The Super Easy Ultima Online Magery Guide

Ultima Online has a vast selection of spells, combos and tactics available to mages and can be overwhelming for both new players and veteran players returning to UO. This guide will show you the best spells available to mages, macros, and template suggestions to get you started.

Magery Spells

Magery is the best school of magic by far in Ultima Online because it has spells that are essential to play the game. Of the 64 spells available to a character with magery, the average player only uses 17 spells on a regular basis: magic arrow, cure, heal, protection, fireball, arch cure, greater heal, recall, invisibility, mark, explosion, energy bolt, flame strike, gate, energy vortex, meteor swarm, summon deamon, Earthquake and resurrection. The other spells in your spell book are situational for example, casting mind blast on a warrior or the field spells used to create a choke point at a champion spawn.

Healing Spells:

Set your healing spells up on a macro to automatically target you with one keystroke and it will enhance your survivability with magery. Make a macro like this for each of your healing spells: cast spell heal, wait for target, and target self. Make macros for heal, cure, greater heal and invisibility and practice using them quickly. To get the most out of your magery, start out small and work into more and more difficult survival situations and practice healing, curing and using invisibility quickly and always use the lowest circle healing spell you can to save mana.

More about the healing spells:

Heal "Restores Hit Points (Caster's Magery/10) + (1 to 3) (9-13 pts. at 100 magery) Cannot be Resisted"

The first circle healing spell is quite powerful at 100-120 magery skill and only costs 4 mana and has a .5 casting time. Because heal is fast it is less likely to get interrupted and will help keep you alive! Healing spells will be blocked if you are bleeding, poisoned or under the effects of mortal strike.

Cure "Neutralizes poison (higher magery skill counteracts more intense poison)". Cure will neutralize most poisons at 100-120, deadly and lethal poison may need an arch cure. A legendary mage has approximately a 50% chance to neutralize deadly poison with the second circle cure spell.

Protection "Players under the protection spell effect can no longer have their spells "disrupted" when hit." Protection makes it possible to keep casting your spells when you are getting hurt in combat. For example, if you are fighting a lich and it casts poison on you, each time the poison does damage your spells will be interrupted, blocking your cure spell. Once you have cast protection, none of your spells will be interrupted!

Protection also slows down your casting speed by 2 and lowers your magic resistance skill by 35 points. However, if you exceed the faster casting cap and have high magic resistance, the penalty for using the spell is negligible and the benefit is great! Once you cast the protection spell, it stays on until you die or recast the protection spell. Despite the benefits of protection, it is seldom used in PVP due to the reduction in casting speed and it is not known if the reduction in casting speed can be countered by adding additional faster casting.

Arch Cure "Neutralizes the effects of poison on each character or creature within two to three squares of the caster." Arch Cure is an area of effect version of the cure spell and will cure any poison even lethal poison. Arch cure is a useful spell for group situations when you are fighting a champion like Serado the Awakened who hits everyone in the area with a cloud of lethal poison.

Greater Heal "Target is healed by 40% (caster's Magery) + (1-10) (41-50 pts at 100 magery)". The Greater Heal spell should only be used when you have taken a lot of damage, otherwise use the first circle heal. Greater Heal is a slow spell with a casting speed of 1.25 seconds and takes almost three times as much mana to cast as heal.

Invisibility "The target becomes temporarily invisible." Invisibility is one of the best survival spells in a mage's arsenal. You can cast invisibility before approaching monsters or entering a dungeon and then instantly vanish before monsters can see you. Most monsters in Ultima Online have a short delay between when you appear on screen and when they will be able to target you.

If you are fast with invisibility, you can avoid drawing the attention of monsters completely. A skilled mage can weave through dungeons and areas thick with spawn just as efficiently as a character with stealth and hiding. You want to have invisibility tied to a target self macro for instant hiding and a spell tile on your desk top for pre-casting invisibility.

Invisibility can also be used to lure and kite monsters. When I use the term "kite" I mean that you can use invisibility to make a monster follow you but not touch you just like a child pulls a string to control a kite. For example, if you are fighting the peerless boss, Lady Melisande, you can use the invisibility spell to separate Lady Melisande from the enslaved satyrs that guard her. Cast magic arrow on one of the satyrs and get it to follow you, then quickly cast invisibility and repeat until you have lured the satyrs away, kill them and then it is much easier to defeat the peerless boss.

Offensive Spells:

The mark of a skilled mage is how much damage they can push with their spells for the amount of mana they use. By using your spells skillfully you can get the most boom before you are OOM (out of mana). Which offensive spells you use will vary greatly depending on who or what you are fighting. For example, if you are fighting daemons in the dungeon Wind, all you need to do is summon a daemon yourself and say "all kill" and you will be just as effective as a tamer. Offensive spells used in combinations can be deadly efficient in PVP although I recommend mastering the use of your spells on monsters before you attempt PVP.

One of the worst problems with playing a mage is picking up targets for your spells using Ultima Online's antiquated interface system. There are several different ways to work around the issue. What you can do is to use a target next macro and cycle through targets that are on screen.

Another method is to use ctrl+shift to bring up the bars of all monsters, players and items on the same screen, then drag out the one you want and target it. The ctrl+shift method is extremely useful in PVM (player vs. monster) type encounters where a mass of greater dragons is surrounding a monster and making it difficult to target. Another method is to pull up a bar of a player or monster, hit it with a magic arrow and use this macro to bombard it with spells: cast spell, wait for target, last target.

Note, if you use a healing spell on yourself, you will have to retarget the enemy monster or player before you can use your macro again or you will hit yourself with your offensive spell! The key to getting good as a mage is to practice over and over again, how to heal yourself, target quickly and the right combination of spells to keep your enemy on their knees.

One thing to keep in mind is that there is a 15% limit on SDI (spell damage increase) for PVP but there is no limit on damage against monsters. For example, you can equip a slayer spell book that does double damage against the undead and the effect will stack with 83% SDI.

Suppose you cast magic arrow on a lich lord without SDI or a slayer spellbook and it normally does 4 points of damage, if you have the right gear, the same spell could do over 47 points of damage; also see the Stratics Spell Damage Calculator. To get the most damage out of your magery spells you will want to have maximum intelligence, evaluate intelligence, SDI items and consider working inscription into your template.

Magic Arrow and Fireball: Magic arrow and fireball are low end damage dealing spells that are used because they are quick and mana efficient to cast. You can use either one as a quick way to interrupt a player that is not using the protection spell who is trying to heal or cast a higher circle spell with a long casting time like flame strike on you. Another use of magic arrow and fireball is to spam those spells on Peerless Bosses with SDI for mana efficient and consistent damage.

Explosion: Explosion is a weird spell, it is slow to cast and has a delay before it goes off. In PVP you can use the spell delay to your advantage by casting explosion and flame strike as a combination. However, in the field, most PVPers will see this coming and will run off, interrupt you, or just kill you while you are trying to cast it. Explosion combinations are situational and best used when you have the upper hand on a damaged opponent, sometimes you can use it to kill someone off before they can heal.

Energy bolt: Is a heavy hitting spell, that does energy damage, it makes a neat sound when you cast it and its fun to watch a thick bolt of energy zinging through the air, other than that energy bolt is not remarkable.

Flamestrike is the heaviest single target direct damage spell that mages use. It also uses a lot of mana and is very slow so use with caution.

Meteor Swarm and Chain Lightning are much the same spell and are useful for damaging small groups of enemies in an area of effect. The only real difference between these spells is that meteor swarm does fire damage while chain lightning does energy damage. Depending on what you are fighting and its elemental resistances, one spell may be preferable to the other.

Energy Vortex is one of the most useful magery spells in the mage's spellbook. Energy Vortex creates a swirling mass of energy that will search the area for an enemy and then fight it for you. For example, you enter the city of Wind and there is a lich lurking in the tunnels. Cast energy vortex near the lich and the lich will attack the energy vortex instead of you, allowing you an easy kill. You can also use energy vortex to work an entire room of monsters or to kill off Lady Melisande's enslaved satyrs easily. If you venture into Felucca, be aware that your energy vortex and field spells will effect red (murderer) players if you are blue but not other blue players and the opposite if you are red.

Summon Daemon/Earth Elemental your eighth circle summon spells are sometimes better than energy vortex because you can control them directly. For some reason, bosses are less likely to dispel earth elementals than energy vortexes and they are popular to use against the Abysmal Horrors and Dark Fathers in the Doom Gauntlet.

Earthquake is a powerful area of effect spell which targets EVERY enemy on the screen. Use Earthquake at champion spawns to round up massive groups of monsters, then lure them through area of effect and field spells like poison field, wither, etc. to finish them off.

Magery Templates

Magery, Evaluate Intelligence, Resisting Spells, Meditation (Core Skills)

Poisoning, Inscription, Necromancy, Spirit Speak, Melee Skill, Parry (Secondary Choices)

Magery and evaluate intelligence are the core of any serious mage build. Without evaluate intelligence, your spells will do a pitiful amount of damage. Unless you just want magery for summons and healing, get evaluate intelligence! Resisting spells is essential also without it curses and paralyzes last forever, even low end monsters like reapers will be deadly. Meditation is also a core mage skill, for each 10 points of magery you will get 1 point of mana regeneration and you need about 10 points of mana regeneration. If you have enough mana regeneration on your armor you will be able to get by without magery or drop your meditation down to save skill points.

Poisoning is a great choice and one of the most coveted skills for spawning and fielding in PVP. If you have a total of 200 points in magery and poisoning you can cast deadly poison fields. For example, if you have 120 magery you only need 80 poisoning to cast deadly poison fields but if you only have 100 magery you would need 100 poisoning to cast a deadly poison field.

If you have poisoning and are within two tiles of a target, your regular poison spell will be upgraded to deadly poison. Keep in mind that most serious PVPers will have orange leaves, vampire form or drink a greater cure which negates the effects of your poison spells. There is currently no cool down or delay for drinking greater cure potions, so poisoning currently has limited viability in pvp, yet some PVPers and guilds highly prize mages that are able to cast deadly poison fields for group PVP. Against monsters, poisoning is also highly desirable because it allows you to burn through crowds of monsters with a single spell.

Inscription gives your magery damage spells an extra 10% damage outside of the 15% cap for PVP. As a friend of mine put it, it can make the difference between nearly killing an opponent with your spells and giving them a split second to heal or killing them outright. If you have space in your template, inscription is a great choice.

Necromancy is great for mages, even if you just have a small amount of skill; you can use wraith form and get back 20% of your spell damage as mana. At champion spawns, gather large groups of monsters with the earthquake spell and use your area of effect spells to kill them off while you get your mana back off of each monster you kill. Necromancy also gives you access to 17 new spells, including the necromancer forms and familiars.

Spirit Speak is like evaluate intelligence for necromancers and increases the amount of damage done by necromancy spells, the amount of health and mana leeched and is a cheap and effective uninterruptable heal which will keep you alive through poison, mortal strike and bleed effects! It's a must have if you choose necromancy.

Melee Skills, tactics and Parry is largely a matter of preference and play style, melee, tactics and parry are primarily for the PVP oriented mage. As a mage, you can use a mage weapon like the: swords of prosperity, staff of the magi, staff of pyros or a runic crafted sword and your magery skill will determine your fighting skill. Most mages choose no melee or parry in their templates.

However, some feel that a weapon skill and melee are preferable for PVP because they get special moves but again it's a matter of preference. If you do choose a melee skill and tactics, you only need 90 skill in tactics to be able to use special moves, most PVPers do not have higher than 90 tactics.

What properties do I need on my gear? A mage needs faster casting, recovery, spell damage increase, lower reagent cost , mana regeneration and lower mana cost on their gear and resistances. If you use the protection spell you need higher faster casting. Currently the caps on each property are 2 faster casting and 6 faster casting recovery, 15% spell damage for PVP with no cap for PVM, 100% lower reagent cost (lower reagent cost allows you to cast spells without using reagents), mana regeneration is not capped but you only need about 12 mana regeneration, lower mana cost is capped at 40% and resistances are capped at 70%.

Starting out, a suit of 100% lower reagent cost with 2/6 faster casting and recovery is all you really need. As you acquire better gear, swap out for more resistances and the other useful effects like mana regeneration and lower mana cost.

Typical Mage Suit:

Quiver of Infinity, 100% LRC (lower reagent cost), 70 Resist Suit (barbed kit crafted), 2 faster casting/6 faster cast recovery.

High End PVP Suit:

Armor of Fortune, Inquisitor's Resolution Gauntlets, Crystalline Ring, Folded Steel Reading Glasses,Quiver of Infinity, Crimson Cincture and Totem of the Void with the rest being barbed kit crafted leather resist pieces. The benefits of having this build is that you have maximum defense chance increase, maximum fast casting and recovery, high stats and can carry a -20 magery weapon and have the equivalent of 120 weapon skill as a legendary mage with a free hand to drink potions.

The combination of defense chance increase and 120 weapon skill will make your character harder for dex fighters to hit and increase your chances of survival. This is a build for the most elite necromancers and mages only due to the extreme cost of finding the required items.

Other Popular Magery Items: Pendant of the Magi, Hat of the Magi, Staff of the Magi, Ornament of the Magician, Scrapper's Compendium, Swords of Prosperity, Shield of Invulnerability, Nystul's Wizard Hat, Staff of Pyros, Kasa of the Raj-In, Rune Beetle Carapace, Novo & Etoile Bleue Set and the Sorcerer Armor Set

How much magery do I need? Become a legendary mage if you can afford it, the difference between 100, 110 and 120 magery is incredible! For example, a mage with 110 skill casts bless, they will only receive a short 2-4% buff to their attributes. If a mage with 120 skill casts bless, the legendary mage will get a full 13% buff to attributes and the spell lasts much longer. Certain spells like Mind Blast also do more damage if you have higher magery. Legendary mages also have 100% chance to cast all of the magery spells, while a mage with 110 skill will still consistently fail 7^th and 8^th circle spells.

If you have chosen inscription as a skill, your crafted spellbooks will have better properties, the higher your magery skill is.

How do I raise magery?

The anti-macro code is gone and you can raise magery anywhere now. If you have under 350 skill points you will get the most out of the GGS (guarenteed gains system) and magery will raise much faster at higher levels.

If your skill cap is 100

0-30.......Buy the skill from an NPC

30-45.....Cast Fireball on an object

45-65.....Cast Greater Heal on yourself

65-75.....Cast invisibility on yourself

75-90.....Cast Mass Dispel on yourself

90-100...Cast Earthquake

If your skill cap is 120, you will gain longer off of Mass Dispel

65-75......Cast invisibility on yourself

75-110...Cast Mass Dispel on yourself

110-120 Cast Earthquake

This guide is only intended as a starting point for a new or returning Ultima Online mage for more information visit the discussion on the UO Stratics Spellcaster forum. Start small, practice and read a new tip every day and you will be on your way to becoming a skilled mage in Ultima Online.

Related DrMMO articles:

Raise Evaluate Intelligence Up to 120 Easy in Ultima Online

Raise Resisting Spells to 120 (Legendary) in Under an Hour in Ultima Online

Champion Spawn Success as a Necromancer Mage

The Easy Way to Raise Necromancy and Spirit Speak to 120 Skill in Ultima Online

Resources:

http://www.uoherald.com/guide/guide.php?guideId=53