I thought I'd post some of my stats so far for a little mage soloing project I've been experimenting with:

I've got more details in a text file at home, I may or may not publish them at a later date.

All mages were human, and all of them neutral in align (except the AP and Necro). I remained entirely ungrouped for every ranking session and focused on gaining maximum experience in minimum time. I'd guesstimate that I spent about 15-20 minutes gearing each mage efficiently so they'd have all the hp/damage output/defense they'd need for their ranking. I used quests to speed my way from 1-10, and then only used quests when I'd eaten a mob death to try and pick up the slack that came from my mistakes.

Conjurer - level 20 in 7 hours.
- level 25 in 10 hours

This was my first attempt. By far the easiest, thanks to parry being gained so early and the familiar you get at level 17. Once I had an elemental, things went amazingly fast but I managed to mob die once, and then had an elemental turn on me, for 2 great -exp mob deaths. I think I could have shaved an hour off that time if it wasn't for them. All in all, conjurers have an amazing combination of high damage and great defense that can be used well on a mage. Due to having to constantly use wands I didn't get much mileage out of shield block. But once the familiar could tank as well as me, this wasn't too bad. The familiar I gained was the shadowcat, and it dodged fairly well while giving some nice mutilate scratches. I was pretty pleased with the way this one turned out.

Necromancer - level 20 in 7 hours
- level 25 in 12 hours

This one actually surprised me, as he had the worst hp and no inherent damage redux. What made up for it was having the best parry out of ALL the mages (he appeared to do better than the AP!! Though this is likely just my perception of it). I didn't often try to use the goodie-kill exp bonus as I could get more mileage out of their anti-undead ability. Until 15, when I powerranked like crazy on some tough goodie mobs. My parry was at 96% by the time I was done, and I appeared to block far better than even some of the warriors I'd had. I'm not sure if this was true, as I wasn't tracking parrying rates, but with all my solo-mage-ranking gear this guy was a mean mofo. I was extremely lucky to get no mob deaths as well.

Transmuter - Level 20 in 9 hours
- Level 25 in 13 hours

This one was actually quite tricky. They don't get parry until MUCH later on which meant I was constantly resting for health. Trying to use quickening actually hurt me as much as it helped because I had no way to cancel it until later. This left me feeling pretty crap, after I'd just just had the dream that was the solo-ranking conjurer. Once I did get slow and parry, I still found it easier to rank on some mobs that I couldn't slow because of their elemental vuln (making my wands to DEMOs often enough) and just use slow to speed up resting. The best part was getting corporeal softening, because I'd pump out more damage than the conjurer using a staff, adrenal burst, progging gear and mental jolt >:) Those last 3 levels went by pretty fast, I think if I'd had a better game plan the 19-23 phase might have gone faster. Accelerate I got to 92% and took the 'grace under pressure' edge. This had a noticeable affect on defending but withouth metabolic unity the cost on mvs was far too harsh. I ended up using accelerate without quickening, but it didn't feel nearly as good as just quickening imho. I still used only accelerate, though I think comparing accelerates affect on defenses with quickenings might have some merit. What made the transmuter so sweet however was the built in damage reduction. If I took this one again, and geared just right, I actually think this would be THE fastest thanks to haste/slow and adrenal burst giving them the best physical damage of any mage (to add ontop of their great magical damage).

Invoker - Level 20 in 10 hours
- Level 25 in 16 hours

Bleh. I had thought this one would be a breeze, but two major things held me back. The first was a lack of damage reduction. Sheen of stone, once I got it, appeared to do nada except occasionally deflect a blow. It's -ac was the most useful aspect, as with a bit of prepping I could get low level mobs to -miss- most of their attacks :) The second was their abismal parrying ability. It didn't matter if I used touches or a dagger/mace, I parried THE worst out of all the mages. This meant having to rest for HP a lot, and I even experimented with using things like a merc to take the blows. The penalty to exp gained wasn't worth it :( Their spells also held me back a bit. I had to stop once or twice to try and perfect something I wasn't using while ranking but would give me a huge advantage later on. Namely earthquake and charge weapon. I'd definetly not bother trying this again, unless I found a way to speed up the healing. Resting for 7 hours in between runs held me back a lot, and made this the most boring as well. I couldn't find any vulnerable mobs worth the experience that also had heal-tradable equipment. If I'd figured that puzzle out, this might have been better.

Anti-Paladin - Level 20 in 11 hours
- Level 25 in 17 hours

This one was actually pretty easy but the EXP penalty made things slow. On the bright side, with all the extra practice time for skills, I had things like energy drain (which I was using to heal me in battle) up to 94% by the time I was at 25. I also near perfected parry, had 84% shield block, lightning bolt and chill touch perfected, as well as curse and blindness nearly finished. I also found time to nearly perfect faceslash :p The long resting times weren't much of a hassle, as I often ran out of mobs anyway. I took the time to gather some really nice equipment for this guy too, which didn't set me back nearly as much as it sped me forward. Doing DISMEMBERS at 15 while working on dual wield, AND doing some nice magic damage while I had the mana was great. I wouldn't say this one would beat the transmuter, if they both had the same exp penalty, but they'd definetly come close. The transmuter wins thanks to slow.

Shapeshifter - Level 20 in 12 hours
- Level 25 in 16 hours

This one was pretty hellish. They have really poor defenses, their inherent damage reduction wasn't worth the practices (I'd compare it to sheen of stone, and I practiced all the 'skins' and used to appropriate one vs the appropriate mob) and no damage to boot. I used wands and made myself into a simple damage-blitz, rest, repeat machine. It was the only way to go. The ridiculous thing was when I hit 15 and finally got a form - I was better off in my human form :p I'd taken the water path, knowing if I could get a second-tier water form there were plenty of water mobs I could blitz. This might have been a mistake as the penguin sucked and a defensive lowbie form might have done me better. It took me forever to get to slow, and I just forgot about haste until I got parry because of this. It wasn't worth the extra 'injures' i'd pump out once a round, with no way to cancel it till 18 I'd just be resting hasted. Overall, this guy sucked, but I think I also made a lot of mistakes that I can correct for next time. I never experimented with paws of the cheetah as I dodged like twice a fight (the horns of the bull did GREAT damage, far more worth it and the only partial shift worth practicing) but after reading that bugboard comments on it, I might go back and see if I can create a little dodge machine. With wand damage, that could be really mean (maybe not on par with a necros defenses, but even close would be sweeeeet).


Well, there you have it. Not only can you solo-rank a mage quite easily but you can do it in a pretty good time too. I feel for you shifters out there, just wanting your forms (I wouldn't waste 16 hours of really challenging work, when 5 with a group would do it) but everyone else has no excuse!! If there's no one around, get your game on and get rolling. It's surprisingly easy if you focus anally on maximising your efficiency. And I'd even say, under some circumstances, a mage can even out-do other solo artists! If you're worried about levelling, do pick a human. The lack of exp penalty makes ranking amazingly easy and I could theoretically go from 1-15 in about 3 hours just using quests and a few short ranking sessions (like going 1-4, which is a waste of quest experience).

I'd love to share most of the techniques I used, but much of it used information that it would not be productive to share. The tips I can give, I might publish later but i'll have to sort through my notes and see what qualifies as mundane and what is too questy. All the items/ranking areas/tactics I used can be figured out by any lowbie with enough time to explore and none used any areas that were 'dangerous' or high level.

Enjoy, and good luck.

Yhorian