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Leaving the cave entrance of Neriak behind him, Drekaar strode confidently passed the captain of the city guard and out into the dangers of Nektulos Forest. With a quick wave of his hand, he flung a ritually prepared dagger into the air as his magic gripped and molded the metal, stretching it to impossible lengths. An explosion of light and sound signalled the completion of the conjuration, and an animated sword and shield was floating in the air beside him. "You'll have to do for now," exclaimed the dark elf with a bit of resentment in his voice. "Until I gain access to more powerful magics." With that Drekaar spun and let loose a short burst of constrictive alteration at a snake slithering by him. The seven-foot serpent quickly rushed toward him, the magic more inconvenience than threat. Drekaar readied his staff as the creature closed... Once in the game, complete your newbie quest, and spend your first 5 skill points; I recommend you dump all five points into your weapon skill--Piercing if you have no money, and suggest One-Handed Blunt as soon as you can get one. Later on, as you start maxxing your melee skill before using all your practices, drop a few into Sense Heading to get it going better. You should be practicing Sense Heading any time you can, because you will come to love knowing which way your facing in the future. First, let's look at your spells now: Lull - First Aggro-Reduction spell, reducing frenzy/reaction radius to 15ft--when it works. I actually tested this spell intensively with a new enchanter once, and found it didn't resist badly at level 1. By level 3 it was up to 40% resists on the same level 1 mobs. *shrug* Anyway, it's definitely an optional purchase, extremely unreliable. Minor Illusion - Turns you into an immobile copy of the nearest inanimate object. Kills Spirit of Wolf if you have it cast on you, and makes your faction Indifferent with almost all mobs. Good purchase for those with less than perfect faction, especially for a dark elf wishing to buy/sell in places like East Commonlands. Minor Shielding - Self-Only buff that gives up to +10HP +6AC at 5th. You should always have this buff on in combat. Also the lowest casting cast Abjuration spell you get, tied with Tashan, both of which can be repeatedly cast to train your Abjuration. 27 minute duration, start play with it. Pendril's Animation - Your first pet spell. Strategy and tactics with pets will be discussed later. Requires 1 Tiny Dagger as a spell component, and your pet is a rogue. Hits for decent damage with low delay, but has weak HP. They don't tank well--and can never be commanded. They just attack anything that attacks you. After a bit of research, I've compiled the damage you can expect from your pets. This animation will hit for a max of 8 damage, and this is will always /con as a level 1 pet. It will always hit for 8 maximum. I don't know the hit points of your pet, but it's never good, so don't rely on your pet to take damage for you very long. Reclaim Energy - Used to unsummon your pet, and recover about 25% of the pet's casting cost in mana. Not worth using till about the 5th Circle, when your pet will cost 85 mana. Shallow Breath - DOT. Max damage of 5, lowers STR & AGI by 5. You will get many upgrades to this spell, though it will see less and less use as you advance. At 7 mana, this is the cheapest Alteration available--cast it on yourself or your pet repeatedly to max your Alteration. Granted this isn't actually a DOT yet, but it's the first in the series. Start play with this spell. Strengthen - Targetted STR buff. +10 STR for 10 mana by 6th level, and the only STR buff you'll have for a long time. Get used to casting it on everyone and everything if you wish to buff STR. There is an ATK bonus for raising STR, and 10 ATK raise will help you or your animation hit at this low of a level. 27 minute duration, recommended purchase. Taper Enchantment - Targetted reduces the duration of top enchantment/buff on target. Will see little use as by the time you need something to remove enchantments, you'll have two upgrades. Not needed unless you're collecting. True North - Spins you to face North. Is also the cheapest Divination spell at 5 mana. Cast repeatedly to train Divination to max, pick up to get prepped for PB stun series. Weaken - First of the Weaken line, targetted debuff--lowers STR of target by 15 max at 10th level. Collector's spell. Completing the First Circle is fairly simple. At first level kill white mobs by pulling with shallow breath and meleeing them. You will ding quickly. Save all money you make for your first spell purchase, Pendril's Animation. Once you are able to summon a pet, continue to melee, and your pet will act as a free "dot" since he just wails away on the mob. You can even back out of a fight for a moment, but don't let the quiet guy tank very long... he's a real wimp, just a damage factory. Always stand on the opposite side as your pet in a fight, because he'll hit more solidly from behind. The next spell you should pick up is Strengthen, because you need to buff you and your pet with anything you can get. Continue killing blues and whites till you finish off this spell rank, and mobs such as Fire Beetles are wonderful for their loot. The remaining spells don't really matter as to order of purchase, save Minor Illusion, to allow you to be indifferent with all merchants when selling--this very often will allow you to not have to zone for a good selling price. Spell Lineup - (because you have so few spells, I'm going to list good places to put these spells in the future by slot number, so you're used to it being there later). 2-Shallow Breath, 8-Swap (Pendril's Animation); though for now, pet spell, Strengthen and Minor Shielding can go anywhere. Spells take so long to memorize you don't want swap slots yet. The spell listed in swap is the recommended spell you will be casting most often or at least find convenient to have memorized all the time. Hoard your money for those fourth level spells, because you're going to need several of them... |
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