The purpose of this guide is to assist new players of Rift with making the decision as to what souls you should take in the first twenty levels and potentially beyond. Originally, in the first two Beta Events, you were only able to select from three of the eight souls initially. After you progressed through the newbie sequence you were able to select one out of the full eight, and then finally in the culmination of the first world zone, you picked your third soul. This is no longer the case according to Scott Hartsman.
Now we will have access to all the souls initially and more of them. Not only that we will have access to more soul points. Because of this, you will not see any point allocation advice in this guide as we do not know when and how many points we are getting. As many know, not all souls are created equal, and not all of them are balanced yet! So hopefully reading this guide will help players select which souls are the best for soloing content right from the onset so people will not become frustrated by picking unfriendly souls and forced to reroll.
Please remember that all the following information is based off of Beta 2 and may not be 100% accurate for Beta 3. A special thanks to Pyros for helping with this guide.
The Mage Calling is all about DPS as you can guess. However, much like every other calling, Mages have some tricks up their sleeve because they have one soul that can heal. Of the Mage’s eight souls the Elementalist and the Necromancer both control pets, the Chloromancer is a healer, the Pyromancer, Stromcaller and Warlock are the damage dealers, the Archon is all about buffing and debuffing while the Dominator is all about control. Each soul gets what we call “Zero Point Abilities” (0pt abilities). These abilities are given to the player just by equipping the soul and not putting any points into it. Since points are a premium early on, this is the building block of many builds. This guide will now break down the Mage Calling into two categories for solo and group play.
There is only one build for Mages surpasses the rest when it comes down to survivability, lack of downtime and killing speed. If you haven’t guess it yet, it’s the Necromancer. The pet can tank, you can heal, you can heal your pet. There’s not much to add to this guide as the Necromancer is pretty fool proof in design. Just plug points into the tree and press your “I win” button over and over. We recommend two souls for 0pt abilities; those are the Dominator for single target CC and the Chloromancer who’s 0pt ability is an instant cast debuff that provides a small chance to heal the attacker for 100% of his or her damage. In the first 20 levels there is not much theorycrafting to do with this calling. Near level 20 you should gain access to Feign Death which helps out in nasty situations.
Another alternative is the Elementalist which is nearly as good as the Necromancer but has more downtime and less damage. They do have a stronger tanking pet that might help with some group quests. The Elementalist also pairs well with the Chloromancer and Dominator for the same reasons. If you want something different mixing the Elementalist with some basic Pyromancer attacks once you gain some Soul Points can also offer valid gameplay though downtime increases.
The Mage has to primary roles when it comes to group play and that’s doing damage and healing the group. At lower levels at least, the Mage can main heal dungeons if a savvy enough player is behind the keyboard. Let’s take a look at the two different roles. In all group environments the Dominator soul is almost mandatory for it’s 0pt CC ability. Never leave home without it.
Damage! BURN, etc.: Nearly any dps oriented soul will work at level 20. A combination of a Warlock and Necromancer can build up some good damage but when it comes down to it, a Pyromancer will do the job. The Pyromancer’s spell Fire Storm is a very handy spell to have while clearing trash in dungeons. There are no nuances with the class at this point. Get all the abilities that buff your damage and cause havoc. Using additional points in the Elementalist tree for extra crit is good outlet for extra Soul Points. If you find yourself needing more charge, spending five points in the Warlock Tree for more charge generation is also another good outlet.
LF1M Healer, Iron Tombs. Mage here, let’s go!: As previously mentioned the Mage has a very powerful soul that can heal. It’s called the Chloromancer. There is not one single point in the Chloromancer tree, by level 20 that isn’t well spent. The way the Chloromancer works is that it is based off of damage done via buffs and debuffs. The base spell, Radiant Spores is a short debuff that returns 100% damage done as a heal to the attacker. This spell has a small proc chance but can be augmented for a higher rate. The Chloromancer also has an ability called Lifegiving Veil that heals the whole group based on the damage the Mage does himself. Outside these two powerful abilities the Mage also has a few direct healing spells, one which can be augmented to be instant cast on a short cooldown.
NOTICE: Mages have a resurrection spell. Every Mage should have at least one of their roles with a Chlormancer so that they can Soul Walk after a wipe and resurrect the group and saving time. The only calling without a resurrection spell is the Rogue.
