Summoner

Summoner's Score

Summoner's Equipment

You are using:
<used as light> empty.
<worn on finger> a twisted gold ring
<worn on finger> a twisted gold ring
<worn around neck> the cross of England
<worn around neck> a gold and jewel-crusted cozactl (slightly damaged)
<worn on body> a red tunic (slightly damaged)
<wrapped about head> a turban with strange markings
<worn on face> a feathered demon mask
<worn on legs> a pair of faded and torn Levi's
<around ankle> a silver anklet with tiny bells
<worn on hands> sealskin gloves decorated with beads
<worn on shoulder> a Knight's crest
<worn as shield> empty.
<worn about body> a beaded draping (slightly damaged)
<worn about waist> a turquoise belt
<worn around wrist> a gold watch awarded for efforts in peace
<worn around wrist> a plain bracelet with carved alder charms
<wielded> empty.
<held> an Osage Orange flatbow
<held> a tiny statue of Vishnu
<worn on ear> a diamond stud
<worn on ear> a gold earring
<worn on arm> (Glowing) Many's shield of Invincibility
<displayed proudly> the mon of the Ishida clan

CHARACTER CREATION

HOMETOWN: ARABIAN NIGHTS
Getting equipment will be difficult especially at lower levels. It is a catch-22. You need gears to level but
you can’t get gears yourself until you are higher in levels. I decided to create a 3rd circle mage as a result since arcane
mastery mages does not rely on gears as much as say, a dual-wielding rogue.

STARTING ATTRIBUTES: MIN, CON, SPI, PER, DEX, STR
Mind: Arcane mastery mage needs a minimum of 60 mind. This can be easily reached if you are lucky and
roll a 50 on your first attribute.

Constitution: When I started this, I was using old knowledge of needing 40 constitution for 3rd circle words.
Apparently, it got changed to 35 constitution at some point. Would have put perception higher if I knew.

Spirit: Need 43 for meditate. This was the 3rd selection because spirit has the additional of +10 spirit quest.

Perception: Need 40 for 3rd circle words. This is the 4th selection because perception gears are easiest to
obtain at low levels.

Dexterity and Strength: This was just left over. I didn’t care much about the last two attributes.

KERE VS VINA
Kere was used until around level 30 due to their ability to get gears easily even at low levels. Once I was
near 30 and had gotten all my slots filled, I swapped over to Vina. 3rd circle Kere trails behind Vina until level 40s
when Kere have access to greater summoning.

LEVELING ROUTES
LEVEL 1 TO 15
XP rooms was exclusively used. Low level Kere are hard to progress until they have their damage-over-time
spells like blood boil (ksi drva agni). To facilitate the XP rooms spam, I stopped by the Lotus-eater to grab a bunch of
fly vials. I would also do easy XP/gear quests where possible. There are some no-kill quest for gears that I relied on,
in particular:
verses of the Aeneid
gold watch awarded for efforts in peace
Osage orange flatbow
earring of Morrigan
Knight’s crest and red tunic
Witch’s ring
Other easy to get gears were stuff like fox’s tail and kestrel-shaped good luck charm (did this at level 50
caused fishermen still hurt and DPS was still low until I got blood boil). For starter gold, helping Mimi in Paris got me
15k gold which was sufficient to get started.

LEVEL 16-25
Ur in Sumer grind was used. Blood boil and balm was an effective combination. I would stop over at
Carthage’s Thermal Bath when I need a boost in healing. All the stolen treasures were saved for level 25. This is due
to the fact that you do not have enough practices to get all the 3rd circle words at level 25. Getting out of level 25
faster just makes thing easier.

LEVEL 25-30
Getting Rudh took the most time during this level range. Hound’s claw would have been impossible without
Huma’s store. I think I spend a little over 3 hours running around hunting for a meteorite. This was painful and I did
not even find one myself but rather, got a tip from someone else who stumbled across it.
I did not turn in the Rudh items after I had gotten them. I made sure to also have another set of Mrti items
on hand before going to reaffirmed over to Vina. This is where I found out that Dragut will not take the two of the
items after reaffirming. I had to re-do the hound’s claw and greater air sprite part. Even though I was annoyed, it
was still better than having to hunt for another meteorite. Oh and I got the 50k gold from running Crusades.
Additionally, I did not reaffirm to Vina until I had filled all my slots with gears knowing that it would be more
difficult to get gears as a Vina. For gears, I prioritize hitting mana reduction cap and hitting 100 mind. All the other
attributes are filler. It ended up being heavy in dexterity because it was much easier to be able to flee when grabbing
gears as a Kere.

Oh, I think I forgot to mention that I also did not reaffirm until I got my Hades’ blessing since Vina can’t
foul water for the quest. Dragon took a long time to kill and in hindsight, I should have skipped him and find an
easier way to get 3 constitution.

LEVEL 30-35
This was pretty difficult. The mage did not have enough hitpoint or mana to sustain difficult combat. Due to the timing constraint, I would run to Silver Pavilion in Japan whenever I needed to regenerate mana. Normally I do not do this caused it I just more work having to consistently running back and forth. I targeted low damage level 50s (think ticket seller in Casablanca).
Due to the limited selection of mobs, most of the time was spent waiting for repop. I just logged out and came back a few hours later rather than letting the timer tick.

LEVEL 35-40
While I got all the gears needed at level 25ish as a Kere, I could not wear all of them due to rent space. As I increased in level and was able to rent more gears, it got easier. Close to level 40s is when I was able to do Many for his shield. It wasn’t possible before even with charmies. This is also when I got my chalice from Abbot Suger as he was a pain (and still was) at this level range. I think I spent close to 2 hours trying to figure out how to kill him. The worst thing was, the chalice didn’t load! Tables were flipped. After cleaning up the stuff on the floor, I went back to kill him after he repop. Practice makes perfect, I guess.
Mana regeneration for a mage is the most important. I couldn’t get my hands-on mana regeneration gears so I had to stick to Silver Pavilion, chalice, and meditate. In an ideal world, I would have gotten help to get 2x topaz ring, three-barred Russian Orthodox crucifix, and a jade-encrusted belt.

LEVEL 40-50
Once I hit 40s, I started taking more risks by doing more difficult level 50s mobs. I was only able to do this due to the revise death penalty. If I was losing XP each time I die, I would probably stick to the safer routes.


FINAL THOUGHTS
3rd circle mages, as with all mages, are difficult to start and scales slowly until critical words have been learned. In the hands of an experience Legendite, mages are still the best way to complete level to 50 contests. Arcane mastery takes this to a whole new level since it was very difficult to balance attributes for spells and for combat.

Luck plays a big part in the contest. This is especially true when observing the time it took for the acquisition of a meteorite. One other participant was able to find out even before level 15 while I had to invest a lot more time to getting one.
Waiting for hitpoint and mana took the biggest chunk of played time. Carthage’s Thermal Bath and Silver Pavilion is great. Netflix subscription is optional but highly recommended.

I do not have much experience with low level gears. It would have been much more difficult as a non-mage. The hardest of course, is obtaining a q5 weapon. Saw a few participants struggle with this. There are some good purchasable gears in Kansas but the price is too hefty. It is another catch-22. Need gold to buy gears but need gears to get gold.

If hound’s claw were not in Huma’s shop, it would definitely impact my strategy. Getting a hound’s claw is equivalent to giving two q5 dual wielding weapons to rogues. With a lot of time, hounds are doable at level 25 but Barney is not unless you start cheesing him by taking advantage of no-XP lost on death and just spam spells and die repeatedly.