level up, they will be able to hit distances only limited by your sight.



Agility: (You only really want the Speed & Dodge)
Speed is the amount of energy a character recovers after each action, Speed is mainly influenced by Agility & Hunger levels. Most actions cost around 1,000 including movement, so 1 turn is considered 1000 energy.




Constitution: (if your dead your dead)
Constitution increases your Health per level so if you can't find a Water shield or Aegis scroll then you might want to think about putting a few points in here. If your are worried or don't know how to find those scrolls, then maybe put a couple of points in here while your low level as it will have the biggest impact.



Strength: (being overweight is going to kill you)
Being overweight means you generate significantly less energy, thus any enemies that seemed weak previously are now a lot stronger. Strength isn't really a good stat to put into because of this. If there are no other stats to choose from, then this is better than choosing an easily obtainable like Gold.



Depending on your situation it can be worth choosing what i consider "Easy to Obtain" items such as Rations, Potions or even Gold to help you survive the dungeon.
These items can be crafted by the mage & gold come to the mage very easy.
However such situations will arise when you need a potion or rations to stay alive. Or you might get lucky and the gold you needed for that item the merchant had just happened to come to you.

Currently being worked on

There is many ways to play or build your character & you wont always get the cards you want.
But it will give you an idea of what abilities you want to get & when depending on how you want to play.

NOTE: **Quoted word** refers to another section of guide.

This gives a base % to learning spells.
You wont need to use books or wands anymore, so you can save them for later.









This increases your critical chance based on what you already have.
Can be a great if you know how to get 200+ fate by level 20. Otherwise avoid this ability.






guaranteed critical on hit + low cooldown.
What you waiting for?








Ever found yourself in a situation where you can't attack because you have no mana & you ran out of potions?
If that has happened to you then you might consider getting this.







Good if there is that one monster you really hate in group fights or you really need to back up & rest.
Always have a plan for a tactical retreat.

















The only ability you really want to waste essence hunting.
Want a chance for free spell upgrades each level? Yes Please!
(you can get this as your first ability choice)







Extra chance at loot means extra Potions, Spells & Legendary items.
Note: becomes irrelevant if you **farm**








"Power Overflowing"
This ability begins the **Spell Influencing** chain & is used to make the mage a GOD.







If you want to play as a Magical Hunter then this is for you.
Even without a good staff, good positioning & this can take down most enemies.








This increases your evasion based on your current evasion.
As a mage you never get much evasion.
Best to stay away from this as activating would only waste a valuable turn.

coming later

As a mage you can get to level 15 without needing to learn spells if you are smart about how you play & what abilities you choose.
This way you can hoard all the scrolls, wands & books of the spells that you want & learn them when you have a 100% chance with your scrolls.
This might sound like a huge hassle as you would need to kite enemies & conserve mana etc.
Doing this however, gives you a massive power spike & also teaches you how to survive tough situations. (something the mage is often in)

Books:
Base learning rate = 100
Books are great for learning your first spell if you can't find it anywhere else but are not worth buying unless you really need that spell.
Books also weigh a lot, so if the spell is not awesome then neither is the book.

Wands:
Base learning rate = 50
Wands are a great, not only do they make upgrading spells easier but they let you cast them multiple times without learning them.
Wands are by far the best way to upgrade your spells, not only can you find them cheap at times, but they offer a bonus 50 to spell learning over scrolls that you will often find only 200g cheaper.
(The only down side to wands is the weight)

Scrolls:
Base learning rate = 0
Scrolls are a really cheap option to learning spells. You can also hoard them without having to worry about weight.

Failing to learn:
The main draw backs from failing to learn a spell include the following

• Nothing
  (you need good fate for this)
  
• Take damage
  (this will happen most of the time, but don't count on it)
  
• Loss of random stats.
  (this is by far the worst thing)
  
• A hoard of hostile summons can appear.
  (these get insanely hard & you need to be prepared for this)
  
• Items can break
  (legendary items wont break)

Anytime you want to use teleport to escape a bad situation, remember that weather you are using an item or casting a spell it requires energy.

Energy:
A single spell uses 1,000 energy (this is a full turn)
After cast it wont fully activate until you can complete payment of the 1,000 energy.

This means that whatever you cast teleportation on wont teleport until it can pay the full 1,000 energy. (normally this will happen right away or the start of next turn)

In situations where your weight is reducing your speed, or next turn might kill you. It might be best to use teleport on an enemy taking advantage of its energy instead of your own.
(in extreme situations your speed can drop to 7, meaning it would take 142 turns to activate)

Quick casting:
Once you get the ability to quick cast spells, either those you have learnt or from scrolls & wands. It almost throws out the fact that spells like teleport have an energy cost.

There is 3 reasons i say almost fixes the energy problem.
Firstly is the fact that teleport is random & while it might save you, it could also put you into another bind.
Secondly this spell removes the spell influence from teleport, so there is a far greater chance that you would not even leave the room.
Third and finally is the fact that you would be using this ability a lot normally with your ice combo attacks, so you really can't rely on it to always be on cooldown.

Mana is the mages lifeblood & most important resource.
Mid-late game if you have no mana it could easily mean your death. A single crit from even a rat would kill you as you simply don't have the hp nor the armour to survive.

Whenever possible you want to be using your staff & positioning to snipe targets.
This will help conserve mana by only using your spells on targets too fast or too strong for your staff.

When you encounter multiple targets, if possible still try to pick them off with your staff.
If you need to use your spells however, always try to line them up & use a single spell.

As your mana grows you will enjoy using your mana on everything you see.
If you do this, your going to create instances where you get ambushed with no mana.

If you really want to use mana all the time, then get make a habit of always leaving yourself at least 20% mana before resting.
This way you will always have some mana to defend yourself, regardless of what happens.

As you progress you will need to rely more on spells & less on your staff.
Higher level spells can also cost well over 50 mana to cast, easily draining your mana before you clear all enemies.
So it is important to have multiple backup plans in the event you get stuck without mana.

Move Speed:
Playing as a Vinscian, the item "Walkers of Fortune", or keeping your weight below 15% will all help you to run away from most enemies. (all of these combined and your flying)

Wands:
Teleport wands & divine shield wands are great to keep one of each. (just remember that it uses your turn)

Secondary Weapon:
You might think it silly for a mage to use a normal weapon, but if you have ever tried to navigate a level preventing mana regeneration without mana potions, you will wish you didn't just sell all those weapons.
When i sell everything, i keep the best & lightest weapon in-case i encounter a level like this. You might think you can just go back & buy or find a weapon, but the bonus for leaving the level is on a timer. So take too long & you miss out.

Certain items, abilities & weapons allow the mage to increase his/her Spell Influence.
By combining them all together in a single turn and then using a permanent spell like a shield you can increase its effective output by triple.

these are from low level
Water shield - normally 1.2 points. Enhanced 4.5 points
Divine shield - normal 6 hits. Enhanced 27 hits
Wind Shield - normal 70% miss. Enhanced 100% miss
Earth Shield - normal 350 AR. Enhanced 1400 AR

Increasing spell level increases the base amount to be multiplied.
increasing spell power increases the amount of influence your multiplying.
BOTH ARE IMPORTANT