[1.4.x] [Madness] Mex's Wildfire Archmage Guide

[Kris22]

Sorry for Newbie question, but english is not my native language..

1st. Sorry but i didnt saw spell/wildfire talent on my archmage.

2nd. L5: [Insult Shibari] what this is mean? where spend points on lvl 5?

[twas Brillig]

You unlock the wildfire category by getting the Pyromancer achievement, which is to do some very large amount of fire damage across any number of characters. People often recommend using alchemist for this as they're easy to get started.

[Bahndriin]

Nice guide. I wish the mages overall were a bit more balanced.

[rangerjeff]

Not sure if the OP is still paying attention, but... You mention getting +2 Class and +2 Generic from Alchemist quests? Did the escort rewards change since you wrote this? Currently Alchemists only grant skills you don't use for this build.

And, in preparation for my first Insane try, I built a composite of the most recent 10 NM Shalore Archmage winners, and guess what? The build my analysis produced is almost exactly the same as yours. Granted I think I get more Generic points to spend, so 5 in Thick Skin may just be gravy... and a couple other Generic differences, but Class points were exactly the same. So either the wisdom of crowds is as good as an expert guide, or a lot of people use this guide to build their winners, hard to say which.

[XLambda]

Not sure if the OP is still paying attention, but... You mention getting +2 Class and +2 Generic from Alchemist quests? Did the escort rewards change since you wrote this? Currently Alchemists only grant skills you don't use for this build.

It doesn't talk about escorts though. The Alchemist quest is its own thing. It's the 'collect ingredients for potions' quest.

[rangerjeff]

duh!

[Kroki]

Hey,

I am playing your build in hopes of getting a first normal adventure win. Already beaten the prides.

Never got the right escort for the healing tree, so i put the last category into hexes and maxed burning hex.

I think burning hex got great synergy with your build. Shuts bosses down and deals respectable damage.

One question though. Does damage reducing talents, either buffs or debuffs reduce damage done to your shields?

[genorr]

Can you please look into changes, and adjust the guide? If you have enough free time, of course. It is said that BiL is nerfed, as well as shalore.

[ster]

The nerfs did nothing notable to the build, the margin of error on Madness (it still roflstomps lower difficulty) is slightly higher but that's it

[genorr]

Thanks for the quick reply, i guess i only has to make further then level 12 normal and unlock wildfire now, cause no need for worry about viability for a time being

[Requia]

The nerfs did nothing notable to the build, the margin of error on Madness (it still roflstomps lower difficulty) is slightly higher but that's it

I'm finding it incredibly weak in the early game even on normal. Can probably break through given enough attempts at luck based item/finds/resist checks but getting locked down and unable to respond vs tier 1 dungeon bosses, without enough firepower to end a fight quickly.

Earlier builds were doing fine till the old forest or so, two major differences were pushing the aegis tree first (easy enough swap) and Arcane power. I don't like that I'm relying on power now that I read how this works in the lategame, gonna try redoing the generic order to at the very least make getting Arcane Shield at level 8 instead of level 13 (speaking of, the 1 fewer generic point probably means something has to give on the final build?).

[ster]

I'm finding it incredibly weak in the early game even on normal. Can probably break through given enough attempts at luck based item/finds/resist checks but getting locked down and unable to respond vs tier 1 dungeon bosses, without enough firepower to end a fight quickly.

this build has an extremely high skill ceiling

[Derael]

Very good build for Insane, if you do some escort scumming (or choose escort addon) you can even afford tinkers (just need to reload 5 escorts to get anorithils for BIL to save category point and 6 generic points). If you manage to save some points using seers, it's totally possible to afford level 5 therapeutics + enough points for all the useful stuff. The downside is, you won't have more than 1 medical injector unless you are willing to drop both infusions. But Unstoppable Force salve is probably worth it.

The main weakness on Insane is inability to autoexplore, it's ok for Madness, but on Insane lots of classes can autoexplore without any problems, while my Archmage got oneshotted out of the blue quite a lot. Sadly, it's impossible to properly tune Arcane Eye for autouse when duration expires. And inability to autoexplore on Insane consumes way too much time. Would be nice to have at least some burst prevention in mid game. Not sure how the situation is in late game, since all my runs ended around level 25.

[St_ranger_er]

Would be nice to have at least some burst prevention in mid game. Not sure how the situation is in late game, since all my runs ended around level 25.

* Meta/Quicken spells 4-5/5 (+ cooldown reduction on boots/pickaxe for more fun, but it's not that necessary),
* Aegis/Shielding 4/5,
* Light/Barrier 1-5/5 on autouse when available(when no enemies visible),
* Temporal/Timeshield 4-5/5 on autouse when available, and you good to go.

Also lvl 30 Cauterize.

[Derael]

Past level 30 it surely is a breese, you probably can even autoexplore safely. But the biggest problem is early game, you don't have Meta/Quicken yet, and sometimes (very rarely) I accidentaly misstep because I'm playing on laptop with touchpad. Got killed 2 times with my own Fireflash (so got access to thief escort only by level 20 or so, with 3 deaths already). And first run was mostly due to inexperience.

When I played Solipsist I could easily autoexplore without caring much about anything, because I was extremely tanky and never got hit for more than half HP. Still died a couple of times before level 50, but overall I felt much safer than Archmage. I know that Archmage is much better for Madness but on Insane it's definitely not the easiest class. Basically on Solipsist when I got Range Amplification Drone I could just go whenever I want and just snipe everything from 10 range, while Archmage needs careful planning for every tough encounter.

Those are just my feelings from comparing, because playstyle overall felt very similar (made 2 or 3 runs with Archmage and one with solipsist, currently level 50, on my way to clear prides and high peak). Btw, Thoughforms help a lot, and live quite long even on Insane, and you can basically resurrect it for free the wirst time. Those divert quite a lot of attention and Berserker good a good damage.

Sorry for offtop, I just wanted to explain what I meant by tough early game (pre level 25). Although if you don't step into Fireflash AoE like me it'd be better (or get dragged inside).

Overall the build is just great on any difficulty, but it indeed ultilizes some high level tactics suitable for madness but a bit tedious for Insane (can't imagine myself digging tunnels for every supposedly tough fight, and most fixed bosses are usually super easy, never died vs them, the only dangerous ones are randbosses and some rares who can unexpectedly burst you while you are busy fighting with 2 uniques).

Cornersnipe is fine, but it requires you to explore carefully and not just press z and start fighting when you see enemy.