Mage Next Age

[Budlightyear]

Good point, thank you. I do NOT plan on attacking unless it is to mop up a chain target. So I will train some elites, but mostly, I'll be running d-specs. Besides the obvious need for MS and mage damage, my main goal is going to be to carry enough thief power to steal effectively and run some NS. So I was thinking 15% TDs and 5.5 raw tpa or so.

For others who have mentioned it, I do know what I need to do for recovery in EOWCF, I probably should have clarified I need a decent war strat. I'm sure I'll figure it out through experimentation, but any tips you have would be great.

Thank you!

If you go rogue, you should be ready to use it- that means props and AW. NS is completely possible as Faery/mystic, if that's more the type of thief ops you're looking to do. As far as being UB, faery/mystic with good TPA comes close, although no prov is ever truly "UB".

Elf/mystic works better as an a/M with strong mage ability, faery/mystic works better as t/M.

By the sounds of it, I would suggest faery/mystic. Faery/sage IMO simply isn't worth it as you miss out on the +1 mana per tick in war, MS, and double guild effectiveness (all three are HUGE for a t/M) in exchange for some relatively modest sci improvements. If you're going to be in a consistently warring kingdom, you probably won't have much time to pump science, anyway.

A hint- in war, it's most effective if you consistently stay below 60% mana, as that reduces spell mana costs. As faery/mystic with (incredible) 5 mana/tick, to start with you'll probably need to run 35+% towers to pull this off and use all your mana effectively. As you get channeling science you can reduce this, but trust me, you will need far more towers to start off with than you realize.

[Exxo]

There's another aspect about elf/my vs fae/my - elves, from my understanding, are harder to chain effectively due to -50% defensive losses. I'm certainly aware that both fae and elf should switch to attacking when/if they do get chained to a low enough acreage, and that this task will be easier for fae due to 4/5 elites. But it should be harder to get an elf to that acreage to begin with, as they don't "drop into range" of people down the chain as easily.

[Andurilas]

A hint- in war, it's most effective if you consistently stay below 60% mana, as that reduces spell mana costs.

Never heard of it.

[Exxo]

Never heard of it.

It's true, though. Observe spell costs when you're in 80-100% and 30-50% mana ranges.

[Anatak1989]

Keep in mind he just means Mana costs (NOT rune costs). Staying below 60% mana still doesn't mean much, since you will still only have 60% mana to play with, as opposed to 80-100% mana (even though the costs are higher). Of course, I play in ghetto land where people don't sabotage wizards (I don't know if any kingdom does, actually).

[crease]

Keep in mind he just means Mana costs (NOT rune costs). Staying below 60% mana still doesn't mean much, since you will still only have 60% mana to play with, as opposed to 80-100% mana (even though the costs are higher). Of course, I play in ghetto land where people don't sabotage wizards (I don't know if any kingdom does, actually).

Its very frequently used in competitive warring kds. Using SW/BT neeutralises a TM advantage a prov has, and is 1000% more useful if done on a prov that nm chains or once you figure out enemy sleep schedule, just before they wake up.

[Bukharistan]

Just from experience, do you think a faery can consistently keep MS on attackers? This age as Elf/Mystic even with 110% sci and 5 raw wpa I failed half or more of my MS attempts in my last war. Faeries would have to sacrifice 1.5 pop to even equal that. The higher you go the more faery has to sacrifice to compete with elves wpa-wise.

[Exxo]

Just from experience, do you think a faery can consistently keep MS on attackers? This age as Elf/Mystic even with 110% sci and 5 raw wpa I failed half or more of my MS attempts in my last war. Faeries would have to sacrifice 1.5 pop to even equal that. The higher you go the more faery has to sacrifice to compete with elves wpa-wise.

I'd also be very interested in the details, could someone who's actually played a fae/my give a breakdown of their success rates? Thanks in advance :)

[crease]

I'd also be very interested in the details, could someone who's actually played a fae/my give a breakdown of their success rates? Thanks in advance :)

A competent faery should be able to negate the magic bonus from elf fairly easily through science. ToG allows you to stock a good chunk of gold to blow on high science once oow. It allows a little more space for wizards(from pop/income/thief science) and better channelling science (saving on towers)

It does also have access to Mages fury.

[noobium]

If your primary concern is MS than Elf for sure.
Science and libraries are really essential for a mage to be effective by mid-age, regardless of approach. 110% sci is not particularly strong by late age... attackers that stay around 2k acres all age can have something close to that, maybe better.

Also by mid-age, Faery can outpace Elf's science investment, which closes the gap between Faery and Elf wpas, at least until the point where Learn attacks become extremely profitable. That extra science also enables more population and so forth, so the Faery winds up being a lot more versatile and making more money.

[Bukharistan]

Elves also have Mages Fury so that evens out. I agree that pumping with faeries might be easier, but then again faeries pay more than double for training their military so that might even out a bit.

About sci, if you're not in a top-KD it's very hard to hold onto it (precisely because the aforementioned top-KDs feed on you). Our strat nowadays is to not spend books while OOW, just pile them up and put em into sci once war starts.

[Andurilas]

It's true, though. Observe spell costs when you're in 80-100% and 30-50% mana ranges.

But in war it's 2% per spell regardless, right?

[Elanesse]

But in war it's 2% per spell regardless, right?

Not that I've noticed.

It seems to deduct about 5% per op when you're at 100%. Then it lowers down to about 2% when you are under a certain percentage like they've said. So logistically speaking:

If you have 100% it will looks something like this, 100, 95, 90, 86, 82, 78, 74, 71, 68, 65, 62, 59, 57, 55, 53. Those aren't exact numbers, but just assume my random numbers are exactly right, you get about 20 ops below 50% and about 15 above it for a total of 35 ops if you have full mana or stealth (considering it's the same stuff for thieves). If you get 4 mana a tick, then after 10 ticks you have 50% again. Better use your 20 ops here, and wait 10 more ticks and get another 20, 40 total ops, then to wait a full 20 ticks and only get 35 ops.

[noobium]

mana costs are 2/3 the normal cost in war.

the mana cost varies, with more difficult spells taking more mana and fails taking 50% (?) more. at around 40% mana, even fails of the most difficult spells should only cost 2%.

[Blindman]

Just from experience, do you think a faery can consistently keep MS on attackers? This age as Elf/Mystic even with 110% sci and 5 raw wpa I failed half or more of my MS attempts in my last war. Faeries would have to sacrifice 1.5 pop to even equal that. The higher you go the more faery has to sacrifice to compete with elves wpa-wise.

I had good success with 7-7.5 raw wpa and about the same 110% science. EAsy enough to fit in as a feary once you get a little honor. it was even enough to meteor weaker fearies and FB elves.