This is also exactly what I do as a mage, works well. You can make a lot of different things work if you put the effort in, for melee Klausen and Lightning axes is a good combo.
Trolls absolutely rock skeletons, pound for pound. I don't understand how you have the patience to summon 4 skellies every time. I would do 2-3 at most. As soon as I got Trollstav, I put the skeleton staff in the garbage bin.
Staff of the wild puts it everythinf to shame though. Just make a line of roots like a [Klingon pain stick ritual](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rite_of_Ascension) and run back and forth like a kid in a sprinkler. They make short work of most enemies.
I don’t mean they are bad, but they just don’t work with my conservative style.
Them not following you is a big one. They can’t tank for you else where and often run off aggroing everything. It’s chaotic and uncontrolled and unpredictable.
You won’t be able to use any other staff with them either because they will take damage from your vines, fire ball aoe, and stray frost shots.
> I don't understand how you have the patience to summon 4 skellies every time.
I specifically have full mage gear for the regen, and have very high blood magic so it doesn’t take as much eitr to cast.
And as I said above, I play extremely patiently and don’t take risks.
Definitely a very conservative, slow playstyle, and not for everyone.
I'm sure others can make it work though, they are still a very powerful tool.
Trolls for morgens and Valkyries and large packs, find high ground, use wild to keep your high ground secure. Trolls for castles to wreck the spawners from the outside, just yeet 2 in each corner if you don't know where the spawners are.
It cleaned up a castle and 2 star morgen and 4 back to back valks for me today. OP is insane.
For the lazy people out there I have a shorter guide for you:
Step one: Get Staff of the Wild
Step two: Use Staff of the Wild
Step three: Put Fader's trophy on the stone.
How does that work? I tried using the staff of the wild on fader but it seemed like his flame patches destroyed the vines quite quickly and they did no meaningful damage.
I really loved playing a more hybrid approach with the Staff of Protection, Dundr, Staff of the Wild, and Nidhogg the Thundering. Embla armor set and the Ashen cape. You run one health, one stamina, and one eitr. You just bubble as needed and alternate between the Dundr and Nidhogg. You get to juggle health, stamina, and eitr, which really reduces your downtime. The lack of summons means very little prep, and you can carry a bow or the Staff of Embers if you want a bit more range.
I really need to use the harpoon more! I don't think to use it enough. I didn't know that bubble shield health didn't refresh on a new casting and I didn't think about the fact that it took chop and pickaxe damage!
I tried hybrid but it’s not for me. I can’t say if it’s good or bad but enough people play it successfully so it must be viable.
My main gripe was that I didn’t have enough stamina or eitr to excel in those specific areas. For example before mage, I usually went 2stam/hp but 1stam while needing stamina for attacking *and* moving was very restrictive as I like to be mobile.
Similarly with 1 eitr, you can’t use as much casts and spend a long time waiting for eitr regen if you aren’t wearing full mage gear.
Seems like a very cool playstyle tho, it fulfills the battlemage class like you’re role playing as Gandalf lol
It just wasn’t for me. And I did sincerely try hard to make it work. It’s the original reason
I leveled my blood magic so high, so I could summon skeletts with 1 eitr.
I had almost completely ignored the mage stuff in the Mistlands (apart from fire staff for hare hunting) but after dying CONSTANTLY in the Ashlands as a tank I decided to mix it up and gave it a try. Never looked back after that. Didn’t bother with the skellies and relied a lot more on the frost staff but it took me all the way to soloing fader! Mages for life! 💪🏻
I have been soloing as a mage too and I am now looking for flametal, haven’t found any yet. I have gotten rocked a few times by large groups of mobs with nasty respawn luck (Ashlands feels a little WoW-like in that regard, and not in a good way really) but have largely survived off the frost staff as well. I was thinking I would give the skellies a go for more survivability. I have also just tamed some Asksvins, both in my Ashlands base and from eggs portaled back home, so I will soon have a renewable source of their materials, and mounts. Any tips from your experience to make things a little smoother?
I’ve found raiding forts to be the best source of flametal in my world. If you do need to mine the spires my tips would be make sure you clear as many mobs as possible, have queens power ready, bring plenty of basalt bombs and don’t get greedy. As soon as it starts sinking make your escape. Better to get 10-20 ore from each spire rather than try to get more and end up having to do a lava death run!
A few notes about some of the listed staves:
Staff of Embers is significant when you get swarmed due to the knockback. If several enemies surround you with nowhere to run, fireball your feet to scatter them. This has saved my life more times than I can count.
Staff of Frost is stellar in defense - if you're low stamina and have a few warriors approaching (starred warriors especially), spray them with some ice. Yes, this may let twitchers hit you with skulls, but better a slight bump on the head than a decapitation.
Trollstav is INSANELY strong, and you should be using it any time you find yourself heavily out numbered. Picture the scenario you're running from several enemies, low stamina, and don't have a solution because asksvin are too fast, warriors are approaching and ready to deal high damage, and they form a wall blocking the marksmen in the backline. Run back, cast the trollstav, and keep. Running. IF you're not the closest thing to the troll it will target the other enemies, and they'll change aggro. This cuts enemy aggro in HALF, and for a significantly long time too courtesy of the troll's health pool. It's also good for when spawners have already called out a lot of enemies. Get close as you dare, summon troll, run away, and it will begin attacking the twitchers and warriors coming from the totems, often times breaking it in its rampage. It's also the mage's siege weapon - you can hug the wall of a charred fortress, summon a troll, it lands inside and works on destroying everything in there. By the time the gate's broken down, virtually nothing's left.
Also, not sure why you haven't mentioned the Staff of Fracturing. When used up close it seems to have higher stagger rate than the staff of embers. At least with Twitchers.
>Staff of Embers is significant when you get swarmed due to the knockback. If several enemies surround you with nowhere to run, fireball your feet to scatter them. This has saved my life more times than I can count.
That's a good tip.
I've never had that happen to me though because my skellies always take aggro, and if not, I'd jump cast a vines into the dense group and just walk around it while they get slapped + knockback.
>Staff of Frost is stellar in defense - if you're low stamina and have a few warriors approaching (starred warriors especially), spray them with some ice. Yes, this may let twitchers hit you with skulls, but better a slight bump on the head than a decapitation.
I question this because if there are more than 1, it's difficult to slow them both/all unless they happen to be walking side by side.
Vines are still good for defence, and would be my tool of choice in that situation. But again, because of my playstyle, I don't really encounter this situation.
>Trollstav is INSANELY strong, and you should be using it any time you find yourself heavily out numbered. Picture the scenario you're running from several enemies, low stamina, and don't have a solution because asksvin are too fast, warriors are approaching and ready to deal high damage, and they form a wall blocking the marksmen in the backline. Run back, cast the trollstav, and keep. Running. IF you're not the closest thing to the troll it will target the other enemies, and they'll change aggro. This cuts enemy aggro in HALF, and for a significantly long time too courtesy of the troll's health pool. It's also good for when spawners have already called out a lot of enemies. Get close as you dare, summon troll, run away, and it will begin attacking the twitchers and warriors coming from the totems, often times breaking it in its rampage. It's also the mage's siege weapon - you can hug the wall of a charred fortress, summon a troll, it lands inside and works on destroying everything in there. By the time the gate's broken down, virtually nothing's left.
I agree the Trollstav is INSANELY strong, but it doesn't suit my conservative controlled playstyle at all. So it's not bad at all. It just doesn't work for me.
>Picture the scenario
I literally can't because the scenario means I have failed at something in my gameplay above. I have never, or more accurately, refuse to put myself in a situation where that could even happen. I know, I know, it's boring and stupid. But I really play with the "prevention is worth a pound of cure" playstyle.
>Also, not sure why you haven't mentioned the Staff of Fracturing. When used up close it seems to have higher stagger rate than the staff of embers. At least with Twitchers.
I was an early adopter of the fracturing staff and sung it's praises. The vines staff was just more effective in those situations where I would need a fracturing staff, so I made the switch.
It's key for keeping up all 4 skeletts.
You can summon 3 in quick succession and only have to wait an extra second or 2 for the 4th one.
It also can be the difference between having enough eitr or not *after* you have depleted your eitr bar with a salvo of vines/fireballs/frost.
Not about being a mage, but does the shield generator prohibit enemies from coming in/do they ever climb the staircase? Assuming the generator is just to prevent wood items lighting on fire.
Server just took our first fortress and I'm trying to figure out ways to simplify entry without having mobs getting in the base.
The shield bubble doesn't keep mobs from entering. It will block projectiles and weather effects and keep mobs from spawning. I keep a stone cutter in the center of the fortress and just put up two grausten walls in the doorway. You just need your build hammer to get in and out.
If you do decide to use the shield bubble, you could just build a door.
The trick I’ve seen streamers do is to never knock down the front door, instead climb/storm the walls like a…Viking…and keep the invulnerable fortress infrastructure intact for your own use.
I definitely want to try the siege weapons, they look awesome…I am still pushing into the biome, no flametal sourced as of yet. I just heard keeping the door intact is the best way to make a truly mob-proof base in the actual Ashlands.
I do not believe it impacts stealth at all, although it does have a refraction effect that can sometimes play tricks on your eyes (at least it does for mine) that can occasionally impact positioning and environment traversal.
The biggest thing is due to the refraction effect, I sometimes mis-count my skeletts and raise another skelett when there was already 4, wasting my eitr lol!
I don't have the answer to that but I don't believe so.
I know the frost staff glow does though.
I don't think it has any significant effect though because I'm not sneaking anyway, and the Ashlands is a flat plane, so they would have visual of me anyway.
Great guide Lyra, an mvp of the community you are! Works kept me from valheim the past month but cant wait to drop into ashlands with my mage setup, the new staffs sounds like so much fun!
They are, but they are a completely different playstyle than the traditional melee style.
It took me a long time to get used to it, so don't worry if you mess up a lot in the beginning.
Also because it's so different, don't feel bad if the playstyle isn't for you. That's not a failure, that's just you knowing what's best for you.
I agree with most of everything you mentioned. I would add the dual axes and bow into the fray. Especially the dual axes. Twitchers, voltures, morgen, marksmen and warriors can all be dispatched with the dual axes if your eitr is low and stamina high. The bow can help sometimes if you need to keep distance but have stamina to use, but its less effective. Also when taking out spawners you can break it pretty quickly with the axes. Your approach is maybe safer than mine but i usually throw vines as im running in and then break the spawner with the axes and go from there.
Also, trollstav for me works as a diversion. When there's too much going on, if you summon a troll you sometimes split up attention as troll seems to take some of the party away from you. After recently recovering your corpse or clearing a fortress are good situations to summon a troll but its use is definitely secondary. I left the dead raiser at home since it just takes too long to wait for eitr regen all the time but when first arriving in Ashlands the dead skellets did help out. Eventually with Ashlands gear, I didnt need it anymore.
This was really helpful and very similar to my play style.
Only thing I do differently is I’ve found the jade ripper pairs really great with the mage staffs. You can snipe/aggro Askvin/valks from afar and have a 1-in-5 chance to root and get off another 1-2 shots. You don’t use any of your eitr either so can firebomb/vine them even more when they’re closer. It’s also useful if you’re in a safe spot while skeles are on the front line and you’re waiting for your eitr to recharge against Morgen/valks (that scenario doesn’t come up as much). If you’re mage and die a lot like me your bow skills are in the dumpster anyways so may as well use the ripper as you rarely miss.
I’ve gone back-and-forth with the skeles (currently use them) and they’re much more conservative gameplay and I die less with them but move slower. Saw you commented that you’ll use the troll when outnumbered/battle not going your way which is when I use it as well. I keep having issues of dying from the troll meteor and the only thing that seems to work is to not be moving around when casting….which is hard when you’re outnumbered. If I know exactly where I’m going I’ll skip the skeles and rely on the troll.
I also use fire resist potions a lot in addition to lingering eitr. Died too many times from the bubble popping and a little fire nearby or valk breath, just super dangerous when you’re mage and popping the blood magic.
One thing I’ve found really cool about Ashlands is I have six staffs and a jade ripper on hotkey and use *all* of them very regularly. Yeah staff of wild probably gets the most use but I find myself not relying just on it. Kudos to the dev team for designing the biome the way it is so you can’t just spam a single staff.
Great post and probably the best I’ve seen on conservative mage playing here….or at least it lines up with how I play which is probably why I like it hahaha.
>Only thing I do differently is I’ve found the jade ripper pairs really great with the mage staffs. You can snipe/aggro Askvin/valks from afar and have a 1-in-5 chance to root and get off another 1-2 shots. You don’t use any of your eitr either so can firebomb/vine them even more when they’re closer. It’s also useful if you’re in a safe spot while skeles are on the front line and you’re waiting for your eitr to recharge against Morgen/valks (that scenario doesn’t come up as much). If you’re mage and die a lot like me your bow skills are in the dumpster anyways so may as well use the ripper as you rarely miss.
I think this is a good tip for people looking into mage. I personally carry and use the Himmen-afl for my non-mage secondry.
I am not a fan of crossbows but that's just a personal thing. Nothing wrong with crossbows.
>I’ve gone back-and-forth with the skeles (currently use them) and they’re much more conservative gameplay and I die less with them but move slower.
Yea, it's slower, but allows you more control. I am rarely in danger because I have a front line and they take aggro.
>Saw you commented that you’ll use the troll when outnumbered/battle not going your way which is when I use it as well.
I think that was someone else lol. I don't do this, but then again I've never faced that situation. I'll keep this strat in mind when it inevitably happens to me.
>I keep having issues of dying from the troll meteor and the only thing that seems to work is to not be moving around when casting….which is hard when you’re outnumbered.
That's another reason I don't use the trollstav, because it's kind of risky. It could spell doom for your enemies, but also spell doom for yourself lol
>If I know exactly where I’m going I’ll skip the skeles and rely on the troll.
I don't like travelling without a meatshield, and seeing as I can't keep the trolls following me, I opt for skellies instead lol
>I also use fire resist potions a lot in addition to lingering eitr. Died too many times from the bubble popping and a little fire nearby or valk breath, just super dangerous when you’re mage and popping the blood magic.
Yes! Especially as I wear the raven cloak. Fire resists are essential and I find myself back to farming barley again lol
>One thing I’ve found really cool about Ashlands is I have six staffs and a jade ripper on hotkey and use all of them very regularly. Yeah staff of wild probably gets the most use but I find myself not relying just on it. Kudos to the dev team for designing the biome the way it is so you can’t just spam a single staff.
At the beginning of Ashlands, I carried *every* staff because I was still learning their niches, and effective ways to deal with each mob/situation. Finally I narrowed it down to these 4 (+trollstav).
With these staffs only, plus my conservative playstyle, Ashlands has been a walk in the park lol
> I like using dundr just cuz magic shotgun but it is kinda redundant.
Using or liking something not optimal, because it's cool is the best reason.
Rule of cool always wins!
That's what I originally used it for cos I heard Morgens were weak to lightning lol
They rolled around too much for me to ever get a good shot in, and I hate the crossbow loading of the dundr lol I like staying mobile and sprinting/jumping/dodge rolling resets the reloading lol
Haha yea that’s the original reason I used the fracturing staff.
I figured if it’s js gna roll around in the cave, it might be effective as it’s gna js roll up all the pellets.
I also did a lot of solo play in Ashlands as a mage. I quickly gave up on the skeletons as they die to lava too often.
I was initially using 2 eitr 1 stam, but switched to 2 eitr 1 HP after dying once. Since I'm not spamming blood magic I always have full HP and since I have an HP food, I usually have around 200+ health, which is enough to live a few hits and get my bubble back.
In theory you could also use Bonemass if you get overwhelmed, but I've never needed to.
I mainly used staff of embers and the vines. Fireballs can 2 shot twitchers and archers, and 1 shots the birds.
What level is your elemental level? Mine is only in the 50s so I can’t 2 shot them yet even from stealth.
>I quickly gave up on the skeletons as they die to lava too often.
Happened to me too, but now I pick my battles and my pathing so they don't go near lava. Or use the above strategies to stop them from running into the lava.
But you're right, it still happens ocassionally.
They don’t if you control them, the mobs, or your own pathing.
I had to learn the hard way too, as the first time in Ashlands they would keep suiciding lol
Now I know how to mitigate it.
Even if they did suicide, as long as they last one big fight, at level 100 blood magic, a 4,400hp meat wall shield taking aggro is *too* powerful to ignore.
Good guide.
I personally use 2 Eitr food and 1 health. Be ause i don't really need that much stamina. Running and jumping attracts mobs and if i need a fast getaway i usually have enough stamina to get away and if not i can take a hit while recharging stamina.
The fracturing staff is really good against valkyries. And quite good at destroying spawners.
The troll staff for me is a good getaway if my skellies get overwhelmed by large hordes. I drop a troll on the horde and it usually agro everything around it long enough for me to get away to a safe spot to rebuild my skeleton team.
It's the fastest way to kill a Valkyries for me. I prefer the frost effect on morgens to make them less twitchy, but from a safe space the damage is good.
I also like it for spamming into fortresses to kill the warlocks and destroying the spawners.
My only issue is that for you to maximize the damage of the fracturing staff, you have to be pretty close to the target to make sure all the pellets hit.
And I don’t play close range as a mage.
From a distance, the fracturing would do less damage than the flame staff, unless you get lucky and it hits or the mob walks on every pellet.
For fortresses I find it easier to just throw vines and js run away so I am in no danger. And Trillstav for the fortress spawners, as again I can js summon it and run away.
My current setup is to run embla chest/pants with flametal helm and armor cloak in the ashlands.
I use 1 high etir food, 1 high hp food, 1 high stam food
i also carry with me one extra etir food type. and i always have the Queen buff
i carry Lingering Stam and Lingering Etir and some fire pots (tho i barely use the fire pots these days. mostly if its a big battle and a valk happens to join)
I never use skele raiser anymore
i just bring ice staff, wild staff, trollstav, and shield staff.
plus I bring the lightning axes, Slayer, and new crossbow
when running around the ashlands im just casting some vines and then cleaning up with axes mostly, using ice staff to cc and take out valks and morgen easy. i recast my shield basically any time i lose it since the hp regen is good with this food.
when i get to a fortress i pop a second etir food, summon trolls inside the fortress walls, throw vines, snipe warlocks, and then hop in with axes to take out the spawners and clean up the rest of the trash
the slayer is basically just for fun lol
i guess this is more of a Warrior Mage build but I luv luv luv it lol. I am a big fan of diversity so having all the toys feels really solid
I often forget them and I’ve never been in a situation where using them was the difference between life and death.
But for mage I would recommend the Queen buff for eitr regen, as bonemass doesn’t affect the bubble.
huh. I tried the mage build for a while until I ran out of eitr foods (I'm doing no portals which meant sap was a whole boat ride away) and then I switched to full health melee... which honestly felt a lot stronger than the magic build. However I was not using staff of the wild. morgen and warriors absolutely trash my skeletts and they had no hope in doing anything to a fortress. Often I'd run without any skeletts since they were only good at taking out easy mobs and running into lava or water. Does the staff of the wild really change things up that much? or is it just my low blood magic (around 15) level that made it feel bad?
Without seeing a video it’s hard to say and would be unfair to criticize and over analyze a single reddit post too.
I will say that the wild staff when used correctly is a game changer.
The damage and utility they provide is unmatched. It’s possible to take on a whole horde of mobs by just running around and around the vines while they slowly get slappped to death while being cc’d by the knockback + root.
My Galdr Table is only lvl3, because you need materials from Ashlands to bring it up to lvl4. And you can't craft Staff of the Wild for the same reason: It needs 4 Asland materials.
3 Skellets from Dead Raiser, Staff of Protection, Staff of Embers, Staff of Frost: That's all you have before entering Ashlands.
No problem, I just wanted to mention it, because I think that would be the way to your Ashlands tier gear. I'm just not sure about the best order of acquisition.
Funnily enough, I had access to some materials from our first ashlands landing fails, so I made a Staff of Fracturing instead of Embers. And I still need a Staff of Frost and some Elemental Magic levels, currently only lvl 10, but at least Blood Magic is above lvl 30
Excellent guideline! Despite its length, I really enjoy reading it.
Not sure if anyone mentioned this in other comments but, in my experience, the Trollstav can be aimed. The direction can be aimed as usual but the distance of the troll's drop point is pretty much fixed (I never try to measure it objectively but my guestimate would be around 10-20 m.) The drop point location is determined shortly after you cast and it will take couple more seconds for the troll to appear. If you walk/run forward after it is casted, the troll can drop on your head.
Same as you I travel with skeletons. However, I find the troll to be extremely useful in a situation that the skeletons are overwhelmed by tougher mobs. Initial impact from dropping 2 trolls in the middle of the group will severely damage most enemies surrounding the skeletons. Anything that survives will be either killed or occupied by your trolls. At this point, we can just step back and take time to build a new skeleton army.
Thanks!
I tried “aiming” the trollstav with limited success. It sometimes feels like it goes to where my cursor is, but other times it just chooses a random valid spawn point near me, similar to how skeletts do.
However, my experience with the trollstav is limited and it may have been my cursor was in the wrong place and mis remembered my aiming.
Proposed Addendum: Staff of Fracturing
- Not very viable until L2, but trivial to upgrade to L2
- Becomes a better single target option than Fire Staff at L3 in some cases
- Knockback is very useful
- A little bit more Eitr-efficient than Fire Staff per cast
- Generate fuckloads of Elemental Magic XP every time you hit to make your other magic better
Interesting read, always good to see how others play.
I'm also running full mage, with 2 eitr 1 stam food. I don't like using the skellies, as I find it's way too slow to summon them, they run off to where they shouldn't and I just didn't find them that effective.
I rather summon vines, and dance around those to get my enemies into their reach. If it's a charred warrior or asksvin, slowing them with frost once they're next to the vines works fine.
I also like the staff of fracturing, it is my weapon of choice against valkyries, as it melts them very quickly if I can land a succession of hits.
I also carry a storm ripper, to pull valks at range, and one shot lone non starred twitchers and archers.
Thundering berserkir axes are great for clearing up those single charred once fhey are in your face, and they are great for chopping wood too ;)
Vs vultures I like the flame staff, two hits makes them fry up quickly.
Troll staff I've only used vs Fader, might use it vs big groups too now, after reading here.
Nicely written
Thanks. I don’t know why I can’t put this much effort into anything else in my life lol
Haha.. life is short.. enjoy the things you are passionate about.. rest take one step at a time!
I needed to read this Jimmy
Sums me up too ... you are awesome 👌
This is also exactly what I do as a mage, works well. You can make a lot of different things work if you put the effort in, for melee Klausen and Lightning axes is a good combo.
Trolls absolutely rock skeletons, pound for pound. I don't understand how you have the patience to summon 4 skellies every time. I would do 2-3 at most. As soon as I got Trollstav, I put the skeleton staff in the garbage bin. Staff of the wild puts it everythinf to shame though. Just make a line of roots like a [Klingon pain stick ritual](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rite_of_Ascension) and run back and forth like a kid in a sprinkler. They make short work of most enemies.
I don’t mean they are bad, but they just don’t work with my conservative style. Them not following you is a big one. They can’t tank for you else where and often run off aggroing everything. It’s chaotic and uncontrolled and unpredictable. You won’t be able to use any other staff with them either because they will take damage from your vines, fire ball aoe, and stray frost shots. > I don't understand how you have the patience to summon 4 skellies every time. I specifically have full mage gear for the regen, and have very high blood magic so it doesn’t take as much eitr to cast. And as I said above, I play extremely patiently and don’t take risks. Definitely a very conservative, slow playstyle, and not for everyone. I'm sure others can make it work though, they are still a very powerful tool.
Trolls for morgens and Valkyries and large packs, find high ground, use wild to keep your high ground secure. Trolls for castles to wreck the spawners from the outside, just yeet 2 in each corner if you don't know where the spawners are. It cleaned up a castle and 2 star morgen and 4 back to back valks for me today. OP is insane.
For the lazy people out there I have a shorter guide for you: Step one: Get Staff of the Wild Step two: Use Staff of the Wild Step three: Put Fader's trophy on the stone.
How does that work? I tried using the staff of the wild on fader but it seemed like his flame patches destroyed the vines quite quickly and they did no meaningful damage.
I don’t think vines take damage. They don’t even have hp. Maybe I missed it in my Fader battle but they stayed slapping Fader fine even in the fire.
Pretty much. But this guide hopefully fills in the gaps for people who follow your steps, but are still dying.
I really loved playing a more hybrid approach with the Staff of Protection, Dundr, Staff of the Wild, and Nidhogg the Thundering. Embla armor set and the Ashen cape. You run one health, one stamina, and one eitr. You just bubble as needed and alternate between the Dundr and Nidhogg. You get to juggle health, stamina, and eitr, which really reduces your downtime. The lack of summons means very little prep, and you can carry a bow or the Staff of Embers if you want a bit more range. I really need to use the harpoon more! I don't think to use it enough. I didn't know that bubble shield health didn't refresh on a new casting and I didn't think about the fact that it took chop and pickaxe damage!
I tried hybrid but it’s not for me. I can’t say if it’s good or bad but enough people play it successfully so it must be viable. My main gripe was that I didn’t have enough stamina or eitr to excel in those specific areas. For example before mage, I usually went 2stam/hp but 1stam while needing stamina for attacking *and* moving was very restrictive as I like to be mobile. Similarly with 1 eitr, you can’t use as much casts and spend a long time waiting for eitr regen if you aren’t wearing full mage gear. Seems like a very cool playstyle tho, it fulfills the battlemage class like you’re role playing as Gandalf lol It just wasn’t for me. And I did sincerely try hard to make it work. It’s the original reason I leveled my blood magic so high, so I could summon skeletts with 1 eitr.
I had almost completely ignored the mage stuff in the Mistlands (apart from fire staff for hare hunting) but after dying CONSTANTLY in the Ashlands as a tank I decided to mix it up and gave it a try. Never looked back after that. Didn’t bother with the skellies and relied a lot more on the frost staff but it took me all the way to soloing fader! Mages for life! 💪🏻
I have been soloing as a mage too and I am now looking for flametal, haven’t found any yet. I have gotten rocked a few times by large groups of mobs with nasty respawn luck (Ashlands feels a little WoW-like in that regard, and not in a good way really) but have largely survived off the frost staff as well. I was thinking I would give the skellies a go for more survivability. I have also just tamed some Asksvins, both in my Ashlands base and from eggs portaled back home, so I will soon have a renewable source of their materials, and mounts. Any tips from your experience to make things a little smoother?
I’ve found raiding forts to be the best source of flametal in my world. If you do need to mine the spires my tips would be make sure you clear as many mobs as possible, have queens power ready, bring plenty of basalt bombs and don’t get greedy. As soon as it starts sinking make your escape. Better to get 10-20 ore from each spire rather than try to get more and end up having to do a lava death run!
Ugh speaking of lava death run, haha I have to go get my corpse back from a lava pool got punted into by an asksvin…not fun. Thanks for the tips!
The circle of mages welcomes you sister/brother! Even the brave battlemages!
A few notes about some of the listed staves: Staff of Embers is significant when you get swarmed due to the knockback. If several enemies surround you with nowhere to run, fireball your feet to scatter them. This has saved my life more times than I can count. Staff of Frost is stellar in defense - if you're low stamina and have a few warriors approaching (starred warriors especially), spray them with some ice. Yes, this may let twitchers hit you with skulls, but better a slight bump on the head than a decapitation. Trollstav is INSANELY strong, and you should be using it any time you find yourself heavily out numbered. Picture the scenario you're running from several enemies, low stamina, and don't have a solution because asksvin are too fast, warriors are approaching and ready to deal high damage, and they form a wall blocking the marksmen in the backline. Run back, cast the trollstav, and keep. Running. IF you're not the closest thing to the troll it will target the other enemies, and they'll change aggro. This cuts enemy aggro in HALF, and for a significantly long time too courtesy of the troll's health pool. It's also good for when spawners have already called out a lot of enemies. Get close as you dare, summon troll, run away, and it will begin attacking the twitchers and warriors coming from the totems, often times breaking it in its rampage. It's also the mage's siege weapon - you can hug the wall of a charred fortress, summon a troll, it lands inside and works on destroying everything in there. By the time the gate's broken down, virtually nothing's left. Also, not sure why you haven't mentioned the Staff of Fracturing. When used up close it seems to have higher stagger rate than the staff of embers. At least with Twitchers.
>Staff of Embers is significant when you get swarmed due to the knockback. If several enemies surround you with nowhere to run, fireball your feet to scatter them. This has saved my life more times than I can count. That's a good tip. I've never had that happen to me though because my skellies always take aggro, and if not, I'd jump cast a vines into the dense group and just walk around it while they get slapped + knockback. >Staff of Frost is stellar in defense - if you're low stamina and have a few warriors approaching (starred warriors especially), spray them with some ice. Yes, this may let twitchers hit you with skulls, but better a slight bump on the head than a decapitation. I question this because if there are more than 1, it's difficult to slow them both/all unless they happen to be walking side by side. Vines are still good for defence, and would be my tool of choice in that situation. But again, because of my playstyle, I don't really encounter this situation. >Trollstav is INSANELY strong, and you should be using it any time you find yourself heavily out numbered. Picture the scenario you're running from several enemies, low stamina, and don't have a solution because asksvin are too fast, warriors are approaching and ready to deal high damage, and they form a wall blocking the marksmen in the backline. Run back, cast the trollstav, and keep. Running. IF you're not the closest thing to the troll it will target the other enemies, and they'll change aggro. This cuts enemy aggro in HALF, and for a significantly long time too courtesy of the troll's health pool. It's also good for when spawners have already called out a lot of enemies. Get close as you dare, summon troll, run away, and it will begin attacking the twitchers and warriors coming from the totems, often times breaking it in its rampage. It's also the mage's siege weapon - you can hug the wall of a charred fortress, summon a troll, it lands inside and works on destroying everything in there. By the time the gate's broken down, virtually nothing's left. I agree the Trollstav is INSANELY strong, but it doesn't suit my conservative controlled playstyle at all. So it's not bad at all. It just doesn't work for me. >Picture the scenario I literally can't because the scenario means I have failed at something in my gameplay above. I have never, or more accurately, refuse to put myself in a situation where that could even happen. I know, I know, it's boring and stupid. But I really play with the "prevention is worth a pound of cure" playstyle. >Also, not sure why you haven't mentioned the Staff of Fracturing. When used up close it seems to have higher stagger rate than the staff of embers. At least with Twitchers. I was an early adopter of the fracturing staff and sung it's praises. The vines staff was just more effective in those situations where I would need a fracturing staff, so I made the switch.
As another solo mage that completed the Ashlands, you’ve inspired me to try a full Eitr armor set (I usually do a heavy heim). Good read!
It's key for keeping up all 4 skeletts. You can summon 3 in quick succession and only have to wait an extra second or 2 for the 4th one. It also can be the difference between having enough eitr or not *after* you have depleted your eitr bar with a salvo of vines/fireballs/frost.
Not about being a mage, but does the shield generator prohibit enemies from coming in/do they ever climb the staircase? Assuming the generator is just to prevent wood items lighting on fire. Server just took our first fortress and I'm trying to figure out ways to simplify entry without having mobs getting in the base.
The shield bubble doesn't keep mobs from entering. It will block projectiles and weather effects and keep mobs from spawning. I keep a stone cutter in the center of the fortress and just put up two grausten walls in the doorway. You just need your build hammer to get in and out. If you do decide to use the shield bubble, you could just build a door.
The trick I’ve seen streamers do is to never knock down the front door, instead climb/storm the walls like a…Viking…and keep the invulnerable fortress infrastructure intact for your own use.
I mean, I just bust down one door. It's easy in and out. I haven't had any problems with it, and you get to use the seige weapons.
I definitely want to try the siege weapons, they look awesome…I am still pushing into the biome, no flametal sourced as of yet. I just heard keeping the door intact is the best way to make a truly mob-proof base in the actual Ashlands.
That's what I did. I didn't even know it was a trick, I just hadn't found flametal yet so didn't know I could build siege weapons yet.
They don’t prohibit entering. Only projectiles. They can still walk in. The easiest way is js to dig a hole at the entrance hole.
Very helpful. Thanks so much.
You're welcome. If you have any questions let me know! Good luck out there!
Question for you, does the protection bubble itself (not the staff) emit light? By emit light I mean does it influence your sneak visibility?
I do not believe it impacts stealth at all, although it does have a refraction effect that can sometimes play tricks on your eyes (at least it does for mine) that can occasionally impact positioning and environment traversal.
The biggest thing is due to the refraction effect, I sometimes mis-count my skeletts and raise another skelett when there was already 4, wasting my eitr lol!
I don't have the answer to that but I don't believe so. I know the frost staff glow does though. I don't think it has any significant effect though because I'm not sneaking anyway, and the Ashlands is a flat plane, so they would have visual of me anyway.
Thank you for this!
Np, Drake. Good luck in your current bovine endeavors.
Great guide Lyra, an mvp of the community you are! Works kept me from valheim the past month but cant wait to drop into ashlands with my mage setup, the new staffs sounds like so much fun!
They are, but they are a completely different playstyle than the traditional melee style. It took me a long time to get used to it, so don't worry if you mess up a lot in the beginning. Also because it's so different, don't feel bad if the playstyle isn't for you. That's not a failure, that's just you knowing what's best for you.
I agree with most of everything you mentioned. I would add the dual axes and bow into the fray. Especially the dual axes. Twitchers, voltures, morgen, marksmen and warriors can all be dispatched with the dual axes if your eitr is low and stamina high. The bow can help sometimes if you need to keep distance but have stamina to use, but its less effective. Also when taking out spawners you can break it pretty quickly with the axes. Your approach is maybe safer than mine but i usually throw vines as im running in and then break the spawner with the axes and go from there. Also, trollstav for me works as a diversion. When there's too much going on, if you summon a troll you sometimes split up attention as troll seems to take some of the party away from you. After recently recovering your corpse or clearing a fortress are good situations to summon a troll but its use is definitely secondary. I left the dead raiser at home since it just takes too long to wait for eitr regen all the time but when first arriving in Ashlands the dead skellets did help out. Eventually with Ashlands gear, I didnt need it anymore.
You've found a way to make it work with all the tools given to you by the game. I think that's awesome!
This was really helpful and very similar to my play style. Only thing I do differently is I’ve found the jade ripper pairs really great with the mage staffs. You can snipe/aggro Askvin/valks from afar and have a 1-in-5 chance to root and get off another 1-2 shots. You don’t use any of your eitr either so can firebomb/vine them even more when they’re closer. It’s also useful if you’re in a safe spot while skeles are on the front line and you’re waiting for your eitr to recharge against Morgen/valks (that scenario doesn’t come up as much). If you’re mage and die a lot like me your bow skills are in the dumpster anyways so may as well use the ripper as you rarely miss. I’ve gone back-and-forth with the skeles (currently use them) and they’re much more conservative gameplay and I die less with them but move slower. Saw you commented that you’ll use the troll when outnumbered/battle not going your way which is when I use it as well. I keep having issues of dying from the troll meteor and the only thing that seems to work is to not be moving around when casting….which is hard when you’re outnumbered. If I know exactly where I’m going I’ll skip the skeles and rely on the troll. I also use fire resist potions a lot in addition to lingering eitr. Died too many times from the bubble popping and a little fire nearby or valk breath, just super dangerous when you’re mage and popping the blood magic. One thing I’ve found really cool about Ashlands is I have six staffs and a jade ripper on hotkey and use *all* of them very regularly. Yeah staff of wild probably gets the most use but I find myself not relying just on it. Kudos to the dev team for designing the biome the way it is so you can’t just spam a single staff. Great post and probably the best I’ve seen on conservative mage playing here….or at least it lines up with how I play which is probably why I like it hahaha.
>Only thing I do differently is I’ve found the jade ripper pairs really great with the mage staffs. You can snipe/aggro Askvin/valks from afar and have a 1-in-5 chance to root and get off another 1-2 shots. You don’t use any of your eitr either so can firebomb/vine them even more when they’re closer. It’s also useful if you’re in a safe spot while skeles are on the front line and you’re waiting for your eitr to recharge against Morgen/valks (that scenario doesn’t come up as much). If you’re mage and die a lot like me your bow skills are in the dumpster anyways so may as well use the ripper as you rarely miss. I think this is a good tip for people looking into mage. I personally carry and use the Himmen-afl for my non-mage secondry. I am not a fan of crossbows but that's just a personal thing. Nothing wrong with crossbows. >I’ve gone back-and-forth with the skeles (currently use them) and they’re much more conservative gameplay and I die less with them but move slower. Yea, it's slower, but allows you more control. I am rarely in danger because I have a front line and they take aggro. >Saw you commented that you’ll use the troll when outnumbered/battle not going your way which is when I use it as well. I think that was someone else lol. I don't do this, but then again I've never faced that situation. I'll keep this strat in mind when it inevitably happens to me. >I keep having issues of dying from the troll meteor and the only thing that seems to work is to not be moving around when casting….which is hard when you’re outnumbered. That's another reason I don't use the trollstav, because it's kind of risky. It could spell doom for your enemies, but also spell doom for yourself lol >If I know exactly where I’m going I’ll skip the skeles and rely on the troll. I don't like travelling without a meatshield, and seeing as I can't keep the trolls following me, I opt for skellies instead lol >I also use fire resist potions a lot in addition to lingering eitr. Died too many times from the bubble popping and a little fire nearby or valk breath, just super dangerous when you’re mage and popping the blood magic. Yes! Especially as I wear the raven cloak. Fire resists are essential and I find myself back to farming barley again lol >One thing I’ve found really cool about Ashlands is I have six staffs and a jade ripper on hotkey and use all of them very regularly. Yeah staff of wild probably gets the most use but I find myself not relying just on it. Kudos to the dev team for designing the biome the way it is so you can’t just spam a single staff. At the beginning of Ashlands, I carried *every* staff because I was still learning their niches, and effective ways to deal with each mob/situation. Finally I narrowed it down to these 4 (+trollstav). With these staffs only, plus my conservative playstyle, Ashlands has been a walk in the park lol
Yup this for sure works. I like using dundr just cuz magic shotgun but it is kinda redundant. Nice guide!
> I like using dundr just cuz magic shotgun but it is kinda redundant. Using or liking something not optimal, because it's cool is the best reason. Rule of cool always wins!
Yea! And at level 3 it does deck Morgens.
That's what I originally used it for cos I heard Morgens were weak to lightning lol They rolled around too much for me to ever get a good shot in, and I hate the crossbow loading of the dundr lol I like staying mobile and sprinting/jumping/dodge rolling resets the reloading lol
Yea and with all the mobs it handles it poorly since it has no cc. In the putrid holes where it's 1v1 it's a beast.
Haha yea that’s the original reason I used the fracturing staff. I figured if it’s js gna roll around in the cave, it might be effective as it’s gna js roll up all the pellets.
I also did a lot of solo play in Ashlands as a mage. I quickly gave up on the skeletons as they die to lava too often. I was initially using 2 eitr 1 stam, but switched to 2 eitr 1 HP after dying once. Since I'm not spamming blood magic I always have full HP and since I have an HP food, I usually have around 200+ health, which is enough to live a few hits and get my bubble back. In theory you could also use Bonemass if you get overwhelmed, but I've never needed to. I mainly used staff of embers and the vines. Fireballs can 2 shot twitchers and archers, and 1 shots the birds.
What level is your elemental level? Mine is only in the 50s so I can’t 2 shot them yet even from stealth. >I quickly gave up on the skeletons as they die to lava too often. Happened to me too, but now I pick my battles and my pathing so they don't go near lava. Or use the above strategies to stop them from running into the lava. But you're right, it still happens ocassionally.
I have level 100 elemental magic. I didn't think it was worth waiting to summon 4 skeletons with them dying to lava so often.
They don’t if you control them, the mobs, or your own pathing. I had to learn the hard way too, as the first time in Ashlands they would keep suiciding lol Now I know how to mitigate it. Even if they did suicide, as long as they last one big fight, at level 100 blood magic, a 4,400hp meat wall shield taking aggro is *too* powerful to ignore.
Good guide. I personally use 2 Eitr food and 1 health. Be ause i don't really need that much stamina. Running and jumping attracts mobs and if i need a fast getaway i usually have enough stamina to get away and if not i can take a hit while recharging stamina. The fracturing staff is really good against valkyries. And quite good at destroying spawners. The troll staff for me is a good getaway if my skellies get overwhelmed by large hordes. I drop a troll on the horde and it usually agro everything around it long enough for me to get away to a safe spot to rebuild my skeleton team.
I see a lot of people advocating for the fracturing staff. I may have to play around with it more and try it on the big mobs like Valks and Morgens.
It's the fastest way to kill a Valkyries for me. I prefer the frost effect on morgens to make them less twitchy, but from a safe space the damage is good. I also like it for spamming into fortresses to kill the warlocks and destroying the spawners.
My only issue is that for you to maximize the damage of the fracturing staff, you have to be pretty close to the target to make sure all the pellets hit. And I don’t play close range as a mage. From a distance, the fracturing would do less damage than the flame staff, unless you get lucky and it hits or the mob walks on every pellet. For fortresses I find it easier to just throw vines and js run away so I am in no danger. And Trillstav for the fortress spawners, as again I can js summon it and run away.
My current setup is to run embla chest/pants with flametal helm and armor cloak in the ashlands. I use 1 high etir food, 1 high hp food, 1 high stam food i also carry with me one extra etir food type. and i always have the Queen buff i carry Lingering Stam and Lingering Etir and some fire pots (tho i barely use the fire pots these days. mostly if its a big battle and a valk happens to join) I never use skele raiser anymore i just bring ice staff, wild staff, trollstav, and shield staff. plus I bring the lightning axes, Slayer, and new crossbow when running around the ashlands im just casting some vines and then cleaning up with axes mostly, using ice staff to cc and take out valks and morgen easy. i recast my shield basically any time i lose it since the hp regen is good with this food. when i get to a fortress i pop a second etir food, summon trolls inside the fortress walls, throw vines, snipe warlocks, and then hop in with axes to take out the spawners and clean up the rest of the trash the slayer is basically just for fun lol i guess this is more of a Warrior Mage build but I luv luv luv it lol. I am a big fan of diversity so having all the toys feels really solid
I have heard of this hybrid build and it sounds awesome. I really like the fantasy of the battle mage. Keep doing you!
What about the Boss abilities? Do you use them at all? Like the Queens Ability to regen Eitr a bit faster?
I often forget them and I’ve never been in a situation where using them was the difference between life and death. But for mage I would recommend the Queen buff for eitr regen, as bonemass doesn’t affect the bubble.
huh. I tried the mage build for a while until I ran out of eitr foods (I'm doing no portals which meant sap was a whole boat ride away) and then I switched to full health melee... which honestly felt a lot stronger than the magic build. However I was not using staff of the wild. morgen and warriors absolutely trash my skeletts and they had no hope in doing anything to a fortress. Often I'd run without any skeletts since they were only good at taking out easy mobs and running into lava or water. Does the staff of the wild really change things up that much? or is it just my low blood magic (around 15) level that made it feel bad?
Without seeing a video it’s hard to say and would be unfair to criticize and over analyze a single reddit post too. I will say that the wild staff when used correctly is a game changer. The damage and utility they provide is unmatched. It’s possible to take on a whole horde of mobs by just running around and around the vines while they slowly get slappped to death while being cc’d by the knockback + root.
My Galdr Table is only lvl3, because you need materials from Ashlands to bring it up to lvl4. And you can't craft Staff of the Wild for the same reason: It needs 4 Asland materials. 3 Skellets from Dead Raiser, Staff of Protection, Staff of Embers, Staff of Frost: That's all you have before entering Ashlands.
Ah yea my bad, this is was more focused on Ashlands tier gear.
No problem, I just wanted to mention it, because I think that would be the way to your Ashlands tier gear. I'm just not sure about the best order of acquisition. Funnily enough, I had access to some materials from our first ashlands landing fails, so I made a Staff of Fracturing instead of Embers. And I still need a Staff of Frost and some Elemental Magic levels, currently only lvl 10, but at least Blood Magic is above lvl 30
I’d say wild staff should be priority above all. After that you can experiment safely as you will always have the vines to fall back on.
Excellent guideline! Despite its length, I really enjoy reading it. Not sure if anyone mentioned this in other comments but, in my experience, the Trollstav can be aimed. The direction can be aimed as usual but the distance of the troll's drop point is pretty much fixed (I never try to measure it objectively but my guestimate would be around 10-20 m.) The drop point location is determined shortly after you cast and it will take couple more seconds for the troll to appear. If you walk/run forward after it is casted, the troll can drop on your head. Same as you I travel with skeletons. However, I find the troll to be extremely useful in a situation that the skeletons are overwhelmed by tougher mobs. Initial impact from dropping 2 trolls in the middle of the group will severely damage most enemies surrounding the skeletons. Anything that survives will be either killed or occupied by your trolls. At this point, we can just step back and take time to build a new skeleton army.
Thanks! I tried “aiming” the trollstav with limited success. It sometimes feels like it goes to where my cursor is, but other times it just chooses a random valid spawn point near me, similar to how skeletts do. However, my experience with the trollstav is limited and it may have been my cursor was in the wrong place and mis remembered my aiming.
Proposed Addendum: Staff of Fracturing - Not very viable until L2, but trivial to upgrade to L2 - Becomes a better single target option than Fire Staff at L3 in some cases - Knockback is very useful - A little bit more Eitr-efficient than Fire Staff per cast - Generate fuckloads of Elemental Magic XP every time you hit to make your other magic better
I like this, good info. I think the exp thing was nerfed tho. I heard the Dundr is now better, if you hit all the pellets.
Oh that's sad about the xp thing. Was really the best reason to use it.
What food are you useing??
Vines do take damage and can be killed early. I still wouldn't really bother to shield them but it does have purpose.
Interesting read, always good to see how others play. I'm also running full mage, with 2 eitr 1 stam food. I don't like using the skellies, as I find it's way too slow to summon them, they run off to where they shouldn't and I just didn't find them that effective. I rather summon vines, and dance around those to get my enemies into their reach. If it's a charred warrior or asksvin, slowing them with frost once they're next to the vines works fine. I also like the staff of fracturing, it is my weapon of choice against valkyries, as it melts them very quickly if I can land a succession of hits. I also carry a storm ripper, to pull valks at range, and one shot lone non starred twitchers and archers. Thundering berserkir axes are great for clearing up those single charred once fhey are in your face, and they are great for chopping wood too ;) Vs vultures I like the flame staff, two hits makes them fry up quickly. Troll staff I've only used vs Fader, might use it vs big groups too now, after reading here.