Alright so I was looking at a few guides and decided I wanted to make a Mage
would like to make a solo Mage

Plz just don't post a link to a guide I have read a lot of them

few questions

how much would it cost to make a solo Mage?
what charm would you recommend for Mage
is I possible to make a good solo Mage or should I just make a Mage to cata although I would rather do dmg with my charms
what ee should I try to get on each charm? Should I get a new dmg charm every 5 lvls or 10?

If you have any tips/hints feel free to pm or post them here
thanks for your time and help

~ 500fg + for a decent mage, semi- high ee charms/ int wep/ armor.
Since the current patch kind of deteriorated the casting damage, it might be best to just go the healer route for cata.
Ice or earth as your charm, shoot for atleast 105 ee, focued heal (is what I prefer) to keep consistent heals- again 105+ ee if you can, and 30+ int on your wep/ armor.
Try getting a new charm every 5 lvls, you will see the difference unless you have a higher end ee charm you can probably switch every 10 lvls.

thanks
anyone else have something to add?

Up

tyler ive made a successful solo mage from 1-55 (can go further i just like getting healing points after that)

charms every 5 lvls if you are getting 50+ if you are getting charms in the 90+ range you can manage every 10 levels pretty easy. once you pick a charm type stick with it. Ice is the most ballanced (like a dagger) lightning//wind are both very similar to a sword. earth is more like a staff etc. just pick one and try your best to stick with it as its much easier to gain prof that way.

i do similar for my healing charms. if you dont limit yourself to one charm group you can get them pretty cheap. its easy enough to get a 50EE charm per every 5-10 levels if you dont limit which type youre looking for.

you can get reasonably priced 30+ int gear in daggers and robes. (staffs get a little more pricey as warlocks use them) try to keep the int high and the ilvl low. tho again this can get a little pricey as obviously thats more desirable.

i suggest making your first climb as cheap as possible. spend the most fg on your lvl 55 gear but try to go relatively cheap on the lower lvls. after you accomplish the first mq and see what works start upgrading little by little from there. ie right now im looking for a reasonably priced lvl 50 charm as well as a decent tier III charm if i want to do a straight cast run instead of melee the first few levels.

lmk if you have any questions as ive perfected the scrooge mc caster at this point lol

i aggree with yaksha if u plan on having a a solo mage, the charms you might want to have is 50+ee every 5 lvls or 100ee+ every 10 lvls, tbh you will probably need a heal charm to make the runs go smoother as u climb which gives u a higher chance
in succeeding in welling items. yet i prefer to have ice charm/earth at the lower lvls cause the dmgs are consistent then at higher lvls with a lightning/wind charm cause of the high chance of dmgs and all the INT u have that was put in the char.

as i look on the mp right now i see that weapons with 20-30 int are averaging from 10-30fg thats prolly enough to reach you to a pretty high lvl, armor are averaging quite the same but some seem kind of expensive yet i saw an armor with 20int at lvl 10 ranging from 10ish fg. note that with an armor with 20int and a weapon with 20 int that like 40int that will add idk 50-100+ extra dmg to ur charm so its base on your int which also makes your charm effective so imo focus on the int.

yea from this point on i love mages and i will never go melee end game

also im giving away some healing gear http://forums.d2jsp.org/user.php?c=3&i=280425&p=330679

lmk if u need any

This post was edited by chaoticslayer on Jan 28 2010 09:18am

one more question would it be worth it to sell all my melee gear to play 100% caster??

if you like casters =O do a few mq's before you make up your mind though

get some avg gear and if you really like it. sell or downgrade ur melee for better casting gear

its really up to you and your style, mages do require alot of mana regen as u progress if u have the time yes i definitley recommend playing caster, imo they are the best weller in game but any character can be a good weller if u go hybrid (if melee) but mages its just /dump int. They are pretty fun in cata due to that new update , tho in the future i miss playing melee but still never was able to progress

tyler as you know from playing with me that i have both a mage and a melee char. its very feasible to do both if you lay it out the way i told you. obviously my better gear is on my melee char but that by no means holds back my mage from climbing at a pretty good solo rate. (im no mcclain) since your melee char is pretty solid id play a cheap mage and just upgrade slowly and surely with each climb or each time you can afford it.