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    ELR Mage tutorials

    Edit: tutorials are up-to-date for version 1.13.2.

    Please feel free to comment under each part or after the last one.

    Part -1: The ELR Cheatsheet

    You are aiming for the following items for the default ELR Frostbeam build:
    - ELR armor set: 6 pieces
    - GMC weapons: 2 pieces - staff and tome
    - Frostfire sash
    - Vial of Wind Spirit
    - Talisman of Storms (initially Talisman of Power will work better)
    - Integralas mantle or (Azure) Carnival cape
    - Slayer (weapon enchantment)
    * Fire Lily & Talisman of Power (if you have the Glory, start with Fire Lily)
    * For a Death from Above build use Sash of the Igniter

    Stats depend on:
    - what you use your gear for - xp farming, pushing high trials, farming gold, etc.
    - whether you have Fire Lily or not (with Fire Lily you don't do critical hits)
    - your skill level (start with more vitality and life on hit, reduce when you get more comfortable)
    - whether you use Frostbeam or Death from Above
    - if it's an ANB event or regular Season
    - your budget...

    The guide covers all of that, along with instructions on how to use that stuff : )

    For starters, check the default firelily frostbeam xp build in part 4.


    Intro

    In Eternium set and unique gear is king!

    Ultimately, mid and end game is all about being fast, dealing damage and clearing higher trials. Currently this means using Elemental Lord's Regalia (ELR) or Stormcaller Regalia (SCR) to be competitive in Season and ANB events, as they are the two highest-damage mage sets. It also means that at some point we commit to a certain build and work on perfecting the gear and skills for it.

    *SCR received a buff in 1.5.73 and is showing great results so far. It is pretty much on par with ELR at high trials. It offers a ridiculously high damage against large groups, but low single-target damage.

    For fun and for less competitive gameplay, Arcanist is also a great option.


    The ELR guide

    The guide was written to address some common requests that cover everything from farming experience and gold, through playing ANB events, to clearing the highest trials we can and climbing the leaderboards.

    It is not meant to be read linearly - feel free to go straight to any section you currently need!


    Part 0: Kicking it off. Early game objectives. Gems and $$. A New Beginning events
    - Early game objectives
    - How do I get through story mode?

    Part 1: Getting started with ELR. Crafting first proper gear
    - Getting started. Crafting your first proper gear
    - GMC & Shatter. Aggro: - by Wispy
    - Bonus: 'Crowd Control to Mage...ergh...Tom...' - an advanced 'Basics' tutorial by Wispy
    - Basics: movement, attacking and staying alive

    Part 2: ELR. Where does damage come from?
    - Beam
    - DfA

    Part 3: Beams and bosses
    - Garm @159
    - TBD @152
    - Elban @153 by Wispy
    - Magroth @ 156
    - Kara @155

    Part 4: XP
    - Beam
    - DfA

    Part 5: Gold farming

    Part 6: Push and pull
    - 6.1: small pulls, 1/3 map, 1/2 map. Escaping when cornered
    - 6.2: full map pull in < 3 minutes and Kara @155

    Part 7: Stats. New: Bracers!

    Part 8: Lily and Crit

    Part 9: Levelling and crafting toons

    Part 10: ANB. Gems & budget

    Part 11: Mobile
    Last edited by bojck; 03-02-2024, 09:56 AM.
    Mage: Anba
    Bounty Hunter: Gemma

    #2
    Part 0: Kicking it off. Early game objectives. Gems and $$. A New Beginning events

    If you're new to Eternium, your main goal is to finish story mode. It's fun, challenging, and is the starting point for everything else in the game. This is not an early-game guide, but here are a few tips to get you started.

    You'll quickly notice that a lot of stuff early on costs gems, and you have none :/ My advice is not to overspend on your first hero - just unlock the basic attacks, the second skill slot and 1-2 inventory rows, and look out for an ANB event. Most every unlock that costs gems is greatly discounted in ANB, so you can create a new hero, unlock all the good stuff and turn it into your new main hero after the event ends. Check the ANB section here and the forum posts for details.

    Regarding $$, you don't have to spend any. Cash is not a requirement to enjoy the game and rank high on the leaderboards. That said, there are a few great deals on offer - the best two for the more patient of you being 100 gems daily for 30 days, and the season pass. If you have Steam on PC, you can get 200 glroy for installing the game! Warning: 200 glory makes the early game way easier, so maybe you'd prefer to keep it more hardcore

    0.1 Early game objectives

    The main early game goals are finishing story mode, buying ALL crafting recipes, fully unlocking your main hero, and developing your crafting mastery. There is no fixed order in which to do those, you should just have them all ticked if you want to push higher trials and see your name on the first pages of the leaderboards.

    Crafting recipes: buy ALL crafting recipes for 50k gold each from Liana the recipe vendor. Get one every 3 hours, no matter if it's for your class or not! If you don't have the gold, craft some cheap gear with the Extra gold stat on each item. Buy a gold booster (be it 100% or 200%) and farm some gold. You'll be surprised how fast you earn gold with a nice +Gold multiplier!

    I'd suggest to use at least one full gold booster in map 43 Darkhold Citadel once you complete story mode. This will earn you enough resources to craft some starting gear, buy all recipes and progress in trials.

    Once you have recipes for the set of your choice, craft set items. This tutorials are for Elemental Lord Regalia, combined with Grand Magister's Command weapon set, which is currently the best mage gear in the game.

    Some of the recipes cannot be bought from the vendor - you need Glory to get them. Glory is only earned from events (and a tiny bit in the Arena at higher levels), so spend it wisely.

    Some of the best (and cheapest) first items to buy with Glory include Talisman of Power, Vial of the Wind Spirit/Brooch of the Stormcaller, Frostfire sash, Igniters' sash. If you already have GMC weapons, and use frostbeam, Frostfire sash is the top choice (see why below).

    Crafting mastery: develop level 50 crafting mastery. This will let you craft higher level items. It takes a lot of time/clicking to get there, so no rush. It's worth the effort though! See other posts for tips.


    0.2 How do I get through story mode?

    There are many different builds that are good enough to get you through story mode and early trials.

    If you're a new player and running story mode, do it at your leisure : ) To make your life easier, try to obtain set gear and pay attention to the item and set bonuses.

    Try to get your hands on some powerful set/unique items. Some of them can increase your damage multiple times in early game, so if you find one of these, keep it!

    Uniques:
    - Firelily. It is an extremely rare unique item, and costs 100 glory to buy the crafting recipe (which is a lot). Don't worry, most of us started without it and we're doing fine. If you have 100 glory, don't hesitate to buy the recipe. Multiplies all damage by 5 (Legendary), but you don't deal critical hits.
    - Brooch of the Stormcaller - very high damage against single/few targets (25000% weapon damage - think of weapon damage as the base damage, which is then multiplied by power, buffs, critical hits)
    - Vial of the Wind Spirit - very high area damage
    - Talisman of Power - boosts power by up to 5000 (Legendary)
    - Talisman of Storms - boost crit damage by up to 3000%
    - Frostfire sash
    - Igniter's sash

    In general, stash all trinkets, unique belts and bracers you find. Examine the descriptions!

    Sets:
    - Grand Magister's Command weapons - the most important items in the builds covered here. They enable shatter and thermal shock - more about them below.
    - Forbidden Knowledge weapons - the staff's Cosmic Ripple effect deals massive area damage. Can take you through story mode.
    - ELR armor - read further : )
    - Any set will aid you greatly early on. Check the descriptions and look for skills that synergize well.


    For an early game playthrough, check out Wispy's Zero to Hero series:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsbF...nel=RobSpooner


    Part 1: Getting started with ELR. Crafting first proper gear

    You are aiming for the following items:
    - ELR armor set: 6 pieces
    - GMC weapons: 2 pieces - staff and tome
    - Frostfire sash
    - Vial of Wind Spirit
    - Talisman of Storms (initially Talisman of Power will work better)
    - Slayer (weapon enchantment)
    * Fire Lily & Talisman of Power
    * Sash of the Igniter (for a Death from Above build)

    Craft a dedicated gold farming set!

    Gold farming is essential in Eternium. It is not worth farming gold with a mediocre +gold bonus, so make separate gold farming gear. Use a gold booster and get rich quick!

    Craft an XP farming set!
    Same applies to farming experience. Champion levels are your best friend, and they are not hard to get when you have a good xp bonus. The first 500 CLs come easily. Some would say that the first 1800 are easy, others would argue that '2100 to 2200 were the golden days'. As an example, you need more xp to get from 2300 to 2301 than from 0 to 1800.

    ELR is one of the best mage farming sets, along with Arcanist + Forbidden Knowledge. Frostbeam has huge damage and can kill monsters quickly at trials 80-105, which is what you are aiming for ultimately. Trials above 103 don't give more experience, so farming above 105 (Kara) is not efficient for XP (but yields higher level items).

    ! At trial 80 you get mostly epics, mixed up with a few rares and legendaries. 100/105 drop nearly equally epics and legendaries. At 120 all drops are legendary, and item levels are slightly higher.

    Death from Above is a great alternative. It has lower damage, but it also triggers shatter, which has a huge area of effect. More on this in the next sections.

    I don't have glory. What do I do?
    Buy frostfire sash first - it's just 10 Glory. You can reach high trials (well over 100) without any of the other gear that costs Glory. Then earn Glory from War supplies, ANB and season events, and unlock more recipes.

    Bracers or Lily?
    It's up to you. You'll eventually get them both. You can do without any of them, but they are both really good. Bracers increase your frostbeam damage with 400-500%, and Lily increases your damage significantly if your Champion levels are low or your gear isn't top-notch. More about this in the next parts of this tutorials. Bracers are class-specific, and cost 100 glory per class!


    1.3. Shatter & Thermal shock. Grand Magister's Command weapon set

    Everything you need to know about the jack of all mage builds!

    How to get GMC weapons. What is shatter, how does it work and how to use it. Wispy's doing a full-map pull here to demonstrate the effect and usage of shatter:



    From Wispy:

    For those of you that find my monotonous, slow and highly enthusiastic speech too boring, a quick synopsis for Grand Magister's Command, Thermal Shock and Shatter:

    First up, you need to equip the skill Frost Bolt into one of your auto-attack slots. The reason for this is that having Frost Bolt equipped gives a 7% chance for Blizzard (to trigger Northern Wind), and 100% chance for nova to trigger Northern Wind when those skills hit an enemy. Northern Wind is the key trigger to shatter. Northern Wind causes all enemies on screen, plus any red dots on the mini map plus any mobs still chasing you (even if they're the other side of the map) to count as Frozen. Note that they wont actually be frozen, so will still keep moving but the Northern Wind effect means they are treated as being affected. The next thing required is the Grand Magister's Command weapon set (Igneus staff and Glacies Tempestas tome). Having both weapons gives a two-piece set bonus.

    Thermal shock
    The first part of the bonus is 'Casting a frost support ability extinguishes the burning effects for all creatures around the caster and deals 1000% of their remaining burning damage instantly'. This can hit critically and can be boosted by Power Infusion, Talisman of Storms or other damage boosting trinkets. The 'Frost support' abilities are Frost Nova, Blizzard and Frost Beam, and the 1000% weapon damage proc is the Thermal Shock effect.

    Shatter
    The second part of the bonus is 'Casting a fire support ability deals 3000% weapon damage to all creatures around the caster that are frozen and removes the frozen effect'. As every creature currently affected by Northern Wind is treated as Frozen, casting your fire skill hits them with 3000% weapon damage instantly. This hit can also crit, and be impacted by things like Power Infusion or Talisman of Storms (and others) for an even bigger effect. The 'fire support' abilities are Immolate and Death from Above, the 3000% weapon damage proc is the Shatter effect. In addition to hitting all those mobs, it restarts the internal countdown for them losing interest in chasing you, meaning as long as you keep up the Frost Nova then Immolate rotation, you'll never lose aggro on any mob and so can pull the entire map, round them up into a big blob and just hit them all with other more powerful AoE skills (such as Frostbeam).

    Finally, Shatter is classed as a Fire damage skill if you were building that into Belts, Bracers and Trinkets.

    Thermal shock is considered a Frost damage skill and is boosted by +frost stats on items.

    * The range of shatter is affected by viewing distance! When farming gold or trials, better set it to 150%.

    1.4. Moving, attacking & staying alive

    This is the most important and most overlooked video in this guide. If you know how to move and dodge, you can survive with a fraction of the Toughness others use. There are some major differences in controls between PC and mobile, and also two options for auto-attacking in the game settings. If you're getting serious about the game, check out this video and play around with the different settings.
    In this video I'm running around Elban @113 here to demonstrate different movement techniques and attack patterns.



    1.5. Bonus: 'Crowd Control to Mage...ergh...Tom...' - an advanced 'Basics' tutorial by Wispy

    Crowd control in Eternium is both a basic and advanced topic. If you're new to the game, kill some monsters first for the funsies, but do come back to watch it later!



    Wispy: 'Another Mage tutorial where I talk drivel for a little over 6 minutes (sigh) about the Eternium Crowd Control mechanics and how three of the typical ELR Frostbeam Mage skills feed into that. As a bonus I've included gameplay of all bosses from Trial 121 to 125, mostly because I'm way overpowered for those trials so can talk about certain mechanics and not have to pay too much attention to what is going on. I'm well aware that this isn't something that is going to be relevant to a lot of Mage players until you start hitting walls and wondering how to improve your boss fights - for example how to get that extra distance between yourself and say Magroth or Elban to get a full channel of Frostbeam. In this video I am not concerned with the knockback from Arc Lightning, the slows from Frost Bolt or Frostbeam as none of these feed into the overall "resistance" mechanic. I don't look at Blizzard or Archer minions either because in a typical Frostbeam Mage build you are not taking that skill or those companions. What I do cover is the passive crowd control from the tome Glacies Tempestas, the freeze from Frost Nova and the Vortex powers of Maggie and Eileen. If you're only interested in the gameplay elements, I recommend you jump to 6:50 in the video and watch from there, but be warned you're missing my dull delivery about the mechanics in play if you do skip ahead! The next video will be back to basics and all about the power of the frost beam, and maximising that damage (and yes, the title will be another pun, you have been warned).'
    Last edited by bojck; 05-12-2023, 04:09 PM.
    Mage: Anba
    Bounty Hunter: Gemma

    Comment


    • Guest's Avatar
      Guest commented
      Editing a comment
      Re the video in 1.3 - I had wrongly assumed for some years that YouTube automatically added foreign language subtitles to videos..ooops. I've added a new ".srt" file to the video which gives English subtitles as typed by me, rather than the "voice to text" thing that YouTube does. I can then have YouTube auto-generate foreign language translations from that. As it was requested elsewhere, there is now a Turkish language subtitle for that video. I plan on updating all my tutorial videos over the coming months. If there are any specific languages you would like to see added, please send me a direct message and I'll get it done

    #3
    Part 2: ELR. Where does damage come from?

    Wispy shows in detail how to get that notoriously high beam & thermal shock damage:



    'Choo choo, it's full beam ahead on the knowledge train as we shine a light on what makes Frostbeam such a devastating skill in the Mage's spellbook.

    You can spend nearly 20 minutes of watching and listening to me make many mistakes in my commentary, for which I couldn't be bothered to go back and correct since they aren't critical bloopers (I know my sheet damage on the first TL144 is 5.5m, not 6m....I know that 57B is not almost 97B....I know that I only did half the number of Frostburn because the original had 2 channels and the second demonstration 1), or you can read the synopsis below.....it's your choice

    Obviously the main component is the Frostfire Sash, which at 10 glory should be a priority acquisition for all aspiring ELR Mages. This sash allows us to put large stacks of burning onto our enemies, and as it hits everything in it's path (and a narrow corridor either side) it's a potent AoE skill. Combined with Frost Nova and Immolate we get synergies galore.

    The skill rotation I use is:
    1. Auto-attack with Arc Lightning to set up 5 stacks of damage and attack speed buffs.
    2. Frost Nova to proc Northern Wind
    3. Immolate to proc Shatter and set our targets on fire.
    4. Frost Beam to deal regular Frost Beam damage and put 40+ stacks of Frostfire burning on our targets.
    5. Frost Nova to proc another huge Thermal Shock.

    As Thermal Shock is a Frost damage effect, putting +Frost on both trinkets, your belt and bracer is boosting the damage further. A Bracer of Mastery with increased Frostbeam damage is a nice bonus, and honestly I'm not in the least bit bothered about the % increase value rolled, anything is just great. The Vial of Wind Spirit boosts haste - more haste = more stacks of Frostfire - more stacks of Frostfire = bigger Thermal Shock Talisman of Storms - (for a crit build only, use Talisman of Power for Firelily builds) - 3000% more Crit Damage, YES PLEASE!!!'
    Last edited by bojck; 08-15-2022, 05:49 AM.
    Mage: Anba
    Bounty Hunter: Gemma

    Comment


    • Mayteam*
      Mayteam* commented
      Editing a comment
      Thanks for all this great guidance. You lost me at the very end. If using Lily, you don't use VoWS, but rather use Talisman of Power? Pls help to understand why. I also have a talisman of the north which gives +75% frost and 14% fire, I could potentially use with the Lily...thoughts on that one?

    #4
    Part 3: Beams and bosses

    Bosses are well-balanced in Eternium, so when you are pushing trials close to your limit, you can get stuck at any of them. If you find yourself struggling with a boss, read further and check out the videos. These notes are from an older game version, but they are still mostly accurate.

    Garm @159

    The nemesis of mages old and new.

    High health, predictable routine, regular attacks are hard to avoid at first.



    This is my way of dealing with the infamous green lizard on higher trials!

    On lower levels you can survive his basic attacks. To stay alive you need to avoid the poison breath (which is pretty obvious), and stay in the blue circle while he casts poison nova. Later in the game you can't possibly have enough toughness and recovery to tank all his basic attacks, because of the high DOT (damage over time).

    At some point you have to dodge at least half of them. On the bright side - if you get the hang of it, you'll have an easier time with The Broken Dragon and Kara as well, and you'd be able to do trial 139 with less than 250K toughness Dodging works ok on mobile, especially on a larger screen. Regarding stats - there's a wide range of stats that can potentially work. Only stat that is a must for me is movement speed on both pants and boots. If you find yourself dying too much, increase vitality, armor and life on hit, but still try to dodge some of the attacks.

    ELR Mage | 159 Garm in 5:29 | Eternium 1.10.2


    - TBD @152

    Medium health, DOT attacks, complicated fighting strategy.



    Coping with The Broken Dragon @152. Key attacks to avoid are:
    - fire breath;
    - staying too long in the fiery patches on the ground - more than 2 stacks of fire DOT are not healthy!
    - overflow: I'd recommend to run enough vitality and armor to be able to survive overflow. At lower levels, to feel more comfortable, make sure it doesn't take more than 50% of your health.
    - basic attacks: dodging those is the exact same skill as what you use for Garm (check the other video above). The higher the trial, the more you should avoid those.

    Suitable places for beaming are during her Fire breath, and immediately AFTER a patch is placed and you have moved out of it.


    - Elban @153: I'm sharing a link to Wispy's video on YouTube, along with his description:

    High health, fast, some deadly attacks, mid damage of normal attacks.



    From Wispy:
    'A run of Trial 153 to show the Elban boss fight. It's precisely for this fight that I run a relatively high Life on Hit stat meaning I can pretty much stand toe to toe with him during his basic attacks. In order to stand right up against Elban and trade blows like this, it is crucial not to let him hit you with his Bleed attack (telegraphed with the pointed arrow on the ground). It's an easy attack to avoid, just run roughly double the distance of the arrow to get out of range. For Elban's 'Devastate' leaping attack I prefer to move towards him and out of the large red circle (instant death if you remain within) which means I can then resume auto-attacks with no danger of running back into his circle of death during the attack. I also find it easier to click on him to auto-attack if I move closer to him during that animation. Elban's Life Drain attack is also relatively easy to break free from. It's a case of ensuring you also have enough room behind you to be able to move a sufficient distance directly away from him to break the drain. It's vital to move directly away from him, as the Life Drain will rapidly kill you otherwise. The only real pain point in this fight is that Elban's special attacks do not necessarily follow a set pattern, or trigger after a set number of seconds which means that sometimes you are forced to cancel Frostbeam early due to an unexpected special attack starting. I find the only genuinely fixed attack pattern is right at the start of the fight where he opens with Life Drain, quickly followed by Devastate and then his Charge - I try to save my first Frostbeam channel when he telegraphs the first Charge attack.'

    - Magroth @156



    Lower-medium health, lethal when enraged, high-damage normal attacks.

    Key attacks to avoid:
    - Any attack when he's enraged (run away from big red demon)
    - Meteor - lifts his hands up, red dots appear on the ground. Don't stand on the red spot waiting for the meteor to hit you!
    - Charge: just step aside
    - Normal attacks: at high trials, his regular attacks do very high damage. Until a certain trial you can just beam at him and tank these attacks, given enough toughness and life on hit. Later on use potions/apples to be able to tank a few more hits, or move away.

    Pro tips:
    - Use vortex to keep him away
    - Use secondary attack after moving to avoid running back into the black circle and die

    - Kara @155

    Leaving Kara for last. The easiest boss until 140-150, she becomes the hardest to survive against later on.

    Low health, medium damage normal attacks, high damage multiple-shot attacks, one deadly attack, annoying minions.



    At higher levels, the easiest way to deal with Kara is to increase your toughness and life on hit A LOT. She has lower health, so you can afford losing some sheet damage in exchange for survivability.

    - Try to stay within her single-shot range.
    - Stay away from the minions, use vortex to keep them at bay
    - Beam both at her and the minions by repositioning yourself or vortexing
    - If things get messy, run far far away until you replenish your health. It's very hard to fight at that ultra long distance (when Kara's on the edge of the screen), so this trick is just an emergency escape.

    ELR Mage | 155 Kara in 4 minutes | Eternium 1.10.2


    Boss health chart by LodWig:

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jg8a98dju...lions.pdf?dl=0
    Attached Files
    Last edited by bojck; 11-06-2023, 09:39 PM.
    Mage: Anba
    Bounty Hunter: Gemma

    Comment


    • NoSuchReality
      NoSuchReality commented
      Editing a comment
      For Garm on 159 at the 1:30 you frostbeam and then vortex, is that PC thing? On mobile if you frostbeam and then vortex frost beam drops.

    • Tsundar
      Tsundar commented
      Editing a comment
      The things I like about Garm is the stay in blue circle for health until the gas cloud has passed then nip into the orange power circle for extra damage, though I've not made it much into the TL120's so what do i know lol

    • bojck
      bojck commented
      Editing a comment
      Sadly the circles stop working as soon as you start beaming

    #5
    Part 4: XP

    There are a lot of different options for xp farming, depending on whether you are going for firelily or crit build, beam or DfA, ANB or not, xp only or xp+eg.

    I'll start with a default Frostbeam firelily build, then mention the alternatives:


    The Default Frostbeam firelily XP build

    Items:
    GMC weapons
    ELR armor
    Integralas mantle
    Firelily
    Talisman of Power
    Frostfire sash
    Frostbeam bracer

    Stats:
    xp everywhere
    frost damage on all 4 slots
    movement speed on all 2 slots
    1500 AR (remember Integralas Mantle can add 500 more). Add more only if damage is high enough to kill Kara in a single beam+thermal shock
    1500+ haste
    vitality - enough to be comfortable
    power - the more the better, as long as the stat requirements above are met
    crit rating/cd - none
    LoH, dodge, etc. - not necessary. Better stack vitality

    Skills:
    Frostbolt, Arc lightning
    Frost nova, immolate, frostbeam
    fleet footed + two of the following celerity/power infusion/glass cannon/endurance

    Companions:
    2-3 healers. Vortex is your best friend!

    Special XP Farming Enchantments
    The two most important enchantments for xp farming are:
    - Slayer exotic enchantment on Staff - double damage against bosses and elites, 3*5 sec per minute. Boss/elite has to be selected as a target
    - Slayer lesser enchantment on Helm - 50% more damage to elites

    All other gear enchantments help, as they increase your stats. I prioritize movement speed enchants.

    *Some players use +10% frost/fire damage instead of Slayer as a head enchantment.

    Gameplay:
    see below


    Frostbeam



    The Beam has huge damage, but is hard to control. It can clear t100 in 60-70 seconds with very low Champion levels and lower-level gear, especially with Firelily.

    In ANB I prefer using frostbeam for xp farming, as it allows running trials 100-105 quite early. To boost damage when your gear and CLs are still bad, you can use Slayer staff enchantment and (a legendary) Talisman of Power. Boss fights will be much shorter!

    Key points:
    - use shatter to pulls mobs, then beam them down. For beginners, gather only several groups (3-5) and beam them down. As you get more comfortable, try making larger pulls (whole map pulls are also an option)
    - the direction of frostbeam cannot be controlled, but you get used to it. It is not as random as it seems at first
    - use nova and immolate before you beam at Kara (to get the 100% beam damage boost and to apply immolate's debuff on Kara)
    - practice a lot. This build is harder to play than DfA, but it's worth it.
    - use +frost on items to boost beam and thermal shock
    - as an alternative, use +fire to increase shatter damage. This is a good alternative, especially at lower trials.



    DfA

    DfA farming is much more mobile-friendly than frostbeam. With high-level xp gear it clears t100 faster than beam.

    Trials 100 in ANB:


    Ultimately with very high level gear critical DfA is the fastest mage xp build, but I'd suggest to use lily.



    Farming trial 90 with a Death from Above build with Fire lily. Normally doing 30-40 second runs with that build @t90, 50-55 second @t100.
    This build really shines at lower levels, or with high-level gear. This video is rather old - there were a few buffs to the build since, but gameplay is similar.

    Key points:
    - mobile friendly.
    - casting nova, immolate and DfA triggers shatter twice. It is ridiculously fast and easy to play at lower levels. Remember to cast nova on an enemy to trigger Northern wind - this makes all enemies around count as frozen while it lasts.
    - shatter both pulls the mobs and actually does the damage
    - use +fire damage to boost shatter and DfA, and +frost to boost Thermal shock
    - make sure you have 1500 Ability rating to shatter more often
    - use slayer helm enchantment to take down elites faster
    - run closer to the center line to pull mobs on both sides. Shatter has a wide area of effect - try to maximise it
    - slayer enchantment on staff is nice, it speeds up boss fights greatly
    - try stacking more DfA missiles before the boss spawns
    - cast immolate on boss. Then cast DfA and frost nova. Rinse and repeat : )
    - Talisman of Power (or ToS for crit builds) is quite useful in this build to boost your damage, if you time your skills well with the trinket buffs

    Cons:
    - lower damage compared to Frostbeam, but wider area of effect
    - Slow to take down bosses on higher trials (Slayer weapon enchantment and Talisman of Power help)

    Lily or crit?
    They both work well, but lily is the default choice. Lily's damage is more reliable, crit is more spiky - if thermal shock crits, it deals massive damage, otherwise it just tickles the enemies. Lily frees up space for other stats, e.g. extra gold.

    For the crit build use ToS/ToP and Vial of wind spirit. Make sure to add decent critical rating to make damage a bit less 'spiky'

    *With level 77 items crit DfA is capable of clearing trial 105 in 30-35 seconds, so if you're really committed to mage farming, that's a great option.

    Pure XP or XP+EG?
    A lot of us farm both xp and eg at the same time in trials, especially in ANB. This is a rather advanced strategy, so make sure adding EG does not slow you down too much. As a rule of thumb - if you can clear 100/105 consistently in <90 seconds with pure xp gear, give the xp/eg strategy a try.
    Last edited by bojck; 11-22-2023, 05:37 PM.
    Mage: Anba
    Bounty Hunter: Gemma

    Comment


    • Mayteam*
      Mayteam* commented
      Editing a comment
      " casting nova, immolate and DfA triggers shatter twice." Looking at the mage set it says that once you cast the fire support ability it removes the frozen effect? Or does the frozen effect from northern wind continue?

    • bojck
      bojck commented
      Editing a comment
      Exactly, northern wind continues

    #6
    Part 5: Gold farming

    Here is how to easily farm 9+ million gold per booster:



    Farming gold in story level 43 - Darkhold Citadel.

    This is the map with highest gold earned per minute! Story difficulty doesn't affect the yield.

    - Run to the end chests, shatter only once near the end.
    - Aim for Extra gold on every item, and always use a gold booster.
    - Try to get run times down to 20 seconds.
    - Use Grand Magister weapon set - shatter is a must!
    - Put movement speed on boots and pants and use 'Fleet footed' passive.
    - Hold left button all the time while moving to avoid engaging mobs on the way.
    - If you lack damage to kill the monsters at the end of the map, put power on gear (and/or +fire damage), or use Fire lily.
    - If you still lack damage, use nova, followed by immolate, then DfA. This triggers shatter twice (hence twice the damage).
    - For some additional resources and gemstones you can farm level 47 Morgenheim instead.
    - In ANB we often farm 1.10 (Severed mountain) or Siege of Anderhelm (see ANB section).
    Last edited by bojck; 03-27-2022, 05:38 PM.
    Mage: Anba
    Bounty Hunter: Gemma

    Comment


    • bojck
      bojck commented
      Editing a comment
      Yeah it's pretty awesome : ) I have 4156%. Note that this is with the bonus from War Supplies. I think last time I actually measured (the only time), in War Supplies, I made around 100 DC runs with 1 booster, and got roughly 11M, so about 110k per run on average. To be honest I don't really pay attention anymore - I know it's the fastest way to earn gold, so from time to time I just play some music, watch a movie, and just farm absent-mindedly... Actually I got the most gold when using public transport for work - I was literally making millions every workday

    • Benedicto
      Benedicto commented
      Editing a comment
      By watching this video, I learned my mistake on why I am getting trouble in using my mage in gold farming. I used to cast Frost Nova to the end mobs, so I am always getting DoT that makes my runs longer. Now I tried casting it before reaching the end and it worked! I am now getting the 20-second standard run time with desired 90-130k gold per run.

    • bojck
      bojck commented
      Editing a comment
      right, also sometimes if you cast immolate near the very end of the level, shatter doesn't hit some ghosts behind you, and you have to go back for them

    #7
    Part 6: pull techniques

    Pushing high trials is the part that matters most for your ranking. There are different strategies and stat allocations based on your device, skills, goals and preferences. Every trial starts with making a pull (mostly using shatter), then beaming down the enemies, and moving on until the boss is spawned. Let's start with a few different strategies for pulling enemies.

    Actually, let's kick it off with one of the most recent push videos. It's trial 154 in ANB Bronze 14 (on PC). You'll notice a lot of things that don't make sense, like standing idle, firing immolates off-screen. These 'random' moves are mostly done to make better use of buffs (Talisman of Storms, Slayer weapon enchantment against bosses). My advice is to ignore them completely until you get comfortable with the build, and only then get back to this video and examine it closely:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD1C...oyanBatchvarov


    EDIT 1.5.34: Mob speed was increased in this version, and enemies develop Crowd control immunity faster (you can't freeze or vortex them when immune). Large pulls are now way harder even on PC.

    Add more toughness and prepare to take some hits. If you are a beginner mage, start with smaller pulls.

    On mobile smaller pulls might work better in general, at least until you master your beams!


    6.1 Small pulls, 1/3 map, 1/2 map



    Going through different techniques for gathering mobs aka doing 'pulls'.

    When 'pushing' higher trials, as an ELR mage you need to do larger 'pulls' to be able to clear the map in time. In this part I'm doing 3 pulls:
    - starting with a small one of just a few groups. It is safer, but slower to clear the whole map
    - 1/3 map. It's quite easy to pull 1/3 of the map with an ELR mage - just shatter near the center of the map and zap a few groups with arc lightning
    - 1/2 map - finishing the trial with a 1/2 map pull, which is a decent size. I'm going into a dead end to show you how you can get away from such tight spots like a true mage


    6.2. Full-map pull & clear in < 3 minutes @155



    This is the second part of the 'pushing and pulling' tutorials. In this video I'm doing a full map pull.

    If you watch closely, you'll see a very neat trick for escaping when fully cornered The Kara fight in the end is a bonus!

    This is an advanced strategy. It has a lot of downsides, but on good maps can yield pretty good results. This is close to what I'm often using when pushing high trials (I also often do an incremental pull, i.e. start with 1/3-1/2 map and pull new groups between ToS procs).

    Namely, the cons are:
    - high likelihood of getting killed during the pull;
    - pulling too many elites with different auras, as well as healers. Too many protective auras and healers make mobs almost immortal
    - fps drops. I'm running at 60 fps normally, but when vortexing big groups it drops down to 10-20.
    - too many chargers, archers, fires, etc.
    - not too practical for mobile. When you gather the whole map together, but cannot control them, you end up a very dead mage.

    Pros:
    - potentially fast clears
    - you find out quite early what the map composition is, and if you don't like it - abandon and try again
    Last edited by bojck; 05-17-2023, 09:29 PM.
    Mage: Anba
    Bounty Hunter: Gemma

    Comment


      #8
      Part 7: Push stats. Passives & Companions.
      There's a wide range of stats that can work very well with ELR. It all depends on your playstyle (and device). I was thinking of including default gear and stats here, like in the xp farming section, but there really are no defaults! Here are some tips on what stats to aim for.

      Crit build
      - Put critical damage on every item
      - Aim for 1500-2500 haste. Most players use 1700-1800. Note that Vial of Wind spirit adds further 0-450 haste depending on the number of charges. Higher haste means higher Frostbeam and Thermal shock damage (roughly 1% additional haste = 1% additional damage). As an experiment, run Training grounds with different haste values and observe the number of Frostfire charges. More haste also means more alacrity, therefore lower cooldowns.
      - 1500 Ability rating is the default. With an Integralas mantle, that's around 2000, which is enough for most everyone. A lot of advanced players prefer Carnival cape and use lower AR, but I'd suggest using Integralas mantle until you have a very good understanding of the build and easily clear trial 150+. Of course, feel free to experiment!
      High AR means lower cooldowns which results in more beams. The choice of companions (number of healers and warriors) is an important factor here. Usually we use vortex with every beam in mob phase.
      - 45-50+% Critical chance. High critical chance makes damage less spiky. Currently Thermal shock does huge damage when it crits (especially if ToS is up), but negligible damage otherwise.
      - Power - the more the better, if not at the expense of something more useful to you. A simple rule of thumb when choosing between power and cr - if a power gemstone adds considerably more damage than a topaz (e.g. 1.3% vs 1%), add power.
      - Armor & vitality - put enough to feel somewhat comfortable. With high toughness you have less sheet damage, but don't have to dodge as much, so you can effectively beam longer uninterrupted. Some types of mobs and attacks still need to be avoided. 1 Million toughness or more is the norm above trial 150. If you are quick and dodge well, you can do with less. Many players, especially mobile, run 2M+ toughness.
      *Gemstones are the best place to put additional Armor. Adding armor as a stat on gear is not optimal. Armor on jewelry is right in the middle. For reference, compare it with another stat, e.g. vitality. You get 50 vitality with a gemstone, and 140 as a stat on a 77 item. With an armor gemstone you get 200, while a gear stat adds just 280 armor.
      - Life on hit - at least 2000. 2500-3000 is quite common. Experiment to find out what works best for you. Keep in mind that while casting Frostbeam you recover much more health per second than with regular attacks. Some bosses are much easier with higher LoH, namely Kara, Elban and TBD.
      - Movement speed - both pants and boots
      - +frost damage in all 4 possible slots
      - dodge - a few items with dodge can be useful. Note that dodge adds much more toughness in an end-game build compared to vitality/armor, but it is unreliable. E.g. you'd prefer to add vitality and always survive one Magroth hit,rather than add dodge and die from every second hit If you have high toughness from vit/armor and can already tank multiple hits, dodge is a very good option. Note that dodge is the best of the 'unreliable' defensive stats (dodge/parry/deflect). I'd suggest not to use any parry, deflect on gear, at least until you have tested them well. Certainly no life regen.

      Lily build
      With a Fire lily build Critical rating and damage are ignored, which leaves more room for other stats. The desired stats are similar to the crit build, with a few exceptions:
      - Put power on every possible item and enchantment
      - Use higher haste for extra damage
      - Allocate all champion points to haste and power
      - Do not put any CR or CD

      Special Enchantments
      - Slayer on Staff - double damage against bosses and elites, 3*5 sec per minute. Boss/elite has to be selected as a target
      - Osmosis on Helm - 1.01^K damage with K Osmosis stacks. Up to 30 stacks per minute. After 5 minutes this multiplies damage by more than 4x
      - Obfuscation on Tome - increases defense against ranged attacks
      - Enchant every gear item possible.
      - Dodge is the best value-for-money glove enchantment

      Passives and Companions
      Vortex is the single most important companion skill for a Beam mage. Running with 2-3 healers is the norm. Marcus's Stun and toughness bonus and Robin's attack speed bonus are excellent alternatives.

      Passives are chosen between Endurance, Glass cannon, Power Infusion and Celerity. They allow for some easy customization for each boss - e.g. fighting Kara benefits from adding toughness and recovery, while Garm requires more damage.

      Lily/or crit?
      Lily and crit ELR are both pretty awesome!
      Both can clear high trials (160+). Lily allows putting more defensive stats, which is why a lot of mobile players prefer it. Currently crit can push several trials higher, but only with very good skills and good gear.


      Spiritstones and legacy gear:

      Both manastims and velocinites work well with ELR. Mix them depending on your playstyle.

      If your playstyle is centered around timing ToS (which is an advanced technique), velocinites are a good fit.


      Edit (1.5.80): Bracers: If you have a few frostbeam bracers and are wondering which one to keep, take a look at this: https://forum.makingfun.com/forum/et...ons#post201010

      'Here's a rough guideline you can use (these are separate rules): 10% beam damage = 1% total damage increase;
      2% frost damage = 1% total damage increase;
      1 bracer level = 1% total damage increase (assuming that the bracers are both CTed, or both have the average stats for the level);

      If you want to be picky, you can calculate the effect of all stats if these two were celestial, so in order of importance frostbeam, +frost, 4 other stats (incl vitality), armor. Also you should factor in your current stats and also the trial sheet stats.

      To simplify things, say you deal 50% damage with beam and 50% with thermal shock (both are frost). Also say you have +90% frost damage with all your gear.

      If you increase frost with 2%, your damage increases by 1.92/1.9 which is roughly 1%.
      If you increase beam damage from 450% to 460%, beam damage increases by 5.60/5.50 ~ 2%. Since it amounts to half your total damage, the total damage increases by ~1%.
      Each of the other stats is not that important on its own, but they add up.

      Personally I'm sticking to the cheat sheet above, as it just takes a few seconds to make a reasonably good comparison.

      For xp it can be a tad better to go with the higher +xp, because beam is mighty enough anyway : )'
      Last edited by bojck; 03-02-2024, 10:03 AM.
      Mage: Anba
      Bounty Hunter: Gemma

      Comment


        #9
        Part 8: Lily or Crit?

        The biggest question standing for ELR mages is always 'Lily or Crit?'.

        Ultimately results showed that both type of builds are really good at both XP farming and push. Lily is miles ahead when it comes to character levelling, as well as playing with lower Champion levels or lower-level gear.

        When it comes to push, Lily is capable of dealing with at least trial 161. It is up to you to find out where the limit is : )

        In ANB almost all mages will have better results with Lily, except a handful that can really leverage the power of a crit build.

        Why should I use a Crit build after all?
        1. You are short on Glory. Lily costs 100 Glory.
        2. You want to push 160+ and don't want to risk it. The Crit build is proven to be capable of dealing with trial 164 or more.
        3. You like to deal massive damage in one blow. If ToS (Talisman of Storms) is up, and you deal a critical hit when triggering Thermal shock, you deal humongous amount of damage at once, which is kinda cool! Not that cool when you don't do a critical hit. With top-notch gear you are looking at 2000% critical damage or even higher. Combine that with +3000% from ToS...
        4. You don't have a ton of Shadow essences to make proper Lily gear

        Why Lily?
        1. You already have the Glory, or expect to obtain it soon.
        2. You want to farm xp consistently, and get Kara down with 1 beam and nova @trial 100-105 every time. 3. You like damage to be more even. Not a fan of RNG? Lily makes gameplay smoother and more predictable.
        3. You can accommodate more defensive stats without sacrificing that much damage
        4. You can get better results with Epic gear
        5. You can put both XP and EG on gear, and still have good overall stats
        6. You don't have a ton of fire essences for crafting Crit gear

        For details on which stats to use, please refer to the posts above.
        Last edited by bojck; 05-17-2023, 09:25 PM.
        Mage: Anba
        Bounty Hunter: Gemma

        Comment


          #10
          Part 9: Crafting 77s. CTs and real end-game. Levelling crafting toons.

          The ultimate end-game goal is playing with full Celestial level 77 gear and pushing the highest trial possible. With epic skillz you can be very close to the top spots on the leaderboard, even without the perfect gear. Skills always trump gear, but for top spots you need both.

          Even if you're not running for top spots, crafting perfect gear is very lucrative! After all, RPGs are all about the loot It's a slot machine that runs on dead skeletons! In this case monsters rarely drop good stuff. There is an occasional level 77 drop of the right kind with the right stats, but that's incredibly rare. To obtain the end-game gear you want, you farm gold, xp and materials, then salvage and craft.

          How do you get all 77 Celestials?
          One at a time, with a lot of grinding and crafting. Try to take 2 77s out of every ANB event. Be patient and do your best not to CT any item lower than 77 (except for a perfect lower level bracer). Also, grind fast and smart, and craft efficiently. Create 'crafting toons' for crafting every level 77 item out of ANB.

          How do you get 5M+ damage?
          That's easy - you craft all 77 celestials! You also switch as much defensive stats to offense as possible.

          Use a crafting-assisting tool
          There is an online tool that helps you see the odds for your next crafts. It's available in a nice and easy online user interface, the Pythia. Check out the Eternium server in Discord for details.
          There are now 2 links active. In case one of the two fails, you can switch from one to the other:

          Create your own website at Website.org.


          Crafting toons - why do I need those?

          This is an end-game topic, and not a beginners guide to levelling. It is only useful if you have a high Champion level (say 1500+) and enough materials to craft at least 15-30 legendary items.

          The first two videos can also help you level up in ANB!


          With the current crafting system when crafting end-level set and unique items, you have a guaranteed level 77 (exactly one) in the first 64 attempts with a new character. The next 77 will come in the second 64 crafts. This is a 'bad-luck prevention' algorithm implemented in the game to avoid long bad-luck streaks.

          Thus, the best way to craft a 77 is to create a new toon, level it up to 70 and craft until you get a 77. Then delete the toon and repeat. This has been discussed in a lot of places here and in Discord, so for details check the other topics to keep this one on point.

          It took me weeks to get to level 70, you say you level up in 20 minutes?

          It depends on the recipes you have. The gist of it is to have a lot of Champion levels. All characters share those, including the new toons.

          - If you don't have Fire Lily, and don't want to unlock items with gems, you'd want to unlock a second ability slot and put Nova and Immolate. Most of the damage here comes from Shatter. Craft full xp gear once every 10-30 levels. Craft GMC weapons often - you could just recraft high level staffs, as most of the damage comes from there. Use an xp booster (for me a 15-minute mushroom soup is just enough) and do trials until you hit level 70. Use Shatter to run trials quickly. Use a Vial of Wind spirit (any level) for the additional AoE damage.

          If you do have a Lily, craft a legendary low level Lily and Vial and just use fireball (level 3+) and Vial to farm trials until level 70. With Champion levels and Lily damage is not an issue. There is no need to unlock items or ability slots. I'll post a video on clearing a trial with vial and fireball.

          If you intend to make multiple crafting toons, stash some useful gear to use with the next toons. Personally, I keep a level 50 ELR set in the stash, along with some useful staffs, lily and vial. A low-level fireball bracer is also handy.

          Note that low-level toons have a bigger movement speed bonus, so always buy coffee and craft +ms boots and pants.

          Levelling up in trials using Shatter, Vial and Lily (30 sec trial run). 75 gems spent per crafting toon (+50 for deleting previous toon)



          Levelling up in trials using Fireball, Vial and Lily. 0 gems spent per crafting toon (+50 for deleting previous toon)





          If you want to see your new characters flying around, unlock higher level gear to be used by level 1 characters. This is costly, but can be very satisfying! Check topics on 'Speed-running' in the forum, and take a look at the video below:

          How to level up a new character to level 70 by Kinnu
          Here Kinnu uses high level items unlocked for level 1 heroes. This is NOT a new player strategy - it takes a lot of time and gems to get these items!

          Last edited by bojck; 02-18-2022, 07:16 PM.
          Mage: Anba
          Bounty Hunter: Gemma

          Comment


          • bojck
            bojck commented
            Editing a comment
            Yes. You can also salvage old Celestial gear and get 1 celestial essence for each item. Then combine 3 essences and get 1 CT. That's what I did with all (3) of my Arcanist celestials :/

          • Saif Alhadithy
            Saif Alhadithy commented
            Editing a comment
            how do you enable high level items for low level characters ? i searched a lot and couldn't find any way to do that

          • bojck
            bojck commented
            Editing a comment
            You need a hero that's within 10 levels below the required item level. To put it simple when you are level 60, you can unlock a level 70 item. Then with another hero at level 50 unlock 10 more levels and so on. Check this topic:



            Personally I'm not using that technique much, because it's gem expensive, takes time and also you don't really need lvl 70 items at level 1

          #11
          Part 10: A New Beginning. Gems & budget


          Levelling up to 70 in 13 minutes with 450 gems: https://youtu.be/OBjdSvwr_tg

          Levelling up to 70 in 3.5 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKX_...oyanBatchvarov


          ANB Bronze 14 series (budget dual-classing): CL2062 in 5 hours with warrior, push top 3 with mage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPcO...oyanBatchvarov

          ANB Bronze 22: I did trial 160! Trial 159 Garm:

          Trial 110 with xp/eg gear in 56 sec: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUYK...oyanBatchvarov


          - How do I get to Trial 130+ in 6/9/12 hours? What about t150?

          Good news is that you can actually reach trial 150 with mage, without spending a single dollar, on a budget of 2K gems. It takes a lot of skills and game knowledge. How frugal you are with your spendings is a personal choice. In this post I'll try to show you how to make the most out of gems spent.

          0. Unlocking stuff. Buying crates and companions - MUST read for new players

          Unlocking attacks, abilities, passives, companion slots and inventory rows is cheaper in ANB. Way cheaper. Also, Books of Learning help level up abilities. When the event ends, you can save this character and use it as your main.

          If you are just starting out, you need gems to unlock those and see that an ANB event is coming, save your gems and spend them in ANB!

          Stash space is not transferred to main. Ability upgrade slots are not cheaper (2nd slot costs 400, 3rd costs 900). Buying companions is not cheaper - 500 gems each.

          If you are aiming at trial 130+, buy all the 'cheap' unlocks right from the start. Get that 2nd upgrade slot for 400. Spending 900 on the 3rd one is up to you! It is nice to have, especially in Gold. In Bronze it is possible to upgrade ALL your skills to level 10 (or at least get to synergy 170) without unlocking this slot, if you do a lot of very fast trial runs.

          It is best to decide which companions and bigger crafting crates to buy beforehand, and get them right at the start.

          1. Levelling

          The first task in ANB is to level up to 70 and start upgrading abilites.

          You'd also want to progress to at least Severed Mountain which is the first suitable place for gold farming, picking up Eileen and Marcus on the way.

          1.1. Story mode

          Move fast through story mode. Craft a weapon often, as well as boots and pants with movement speed. Level up fireball to at least level 3 for the splash damage. Decide whether you'll wait a few days to level up abilities, use gems, or just keep playing and use Books of Learning later on. These are all viable strategies, depending on your time and budget.

          Given a larger budget, buy crafting crates and make xp items often. If resources are not an issue, go for rares or epics with some extra stats. Crafting better quality jewelry with gems helps a bit, but it's not a must.

          If you buy MoTs (mark of Titans), craft GMC weapons and just shatter everything.

          If not, craft a low level Vial of Wind Spirit. Until level 70 it pretty much destroys all enemies in range. There's no need to recraft it as you level up, except for the increased +xp bonus.

          If you also don't have this, use fireball, blizzard, DfA, beam, Talisman of Power... anything that works for you : )

          Do you have the recipe for Fire Lily? Use it to make a cheap low level Lily - ideally epic or legendary. It will boost your damage tremendously (4-5 times). Do not allocate any stats to critical rating/critical damage.

          - When do I stop running story mode?
          This can vary. Most people stop at Severed mountain and switch to doing trials until the event ends. Some choose to run to The Broken Dragon (before or after levelling to 70) to pick up Robin the archer. Others make it to 43 Darkhold Citadel, as they prefer to farm gold there. DC has a better yield and takes much less total runs than SM for the same amout of gold.

          Some players actually switch to trials as soon as they hit story level 4.

          1.2. Trials/levelling

          When your character reaches level 10, trial 1 is unlocked. To unlock trial 2, either finish t1, or reach hero level 20, and so on.

          There are two main ways of levelling: doing complete trials or doing hit and runs using portals.

          - Complete trials
          If possible, craft GMC weapons and use shatter. This makes your life tremendously easier. Lily and Vial make it a breeze. With a good staff and some +power on gear, monsters die with 1 shatter. For the boss fights, use whichever skills/attack that works best for you, e.g. frostbeam, blizzard, or just frostbolt.

          With good +xp bonus and an xp booster you can gain 10 or more levels from a single trial. If you aren't lazy and have the resources, recraft every 10 levels. If not, just craft a good staff and pants and boots with higher MS and get going. If you really want to try hard, craft better xp jewelry often.

          Aim at doing higher trial than your level, e.g. at level 25 aim for trial 3. There's an xp boost when fighting higher level mobs that caps at 10 levels above your current level.

          - Hit and run (portal runs)
          An alternative to complete trials is doing short hit-and-runs, be it in story mode or trials. Just walk into a level, cast a portal immediately, kill a few groups and go back to town. Do not abandon - there is a time penalty. Use shatter or an AoE skill like blizzard. Most people use this strategy on Severed mountain. The downside is that you get no resources on the way.

          - Complete Severed mountain runs
          Some players choose to do complete SM runs with +xp and +eg gear. The advantage is that you get a fair amount of gold this way. Note that Magroth feels pretty strong, especially if you don't have Lily equipped.

          - Misty Island runs
          Misty Island has an xp bonus and decent drops. Some players do some runs there as well (using the free dungeon keys). As I recall, you need to have 3 keys in your regular stash (not ANB) to receive new keys in the ANB toon's mailbox.

          Use +100 or +200% XP boosters to speed up the process.


          2. Hitting level 70. Gold farming. Crafting jewelry and xp gear

          Once you reach level 70, it is time to create gold farming and xp gear. Keep them separate, unless you know very well what you're doing If you're comfortable with farming trials 100-105, xp/eg is a perfectly viable option.

          2.1. Gold farming

          Ideally, craft a GMC weapon set with EG (extra gold). Ephemeral boxes could be handy. Craft green/blue items with +gold and some useful stats - power/vitality/ar/haste. Craft a lily if you have the recipe. Optionally, use an ELR robe to increase the duration of northern wind by 2 sec.

          Most players farm gold in SM. After 20 runs you begin spawning very close to the end chest, resulting in very short runs (about 10 seconds on average).

          Siege of Anderhelm is also a good option. I use 'double shatter' there - nova, immo, DfA to kill mobs on the way.

          2.2. Jewelry

          In ANB you get 2 ephemeral rings and 1 ephemeral necklace as milestone rewards, as well as 3 jewelry boxes.

          If aiming at top spots, you'd craft one set of jewelry in additional to the ephemerals. It is a personal choice whether to use ephemerals for push or xp/eg, or mix them.

          You might also want to craft EG jewelry.

          For pure legendary extra gold jewelry you need 27 EG necklaces and 54 rings. I find that too tedious to craft, and buy jewelry until I have 9 EG necklaces and 18 EG rings.

          When crafting xp jewelry, you have to decide whether to use gemstones when fusing or not, and how many. You can also put off xp jewelry crafting until you've collected some gemstones. You can also use some of the jewelry boxes to craft higher quality jewelry.

          If you still haven't - check Nhat's awesome jewelry crafting calculator!

          2.3. Crafting XP farming gear

          Since you are reading the ELR Mage tutorials, you'd want to craft ELR gear as soon as possible. If short on resources, use the ephemeral boxes. If you've bought a Legendary crate, just craft a full set straight away. Check the posts above for stats distribution and items.

          At this point Fire Lily really shines, combined with a Frostbeam bracer. With decent beam skills, you can start farming t80-t100 in minutes. You can do very well without legendary items. To save resources, you might opt to craft rare or epic bracers.


          3. Mid-game. Farming

          The greater part of every ANB event is actually farming. Do fast trial runs, get the xp, materials, gold, books of learning. Improve your gear and champion levels and carry on farming. It is important to find the balance between clear times and xp and other goods earned.

          On trial 80 most drops are epic, mixed with some rares and legendaries.
          T90 brings more set items and legendaries (and more xp, naturally).
          At T100 the dropped item levels increase slightly. There is a chance to get a few good items, but most drops are salvaged. Legendaries are less than half of all drops. XP earned increases until trial 103, which is why most people ultimately choose to run t100 or t105.
          At T105 legendaries are a bit more than half of all drops.
          At T120 all drops are legendaries.

          Aim for short runs. How short depends on your skills, playstyle and strategy. It can be anything between 30 seconds and 2 minutes.

          How to start farming 100-105 without buying any crates?

          With the new drop rates (1.5.34), this is harder than it used to be. Still, if you know how to farm with beam, you can start doing trials 90+ very early.

          My low-budget strategy is to buy a 50gem crate at the very beginning - it contains a ton of lesser essences. Then I rely on crafting and ephemeral boxes to gear-up. I aim at GMC weapons, frostfire sash, full ELR set, Integralas mantle, Fire lily, Talisman of Power. Remember that some of the items cannot be crafted with ephemeral boxes! Finally I craft frostbeam bracers (epic is perfectly fine). This needs MoTs, which take some time to acquire.

          What if I don't have lily/bracers/etc? Can I reach trial 90/110/130 then?

          It is possible to reach trial 130 or above in any ANB, starting with 0 glory! That said, this is very unlikely to happen in your first ANB. There's a lot to learn about the game and events to do that, so my advice is to play and enjoy the process If you reach 90 in your first ANB (and get the first Celestial Transform) I'd call that a success, 110 would be a major success : )

          If I don't have any glory recipes, I'd craft GMC, ELR, integralas, normal trinkets & bracers with +frost damage.

          I'd buy the frostfire sash recipe (10 glory), then Talisman of Power (20), then Slayer enchantment for weapon (20).

          Then I'd get bracers and lily (100 glory each). Then other trinkets - ToS, Vial of wind spirit, etc.

          No rush, you'll get all the recipes you need after a few ANBs!

          I'm a DfA fan, can I start farming with DfA?

          Sure, just use Sash of the Igniter, ideally DfA bracers and put +fire (and +frost) on your gear. Check the farming tutorials above!

          4. End-game. Crafting push gear

          When going for the highest trial possible, you aim at crafting the absolute best push gear given your resources. Ideally, all items should be socketed and enchanted. The most important item is the staff, as it is the single biggest damage contributor. Still it might be a good strategy to stick with a 76 staff and craft other gear instead of spending all your resources going for that 77 staff.

          Personally, I prepare a push-gear checklist. Thus I know which items I will have to craft/reforge/socket/enchant etc.

          Ultimately, you want to take 1-2 level 77s out of ANB (as long as you need them for your main character). Be prepared that this will take a lot of crafts. The first 77 is expected within crafts 1-64; the second one should come between 65-128.

          Also, write down all the crafting attempts you make. This will help you work on your strategy in the current and future events. It can also serve as something to refer to when you're complaining about how unlucky you are after the event (which is an essential part).

          Remember to always socket before you make the items celestial! E.g. if you craft a level 77 robe, be sure to apply both sockets for cheap!


          5. Push

          How much time should I leave for push?
          It depends... If you are already above CL 1900, levelling up further gets quite slow. As long as you have all the resources for crafting decent push gear, you may choose to do a longer push. I would recommend leaving 1.5-3 hours for push.

          Usually up to 10 levels below your max you can skip trials and levels go fast. Then clear times get slower than 6 minutes and you have to do consecutive levels. The last few levels it is expected to have to abandon early. Learn how to identify a bad mob phase early and quit without wasting too much time (e.g. early deaths, too many elites and healers, or just slow clear). Know how much time you need for each boss and abandon before the boss fight if you won't have enough time.

          Try to allow for some customization in your gear for different bosses, using sockets/passives/auras.



          6. One last thing - whether you aim for trial 90 or 150, have fun and enjoy the game


          A very well composed ANB guide from the point of view of a mobile player - Probabilist:
          https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...h.5sbhuepvwm6i
          Last edited by bojck; 05-17-2023, 09:21 PM.
          Mage: Anba
          Bounty Hunter: Gemma

          Comment


            #12
            Part 11: Mobile

            XP, story mode and gold farming work just as well on mobile. Pushing is noticeably harder than on PC, but trials above 160 are totally doable.

            You may want to run higher vitality, armor and life on hit on mobile (and perhaps add some dodge).

            V 1.10.2:

            Last edited by bojck; 11-02-2023, 07:56 PM.
            Mage: Anba
            Bounty Hunter: Gemma

            Comment


            • Benedicto
              Benedicto commented
              Editing a comment
              A very sure thing in mobile: you cannot do two things in one action. Either you choose to move, tap/double tap or draw a spell. I tried to use my two thumbs, one in moving and drawing on another, but it takes a lot of time practicing. I am already used to draw active skills (i.e. ITZ/BR/SM) in my "off-finger" and it makes my other free in drawing attack skills or moving. But it is hard to make a double tap on mobile so I lay my mobile down the table if it is necessary. I don't want to use Charm of QoL because VoWS is way better.

            • Arawn
              Arawn commented
              Editing a comment
              bojck Still wading through all of this. Just wanted to say thanks for posting!

            • kurtcabage
              kurtcabage commented
              Editing a comment
              thanks for adding my video into your awesome guide, really appreciate it

            #13
            Originally posted by bojck View Post
            Part 9: Levelling. Crafting toons

            Coming soon...


            How to level up a new character to level 70 by Kinnu
            Here Kinnu uses high level items unlocked for level 1 heroes. This is NOT a new player strategy - it takes a lot of time and gems to get these items!

            This is not the good video. Should post the video for leveling up from level 1 using low level items. 1 with fire lily + vows. 2nd without fire lily only with legendary VoWS.

            Comment


            • bojck
              bojck commented
              Editing a comment
              I uploaded two more videos doing a trial with lily + vial. You can find them in part 9!

            #14
            Hi.
            I'm quite new player to eternium and I'm currently stuck on trial 95.
            This guide is really helpful and I think next ANB event will push much higher.

            I was trying to determine what's holding me to get to trial 100.
            It's certainly my inexperience, not hiding it.
            But also it seems I miss key recipes, which do not have unlocked yet.
            Also my craft mastery is at lvl 35. The lvl 50 is must as I understand
            I still have 5h 20m on my ANB hero, will see if I'm able to push lvl 100.
            That glory would be nice

            EDIT: I would like to thank everybody who shares tips on this guide!

            Comment


            • NoSuchReality
              NoSuchReality commented
              Editing a comment
              If you post a picture of your stat page in people could offer tweak suggestions that might lift you to tL110?

            #15
            Well, I did not want to bother you all. But hey, If somebody have a spare moment, here is my "hero" :-)
            Picture with items is too small. Link to better resolution https://1drv.ms/u/s!AixCxqkANafQlkYp...IPgfZ?e=VIWFEx
            P.S.- these attributes are with coffee and daily soup


            Click image for larger version  Name:	atributy.png Views:	0 Size:	302.5 KB ID:	183828
            Click image for larger version  Name:	skills.png Views:	0 Size:	266.7 KB ID:	183829
            Attached Files
            Last edited by Yossarian; 10-17-2020, 07:41 AM.

            Comment


            • bojck
              bojck commented
              Editing a comment
              I don't know what Champion level you are now, but normally the easiest way to do higher trials is to farm more materials and experience (say until 2-3 hours until the end of the event), and only then try to push. Farming works best with xp on every item and using as many boosters as you can, running trials quickly. Then craft gear without xp on it and try to reach as high as you can! If you die too much, ditch that glass cannon and put more vitality and/or life on hit. And of course, practice makes perfect : )

            • Yossarian
              Yossarian commented
              Editing a comment
              Thank you. With some luck I was able to pick up 2 more recipes for regalia, so I crafted those purple into legendary, focusing on CR, CD, power, ability rate. With that I was able to push to 100. 2 trials between 95 - 100 was so close. 2-3 seconds before timer runs out (97 and 99 i think). And 100 was piece of cake in terms of boss fight. Then I farmed bit of trial 80 and was able to push to 105, which I think is my current ceiling for my abilities/gear possibilities.

              With 105 I was able to get under 500 in ranking, so I think that's pretty cool for a newbie :-)
              Last edited by Yossarian; 10-19-2020, 06:24 AM.

            • bojck
              bojck commented
              Editing a comment
              Good job! Next time you'll certainly get both CTs at least : )
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