How do you keep up enough mana to cast a lot of spells?

[greydarkk]

Well, first off I'm kind of starting out pretty fresh after a few years.

But my question was, how exactly do you keep up enough mana to keep casting spells such as poison/bone spells or corpse explosion, especially early on, without having insane gear? Most people put zero points in mana stats (which I understand if you have the good gear you dont need it), but if you don't have insane gear, how are you supposed to keep up with the mana of casting say corpse explosion a lot "until" you get that really good gear? (I know you can pop potions but you run out fast and its a pain to have to pop them every 5 seconds)

[curby]

Well, first off I'm kind of starting out pretty fresh after a few years.

But my question was, how exactly do you keep up enough mana to keep casting spells such as poison/bone spells or corpse explosion, especially early on, without having insane gear? Most people put zero points in mana stats (which I understand if you have the good gear you dont need it), but if you don't have insane gear, how are you supposed to keep up with the mana of casting say corpse explosion a lot "until" you get that really good gear? (I know you can pop potions but you run out fast and its a pain to have to pop them every 5 seconds)

This is the same problem that sorcs have, and there are two solutions:

Either you play it casual and spend the Energy points. Sure you've slightly less life at high levels, but you have fun throughout the game.

Or you get rushed and power-leveled and don't need to do any damage until you're level 80+.

By the way, Insight is a Level 27 runeword made with low runes. You can make one early, use it early, and not worry about mana for the rest of the game.

What nec are you making, specifically? If you're a summoner, you can get through early acts using just skellies anyway, which only require an initial mana investment.

[MakeLoveNotDupe]

Hi! If you play on Ladder please make these rune words:
Insight: 4 Socket Polearms (Very affordable)/Staves (Very affordable): Ral+Tir+Tal+Sol (Level 12-17 Meditation Aura When Equipped (Varies))
Spirit: 4 Socket Swords (Very affordable)/Shields (Affordable): Tal+Thul+Ort+Amn (+89-112 To Mana (Varies))

Crafted Items: Make Caster Items (You can use the Normal, Exceptional, or Elite versions of items)
I recommend Caster Amulet, Caster Belt & Caster Boots.

[plasmo]

As mentioned, Insight is by far the easiest way to get tons of mana. Lots of people make an Iron Golem out of it.

There are a few downsides: you can't make a Clay Golem to slow bosses, you probably should put some skill points in Golem Mastery to keep the golem alive, and it might get lost and disappear (although I'm not sure if that still happens since I use Enigma, which keeps him near), but these weren't a big problem for me, so that's what I did.

I can't remember if I maxed Golem Mastery completely, but there were only a few places in the game he would start to lose health enough that I would teleport to town and heal. In fact, the only times he outright died were when I was killed; I just kept a spare Insight or two around for when that happened (no need to make them in expensive polearms because he won't do any damage anyway, although I liked to use ethereal ones because it made the golem look neat).

[stephan]

Mana potions.

[XCodes]

The other thing about the Insight golem is that it's actually a lot easier to just stick it on an A2 merc, and by the mid-30's you should have a Might merc anyway.

Up until that point, lots of mana pots (they drop all over the place). Later on get Trang's set, you can get each piece for 3-5 pgems save the Belt which goes for Pul+Lem at most (I got mine for about half that). That will exponentially increase your mana regen, letting you go for a nice CB weapon with your Merc (Hone Sundan comes to mind, especially since spears are the least popular weapons in the game).

Beyond that, socket your armor and headgear with PTopazes, get MF rings and boots, a gull dagger, and a +skills ammy (possibly with more MF). The whole time keep your eye out for those free Gheed's Fortunes people occasionally give out. You can only carry one at a time, so if a low one drops people tend to just give it away instead of bothering to mule it. In the end, you should wind up with somewhere between 200% and 250% MF and be more than capable of taking on most everything (assuming a properly outfitted merc).

[olbaid]

If you have low mana, it's better to buy lower grade mana potions instead of the Super Mana Potion. The Super one heals your bulb too quickly. The Greater or Regular Mana potions gives you more time to spam skills while it is filling up the bulb.

[lumpor]

Mana potions.

It seems to me like you've forgotten how it is to be untwinked.

I could have a plated belt full of super mana potions, and if I'd constantly teleport, my potions would be gone in about 2 minutes.

I have a level 53 sorc with an insight merc. She can teleport I think 5-6 times before she runs out of mana. Even at that level I still only use teleport to go through walls

Lower res and pnova have about the same mana cost as teleport (with an untwinklish amount of +skills of course), and even if you don't use them as often, saying "use mana potions" is like saying "open a lemonade stand in order to afford a new apartment"

[NumtyDoo]

It seems to me like you've forgotten how it is to be untwinked.

I could have a plated belt full of super mana potions, and if I'd constantly teleport, my potions would be gone in about 2 minutes.

I have a level 53 sorc with an insight merc. She can teleport I think 5-6 times before she runs out of mana. Even at that level I still only use teleport to go through walls

Lower res and pnova have about the same mana cost as teleport (with an untwinklish amount of +skills of course), and even if you don't use them as often, saying "use mana potions" is like saying "open a lemonade stand in order to afford a new apartment" I am completely untwinked, no traded items at all. I just use pots and do fine, I use my spells more sparingly now than when I had uber gear, but mana really wasn't a real big issue once I got to NM.

[stephan]

It seems to me like you've forgotten how it is to be untwinked.
Since half the time I play untwinked that seems unlikely.


I could have a plated belt full of super mana potions, and if I'd constantly teleport, my potions would be gone in about 2 minutes.
Untwinked necro's can't teleport, untwinked sorceresses only teleport when in emergency.

Lower res and pnova have about the same mana cost as teleport (with an untwinklish amount of +skills of course), and even if you don't use them as often, saying "use mana potions" is like saying "open a lemonade stand in order to afford a new apartment"
You kill stuff, mana potions drop. Learn to pick them up. Learn to not spam your spells when it's not needed. There are easy ways to increase your mana bulb if you must (sapphire Breast plates/Helms), but even without them I usually pick up more mana potions than I can carry in my belt, and I certainly don't need to refill at vendors as often as I normally go back to town while questing anyway.

Saying that mana potions is not a good solution only shows you have never played without Insight, never played untwinked and/or never have tried it.

[balkan]

I play completely untwinked aswell and i haven't found the need for a single point in energy for neither my sorcs or necros yet. Mana potions and random +mana and +mana after each kill gear will keep you going till lvl 60 at which point you really should be doing fine with the potions you pick up from the ground. 4-8 mana after each kill helps tremendously.
Teleporting is rather expensive though and +mana after each kill wont help here. However, I've found 4 greater mana potions usually can get me down to durance 3 in a jiffy.

[FoxyG]

ral tir tal sol

three very common runes and a quite-common rune

its all you need

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

I'll echo as well, that mana potions actually do work. Drink one and then cast a lot. It will subtract your casting mana from what you're gaining. Do this while you cast, not after you get low on mana. That way you never end up on an empty tank when you actually do need to cast something heavy and fast.

That and insight is stupid easy to make. They really broke the game giving everyone access to essentially endless mana for spamming.

Cheers,

[XCodes]

Heya,

I'll echo as well, that mana potions actually do work. Drink one and then cast a lot. It will subtract your casting mana from what you're gaining. Do this while you cast, not after you get low on mana. That way you never end up on an empty tank when you actually do need to cast something heavy and fast.

That and insight is stupid easy to make. They really broke the game giving everyone access to essentially endless mana for spamming.

Cheers,
Seriously, even if Insight used an HR and only gave level 1 Meditation it'd be a pretty awesome polearm.

[lumpor]

Since half the time I play untwinked that seems unlikely.


Untwinked necro's can't teleport, untwinked sorceresses only teleport when in emergency.


You kill stuff, mana potions drop. Learn to pick them up. Learn to not spam your spells when it's not needed. There are easy ways to increase your mana bulb if you must (sapphire Breast plates/Helms), but even without them I usually pick up more mana potions than I can carry in my belt, and I certainly don't need to refill at vendors as often as I normally go back to town while questing anyway.

Saying that mana potions is not a good solution only shows you have never played without Insight, never played untwinked and/or never have tried it.

Actually, I've never played twinked. I got insight for the very first time a week ago (when she was level 50 I think). And i've only ever had it on one character

I was referring to how to play a "as if you have infinite mana playstyle". I meant that if you always use spells when you feel like it, mana potions won't be enough, at least not for a sorceress to teleport instead of running.

Mana potions also won't be enough for a boner to just press his mouse button down, and spray spells here and there without a second thought

But for general viability while questing, then mana potions are enough

ral tir tal sol

three very common runes and a quite-common rune

its all you need

Those and a 4-socket polearm

[Arek]

combination of tir runes (mana per kill) and saphires (+mana) proved to be very good for me. about 5 mana per kill and 100 to mana helps significantly. you will be using mana pots still, but at alot less frequency. insight also helps if you have alot of mana (500+ for example). people often thinks they can spam spells with insight when they have 200 mana - wrong.

[greydarkk]

Thanks for the replies.

Mana potions never really worked all that well for me, I mean yeah they "work" but when you are using something that is expensive on mana and using it a lot, they are a really big pain, and it takes the fun factor away having to constantly have a million mana potios and constantly using them.

I only have like 1 of those runes so far, is there a good place to go where they drop more often?

And right now I'm actually going with a maxed mages/poison necro. I am maxing my mages first so mana isn't a huge problem right now but I plan on making other necros, one that utilizes corpse explosion a lot, and thats pretty spendy, especially when you are low level heh.

Anyone want to hook me up with a couple of those runes to help me make an insight? :P

[lumpor]

There was one kind of place where I found all my insight runes. Trading games