Introduction

There are three(3) races that can be a mage: Kanians, Elves and Arisen Zem.
Mages in Allods – fairly difficult class. Playing as a mage, chances are you won’t be able to destroy everything with a push of a button. This class has skills that allow you to deal direct damage to the target, disable the target, and protect yourself.
To use those skills mages need mana. During game play you won’t have to wait for it to regenerate for hours – usually you can regain all of it within 10 seconds of leaving combat.

At first, being a mage may seem hard but eventually you will get used to it and the game becomes a leisurely walk through the world of Allods. The main potential of a mage is when he is a part of a group with other people. For a faster and easier game try to find a guild or friends for co-operative gaming. Together, every deed is faster, more fun and more safe; whether its quests, dungeons/raids or massive PvP with the opposing faction. If you have a guild or friends then the best way to communicate are voice programs(eg: TeamSpeak, Ventrilo, Skype). That way you will get information from each other quicker and that will increase the success of your group in the game.
All of this will guarantee good pleasurable experience as a mage in the game...and perhaps not only for mages ^^
Now I will try to explain to you the key moments of playing a mage...let’s get started.


Statistics

Strength – affects physical damage. Absolutely useless for mages.
Finesse – affects your armour penetration(%). Absolutely useless for mages.
Expertise – affects your chance to physically hit the target(%). Absolutely useless for mages.
Agility – affects your chance to evade a physical attack. Fairly useful both in PvE and PvP.
*Luck – affects your chance to critically hit the target(2x dmg) If your Luck is too low then you will get an anticrit (1/2x dmg) (Even if your Luck is high then you will still have a chance to get an anticrit) It also affects the Endurance of the target. Very important stat for mages.
"The fact that you could sacrifice your Luck without any real consequences was a bug in game mechanics. In reality if you sacrifice your Luck to raise other stats then there will be consequences. If you sacrifice your Luck right now your character doesn’t become "dead" he just becomes "unlucky". You can still sacrifice your Luck but it won’t be as effective as before. Stories about impossible game play due to this change in Luck are really not all true. Don’t forget that the game developers are people too and play this game just like you and know what is happening in the game world by experience. I will repeat again: the mechanics of the game were MEANT to include anticrit and works as intended as long as the character gets gear with Luck. " (c) Tango, game developer.
Instinct – affects the chance of you receiving a critical hit. Don’t allow the % to get higher then 10%.
Stamina- affects your health pool. Very important for mages.
*Intelligence – affects your magical damage. Very important for all mages.
*Intuition – affects the chance that your target resists your spell either partially or fully. Can be partial resist(1% – 100%). This can be read in the combat log. For enjoyable game play do not let the % get above 20%.(~10% ideal) Is more important for PvE then PvP.
Persistence - affects the chance of disabling spells landing on the target and the duration of the spell on the target (eg: spell "Icy Grave").
Willpower - affects your chance to resist a disabling effect and the time you stay disabled. (ie: your chance to resist Icy Grave and the duration you stay in Icy Grave).
Rage – affects your chance to cure the target of an inflicted wound. You can see how grave the wounds are by looking at the health bar. The more blood drops you see there the graves and harder to heal that wound is.
Wisdom – affects your effective healing. Almost useless for mages. Mages have only 1 healing talent. Grows by itself without damaging any other stat.(goes hand in hand on gear with many other mage stats)
*Spirit – affects your mana pool and mana regeneration rate. Should only be raised if you understand that you don’t have enough mana for a fight.
Armour – affects the damage you receive(reduces incoming damage by a %).
Resistance to Elemental\Natural\Divine Magic – affects the magical damage you receive(reduces incoming dmg by a %). Elemental- Fire, Ice, Lightning. Natural - Poisons, Diseases. Divine - Light, Shadow, Astral.

Every level you will receive 1 point for you to spend on any characteristic you want except for Armour and Resistance. In total you will receive 39 points to spend which won’t really affect your character (it`s easy to get 300-600 points in any 1 stat at lvl 40) but they are still useful more or less. I suggest you pick 1 stat and use all those 39 points on it. For Elves it makes more sense to use those points to increase Intelligence(to increase racial ability), mages with crit builds will usually lack mana so those points should go into Spirit. Also if you want more/longer disables then it makes sense to toss those points into Persistence. If you want to spend less time disabled then it also makes sense to increase your Willpower. The reason for increasing those is that it is impossible to get higher then ~301 points in those stats at lvl 40 unless you have special talents from the Talent Trees.

By navigating your mouse on any of the stats you can see its exact description.
Some of those stats have a anti-stat.
Finesse – Armour (the more Armour you have, the more Finesse the enemy needs, to effectively reduce your armour and hit you hard.)
Rage- Wisdow (chance to heal a wound is affected both by the Wisdom of the healer and the Rage of the attacker)
Persistence -Willpower (chance to disable a target depends on both your Persistence and the target’s Willpower)
Luck -Instinct (chance to critically hit a target depends on both your Luck and the target’s Instinct)
Intuition - Resistance (The more resistance the target has, the more intuition you need to hit the target effectively.) To be honest, the description is based on "vacuum target" and may not be what you see in real game play.

Skills

In this game skills are spells that must be cast. They have 3 ranks(power levels)

Fire Arrow - |Element: Fire|Cast TIme:1.5s|Recharge:1s|Distance:40yrds|
Basic spell for all mages –you receive it from the start. Fast cast, fair damage. Useful skill, Fire Mages usually upgrade it to rank 3.

Icy Flow - |Element: Ice|Cast Time: 0-3s|Recharge: 1s|Distance:40yrds|
Tactical Spell. For every 0.5 seconds you channel it hits the target for minor damage and debuffs it, reducing both movement speed and damage dealt by 15% per application. Stacks up to 6 times. If the target is damaged by a fire spell then 2 stacks of the debuff are removed and the target receives additional damage. Bonus damage is dealt only once.

Discharge - |Element: Lightning|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 1s|Distance: Close Combat|
Fair damage, close combat. This spell only achieves its True Potential if the target’s hp is less then 25% in which case the damage doubles. Good finishing spell. For beginner mages 5x Discharge + Electric Control is very easy way to kill mobs.

Fire Ball - |Element: Fire|Cast Time: 5s|Recharge: 1s|Distance: 40yrds|
AoE spell with incredibly high damage. Can only be precasted, after the precast is done, you can activate the spell and a pentogram-in-a-circle will appear where ever you point your mouse(range limit observed). Strongest AoE spell in the game. All fire mages should take rank 3.

Icy Grave - |Element: Ice|Cast Time: 2.5s|Recharge: 10s|Distance: 20yrds|
Tactical Spell. Freezes the target preventing it from doing anything for the duration of the spell. Damage interrupts the effect. Priests can use their invulnerability spell to get out of it prematurely. If the target is under guidance of one of the 12 apostles then duration is significantly reduced.

Stone Barrier - |Element: Astral|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 45s|Distance: Self Only|
Defensive skill. Puts up defensive layers on the mage. If mage is attacked then a certain amount of damage is absorbed (depends on Intelligence). All mages should take 3 ranks of this spell.

Reflections - |Element: Ice|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 30s|Distance: Self Only|
Defensive skill. The mage creates several mirror images of himself. When he is attacked, there is a chance that the damage will hit 1 of the illusions instead of the mage. The illusion disappears regardless of the damage absorbed after hit. AoE spells remove ALL illusions at once AND hit the mage. All mages should take rank 2 of this spell. Rank 3 should only be taken if you have nowhere else to put your points because 1 extra illusion is hardly worth 3 points.

Thuderbolt - |Element: Lightning|Cast Time: 3s|Recharge: 1s|Distance: 40yrds|
Medium cast time, medium damage inflicted. The best part about this spell is that it destroys some of the target’s mana. Very useful against mana starved classes such as Necromancers and Druids.

Meditation - |Element: Astral|Cast Time: 0-10s|Recharge: 30s|Distance: Self Only|
When used, the mage regenerates ALL of his mana. At first rank it will take 10s, second - 8s, third - 6s(to regain all mana). If used in combat it doubles the time it takes to regenerate the mana (20s – 16s – 12s). If you are attacked while meditating you will receive Double Damage. Mana restoration rate is NOT linear. At first tick you will receive almost no mana, on second tick – slightly more and only on the final tick will you regain more than half of your mana at once.

Wall of Flame - |Element: Fire|Cast Time: 0-8s|Recharge:1s|Distance: 40yrds|
The mage creates a wall of flame in front of him. If the Wall of Flame is created upon a target then the target cannot move but can attack. One mage can keep a target in a Wall of Fire until his mana is gone. Two mages can keep the target immobile forever. (1 keeps up the Wall, the other meditates)

Pulse Lightning - |Element: Lightning|Cast Time: 0-8s|Recharge: 20s|Distance: 40yrds|
The target receives some damage every second. Huge mana cost, small damage. Can be used as a tactical anti-mage spell(Removes Reflections very fast). Hard to say if it’s worth the points.

Ice Comet - |Element: Ice|Cast Time: 4s|Recharge:1s|Distance: 40yrds|
The mage creates an ice comet which flies from the mage to the target in a line damaging everything in its path(AoE spell really). Long cast time, medium damage. Hard to say if it’s worth the points.

Elemental Shield - |Element: Astral|Cast Time: 0s|Rechage: 45s|Distance: Self Only|
Defensive Skill. The mage puts up several magic barriers. If the mage is hit with a Magical(Elementa/Divine) attack then the barrier absorbs some damage(depends on intelligence) and 1 barrier is removed. The shield will not save you from dots of Necromancers because Natural damage is not absorbed. The shield will prevent damage from Priest dots only if the first tick is absorbed fully. Conflagrate completely ignores this shield. All mages should take 3 ranks of this skill unless more important skills are available.

Conflagrate - |Element: Physical|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 60s|Distance 20yrds|
Tactical Spell. Sets the target on fire causing it to be disoriented(disabled). The target will move chaotically in random directions for 4 seconds while receiving decent damage every second. The target is completely disabled during the duration of the spell and thus cannot do anything. Any mage should take at least 1 rank of this spell. Persistence increases the duration of this spell.

Prism Lightning - |Element: Lightning|Cast Time: 3s|Recharge: 1s|Distance: 40yrds|
Mass Target Spell (a target is needed for cast). Deals medium damage to all targets in a 10yrd radius around the target . Additionally it blinds the initial target for 4 seconds(broken screen effect) Works with "Gift of the Heavens"(chance to restore mana after dealing critical damage). All Lighning mages must take rank 3.

In the beginning of the game you start off with "Fire Arrow" spell. When you get level 2 you will automatically receive "Icy Flow" and when you receive level 3 you will be gifted with "Discharge".
After that you can put your points where ever you like.
To get 1st rank of a spell you need to put in 1 point.
To get 2nd rank of a spell you need to put in 2 points.
To get 3rd rank of a spell you need to put in 3 points.
To progress further down the Skill Tree you need to put in a certain number of points into the spells that are available to you.
Every lvl you will receive 1 point. Every 5 lvls you will receive 2 points instead of 1.

There are also several abilities/spells that can be received from doing special quests. The first one is your unique racial ability (quest from lvl 7)

Kanian Mages get:
"Concentration" - |Element: Physical|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 60s|Distance: Self Only|
Once every 60 seconds for 20 seconds the mage becomes immune to interruptions and the time to cast a spell will not increase when attacked. However, any disables that hit you will still have full effect on you.

Elven Mages get:
"Might of the Archmage" - |Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 180s|Distance: Self Only|
Once every 3 minutes the mage increases their intelligence by 30%. Many believe that this is the best racial for mages.

Arisen Mages get:
Astral Arrow - |Element: Astral|Cast Time: 4s|Recharge: 20s|Distance: 40yrds|
This spell deals high damage to 1 target. As well it knocks it down for 2 seconds and interrupts anything the target was doing at the time. The knockdown is not affected by Persistence.

There are also several abilities all mages can get by doing special quest chains called "World Secrets". World Secrets – are special quest chains that award you something for every quest in the chain you do. If you complete all of the quests in a chain you will get a special prize(ie: spell, talent point)

Invisibility - |Element: Astral|Cast Time: 2s|Recharge: 60s|Distance: Self Only|
You become invisible for 10 seconds. Using this skill you can get past dangerous places or escape from attackers. If you use this spell while fighting a mob then it will reset and stop attacking you. In PvP AoE attacks will destroy your Invisibility so take care.

Gift of Tenses - |Element: Light|Cast Time: 15s|Recharge: 20h|Distance: 40yrds|
Allows you to resurrect a fallen ally once every 20 hours. Doesn’t need mana and cannot be used in combat.

Exodus - |Cast Time: 10s|Recharge: 600s|Distance: Self Only|
The mage teleports himself and allies that are close to him to a safe location. Pretty Standard Teleport ^^

Some spells you can prepare beforehand.
How does it work? If we click a spell that is capable of being precasted(ie: Fire Arrow) without selecting a target then you will cast the spell and the icon of the spell will start flashing and gray out while in your hand a nice shiny ball will appear. Then you can select a target and use the spell without its usual cast time(instant cast). This is very useful with spells that have a long Casting Time such as Fire Ball.
Simply put, if you prepare your Fire Ball before the fight then you can use it as an instant cast in the fight.

Credits: ILeastlic