The Empyreal Spears
So you’re curious about the path of the Spear Mage? Be it because you’re considering taking up the mystic spear, or want to learn a bit about the arcane front liners I’ll be glad to oblige you. Ego sum Armucis, Venator Draconis—or as you Defenders would rather say—I’m Armucis the Dragon Hunter, and I will be your guide.
STATS
The Spear Mage is a mixture of physical prowess and mental fortitude, as such you will want your stats to be balanced between INT and STR. Your weapon of choice being the spear, you want to increase STR first, but do not ignore INT or you shall find yourself running out of steam far too easily in prolonged encounters.
There are many ways you can go about the order of your stat placement, a suggested one can be Raising STR to 150 and then raising INT to 150 as well, once they’re even you can either alternate between raising STR and INT by 50 points or keep putting points simultaneously in both stats. Your long term goal is to have a base STR and INT of 300.
CON and SEN are of marginal value to a Spear Mage, as they improve critical hit rate and accuracy, but you should only consider putting points into these stats much farther down the line.
BUILD
The main difference between a regular Staff-wielding Mage and a Spear Mage is that Spear Mage is much stronger in close quarters and in single target damage in exchange for having less area-of-effect damage than a Staff Mage. We focus on hitting single targets hard and fast, making us really effective bodyguards and front line support.
To reflect these strengths in combat, Spear Mages focus on the single-target spells of the Mage skill tree. We can wield Ice, Fire and Lightning just like our counterparts, however it is common for Spear Mages to choose Ice as their first element to develop since it possesses the strongest single-target spell in a Mage’s arsenal, Permafrost Chill. Other skills of note are: Thunder Shock and Electric Element which can stagger enemies attempting to attack our allies, Wind Storm and Icy Hailstorm our two area of effect attacks, Elemental Spike and Energy Burn which are good for weaving in between our ice spells, the latter not only placing a damage-over-time effect on its target but also lowering their defense, and Meteorite Strike which is our longest range single-target technique.
COMBAT AS A SPEAR MAGE
A spear mage has the flexibility to swap between front line support and rear support often in a battle. It is important to note that although you do not shy from melee combat, you are not a soldier and even with high-end armor sets we lack the passives Soldiers have to further strengthen their ability to take hits so we cannot and should not act as a primary component of the front line itself. Instead, we can operate close to the front line and eliminate targets of high threat as fast as possible with our powerful burst damage. If the front line is being overwhelmed by a large amount of weak units, our surround abilities can help relieve them, and we can also help carve through hordes of enemies with our own auto attacks. During battle, some enemies may specifically target defenders such as clerics or snipers; as a spear mage you have a strong ability to either eliminate these threats quickly or have them turn their attention to you via constant attacks and status effects. The range of most of your abilities also allows you to perform both these functions from medium range, should entering melee range prove to be dangerous.
TAKING YOUR SKILLS BEYOND
As a spear mage there are many doors open to you to take your abilities to the next level, specializing in an element or thoroughly learning all of the spells Spear can use to its fullest can lead to various new experiences and styles of combat exclusive to spear mage. There are also items which Mages can utilize such as Plasma to perform energy feats, some which even staff wielders cannot perform as effectively. Always strive to hone your art and keep an eye out for opportunities to grow!
Well, all this chatter has gotten me hungry, time to hunt down some Mammoths and have myself a nice seared steak for dinner. Bene, Defender!