Pure Mage Build Guide: Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon
The entity:mage is the strongest and most-searched build in The Fall of Avalon, and the easiest to pilot once it comes online. You pour points into entity:spirituality, take the entity:arcane-teachings line, cast through a wand, and let entity:mana-shield absorb the hits that would kill anyone else. Open with entity:blood-transfusion, then chain a lightning or fire spell until the screen is clear. This guide covers the attribute split, the skills in order, the spell rotation, and how the build matures into a near-100% critical-chance lightning mage by the endgame.
Build: e581412ed8dfAttributes
Spirituality, and only Spirituality, through Act 1. Every point gives plus 1% Spell Power, plus 6 Max Mana, and plus 0.3 per second Mana Regeneration, and Spirituality also gates the gear you can equip. There is no reason to dilute it early. Each point makes your spells hit harder, your mana pool deeper, and your casting more mana-efficient all at once.
The one supporting investment is a small entity:practicality splash, and you take it for a single skill rather than the stat. entity:endurance-training (in the Practicality Armor line) raises your armor weight thresholds by 5% per rank, which lets you stay under the 20% Light cap without spending a single point in entity:endurance. Light weight is non-negotiable for a mage: it grants plus 20% to cast speed, movement, and regen, and three Dashes for kiting. Practicality also trims mana cost by 1% per point, which compounds nicely on a build that casts constantly.
Skills, in priority order
Take the Spirituality Combat line first. Arcane Teachings I through V is the backbone, scaling Spell Power from plus 10% up to plus 50%. Rush the early ranks before anything else.
From the General and Buffs line, Power in Swiftness turns your movement-speed multiplier into an equal amount of Spell Power, which is why Light weight does double duty: the speed bonus is also a damage bonus. Mana Battery adds flat Max Mana, Invigorating Energy converts 10% of your Max Mana into Max Health (real survivability for a build with a huge mana pool), and Eldritch Desperation hands you plus 50% Spell Power whenever you drop below 30% Mana, which turns a near-empty bar into a finisher rather than a panic.
From the Wands and Cubes line, Caster's Focus grants a flat 10% Mana Shield just for holding a wand, and Arcane Conduit adds plus 15% Spell Power with a wand or cube equipped. From the Statuses line under Practicality, Exploitation of Afflictions adds plus 10% damage against any enemy carrying a status, which pairs with your bleed and burn spells for free uptime.
Mana Shield
Mana Shield is the reason the mage tops the tier list. It redirects a percentage of incoming damage onto your mana bar instead of your health. The entity:casters-focus wand skill gives you a baseline 10%, and the entity:absorption spell pushes it to a full 100% while channeled on a heavy cast. At 100% every hit you take drains mana instead of health, which neutralizes attacks that would one-shot a melee build and even cancels fall and drowning damage. A patch moved the shield calculation ahead of kill-prevention checks, so it now reliably catches lethal hits before they register. Keep your mana topped up and you are functionally unkillable against most physical threats.
Spell rotation
Open with Blood Transfusion. It applies Bleed and heals you off the cast, so your first action both ticks damage and tops your health. Then commit your main damage spell: Thunder Lash, Scorching Blaze, or Stormpiercer, depending on what you have unlocked. Thunder Lash and Stormpiercer are the lightning options that scale into the crit-mage endgame; Scorching Blaze is the fire alternative.
Wolf's Call summons a tank to hold the front while you cast from range, which buys you the spacing a Light, kiting mage wants. Through Act 1, Poison Spray is a strong carry spell on its own, especially paired with a bleed-ring setup. Most spells have a light cast (faster, cheaper, no special effect) and a heavy cast (costlier, slower, applies the special effect). Light-cast to poke, heavy-cast to land bleed, burn, or the full damage payload.
Gear
The signature set is the Battlemage Set, which requires 11 Spirituality and waits in the Tomb of the Good Druid. Cast through wands and Soul Cubes to feed the Wands-and-Cubes scaling from Arcane Conduit and Caster's Focus. Prioritize any Mana Shield gear and mana-sustain pieces, mana-regen gloves especially, because the whole build lives and dies on keeping the blue bar full. A entity:spellgorger-class wand is the common pairing for the lightning crit-mage build.
Leveling priority and the endgame
Dump levels into Spirituality from the start. Grab Arcane Teachings ranks as soon as the skill points allow, then Caster's Focus and Power in Swiftness, then round out with Mana Battery, Invigorating Energy, and Eldritch Desperation. Pick up Endurance Training early enough to stay Light as your gear gets heavier. Hold a couple of skill points back while you test rather than committing everything, since a respec costs a finite entity:origin-potions.
The build matures into a lightning crit-mage: stack critical chance through gear and the crit nodes, run Thunder Lash or Stormpiercer through a Spellgorger-class wand with mana-sustain gloves, and you reach near-100% critical chance. At that point every cast crits, Mana Shield keeps you standing, and Eldritch Desperation turns a low bar into a damage spike. It is the cleanest power fantasy in the game. For the full picture of how the mage stacks against every other build, see the Best Builds hub; if you are still finding your feet, the Beginner and Leveling Guide covers attributes and respec first.