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A Good Mage Classes Guide in Aion

Mages are at once powerful and fragile, using crowd control skills or summons to keep enemies at a distance while using ranged magic spells to attack. If a high-risk offensive class that requires a lot of skill juggling sounds fun to you, than this path is your fit.

You will start the game in the Mage class with a spellbook as your weapon. At level 9 you will be given the Daeva quest, during the course of which you will be able to choose between the Sorcerer and the Spiritmaster as your specialization path- this is the same quest that gives you your wings. Upon completing the quest, your level will be set automatically to 10 in your new class.

The Sorcerer specialization follows a traditional mage path, further focusing on high damage magic spells and crowd control abilities such as sleep and shackles. The Spiritmaster learns the ability to control spirit summons, and is the only pet controlling class in the game.

Mage Base Stats

Strength: 90
Constitution: 90
Agility: 95
Accuracy: 95
Intelligence: 115
Spirit: 115

Gear

Armour
Both mage classes can only wear cloth armor, and that's all they should want to, since cloth armor provides the MP and concentration bonuses essential to both classes.

Weapons
While Sorcerers can only use spellbooks, Spiritmasters will have the option of using orbs which have higher attack stats than spellbooks overall.

(Note: In CBT3, stigma skills allowed players of any class to gain mastery of any weapon or armour, so yes it was possible for a mage to wear heavy armour and swing 2H swords around if they so wished. However this is very likely to change for open beta as the lead dev expressed that there were too many balancing issues with this feature. )

Legend
3 Stars: Primary
2 Stars: Useful in certain situations
1 Star : Almost never used
No Star: Unequippable

Sorcerer

Playstyle
Damage Dealer, Crowd Control
Sorcerers deal high amounts of magic damage, and use numerous shackle and sleep skills that keep their opponents at a distance.
Comparable classes from other games: WoW Mage, L2 Spellsinger/Sorcerer

Popular Builds
Sorcerers are all about the magic damage, so if you've got the ninja skills to keep your fragile self alive, then by all means max it out. Aion's resident 'glass cannon' class is especially weak to physical attacks though, even more so than you may be used to in other MMOs, so you might decide to trade in some of that damage for HP.

1. Max Damage Build
Gear: +Intelligence Cloth Armour (bonus available on certain Abyss armour)
Enhancements: +Magic Spell Damage
Cooking trade skill highly recommended for +Intelligence food

2. Survivability Build
Gear: + HP Cloth Armour (bonus available on certain Abyss armour)
Enhancements: + Max HP, + Max MP
Cooking trade skill highly recommended for +Intelligence food

Current State of Sorcerers

Sorcerer players have always been expressing mixed opinions on the class since the beginning of closed beta. Many players complain of mana downtimes and feel frustrated that their low HP and cloth armour make them easy targets in ganks and mass PvP.

Most will agree, though, that in PvP Sorcerers are second to .. well, second to rangers..
In any case, the sorcerer is a strong PvP class. The combination of sleeps and nukes, or shackles/pushbacks and nukes (depending on your playstyle) mean that as long as you're paying attention and constantly watching your back, you have a very good chance at coming out on top.

Mixed reviews also mean that Sorcerers haven't been on NCsoft's radar as a class to neither nerf nor boost -- which, as Spiritmaster players would tell you (and L2 vets will tell you) is a positive thing.

Current State of Spiritmasters

The story of Spiritmasters is a bitter one, from their CBT2 glory to their CBT3 demise.
It's hard to imagine that in CBT2, Spiritmasters were regarded as the most powerful class in Aion - fast to level, great in PvP. The summons always had terrible AI but their high damage and utility made up for the lacks.
Unfortunately, the nerf hammer came down hard, and in CBT3 they were reduced to becoming the least played class in the game. Worst part was, the summons still had the IQ of 'Starcraft dragoons' (whatever that means.. I'm like the only Korean to have never played SC).

It's hard to say what open beta will look like for Spiritmasters. Although NCsoft's lead developer has said that there will be changes, balancing for summoning classes is notoriously tricky and it's likely that NCsoft will tread carefully as to not repeat their mistake in CBT2. As possibly the most complex class in Aion, however, there will always be players that are up for the challenge that this class presents.