Storm Mage Guide

There are two main strategies for playing the storm mage: Spell Power or Focus. Both share a lot of similarities, with the major difference being skill point allocation. I think focus is more reliable, but vaporizing all your enemies is fun!

A storm mage's power comes from the strong AOE attack shock. It lacks maneuverability so you need to make sure you have enough MP to kill all your enemies. The other thing you need to watch out for is water - it conducts electricity. This is both useful and dangerous: Standing near water is good, in water and you will die.

## The Build

### Race

* Gnome: Be careful of your small status - almost all terrain including blood and grass will make you unstable. You will start with 6 less HP, 3 more spell power and 3 more MP.

If you are not good at watching terrain human will be a better choice. The only change to the build is to put 2 points in spell power first before focus.

### Skill Points

* 10 Fortitude
* Focus or Spell Power (SP) depending on what you need.
* Focus is more important than SP. ~30 MP is a good amount.
* Spare points after you have maxed the previous three can go to stealth.

### Talents

* In order: Magic Mastery 1, Focus 1, Shock 1, Focus 2, Shock 2.
* If you don't get any tomes next is: Magic Mastery 2, Shock 3.
* With the addition of the library you can almost always get other useful talents.
* After floor 10 if you have spare talent points, get Lighting Bolt 2/3.
* After the first 3 talents adjust your build to take into account equipment and tomes. For example, MP equipment makes it possible to skip the focus talent.

List of talents that are useful:

* Swiftness/Ice Armor - Both of these are very useful, but be careful of the reduced MP.
* Sprint, Strafe Attack, Evasion - Conveniently also known as the Athletics tome. It adds some maneuverability to the storm mages kit, and evasion is OP.
* Fortitude - One of the best talents in the game. Extra HP will make it so much safer.
* Storm Mastery - Good for some extra damage.
* Freezing Cloud - It conducts electricity, a cool combo.
* Evade - Always a nice skill to have.
* Tunnel Shot/Power Shot - Abilities that don't rely on MP can be useful.
* Resistances - Always useful, the first point gives a large reduction in damage.
* Charm - Useful, only requires 1 talent point to be effective.
* Confusion - Requires a lot of talent points, but is one of the most powerful spells in the game.

All of these skills are useful, but you cannot guarantee getting any of them. Add them to your build if you find them. It is worth buying a tome from the merchant to get these, as long as you don't already have too many (the athletics tome will use all your skill points).

Some people like Thunder Clap, personally I never use it. Try it, if you find it useful add it to your build.

### Equipment

Most of the time you can only use what you get, but sometimes you have to make choices. 3 MP is probably better than 1 protection, but 3 protection is better than 5 MP. It really depends where your build is at. A few key things are:

* The Greater Staff of Storms has been changed so the AOE works like the shock spell with a range of 1, this makes it completely safe.
* A wooden shield is way better than an orb.
* If you are at 0 protection a piece of metal armor is worth it.
* Highly enchanted metal armor is worth it even if you are not at 0 protection. Only one piece though, more and you will struggle to kill anything.
* Ring of evasion, shield of reflection and crystal armor are OP. They are good choices to enchant.
* Confusion and energy are the best charms. Infectious disease is too dangerous for the immobile storm mage. If you are using a charm of energy you can put less points in focus.
* Any item with -% HP is not worth it.

Some people like to keep a good melee weapon. It can be useful. It can also be gold for more skill points.

### Merchant

* Sell most of the projectiles and spare gear.
* Keep your highest piece of useless enchanted gear for a transference table.
* Food, scrolls and potions are good items to buy.

With the reduction in the cost of goods it is much easier to buy better gear. If you like to multi-class try and wait until after the library so you have gold for talents.

### Wishing

Wishing is mostly based on personal preference. I find wishing for a staff is usually a good choice.

At lvl 7 and 13 the enchantment of items will increase to +2 and +3 respectively.

### Altar

Wizard or wealth, whichever you see first. Wizard is 5% chance of spells using no MP, wealth is 100-200g.

With the library, skill trainers and reduced merchant costs wealth is the better altar as you can always use more gold.

### Potions

* Save 1 MP and 1 HP pot, drink the rest to increase your stats.
* Buy HP pots from the merchant to drink for the stats.
* If you get a resistance pot drink all your HP pots.

### Enchantment

A few levels of enchantment on your staff will greatly increase your damage. Charms and rings are other good choices. It really depends on what you have, and what you need. If you only have 1 piece of armor, enchanting that might be a good idea.

### Side Dungeons

Always try the side dungeons, even if to just poke your head in and see what's near the entrance.

#### Sewers:

* Super easy if you stand next to, not in the water.

#### Arcane Tower:

* Arcane tower is possible if you have good equipment, a bunch of food and some emergency scrolls.
* Rest often, blast the enemies with spells. Shock the blue birds. Multiple times.
* When you don't have to teleport into a room it is much safer, so if there are connected rooms you can explore a bit without risking much.
* Having sprint makes teleporting much safer, as you can sprint back to the portal.
* Skip if you don't think your character is up to it.

#### Ice Caves:

* Kite the polar bears, shock the wolves, kill the penguins in the most efficient way (shock or LB).
* There are two fires per level, if you haven't found one by 7 cold backtrack to previous floor, earlier if it is far from the entrance.

#### Core:

* Prioritize shocking the fire elementals. They outrange you, but conveniently make those fire orbs that you can then shock.
* Shock the bats. LB eels. Sidestep the salamanders and kill with normal attacks.
* Play it carefully, slowly clear around you.
* If your taking too much damage leave.

### General Tips

MP management is vital. You have no escape tools, so particularly in the mid levels you are at risk of getting swarmed (centaurs and jaguars are dangerous).

* Use energy fountains, food and level ups strategically, try to minimize resting for MP until you have plenty of food.
* Two spells worth of MP should be enough for most rooms, with an energy pot in reserve. A bit of kiting always helps.
* Kiting solo slow enemies to death instead of zapping them helps save MP.
* Don't skimp on spells though: If you meet a solo archer or mage early on, zap them right away.
* A trick for rat nests: Let them spawn first, then zap the spawner and a minion with lightning bolt - until you are able to one shot the spawner.
* When you have both shock and lightning bolt choose the appropriate spell for the situation. Lightning bolt is 1 MP cheaper, so use it where possible.

Full clearing is safer, as you will gain more experience and items, becoming stronger for the Vault of Yendor. If there is a dangerous situation there is no need to clear every floor. The same applies to side dungeons - if you clear them you should find the rest of the game easier, but be careful as they can be dangerous.

If you have a different elemental staff you can use that on enemy storm mages. If you don't, shock them until they die.

Water is your friend.

* Kite strong enemies to water.
* Be careful when crossing water, particularly of fast enemies.
* Think every time before you enter water: Should I do this?
* You can retreat 5 squares away from water, use lightning bolt to the edge, and still zap everybody while avoiding enemy ranged attacks.

This strategy is aimed at win streaking, and I get an average time of 20 minutes per game. If you have any suggestions about playing storm mage, or any tips or idea about the game either add it to the wiki or come join us on the discord. Random595.