Christiane’s Ice Mage Guide

What is an Ice Mage?

The Muse has class has varied sub-categories that deal with control of specific elements. These include: ice mastery, wind mastery, fire mastery, and thunder mastery. Muses who focus on the ice and wind elements are called Ice Mages, and therefore focus on advancing the ice & wind techniques available to the mage class. A successful ice mage will manipulate the element of ice to hinder their opponent’s performance. Thus, the act of debuffing is an integral part of this mage category.

What is an Advanced Ice Mage?

The road to become an elementalist of ice & wind  is arduous, but not for the reasons you may suspect. In order to become an advanced ice mage, one must strictly focus on using ice or wind abilities for combat. Any deviance from this detracts from true mastery of these elements. Therefore, it is highly recommended that one refrains from using abilities that are not in accord with the discipline. An example of such abilities would be those that fall into the fire category. In addition to refraining from using certain abilities; a advanced ice mage should be proficient in ice and wind abilities to the point of complete mastery. This means that in order to properly advance your skills as an ice mage; one should know how to perform the ice/wind abilities that are readily available in the class toolkit. These include, but are not limited to, abilities such as: Permafrost Chill and Icy Hailstorm.

What differentiates an Ice Mage from an Advanced Ice Mage?

An advanced ice mage is essentially a step-up from an ordinary ice mage. The distinction is based on a mage’s performance, knowledge and determination. An advanced ice mage has to perform their ice & wind abilities during combat. The trials and tribulations of combat are the most effective sources of true battle sense and tactic. Thus, an advanced ice mage has experienced combat first hand and has used their abilities to overcome it. In addition to performance, an advanced ice mage has knowledge about their elemental specialty. Therefore, advancing as an ice mage requires that one knows what the source of their power is and how to properly use it. And finally, the most important distinction between an advance ice mage and a regular one is their determination. An advanced ice mage is determined to master the elements of ice & wind to their fullest extent. The fact that an advanced ice mage has decided to pursue true mastery of a specific element is what truly separates them from their peers. If you don’t have the time to dedicate to the mastery of the ice and wind elements, don’t try to be an elementalist.

What makes an Advanced Ice Mage special?

As noted previously, the ice mage focuses on debilitating their target by means of de-buffs. Due to the fact that most of the ice mage’s abilities are based on debuffing; there is certain amount of skill involved in order to perform well. An advanced ice mage is constantly cycling and timing attacks to fight their opponent in the most effective manner. Therefore, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents in an integral part of properly mastering this discipline. For example, abilities that debilitate a target’s movement speed are better suited in instances in which an ice mage is battling a melee combat based class. In contrast, abilities that debilitate a target’s accuracy or defense are best suited for classes that can damage an ice mage from a distance. Making the distinction in the heat of battle is what differentiates a advanced ice mage from a mediocre one.

What abilities should an advanced ice mage focus on using?

Single Target Primary Ice Abilities (1)Freezing Chill -> (2)Glaciating Chill -> (3)Permafrost Chill

Single Target Secondary Ice Abilities (1)Arumic Shock -> (2)Fierce Cudgeling -> (3)Lemming’s Bolt

Area of Effect Damaging Abilities (1)Windstorm -> (2)Tornado (3)Tempest -> (4)Hurricane

Splash Damage Abilities (1)Sikuku Gale (2)Icy Hailstorm

How can one advance their mastery of ice & wind?

The specific abilities that an ice mage should use to further their mastery were noted in the paragraph above. This paragraph will pinpoint some of these abilities are further expound on their relevance to furthering the mastery of ice & wind elements.

Single Target Primary Ice Abilities

– These abilities serve as your single target primary ice (abilities that you will consistently use) – All three of these abilities have debilitating debuffs that allow you to slow down your enemies. – At higher ranks, [Glaciating Chill] will replace [Freezing Chill]. This means that they will share a cooldown and cannot be individually used. – However, [Glaciating Chill] and [Permafrost Chill] do not share a cooldown and may be used separately to damage your enemies.

Single Target Secondary Ice Abilities

– These abilities serve as your single target secondary ice (abilities that you will use when primary fire abilities are on cooldown). – The two thunder based abilities have a chance to stun your enemies. – [Fierce Cudgeling] does not stun, but it does have a debilitating debuff. – These abilities are highly situational, and are thus used as utility abilities, as well as damaging ones. – The amount of damage these abilities do is lower than the primary fire abilities, because of the utility they bring to the toolkit.

Area of Effect Damaging Abilities

– These abilities damage many enemies in a wide radius. – These abilities are your biggest weapon against the MOB. – [Windstorm] and [Tornado] share a common cooldown. – [Tempest] and [Hurricane] share a common cooldown. – Due to this, an advanced ice mage should be using [Hurricane] and [Tornado] separately (as they do not share a cooldown). – [Icy Hailstorm] is a long range splash damage ability. This ability is pivotal part of ice mage combat. – [Icy Hailstorm] also reduces movement speed by 100% making it one of the most movement debilitating de-buffs in the game. – [Sikuku Gale] is an splash damage debuff ability that does not do any damage. It reduces an enemies energy resistance. This ability should be used as a primer ability before attacking enemies with damaging AoEs. – A splash damage ability is an ability that affects a targeted enemy, and all surrounding enemies in range of that target.

What’s the most effective way to use Splash Damage and AoE Abilities?

Area of Effect

– These abilities damage enemies in a wide radius that extends from your character. – These are different from splash damage abilities, because splash damage extends from the target that is being affected instead of from your own character. – The most effective way to use these abilities is to use them in close proximity to a large amount of enemies. – An effective tip when using these abilities is to always first use a primary or secondary fire ability on one of the targets that form part of the group you want to damage before using AoE. This is pivotal because sometimes the abilities do not register properly, and doing this will override that error. – Due to their long cooldown, these abilities need to be used wisely. Therefore, it’s important that you communicate with fellow defenders whenever these abilities are readily available for use. This prevents overlap with other AoE abilities from other defenders, and serves to prevent misuse of these AoE’s. – Trial and error serves as the best teaching vehicle when dealing with how to properly use AoE’s. However, if you’re ever in a situation in which you’re deciding whether to use an AoE or not. Don’t be afraid to ask another fellow defender in battle to guide you through the process, and allow them to tell you when to perform an AoE. – Finally, know that mages have one of the lowest health pools and defense out of all the job classes. Therefore, if you think that using your AoE ability will result in you falling in combat then refrain from doing so. As an overarching tip, never voluntarily do something that can cause you to eliminate yourself from the field of combat. Your PRESENCE is more important than any AoE ability.

Splash Damage Abilities

– These abilities damage enemies in a wide radius that extends from the targeted enemy. – Most of all the tips that were mentioned above are relevant to these types of abilities as well. – The only main difference is that since these abilities do not extend from your character, they are a lot easier to perform without risk of injury. – A mage’s main role is to remain in the back line, damage enemies, and prevent anything from damaging them. Thus, these abilities serve to cause major damage without risking exposure.

– A more specific tip relates to [Sikuku Gale]. This ability lowers the energy resistance of a large number of targets. Thus, like any utility ability, it’s important that you communicate with your fellow defenders when using it. Having defenders use their AoE abilities on enemies after you de-buff them brings in a lot of value.

What is the role of an Advanced Ice Mage?

A ice mage’s role in combat is mainly to damage enemies from the backline. Due to their minimal defense, and high damage output, they are considered glass (or ice) cannons. Their damage output is not as strong as a fire mage’s, but they make for it in utility (debuffs). Here are a few examples of instances in which an advanced ice mage will prove to be effective.

Ambushes

– When enemies are attacking a target in huge packs. Using abilities that lower their movement speed will allow melee combat classes to reach them, which prevents these enemies from reaching their target.

Boss Fights

– Fights that relate to a single target are great for ice mages. Ice mages can debilitate the target by slowing down their movement speed or lowering its defenses. This hinders the boss’ ability to chase down support and/or other backline defenders.

Rider Enemies

– These are the types of enemies that are mounted. These enemies have incredible movement speeds. Therefore, lowering their movement speed can prove effective in combat.

Player vs. Player Encounters

– Reducing defenses, and movement speed of other player characters is very effective. As most defenders rely on extreme levels of M-Speed to escape or combat other players.

Agro Control

– Using AoE abilities that reduce M-Speed like [Icy Hailstorm] can help in agro control.

Enemies that cannot physically move quickly are less likely to escape the front line.