Csaszar's GoW BattleMage Guide This guide is based on my greatly successful but now retired* BM.

He was a full GoW user so no other main attack spell. Of course if you feel the need you could choose some other form of attack however I never felt the need to do it. (a tru e GoW mage will use poison and only poison to defeat his enemies and if built ri ght he will do that very good!) Stats All points to mental regeneration. Quite simple. The higher your mental regen th e better. Skills Magic Lore (required) Meditation (required) Air Magic (highly recommended) Constitution (highly recommended) Trading (recommended) Parrying (recommended) Agility (optional) Water, Fire, or Earth Magic (optional) Parrying: Good defense and an additional defense bonus when using shield. This b uild will use while lvling the char a two handed weapon but after maxing him out OR when u feel him enough leveled already I suggest using a shield/weapon combo . Trading: I didn't like this skill at all but for BM is a natural choice. You hav e many options at skill choosing and BM has many sets having huge bonuses to tra de. Besides trade could come handy because you will need to shop for some stuff regularly. Agility: for the added defense but it is really not necessary. Magic Spells Gust of Wind(GoW): This will be your main spell. GoW is a strong and a very usef ul way to destroy anyone who opposes you. Of course poison trolls and undead (an d some other non demon poison resistant creatures) will cause trouble at lower l vls so try to avoid them. GoW has many wonderful features. It will shock your enemies and throw them back. At lower lvls this will help you to stay alive and GoW has a very nice regen ti me. Much better than ice shard or other attack spells. To use GoW efficiently you will need 2 things: high lvl of GoW AND added bonus t o poison damage. At lower lvls the blacksmith's arts could help and later you wi ll find rings with +20-26% to poison damage. At the ITEMS section there will be additional info on this. You need to raise GoW as high as you could while mainta ining regen time under 1 sec. (I use lvl 300 Gow with 0.7 sec) Ghost Meadow(GM): The bread and butter of your BM. Raise it as high as possible. An max it out. GM enhances your Mental Regen so every increase in MR will net y ou better and better results. So raise GM AND socket/wear stuff with bonus to MR . Max duration is 180 sec. Flameskin: A very nice spell. It damages your enemies, adds to fire resists, and defends you from ranged attacks. Its advised to raise it till it reaches its ma x duration 120 sec. I raised it more because of the increased damage and resists

. Stoneskin: Gives physical and poison resists and some defense bonus. Greatly nee ded at the first part of your adventure lesser in the later part. Its advised to raise it till it reaches its max duration 120 sec. Shield Wall: Gives magic resists and some other resists too. Its advised to rais e it till it reaches its max duration 120 sec. Equipment I strongly advise to get the full Amarri set as soon as possible. Its aimed for Air Magic and has some nice other bonuses like +xx to GoW and +xx% damage agains t Demons. The best part of the set is the "secret damage". Its an added damage b ased on your original damage. Using Amarri will take the slots for helm, armor, bracer, greaves, and belt. So your hands (staff or weapon and gloves) will be free as your boots. For boots I advise to trade (or get from drops) a socketed pair of boots with bonus to GoW a nd spell regen. For gloves I propose to use the unique Elohnir gloves if possibl e. (any other socketed glove with good spell regen and/or GoW bonus will do as w ell) Weapon slot: I prefer the weapon + shield combo. Get a nice weapon with damage/m f/spell bonus and find a shield with the same. I used "Blessed Blade of Enlighte nment" and "Kite Shield of the Guild". At lower lvls, try to find as many "Solwemyrs" rings as you can. Socket at every available place that xp + leech solwemyr ring. You could get nice xp bonus and enough leech very easy with that plus it has a bonus xx to Mental Regen - which u need as high as possible. If you could get any jewelry with great MR bonus con sider using it. Where to Level As soon as you are able, try to get to the "Valley of Tears". When you arrive th rough the portal, shoot some GoWs to make place then try to run to the Sakkara d emons. If you played in "Valley of Tears" already, you will know the place I men tioned. Try to run past pods and other creatures stopping only if needed. Read s ome "Water Form" runes, cast it, then you are good to go. As soon as you get to Sakkaras, finish those who are still following you and beg in the massacre. The mean and evil and big and dreaded Sakkara demons are lackin g poison resist ENTIRELY. If you could get there you will have a relatively easy job even at lower lvls. Those Sakkara demons will net you the BEST xp in game a nd a mentor will do wonders. If you haven't tried it before you wont be able to believe how much xp can be gained there. Just a note: Playing and leveling at VOT nowadays is much more dangerous than in previous versions. High dangers, but still very rewarding. If you gained enough levels and are wearing a full amarri set and raised GoW pre tty high, you will be able to defeat most of the creatures that Sacred Underworl d throws against you. If you picked other magic skills it would be even easier b ut after my experience you can do fine only with GoW.