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Table of Contents • Equipment •
Tactics •
Tips Introduction Why? As your character advances in levels, you gain hps, mana, and damage points every level up until lvl 50. Rogues and Warriors need more mana, more hps, and especially more damage, as they rely largely on physical attacks. (Rogues can be very effective in mini-mage set ups, but they are still best combining magic with a bow or sword in most situations.) Mages have no use for the added hps, and the added damage is nice, but as you usually only get 1 point per level up, it is not anywhere near as important as your equipment. The added mana is also nice, but when you have 800 or more already, another 2 or 4 points isn't going to make much difference. So my point is that a mage at lvl 30 or higher could be considered a high level mage, and play just about identically to a lvl 50 mage, providing the equipment and skills were similar, with the only noticeable difference in damage done to stoned full immunes. Whereas a warrior really needs to hit lvl 45 or so to be able to access the highest skill warrior tactics and equipment set ups (see Bolty's Warrior Guide for details), and a rogue needs to get up around lvl 40+. There aren't many teamwork tips here either. I am writing this mostly for solo play in Multi-Player mode, though you can play identically with another player, providing you each go separate ways in the dungeon. Mages only get a benefit by teaming up on the full immune levels anyway, most of the time. One major point in the 'how to play an expert mage' debate is the artillery vs battle mage debate. I will not go into a detailed comparison in this guide. Instead my personal preference or recommendation will be detailed here, which is roughly a hybrid of the two styles. Basically using artillery techniques wherever they are more appropriate and quickest, while wearing battle equipment when needed. I do not advocate frequent equipment switches, so I will not be putting in perfect equipment for various monster combinations. Generally speaking, the time you would save doing a given level with the absolute perfect equipment, would not be enough faster to make up for the time it would take you to pop back to town and change gear, nor to offset the loss in blue carrying capacity if you were hauling around more spare items than a weapon and perhaps one or two alternate jewels. More fundamentally, this is a guide to a playing style that can be used at least 90% of the time w/o any equipment changes or major strategy alterations. If you want to hear more of the occasionally hair-splitting Battle vs. Artillery debate, enjoy the Diablo Strategy Forum where there are usually posts to be found debating the benefits of every single item vs. various monster types, and the advantages of battle (high ac, high damage) mage vs. artillery (high spell level, high mana, low ac) mage. Possible future revisions to this guide will add more details if they seem pressing, but I will make every effort to make this a good, useful expert mage guide w/o going into the details that an absolutely complete mage guide would cover. With this you should be able to transform yourself from a sloppy lvl 35 mage who needs to hit town every level in hell/hell for more blues, to a precise and deadly assassins who can clear 13-15 and at least part of lvl 16 before running dry on blue, and in no more than about 5-10 minutes per level. (Closer to 5 than 10 would be better.) Runs of 13-15 hell/hell in under 20 minutes are not at all out of the question if you don't get just awful luck on the monster draw. Lvl 16 itself, especially on hell/hell, can take even an expert mage as long as the 3 other levels of hell put together, with the fully immune advocates and hp rich blood knights slowing everything down a lot. But fear not, I have plenty of strategies for all of these levels in this guide. One note on the illustrations throughout this guide. All shots were taken in Hellfire, hence the odd durability on some items. Also, most of the jewelry pics are from single player HF. IE I bought the jewels from Wirt or Gris, hence the tremendous quality without there being any kind of duping or hacking to obtain them. Discussion of +spell level items One thing affecting most of the equipment choices in this is the battle vs. artillery mage argument. I mentioned already where I come down in it, but let me make a quick comment on the +spell level items, so I don't have to go over it again every time I discuss DF, TC, AA staff, Naj's Plate, etc. Also, let me add that +spell levels is not all artillery mages are about, as there is a whole different playing style involved, (by necessity, as you can't let anything close enough to hit you or it's going to hurt.) and in addition to higher spell levels more mana is much sought after. However, as the biggest trade offs in equipment choices mostly involve +spell level items, I'm mentioning it here. Adding to your spell levels can seem very tempting for a mage. You will of course have everything useful to lvl 15 by this time, but looking at how much your fireball's damage is increased but boosting it to lvl 16 or 18 or the (legit) max of lvl 20 can be thrilling. However, let's consider some spells and how they are effected under +4 or +5 spell levels. Chain lightning -- No real benefit, possibly detrimental. Many mages intentionally keep theirs down around lvl 10 or 11 so as not to send out so many bolts and reach the sprite limit that much more quickly. (I've never subscribed to this, believing it's better to have all the levels of chain you can get, and to learn to control it better though positioning and tactics.) Certainly if you are keeping it down at 11 by not reading more books you don't want to pop it up to 15 or 16 due to your +spell level equipment. Fireball - Big advantage. The higher the level, the faster it travels and the more damage it does. Teleport - No effect. Stone Curse - No effect. Golem - Small benefit. Mana Shield - No effect. Town Portal - No effect. Guardian - Improved slightly. Flame Wave - Improved slightly. Charged Bolt - Improved slightly. Elemental - Improved somewhat. Of course the listed damage skyrockets, identical to fireball damage, but since this spell does not calculate splash damage erronously (fireball doubles splash damage) as fireball does, it will do much less than the listed damage, which is why elemental is an "occasionally used spell" and fireball isn't. If you want to go artillery style and +spell levels, you are basically doing it for more damage with your fireball, at the slight expense of your chain lightning, and adding slightly to a bunch of spells you hardly ever cast anyway. One must weigh the trade offs of each item of +spell level individually, as compared to your other options, and that will be done later, in the equipment run down. Strength - Raising your str increases your mage's damage, and also you need at least 90 str to wear plate mail, the best (and most highly recommended) body armor. You only get 45 base, so several items are required to get a mage's str up to any sort of a decent level. Dexterity - Raising your dexterity increases your AC, and also increases your success in blocking an attack. This is not a very useful attribute for a mage, as your goal is to kill things before they get close enough to have a change at hitting you in the first place. Magic - The most important stat for a mage, and yet not all that essential to raise. You get 250 base, which equates to 500 mana at a minimum, not even including the +2 mana you get per level up. You need 255 to read the highest level of books, but most expert mages will have up around 300 magic with any sort of decent equipment, and usually some +mana also, from dragons/drakes type of items, or especially from the Royal Circlet.
Vitality - Virtually worthless. Mages use mana shield constantly, and as mages only get 1 hp per vitality point, and aren't using their hp's anyway, don't worry about this. It's not uncommon for lvl 38 or even 40 mages to still not have their vitality stat maxed out, and to pass by vitality elixirs without a glance. However as zodiac jewelry, along with some other useful +to all attribute items do hit vitality also, you might as well accept getting some bonus to this attribute, like it or not. One other place you may get stuck with some +hit points is from your shield, as there are very few decent suffixes allowed on shields, especially in conjunction with the desired prefixes. See the shield section for more details. A goodly amount of hit points can occasionally be useful. For example if you are careless and get hit hard enough to drop your mana shield, having 150 or 200 vitality can keep you alive long enough to teleport to safety and re-engage mana shield.
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