Choi's Guide To Magic
Introduction
The main purpose of this guide is to provide information that is usable across all magic guides and to supplement my other guides or other magic-related guides! Please feel free to reach out to me (IGN: Choi or Tokki) for any questions or feedback!
For a List of Magical Class Guides:
- Arch Mage: Choi's SVS Arch Mage Guide
- Soul Ascetic: Choi's Soul Ascetic Guide
- Cardinal: Choi's Magic and Support Cardinal Guide
If your guide is up to date and you want it to be included in the list, please let me know!
Stats and Traits
Generally, Stats should be based on what best suits you. As such, I won't provide my exact Stat distribution, as you should update yours accordingly. Instead, I'll provide my priority and the benefits of each Stat:
- Int: Provides the highest bonus in StatusMATK. It also provides the second-highest reduction in Variable Cast Time.
- Dex: Provides the third-highest bonus in StatusMATK. It also provides the highest reduction in Variable Cast Time from stats.
- Vit: Provides a lot of tankiness through HP, SoftDEF, and SoftMDEF.
- Agi: Provides some additional tankiness by providing FLEE, and the ATKSPD improves DPS by reducing Cast animation.
- Str: Provides additional weight capacity which will help for farming.
- Luk: Provides the second-highest bonus in StatusMATK. However, I use more Dex than Luk because of the cast time reduction.
Traits are additional stats that provide bonuses for fourth classes. Traits are bit more straightforward:
- SPL (110): Provides the highest bonus in S.MATK and your abilities will additionally scale off SPL.
- CON (100-110): Provides the second-highest bonus in S.MATK.
- WIS (50-82): Provides Magical Resistance which I prioritize over Physical Resistance, as you will have a lot of Flee for physical damage.
- STA (0-32): Provides Physical Resistance.
Cast Time: You can see the Cast time of your skills in its skill description.
- Variable Cast Time can be reduced by gear (all types of gear) and stats. The formula to calculate your Variable Cast Time Reduction is 1 -((1-((Int + (Dex*2))/530)) * (1 - Bonus VCT from gear)).
- Fixed Cast Time can be reduced by equipment (Most often through Shoes, Costume Enchant Stones, Accessories, and Higher Level Headgear).
While you are still progressing in gear, my recommendation is not to focus on Variable Cast Time through gears too much and just allocate a lot of stats into int and dex. In the future, however, you will want to try to have high VCT % reduction and not focus as much on VCT through stats. That being said, FCT reduction should be one of your primary goals early on.
To get an understanding of how Cast time reduction works, let's use Soul Vulcan Strike which has a 1s Fixed and 3s Variable Cast Time. To reduce my Fixed Cast time, I could use +7 
Grace Magic Boots [1] (470021) for -.5s, 
Minor Casting Stone (Garment) (25170) for -.3s, and the 
Brilliant Light Sapphire Ring [1] (490064) and 
Brilliant Light Sapphire Necklace [1] (490065) combo for -.2s totalling -1s FCT. For Variable Cast Time if I had 151 int and 84 dex (84*2 + 151) I would have 319/530 = 77.58% VCT Reduction. Additionally, if I had 77% VCT reduction from stats, my total VCT left would be (1-.7758)*(1-.77) = 0.05156 (5.16%) giving me a total of 94.84% VCT reduction, and my SVS cast time would be .154 seconds.
If you're not a nerd, just note that early on you should get a lot of int and dex and don't worry about VCT % from gear!!!
Magic Gear Progression
Equipment
Madame Celery's Guide to MuhRO has a very useful section for Gear Progression and Useful Cards, so please check that out! The table I will provide for Gear Progression will be more specific to Magic Damage Classes. This table has links that will guide you to the relevant pages. Additionally, keep in mind that this is a supplement to class-specific player guides. Other class guides will provide more details on how to progress your gear.
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.
Shadow Gear
Shadow Gear is a great bonus to your power and can also provide additional benefits. Starting out, you should get the Beginner Shadow Gear from Lucy at Eden. Once you reach level 100, you should work on getting the Advanced Paradise Shadow Gear. The Advanced Paradise Shadow gear will give great benefits early on including ignoring 50% def/mdef pierce.
However, more powerful Shadow Gear and Shadow Gear Enchants are available in the main office basement. For these, you can either go for a mix of the advanced Shadow Gear or the Master Shadow Gear
The Master Shadow Gear is a slightly weaker but easier option than the mixed shadow gear. The Master Shadow gear provides both 100% DEF/MDEF penetration and 20% RES/MRES penetration. As such, it is a flexible shadow set that can be used on both physical and magical classes. However, the enchants on the Master Shadow gear give bonuses for specific skills e.g. 
Arch Mage Soul(Soul Vulcan Strike) (312241) , so with the enchants it is the most build specific shadow gear. Additionally, the enchants on the Shadow Gear, while pricey, are specific and won't require RNG. Master Shadow Gear is a great option even though it is a little bit weaker as it is cheaper and easier to enchant.
Mixed Blue Shadow Gear is the strongest option and provides a lot of flexibility for magic classes. Mixed Shadow Gear refers to the various kinds of advanced Shadow Gear that are available. These Shadow Gears can provide additional bonuses like permanent 
Endure status with the Lord Bearer's Combo 
Lord Bearer's Shadow Armor (24764) . Unlike Master Shadow Gear, you can mix and match different Blue Shadow Gear but do note that they still have their own combos. Mixed Shadow Gear is more expensive as their enchants require RNG. However, due to their enchants not being skill-specific, they can be used for all your magic damage classes.
Some great options for Blue Shadow Gear are:
- Full Tempest: Provides 100% Magical Defense Penetration with the full upgraded combo and some damage. I recommend you always get a two piece combo of this and prioritize this over the rest of your shadow gear.
- Full Spell: Provides the highest amount of damage.
- Magical Spell: Provides a decent amount of SPL and damage.
- True Gemstone: Provides a high amount of damage and nullifies gemstone requirements. Also provides a small amount of VCT reduction.
- Clever: Provides a good mix of damage and VCT reduction.
- Centering: Provides a good mix of damage and VCT reduction.
- Lord Bearer's: Provides permanent Endure status with the full upgraded combo. Also provides a good mix of damage and HP.
- Spell Caster: Provides FCT reduction with the full upgraded combo. Also provides the highest amount of VCT and a small amount of damage
As mentioned before, your Shadow Gear can be mixed, so one combo you could possibly use is: 
Full Spell Shadow Armor (24883) , 
Full Spell Shadow Shoes (24884) , 
Magical Spell Shadow Weapon (24753) , 
Magical Spell Shadow Shield (24754) , 
Full Tempest Shadow Earring (24665) , and 
Full Tempest Shadow Pendant (24668) ! But please review the different options, and see what would benefit you the most. Spell Caster, for example, provides a lot of VCT that your build may need.
Misc
Costume Stones provide a great deal of damage. The costume combos related to your specific class (e.g. 
Arch Mage Stone (Garment) (1001787) ) will generally be your best option. However. a good general combo is the Arch Bishop Combo 
Arch Bishop Stone (Top) (1000857) , 
Arch Bishop Stone (Low) (1000859) , and 
Archbishop Stone (Garment) (25709) /
Archbishop Stone II (Garment) (1000019) .
Cute Pets: 
Gloom Under Night Egg (9122) , 
White Knight Egg (9134) , and Icewind Egg (9147) are all great choices.
Cards
For more card information, Celery's guide has a great list of relevant cards.
Damage Calculations and Diminishing Returns
To explain more about Calculating your damage and overall discuss Diminishing Returns, I will be using Soul Vulcan Strike as a reference.
The formula for Soul Vulcan Strike is MATK (((250 * Skill Level) + (3 * SPL)) * (Base Level/100))%. Afterwards, all modifiers applied on your ability's damage is multiplicative. Other than the specific skill's formula, the behavior for the modifiers are similar for all magic damage abilities.
- Spell Magic Attack (S.MATK): Final status magic attack and final equipment magic attack increases by %. This is increased by your equipment but also the SPL and CON from your traits.
- Skill Damage Modifier: Modifiers to a specific skill's damage. e.g. the
Glacier Flower Spell (Illusion Soul Magic) (311294) enchant on your Dim Glacier Weapon. - Skill Element Modifier: Modifiers to your magical damage with a specific element. e.g. the
Glacier Flower Spell (Magical Grade) Lv5 (311458) enchant on your Dim Glacier Weapon. - Element Modifier: Modifiers to your magical damage against a specific element. e.g.
Singing Pere Card (27108) - Race Modifier: Modifiers to your magical damage against a specific race. e.g.
Dragon Scale Lv5 (310246) - Size Modifier: Modifiers to your magical damage against a specific size. e.g.
Mutating White Knight Card (27384) - Class Modifier: Modifiers to your magical damage against a specific class (Boss or Normal). e.g.
Brilliant Biosphere Gem (Boss Type) (311943) and 
Brilliant Biosphere Gem (Normal Type) (311942)
You can check your total modifiers through the command @bs in game.
The formula can then further be broken out for Soul Vulcan Strike to say S.Matk ((MATK * (1+ MATK%))(((250 * Skill Level) + (3 * SPL)) * (Base Level/100))% * (1 + Skill Damage Modifier) * (1 + Skill Element Modifier) * (1 + Element Modifier) * (1 + Race Modifier) * (1 + Size Modifier) * (1 + Class Modifier)).
The main takeaway is that the modifiers that you add are multiplicative with one another, so when thinking about gears and cards, you should consider two important concepts:
- Each additional increase in a specific modifier provides less benefits the more of that modifier you already have.
- Spreading out your modifiers is more beneficial than indexing into one modifier.
To put this into a relevant example, 
Regenschirm Scientist Card (300265) and Mutating White Knight Card (27384) on a +12 staff provides 30% Skill Element Modifier or 20% Size modifier, respectively.
For this example, if you already have a 50% Size Modifier, the Mutating White Knight Card (27384) will provide more benefit than Regenschirm Scientist Card (300265) once you already have 130% additional damage with element:
- Regenschirm Scientist Card (300265) : (2.3 + .3) * (1.5) = 3.9
- Mutating White Knight Card (27384) : (2.3) * (1.5 + .2) = 3.91
Keep in mind that this is theoretical and may not be exactly accurate as the cards give flat and % matk as well.