Mage Independency - Rock'n the Boat

Purpose: For more experienced players who have a diverse range of abilities at their disposal, this will appear pointless. For newer characters sticking to some type of RP mind set of needing to be a pure mage, and find themselves unable to gain AP as quickly as they'd like, they may find this not only a useful means to gain levels, but to save money and eliminate the need of MP pots during training. Please note, I don't really encourage pure mage builds for people who are building main player characters, rather than characters focused on an RP theme.

- Required -

• Thunder (Rank B+)
  
• Crystal Lightning Wand, Mana Consumption -%40 Upgrade 5/5 (With an age 25 character on Thursday, accomplished easily for 200k)
  
• Magic School Shoes (Dropped at a decent rate by brown grizzly bears--cubs included--and by kobolds)--Can be substituted by Trinity Boots (3 ~ 4 Lessen mana consumption, make sure it has that) or Kari's shoes
  
• Magic School Uniform (Bought 3k from Malcom)--Can be substituted by Kari's Wizard suit, or Trinity wear (given that the trinity wear is 3 ~ 4 lessen mana consumption)
  
• Mongo's Wizard Hat (Drops from Flying Swords at the end of Fiodh normal and Barri basic) OR Broad-brimmed Feather Hat / Trinity Circlet (Again, 3 mana consumption--make sure it has at least that)
  
• Gathering axe

*If you only have 9 mana lessen consumption points gathered, women have the option of buying Trinity gloves. Men can easily get that extra 1 point by getting a mana magician scroll (11-15 stars) from hot air ballooning. *

Why? Why all this extra stuff? I'll tell you why: those goblins go down easy. Half of the time, two charges rank B (yes, even with the -35% damage) is enough to bring a group of 4 down, PROVIDED, that you have a good magic balance. So, while the crystal lightning wand gives us a 40% reduction in the mana pool we cast, that extra 10% we get from clothing brings it to a total of 50%. For those of you ranking Lighting Mastery, depending on where you're at, that's a 70% mana reduction.

- Mana Consumption vs. Casting Speed Upgrades -

This is an emphasis on how to farm the boat ride without the use of MP pots, which is made considerably harder when you upgrade the crystal lightning wand to be less efficient and more focused on speed casting. The speed casting, arguably, can keep you from a tight spot and make it easier. Not to mention, you're getting 20% more damage to deal hurt with. However, I'd like to equate it with Sharp Mind--good for starting out, not so good later on. By experience, you learn to prioritize which groups you need to attack first. You learn which groups will attack, and you gauge carefully when to hit play dead to avoid those jumpers (until rank 3 or 2 in thunder, where you can take them down easily on the limited time you have to cast). In short, the advantage you gain through using the casting speed upgrade wears itself out when your Thunder has been ranked to a God-fearing level, and you know your own strategy well enough.

- The Boat -

Let's face it, the boat is an ideal place for mages; it's directly located next to a mana tunnel--which, for half of a Mabinogi day, freely replenishes our mana store for us. Not to mention that we get our mana pool restrored for the first 30 AP or so based off of leveling alone (granted, that you're choosing to receive exploration EXP rather than other options. It's quite plausible to make 30k on a single boat with a stop at each dock to turn in stars, and that's not including if you get other items of value to NPC / sell). Ideally, you'll be shooting for 16+ stars before hitting each dock (easily done after the fourth or fifth try if you're new at this), exchanging your stars and hopping back on the boat to go through the next section. You can decide, of course, whether or not you prefer the money or EXP rewards, or if a tipping suit is provided, taking that and NPCing it. Heck, if you're confident, you can shoot for 31+ starts for arbalest after stopping at the first dock to exchange the first set of stars.

*A lot of heroes are in the grave; as brave as it may seem to take on more than one or two sets of monsters each time you pass their groupings on the water bend, remember, there's no shame in playing dead. There's no point in pointless dying! Be strategic with the abilities you have, and if you have means to help yourself (Imp, anybody?), then by golly, put those skills on your macro bar and utilize them.*

*Think smart and don't turn your stars in for exploration EXP if you know you'll gain AP directly before chopping wood. Take your wand off and put your axe on, then receive the EXP award before you go hacking away. *

Being a Rafting person myself, I'd like to add a few points onto this.

While this is good, a pure mage would find trouble with the jumping Hobgoblin Warriors that like jumping on. Ever with my r8 thunder, they ALWAYS present the most issues.

Also, know that with thunder, the number of enemies it hits is the dependent upon rank. At rank B, you start hitting 2 enemies on your first charge, Rank 6 is 3, and Rank 1 is 4. For every subsequent charge onto that first charge, you hit an extra TWO enemies. So with my Rank 8 thunder, I use a speed cast Crystal Lightning Wand, and usually give myself two charges. This hits 4 enemies, and then I do two charges again. However, this method usually requires one or two MP100s, unless I trans, but the speed helps in getting more goblins in a short time, which leads for max rewards by the first dock. The jumpers are STILL the biggest issue though. Normally I can one shot them with thunder, if they jump on the raft, or I can lightning bolt them to death (rank 5 recommended for the quicker charge time). Even then, depending on how long it takes, the issue is that they distract you, because the raft is STILL GOING as you are fighting it.

That's a sight into what I use. Also keep in mind my MP pool is usually over 400 when I raft, thanks to my Party Healing Master title adding 40 mp. If you want a good title to use, Explorer of Rano is a great one to use. I believe Elemental Master is also a great one. Both are +20 MP and +20 Int, which the int gives an extra 4% magic damage. (that's 1% per 5 Int, it's seen as Magic Attack on the character Window).

Now I'll show my strategy, I may make a video to show you exactly how I do it.

So we start the raft, go to the front right corner and load 2 charges. The first mob you will see is Archer heavy. Nail the first group with your thunder, and start loading 2 charges again. If you have an imp, Natural Shield. With my equips and skill, I can usually load another two and launch it at the middle group, then get in another charge for the final group. This usually gets me at 8-10 kills, depending on if the thunder shield Goblin covers the ones I hit.
Next Group, the Lightning Gobs. Staying where you are, you are out of reach of their bolts, but Thunder has a range of 2000, so you can still hit them. So after the single charge on the last group, start loading 2 charges, and hit the first group of 3-4 you see. Then start charging again. This is where is gets iffy, as these like to be spread out. Just try to hit as many as you can. You can usually have 16-20 after this group. Now go to the middle of the front, and load two charges again. The raft goes to the left on it's own, so you will be able to hit the first group. This is where the warriors start appearing. After the first hit, load ONE charge and attack the next set of archers. Right after, load another charge, because a warrior is most likely going to jump. Rank 8 Thunder can usually one shot, if not, lightning bolt finishes them off. Usually by now I have about 24-27. Now this is a nice part I like to point out. If you steer your raft to the right bank, and charge -THREE- charges of Thunder. By now, if I'm not transed, I have to drink down an MP100, or two MP 50s (On Friday, one MP50 is enough, thanks to the potency increase by 150%.) But the great thing is there is a hoard of -6- Hobgoblin Warriors on the right bank, up a bit. You have to steer to the right bank to get them in range. Sometimes a few stragglers will have fallen out, but you can usually score 4-6 stars with this single group. From there, I usually need 1-3 stars. I just load another thunder and wait for the next few goblins.

This method works well for me, because I also have the option to switch over to my bow if I run outta MP for thunder. I can usually get 31 stars, the most I've gotten has been 38 I believe. But the speed cast is needed for this to load and attack faster. While this does mean I need mp pots, it's worth it for an easy rafting trip with minimal jumpers.

Anyways, that's just my little two cents and how I used to go rafting. The Warriors seem to be the most issues with pure mages, as it's tough getting rid of them if they get close.

Thank you, Glacia. Those are excellent points, and your strategy is a good one.

The way I had been dealing with jumpers, given that I had gone with the -40% mana consumption, is simply recognizing which grouping has them. Generally, they come after a group of bowmen and mages, so I cast Thunder at the front of the raft, hit them, run to the back of the raft while spamming a click on play dead, and float past the jumpers at this point without them jumping on my boat.

So, yes, that's another nod toward the speed casting. You're able to hit those pesky jumpers without worrying about hitting play dead in time.