1.66 Archmage guide: Hail Storm
Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:36 am
The "hail storm" Archmage is a dual elemental build using cold and lightning. It's actually a fairly straightforward build and can transition into a primarily cold or lightning single-elemental up until about the Prides, in case you get gear better suited to one or the other. This build can reliably win on Nightmare. Insane is not yet perfected.
Mana is a real problem since the changes to Disruption Shield. As such, the best element in the game is now probably Lightning because of Lightning Storm. It no longer costs mana per hit so it's basically just free damage. As such, this build is oriented around three things:
1. Lightning Storm and Hurricane
2. Movement speed
3. Freezing and ice block penetration
Key equipment bonuses in order of priority:
1. Movement speed
2. Spell power
3. Mana
Lightning and cold resistance penetration are nice but are now capped at 70% so don't waste by getting more than that. Prioritize lightning over cold in general.
Critical skills:
1. Lightning Storm - Your bread and butter. Get up to 3 points as soon as you can, after getting at least 1 into Disruption Shield.
2. Shivgoroth Form - lets you avoid stuns and freezes while also afflicting freezes on enemies. With sufficient cool-down reduction, you can keep this up non-stop though that is unlikely on this build (though not hard on a pure cold build as you can take Quicken Spells).
3. Freeze - An absolutely beast of a skill. It can stay at one point for longer than one might thing but ultimately you'll want to max it. Universal opener against any enemy that looks even a little dangerous. With a little luck, you can keep enemies frozen almost permanently.
4. Hurricane - the source of much of your damage by mid-to-late game.
5. Feather Wind - get to two right away and four as soon as is comfortable, but eventually max it. You want that movement bonus and pin resistance.
6. Chain Lightning - your opener against all normal enemies. It gives you a lead on the location of other enemies while also whittling them down a bit while they're still out of range.
The old concept of using heal mod, crit rate and the Celestial/Light category is gone now. As such, Arcane Shielding is no longer as important and I rarely kept the sustain up until the end of the game. This build is more offensively-oriented, relying on movement and freezing. In a sense, it plays a little like a Doomed with better range. There's a lot of hitting and running. Throw out a Glacial Vapor and Chain Light and Tidal Wave and then retreat... retreat, retreat, retreat, while Lightning Storm whittles them down, then hit 'em again, restore mana, and repeat. You can absorb a decent amount of damage, though you'll want big-burst mitigation for later in the game (Stormshield rune).
Best Race:
1. Skeleton... extra shield plus a reduction in status effects and a heal. Reasonably durable on top of that and now with reduced experience penalty. First choice every time.
2. Cornac... the extra category point and talent points go a long way as you can afford to pick up the Temporal Shield and max out your inscriptions. Trying not to die before taking advantage is trickier.
3. Ghoul... surprisingly enough, this holds up pretty darn well. It's got a lot of HP, and the vomit skill nicely compliments your other short-range skills and it mitigates your global speed issues. The leap skill is an excellent starter, which also mitigates the speed issue.
Prodigies:
Ethereal Form, Adept, Temporal Form, and Cauterize are your #1 choices. Draconic Will, Unbreakable Will or Spine of the World are quite nice as a second choice, particularly if you're having issues with status effects.
Eye of the Tiger is a great second pick IF you can get 100% crit rate.
Runes/Infusions:
You will need the Rune of Dissipation as you won't be picking up Meta. Make sure you can kill Urkis...
You will need a Manasurge rune. Power is more important than cool down, though anything over 20 is punitive. Try and find something under 15 cool down if possible, so long as its regen rate is over 1k by Dreadfell and 1500 by the end.
You will also need a solid shielding rune. Cool down is more important here than raw power but you'll want something that is over 650 by the time you take on the Prides. A cool down under 18 is strongly preferred but duration is more important than cool down, especially if you chose the Skeleton.
Finally, you will need either a wild infusion or a shatter affliction to manage status effects. In the case of both, I strong encourage favoring a shorter cool down.
Hail Storm Build:
Arcane: 1/1/1/5 - Invest in Disruption Shield incrementally, though it should be at five by the time you head east.
Water: 1/5/1/5 - leave Shivgoroth at 1 or 2 for a while... you don't care about the damage, just the freeze for now.
Air: 1/4/5/5 - get all three key skills to 4 as soon as possible but don't max them until later in the east.
Ice: 5/1/1/5 - this is your first unlock. It's all about freeze and uttercold.
Storm: 1/1/4/5 - this should come into form right around the time you're preparing to return to the West.
Meta: you only need this category if your build doesn't come together and you have to revert to a cold or lightning primary build. This would include being unable to get the rune of dissipation.
Generics:
Don't bother much with Cunning/Survival or Divination. Lightning Storm will identify invisible enemies for you and so there's no need to invest there, though there are some other worthwhile skills. It all depends on what race you pick.
This should leave you 9-11 talent points leftover. Invest them either in Frozen Ground, Tidal Wave, or Glacial Vapor IF you have better cold damage than lightning. If lightning damage is better then go with Lightning. You can drop one or two into Arcane Power if you want. Otherwise, just cap a few key skills like Chain Lightning.
The function of this build is simple:
Cast Chain Lighting and Shivgoroth/Ice Storm plus Tidal Wave, Frozen Shards, and even Glacial Vapors. The goal is to freeze wet enemies over and over while moving around and retreating to keep them in mid range. While frozen, your lightning can do the bulk of the damage via daze and Hurricane. As such, prioritize lightning damage over cold but ice block penetration if you can get it, and thus save yourself a couple of early talent points.
Movement speed is important and you'll want it to be at least a bonus of 50%. That's not very hard to find and Feather Wind will get you half way there. 100% is even better and worth sacrificing some damage for. If you can find equipment that slows projectiles, all the better. This is all about moving around and constantly whittling enemies down. The burst damage can get reasonably high but not quite as good as a single-element build. The virtue here is that you can disable your enemies consistently enough that it's quite difficult for them even get a chance to attack you.
Freeze/stun immune enemies are a pain but not a killer as you can keep retreating and whittling them down. This even works against anti-magic, so long as your sustains remain up. The enemies that'll give you trouble are the ones that can shut down your sustains.
Maintaining mana... if your mana drops below 50% then your best shield will collapse and you'll get vulnerable in a hurry. It is critically important to keep your mana up. You want as big a mana pool as possible but mana regen is nice, though it rarely comes in big enough numbers. However you go about it, keep an eye on your mana pool.
Evasion is extremely nice if you can get it... anything that avoids taking damage, but not a priority.
This isn't quite the tank that the Archmage used to be. This is more akin to a Doomed. There's a lot of moving around and repositioning but it's fairly easy to play as you hit large numbers of enemies at the same and there's no need to be precise. If you pick up some cool down reduction or max out crit rate then this all gets quite a bit easier.
All in all, it's a pretty mellow win on Nightmare, though the Weirdling Best always gives me problems. I usually don't kill him until returning from the East the first time. By the level 34, you should be very hard to kill and by 42, you should be extremely murderous just by walking around.
That's my rough build. Nothing fancy but it works.
Mana is a real problem since the changes to Disruption Shield. As such, the best element in the game is now probably Lightning because of Lightning Storm. It no longer costs mana per hit so it's basically just free damage. As such, this build is oriented around three things:
1. Lightning Storm and Hurricane
2. Movement speed
3. Freezing and ice block penetration
Key equipment bonuses in order of priority:
1. Movement speed
2. Spell power
3. Mana
Lightning and cold resistance penetration are nice but are now capped at 70% so don't waste by getting more than that. Prioritize lightning over cold in general.
Critical skills:
1. Lightning Storm - Your bread and butter. Get up to 3 points as soon as you can, after getting at least 1 into Disruption Shield.
2. Shivgoroth Form - lets you avoid stuns and freezes while also afflicting freezes on enemies. With sufficient cool-down reduction, you can keep this up non-stop though that is unlikely on this build (though not hard on a pure cold build as you can take Quicken Spells).
3. Freeze - An absolutely beast of a skill. It can stay at one point for longer than one might thing but ultimately you'll want to max it. Universal opener against any enemy that looks even a little dangerous. With a little luck, you can keep enemies frozen almost permanently.
4. Hurricane - the source of much of your damage by mid-to-late game.
5. Feather Wind - get to two right away and four as soon as is comfortable, but eventually max it. You want that movement bonus and pin resistance.
6. Chain Lightning - your opener against all normal enemies. It gives you a lead on the location of other enemies while also whittling them down a bit while they're still out of range.
The old concept of using heal mod, crit rate and the Celestial/Light category is gone now. As such, Arcane Shielding is no longer as important and I rarely kept the sustain up until the end of the game. This build is more offensively-oriented, relying on movement and freezing. In a sense, it plays a little like a Doomed with better range. There's a lot of hitting and running. Throw out a Glacial Vapor and Chain Light and Tidal Wave and then retreat... retreat, retreat, retreat, while Lightning Storm whittles them down, then hit 'em again, restore mana, and repeat. You can absorb a decent amount of damage, though you'll want big-burst mitigation for later in the game (Stormshield rune).
Best Race:
1. Skeleton... extra shield plus a reduction in status effects and a heal. Reasonably durable on top of that and now with reduced experience penalty. First choice every time.
2. Cornac... the extra category point and talent points go a long way as you can afford to pick up the Temporal Shield and max out your inscriptions. Trying not to die before taking advantage is trickier.
3. Ghoul... surprisingly enough, this holds up pretty darn well. It's got a lot of HP, and the vomit skill nicely compliments your other short-range skills and it mitigates your global speed issues. The leap skill is an excellent starter, which also mitigates the speed issue.
Prodigies:
Ethereal Form, Adept, Temporal Form, and Cauterize are your #1 choices. Draconic Will, Unbreakable Will or Spine of the World are quite nice as a second choice, particularly if you're having issues with status effects.
Eye of the Tiger is a great second pick IF you can get 100% crit rate.
Runes/Infusions:
You will need the Rune of Dissipation as you won't be picking up Meta. Make sure you can kill Urkis...
You will need a Manasurge rune. Power is more important than cool down, though anything over 20 is punitive. Try and find something under 15 cool down if possible, so long as its regen rate is over 1k by Dreadfell and 1500 by the end.
You will also need a solid shielding rune. Cool down is more important here than raw power but you'll want something that is over 650 by the time you take on the Prides. A cool down under 18 is strongly preferred but duration is more important than cool down, especially if you chose the Skeleton.
Finally, you will need either a wild infusion or a shatter affliction to manage status effects. In the case of both, I strong encourage favoring a shorter cool down.
Hail Storm Build:
Arcane: 1/1/1/5 - Invest in Disruption Shield incrementally, though it should be at five by the time you head east.
Water: 1/5/1/5 - leave Shivgoroth at 1 or 2 for a while... you don't care about the damage, just the freeze for now.
Air: 1/4/5/5 - get all three key skills to 4 as soon as possible but don't max them until later in the east.
Ice: 5/1/1/5 - this is your first unlock. It's all about freeze and uttercold.
Storm: 1/1/4/5 - this should come into form right around the time you're preparing to return to the West.
Meta: you only need this category if your build doesn't come together and you have to revert to a cold or lightning primary build. This would include being unable to get the rune of dissipation.
Generics:
Don't bother much with Cunning/Survival or Divination. Lightning Storm will identify invisible enemies for you and so there's no need to invest there, though there are some other worthwhile skills. It all depends on what race you pick.
This should leave you 9-11 talent points leftover. Invest them either in Frozen Ground, Tidal Wave, or Glacial Vapor IF you have better cold damage than lightning. If lightning damage is better then go with Lightning. You can drop one or two into Arcane Power if you want. Otherwise, just cap a few key skills like Chain Lightning.
The function of this build is simple:
Cast Chain Lighting and Shivgoroth/Ice Storm plus Tidal Wave, Frozen Shards, and even Glacial Vapors. The goal is to freeze wet enemies over and over while moving around and retreating to keep them in mid range. While frozen, your lightning can do the bulk of the damage via daze and Hurricane. As such, prioritize lightning damage over cold but ice block penetration if you can get it, and thus save yourself a couple of early talent points.
Movement speed is important and you'll want it to be at least a bonus of 50%. That's not very hard to find and Feather Wind will get you half way there. 100% is even better and worth sacrificing some damage for. If you can find equipment that slows projectiles, all the better. This is all about moving around and constantly whittling enemies down. The burst damage can get reasonably high but not quite as good as a single-element build. The virtue here is that you can disable your enemies consistently enough that it's quite difficult for them even get a chance to attack you.
Freeze/stun immune enemies are a pain but not a killer as you can keep retreating and whittling them down. This even works against anti-magic, so long as your sustains remain up. The enemies that'll give you trouble are the ones that can shut down your sustains.
Maintaining mana... if your mana drops below 50% then your best shield will collapse and you'll get vulnerable in a hurry. It is critically important to keep your mana up. You want as big a mana pool as possible but mana regen is nice, though it rarely comes in big enough numbers. However you go about it, keep an eye on your mana pool.
Evasion is extremely nice if you can get it... anything that avoids taking damage, but not a priority.
This isn't quite the tank that the Archmage used to be. This is more akin to a Doomed. There's a lot of moving around and repositioning but it's fairly easy to play as you hit large numbers of enemies at the same and there's no need to be precise. If you pick up some cool down reduction or max out crit rate then this all gets quite a bit easier.
All in all, it's a pretty mellow win on Nightmare, though the Weirdling Best always gives me problems. I usually don't kill him until returning from the East the first time. By the level 34, you should be very hard to kill and by 42, you should be extremely murderous just by walking around.
That's my rough build. Nothing fancy but it works.