Disruption shield builds and armor

[random417]

So, I'm thinking about doing a disruption shild archmage build, I was thinking that I can use heavy armor to gen fatigue, keeping my mana low with reletively cheap spells, and also, hopefully anyway, reduce damage. My question then... Does armor still apply when shielded? like, will my armor reduce the amount of damage going through to my disruption shield, lowering my mana regen, so I can keep it low? If this works the way I want, and I build right, this could work well for me.

[darkgod]

Yes armour is applied before resists which are applied before shields

[random417]

Awesome, wonky plate mail archmage alt build here I come! Suggestions from anyone?

[tylor]

Collect +strength trinkets to be able to get into your armor. And don't use sustains unless you really need them - you need as long mana bar as possible.

[Crim, The Red Thunder]

Hmmmmm.... Staff training from store/alchy escort might help too, then you'll have better use for your staff for melee when you can't afford to spend mana on channel staff/other spells. And channel staff is one of the cheapest you can find, so that'll help with giving you a method to manage attacks when you don't have a lot of mana floating around. OTOH, if you WANT your mana bottoming out constantly, you could probably ignore it. (Does the defensive stance sustain on the staff tree use mana? Or stamina? If it's not mana, that could be useful...)

[random417]

I don't quite want to bottom out, but close. I didn't think about getting a longer bar by killing sustains. I'll do that, although this already had a hard start (alt builds usually do), and not sinking points into some of those will make it harder i think. Also, stupid me forgot to grab +2 mag item (running dwarf) and didn't get disrupt at 12


ADDITION: The sustains I have, I at least need a point in, that's how I drop my mana percent. It's micromanagey, reliant on lots of scrying and such (arcane eye has proven way more useful than I thought), but I never enter anything remotely dangerous without disruption shield on. It's probably too micromanagey for me though.

[tylor]

I don't thnk disruption shield is alt for archmages. It's more a natural thing to do, given scarcity of other means of protection.
Speaking of other protection, displacement shield combo well with displacement. It both drains a lot of mana and adds another layer of protection.

Other thoughts...
Meta tree (last ability) can help you reinstall shield immediately. It's nice to have lots of spells (even at 1 point) to always have mana drainer.

[random417]

The heavy armor is kinda alt build with it though. I'm deliberately stacking fatigue, in hopes that like tri-beam will be enough for most damage sources. Of course, I've got the more expensive stuff if needed, but for most anything, I'm hoping late game, I can get the cheaper spells to be expensive enough that with proper placement, I can manage. It would mean functional invincibility. Meta tree looks promising though, and I'll try that instead of earth/stone on the next runthrough. The first one kinda failed due to bad planning. Cuz I'll be starting over... Thoughts on race? I went with dwarf for the first 2 racials last time, but, as the earth tree didn't work out the way I wanted, I may leave that off as well, kinda looking at thalore, for the damage resist and the meat shields.

[tylor]

I'm not sure about race either. But Thalore seems very good option. It boosts your least good saves and gives much needed protection and summons.
Also, it scales off wisdom, and you will pump wisdom for mana bar anyway.

Or just go Cornac. Exp bonus is great for archmage, and extra cat is always good, even if you just put it into another inscription. Or - put it into Celestial/light, I think it is better for Archmage than any racials, especially shield.

[omero]

Please consider Halflings.
Their racial talents help critical hits, saves and removing detrimental effects.
Plus, they level up decently fast enough.

[attila]

The heavy armor is kinda alt build with it though. I'm deliberately stacking fatigue, in hopes that like tri-beam will be enough for most damage sources. Of course, I've got the more expensive stuff if needed, but for most anything, I'm hoping late game, I can get the cheaper spells to be expensive enough that with proper placement, I can manage. It would mean functional invincibility. Meta tree looks promising though, and I'll try that instead of earth/stone on the next runthrough. The first one kinda failed due to bad planning. Cuz I'll be starting over... Thoughts on race? I went with dwarf for the first 2 racials last time, but, as the earth tree didn't work out the way I wanted, I may leave that off as well, kinda looking at thalore, for the damage resist and the meat shields.

I have been playing disruption shield archmages for a few months now. No winner yet. Just been to the prides. Sharing some of my experiences here, though alot of it has already been mentioned in earlier posts for disruption build archmages.

Nope the tribeam will not be good enough...not for damaging foes nor for reducing your mana pool to maintain the disruption shield safely. You will want to build up spellpower. I had a previous 30+ level char that got spellpower high enough that the disruption shield exchange rate became 1 damage point to 0.14 mana. And even with such a rate, on a 800+ max mana pool, I got killed. Don't remember exactly what it was that killed me, though vaguely recalled it was because of multiple status effects preventing healing and escape. Think I got careless...

From my experience, this build requires careful management of mana. From time to time, it is necessary to hide in a safe corner and spam the tribeam spells (simply because their cooldown is low and hence low risk if a dangerous foe unexpectedly turns up) on walls or empty space to get mana back down to safe levels.

You get Disruption Shield 1st at level 12. But before you max it, it is so fragile that you are more likely to kill yourself when it explodes than save yourself with its shielding. I turn it on only when I have maxed it (level 16 and beyond), and have a decent damage/mana conversion ratio (at least about 1 damage to 1.6 mana).

The Shielding and Aegis spells in the Aegis tree are your best friends. Shielding helps reduce the damage to mana conversion ratio, while Aegis gives you a temporarily higher mana pool thus allowing your shield to absorb higher damage before exploding. But be aware of when Aegis is running out. And take appropriate escape + mana reducing measures. Turn off your disruption shield if necessary.

You should have backup shields as well, since well, archmage is very much a shield using class. A good rune (>300 damage at least at early to mid levels), and the Celestial / Light tree from anorithil escorts are invaluable. The Celestial / Light tree's 3rd spell is Barrier, a 10 round shield whose damage absorption scales on spellpower.

IMHO, heavy armor archmages probably won't work too well. Some of the more useful spells require a good chunk of mana, not to mention some really useful sustains. High fatigue will likely make these spells frequently unavailable to you. Dangerous...

[tylor]

I agree with previous poster.
First, Disruptions Shield is worth maxing. That is, max DS, max Shielding.get as much other shields as you can afford as well
Second, get as many other shields as you can afford as well. Rune shield, Light shield. Put rune shield on auto-cast when enemy is seen (and adjacent). Displacement shield even at 1 is good for draining some mana, adding extra layer of protection. May be even throw in Time shield, though I had not much experience with it.

Armor is useful for Archmages, I think, in two places - Dreadfell ambush and Grushnak (fighter pride) entrances. You can leave without otherwise. If you just need to drain mana, just cast some expensive spell (like displacement shield). Or put on Light shield. Or even better, just flee immediately, if you got hit heavily.

Disruption Shield is more a "live and fight another day" thing than "tank" thing. As Archmage, you should either kill things instantly, or fight them from outside visibility range. That's why Wildfire build is better than tribeam, afaik. With stacking +fire% damage you can have your fire beam doing as much damage as any two beams of tri-beam mage. May be even three. And you also have that 5-cooldown fire nova on first level of Wildfire.

[attila]

Armor is useful for Archmages, I think, in two places - Dreadfell ambush and Grushnak (fighter pride) entrances. You can leave without otherwise. If you just need to drain mana, just cast some expensive spell (like displacement shield). Or put on Light shield. Or even better, just flee immediately, if you got hit heavily.

IMHO phase doors, teleports, and general mobility, plus AOEs like arcane breach, arcane beam, are better than armor in the above situations. So far I have never failed at the ambush. Start off with displacement shield on Ukruk, then Flameshock on the bunch, then maneuver alittle to let the orcs crowd you (but DO NOT let them hit you too much), then phase away and cast the breach. Use tribeams to take out the archers as priority. Similar strategy at Grushnak entrance, though there are more foes with rush (in Ambush only Ukruk has rush). Because phase door cooldown is rather low (8 original, 6 if you maxed Quicken Spells from the Meta tree), you can keep using it to get away.


Having a blinding weapon is very useful, either as an associated ability on some light source or tool, or you could invest 4 talent points in Illuminate. Worthwhile investment useful for countless fights.

Disruption Shield is more a "live and fight another day" thing than "tank" thing. As Archmage, you should either kill things instantly, or fight them from outside visibility range. That's why Wildfire build is better than tribeam, afaik. With stacking +fire% damage you can have your fire beam doing as much damage as any two beams of tri-beam mage. May be even three. And you also have that 5-cooldown fire nova on first level of Wildfire.

Agree. Kill foes quick; get and keep out of the way (of harm); use stun/blind/daze to keep enemies from attacking. That's the archmage's mantra in general. Only the Earth/Stone archmages might play differently from this.

And one more thing...a disruption shield build archmage will have to max Will so as to gain the max mana pool he/she can get. It will be hard to fool around with Cunning or Constitution before you have maxed out Magic and Will...