Most Useful Magician AA Abilities - Quick Reference
Quick Guide to the Most Useful Magician AA

View the Forums for extra details

Note: Ranked in order of importance and usefulness.

For a more complete and objective look at various AAs, see Complete Magician AA Advancement.

General Abilities - Requires Level 51

Innate Run Speed
1/1/1
Increases innate run speed (10% per level) both indoors and outdoors. While marginal use outdoors because of horses, SoW, Jboots, etc, there simply is no comparison when indoors.
GET THIS FIRST

Innate Regeneration
1/1/1
Increases base HP regeneration (1 point per level). Stacks with all other regen. This is most ideal for soloing, but has utility elsewhere as well. At Regen3 and level 65, a magician will completely negate the effects of a Rod of Mystical Transvergence while buffless, sitting or standing.
GET THIS SECOND

First Aid
1/1/1
Allows you to bind wound higher than normal (10% per level), up to 100% at level 3. Quite useful for reducing downtime after a rough fight, especially while meditating.

Metabolism
1/1/1
Decreases food consumption. While mages can already summon food and drink in unlimited quantities, sometimes player-made Stat food (such as Misty Thicket Picnics) will be desired. This also significantly decreases the food consumption of horses and drogmors (which inherintly increases food consumption dramatically)

Archetype Abilities - Requires 6 Points in General, Level 55

Spell Casting Mastery
2/4/6
A permanent form of mana preservation for all spells. Estimates put level 1 at 2.5%, level 2 at 5%, and level 3 at 10% mana preservation. This stacks with mana preservation items and innate specialization.
GET THIS THIRD

Spell Casting Fury
2/4/6
At level 3, provides a 7% chance to do a critical blast (doubles base damage of DD spells). Over time provides a small but significant increase in DPS. Also has substantial utility while soloing. Can be further enhanced with Fury of Magic.

Spell Casting Subtlety
2/4/6
Decreases spell aggro. At level 3 spells have 20% less aggro generated. This allows a mage to "chainnuke" longer than he normally could before gaining undesired aggro.

Natural Durability
2/4/6
Increases base HP by 10% at level 3. No matter how you look at it, more HP is very important, and its something you can never have enough of.

Combat Agility
2/4/6
Increases the chance to completely avoid melee damage by 2, 5, and 10%. Highly useful for the solo mage, and just as useful for the raid mage. Less hits mean less heals, and less hits mean a greater chance of survival. Can be further enhanced with Lightning Reflexes.

Mental Clarity
2/4/6
Increases base mana regen (1 point per level). Agreed that Mental Clarity 1 is worth the points. However Mental Clarity 2 and 3 are consider expensive except in certain utility circumstances. This does not count against the worn Flowing Thought limit.

Channeling Focus
2/4/6
Increases the chance of channeling through spells. Most useful for soloing since a magician should rarely get attacked on raids or groups. Works best in conjunction with Combat Agility and Lightning Reflexes.

Combat Stability
2/4/6
Increases melee damage mitigation 2, 5, and 10%. Most useful for soloing since a magician should rarely get attacked on raids or groups. Works best in conjunction with Combat Agility and Lightning Reflexes. Can be further enhanced by Innate Defenses.

Class Abilities - Requires 12 points in Archetype, Level 59

Pet Discipline
6
Allows a magician to execute a /pet hold command, forcing the pet to stop attacking until told to attack. By far one of the magician's most powerful abilities.
GET THIS FOURTH

Quick Damage
3/6/9
Requires Spell Casting Fury 3
Decreases the cast time on all nukes with a cast time larger than 4 seconds by 2, 5, and 10%. This stacks with all focus effects, but will not let you exceed the 50% haste cap. This will approximately increase your sustained DPS by 10% and burst DPS by 15%, depending on the spell and your existing focii. A very powerful ability.

Mend Companion
5
Allows magicians to use a Lay-on-Hands type ability on their pets. Most useful for soloing. Reuse time can be cut significantly with Hasted Mending, and it's recommended that Hasted Mending be purchased immediately after purchasing this.

Elemental Pact
5
Eliminates the consumption of malachite when summoning pets. Magicians still need malachite to summon pets. Less useful for players who exclusively use Servant of Marr and Rathe's Son, but very useful for users of Ward of Xegony, Monster Summoning IV, and pre-61 pets.

Improved Reclaim Energy
3
Increases the mana reclaimed from pets from 75% of the cost to 95%. While minor, this significantly helps soloers that rely on chain-petting.

Quick Summoning
3/6/9
Reduces cast time on all summons by 10, 25, and 50%. Highly useful for Call of the Hero, as well as chaining pets and summoning items.

Planes of Power Advancement - Generally Requires Level 61

Planar Power
Level 61/62/63/64/65
2/2/2/2/2
Increases maximum stat caps by 5 points per level. At level 65 and Planar Power 5, all stats cap at 305 instead of 280. Raising STA from 280 to 305 increases Magician base HP by about 32, and raising INT from 280 to 305 increases Magician Mana by about 162.

Innate Enlightenment
Level 61/62/63/64/65
3/3/3/3/3
Increases the INT and WIS cap by 10 points per level. At 65 with Innate Enlightment 5, INT caps at 330 instead of 280. With Planar Power 5, INT caps at 355. Raising INT from 280 to 330, or 305 to 355 increases Magician Mana by about 325. With both PP5 and IE5, raising INT from 280 to 355 raises mana about 487 points.

Planes of Power Abilities - Generally Requires Level 61

Suspend Minion
Level 62/64
5/3
Allows a magician to suspend their summoned pet and bring it back later. Level 1 only allows saving of current pet HP. Level 2 saves pet HP, buffs, and equipment. Highly useful in any circumstance (such as preserving your pet for resurrection or going invisible), and also acts as an alternative (but imperfect) form of Pet Discipline.
GET THIS SIXTH

Fury of Magic
Level 61/63/65
3/6/9
Requires Spell Casting Fury 3
Further increases the chance for a critical blast. Estimates put the percent chance of Fury of Magic 3 at 13% for magicians.

Hasted Mending
Level 63/64/65
2/2/2
Requires Mend Companion
Decreases the reuse time on Mend Companion by 25% per rank. At level 3, Mend Companion can be reused every 9 minutes.

Lightning Reflexes
Level 61/62/63/64/65
3/3/3/3/3
Requires Combat Agility 3
Further increases the chance to completely avoid melee damage.

Servant of Ro
Level 61/63/65
3/3/3
Summons a spell casting drake to fight alongside the magician for 45, 70, and 90 seconds depending on rank. This drake casts a low-resist 150 point DD every 3 seconds, maxing out at 50 dps for the duration of the drake. Basically a mana free single target nuke/dot every 9 minutes.

Host of the Elements
Level 63/64/65
5/4/3
Allows a magician to call forth 5, 7, and 9 miniature elementals per level, each lasting 30 seconds. Highly useful when soloing, but risky when grouping and raiding when the push on a monster is critical to control. Each mini elemental maxes out at ~25dps for the duration of the fight.

Innate Defense
Level 61/62/63/64/65
3/3/3/3/3
Requires Combat Stability 3
Further increases damage midigation offered from Combat Stability.

Gates of Discord Abilities - Requirements Vary

Pet Affinity
Level 65
20
Allows group spells to land on your pet. For the raiding mage, this is a HUGE ability, especially against AE mobs. In conjunction with mass group buffs and group heals landing on your pet, pet survivability skyrockets in many cases. Furthermore, bard songs and normal group spells landing on your pet improves pet offense and defense substantially. For the solo mage, it means much less of a hassle to nab your pet buffs before traveling somewhere to hunt.

Fury of Magic Mastery
Level 65
4/8/12
Requires Fury of Magic 3
Further increases the chance to crit by an estimated 1% per rank, raising it to an estimated 16%chance at level 3.

Swift Journey
Level 61
5/10
Requires Innate Run Speed 3
Increases run speed by 10% per rank. At level 2 of this ability, run speed is 50% above base, faster than Jboots and only 5% slower than Spirit of Wolf.

Elemental Alacrity
Level 65
3/6/9/12/15
Allows for pets to perform flurry attacks. While extremely expensive, this will boost overall pet damage in any situations. Higher ranks of Elemental Alacrity go off quite often and amount for a sizeable increase in overall damage. Estimates are 1.5 flurries per minute per rank (for an average of 3 additional swings per minute per rank). Level 5 adds up to 15 additional swings per minute.

Elemental Fury
Level 65
3/3/3/3/3
Allows pets to perform critical hits. While its a relatively cheap AA, the overall effectiveness of critical hits is quite low. Each rank adds an additional 1% chance for any melee hit (primary, secondary, kick, bash, etc) to critical, dealing up to 63% more damage. Overall, rank 5 adds only 3% more pet damage.

Elemental Durability
Level 65
4/8/12
Increases pet HP by 2%, 5%, and 10%. This is most useful for a solo mage where the pet will be doing a lot of tanking and less useful for a mage where the pet rarely tanks or receives damage. However, any way you look at it, more HPs means a greater chance to survive.

Elemental Agility
Level 65
4/8/12
Increases pet avoidance. Overall this has a very MINOR effect on pet avoidance, and should only be considered when the pet will be doing extended tanking. However avoiding damage is always better than taking damage.

Shared Health
Level 65
3/6/9/12/15
Allows pet to /shield you for 12 seconds per rank. While it won't dramatically boost magician defense, it will help increase the chances of survival should a mob turn on you in a tight situation. Like /shield, you must be in range for this ability to work.

Omens of War Abilities - Requirements Vary

Advanced Pet Discipline
Level 67/69
5/3
Requires Pet Discipline
Grants you two commands: /pet focus and /pet no cast. /pet focus forces your pet to attack its current target, or whichever target you indicate with /pet attack, no matter what. The pet will not switch targets until its current one dies or you tell it to. /pet no cast forces your pet to not cast its innate pet abilities. Combined with /pet hold, these abilities granted near complete control over your pet.
GET THIS FIFTH

Persistent Minion
Level 67
7
Requires Suspended Minion 2
This improves your existing Suspended Minion ability in two ways. First, with Persistent Minion, a suspended pet will be allowed to cross zone lines. This alone is extremely useful, as it allows you to travel across many zone lines while invisible and keep your pet. Second, a suspended pet under Persistent Minion will be allowed to /camp with its master. Unlike a normal pet, a suspended pet will NOT disappear after 30 minutes; it will remain suspended until you unsuspend it, or die, even if you are offline and away from the game for a very long time.
GET THIS SEVENTH

Destructive Fury
Level 66/68/70
3/6/9
Requires Fury of Magic Mastery 3
This ability increases the damage done by critical blasts. At level 3, critical blasts do 15% additional damage over their base (Focus effects still affect only the base damage). This provides a small but significant boost in damage.

Replenish Companion
Level 66/68/70
3/6/9
Requires Mend Companion
Grants you the ability to cast an upgraded version of Mend Companion, healing 3000, 5000, and 7000 HP to your pet. It shares the same timer as Mend Companion, and is affected by Hasted Mend. Very useful, as it can increase your pet's survivability greatly.

Elemental Swarm
Level 66/68/70
3/6/9
Requires Host of the Elements 3
Grants you the ability to summon an upgraded Host of the Elements. Summons 9 fire elementals for 30, 45, and 60 seconds. Each pet maxes out at about 35 DPS. Extremely damaging but also generates an extreme amount of push. Use caution.

Heart of Flame
Level 70
9
Requires Elemental Form: Fire 1
Grants you a 90 second buff that focuses Fire-based nuke damage by 50%. This stacks with worn focus items, but not bard songs. When used it increases fire-based nuke damage significantly.

Heart of Vapor
Level 67
9
Requires Elemental Form: Air 1
Grants you a 90 second buff that decreases spell aggro by 50%. It's most useful for fights where aggro is a primary concern, but in such fights it will help out significantly.

Mnemonic Retention
Level 55
3
Grants you a ninth spell slot to use. Very useful if you are always swapping spells.

Origin
Level 67
7
Ports you to your starting city's guild master. This serves as an emergency bind point should you need it. Use caution if you ruined your faction with your guild master.

Chaotic Potential
Level 66/67/68/69/70
5/5/5/5/5
Requires Planar Power 5
Increases your stat caps by 5 per level. With IE5 you can reach 355 STA and 405 INT. This increases your mana pool by about 175, and hit points by 35.

Discordant Defiance
Level 51/55/60/65/70
5/5/5/5/5
Increases your resistance caps by 5 per rank, letting your resists reach as high as 550. If you fight monsters with difficult AEs, this will help out significantly.

Mystical Attuning
Level 51/55/60/65/70
5/5/5/5/5
Increases the number of buff slots you may have by 1 per rank, allowing you to have up to 20 buffs. If you are pressed for buff slots, this will help out greatly.

Expansive Mind
Level 66/67/68/69/70
5/5/5/5/5
Increases your worn mana regeneration (Flowing Thought) cap by 1 per rank. At level 5, your FT cap is 20. While an expensive ability, it will help decrease downtime and increase overall DPS.
This ability is useless if you are not at or above your Flowing Thought cap.

Reflexive Mastery
Level 66/67/68/69/70
5/5/5/5/5
Requires Lightning Reflexes 5
Further enhances your ability to completely avoid melee damage.

Defensive Instincts
Level 66/67/68/69/70
5/5/5/5/5
Requires Innate Defense 5
Further enhances your ability to mitigate melee damage.

Recommended AA Paths

Holy Trinity AAs

1. Run 3 - 1/1/1
2. Regen 3 - 1/1/1
3. Spell Casting Mastery 3 - 2/4/6
4. Pet Discipline - 6
5. Advanced Pet Discipline - 5/3
6. Suspended Minion 2 - 5/3
7. Persistent Minion - 7

Run 3 and Regen 3 every mage should have. Run because you can't always rely on having run speed spells (especially indoors), and regen to help with taking damage, as well as midigating mod rod damage. Spell Casting Mastery is a godly AA by itself, reducing ALL spell mana cost by 10%, effectively giving you over 10% more mana than before (even stacks with mana preservation and specialization). Pet Discipline is THE ability for all mages to get, not only making it significantly easier to pull while soloing, but also to help control pet aggro by an infinitely higher margin. Advanced Pet Discipline further enhances your ability to control your pet. Suspended Minion is the utility spell to get, allowing you to suspend a pet and go invisible, or to summon a backup pet for those dangerous adventures. Persistent Minion further improves your utility, allowing you to preserve a pet indefinitely.

Offense AAs

1. Spell Casting Fury 3 - 2/4/6
2. Fury of Magic 3 - 3/6/9
3. Spell Casting Subtlety - 2/4/6
4. Fury of Magic Mastery 3 - 4/8/12
5. Destructive Fury 3 - 3/6/9
6. Servant of Ro 3- 3/3/3
7. Host of the Elements - 5/4/3
8. Elemental Swarm - 3/6/9
9. Elemental Fury 5 - 3/3/3/3/3
10. Elemental Alacrity 5 - 3/6/9/12/15
11. Elemental Form: Fire 1 - 3
12. Heart of Flame - 9

Spell Casting Fury, Fury of Magic, and Fury of Magic Mastery work to improve your long term damage, as well as randomly providing free burst damage when it is most needed (boss fights). Destructive Fury increases your critical damage, allowing you to do massive damage in a short time. Spell Casting Subtlety reduces your overall aggro, allowing you to nuke significantly more often without drawing aggro. Servant of Ro works out to be a mana-free DoT/DD every 9 minutes, while Host of the Elements is a nice fun AA to interrupt casters while doing damage. Elemental Swarm is a powerful ability to use when you absolutely must kill something fast. Like Spell Casting Fury, Elemental Fury and Elemental Alacrity increase long term pet DPS thru flurries and critical hits. Heart of Flame significantly increases your damage potential for a short time.

Defense AAs

1. Spell Casting Subtlety - 2/4/6
2. Natural Durability 3 - 2/4/6
3. Combat Agility 3 - 2/4/6
4. Lightning Reflexes 5 - 3/3/3/3/3
5. Channeling Focus 3 - 2/4/6
6. Shared Health - 3/6/9/12/15
7. Elemental Durability - 4/8/12
8. Elemental Agility - 4/8/12
9. Reflexive Mastery - 5/5/5/5/5
10. Elemental Form: Air 1 - 3
11. Heart of Vapor - 9
12. Combat Stability - 2/4/6
13. Innate Defenses - 3/3/3/3/3
14. Defensive Instincts - 5/5/5/5/5

See above for Spell Casting Subtlety. Natural Durability increases your unbuffed HP by 10%, helping improve survival rates dramatically. No matter how you look at it, HPs are king to survival. The number one cause of death is running out of HP. :) Combat Agility, Lightning Reflexes, and Reflexive Mastery work to help you avoid damage altogether, and with Channeling Focus 3 dramatically improves your ability to channel spells while getting attacked. Likewise, Elemental Durability and Elemental Agility work to improve your pet's HP and damage avoidance. Combat Stability, Innate Defenses, and Defensive Instincts help you midigate incoming damage, which can come in handy one day. Shared Health will let your pet take some of the incoming damage, potentially saving you in a life-or-death situation. Heart of Vapor helps to avoid unwanted aggro in a high-aggro situation.

Pet Support AAs

1. Pet Discipline - 6
2. Advanced Pet Discipline - 5/3
3. Suspended Minion - 5/3
4. Persistent Minion - 7
5. Mend Companion - 5
6. Hasted Mend 3 - 2/2/2
7. Pet Affinity - 20
8. Replenish Companion - 3/6/9
9. Elemental Durability - 4/8/12
10. Elemental Agility - 4/8/12
11. Quick Summoning 3 - 3/6/9
12. Elemental Pact - 5

Pet Discipline and Suspended Minion are part of the holy trinity of AAs. Mend Companion is a nice emergency heal for 2146 HP at level 65, and after Hasted Mend 3 the reuse timer is reduced to 9 minutes, enough to go off quite frequently. Replenish Companion is even better, letting you heal your pet up to 7000 HP. Quick Summoning is very useful if you like to chain pets as well as summoning pet toys in little or no time. Elemental Pact helps you save significant bag space by eliminating the reagent cost (You still need at least one at all times). Elemental Durability and Stability work to improve pet HP and damage avoidance, boosting survivability in a tank role. Pet Affinity, while expensive, will let your pet soak up any and every group buff and heal spell.

Raid Mage

1. Run 3 - 1/1/1 (3)
2. Regen 3 - 1/1/1 (6)
3. Spell Casting Mastery 3 - 2/4/6 (18)
4. Pet Discipline - 6 (24)
5. Advanced Pet Discipline - 5/3 (32)
6. Suspended Minion 2 - 5/3 (40)
7. Persistent Minion - 7 (47)
8. Spell Casting Fury 3 - 2/4/6 (59)
9. Spell Casting Subtlety 3 - 2/4/6 (71)
10. Quick Damage 3 - 3/6/9 (89)
11. Quick Summoning 2 - 3/6 (98)
12. Fury of Magic 3 - 3/6/9 (116)
13. Pet Affinity - 20 (136)
14. Natural Durability 3 - 2/4/6 (148)
15. Fury of Magic Mastery 3 - 4/8/12 (172)
16. Destructive Fury 3 - 3/6/9 (190)
17. Mystical Attuning - 5/5/5/5/5 (215)
18. Elemental Form: Fire 1 - 3 (218)
19. Heart of Flame - 9 (227)
20. Elemental Form: Air 1 - 3 (230)
21. Heart of Vapor - 9 (239)
22. Combat Agility 3 - 2/4/6 (251)
23. Lightning Reflexes 5 - 3/3/3/3/3 (276)
24. Mend Companion - 5 (281)
25. Hasted Mend 3 - 2/2/2 (287)
26. Replenish Companion 3 - 3/6/9 (305)
27. Mental Clarity 3 - 2/4/6 (317)
28. Expansive Mind (Optional) - 5/5/5/5/5 (342)
29. Channeling Focus 3 - 2/4/6 (354)
30. Elemental Fury 5 - 3/3/3/3/3 (369)
31. Elemental Alacrity 5 - 3/6/9/12/15 (414)
32. Combat Stability 3 - 2/4/6 (426)
33. Innate Defense 5 - 3/3/3/3/3 (441)
34. Reflexive Mastery 5 - 5/5/5/5/5 (466)
35. Defensive Instincts 5 - 5/5/5/5/5 (491)

This places an emphasis on offense AAs followed by Defense and Pet AAs, with Pet Affinity and Natural Durability coming fairly early in the game.

Solo Mage

1. Run 3 - 1/1/1 (3)
2. Regen 3 - 1/1/1 (6)
3. Spell Casting Mastery 3 - 2/4/6 (18)
4. Pet Discipline - 6 (24)
5. Advanced Pet Discipline - 5/3 (32)
6. Suspended Minion 2 - 5/3 (40)
7. Persistent Minion - 7 (47)
8. Spell Casting Fury 3 - 2/4/6 (59)
9. Quick Damage 3 - 3/6/9 (77)
10. Mend Companion - 5 (82)
11. Hasted Mend 3 - 2/2/2 (88)
12. Replenish Companion 3 - 3/6/9 (106)
13. Servant of Ro 1 - 3 (109)
14. Host of the Elements 3 - 5/4/3 (121)
15. Elemental Swarm 3 - 3/6/9 (139)
16. Fury of Magic 3 - 3/6/9 (157)
17. Mental Clarity 1 - 2 (159)
18. Quick Summoning 2 - 3/6 (168)
19. (Optional) Pet Affinity - 20 (188)
20. Natural Durability 3 - 2/4/6 (200)
21. Fury of Magic Mastery 3 - 4/8/12 (224)
22. Destructive Fury 3 - 3/6/9 (242)
23. Elemental Form: Fire 1 - 3 (245)
24. Heart of Flame - 9 (254)
25. Shared Health 1 - 3 (257)
26. Elemental Form: Earth 1 - 3 (260)
27. Heart of Stone - 9 (269)
28. Combat Agility 3 - 2/4/6 (281)
29. Lightning Reflexes 5 - 3/3/3/3/3 (296)
30. Reflexive Mastery 5 - 5/5/5/5/5 (321)
31. Spell Casting Subtlety 3 - 2/4/6 (333)
32. Channeling Focus 3 - 2/4/6 (345)
33. Elemental Durability 3 - 4/8/12 (369)
34. Elemental Agility 3 - 4/8/12 (393)
35. Mental Clarity 3 - 4/6 (403)
36. Elemental Fury 5 - 3/3/3/3/3 (418)
37. Elemental Alacrity 5 - 3/6/9/12/15 (463)
38. Combat Stability 3 - 2/4/6 (475)
39. Innate Defense 5 - 3/3/3/3/3 (490)
40. Defensive Instincts 5 - 5/5/5/5/5 (515)

This emphasizes pet support AAs as well as some offensive AAs.

Group Mage

1. Run 3 - 1/1/1 (3)
2. Regen 3 - 1/1/1 (6)
3. Spell Casting Mastery 3 - 2/4/6 (18)
4. Pet Discipline - 6 (24)
5. Advanced Pet Discipline - 5/3 (32)
6. Suspended Minion 2 - 5/3 (40)
7. Persistent Minion - 7 (47)
8. Spell Casting Fury 3 - 2/4/6 (59)
9. Spell Casting Subtlety 3 - 2/4/6 (71)
10. Servant of Ro 1 - 3 (74)
11. Host of the Elements 3 - 5/4/3 (86)
12. Elemental Swarm 3 - 3/6/9 (104)
13. Fury of Magic 3 - 3/6/9 (122)
14. Mental Clarity 1 - 2 (124)
15. Fury of Magic Mastery 3 - 4/8/12 (148)
16. Pet Affinity - 20 (168)
17. Destructive Fury 3 - 3/6/9 (186)
18. Elemental Form: Fire 1 - 3 (189)
19. Heart of Flame - 9 (198)
20. Quick Summoning 2 - 3/6 (207)
21. Natural Durability 3 - 2/4/6 (219)
22. Mend Companion - 5 (224)
23. Hasted Mend - 2/2/2 (230)
24. Replenish Companion - 3/6/9 (248)
25. Shared Health 1 - 3 (251)
26. Combat Agility 3 - 2/4/6 (263)
27. Lightning Reflexes 5 - 3/3/3/3/3 (278)
28. Elemental Fury 5 - 3/3/3/3/3 (293)
29. Elemental Alacrity 5 - 3/6/9/12/15 (338)
30. Reflexive Mastery 5 - 5/5/5/5/5 (363)
31. Channeling Focus 3 - 2/4/6 (375)
32. Combat Stability 3 - 2/4/6 (387)
33. Mental Clarity 3 - 4/6 (397)
34. Innate Defense 5 - 3/3/3/3/3 (412)
35. Defensive Instincts 5 - 5/5/5/5/5 (437)

This emphasizes AAs that benefit groups the most, with a slight emphasis on offense. Pet Affinity ranks up there as a support AA and should be acquired

Version: 2005.04.03