MabiPro: The Authentic Old-School Mabinogi Experience

So, I have never played the old Mabinogi version, so I am really only familiar with Mabi in it's current form, in the Nexon servers. And my highest level character there is about 180 cumulative, so still a freshie. This server has longer charge times for magic, making me think that magic may not be viable at all (because as soon as one skill goes off mobs will rush and wreck). I'm talking both early game and late game. I'd like someone to explain to me how magic is and isn't viable compared to the duel sword combat master everyone else seems to go with.

In my opinion magic is most certainly viable. It has the potential of dealing the most damage (internediate magic). But it is a skill set That isnt very user friendly. High AP costs, high CP gain, MP being hard to get/keep(mana evaportion and mp pots not available through NPC's). Also, as you said, the long load times leave you open for attacks. So using magic as your main skillset from the start is something I'd advice against, although There are people who can pull it off. But it is a skillset That can be very usefull on the Side, or when u have a decent melee base to fall back on.
Edit: rereading my reply I notice That I Dont really give any concrete answers. Love to discuss my opinion in game Some time.

I only use magic in this server so I can't tell u how it compares to dual wield or range.

pros:
-Range, never misses, very safe
-Big AOE
-intermediate magic ignores protection so 30% crit is all u need.
-magic is cool?

cons:
-bolt spells are weak
-uses mp potions
-use a lot of AP
-Expensive wands, upgrades and repairs
-slow cast speed

Generally i don't worry about multi aggro because intermediate magic has very long range and stun time, and just use a pet if your in trouble. Ice spear and thunder can kill everything without mana deflector, fireball u can just play dead after firing it.

I don't use the bolts spells because they are very weak, later dungeons enemies have thousands of hp and your lightning bolt does like 100 - 200....
chain casting 4 fire bolt is good but wastes too much mp and no one would use fusion bolt over intermediate magic.

I don't know what u mean by late game, but I use fireball to solo Blood in the Water advance in around 8-9 minutes and around 45-50 minutes to solo Fiodh advance with ice spear, you can get someone to compare the speed. As for the damage it's only average, I think elf range deals the most damage.

Magic is only viable if u have mp, and to get mp u need Mana herbs to make potions or to do Rabbie dungeon to get 30mp pots, which is why most people don't do magic because this is annoying since u have to rank windmill and then spam rabbie for mp pots just use to magic.

zyrus could solo peaca with adv magic pre-g13

Icebolt will carry you through Beginner, Thunder will carry you through Int, when you get to Adv you will still not have enough AP to max out all the Int magic so this is where you'll want some friends or a guild to help you out, kinda where magic gets a bit grindy to play. Once you've got all the Int magic at a high level you're gonna be able to wreck just about anything.
Fusion bolt is strong, but usefulness is debatable early on and by the time you can sustain the usage of wands you're going to have Int magic most likely. Still a very cool skill, though.
As usual, Windmill is 'optional' but recommended to train. You can just spam Their Method to do it so it's not exactly difficult to do. Just boring.
I'd say it's viable but you're going to plateau in the mid-game when you run out of AP and need a constant supply of GP and Mana Herbs to do anything. Will take a lot of effort to push through that grind, but if you like the playstyle you'll enjoy the payoff. I liked using Magic when I played in live, I think Mabinogi has some of the most satisfying spellcasting in any game.

Thanks for the answers, everyone. If anyone has anything else to say that would be great. I loved reading about everyone's opinions on it and I'd like to see some more tips, such as how I might go about obtaining a staff for the Int magic? I think I will try going into a pure magic character, leveling up fusion and bolt magic until I get my Int spells and then refunding all the AP I put into the bolt and fusion skills and putting that into the Int magic (before level 100 of course). That is a good way to combat the AP wall I will run into, as once I get Int magic I most likely won't use fusion or regular bolts anymore. Anyone (who is a mage...) also want to add me in game and maybe coach me a bit about what I should be leveling and how to play? Noxx is my character name as well as my account name.

You're better off keeping the AP in the bolt spells honestly, they're 50 Int a piece at r1 and not really that expensive AP wise. Ice-Fire Fusion bolt is also pretty strong and super MP efficient, 16.5 Firebolts worth of damage plus your Icebolt damage added to that at 5 charges. It isn't an insignificant amount of damage and you can move with it loaded, the only downside is you can't top up the charges you have to cast them all or lose them.

I capped magic by g13 on official mabi and I can tell you it is most certainly viable then. Just do your best to learn the skill set and learn all the effects of magic in this game. Magic had "effects" that are not very relevant in mainstream mabi nowadays (since you just blow through everything anyways now) that were VERY helpful back then. Those effects should be relevant in mabipro.

Magic is morely a support skillset pre-buff to your main one. Before it got the massive buffs and extra skills, most people (including me) invested heavily in melee/range and herbalism if we were to also have a good magic output, since MP pots are hard to make or come by due to scarcity unless you have a herb pet or dungeon spam like hell, while stamina regens extremely quickly (in comparison) and you can mass buy pots from any healer, so we had that as a backup.

ya and you look epic

The trick for CC4 FB is to save it for once you're out of MP.

You only need enough MP for 1 charge to full chain-cast, so use your other spells.

Fuse-bolt LB/FB or FB/IB or sometimes IB/LB can burn through rooms quickly and more mana-efficiently.

Save the CC4 FB spam for stuff that REALLY needs it and keep a stack of MP10's in your lower inventory so you can drink 1 between shots to get enough mana for 1 shot without wasting.