Hi everyone! My name is Eloise (previously Hatsune), I'm a nerdy gal who likes to (sometimes) math out game mechanics. I decided to start this guide after getting the impression that many struggle on even the normal difficulties, let alone Legend. I myself struggled on Legend until I realized that there exists a severe inbalance between the melee, archer, and magic archetypes; I became convinced that the game mechanics heavily favor magical offense on Legend difficulty.

The guide is relevant to the 1.1.12 version of the Steam Build, and as such caters to players who do not (or rather, cannot in the case of the Steam Build, as I understand it) use cheats or mods.

• Spells cannot be dodged and so never miss. This is incredibly important on Legend given how hard enemies scale in level and by extension in Defense Rating (dodge rate), with every deeper floor level. Unlike melee and bow weapons, spells bypass Defense Rating entirely.
  
• You have the safety and reach of being ranged, with further reach than bows.
  
• Magic offers the only means of dealing actual AoE (area of effect) damage.
  
• You have the ability to play around enemy resistances; you have up to 3 elements you can turn to at will. No more of encountering frustrating enemies resistant to your particular weapon!!

Expect to be able to one hit enemies three times your level. Currently (12/20/19), at level 80, I am one hitting level 239 (floor 36) enemies, hitting an average of 20k per cast with ~0.2 cast time (so ~100k average dps). You can probably expect to do better, since my character is running with ~150 wasted attribute points and ~120 wasted skill points (did not feel like starting over).

Based on my experience, summons are simply too weak to be relied upon for damage, even for a supplemental amount. Even as distractions, they are usually quite fragile. For your information though, Mystic Blade should endure the best due to their all-elemental immunity and unnaturally high health compared to other summons, in case you already have skill points invested into Charm Magic (like me, RIP).

Thanks to CindyNemi who reminded me about the existence of Cursed Sword enemies, who like their Mystic Blade counterparts have full magic immunity, I have changed my above opinion. You may want to continually invest a small portion of skill points into Charm Magic and therefore your summons, who will be your only other source of non-magic damage alongside your pet.

I actually have this idea of a 'reflecting tank build' that I think could be interesting to perhaps test in a future playthrough, where I would be focusing on maximizing life (Vitality), healing (Defense Magic), and enchanting as much Damage Taken Reflected as possible.

• Higher level gear do not benefit us at all, thus you should aim to enchant and equip the lowest/cheapest gear possible at all times.
  
• Spell damage is not influenced by the Strength attribute or weapon damage.
  
• Spells cannot be dodged and cannot critically strike, so are unaffected by the Dexterity attribute or Critical Strike Skill.
  
• Effects such as Life Stolen Per Hit, Mana Stolen Per Hit, and Knockback are not conveyed through spells.
  
• You have a base mana recovery rate that scales to your mana pool. The larger your mana pool, the faster you regenerate mana.
  
• Enchantments are key.

• Damage Taken Reduced has a percentage cap of 75%.
  
• Chance of Block has a percentage cap of 75%, blocks can trigger in a 360 degree angle (from all directions).
  
• Faster Casting Speed has an independent percentage cap of 75%, but stacks (multiplicatively) with Spell Casting Skill for even faster cast times.
  
• Resistances cap at 100% which lead to immunity to the damage type, and past that does not result in any extra effects such as healing.
  
• Movement Speed has no cap.

Single target (ST) DPS gained per Attack Magic Skill is calculated by [(min+max)/2]/castTime, number of projectiles (Frost) or accuracy (Lightning Storm) are also taken into account. This is intended to show how each spell scales relative to other spells with Attack Magic Skill, thus the calculation is kept simple and assume base cast time and no multipliers.

• Meteor Strike
  
• Frost
  
• Any of
  
  • Lightning Strike
    
  • Shocking Burst
    
  • Lightning Storm

Meteor Strike renders all other fire-aspected spells obsolete once your mana can reasonably sustain its high mana cost. Best default spell for when no enemy has any elemental strengths or weaknesses.

Frost is the only available ice-aspected spell. Incredibly difficult to land distanced hits with because the projectiles travel slowly and often veer off-course, so best used at melee distance. Also inflicts an attack speed penalty effect which give it more value when used at melee range anyway.

Shocking Burst is the best electric-aspected spell in terms of single target dps, but like Frost can be unwieldy at longer distances due to slow travel time. The AoE is also small and only occurs on enemy impact, unlike Meteor Strike. Due to this, Lightning Strike and Lightning Storm both remain fair options for a single target or AoE.

Poison Cloud does not increase in damage per Attack Magic Skill the same way that the elemental spells do. Hence it is not recommended, it is way too slow to be considered at all.



The only spell that seems noteworthy is Area Slow, which I imagine may become useful for when enemies start meleeing too hard (we should be immune to elemental damage) at ludicrously deep floor levels and force us to kite.

The rest range from incredibly niche to outright useless. The life stolen effect of Draining Aura is not conveyed through our spells, thus this spell only debuffs us. Blindness adds nothing to our offensive power, given that spells already ignore Defense Rating.

Attributes

• Magic
  Increases your spell damage and mana pool.
  
• Vitality
  Increases your life.

Use whatever magic:vitality ratio as you see fit.

Skills

• Attack Magic
  
• Charm Magic
  
• Optional: Spell Casting
  
• Optional: Shield Battle

I recommend a high Attack Magic:low Charm Magic ratio, since summons are generally ineffective in every situation except for the rare Cursed Sword encounters where you need physical damage output.

For the purpose of keeping enchanting expenses as low as possible, equip and enchant the lowest level gear there is, including weapon. Higher-end gear only provide more Defense Rating, which we do not care about.

Be sure to equip a mainhand and an offhand as opposed to a single two-hander, so you have more room to add enchantments. Note that there is no point in going with anything but a shield on the offhand, to enable the chance to block, completely negating damage (!!).

Like summons, the pet is observed to be too weak to be relied upon for damage. The pet is somewhat capable of tanking early on if it is equipped with capped damage reduction (~25% Damage Taken Reduced per jewellery). Magic Find % is about the only worthwhile bonus for your pet in the long run (adds to your own Magic Find %).

You could theoretically add enchantments to the same gear forever, as long as the number of different enchantments remain <25 and you have the money to afford it.

Damage modifiers from your Damage Dealt, Magic, and Attack Magic Skill are multiplicative, which is how you reach ludicrous levels of damage when you stack Damage Dealt %, Magic %, and Attack Magic Skill enchantments.

• Damage Dealt %
  
• Magic %
  
• Attack Magic Skill
  
• Magic
  
• Mana %
  
• Spell Casting Skill
  
• Faster Casting Speed
  Independently caps at 75%, multiplicative with % from Spell Casting Skill

• Damage Taken Reduced %
  Caps at 75%
  
• Life %
  
• Vitality %
  
• Vitality
  
• Shield Battle Skill
  
• Chance of Block
  Additive with % from Shield Battle Skill, caps at 75%

• Movement Speed
  Immense quality of life that can save a lot of time exploring floors

Enchantments such as Life Stolen Per Hit, Mana Stolen Per Hit, and Knockback are conveyed only through weapons and not spells, hence these are not listed.

• Superior Ruby/Sunstone
  +40% Fire Resistance
  
• Superior Opal
  +40% Ice Resistance
  
• Superior Turquoise
  +40% Electrical Resistance
  
• Superior Lapis
  +10% Faster Casting Speed

Your main goal here is to get all three elemental (fire, ice, and electrical) Resistances to their cap of 100% and Faster Casting Speed to its cap of 75%.

• Superior Zircon
  +15% Magic Find

For example, the Sapphire is not worth a socket because it increases recovery at a flat rate, whereas you already have a base recovery rate which scales in proportion to your mana pool.

The Bloodstone is another example, being lacklustre due to the damage bonus being flat and not interacting with any of your multipliers (Damage Dealt % enchantments, Magic attribute, etc).

I have not played in years due to real life and more recently because I have been spending time on FFXIV. But I am more than happy to continue answering questions!

• Apr. 2025
  Updated opinions on Charm Magic in consideration of Cursed Sword enemies who possess full magic immunity. Thank you CindyNemi for reminding me of their existence.
  
  
• June 2024
  Yet another guide rename. I also lost my save that this guide was based on, due to cloud saving having been off when I reset Windows.
  
  
• Jan. 2023
  I am happy to see that this 3 year old guide for a 14 year old game (wow!) continues to help people! Happy new year everyone!
  
  
• Apr. 2022
  Minor edits which include guide renaming, section renaming/reordering, and slightly more detailed explanations. Thank you to all who awarded this guide!!
  
  
• Dec. 2020
  Implemented table for Attack Magic spells, guide rename, and minor corrections.
  
  
• Nov. 2020
  Improved formatting. Thank you to whoever awarded this guide! Everyone please stay safe!
  
  
• Dec. 2019
  Guide created. Frequent edits occurred.