I am new to the world of Lusternia, and have only been playing for 3 RL weeks. I have a loboshigaru bonecrusher as my main character but I am looking to start my alt.

Basically, I was wondering what the big differences between mages and guardians are and what are the major advantages / disadvantages of each archetype?

I am not looking for the most overpowered archetype - just trying to find out a little about each before I start. Any help would be much appreciated.

Mages fight by setting up demesnes, which are areast hat they have taken over that can hit their enemies for passive damage, afflictions, and effects.

Guardians rely mostly on their angels/demons and their other skills to dish out afflictions and perform instant-kills.

Mages (or the commune-equivalent druids) and guardians (/wiccans) really aren't similar.

Guardians have heavy one-on-one afflicting power, generally working towards a kill through something other than damage.

Mages have a strong anti-group offense in the form of demesnes. In a controlled environment, they're supposedly equal to the other archetypes in combat potential. Outside of the artificial spars, an unprepared mage is going to get smeared, whereas the patient and prepared mage can seriously impact a group fight in a way that the others just can't.

Psionic mages and fetishist druids can do much better unprepared, but they're still disadvantaged without a demesne.

Gaurdians (Celestines/Nihilists) worship the beings on the Cosmic planes and their unique skill set deals with investing powers they gain from those beings into an angel or demon which they summon, the power the said angel or demon increases as their skill does.

Wiccans (Moondancers/Shadowdancer) are the commune equivalent, their main skill is Wicca, in which they summon individual fae, each that does something minor to contribute to the overall group.

Mages (Aquamancers/Geomancers) are tied to the Elemental planes of Water and Earth, and have various cool abilities, most of which are tied into then demense, which they must set up and activate powers to use.

Druids (Hartstone/Blacktalon) are the commune equivalent of the Mages, they specialized in attuning themselves to their particular forest and calling out the defenses there of.

All of the above have an additional skill set (determined by nation) and various secondary skill sets which they can pick from.

Moondancers for instance pick from Healing, Astrology, and Hexes. Geomancers pick from Telepathy/Telekenesis, Dreamweaving, and Runes. The list goes on..

In my opinion the secondary skill set, is where you get to choose is really where you decide how you're going to be using your character. A Moondancer with healing for instance is going to be radically different then a Moondancer with hexes.

Anywho, that's just a very generalized overview, it would be best to make some alts, hunt in newton till you can get the basic skills up to mastery, look at some ghelp scrolls on skill sets, and ask around in the game how certain things work. Getting a feel for certain guilds is often as important , or more important, as looking at their skill sets. Try to find guilds you can fit into, or that you can form a character in that you think you'll like playing.

I'm not sure if you knew or not, but in Lusternia you may create as many alts as you wish to, as long as they don't interact with each other and benefit from each other. Each one of the nations has a very involving and different style, and even those of us who are very set in our ways like to hop around and see how life is on the other side from time to time.

...this turned out to be longer then I wanted it to be, oh well.