Bear with me as this is a very, very, VERY long guide but I like to provide as much info as I can along the way. If you don't want to read any of the explanations then just take the skill build numbers and go from there. I know nobody much uses FL mages as their a bastard to level as well as use but they can be quite handy once you get them 40+ Also I've heard from the GM's that they'll be rebalancing classes soon and that they'll look into moving some of our shield skills down the tree and so easier on the skill points.
It's still not a class many can go from 1-40 with as to go full FL from the start you have to settle with using a spear to attack and not having attack skills until level 40 unless you decide to take Earthquake along the way.
Now onto the skill build...
Patience 5/5
Haste 5/5
Enhanced Melee Effect 5/5
Party Patience 1/1
This is enough to get you through all of the early levels, in the early stages Haste is going to be your best friend as it will really increase your damage output. After this when you put each skill doesn't matter quite so much as for solo it won't make much difference. As a FL mage is all about parties though we'll continue to build it so.
Enhanced Range Effect 5/5
Enhanced Magic Effect 5/5
Party Haste 1/1
Protective Shield 5/5
That's it for first job skills, by this stage most people you party with will be loving all the buffs you can give them. Onto our 2nd job skills, here is where we really start to get into the shields, the main part of the FL mage.
The single Target shields are fine to use and draw no aggro whatsoever, however have a care when you use the Party Shield. It's tempting to spam Party Shield lots because of it's healing abilities as well but it draws an amazing amount of aggro, even when casting Cover Up first.
My advice is to start with the Advanced shield and fight with your spear and once others have built up some aggro then using party shield. You'll learn when and how to use it before too long.
Intermediate Protective Shiled 5/5
Party Shield 1/1
Advanced Protective Shield 5/5
Final Wish 1/1 and Cover Up 1/1 OR Magic Concentration 2/2
Finally we get into the real meat of this build at 3rd job. Now at level 40 you'll have spent 45 skill points and have 27 points to spare which is good because you'll be needing 20 of them to finish off FL. Yep all the skills in the third job range are all useful.
First up we finally get our first decent attack skill in Sand Trap, it's got a decent AoE and stuns mobs at a 95% chance. It's great to use when mobs all come chasing you after using Ultimate Party shield ^_^
Ice Seal will freeze someone and turn them immune for a short period of time, really handy when the wrong person draws aggro and they need saving quickly. The only drawback is that they can't do anything else while frozen either.
If you've died after adding Final Wish then you already know the effects of Angel's Blessing otherwise it's a special Party shield that makes you recieve less damage.
Sand Trap 5/5
Ice Seal 1/1
Guardian's Angel's Blessing 1/1
Party Angel's Blessing 1/1
Enhanced Party Haste 1/1
Enhanced Party Shield 1/1
Superlative Protective Shield 5/5
Ultimate Party Shield 1/1
Enhanced Protective Shield 2/2
Protective Shield Mastery 2/2
Ok now theirs two ways you can start going after maxing out your shield. You can either go in the Heavenly Light tree and start picking up some heals and regens or you can go the way I prefer and start getting some damage from Hell Fire.
Staff Mastery 5/5
Aura of Darkness 5/5
Ocean of Fire 5/5
Incomplete Witcheryer 5/5
Meteor 5/5
Burning 1/1
Declare Peace 1/1 OR Amplify Fire Damage x/5
As you can see we're looking to increase all of our skill damage more with Staff Mastery and getting some AoE with Ocean of Fire. You could look to get Fire Bullet instead of Aura of Darkness but as you'll be spamming Ocean of Fire and Meteor when you get them I find the DoT that Aura of Darkness will add to be more useful to you than Fire Bullets damage.
Incomplete Witcheryer is basically a crit buff, it gives you a 10% chance of doing an extra 150% damage with your skills.
So that's the build all the way up to level 50, I doubt many people will chose to walk the path of the FL mage but I thought it'd be fun to create a guide and give everyone as much info about them as possible.
A final couple of notes about other FL skills. Blessed Recovery isn't a bad skill, 30% more recovery for people can be quite useful, the only problem is that the people that need/use it the most don't have room for it in their buffs. Overbuffing is a serious problem with having a varied party, you can only put so many buffs on a character after which it starts getting messy with people not being about to cast their own buffs.
Earthquake and Wind Blade are tempting to get in the early stages just to have a DD skill to spam, the along thing is it makes it longer till you can get to the good AoE skills in the HF tree. If you feel you must get one though then go for Earthquake, that way Earth Attribute equipment benefits both your Sand Trap and Earthquake.
Ice Pillar has a small AoE and freezes mobs, it's handy in a tight spot but nobody else will be able to damage them so you'll still be carrying all the aggro from them.
Bloody Provocation also has a small AoE and it puts mobs to sleep for a short amount of time, any other hit will wake them up. Both Ice and Bloody have low chances to land their effects on mobs and very short durations so worthless skills.
Explosion of Light can be useful when leveling solo especially considering the returned damage goes AoE but in later levels you shouldn't be getting hit too often combined with the low chance of triggering it really isn't worth it.
Lastly Magic Concentration can be useful and you can chose to add it instead of Cover Up and Final Wish, you will start going through quite a lot MP once you get into the HF tree after all and the later shields can take a large chunk of MP. It just means that you have to be a little more careful about when to cast your healing shields. I personally chose to go for Magic Concentration myself as I'd rather save on the MP but some people would rather just use more pots and have their character work a little better.
Well if you made it this far in the guide then congratulations, I doubt theirs much more I could tell you about FL mages, the rest you'll have to discover for yourself. If you decide to use them then good luck and happy trails.
Subject: Flooded Land Mage 
Wed Oct 15, 2008 8:43 pm
You've gone all out haven't ya? 
But I've got to say, it's looking great. Just about what I thought of doing with my FL mage, but never decided to stick with it long enough 
