Choi's SVS Arch Mage Guide

Introduction

The main purpose of this guide is to provide information on the gear progression for Soul Vulcan Strike-focused Arch Mages. However, as the gear and concepts are similar across different builds, this should also be helpful for other Arch Mage builds as well as other Magic Damage classes like Soul Ascetic and Elemental Master. Please feel free to reach out to me (IGN: Choi) for any questions or feedback!

Notes

The Soul Vulcan Strike build has a very fluid progression that will allow the user to be strong throughout all parts of the game. Among the Arch Mage skills, Soul Vulcan Strike has the shortest Fixed Cast Time at 1s. Along with its short cooldown, high damage, and 11 x 11 AoE, Soul Vulcan Strike is a very effective ability for leveling and farming. Additionally, with the Warlock Telekenesis Intense skill providing a 3x damage buff for ghost damage, the Soul Vulcan Strike scales very well into the late game allowing you to MVP even the toughest MVPs.

However, due to the nature of Dim Glacier Weapons providing large damage bonuses to specific abilities and the strength of specific elemental MVP cards, you will be mostly gated to having Soul Vulcan Strike as your main magic damage ability. As such, you will be weaker against Neutral, Holy, Poison, and Shadow Elemental MvPs and mobs (The main one to note here is Betelgeuse). Even so, you will still be a highly effective MVPer!

For other classes and builds, the gear progression and concepts should be fairly similar other than a change in weapon and gear.

Relevant Skills

  • 5220.png Soul Vulcan Strike: Soul Vulcan Strike is your bread-and-butter ability.
  • 5217.png Mystery Illusion: Mystery Illusion will be your secondary ability due to the enchantment on your Dim Glacier Weapon. It also pairs well with Soul Vulcan Strike as Mystery Illusion does Shadow Property damage which is effective against holy and not resisted by Neutral.
  • 5012.png Telekinesis Intense: Telekinesis Intense provides a 3x Ghost Magic Damage and 50% Variable Cast Time Reduction Buff for 1 minute or until death. However, it has a 5-minute cooldown, so use it wisely, but don't be frugal about it!
  • 366.png Mystical Amplification: Mystical Amplication provides a 1.5x Matk buff. It has no cooldown, so you should always try to keep it up!
  • 2206.png Recognized Spell: Recognized Spell provides a buff that lets you do the maximum damage. It's a great overall buff and also allows you to test different gear effectively.
  • 2210.png Drain Life: Drain Life has a 90% chance to absorb 40% of the damage you do with this skill. It should basically full heal you when you use it on a mob.
  • 5216.png Rain of Crystal: Rain of Crystal is a water elemental 13x13 AoE skill that hits targets around you. Very useful for farming.
  • 2213.png Comet AKA 2231.png Reading Spell Book and 2230.png Release: Comet is a large AoE skill that provides decent damage. However, it's main use is that it applies a 50% elemental resist decrease debuff for 20s to targets hit by it. However, rather than casting the actual ability, most Arch Mages opt to using Reading Spell Book with 100073.png Spell Book (Comet) (100073) and using Release to cast it to avoid any cast time.

Your other Arch Mage skills are still powerful, so feel free to use what you would like!

Gear Progression

Yvonne's Guide has a very useful section for Gear Progression and Useful Cards, so please check that out! The information I will provide for Gear Progression will be more specific to Magic Damage Classes, particularly SVS Build Arch Mages.

It may be tempting starting out to want to rush your end-game gear. However, I do not recommend doing this and instead recommend improving your gear gradually, so you can farm more effectively.

Phase Eden

At Level 100, you can talk with Labraham and Louis at @go Eden to get your [Advanced Paradise Gear]. These gears will require 7318.png Old Pick (7318) , 1034.png Blue Hair (1034) , and 7200.png Elastic Band (7200) . Additionally, you can talk with Lucy in the same room to receive your [Advanced Paradise Shadow Gear] by renting it for 20 Eden Coins for 3 days or buying the set permanently for 230 in total.

Phase One

Moving forward, your main priority is to see where you can reduce your fixed cast time, and your second priority will be increasing your damage output (for now). Abilities will have a specific Fixed Cast Time and Variable Cast Time. For Soul Vulcan Strike your fixed cast time is 1s and your Variable Cast time is 3s.
Fixed Cast Time can be reduced by equipment (Most often through Shoes, Costume Enchant Stones, Accessories, and Higher Level Headgear).
Variable Cast Time can be reduced by gear (all types of gear) and stats. The formula for Variable Cast Time is (((Int + (Dex*2))/530) * Bonus VCT from gear).
For now, just assume that your VCT will come in time and go full int and dex for your stats.

At Level 150, you can start using 470021.png Grace Magic Boots [1] (470021) , which can be obtained after completing the [17.1 Questline] from the [Sentinel NPC]. The boots are the easiest way to obtain some Fixed Cast Reduction, providing .5s at Refine Level 7.
At Level 170, you will have access to the [Illusion of Labyrinth and its related equipment]. The Illusion Morpheus Set will provide a good boost in damage, and a +9 19428.png Illusion Morpheus's Hood [1] (19428) will give you Skill Cast Interruption Protection.
Lastly, the Advanced Paradise Equipment does not provide a Middle or Lower Headgear, so getting middle and lower headgears will provide an easy upgrade.

Phase 1 Gear
Type Item Notes
Upper +9 to +11 19428.png Illusion Morpheus's Hood [1] (19428)
Middle 410091.png Cor Core Booster (410091) or 410092.png Cor Core Booster [1] (410092) Depending on if you have a card or not.
Lower 420003.png CD in Mouth (420003)
Armor 450186.png Advanced Paradise Robe (450186) or +7 to +9 450110.png Grace Crimson Robe [1] (450110) Crimson Bolt is a good secondary ability while you level.
Weapon 550030.png Illusion Thorny Staff of Darkness [2] (550030) , 26109.png Illusion Staff of Bordeaux [2] (26109) or 2039.png Illusion Wizardry Staff [2] (2039)
Shield N/A The Two Handed Mastery Passive provides +20 S.Matk, so use Two Handed for now.
Garment +9 to +11 20948.png Illusion Morpheus's Shawl [1] (20948)
Shoe +7 to +9 470021.png Grace Magic Boots [1] (470021)
Accessory (Right) 32238.png Illusion Morpheus's Ring [1] (32238) or 490020.png Grace Magic Ring [1] (490020) Use the Grace Ring if you're using the Grace Robe.
Accessory (Left) 32239.png Illusion Morpheus's Bracelet [1] (32239)

Phase Two

1s Fixed Cast Reduction is what you need. However, 1.5s is better since most of your other skills (Mystery Illusion, Rain of Crystal, etc.) have 1.5s Fixed Cast. It's up to you to decide whether you want to upgrade to 1.5s by getting the 470088.png Gray Wolf Shoes [1] (470088) with the 310602.png Wolf Orb (Fixed Casting) Lv.3 (310602) or whether you want to sit on the 470021.png Grace Magic Boots [1] (470021) until Phase Three.

  • For Soul Ascetics and Elemental Masters, go for the Gray Wolf Boots; the 1s Fixed Cast Reduction is necessary for you.

The [Brilliant]/[Sinful] Sapphire Accessory Pairs give a good amount of damage and provide .2s and .3s FCT reduction respectively. With the 25170.png Minor Casting Stone (Garment) (25170) that gives .3s FCT reduction, you'll have a total of 1s or 1.1s FCT reduction. Additionally, you can get a 1000614.png Warlock Stone (1000614) for .5s FCT reduction. I do not recommend getting a 25067.png Cast Stone (Garment) (25067) ; it's too expensive, and you'll already have enough FCT!
Moving forward, we're just working on damage; let's up those numbers!!

Phase 2 Gear
Type Item Notes
Upper +9 to +11 400154.png Survival Circlet-LT [1] (400154) [To Craft] and [To Reform]
Middle 410017.png Battle Processor [1] (410017) or 410092.png Cor Core Booster [1] (410092) Unslotted versions are fine if you don't have a card to use.
Lower 420066.png Orbs of Survival-LT (420066) [To Craft] and [To Reform]
Armor +9 to +11 450178.png Gray Wolf Robe [1] (450178) 310532.png Wolf Orb (Shadow Spell) (310532) 310510.png Wolf Orb (Mage) Lv.3 (310510) 310507.png Wolf Orb (Mage) Lv.2 (310507) [Gray Wolf Gear can be obtained after completing Episode 18]
Weapon +9 640033.png Glacier Staff (640033) 311353.png Glacier Flower Spell (Magical - Element) (311353) 311351.png Glacier Flower Spell (Magical - Size) (311351) 311349.png Glacier Flower Spell (Magical - Race) (311349) 311343.png Glacier Flower Spell (MATK) (311343) Just buy this from a seller!
Shield N/A
Garment +9 or +11 20948.png Illusion Morpheus's Shawl [1] (20948)
Shoe +9 470021.png Grace Magic Boots [1] (470021) or +7 470088.png Gray Wolf Shoes [1] (470088) 310602.png Wolf Orb (Fixed Casting) Lv.3 (310602) if Gray Wolf
Accessory (Right) 490064.png Brilliant Light Sapphire Ring [1] (490064) or 490052.png Sinful Sapphire Ring [1] (490052) [For Brilliant Enchants: Any Happiness, Any Destructive Evil]. [For Sinful Enchants: Any Horror, Any Dragon Scale]. I recommend at least level 3 for both.
Accessory (Left) 490065.png Brilliant Light Sapphire Necklace [1] (490065) or 490053.png Sinful Sapphire Necklace [1] (490053) [For Brilliant Enchants: Any Happiness, Any Destructive Evil]. [For Sinful Enchants: Any Horror, Any Dragon Scale]. I recommend at least level 3 for both.

In terms of Priority:

  1. Weapon, Accessories, Minor Cast Stone
  2. Headgears and Garment
  3. Armor and Shoes.

Phase Three

You can sit pretty comfortably on the Phase Two gears for a while. The best spots to upgrade are probably the Garment and Shoes if you're still on Grace. Now would be a good time to start farming your [Master Shadow gear] as well!

Dim Glacier Weapons are a great place to start dipping your toes into the [painful world of item grading]! Luckily, the 101637.png Dim Glacier Reinforcement Device (101637) helps ease you in. This is also where you should decide whether you want to go for Two-Handed for more Damage or One-Handed for more tankiness. [Glacier and Snow equipment can be obtained after completing Episode 19]

Phase 3 Gear
Type Item Notes
Upper +9 to +11 400154.png Survival Circlet-LT [1] (400154)
Middle 410017.png Battle Processor [1] (410017) or 410080.png Deep Blue Sunglasses [1] (410080)
Lower 420066.png Orbs of Survival-LT (420066)
Armor +11 450178.png Gray Wolf Robe [1] (450178) 310532.png Wolf Orb (Shadow Spell) (310532) 310510.png Wolf Orb (Mage) Lv.3 (310510) 310507.png Wolf Orb (Mage) Lv.2 (310507)
Weapon +12 [A]640034.png Dim Glacier Staff [1] (640034) or +12[A] 550089.png Dim Glacier Wand [1] (550089) 311458.png Glacier Flower Spell (Magical Grade) Lv5 (311458) 311294.png Glacier Flower Spell (Illusion Soul Magic) (311294) 311294.png Glacier Flower Spell (Illusion Soul Magic) (311294)
Shield +10 460018.png Illusion Silver Guard [1] (460018) If One-Handed
Garment +11 480125.png Convertible Magical Wing [1] (480125) Please see below notes for more information on the convertible Wing
Shoe +7 to +9 [C] 470204.png Moan of Corruption [1] (470204) Start on the Dim Glacier Weapon until you have the 30 1001033.png Poisonous Magic (1001033) [to craft it]
Accessory (Right) 490064.png Brilliant Light Sapphire Ring [1] (490064) or 490052.png Sinful Sapphire Ring [1] (490052)
Accessory (Left) 490065.png Brilliant Light Sapphire Necklace [1] (490065) or 490053.png Sinful Sapphire Necklace [1] (490053)

[To craft] the 480125.png Convertible Magical Wing [1] (480125) , you'll need a +7 20732.png Supplement Part VIT [1] (20732) , a +7 20733.png Upgrade Part - Engine [1] (20733) , a +7 16030.png Pile Bunker S [1] (16030) , 5 727.png Opal (727) , and 3 27015.png Repair Robot Turbo Card (27015) .

Phase Four

We're almost at End Game. Time to make some of the tougher gears. You can skip to Phase Five if you think you can comfortably get the Equipment from Constellation Tower (Hard).

Note: The Vesper Headgear is time-gated, requiring mysterious ores from a 24hr cooldown instance. I recommend going ahead and farming these daily with some friends before you get to Phase Four.

Phase 4 Gear
Type Item Notes
Upper +11 to +12 [A]400111.png Vesper Headgear [1] (400111)
Middle 410017.png Battle Processor [1] (410017) or 410080.png Deep Blue Sunglasses [1] (410080)
Lower 420022.png Young Leaf of World Tree (Intelligence) (420022) 311081.png SPL Lv2 (311081) or 310985.png S.MATK Lv.2 (310985) , 4814.png Spell Lv2 (4814) or 310989.png MATK Lv.2 (310989) , 4712.png INT+3 (4712) . Do not change to Young Leaf until you switch to the Vesper Headgear. Any Young Leaf is fine; it's the enchants that matter.
Armor +11 450178.png Gray Wolf Robe [1] (450178) 310532.png Wolf Orb (Shadow Spell) (310532) 310510.png Wolf Orb (Mage) Lv.3 (310510) 310507.png Wolf Orb (Mage) Lv.2 (310507)
Weapon +12 [A]640034.png Dim Glacier Staff [1] (640034) or +12 [A] 550089.png Dim Glacier Wand [1] (550089) 311458.png Glacier Flower Spell (Magical Grade) Lv5 (311458) 311294.png Glacier Flower Spell (Illusion Soul Magic) (311294) 311294.png Glacier Flower Spell (Illusion Soul Magic) (311294)
Shield +10 460018.png Illusion Silver Guard [1] (460018) If One-Handed
Garment +11 480125.png Convertible Magical Wing [1] (480125)
Shoe +12 [A] 470204.png Moan of Corruption [1] (470204)
Accessory (Right) 490304.png Temple Rune Ring [1] (490304) 311958.png Intelligence of Varmundt Lv5 (311958) 311998.png Fragment of Varmundt (SPL) Lv5 (311998) Second Slot Enchant is your choice. Best is 311943.png Brilliant Biosphere Gem (Boss Type) (311943) but its a .05% chance.
Accessory (Left) 490307.png Temple Magic Ring [1] (490307) 311958.png Intelligence of Varmundt Lv5 (311958) 311998.png Fragment of Varmundt (SPL) Lv5 (311998) Second Slot Enchant is your choice. Best is 311943.png Brilliant Biosphere Gem (Boss Type) (311943) but it's a .05% chance.

Phase Five

AKA the final phase. I was considering combining Phase Four with Phase Five, but Phase Five is essentially gated by the Gear that you get from Constellation Tower. The Enchants on the Stellar Spell Seal provide a large boost in VCT reduction that you'll need after losing the Convertible Magical Wing and Wolf Robe. I don't recommend switching out of the Convertible Magical Wing until you get the Stellar Spell Seal fully enchanted and upgraded.

Phase 5 Gear
Type Item Notes
Upper +11 to +12 [A]400111.png Vesper Headgear [1] (400111)
Middle 410017.png Battle Processor [1] (410017) or 410080.png Deep Blue Sunglasses [1] (410080)
Lower 420022.png Young Leaf of World Tree (Intelligence) (420022) 311081.png SPL Lv2 (311081) or 310985.png S.MATK Lv.2 (310985) , 4814.png Spell Lv2 (4814) or 310989.png MATK Lv.2 (310989) , 4712.png INT+3 (4712)
Armor +11 to +12 [A]450173.png Nebula Robe of Spell [1] (450173) 310688.png Star Cluster of Spell Lv.3 (310688) ,310738.png Nebula of Spell Lv.3 (310738) or 310744.png Nebula of Health Lv.3 (310744) , 4714.png INT+5 (4714)
Weapon +12 [A]640034.png Dim Glacier Staff [1] (640034) or +12 [A] 550089.png Dim Glacier Wand [1] (550089) 311458.png Glacier Flower Spell (Magical Grade) Lv5 (311458) 311294.png Glacier Flower Spell (Illusion Soul Magic) (311294) 311294.png Glacier Flower Spell (Illusion Soul Magic) (311294)
Shield +10 460018.png Illusion Silver Guard [1] (460018) If One-Handed
Garment +11 [A] 480233.png Death Rune Manteau [1] (480233) 310925.png Spell of Varmundt Lv3 (310925) 4714.png INT+5 (4714) Second Slot Enchant is your choice.
Shoe +12 [A] 470204.png Moan of Corruption [1] (470204)
Accessory (Right) 490136.png Stellar Spell Seal [1] (490136) 310711.png Star of Spell Lv.5 (310711) 310711.png Star of Spell Lv.5 (310711)
Accessory (Left) 490307.png Temple Magic Ring [1] (490307) 311958.png Intelligence of Varmundt Lv5 (311958) 311998.png Fragment of Varmundt (SPL) Lv5 (311998) Second Slot Enchant is your choice. Best is 311943.png Brilliant Biosphere Gem (Boss Type) (311943)

Misc

Shadow Gear: the [Master Shadow Gear] provides the greatest damage boost for magic classes. Especially those that primarily focus on one ability, as [the enchants will increase the damage for one ability]. Costume Stones: The Arch Bishop (1000857.png Arch Bishop Stone (Top) (1000857) , 1000859.png Arch Bishop Stone (Low) (1000859) , and 25709.png Archbishop Stone (Garment) (25709) /1000019.png Archbishop Stone II (Garment) (1000019) ) Combo provides the largest Magic Damage increase.

Cards
Type Item Notes
Upper 4598.png Lichtern Green Card (4598) or 4366.png Katrinn Card (4366) Depends on how much VCT you need
Middle 4598.png Lichtern Green Card (4598) or 4169.png Dark Illusion Card (4169) Depends on how much VCT you need
Armor 4392.png Observation Card (4392) Pairs with 300269.png Eldest Card (300269)
Weapon 27384.png Mutating White Knight Card (27384)
Shield 27385.png Mutating Khalitzburg Card (27385)
Garment 300269.png Eldest Card (300269) or 300375.png One Eye Dollocaris Card (300375) One Eyed Dollocaris is better with Level 2 +12 Garment
Shoe 4658.png Nightmare Verit Card (4658)
Accessory (Right) 4577.png Elvira Card (4577)
Accessory (Left) 300370.png Wasted Intermediate Rgan Card (300370)