Preface
Hi, I've noticed that many players are asking for summoner template. I've been playing with this build since the beginning of my journey on Outlands, so decided to write down my experiences. If you notice any errors or typos please let me know, I'm not a native English speaker but I'll do my best!Update 28-AUG-2024 - added various Arcane-based templates
We are so back, this time it's our turn kill steal to from tamers... but seriously, mage is now one of the best templates for all stages of progression as it used to be.Pros & Cons
+ High burst damage, it's easy to secure your looting rights (or out-damage other players if you like to ruin somebody's day)+ High damage on bosses with damage over time effects
+ Various utility abilities - healing, ressurecting, invisibility, walls and other useful magery spells
+ Can be incredibly tanky in PvM if desired, while still maitaning high damage. Excellent for playing as a DPS or even solo in Time Dungeon/Level 4s
+ Not that bad in PvP - hybrid PvP/PvM builds are possible
+ Free skillpoints - you can easily fit Tracking, Forensic Evaluation, Camping, Wrestling, Resist, etc.
+ Good for all stages of progression, unlike dexxer it's quite good with just a few links, but still scales well with high aspect tiers and mastery chain.
- Summons die too quickly and you have to ressummon them often
- Arcane mage is not that flexible, it's harder to fit utility skills on that build
- Mana refund is random, sometimes you can cast 50 flamestrikes in a row, sometimes only two and you'll run out of mana
- Requires lot of micromanagement to squeeze most of your DPS - there is very high skill celling in order to play effectively.
Skill Choice
New player template
- 100 Magery
- 100 Meditation
- 100 Evaluating Intelligence
- 100 Necromancy
- 100 Spirit Speak
- 100 Tracking
- 100 Forensic Evaluation or 100 Focus
If you are wondering why we don't pick Wrestling and Resisting Spells - your summons will soak most of the damage, so it's not really needed unless you want to fight other players. Tracking will help you avoid PK's and Forensic Eval will increase your actual gold per hour. I recommend to save carved hides - you should make a character with at least 100 talioring on your every account as early as possible. Trust me, the investment will quickly pay off - you can do crafting society quests, which will give you valuable rewards, such as gold mastery reforge kits. Alternatively you can pick Focus instead of Forensic if you want to alleviate mana issues which will inveitably happen.
General summoner solo farming template
Core:- 100 Magery
- 100 Meditation
- 100 Evaluating Intelligence
- 120 Necromancy
- 100 Focus
- 80-120 Spirit Speak
- Tracking - at least 80, but I recommend 100 so it will be more reliable. Tracking is quite good for solo play, but once you are more experienced then you will know how to handle PK's, so most people just drop it later on.
- Camping - at least 80-100 is recommended if you don't want to leave the dungeon every 5 minutes or so, but if you plan to farm Wilderness, it does not matter that much.
- Forensic Evaluation - you will need at least 110 in order to get Avarhide, but it's so rare that 100 could also be enough. This skill is good if you farm mostly in wilderness, but you can just ignore it and buy hides for your societies
- Inscription - probably the best option for players who just don't pick the gold from the corpses anymore. Free flamestrikes and longer buffs are not game changing but are nice to have. Interruption immunity is very important for high tier content or bosses. The damage is a bit better, however it locks you to Eldritch armor to get most of it, otherwise you need to sacrifice two slots for Inscription links. If you use a different aspect on armor then it effectively downgrades it to a regular 25% spell damage skill - you could use various damage multiplier links instead.
- Wrestling/Resist - non-brainer for a hybrid PvP/PvE build. Wrestling bonus is usually wasted due to high innate refund change from aspect. Resist grants you interrut immunity which is nice. You will have to drop focus in order to run that combination, or cut some points from various skills like Necro, Spirit Speak etc. It is one of the best hybrid builds out there, however high tier Eldrtich or Void aspect on Armor and 10 spell aspect chance links are required to keep up with mana without Focus.
The last skill is up to you. If you are new then first three options are just as good. Forensic will give you hides. You won't need to restock with Camping that often. You can avoid getting PK'ed with Tracking - your GPH is zero when you are dead. Inscription is the most optimized skill for pure killing power, but skill scrolls are quite expensive - I'd just wait for it until you have no trouble sourcing cores for your build.
Arcane Mage - allrounder template
- 100 Magery
- 100 Evaluating Inteligence
- 100 Arcane
- 80-100 Wrestling
- 120 Necromancy
- 100 Focus
- 80 Parrying
- 20-40 Alchemy
Arcane Mage - Inscription template
- 100 Magery
- 100 Evaluating Inteligence
- 80 Arcane
- 80 Wrestling
- 120 Inscription
- 75-80 Necromancy
- 80-85 Focus
- 80 Parrying
Arcane Mage - Alchemist template
- 100 Magery
- 100 Evaluating Inteligence
- 100 Arcane
- 80 Wrestling
- 80 Necromancy
- 100 Focus
- 80 Alchemy
- 80 Parrying
Arcane is considered a "pure mage" build, but I'd consider it more as a "battle mage" - it's feels more like mage/dexxer hybrid. There is less flexibilty with skill choices, but farming speed is just better with high tier aspects. Summons defence scales poorly, most high end monsters eat them for lunch. You won't need to bother with resummoning your earth elemental every second monster or so. You don't have to wait for summons to follow you, which is really nice for Wilderness farming. It's easier to get into trouble as you cannot use your summons to take aggro from yourself. You get excellent defense layers though to counter thqt. It's possible to wear even plate armor with certain aspects just fine - you will be tankier than most dexxers. Keep in mind that you need high tier aspect to not be mana starved without meditation.
If you want to start as an Arcane mage, then I'd recommend to start with an regular summoner and swap to Arcane once you are at tier 10 or so. It's highly recommend to start farming in the Wildreness to get accustomed to the playstyle - you can kite monsters easily on a mount. Once you are more experienced and your codexes are completed then you could go back to the dungeons just fine.
Aspects
Book/Weapon:
Aspect procs don't really matter before T10+ anyway, so you will be not missing much while using other aspects as a new player on a weapon. However, Eldritch and Arcane are way better than anything else. Although expensive, you will need one of these aspects eventually. Mages in general rely much more on procs than dexxers, so best in slot aspect makes all the difference.- Eldritch - good all-rounder aspect - more mana, reduces spell resistance, can be used on any build. Although it won't provide you as much mana as Arcane, mana wells can be used immediately and are not wasted even if your mana is full. Usually used on pure Eldtrich builds, other aspects works better with Arcane weapon.
- Arcane - the best option for staff users, high tier Arcane can basically resolve all your mana issues by itself. There is only one downside - you need to hit stuff to restore your mana. You need to keep killing stuff, so it's might not be the best choice for overfarmed spots. You need some time to trigger couple of procs in order to get that mana regen, if you stop for some reason you need to build up bonuses start from scratch.
Armor:
There are many viable armor choices, you can basically level up other non-mage related Aspect on armor with high tier Arcane staff. For actual armor set, I recommend leather for leveling up, and bone once you have high tier Aspects and fully leveled codexes. Bone does not inhibit mana regeneration that much and it's the cheapest to craft, so you can use more expensive materials. Plate can work too, but a bad mana refund streak might make you unable to even heal itself.- Eldritch - nerfed a bit but it's still good. It gives lots of spell damage and mana, so basically all you need. Inscription boost is nice even if you don't have it in your build. It's not as good defensively, but even without Inscripiton you can enjoy longer Protection buff which gives you 30 extra armor with Grimoire upgrade. It's most likely the best DPS aspect for bosses and farming for low link players. Players with maxxed mastery chain can get comparable or better results with multi-damage aspects instead, like Void, Blood or Madness. Good option if you don't want to split experience between two aspects yet, both weapon and armor are viable choices.
- Arcane - it does not provide you any mana so you will need a high tier Arcane aspect weapon to fix your mana issues. Health regen is insane as long as you can chain flamestrikes - it allowes you to farm basically anywhere you want. Damage is kinda lackluster, but Arcane mage has high innate spell damage anyway. If your initial damage won't kill your target fast then DoT effects will. You get a huge DR bonus on top - so you don't have to waste time for kiting and healing. Best used for high-end content, it's a tanky beast. If you like more chill playstyle, then it's probably the safest opton - just spam flamestrikes and that's pretty much it. Even if you don't want to use it on armor then you really need to use it on a weapon
- Void - due to recent minimum resist changes it's not as good as it used to be. Health and mana regen are nice though, one of the best options if you want to wear a plate armor on your mage. High tier arcane armor will be more tankier on average though. It also has a specific use case where it really shines (DPS aspect for Time dungeon). Arguably it's still very competitive, it might not be as tanky as Arcane or as deadly as Eldritch/Madness, but it has very consistent damage output and reliable mana regen. It is a solid option for endgame players, extra mana regen allows you to drop aspect chance links, which can be traded for Charged Chance/Damage.
- Death - good budget choice, it boosts your Necromancy skill which is your main damage skill. You are going to find a better aspect for every specific use case, but if it's all you can afford then it's not bad. You will need to level up your Eldtrich/Arcane weapon eventually. Can be used on both regular summoner and on Arcane mage. Level it up to like 10 tier and then switch to something different.
- Blood - another budget aspect but for Arcane mages - stats increase will boost your swing speed substantially so you will get more mana. Damage below 50% has a nice interaction with all that DoT effects, all you need is to reduce HP with Flamestrikes, and then your damage over time effects will do the rest. It's not bad for all-rounded template, but you really need to level Arcane weapon with it. It shines while killing high hp targets, as bleeds need some time to resolve.
- Madness - basically inferior to Eldritch armor in terms of spell damage, survivability, utility, mana sustain for sub 20 link players. Although it can deal more DPS on paper with 30 link build it's basically not worth it in realistic scenarios maybe outside of omni bosses. It's still fun though, aspect procs hit like a truck, and it has nice synergy with Alchemy build. It should be consider as endgame project, gameplay is very risky but really fun and engaging.
Links
- Damage to Diseased Creatures - your bread and butter, period. Boosts not only spells but Aspect proc damage and Pain Spikes as well. The best option for first 0-10 links. Make sure to trigger a disease effect first with some low tier spell like magic arrow.
- Spell Aspect Chance - you should wait before you reach T13+ Eldtrich/Arcane aspect because you need a high base proc chance in order to really benefit from these links. It won't increase your damage that much but your mana issues will be mostly resolved. Unfortunately real aspect chance is bugged and it's about 6% on Flamestike at 15 tier instead of 10%. Good to pair with aspects which do not provide any mana bonuses, such as Arcane or Madness
- Damage to Bosses/Dungeon Damage links - best in slot but you have to change them for every dungeon.
- Spell Damage with no Followers - these are way worse than it seems as they scale additively - I will explain what does it mean in the next paragraph. There are way better options for first 30 slots, you can consider them for redline links though. It's still better than nothing if you don't want to bother with slayers.
- Spell Charged Chance/Damage - better than Spell damage links if you can get a full silver, gold or corrupted set. If you have only few slots free then Spell damage are better. These links work better with aspects which do not provide additive spell bonuses, such as Void, Blood or Madness
- Effective Necromancy - while the bonus might seem very small, any boost to necromancy will increase your damage substantially - for example, a bronze link will grant extra 1.315% spell damage as damage over time with Corpse Skin + Mind Rot combo (I'll explain it later). It'll also boost other necromancy skills and symbol capacity. It's a good budget link to pair with Death aspect, but there are way better options for other aspects.
- Meditation Rate - not as good anymore, we have plenty of mana so we don't need that anymore. If you are brand new to the game, it's better than nothing, just buy a couple of bronzes and sell these later.
Additive vs Multiplicative damage scaling
It's very important to know how do the damage bonuses work. Most damage bonuses scale additivelyFor example - let's say that you have:
100 Eval Int - 50% increased spell damage
100 Arcane with T15 Arcane aspect - 105% increased spell damage
Enemy is cursed - 25% increased spell damage
Evil omen with 120 necromancy - 24% increased spell damage
T15 valewood staff - 58% increased spell damage
For example, you cast a spell which deal 100 damage if you don't have any bonuses
If you combine all of these bonuses you will deal:
100 * (1 + 0.5 + 1.05 + 0.25 + 0.24 + 0.58) = 100 * 3.62 = 362 damage
For example you want to upgrade your chain with 10 gold spell damage when no links. You will get another 67.5% increased spell damage, but with the all bonuses combined you will deal
100 * (1 + 0.5 + 1.05 + 0.25 + 0.24 + 0.58 + 0.675 ) = 100 * 4.295 = 429 damage
The difference between 362 and 429 damage is only 18.5% despite the fact that these links give you "67.5%" additional spell damage.
There are few bonuses which do stack multiplicatively though. The list includes guild favours, bard buffs, Damage to Poisoned/Barded creatures links and Dungeon/Boss damage links.
For example you want to upgrade your chain with 10 golden damage to diseased creatures links. You will get 37.5% more damage against diseased creatures
100 * (1 + 0.5 + 1.05 + 0.25 + 0.24 + 0.58) * 1.365 = 100 * 3.62 * 1.365 = 497 damage
Different damage multiplier links do add with each other, so there are diminishing returns when runing multiple sets of multi links. Void, Blood or Madness damage bonus are in a separate bucket, and put on top of chain links in terms of damage calculations.
Wizard's Grimoire Upgrades
Most important upgrades:Create Food - extra 25 mana every 60 seconds
Mana drain/vampire - you don't have to max this skill if your mana refund already exceeds 50% cap
Flamestrike - extra 35% damage as damage over time is way better than flat damage bonuses, even if some damage will be wasted while farming
Lightning - hinder is helpful, especially against these spectral marksmans which can one shot you
The rest is up to your personal preference:
Magic arrow/harm will help you finish monsters, Mind Blast upgrade is quite substantial, Greater Heal upgrade will keep your summons / friends / ship crewmates alive
Summoner's Tome Upgrades
I won't cover that section in detail as most summons are basically underpowered, just stick to Earth and Fire and don't worry about other summons.Recommended Earth elemental upgrades:
Spirit Pact, Corporeal Tether, Hardened, Grounded, Earthpull, Deep Roots
Recommended Fire elemental/Lich upgrades:
Spirit Pact, Corporeal Tether, Scorched Earth, Controlled Burn, Wildfire, Fanning the Flames
I prefer that my liches are more tanky so I don't have to resummon them that often on bosses, but you can take Glass Cannon or Unstable Sorcery upgrades if you want
Necromancy skills
The most important thing - DO NOT use Auto-Renew checkbox - it will burn all your symbols very quickly. You have to control these abilities manually, so you can use spell damage bonuses while you are spellcasting, and regenerate your symbols while meditating. You can replace your Flamestrike keybind with a script which will cast Flamestrike and then try to trigger abilities - I recommend setting Corpse Skin and Mind Rot as these two are the most important.- Vengeful Spirit - I wouldn't bother with Necro summons if you don't use Death Armor. I mean you can use Liches instead of Fire Elementals, but there is so little damage boost than you can just use Fire
- Poison Strike - perfect as a finisher, you can resolve up to 8 disease ticks - use this skill while the mob is on low health and has couple of disease stacks on it. It will deal more damage than a Pain Spike later on
- Evil Omen - while it's cheap it comes with a downside. Although health drain can be mitgated by Void or Arcane Armor, there might be some situations where you don't want to take any extra damage. I personally do not bother with that skill for regular farming and I use it mostly for bosses. Damage increase is additive so it falls off at later stages of progression. But if you do some easy content then you can add it to your Necro buff trigger script.
- Corpse Skin - your bread and butter, extra 30% as damage over time. Which is way better than anything else, as it effectively counts as damage multiplier.
- Vampiric Embrace - I don't use it anymore as liches lose maximum hp over time, so you have to resummon them eventually. You can use it with Death Armor, otherwise just do not bother
- Mind Rot - surprisingly, disease damage bonus adds up with Corpse Skin, so with 120 necromancy you will deal extra 54% damage as damage over time. Combined with the Flamestrike upgrade you will deal extra 89% damage, which will melt high HP targets. That's why it's worth to use these abilities all the time, even on regular dungeon monsters
- Blood Oath - It's basicaly only worth running with Death Armor, but even then there might be better options as summon damage is lackluster
- Strangle - I do not recommend using this skill unless you go with Death Armor - the damage bonus is tiny compared to Corpse Skin + Mind Rot. Delayed damage makes everyting worse though, so it's only useful on bosses where it doesn't matter.
- Wither - good for resummoning your elementals and liches/ when you are out of mana. There is a little use on an Arcane Mage, but still it's nice if you need to res someone and not burn half of your mana.
- Pain Spike - if you have a lot of symbols feel free to use this skill to finish the creatures in dungeons. It's good early on, but it doesn't scale that well with various progression systems.
I think that's all, if you do have some questions or ideas feel free to post it in this thread
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