Hello. I joined a few days ago and have been playing my butt off. I'm at lvl 30 at the moment and i'm a mage. I understand how mana works and the separation of stats/etc for "becoming" a mage, but what i've always wondered is.. does uber-high mana really mean a better mage? Or less mana pots that he/she has to use? As much as i've speculated, it seems that a skill can only dish out as much damage as the range it says, as long as theres enough mana to cast it. So I guess i'm asking clearance/confirmation that more mana doesn't mean a better mage?

-Goya

Nah more mana doesn't mean anything, it's really a luxury in that you don't have to use more pots. Same damage.

The only way a larger mana pool could suggest a stronger mage is that mana and intelligence are directly related as are intelligence and spell damage.

Lots of mana is nice though. I have like 28k at level 71 and depending on how I am choosing to aoe at the moment can waste almost all of it in one fight. I carry mana potions but never use them. In the end though, I think your going to want to put on the fighter passive that Ups hp and lowers your mp. HP seems very important to me as I aoe though I don't want to sacrifice too much int for the enderance.

I have atm around 14 k mana and 4 k hp. While I like not running out of mana I seem to just spam more heal potions and seldom use mana potions (only in long fights). But I think I will try to balance them more as I would rather run out of mana than hp. . But then again im an int addict , cant help it (maybe I try to compensate from rl... ).

for the last of my run to 100 I had 31k+ mana.. never used it all never needed mana pots.. but the base damage on Gaseous Blast and Shadow Lightening was massive because of the amount that I had in int 1k+ all my gear was int/end based so I ran at about 8k hp spammed hp pots steadly and carried approx 70 at all times.

So how much mana is to much? I don't think i ever got an answer on this one myself:)

Gary

Well said Balomar. All of those are possible and only a few are fun. I was running very similar numbers to Bogey in my run from 70-90 as a mage, might of had a little more health. It worked well for AOE but wouldn't have wanted to take that build against a boss.

No way no how would I run my mage build against a boss:)
Bogey may be dum as a stump sometimes but he's not stoopid.
Yeah i spent a bit on hp pots but it was worth it for 2 minute runs through the crypts:)

Gary

I respecced as a mage at lvl 50 or 55 and put everything in int. Used passives and gear to give me end. Now, lvl 70, 15k hp, 20k mp, and I can run the crypts without using a single pot, either kind. I also take out all the mobs in two gas blasts/rof shots.

Would I run up against a boss? Not on your life. I have barely 3k defense, and my str/agi are both below 50 total.

I'm not in a hurry to 100, but this is the best way i've found to mage in this game.

for tips on mana see my post in aoe leveling guide in mage section about using warrior and ranger passives with mental pro. giving more hp per end and meaning more points to int giving more dmg but not a crazy amount of mana(useless for 4 gases..) when running crypts this is the diffrence of 25% dmg for adding avg bmi over bookworm



Edited by RaNgEl (08/15/07 07:08 AM)

Havent read this thread for a while.. I turned 100 last saturday, but thanks for all your replies. I definitely learned that more int means more mana AND skill damage.

-Goya