1. Are level 7 spells ok to still use, or are level 8 a must have?

2. Is there a good site that is still updated that I can learn all the changes I have missed. I checked the ones I still had bookmarked but they seem to pretty dead.

3. What "spec" is decent for magic users now. I was spec'd Life, War and Creature.

I just started back after 6 years and found this wiki to be a very valuable resource.
http://asheron.wikia.com/wiki/ACC_Wiki_Home
I started the old battle mage template war and life spec'd, not sure what if that the best just what I remember.

Hope this helps and Good Luck!

7's are just as effective as before, although you'll likely want to get 8's once you can. For the self buff's some are only slightly more powerful than the 7's they supplant, where they shine is Duration. Level 8 spells have a base duration of 90 minutes on buffs, and once you do all 5 buff augmentations it doubles to 3 hours, a NICE improvement over a fully aug'd 2 hour level 7 spell. There are also time when that extra 5 points in a skill puts you over the top in the battle to land a spell or not. For life and Creature magic buffs 414 skill or there abouts seemed to be a tipping point for fizzles.

The Wiki is a good resource for sure, it *IS* the broadest, most up to date knowledge resource for AC out there atm. There is some of the older content that has more info or perhaps a better presentation on what I will call Legacy sites, but the Wiki by it's nature just keeps getting better.

Creature Life and War is generally refered to as being a CLaW mage, a good end game template (aka high level content), I know a couple of VERY effective CLaW mages. Me, my (gimpy) playstyle is better off being War and melee D spec.

 

-----signature-----

Level 7's are still just fine, but 8's are obviously better, so get them when you can. And as stated, the wiki is very nice.

For specs, most people go towards a melee mage spec so they can play in eaters/EO. 100 coord or quick, 100 focus, 100 self, spec melee and war, train item, life, creature, mana conversion, the usual. Later on you can actually spec creature too, if you want.

I am coming back as well. I have an old school Og Mage at level 91. I wonder what I should redo him as to make him more viable in today's Dereth.

 

-----signature-----