"There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence."

– Henry Adams

Evaluate Intelligence (eval) is essential for any mage that engages in combat.  It's basically the equivalent of anatomy for a dexer.  With GM eval, a mage will inflict 20% more damage to an opponent with no magic resist (that percentage being lowered according to your target's resist skills). The combination of Eval with the Anatomy Skill replaces the need for the Wrestling skill but will not allow you to perform the special moves performed by actual wrestlers (such as stun punches)

There are 3 ways to raise Eval:

Directly:

• At lower levels, you can use the skill directly on any PC and NPC character in the game.  As it is affected by the anti-macro code, as your skill increases, you will need to use it on many different target in order to gain.

Passively:

• Every time you cast a spell, you stand a chance of gaining, so you can just go about your business and get an occasional from time to time, either during combat or gating, etc.

Actively:

• Eval is movement based so you want to jump on your boat and use the 8x8 method.  Since magery is raised the same way, you may want to work both at the same time.  Then again, raising magery requires higher level spells whereas Eval can be raised with even the weakest of spells.

Intelligence	Evaluation
1	Slightly less than a rock
10	Fairly Stupid
20	Not the brightest
30	About average
40	Moderately intelligent
50	Very intelligent
60	Extremely intelligent
70	Extraordinarily intelligent
80	Like a formidable intellect, well beyond    even the extraordinary
90	Like a definite genius
100	Superhumanly intelligent in a manner    you cannot comprehend

Fast Method

Lock magery below 50.  If you already have high magery, this method will still work, but just slower.  Get on your boat and cast either poison, magic arrow or fireball on your tillerman while sailing slow forward in a south-north direction.  At your first gain, use 8x8. Since these spells only require 1 reg, they are very cheap to use.  And you will not only gain eval but also med.  Finding your first gain tile can take a long time.  Be patient.  The total gains per hour of training will vary.  On good days, I would get a little over 2.0 points in the high 90s.  On bad days, I'd barely gain 0.5.  But hang in there, it's well worth it.