If someone would kindly provide some tips on how to approach playing a successful invoker I would greatly appreciate it.

I'm looking at a high int race and probably studying all paths, focusing somewhat more on a couple of elements (fire and lightning).

So far I'm finding swarms of Village applicants in the middle ranks and warriors completely destroy me.

What's the best strategy, as far as getting to a good place in the ranks where PKing is reasonable as an invoker? Is the name of the game to pretty much rank up as fast as possible (given that I need to master certain spells along the way) and shoot for hero, or at least sleeks? Or are there some game-changer spells that will rock in the latter mid ranks?

I don't have much experience playing magi other than shifters. When does an invoker start being able to stand up to warriors?

What extra effects (beyond damage reduction) do they each give? The helpfiles do not provide much detail.

Do most invokers rely on flying potions or is there something I'm missing?

Thanks for the answers above. They all help quite a bit to provide me with some ideas for moving forward and also a bit more along the lines of setting reasonable expectations.

Shield of Winds: Protects from trip and assassin kicks. (This is a good one to keep up when just walking around.)

Shield of Waves: Protects against cranial, lets you breath underwater.

Shield of Ice: Protects against pincer.

Shield of Flames: Seems to protect against blackjack, supposedly assassinate, burns people who get too close.

Shield of Electricity: Reacts violently (sometimes) when people hit you with metal weapons.

Shield of Earth: Protects against bearcharge.

Shield of Slime: Supposedly protects against lash (never really used it.)

There are almost certainly things that they do that I'm completely unaware of, too.

The minor shields do things, too. Like earthshield stops dirt kicking and airshield stops assassin smoke/dust, which is super helpful.

When it comes to flight, you're gonna want to have a bunch of flight potions with you. I would walk around with Shield of Winds up, so no one could trip me, but if you're gonna fight someone who's not an assassin you're probably gonna want to use a different greater shield and quaff a flight potion before you fight.

I would add that there are very easy to gather fly wands that are probably better to use then potions as an invoker.

The first thing to realize is that you definitely don't want to rank to hero as quickly as possible, because you'll be substantially if you get there without some key spells in each path.

The most key of those spells are your shields, so you should rank to 38? ASAP. You can, of course PK along the way, if you want, by utilizing stealth, your wide array of spells that hit vulns and getting people when they're not paying attention.

But, you really want to get to shields, especially if warriors are giving you fits.

A really important thing to do is to find a place, very out of the way, where you can spam. This is not your guild, this is not your cabal, this is not any place that has one or more of the following characteristics.

1. Nobody ever goes there. Yes, there are areas in the game that pretty much no one goes to. I spammed most of my spells up in one area (7 path elf) and no one ever disturbed me.

2. It's mazey enough that if someone enters the area they won't be able to find you quicky.

3. Your enemies can't get to. Make friends with people with detects and even if there's 3 Fire Giant RBWs in range, you can go to Arial City without a hint of fear.

4. There are mobs that will attack your enemies, but leave you alone. Know where the mobs attack evils, paladins, whatever, and if those are who you're dealing with, go there. This is less effective at hero, but there are places where mobs will outright kill certain lowbies two steps into the area, but you can walk around unmolested.

There are probably a dozen threads with tips for spamming, so I'm not gonna repeat them here, but TOME TOME TOME.

Get DA ASAP.

Learn which shields protect against what. Some minor shields have cool effects that are not immediately evident, so learn what to prioritize. Certain major shields protect from more than one thing.

FAST DESHIELD IS A MUST HAVE EDGE!

I found that the biggest thing that prevented me from getting PKs was not my low HP, but rather that I had sooooo many options that I'd be foolish and change tactics mid-fight. While that's a great option to have for when things aren't going your way, your best bet is to assess who your opponent is, come up with a plan and stick to it.

Just as Kot; Kans; Axe, should be your (imo) start to almost every assassin vs. warrior fight, come up with a plan for each race class and you should see much success.

Good luck. It's fun if you have the patience.

An invoker is a killing machine from the start of PK, but:

1) You really want to surprise people, and

2) You really want to not tank.

That being said even the best players doing that as lowbies will die sometimes.

IMHO if you can't manage to PK with an invoker low/mid and have it in your mind that you can power to hero and be an engine of destruction you're in for a lot of disappointment. They have a lot more tools at higher level and they can absorb a lot more punishment, but the DR, HP, and saves of your opponents are dramatically higher as well.

I've yet to be a PKing machine with any character, but I'm working my way toward it very slowly. I can see how invokers would be good given you can exploit most character's weaknesses. I get suprising people and I'm getting better at that.

But can you elaborate a little on not tanking. I see a couple of options...

1) Run around and gang people down with a warrior or healer or whatever taking the front. Not really an option for me.

2) Surprise them when they're fighting mobs or other characters. Okay, that's possible (sometimes).

3) Use some kind of mercenary/construct.

Others that I'm missing? Right now if I see a warrior coming after me I'm likely to expect to get my ass handed to me. Maybe if I get the first attack against an arial with lightning bolt, I may be able to overpower him but chances are probably not based on my experience thus far. I get hit too much and taking 2-4 MUTILATES/MANGLES in a round in the mid ranks means a pretty quick death.

Is #3 a viable strategy and if so, could someone elaborate a little bit on the range of options and strategies. I'm aware of the constructs that one can purchase but I don't really have a great understanding of how to use them most effectively (or what they can do).

For example, do you run in, cast a high damage spell, and have them rescue you? Or are there some that will bash or trip, etc. that are more useful in other ways? Any thoughts on using mercenaries (or thoughts on if that's even a viable strategy) would be much appreciated.

Also, bonus question: Those orbs/flames, etc. that are for sale in the guild-- do they help with learning or do they increase the damage of a spell? Or something else?

As a lowbie invoker, you need to gear for hp and only that for every single item slot. Your goal is to cause as much damage as possible before they can kill you. Also, find a source of money or lightweight barterable objects so that you can pay to heal yourself.

At the start limit yourself to attacking things that are 1) vulnerable to an element you know well (cast wall of fire on felars, etc), 2) have low hp (any mage) and 3) cannot lag you (warriors pre-15).

Remember, you are ALL offense.

If so, which ones? Thanks.

And even then they're not reliable, and lag the opponent less than you when they do work, and what exactly would you achieve by lagging anyway when your melee output is terrible and your melee defense is even worse? You're better off trying to make your victim lag him/herself and nuke them as hard as you can.

This is correct.

That's not to say you never want to try to lag as an invoker, but as a rule of thumb if you're not piling on one guy with four of your best friends it's probably not your best move.

All else being equal. Assuming you're not dealing with any vulnerabilities in your enemy, which spells deal the most damage? At hero and say in the mid-30 ranks?

I mean, which are the primary fallback spells you suggest using in terms of blasting someone with as much damage as quick as you can? Let's say you're outside and not on/in water.

Nova is clearly one of the strongest, but you have to be inside and it lags you badly. Seems to be more of a finishing move, in many cases- or a starting move if you're buddies are in on the beat down.

Are there many cases where you suggest starting with grease or adhesive web? Still trying to figure the best way to use these beyond the room-area spell.

>
>All else being equal. Assuming you're not dealing with any
>vulnerabilities in your enemy, which spells deal the most
>damage? At hero and say in the mid-30 ranks?
>I mean, which are the primary fallback spells you suggest
>using in terms of blasting someone with as much damage as
>quick as you can? Let's say you're outside and not on/in
>water.

At hero: iceneedles, iceshards, pillar of the heavens, forked lightning, controlled fireball, engulf, buffet.

Can't remember what you have at 30, but generally just pick the highest power 1-round spell in your arsenal that your enemy isn't resistant to and use it.

>Nova is clearly one of the strongest, but you have to be
>inside and it lags you badly. Seems to be more of a finishing
>move, in many cases- or a starting move if you're buddies are
>in on the beat down.

Nova is 2 rounds and also requires a target. Mobs take extra damage proportional to their max HP from nova and pillar, which is why you often see UNSPEAKs against mobs but not so much against players unless hitting a vuln.

>Are there many cases where you suggest starting with grease or
>adhesive web? Still trying to figure the best way to use these
>beyond the room-area spell.

Adhesive web drops birds and arials out of the air, which can be quite handy. Grease makes your opponent have trouble handling their weapons and inventory so they might fumble their prized weapons and return potions, and also makes body contact moves (bash, anyone?) less likely to succeed. You can also grease yourself for the same effect. A missed bash is a lowbie invoker's friend.

Something else if you fight someone resist to cold or lightning. Iceneedles against people with low str who wear light armors.

If you aren't fighting at hero then pure damage as fast as possible is usually the best tactic.

Grease yourself as often as possible - it will make you somewhat resistant to bashing/throwing/maybe something else like this.

On the options, Nepenthe is more talking along the lines (without putting words in his mouth) 2 and 3.

2 is something that is important for all PK with nearly all classes. You can pretty much always catch someone doing this, however classes such as rangers/thieves/assassins are going to have an easier time with this than most. An invoker is going to need to rely on seeing this with ranking groups. In a solo PK contest you're more than likely going to be able to just survive doing #3.

Now, with #3, this is just a suggestion. The key, as always, is to make your opponent get to 0 hp before you do. Since you will defend like a slab of wed noodles at rank 15-35, the goal is to either make their hits hurt less (damage reduction) or to not get hit as much. So, since dam redux is a story for another thread/post, you're looking at getting a charmie.

Here are important charmie thoughts:

Experiment with different mercs/constructs. Different ones do different things. Some have a lot of health. Some do a lot of damage. Some dirt and disarm. Some bash and trip. Some do all of those things. Find the ones that work for the situation you need.

Common tactics with charmies if you want them to tank:
Cast a one-round lag spell on opponent, type order all rescue PLAYERNAME. This rescuing will lag YOU, so as an invoker, make sure you are not auto-assisting.

Cast one-round lag spell on opponent, flee/return so that your charmie tanks for you without lagging yourself. This is hit-or-miss as often your charmie will flee the moment you leave the room. Timing this right is the mark of someone who knows what they are doing. Experiment with this on mobs.

I think mercs/charmies are super viable at low ranks. Often they are under-utilized, and you can find a few that are basically like toting around a level 25 warrior with you (he's stupid, but yeah). Remember that you can only purchase mercs and those constructs your level and below (aka you can't get a level 25 one at level 20).

Let me know if you have any more questions.

>1) Run around and gang people down with a warrior or healer or
>whatever taking the front. Not really an option for me.

Yep, that's one way to do it.

Or if you're averse to ganging per se, think of it in terms of group vs. group fights.

>2) Surprise them when they're fighting mobs or other
>characters. Okay, that's possible (sometimes).

That's mostly the way I tend to do it as a lowbie/midbie PKing invoker. Run up on a leveling group before they see you and hose one or more of them straight down.

This is, in part, an exercise in knowing your enemies, and not just their vulns and such. As an evil invoker, you probably are not surprise killing a level 20 storm paladin that's tanking for a group because protection and haven are going to eat into your "flash kill" ability significantly.

At higher levels, consider this in the context of cabal raids too.

>3) Use some kind of mercenary/construct.

Possible, and you even have a blinding spell to go with it. Generally I don't think it's worth the rounds to rescue.

>Others that I'm missing? Right now if I see a warrior coming
>after me I'm likely to expect to get my ass handed to me.

And you're probably not wrong. Low/mid invoker running solo IMHO needs to think like an ambush predator.

If PK is still a struggle for you, honestly, invoker might not be for you, or you may want to shift your mindset to it being a character that's more for exploration for you than PK. I will say it's a great feeling to run up on a group killing trolls or dwarves or whatever and kill two of them with fireball before they know what hit them.

>But can you elaborate a little on not tanking. I see a couple
>of options...

#2 (fight them when they're fighting something else) and #3 (merc) were what came to my mind.

>Others that I'm missing? Right now if I see a warrior coming
>after me I'm likely to expect to get my ass handed to me.

Depends on the warrior. Some things you can do to turn the tables:

1. Protections. You can definitely have protection vs. alignment on hand. If you're knowledgeable you can have stoneskin. I can't think of it off hand, but there's probably some reasonable way to get "minor ward". I forget the rank at which invokers get their built-in shield spell, but there's that. You can make yourself fly so you can't be tripped and alter your size so you either can't be bashed at all or can't be bashed effectively. (Sometimes this is even better than not being bashable at all, since it can deceive your opponent to wasting his commands on ineffective bashes.)

2. Consider fighting only warriors with a vuln you can exploit or who are much lower rank than you. Nothing you says you have to fight all comers. Look for the good matchups and exploit them.

My earliest lowbie PK successes came from invokers, wall of fire is just awesome, land 2-3 of those and watch anyone in their teens drop like a rock. Even in mid ranks the damage output is quite gnarly, first thing I did when I got done with Eldrinoth the PKless wonder was log in a level 28 invoker I had lying around and destroy a group of 3 with fireball spam. If I can do it, so can you.

Flying potions are easy to get and cheap, and you even have an anti-bash mechanism beyond enlarge/reduce with grease, which mitigates lag. Damage output with wall of fire exceeds what most teen warriors will be doing to you in melee, and if it's looking sketchy and they're having trouble bashing you, you can just flee and quaff.

I lost interest in my last invoker pretty much as soon as I got nova, so I can't really comment on post-shield invokers, but up until that point they're very deadly and really quite a quick and easy way to get a competitive lowbie PKer, perhaps even more so than warrior.