Or, "What the hell am I really looking for?"
That's a good question. The concept of "ultimate gear" is one that keeps me up at night sometimes. Mages get the short end of this stick, to be quite honest. It's so much easier for a warrior type to hit all of his necessary caps, including 300 total strength and 200 dex. Why is that exactly? Well, for one, most of their necessary mods are weapon mods; Hit Chance, Damage Increase, and Swing Speed. The caps for those are relatively low compared to the intensity of the mods we can add through spellcrafting, too. Artifacts are also heavy on these mods, which means that most of their suits don't even have to pull half of what they need since it's already on their weapon. This gives them plenty of room for other things that are less necessary but still useful, like LMC, LRC, FC/R, etc...
Mages don't remotely share this benefit. The mods we need are primarily only on jewelry or artifacts. Spellbooks also share these mods, but crafted books have them in such low intensities that there's no point in bothering, nevermind the 3 mod limit on books. On most of your books, one of those will be a Slayer property and, if you're using Protection, your other book would want some + Resist to make up that penalty (it actually does make a difference). That leaves you two mods to play with, some of which don't go above 6.
So what do you look for artifact-wise? Some of these choices will be easy, either because the best is quite clear or because there are no other options. Just to prove this, I'll list the two best options I've seen that are obtainable through quests or whatever else. Also note, there are a lot of other mods on these items, but as far as I'm concerned they're mostly gravy. DCI is the only other mod that we really care about.
Head: Paradise Reading Glasses.
Why you want them: 15 Int, SDI 15%, 15% LRC, 10% LMC, 5 Mana Regen, solid resists.
Where to get them: Draque's Quest, drop from Draque's Doom Dragon.
Head: Undead Pirate Hat
Why you want it: 10+ Int, 20+% SDI, 20% LMC, 20% LRC, 5 Mana Regen, 20%+ resist all
Where to get it: I'm guessing pirates.
It is somewhat hard to say which of these choices are the ultimate better choice. It really depends on how close to the 300 Int cap you get after all your other pieces. If you can hit the cap with the Pirate Hat, I might be inclined say it edges out; that SDI bonus is massive, and can save you a spot on your jewelry by itself. The mana regen is also an important consideration, but the cap isn't that high and Vampire does give you a bit of a bonus. The Glasses look better though.
Arms: Elysium Elite Arms.
Why you want them: 10+ Int, 5~15% SDI, 5~15% LMC, 5~15% LRC, 3 Mana Regen 1/1 FC/R
Where to get them: Grim's Quest in Elysium.
Arms: Arms of Compassion.
Why you want them: 5+ Int, 15% LRC, 5% LMC, 5 Mana Regen
Where you get them: Virtue Quest
The Elysium pieces are some that I've only rarely seen. The mods on what I've seen have been very strange, but all the pieces seem to fall into a certain frame (5~15), so I'm inclined to believe that it's random on drop. If not, then the numbers are just stupid. Either way, these two are your *only* mage-y artifact choices. Neither of them have stellar resists, but they're solid enough. Elysium arms win out even if the Int, SDI, LMC, and LRC are in a random range simply because the Int bonus is important, any armor SDI is good, and the other two are low cap or luxury mods.
Gloves: Gloves of the Undead
Why you want them: 8 Int, 10% SDI, 10% LMC, 8 Mana Increase, 3 Mana Regen, 1/1 FC/R Resists
Where you get them: Terragon Drop or shard donation item
Gloves: Elysium Elite Gloves.
Why you want them: 5~15% SDI, 5~15% LMC, 5~15% LRC, 4 Mana Regen, 1/2 FC/R
Where you get them: Grim's Quest in Elysium
Undead Gloves are the clear winner here. Their gravy mods are far better than the Elysium pieces, besides being more numerous. Standard "Elysium pieces are either random moded or stupid" condition applies as well. These are also the only real mage artifacts you'll find for the gloves spot. Gauntlets of Valor from the Virtue set *might* be an okay option for the 5 Int, but I'd honestly pass up on them for spellcrafted.
Chest: Tunic of the Undead.
Why you want it: 12 Int, 20% SDI, 2/2 FC/R, three strong resists
Where you get it: Terragon drop, shard donation item, 2 million gold at the artifact house
Chest: Elysium Elite Chest.
Why you want it: 10+ Int, 5~15% SDI, 5~15% LMC, 5~15% LRC, 14 Mana Regen, 1/2 FC/R
Where you get it: Grim's Quest in Elysium.
At first glance, the Elysium chest looks really good. However, the Undead Tunic has far better resists, 33 Str bonus, and 34% DCI, making it a much better choice. This is on top of the normal Elysium "either random or stupidly set mods" factor.
Legs: Legs of the Undead.
Why you want them: 17 Int, 12% SDI, 10% LMC, 10 Mana Increase, 3 Mana Regen, 1/1 FC/R, resists
Where you get them: Terragon drop, shard donation item, 4 million gold at the artifact house.
Legs: Elysium Elite Legs.
Why you want them: 10+ Int, 5~15% SDI, 5~15% LMC, 5~15% LRC, 3 Mana Regen, 1/1 FC/R
Where you get them: Grim's Quest in Elysium
Legs of Undead are the easy winners, for the same reasons as the Gloves; so many gravy mods, such high bonuses on them. There's a reason they're so expensive. Elysium legs aren't a bad choice by any means, though. If you can grab a pair, it's very likely worth it.
If you can pull the best pieces of those I listed (and the mods I saw on the Elysium arms are fixed bonuses), then you're looking at a great start to your gear. Assuming PRGs, Elysium Arms, Undead Tunic, Gloves, and Legs, you're looking at a total of: 67 Int, 68% SDI, 39% LMC, 22% LRC, 18 Mana Increase, 14 Mana Regen, 5/5 FC/R, and 113/102/56/92/57 resists. Your DCI will also be more than covered, as well as decent str, dex, and health bonuses.
You'll need to pull together a Ninja Belt Armor with 14 Cold resist and 13 Energy (18 Energy if you're an elf), or you could try try using Magic Reflect (you've sure got the physical resist to cover it). Your belt can get you another 4 Mana Regen, 20 Mana Increase, 25% LRC, and two other mods of your choice.
I would pull on a 10 Int Merlin's Robe, giving you 77 total. You'd need 9 more to hit what you need on armor to hit the 300 Int cap. If you managed to pull in Hastu's Smelly Shoes you'd get another 6 Int. If there's a such thing as a 10 Int Merlin's Cloak, I might consider wearing that.
Hastu's Smelly Shoes will also give you 1/2 FC/R and 1 Mana Regen, plus other bonuses. These are easily the best shoes on the shard. However, the Virtue set will also get you the Solarets of Sacrifice: 5% LMC, 15% LRC, and 1/1 FC/R. Both are great options, though Hastu's are easily better.
Assuming you got your hands on Hastu's and the robe, but no Int cloak, you're now at 83 Int, 68% SDI, 39% LMC, 47% LRC, 38 Mana Increase, 19 Mana Regen, 6/7 FC/R, and 70's resist. Everything but Int, SDI, and LRC is capped. You'll also have 73 Strength (seriously. Sick) and 52 Dex bonus. If you donated for the 340 scroll and kept 40 base dex, you've not only got your 80 dex for parrying, but a 13 point buffer for curses. Nothing will take you under that; it would require a 65% curse. That would be ungodly eval skill, and honestly the first damage spell would probably take you out anyway.
Your four pieces of jewelry need to pull in 67 Int (not possible), 57% SDI, 53% LRC, and whatever else you want. You can get 16 Int, 25% SDI, and 30% LRC on perfect jewelry; two pieces like that and your SDI and LRC is effectively covered (you'll technically be 7% short on SDI this way). That means that, other than Int on the rest of your jewelry, you're entirely open for what you add. I would recommend Strength on every piece for the health bump. Dex is a decent choice if you don't have the 340 scroll or if you want faster Healing with bandages. Hit Chance for times you melee for mana leech. Enhance Potions if you feel like bothering with those. Damage Increase if you think you'll get something out of it.
So now, with everything else, and assuming you run with two perfect str/int/dex/SDI/LRC jewelry pieces and two with perfect str/int/dex, you'll have a final total of:
147 Int
153 Str (Yup)
112 Dex
118% SDI
39% LMC (Close enough)
107% LRC
38 Mana Increase
19 Mana Regen
6/7 FC/R
70/70/70/70/70(75) Resists
+30 Resisting Spells.
Which pisses me off because we *STILL* didn't hit the Int cap, but we did hit the Str cap with some leeway. Oh, and the +30 Resist there is from the ridiculously rare +15 Resisting Spells ring and Bracelet that you would, in a perfect world, use to cover Protection's resist penalty.
Since we're talking "perfect world" here, your Spellbooks, Slayer and general use book, would all have 6 Int and 9% SDI on them, which would cap those two stats. The general use book could have 6 Mana or 6% LMC (if you're that hung up on the 1%).
That's a lot of counting, adding, and flipping around. I'm still curious about how this would look with the PRGs swapped for the Undead Pirate Hat, but I don't care enough right now to bother.
I think it goes without saying, don't expect to reach this point very quickly. You can pull the Undead pieces with some real world cash, but otherwise you're in for a long, long journey for the rest of this. Grim's quest has a long restriction time between each attempt and doesn't award an item each time, just as an example. Good luck.
- Update 06/12/10 -
I did the math, and Undead Hat is way better than PRGs for us. Right quickly, assuming UPH, EEArms, Undead chest, legs, and gloves:
63 Int, 75% SDI, 49% LMC, 27% LRC, 18 Mana Increase, 14 Mana Regen, 5/5 FC/R 113/107/65/97/62 Resists. A difference of -4 Int for equal or better in everything else.
Next we add:
Ninja Belt Armor: 25% LRC, 20 MI, 4 MR, [open], [open], 5 cold resist, 8/13 Energy resist
Merlin's Robe: 10 Int
Hastu's: 6 Int, 6 Dex, 5 Str, 1/2 FC/R, 1 mana regen
SC Ring: +15 Resist Spells, 20 Str, 16 Int, 15 Dex, 25% SDI, 30% LRC
SC Bracelet: +15 Resist Spells, 20 Str, 16 Int, 15 Dex, 25% SDI, 30% LRC
SC Necklace: 20 Str, 16 Int, 15 Dex, [open], [open]
SC Earrings: 20 Str, 16 Int, 15 Dex, [open], [open]
For a Total of : +30 Resist Spells, 143 Int, 149 Str, 107 Dex, 125% SDI, 49% LMC, 112% LRC, 38 MI, 19 MR, 6/7 FC/R, max all resists.
Spellbooks won't cap your Int this way, but Bless will. Your SDI and LMC will be capped without books, so that's a bigger plus. If you run with shields, Gwenno's gives 10 all stats, which puts you at cap. I can't remember if any others can do that too. For all I know, it *may* be possible to get a UPH with better stat bonuses; a 12 in Str would cap you, but you'd need an 18 Int bonus for the Int cap (doubtful that'd happen).
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