People tell me I am very bad at context. That like a baby I assume people know everything I know. I guess I can't argue. Reading over the description of my last fight against a monster 7 levels higher than me I realized that for people who have only played modern VRMMOs without so much explicit math involved, where a few points of damage or a split-second can decide the course of events, it isn't clear how much I benefitted from my unique starting abilities. For that reason, before I proceed to the fight which gave me the EXP to hit level 9, I am going to discuss how some of the battles I fought would go for players who got unlucky in the lottery and experience the game much as customers did in the live launch.

You may have noticed at the start of my story that I received both Template and Archetype Talents. One major aspect of Basic classes is that they receive the Archetype Talents as well as a random other talent. My random talent was modified by my Template to become Illusion. A typical player picking a base class would receive the 4 Tier 4 Talents I did as well as another random Tier 4 Magical Talent. They would also only receive a standard staff at the start and not a Wizard's Staff.

The Basic Magic Template looks like this:

Template(Magic): Practitioner(Basic)

Base Stats:

Level: 0(0%) Health 80(Rec 8/20) Mana 100(Rec 5)

Str 8 Dex 8 Con 8

Cha 8 Wis 8 Int 10

Mem 8

Stat Points: 10(10)

Skill Points 0 Archetype Points 4

Ability Points 4 Template Points 0

You start with 8 in every stat plus 10 in your primary stat. Mages have Wisdom and Memory as secondary stats. No bonus to them though. Just indicates what to focus on for newbies. Compared to my class which had points preassigned the base stats look weak. I had +2/+2/+2/+6/+6/+11/+6 left to right. That is +35. As you saw on my screen when it said Stat Points: 0(35)

On the basis template it says 10/10. A typical choice would be +0/+0/+0/+0/+3/+5/+2. Then you lose 1 Selection point and Ability point per tier. Basic classes get no Template Talents, just a random extra Tier 4 Archetype talent. All 4 points are in Archetype Points. They also only have Archetype and Basic Ability Points.

Calling(Tier 4): A Talent focused summoning temporary pets using nature magic which can act as distractions or extra damage sources

Thaumaturgy(Tier 4): A Talent focused on elemental damage, with access to all the basic elements but a small scope within each element

Abjuring(Tier 4): A Talent focused on defense and clearing debuffs but with little offensive capacity

Vitamancy(Tier 4): A talent focused on buffing and support spells with a wide scope but weak intensity

Letharmancy(Tier 4): A talent focused on weakening and diminishing enemies with wide scope and weak focus

As we can see this random Practitioner Template got the same 4 basic Magic Talent and a random less common Tier 4 Talent. I'm going to provide the skill lists for these Talents here and sort of kit out an example character and then I'll throw it up against a newbie zone enemy and then a few of the enemies I faced. This character has a basic staff which deals 10+STR damage. In our example that is a total of 18 damage. Of course with Thaumaturgy he can cast actual basic damage spells which I couldn't.

Thaumaturgy Phase 1 Spell List:

Scorch Shot: 20 damage | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 20 mana

Shock Strike: Stun 3s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 20 mana

Stone Shard: 40 damage | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 25 mana

As you can see these spells are more basic and a bit less intense than mine. A key factor is that Haste would not be as beneficial to a typical mage. While all mages with staffs have an unmodified attack time of 2s, the -1s Cast time of Scorch Shot makes it harder to combine with Haste.

Arcane Missile: 50 damage(unreduceable) | single target | ranged 40ft | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Arcane Missile deals 2.5x the damage of Scorch Shot, and it has no type weakness and can't be reduced by resistances. On the other hand it can't be boosted by type advantage. Scorch Shot would promote to 40 mana and 40ft range when you got to Thaumaturgy phase 2, without a Cast time increase, but it would still typically be weaker than Arcane Missile. Arcane Missile would be worse for a mage without Haste though since it takes longer to case.

Shock Strike is mostly inferior to Arcane Stupefaction, especially for enemies that resist lightning spells. AS essentially has an extra Tier on SS since it starts with higher mana cost but higher duration. They have the same Cast time. You can't find Arcane with a Template at a lower class than Extraordinary, though.

Stone Shard is a decent skill for Tier 4, earth resistance is rarer than fire resistance, and it takes longer but has a very similar mana cost and applies more damage at once. Shock Strike can be used to start off a battle but it is typically worse to cast in battle because Arcane Stupefaction has a 1 second longer duration, which is also boosted by duration spells, and stun spells as a solo player are weaker without Haste to speed up casting.

Abjuring Phase 1 Spell List:

Magic Shield: 50 Health Shield 10s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 50 mana

Magic Armor: +10% PHY DMG Mitigation 10s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 40 mana

Magic Wall: 50 Health Wall 10s | line 10ft | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 40 mana

Abjuring is as noted the art of defense. Magic Shield is a quality skill, trading mana, the larger pool for a mage, for health. Casting on the mage themselves can be a good start to a fight while buffing a front line class can make them really tough to take down. Magic wall is great for slow moving enemies as well blocking off gaps in terrain or in your front line or flanks to protect weak members in a party. Magic Armor provides raw physical damage mitigation. This is an excellent spell to buff a fight or even the mage against Creatures which, unlike Monsters, rarely have non-physical damage. It has the same impact against Blunt, Slashing, and Piercing.

I prefer to use Control to avoid threats in the first place and these spells are typically more useful for parties anyways. You've already seen the Magic and Basic Abilities so I'll avoid repeating them. Which means we are now looking at the polar oppose Talents of Vitamancy and Letharmancy.

Letharmancy Phase 1 Spell List:

Weakness: -10% STR 8/s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast Time 1s | 25 mana

Lethargy: -20% MOV 8/s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast Time 1s | 25 mana

Bumbling: -10% DEX 8s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast Time 1s | 25 mana

Vitamancy Phase 1 Spell List:

Lively: +20% MOV 8/s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast Time 1s | 25 mana

Solidity: +10% STR 8/s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast Time 1s | 25 mana

Nimbleness: +10% DEX 8/s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast Time 1s | 25 mana

These are pretty basic buffs and debuffs. Aside from MOV they are pretty useless for buffing mages. Great for frontline and damage support classes, though. As Tier 4 Talents they don't have a ton of oomph. Finally we'll look at Calling, the rarer lottery Talent our Practicioner scored. For Tier 4 it is very good.

Calling Phase 1 Spell List:

Call Hound: Summon Dirt Hound 20s Cap 1 | summon | ranged 20ft | Cast Time 4s | 100 mana

Bond Minion: Stabilize 1 Minion | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast Time 1s

Call Hawk: Summon Leaf Hawk 15s Cap 1 | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast Time 3s | 50 mana

Stabilize Minion allows you to make a summon permanent. It will respawn an hour after you exit combat. Minions can be buffed if you have any spells available. Typically a minion from Calling is not super strong but if the enemy ignores them the damage can add up. Conversely you could use them as a meat shield depending on your build. Calling is a Tier 4 Talent so there are several other Talents that are much more significant. However it can be stacked with other Talents to allow more creatures in play. Some stronger Talents have abilities that apply to all pets and some buffs from some Talents are AoE so extra pets can help if you specialize in Summoning.

Leaf Hawk has the following stats:

Leaf Hawk LV 1

Hp 15 STR 3 DEX 3 CON 3 MOV 40/s

Skills: Peck: 10 damage 2s | Scratch: 5 damage 1s

Dirt Hound has the following stats:

Dirt Hound LV 1

Hp 25 STR 5 DEX 5 CON 5 MOV 30/s

Skills: Scratch: 5 damage 1s | Bite: 15 damage 2s

Now we can see that our example Practioner has 4 selection points. We are probably going to take Scorch Shot and Shock Strike. Magic Shield is another good choice. I personally wouldn't go for damage mitigation with so little health or for buffs since we have no allies right now. We start with 100 mana and 5 recovery so Dirt Hound is a bit expensive. Leaf Hawk is cheaper and immune to short attacks like bite. I'll grab that. Now lets look at a wolf fight:

Wolf LV 0 10 EXP

Hp 25 STR 4 DEX 4 CON 4 MOV 40/s

Skills: Slash: 5 damage | Bite: 10 damage

This is a pretty easy kill. We can just start off with Stone Shard. Now a forest wolf.

Forest Wolf LV 1 25 EXP

Hp 50 STR 8 DEX 8 CON 8 MOV 40/s

Skills: Slash: 10 damage | Bite: 15 damage

This is more difficult. We are in range as soon as we attack. Stone Shard would work followed by Scorch Shot. One advantage of Stone Shard is that if we open with it the casting time isn't as significant. Now lets look at the situation that I was in at the start. 2 Forest Wolves. We still win this handily. We kill the first wolf, take 10 15 damage, take 15 damage again, and again. Then it is over. 25+20+20+20 mana. We are close to empty and low health but we did fine. A major limitation is our mana pool and expensive spells but a major advantage is no need to use the staff since we have ranged spells.

However the next fight when I was still at level 1 on my character was not as easy. Ambush by two forest bandits:

Forest Bandit LV 2 40 EXP

Hp 50 STR 8 DEX 8 CON 8 MOV 20/s

Skills: Stab: 10 damage

These guys are much slower but that doesn't help in an ambush. I can't rely on Stone Shard here except as a mana savings. Cast it and take 40 damage. Cast Scorch Shot to kill one bandit and take 20 more damage. Down to 20. I died in 2 hits but need 3 seconds to win. At this point Magic Shield pays off. Take 10 damage and have 50 extra health now. 60 total. However I spent 20+25+50 mana and only recoverd 15. 20 left. I cast Scorch Shot and then use my staff. This takes 5 seconds. I take 50 damage and am down to 10 health. If I had been ambushed by Forest Wolves their close range Bite attack would have given them the damage to finish me. Woops.

At level 2 I ambushed 3 Camped Forest Bandits. 60 HP and 15 damage. I'd still take the first before he could attack me since I was at ranged. However I'd take 30 damage afterwards. Even if I prepped by casting Magic Shield and waiting 5 seconds to recover 25 Mana and then recovered 15 more casting my first volley, I start at 130 Hp but I take 30 right away, and I'm at 100-50-25-20+40=45 mana. I could cast one Scorch Shot, taking 30 putting me at 70, and then I'm dead.

Also relevant is that a Basic Template gets 2 skill points but only 1 Selection Point and has fewer Ability Points. Now a lucky roll on an Uncommon Template could maybe clear the Camped Forest Bandits if they got Pyromancy or Geomancy or something with more oomph. They might even drop the Wooded Cave Bear since the disable duration and Armored Trait wouldn't matter as much, but they would die to the Alpha and his Pack. Of course most players with these classes spawned in areas they could group. With a Practicioner, a Warrior, and a Cleric or something you are stronger than 3 characters alone. However they'd fight lower monsters and have to share the experience and they don't scale as well.

I'm going to have to pick up on my actual fight for level 9 in a further narration since we've taken so long to demonstrate my superiority over the plebian classes. Don't tell me my station was unearned either. I was in NCDOT. I'm am elite.