Magpie Lee: How I Climbed the Ladder of Magic
Here's how I got my magic up. Magic isn't like other skills to level up. It can get expensive for a newbie so you should expect it to be slow and hard. Before I continue, I should tell you that I wasn't a servant of the magic Unolas God until I was magic 44. A rough estimate I would say that if I wasn't serving him, I'd be magic 70, instead of 76. So serving him helps, but its not necessary. There are 2 main problems though for a pure newbie. Mana and Essences (assuming you have all the sigils).
Mana
Buy mana potions from Mira (use the potions and keep the vials for potioning use). And slowly get into potions by making simple potion of mana. For me, I was a potioner and mana was plentiful (SRs) so this wasn't a problem, but it can get expensive for a fresh newbie.
Essences
Buying health, magic and matter essences can get really expensive to a newbie. Even if you make them you need a few books and nexus for making, them and mining the ingreds which is absolute hell. I did it the hard but natural way by making my own essences.
Fast Regen bit:
My White Cape is just for looks? Yes...but it serves a great use when it regens my mana slowly when mixing at sto when alching. When I hit my mana cap I 'cast away' my mana with a spell solely for exp and in a few minutes, it regens back again. This is a great way to just slowly train up your magic without even training in it. Right now, I have max mana of 64, cast True Sight three times to get 1080 exp and in 20 EL minutes, my 60 mana it replenished. It might seem slow, but do this over the course of your EL life and the exp difference is massive. I've done this over 1000 times. And with just over 360 per cast, thats over 360000 precious magic exp. Not bad for effortless training. But thats only with the expensive True Sight (use something cheaper).
Level By Level
lvl 1-21
Heal (1), Remote Heal (3) and Shield (9).
Just remember that you don't actually need healing or extra armor from shield. You're in it for the experience. Though, remote healing newbies (like me and lotsa others have) does increase your magic exp and makes newbies feel good. Remember that you're in it for the experience, not the thank yous!
lvl 21-30
Restoration (21), Teleport to Portal Room (24), Life Drain (27)
Cast restoration as much as you can. Even when you don't need it (I used this in my Fast Regen bit when I was younger). If you're PvPing or training AD much, this is natural. Once you get portal spell room, use it to go everywhere you can, but continue to cast restoration to 'train'. As for life drain, I didn't use it. But as its cheaper then restoration and teleport, it makes it more value for money. Finding a partner is very hard for this, but just remember that you don't really need a partner to cast it, cast it on an animal or monster (it will attack you so no bears until you can handle it) to get the exp. To LD your partner you need to be in a pk map.
lvl 30-35/37
Magic Immunity (30), Mana Drain (40)
Magic Immunity is a spell I used a lot for slow training at storage. Life Drain shouldn't be ignored though, but this is only effective if you have plenty of mana or a partner. Getting to level 35/37 is slow but I never said it was going to be easy! But once you're at that level you're at the age where you can use magic potions to get lvl 40 to cast Mana Drain. For this, its recommended you have a partner who can teach you how to mana drain. It costs 6 Air Essences so its quite expensive but the best thing about MDing is that it doesn't requires no SRs if performed correctly. Don't ignore the greatness of teleport to portal room to zip around Draia. Note that you only have a 2 minute window of opportunity to cast Mana Drain under the potion effect so you'd need to bring a few of these, as well as Air Ess. Remember that you need to be in PK to MD with another player.
lvl 37+
Mana Drain (40)
Continue to MD with your partner(s) using the magic potion until you're lvl 40 (you don't require potions at this level but they help reduce spell fails). The fails will bug you but keep at it because things get better as you lvl up. Many people stop at magic lvl 49: the lvl where you stop failing casting restoration. This should be your main way to level up magic and with Unolas you can really see the difference with serving him (especially on a scholars day). Obviously you should still be casting restoration for AD/PK/PvPing, teleporting everywhere and mana draining passing small rodents.
Other Spells that deserve a mention:
Magic Protection - Don't bother with it.
Smite/Heal Summoned - waste of time
Poison/Harm - Harm is used in PK alot. But not good to train on since it does require the expensive Death Essence
Teleport to Range - my favorite spell. But not used to train in.
Bones to Gold - Technically you don't need bones. But I hardly used it.
Heat/Cold/Radiation Protection - Doesn't really have much use with augmented leathers. Not really needed to progress in magic.
True Sight - Expensive. I used this for slow training for a bit. Returns alot of exp.
Invisibility - Heavily expensive (30 essences) but returns the most exp. Good for a laugh and in invasions.
End Note
Ok well here it is DragonCairn. I originally wanted it to be short but I can see now that its turned into a massive essay. Sorry about that. And I hope to see you getting high in magic soon. Note that high will is good for exp and mana. Also, the journey of seridia quest is good for exp if you choose magic as your skill