LMAO.......omg yosei that was so funny LMAO

So true. My build is almost identical to Yosei's, yet I do not care about SP consumption, so none of my skill empowerments have been to SP anything. I put them all in cooldown or power increase. It just depends on your playing style.

I thought of the SP investment as a rather bad choice due to the availability of life tap (mages solo'ing at higher levels just won't work well enough). You either duo with a cleric (tap/rest after the mob dies) or the tank take hits in AoE grinding, so health is generally not a concern associated with using LT. Aside from Burst/Fire other skills atm are rather useless any higher than l1, so the consumption are low as well (until you hit 49-70). P.s. so far I've been able to tap and kill nonstop duoing with a cleric. If the cleric is stingy simply throw a few silvers to cover for his/her stones (50 stones will last about 4-6 hours for my case) =)

I never even bought the life-tap skill. To me (AND this is just MY opinion), it should not be the cleric's job to keep my HP full when I am just draining it to restock my SP. The cleric shoud be concentrating on the tank. I can just as easily hit a stone or pot. However, I also need to point out that I do not "heavy grind". We take our time, we talk, we take down one mob at a time, sometimes two and on occasion three. So, I have time to shroom up and restock for free.

At higher levels.. it'll benefit you. I don't use life tap, because if you use all higher levels its really only good for 2-3 extra skills. And a lot of clerics dislike life tap. Its like boy who cried wolf story.
When I grind, and I mean long grinds, without using Nova frost, I use about 2-4/81 stones. And with nova frost(with sp decrease) I use about 20/81. So I won't have to restone quite yet when I'm done grinding, so... all the money I made from drops from that grind just go to my savings =D
1 SP stone for me costs about 220c. that x 81 = about 17s.

I definitely AM the mage who wants more DAMAGE! I put my first 35 points into INT. Now I'm building on SPR to get my critical up.

I also never bought life-tap. Since I usually have trouble finding a party (and when I do I'm with lower levels and wind up tanking - yes tanking as a mage lol!) I solo a lot and find that it's easier just to pot when i have to rather than risk giving up HP.

I get a lot of party invites from lower levels too. Buuut I refuse to join parties tha are significantly lower than me. Unless its a friend and im helping them. But I need a good tank that can handle my damage.

i just find that we might not always be able to grind with a cleric, moreover a cleric who can stay with you throughout your grinding session. i dont know how wld clerics feel but im just afriad it might seem like we're "using" them just to keep us alive only :eek: and also, speaking frm the perspective of a lower lv mage like me, i've drawn aggro quite often frm tankers already even when im not a pure int mage.. im putting more pts to spr frm here onwards.

I think of the matter this way: A cleric healing a mage using life tap is MUCH MUCH cheaper than a mage spamming his/her own sp stones. As I've mentioned I'm willing to cover for the expense involving the stones, and just to give an idea, before the cleric's sp run out he/she will be able to refill the mage's sp bar many many times via life tap. My thoughts about all the tanking and stuff..... I dislike fighters, (I prefer to just duo and take hits myself, hence I duo unless a fighter is absolutely necessary, as with tanking bosses, etc). A mage with a cleric (not one that falls asleep every 3 minutes) can easily survive mobs at their level, and the exp is not worth sharing with a tank... they simply slow you down so much and a large percentage of them are massive failures at what they do, at least the ones I've encountered (so the cleric will all of a sudden get a surprise from the mob switching targets, and most likely if without fast reactions let the new target die).

And about clerics being "used"..... I think of that idea as absurd. My cleric friends prefer to party with a mage more so than any other classes. The exp gain and drop they get is far better than when they party with a tank. Essentially speaking this benefits both characters involved - the cleric get the exp/drops they want for keeping the mage alive and the mage do not have to stop and rest. I've partied mages griding in uruga/aew/fos/ with my cleric and they usually do not have to use sp stones at all with me around... and 50+ stones on my part last a very long time, the drops I get more than enough covers for the sp stones I've burned. The mage (Dignity to be exact, and I do not care what opinion some players have of him) I've partied at random used maybe a few hp stones when we are mobbed by 3 monsters at once, but aside from that as a mage he take them out one at a time rather fast.... and just another thing to point out... Isn't it obvious that a cleric have to heal when duoing anyway, and life tap's hp is so easy to cover for one heal would be enough (you're talking about a mage with a very very short hp bar here).

And that is fine if that is your playing style (I have nothing against it). Everyone has there own way of preferring to play. I just tend to party with the same people all the time and they are almost always all members of my guild, and I prefer to let the clerics tend to the tanks. Which we always have one, simply becuse they are our friends and fellow guild members.
I may view it differently if I partied with randoms, however, I really don't think I would. Life Tap to me is just not a skill I prefer to use. Not to mention, the cleric I am normally partied with is Loki (my mother).