Manual for the Way of the Wizard (How to start the server as a mage) (2024)

MANUAL FOR THE WAY OF THE WIZARD
4th Edition
Published 645 AC, During the Third King's Faire (8/11/2021)

Authored by Zxkuqyb of Wind (Read more about this individual here.)

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MANUAL

1st Edition published 323 AC

2nd Edition published 553 AC. The second edition was published shortly after the destruction of the Lycaeum by the Red-Hand Orc Clan, intended to maintain the tradition and increase access since the original was presumed to be destroyed.

3rd Edition published 612 AC. The third edition was a response to the dastardly ritual that destroyed the Cathedral of Saint Francis, carried out by Albufeira, intended to update and improve the wizarding skill of the citizenry and ensure the manual was useful for those newly arriving on the shores of Shelter Island.

4th Edition published 645 AC. The fourth edition is a thorough revision made in collaboration with the Academy of the Arcane Arts to update the manual and ensure that the growing knowledge and expertise of the wizarding community is integrated into the guide.

INTRODUCTION
From the first step I took onto Shelter Island I was mostly alone. Despite this, I was able to fund my training and become a Grandmaster Scribe without ever losing focus (I played this character exclusively for the first week or so after launch). The skills I chose to seek training in were specifically selected to maximize the damage of my spells (+125% spell damage), and minimize cost (spell scroll return), while also building skill in two highly costly skills: Inscription and Magery. Additionally, I wanted my training to be a challenging, rewarding, and enjoyable experience.

The Way of the Wizard is a uniquely viable training method and mage discipline here in the Outlands for several reasons:
1. Spell scrolls can be created without using reagents or mana.
2. Using spell scrolls to cast a spell gives the same chance to increase Magery skill as casting using reagents does.
3. Inscription increases spell damage and provides a chance for spell scrolls to be returned on use.
4. There are several skills that can increase spell damage output without increasing cost.

In this manual, I'll describe in detail the path I took to become one of the most productive scribes in all of Avadon. This document will also serve as an invitation to anyone who would like to follow a similar path to becoming a powerful mage and scribe.

Keep in mind that this is an advanced path, not for the faint of heart, or the simpleminded. You will be extremely vulnerable to assaults of any kind from other people or creatures. If you follow the instructions laid out in this manual I cannot guarantee that you will become a true wizard. Wizardry is an art, and not a science. There is much more to being a wizard that has not been included in this manual. However, this is a start.

Final skills/stats:
100 str
100 int
25 dex

100 Inscription
100 Magery
100 Eval Int
100 Meditation
100 Camping
100 Tracking
100 Forensic Eval

Core values and principles:
1. Fun and engaging: cast spells and take down creatures quickly while managing resources and practicing skillful movement.
2. Minimizing costs: fund training in Magery and Inscription at the same time. (See Appendix A: Magery and Inscription Skill gain table.)
3. Maximizing return: find creatures with areas of relative weakness that match your areas of relative strength.
4. Strategy and tactics: isolate individual creatures and avoid any situation that allows creatures to damage you.

TECHNICAL RECOMMENDATIONS
Choose a name. This is important. People ought to know what to expect from you.

Starting stats selection:
40 str
30 int
10 dex

Skills selection:
50 Magery (+250 spell stone charges spellbook)
49 Evaluating Intelligence (+250 spell stone charges)
1 Spirit Speak (+250 spell stone charges, spirit spell stone, and Magic Lock scroll)

Upon landing at Shelter Island, the first thing you'll do is use Tracking and "Begin Hunt". You'll then repeatedly try to actively track "Aggressive Creatures", and also use your dagger (target self for smart gathering) to gather kindling (if you would prefer to use an another character to create large amounts of kindling in advance, you can get 10 kindling per 1 board). Place your Magic Lock spell scroll into your spellbook, and cast the spell on the spirit stone in your backpack. Select the "Spells" option (it's red), and not the "Summons" option. Double-click the stone to activate it.

Next, you'll run to the mage NPC and train to Apprentice Scholar (+1 Eval) and Inscription (+1) using your personalized training credits that you received in your backpack when you landed on the island. After you've done this, you'll run to the butcher one screen East of the docks and use the remaining training credits to increase your skill in Forensic Eval (+49).

Now you're ready to head to the dungeon on Shelter Island. Before you do, though, lock all skills except for:
Camping
Forensic Eval
Eval Int
Healing
Inscription
Magery
Meditation
Spirit Speak
Tracking
Wrestling

Run in the main entrance to the dungeon, just North of the healer shop. As soon as you enter, use all three of your intelligence stat stones (to benefit from 10x Meditation gains). Start a campfire as centrally located in the main room as possible and start wrestling mongbats. Heal yourself using your starting bandages. Use the Lightning spell to ensure you get the final blow and to begin gaining skill as a mage. As soon as you've gathered 25 gold run back to the butcher and buy a skinning knife. Return to the dungeon until you have at least Journeyman level in all skills (including Magery) and are at least a Novice in Healing. This should take you about 30 minutes, and you should have at least 65 strength and 80 intelligence before you are through.

You may choose to seek out more challenging creatures to fight. If you do, I recommend you fight the harpies that are west of the mongbats, or the ettins that are in the northeast corner of the dungeon. It can be dangerous to traverse your way through the dungeon to the ettins, so be careful.

Remember:
1. Use the skinning knife on yourself (for smart gathering) constantly, now that you have a skinning knife and are surrounded by corpses.
2. Stay near a burning campfire as often as possible to continue training your skill in Camping.
3. Keep your "Begin Hunt" active by using Tracking if you die or log out, and actively track "Aggressive Creatures" whenever idle.
4. Continue to use Spirit Speak periodically to fill your spell stone.
(I created a single macro in Razor that did all of these things for me with one click, making the whole process fairly painless.)

You can stay in this area and wrestle to get your damage bonus skills up quickly at little to no cost. However, you're able to adventure alone beyond the protections of Shelter at this point, and are ready to leave the island.

The journey to becoming a powerful mage begins
When you are ready, use the moongate to leave Shelter Island. The closest and easiest spot to find creatures is one screen Northeast of the Andaria moongate. You want to fight creatures that have as little Magic Resist as possible to maximize your spell damage. There are ruins of an old stone structure there, haunted by ghostly footmen and knights. These creatures each can withstand somewhere between 10 and 15 Lightning spells before they fall, depending on your skills, whether you get charged spells, and basic damage variation. Do not let the melee ghosts within arms reach of you at any point and try to keep the archers out of range (10 tiles or so). This will be good practice for later on, when you have forgotten everything you learned about Wrestling. Continue to gather kindling using your dagger, and keep your spirit stone charged by using Spirit Speak until you gather energy from every available corpse.

Bridging the path to independence
Once you have used all the charges in your spellstone, you should have gathered approximately 500 gold, 150 hides, and 50 meat. Sell the meat to the butcher and the hides to the tanner in Andaria. Also, if you have been fortunate enough to find any magic items sell them to the appropriate vendor, as well. With approximately 750 gold, buy a fireball scroll from the scribe and use all your remaining gold on black pearls. This should net you about 200 of the reagent. Continue to hunt creatures of your choice, this time using only the Fireball spell. I recommend focusing on creatures that are not capable of ranged attacks, to limit the risk of danger. Using Fireball, you will be able to ensure that your return from any adventure will net approximately twice the cost to you in reagents. If ever you find that you are having trouble making ends meet, simply buy black pearls and get back to basics. Note, you can also sell the leather to other people for about 3g ea (use the Discord community: #buy-sell-trade channel). Once you have gathered approximately 1500 gold you are ready to begin your training as a scribe.

With your 1500 gold, buy as many scrolls as you can, making sure that you have a ratio of at least 1 scribe's pen per 200 blank scrolls. Create as many Lightning spell scrolls as you can. When you've finished creating scrolls, remember to automatically use spell scrolls instead of reagents by using the following command:

[AutoUseSpellScrolls

Return to the ghostly ruins, or another spot of your choosing, and continue gathering gold, hides, and meat from the ghostly creatures. By the time you are a Journeyman Scribe, you should have saved approximately 5k gold. Buy a Mind Blast scroll from a scribe vendor. With the rest of your gold, buy as many blank scrolls as you can and begin making Mind Blast spell scrolls. It is time to begin to deepen your training as a mage.

The Journeyman becomes the Expert
Now that you are casting Mind Blast, and have a bit of a slush fund, you can afford to return to the dungeon on Shelter Island and knock out drakes and carrion beetles. Both of these monsters are extremely vulnerable to the Mind Blast spell, and give a pretty solid loot return (even at the reduced loot rates in the dungeon on Shelter Island). Drakes die from 4-5 Mind Blasts, and drop about 100g. You can find them by entering through the mine underneath the town moongate, and running east from the stairway entrance. If you want to gain Magery and other skills quickly, go here. I recommend this, because I found that I had more than enough gold to fund Mind Blast spell scroll creation that outpaced my gains in Magery pretty quickly. In fact, I ended up having a ton of excess Mind Blast scrolls (~2000) that I didn't even use to gain Magery because I was already an Expert Mage by then. If you want to build up a more solid bank, then you can head to the antlions that are found in the Rolling Hills near Andaria, just a few screens Northeast of the ghostly ruins. Antlions have extremely high armor, and low magic resist, making them another excellent target for you at this phase of your training.

You should be getting close to the natural skill limit now, so it will be time to decide which skill to let go of first. I chose to lose Wrestling, in order to maximize damage output.

If you do this, the skills you'll have are those bolded below:
Camping
Forensic Eval
Eval Int
Healing
Inscription
Magery
Meditation
Spirit Speak
Tracking
-Wrestling

The Expert
Switch to creating and casting Energy Bolt scrolls once you become an Expert in Magery and Inscription. Continue slaying evil creatures for profit and fame. Keep in mind that if you have an excess of funds, the most rapid method for gaining skill as a Mage is to cast the most difficult spell you can (e.g., Flame Strike). The reason for this is that you will fail more often when casting more difficult spells and won't have to wait to regenerate mana before you can make another attempt.

Note also that if you find yourself with a true excess of gold, you may find magic spellbooks to increase damage and the chance of mana refund, and you also may purchase delectable food to increase your mana regeneration rate. While neither options is essential to your success, they both may accelerate your training process.

The Adept
Once you become an Adept Mage and Scribe you'll no longer be able to create scrolls that will train your Inscription and also train Magery directly. At this point you can decide for yourself what your next steps are. I chose to drop Healing to Apprentice level, and then began dropping Spirit Speak next. I found that it was extremely helpful to have the ability to start a bandage that had no mana cost, didn't interrupt my offensive spellcasting, and would give me the equivalent of a Greater Heal in health. If you are using delectable food to increase your mana regeneration rate, you may want to consider replacing a damage increasing skill (Tracking, Camping, Forensic Eval, Inscription) with Taste Identification, since that will provide a large boost to the effect of the food.

Follow your own path and enjoy your adventures
You are now a well-trained and dangerous mage and scribe that has the power to take down almost any creature you may come across. With exciting and engaging adventures ahead of you, your battles will also be highly profitable. Go on the hunt for ways to change the hues of your spells so they are unique, or pick up some Society Jobs and become an Artificer! Seek out and research the history of Avadon by gathering research notes! Join or create a guild with others who will appreciate your contributions! There are a multitude of options for you in the Outlands.

FINAL NOTE
During your adventures, if you find mages that are wearing a blue wizard's hat, consult with them for support in becoming a truly powerful wizard. Indeed, the best way to follow the Way of the Wizard is to seek out those who have followed the path for many years. The blue wizard's hat will be a clue, but you will know them by their deeds. (Read more about the Way of the Wizard here.)

Appendix A. Magery and Inscription Skill gain table