An IN DEPTH Mage Guide - Ashes of Creation - Talents, Rotation, Stats and more

[@CrixGuides]

THEY'VE CHANGED SOME STUFF ALREADY! - They changed it so that Mage empowerments from Enchant Weapon last one Hour if you single buff, and 30 seconds if you triple buff, so don't triple buff. But you can have three different Mages put different elements on the same person and they keep all 3 for an hour. - There's a huge bug right now that lets you stack up STACKS of FIREBALL! Presumably it's coming from when you reset the CD of Firebolt from your Fire Empowerment Weapon Finishers. With these stacks, you DO NOT have a cooldown on Fireball, so you can cast it as many stacks you have. When I swapped from Firebolt to Fireball, I had 133 stacks, so I was able to literally cast Fireball 133 times on a World Boss. With the Alacrity Bard buff the cast time is 1 second. It's an insane dmg bug, but really fun if you use it before they fix it lol. I hope you all enjoyed this video and I hope you guys enjoy playin the Mage. I honestly love this class and if you're one of those people who really like playing Casters, then you'll also love it. I'll have many more videos soon, so please follow the channel. I also be streaming Ashes all weekend, every weekend if you want to ask questions, learn more or just meet some like minded individuals. www.twitch.tv/crixvibez

[@HealingwithJesus33]

Can I ask have you tested that ball lightning and the stagger into double chain lightning work as intended? I tested them in prealpha and I know they were not working as intended so I adapted my build to that

[@HealingwithJesus33]

Also what triple enchant?, does it gives another party member all 3 elemental effects when they attack a target?

[@CrixGuides]

@HealingwithJesus33 Yep they work now. They work beautifully. That used to be really annoying on pre-Alpha, but they fixed it work Alpha 2. And yes, triple enchant works in Arcane Circle. I showcase it at the start of the Rotation section.

[@HealingwithJesus33]

@@CrixGuidesthankyou for answering 🫡

[@Juuzuo1]

Lost all my items due to a bug last sunday decided to try mage out because of you and it did not disappoint nothing felt better then chain lightning and the arcane circle unlocks HEROIC guide

[@CrixGuides]

Hell yeah! I'm glad you enjoy it! It gets even better each level

[@zacdudzik]

What a phenomenal video Crix. Sounds complicated until you get your hands on the class. Seems like Mage has a nice, high skillcap. Your videos convinced me to drop fighter for now and build a mage this weekend when servers open back up. Keep it up!

[@CrixGuides]

Hell yeah brother. Fighter looks fun tho! I'm glad you enjoyed the video

[@jdogman101NEOF]

Thanks for all the hours put into testing and sleep lost to make this mage guide! I'm sure both those in the alpha but even those just keeping up with the state of the game will appreciate :)

[@CrixGuides]

I really appreciate that man. Thanks

[@benstanull5033]

Best Guide i saw so far ! Top Job

[@aaronevans4963]

Very detailed, nice work Crix.

[@antipaladin6531]

Loved the insight of the mage on this video

[@FlankerAOC]

A well-structured video with a great amount of useful information, thank you!

[@Riecheck]

Watched this at lvl 9, learned a lot. Watched this at lvl 23, learned a lot more. Now that I've taken the time to dive deep into this. A few critiques that I double checked with your footage/screenshots. Combust doesn't apply Burning. 3:56 / checked against 26:21 Ball Lightning doesn't apply Shocked. 4:36 / checked against 20:03 Shattered isn't proc'd by the Volatile status effect, it's proc'd by Lightning damage. 5:15 / checked against 18:18 Wound doesn't increase damage taken I don't believe. 6:05 Subscribed though, appreciate all the hard work. You've helped me up my game as a Mage!

[@CrixGuides]

Hey! I'm glad it helped out so much! And thanks for the feedback. You are definitely correct on those and they're mix of me messing up my script or the editing!. There's also so much I'd add this this since I'm another like 400 hours deep on yet another mage. I might redo this for Phase 2

[@Riecheck]

@@CrixGuides Sincerely looking forward to it if you do! Keep up the great content man =)

[@woar3307]

Great video, thanks for putting in the time on it. Very helpful

[@CrixGuides]

Ofc. Glad you enjoyed it. I'm contemplating doing another for Phase 2 after the wipe. Not much has changed, but enough has I think.

[@woar3307]

@CrixGuides look forward to that. Glad you plan to keep updating with the changes. I'll be watching for sure. Seeing as the game keeps changing i think it's tough to find really through videos like this. Thanks again

[@CrixGuides]

@@woar3307 Yeah for sure. This game is so far from being released, so it only make sense to keep updating the videos with all the changes. Plus I'll have some tips and tricks for Mages and everything else.

[@Enslavedgames]

Such a good well put together video. When this game drops Crix is going to be huge

[@Yushaodo]

Great work!

[@koenig3593]

Nice guide, has me thinking twice about going cleric

[@ZimpotchiTV]

Yo, top tier review of the Mage, i really hope you make more guides for other classes!

[@diggles27]

Superb breakdown & great editing

[@CrixGuides]

Thanks so much!

[@veil1792]

*They should definitely combine Illuminate with Mage Eye, and put Shell on the side bar as a guaranteed spell.* *Should also add the Charge Up mechanic to Fireball, Meteor, Iceball and Blizzard.*

[@sundayexe4250]

Crix dropping the 40 minute banger

[@leoo011]

D#mn ive really watched it from start to finish haha. Thanks man!

[@CrixGuides]

NP!!!!!

[@RitchieSH]

Idk how I missed this, but love the guide!

[@CrixGuides]

Thank you! I already want to update it with some changes lol. But I'll wait prob until P2.

[@trentVNN]

Yeah! This is dope 😎 no better mage guide

[@mdubz]

this guide ownz hard

[@CrixGuides]

Thanks!

[@ozijak]

Brilliant video Crix, some great information I'm very keen to test out in the weekend to come. The burning dot damage ticking that hard sounds mental, had only been using it in solo farming. Let alone the triple weapon combo stack and bleed as well. Shatter combos are so much fun, the mage is my favourite so far of the 4 classes I've tried. Keep up the epic content!

[@CrixGuides]

Hell yeah! Enjoy it!

[@patrickobrienstr]

Now you need to do this for all classes 🤣 badass video tho

[@PyraiSage]

"Bug" is what makes blink so much fun pls dont take it steven. "Making your shatters that. much. more. pretty!" ko'd me 🤣

[@CrixGuides]

OMG RIGHT! I've been doing some fun stuff with it. I wanted to post a little short meme collage video of it lol

[@orwgala9492]

very good data

[@brainstormsurge154]

The pitch black bug sounds like an event. Would be cool if they did create some kind of random event that used it where you needed light sources to clear the event. Maybe something like an invasion by the "Cult of Shadows" or something.

[@PinkchinsOSRS]

Great guy for release in 2030

[@dealerion5358]

35:43 Why are you using only 2x Firebolt (16stacks burn) for combust? Isnt it wasted conflag, I would rather stack the burn to 24stacks so Combust gets the most value with conflag. Also to those who are lower level and have not as much skillpoints, dont skill into fuse in group play. Shocked stacks are consumed by your party aswell, especially with rangers you will almost never be fast enough with firebolts to get fuse to have impact (unless you are in melee and ur firebolts wont travel long) Keep in mind there are multiple classes who can turn your Burnstacks into conflag. Dont be mindless rotating, look at burnstacks, communicate with other mages/clerics when who uses conflag on which burnstacks

[@Wanderwege-YT]

14:50 you placed text below the pictures wrong

[@CrixGuides]

Thank you!

[@Wanderwege-YT]

Think that was the only one, but not sure. I'm Cleric player, waiting for a good guide to learn something new and improve

[@CrixGuides]

@@Wanderwege-YT Well I'm actually going Cleric next. So give me a few weeks to level up and I'll have one for you.

[@brainstormsurge154]

After you covered Enchant Weapon it sounds like it should just be unlocked with level progression. Also, not sure if you want to fix the upload but the fireball and firebolt you show at 14:47 is reversed with your descriptions.

[@subinfinite]

Great video.... when you talk about triple stacking the beam with arcane circle you show where nicco casts circle/frost/cone/ball then beam but isnt that missing fire? Or am i missing something about that?

[@CrixGuides]

Nah, in that example he wasn't attuned to fire. I just threw the clip in there anyway.

[@brainstormsurge154]

I hope they add a passive talent to make Arcane Circle anchored to you so it follows it's more useful in PvP where you need to be constantly moving. I hope they add a combo to Arcane Volley for something like mana recovery or other things as well. Perhaps since Prismatic Beam seems like an arcane skill it could be related to enchant weapon. Something like Arcane Volley applying your enchant weapon proc and maybe even a passive talent that can do all three just like Arcane Circle. Don't know what the arcane debuff would be called but I could imagine that it would be cool if it wasn't so much something to proc as it was something to change the behavior of a spell. Though I'm not sure I would want it to apply from other player's applications unless it was more like an added effect that had a cooldown. Something like if you used Chain Lightning on the arcane debuff target it chains on not just the original target but also the original multiple times. Perhaps a linked talent could make it that it does this for every target. I know someone has asked in a Q&A to Steven if there will be options to spec only into one elemental type and he did say they will try to make that option available eventually so I'm curious what they'll do with that. I could see it as some kind of optional "Can only pick one" type of skill talent that changes all talents and effects into only one thing such as frost, lightning, fire or arcane. Though I'm fine if it's not until something like level 20 or higher so that you at least have to be familiar the vanilla combo gameplay at that point. I really hope they change the weapon talents to better work with mages for any type of weapon. It could be an augment thing whenever that system comes out since it would make sense for something like a Figher/Mage or Mage/Fighter or any other combo that might choose melee or archer weapons. Something like turning those weapon talents to something that focuses on empowering mage stuff. I also haven't seen much about gear and how professions effect it. I know that artisan professions don't get their talents till phase 2 but I'm more interested in what gear enhancement, potions and food can do for you. I hope the gear stuff is robust and isn't just for waterfall stats. Stuff that would even be like you're essentially having an armor talent system. While I wouldn't expect something like say the artifact weapons from WoW Legion it would be interesting to see something tested like Path of Exile that's about giving you something like support gems that can completely change your play style.

[@MrNutzorg]

What armor do u wear ? Light medium or heavy

[@CrixGuides]

In this vid i'm using STR gear actually. Since we didn't farm Magic gear and it has armor, so it's better than nothing. But this weeekend we've been hard farming gear and i'm a mix of Light and Heavy, but hoping to get more Light drops tomorrow.

[@BrianPWalt]

How do these interactions work with multiple mages stacking various debuffs on mobs? Like can one mage apply the debuff and then someone else hits with the triggering spell type or do you have to do both parts yourself? thanks for the great guide and sorry if I missed that clarification

[@CrixGuides]

Yes! It's all shared

[@dimsmol9103]

Great guide thank you, any chance you or a guildmate can make a similar guide for cleric? If so would love a link, thank you.

[@CrixGuides]

They don't make guides sadly, but I'm starting my Cleric next weekend, so i'll have a Cleric guide up once I hit 20-25.

[@jaydunna2645]

Can anyone tell me if buying the $120 alpha bundle will get me into all future alphas and betas?

[@CrixGuides]

Yep! If you pay the $120 you're good to go from now to pretty much launch afaik.

[@chrisclemmey1500]

What server and guild are you on? I’m about to start a new character

[@CrixGuides]

@chrisclemmey1500 my main is on Resnas, but I have Alts on Castus and Vyra

[@EnProto]

I can't wait to play this game in 15 years

[@CrixGuides]

22*

[@BW199]

Arcane circle runs out before step 8 (prismatic beam), no?

[@suezex369]

this video is a masterpiece

[@Crapefont]

I am curious what armor set to go with? Especially for crafting

[@CrixGuides]

It depends on what you want. I use 3 piece Bloom Warden adn the rest the Riv heavy armor setf or pvp

[@BW199]

How does.arcane circle last from step 1 through to step 8 (prismatic beam). It runs out too quickly no?

[@nogamenolife7407]

i cant take fire bolt along with ice bolt is this a bug?? need to reset my spells and mix it around?

[@CrixGuides]

It was a bug, it's been fixed.

[@ZapatosVibes]

Do you know if, when you have a conflag refresh with Thermal Equilibrium, say it had 2 secs left, does it simply put it back at 4s with the same damage, or does it add the equivalent of a full 4-secs conflag on top?

[@soulbound5732]

wow mage players that gonna play Ashes will finally play a real mage class also prob to complex for them

[@ivanr9408]

now where can i find a bard guide b/c the mage is actually pretty easy.

[@raiindout]

Your rotations indicate that Shatter damage is variable - like your notes to use Lightning Strike over Chain Lightning when there's 7+ targets. Shatter damage is always 300% Ice Damage, it doesn't matter which lightning damage procs it.

[@CrixGuides]

Yes but the way it's working right now, the shatter does more when I hold with LS. When I asked a Dev about it, one said it was meant to be that way, but the other said it wasn't. I believe the latter due to how the tooltip is written.

[@brainstormsurge154]

Don't see any reason not to make fireball an AoE ability just like how tabletops do it. Would love some passive options that makes it chain or shoot fire bolts on impact for perhaps a longer cast time.

[@bullyhunter0768]

Is it better to do 2 firebolts into conflag or 3?

[@CrixGuides]

@bullyhunter0768 2. Because the Conflag will consume the burn, then you can FB to return. Plus you can hold for a sec to get 2FB's if you want

[@anaximanderification]

It's like WoW, had only Frost spells triggering Shatter for a reason.

[@CrixGuides]

Makes more sense to Shatter Ice with Lightning IMO.

[@anaximanderification]

​@@CrixGuides I'd say it would benefit from turning Shatter into the Shatter from WoW, making a spell crit 100% on targets who are frozen (similar to fighter Pulverzei being a crit on tripped targets) AND making Frost Spells deal x3 (or w/e rate they find fair) on Frozen targets, like Ice Lance did in WoW. And then they can expand fire, making Fireball behave like a frost spell for the purposes of Shatter and enabling a Frostfire mage type. And if they made Shatter work like that, then maybe Blizzard would be a good AOE spell too as well as the spilt frostbolt passive. It's just that, as is, Shatter is a no-brainer, not an option. Ball Lightning, Hoarfrost, Cone of Cold. There is just not real nuance in it.

[@williamlaprarie3007]

Mage is more of an elementalist, it has one pure magic spell, all the rest are elements. I will say archeage skill/ class build system look superior in this aspect.

[@CrixGuides]

@williamlaprarie3007 ooooo I REALLY liked that. And elementalist and that is so true!

[@lindvi0r]

Did they downgrade the graphics for this alpha? The showcases looked much better, this almost looks more like a last gen UE game, I thought it was on UE5 now?

[@igorpniak8308]

Ah yes. Seems like another mage biased game. Anyways. isn't mage Steven's preferred class ?

[@CrixGuides]

Yes. We shall be safe.

[@kylecapperauld7442]

Making an ultimate guide for a game in ALPHA lol

[@CrixGuides]

@kylecapperauld7442 Sure am. Will have to update a ton. But will be making most the classes.

[@johnmuir2487]

Wait what she'll use to be all damage it's only magic damage now that's bs

[@commanderdog]

Making guides for an alpha.

[@CrixGuides]

Yes and? There's a TON of Mages playing Alpha and this is for them, obviously. It seems to be worth, seeing as people are watching it.

[@mi-vy4cz]

Man i feel like all videos nowadays are written by chatgpt, so easy to hear it..

[@zipzap8937]

Are you stupid?

[@umbralyokai3246]

Yup pretty hard to listen too sometimes

[@cococock2418]

this game sux koch

[@NoWitTwit]

Projection. It’s alpha.

[@CHIPICHIPICHAPACHAAPA]

god the game looks awful after they spent how many years on it? it looks like a game from 15 years ago its quite bad

[@CrixGuides]

They've not put in the graphics and a ton of systems supposedly. They claim they will in May.

[@Riecheck]

have you played it? It's one of things you just gotta try it. The gorgeous scenery hits hard when you're not expecting it. The insane view distance is amazing. You see a massive tower or snow capped mountains from so far away and with enough time you can get to them.

[@highelf6086]

Rich coming from a wow player😂😂😂