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I've had great success with 1h maging in tower this season (2022 Season 1), and I want to share what I learned.


Summary

Use 5 phase and nimble wakizashi of the same element (excluding dark/holy) with a buckler of the barrier (or force shield and more mana elixirs). Put Silence, Slow, and Blind together on one keybind and spam that after weakening the monsters. Sleep also helps to survive until monsters are sufficiently debuffed.


Pros and Cons

Pros:
-1H mage in tower is fast. I managed most floors in less than 2 hours. The relevant day of the week bonus is a big boost to speed.
-It's fairly safe, too. Most floors I cleared with less than 15 spirit elixirs, with health elixirs being unnecessary.
-You get to share some equipment and proficiencies with an arena staff mage set.

Cons:
-Uses a lot of consumables, especially mana potions and elixirs. Aether shards are a huge help too, but expensive. Then again, going high in tower is always going to require a lot of consumables.
-Other styles get to focus fire, killing some monsters first and increasing safety for the rest of the round. 1H mage has difficulty doing this. This means that although 1H mage is usually safe, there's a narrow margin between "this is fine" and "oh shit I'm dying."
-If you don't like casting deprecating spells, this style is not for you.


Proficiency Factor

I recommend ignoring proficiency factor in favor of 5 phase. The reasoning is that proficiency factor depends on the monsters' level instead of the player's level. Thus, as you ascend the tower, you'll need more and more proficiency to keep up. It quickly becomes not worth it.

The maximum monster mitigation against your element's damage is 75. Imperil reduces this by 40 for elemental damage types, but only 25 for holy/dark so they're not recommended. Day of the week bonus cuts off another 10. (By the way, if you start tower just before dawn for your day of the week, you can do two tower floors with day of the week bonus, though the first one you'll have only one attempt.) There's one more way aside from proficiency factor to reduce the remaining 25 mitigation, but it requires even more mana expenditure:

Dual Element Mage

I played cold mage, and fire spells have a chance to apply a status effect that reduces cold mitigation by 25. This is most effectively applied by the tier 3 (T3) fire spell. Casting T3 fire just before T3 cold increased my damage, but this effect diminished as my EDB went up. With high EDB, a T1 cold spell is very nearly as good. Is the extra mana expenditure worth a bit more speed? For me, I switched back to only casting cold spells and preferred the mana efficiency. Plus, T3 spells have longer cast time, which means more damage taken, so it's a little bit more dangerous to use dual element T3 spells.

This variation was inspired by Noni's zebra mage, which uses a T3 holy spell to boost your T3 dark spell.

Equipment and Items

As explained, 5 phase is best when the monster levels go above the player level. Until then you can use cotton. Aside from prof factor, elementalist armor also reduces mana cost and cast speed of your elemental spells, so it's not completely useless. I prefer the extra damage to kill monsters faster. The charged prefix is very helpful defensively. I got by with just two charged pieces and all magnificent armor, but with a very good legendary buckler of the barrier and a legendary wakizashi.

Nezu adds that cold and wind stand the best chance of survival. They inflict the most effective status effects for defense. How much of a difference does this make compared to fire and elec? Let's find out next season. Holy and Dark are worse choices due to weaker imperil, higher mana costs, and slower cast times (so you take more damage).

For the weapon, a wakizashi of the nimble is best because it provides the most parry of any weapon. For the shield, buckler of the barrier provides the best mix of high block and low burden/interference. A force shield with feather and aether could work too.

For consumables, draughts, potions, elixirs, and scrolls should always be brought along to the tower battle. Aether shards are very good for 1H mage because it's mana hungry, and the magic accuracy is a big help both for debuffing and for dealing damage. Having a spare flower vase is great in case you get in over your head, since it increases evade and resist. Infusions are helpful, but not cost-effective. They don't last long enough to be worth buying, but if you have some that you can't sell go ahead and use them.


Deprecating Spells



I used 8 out of the 9 deprecating spells. Slotting the abilities can be tricky. I'll list the deprecating spells in order of importance.

Weaken and Imperil are very important for any fighting style in tower. They have fast cast times and are spammable when fully upgraded. Apply weaken first. Imperil only helps when you're dealing damage.

Silence, Slow, and Blind are very helpful when used together. I put them on the same monsterbation keybind. If you use just one of them, the cooldown is so long that you're hoping not to die until you cast it again on the next monsters. But combining all three means you have very few turns where you're not debuffing monsters. On those turns I cast imperil, or heal, or use another deprecating spell listed below.

Sleep is very good for all fighting styles, but mage uses it least well. It's still helpful for surviving long enough to cast all your debuffs. Plus, it's easier to land spells on sleeping enemies. Usually, you'll be fine waking up the sleeping monsters after you're done debuffing them. If not, remove your T3 spell (maybe T2 also) from your rotation, cast sleep on the top enemies, and target the bottom monsters. For example, the fully upgraded T2 spell hits 7 targets. If there are 7 or fewer monsters, it will hit all the monsters. If there are 8+ monsters, targeting the bottom-most monster will hit 4 monsters. Targeting the next bottom monster will hit the bottom 5, and the one above that 6. This way you can keep some monsters asleep while killing their friends and taking less damage. This strategy loses a lot of speed, so only use it when you need it to survive.

MagNet is helpful for landing other spells, but it takes until level 400 to fully upgrade it, so it's a low priority until then. It's good in conjunction with drain. Edit thanks to LogJammin: It's also a big help offensively, since it prevents resists against your damage spells too. Particularly with 2-target MagNet, I recommend casting it on the monsters that usually take longest to die. For me, I cast MagNet on the bottom and top monsters while targeting the middle monsters with my damage spells.

Drain can save you some heals, but I found running low on SP to be the bigger concern. I cast MagNet first so I can be sure drain lands. The ability upgrades are very low priority, since the spell is already good without them.

Confuse is the one deprecating spell I didn't use. Maybe you can find a use?


Conculsion

My goal with this guide is to promote interest in isekai. I might hurt my chances for cheap materials next season, but more people playing isekai would only be a good thing.

If you have any questions, please ask.

This post has been edited by mathl33t: Aug 20 2022, 02:00

Objective and well written. Thanks for your contribution. I can confirm all the information stated to be accurate and your conclusions align with my own.

Thanks for the guide, what kind of forging would recommend? I am debating how much is needed and if pmit should be forged.

First priority is forging block and parry as far as you can. After that for the armor, edb, evade, and agility are what I prioritized, with int, pmit, and wis lagging behind but still getting some forging. Here's what I forged on my pants:

Magical Hit Chance Lv.16 Physical Defense Lv.25 Magical Defense Lv.12 Evade Chance Lv.39 Resist Chance Lv.12 Cold Spell Damage Lv.44 Crushing Mitigation Lv.21 Agility Bonus Lv.37 Intelligence Bonus Lv.30 Wisdom Bonus Lv.21

Also throw some forging into end (if applicable), agi, and dex on the shield and wakizashi if you have spare mats. Upgrading edb on the wakizashi was not cost-effective this season, with metal much more expensive than cloth.

You explain all the Things both simple and clear, I quite enjoy reading your Text here.
And thanks to the new Tower, for the old Tower in the first Season, 1H Mage can't go further.