This Tierlist is based on how easy it is to get ranking Point NOT first place, its ordered in itself i.e. King of nothing > King of Nature and I do think every King is well balanced right now (except for King of nothing batshit broken and only 1 strat that really works)
im gonna yap for a bit so here is a short summary of what I am gonna say:
Gothic II never reveals the identity of the Black Magician of Irdorath. It only establishes that he is a former member of the Sleeper’s Brotherhood who later becomes the leader of the Seekers after the Sleeper’s defeat. The game does not explain which specific Brotherhood member he was, why he retained a coherent personality while other Seekers lose their sanity, or how the Seekers were reorganized between Gothic 1 and Gothic II.
In the Gothic 1 Remake, Mud is given additional characterization that did not exist in the original game. He reports hearing the Sleeper’s voice without Swampweed, is shown surviving Cor Kalom’s mind-affecting trial, and is more directly involved in late-stage Brotherhood-related content than before. His portrayal also emphasizes an unusual cognitive pattern: low social understanding, but a consistent and stable internal perception of reality.
These Remake additions create a clearer point of comparison with the Black Magician, who is the only Seeker to retain individuality, leadership ability, and structured intent despite originating from the same group that becomes mentally destroyed by the Sleeper’s final influence.
The theory is speculative, but Mud is currently one of the few characters with an established Brotherhood origin, Sleeper connection, and reinforced mental resilience that can be aligned with the unexplained stability and origin of the Black Magician in Gothic II without contradicting existing canon. I am not gonna say everything about Mud is perfectly fit to be the Black magician, we just dont know enough, but everything new Alkima added regarding Mud fits this narrative.
Now the Long Version
The Black Magician of Irdorath is the unnamed former member of the Sleeper’s Brotherhood who emerges after the destruction of the Sleeper as the first fully coherent authority within the Seeker faction. In Gothic II he functions as the operational leader of the Seekers on Irdorath, commanding corrupted Brotherhood remnants and acting as the primary intermediary between Beliar’s influence and the material execution of his will through the preparation of the Undead Dragon. He is not simply another Seeker, but the only one who retains identity, structured reasoning, and strategic intent after the psychic collapse that reduces all other former cult members to fragmented, irrational servants. His role is therefore not defined by personal history in the narrative, but by function: he is the stabilized endpoint of the Sleeper’s corruption process, the individual in whom the otherwise destructive transformation results not in annihilation of the self, but in preserved cognition redirected into alignment with Beliar. Gothic II never provides his name or origin beyond this former Brotherhood affiliation, and his identity remains intentionally withheld, leaving only his role as leader, guardian of Irdorath, and final Seeker authority before the Undead Dragon as the sole canonical definition of what he is.
In the Gothic I Remake, Mud is expanded in ways that are not present in the original game and, more importantly, in ways that consistently align him with the same narrative space that the Black Magician occupies in Gothic II. He is no longer just a background joke character. In Chapter 4 especially, he becomes repeatedly associated with the Sleeper’s influence in a way that no other minor NPC is. He claims to hear the Sleeper’s voice continuously without the use of Swampweed, which places him outside the normal mechanics by which Brotherhood members or novices typically establish or amplify their connection to the Sleeper. At the same time, he is drawn into the remaining structures of Cor Kalom’s faction and directly interacts with the final remnants of the Sleeper cult at a point in the story where ideological alignment with the Brotherhood is already collapsing into fanaticism and fragmentation.
On top of this, the Remake introduces a clear consistency in how Mud’s mind is portrayed. His intelligence is still low in terms of social interpretation and interaction, but his internal perception of reality is unusually stable. He does not show a gradual degradation into incoherence or madness; instead, he remains structurally coherent within his own cognitive framework, even under conditions that are explicitly described as mentally dangerous. The Cor Kalom potion sequence reinforces this further, as Mud survives a mind-affecting test designed to eliminate individuals with weak mental resistance. Regardless of interpretation, the result establishes him as unusually resistant to cognitive collapse compared to standard novices.
Taken together, these changes do not simply “expand” Mud as a character; they place him into a very specific type of profile: a Brotherhood-adjacent individual with direct Sleeper exposure, sustained proximity to collapsing cult structures, and an abnormal but stable cognitive architecture that does not fracture under influence which destroys or erases identity in others.
This becomes significant only when compared to the Black Magician of Irdorath in Gothic II. He is the sole Seeker who does not follow the established pattern of mental destruction that defines every other former member of the Brotherhood. While all other Seekers lose individuality, coherent speech, and autonomous intent, the Black Magician retains exactly those traits. He organizes, commands, and operates as a strategic leader rather than a broken vessel of Beliar’s will. Gothic II never explains why this divergence exists or what initially separates him from the mass transformation that defines the rest of the group.
Crucially, Gothic II also leaves the organizational phase between Gothic I and Gothic II entirely unexplained. The Seekers do not simply appear as scattered individuals, but as a coordinated force capable of targeted actions across Khorinis, implying a level of structure and leadership that must have formed after the Sleeper’s defeat. Yet no Paladin order, mage faction, or surviving Brotherhood authority is ever shown establishing or controlling this transition. The Black Magician appears already positioned as leader once the narrative resumes on Irdorath, meaning the process of how he reached that position is entirely off-screen and structurally unaccounted for.
Within that same gap, another unresolved element becomes relevant: the Black Magician’s immediate and precise hostility toward the Nameless Hero. The “Evil Forces” waste no time sending Seekers to hunt down the nameless Hero and step out of the shadows after we accomplished the earthshattering Act of obtaining a single letter from a paladin, a random Baal might not identify us as such a threat to their plan but Mud accompanied the nameless Hero over several chapters. This level of targeted prioritization implies either direct identification of the Hero’s role in the Sleeper’s defeat or retained personal continuity from Gothic I, since Beliar’s influence alone is not consistently shown to function as detailed tactical briefing across his servants.
When viewed in parallel, the Remake’s depiction of Mud establishes a character who shares multiple structural prerequisites for this unexplained divergence: exposure to the Sleeper’s influence, sustained involvement in Brotherhood-adjacent ideology during its collapse phase, and a cognitive profile that is unstable in social function but unusually resistant in terms of identity breakdown. Unlike most candidates, he is also uniquely positioned within repeated direct interaction with the Nameless Hero during Gothic I’s progression, creating a continuous narrative link between Hero trajectory and Sleeper-related factional behavior.
This does not resolve the identity of the Black Magician, and it does not claim a direct equivalence between the two characters. It also does not require assuming that every trait aligns perfectly; Gothic lore itself rarely operates on strict one-to-one causality. What it does is narrow the range of plausible explanations for the Black Magician’s existence by introducing a character whose expanded Remake portrayal uniquely overlaps with the specific kind of cognitive resilience, Sleeper linkage, and narrative continuity that Gothic II requires but never explains.
The theory therefore remains speculative. Mud is not confirmed to be the Black Magician, and there is insufficient canonical information to make any definitive claim in that direction. However, within the combined constraints of Piranha Bytes’ original lore and Alkimia’s expanded Remake content, he is currently one of the very few characters whose established traits can be consistently mapped onto the unexplained stability, origin, leadership emergence, and Hero-targeting behavior of the Black Magician in Gothic II without introducing contradictions into either version of the canon.
What makes the Remake material relevant is not that it “proves” anything, but that it adds exactly the kind of missing characterization that Gothic II never provides for its most undefined antagonist.
Yes I used AI for this shut up, I wrote the original text in my Mother Language but I will not translate all of this by myself
Feedback on the Current Mage Gameplay in Gothic 1 Remake
I am very disappointed with the current state of magic in the Gothic 1 Remake. While the visual effects, animations, and overall presentation of spells are fantastic, the actual gameplay experience of playing a mage feels weak, frustrating, and often unrewarding. This is the result of several interconnected issues.
One of the biggest problems is that many Circle 2–4 spells have excessively long cast times while offering very little reward.
For example, Ice Block requires roughly three seconds of charging plus additional casting time before the spell is actually released. During this entire process, the player cannot move and is completely vulnerable. The spell deals only 60 damage while costing 3 mana and requiring Circle 3.
When compared to Ice Arrow, a Circle 1 spell, the difference is difficult to justify. Ice Arrow deals around 40 DPS, costs only 1 mana per second, allows full movement during casting, and applies the same freeze effect much more reliably because multiple hits create multiple chances to trigger it. Ice Block, meanwhile, is essentially a 50/50 gamble every few seconds.
Receiving a supposedly stronger rune should feel like an upgrade. Currently, many higher-tier spells feel like a downgrade instead.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated example. The same pattern appears throughout most Circle 2–4 spells.
I actually like the idea that enemies have individual elemental resistances. The problem is that the game provides almost no way for players to discover them.
The only method is trial and error, and even then players are mostly guessing.
There are many systems already present in the game that could communicate this information:
Without such systems, players often spend several seconds charging a spell, attract nearby enemies, and then discover that their spell deals almost no damage because the target happens to resist that element.
That is not strategic gameplay—it is frustration.
Many mid- and late-game enemies require multiple expensive casts to defeat.
I assume the reasoning is that many spells have area-of-effect potential and therefore need lower damage values for balance. However, this ignores the practical realities of combat.
To hit multiple enemies, a mage must either:
Because robe armor offers significantly lower protection than other equipment types, mages cannot realistically survive long enough to make full use of these AoE opportunities.
As a result, the theoretical strength of AoE spells rarely translates into actual gameplay.
Mage gameplay comes with several economic disadvantages:
This is especially noticeable with summoning magic.
Summons such as Skeletons or Golems would solve many of the mage's core problems:
However, most summoning spells are limited to consumable scrolls that cannot even be crafted by the player and must be purchased. This greatly limits experimentation and makes entire playstyles practically inaccessible.
The same applies to many transformation spells, which are not available as runes despite offering unique gameplay possibilities.
The way resistances currently function can create situations where a spell effectively stops dealing meaningful damage.
A mage may spend considerable time and resources reducing an enemy to 5% HP, only to discover that their remaining spells cannot finish the target because of resistance scaling.
This creates a frustrating situation where players are forced into another full charge cycle just to remove the final sliver of health.
Ironically, weaker spells often become unusable against these enemies, removing an important tactical option that should exist in a magic-focused build.
There are simply not enough runes available.
Many interesting magical options are locked behind scarce scrolls, which means the mage's toolkit actually becomes more restricted than expected.
In practice, a mage run often looks like this:
This creates very little progression and makes many runes feel irrelevant.
Several spells have inconsistent behavior.
Lightning Ball and Fireball increase in size while charging, but their collision detection often feels unreliable. Lightning Ball in particular can pass through enemies, yet a single leaf or small environmental object can prematurely detonate the spell.
The range is also surprisingly short.
A fully charged projectile often explodes after only a short distance, forcing the player to stand close enough that enemies have already detected them. This eliminates opportunities for meaningful ambushes and makes long cast times even more problematic, though this can also be because of my low render distance.
One of the strangest aspects of the current balance is that magic feels strongest in the early game and weakest in the late game.
Low-tier spells are efficient, reliable, and cost-effective.
As the player unlocks more advanced circles, spells become slower, riskier, and often less efficient than their early-game alternatives.
This is the exact opposite of how mage progression felt in the original Gothic, where reaching higher circles was a major power spike and one of the primary rewards for investing in magic.
Conclusion
The visual side of magic is already excellent. The animations, effects, and presentation are impressive and genuinely enjoyable.
The problem is that the gameplay mechanics do not support the fantasy of being a powerful mage.
The only efficent Mage build I could find is when you play about 80% as a meleebuild and occasionally use a Firerain or Deathzone
Something needs to change.
Either mages need significantly more utility options through summons, transformations, and alternative spell mechanics, or they need substantially higher DPS through shorter cast times, higher damage values, or both.
Additionally, secondary effects should be more reliable and less dependent on luck. A mage should be able to plan encounters around crowd control and status effects instead of gambling on whether they trigger.
At the moment, magic looks amazing, but it often feels ineffective. The foundation is there, but the numbers, progression, and gameplay systems need considerable adjustment before the mage experience can compete with other builds.
Feel free to discuss and/or prove me wrong but please stay respectful to the Dev team espically since this posts main Focus is to give feedback so they can improve on the already beatiful game they gave us
First go with Baal Parvez to the weed camp and grab some lockpicks from the cave at the entrance. You will Level up on the way there. After that learn climbing and team up with Mordrag to reach the new camp, and on the route you will hit level 2 and then spent all LP on mana (Trainer is Cronos) to get to 20 max Mana
Then go to Xardas Sunken Tower, taking the path over the top of the Stone Arc. You only have to dodge 4 orcs and sneak past the bloodhounds. Inside the tower dive down into the lower section, bait the skeletons away, and loot the first chest before the mage room, which contains a Fire Rain scroll that costs 20 mana.
After that head to the Mountain Fortress, where you can sprint past almost everything. At the climbing section there is a harpy that will almost always spot you and kill you. The trick is to trigger her and wait until she flies very low into the stone wall so she bugs into the tower, which gives you a tight window to climb up safely ( a second will trigger but if you climb perfectly she is gonna miss you by 1 second).
When almost at the top cast Fire Rain to wipe out all the harpies waiting there, then lockpick the chest (solution in the comments), pick up the key, and backtracked down into the attic (just after the book riddle). From there Drop down and go backwards and use the key to unlock the bedroom chest, where the armor is.
If you want to go further, you can also take a transform Bloodfly scroll from Cronos and fly over to the second chest on the tower with the broken bridge, but I didn’t risk it since it took me a few tries to get the run consistent even in normal mode.
Good luck with the heist.
For anyone intressted I have pillage so my Earthworks and Overhauls proc double, I use Earthworks on my Gachas to get 3 new working Gachas everytime I use overhaul (double stacks bc pillager) to buff rats which I then combine with support buildings via Chaos Earthworks to level them to 400+ I can then use my 85k stacks of reinforce to get infinity% stacking DMG per Level up which I then convert to HP via Balance from the Gachas