Resistance is not futile

Mobs have many ways to attack you as you fight them. Saving throws help you to take less damage from many attacks. Some attacks, however, do not actually try and hurt your health, but they will cause you to lose mana in a few different ways. Mobs can dispel you, causing you to lose and have to recast spells you spent valuable mana on casting in the first place. They can curse you to make you far less effective in battle. Some mobs teleport you to a random location on the plain on the mud, forcing you to walk back, defend yourself from a new mob or give up. Others blast magic at you, which can take some of yours away with it.

most saving throws do not help with these kinds of attacks because they are not the kind of damage that can be defended against with the saving throws. There are four different ways to defend against mana attacks. This article will discuss each one, how to use it, and the best way to use it in combination with the others so that you will be able to use your mana YOUR way.

Spell save
This will stop a lot of spells from attaching in the first place. Most curses cannot break through it unless they are very high level. Spell save items are always in multiples of 5, ranging from 5 to 25%. Spell save items are also the most abundant. THe necromancer bone shield and bone armor spells also have spell save by about 20% when worn. The bless spell can also increase your spell save. The higher level the spell, the more spell save you receive.

Spell res
Spell res decreases the level of all spells cast on you. Combined with spell save, you can be virtually impervious to most anything cast on you by just about any mob if you have enough of each. Many pieces, especially higher level ones, have both spell save and spell res on them, making them extremely powerful. Spell res usually ranges from 1 to 10 on each piece of equipment, though older antique equipment has been known to have over 20% spell res. If you do get your hands on one of these extremely powerful pieces, consider yourself fortunate.

For many players, spell save and spell res is enough. It will protect you from dispel magic and curses, which is usually what it's meant for. SPell res will also insulate you slightly from mana blasts.

Absorb Magic
Absorb magic is useful for converting the raw mana blasts that mobs try on occasion into mana for you. For mobs that do this, wearing 15 or so in absorb magic equipment will show surprisingly powerful results. As the players in your group scream that they are out of mana, you might still have enough to force the mob to its knees, which can be extremely satisfying. Absorb magic pieces range from 1 to 5. If you are lucky you can find a couple pieces with absorb magic and saving spell or spell res, which is a nice combination if the stats are on the high end.

Null magic resistance
Null magic resistance is extremely rare for players, but many mobs possess some amount of it. Magic resistance usually causes spells to fail utterly when casted on the one who is resistant. Null magic res is usually impractical to use because it does not discriminate between who casted the spell on you. You may waste 75 mana sancing yourself in null magic res because the spell failed utterly, or a mob may be unable to cast spells on you because the null magic resistance blocked it. Most magic resistance comes from potions or other expendables, but there are a handful of pieces that actually affect you with magic resistance when worn. You can type show magicres to see if you have any null magic resistance.

CAUTION: do not confuse null magic resistance with spell resistance. Many players make this mistake, and a lot of the blame can be traced back to mushZ, because it calls spell res magic resistance as you change your spell res equipment in and out. The difference is a big one, and if you use spell res and null magic res ambiguously, players who actually know the difference will get confused.

Conclusion
Resisting an oppponent's spells against you is a highly valued power among players. Keep your spell save and spell res equipment handy at all times. Absorb magic is a cornerstone of resisting mana drain abilities. Be extremely cautious about using null magic res.