Mage Fighting Strategy
Mages have a unique fighting ability. They are good either solo, or
with a group; they are good hitting-and-running, and good when tanking;
they can kill anything in the game; overall, they are members of the most
dynamic and flexible class on Ancient Anguish.
Why is it, then, that most mages buy a packet of parkraz and pick up a pipe
and simply do this ad nauseum:
Somemage enters.
Somemage withers Someenemy's head to a husk, etc.
Somemage leaves east.
As a mage, you're going to be killing one or four ways:
- Pure hit-and-running;
- Multi-round hit-and-running;
- Pure tanking; or
- Partying.
For the sake of this tutorial, we'll leave partying out, as it's quite different
from the other fighting styles.
Most mages will use a combination of the above, as I do. All have their advantages
disadvantages. Here is how I feel they are best used:
Pure hit-and-run strategies are what has given mages a bad name, all in all.
They have their place, but only the most inane of mages uses it all the time, for there
is no reason to, as they not only diminish your ability to do multiple types of damage
(magical, physical, etc.) but increase damage done to you (as most enemies hit multiple
times on reentry to a room). Therefore, they are self-defeating in all but extreme
cases: that is, when defeating an enemy that hits far too hard for you to stay in the
room (for a unique or whatever reason). All in all, you should not be killing enemies
at this high above your level all the time, as you'll likely get more experience otherwise.
The advantage here is for mages who don't use armour, or don't have armour and are killing
for armour. (Tanking King Philip with no armour is a dangerous proposition.)
Suggested pure hit-and-run kills would be the most challenging kills of the game; kills
valued above 9k tend to be in this range. Also, kills like Carcera (who uses arrows and can
do a great deal of damage in single round because of the combination with normal hits) or
Alton (hit and run and HIDE) or creatures with allies in the room (Zarkan and Gilbert or treasure
hunts with multiple creatures) are best tended with pure hit-and-run.
Multi-round hit-and-run strategies are perhaps the best for the fighting strategies
of most mages. With lower constitution and not being able to use good defenses such as
parry or block, mages will have difficulty tanking all the way to finish the kill. Yet
staying in the room for as long as possible, making full use of armour and heals, will
allow you to raise skills and in general finish kills faster. Stoneskin will help you
a lot here, as it will when tanking. When using this strategy, it is best to stay in as long
as you can, using heals like kniggets and crutch or chicker, for say 5 to 9 rounds.
Kills that you can take with multi-round hit and run include Astaroth, Carcera (minus his arrows),
most creatures in Asyvan's Domain, most creatures in the Chaos Tower (NOT Razar), or frost
giant housecarls.
Pure tanking isn't a popular choice for mages, except in extraordinary circumstances (fighting
creatures way below your level, having a cleric to heal you, having exceptional equipment, or fighting
in areas that are difficult to run from). I usually only use pure tanking when killing below my level
for alignment or equipment purposes, when advancing extremely low level skills, or when tanking for newbies
getting skills.
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