Talents
They are additional abilities that strengthen your character. Some may be passive and some may work all the time or only when certain conditions are met. Some are actual spells and require activation and or special conditions. Most Talents have 3 ranks which open using the talent trees.
Starting from level 10 you will receive the ability to buy a talent point every time you level. You will be able to buy those talent points from your class’s trainer. If you talk to your trainer and it says: "buy talent – no resources" then that means that you already bought the talent point for this level. After you buy your talent point you can put it into any talent.
The talent trees are like a chessboard. Each cell is either a useful skill or is empty.
You can only put points into cells that are “touching” a cell that has a point in it.
In the beginning there are 3 talent trees with 1 talent cell already open in the middle.
To get higher ranks of a talent you need to hunt down the cells with that same talent and put points into it.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your spells and talents! You can reset them all by buying "Water of Death" which you can either buy in ingame Shop or from other players who bought it or from elite monsters.

Cells of a same talent can be in 1 Talent Tree or 2 or all 3.


General
(Exist in all 3 Talent Trees or have similar effects)

Intuit – increases intuition by 5/10/15%
Every mage should have rank 3 of this talent. The bonus is % so it will increase as you level. You can see the numerical value by setting your mouse over the stat (bonus from talents +??).

Intellect – increases Intelligence by 5/10/15%
Every mage should have rank 3 of this talent. The bonus is % so it will increase as you level. You can see the numerical value by setting your mouse the stat (bonus from talents +??).

Lucky – increases Luck by 5/10/15%
Talent is best for crit-mages. For other mages it is also great(for reducing the chance of anticrit) You can see the numerical value by setting your mouse over the stat (bonus from talents +??).

Persistent – increases your Persistence by 5/10/15%
Because, at the moment, it is not possible to have higher Persistence then Willpower at max level (thats the balance of stats on gear at max lvl) this talent is very useful. Take it whenever you can. You can see the numerical value by setting your mouse over the stat (bonus from talents +??).

Magical Cover – when your health is decreased to 10% then with a chance of 10/15/20% the mage will get a invulnerability buff which uses up 6%/3%/1% of your mana per second. Any spell cast by the mage will remove the buff.
In theory this is an excellent talent. However in game life you almost never get a hit that reduces your health below 10% and doesn’t kill you. Additionally it is hard to notice the buff appearing at times and you usually accidentally remove it by casting a spell. You should take those talents only if you have nowhere else to put your points in.

Hardened Shell – damage absorbed by Stone Barrier increases by 20/40/60%
Very important talent for ALL mages. The addition cannot be seen on the spell description but if you look in the combat log the difference is very noticeable.

Heat/Chill/Instability – all damage dealt with Fire/Ice/Lightning spells increases by 3/6/10%
This is a must have for whatever school you use the most. The damage increase does NOT show up in the spell description but can be seen in combat log. Is this a lot? – lvl 10 Runes gives you 6% but the estimated cost is thousands of crystals.

Gift of Fire/Northern Lights/Gift of the Heavens – with a chance of 10/20% after dealing a critical hit with Fire/Ice/Lightning Spell 1\4 of your mana pool will be restored.
Very useful for crit mages who lack mana. This doesn’t mean that if you have this then getting more Spirit is useless. It just increases the mana you regain. At the moment doesn’t work with the following skills: Fire- Fire Arrow, Fire Ball, Fire Trap (?)| Ice – Ice Comet, Ice Circle| Lightning - Thunderbolt, Prism Lightning

Unquenchable Fire/Avalanche/Cascade – with a 5/10% chance after dealing critical damage with Fire/Ice/Lightning spells your following spell of the same school will be instant cast.
Really you get 2 spells for the cast of 1. The chance isn’t great but the usefulness certainly is. Should only be taken by crit-mages.

Eruption/Ice Age/Lightning Rampage – with a chance of 56% after dealing critical damage with a Fire/Ice/Lightning spell all spells of the same school will have their cooldown timer set to 0.(can be used again immediately)
For crit-mages this is useful to remove cooldown for spells like Blink, Pulse Lightning and Conflagrate. After several tests the chance really is smaller than 56%( ~20-30%).

Relative of Fire/Ice/Lightning – with a chance of 5/10% after receiving a hit with Fire/Ice/Lightning damage you will restore 1/3 of your mana.
The chance is really not that great not to mention that chances are you won’t be hit by the school you picked anyway. You should take anything but this.

Fire Barrier/Icy Dam/Protection – all incoming damage is reduced by 1/2% per stack of Entropy of Fire/Ice/Lightning.
Theoretically it could save lives. However usually the incoming damage is so great that even 10% will not save you. Not to mention that as a mage you constantly reduce your entropy through special spells. Medium usefulness.

Fiery Hell /Never Ending Winter/High Voltage – damage with Fire/Ice/Lightning spells increases by 1/2% per stack of Entropy of Fire/Ice/Lightning
The more you hit the target the harder your next spell will hit. Every following spell will hit harder by 1/2%. Can take this to increase your damage. Useful talent.

Elemental Harmony - |Element: Physical |Cast Time:0s|Recharge: 0s|Distance: 40yrds|
The mage uses stacks of Entropies of Fire, Ice and Lightning to hit the target for a lot of damage. In order to use this you need at least 1 stack or Entropy per school. In theory you can do insane damage to a single target. In game play you will rarely have that many stacks of Entropy lying around. (Need 3 types at once). Usefulness is under doubt.


Fire

Fire Trap - |Element: Fire|Cast Time: 4s|Recharge: 15s|Distance:??yrds|
???-spell, which you can use outside of combat. When an enemy steps within the radius of the trap(8yrds) it explodes dealing fire damage to all who are in the radius. Exists for 2 minutes. Deals more damage at lvl 40 then a fireball(by 3-4k). Should be used when preparing for combat, i.e: you know that you are going to get ganked and are luring the enemy into the trap or you set it where the opponent will most likely run thought. (c) Hennail

Obsidian Mirror – Increases your resistance to Fire/Ice/Lightning spells/effects by 5\10%, as well as you have a 3/6% to retaliate against the attacker with fire.
The chance isn’t high, damage done is low, however resistance to 3 schools of magic is useful. This talent lies in the path to Magical Dominance and Fire Trap so take it.

Magical Dominance - |Element: Astral|Cast Time: 3.5s|Recharge: 1s|Distance: 30yrds|
Removes a negative effect from an ally or a positive effect from an enemy. Physical, Poison and Disease abilities do not count. Theoretically a very good spell however its not quite good in combat right now due to long cast and its inability to remove some spells.

Fire Control - |Element: Fire|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 1s|Distance: 40yrds|
Turns every stack of Entropy of Fire into damage over time effect with each stack prolonging the effect by 2s. Excellent to throw off your stacks of Entropy of Fire. Is practically a must for Fire Mages.(unless you take "Elemental Hit").

Elemental Hit - |Element: Fire|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 0s|Distance: 20yrds|
Using the stacks of Entropies of Fire and Lightning you stun your opponent for 0.5s for each stack lost. Needs at least 1 stack of Entropies of Fire and Lightning. IMHO: is a very useful tool if you know how to use it. An example would be to interrupt a powerful spell that your opponent is preparing to cast. The time the opponent is stunned (disabled) depends on your Persistence.

Elemental Contrast - |Element: Fire|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 0s|Distance: Self Only|
Using the Entropies of Fire and Ice you remove 1 negative magical effect from yourself. If you succeed then you will gain 10% of your mana per stack of Entropy lost. Needs at least 1 stack of both Entropies of Fire and Ice. Attention! Necromancer DoTs will NOT be removed. It is easy to find a use for this talent especially with that mana replenishment

Enlargement - |Element: Astral|Cast Time: 1.5s|Recharge: 0s|Distance: 30yrds|
Enlarges your target visually. Decreases their Agility by 10% and increases their Strength and Stamina by 50% of Agility lost. Is only useful in PvE. In PvP makes you an especially noticeable target.


Ice

Elemental Combat - |Element: Ice|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 0s|Distance: 40yrds|
Using the stacks of Entropies of Fire and Ice you hit your target. Works just like Fire Control but needs 2 types of Entropy. The damage isn’t all that high so it’s easier to take off the Entropy of Ice by using “Ice Control”.

Elemental Aid - |Element: Ice|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 0s|Distance: Self Only|
Using the Entropies of Ice and Lightning you heal yourself. Needs at least 1 stack of both Entropies of Ice and Lightning. Health restored depends on your Wisdom and stacks of Entropies spent. Because Wisdom of mages isn’t as high as the one of healers you will not be able to heal yourself for a lot. Not very useful.

Ice Control - |Element: Ice|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 0s|Distance:40yrds|
Tactical Spell. Freezes the target for 1s per stack of Entropy of Ice spent. The spell is disrupted by damage. Priests can use their invulnerability to avoid being frozen for the full duration. If the target is under guidance of 1 of the 12 apostles then the effect of Ice Control is NOT diminished. This does NOT interrupt spell casting.

Decrease - |Element: Astral|Cast Time: 1.5s|Recharge:0s|Distance:30yrds|
Decreases the target’s size visually. Decreases the target’s stamina by 10% but increases the target’s agility by 100% of the lost stamina. This is fairly useful both in PvE and in PvP where it makes you harder to target. The effect doesn’t “stack” with any other size decreasing abilities.

Blizzard - |Element: Ice|Cast Time: 0-6s|Recharge: 0s|Distance:40yrds|
This talent has the greatest AoE radius – 15yrds. Deals medium damage every 2 seconds. Also has a 50% chance to slow all enemies by 90% for a short while. This talent’s usefulness is under question because it takes a lot of talents to get to it and the slow effect is short while costing a lot of mana. However it’s easy to find a use for it in many places.

Ice Ring - |Element: Ice|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 2s|Distance: Self Only|
Deals medium damage to all targets within 10yrds of you. Costs almost nothing and the damage is slightly less below average. Allows you to get stacks of Entropy of Ice fast outside of combat.

Crystal Mirror – Increases your resistance to Light, Shadow and Astral schools by 5\10%, as well has a 3/6% chance to hit your attacker with Ice.
Chance to repel an attack isn’t all that great however the resistance to the Divine school of magic is great. Good talent to take if you’re on your way to Blizzard, Ice Ring.


Lightning

Clear Mind - |Element: Astral|Cast Time: 6s|Recharge: 0s|Distance: Self Only|
Increases your mana regeneration rate for 15 minutes. In game it increases the amount of mana you regenerate from Spirit by 20%. Works on all group members who use mana. The more Spirit you have the greater effect this will have but that doesn’t mean that at low Spirit its useless.

Blur - |Element: Physical| Cast Time: 1.5s|Recharge: 60s|Distance: Self Only|
The mage blurs himself for all attackers. All physical attacks have a 50% chance to miss when used against the mage. Lasts for 18s. Great talent against classes with physical damage especially Stalkers but it eats a lot of mana and has a fairly long cooldown.

Blink - |Element: Lightning|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 20s|Distance: Self Only|
The mage travels 35yrds forward. Any object in the way (even uneven terrain) will cause the mage to stop. Can travel up/down slopes. Allows you to escape from a battle or chase down an opponent. Very important talent for all mages. Example of use: In front of you is an enemy mage, you blink to him. The spell gives you 1 stack of Entropy of Lightning. You can use that stack to hit your opponent with Lightning Control which is an AoE. This way you will remove all of their Reflections and deal some damage to them.

Lightning Control - |Element: Lightning|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 1s|Distance: Self Only|
Uses all stacks of Entropy of Lightning to deal damage to all enemies within 5yrds. The combination of 5 Discharges + Lightning Control has the greatest DPS (damage per second) in the beginning of the game.

Elemental Control - |Element: Lightning|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 1s|Distance: Self Only|
Uses stacks of Entropies of Ice and Lightning to freeze all enemies within 10yrds for 1 seconds per stack used. Needs at least 1 stack of both Entropies used to be present. Targets can’t move but CAN attack and cast.

Elemental Protection - |Element: Ice|Cast Time: 0s|Recharge: 1s|Distance: Self Only|
Uses stacks of Entropies of Fire and Lightning to add a layer of Stone Barrier per stack used. Needs the spell Stone Barrier to be present on the user. Needs at least 1 stack of the Entropies required. This spell doesn’t need mana and doesn’t affect the cooldown of Stone Barrier which is the best part about this talent.

Amber Mirror – Increases your resistance to Poisons and Diseases by 5\10%, as well you have a 3/6% chance to hit your attacker with Lightning when attacked.
The chance to reflect damage isn’t all that great but the resistance to Poisons and Diseases are very useful. Great talent to take while you’re on your way to Blink and Clear Mind.


Entropy

When using a spell of a certain school (Fire/Ice/Lightning) you will receive a stack of Entropy of that particular school. (You can see beneath the your character’s portrait in the debuffs section. You can also see it as 3 spheres above your 1-6 skill bar).

If you receive more then 5 stacks of any particular Entropy then you will automatically remove them and receive a buff(70%) or a debuff(30%).
With a 70% chance it will be a Buff (Strengthen your spells, reduce cast time, restore your health or mana).
With a 30% chance it will be a Debuff (Loss of health or mana, forced Recharge upon all spells of that school).

You can remove stacks of Entropy in 3 different ways:
1. Automatic Removal
(Release of Ice\Fire\Lightning).
The more stacks you have the stronger the effect of the release. That means that the buff/debuff you receive will be more powerful if you use the Automatic Removal yourself rather then let the system do it for you. For example if you do a controlled Automatic Removal then you receive/loose 10% of mana/health per stack opposed to the 33% for 5 stacks offered by uncontrolled Automatic Removal.
2. Special Talents or spells that use up those stacks. In this case the talents/spells effects will be used.
3. Using a spell from an “Opposite” school of magic. Ie: a stack of Entropy of Lightning is removed by using a Fire spell, a stack of Entropy of Ice is removed by using a Lightning spell, a stack of Entropy of Fire is removed by using a Ice spell.


Builds

"A build is the arrangement of all skill points and talent points on the given level of a character. Because there will always be less skill and talent points then you want you will have to think up a strategy using which you will develop your character: which skills/talents to pick, which ones to leave out in order to get a liveable build.
The best gamers use builds that are "perfected" for a certain game play style. Or the tactic can come from the build chosen." (?) V00ddha

There are 2 main groups of builds.
Intelligence – Intuition mage.
This mage build maxes out Intelligence for great damage, Intuition for less resists by the enemy and Spirit for huge amount of mana. This build has the strongest shields, stable damage and great amount of mana. Gear is very simple to get for this build because almost all Reputation Vendor Gear have Intelligence-Intuition-Spirit setup.
That gear also usually comes with high Agility. Chance to evade an attack will by higher than usual for this build. However, even with this build you need at least some Luck in order to reduce the chance of getting anticrits. Theoretically it should be enough to have 1-10% chance to crit so that the chance to anticrit is not higher. (unverified information)

Crit-Mage
This build is harder to play as. In order to get high Luck, stats like Intuition, Intelligence and Spirit are sacrificed. This build has weak shields and a small mana pool.
The maximum damage from this build is greater than normal but it’s also very unstable. In order to succeed you need crits. However even with high Luck you will still get occasional anticrits.
Many talents are designed to work when a critical hit occurs so crit-mages get the benefit there.
Those talents give the mages: mana regeneration, resets cooldowns or allows the next spell to be instant-cast.
The best gear for this build give Luck-Stamina-Intelligence combo. Which means the mage will have less Agility but much greater health pool.

No matter what build you pick you need the core talents: talent combo necessary for any mage.

Pure Fire: Intelligence-Intuition Mage \ Crit-Mage
Pure Lightning: Intelligence-Intuition Mage \ Crit-Mage
Pure Ice: Intelligence-Intuition Mage \ Crit-Mage

However, builds based on 1 school generally are weaker then hybrid builds. Ideally you should pick 2 schools and evolve in them.
Couple examples of Hybrid Builds:
Lightning Crit-Mage by iLeastlic
Build by 254th


Beginning

After finishing the beginning instance you will appear in the world of Allods.
First thing to do is to meet the game characters(NPC). AS you may have noticed in the beginning instance, some NPCs have an Exclamation symbol above their head. That’s a sign that that NPC has a quest for you.
For completing quests you will receive experience, items and money.
Aside from Exclamation Marks there are other symbols that can be over an NPC head:
- Gray Question Mark – you took a quest that needs to be handed in to this NPC but you haven’t completed it yet.
- Green Check Mark – you finished a quest and it needs to be handed in here.
- Letter – that’s an NPC who you can use to check your mail or send mail. Using him you can send a letter to any one in your fraction and you can also send items and money.
- "Sun" with a Small Exclamation Mark – these are special quests – World Secrets. You may get a special reward for completing them.
- Hammer - this is either a Barman, who can activate your bonus(blue) exp for a small monetary sum or it can be an Auctioneer where you buy/sell items to other players.
- Medal – this is a Reputation Vendor for a certain fraction. By completing quests from that fraction you will receive reputation with them. After getting a certain lvl of reputation you will be able to buy stuff from them.
- Bag, Bottle or Shield with Crossed Swords – are shops where you can buy many different things.
- Blue "Ventilator" – NPC that can teleport you to certain places you’ve been at. Will be of use later.

Take quests and go do them. Make sure to carefully read the quest description because chances are it will tell you HOW/WHERE to do the quest.
At first killing mobs will be something like this: cast Fire Arrow and then immediately use Icy Flow. The arrow will hit the target and it will still have 5 stacks of the debuff on it. By the time the mob reaches you, you will have the time to cast 2-3 Fire Arrows and then kill the weakened mob with Discharge which will deal double damage to near death mobs.

Soon you will receive a lvl and a skill point which you can put either into Icy Grave, Fire Ball or Stone Barrier. Icy Grave is unnecessary for now, take it later. Grab Fire Ball if you like fighting from far away (new tactic: throw fireball and cast Icy Flow while it’s in the air. Use Fire Arrow and Discharge to finish the mob off) or take Stone Barrier if you like melee combat with Discharge. I took Stone Barrier because I was lvling Discharge.

At first my advice is this: take whatever gear you can find with Intuition on it (at start the resists can be more then 50%), because at beginning Intelligence gives you little. Secondly: watch your magic wand. It has the greatest affect on your magical damage. If the choice comes to take either a magical wand with 35magic damage but no stats versus a magical wand with 30 magic damage +4 Intelligence, take the FIRST one.

At the moment you may find magical wands that have no +magical damage on them at all. Those wands are useless to you so don’t equip them.
As a mage you can use: Cloth Armour, Magic Wands, Staffs, Knifes and things that go in your left hand (shield slot ). Mages can’t wear shields though.

The next level of character development begins at lvl 10. At this point you can buy talent points from your trainer and spend it on talents in the 3 Talent Trees. First thing to put your talents in should be the ones that allow you to remove your stacks of Entropy. Why? Because they cost no mana, deal decent damage, are instant-cast and most importantly allow you to escape those debuffs the Automatic Removal may give you.
Ie: Fire Control, Ice Control, Lightning Control.
After that I suggest you take Hardened Shell in the Fire Tree. It is the closest to the middle with no talent cells lying in the way so you should take it no matter what build you are.

Example of development:

Fire Mages Develop: Fire Arrow -2 > Fire Ball - 1 > Stone Barrier -1 > Fire Ball - 2 > Stone Barrier -2 > Icy Grave - 1 > Reflections - 1 > Fire Ball - 3 > Stone Barrier -3 > after that you will start to see where to put your skills.
Talents you should take first: Fire Control > Hardened Barrier(Fire) >Heat (Fire) > Intuit (Fire) > Intellect (Lightning).

Pure Lighting Mage Develop: Discharge - 2 > Stone Barrier -1 > Stone Barrier -2 > Stone Barrier -3 > Reflections - 1 > Discharge - 3 > Reflections - 2 > Reflections - 3.
Talents you should take first: Lightning Control > Hardened Barrier (Fire) > Chill\Lucky(Ice) > Hardened Barrier (Ice).

Credits: ILeastlic