Just remember one, most-important thing. You can't go wrong in this guild unless you try to go wrong.

Things you need to do. First you have to join the guild. To do that, you have to be an Elf, you must be in the tree, and it is strongly recommended that you have reached level 5 in the Newbie guild (3 east, 1 south from starting position), and while at the newbie guild, you "train" your Wisdom and or Strength/Dexterity/Con (see below) a bit. You get 5 points of training. Also, make sure you ask your guild teacher about quests...

When advancing in the newbie guild, you only have 4 skills you need to think about, Fighting (the only one you Need to do there), Faith, General and Vitality. Once you're ready, from the newbie guild head to the southeasten part of the tree, where you'll see the Statue of Eliatha. Go north and up and "dedicate" yourself to Eliatha. Then go East and join the guild.

Once you're in the guild, the first thing you should do is to go Commune with a totem spirit. There are 4 choices. Bear, Tiger and Wolf (I ignore the 4th choice of Boar because it's stupid). To commune, find the sweat room in the guild (currently it's east, southeast, east from where you join), and "commune" with the animal of your choosing.

If you go Bear, you're going to have a nice bonus to your Constitution and HPs, and should really go with a solid character. Use the *Maces of Alghar when you Conjure your weapon, as Blunt gets a wee bit of Con modifier to it. Go with 2-limb weapons so you can hit harder, you're not about finesse.

If you go Wolf (the most popular choice), you get a nice bonus to your Strength and alot of Guild Points. Use the *Swords of Orion, and probably 2-handed, though either choice will work well. Sharp is based heavily on Strength.

If you go Tiger, you get a nice bonus to both Dexterity and Dodging. Sort of a weak combo, but tiger is still popular, just for being Tiger. Use *Claws of Belagh as 1-limb weapons since your finesse is key (though you do just as well really with 2-handed claws, it just makes no thematic sense....)

* See Spells about these weapons.

Spoiler

Advance the Groups, 1 at a time, but no specific order required within each group.

Group 1
- fighting.offense.melee.sharp to Max
  (or Unarmed or Blunt, your choice depending on Totem)
- faith.spells.offensive.target to Max
- faith.spells.defensive.self to Max
- faith.spells.misc.self to Max
  (Some say to stop around 150 on this, I don't recommend it)
- faith.spells.curing.self to Max
  (Not recommended for the "strongest" over-max, good for a stay-alive (new) type of player)
  (Also important for BEAR TOTEMs, to reach the highest number of HPs possible)
- ----- If you're going to use SoulSkinner to lose some levels, this is where you do it-----
  ----- if you don't know who Soulskinner is, don't worry about it. -----
Group 2
- fighting.offensive.special to Max
- fighting.offensive.melee to Max
- fighting.defensive.dodging.melee to Max (TIGER TOTEM ONLY)
- faith.spells.offensive to Max
- faith.spells.defensive to Max (For a slightly stronger offense, skip this step)
- Note: If you're going to die for faith levels, do it here
Group 3
- faith.spells to Max
- faith.spells.special to [Faith +75] (For 300: See Primal Form under Spells)
- fighting.offensive to Max
Group 4
- faith to Max
- fighting to Max
- Covert to Max
  (See Notes Below, Covert.Stealth should already be maxxed)
At -any- point, feel free to spend spare points on Vitality.
Here's what I recommend for Vitality:
Vitality.Mental.Concentration to 100 (If you have the wolf Totem: 75)
Vitality.physical.healing to 100 (some suggest stopping at 75)
Vitality.mental.endurace of 150 (If you have the wolf Totem: 125)
Vitality.physical.endurance to as high as you can take it (Should reach around 400).
Lastly, overmax fighting.defensive.parry.melee unless you're Tiger Totem, Tigers should finish their Dodging overmax.

Do not raise faith.spells.curing or faith.spells.misc, you gain no benefits at all for doing so.

Things of note: To get a higher level, once you start working on Faith.Items, raise 2 Faith.Item subskills to max (one should be Staff). I've heard that you get a better enchant level on your weapon, at the cost of a couple of levels, by raising just Faith.Items.Staff to max, then raising Faith.Items.

When you start, raise faith.spells.offensive.target to 135 so you can learn Conjure first, and never be without a weapon. The 'Shift' command makes this weapon a good choice, even a best choice, unless you can find a player who will enchant another weapon for you.

You'll likely notice that Covert subskills are not listed in the Spoiler area. That's because you have to treat it special. Covert is the cheapest (XP-wise) way to raise levels quickly. So, you just don't want to do that until you have to, due to you getting less XP per kill the higher in level you are. My recommendation is to get to level 99 (100 makes you vulnerable to other players), XP until you have your maximum XP, then go raise Covert.Stealth to max. Don't touch any other Covert sub-skill until after Covert is maxxed. You only need Stealth (You can hide easily on a Covert.Hiding of 5, just might take a couple of tries)

This is the easy part. You get 5 points that you MUST spend in the newbie guild. You get 8 points that you'll receive from the Mystic guild, but which come slowly based on level. There are 2 distinct methods for spending, depending on your playing style. The first is for the solo-player, who wants to be completely independent.

Solo CharacterYou should spend them based on your totem. What you want to do is calculate it so that you get a 20 Wisdom, and a Primary Physical stat (dependant on Totem) of 16. 16 because you get +8 to the stat when you shapechange at maxxed levels, and because you can always find an item that grants a +1 to that stat for an easy 25 in your primary stat (EXCEPT Constitution, Bear Totems should take Constitution to 17). Spend all the rest of your points on Strength, unless Strength was your primary. If strength is your primary physical stat, spend the remaining points on Constitution.

So, when to spend what.... In the newbie guild, I suggest you spend the 5 points on Wisdom, because the key to your XPing is your spells. However, if you've got Strength as your Primary stat anyhows, getting it to 16 quickly will work just as nicely. In the Mystic guild, wait to work on your tertiary stat until your Wisdom is 20 and your Primary is 16.

Note: there are ways to get +2 Dex/Str(Opal Ring and Ring of Speed -or- Ring of Power and Dragoness Armour), so it's not a bad idea to go with 15, but it's more work because you really need to keep that 25, and the extra actions to use the temporary stats can be cumbersome in battles. The idea being, to avoid needing potions to have your 25's.

Also, don't forget the 3 Stat quests. Mystic Keep (listen to the Dragon in the Northwest Tower, head to Eternia to finish the quest once you've listened to the 2nd dragon), There's also the incredibly annoying quest in Enquar (North of Pesvint there's a portal you can investigate, find a Black Pool once you've got 8 Wasp Wings), and the Hylar Trainer (You'll want to chat at a Frost Dragon in Eternia, which is south of Pesvint, for that one). Put all 3 of those Stat Quests into Wisdom.

Lastly, head over to Madagor, somewhere between the endless Dunes and Ukaeri, you'll find hidden "hole", use that to get the +1Wis Robe of Glaciers. And to the Treeth Stronghold area to get a Badge of Might.

End Result:

25 Wisdom
24 Primary (16 + 8) or 25 Primary (if Constitution is Primary)
21 in Strength or 19 Constitution if Strength is Primary

Potion AddictFace it, potions are easy to get in game since there are so many player shops available in Lirath. So, you have the option of making what is referred to as the Potion Addict. Potions are cheap enough to stock up on, and Mystics get Elven Travel Bags. So, an elf's starting physicals are 11 Con, 11 Str, 14 Dex, and 14 Wisdom. Add the 7 points that potions can add to any stat, and you have 18, 18, 21, 21. Add in the +4, +4, +8 from your shapechange, and assuming you're not a Tiger, you get 25, 22, 25, 21. Add in 13 points of Trainable stats, 25, 25, 25, 25 with 6 points left to spare. Easily enough to have 25's in all 5 of your stats. Easily (and as you see since the numbers add up to 26 on a couple of those) without having to drink all 7 potions each time).

Animal hide (25) Faith.Spells.Defensive.Self (Can only be cast on yourself)
While this may be just an "armour" spell, it's easily the equal of the best Armour spells out there, acting alot more dynamic than most armour spells in that it really improves alot as you go on in levels. For me, it's the most important defensive spell that I make sure is always receiving the highest priority in my defense spell casting algorithym. By the time your defensive.self is maxxed, you can walk around naked for most XP areas, though I don't actually recommend it. ;)

Primal defence (75) Faith.Spells.Defensive.Self (Can only be cast on yourself)
If you're lucky enough to have a good starting set of armour early in the game, this is actually better than even Animal Hide. It converts ALL damage to a damage type of your choosing, meaning that you only need to focus on 1 type of defense. Most Mystics focus on Sharp, judging Armours that have a great Sharp defense, and then getting that improved by Pyromancer Tempers, WarWizard Bonding, Sorcerer Reduced Weight, Alchemists Enchants, and Wizard Rainbow Enchants (in THAT order). Stacked with Animal Hide, you have the best armour defense in the Realms.

For most of us, who don't build an armour set until maxxed, or nearly maxxed, this spell proves useless for the majority of our XPing time (which, seriously, takes about 4 days). If you're using basic armours, don't even cast this spell, waste of GP.

Animal agility (100) Faith.Spells.Defensive.Self (Can only be cast on yourself)
This is your basic percentage shield. Best as I can tell, seems to stop up to 2/3rds of the damage you would take after armours (Armours seem to be calculated in first). So... nice. only 2/3rds of whatever you'd take after you reduce it drastically with Primal Defense and Animal Hide. Even at low levels, seemed to stop about 50% of the damage, so great even for someone just out XPing, and a good reason to start with Faith.Spells.Defensive in your 2nd stage of advancing, since your skill should already be around 85 by then.

Karma (175) Faith.Spells.Defensive.Self (Can only be cast on yourself)
This is a Layer spell. It provides a number of layers (starts at about 5, ends at 10), that stop all damage from a single hit. Do not waste your GPs on this spell while XPing, but Do keep it up at all other times. Your Regeneration is too high to go wasting GPs on blocking a couple of minor hits that you'd regen from quickly anyhows. Great when you walk in on that auto-attack dragon, or that player tries to kill you, but not for XPing when you're dealing with low-threat mobs.

Nature's blessing (25) faith.spells.curing.self
This is a basic healing/regeneration spell. It's best to always cast it with a "long" duration, so that it helps you regenerate during battles. It also works best with herbs from the forest, so you might consider collecting some herbs from the Elven Forest before you even have this spell (our Herbal Pouch lets you collect nicely). If you're new to the game, this is one of the reasons to overmax faith.spells.curing.self at the beginning, so when you test out new monsters, you can flee and heal up when you see that they're just way out of your league...

Restoration (75) You won't use this spell much at all, it's for when your attributes drop from either spells or death. Brings them up to full. Nice to have, not so used though, at least until you start facing PK scenarios where your attributes can drop due to enemy spells.

Animal animo (100) faith.spells.curing.self
If you're a first time player, here for fun and not caring about the "perfect overmax", consider getting this spell as part of your Stage 2 advancement. You'll already have a faith.spells.curing of 85 by the time you're on phase 2, and while you'll lose about 5 levels from your end-game offense/defense, it will definitely help you enjoy the game more. This causes your HPs and GPs to regenerate as fast as you take damage. You don't even need to heal anymore, or worry about cyan potions (they regenerate GPs). You can XP all day long against tough monsters, and not worry at all. This is THE most important curative spell, and in our Trigger algorithym, takes top priority.

Eliatha's blessing (125) Expensive bastage that you'll hopefully never need, but should not go without. If you die, this spell kicks in, it doesn't help at any other time. But, once you die (assuming this spell is active on you at the time), you'll auto teleport to the guild with your corpse. You can "raise" nearby at the High Priest of Eliatha, with a bonus to that raise as if you were casting the Priest Spell Resurrect on yourself, using your own Faith.curing.spells.self (another reason to have spent points on faith.spells.curing.self in phase 1 of the advancement plan).

Note: The raise no longer works as stated, you're best off getting a Priest to summon you and your corpse for a Ress. Do not use this spell until/unless the Raise option gets fixed/changed.

Exude toxins (125) Do not worry about casting this spell unless you're raiding or being invaded. This only works against Cleric spells (drow priests) and stops their poison from killing you. And even then, your Animal Animo probably heals faster than the venom kills, so unless you're fighting, you won't need to use it. It's really a vs-PK-only spell.

Animal vitality (175) faith.spells.curing.self
If you have a Bear Totem, this is your all time favorite spell. If not, this spell is still great, as it raises your HP's drastically by around 150% for non-Bear types. I'm not sure how this works, directly, If you have a Bear Totem, this is also the reason you want to overmax curing.self a bit, to get the most HPs possible from this spell. (Never seen a Bear player with fewer than 10,000HPs, ever)

Hide This works even with a Covert of 5. You don't need it until you're level 100, but once you're level 100, you don't often want to be without it. See the Trigger part of this page to see how to best use this command.

Sneak When you're level 99, you want to raise your covert to 5, and your covert.sneak to 80 all in one huge step that gets you to level 100+ Then you never want to move without this command, ever. It's the best anti-thief thing you've got going on for you. Again, the Trigger part of this page goes into alot more details about the use of this command.

Raze Fighting.Offense.Special
This is your bread and butter. Sadly, despite that fact, it's weak. It's our best offense and it's the weakest offense in the Realms, even with out better than any other Weapons we get to conjure. Smart though (after all, we get so many damn attacks that if they were all powerful, we'd be overpowered, so it's a nice balance). You -barely- notice that you're Razing but it is very effective. I just wish it was an area-attack command, then we'd look sweet with how many attacks we get.

Remember, this command is completely dependent on fighting.offense.special, so it's super important that you overmax that skill in addition to the skill that supports your conjure'd weapon preference.

Shift This is the most important thing to remember when you're a new player and using the Conjured weapons. Everything is powerfully resistant to our Sharp/Blunt/Pierce damage, so being able to shift some of that damage to something else will aide you more in XPing than pretty much any other command or spell you have. Shift weapons to fire, and your weapons light up and start doing fire damage. It's nice.

Shapechange If you don't commune, you don't Shapechange, so Commune first thing when you join the guild, and shapechange as soon as possible. Seems to be based on over-all level, ever 50 levels you get +1 to your primary physical stat, determined by your Totem. Every 100 levels, you get +1 to the other 2 physical stats, for an end-game of +8! to your primary, and +4 to your secondaries. Important to know this before you train stats, as you do not want to overtrain. The absolute maximum any attribute can be is 25, and there's ALWAYS something out there to give you +1 or even +2, so the highest you should train your primary stat to is 16, 20 for Wisdom, and all the rest into Strength if you're not a Wolf, or Constitution if you are a Wolf (I'm ignoring Boar).

Turn This is a bit out of theme for the guild, but I guess they wanted us to feel a bit more like Priests. It's not useless though, it's great for maxxing your alignment in certain demonic areas. However, we don't need a maxxed alignment, so for most of us, just not something to use since we kill better with our swords than with our Turns.

Your advancement plan may change dependent on your racial selection. If you choose a very non-magical race for whatever reason, such as Orc or Dwarf, just to get some of the most basic levels of defense requires a more intensive overmax of the defensive skills, and at a huge cost to offensive capabilities. With that in mind, this is the basic advancement plan for all races that can be altered to suit your race.

Spoiler

Advance the Groups, 1 at a time, but no specific order required within each group.

Group 1
- magic.spells.defensive.self to Max
- magic.spells.offensive.target to Max
- magic.spells.misc.target to Max
- All vitality subskills to 25 (Do NOT go above 25 at this point!!!)
- ----- At this point, die enough to lose 5 levels to magic. -----
  ----- After dying, use SoulSkinner to lose 10 levels to magic. -----
  ----- (This is why you don't take Vitality past 25, he only takes away your highest skill) -----
  Do the following in order
- fighting.offensive.melee.unarmed to Max
- fighting.offensive.melee to Max
- fighting.offensive to Max
- fighting to Max
Group 2
- ReMax all of Group 1
- If you're NOT an Elf: magic.spells.defensive to Max
- magic.spells.offensive to Max
- vitality.mental.concentration to 100
- vitality.physical.healing to 50
- vitality.physical.endurance to 100
- vitality.mental.endurance to Max AFTER doing the other Vitality Subskills.
- Approach level 99 slowly and stop right at level 99
  At Level 99, get your Maximum amount of XP, and advance your Covert.Stealth to Max
  Do the following in this order
- fighting.defensive.parry.melee to Max
- fighting.defensive.parry to Max
- fighting.defensive to Max
Group 3
- magic.spells to Max
- fighting.defensive.dodging.melee to Max
Group 4
- magic.spells.misc to Max
- If you ARE an Elf: magic.spells.defensive to Max
- fighting.defensive.dodging to Max
Group 5
- magic.spells.special to Magic + 25 (Which should be to level 220, you want to finish at 325ish)
- Covert to Max
Group 6
- Magic to Max
- covert.thieving.sleight-of-hand to Max
Group 7
- magic.items.staff to Max (just 1 skill tree)
- Covert.thieving to max
Group 8
- magic.items to Max then Max everything else out EXCEPT sub skills of Magic.Items. Due to how Temples work, you want to raise Magic.Items to 486 in the Temple (see the Reduce Weight spell below) to get the highest magic.items.rod possible. Temple does not let you raise sub-skills of Magic.Items, only Magic.Items (similar to how the KT Trainer works with General Skills). So, touching anything other than your Rod (:P) is a waste of points.

Like it or not, Elves make the Best of Sorcerers with their seemingly defensive bonuses to Magic. As such one of the things an Elf should consider is to skip the advancement of magic.spells.defensive in Group 2 since, even without that, you'll still have as-good of a defense as anyone else in your guild. It allows you to focus on Offense a bit more, as well as Misc.

Air Steel This is a basic Armour Spell which, even at the highest defensive levels is less protective than a good suit of Armour. It only protects against the 3 basic damage types of Sharp, Blunt and Pierce. It was once the most powerful armour spell in the entire game, and is now but a sliver of what it once was. Break theme here, find a good suit of armour, get it enchanted, and cast this as a low-priorty defense bot that somewhat enhances your armour, don't make it a focal point of your defense setup.

Electric Field This is now your real defense when XPing. It reduces damage by a percentage, and can reach "huge" which, according to my tests, is maybe around 7/10ths protection. Unlike Armour, it doesn't stop a set amount of damage, just reduces it, so even nicks tend to take away your layered winds, so it's best that you don't use Layered Winds when XPing with this spell (or in general).

Layered Winds This is our true baby, what makes us the best in defense. Unfortunately, the Outer Winds, the ones we learn at low levels, is only useful in tough-combat situation, not in the monotonous era of XPing that you must go through. Once you learn Inner Winds though, you have the best XP Defense tool available since it regenerates inside of combat, and you have a lot of them.

NOTE: Wolfen Hairs are found on the Wolfen. Go back to the road heading towards Lirath. Before you go "down" the cliff, head southeast towards the Valeris Forest. When you come across a large number of bandits on the road, you'll see a path going north. Follow it all the way north to get to the Tower. He's an easy kill for anyone who actually has the spell, so don't worry. On your way to him you'll meet Soulskinner, he's the one you want to chat at in the advancement plan section of this page. ;) PS. Chat with your fists. ;)

Mystical Cloak Good defense for non-basic attacks, but still kinda weak, and worse, vs attack types you'll rarely encounter during your XP sessions. I turn this trigger off usually and just depend on Armours and Air Steel until Maxxed. Save your GPs. Once maxxed, it will somewhat enhance your armours, but your Armours are the real key to defense.

Shocking Grasp This is my personal favorite XP spell, you cast it on yourself and start doing unarmed electrical damage. Here's the key though. Go into our shop (the Fog Exit in the Guild) and buy an Electrum Gauntlet, then find an Omniscient Wizard and have them Prismatic Enchant it (usually for free if you're new). Once you have it, watch the monsters drop. Without the Gauntlet though, the spell is mediocre at best. Later, when you start working on Magic.Items.Rod, you'll find that the Lightning Rod in our Guild is a preferred selection, and you can use this spell with it as well.

Plasma Blast (and other Target Spells) This is your primary XP blast spell. Even when you're maxxed, this is the spell you'll use for XPing. It's cheap and does great damage in comparisson to the other spells. Ignore Lightning Missile, Lightning Bolt, Ball Lightning. All useless when compared to this spell.

Lightning Rampage You need an Magic.Spells.Special of about 350 to get all 8 hits with this spell regularly. Hence our odd overmax in the advancement part of the page. This is your most powerful spell, and in combat situations with tough monsters or other players, this is the spell you'll use. Too expensive to use in XP situations though.

Lightning Storm (and other Area Spells) When you Party with others, this spell is important, as it helps you get some killing attacks in. But our area attack spells are weak compared to other guilds, and GP expensive. Lightning Storm is the only one of the Area spells worth using, and even then, if you're fighting creatures solo, you'll find Plasma Blast a better option. I only use this when I'm XPing in a group (the best way to XP)

Summon Elemental I have nothing to say about this. I don't use it. In PK situations, it's ignored, in XP situations, it steals your XP. I'm sure there are positive uses for it, I just don't know any.

Reduce Weight Everyone wants this from you, you can easily reduce almost anything to a weight of 10, thanks to the "Temple". The Temple is located West of Hylar, along the first northerly Road. Head as far north and up as you can, and you'll find a spot with some boulders that you can move (move boulders) to get an Up exit. That's where you can raise magic.items (and only magic.items) to 486

Aerial Possession Not so popular, but not bad either. Improves the chances to hit with a weapon.

Invisibility Don't forget, you can make anything Invisible. Your Armour, your Bags, your Pouches, anything. Looks like there's less to steal, especially if you're also Invisible. ;)

Teleportation (Both Versions) Yes, and up to 10 locations.

Zephyr's Breath Although this does a lot of things, probably the most important is that it pushes the target from the room at times. This is the best defense for a Sorcerer because it gives your defenses a chance to replenish. Especially vs Entrapment type spells. As a guild dependent on defenses, every breather you get is bonus defenses.

Scatter This is your default defense spell really against Thievery. Due to how spells work, you can cast this spell like 50 times a round and never Queue up if you don't find your target. Failed Spells don't take up actions. It'll spam you, or make your screen bounce all sorts of funny as your GAG functions try to keep up with the screen, but it works (unless they have a strong Resistance to Magic). Also good for getting into areas 'protected' by NPCs (or for dealing with Nial's Goons). Lastly, it can be cast on yourself! Don't feel like losing 2000 HP's to leave the Crag of Evil? Scatter yourself. Lost up in the Tangerine Mountains on Madagor? Scatter yourself.

Silence Probably the most important PK tool, it prevents Scrolling away, casting of spells, etc. The trouble is that it's pretty easily resisted with Resist Magic. So, the types you most want to use this on (Pyromancers, Wizards, Etc) are the hardest to affect with this spell. Still, it makes a great tool for fighting certain NPCs, especially since one of those has a Moonstone and casts Prismatic Spray. ;)

Elude A wonderful idea, poorly implemented. It's a great defense against monsters as you XP, since you can dodge all the basic level attacks of basic mobs. Sadly, it requires a high Covert to be useful, and because of how cheap it is to raise Covert and how quickly that causes you to go up in levels when you do raise it, and the fact that you get less XP when you're a higher level than a lower level, you want to wait until the end of your advancement to raise Covert, at a point when Elude's primary purpose isn't useful any more. But... at least you get a +5 Dex out of it, though Dex doesn't actually help you in any way other than a bonus for the next 4 commands. On the up side, there's the Temple max to do now, and few mobs can hit you once you're maxxed in Covert anyhows. So, this command seems almost made for the Temple max period of advancement. II miss the days when this Command gave you up to a 50 Dex :P Those were the Dart Playing days of the Sorc....)

Hide Once you're level 99, and you raise that stealth, stay hidden. Even with a 5 Covert, and a mediocre Dex, you can hide pretty easily (though it might take 2 or 3 attempts).

Sneak Create Macro keys on your zmud client once you pass level 99 that every single move you make is a 'sneak'. Ie, click on the Macros Button, click on New, hit the key you want to have going in a direction (the 8 on the num-pad for north), and in the value box type in: sneak north

Stay in stealth mode, or be prey to pirates (unless you're a Scatter-bot).

Palm #ALIAS get palm (Don't give away your stealth with a "Someone gets a potion from Elven Travel Bag")

Slip #ALIAS give slip (Don't give away your stealth with a "Someone gives 3245 platinum coins to Elven Travel Bag")

Triggers are the meat of any good character, so if you don't have ZMud(CMud), not only will you not know what I'm talking about here, but you're missing out. Majorly.

To those that know a bit, here's a basic tutorial on how to use Triggers, and common fallacies with trigger use. The most common of all fallacies is that so many people trigger reactions to actions. Ie: #TR {spell ends} {cast spell}
BAD!

You have to think outside the linear progression of basic triggers, and instead, focus on turns. Every 2 seconds, you get another "turn" to do up to 10 actions. During that "turn" you can not do some things multiple times, such as casting a defensive spell (1 per turn). So, a good trigger setup learns to use the turns, learns to count actions, and learns to take the 10 most important actions needed, and do just those 10. That is assuming, however, that you're letting your 'bot' do everything. Including movement. Since few will ever do that, you should probably limit yourself to moving 5 squares per turn, and letting your triggers have the other 5, especially in a combat situation. So, the very first step to using triggers is to turn your Hud on and start using your Turns. Here are the things you need to do for Hud:

monitor off
hud on
hud linemode on
hud hp numerical
hud rate 1
hud max xp on
hud autoclear on

If you have any other hud options on, including defenses, you should turn those off, though changing your char set (to 4) is fine.

Step 2: You're now getting spammed, so create a simple Reactive trigger that aides you in tracking basic data.

#TRIGGER {^Hp: (%d)~((%d)~) Gp: (%d)~((%d)~) Xp: (%d)~((%d)~)} {#VAR hp %1;#VAR maxhp %2;#VAR gp %3;#VAR maxgp %4;#VAR xp %5;#VAR maxxp 6;#GAG;}

Note, you could also use the ampersane (&) to store the variables, but you have less control over what that means, which becomes important in other Hud layouts, as I'll show further down, so as a general rule, I'll always use the (%X) to create triggers with you.

Next up, get graphical. You should have a few gauge buttons going on, so fill these in

#GAUGE hp "@hp (@maxhp)" @hp @maxhp 0 "" "blue" "" "red"
#GAUGE gp "@gp (@maxgp)" @gp @maxgp 0 "" "blue" "" "red"
#GAUGE xp "@xp (@maxxp)" @xp @maxxp 0 "" "blue" "" "red"

Next step is learning to organize actions to turn. The most important Curative spell for a Mystic is Animal Animo, so let's look at how to do that.

#TR {^You reach out to nearby fauna, calling them to aid your regenerative powers} {#VAR animo 1} {mystic}
#TR {^Your mystical regenerative powers have dissipated} {#VAR animo 0} {mystic}

This says that, once we've cast the spell, set a variable, once the spell expires, reset the variable. We put the class at mystic (the {mystic} part) so that we can just disable that if we refresh into a new character, without having to rebuild it if we refresh into a Mystic later.
Now add this to a turn:

#TRIGGER {Hp: (%d)~((%d)~) Gp: (%d)~((%d)~) Xp: (%d)~((%d)~)} {#VAR maxActions 5;#VAR curative 0; #IF (@animo = 0 and @curative = 0 and @actions < @maxActions) {cast animal animo;#var defense 1;#add actions 1}} {mystic}

Boy, that's a bit complicated, but easy to read. If your Animo is gone, you haven't cast a curative spell yet, and you've taken fewer actions than your maximum number of actions, then cast the spell, mark that you've cast a curative spell, and add 1 to your actions so you can see that you've taken 1 of your 5 potential actions.

And it's JUST as fast as a reactive trigger. You never have to worry about "You are already casting a curative spell" nor of a "Too many queued commands. Restart will free queue. Discarding cast".

Now you have to do it for combat situations (always differentiate the 2 by creating 2 seperate triggers that do pretty much the same thing. Nothing is more important than seeing that you're in (or not in) combat).

#TRIGGER {Hp: (%d)~((%d)~) ** (*) ** Gp: (%d)~((%d)~) Xp: (%d)~((%d)~)} {#VAR maxActions 5;#VAR curative 0; #IF (@animo = 0 and @curative = 0 and @actions < @maxActions) {cast animal animo;#var defense 1;#add actions 1}} {mystic}

ZMud Triggers

Turn this off and on easily by typing the word 'stealth' in the command line at any time (You can also make a Macro Key for it instead)

#CLASS {Stealth}

#ALIAS stealth { #IF (@stealth = 1) { #VAR stealth 0 #SHOW {Stealth Mode Turned Off!} } { #VAR stealth 1 #SHOW {Stealth Mode Turned On!} } }

#VAR hiding {0}

#VAR stealth {0}

#TRIGGER {^Ok, you hide in the shadows} { #IF (@hiding = 0) {consider me} #CAP spam #gag }

#TRIGGER {^You are currently hidden} { #VAR hiding 1 #CAP spam #GAG }

#TRIGGER {^Hp: (%d)~((%d)~) Gp: (%d)~((%d)~) Xp: (%d)~((%d)~)} { #IF (@hiding = 0 and @stealth = 1) { hide #ADD gp -10 #ADD actions 1 } }

#TRIGGER {^You consider yourself to be very considering} { hide #CAP spam #gag }

#TRIGGER {^You need to consider someone who exists} { #VAR hiding 1 #CAP spam #gag }

#TRIGGER {^You appear from the shadows} { #VAR hiding 0 #CAP spam #gag }

#TRIGGER {^You leap from the shadows} { #VAR hiding 0 #CAP spam #gag }

#TRIGGER {^You attack} {#VAR hiding 0}

#KEY SUB {#IF (@stealth = 1) {sneak up} {up}}

#KEY ADD {#IF (@stealth = 1) {sneak down} {down}}

#KEY KEY1 {#IF (@stealth = 1) {sneak southwest} {southwest}}

#KEY KEY2 {#IF (@stealth = 1) {sneak south} {south}}

#KEY KEY3 {#IF (@stealth = 1) {sneak southeast} {southeast}}

#KEY KEY4 {#IF (@stealth = 1) {sneak west} {west}}

#KEY KEY5 {glance}

#KEY KEY6 {#IF (@stealth = 1) {sneak east} {east}}

#KEY KEY7 {#IF (@stealth = 1) {sneak northwest} {northwest}}

#KEY KEY8 {#IF (@stealth = 1) {sneak north} {north}}

#KEY KEY9 {#IF (@stealth = 1) {sneak northeast} {northeast}}

#CLASS 0

Feel free to rip this for your own guild setup, I wrote this today inside of an hour, so it's not as fully tested as I might like, you might wanna come back later to get an updated version of the Bot. But, seems to be working great so far...

#CLASS {SorcBot}

#VAR reduce {0} {satchel}

#VAR drop {0}

#VAR stormBond {0}

#VAR invisItem {0}

#VAR layeredWindsDef {0}

#VAR airSteelDef {0}

#VAR resistElecDef {0}

#VAR resistMagDef {0}

#VAR defCasting {0}

#VAR targetDef {0}

#VAR miscDef {0}

#VAR defDef {0}

#VAR allowedDefs {arnthor|sphynx}

#TRIGGER {(*) says loudly, ~"(%w) (*)~"} { #IF (@defCasting = 1) {sa Please wait, someone else is currently being taken cared of} { #IF (%2 = reduce) { get %3 #var reduce %3 #var defCasting 1 } #IF (%2 = bond) { get %3 #VAR stormBond %3 #var defCasting 1 } #IF (%2 = invis) { get %3 #VAR invisItem %3 #var defCasting 1 } #IF (%2 = winds and %ismember( %lower( %3), @allowedDefs)) { #VAR layeredWindsDef %3 #var defCasting 1 } #IF (%2 = steel and %ismember( %lower( %3), @allowedDefs)) { #VAR airSteelDef %3 #var defCasting 1 } #IF (%2 = defs and %ismember( %lower( %3), @allowedDefs)) { #VAR defenses 1 #var defCasting 1 #var layeredWindsDef %3 #VAR airSteelDef %3 #VAR resistElecDef %3 #VAR resistMagDef %3 sa Casting Layered Winds, Air Steel, Resist Magic and Resist Electricty on %3 } #IF (%ismember( %2, "defs|winds|steel") and %ismember( %lower( %3), @allowedDefs) = 0) {sa Sorry, %3, you are not currently in my list of Allowed Defenders, if you're an Elf or a Friend I will add you as soon as I am not AFK.} } }

#TRIGGER {^Hp:} { #VAR targetDef 0 #VAR miscDef 0 #VAR defDef 0 #IF (@drop <> 0) { drop @drop #VAR drop 0 } #IF (@reduce <> 0) { cast reduce weight @reduce #VAR drop @reduce #VAR reduce 0 #var miscDef 1 } #IF (@stormBond <> 0 and @miscDef = 0) { cast aerial possession @stormBond #VAR drop @stormBond #var stormBond 0 #var miscDef 1 } #IF (@invisItem <> 0 and @miscDef = 0) { cast invisibility @invisItem #VAR drop @invisItem #VAR targetDef @invisItem #var invisItem 0 } #IF (@layeredWindsDef <> 0 and @defDef = 0) { cast layered winds @layeredWindsDef #var targetDef @layeredWindsDef #var layeredWindsDef 0 #var defDef 1 } #IF (@airSteelDef <> 0 and @defDef = 0) { cast air steel @airSteelDef #var targetDef @airSteelDef #VAR airSteelDef 0 #var defDef 1 } #IF (@resistElecDef <> 0 and @defDef = 0) { cast resist electricity @resistElecDef #var targetDef @resistElecDef #VAR resistElecDef 0 #var defDef 1 } #IF (@resistMagDef <> 0 and @defDef = 0) { cast resist magic @resistMagDef #VAR targetDef @resistMagDef #VAR resistMagDef 0 } #IF (@stormBond = 0 and @reduce = 0 and @invisItem = 0 and @layeredWindsDef = 0 and @airSteelDef = 0 and @resistElecDef = 0 and @resistMagDef = 0 and @defCasting = 1) { say Castings Complete! Next! #VAR defCasting 0 } }

#TRIGGER {^Your target is already resisting electricity} { sa You are already resisting Electricity, @targetDef #VAR resistElecDef 0 }

#TRIGGER {^Your target is already resisting magic} { sa You are already resisting Magic, @targetDef #VAR resistMagDef 0 }

#TRIGGER {Cannot find (*)} {#IF (@casting = 1) {sa Sorry, can not find the %1. Please try dropping it first and then use the lsay command to re-initiate the casting}}

#TRIGGER {^Your target is protected with a similar spell} {sa You are already protected by a Layer or Image type spell, @targetDef, Layered Winds won't stack.}

#TRIGGER {Your target is already protected by this spell} {sa You are already protected by a Defensive Armour spell that Air Steel will not stack with, @targetDef.}

#CLASS 0

#CLASS {Sorcerer}

#ALIAS ef { #VAR airSteel 0 #VAR electricField 0 #VAR shockingGrasp 0 #VAR eluding 0 #VAR outerWinds 0 #VAR innerWinds 0 #var mysticalCloak 0 effects }

#ALIAS get {palm}

#ALIAS give {slip}

#VAR eluding {0}

#VAR invis {0}

#TRIGGER {^Hp: (%d)~((%d)~)(*)Gp: (%d)~((%d)~) Xp: (%d)~((%d)~)} { #IF (@pk = 1) { #FORALL @targets { cast silence %i cast lightning rampage %i cast zephyrs breath %i } } #IF (@xping = 0 and @pk = 0) {cast lightning rampage} #IF (@xping = 1 and @pk = 0) { #FORALL @targets {cast scatter %i} #IF (@gp = @maxgp) {cast lightning storm} } #IF (@eluding = 0) {elude} #IF (@innerWinds = 0) { detach hair cast layered winds me inner } #IF (@outerWinds = 0) { detach hair cast layered winds me outer } #IF (@electricField = 0) {cast electric field} #IF (@mysticalCloak = 0) {cast mystical cloak} #IF (@airSteel = 0) {cast air steel} #IF (@shockingGrasp = 0 and @invis = 0) {cast shocking grasp} #IF (@blueScale = 0) {detach scale} #VAR attack 1 }

#TRIGGER {^A blue dragon scale turns to dust} {#VAR blueScale 0}

#TRIGGER {^You detach Blue Dragon Scale from the Cloak Liner} {#VAR blueScale 1}

#BUTTON 6 {Outer Winds: @outerWinds ~(@maxOuterWinds)} {} {} {} {@outerWinds} {} {} {Size} {128} {16} {Pos} {16} {0} {27} {} {Gauge||4|@maxOuterWinds||4} {} "" {Explore|Inset} {} {}

#BUTTON 7 {Inner Winds: @innerWinds ~(@maxInnerWinds)} {} {} {} {@innerWinds} {} {} {Size} {128} {16} {Pos} {16} {128} {27} {} {Gauge||4|@maxInnerWinds||4} {} "" {Explore|Inset} {} {}

#CLASS 0

#CLASS {Sorcerer|Air Steel}

#VAR airSteel {1}

#TRIGGER {^The hardened air around you softens} {#VAR airSteel 0}

#TRIGGER {^You cast a spell, causing the air around you to harden} {#VAR airSteel 1}

#TRIGGER {^You are surrounded by hardened air} { #VAR airSteel 1 #CAP spam #GAG }

#CLASS 0

#CLASS {Sorcerer|Electric Field}

#VAR electricField {1}

#TRIGGER {^You cast a spell on yourself and are surrounded by a crackling field of electric energy} {#VAR electricField 1}

#TRIGGER {^Your Electric Field Spell Expires} {#VAR electricfield 0}

#TRIGGER {^You cast a spell on yourself, who become surrounded by a field of electric energy} {#VAR electricField 1}

#TRIGGER {^You are surrounded by an Electric Field} { #VAR electricField 1 #CAP spam #GAG }

#CLASS 0

#CLASS {Sorcerer|Shocking Grasp}

#VAR shockingGrasp {1}

#TRIGGER {^Your hands have lost their electrical energy} {#VAR shockingGrasp 0}

#TRIGGER {^You finish your spell and your hands begin to crackle with electrical flashes} {#VAR shockingGrasp 1}

#TRIGGER {^Your hands are surrounded by flashes of electricity} { #VAR shockingGrasp 1 #CAP spam #GAG }

#CLASS 0

#CLASS {Sorcerer|Layered Winds}

#VAR outerWinds {10}

#VAR maxOuterWinds {10}

#VAR innerWinds {23}

#VAR maxInnerWinds {23}

#VAR halfInner {10}

#TRIGGER {The winds pick up and strengthen your outer defences. (%d) layers remain} { #VAR outerWinds %1 #IF (%1 > @maxOuterWinds) {#VAR maxOuterWinds %1} }

#TRIGGER {The winds pick up and strengthen your inner defences. (%d) layers remain} { #VAR innerWinds %1 #IF (%1 > @maxInnerWinds) {#VAR maxInnerWinds %1} }

#TRIGGER {(*) destroys one of your Outer Winds! (%d) remain} { #VAR outerWinds %2 #ADDITEM targets %1 #DELITEM targets Minotaur #DELITEM targets Orc #DELITEM targets Ogre #DELITEM targets Troll #IF (@hud = 0) { hud on #VAR hud 1 } #IF (@fighting = 0) { cast silence %1 cast lightning rampage %1 cast zephyrs breath %1 } #IF (%2 = 0) {cast layered winds me outer} }

#TRIGGER {(*) destroys one of your Inner Winds! (%d) remain} { #VAR innerWinds %2 #ADDITEM targets %1 #IF (%2 = 0) {cast layered winde me inner} }

#TRIGGER {^You are surrounded by (%d) Outer Winds} { #VAR outerWinds %1 #CAP spam #GAG }

#TRIGGER {^You are surrounded by (%d) Inner Winds} { #VAR innerWinds %1 #CAP spam #GAG }

#TRIGGER {^(%d) Inner Winds now surround you} { #VAR innerWinds %1 #IF (@maxInnerWinds < %1) {#VAR maxInnerWinds %1} attach hair }

#TRIGGER {^(%d) Outer Winds now surround you} { #VAR outerWinds %1 #IF (%1 > @maxOuterWinds) {#VAR maxOuterWinds %1} }

#TRIGGER {^You do not have anywhere to place winds} { attach hair #VAR outerWinds @maxOuterWinds #VAR innerWinds @maxInnerWinds }

#CLASS 0

#CLASS {Sorcerer|Elude}

#TRIGGER {^You feel a lot less agile} {#VAR eluding 0}

#TRIGGER {^You are eluding} { #VAR eluding 1 #CAP spam #GAG }

#TRIGGER {^You feel a lot more agile} {#VAR eluding 1}

#CLASS 0

#CLASS {Sorcerer|Mystical Cloak}

#VAR mysticalCloak {1}

#TRIGGER {^Your mystical cloak disappears} {#VAR mysticalCloak 0}

#TRIGGER {^You cast a spell, forming a shimmering cloak about you} {#VAR mysticalCloak 1}

#TRIGGER {^You are surrounded by a mystical cloak of blue energy} { #VAR mysticalCloak 1 #CAP spam #GAG }

#CLASS 0

#CLASS {Sorcerer|invisibility}

#TRIGGER {^You are now invisible} {#VAR invis 1}

#TRIGGER {^You suddenly appear} {#VAR invis 0}

#CLASS 0