The Leveling Compendium

[Swarron]

Wait, are you saying that a siroma card can stack with another siroma card? Therefore you can reduce casting time by 50%?

[Ngjoko]

[Kittie]

50+ lvl Mage
You could stick at wolfs or unlock leafcats at Ayotha dungeon, amazing job but crappy base. Another good source of exp would be moscovia dungeon though i personally perfer to keep the quest till i get higher in lvl since the quest gives 6mil base exp.

60~70 Job change
Moscovia though again i perfer to save it till a higher lvl for more exp from the quest since multi lvling is disabled here. Siroma's work to and you might want to get the cards for later/now. Geographers work fine to, great exp but make sure you don't attack them when they are grouped since they heal each other. At 70 you can do the new world quest, you might need someone who can kill the mobsters for you. You can lvl at manuk field after this is done, though you'll need an Evil druid or Bathory armor for this against the heathdraining skill they use/and the cast cancel it gives. If you don't have this geo's work fine to.

80~90+ lvl
An amazing way to lvl a sage fast would be going to kiel 2 with a priest/hp (who should be able to tank a bit) or if you are rich/have an awsome friend with imp clips you can duo bradiums with a priest/hp, carefull for the centripede though (your priest needs to be able to tank atleast 1 since you'll have a pretty high chance to ran into those). This is what i've been doing with my BF's sage, though i've seen brave sages/profs solo at bradiums.

Another way to get a sage into a party is 1. Be the partyleader/organize your own there won't be much people who will QQ about your class that way 2. Get yourself in though another a friend xD "hi i'm *insert class which is needed for the party* i'd like to join your party but is it oke if my sage friend joins?" works alot to.

Another piece of advice, just do something to make yourself usefull, this counts for all classes really. I personally don't care with what classes i party as long as they are doing something for the party, i don't like ordinary leeches in a party when people are just running up and down to save their own asses/exp, every class can find a way to do something to make themselfs usefull. Stick to your party show them you want to help out and most people will open up their arms for you.

[iSpam]

@kittie. why kiel 2? arent things there mostly dark?(takes way less damage from elemental moves which happens to be sage's specialty)

[Kittie]

Because its fun and people hardly go there >:@

[Flare]

If you have to do the quest, do it before lv 70 so the game will not spawn merman and kapha against you. At around lv 50, the game will only use raggler and obeaune against you, which with some item spamming it's not hard to bash/mammonite your way through.

Regarding this from the merch/swordie/thief/TK part of the guide, when I was lev. 41 when I did the quest, it spawned Mermen and Kapha on me. Twice.

[ABlueJelly]

Uh, really, you can do kiel 1 no problem if you don't suck with firewall... and same with kiel 2, except you need to freecast kite alicels.... a warning with that, each alicel will use a different amount of position lag, but as long as you're moving when she snaps, you won't take a hit.
I solo'd both as both a sage and a prof. It's a decent place and the income from the rare drops is actually pretty good. But yeah, no need for an HP or whatever, just L2Firewall =P
As to "Dark" being a problem, only constants and kiehl are dark, the rest are all high-level neutral. Maids are demihuman, constants formless (just be pro with firewall and these are easy... and it trains you for reacting to ninja valks in DG), and Alicel/Aliot are both demons- meaning if you are using a requiem hat, you've got some nice bonus damage coming in from that.

If you can get yourself bathory or ED armor, Manuk Field is amazing. Nepenthes are about 3 geos rolled into one, and can be out-ranged with dark/undead armor, centipede larva drop an amazing card, bradiums move slowly so if you have dispell and are good at kiting, you can even do them with siromas (and you don't always need dispell, they don't always go into Steel Body), and firewall > tatas and centipedes. Hell, I trained my prof as a high-mage at nepe 'cause they're so great XD

If you haven't noticed a trend here...
Whenever there's a question about who's tanking
The best answer is almost always "Firewall" or "Freecasting". Safety Wall has its uses, but there's a gemstone requirement, whereas a good firewaller can even mob lower-health things with it (Firewall mobbing mantis on a mage is fun =D)


EDIT:
Oh forgot to put in a couple of other options and notes...
With lv5 freecasting you move at about the same rate as a Snowier, so if you get higher than that you can kite them in your sleep- and Ice Titans are even slower.

Siromas are always good because doublesiromabolt is better than firebolt (not impbolt/dblimpbolt) on lv1 earth, and just as good against lv2.

You can totally mob isillaberks in Rache 1/2 with Heaven's Drive (or TS really but if you got TS over level 1 (for tapping in Thor's), imo you're doing it wrong. TS is only stronger than HD at level 7 (and higher), has a lot more delay/cast time, and is an element you have a single-target spell for. HD is a good choice for your earth ele spell as it also reveals stealth). It's a bit slow until you get good at freecast mobbing into your own spell circles, but then it's rather entertaining.

Unless they specifically say magic damage or matk, cards DO NOT effect your magic damage. A quad SPC rod will NOT make you a good BK.

Mi Gaos are also a pretty good option. Easy to get to (louyang field), only real hazard is Mantis who can be firewalled without nearly any effort (I wasn't having problems with it with 20 dex and a morph set on), and mi gaos will happily run into your firewall until your bolt spell finishes.

My advice for your build is focus on getting more int for damage, then at around 70 total int, pump dex till you're comfortable with you firewall/swall cast, then finish pumping int to 99. This is assuming you're gonna be bolting for most of your sage's carrier.

Freecasting is a fixed movement rate. If you're cursed and need to move faster than a slow crawl, start casting something.

And lastly.... the Sage/prof land-based AoE's bonus damage ignores elements or something. How do I know? You can cold bolt Valks if you're in Deluge. They're immune to water.

EEDIT:
Man, the mosco quest has always given me the two kappas and the merman v_v My crus just potted and bashed them to death, my thief hid, and my SL timed them out without hide like a baws. YES, YOU CAN JUST TIME THE MONSTERS OUT IN FIVE MINUTES AND STILL COMPLETE THE QUEST.

[The Legendary Joe]

If you have to do the quest, do it before lv 70 so the game will not spawn merman and kapha against you. At around lv 50, the game will only use raggler and obeaune against you, which with some item spamming it's not hard to bash/mammonite your way through.

Regarding this from the merch/swordie/thief/TK part of the guide, when I was lev. 41 when I did the quest, it spawned Mermen and Kapha on me. Twice.

Yea some reason it spawns 2 kapha and a merman regardless of level. If for whatever reason you make a wrong turn it spawns the lesser mobs you'd be typically expecting. No clue why really.