I get my ass kicked hard by every mob and player I fight. Where's all the leetness people say transmuters have? I can never parry anything, malleability doesn't help much, and I can't find any wands, but even if I knew where my wands are it would be impossible for me to get them because it takes me an hour to kill a perfect match mob that's just a normal dumb mob. In pvp I just get beat the #### down quick so all I can do is try to gang people which is lamesauce.

Is it really all about perfecting skills and finding wands? Because #### that, I'll jut delete if that's the only way.

Write up a little role so you can hopefully get the role imm xp boost

Roll up a throw-away muter (recommend drow).
Power rank to 13, then go it alone and master Mental Jolt.
Run around and spam Mental Jolt on EVERY GIANT YOU CAN FIND.

You will win more than 50% of your fights if you land the first strike.

After you've grown tired of this...

Rank up to 25 and master Disrupt Flesh.
Run around and spam soften;disrupt flesh on EVERY MAGE YOU CAN FIND

The imm exp before is to hopefully get fleshripper edge

You will win like 80% of these fights

Even at higher levels these plans won't be too bad. You'll need to start slowing the warriors and stuff, but that's your basic stuff.

As for finding wands... You're a transmuter. Learn how to get detect artifact and run around duoed on literally every map spot in every area until it triggers. I SUCK at finding wands but with my first muter that got duo I found a hand full without too much trouble. I only found my aura sleek but I was able to manage with limited wands most of the time.

Wands sure help at higher levels.

Wielding a staff probably helps some.

Landing slow as your first attack would sure help.

Are you a drow fighting people w/ mithril? That never helps.

For what its worth I found mid-levels muter PK to be a frustrating experience as well. When I had all my spells up I could beat most people, but putting all those spells up took 2-3 ticks and half my mana. Only to have the guy I attack either 1) not be where he was when I started casting/zapping, or 2) have him run away once he realizes I'm all spelled up.

Mid-level Muter is very very powerful.

I mean, not as much as an assassin who knows his #### or a thug thief with a nice set and killer instincts or a fire sword spec that majors in Bash at PK University.

But it is still pretty powerful.

You would need to give us more information about what you are playing to really help you but if killing mobs is your problem then here are some things to consider.

-Use a staff.
-Use all your buffs, this includes both haste and accelerate and adrenal burst. For the most part against mobs if you don't need to fly, corporeal hardening and calcify will usually get you more mileage than malleability.
-Gear for damage, if you are completly buffed and you have completly maledicted the mob you are fighting then you will get more mileage from smashing them a bunch harder as opposed to relying completly on disruption damage.
-Use a blunt or slicing weapon. this takes full advantage of stacking decalcify and corporeal softening on a target.


and last but not least patience. Honestly muters are not the most ideal class for killing mobs if you just use them "out of the box". If you build them the right way however they become very effective.

>You would need to give us more information about what â™ you are
>playing to really help you but if killing mobs is your problem
>then here are some things to consider.

What do you need to know? I'm not a drow or an elf. And I have petrify flesh. Killing mobs is -a- problem. But I also can't kill any other players.

I do use a staff, mostly, but if I use accelerate I run out of moves in like 5 rounds. Accelerate is a death sentence.

And anyway, by the time I get slow, soft and decalcicy off I have to flee to rest. That's why it takes an hour to kill anything. I get like 4 rounds with them debuffed, then I have to do it all over again. And yeah I usually desensitize, calcify, harden, petrify and arcane absorb against mobs, but I never parry a damned thing so I still have to flee really soon.

And with players it's the same, except they hit harder and lag me and my spells are resisted too much so I never have time to debuff.

Accelerate on yourself is a death sentence until you have metabolic unity perfected or close to it, yeah, especially stacked with adrenal burst. You can perfect metabolic unity in a few ways, sitting around hasted/accelerated actually checks it each tick I believe and has a chance for a skill up. Also, napping every chance you get very quickly has a chance to raise it each time. Once you have metabolic unity perfected you don't lose moves for adrenal burst and accelerate and those spells really shine.

Personally I don't even cast accelerate until I have metabolic utilty over 90% or I'm sure it's going to be a very short fight.

Skill learn works on that too, fortunately. I'd almost focus on that with your skill learns after you get it before staff. That's a prime skill to max asap.

I also don't like to use petrify flesh because it lags you a bit constantly (maybe less for a svirf, never tried one). It has it's uses, like when the tank's main job is just to stand there and take it and they're not dodge based, or for casting on your cabal outer guardian for some decent damage reduction, but I've never liked it for personal combat.

For some players, honestly debuffing them can be a secondary thought sometimes as players have much less hp then mobs do. Sometimes all you need to beat someone is to buff yourself up and do "cast 'disrupt flesh' @target';!;!". Especially if you have surprise on your side. Maybe open with a slow, but otherwise for many pk's you want them as scared as possible as quickly as possible and nothing does that better then opening up with a big damage spell and taking out 25% of their hp before they get their first command in. You should have spells to counter fly and bash (eventually anyway) so lagging you is usually less obvious and they often waste time trying a trip or bash because you're an 'easy mage' first.

>Personally I don't even cast accelerate until I have metabolic
>utilty over 90% or I'm sure it's going to be a very short
>fight.

This #### makes me want to not play. If I wanted to watch tv while I do stupid #### in a game I'd go play a korean mmo.

You are obviously frustrated and don't know how to play the class. That's fine. Maybe you should try another class. Transmuter's are prep whores. That's why they have so many prep spells. But they have different kinds of preps. They have great versatility in what they can prep for.

For mobs - Malleability isn't really as useful as you might think. The higher your dex, the more mileage you get out of it. As a human it's going to be a fifty fifty toss with your DR spells and I can help you in making it not so fifty fifty.

When to use Malleability - When the opponent will use many skills. IE, warrior. When you have a very short amount of time to prep. (It takes less time to throw up accelerate and malleability than calcify and petrify). Use Malleability when your opponent will probably use trip.

When to use Calcify and Petrify - When fighting a whole crapload of things. When they aren't likely to use trip. I used to raid the Tribunal SOLO with ABS and this and walk away with the scales. Don't forget to slow EVERYTHING. Also, if you know WHERE the fight is going to be, calcify and petrify work out better. It's VERY hard to move like this. (Note, accelerated in this state may be a bad idea)

Some useful hints.

Accelerate is a DEBUFF, not a buff. It has its uses. It can make it impossible for that warrior to flurry. It can make it so that if that warrior DOES flurry, they won't be running anywhere. It can make it so that villager can't get back to the village. When combined with metabolic quickening it makes bleeding a very bad thing.

Metabolic Unity will check for an improvement each round you fight accelerated (maybe have to be quickened too). So it will go up fairly quickly when you try to get a few % points in neurological disruption. It also checks EACH TIME you cast metabolic slowing from a neutral state. It has a lesser known effect of reducing negative effects of your spells when cast upon yourself. It also checks when you bleed while quickened/accelerated.

Your disruptions are weak and pathetic with few exceptions. If you use softening before muscle and flesh, not only does your damage go WAY up, but the odds of getting the maledictions go up. You have to play transmuters like transmuters. They aren't invokers. You can't go in and cast your first offensive spell and expect to win. Transmuters are more like sneak in a debuff and then WHAM surprise beeyatch! If you fail three debuffs in a fight. It's probably time to word and try again when you've healed.

Decalcify ONLY MAKES BLUNT STRIKES HIT HARDER. Use disrupt bone against gnomes and svirfs. If you aren't smashing or the like, don't waste your time with it.

Generally in a fight you will pick one, softening or decalicy.

People say use a staff. I used an exotic as a human and did pretty good. I used a staff as a human and did alright. Don't believe the dogma just cause that's all they've ever done. Staffs have uses, just be aware there are other choices.

Okay, now killing 101.

For warriors, the problem is that they hit you an aweful lot. So you have two ways to stop this. Kill them, or slow them down. Since you are trying to kill them, this pretty much leaves slow them down.

You will find yourself far more deadly if you don't rely on neurological disruption for kills. But until then, remember that the dumber they are, the easier it is for them to fail their save against it. (Hint. Mental jolt sometimes lowers intelligence) Without ABS this process might be very painful. Actually, without ABS, I wouldn't waste my time with neurological disruption. It's a 3 round spell and 3 rounds is a LONG time to not be protected.

All mages have to have some sort of protection. Aura and Shield work 90% of the time. I have kills with all of my mages with zero protections. But I know when to abandon ship and I'm also not afraid to die. A couple of months ago I killed three people as a level 24 necromancer without a single protection on me. It can be done, but until you recognize what situations these fall in, you will need them. When you find yourself after a fight standing over a corpse with 80% of your HP, you might have prepped too much.

You won't get kills being conservative. Sure you will die a lot. You are learning the class. So go out there and try a new order of spells in a fight.

Trewyn's Patented Pre-29 Necro Killer
ca 'corporeal softening' target1
ca 'disrupt flesh' target1
if bleeding occurs, target1 is probably dead

This is why I take the disrupt flesh bleeding edge. It ups the chances for quick snipe mage kills in the 20's. If you aren't fighting in the 20's, you won't know how to use the class when you reach the 37th level.

Also take note: With my latest mage I died three times in a PK. Once was an OP'd bash log. Once was cause I killed myself. And the other was because I messed up in a fight and killed myself. I had over 30 kills, and I only had three spells perfected. Three. That's it. I can only imagine the Imms in Immland are laughing.

well here is what you should use on yourself.

metabolic quickening
Accelerate
Corporeal hardening
Calcify (if you don't need to be flying, and largely you can ignore trip from mobs)
spiderhands
pass door
controlled transluscence
adrenal burst (or surge whicher is the one you don't have to cast every round)
enlarge (in some situations reduce might be better but it does boost your damage output a bit and being bigger makes some skills harder to land or less effective vs you)
arcane absorption


now yes you might run out of moves with accelerate but it really does have a significant impact on your tanking and dealing of damage. with slow and relax regaining all your moves shouldn't take more than a tick or two and once you have metabolic unity it shouldn't be an issue at all.

now in terms of ways to maximize your chances to kill mobs your spell order should be like this most of the time.

1.) Metabolic slowing - the vast majority of damage you take from most mobs tends to be melee. You slow them right away and you decrease their primary damage source giving you a better chance to last longer in the fight. The longer you are in a fight the more damage you in turn can deal.

2.) decalcify - now some people would go with corporeal softening first but if you are using a blunt weapon I prefer decalcify next. The reason for this is if you might not be able to get off both corporeal softening and a disrupt bone before retreating you can do a disrupt bone after the decalcify and this is what causes the boneshatter effect and bleeding with disrupt bone.

3.) corporeal softening - keep increasing the damage that poor creature is taking.

4.) disrupt bone - once you have a soften and a decalcify on a foe nothing in your arsenal matches the raw damage output of disrupt bone. You can switch this with other disrupts or pugil based on the immunities of what you fight but against mobs its often not very useful to waste spells on bioluminesce, buyancy, muscular lethargy, etc.


again like I said before out of the box a muter is going to have a rough time against most mobs, and if you gear soley for hp like most mages do then you are not going to be helping your case. However if yuo can manage to get say 700 hp and a 30+ dam roll with an avg 25+ blunt staff then you will be in good shape.

This is all great advice, a few more of my own from my few transmuters.

-"Skill learn X" is your friend. My last transmuter had 95-100% in both parry and staff by level 40 and I never once tanked a mob in that time. That was all from learning while levelling in a group and usually not autoassisting. When I started tanking my own mobs for gear and wand searching, it was much easier than previous transmuters that had to start out around 75% in both. The difference was noticable.

-Every buff you have, every time. No exceptions. If that means waiting for 8 in game hours for your shield spell to be back, it's worth waiting.

-Slowing, debuffing and beating down a mob is definitely one good way to go. But also casting haste/accelerate on a mob and then bleeding it with disrupt flesh and disrupt bone can be a great way to whittle down foes. Spell it up, flee, cast duo, watch it bleed out while you slow yourself down and nap and prepare to do it all over again. It's slow but you can take down much harder foes. If you have the edge that makes the disrupt flesh bleed better, all the more useful. Do not be afraid to hit and run, you have nap, the slow spell and duo for this reason.

-Wands are helpful for serious pk and fighting much tougher mobs. Honestly your shield spell should be enough for anything you're on par with. You already have more damage resistance then any non empowered class I believe. Arcane Absorption, desensitize, corporeal hardening, calcify (against blunt anyway).

-Yes, finding wands is a pain. The best advice I have is to make a very friendly transmuter and talk to people. Lots of people on this mud have no problem helping out with wand ideas. They feel your pain. But yes, I've seen even grizzled veterans fail to find some of their wands in this new system so hang in there.

Most of all, hang in there! Every class takes getting used to. Transmuters are one of the most versatile classes in the game, and you have a tremendous amount of power for stealth, damage, and support. That power just takes a bit of ramping up to get to.