Gothic 3 Powerleveling a pure mage?

JemyM

Okay, now roll sanity.
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I decided to play hardcore, a pure mage, but I did not want to waste a single point of the "Fast Learning" skill. This was not an easy task because it's based on how weak you can complete Cape Dun with (at least if you follow the Rebels).

Personally I got to level 12, saving just 25 points to level 13. I was lucky to have stone tablets that got my A.K up a bit, as well as reading every lectern/bookshelf in Ardea/Reddock/Cape Dun, including the Cape Dun Orc Leader's own.

(so yes, I wasted a few possible points but not that man)

After that I spent my points to get 100 in A.K, bought Fast Learning, Fireball, killed a single snake and bought up to 240 mana.

With all mana potions I bought up to that point I could clear out Cape Dun, which got me up to level 14. For that I got the Mana Potion recipy and more mana. My goal is to reach 300-400 mana before I start to powerlevel A.K for Mana Regen.

Am I doing right, am I doing wrong? is there's anything else I should think of (I already know Dragons ignore fireballs, so some ice stuff is needed eventually).
 
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Not sure I understand exactly what your doing, so ignore me if my relpy is not what you asked for. ;)

Only thing I can think of, if your doing quest, don't strat liberating towns till after you have done All Quest in All Towns, this is due to the Triger Points of No Return.
If you Liberate 4 towns form Orcs you will be attacked on stie by ALL Orcs and never be able to complete any quest where there is an Orc in the town.
Reason being he will attack you and if you attack him everyone in the town will attack you and that means no quests.

If you don't mind and are intrested in learning more about this look in the Trigger Points thread Mylander posted some very pertant info. :)
 
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Get mana regeneration ASAP. Ancient knowledge also determines the strength of your spells, so 1 fireball with 200AK = loads at 100AK. This way you also save mana, by having to cast less spells.

You can get mana regeneration from the high fire mage inside Vengard, the fastest way to get there is to pump up 250AK, clear out Gotha(you can use a bed in the first house to refuel the mana needed), get the stone, and then run all the way to the king(no need to clear out Vangard). That way you can have mana regeneration by level 30 or so if you get all the AK upgrades along the way - Geldern, certain places in the desert, and so on hold quite a few stone tablets/books.

Mana regeneration is the ultimate skill in the game provided you have healing - you just can't run out of mana, so you can heal yourself, spam damage spells, summon etc without being worried about mana. No need to have more than 400 mana or so - it regenerates so fast it doesn't really make a difference how much you have.

I made a "pure" mage build, but started by getting 120str and flaming sword, just to be able to hack my way out of trouble when out of mana before getting mana regeneration. After that I went up to about 200 mana, and then pumped AK and ran into Vengard as described above.

Another thing - the 30 levels or so needed to get mana regeneration? Get them by doing quests all over the place - NOT liberate cities. Liberation cities is extremely tough untill you get mana regeneration, but so easy after you get it. So instead of actually liberating them, just "prepare" them for liberation by doing all quests, get 75% in all cities and so on. This way you can move swiftly through the game without too much frustration till the point where you get the extremely powerful mana regeneration.

Also, I have to stress this again - AK is far more important than mana. At 400+ AK a single fireball can take out almost anything, even in Nordmar. It's redicilously powerful. My mage was a Beliar based mage, so I had lightning instead, but they are roughly the same - I was zapping my way through Nordmar without breaking a sweat, entire orc camps died and by the time I was done looting I was back at 100% mana.
 
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Acleacius, I just wanted to create a topic about playing mage. :) But I will check out the triggerpoints. I am starting to grasp how to avoid screwing up the main quest now.

Excellent tips Maylander
I have 400 mana now and 105 AK. I will be sure to spend all my future LP into AK to reach 250 as fast as possible. Should be able to reach 250 before level 30 for sure.

I have liberated Cape Dun, but I will not liberate the other cities now then, just run the quests.

I can pick up all forms of attackspells and use them, but Fireball will be mighter if I pick Fire Mage right? (I am not sure yet what kind of mage I will be).
 
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Nope, all spells are detirmed by ancient knowledge alone. If you have fireball there is no need to get lightning or ice lance, they all do roughly the same damage for the same mana. It's a waste of LPs to go with more than one of those spells, as no creatures have very high resistances to anything.

I'll give you a few advice on spells:
- Get Summon Demon as soon as possible(205AK), and use him as a tank when you need it. He can take an incredible amount of pain before dying.
- Healing and Light are needed, basic spells I get on all characters(30AK is easy to get for any character just by reading books). That way I can avoid those annoying torches and reduce the number of healing potions I need.
- Only get 1 low mana cost damage spell(either lightning, ice lance or fireball). They all do the same basically.
- Get one area effect spell, such as the upgraded version of Lightning, Rain of Fire or Thunderstorm. Useful in certain situations, but no need to get more than one of them.

All in all, if you don't want to waste ANY points at all, get Fireball, Rain of Fire, Healing, Light and Summon Demon. Personally I like to have a few more just for fun, but they're not actually needed. If this is your first mage game, I suggest getting some other spells as well just to try it out, but maybe save before trying them as some seem cool but are utterly useless, hehe.
 
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I guess I was tired when I read your post, it makes perfect sence now. :)

I am wondering if PB is going to fix the Mobs not having any resistances, in Patch 2?
I guess they will if it was an oversite or wasn't time to implement it before release.

JenyM, don't know if you saw the other thread, Maylander and myself both tested and it turns out if your Rep with a town is high, in my case it was 80+ and I didn't get attacked by an Orc leader even though I had liberated 3 towns before I knew to be careful.
So the good news is make sure you get your Rep with a town as high as possible before you enter the Orc protected areas in each towns since they have many good quests that don't require harming Rebels, if your going that path.
It mainly seems to be the Orc leader of each town that has the quest to kill rebels, at least I have seen so far.
 
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Thanks for the info about the orcs. I am in no hurry to save Montara for now but I will see what happens later on. Mason and the guys who wanted me to kill cows died when trying to attack on their own.

What confuse me is that I tried to hurt the Dragon's with maximized fireballs and their healthbar did not budge, but when I attacked them with a regular 100 hunting bow + regular arrow they took damage. I assumed the Dragons had resistance vs fire.
 
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Ahh, yeah when I took them, I assumed they had Fire Resist and used my Crossbow,
I was afraid I needed Ice Lance for magic which I had not found yet.
 
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Hmm, never tried taking dragons with fireballs. I used lightning as my main attack and had no difficulties with any creatures' resistance.
 
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In G2, I loved the Ice wave spell cause it froze the enemies while doing damage. Gave you a chance to reposition yourself!!
 
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Indeed, and ice block was a bit overpowered in certain situations, as it froze the enemy for a very long time, where you could bash them all you want without the ice breaking.
 
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Doing fine here. 197 AK, 400 mana, still heating with fireball only. Pushing hard for 250 AK, then I have some special skills and spells to buy. Only 100 health still makes me vulnerable but only when things get in close range.
 
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Just get that mana regeneration, it changes everything from "slightly difficult" to "fairly easy". I can see how the low health is a problem - most people underestimate the importance of investing in health(since you didn't have to in G1 or 2), but it makes a lot of difference. You should probably invest some in getting 200+ after getting mana regeneration. Usually, my goal is roughly 400-500 as a mage, and 600+ as a fighter, but that is at level 60(or so).
 
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With the recent patch, armor appears to be fixed, so question is if not a "doubled" Fire Mage Robe and some good protection jewelry do the job in the "earlier" levels. I have 250 AK, 5LP, 39 mana potions and in the process of clearing vengard.
 
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The armor talent is fixed, or did it just double your armor? Try to take off all armor and see if your armor is 0 or your old armor value - if you forgot to take off armor before patching, the new patch set your "naked" armor to old armor, and then adds items after that. A bit of an exploit, as explained if you read Goraths note on the patch release thing in RPGWatch news.
 
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No, I said wrong. I thought the armor talent would double the effect of robes, but it didnt.
 
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It's supposed to, but it doesn't work. Robes are worthless at this point - 45 armor compared to 100 on the paladin armor/orc armor, and you can still wear those as a mage because there are no requirements other than reputation.
 
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I just look better in robe. :D

I have what you recomended, except I added Heal Other. Might add more spells later for fun. Goal is to find the Fire Mage trainer.

Like you said, more than 400 mana is barely neccessary with Mana Regenation. I do not even use Mana Potions anymore. I think I should learn "Endurance of the Wolf" because I run alot. The demon is a strong but stupid tank. I put him in use when I can. I only use melee weapons to knock people over now.
 
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Indeed, you need a lot of mana to get to mana regeneration - after that mana potions and a high mana pool is without any point. Even weapons are pointless after that, since you regenerate almost as fast as you can use mana.

Yes, endurance of the wolf is nice to have, check the mastery thread to find trainers. I always get this skill so I can run longer.

The demon is best used against certain, powerful creatures. An example is powerful casters, like undead high priests in the tombs in the desert. In fact, after getting mana regeneration I only use the demon for such casters, as they can kill me with 1-2 spells.
 
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