I currently have 95 magic, and thanks to the mage arena, finally have enough money to seriously consider 99. Of the many options available to train magic, I decided to mage steel dragons, for several reasons: I could use the HP exp, since I've PC-ed a decent amount and need to catch it back up, I hate alching, since it's really boring, and the same goes for enchanting. So, onto the questions:

 

1. Is this a good idea? If not, what should I do?

 

2. Will it take forever? I'm not in a big hurry, but I would prefer it didn't take months and months.

 

3. I plan on using wind bolt w/ gaunts, and according to the tip.it calc, it will take 170k casts, not including damage, so how many would I need including damage?

 

4. What gear should I bring? How many anti-fire pots will I need?

 

5. What's the best strategy for maging them?

 

 

 

Thanks for any help.

This is a fun way to level mage (I did it recently on my pure for 70-85), you will need to use fire bolt, wind bolt is just a waste. Your inventory will look like this:

 

 

 

16 Antifire Pots

 

Any axe (dropping it later)

 

905 GP

 

2 free spaces

 

50 Nats

 

8k Chaos

 

24k Airs or 32k Fires (depending which you buy)

 

A teleport (1 click preferrable)

 

 

 

My guess for the amount of casts you will need is about 120k MAX. At street prices with buying airs (as i did) this will cost you about 18,360,000 gp. This seems like a lot but each run you will leave with about 200k of alchs, 500 bloods, 50+ rune bolts, A half key or too and the possibility of a dragon drop. And if you get a visage you are covered for all 120k casts.

 

 

 

The strategy I recommend is go on the east side of the cave, there is two spawns there and if you are the only one killing steels you will be in constant combat. If you have a timer on your comp (or if you want to dl one) it will help. Set it for 5 minutes every time you drink a sip of antifire and though it wont run out at 5 minutes, it will by the time 6 minutes goes by. Just try and keep your curry drops, and kebabs ect. from randoms.

 

 

 

If you get a random and the dragon is redbarred or VERY close then you can finish it, otherwise you will probably have to run all the way back up to the entrance and go through the vines (avoiding the dog on the other side). I usually fight the Hyde's just because they can drop pray pots, super restores and maybe an antifire.

 

 

 

Hope this helps you and if you need to know anything else just post and ill check back soon.

Thanks for the info. I just rechecked the tip.it calc, and realized that they already average in damage, so if I use fire bolt it would take around 110k casts, so how many anti-fire pots would I need, and how much do they cost?

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you get a random and the dragon is redbarred or VERY close then you can finish it, otherwise you will probably have to run all the way back up to the entrance and go through the vines (avoiding the dog on the other side).

 

 

And I'm nt exactly sure what you mean by this, why would I have to run all the way to the entrance if I get a random?

You will need approximately 250 Antifires (3k each sometimes a lil less) and this is assuming you use 7k casts per trip which I think you will.

 

 

 

The reason you have to run all the way to the entrance is because the dragons can use their breath super long range, so you will not have enough time to talk to the sandwich lady (the biggest threat) in between the dragonfire.

Thank you :)