Dragon's Dogma 2 has arrived, and it's been a fantastic experience so far. In my 60 hours of playtime I've conquered many a Dragon on my way to becoming the true Arisen. While my hours are numerous, it feels as though I'm not even halfway through this saga. However, let us start at the beginning of this tale with the Mage.
See, I started the game as a Mage, which is what I played for quite a bit in Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. It's a blast to be able to self-heal without having to rely on pawns to do it for you. The flip side is that you're now the one responsible for keeping everyone else alive!
Before jumping on Mage, check out our Vocation guide to see all your options first. Mage may or may not be for you, so do yourself a favor and look them all over to see which play style suits you best. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter, as you can swap to another Vocation quickly enough.
What is a Mage and how to play it
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The Mage excels at being everything it needs to be at a given moment. It's a flawless support Vocation that players gain access to from the start. I picked it up to begin my adventures, playing the roles of healer, damage dealer, and enchanter.
The Mage can be played in different positions depending on party makeup from one quest to the next. The builds can be so different that often, two Mages can work in a group together. One can main a healer role with a dash of enchanting while the other can dedicate themselves to dealing damage.
While their overall damage potential is outclassed by Sorcerer, the Mage has access to one of the few Holy damage abilities in the game. This proficiency is paramount in multiple fights against dark/shadow enemies, as it deals massive chunks of damage when used. It's time to glide around as the Grand Master of the battlefield. Meet the Mage.
Mage Skills and Augments
The following lists include every Weapon Skill, Core Skill, and Augment that the Mage can purchase through Vocation Guilds in main cities like Vernworth and Battahl. You can unlock more abilities by increasing the rank of your chosen Vocation.
It takes over 27,000 Discipline to reach level 9, the max level for all Vocations.
Weapon Skills list
Weapon Skills are powerful abilities that players can use at the cost of Stamina. Many Skills are learned by leveling the Vocation Rank they are under, while others are learned via Scrolls given by Vocation Maisters. All Skills can be swapped in and out freely at Vocation Guilds.
Weapon Skills:
Core Skills list
Core Skills are special traits that augment existing moves or allow a player to perform unique actions. They are generally unique to each Vocation. However, some Core Skills can be the same between Vocations, such as Follow-Up Attacks being used by all melee Vocations.
Core Skils:
Augments list
Augments are special abilities that can be equipped regardless of your current Vocation. Meaning if you earn an Augment for Sorcerer, it can be equipped on the Fighter. Augments are acquired by spending Discipline at a Vocation Guild. You are able to equip up to six Augments at any given time. Increase the rank of the Vocation to unlock more Augments.
Where to find the Mage Maister
The Mage Maister is located just northwest of Melve. This probably signals something in your brain that says, "Oh, this is going to be easy!" Your brain is wrong. We've got some dilemmas to get through.
Once you've reached the Maister, you'll find out it's a little girl named Trysha. She's asking for five different books to be delivered, which are the same books that her father wants in Checkpoint Rest Town. Her quest is called "Spellbound". Following the link, you'll find three books required for this venture.
Make forgeries of the first three books, "Let There Be Light," "Fulminous Shield," and "Towering Earth." You'll want to save the forgeries for "The Sorcerer's Appraisal" later. Trysha needs the real books, and she requires all five of them to obtain the Mage Maister skill.
The last two books are in the same chest, and they're not far from Trysha. Head east to a place called "Waterfall Cave." It's here that you'll make your way through the cave system until you come across a cavernous research library. In the center of the room is a chest that contains "Nation's Death Knell" and "Howling Blizzard."
You can grab these and run or fight against what appears to be a lich king! If you came in running High Empyrean, this fight will be easy. Without it, you'll struggle a bit. The lich is strong against all forms of magick besides holy, which he is severely weak against.
Return to Trysha and give her all five books, the real ones, and let her read them for a day or two. I went and stayed at a campsite for a couple of days. Afterward, come back at night, and a fireworks display will greet you.
Trysha runs mad after reading the tomes as her magickal power bursts from her body. Your job is to avoid her spells and expend her mana pool. I rushed the fight by constantly chasing her until I got close enough to grab her. This ended the fight prematurely.
She'll need rest after this ordeal. Go back to the campsite and wait another two days before returning. When she's awake, the quest will update. So don't go peaking beforehand; there's no point.
Approach her to receive the Sorcerer skill Meteoron and the Mage skill Celestial Paean.
Best Mage character builds
As a Mage, you'll spend a lot of time mixing your build up depending on where you're headed. Like in Bakbattahl, there isn't a reason to run fire-based spells. Too many enemies are strong against them, while plenty are weak to fire in Vernworth. In other areas, it will be more important to dispel poison effects, while in some, you'll want to bring a shield.
Overall, there are two main builds I suggest players use as a base for early-game and endgame content. These builds will be changed slightly here and there, but they'll be your must-have in many situations.
Best early-game Mage Weapon Skills
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Flagaration/High Flagaration is going to be your primary damage spell for quite some time. It lacks range, but it spreads through enemies, which means AoE damage on wolf packs from the start of the game. Even in later content, High Flagaration will stick around.
Levin/High Levin will be your secondary damage skill. One that you'll dump rather quickly once you've obtained better spells. For now, it does decent knockdown damage for flying enemies early in the game. It also provides stuns on ogres, trolls, and cyclops.
Fire Boon/Fire Affinity will increase your entire party's DPS in the forest areas of the game. Everything except some of the lizardfolk are fragile to fire-based attacks.
Empyrean/High Empyrean isn't essential, and you could take another Boon or Affinity, but Empyrean provides an unbeatable light source during the darkness. Seeing your opponent is half the game, and many of the other early spells aren't worth the discipline they cost to unlock yet.
Best later game Mage Weapon Skills
For the late game, we're dropping Levin/High Levin and replacing it with Celestial Paean as soon as we unlock it. This will provide a staggering buff to your allies as the best support skill in the game—an increase to DPS and a decrease to damage taken, all in one skill. Every Mage should run this.
Secondly, depending on the situation, we'll be swapping out Fire Boon/Affinity for High Halidom or High Palladium. If you're entering a place known for debilitation such as blighted, sleep, silence, and more, you'll want High Halidom. If it's not, take High Palladium to grant shields to your party.
Best Mage Augments
Mage has a healthy amount of Augments they'll be taking from everywhere. Four of the six will come from Mage and Sorcerer, while the others are easy to get once you've unlocked or used their Vocations.
Here are the best Augments for Mage:
- Exaltation (From Mage): Increasing your Stamina recovery will increase your overall DPS and keep you alive longer as well.
- Perpetuation (From Mage): It's an obvious win for your party if they remain buffed. This also keeps your healing abilities up for longer.
- Catalysis (From Sorcerer): This Augment exploits the weakness of monsters by a substantial factor.
- Sagacity (From Sorcerer): Increased Magick means increased damage—all the time.
- Endurance (From Archer): We'll want an inflated Stamina pool to cast more spells.
- Polarity (from Mystic Spearhand): You can swap this out for something else if you desire, but I enjoy the extra boost it gives at night to Magick damage.
Best team composition
First, I recommend a proper tank, a Fighter. While you can take Warriors, you'll spend more time healing them than you would a Fighter. The shield makes a difference when it comes to staying alive.
Second, I suggest a Thief. Again, you could pick Warrior, but I enjoy having a Thief in the party to help stunlock the enemies. Helm Splitter is no joke for the Thief Vocation.
For the last role, my pick has to be Sorcerer. They'll balance any elemental weakness of the party while providing tremendous damage potential. While the Mage can compliment whatever element the Sorcerer might be missing, it's usually guaranteed they'll double up on fire damage while carrying a much-needed earth-based ability to rock lizards.
Assess, deploy, reassess. Command the field.
That wraps up our guide on Mage. I hope this helps keep you and your party members alive through even the worst fights. Plenty of unknown elements are waiting behind every corner of the world, and the Mage can stop them all!
Make sure to check out some of our other guides for Vocations as well; we'll update them daily as we encounter more of everything in the world. Until next time, Arisen, slay the Dragon!
Dragon's Dogma 2 is now available for purchase on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam after releasing on March 22, 2024.
