Budget int gear

[Orrus]

Afternoon folks,

Gimpy 32 Mage here who has 300pp to spend on int gear on blue server. What to folk recon are going to be the best bang for my buck items?

I realise I could just trawl through the wiki gear section but looking for more guidance on what I'm actually likely to even find for sale in ec.

(Note I have all my focus items so no need to me to mention those)

[loramin]

Save it for future spells. Gear is largely worthless for leveling, and that's doubly true for casters.

[Jibartik]

But if you want to enjoy some new clothes, the journy and not just the end game.

You want things like flowing black robe, woven grass bracers, blackened iron medalian, servants cap or iron circlet. That’s some low hanging fruit!

[Orrus]

Thanks, I'm all about the slow wander through the game. I'm never going to have the time to dedicate to endgame so want cheap swag earlier on.

[Jibartik]

32 mage can solo FBR its a fun camp go do it!

And most of these items, so could be a fun quest!

You could also EXP and get Impskin Gloves, Id suggest that for your leveling camp right now, that's going to be BIS till you are rading!

And kill gnomes for a Molten Cloak, that one will be tough but as you level through your 30s youll be able to do that. Especially if you can get a group, then it's a prime EXP spot for your level range.

[NPC]

The great thing about int casters is that you can camp almost all of your decent starting gear pretty easily as you level and get great xp while your doing it. Woven grass bracelets in Upper guk, 3 int wrists, mid 20's camp you would smash solo.
Gator Sleeves 4int arms in Upper Guk, 30's level camp you would smash as a mage at your level, also great xp at your current level.
Imp Gloves easy camp for 30's mage. Molten cloak is kinda tough at that level, but doable.
Buy some moonstone rings & Stein of Moggok, Onyx drakescale cloak. That's gear took my mage to 50+ with an still wears most at 56th.
Stein of moggok is usually the best bag for the buck, 10int for around 200pp or less.

[Jibartik]

Oh yeah get those gator sleeves you need those and another great area for you to XP right now!!!

[Jibartik]

You can always do the quest for the mystic cloak that’s a +5 int I think +5 magic resist no drop clock that is really easy to obtain solo and totally great!

In fact the more I think about it or notice in this thread, the 30s is like the best time to go gear up for a caster to fashionably take yourself to 50

[Orrus]

Some really good camp suggestions here thanks folks! I have been doing the painfully boring crazed goblins in butcherblock but alot of this sounds way more fun!

I really appreciate the advice!

[NegaStoat]

Years back I gave my magician an Oracle Robe, Black Tome with Silver Runes, a Stein of Moggok that I used my own level 8 dark elf enchanter to obtain via the quest, and then filled the rest of my slots with bottom basement int or mana gear (dusty bloodstained gloves, gator sleeves, etc) and went straight for levels over gear. Magicians by their very nature are the game's best Fine Steel farming characters due to weight reduction bags and a crazy strong pet at level 49.

Magician focus items for pets lvl 4-49 are the most important gear to complete, as soon as possible. A canny magician can level from 20 to 26ish in Najena off of the dark elf magicians from the portcullis spawn to the crystal room spawns, and toss in the skelly by the winding stairway for exp too. If you're missing some of the items, the gators in cazic thule hallway between water spawns from the Well room can absolutely be worked over at level 30-39 if you are careful.

Strongly consider killing 5 game days to level a Druid from 1 to 19 for basic self-ports and Bind in Kunark. The reason for this would be for dumpster diving on the city merchants for words you need, especially the higher level reagents needed to research the level 49 spells. Hardly anyone ever sells those in EC, and getting a friendly high level mage to do combines for you is more miss than hit on Blue server. The druid would have the side value of being able to ground twink your holding bags with dungeon loot to the druid for fast vendor sales so you can go back to farming.

[Vexenu]

Strongly consider killing 5 game days to level a Druid from 1 to 19 for basic self-ports and Bind in Kunark. The reason for this would be for dumpster diving on the city merchants for words you need, especially the higher level reagents needed to research the level 49 spells. Hardly anyone ever sells those in EC, and getting a friendly high level mage to do combines for you is more miss than hit on Blue server. The druid would have the side value of being able to ground twink your holding bags with dungeon loot to the druid for fast vendor sales so you can go back to farming.

While it's never bad advice to have a Druid alt, I just want to play Devil's advocate in this particular instance. While it's true that 3/4 of the level 49 Mage pets are Research only (you can vendor-buy the Earth pet), the reality is you'd probably only want the Fire pet at 49 anyway, since it's so good for soloing. You aren't missing out on much by not having the 49 Water and Air pets. At 51 you will start using the Vocarate Earth pet anyway, which has a max level of 45 vs. the 49 pets max level of 41, and will out-damage and out-tank all the 49 pets (although the focused 49 Earth and Fire pets may still be more efficient for soloing due to their lower mana cost). And then Gift of Xev replaces the only other decent Research-only Mage spells (Cornucopia and Everfount) at 51.

Basically, the point I'm making is don't worry too much about Research spells on a Mage. The worst case scenario is you have to level from 49 to 51 with only an Earth pet (which you can turn into a shredder with your 49 haste and DS anyway). Not a big deal. In the time it would take you to level a Druid alt and go vendor diving, you could easily just level past the window you'd actually use those spells and then buy their upgrades.