The title is a bit of a joke. Everyone loves money. It's hard to say what the most money intensive Template would be. Even fighters could splurge heavily if they went for enchanted weapons and armor. M60 was early enough that they didn't cave to pressure from players to make mage classes weak and pathetic. Later games absolutely did this by giving mundane classes ridiculous skills that are basically magic. If everyone is magic then no one is magic. Even the old non-VR MMOs were lame about this. Of course developers love money too so it isn't shocking that they caved.

In any case I strode into the city with the comportment that befits a powerful mage. Even if I was weak as hell and mostly empowered by having a Unique level Template. I had a ton of cash though. 2 gold after selling vendor trash. Roughly 30 times as much money as I had the last time. Now depending on your level there was some degree of cap on how much items could help you. Which meant I was probably going to spend a lot of silver on skill training and perhaps buttering up the mages guild.

Since I had above average CHA for a non-social class my level plus Persuasive and Charismatic I was going to benefit quite a bit from shoveling cash at the mages guild. Of course I was not that rich compared to the whole guild but as a low level individual a gold or so was very impressive as a contribution. I upgraded my Guild membership for access to a better store and Guild services/quests. Then I went to buy the best gear I could get. Well second best. Diminishing returns on value/silver when you splurge on top tier stuff. I needed some money for skills.

I grabbed some decent light armor first thing and it was smart because I was about to start getting hit in fights. I took somes risks on Adventurer and mage guild quests which paid off but it was rough going. A set of journeyman mages robes was worth about 50 silver but you got some value for cost. 4 CHA, basically a social status boost from being a Guild journeyman, 4 INT, and 4 WIS. The real boost was the defensive stuff. 15% to damage mitigation. That put me at 25%. So I could start taking some hits from enemies close to my level.

I had actually taken really bad magic for defense and mostly relied on control and movement spells. Once I ranked up some Skills/Tiers and expanded my spell ranges I would be a lot safer but some defense was still good, especially for ranged attacks. The robes also directly increase my mana by 77, putting me at 450 overall. 32 INT meant I was gaining 32 a level as well. I ended up the beta test around level 50 so I was obscenely powerful and usually didn't worry about mana, but for 20 more levels or so it was a crunch. My staff got upgraded thanks to my new rank, adding INT/2 and STR+8 instead of +4 and INT/4. Dealing 16+16=32. That mostly figured into the kinds of fights I don't put down on paper though. Nothing that was cool to fight or scary was worried about my staff damage.

With 1 gold down to boost my reputation, my reputation for bribing people that is, and 50 silver down to the robes, I ended up with 50 for skills. Now unfortunately Atria is not a big city and they don't have anyone who can train most of my Tier 1 skills. I'd be lucky if they had anyone for tier 2. I was not lucky. That really left me with Pyromancy and Miasma. Seeing as Miasma was my unfair advantage and I was about to Phase up in Pyromancy that wasn't that bad. Tier 3 training isn't the cheapest but since I hadn't done any before it wasn't horrible.

Every level of training for a Tier 3 Talent at a mid tier guild is 3 + 1 Silver per Phase of the spell + 3 per training level. I decided to deal with Pyromancy first. I really needed some instant damage. Essentially I can level train 7 levels of spells. One can be leveled twice. I level Firebolt twice, once for range and once for mana. +10 damage adds +5 to mana cost but mana leveling reduces it by 5.

Firebolt LVL 2

Firebolt: 30 damage | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 20 mana

That cost me 15 coins. I now have 35 left which means 5 spells that each get a single level. I boost Fireball for 20 damage at the cost of 5 mana.

Fireball LVL 1

Fireball: 60 damage | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 4s | 105 mana

Fireball won't take off till I increase Pyromancy's phase and train it up a bit more. It actually becomes a good spell once cast time is reduced and mana cost is lowered. Especially in combination with Boost and Tricasting. Mainly useful as a finisher since I can't cast under Silence.

Now I can raise 4 more Tier 3 spells one level. Nothing in Pyromancy is standing out to me now so the obvious option is to abuse Miasma, which is already OP. One level in each of my damage spells.

Splash: 25 damage + 5 DoT/3s + Con -1 | sphere 8ft | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 25 mana

Infect: DEX/STR -10% + 4 DoT/10s | single target | ranged 20 feet | Cast 1s | 25 mana

Fester: 4 DoT/10s | Infect+ 3 targets | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 25 mana

Envenom: 8 DoT/10s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 25 mana

That is our starting point in case you haven't kept up. Shame on you. Fester gets a boost to mana cost, -5. Infect gets a boost to its primary affect. -15% on the stat damage and + 1 on the DOT. Envenom is my primary damage spell, at least for now, so +2 on the DOT. I could raise the duration and benefit from Spellsage but I really am not a fan of the long wait time for the impact. For Splash I also want to boost damage.

Splash: 30 damage + 6 DoT/3s + Con -1 | sphere 8ft | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 25 mana

Infect: DEX/STR -15% + 5 DoT/10s | single target | ranged 20 feet | Cast 1s | 25 mana

Fester: 4 DoT/10s | Infect+ 3 targets | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 20 mana

Envenom: 10 DoT/10s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 25 mana

I haven't really been using stat damage so far. It ends up being very valuable later but for now CON damage is pretty useless and STR doesn't matter since I rarely get hit. DEX damage impacts speed so its kinda useful. Later on Tarnishing + Miasma + Regression + Chronomancy because Slow combos well with DEX damage will be pretty strong against some bosses.

While my Pyromancy spells did get a bit of a boost they aren't quite ready to compete on equal terms with Miasma, mostly because of it being mis-tiered and over-clocked in Phase 1. However things will change as soon as Pyromancy hits Phase 2.

I needed 2800 EXP for my next level so I headed over to the Adventurers guild to pick up some extra quests. I really wanted to check out Pyromancy at Phase 2. I picked up the 10 most appropriate quests for me, although some of the Guild staff gave me some apprehensive looks and set out. I actually started to bend my power curve a bit here. Not only did I Phase up a talent but I spent a decent amount of cash on training. I was kinda stuck as far as levels and my gear was already pretty good so I had nothing else to do.

Some players argue that you should be saving up gold so you are ready to go all in when you hit inflection points on gear and so forth. I'm a bit iffy on that. After I get some pretty intensive training I do save up but its actually because I want to max my training quick as soon as I get another Template. We are a few weeks out from that, though.

Time for some battles. First thing we see is a pack of Man-Eater Vine Shamblers. These guys are actually pretty high level but have a weakness. My fire magic! In fact I took mostly quests for plant creatures. I want some training based levels on my Pyromancy to synch with my gold levels. 3 of these guys coming at me with decently high levels.

Man-Eater Vine Shambler Level 12 EXP 400

Hp 400

STR 20 DEX 20 CON 25 MOV 4/s

Skills: Consume: 200 damage | Vine Whip: 35 damage-ranged 20ft

Now Shamblers are pretty slow, kinda in the name, but its the first time I'm dealing with ranged damage and I haven't boosted the base range of any of my spells. I'm definitely going to take some hits here. I have 128 health and 20% mitigation so I can take 4 hits before I go down. Or one consume. Ouch.

I start out casting Quicken, then Boost, then Twin, then Fireball LVL 2 x2. I almost instantly drop to 220 mana before recovery and Haste is down from 10.8s to 6.8s. One shambler is dead. I take 70 EHP / 154 EHP. The Shamblers are now in range which means I would be down to 1 hit in the next second. I need 4 seconds to wipe a Shambler. I cast Worldstep to warp 60ft. I cast Boost, Twin, Firebolt, Firebolt, get hit by Vinewhip. I can take 2 more hits and there is one shambler left.

I end up with 15 mana but now I'll calculate recovery for you. It's been 9 seconds since I cast my first mana cost spell. So I recover 8.5*9 = 77 mana since we round up. I've got 92 mana. This is a bit of a problem. Even with the 2x bonus damage from fire I am short 93 mana. Luckily Shamblers are slow as mud. I run away, then I run away, then I cast Boost and Twin, then I run away. Although I dropped Haste after I ran twice I'm still faster so I just wait out my mana recovery. Firebolt is already at 1s Cast so Haste wouldn't help. 2 Boost/Twin enhance Firebolt LVL 2 later and its over. Pretty embarrassing. Not only did I take a ton of damage but I ran away like a coward over and over.

Now for the rewards. A bunch of crafting stuff and some low and mid tier armor from consumed citizens and adventurers, and more importantly, EXP. I'm level 5 and Shamblers are level 12, and there were 3 at 400 EXP so:

400 * 3 * 1.7(lvl diff) = 2040 + 400 = 2440/3200

We'll definitely level up on our next quest. I should note that M60 doesn't actually give EXP as a quest reward in most cases. 3 of my 10 quests do have an EXP reward so I'll hit level 7 once I turn them in. I'm hitting level 6 from monster kills. My gold reward is about 4 from these quests plus whatever I find to sell. Being a weak and scrawny mage I have to limit my inventory so I actually dump a bunch of vendor trash starting around this point.

My next 2 battles are more fire-phobic creatures and not as intense as the shamblers so we'll leave that out. I may do a couple battles just to show off and have a bit of fun smashing stuff even though its a few levels higher than me. What's the point of being overpowered if you can't have a little fun? But first, we level up.

+1000exp (3440/3200) (240/6400) Lvl Up!!!

You have gained 10HP, 32MP, and 2 stat points!

You have gained 2 skill points + 1 magic point!

I'm now sitting at 138 * 1.2 EHP and 482 mana. I drop 2 stat points into MEM because I want more ability slots. This is a great level because I get to choose my first Phase 2 Pyromancy spell plus all my Phase 1 spells are boosted as if they were 1/2 Phase higher. We drop 2 points to open Phase 2 and here we go!

Pyromancy Phase 1 Spell List:

Firebolt LVL 2: 30 damage | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 20 mana

Flamewave LVL 0: 20 damage | cone | 10ft r/5ft w | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Fireball LVL 1: 60 damage | sphere 4ft | ranged 20ft | Cast 4s | 105 mana

Fireblast LVL 0: 50 damage | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Above we have our existing Phase 1 spell list. Below we have the upgraded versions. I'm showing you this first so you can really appreciate how big a jump a new Phase is.

Pyromancy Phase 1 Spell List:

Firebolt LVL 2-2: 40 damage | single target | ranged 40ft | Cast 1s | 40 mana

Flamewave LVL 0-2: 40 damage | cone | 20ft r/10ft w | Cast 2s | 60 mana

Fireball LVL 1-2: 80 damage | sphere 8ft | ranged 40ft | Cast 4s | 125 mana

Fireblast LVL 0-2: 75 damage | single target | ranged 40ft | Cast 2s | 60 mana

So if you look at each spell prior to the Phase boost and also at its original base form you'll see that every spell cost 20 more mana, and got +50% of its base damage in its pure and unmodified form. Ranged spells got 20ft more range. That's probably the biggest benefit *and* is also justifies the otherwise intense mana cost. Flamewave doubled its with and range. It is actually still pretty limited since it originates on the caster. My build wasn't really optimized to use that spell.

Fireball also got its AoE double and with the damage and range boost its almost a good spell now. Some spells got more for their 20 mana cost increase than others. Fireblast is still somewhat behind Firebolt because its unleveled. However Haste makes it more Cast time efficient and Twin as well. In the beta Fireblast ends up being a raw upgrade of Firebolt, which makes no sense with them in the same Phase. This was modified in the live version.

Okay now that was nice and all, and it will be even nicer when I get back to town and start leveling Firebolt and Fireball. The real prize, however, is in the Phase 2 spells. I only get to pick one for now. But at level 7? 3! Pyromancy is interesting in that it has its own sort of self only Metamagic in Phase 2. We also start to see more variation besides raw damage.

Pyromancy Phase 2 Spell List:

Pyromania: -4%H/s 10s | +10ft range _ +10 damage _ - 10 mana _ for P spells | self | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Clingfire: 45 damage + 5 DoT/5s _ -10% INT/WIS | 3 targets Mark | ranged 40ft | Cast 2s | 80 mana

Firefield: 20 ENV/10s | sphere 40ft | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 100 mana

Heat: 40 damage _ 10s | contact | self | Cast 1s | 70 mana

Blazing Mind: +14 INT | self | Perk

Ignite: 10 DoT/10s | single target | ranged 40ft Mark | Cast 2s | 50 mana

Fireborn: Natural Resist Fire 40% | self | Perk

As you can see Phase 2 is pretty wild, especially for Pyromancy. Blazing Mind is a Perk and like gear based stat buffs doesn't affect character attribute stat increases. Fireborn is pretty decent as well except I don't expect to need fire resistance for a while. Firefield is a decent spell. Anyone crossing it takes 20 fire damage a second. Faster animals will probably take only 20 damage but slower ones would take 40. Furthermore I have a ton of control magic that synergizes with environmental effects. Something for the future.

Ignite and Clingfire are both good picks. Spellsage impacts them and they are relatively mana efficient at their base level. But my first pick is definitely Pyromania. In case the description is unclear at the cost of 40 mana and then 4% of my health a second for 10 seconds I get a 10 foot range boost, a 10 damage boost, and a mana savings of 10 per fire spell. Now 40% of my health is no joke and you can't choose to end Pyromania without some sort of spell cast. So you have to be careful on timing. Fireborn as a natural resist would reduce the impact to 2.4% per second so its something to look into. Spells that boost Fire Resistance would ignore Pyromania since I cast it on myself.

Pyromania will be an awesome boost to spells like Firebolt, especially when I train Firebolt a bit. With my spell ranges ticking up as I get Phase boosts and both Reach and Pyromania giving a nice distance boost I will have a lot more lead time in combat, especially on Fire spells. We are a long way from the time when I had to spam Lockdown because all my spells were one movement turn in range even for slower creatures. Once my mana cost training starts to go into effect things are gonna get wild as far as spell chaining.

General Metamagic is really interesting with pseudo-metamagic. While you can't Twin or Reach Pyromania I can Focus cast or Boost cast it. Focus casting would be useless under Haste and Focus has a relatively long cast time for a combat spell, but it helps once in a while. Boost, on the other hand? Wow. Especially with Quicken. Quicken will allow for the casting of far more spells while under Pyromania's influence which means tons of synergy. Time Magic is the best magic.

I'll write up some of my quest battles for my next entry and then we'll hit the town to get the Quest EXP, pick some new spells and abuse gold based training. I should mention that some of my spells will get use based training increases as well while I'm grinding out my quests. Powerspike!

After blowing my level 7 points in Phase 2 Pyromancy I'll be moving on to getting Miasma a Phase boost. That should *really* involve some min-maxing and mathing even if the individual spells of Miasma Phase 2 aren't as obviously intense as for Pyromania.